Architecture Commons^™

Applying Unsupervised Machine Learning Clustering Techniques To Early Childcare Soundscapes, Kenton Hummel, Erica E. Ryherd, Iason Konstantzos, Abbie Raikes

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Early childhood is a critical time period for language, brain, cognitive, and social/emotional development. Out-of-home childcare is a normative, typical experience for millions of young children. Although Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) in K-12 settings has received recent, significant attention, the links between IEQ and children’s learning and development in early childcare settings is a less understood topic. This work focuses specifically on the sound aspect of IEQ in early childcare settings to better understand typical noise levels and occupant experience. Standard approaches to analyzing background noise will be presented alongside more detailed statistical analyses utilizing unsupervised machine learning clustering techniques. …

Dissolve Of Living Space: Living Space Under The Development Of Metaverse, Wenting Feng, Nuo Lyu

Architecture Thesis Prep

According to our vision, in the future, after the use of the metaverse becomes popular, we will spend a lot of time working, living and playing in the metaverse. The space needed in reality will be reduced by the use of the metaverse, and public buildings will be retained or not depending on the nature of the building. Because the focus of human life shifts from reality to the metaverse, energy and material consumption will also be reduced, and environmental problems can be properly alleviated. The nature in the real city will also be expanded by the reduction of the …

Mars 2100: A Microcosm Of Ecocentric Design, Andrea Hoe

Architecture Thesis Prep

In the dystopian future of 2100, Earth becomes a dying planet and humanity is forced to continue colonizing the solar system for survival. Mars develops as a colonized planet, exploited for its natural resources and potential. The hierarchical system of power seen constantly throughout Earth’s history was inescapable, and poor conditions turned to extremes. As billionaires take control of the space race, the capitalist system reflected in past company towns was implemented, making the moral questions and lines blurred.

When the system is eventually ruptured, ecosystemic living is proposed. Living is now centered around health and mindfulness, creating a system …

Tectonic Thresholds: Reclaiming Space Through Geomorphological Design, Amreeta Verma

Architecture Thesis Prep

This research posits that a revitalization of indigenous earth architecture practices in a contemporary context can mitigate the immense waste and embodied carbon in the construction industry. Earth materials are the focus of this research because they are locally sourced, abundantly available, and can be reused or returned to the natural environment, when utilized in a circular consumption cycle. Designing for reuse reduces the impact of construction waste on the burgeoning issue of environmental degradation and resource depletion.

The structural viability and environmental enclosure capabilities of soil throughout its lifecycle will be tested in different forms derived geomorphically from the …

The Ark: Sanctuary For Isfs, Zejun Sun, Wei Wei Li

Architecture Thesis Prep

The thesis is aiming to decrease the potential flooding damages to the ISFs, and a balance between the limited resources and high population density to relieve the flooding issues through the renovation and reconstruction of local churches in the Baseco Compound.

Flooding has become one of the most common and devastated issues in developing countries, and it is worsen by the housing crisis that lead to a formation of informal settlements with shoddy constructions and destabilized communities. What is an applicable approach to decrease the potential flooding damage to the ISFs? How to find a balance between the limited resources …

“Biophilia As A Sustainable Design Approach For University Buildings Design: A Case Study In University Campus Drawing Studios Cairo, Egypt, Amira Mohamed Mahrous, Khaled M. Dewidar, Mostafa Mohamed Refaat, Ashraf Nessim

Architectural Engineering

University campuses have a long history of enriching the social, cultural, and economic value of societies. Worldwide, there is a rising demand for the integration of new approaches into the planning and design of university buildings to further improve their quality. According to the literature, many approaches needed to be considered while designing university buildings that can enhance students’ performance. Biophilic design is known to have enhancing levels of interaction, and interaction patterns, enhancing health and wellbeing in terms of physiological, psychological, cognitive, and social/ spiritual benefits, while rigorous scientific evidence that supports such claims is rare. Many researchers have …

Foreign Object Debris Detection For Airport Pavement Images Based On Self-Supervised Localization And Vision Transformer, Travis Munyer, Daniel Brinkman, Xin Zhong, Chenyu Huang, Iason Konstantzos

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Supervised object detection methods provide subpar performance when applied to Foreign Object Debris (FOD) detection because FOD could be arbitrary objects according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) specification. Current supervised object detection algorithms require datasets that contain annotated examples of every to-be-detected object. While a large and expensive dataset could be developed to include common FOD examples, it is infeasible to collect all possible FOD examples in the dataset representation because of the openended nature of FOD. Limitations of the dataset could cause FOD detection systems driven by those supervised algorithms to miss certain FOD, which can become dangerous …

Optimization Of Mixture Parameter For Physical And Mechanical Properties Of Reactive Powder Concrete Under External Sulfate Attack Using Taguchi Method, Umut Bakhbergen, Chang Seon Shon, Dichuan Zhang, Jong Ryeol Kim, Jenny Liu

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Reactive powder concrete (RPC) is defined as a cementitious composite material with an optimized size of granular constituents, very low water-to-binder ratio (w/b), pozzolanic materials like silica fume (SF), and discontinuous fiber reinforcement. RPC applications include bridge decks and girders, seismic columns, wind turbine towers, and pile foundations. Especially, a durable and robust RPC pile foundation with long service life is essential in building construction because continuous maintenance is impossible. Moreover, natural in-situ conditions such as water table, temperature, and sulfate concentration in soil to which the pile foundation is exposed are critical and related to deteriorating the pile foundation. …

Upcycling Steel Slag In Producing Eco-Efficient Iron–Calcium Phosphate Cement, Yue Ma, Yunlong Luo, Hongyan Ma, Xintao Zhou, Zhongqiu Luo

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In the present study, steel slag powder (SSP) was utilized as the raw material to prepare iron-calcium phosphate cement (ICPC) by reacting with ammonium dihydrogen phosphate (ADP). The influences of the raw materials (SSP/ADP) mass ratios ranging from 2.0 to 7.0 on the properties and microstructures of ICPC pastes were investigated. The compressive strengths of ICPC pastes at all ages firstly increased and then decreased with the increase of SSP/ADP, and the SSP/ADP of 6.0 gave the highest strength. Crystalline mundrabillaite and amorphous phases [i.e. Fe(OH)₃, Al(OH)₃ and H₄SiO₄] were formed as the …

Characterizing And Modeling The Coupled Hydro-Mechanical Cyclic Behavior Of Unsaturated Soils Using Constant Water Content Oedometer And Direct Shear Tests, Beshoy Riad, Xiong Zhang

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Most transportation infrastructures are constructed on compacted soils that are typically unsaturated above the groundwater table. The soils are subjected to cyclic traffic loadings and seasonal wetting–drying cycles. Although problems associated with unsaturated soils are ubiquitous in the US, coupled hydro-mechanical analysis is rarely included in the design/analysis of transportation geosystems. This can be attributed to two main reasons: (a) there are no simple devices/methods which can be used to rapidly characterize stress–strain behavior for unsaturated soils, and (b) there is a lack of a constitutive model to study coupled hydro-mechanical cyclic behavior for unsaturated soils in a consistent way. …

A Novel Iron Phosphate Cement Derived From Copper Smelting Slag And Its Early Age Hydration Mechanism, Yunlong Luo, Xintao Zhou, Zhongqiu Luo, Hongyan Ma, Yu Wei, Qin Liu

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Copper slag (CS), a by-product of copper smelting, is normally stockpiled, leading to wastes of resource and space as well as environment pollution. It has not been massively reutilized as a supplementary cementitious material in Portland cement due to its low reactivity. In the present study, CS is for the first time utilized as the base component to prepare an iron phosphate cement (IPC) by reacting with ammonium dihydrogen phosphate (ADP) at room temperature. The influence of the raw materials mass ratio (CS/ADP) on the microstructure and performance of IPC pastes are investigated. It is found that the compressive strength …

Spiral Deployment Of Optical Fiber Sensors For Distributed Strain Measurement In Seven-Wire Twisted Steel Cables, Post-Tensioned Against Precast Concrete Bars, Yanping Zhu, Genda Chen

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

On-time monitoring and condition assessments of steel cables provide mission-critical data for informed decision making, ensuring the structural safety of post-tensioned concrete structures. This study aimed to develop a spiral deployment scheme of distributed fiber optic sensors (DFOS) and to monitor/assess the post-tensioned force in seven-wire twisted steel cables, based on the pulse-pre-pump Brillouin optical time domain analysis. Each DFOS was placed in a spiral shape between two surface wires of a steel cable and glued to the steel cable by epoxy. Image observations were conducted to investigate the entireness and bonding condition between the optical fiber and the steel …

Synergistic Effect Of Shrinkage Mitigating Materials On Rheological Properties Of Flowable And Thixotropic Cement Paste, Kamran Aghaee, Ricarda Sposito, Kamal Khayat

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study investigates the effect of individual and combined additions of CaO-based expansive agent (EA), shrinkage reducing admixture (SRA), and super absorbent polymer (SAP) on key characteristics of flowable cement paste mixtures proportioned with a water-to-cement ratio of 0.40. Of special interest is the effectiveness of these admixtures to mitigate shrinkage of cementitious materials for 3D printing. Static and dynamic yield stress, plastic and apparent viscosities, and thixotropy were evaluated at 20-min intervals up to 90 min. Compressive strength development and autogenous shrinkage were also determined. A factorial design approach was developed to evaluate the synergetic effects of the shrinkage …

Homogenous Flow Performance Of Steel Fiber-Reinforced Self-Consolidating Concrete For Repair Applications: Developing A New Empirical Set-Up, Naimeh Nouri, Masoud Hosseinpoor, Ammar Yahia, Kamal Khayat

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this study, a new empirical Square-Box test was employed to evaluate the homogeneous flow performance of fiber-reinforced self-consolidating concrete (FR-SCC) under confined-flow conditions that are typical of repair applications. The Square-Box set-up consisted of a closed-circuit box, providing 2.4-m flow distance and a closed-surface cross section of 100-mm width and 200-mm height, equipped with 0 and 4 rows of reinforcing bar grids with 45-mm clear spacing. The flow performance was assessed in terms of dynamic stability and passing ability. The investigated mixtures were considered as diphasic suspensions of fiber-coarse aggregate (F-A > 5 mm) in suspending mortars containing particles finer …

Benefits And Drawbacks Of Using Multiple Shrinkage Mitigating Strategies On Performance Of Fiber-Reinforced Mortar, Kamran Aghaee, Kamal Khayat

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Shrinkage mitigating strategies have been successfully used to prevent concrete cracking. Numerous studies have demonstrated the efficiency of shrinkage mitigating materials (SMM), such as expansive agent (EA), shrinkage reducing admixture (SRA), and superabsorbent polymer (SAP) on reducing shrinkage and cracking; however, few studies have addressed the limitations of using these materials. In addition, the mechanism of negative effect on microstructure and mechanical properties when these materials are used at high contents or in combinations is not well defined. This study investigates the effect of CaO-based EA, SRA, and SAP on compressive strength development, fiber pull-out strength, and shrinkage of fiber-reinforced …

Studying Dynamic Pricing In Electrical Power Markets With Distributed Generation: Agent-Based Modeling And Reinforcement-Learning Approach, Gasser G. Ali, Islam H. El-Adaway, Charles Sims, J. Scott Holladay, Chien Fei Chen

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Distributed generation (DG) refers to small-scale generation resources that are located at or near end-consumers, such as photovoltaic (PV) solar systems. DG systems have become increasingly popular in recent years owing to their economic efficiency, reliability, and sustainability. However, the increasing adoption of DG is creating new obstacles for system operators due to the uncertainty in forecasting future demand. One concern is the possibility of facing a utility death spiral as a feedback loop between, on the one hand, the increasing adoption of DG and increasing electricity rates to cover generation and transmission overheads with, on the other hand, reduced …

Zero Net Energy Test House, Timothy Hemsath, James D. Goedert, Avery Don Schwer, Yong Cho

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

This paper describes the first phase of a residential research program to reduce the impact of new construction on the environment through research and education using a Zero Net Energy Test House as a framework. Containing four bedrooms, three and a half baths, the 1,800 square foot house, 1,000 square foot basement, is located in Omaha, Nebraska. It is being used to validate several research projects and provides a platform for applications research of a number of technological advances. Laminated photovoltaic solar panels, a wind turbine, and an occupant monitoring energy control system are some of the sustainable design innovations …

Artificial Intelligence In Civil Infrastructure Health Monitoring—Historical Perspectives, Current Trends, And Future Visions, Tarutal Ghosh Mondal, Genda Chen

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Over the past 2 decades, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) has exponentially increased toward complete automation of structural inspection and assessment tasks. This trend will continue to rise in image processing as unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and the internet of things (IoT) markets are expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 57.5% and 26%, respectively, from 2021 to 2028. This paper aims to catalog the milestone development work, summarize the current research trends, and envision a few future research directions in the innovative application of AI in civil infrastructure health monitoring. A blow-by-blow account of the …

Flexural Strength Of Innovative Thin-Walled Composite Cold-Formed Steel/Pe-Ecc Beams, Ahmed Sheta, Xing Ma, Yan Zhuge, Mohamed Elgawady, Julie Mills, Elsayed Abd-Elaal

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A detailed experimental investigation on the flexural behaviour of an innovative precast composite element combining cold-formed steel (CFS) and engineered cementitious composites (ECC) is presented in this paper. Bonding ECC to the lightweight thin-walled CFS sections enhanced the buckling, bearing, and torsional properties of the composite sections. The proposed composite system will be used as precast flexural members in framed structures with large spans or as a rehabilitation approach for corroded cold-formed and hot-rolled steel flexural members. Simply supported beams with comparatively long spans with span-to-depth ratios of 6.83 and 13.48 were installed back-to-back and tested under a 4-point loading …

Leveraging Lessons Learned From A Virtual Hands-On Outreach Program To Cultivate Diversity In The Next Generation Of Structural Engineers, Anahid Behrouzi, Nicole Buck, Sarah Navias

Architectural Engineering

A challenge that continues to face the structural engineering (SE) profession is the recruitment and retention of individuals from underrepresented minority (URM) groups, underscored over the years by findings reported on by the SE3 project committee. One approach to address this is by developing and conducting early outreach efforts with diverse populations of K-12 students, so they are aware of SE’s meaningful contributions to society and the intriguing technical problem- solving opportunities in this field. During these educational activities it is also important for young students to be exposed to engineering practitioner-educators who represent diverse backgrounds and whose lived experience …

Investigation On Chloride Binding Capacity And Stability Of Friedel's Salt In Graphene Oxide Reinforced Cement Paste, Wu Jian Long, Xuanhan Zhang, Gan Lin Feng, Jing Xie, Feng Xing, Biqin Dong, Jinrui Zhang, Kamal Khayat

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Chloride binding capacity is one of the important factors affecting chloride induced rebar corrosion in reinforced concrete structures. Moreover, the stability of Friedel's salt will also affect the chloride binding capacity of cement-based materials. This study investigates the effect of graphene oxide (GO) on the chloride binding capacity of cement paste and stability of Friedel's salt under different pH conditions. Experiments of X-ray diffraction (XRD), Thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA), Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were performed to analyze the phase assemblage, micro morphology, element ratio and the enhanced mechanisms. Results showed that the 0.2 wt% GO addition …

Critical Evaluation Of Time And Cost Of Terrestrial Laser Scanning For Construction Automated Qa Analysis, Joao Rocha, Davitt Lamon

Capstone Reports

Many governments agencies and private owners are demanding up-to-date information related to the current conditions of their facilities. Conventional QA is time-consuming and inefficient; thus, 3D terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) technology has been adopted due to the fast speed and high accuracy in acquiring data. Automated QA analysis can reduce the labour and time needed, reduce the costs, and improve the overall project efficiency. However, very few research efforts have been made to study the benefits of the automated QA analysis in a quantitative way. The process of the TLS-based geometric QA based in an automated data analysis process is …

The Use Of Gpr To Investigate The Effect Of Steel Fiber Distribution On The Mechanical Behavior Of Frc, Paola Machado Barreto Manhães, José Tavares Araruna Júnior, Genda Chen, Neil Lennart Anderson, Erik Valloti Pereira, Flávio De Andrade Silva

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The present work focuses on the steel fiber distribution in self-consolidating concrete short beams. The objective is to assess the feasibility of the ground penetrating radar (GPR) in evaluating the homogeneity of fibers within concrete materials, for use in testing laboratories to study the modes of placing and compaction employed for preparing specimens during quality control or material development. Self-consolidating concrete beams were cast, tested, and evaluated. A GPR survey employing a concrete scanning system with a shielded 1.2 GHz center frequency was performed on self-consolidating casted short beams just before a monotonic four-point bending test was carried out. After …

Anti-Washout Concrete: An Overview, Hao Lu, Xiao Sun, Hongyan Ma

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Anti-washout concrete (AWC) is a special cement-based material that can be directly employed in underwater environments without dispersion. It was developed around 50 years ago, and more than 150 journal articles and technical reports have been published. This paper provides a holistic review about the basic fresh-state and hardened-state properties of the AWC, such as water (washout) resistance, consistency, bleeding and segregation resistance, mechanical properties, and durability, as well as relevant testing methods. The discrepancies between AWC's characteristics and those of conventional concrete are clearly presented. The mixture compositions, supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), and other conditions that affect AWC's performance …

Quantifying The Workability Of Calcium Sulfoaluminate Cement Paste Using Time-Dependent Rheology, Sukanta K. Mondal, Adam Welz, Carrie Clinton, Kamal Khayat, Aditya Kumar, Monday Uchenna Okoronkwo

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Poor workability is a common feature of calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA) cement paste. Multiple chemical admixtures, such as set retarders and dispersants, are frequently employed to improve the workability and delay the setting of CSA cement paste. A quantitative assessment of the compatibility, efficiency, and the effects of the admixtures on cement paste workability is critical for the design of an appropriate paste formulation and admixture proportioning. Very limited studies are available on the quantitative rheology-based method for evaluating the workability of calcium sulfoaluminate cement pastes. This study presents a novel and robust time-dependent rheological method for quantifying the workability of …

Professional And Organizational Leadership Role In Ethics Management: Avoiding Reliance On Ethical Codification And Nurturing Ethical Culture, Islam H. El-Adaway, Marianne Jennings

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The engineering profession has experienced some ethical cases that were rarely reported, scrutinized, or discussed because: they did not necessarily represent violations of existing codes even if they breached ethical principles; those within the organization were not prepared to take steps to address the issues or impose sanction; an/or some of the personnel associated with these cases resorted to silence to avoid being labeled as trouble-makers in their organizations and, perhaps, more broadly, in society. The goal of this paper is to heighten managerial awareness of ethical issues, interrelated ethical lapses, and appropriate responsive actions within professional engineering communities. As …

Llam-Mdcnet For Detecting Remote Sensing Images Of Dead Tree Clusters, Zongchen Li, Ruoli Yang, Weiwei Cai, Yongfei Xue, Yaowen Hu, Liujun Li

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Clusters of dead trees are forest fires-prone. To maintain ecological balance and realize its protection, timely detection of dead trees in forest remote sensing images using existing computer vision methods is of great significance. Remote sensing images captured by Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) typically have several issues, e.g., mixed distribution of adjacent but different tree classes, interference of redundant information, and high differences in scales of dead tree clusters, making the detection of dead tree clusters much more challenging. Therefore, based on the Multipath dense composite network (MDCN), an object detection method called LLAM-MDCNet is proposed in this paper. First, …

Coupled Effect Of Fiber And Granular Skeleton Characteristics On Packing Density Of Fiber-Aggregate Mixtures, Naimeh Nouri, Masoud Hosseinpoor, Ammar Yahia, Kamal Khayat

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The addition of fiber to cementitious materials enhances mechanical performance but can reduce workability of the fiber-reinforced concrete (FRC) mixtures. This can be due to the negative effect of fibers on packing density (PD) of the fiber-coarse aggregate (F-A) combination. The performance of FRC, as a diphasic suspension, is dependent on the characteristics of both F-A (suspended-solid skeleton) and mortar (suspending liquid) phases. PD can reflect the voids within the F-A skeleton to be filled with mortar. An adequate optimization of the characteristics of the F-A skeleton can modify the performance of FRC in fresh and hardened states. The F-A …

Ds-Menet For The Classification Of Citrus Disease, Xuyao Liu, Yaowen Hu, Guoxiong Zhou, Weiwei Cai, Mingfang He, Jialei Zhan, Yahui Hu, Liujun Li

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Affected by various environmental factors, citrus will frequently suffer from diseases during the growth process, which has brought huge obstacles to the development of agriculture. This paper proposes a new method for identifying and classifying citrus diseases. Firstly, this paper designs an image enhancement method based on the MSRCR algorithm and homomorphic filtering algorithm optimized by Laplacian (HFLF-MS) to highlight the disease characteristics of citrus. Secondly, we designed a new neural network DS-MENet based on the DenseNet-121 backbone structure. In DS-MENet, the regular convolution in Dense Block is replaced with depthwise separable convolution, which reduces the network parameters. The ReMish …

Commercial Janus Fabrics As Reusable Facemask Materials: A Balance Of Water Repellency, Filtration Efficiency, Breathability, And Reusability, Steven Cheng, Weixing Hao, Yuchen Wang, Yang Wang, Shu Yang

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Facemasks as personal protective equipment play a significant role in helping prevent the spread of viruses during the COVID-19 pandemic. A desired reusable fabric facemask should strike a balance of water repellency, good filtration efficiency (FE), breathability, and mechanical robustness against washing cycles. Despite significant efforts in testing various commercial fabric materials for filtration efficiency, few have investigated fabric performance as a function of the fiber/yarn morphology and wettability of the fabric itself. In this study, we examine commercial fabrics with Janus-like behaviors to determine the best reusable fabric facemask materials by understanding the roles of morphology, porosity, and wettability …