Engineering Commons^™

Tidal Energy And How It Pertains To The Construction Industry, Armin Latifi

Construction Management

Renewable Energy is on the forefront of many global discussions. The concern of numerous scientific findings on the impact humanity has had on the environment has grown in recent years. Since alternative energy sources, such as solar and wind, have already made substantial progress, I have decided to focus my attention on tidal energy specifically. This topic will serve as the main focus of this essay. Within this essay, I will examine how tidal energy pertains to the construction industry through four distinguished chapters: (1) What kind of tidal technology exist and what does the construction aspect of these tidal …

Case Study: Laborer Safety Training For Small To Mid-Sized General Contractors, Shawn Kuehter

Construction Management

The purpose of this study is to determine a relationship between safety spending and the resulting safety records for small to mid sized construction companies, particularly general contractors, and build on existing safety practices. It will shed light on why safety spending in construction is a very important aspect to include in any company’s budget. A case study of Quiring General, LLC, a small to mid sized general contractor based out of Fresno, CA will be the core of this paper as it includes examples of injuries of laborers and their impact they have. The impact focused on in this …

Photovoltaic System Installation In Belize, Austin J. Stewart

Construction Management

California Polytechnic State University’s National Electrical Contractors Association Student Chapter (NECA) was selected by the ELECTRI Council to take part in its Student Passport Initiative program, through which participants engage in meaningful service-learning experiences in developing communities. The team was tasked with the design and construction of a photovoltaic system for San Pedro Roman Catholic Primary School in San Pedro, Belize, with the purpose of enabling the school to achieve carbon neutrality with respect to utility grid power consumption. The team of five students collaborated primarily with two professors, two alumni, and an accomplished electrical contractor from Belize to perform …

Value Of Prefabrication Of Fire Sprinkler Components In The Fire Sprinkler Industry, Matt Fisher

Construction Management

Every day the construction industry is looking for new ways to improve time efficiency and project profitability. Companies in the past have tried value engineering and schedule crashing to save time and money. As the industry continues to grow and innovate, new concepts are being applied. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is one of these ideas that has made a large impact in the construction industry. BIM is a digital 3D modeling system that allows the user to create a complete rendering of a construction project complete with mechanical, electrical, and plumbing integrated into the model. With this model a prospective …

Application Of Argon Plasma Technology To Hydrophobic And Hydrophilic Microdroplet Generation In Pdms Microfluidic Devices, Brennan P. Graham

Master's Theses

Abstract Application of Argon Plasma Technology to Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Microdroplet Generation in PDMS Microfluidic Devices Brennan Graham Microfluidics has gained popularity over the last decade due to the ability to replace many large, expensive laboratory processes with small handheld chips with a higher throughput due to the small channel dimensions [1]. Droplet microfluidics is the field of fluid manipulation that takes advantage of two immiscible fluids to create droplets from the geometry of the microchannels. This project includes the design of a microfluidic device that applies the results of an argon plasma surface treatment to polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to successfully …

Fire And Life Safety Evaluation Of Christopher Cohan Center, Mishuk Datta

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

A prescriptive and performance-based fire and life safety evaluation for Christopher Cohan Center is performed. The results and findings of the evaluations are conveyed in this report. Christopher Cohan Center was built in accordance with California Building Code (1992 Edition) and California Fire Code (1992 Edition). The current version (2015) of International Building Code is consulted for prescriptive evaluation. The protection requirements set forth in IBC are intended to limit the threat from stage fires to an audience, to reduce the likelihood of a large fire in the stage area and to reduce the possibility of irrational mass response. These …

Fire And Life Safety Evaluation Of The Christopher Cohan Center, Joakim Midtun Larsen

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

This project is an academic exercise, as part of the MS Fire Protection Engineering program of California Polytechnic State University. The project is a culminating report with regards to life safety analysis of the Christopher Cohan Center of Cal Poly, which builds on the fundamental and applied courses of the program. The analysis is twofold, where the first part is a Prescriptive Analysis of the building and its features, followed by a Performance Based Life Safety Analysis. Both parts are performed in accordance with NFPA 101 Life Safety Code 2015 edition, Codes/Standards references within NFPA 101, and supplemented by methods …

Fire And Safety Analysis Robert E. Kennedy Library, Marius Bjelde Andersen

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

The Robert E. Kennedy Library is located on Cal Poly Campus. The Library is a five-story building with different occupancies which consists of library areas, offices, mechanical equipment and storage areas. The building has a total area of 178 702 ft². The original code of construction for the Library was the 1976 Uniform Building code (UBC). However, the fire and life safety analysis of the building in this report is performed using: Egress: NFPA 101 LSC 2015, Water based suppression: NFPA 13, Structural fire protection: 2015 IBC, Fire detection, alarm and communication systems: NFPA 72, Performance based design: NFPA 101 …

Building- Fire Protection Analysis Report, Chris Schwendiman

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

The building in XXX was constructed in XXX. It was designed using the International Building Code (IBC). This fire protection analysis report will be reviewing the building based on the 2015 edition of the IBC including several performance based fire scenarios involving the smoke exhaust system.

The passive system section highlights the physical construction of the building. The building is a business occupancy with three separate stories including a penthouse which is included in the third story. The building has adequate fire ratings for a Type II-B construction except for heavy timber columns within the commons of the building. It …

Fire And Life Safety Analysis- Warren J. Baker Center For Science And Mathematics, Chad Rudolph Graves

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

This report covers the fire protection features of the Warren J. Baker Center for Science and Mathematics located on Cal Poly Campus San Luis Obispo California. The prescriptive analysis of the building will focus on the structural fire protection, egress, fire suppression, fire alarm and detection systems to determine if the meet current codes and standards. The performance based analysis will discuss certain methods and design fire scenarios that can be present within the building and the buildings ability to protect occupants until they can exit safely.

The purpose of this report is to determine if the selected building is …

Using Intel Realsense Depth Data For Hand Tracking In Unreal Engine 4, Granger Lang

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

This project describes how to build a hand tracking method for VR/AR using the raw data from a depth sensing camera.

Lateral Strength And Ductile Behavior Of A Mortise-Tenon Connected Timber Frame, Alexandros Kouromenos

Master's Theses

The primary goals of this project were to examine the amount of lateral force resisted by a single-bay mortise-tenon connected timber moment frame, and to introduce ductile behavior into the mortise-tenon connections by adding a steel sleeve around a traditional wood peg. This research aimed to provide proof that traditional timber frames are capable of ductile racking while reliably complying with ASCE 7-10 building code drift speci! cations, implying an increase in the ASCE 7-10 ductility factor (R) for wood frames when used as lateral force resisting elements. A secondary goal was to promote traditional heavy timber framing as a …

Revalume: Configurable Employee Evaluations In The Cloud, Terrence Zone Li

Master's Theses

The software industry has seen a shift from annual to more frequent quarterly and even weekly employee reviews. As a result, there is a high demand for employee evaluations to be less costly and less time-consuming, while providing key insights for richer interactions between employees and their employers or managers. Tech com- panies are constantly looking for methods of producing high quality evaluations to prevent costly turnover. In an industry where software engineers are in high demand, tech companies face a challenging problem. Issues with employee evaluations typi- cally include the lack of performance transparency, unhelpful feedback, lack of metrics, …

The Collisional Evolution Of Orbital Debris In Geopotential Wells And Disposal Orbits, Benjamin Polzine

Master's Theses

This thesis investigates the orbital debris evolution in the geosynchronous disposal orbit regime and within geosynchronous orbits effected by the geopotential wells. A propagator is developed for the accurate simulation of GEO specific orbits and the required perturbations are determined and described. Collisions are then simulated in the selected regimes using a low velocity breakup model derived from the NASA EVOLVE breakup model. The simulations described in this thesis consider a set of perturbations including the geopotential, solar and lunar gravity, and solar radiation pressure forces. This thesis is based on a prior paper and additionally seeks to address an …

Silent Communication Device, Christopher Wayne Schutter

Master's Theses

Oral communication has constituted as a necessary aspect of how people interact with one another, but there are always situations where this form of communication can create distractions, irritation, or even danger. Take for example, a student in a laboratory who needs to communicate effectively with a lab partner without creating a distraction to those trying to work around said student or a soldier on a battlefield who needs to relay information effectively to his or her comrades without revealing his or her position to the enemy. It becomes apparent that people need a more exclusive form of communication in …

Orbital Determination Feasibility Of Leo Nanosatellites Using Small Aperture Telescopes, Michael R. Strange

Master's Theses

This thesis is directed toward the feasibility of observing satellites on the nano scale and determining an accurate propagated orbit using a Meade LX600-ACF 14” diameter aperture telescope currently located on the California Polytechnic State University campus. The optical telescope is fitted with an f/6.3 focal reducer, SBIG ST-10XME CCD camera and Optec TCF-S Focuser. This instrumentation allowed for a 22’ X 15’ arcminute FOV in order to accurately image passing LEO satellites. Through the use of the Double-r and Gauss Initial Orbit Determination methods as well as Least Squared Differential Correction and Extended Kalman Filter Orbit Determination methods, an …

Normalizer: Augmenting Code Clone Detectors Using Source Code Normalization, Kevin Ly

Master's Theses

Code clones are duplicate fragments of code that perform the same task. As software code bases increase in size, the number of code clones also tends to increase. These code clones, possibly created through copy-and-paste methods or unintentional duplication of effort, increase maintenance cost over the lifespan of the software. Code clone detection tools exist to identify clones where a human search would prove unfeasible, however the quality of the clones found may vary. I demonstrate that the performance of such tools can be improved by normalizing the source code before usage. I developed Normalizer, a tool to transform C …

Thermal Evolution Of Moon, Arshdeep Singh Gill

Master's Theses

In August, 2014 three experiments were conducted using infrared systems deployed at White Mountain Research center, CA. The data was acquired for the whole month of August. Teams of 3-4 students from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and UC Santa Barbara were stationed at the research center for 2-3 days to operate the equipment. The three experiments were:(1) creating spatial-temporal time series of lunar surface temperatures;(2) identifying atmospheric meteor trails;(3) search for meteor impacts on the Moon surface. Out of the three this thesis focusses on experiment 1 and the results from this experiment could also help with the other …

In-Plane Shear Wall Performance As Affected By Compressed Earth Block Shape, Steven Ellis Ambers

Master's Theses

This thesis investigates the in-plane shear performance of full-scale walls made from compressed earth blocks. Compressed earth blocks are a type of masonry where the blocks are composed of compressed soil and typically dry-stacked without mortar. Prior research has demonstrated that the in-plane shear strength of these blocks falls far short of capacities predicted by conventional masonry building codes, requiring new testing to develop effective and safe designs for seismic conditions. This thesis specifically studies the effects of block type and the use of grouted shear keys at the block head joints.

Three full-scale walls were constructed and tested under …

Influence Of Supply-Channel Velocity On Farm Delivery Meter Gate Flow Measurement, Daniel J. Howes, Charles M. Burt, John M. Thorburn

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

The work presented here is an extension of previous papers that updated the calibration of round (Armco-type) meter gates (three sizes: 0.30, 0.46, and 0.61 m), developed ratings for rectangular gates (two sizes: 0.46 and 0.61 m) on round pipes, and examined errors and uncertainty related to using these devices for water discharge measurement. Previous works examined gate discharge ratings under low supply-channel flow velocity perpendicular to the gate discharge pipeline. Here, additional testing was conducted to test the hypothesis that higher velocities in the supply channel would show decreased meter gate flow compared to the low-velocity ratings, but that …

The Effect Of Biocomposite Material In A Composite Structure Under Compression Loading, Benjamin Andrew Sweeney

Master's Theses

While composite structures exhibit exceptional strength and weight saving possibilities for engineering applications, sometimes their overall cost and/or material performance can limit their usage when compared to conventional structural materials. Meanwhile ‘biocomposites’, composite structures consisting of natural fibers (i.e. bamboo fibers), display higher cost efficiency and unique structural benefits such as ‘sustainability’. This analysis will determine if the integration of these two different types of composites are beneficial to the overall structure. Specifically, the structure will consist of a one internal bamboo veneer biocomposite ply; and two external carbon fiber weave composite plies surrounding the bamboo biocomposite. To acquire results …

Energy Management System Modeling Of Dc Data Center With Hybrid Energy Sources Using Neural Network, Khalid Althomali

Master's Theses

As data centers continue to grow rapidly, engineers will face the greater challenge in finding ways to minimize the cost of powering data centers while improving their reliability. The continuing growth of renewable energy sources such as photovoltaics (PV) system presents an opportunity to reduce the long-term energy cost of data centers and to enhance reliability when used with utility AC power and energy storage. However, the inter-temporal and the intermittency nature of solar energy makes it necessary for the proper coordination and management of these energy sources.

This thesis proposes an energy management system in DC data center using …

Lecture Videos To Supplement Electromagnetic Classes At Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Dean Y. Arakaki

Electrical Engineering

Electromagnetics and Transmission Lines is a fundamental, yet difficult subject in the Electrical Engineering (EE) field. To help improve information retention, a series of lecture videos was created to supplement traditional lectures, to facilitate in-class discussions, and to improve students’ proficiency and interest in electromagnetics.

Engineering electromagnetics classes at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo cover fundamentals to understand and analyze cell phone communications, radar systems (air traffic control, law enforcement), and biomedical imaging (MRI). However, this subject also requires considerable mathematics preparation in vector calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, and background in both physics and EE.

Lecture videos …

Modeling Of Selective Laser Sintering/ Selective Laser Melting, Xuan Wang, Connor West

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Selective laser sintering and selective laser melting are powder based additive manufacturing (AM) process that can rapidly manufacture parts with comparable mechanical properties to conventional manufacturing methods directly from digital files. However, the processing recipe development and design optimization of AM parts are often based on trial and error which erodes the benefit of AM. Modeling is a powerful tool to enable faster development cycle by significantly reducing the experimental efforts. In this paper we discussed the current status of selective laser sintering/melting modeling, in which the laser and powder interaction was studied to understand and predict the process and …

Comparison Of Ac And Dc Led Light Bulb Efficiency For The Dc House Project, Brandon Stafford

Electrical Engineering

This project investigates the efficiency of using LED light bulbs when operated under two different electrical systems: AC and DC systems. The project is in conjunction with the implementation of the DC House system in urban areas. More specifically, this project looks at whether having a hybrid AC and DC system in a typical urban house will increase the efficiency in operating the LED light bulbs, and thus reducing energy consumption and cost. The efficiency of the LED light bulbs are measured by looking at their lumens per watt output. Several light bulbs at four different wattage levels were tested. …

Animatronic Kinect Bear, Christopher J. Barth, Luis Manjarrez, Emily Lopez

Computer Engineering

The objective of the project was to build an interactive robotic bear through the application of Computer Engineering related software and hardware concepts. Utilizing the body recognition features of XBos One Kinect, the bera will be able to mimic a user's motions in real time.

A Method For Evaluating Aircraft Electric Power System Sizing And Failure Resiliency, Cory Kenneth Kross

Master's Theses

With the More Electric Aircraft paradigm, commercial commuter aircraft are increasing the size and complexity of electrical power systems by increasing the number of electrical loads. With this increase in complexity comes a need to analyze electrical power systems using new tools. The Hybrid Power System Optimizer (HyPSO) developed by Airbus SAS is a simulator designed to analyze new aircraft power systems. This thesis project will first provide a method to assess the reliability of complex aircraft electrical power systems before and after failure and reconfiguration events. Next, an add-on to HyPSO is developed to integrate the previously developed reliability …

Evaluation Of Career Readiness At An Industrial Technology Program Using A Fuzzy Approach, Ahmed Deif, Cameron Stark, Kathryn Butler, Eric Olsen

Industrial Technology and Packaging

In this research, a quantitative model to measure the “career readiness” performance level of the current curriculum of the Industrial Technology and Packaging program at California Polytechnic State University is proposed. Career readiness is first defined through performance attributes and these attributes are further classified into specific categories and metrics. Using a fuzzy logic computational approach, “career readiness” measures are developed and a “career readiness” score referred to as (CRS) is calculated. The model is designed to be flexible, dynamic and easy to use. It should enable a systematic measurement of career readiness by producing a final integrated unit-less score. …

Insights On Lean Gamifications For Higher Education, Ahmed Deif

Industrial Technology and Packaging

Purpose

There is no argument that using games (gamification) is an efficient way of learning in higher education. The questions, though, are which gamification approach is most suitable at that level and how to assess its suitability? This paper aims to attempt to partially answer these two questions, in the context of lean thinking education.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper offers an assessment criteria to investigate the impact of lean gamification based on the evaluation of motivational, cognitive and social processing during games. In addition, a study is conducted among selected games using these assessment criteria. The study included statistical as well …

Evaluation Of Stability Of Unit Loads For Tilt And Shock Events During Distribution, Jay Singh, Koushik Saha, Tyler Sewell, Landon Newton

Industrial Technology and Packaging

Initiatives to lightweight and reduce packaging materials to achieve sustainability goals have created unit load stability challenges in the transportation and handling of palletized packaged goods. Consequently, an increased focus is being placed on evaluating how current pre-shipment performance tests evaluate load stability. This study was undertaken to address the current need for establishing test methodologies towards observing a unit load’s overall stability during transportation and handling related activities commonly experienced in the distribution environment. With this goal, this study developed two test methods as well as apparatus/measuring tool to observe a palletized load’s overall stability. The experimentation involved unit …