Civil Engineering Commons^™

Thermal Envelope Analysis Of Local Authority Low Rise Housing Based On Stock Aggregation Theory Using A Remote Feature Extraction Technique., James Pittam

Theses

Understanding the buildings thermal envelope is paramount to analysing existing problems which facilitate cold bridging and low surface temperatures. As no detailed housing stock database is in existence in Ireland which describes the geometrical configuration of the existing housing stock, and to create one would be a major challenge, this research set out to develop a high speed remote cataloguing and geometrical data extraction methodology to build such a database. Replacing traditional measurement methods with a remote method allows for the rapid extraction of fagade information. A remote surveying process is proposed named, the Virtual Survey Method, for the classification …

Geotechnical State-Of-The-Art In Guatemala -- Ground Stabilization, Fernando Rafael Callejas Benitez

Doctoral Dissertations

"History provides an understanding of the present and in a way, a guide for the future. The state-of-the-art is often referred to as a snapshot of the most significant works and contributions made in a field of study; In this case the focus is on Guatemalan geotechnical engineering. This study presents a comprehensive description of the different events that impulse geotechnical engineering in Guatemala.

As part of the description of the state-of-the-practice an investigation of the different human (engineers/contractors) and physical resources (laboratories/field equipment) and their capabilities are presented. An overview of the civil engineering programs is presented. Then, the …

Cultural Change Through Bim: Driving Lean Transformation In Education, Avril Behan, Malachy Mathews, Kevin Furlong, Ciara Ahern, Una Beagon, Peter Brennan, Colin Conway, Lee Corcoran, Pierce Fahy, Alan Hore, Barry Mcauley, Trevor Woods

Conference papers

This paper presents a case study of how the adoption of BIM-based practices in the AECO industry is being reflected by cultural change in higher education in Ireland. The silo-mentality that has dominated the AECO sector for more than a century has, despite numerous reorganisations, been replicated in the structures of educational institutions, including in Dublin Institute of Technology since the inception of its founding colleges in the late 1800s. Most AECO programmes must include content that is external to the programme’s specific discipline. Through the School structures of the Institute, delivery of such content is known as "service teaching" …

Thermal Energy Storage In Building Integrated Thermal Systems: A Review. Part 2. Integration As Passive System, Dervilla Niall, Sarah Mccormack, Philip Griffiths, Luisa Cabeza, Lidia Navarro, Albert Castell, Alvaro De Grazia, Maria Brown

Articles

Energy consumption trends in residential and commercial buildings show a significant increase in recent decades. One of the key points for reducing energy consumption in buildings is to decrease the energy demand. Buildings envelopes are not just a structure they also provide protection from outdoor weather conditions always taking into account the local climate. Thermal energy storage has been used and applied to the building structure by taking advantage of sensible heat storage of materials with high thermal mass. But in recent years, researchers have focused their studies on the implementation of latent heat storage materials that if well incorporated …

Modeling Person-To-Person Contaminant Transport In Enclosed Environments, Chun Chen

Open Access Dissertations

It is essential to predict person-to-person contaminant transport in enclosed environments to improve air distribution design and reduce the infection risk from airborne infectious diseases. This study aims to improve and accelerate the simulation of person-to-person contaminant transport in enclosed environments. ^ This investigation first conducted experimental measurements of person-to-person contaminant transport in an office mockup and the first-class cabin of a functional MD-82 aircraft. The experimental data of steady-state airflow, temperature, and gas contaminant concentration fields obtained in the office were used to validate the steady-state computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. In the aircraft cabin, the transient particle concentrations …

Indygo Downtown Transit Center - Transforming Indianapolis, Ben Smith, Steve Robinson, Joe Fischer

Purdue Road School

The new IndyGo Downtown Transit Center will transform transit in downtown Indianapolis and offers lessons in transit planning, traffic planning, intermodal connectivity, public engagement, and pedestrian access. This presentation will give an overview of the facility and then focus on attributes of the facility and of the design process that might offer useful lessons to other transit projects, including those of a smaller scale

Vibration Of Steel-Framed Floors Supporting Sensitive Equipment In Hospitals, Research Facilities, And Manufacturing Facilities, Di Liu

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Floors have traditionally been designed only for strength and deflection serviceability. As technological advances have been made in medical, scientific and micro-electronics manufacturing, many types of equipment have become sensitive to vibration of the supporting floor. Thus, vibration serviceability has become a routinely evaluated limit state for floors supporting sensitive equipment. Equipment vibration tolerance limits are sometimes expressed as waveform peak acceleration, and are more often expressed as narrowband spectral acceleration, or one-third octave spectral velocity.

Current floor vibration prediction methods, such as those found in the American Institute of Steel Construction Design Guide 11, Floor Vibrations Due to Human …

Performance Analysis And Modelling Of Hybrid Photovoltaic-Thermal Solar Panels, Nicole C. Annis

Doctoral Dissertations

A photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) panel was constructed, tested, and modelled using both MATLAB and TRNSYS. During the experimental testing, which took place on the Missouri University of Science and Technology campus in Rolla, Missouri; two identical PVT panels were tested alongside two PV panels to gather an electrical baseline for comparison. Approximately 69 days’ worth of data were of data were collected during the summer of 2014. The PV electrical, PVT electrical, PVT thermal and PVT combined (electrical and thermal) efficiencies were 3.5-5.6%, 3.4-5.4%, 20.9-11.6%, and 24.3-17.0%, respectively.

A MATLAB program was developed using existing equations for one-dimensional, quasi-steady model of …

A Case Study Of Zero Energy Home Built For Solar Decathlon Competition 2013, Sanjib Mulepati

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Energy consumption in residential homes has been a subject of research related to sustainability. Reduction in the consumption of energy is a goal of sustainable construction. The Department of Energy (DOE) started a Solar Decathlon competition in 2002 in which the students from different universities around the globe build an energy efficient and affordable home suitable for their climate and location. The main goal of this competition is to select the best home that is designed and built in a sustainable way. In this study, the home designed and constructed for participation in the competition by the students at University …

Approximating The Seismic Amplification Effects Experienced By Solar Towers Mounted On The Rooftops Of Low-Rise Industrial Buildings, Peter Luiz Balla

Master's Theses

This thesis investigates the acceleration amplification experienced by solar towers mounted on the rooftops of low-rise industrial buildings during a seismic event. Specifically, this thesis looks to assess the validity of using amplification factors adopted by the ASCE 7-05Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures to approximate seismic acceleration amplification for roof-mounted solar towers. To investigate the validity of the ASCE 7-05 amplification factors, this thesis conducts timehistory analyses of three theoretical solar towers mounted on the roof of a case study building. The time history analyses are conducted in the finite element computer modeling program SAP 2000 using …

Compression Testing And Failure Modes Of Steel-Concrete Composite (Sc) Structures For Nuclear Containment, Patrick Michael Wanamaker, Amit H. Varma

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Although being able to provide much cleaner power than burning coal and other fossil fuels, nuclear power plants are still a tough sell to the general public due to their history of being spontaneously dangerous. The containment structures surrounding these nuclear plants, however, can play a huge role in reducing the risks associated with them. Relatively new designs for these containment assemblies, known as SC (steel-concrete composite) structures, aim to increase the strength and durability of the containment facilities while keeping costs down. By varying the spacing between shear studs, the ratio of concrete to steel, and the ratio of …

Environmental Monitoring In Preparation For The Installation Of A Green Roof, Andrew N. Martin, Ming Qu

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Green roofs are becoming an increasingly popular way to improve the environmental, economic, and aesthetic performance of both new and existing buildings. Along with the green roofs themselves, it is also common to install sensors to measure various environmental parameters that are affected by or important to the operation of the roof such as precipitation, temperature, and runoff. However, for most of these systems, the sensors are installed at the same time or even after the green roof. Therefore, no before-and-after comparisons can be made for those roofs. To account for this missing data, monitoring equipment was installed on a …

Seismic Performance Comparison Of A Fixed-Base Versus A Base-Isolated Office Building, Nicholas Reidar Marrs

Master's Theses

The topic of this thesis is base isolation. The purpose of this thesis is to offer a relative understanding of the seismic performance enhancements that a typical 12-story steel office building can achieve through the implementation of base isolation technology. To reach this understanding, the structures of a fixed-base office building and a base-isolated office building of similar size and layout are designed, their seismic performance is compared, and a cost-benefit analysis is completed. The base isolation system that is utilized is composed of Triple Friction Pendulum (TFP) bearings.

The work of this thesis is divided into four phases. First, …

Precast Concrete Insulated Wall Panel Corbels Without Thermal Bridging, Mohamed Elkady

Department of Construction Engineering and Management: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The common practice in corbel design is to block out the insulation in order to provide a solid concrete area at the corbel location. This connection practice results in thermal bridging, which significantly reduces the energy performance of the panel. For example, the PCI Design Handbook indicates that the reduction in thermal resistance caused by a solid part with an area equal to 9% of the total panel surface area is as high as 42%. This paper presents a discussion of a new concept for corbel design of insulated wall panels with the thermal break totally preserved. Two different designs …

Performance-Based Engineering Framework For Earthquake And Fire Following Earthquake, Aerik Carlton

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The objective for this thesis is to outline a Performance-Based Engineering (PBE) framework to address the multiple hazards of Earthquake (EQ) and subsequent Fire Following Earthquake (FFE). Currently, fire codes for the United States are largely empirical and prescriptive in nature. The reliance on prescriptive requirements makes quantifying sustained damage due to fire difficult. Additionally, the empirical standards have resulted from individual member or individual assembly furnace testing, which have been shown to differ greatly from full structural system behavior. The very nature of fire behavior (ignition, growth, suppression, and spread) is fundamentally difficult to quantify due to the inherent …

Wind Loading On Trees Integrated With A Building Envelope, Aly Mousaad Aly, Alberto Zasso, Girma Bitsuamlak, Alberto Nicola Longarini, Arindam Gam Chowdhury

Faculty Publications

With the sustainability movement, vegetated building envelopes are gaining more popularity. This requires special wind effect investigations, both from sustainability and resiliency perspectives. The current paper focuses on wind load estimation on small- and full-scale trees used as part of green roofs and balconies. Small-scale wind load assessment was carried out using wind tunnel testing in a global-effect study to understand the interference effects from surrounding structures. Full-scale trees were investigated at a large open-jet facility in a local-effect study to investigate the wind-tree interaction. The effect of Reynolds number combined with shape change on the overall loads measured at …

Use Of Building Information Modelling In Responding To Low Carbon Construction Innovations: An Irish Perspective., Barry Mcauley, Alan V. Hore, Roger West

Conference papers

At present the Irish construction industry is facing one of its most uncertain and challenging periods and will see major cuts in all areas of the economy in 2012. Despite this, Ireland pushes forward in sustainability initiatives with the Government ruling that environmentally-friendly policies are to get priority in competing for State contracts worth up to €16 billion a year. This and further initiatives are in place, so as to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20% by the year 2020.By the end of 2018 the public sector must own or rent only buildings with high energy-saving standards and …

Implementing Building Information Modeling In Public Works Projects In Ireland, Barry Mcauley, Alan V. Hore, Roger West

Conference papers

The Irish State in recent years has suffered huge financial losses in the public works sector, which has now pushed the Irish Government to explore new ways of controlling cost. This background lead to the introduction of the Capital Works Management Framework in 2007 which aimed to support the certainty of outcome in terms of cost and quality, as well as improved risk management, through the implementation of fixed price contracts. In order to successfully compete within this framework it is recommended by the authors, that Irish Government moves towards the legal mandating of BIM. This can ensure a greater …

Probabilistic Resilience Quantification And Visualization Building Performance To Hurricane Wind Speeds, Berna Eren Tokgoz

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Natural and man made disasters are unpredictable and unavoidable in today's world. Their frequency of occurrence and damages keep increasing. Due to the efforts to reduce negative consequences from such disasters, the concept of resilience has gained so much popularity in disaster management area especially after disasters like the September 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina. Complex systems of today are under operational risks because of increasing threats and their high level of vulnerability. Hence, such systems need to adapt the concept of resilience for continuous operations. Resilience is a proactive concept which should incorporate both pre-event (preparedness and mitigation) and …

Structural Performance Of Reinforced Concrete Flat Plat Buildings Subjected To Fire, Sara Jean George

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Reinforced concrete structures are typically considered to have inherent resistance to fire. However, several concrete structures around the world have experienced partial or total collapse under fire. Reinforced concrete flat-plate is a type of structural system widely used for office and residential buildings. Flat plate construction is prone to punching shear failure at slab-column connections which may lead to a catastrophic progressive collapse. The slabs of flat-plates generally have very thin concrete cover leaving steel reinforcement more sensitive to thermal loads. Little is known in the engineering community about the structural performance of flat-plate structures subjected to fire. Through a …

Quantifying The Life Cycle Benefits Of Performance-Based Design In Sustainable Design, David Isaac Carmona

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Quantifying the Life Cycle Benefits of Performance-Based Design in Sustainable Design

David Carmona

For this thesis, a method is developed and tested for use with performance based design to quantify the sustainable and financial benefits of designing buildings to a structural performance level higher than Life-Safety. This paper starts to answer the question, “which would be a better investment: build structures to a performance level of Immediate Occupancy (IO) with the likelihood of less damage and downtime after an earthquake or continue to build to the building code’s implied minimum performance level of Life-Safety (LS)?”

An ASCE 7-05 designed …

A Financial Impact Assessment Of Ld 1725: Stream Crossings Presentation, New England Environmental Finance Center

Economics and Finance

This report looks at the potential financial impact of LD 1725 on the estimated 30,000 stream crossings in the State of Maine that would be affected by the law. Our research for this report included the analysis of nearly 2000 stream crossings and the data collection necessary for the development of extensive stream crossing replacement cost models. We found that the 1.2 bankfull requirements in LD 1725 would result in a 75% ‐ 250% increase in structure widths for stream crossing projects across the state. An upsize of this magnitude would increase the cost of replacing stream crossings statewide by …

Culvert Material Cost Comparison, New England Environmental Finance Center

Economics and Finance

The following tables provide a detailed look at the role that culvert material and culvert diameter play in the overall cost of a culvert replacement project. Table 1 displays the cost per foot purchase price arranged by diameter size for the various culvert materials that are currently available. Table 2 displays the average additional culvert pipe material cost (increased cost to upsize minus original in-kind replacement cost) that would be incurred when upsizing a given diameter of culvert with a 50 foot length by factors of: 200%, 250% and 300%.

An Investigation Of The Influence Of Diaphragm Flexibility On Building Design Through A Comparison Of Forced Vibration Testing And Computational Analysis, Blake Alan Roskelley

Master's Theses

An assessment of the validity of idealizing a concrete diaphragm as rigid was performed through the modal analysis of three existing buildings. Modal analysis was performed both by physical experimentation and computational analysis. Experimental determination of the mode shapes shows that two of the three buildings’ diaphragms exhibited flexible behavior. The experimental results were compared to computational analysis results and were shown to be similar, confirming that that the two building diaphragms are not rigid. As a standard, diaphragms with aspect ratios less than three are permitted to be idealized as rigid per ASCE 7-05. To determine the effect of …

Identification Of Physical Changes To A Steel Frame, Daniel Eric Means

Master's Theses

The thesis utilized physical testing and computer modeling to determine the feasibility of identifying a change to the mass or stiffness of a steel frame. Physical testing was performed using an accelerometer, linear shaker, and arbitrary function generator. Two methods of laboratory testing were developed: ambient vibration testing (AVT) and forced vibration testing (FVT). AVT was able to preliminarily identify the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the frame. FVT was able to precisely identify four distinct natural frequencies, mode shapes, and damping ratios. The baseline frame then underwent two physical changes: the addition of mass to its roof, and …

A Study Of The Economical Feasibility Of Installing Heating, Ventilation, And Air-Conditioning Condensate Recovery System, Rafid M. Kully

Theses

The objective of this study is to establish a guide line or an analytical frame work to predetermine the economic benefits associated with the installation of Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) condensate recovery systems to capture the air-handler’s condensate water and use it as makeup water for the cooling tower. Some factors should be considered such as; the location, building operation, amount of outside air required, type of energy recovery system, and indoor conditions setup. Experimental data was used from Emory University in Georgia, where a condensate recovery system was installed and the condensate water from four air-handler units at …

Material Sustainability, Jessica Meadows, Natasha Morris

Architectural Engineering

This paper addresses the sustainability of the materials used to construct buildings today. Timber, concrete and steel are analyzed for carbon output, cost, and recyclable-ability.

Design And Performance Of Load Bearing Shear Walls Made From Composite Rice Straw Blocks, Kevin Robert Camann

Master's Theses

Although rice straw and other grains have been used in building since pre-history, in the past two decades, there has been a move to utilize this rapidly renewable, locally available, agricultural byproduct as part of the sustainable construction movement. Up to this point, this has been done by simply stacking up the full straw bales. Stak Block, invented by Oryzatech, Inc., is a modular, interlocking block made of a composite of rice straw and binding agent that serves as an evolution in straw construction. This study investigates the feasibility of using these Stak Blocks as a structural system. The report …

Predicting The Seismic Behavior Of The Dywidag Ductile Connector (Ddc) Precast Concrete System, Elizabeth Mary Kenyon

Master's Theses

Structural engineering is heavily dependent on the use of computers. When creating a building model using structural analysis software, it is required that the designer have an understanding of the system behavior and the modeling program capabilities.

Some engineers in the Southern California region are taking steps towards incorporating the Dywidag ductile connector (DDC) and super hybrid systems into building practice due to the advantages found in these systems’ construction methods and seismic performance.

As the DDC and super hybrid systems reach industry, the design engineer will need to model these systems using structural analysis programs. This report describes two …

Bridge / Tunnel Crossing Study : Portland Harbor - Fore River, Portland - South Portland, Maine Department Of Transportation

Maine Collection

Bridge / Tunnel Crossing Study : Portland Harbor - Fore River, Portland - South Portland

Report by Fay, Spofford & Thorndike, Inc., Engineers, Boston, Mass.

Prepared for the Maine Department of Transportation, Augusta, Maine, 1973.

Contents: Table of Contents / List of Figures / List of Tables / Introduction / Summary of Findings / Section 1 - General Background - Location Study / Section 2 - Alternative Facilities and Locations / Section 3 - Comparison of Construction Costs - Tunnel Versus Bridge / Section 4 - Traffic Analysis / Section 5 - Cost Effectiveness Analysis / Section 6 - Financial …