Architecture Commons^™

Building Envelope And Interior Grading Systems And Methods, Fadi Mohammad Alsaleem

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

A difference module determines differences between an out door ambient temperature and an indoor temperature, deter mines a first average of the differences, and determines a second average of the differences. A storing module stores a first data point, the first data point including the first average and a first total run time of a heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning (HVAC) system, and stores a second data point, the second data point including the second average and a second total run time of the HVAC system. A fitting module fits a line to the first and second data points. An …

Ua3/1/5/3 President's Office-Cherry Campus Building Campaign, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by the President's Office during the Henry Cherry administration regarding the construction of WKU. This series is not completely processed.

Architectural Acoustical Oddities, Zev C. Woodstock, Caroline P. Lubert

Department of Mathematics and Statistics - Faculty Scholarship

This paper offers a review of two types of acoustic oddity caused by periodic architecture. These periodic structures of interest are brick plazas and staircases with special dimensions. When an observer stands by one of these periodic structures and produces a percussive white noise, a high-pitched sound can be heard. The frequency of the returned sound is unrelated to the initial sound, and completely determined by the architecture of the structures themselves. This phenomenon is called repetition pitch. Comparative work done at James Madison University is offered to show the relationship between brick plazas at JMU and the repetition pitch …

Thickening: A 21st Century Approach For Resilience In Infrastructure, Marco Antonio Ravini

Architecture Thesis Prep

Infrastructure should be designed for higher RESILIENCE, not permanence. Rather than over-engineer to resist the inevitable failure of individual components, the next generation of public infrastructure needs to exceed its technical specifications and seek opportunistic hybridity between systems. In doing so, new possibilities for multi-layered use/outputs emerge which contribute to a more productive and resilient infrastructural lifespan.

Phytoscreening: A Comparison Of In Planta Portable Gc-Ms And In Vitro Analyses, Matt A. Limmer, Gregory D. Martin, Christopher J. Watson, Camilo Martinez, Joel Gerard Burken

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Phytoscreening Has Been Proven to Rapidly Delineate Subsurface Contaminant Plumes for Semiquantitative Site Assessment, with Minimal Impact to Property or Ecology through the Collection and Analysis of Tree Cores. Here, Three Phytoscreening Methods Were Applied Concurrently to Identify Multiple Chlorinated Volatile Organic Compounds (CVOCs) in a Phytoremediation Treatment System at a Contaminated Industrial Facility. Tree Coring, in Planta Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), and in Planta Passive Sampling Showed General Agreement, with the in Planta GC-MS Providing the Quickest But Least Quantitative Results. the Portable GC-MS Sampling and Analysis Method Identified Six CVOCs in the Xylem of Hybrid Poplars (Populus Sp.) …

Determining Thresholds Of Annoyance To Tones In Noise, Jennifer Marie Francis

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Thesis, and Student Research

Building services equipment often produce noise with prominent tones that can lead to complaints from occupants in the built environment. Previous studies have investigated human perception to tones in noise but it is still unclear at what threshold of prominence these tones lead to human annoyance. The goal of this research is to apply two different methods towards defining thresholds of annoyance to two tonal frequencies: 125 Hz and 500 Hz. In Method I – Direct Assessment with Task, subjects are exposed to 10 minutes of broadband noise with a tonal frequency set at a certain level of prominence while …

Designing Acoustics For Linguistically Diverse Classrooms: Effects Of Background Noise, Reverberation And Talker Foreign Accent On Speech Comprehension By Native And Non-Native English-Speaking Listeners, Z. Ellen Peng

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Thesis, and Student Research

The current classroom acoustics standard (ANSI S12.60-2010) recommends core learning spaces not to exceed background noise level (BNL) of 35 dBA and reverberation time (RT) of 0.6 second, based on speech intelligibility performance mainly by the native English-speaking population. Existing literature has not correlated these recommended values well with student learning outcomes. With a growing population of non-native English speakers in American classrooms, the special needs for perceiving degraded speech among non-native listeners, either due to realistic room acoustics or talker foreign accent, have not been addressed in the current standard. This research seeks to investigate the effects of BNL …

Assessment Of Noise-Induced Annoyance By Tones In Noise From Building Mechanical Systems, Joonhee Lee, Lily M. Wang

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Prominent tones in noise generated by mechanical equipment in buildings can cause complaints from occupants in buildings. The ISO 1996-2 and ANSI S1.13 standards describe methodologies and metrics to quantify tonality perception, but the influence of tones in noise on human annoyance and performance is not fully understood yet. This paper investigates annoyance responses of humans while exposed to background noise with tonal components. Twenty participants completed digit span tasks while exposed to noise signals with differing levels of tones and overall loudness. Subjects were also asked to rate their annoyance after completing tasks under each noise signal. The subjective …

Effects Of Room Acoustics On Comprehension Of Foreign-Accented Speech By Native And Non-Native English-Speaking Listeners, Zhao Peng, Kristin E. Hanna, Brenna N. Boyd, Lily M. Wang

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

In a previous study by the authors, reverberation time (RT) and background noise level (BNL) were both found to have negative effects on native and non-native English-speaking listeners in comprehending English speech produced by native American-English-speaking talkers. Comprehension scores were adjusted for listeners’ baseline English proficiency levels. In the present study, instead of native English-speaking talkers, two native Mandarin Chinese talkers (one male, one female) with similar English spoken proficiency were recruited to produce the same speech materials used in the previous study. A similar methodology was adopted to conduct speech comprehension tests on three groups of listeners: 1) native …

The Impact Of Building Acoustics On Speech Comprehension And Student Achievement, Lily M. Wang

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

The movement for improved classroom acoustics has primarily been grounded on studies that show how building acoustics (i.e. background noise levels and room reverberation) affect speech intelligibility, as determined by speech recognition tests. What about actual student learning, though? If students do not understand each spoken word in the classroom perfectly, can they still manage to achieve high scholastic success? This presentation will review two recent studies conducted at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, linking classroom acoustic conditions to student learning outcomes and speech comprehension (rather than simply recognition). In the first, acoustic measurements in two public school districts …

Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Newsletter (Fall 2014), Cheryl Stevens, Dean

Ogden College of Science & Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.

Designing And Constructing For A Sustainable Future: Community Urban Housing In Timber: Projects By 4th. Year Architecture Students At Dit, Jim Roche

Conference papers

There is some agreement and much debate among interested parties about what constitutes ‘sustainable housing’. The term ‘sustainable’ is used somewhat liberally to mean different things to different listeners. Governments, institutions, interest groups and individual designers often address certain aspects while ignoring the bigger picture. But the bigger picture is such a multivalent issue that includes aspects outside the architect’s immediate remit such as location, transport, security, procurement policy and post-occupancy analysis and management. Or are these outside the architect’s remit?

Teaching sustainable housing within conventional architecture programmes means educators are restricted to identifying certain key issues that students should …

Phytomonitoring Of Chlorinated Ethenes In Trees: A Four-Year Study Of Seasonal Chemodynamics In Planta, Matt A. Limmer, Amanda J. Holmes, Joel Gerard Burken

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Long-Term Monitoring (LTM) of Groundwater Remedial Projects is Costly and Time-Consuming, Particularly When using Phytoremediation, a Long-Term Remedial Approach. the Use of Trees as Sensors of Groundwater Contamination (I.e., Phytoscreening) Has Been Widely Described, Although the Use of Trees to Provide Long-Term Monitoring of Such Plumes (Phytomonitoring) Has Been More Limited Due to Unexplained Variability of Contaminant Concentrations in Trees. to Assess This Variability, We Developed an in Planta Sampling Method to Obtain High-Frequency Measurements of Chlorinated Ethenes in Oak (Quercus Rubra) and Baldcypress (Taxodium Distichum) Trees Growing above a Contaminated Plume during a 4-Year Trial. the Data Set Revealed …

Evaluating Existing And Proposing New Seismic Design Provisions For Rigid Wall - Flexible Diaphragm Buildings, John Lawson, Dominic Kelly, Maria Koliou, Andre Filiatrault

Architectural Engineering

Buildings with heavy concrete on masonry walls supported by flexible wood or steel deck roof diaphragms are ubiquitour across the United States and the rest of North America. The current seismic design approach is based on the equivalent lateral force (ELF) method whose underlying assumptions significantly differ from the actual dynamic response of these buildings. The seismic behavior of rigid wall-flexible rood diaphragm (RWFD) Buildings is dominated by the diaphragm's response instead of the wall' in-plane response. Furthermore, the diaphragm's ductility and overstrength capacity is unique to its own construction. Yet the current design methodology employed by practitioners directly ties …

Distribution Of Chord Forces In Large Panelized Wood Roof Diaphragms, Weichang Pang, Chun Ni, John Lawson, Sami Pant

Architectural Engineering

Flexible wood roof diaphragms are very common in the United States, both for residential buildings and large-scale commercial buildings. Due to its simplicity, the traditional diaphragm design method is commonly used in diaphragm design, in particular for the design of diaphragms with relatively small dimensions. The traditional diaphragm design method assumes the axial chord forces developed in framing members under in-plane loading are carried only by the perimeter elements. This method has always been thought to be a conservative design method, especially when applied to large diaphragms. In recent years, the engineering community began to question the applicability of the …

Development Of Seismic Design Methodologies For Rigid Wall-Flexible Diaphragm Structures, John W. Lawson, D. J. Kelly, M. Koliou, A. Filiatrault

Architectural Engineering

Evidence indicates that the dynamic behavior of Rigid Wall – Flexible Diaphragm (RWFD) structures is dominated by the diaphragm’s response instead of the walls’ response, and this is a significant departure from the underlying assumptions of the widely used equivalent lateral force method in current building codes. RWFD buildings are common in North America and other parts of the world, and incorporate rigid in-plane concrete or masonry walls and flexible in-plane wood or steel roof diaphragms. With the use of a numerical computer modeling framework developed specifically for this type of building, this study sets out to investigate the seismic …

Examining The Applicability Of Design Methods For Large Panelized All-Wood Roof Diaphragms Under Seismic Loading, W. Pang, S. Pant, C. Ni, John W. Lawson

Architectural Engineering

The use of flexible roof diaphragms is very common in the United States, both for residential buildings and large-scale commercial buildings. Due to its simplicity, the traditional diaphragm design method is commonly used in diaphragm design, in particular for the design of diaphragms with relatively small dimensions. The traditional diaphragm design method assumes the axial chord forces developed in framing members under in-plane loading are carried only by the perimeter elements. The traditional diaphragm design method has always been thought to be a conservative design method, especially when applied to large diaphragms. In recent years, the engineering community began to …

Numerical Framework For Seismic Collapse Assessment Of Rigid Wall-Flexible Diaphragm Structures, M. Koliou, A. Filiatrault, D.J. Kelly, John W. Lawson

Architectural Engineering

This study focuses on the development of a two dimensional (2D) simplified numerical framework of rigid wall-flexible diaphragm (RWFD) structures that can be used to validate seismic design approaches. This type of low-rise industrial buildings, which is widely used in North America, incorporates rigid in-plane concrete or masonry walls and flexible in-plane wood, steel or “hybrid” roof diaphragms. The numerical modeling is detailed enough to capture the nonlinear seismic response of RWFD buildings, but simplified enough to efficiently conduct a large number of nonlinear time-history dynamic analyses. The 2D numerical modeling framework is based on a three step sub-structuring approach …

Coastal Defenses, U.S., Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview of U.S. military coastal defenses during the period up to and including the War 1812.

No Admixture, Sustainable, Self-Consolidating Grout, Craig Baltimore, James P. Mwangi, Eric W. Bateman

Architectural Engineering

The consolidation of grout in concrete masonry unit (CMU) walls is labor-intensive. Also, the grout’s Portland cement content has a high embodied energy demand – a non-sustainable characteristic. For the labor-intensive issue, chemical admixture self-consolidating grouts have been used in walls 12.67 ft. (3.86 m) tall, however the chemical additive can impose new limitations on the grout (non-robust characteristics). No admixture self-consolidating grout with high percentage Portland cement replacement have potential for robust and sustainable application. This paper reports on the consolidation of no admixture self-consolidating grout made by substituting high percentages of Portland cement with Type-F fly ash and/or …

Determining Annoyance Thresholds Of Tones In Noise, Jennifer M. Francis, Joonhee Lee, Lily M. Wang

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Building services equipment often produces noise signatures with significant tones in them that can lead to complaints in the built environment. Previous studies have investigated prominence levels of assorted tonal frequencies, but it is still unclear what prominence of the tones across varying tonal frequencies can lead to human annoyance. This project seeks to apply two different methods towards defining annoyance thresholds of tones in noise at two tonal frequencies: 125 Hz and 500 Hz. In the first, subjects are asked to perform a task, while exposed to ten minutes of a broadband noise spectrum with a specific level of …

Using K’Nex To Teach Large Scale Structures To Architects And Constructionstudents, Allen C. Estes, Craig Baltimore

Architectural Engineering

The College of Architecture and Environmental Design at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly SLO) is the only college in the nation that includes architecture (ARCH), architectural engineering (ARCE) and construction management (CM) programs in the same college. Given the unique mix of disciplines and the emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration, the ARCH and CM students take a five-course structural engineering sequence from the ARCE department. A challenge of these courses is to maintain some degree of computational rigor while offering a broader perspective that will benefit the ARCH and CM students. This paper reports on one …

New Civil Engineering Program Criteria: How The Sausage Is Being Made, Allen Estes, Thomas A. Lenox

Architectural Engineering

The American Society of Civil Engineers organized the Civil Engineering Program Criteria Task Committee in October 2012 whose charge is to determine if the current ABET Civil Engineering Program Criteria (CEPC) should be changed to reflect one or more of the 24 outcomes of the second edition of the Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge published in 2008. After over a year of conference calls and face to face meetings, the committee has drafted and disseminated a proposed CEPC. This paper chronicles the development of the proposed criteria by sharing a review of the literature, the committee’s methodology and process, the …

Effects Of Polyethylene Terephthalate Fibers In The Water Resistance Of Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks., Ebrima Colley

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Thesis, and Student Research

This research project focuses on investigating the effects of synthetic fibers (PET) and amount of cement stabilization on the water absorption, water surface erosion, and wet compressive strength of the compressed stabilized earth blocks (CSEB). The use of locally available soils blended with fibers and cement was investigated to obtain a design mix for compressed stabilized earth blocks capable of staying intact in wet and humid regions in the world (i.e. regions with annual rainfall of over 50 in). Blocks with varying cement percentages of 5, 8, 10, and 15% by weight were produced with 3 specimens each, with and …

Spans Across Time: Compliance Of Historic Maine Coastal Bridges With Modern Geometric Design Standards, Elizabeth Reynolds

Honors College

The purpose of this thesis is to study a wide range of historic bridges along the coast of Maine. Three bridges were selected for study: Sewall’s Bridge, Bailey Island Bridge, and Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge. The selected bridges exhibit varying historic treatment approaches, material use, structure type, and span length. This thesis establishes the compliance of these bridges with modern geometric standards, as defined by AASHTO (2011), including maximum grade, vertical and horizontal alignment, roadway width, and sidewalk width. Passing sight distance, passenger comfort and general appearance are not be included in this evaluation of geometric design.

This document outlines the …

Plant Translocation Of Organic Compounds: Molecular And Physicochemical Predictors, Matt A. Limmer, Joel Gerard Burken

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Root-Soil Boundary Represents One of the Largest Global Biotic-Abiotic Mass-Transfer Interfaces and is a Primary Pollutant Entry Point to the Food Chain. This Interface is Also Critically Important in Phytoremediation Efforts and Herbicide Design. Experimental Data and Single-Parameter Models Have Resulted in the Current Understanding that Moderately Hydrophobic Organic Compounds Are Most Likely to Be Translocated by Plants, Although Recent Evidence Indicates Plants Can Also Translocate Some Hydrophilic Compounds. Molecular Descriptors Initially Applied for Drug Discovery and for Transmembrane Migration in Mammalian Systems Were Applied Here to Determine the Physicochemical Domains and Weighted Desirability Functions to Identify Compounds Amenable …

Method And System For Optimal Coordination Control And Soft Repair Of Multiple Rooftop Heating And Cooling Units, Haorong Li

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Techniques are described that may be implemented in an adaptive control device to regulate multiple zone environmental units based upon multiple temperature values and multiple airflow values, where each temperature value and each airflow value is related to the temperature and the airflow in a specific zone. In an implementation, the input interface of the adaptive control device is configured to receive multiple temperature values and multiple air flow values from multiple zone sensors. The adaptive control device may calculate multiple operational values based on the multiple temperature values and the multiple air flow values. An operational value indicates a …

Empirically Derived Effective Stiffness Expressions For Concrete Walls, Andrew Mock, Anahid A. Behrouzi, Laura Lowes, Dawn Lehman, Daniel Kuchma

Architectural Engineering

In most cases, analysis to determine component demands for seismic design of concrete buildings employs linear elastic models in which reduced, effective component stiffnesses are used. This document i) reviews the recommendations for defining the effective flexural, shear and axial stiffness of concrete walls that are included in current design codes, standards and guidelines and ii) compares these recommendations with stiffness expressions derived directly from experimental data by the authors and others. Section 2 reviews existing empirically derived and code‐, standard‐, and guideline‐based expressions for the effective stiffness of concrete walls. Section 3 presents the process used by the authors …

Summary Of Large-Scale C-Shaped Reinforced Concrete Wall Tests, Anahid A. Behrouzi, Andrew Mock, Laura Lowes, Dawn Lehman, Daniel Kuchma

Architectural Engineering

Flexural concrete walls (i.e., walls the yield in flexural prior to failure) are used commonly as the lateral load resisting system for mid‐ and high‐rise buildings on the West Coast. They are relatively stiff under service‐level loading, can take on various configurations to accommodate architectural constraints, and are generally assumed to exhibit ductile response under severe earthquake loading. Despite heavy reliance on concrete walls, relatively little research has been done to investigate the earthquake performance of walls with modern design details. Few data exist characterizing the performance of modern walls under variable levels of earthquake loading or the impact of …

The Potential For Energy Reduction In Uk Commercial Offices Through Effective Management And Behaviour Change, Mark Mulville, Keith Jones, Gesche Huebner

Articles

eneral office equipment can be responsible for a significant proportion of overall electrical energy consumption in UK offices and this is predicted to rise significantly over the coming years [Webber, C. A., Roberson, J. A., Brown, R. E., Payne, C. T., Nordman, B., & Koomey, J. G. (2001). Field surveys of office equipment operating patterns. Berkley: CA: Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory]. As a significant contributor to overall energy use, this equipment has a corresponding cost and carbon impact. The legally binding requirements of the climate change act [Department of Energy and Climate Change. (2008 Department of Energy and …