Construction Engineering Commons^™

Skilled Labor Challenges And Automation In The Construction Industry, Olugbenro Ogunrinde, Rapheal Ojelabi, Opeyemi Oyeyipo

Mountain Plains Business Conference

The construction industry remains one of the most labor-intensive industries worldwide, creating an average gross domestic product (GDP) of 8% for the global economy and helping reduce unemployment. However, the last few years have brought a plague of skilled labor shortage and retirement, the most recent pandemic also playing a part in hastening retirement due to the present age cohort (baby boomers). Therefore, the need to begin to source viable alternatives to mitigate these issues that could be catastrophic is critical. One possible option is automation, but the industry remains lethargic toward innovation adoption and its use. Past and present …

Corrosion Performance Of Embedded Steel Bar In Cl--Contaminated Limestone Calcined Clay Cement (Lc3) At Initial Stage Of Hydration, Weiwen Li, Zuhua Xu, Yaocheng Wang, Xin Wang, Feng Xing

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

Limestone Calcined Clay Cement (LC3) presents brilliant properties in binding Cl^- so that the embedded steel bars are probably protected in Cl^--contaminated condition, which meets the need of sea sand application. However, the corrosion performance of steel bars embedded in LC3 paste with Cl^‑ is unclear, especially in early age hydration. Thus, a series of experiments were carried out to evaluate the corrosion performance of steel bars on initial and hardened stages of hydration, including concentration of OH^- and Cl^- in real pore solution, open circuit potential (OCP) and chemical elements of steel bars. …

The Effect Of Initial Water Saturation On Freeze-Thaw Damage Of Submerged Mortar Materials, Siyuan Chen, Huigang Xiao

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

An indispensable condition for the occurrence of the freeze-thaw (F-T) damage in unsaturated cement-based materials is that the specimens absorb water during the F-T process and reach a critical level of water saturation, which is influenced by the initial degree of water saturation (IDWS). However, the fast-freeze method commonly used in the laboratory does not reflect the effect of the IDWS on F-T damage. Thus, this study investigated the effect of different IDWS on the development of F-T damage in specimens to fill the gap in this research area. In this study, compressive strength tests were used to characterize the …

Umass Dartmouth Science And Engineering (Seng) Building Systems Upgrades Project, Jillian Cornelius

UMassBRUT Community

Although UMass Dartmouth's Science and Engineering Building has long been viewed as an architectural treasure, its aging interior and structure have presented some challenges to users nearly 50 years after it opened. This talk examines Ellenzweig's extensive retrofitting of the UMass Dartmouth SENG building for accessibility, a new envelope, updated MEP, and fire-safety measures. After looking at the design phase and interactions with the Mass Historic Commission, the talk ends with an examination of the replacement of windows in the building.

Brutalist Structures – Polychlorinated Biphenyls, Theresa Wolejko

UMassBRUT Community

Until they were banned by the Federal Government in 1978, Polychlorinated Biphenyls or PCBs, were used extensively as sealants in Brutalist structures across the United States. As a result, these hazardous chemical compounds still reside in concrete buildings and present a danger to those looking to clean or renovate Brutalist structures. This talk explains the problems the University of Massachusetts Amherst has faced in dealing with PCBs over the last couple of decades and recommends some best practices for owners, designers, builders working on midcentury buildings which are suspected to contain these dangerous chemicals.

Concrete Deterioration And Diagnosis, Matthew B. Bronski

UMassBRUT Community

Built primarily in the 1960’s, mid-century modernist concrete buildings are now at the age when we regard many as historic or architecturally significant (and thus as deserving of careful restoration and stewardship), but also at an age where many now exhibit significant deterioration. In this presentation, Matthew Bronski describes the most common maladies and deterioration mechanisms that can befall exposed concrete facades, outlines investigative and diagnostic approaches, and discuss the pros and cons of different rehabilitation treatment options, and the importance of tailoring the treatment to the malady.

Umass Amherst Case Studies – Campus Center Plaza & Lederle Graduate Research Center, Elliott Hambrook

UMassBRUT Community

This presentation discusses Gale’s recent experience with repair projects at two (2) brutalist structures on the Amherst Campus at UMass. A board-formed concrete retaining wall at the base of the Murray D. Lincoln Campus Center (Marcel Breuer, 1970) was tastefully modified, but retained, as part of a waterproofing replacement project, addressing water infiltration and improving sight lines across the Campus Center Plaza. The panelized precast concrete façades of the John W. Lederle Graduate Research Center (Campbell, Aldrich, & Nulty, 1969) received new exterior sealants, enlarged panel joints, PCB removal and encapsulation, supplemental panel anchorage, and a waterproof coating.

Concrete Diagnostics & Assessment, Michael Schuller

UMassBRUT Community

The process of repairing Brutalist architecture begins with diagnosis and assessment of the material conditions of these buildings. This talk focuses on the processes that engineers undertake in order to document and access historic concrete before conservators and designers can form a plan to save such buildings. The speaker gives insight into the diagnostic techniques, such a visual assessment, nondestructive evaluation, sounding, moisture and metal detection, and chemical analysis.

Concrete Conservation Strategies And Repair, Paul Gaudette

UMassBRUT Community

Drawing on the speaker's many years in the field, this talk gives a comprehensive overview of concrete conservation. Beginning with the goals and approaches to conserving concrete, the talk then covers common protection systems, petrographic and chemical studies, and the design of mixes used in repairs. In order to demonstrate these techniques, two case studies are examined, including a Brutalist building and building with architectural precast. The talk ends with some recommendations on how to best approach cleaning and conservation of historic concrete buildings.

Lessons Learned From Personal Experience In Adaptive Reuse, Blake Jackson

UMassBRUT Community

This presentation details themes, regarding sustainability, from three adaptive reuse projects of Brutalist and post-war Modernist structures, accentuating overlaps with sustainability, embodied carbon, preservation, densification, and urbanization – all hallmarks regarding the adaptive reuse of these buildings. The first project illustrates opportunities created by up-branding a 1970’s era Sheraton into a “new” W Hotel (Midtown, Atlanta), whereby the preservation of the concrete playfully juxtaposed new interior/exterior design elements. The second project looks at the transformation of a purpose-built newspaper headquarters into a “new” LEED/Fitwel certified commercial facility, which reknit previously separated neighborhoods into a pedestrian/transit-oriented destination, serving as a catalyst …

Approaches To Renewing Brutalist-Era Lab Buildings, Jean Caroon

UMassBRUT Community

Given the immense amount of embodied carbon that mid-century Brutalist structures represent, we must redirect our focus from demolishing these concrete structures to renovating them to fit our needs in the 21st century. Higher education laboratory buildings from the 1960s and 1970s are a particularly challenging type of facility. This talk describes the work that Boston architecture firm Goody Clancy has recently undertaken in renovating over 1 million square feet of lab building space. The talk not only covers specific retrofits and envelope improvements to science buildings, such as the Gant Science Complex at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, …

Humanizing The Brutalist Interior: The Renovation Of Paul Rudolph's Claire T. Carney Library At Umass Dartmouth, Kelly Haigh, Ben Youtz

UMassBRUT Community

Members of the team that worked on the renovation of the Claire T. Carney Library, designed by Paul Rudolph and completed in 1972, share their design solutions for maintaining the integrity of the architecture and fostering an interior that is welcoming of its occupants. Discussions focus on interior attributes, human occupants, color, light and texture as approaches to humanize the massive concrete attributes that are notorious of Brutalist structures.

Modern Heritage: Why It Matters, And What Gci Is Doing To Help Conserve It, Chandler Mccoy

UMassBRUT Community

The Getty Conservation Institute entered the field of conserving modern heritage in 2013, with the establishment of its Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative (CMAI). The CMAI aims to advance the practice of conserving modern heritage and feels that the best way to retain and reuse modern buildings is by knowing how to maintain, repair and upgrade them, and does this by providing useful tools, case studies, and training to help promote this effort. There has recently been a wave of notable demolition cases which raises the question about the environmental impact of replacing existing buildings with new ones, with many concerned …

Saving Software And Using Emulation To Reproduce Computationally Dependent Research Results, Euan Cochrane, Limor Peer, Ethan Gates, Seth Anderson

Yale Day of Data

Using digital data necessarily involves software. How do institutions think about software in the context of the long-term usability of their data assets? How do they address usability challenges uniquely posed by software such as, license restrictions, legacy software, code rot, and dependencies? These questions are germane to the agenda set forth by the FAIR principles. At Yale University, a team in the Library is looking into the application of a novel approach to emulation as a potential solution. In this presentation, we will outline the work of the Emulation as a Service Infrastructure (EaaSI) program, discuss our plans for …

Panel 1 Paper 1.2: Environnement Du Patrimoine Rural, Claire Cornu

ISCCL Scientific Symposia and Annual General Meetings // Symposiums scientifiques et assemblées générales annuelles de l'ISCCL // Simposios científicos yy las Asambleas Generales Anuales

En fournissant la chimie à l’agriculture, les matériaux pour la construction, et en produisant la mécanisation des cultures comme celles des terrassements, l’industrie des « trente glorieuses » en France effaçait des siècles de pratiques et d’organisation des espaces de vie et de travail, qui optimisaient les ressources naturelles locales et humaines. La maçonnerie en pierre sèche, son agriculture en terrasse, son élevage en enclos, ses cabanes des champs, ses espaces d’accompagnement des jardins, des maisons, des villages, des rivières, des chemins, des routes, sombraient dès lors dans la désuétude. Lorsqu’en 1999 nous avons démarré cette démarche de renaissance d’une …

Latex Modified Concrete - Very Early Strength, Bobby Steele

Purdue Road School

INDOT came out with specifications for a very early strength concrete to use on bridge deck overlays. This concrete is fast setting, which allows overlays to be performed over a weekend and benefits the traveling public with a short duration of traffic interference. Cure time to reach the strength requirement is 3 hours. E&B Paving performed the first application with the new spec on August 26, 2018. Many changes were also made to the INDOT Specification Section 722.

High Performance Mortar With 100% Recycled Aggregate Using Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles, Molly Schrager, Vito Francioso, Arjun Kadakia, Mirian Velay-Lizancos

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Concrete and mortar are materials commonly used in construction. Their main compounds are cement, aggregates (sand and gravel) and water. In an effort to increase the sustainability of these materials, the idea of using recycled aggregates from ground old concrete and using it to make mortar and concrete has gained more interest. It has two advantages: it reduces the need to mine for raw materials and lessens the amount of old and defective concrete that is typically put in landfills. But, the use of recycled concrete aggregate lowers the strength of mortars and concretes because the residual compounds in the …

My Catalyst, Gabrielle Gambino Lyon

Celebration of Learning

Over the course of my internship and shadow program with Pepper Lawson Construction and Ziegler Cooper Architects, I was able to explore the various career paths involved in the design, construction, and civil engineering fields. My work on the construction site of a high-rise apartment building located in the heart of Houston, TX allowed me first-hand experience working and learning alongside project engineers, contractors, building developers, and the construction team.

This project was the perfect confluence of my main areas of interest: structural, mechanical, civil, and environmental engineering, as well as architecture. My daily work consisted of on-site walk throughs, …

Mother's Room - Design | Build, Zoey Koester, Shelby Orr, Damian Smith, Andrew Estabrook, Sarah Barth, Caroline Simmons

ASA Multidisciplinary Research Symposium

The lack of a comfortable environment for mothers on campus was challenged by the Non-Traditional Student Services department of a public university this past year. The department recruited a team of architecture, interior-design, and construction management faculty and students to design and build a mother’s room for the campus library.

Buildings As An Assembly Of 3d Printed Components, Stephen S. Lauer

ASA Multidisciplinary Research Symposium

This project aimed to design a series of components that would be assembled to become a house. The design is a house that is printed in a series of modules and assembled using a series of printed connectors for not only attaching the modules but also used in other various details.

A New Take On Testing: Evaluating Design Systems In Response To The Recent Natural Disaster In Nepal, Jazmine L. Brown

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

In this thesis project I analyze the destruction of the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, specifically in the structural and architectural collapse. I have focused my research on the areas with greatest documented destruction and vulnerability, specifically Kathmandu and the settlements in the Middle Hills. The introduction of a new lateral testing mechanism can provided much needed information on the seismic strengths of vernacular construction methods.

Designing A Residence In Sweden, Umeki Earl, Olivia Bufalini

School of Human Sciences Research Showcase

The project was to design a home for the Nordstroms, a family who lived in Sweden. The challenge was to design a home for the family of four with a maximum square footage of 1100 square feet using the codes and space allocations required for another country. Meeting the needs of the client required much research. RESEARCH included studying the regional climate, the municipal building codes, and city regulations. Thorough research of building construction framing methods, insulation types and installation methods, site planning, materials and finishes were also essential for completing the project.

Seeps And Springs At A Platteville “Observatory” On The River Bluffs, Bj Bonin, Greg Brick, Julia R. Steenberg

Sinkhole Conference 2015

Residential building construction along the Mississippi River bluffs in the 1970s created a unique enclosed outcrop of the Late Ordovician Platteville Formation at Lilydale, Minnesota. This outcrop was examined in early 2013 after a newly-formed spring flooded an elevator shaft the previous year, drawing attention to the foundation conditions. The Lexington Riverside property is a six story condominium complex constructed within the top of the bluff. A two-level underground parking garage was built into the bluff. Bedrock was mechanically excavated to accommodate the construction of the building, creating an unweathered rock surface. The space between the structure and the excavated …

Red Bird Water Kiosk Pavilion _ Clean Water Clean Life, Garrett Keyes Nelli

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Architecture has the power to strengthen community bonds, support a healthy life style and enrich individual lives. The Red Bird Water Kiosk seeks to achieve all three of these on the site of the Red Bird Mission campus, located deep in the Appalachian Mountains of Clay County, Kentucky. This is an area where most live below the poverty line, and about 64 percent of water sources are contaminated. As a result, lack of clean water has forced many locals to turn to unhealthy living standards. Because of these conditions, the county ranks as one of the poorest in the nation, …

Compression Testing And Failure Modes Of Steel-Concrete Composite (Sc) Structures For Nuclear Containment, Patrick Michael Wanamaker, Amit H. Varma

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Although being able to provide much cleaner power than burning coal and other fossil fuels, nuclear power plants are still a tough sell to the general public due to their history of being spontaneously dangerous. The containment structures surrounding these nuclear plants, however, can play a huge role in reducing the risks associated with them. Relatively new designs for these containment assemblies, known as SC (steel-concrete composite) structures, aim to increase the strength and durability of the containment facilities while keeping costs down. By varying the spacing between shear studs, the ratio of concrete to steel, and the ratio of …

Vulnerability Of Progressive Collapse In Reinforced Concrete Flat-Plate Buildings, Jinrong Liu

College of Engineering: Graduate Celebration Programs

• Progressive collapse is the spread of initial local failure, causing partial or
  even total collapse of a building.
• Flat plate structure is widely used for office and residential buildings.
• There is a large inventory of older flat plate building without continuous slab bottom reinforcement through columns.
• Limited knowledge exists regarding the risk of disproportionate collapse in
  older flat-plates under sudden column removal during abnormal events.
• Reliable mechanical model is needed for structural evaluation.

Wku Capital Construction Update, Wku Board Of Regents

Board of Regents Documents

Presentation booklet regarding capital construction projects with photographs. Projects included:

• Glasgow Regional Postsecondary Education Center
• Elizabethtown Regional Postsecondary Education Center
• Media & Technology Center / Guthrie Tower & Plaza
• Science & Engineering Building
• Downing University Center Renovations
• University Boulevard Pedestrian Bridge

E.A. Diddle Arena Project, Wku Board Of Regents

Board of Regents Documents

Presentation booklet regarding Diddle Arena renovation project financing through bond issue. Includes contracts, revenue sources, insurance, deed descriptions and model procurement codes.

President's Report, Wku President's Office - Cherry

Board of Regents Documents

President Henry Cherry's report to the Board of Regents:

• Receipts & Expenditures pp. 2-12
• Salary Schedules pp. 13-19
• Valuation of the Plant pp. 20-23
• Cherry Hall Construction pp. 25-26
• Chimes p. 27
• Heating Plant p. 28
• Landscaping pp. 29-31
• Mechanical Condition of Buildings pp. 32-37
• College Heights Foundation (includes Kentucky Building) pp. 38-41
• Enrollment & Costs of Kentucky State Institutions pp. 42-45
• Canon, E.H. Registrar's Report pp. 46-63, 65-76
• Ogden Medals & Awards 1928-1935 p. 64
• Students Enrolled & Graduates 1934-1935 pp. 77-90
• Grise, Finley. Report of the Dean of the College pp. 91-110

President's Report, Wku President's Office - Cherry

Board of Regents Documents

President Henry Cherry's report to the Board of Regents regarding finances and construction of the swimming pool and president's home.