Construction Engineering and Management Commons^™

Optimizing Repayment Strategies For Egyptian Construction Companies With Multiple Loans, Moataz Elkady

Theses and Dissertations

Optimizing Repayment Strategies for Egyptian Construction Companies with Multiple Loans is of utmost importance to efficiently allocate monthly income for loan repayment. The conventional practice of paying the minimum balance due each month leads to increased interest charges and prolonged repayment periods. In response, this research proposes a model for multiple loan repayment that considers the computational complexity involved.

The model is built on the foundation of mixed integer linear programming and aims to establish an optimal repayment schedule by minimizing the total cash required to repay the loans, prioritizing the repayment of loans before personal expenses. The implementation of …

Spatial Autocorrelation Analysis For Construction Sites, Raghda Moharram

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the usefulness of spatial autocorrelation analysis in construction sites. The objective is to provide construction managers with insights into the site's performance, identify potential areas for improvement, and ultimately lead to cost and time savings and improved project quality. To achieve this objective, the study identifies significant spatial autocorrelation variables for various applications in construction and analyzes their impact on the site's efficiency and potential problems.

The potential applications where spatial autocorrelation analysis could be useful were identified, including schedules, progress, earned value measures, safety incidents, workers' densities, equipment densities, energy expenditure, and quality non-conformity. A framework …

Resources Based Planning Framework For Infrastructure Maintenance And Rehabilitation Projects, Heba Gad

Theses and Dissertations

Infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation projects involve activities scattered over a large geographical area (e.g., scattered road segments maintenance, telecom towers maintenance program, etc.). Planning such projects require a resource-based approach that accounts for the implications of resource mobility between activities’ locations in terms of time & cost. Existing scheduling techniques fall short of addressing the unique challenges of the scattered nature of these projects in combination with organization's limited resources availability. To address this need, this research presents a resources-based planning framework for infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation scattered projects with the objective of enhancing resources utilization achieving time and cost …

Recent Developments In Timber Design & Its Impact On Carbon Emissions, Raquel Jackson

Spectra Undergraduate Research Journal

This paper explores recent developments in timber building designs and its potential towards reducing carbon emissions. Carbon dioxide emissions are a growing issue worldwide as urbanization and industrialization continues to increase. The rising concentration of carbon dioxide emissions pose significant concerns towards public welfare and environmental health. Despite current methods to reduce greenhouse gasses, carbon emissions remain difficult to reduce from steel and concrete industries. Increasing timber use in building design is a possible solution. Increasing more timber in building design can help reduce carbon emissions due to the carbon-absorbing properties of the construction material. Timber as a construction material …

Pavement Condition Survey Using Drone Technology, Lerose Lane, Dingxin Cheng

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

Timely repairs of pavement defects are essential in protecting both public road and highway systems. Identification of pavement distresses is necessary for planning pavement repairs. This has previously been performed by engineers surveying the roadways visually in the field. As drone usage has progressed, it has become clear that drones are a valuable tool to enhance visual documentation, improve project communication, and provide various data for processing. The use of drone technology has improved both the speed and accuracy of capturing data. Available software has allowed the data to be processed and analyzed in an office environment. This report summarizes …

Heavy Equipment Operation Topics Course As Part Of Construction Management Curriculum, Billy Miller

Construction Management

Heavy civil equipment is composed of many types of machines, brands, and models that serve different purposes all with the end goal of completing a job. With fuel prices being as high as they are, picking the right piece of equipment for a heavy civil job is critical. In order to do this, you must understand how each piece of equipment works in order to best utilize it. The focus for this course is the introduction and effective use of the primary pieces of heavy equipment used on job sites all over the country through the use of class discussion, …

Enhancing Construction Safety Training Of Bridges Using Augmented Reality And Virtual Reality, Mohamed Sherif Elrifaee

Theses and Dissertations

Infrastructure development projects are widely acknowledged as some of the most complex and challenging projects to undertake. The construction of bridges, in particular, has proven to be a significant safety risk for workers, with a considerable number of accidents reported on construction sites. There is a lack of comprehensive training programs specifically designed for bridge construction safety, and only a few studies have explored the use of both AR and VR to enhance safety training in construction. As such, this research aims to improve the safety of bridge construction sites through the implementation of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality …

Using Bim To Increase The Efficiency Of Energy-Driven Retrofitting Projects, Anne Grego, Shannon Chance, Barry Mcauley

Conference Papers

The building sector is responsible for nearly 40% of global energy consumption. Many existing buildings have poor thermal insulation and low energy performance, hindering sustainability goals. Energy-driven building retrofitting could address this issue and implementing Building Information Modelling (BIM) in retrofitting can reduce process time, costs, and waste associated with such undertakings. Yet, there is a lack of research and insufficient guidance for implementing BIM in energy-driven retrofitting. A BIM framework is presented to enhance decision-making processes during retrofitting. The aims of this study were to (1) identify BIM technologies and methodologies that could address existing barriers and improve efficiency …

Integrating Steel Slag Aggregates Into Asphalt Paving By Harmonizing Availability, Quality, Economics, And The Environment, Timothy R. Murphy

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides guidance on how to balance matters related to the environmental stewardship, market sources, origin and uses, material properties, performance, and economic impact of using slag materials in pavements. The literature on this topic provides numerous references on the use of slag materials for specific applications, and this thesis aims to make use of those references along with other data from the author to describe slag materials from a holistic perspective and provide some suggestions for balancing several factors that impact optimal use of this resource within pavement structures. Discussion is given to the increased importance of recycling …

Systematic Literature Review Of Roof Systems On Energy Efficiency Of A Building To Support An Ideal Study Framework, Ayushi Raj Dua

All Theses

A sustainable building envelope is a crucial element to build energy efficient structures that contribute towards sustainable communities. The demand for sustainable building envelopes has grown in response to a growing emphasis on sustainable living. The roofing system is an important component of a sustainable building envelope because it influences the building's energy consumption and indoor comfort levels. The current study focuses on roofing systems and associated solar reflectance and albedo values to document the impact on energy efficiency via cooling/heating energy usage, dollar savings and temperature (ambient and surface) reductions due to the roofing systems. Additionally, the study focuses …

Experimental Investigation Of The Self-Healing Potential Of Bacteria For Sustainable Concrete Structures, Pitiporn Asvapathanagul, Simone Galano, Andrea Calabrese, Mehran Rahmani, Maggie Ly, Daniela Flores, Michael Hernandez, Nicholas Banuelos

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

Although concrete is the most widely used building material in the world, its limited tensile strength makes cracking a common phenomenon in concrete elements. This study investigates the potential of autonomous self-healing as an eco-friendly and lowcost method to increase the durability of concrete. The crack-healing potential of different types of high-alkaline-tolerant bacteria or calcite-precipitation microorganisms is investigated. High-alkaline-tolerant bacteria and calcite-precipitation microorganisms were used to retrofit lab-fractured concrete samples. The samples healed with each of these bacteria groups were cast and tested under compressive load up to failure to measure the compressive strength of the concrete samples. The outcomes …

Building Services Engineering May/June 2023

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Personal Protective Equipment Usage And Injury Type, Nathan Giannini

Construction Management

Workers in the construction industry have many injuries both minor and life-altering. The industry suffers from injuries of all kinds such as falls, electrocution, and being struck by flying objects. To protect against this, workers wear certain types of personal protective equipment (PPE) on construction sites as a last line of defense. The equipment available such as hard hats, safety glasses, gloves, respirators, and hearing protection either protects against acute injuries (those that occur instantly) or chronic injuries (those that occur over time). This study investigates whether the type of injury that PPE protects against, acute or chronic, affects the …

Reducing The Vulnerability Of Electric Power Infrastructure Against Natural Disasters By Promoting Distributed Generation, Gasser G. Ali, Islam H. El-Adaway, Charles Sims, J. Scott Holladay, Chien Fei Chen

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Natural disasters cause significant damage to the electrical power infrastructure every year. Therefore, there is a crucial need to reduce the vulnerability of the electric power grid against natural disasters. Distributed generation (DG) represents small-scale decentralized power generation that can help reduce the vulnerability of the grid, among many other benefits. Examples of DG include small-scale photo-voltaic (PV) systems. Accordingly, the goal of this paper is to investigate the benefits of DG in reducing the vulnerability of the electric power infrastructure by mitigating against the impact of natural disasters on transmission lines. This was achieved by developing a complex system-of-systems …

Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Project, Courtney Huitt, Cormack Williams

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Offshore wind is a developing industry in the Central Coast with the advent of the future offshore wind project planned off the north coast of San Luis Obispo County. This senior design project aligns with the recently leased wind energy project as a detailed study on the structural design, geotechnical design, and construction of a single 14 MW floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) located 40 km NW of Morro Bay (NOAA buoy 46028). A preliminary design of a spar FOWT is presented in this project as a solution to the rapidly increasing water depth off the coast of Morro Bay, …

A Step-By-Step Guide To Identify The Most Reliable Inventory Management System For Small Businesses Using Discrete Event Simulation And Pros And Cons Analysis: A Case Study At Camid-Florida Tech, Djalma Batista Oliveira Filho

Theses and Dissertations

According to the Department of Labor Statistics (2022), 20.6% of small businesses fail in their first year of operation, 42.6% fail after five years, and over 62.6% fail by their tenth year. One factor that can affect continued viability is the lack of knowledge and experience among small and medium-sized firms in inventory management. Despite the fact that inventory control is one of these businesses' most ignored management responsibilities, the expense of procuring inventory often accounts for a considerable portion of their budget. Due to poor inventory management or an inability to appropriately supervise their inventory, small firms may have …

Effects Of Process Parameters On The Dimensional Accuracy Of Fused Deposition Modeled Parts, Ethan Eugene Bair

Theses and Dissertations

Fused deposition modelling (FDM) is one of the most common additive manufacturing techniques used with applications ranging from rapid prototyping at a professional scale to simple part creation at a hobbyist scale. FDM printing has very little in terms of information based on how accurate printed parts can be. This issue, which is common amongst many different types of additive manufacturing techniques, is something that has not been studied in FDM printed parts in high volumes. Research based on the effects of process parameters on mechanical properties has been conducted in high proportions. This study focused on FDM machines using …

Behavior Analysis Of Cement Concrete With Combination Of Waste Rubber And Glass, Abdulaziz Alebra

Symposium of Student Scholars

Glass and Rubber waste materials are valuable materials to use rather than throw which we have more than enough to use and recycle. Recycled glass and rubber materials can reduce and help major climate issues in our times based on the statistics reducing glass can bring down air pollution by 20% and also reduce water pollution by 50% as well as can reduce the use of landfill space. A laboratory study will be launched, and tests will be conducted following the ASTM standards, ASTM C143 for a concrete slump, and ASTM C31 for making and curing concrete specimens. Samples of …

Behavior Analysis Of Cement Concrete With Combination Of Waste Plastic And Glass, Mohamad Alamayreh

Symposium of Student Scholars

The waste stream in our society contains abundant plastic and glass waste, which can be effectively recycled to reduce the waste volume and save landfill space. Several studies have demonstrated that recycling glass can lower air pollution by 20% and water pollution by 50%, while recycling waste plastic can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save energy. To explore the potential use of recycled plastic and glass in concrete mixes, a laboratory investigation was conducted. Different percentages of plastic and glass waste will be tested as fine aggregates in cement concrete mixtures to evaluate their performance in terms of resistivity …

Numerical Investigations Of Gfrc Beams Strengthened In Shear With Innovative Techniques, Marwa H. Bondok, Gamal I. Khaleel, Ahmed S. Debaiky, Mohamed H. Makhlouf

Mansoura Engineering Journal

This paper discusses the Finite Element analysis (FE) conducted to predict the behavior of Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete (GFRC) beams without shear reinforcement (stirrups) and strengthen them with proposed techniques to increase their shear strength. for this study, A total of eighteen (18) (120 * 300 * 2200 mm) specimens were modeled using Ansys™ mechanical. The main variables were the percentage of discrete glass fiber in the concrete (0.0, 0.6, and 1.2%), the type of main reinforcing bars (steel or GFRP), the shear strengthening material (GFRP or steel) links, the strengthening systems (side near-surface mounted (SNSM) bars, externally bonded (EB) …