Other Engineering Commons^™

Prediction Of Stress Increase At Ultimate In Unbonded Tendons Using Sparse Principal Component Analysis, Eric Mckinney, Minwoo Chang, Marc Maguire, Yan Sun

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

While internal and external unbonded tendons are widely utilized in concrete structures, an analytical solution for the increase in unbonded tendon stress at ultimate strength, ∆f_ps, is challenging due to the lack of bond between strand and concrete. Moreover, most analysis methods do not provide high correlation due to the limited available test data. The aim of this paper is to use advanced statistical techniques to develop a solution to the unbonded strand stress increase problem, which phenomenological models by themselves have done poorly. In this paper, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and Sparse Principal Component Analysis (SPCA) …

A Practitioner’S Guide To Small Unmanned Aerial Systems For Bridge Inspection, Sattar Dorafshan, Robert J. Thomas, Calvin Coopmans, Marc Maguire

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Small unmanned aerial system(s) (sUAS) are rapidly emerging as a practical means of performing bridge inspections. Under the right condition, sUAS assisted inspections can be safer, faster, and less costly than manned inspections. Many Departments of Transportation in the United States are in the early stages of adopting this emerging technology. However, definitive guidelines for the selection of equipment for various types of bridge inspections or for the possible challenges during sUAS assisted inspections are absent. Given the large investments of time and capital associated with deploying a sUAS assisted bridge inspection program, a synthesis of authors experiences will be …

Hvac System Air Filter Diagnostics And Monitoring, Priotomo Abiprojo, Fadi M. Alsaleem

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

A system and method for monitoring a heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system of a building is provided. A monitoring server, located remotely from the building, receives operating parameter data from a monitoring device at the building that measures an operating parameter of the HVAC system. The monitoring server generates a plurality of data clusters from the operating parameter data, each data cluster corresponding to operating parameter data generated during steady-state operation of the HVAC system. The monitoring server calculates an average operating parameter value for each data cluster. The monitoring server calculates normalized operating parameter values based on …

Habitat For Humanity: A Student-Led Service Trip To Thailand, Amber Reiff

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Amber Reiff started volunteering with Habitat for Humanity in high school and joined the Purdue Student Chapter as a freshman in 2014. During her sophomore year, she became more involved and held the position of Vice President of Development. While serving in this role, she planned on-campus advocacy events and recruited volunteers for Saturday site builds. In 2017, she traveled to Lampang, Thailand, over spring break with a group of like-minded students striving to make a difference. In this article, she shares her experiences on this trip and explores the impact of her participation. Beyond this trip, she has continued …

The Cost Of Jaywalking On Traffic Congestion In An Intersection In Greater Cairo: A Case Study, Hussein Gawdat

Theses and Dissertations

There have been many studies focusing on different types of traffic delays, pedestrians’ interaction at signalized intersections and economic losses as a result of these delays. However, there is a huge gap in the current literature, regionally and globally, in studying the traffic delays associated with jaywalking. In Egypt, jaywalking is considered a common phenomenon, however, population increased drastically over the past decades in Greater Cairo leading to more congested streets. This research provides a case study that investigates the economic effect of jaywalking on traffic flow in Mashaal, a sample location in Greater Cairo, due to traffic congestion. The …

Development Of A Model To Predict The Likelihood Of Complaints Due To Assorted Tone-In-Noise Combinations, Joonhee Lee, Lily M. Wang

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

This paper develops a model to predict if listeners would be likely to complain due to annoyance when exposed to a certain noise signal with a prominent tone, such as those commonly produced by heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems. Twenty participants completed digit span tasks while exposed in a controlled lab to noise signals with differing levels of tones, ranging from 125 to 1000 Hz, and overall loudness. After completing the digit span tasks under each noise signal, from which task accuracy and speed of completion were captured, subjects were asked to rate level of annoyance and indicate the likelihood …

Respirable Dust Monitoring In Construction Sites And Visualization In Building Information Modeling Using Real-Time Sensor Data, Nour Smaoui, Kyungki Kim, Omprakash Gnawali, Young-Joo Lee, Wonho Suh

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Construction activities, involving cutting, drilling, and grinding of materials, often produce toxic respirable dust that can cause fatal diseases and illnesses. To protect workers from breathing excessive amounts of respirable dust at job sites, superintendents should continuously monitor the level of respirable dust in workspaces and make timely interventions for overexposed workers. However, current practices of respirable dust monitoring have critical drawbacks, and superintendents cannot accurately estimate workers’ exposures to respirable dust or make prompt decisions to protect the workers. Therefore, there is a need for real-time air dust monitoring that can be deployed ubiquitously at a construction site and …

Analyses Of Crowd-Sourced Sound Levels Of Restaurants And Bars In New York City, Gregory S. Farber, Lily M. Wang

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

For several decades, there has been a significant need to better educate the public about noise pollution. A small number of small-scale studies have focused on the sound levels of restaurants and their impact on health and hearing. There have also been an increasing number of media articles stating that eating and drinking venues are getting increasingly loud making it more difficult for people to connect with others in conversation. This study reports on an exploratory large-scale noise survey of sound levels of 2,376 restaurants and bars in New York City using a novel smart-phone application and categorized them based …

Numerical Simulation Of Fault Impacts For Commercial Walk-In Freezers, Alireza Behfar, David P. Yuill

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Refrigeration systems can undergo many faults that could negatively affect their operation and performance. This paper describes a modeling process to simulate the fault impacts on the operation of a commercial walk-in freezer using semi-empirical models. These models often require less modeling effort than full forward models and could be used in scenarios where detailed information is missing, such as in field-measured systems. An important characteristic of a typical walk-in refrigeration system is the existence of a liquid-line receiver after the condenser, which significantly changes the behavior of the cycle, in comparison to a receiver-less system. Component models described in …

Simultaneous Electrical And Mechanical Resonance Drive For Large Signal Amplification Of Micro Resonators, M. H. Hasan, Fadi M. Alsaleem, N. Jaber, M. A. A. Hafiz, M. I. Younis

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Achieving large signal-noise ratio using low levels of excitation signal is key requirement for practical applications of micro and nano electromechanical resonators. In this work, we introduce the double electromechanical resonance drive concept to achieve an order-of-magnitude dynamic signal amplification in micro resonators. The concept relies on simultaneously activating the micro-resonator mechanical and electrical resonance frequencies. We report an input voltage amplification up to 15 times for a micro-resonator when its electrical resonance is tuned to match the mechanical resonance that leads to dynamic signal amplification in air (Quality factor enhancement). Furthermore, using a multi-frequency excitation technique, input voltage and …

Impact Of Owners’ Early Decisions On Project Performance And Dispute Occurrence In Public Highway Projects, Sogand Hasanzadeh, Behzad Esmaeili, Ghada M. Gad, Douglas D. Gransberg

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Disputes are common in the construction industry and lead to unnecessary cost and schedule overruns in projects. It is commonly believed that owners’ early decisions regarding the selection of delivery methods, procurement methods, and contract types impact the frequency and severity of project disputes; however, no previous study has empirically tested this hypothesis, particularly in highway public projects. Therefore, this study empirically investigated the impact of owners’ early decisions regarding project organization (i.e., delivery methods, procurement, and contract types) on performance measures (e.g., cost and schedule growth), specifically dispute performance metrics (e.g., frequency and severity of disputes), in public highway …

Method For Radon Measurement In Residential Sewer Connections, David Yuill

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Radon gas is the most deadly indoor air pollutant. In the US, it is responsible for over 20,000 deaths per year. Residential exposure is typically the largest portion of a person’s annual exposure, so a great deal of research has been done to understand the pathways that radon can follow to enter a house. Since radon emanates from the ground, it is present in high concentration in soil gas. Recent research on the vapor intrusion of volatile organic compounds from subsurface sources into a test house concluded that the sewer line is an important preferential pathway. Despite the potential for …

Utilizing Wearable Devices To Design Personal Thermal Comfort Model, Mostafa Rafaie, Mehari Tesfay, Fadi Alsaleem

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

have confirmed that thermal comfort significantly depends on internal personal parameters such as metabolic rate, age, and health status. This is manifested as a difference in comfort levels between people residing under the same roof, and hence no general comprehensive comfort model satisfying everyone. Current and newly emerging advancements in state of the art wearable technology have made it possible to continuously acquired biometric information. This work proposes to access and exploit this data to build personal thermal comfort model. Relying on various supervised machine-learning methods, a personal thermal comfort model will be produced and compared to a general model …

Localized Indoor Temperature Estimation Using Smartphone And Laptop Internal Sensors, Mostafa Rafaie, Mehari Tesfay, Fadi Alsaleem

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

This paper investigates a mechanism in which indoor air temperature can be predicted using the temperature sensor on the battery and the CPU of smartphones or laptops, where data is easily accessible and ubiquitous. As a case study, several machine-learning methods were used to build models from a laptop data and the measured surrounding air temperature. The effects of the machine learning type and input feature size (by including other parameters such as CPU processing usage and battery charge percentage) on the model accuracy were investigated. The goal is to determine a set of feature combinations that can be used …

Comfort-Based Optimal Temperature Setpoint Calculation, Andrew Holthaus, Mostafa Rafaie, Fadi Alsaleem

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

General practice in current building HVAC control is to select building temperature setpoints that comply with ASHRAE Standard 55. By meeting this standard, based on the PMV comfort model, 80% of building occupants should be satisfied with their thermal environment. However, unfortunately, this is rarely the case. One possible reason for this is the variation in occupant activity and clothing that are usually assumed default values using this standard. In this work, we present an iterative-based algorithm to solve this problem. The algorithm solves the PMV inverse model equation to determine the optimal temperature setpoint while inferring human activity level …

Sdnet2018: An Annotated Image Data Set For Non-Contact Concrete Crack Detection Using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks, Sattar Dorafshan, Robert J. Thomas, Marc Maguire

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

SDNET2018 is an annotated image data set for training, validation, and benchmarking of artificial intelligence based crack detection algorithms for concrete. SDNET2018 contains over 56,000 images of cracked and non-cracked concrete bridge decks, walls, and pavements. The dataset includes cracks as narrow as 0.06 mm and as wide as 25 mm. The data set also includes images with a variety of obstructions, including shadows, surface roughness, scaling, edges, holes, and background debris. SDNET2018 will be useful for the continued development of concrete crack detection algorithms based on deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs), which are a subject of continued research in …

Smart Prismatic Louver Technology For Enhanced Daylighting And Management Of Thermal Loads In Green Buildings, Michael Alva

Dissertations and Theses

Abstract

Two significant design strategies for mitigating building energy consumption are daylight redirection and solar energy harvesting. Good daylighting implementation enhances the amount of useful natural light within a space, thereby offsetting the need for electric lighting. Solar energy harvesting systems can mitigate energy costs from mechanical systems by managing incoming thermal loads or capturing solar energy that can be used to supplement thermal systems in the building. While there are many available façade-based technologies that can perform daylighting or solar thermal energy harvesting, there remains a limitation in available systems that can perform both simultaneously. The proposed Liquid Filled …

Evaluation The Effect Of Washing On The Heat Transfer Capacity And Air-Side Flow Resistance Of Air Cooled Condensers, Mehdi Mehrabi, David Yuill

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

17th International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Conference at Purdue, July 9-12, 2018

Infrared Thermography For Weld Inspection: Feasibility And Application, Sattar Dorafshan, Marc Maguire, William Collins

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Traditional ultrasonic testing (UT) techniques have been widely used to detect surface and sub-surface defects of welds. UT inspection is a contact method which burdens the manufacturer by storing hot specimens for inspection when the material is cool. Additionally, UT is only valid for 5 mm specimens or thicker and requires a highly skilled operator to perform the inspections and interpret the signals. Infrared thermography (IRT) has the potential to be implemented for weld inspections due to its non-contact nature. In this study, the feasibility of using IRT to overcome the limitations of UT inspection is investigated to detect inclusion, …

Hvac System Remote Monitoring And Diagnosis Of Refrigerant Line Obstruction, Fadi M. Alsaleem

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

A heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system of a building includes a refrigerant loop. A monitoring system for the HVAC system includes a monitoring device installed at the building. The monitoring device is configured to measure a first temperature of refrigerant in a refrigerant line located between a filter - drier of the refrigerant loop and an expansion valve of the refrigerant loop. The monitoring system includes a monitoring server, located remotely from the building. The monitoring server is con figured to receive the first temperature and, in response to the first temperature being less than a threshold, generate …

Garden Building Design Project, Gena Farley, Vanessa Villanueva, Jayanne Asuncion

Building Information Modeling Final Projects

Final project from the EMGT 193/293 Building Information Modeling (BIM) course in the School of Engineering and Computer Science as part of the Bachelor of Science in Engineering Management degree. A student group designed and modeled a one-story building to house the Pacific Garden Program on campus.

Robb Garden Building, Joseph Cliscagne, Joseph Prescott, Tamara Turton, Saima Uz-Zaman

Building Information Modeling Final Projects

Final project from the EMGT 193/293 Building Information Modeling (BIM) course in the School of Engineering and Computer Science as part of the Bachelor of Science in Engineering Management degree. A student group designed and modeled a one-story building to house the Pacific Garden Program on campus.

Robb Garden Building: Revit Up, Gimelle Jacala, Colin Strong, Jason Wu

Building Information Modeling Final Projects

Final project from the EMGT 193/293 Building Information Modeling (BIM) course in the School of Engineering and Computer Science as part of the Bachelor of Science in Engineering Management degree. A student group designed and modeled a one-story building to house the Pacific Garden Program on campus.

Robb Garden Community Resource Center, Jackie Koyama, Daryll Mendoza, Kourtnie Sicam

Building Information Modeling Final Projects

Final project from the EMGT 193/293 Building Information Modeling (BIM) course in the School of Engineering and Computer Science as part of the Bachelor of Science in Engineering Management degree. A student group designed and modeled a one-story building to house the Pacific Garden Program on campus.

Operation Bim: Robb Garden Building Project, Michael White, Daniel Seif, Suman Bhardwaj

Building Information Modeling Final Projects

Final project from the EMGT 193/293 Building Information Modeling (BIM) course in the School of Engineering and Computer Science as part of the Bachelor of Science in Engineering Management degree. A student group designed and modeled a one-story building to house the Pacific Garden Program on campus.

Robb Garden Building, Staysha Delgado, Lillian Sam, Ryan Teixeira, Courtney Vierra

Building Information Modeling Final Projects

Final project from the EMGT 193/293 Building Information Modeling (BIM) course in the School of Engineering and Computer Science as part of the Bachelor of Science in Engineering Management degree. A student group designed and modeled a one-story building to house the Pacific Garden Program on campus.

What Lessons Can Be Learned From The Delivery Of The First Building On The Grangegorman Campus Using Building Information Management (Bim)?, Pat O'Sullivan, Avril Behan

Conference papers

There is an acceptance that BIM, via data management, can be integrated with FM to reduce costs during the Operations and Maintenance stage of a project. However, what has not been documented is the ‘on the ground’ reality which can be reviewed as a lessons learnt exercise to improve the implementation of BIM FM for future projects. This case study sets out to explore the realities of a client’s adoption of BIM based upon the actual experience of the Greenway Hub. Rather than relying on anecdotal evidence the research was based upon the real practices and experiences of the Dublin …

Gas Collection, Haorong Li, Yanshun Yu, Daihong Yu

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

A system includes a vessel configured to couple with a gas source for drawing gas into the vessel. The vessel is also configured to receive liquid. The system includes an over flow port in fluid communication with the environment external to the vessel. The overflow port is configured to separate gas within the vessel from the external environment. The system also includes an overflow conduit having an end within the overflow port so that when gas pressure within the vessel increases, liquid is received by the over flow conduit. Another system includes a tank defining an air space for receiving …

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 …

A Review Of Approaches To Solving The Problem Of Bim Search: Towards Intelligence-Assisted Design, Hamed Khademi, Avril Behan

Conference papers

Due to the growing adoption of BIM and the rising popularity of cloud computing, BIM models are increasingly stored in central cloud repositories or Common Data Environments. Effective management and exploitation of these models creates the requirement for BIM retrieval systems. Thus far, the BIM industry has utilized general-purpose, text-based search techniques that operate on BIM metadata. This paper highlights the need for a domain-specific BIM search engine and reviews various approaches to address the problem of BIM search. Three main approaches were identified as context-, geometry-, and content-based BIM retrieval. For a comprehensive BIM retrieval system, all three approaches …