This paper evaluates the flexural performance of simply supported concrete beams subjected to four-point monotonic loading and reinforced with a 2D fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) grid. The main ...parameter of the study is the amount of longitudinal FRP reinforcement. With respect to a balanced strain condition, three underreinforced and two overreinforced FRP designs were tested with three identical beams per design. Laboratory recorded load-deflection, failure mode, cracking behavior, and reinforcement strain data are compared with theoretical predictions calculated according to traditional steel-reinforced concrete procedures. The study concludes that, with respect to ACI 318-95, flexural capacity is accurately predicted, but shear strength is not. Deflection compatibility between test results and ACI predictions employing the Branson effective moment of inertia was dependent on the percentage of longitudinal reinforcement. In general, observed flexural stiffness was less than that predicted by Branson's equation. A moment-curvature deflection procedure employing a bilinear concrete model compared very well with measured deflections. Finally, the grid configuration provides an effective force transfer mechanism. Cracking occurred at transverse bar locations only, and FRP tensile rupture was achieved with no observed deterioration in force transfer mechanics.
Seismic design requirements for precast concrete cladding panel connections have evolved significantly over the past fifty years. This paper summarizes the pertinent requirements from the Uniform ...Building Code from 1967 to 1997, and the International Building Code 2000. A hypothetical design illustrates how emphasis in the code has evolved for both lateral force requirements and story drift displacement requirements arriving at a balance of moderate lateral force and displacement requirements. The numerical results are based on a hypothetical case of panel connections for a ten-story moment-resisting steel frame structure built in seismic Zone 4. This historical summary is of value to designers who deal with the seismic rehabilitation of precast panel connections.
Engineering programs commonly utilize ethics case studies as the basis for student discussions. Measuring the student learning resulting from the case study process is often very subjective and ...difficult to quantify. The Engineering Professional Skill Assessment (EPSA) was created as a direct method for eliciting and measuring ABET professional skills such as ethics. EPSA is a performance assessment consisting of: 1) a 1-2 page scenario about a contemporary, interdisciplinary engineering problem 2) a discussion period where a small group of students are asked to address a series of leading questions about the scenario; and 3) an analytical rubric which is used to evaluate the students' discussion. The EPSA project is currently in the third year of a four year National Science Foundation sponsored validity study. As part of this study the team of researchers has applied EPSA to test groups of students at Washington State University, the University of Idaho, and Norwich University. As a result of the work done on the validity study, faculty members from Norwich University who were not part of the project team were introduced to the EPSA method. These faculty members have independently started to utilize aspects of the EPSA method in their courses. This paper describes how the EPSA scenarios and EPSA rubric are being used in the "Ethics" section of a senior level "Professional Issues" course for engineering students. The EPSA Rubric provides a standardized means to evaluate the quality of student discussions and to help make the evaluation of students' work more consistent between the multiple sections of the course.
Integrating Micro-House Design and Construction into the Construction Management and Engineering Curriculum This paper shows how micro-house design and construction projects are integrated into the ...curriculum in the University’s Engineering and Construction Management programs. The University’s Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Management programs’ first full-scale house design and construction projects involved a solar powered lab and a solar powered house. During these two projects, the various Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Management programs collaborated for the first time, integrating students from the various disciplines into a single project team. The Micro-House Related Design/Construction Projects, shown in Table 1, reflect the University’s institutional support of experiential learning. Lessons learned from the design and construction of each project were used to refine the projects for subsequent years. Table 1: University Micro-House Related Design/Construction Projects Project Size Date Embarc – Solar Powered Lab 160 sq.ft. 2010-2011 Rae(v) – Solar Decathlon Prototype 1100 sq.ft 2010-2012 Solar Decathlon 988 sq.ft 2012-2013 NHS Outdoor Classroom 576 sq.ft 2014-2015 CASA 802 Micro-House 336 sq.ft. 2015-2016 Wheel Pad Micro-House 204 sq.ft. 2016 Fontaine Mills Micro-House 288 sq.ft. 2016-2017 CASA 802.1 Micro-House 240 sq.ft. 2017-2018 MES Outdoor Classroom 224 sq.ft. 2017-2018 Race to Zero Multi-Family House 800 sq.ft/unit 2017-2018 The University’s Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Management programs have taken the experience obtained from working on these projects and have integrated design and construction work into their respective curricula. For example, the Construction Management curriculum has incorporated aspects of the Micro-House Design/Construction projects into several courses distributed throughout the curriculum: Specifications and Estimating, Building Information Modeling, Construction Productivity, Construction Safety, Structural Aspects of Construction, and Project Management. Similarly, both the Civil Engineering and Architecture programs have incorporated aspects of the Micro-House Design/Construction projects into their curricula. This use of Micro-House Design/Construction projects in the curriculum exposes students to material that is realistic, but not of overwhelming scope. The students are given assignments that are manageable, and that increase in scope and complexity over the course of a student’s academic career. As a particular project progresses over time, students will be involved in the estimation, purchasing, planning, management, and finally the construction of a micro-house. Finally, the students get to have hands-on experience along with their academic coursework, which is key for improving both student learning and retention.
This paper shows how teams of students from the University’s Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Management programs are using lessons from the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon ...Competition to develop a regionally derived, solar powered, affordable housing model. Student teams are working to design a series of micro-houses (approximately 300-400 SF each) that can stand alone or be combined with other modules to create a larger, integrated structure. This process is similar to how families in New England would first construct what is known as a half-Cape, and as the family grew, the house would be enlarged into a Full Cape, and then enlarged further with dormers and shed additions. One of the basic principles used in the project was that the entire house does not need to be constructed at once: additional room modules could be added to the house over time. The core of micro-house was designed to contain basic amenities, such as kitchen and bathrooms, and to be large enough to meet the needs of two people. The outside walls of the core micro-house are designed so that additional rooms can be readily attached. These subsequent additions can be designed to be more flexible and less expensive to manufacture than the core, and can vary depending on the needs of the occupants. This project will serve to demonstrate how houses could be constructed in stages from micro-houses, with the micro-houses being combined, over time, to create a larger house. The design teams will explore non-conventional structural framing for the micro-houses and optimize the mechanical and electrical integration process by designing standardized, modular systems. In order to reduce costs, the project teams will also integrate the photovoltaic systems into the building structure, and consider innovations such as the use of DC current to eliminate the dc to ac conversion losses. The student teams are constructing the first core micro-house module during 2015-2016 school year. Lessons from the construction of the first micro-house will be incorporated into the construction of subsequent versions.
Creating an economical solar decathlon house Schmeckpeper, Edwin R.; Lutz, Matthew P.; Puddicombe, R. A. Michael ...
Proceedings of the 2014 Zone 1 Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education,
04/2014
Conference Proceeding
Since 2002, the U.S. Department of Energy has sponsored the Solar Decathlon competition in which collegiate teams design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are intended to be ...cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The Solar Decathlon is intended to educate students and the public about the economic and environmental benefits of energy efficient, solar powered homes. Unfortunately, due to the scoring rubrics for the competition, the affordability aspect of the competition is often given only superficial consideration. In the 2013 the Norwich University ΔT90 house officially won first place for the Affordability Contest of the 2013 Solar Decathlon, with an estimated cost of 168,385 for a 988 square foot house (170 per square foot), while scoring 100% for the energy balance portion of the competition. The ΔT90 house maximizes comfort, efficiency, and spaciousness through two bedrooms, an office space, and an open living space for lounging, cooking, and gathering-offering a model for affordable and sustainable living. This paper will present design and construction details of Norwich University ΔT90 house which allowed it meet the project design objectives.
The Confluence of Information Introduction Multi-disciplinary collaboration is recognized as a requirement for superior performance in the realization of projects in the built environment ...(Puddicombe, 2009). However, due to their different “thought worlds,” collaboration between professionals from different disciplinary backgrounds is a complex and dynamic process. The result is a lack of synthesis among experts and a reduction in the learning that is necessary for innovation (Dougherty, 1992). A state of‘contested collaboration’ can result ‘…where team members maintain an outward stance of cooperation but work to further their own interests, at times sabotaging the collaborative effort.”(Sonnenwald and Pierce, 2000:461). Within the AEC industry this condition appears to be far from the exception (Puddicombe, 1997). The requirement for multi-disciplinary collaboration rests on the assumption that, “…no single individual (or firm) can acquire the varied and often rapidly expanding information needed for success. Individuals (and firms) must work together to collect, analyze, synthesize and disseminate information throughout the work process.” (Sonnenwald and Pierce, 2000:461)In the context of this research we refer to this as a process of interdisciplinary ‘knowledge creation’ (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). As is evident in the litigious nature of the AEC industry, collaboration is not an innate skill of architects, engineers and constructors. It has to be learned and professional schools havea n obligation to teach it. This paper reports on an effort to develop a theoretical and practical understanding of the issues associated with collaboration and suggest a process by which educators within the AEC disciplines can facilitate the learning of this critical skill.The Model Puddicombe (1997) offered evidence that performance within the built environment required a movement away from planning as an isolated linear process(figure 1). An iterative process based on learning was required. Figure 1. Learning Knowledge Feedback Loop We propose to develop a set of learning modules that facilitate the development of a collaborative learning environment. Our goal is designing a knowledge creation process that results in a superior physical (built) product.Learning Modules While all three of the disciplines - Architecture, Civil Engineering, and Construction Management – support the project, the existing engineering, architecture and construction curricula make introducing new courses very difficult. Instead, the curriculum content is being developed as portable interdisciplinary modules, which while discipline responsive, will be adaptable to a range of courses and levels. Since the program centers on the processes and requirements of producing buildings, the modules are intended for classes where there is a thematic connection to design, construction, , or project implementation.The root of this project is knowledge “conversion:” while some of the information required for any project is externalized through design and construction documents, the individual AEC disciplines have different tacit knowledge and objectives (as well as goals and measures of success). The issues being addressed in the modules are where tacit knowledge for one discipline is missing or ill-communicated.The modules are developed to promote two kinds of knowledge conversion, either converting tacit knowledge of one discipline into accessible explicit knowledge for those in other disciplines, or through collaborative projects where broader project knowledge becomes tacit across the disciplines.The proposed learning modules are intended to address the following questions: What do you need to know to communicate effectively with the other disciplines? What do you need to know from others in order to do what you want? What do they need to know from you in order for you to do your job well? What do they need to know from you in order to do their job well? How do I get you to invest in my goals? What are your incentives for the project? What do think are the other disciplines’ incentives for the project? What are your risks for the project? What do you think are the other disciplines’ risks for the project?The first modules will focus on group interaction, communication, leadership and conflict resolution. These will include a personality self-assessment to help students identify their own behaviors with regard to group dynamics. Subsequent modules will involve inter-discipline knowledge, problem solving , and value assessment.
The Effect of Student Placement on the Assessment of Successful Class Delivery TechniquesIt is a common practice to assess student success from different class environments and underdifferent ...conditions. For some instances different sections of the same class are offered to groupsof students in different settings, to test some phenomenon say a class delivery technique. But thequestion is how students should be registered into different class sections when there is aresearch component to the class. The common practice of registering students into classes is bymaking the sections available and based on their own preferences and constraints, students areallowed to select the classes that best suit their schedules. However, this paper argues that thistype of student placement into classes may not always produce the right balance of students forresearch purposes.The author is teaching a sophomore class that has two sections taught by the same professor. Theearlier class has a size of 25 students and the second class has a size of 14 students. Theseinitially appeared to be an ideal configuration to practice an active teaching technique and to testthe effect of class size. So the same active teaching style was being used in both classes. It isbelieved that the Professor even did better in the smaller, class because lessons from the earlierclass helped improve the delivery technique in the second class, which also has the smaller classsize. With this double advantage, it was expected that students in the second class will havebetter performance. Contrary to this expectation however, mid semester grades showed thatstudents in the larger class performed better.The initial reaction is that teaching technique may not have been the only factor that influencedstudent performance in the two classes. This observation is what this paper sets out toinvestigate, to unveil the underlying factors that explain the discrepancy. The lesson at a glanceis that for class comparisons to be effective, student placement into the different sections shouldhave some element of control to produce a comparable pool of students in both classrooms.Key words: Class size, student placement, teaching technique, teaching technique assessment,classroom research.
Engineering programs often contain a senior level “Professional Issues” course to cover topics, such as ethics, which are related to the professional practice of engineering. These courses commonly ...utilize case studies focusing on ethics as the basis for student discussions. Measuring the student learning resulting from the case study process is often very subjective, and is difficult to quantify. The Engineering Professional Skills Assessment (EPSA) was created as a direct method for eliciting and measuring professional skills, such as ethics, which are critical for all engineers. EPSA is a performance assessment consisting of: 1) a 1-2 page scenario about an interdisciplinary contemporary engineering problem intended to prompt discussion among a group of 5-6 students; 2) a 30 to 45- minute discussion period where students are asked to address a series of standardized questions about the scenario; and 3) an analytical rubric, which provides a consistent and standardized means to evaluate the students’ discussion. The research team that developed EPSA has recently completed a four-year validity study funded by the National Science Foundation. As part of this validation study, the team of researchers applied EPSA to test groups of students at three different universities. As a result of the work done on the validity study, the team members introduced other faculty members to EPSA, who then have independently started to utilize aspects of the EPSA method in their programs. This paper describes how the faculty members responsible for a “Professional Issues” course for engineering students have been using the EPSA scenarios. The course instructors have found that the interdisciplinary EPSA scenarios generated more enthusiastic and higher level discussion than case studies that focused solely on ethics. For example, one group of professors selected to use the EPSA “Alternative Energy” scenario due to their University’s recent acquisition of a bio-fuels energy plant. This scenario includes economic, political, regulatory, ethical, and environmental considerations, including such issues as effects of regulations on utility prices, reliability of renewable energy, global warming, and the international markets for energy. In addition to using the EPSA scenarios, interest was expressed in having the students write their own scenarios for use in the class. The faculty involved with the “Professional Issues” course felt the process of writing, and discussing EPSA scenarios would both enhance the students’ interest in the scenario subject, and lead to a more mature understanding of the issues raised in the scenario. The EPSA includes an assessment tool for crafting timely, relevant, and engaging scenarios, which was utilized by the students to create their own scenarios. Several student created scenarios were utilized in the professional issues course, and the results from the using the scenario are discussed. This paper also includes presentation of several EPSA scenarios and the materials required to implement the EPSA method; the scenario assessment tool, discussion prompts, and the EPSA rubric. Finally, the paper addresses how the EPSA method may be utilized at both the classroom and program level.
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