Engineering Commons^™

Highway 17 Wildlife Crossing, Taryn Chisholm, Seema Singh, Justin Uyeno

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

Highway 17 is an essential corridor for people to commute between the Bay Area and the Santa Cruz regions, but this highway also creates a barrier between wildlife territories, fragmenting their habitats and stranding animal populations on either side. The lack of crossing infrastructure along Highway 17 forces wildlife to attempt to cross the highway into oncoming traffic, causing wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) which endangers the lives of motorists and animals alike. In order to address this problem, the team designed a precast, concrete culvert crossing underneath Highway 17 to provide a safer passageway to increase habitat connectivity as well as …

Emergency Relief Structure For Natural Disaster Evacuees And The Homeless Population, Madeline Yee, Margaret Tolan, Rodrigo Mendez

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

In California, many communities lack the resources to provide support for natural disaster evacuees and those devastated by economic loss (our growing homeless community). An improved interim housing solution needs to be developed - a solution that provides comfort, privacy, and community - in the hopes of maintaining the dignity of those experiencing these hardships. In order to address this problem, the team designed a modular, panelized structure to provide shelter to those who are subject to emergency situations. A structural design and analysis was completed for both a cold-formed steel and a timber structure. A parcel of land in …

Potable Water For A Volcanic Community In Rural Guatemala, Marieli Rubio, Jichan Seo, Connor Thomas

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

The project, in partnership with Santa Clara University Frugal Innovation Hub and Instituto de Investigacion y Proyeccion sobre Ciencia y Tecnologia (INCYT) at Universidad Rafael Landivar, aimed to provide Panimache II, a small volcanic Guatemalan community, with access to clean and affordable water. The team designed a water treatment plant and distribution system, consisting of a hydraulic flocculator, sedimentation basin, slow-sand filter, and chlorination chamber, to remove the high levels of ash and other suspended solids. Components of the project included analyzing water source and quality, availability of construction materials, and recommended construction to effectively design and implement the community's …

Hester Gardens - A Lifemoves Temporary Interim-Housing Facility, Jeffrey Meier, Megan Sauter, Jenna Tran, Taylor Klauser

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

LifeMoves, an organization that provides interim housing and supportive services to families and individuals experiencing homelessness, recently purchased 0.35 acres of land, located at 1759 Hester Avenue, San Jose, CA 95128. LifeMoves has challenged the design team to provide preliminary building layouts, a structural alternative analysis, construction management plans, and general civil plans for a multi-story, family-friendly, interim housing facility, which has been named Hester Gardens. The design team considered both steel, a traditional building material, and shipping containers, a sustainable alternative building material, for this project. Each alternative included a structural design and analysis, as well as a cost …

Renovation Of El Camino Real Of Santa Clara, Thao Nguyen-Pham, John Garzee

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

In this project we focus on a section of the El Camino Real that is a major corridor that connects the South Bay to much of the Peninsula. The portion that we are looking at is by Santa Clara University from Lafayette Street to Scott Boulevard which consists of 3lanes in both directions. This is much wider than sections farther north as there are much higher traffic volumes in the spread out South Bay. As a result, El Camino Real can be dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists. Along with pedestrian safety concerns, our project goes into the inadequate service levels …

Nicaragua Water Distribution System, Leah Bensching, Jamie Monk

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

In developing nations, such as Nicaragua, water security issues affect a large portion of the population. A lack of clean and secure water negatively causes many public health, environmental and economic concerns. This project addresses the need to develop a water distribution system to a rural community in Nicaragua. The proposed solutions will allow the community to choose more resilient design options to ensure reliable water delivery throughout the community.

By using NeatWork, a Nicaraguan based system, and WaterGEMS, which is more commonly used in the United States, it was determined that designing for 100% reliability was the most responsible …

Regional Wastewater Facility Systems Design, Sage Aoki, Joseph Calvo, Kayden Haleakala, Steward Yang

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

The San José-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility (RWF) was constructed in 1956 as a primary water treatment plant. Secondary treatment facilities were constructed in 1964 in response to a growing population and economy along with state regulations. The RWF expanded to tertiary treatment in 1979 to meet Clean Water Act regulations. A wet weather headworks facility was commissioned in 2008, and in 2011 the gaseous chlorine/sulfur dioxide system for disinfection was converted to a sodium hypochlorite/sodium bisulfate system in 2011 (RWF 2015). The RWF launched a Capital Improvement Program (CIP) in 2014, identifying 33 capital projects. The Facility Wide Water …

24th National Timber Bridge Design Competition, Marie Mcnamara, Andrew D. Porter, Sarah Martina Sbicca

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

For the 2016 Senior Design project, our team elected to design and construct a short-span pedestrian bridge for the 24th National Timber Bridge Design Competition. The competition was sponsored by the Southwest Mississippi RC&D council (SMRCD) of the Forest Products Society in association with the American Society of Civil Engineers. There were a number of different design and testing requirements to abide by, including both competition regulations as well as AASHTO guidelines pertaining to the construction of pedestrian bridges. [1] A great deal of diligence was taken to assure that our team performed well in the competition; every rule and …

Rise Above The Flood: Bridge Building In Gambibgo, Ghana, Vanessa Diaz, Ariana Govan, Matthew Millsaps

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

This thesis focuses on the design of a steel girder bridge for a rural community in Ghana, Africa. While Santa Clara Civil Engineering Senior Design Teams have been working in this community since 2008, it was not until 2013 that a project team attempted to design a pedestrian footbridge. After the 20152016 project team decided to take on the project, it became clear from talking with the Ghanaian Municipal Engineers and local community members that the steel suspension bridge proposed by the 2013 team would not meet all the needs of the community. Therefore, the team redesigned the bridge, proposing …

Redesign Of Lawrence Expressway And Pruneridge Avenue, Matthew Wong, Tyler Isaac

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

In 2012, the segment of Pruneridge Avenue from Lawrence Expressway to Pomeroy Avenue saw a project called a Road Diet. A Road Diet refers to the replacement of vehicle lanes with bicycle lanes and a center turning lane, in order to create safe zones for cyclists and drivers on the same street. While the Road Diet sufficiently addressed the safety issues of the corridor, it severely worsened its traffic capacity, creating long queues along Pruneridge and on Lawrence Expressway during peak traffic hours as residents around the area commute to and from work. The queues are so long that many …

Foundation Design For Multistory Building In Oakland, Sean Cain

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

This project focuses on the design of a foundation and garage-level retaining walls for a 25 story building in Oakland, California. The design was completed through the use of data from a 1988 soil investigation and provided structural loads. The site is composed of a thin sand layer above a clay layer about 400 feet thick. Analysis included soil and groundwater conditions and exploration of spread footings, mat footings, and pile foundations. The final selected foundation type is driven piles with the other options discarded due to lack of data and an unsuitability for the structure requirements. Piles are suitable …

Habitat For Humanity Apartment Complex Redesign, Megan August, Molly Bencomo, Ashley Waite

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

This project consists of the redesign of a three-story apartment complex for Habitat for Humanity that will be constructed in Walnut Creek, CA in 2017. A project in Fremont, CA served as the basis for the design. However, the height of the complex in Fremont exceeded the Walnut Creek Building Code height limitations, making the redesign of this timber structure necessary. The challenge was to reduce the structural space between stories to 9.5 inches in order to achieve comfortable interior clearances and meet the City of Walnut Creek’s height restriction. The structural components for Building Type A in the Las …

Interlocking Concrete Masonry Unit Geometry Design, Raquel Avila, Nick Jensen

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

Earthquakes in Haiti and Nepal left many people devastated. Millions of people were initially displaced and forced to reside in displacement camps. Developing countries like these need a form of economical construction. Our design and manufacturing process for interlocking CMU (concrete masonry unit) blocks can help build low-cost homes quickly and efficiently. Wall construction costs are reduced because skilled masons are not needed to build the wall. Instead, unskilled homeowners and laborers can stack the interlocking blocks, which serve as forms for the subsequent placement of reinforcement and grout within some of the CMU block voids. Using a steel mold, …

Preliminary Design And Construction Planning Of A New Santa Clara University Student Fitness And Recreational Facility, Justin Matoi, Steven Sakamoto, Alex Sarr

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

The Pat Malley Fitness and Recreation Center was built in 1999. At approximately 45,000 SF, the building cost was 8.8 million dollars. Malley includes three full length basketball courts, locker rooms, 10,000 ft2 workout and cardio space, a multi-purpose room and administrative offices ("Santa Clara University" Campus Recreation). Although one of the relatively new buildings on campus; Malley fails to provide the necessary space and accommodations of an active and growing student body. When the building was designed and built, the student population/enrollment of the University was "approximately 4,200 undergraduate and 3,600 graduate students" (Santa Clara University Bulletin 1999). Since …

Sustainable Design In Ghana, Anthony Decosta, Amanda Laufer, Theresa Mcardle

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

Sustainable homes are difficult for the people of Gambibgo, Ghana to build, as there are few natural building materials in the area other than earth and water, and their subsistencefarming lifestyle leaves very little money for the purchase of sourced material like lumber, steel, or cement. Traditional homes in Gambibgo are constantly rebuilt, costing the communityaround $250 at least once every five years. Our team, with Father James Reites, S.J. and two alums, traveled to Gambibgo in March 2015 with an earthen roof design we had hoped to implement on the existing walls of thecommunity's homes. Upon our arrival we …

Bannan Pedestrian Bridge, Chris Banaga, Kevin Delos Santos, Tim Mort

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

This project focuses on the need for collaboration and unification among faculty and students in the engineering department. As it stands, the engineering department has three buildings that are not connected. This causes students and faculty of different studies to be handcuffed. Engineering is a collaborated field, that requires like minded people to come up with solutions. This is why the design team decided to implement a pedestrian bridge that would allow rapid access to both engineering buildings. The project team completed structural and construction elements for a pedestrian bridge that connects two buildings in the SCU engineering quad. This …

Santa Clara University Multicultural Center Redesign, Angela Non, Isaac Raven

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

The purpose of this project is to propose a resigned structure to better suit the activities of the Santa Clara University Multicultural Center. The renovation entails proposing a preliminary structural design system that includes a new, light-weight PLN3 metal deck roofing system provided by Verco Decking, Inc. Nine deep long span 56DLH truss joists will be implemented to support the metal deck. Two large trusses comprised of member sizes HSS9x9x½ and LL3½x3½x5/16x3/8 will be used to support the nine truss joists. Four concrete columns, 15 ft in height and 2 ft in diameter, will be erected to uphold each end …

Geomorphic Restoration And Stabilization Of A Reach Of Stevens Creek, Gretchen Kayser, Nick Roby, Travis Giffen

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

This project focuses on the restoration of a 460-foot reach of Stevens Creek in Santa Clara County, California. The new design will increase the stability of stream channels, riparian system functions, and fish passage while improving or maintaining the "level of service" based on geomorphic data. This project was completed in conjunction with the Santa Clara Valley Water District's standards and design criteria. The proposed design is needed to increase the stability of stream banks and rectify stream bed incision. This will, in turn, provide greater flood protection to the residents of Santa Clara County. In addition to safety for …

Hayward Shoreline Levee Protection, Samuel Beering, Karissa Canonizado, Caleb Young

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

The area from north of the San Mateo Bridge to Hayward Landing in the city of Hayward is at risk of flooding due to thirty-six inch sea level rise in the next 50-100 years. The areas that the this flooding would have a negative environmental impact as well as impact businesses and other residents near the project area. To protect these areas new shoreline protection was proposed. To begin designing new shore protection, the existing levee was analyzed on GeoSlope after doing numerous soil testing. It was found that the existing levee would fail against overtopping. After evaluating three alternatives, …

Designing With Bamboo: Frames And Connections In Underdeveloped Areas, Andrew Spencer, Bryson Kam

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

Designing With Bamboo: Frames and Connections in Underdeveloped Areas focused on the construction and testing of specific components of a proposed structure utilizing bamboo. This structure, proposed by the Ecological Building Network, would primarily be used in Haiti and other developing countries that are prone to seismic activity. The components of this structure will consist of concrete masonry units, bamboo frames, and rebar for the connection. This project focuses specifically on the bamboo frame and it's connection to the concrete masonry wall. Tests were performed on isolated unit specimens to gain a sense of the behavior of this mechanism. Information …

Homeless Garden Project, Caroline Ruwe, Tara Pozzi, John Miller

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

The Homeless Garden Project, a non-profit organization in Santa Cruz, California, was given 15-acres to expand in 1998 by the City of Santa Cruz. The main reason they have not moved to this area is that there is no readily available water to irrigate with. In this paper, we used GPS data and WaterCAD modeling to design a gravity water distribution system in order to irrigate this new land for the Homeless Garden Project. This system used two mountain springs as a water supply in which spring diversion box retrofits were designed. Multiple 2-inch high-density polyurethane (HDPE) pipelines were used …

Santa Clara Creek Restoration, Scott Cameron

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

The Santa Clara River Valley is an area that has traditionally had a considerably high water table and that remains relatively true today as a result of a local adoption of imported surface water to meet most needs. Historically, the result of this high water table was a network of meandering waterways throughout the valley, several of which came extremely close to our own Santa Clara University. Despite this, there are no natural surface water systems that exist in this location today. In 1851, a Santa Clara county surveyor report showed one creek in particular that flowed nearly to the …

Straw Bale Seismic Design Capacities 2, Beth Avon, Brittnie Swartchick

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

Straw bale is a sustainable building material that repurposes agricultural waste for use in the structural system of buildings. This material will be used as a component in the lateral force resisting systems of walls, especially helpful in the California seismic environment and under heavy wind loads. The four main components of a post-and-beam method straw bale wall are timber framing, straw bales, wire mesh, and plaster. This report will focus on the design of the exterior plaster and the design of “workhorse” and “strong” walls for simple construction and areas of higher seismic activity, respectively. Our test results will …

Cold Climate Solar Thermal Greenhouse Design, Samuel Health, Ashley Husbands, Cora Lemar, Moriko Tollan

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

The design of a cold climate solar thermal greenhouse was inspired by a trip the design team took to the Denali Education Center (DEC) in Alaska. The DEC expressed the need for a greenhouse because the soil in Alaska is too cold to grow fresh vegetables and fruits during the late Spring and Summer months. A solar array located on the campus, currently used to heat Water, produces an excess amount of heat that needs to be directed elsewhere. By heating the inside of the greenhouse through the solar array, the DEC will be able to extend its growing season …

Design And Evaluation Of A Home- Scale Arsenic Removal System, Megan Alferness, Alexandria Casares

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

The problem of arsenic contamination affects millions of people worldwide. A home-scale arsenic removal system could provide families in Nepal access to clean drinking water. It would also reduce the risk of adverse health issues that are associated with ingesting arsenic contaminated water. Our experiments show that using electrocoagulation is an effective method of removing arsenic from water. We were able to get the level of arsenic below 10 ppb in 60 minutes of treatment using various system configurations. We identified several parameters that affect the treatment process, the most important being the charge loading, or the amount of charge …

Bannan Engineering Laboratories Redesign, Pia Johanna Candelaria, John-Carlo Guevara, Andy Chi Truong

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

Due to the growing student body within Santa Clara University's School of Engineering, an increase in classrooms, laboratories, offices, and study spaces is needed to for student engineering resources. The objective of the Bannan Engineering Laboratories Redesign is to provide a preliminary structural design and corresponding construction management schedule and budget as an alternative to the existing single-story Bannan Engineering Laboratories building. The proposed design consists of three floors of versatile spaces: one basement and two stories above ground. The 160-ft by 68-ft building features eleven hybrid classroom/laboratories in the basement, seven standard classrooms on the first floor, fourteen faculty …

California Highway 1 Improvement Project Northern Monterey County, Ca, Marie Adams, Nick George, Shaun Shapiro

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

This project focuses on improving traffic flow and safety on a 4-mile segment of California Highway 1 between Moss Landing and Castroville in Monterey County. Improvements include partial widening, signalization, and intersection upgrades.

Life Water, Colin Boyle, Scott Hanson

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

A rainwater harvesting and treatment system was designed and constructed for the Hope for Life Ministry's home for street boys, located outside of Kigali, Rwanda. This system included two different components: a showering system and a potable system. The design and construction of the shower system utilized the roof space of the property's main building to capture water in two separate 10,000-liter tanks on either side of the building. Manual hand pumps were then installed in shower rooms located on either side of the building and were connected to the tanks with piping. 55-gallon barrels were placed in the shower …

Mission San Jose Well Initiative, Mary Foran, Nonda Kozas, Daniel Lafranchi

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

The objective of this community base project is to develop an irrigation system for a community garden that is sustainable and watered by one of the three wells on the Dominican Sisters' Convent property located in Fremont, California. The overall goal of this project is to have a submersible solar powered pump, which will pump water to a tank that will store water and function on a timer. This tank will then deliver water to the community garden as well as other areas on the property. This project focuses on both an environmental and water resources aspects of design work. …

Rainwater Catchment System At Walden West Outdoor Science School, Melissa Crapps, Jessica Bolanos, Alessandro Folchi

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

Walden West Outdoor Science School is a science camp in the hills of Saratoga where children learn science as it relates to the environment and the importance of using sustainable practices. A full-scale bioswale was designed to capture and reuse the rainwater runoff from the main parking lot and lodge on the site. To encourage future implementation of the design as well as to provide a learning tool for future science camps, a model bioswale was built using materials required in actual bioswale construction. A synthetic water sample was developed to mimic the characteristics of rainwater runoff. The synthetic sample …