Construction Engineering Commons^™

Bs News May/June

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

How Tonality And Loudness Of Noise Relate To Annoyance And Task Performance” Noise Control Eng. J. 65(2), 71-82., Joonhee Lee, Jennifer M. Francis, Lily M. Wang

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Audible tones in noise generated by building mechanical equipment can be a leading cause of complaints from occupants. A number of metrics have been developed to quantify prominence of a tone, but previous work has shown that the impact of a certain tonality appears to vary with the level of the broadband noise signal. More work on how tonal signals of varying tonality, tone frequency and broadband noise levels relate to annoyance and task performance is needed. This paper investigates such relationships between current noise metrics, annoyance and task performance under assorted tonal noise conditions through subjective testing. Participants rated …

The Professional Constructor, Full Issue, Volume 42, Number 01

The Professional Constructor

No abstract provided.

Irish Bim Study 2017, Barry Mcauley, Alan Hore, Roger West

Articles

The Construction IT Alliance (CitA) recently published its Global BIM Study as part of its BIM Innovation Capability Programme (BICP). The study sought to identify how BIM was being currently addressed in 27 countries across the globe. The study sought to identify the presence of three key ingredients in these countries:

1. Regulatory requirement for BIM

2. Champions driving BIM

3. Noteworthy publications

The report identified a number of recurring themes that would help to shape Ireland’s BIM programme. The report concluded that Ireland should adopt a programme of partnership between industry and the Irish Government in order to affect …

Bs News March/April

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

A Laboratory Evaluation Of Warm Mix Technology For Use In Asphalt Rubber - Asphaltic Concrete Friction Courses: A Case Study Of Arizona, Michael Myung Jeong, Douglas I. Hanson

The Professional Constructor

The objective of this study was to determine if warm mix additives currently used in Arizona can be added for the production of an Asphalt Rubber - Asphaltic Concrete Friction Course (AR-ACFC) without detrimental effects on performance of the pavement. Three warm mix additives (Evotherm®, Sasobit®, and Advera®) approved by Arizona Department of Transportation were investigated through a laboratory study along with statistical analysis. Three major concerns on performance of an AR-ACFC considered in this study are asphalt draindown, durability, and moisture susceptibility. The laboratory binder test results show there is no clear evidence that the use of Evotherm and …

How U.S. Universities Intend To Meet Their Carbon Neutral Goals, Dennis C. Bausman, Avinash Venugopal

The Professional Constructor

Universities have been on the leading edge for implementation of sustainable practices, green building certification, and the push to limit emission of greenhouse gases. In 2006 leadership at twelve universities was instrumental in the creation of the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). The two overall goals of the ACUPCC were to gain university commitment to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from their campus operations and to promote sustainability education and research. A decade later there are over 650 that have officially pledged their support to the ACUPCC and in doing so have established a goal toward carbon neutrality …

Using Percent Complete Metric To Highlight The Root Causes Of Delays In Home Building Industry, Somik Ghosh

The Professional Constructor

Based on the prediction of US Housing and Urban Development (US HUD), the demand for new homes will increase in the coming months to accompany the steady sales of existing homes. To meet the future demand, the home building industry has to continuously improve and get rid of inherent problems such as frequent delays. While delays have been a common occurrence in the residential and commercial construction alike, investigations of delays in the residential sector has not received much attention. With the goal of exploring the causes of delays in the home building industry, a multiple case study approach was …

Are We On The Same Jobsite? The Millennial Generation Vs. Construction Industry Employees, Christine Piper, Varahee Madadi

The Professional Constructor

This paper gives an overview of a study conducted in a geographical area of the US to understand the millennial generation’s perception of the workplace of the construction industry. Many organizations face the challenge of integrating diverse generations in a workplace. With the retirement of a large number of Boomers and the current intake of Millennials in the workplace, organizations are facing a challenge to attract and retain the millennial generation. Workplace expectations of the millennial generation and employees are compared with the expectations of the workplace amongst different generations in the construction industry.

Math Skills That Don’T Add Up; A Comparison Between Eighth Grade And College Students, Nathan Barry, Angela Hollman, Dale Porter

The Professional Constructor

Among 34 participating countries within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United States performed below average in mathematics earning a rank of 27. The World Economic Forum (2014) ranks the United States 51 out of 144 countries scoring a 4.4 out of 7 (7 = excellent) in the quality of mathematics and science education. Although the United States’ competitive advantage and economic growth is directly connected to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers, only 28 percent of those students choose to major with these fields in college. In addition, 48 percent of students that choose to …

Bicp Global Bim Study - Lessons For Ireland’S Bim Programme, Barry Mcauley, Alan Hore, Roger West

Reports

The Construction IT Alliance (CitA) has been promoting the benefits of digitisation in the construction and engineering industry in Ireland since its formation back in 2002. Whilst the Alliance has always strived to ensure that its members are exposed to a wide spectrum of contemporary digital tools and processes, the concept of Building Information Modelling (BIM) has dominated the focus of its activities over the past five years.

BIM can be described as a digital tool that facilitates everybody to better understand a building or structure through the use of a digital model which draws on a range of data …

Research On Control Methods Of Roof Radiant Cooling System, Yongbin Li, Zhaoyi Zhuang, Qiqi Zhu, Jian Song, Haipeng An

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Taking the capillary ceiling radiation air conditioning system in radiation cooling Laboratory of comprehensive experimental building in Shandong Jianzhu University as an example, research the two different control methods which are room temperature control and water temperature control. The roof cooling model was established by using TRNSYS simulation software, two typical summer days were selected to explore the stability of the room temperature and the supply and return water temperature, research the comfort of human body and system energy consumption under two control methods. The results show that the indoor temperature of the two control methods can be stable at …

Gas Generation, Haorong Li, Daihong Yu, Yanshun Yu

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

A first system includes a feedstock load port and a feedstock discharge port. The first system also includes a tank configured to retain biomass feedstock for aerobic biodegradation. The first system further includes a mechanical ventilator in fluid communication with the tank. The mechanical ventilator is configured to supply air to facilitate the aerobic biodegradation of the biomass feedstock. The first system also includes an exhaust port configured to receive gas generated during the aerobic biodegradation. A second system includes a feedstock load port and a feedstock discharge port. The second system also includes a pressure vessel configured to retain …

Compact Facility For Testing Steady And Transient Thermal Performance Of Building Walls, Aimee Byrne, Gerard Byrne, Anthony Robinson

Articles

Energy efficiency retrofit of buildings represents a key effort in reducing EU energy demand by 20% by 2020. However, predictions tend to overestimate savings by large percentages. The shortfall in savings can be attributed to incorrect predictive techniques, comfort takeback along with other behavioural and workmanship variables. Common predictive techniques related to heat loss tend to be based on the U-value of the building envelope. This paper presents the design of a more straightforward and compact version of the traditional Hot-Box apparatus (measures U-value) which instead determines the thermal resistance of samples of building envelope. U-value includes the need to …

Linking Geospatial Engineering Into Collaborative Multidisciplinary Bim Projects - An Educational Perspective, Avril Behan, Helen Murray, Jonathan Argue, Ronan Hogan, Audrey Martin, Pat O'Sullivan, Robert Moore, Malachy Mathews

Conference papers

This paper describes the background to and execution of a postgraduate project undertaken by students on DIT's MSc in Geospatial Engineering (GeoEng) in support of a project on level 2 BIM being undertaken by students on the MSc in applied Building Information Modelling & Management (aBIMM) around the retrofit of and new build extension to the Grangegorman Clock Tower Building. In support of this requirement, an external and internal survey of the existing structure and its surrounding topography was required. The aBIMM students and staff acted as the Design Team who subcontracted the Geo Eng group who were organised into …

Study On The Methods For Predicting The Performance Of A Hybrid Solar-Assisted Ground-Source Heat Pump System, Zhaoyi Zhuang, Qiqi Zhu, Jian Song, Xin Zhang, Haorong Li

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

It is critical to find suitable setting parameters for designing a hybrid solar-assisted ground-source heat pump system in the practical engineering application, but the heat pump performance is unpredictable after many years of operation. This paper used 2000 sets of performance data collected from solar-assisted GSHP systems that keep operating over 20 years to simulate long term used heat pump with a professional software called GeoStar. Adopted the classification and regression tree (CART) method, the design of solar energy collector areas can be predicted. The multi-linear regression is also utilized to predict average monthly per meter borehole heat exchange. Seasonal …

Research On The Cooling Characteristics In Building Interior Zones Using Displacement Ventilation System, Zhaoyi Zhuang, Yongbin Li, Qiqi Zhu, Jian Song, Haipeng An, Haorong Li

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

The outdoor low temperature fresh air can be used as a free cold source to eliminate waste heat for the building interior zones during the transition season and winter. This paper takes a project in Hunan as an example, and the project building interior zones is 25m×7m×3.9m(L×W×H). Using Fluent software to simulate the temperature field and velocity field both the interior and exterior zones of the engineering offices. The simulation results show that using the displacement ventilation system to take the outdoor air into inner rooms not only cooling but also improving the air quality and adding comfort. According to …

Performance And Energy Efficiency Analysis Of Data Center Cooling Plant By Using Lake Water Source, Li Ling, Quan Zhang, Liping Zeng

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

A cooling plant by using lake water source was proposed to cool the space in data centers. It combines free cooling technology and variable capacity technology to remove heat and reduce energy consumption effectively. In this paper, firstly, the control strategies for this cooling plant were proposed. Then, a detailed annual energy consumption model with considering the effect of the dynamic heat dissipation characteristics of servers, lake water temperature, outdoor weather conditions, and cooling plant thermal performance, will be established to evaluate the performance and energy efficiency of this cooling plant under different load factors. The results show the mode …

Hvac System Remote Monitoring And Diagnosis, Jeffrey N. Arensmeier, Gregg M. Hemmelgarn, Fadi M. Alsaleem, Priotomo Abiprojo

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

A monitoring system for a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system of a building includes a monitoring device installed at the building, a monitoring server located remotely from the building, and a review server. The monitoring device measures an aggregate current Supplied to components of the HVAC system and transmits current data based on the measured aggregate current. The monitoring server receives the transmitted current data and, based on the received current data, assesses whether failures have occurred in first and second components of the HVAC components. The monitoring server generates a first advisory in response to determining that …

Project Impact: A Case Study Of Developing A Manufactured Construction Workforce Through Contextualized Training, Arefeh Mohammadi, Kevin R. Grosskopf

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

With a looming shortage of skilled craft workers forecast to exceed 2 million by 2017, prefabrication may become a necessity for many U.S. contractors attempting to remain competitive with a smaller, lower-skilled workforce. Building components manufactured in a controlled, offsite environment have proven to reduce time, cost and site logistics while improving productivity, quality, safety and sustainability. However, entry-level workers, including more than 765,000 recession displaced manufacturing workers, often lack the basic skills necessary to retrain for jobs in manufactured construction. As a result, a $ 6.3M U.S. Department of Labor grant was awarded to an institutional consortium to develop …

Cfrp Retrofitting Schemes For Prestressed Concrete Box Beams For Highway Bridges, Hussein A. Herish, Zia Razzaq

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper investigates various retrofitting schemes for a prestressed concrete box beam using carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets with the goal of increasing flexural strength. A simply-supported box beam is studied with a constant uniformly distributed load and three gradually increasing concentrated loads proportional to HS20 truck loading of the Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). Various retrofitting schemes are considered each with single, double, and triple CFRP sheets, respectively, installed in high compression and tension regions. Cross-sectional nonlinear moment-curvature relations are developed and coupled with a finite-difference solution algorithm to predict load-deflection relations for both retrofitted …

Prestressed Concrete Inverted Tee Beams With Cfrp For Building Structures, Herish A. Hussein, Zia Razzaq

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Presented herein is the outcome of a study of prestressed concrete inverted tee beams with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets for possible use in building structures. To determine an effective approach for the use of CFRP, nine different retrofitting schemes are investigated for a prestressed beam under quasi-static distributed load to increase flexural strength. The theoretical analysis is based on coupling moment-curvature relations with a central finitedifference formulation. Three different thicknesses of CFRP sheets are studied in both tension and compression and effective retrofitting schemes are identified.

A Case Study Of Upper-Room Uvgi In Densely-Occupied Elementary Classrooms By Real-Time Fluorescent Bioaerosol Measurements, Chunxiao Su, Josephine Lau, Fang Yu

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Recently, the requirement to continuously collect bioaerosol samples using shorter response times has called for the use of real-time detection. The decreased cost of this technology makes it available for a wider application than military use, and makes it accessible to pharmaceutical and academic research. In this case study, real-time bioaerosol monitors (RBMs) were applied in elementary school classrooms—a densely occupied environment—along with upper-room ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) devices. The classrooms were separated into a UVGI group and a non-UVGI control group. Fluorescent bioaerosol counts (FBCs) were monitored on 20 visiting days over a four-month period. The classroom with upper-room …

Social Sustainability Indicators In Mass Housing Construction, Ali Karji, Asregedew Woldesenbet, Mostafa Khanzadi

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

In the construction industry, buildings constitute more than half of the new construction built in the world. With the rapid growth of population in urban areas and high-energy consumption of buildings, considerable attention and efforts have been devoted to creating a sustainably built environment. As a result, various sustainable rating systems, principles and tools have been developed in recent years. This paper presents efforts underway for evaluation of sustainability in mass housing construction projects in the Middle East from a social aspect. The study reviews reports, guidelines and best practices at national and international levels to detect key sustainability indicators. …

Heat - Pump System With Refrigerant Charge Diagnostics, Fadi M. Alsaleem, Gregg H. Hemmelgarn

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

A heat-pump circuit may include an indoor heat exchanger, an outdoor heat exchanger, a compressor adapted to circulate a working fluid between the indoor and outdoor heat exchangers, and an expansion device disposed between the indoor and outdoor heat exchangers. A monitor for the heat-pump system may include a return-air temperature sensor, a supply-air temperature sensor, and a processor. The return-air temperature sensor may be adapted to measure a first air temperature of air upstream of the indoor heat exchanger. The supply-air temperature sensor may be adapted to measure a second air temperature of air down stream of the indoor …

Bs News January/February

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Clip Connection And Insulation Thickness On Bracing Of Purlins In Standing Seam Roof Systems, Michael W. Seek, Daniel Mclaughlin

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

The flexural strength of purlins in standing seam roof systems is highly dependent upon the extent to which the sheathing provides lateral and torsional restraint. Typical models to predict the restraint provided by the sheathing assume that the plane of lateral resistance occurs at the top flange of the purlin. In reality, depending on the configuration of the clip and the amount of insulation located between the purlin and the clip, the plane of lateral resistance and corresponding center of rotation shifts above the top flange. This distance, referred to as the effective standoff, is important to evaluate the effectiveness …

The Impact Of Project Delivery Methods On Dispute Occurrence In Public Highway Projects, Samaneh Nasrollahi, Ghada M. Gad, Alan Atalah

Master of Technology Management Plan II Graduate Projects

The construction industry is a complex and competitive industry in which different participants with different expertise, talents, and levels of knowledge work together to achieve their objectives and complete a project. Sine different participants with different interest involve in a construction project, therefore, conflicts arise and become inevitable. Conflicts in projects will cause an adversarial environment which result to disputes. Hence, if conflicts are not well managed and resolved in a timely manner, they quickly turn into disputes, which prevent the successful completion of the construction project, in terms of cost and time, and increasing the potential for poor project …

Ua66 Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Newsletter, Wku Ogden College Of Science & Engineering

Ogden College of Science & Engineering Publications

Newsletter created by and about WKU Ogden College of Science & Engineering.

• Ogden College Hall Taking Shape on TIme & on Budget
• Alumni Focus: Dr. Talia McKinney Collins
• WKU Research Foundation Launches New Website
• French, Jackson. Stemshot Rocketry Competition
• Agriculture
• Architectural & Manufacturing Sciences
• Grants & Publications
• Dr. Noah Ashley Receives NIH Grant
• Biology - News & Notes
• WKU Chemistry Welcomes Dr. Lawrence Hill & Dr. David Wolfgang
• Gary Kwong Receives McNally Award
• Student Teams Compete in National Engineering Contests Over the Summer
• Geology Major Conducts Research in Ethiopia - Deborah Flynn
• Geography & Geology
• WKU Meterology Launches White Squirrel …

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 …