Construction Engineering and Management Commons^™

Building Deconstruction Guidelines: Tools For Recovering Building Materials, Ali Ayedh Merzen

Masters Theses

The traditional method of tearing down building when its life cycle is completed is known as demolition, which means destroying most of the structures and burying it in the landfills. This is the most common practice in most countries, but in recent years there is a new movement toward using the components of these buildings. Burying usable or recyclable materials in landfills means more pollution and increasing the need for more landfills. The concept of reusing or recycling building materials is known as Deconstruction. This practice is relatively new in the construction industry and requires more research and studies to …

An Imaging System For Concrete Bridge Inspection, Mohammed Talal Al-Bataineh

Masters Theses

Bridges are the most important element in the road network because of, the strategic position a bridge occupies, its direct impact on safety, and its high cost. Therefore, a continuous maintenance and inspection should be performed. During the past years visual inspection has been the primary method of bridge inspection.

Pontis is a comprehensive bridge management system developed as a tool to assist in the challenging task of bridge management. Pontis stores bridge inventory and inspection data and formulates network-wide preservation and improvement policies for use in evaluating the needs of each bridge in a network.

The concrete bridge inspection …

Adaptation Of Project Finance To Small Contractor Financing, Ragunathan Venkateswaran

Masters Theses

One key reason for the poor performance of small construction establishments in securing a higher chunk of the annual project volume is funding. While construction industry does not require a large capital investment it does require a large working capital to start up the project and generate bills so that the resulting cash flow may take over the remaining funding requirements. Unfortunately for small contractors there are very limited options available from the banks or other lending institutions to cover this large working capital requirement in the absence of sufficient collateral. The "Project Finance" method, which has been used in …

Management Commitment To Construction Safety, Areen M. Shaar

Masters Theses

The objective of all businesses including construction is to make money and to be profitable. The costs resulting from personal injuries and equipment damage, combined with the associated financial impact resulting from schedule disruptions, insurance hikes, and workers compensation can definitely impact the profitability of any construction operation. Most times those costs can be minimized or avoided by giving safety more attention on construction job sites.

The main purpose of this research is to determine the correlation between management commitment to safety and its impacts on the frequency of injuries and illnesses. To achieve this, a survey was methodically developed …

A Model For Optimizing The Selection Of Project Delivery Systems Using Analytic Hierarchy Process (Ahp), Arosha De Silva

Masters Theses

The project delivery systems applicable to the construction industry in the U.S. consist of different approaches. This study focuses on three main approaches, (1) Design-Bid-Build (DBB), (2) Design-Build (DB), and (3) Construction Management (CM). Since each construction project is unique, selecting the right project delivery system is a tough decision.

This study develops a decision making system, based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), for selecting the best delivery system for a given construction project. AHP is a decision making mathematical model developed by Thomas L. Saaty and consists of a hierarchical structure. It analyzes several alternatives for a given …

Residual Stress And Wear Resistance Of Composite Coatings Of Nickel/Gamma-Alumina, Khaled Abdulrahman Al-Ogab

Masters Theses

Nickel reinforced with nanoparticles of γ−Al₂O₃ have been successfully codeposited on 2024-T3 cold rolled aluminum alloy by electrodeposition with direct current. The effects of current density, particle concentration in the nickel sulfamate bath, air agitation, and coating time on Ni/γ−Al₂O₃ composite have been investigated. The residual stresses and wear resistance of the Ni/γ−Al₂O₃ composite have been measured using X-ray diffractometer and pin-on-disk techniques respectively. The residual stress and wear resistance behavior of the composite were compared with those of nickel-only deposits. An annealed ground nickel, which was mechanically removed from the …

Texture And Young’S Modulus Of Nickel/Gamma-Alumina Composites, Abdulaziz Alamr

Masters Theses

To improve Young's modulus of 2024-T3 rolled aluminum specimens, it was electroplated with nickel reinforced with nano-particles of γAl₂O₃. Taguchi method was used to investigate the effect of coating variables, which were current density, coating time, and mixing rate, on the coating thickness. The coatings were tested for crystallographic texture, using pole figures of (200) and (111) for nickel and (400) for γAl₂O₃. Surface topography was measured using WYKO Vertical Interference Microscope. The crystallographic texture of nickel in the coating depended on the coating conditions. A universal testing machine was- used to …

Cfmms – Computerized Facilities Maintenance Management System, Prawit Rotsawatsuk

Masters Theses

Computerized facilities maintenance management systems, previously available only to very large facilities, are now accessible to small and medium-sized maintenance organizations. Advertisements for such products promise reductions in maintenance costs. Where a manual system of maintenance management is currently employed, moderate reductions in maintenance costs and facility downtime are fully possible. Where no formal maintenance management procedures are present, the structure and case of a computerized maintenance system can result in dramatic cost reductions and improvements in facility availability. There are, however, practical limits to the applicability of computerized maintenance systems. The objective of any maintenance program is to minimize …

Learning Reinforced Concreyte Design Principles Using A Java-Vrml Based Design Studio, Amarneethi Vamadevan

Masters Theses

Dynamics involving reinforced concrete design are the first real engineering course encountered by the undergraduate construction engineering students. Quite often its associated rigorous theories makes it an uninteresting academic hurdle for many below mediocre students. However when the theory is exemplified with multimedia, interaction and visualization techniques, the conceptual understanding is enhanced. The teaching methodology presented in this thesis is based on presenting students with an individualized, interactive and guided learning environment. The main elements of this approach are: a means of assimilating the student's interactive learning knowledge and behavior (user model), representation of the instructor's guidance and assessment knowledge …

Quantitative, Non-Destructive Calibration Of Scanned Probe Microscope Cantilevers, John Hazel

Masters Theses

Principles of surface science and engineering are applied to determine scanned probe microscope cantilever spring constants. The bi-component gold-ceramic cantilever composition is modeled analytically. Finite element analysis is applied to simulate deflection behavior of the probe tip. Data from experimental determination of resonant frequency are employed to infer material characteristics. Combination of the results from these three procedures is employed to infer material characteristics. Combination of the results from these three procedures is used to produce a spring constant assessment within 10% of actual values. An additional convenient program for assessment of scanning probe microscopy cantilever spring constants is developed …

Epoxy-Terminated Self-Assembled Monolayers As Molecular Glues For Polymer Layers, Duangrut Julthongpiput

Masters Theses

Dense, homogeneous, and complete self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) with epoxy surface groups were fabricated from epoxysilanes to serve as a template for chemical anchoring of polymer layers. A combination of scanning probe microscopy, ellipsometry, XPS, X-ray reflectivity, and contact angle measurements was used to study their morphology and surface properties. Self-assembly of epoxysilane molecules resulted in the formation of homogeneous SAMs 0.85 nm thick with the rms surface roughness 0.2 nm. Epoxysilane SAMs were truly monomolecular films with a virtually normal molecular orientation of densely packed molecules, which were firmly attached to the substrate.

Carboxylic acid and anhydride terminated polystyrenes of …

Conform- A Computerized Job-Built Concrete Construction Formwork Design, Kajpong Pongponrat

Masters Theses

Economy in formwork design depends partly on the ingenuity and experiences of the form designer, whether a contractor or an engineer. The cost of formwork is significant, generally amounting to anywhere from 40% to 60% of the cost of a concrete structure. Judgment with respect to the development of a forming system could both expedite a project and reduce costs. The present paper addresses the development of CONFORM - an interactive menu driven PC based job-built concrete formwork design. The system is developed using Microsoft Visual Basic 6, Access 97 database, and Word 97, where a perfect integration of these …

Intellicranes – A Neural Network-Based Crane Selection System, André T. Mund

Masters Theses

Due to the central role of cranes in construction operations, specialists in the construction industries have cooperated in the development of structured methods and software for crane selection. Most of these software tools are for crane model selection and query the user for the type of crane to be used. Although research produced some fuzzy logic and expert system-based methods for crane type selection, no integrated systems that handle both crane selection phases are available.

IntelliCranes, a prototype integrated crane selection tool, assists in both crane type and crane model selection based on a set of inputs describing the construction …