Architecture Commons^™

Investigation Of Subjective Perception And Objective Metrics Of Acoustic Room Diffusion, Jay Michael Bliefnick

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

While a variety of assessment methodologies have been proposed to quantify acoustic diffusivity within rooms, a link between these and the perception of diffusion has not been fully established. This study investigated various ways of analyzing diffusion, through both human perception and objective metrics. Numerous impulse response measurements were collected from a physical acoustics testing facility designed for diffusion research. This space featured reversible absorptive/diffusive/reflective wall panels, which allowed numerous testing configurations. One such setup investigated how changing the diffusivity of an isolated wall surface impacted diffusive room conditions. Alternatively, the effects diffuser configurations had on diffusive room conditions were …

Measuring Access To Employment To Guide And Evaluate Public Transit Service Planning In New Orleans, Kevin Harrison

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

New software and technology is making it easier than ever before for public transportation planners to evaluate how quickly residents can reach jobs and other destinations. Because in the past it was difficult to measure access to opportunities, these concepts remained primarily in the theoretical and academic realms of research. This thesis reviews methods that could be used to evaluate routine bus service improvements and performs a comparative analysis of different methods in the context of New Orleans. There are many different variables in how the analysis could be performed, but this thesis focuses on the role that time of …

The Mustang Sculpture, Natalie Gibbons, Jordan Gates

Architectural Engineering

No abstract provided.

Long Beach Remodel, John Hinrichs

Architectural Engineering

No abstract provided.

An Investigation Of Dx Cooling Coil Inherent Characteristics, Krittima Santiwattana

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

DX cooling coil (DCC) systems have dominated light commercial and household applications in the U.S for several decades. Approximately 14.5% of energy use is consumed by space cooling in commercial buildings, whereas 87% of households are installed with air-conditioners. Improper installation, poor design, and lack of optimized control/operations incur faults in HVAC systems causing 25% to 50% energy waste in a building. These consequences are subject to inefficient equipment modelling of which is developed from: (1) insufficient understanding in equipment characteristics, (2) uncertainties in testing environment and data, and (3) access and cost limitations. Therefore, in this thesis DCC inherent …

Kihefo Vocational Center: Kabale, Uganda, Jason Matthew Angerer

Construction Management

Journeyman International (JI) is a non-profit organization which acts as a platform for bringing together volunteer Architects, Designers, Engineers, and Construction Managers with humanitarian projects around the world. Kigezi Healthcare Foundation (KIHEFO) a non-profit NGO located in Kabale, Uganda is a client seeking to build a vocational center to educate the workforce of Uganda. The center will include multi-purpose class rooms, a dining hall, rabbit farm, carpentry shop, and living complex. The Architect on the project was Courtney Wedel from Cal Poly. As the Construction Manager on the project my responsibilities include; Design Assist, Feasibility Analysis, Scheduling, Estimating, and Managing …

The Use Of Personality Type To Improve Team Collaboration Within Design Studios, Beth Rolston Jarl

Masters Theses

This study surveyed third year interior design students on satisfaction levels after participating in a 7-week team project where the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) personality assessment was used to help inform team formation. The literature review explored all aspects of team collaboration, the difference between group work, team work and collaborative work, common barriers found in team work, team development processes, successful team building strategies, and the design studio collaborative project in regards to student perceptions of learning. The portion of this study explored and measured in-depth is how students perceived their collaborative team experience using the MBTI to inform …

Dermal Uptake Directly From Air Under Transient Conditions: Advances In Modeling And Comparisons With Experimental Results For Human Subjects, G. C. Morrison, C. J. Weschler, G. Bekö

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

To better understand the dermal exposure pathway, we enhance an existing mechanistic model of transdermal uptake by including skin surface lipids (SSL) and consider the impact of clothing. Addition of SSL increases the overall resistance to uptake of SVOCs from air but also allows for rapid transfer of SVOCs to sinks like clothing or clean air. We test the model by simulating di-ethyl phthalate (DEP) and di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP) exposures of six bare-skinned (Weschler et al. 2015, Environ. Health Perspect., 123, 928) and one clothed participant (Morrison et al. 2016, J. Expo. Sci. Environ. Epidemiol., 26, 113). The model predicts …

Small Housesholds Left Out In Cold By One-Size-Fits-All Policy, Lorcan Sirr

Media

In Ireland, homeowners can pay up to 31% of their after-tax income on their mortgage, and the situation is worse if you are a single-person mortgage holder. That’s according to figures released by AIB mortgage brand EBS and DKMEconomic Consultants last month.

A Generic Benchmark For A Mini-Split Heat Pump System, Yuchen Wang

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

Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) accounts for half of the building energy consumption in the U.S where Mini-Split Heat Pumps (MSHPs) are an emerging type of HVAC system. Their utilization has greatly increased by 34% from 2009 to 2013 and high potential EER is recognized for MSHPs. However, there is limited research involving MSHPs systems, and there is no generic benchmark for system testing and modeling. The available simulation tools such as VapCyc, GreatLab, and CYCLE_D are either too complicated, difficult to access, or not freely available. Therefore, an accurate and public share generic benchmark is essential and will …

Appraisal Of The Sustainability Of Compressed Stabilized Earthen Masonry, Elena Claire Hoff

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

Compressed stabilized earthen block (CSEB) masonry presents an environmentally and economically sustainable alternative to conventional residential construction materials such as clay brick masonry or concrete masonry (CMU). Earthen masonry is locally sourced and manufactured on site, thus minimizing costs associated with raw material extraction and transportation. Furthermore, CSEB requires very little use of electricity and water during both the manufacture and construction processes and it has excellent thermal resistivity while in use, allowing for additional cost and energy savings during most phases of its life cycle. Analyzing the life cycle trade-offs in a comparative study between CSEB and clay brick …

Bs News November/December

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Shear Wave Velocity And Its Anisotropy Of Polymer Modified High-Volume Class-F Fly Ash-Kaolinite Mixtures, X. Kang, B. Bate

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study investigated the effects of polymers on the small-strain stiffness behavior of high-volume Class-F fly ash-kaolinite mixtures. The shear wave velocity (Vs) and its anisotropy of organically modified fly ash-kaolinite mixtures were evaluated using a self-developed floating wall type consolidometer bender element (BE) testing system. Both synthetic polymers [polyethylene oxide (PEO)] and biopolymers (xanthan gum and chitosan) were used to modify the stiffness of fly ash-kaolinite mixtures. Shear waves generated and received by bender elements were measured to quantify the small-strain stiffness of the organically modified fly ash-kaolinite mixtures in three orthogonal directions, i.e., vh, hv, and hh. The …

Museum 4.0 As The Future Of Steam In Museums, Mark Walhimer

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Informal STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) activities (programs) and exhibits are common in science centers, children’s museums and natural history museums. As museums change to Museum 4.0 models (1), the STEAM exhibits and programs in museums also change. Museums 4.0 is the transformation of museums from a monolithic fixed location institution to a nimble community driven event driven organization. The Museum 4.0 becomes personalized to the visitor without fixed outcomes and without the physical restrictions of a single fixed location. As museums evolve to a Museum 4.0 model with visitor lead activities, STEAM activities within museums also change …

Impact Of Cross Section, Web Reinforcement And Load History On The Seismic Performance Of Slender Concrete Walls, Anahid A. Behrouzi

Architectural Engineering

Many reinforced concrete buildings in seismic regions employ reinforced concrete shear walls as part of the lateral force resisting system and these walls often have non-planar cross-sectional geometries. To date, the majority of experimental tests on slender concrete walls have been conducted on planar walls which have been subject to low shear stress demands. An experimental program was developed to examine the response of flanged C-shaped walls with respect of load history and a computational parametric study was conducted to focus more specifically on the impact of web reinforcement for walls subject to a range of shear stress demands.

The …

Future Oriented Sustainable Design. Design Purpose: What Is Design And Who Is It For? [Please Note: This Is A Large File And May Be Slow To Download.], Barry Sheehan

Academic Articles

In November 2016 I was asked to make a presentation at the Future Oriented Sustainable Design International Conference in Wuhan in the People's Republic of China. My topic was Design Purpose: What is Design? And who is it for?

The presentation examines the wider aspects of design and its categories and asks who were are actually designing for.

I made a powerpoint presentation that I narrated in English whilst it was simultaneously translated into Chinese for the attendees at the conference. On my return to Ireland I created a soundtrack to accompany the presentation slides for people to watch the …

You’Ll Like The Tenancies Bill And Poppintree Build, But Not A Lot, Lorcan Sirr

Media

Two things exercised my brain this week, both of which reminded me of a late, lamented magician. The first is the government’s Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016. This is the bill that will send planning applications for 100 or more residential homes directly to An Bord Pleanala. As I have said before, this will not be the panacea for a perceived problem, mostly because the problemdoes not exist. In 2015, 985 appeals in relation to residential developments were made to An Bord Pleanala, and about 75% of judgments confirmed the local authority’s decision. Indeed, 82% of …

We Should Heed Research Into What’S Happening In Rural Areas, Lorcan Sirr

Media

Ireland’s rural population has increased by just over 19%in the past 20 years, according to Teagasc, the state research body for the food and agriculture sector. A study, carried out by Dr David Meredith, senior researcher at Teagasc, looked at rural Ireland —its economy and where people are going to live. Media reports tend to focus on specific components of population decline, especially the headlinegrabbing “Can’t even field a GAA team” line, which focuses on young men. Populations comprise more than young men, however, and increases can be found in other age categories, such as the over-55s.

Kentucky Rural Development, Patrick J. Hooks

Scholars Week

The main objective of this study is to examine the development of rural areas to more urbanized ones within Kentucky. Landsat images were used to show the urban land cover change over a 10 year span, from 2001 to 2011. The study shows specifically how the city of Louisville has expanded because it was one of the most changed cities in Kentucky during the period of the study. Maps were created from these Landsat images. Studying these developments can help to predict the amount of change that might happen in certain areas in the future. Using geographic information systems (GIS) …

The Right To City In Argentina: Building Capacity Through Hecho En Buenos Aires, A Street Newspaper, Keira Philipp-Schnurer

Architecture and Planning ETDs

As the new millennium unfolds, many activists and scholars have responded to enduring inequality in urban environments by embracing French philosopher Henri Lefebvre's writings on the "right to the city" as a "rallying cry and demand." In an effort to contribute to this dialogue, this thesis explores the concept of the "right to the city" by operationalizing it as a theoretical framework rooted in Lefebvre’s original writings and applying it o a grounded examination of the street newspaper Hecho en Buenos Aires to examine the intersection of "right to the city" theory and practice. This investigation finds that the organization …