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Introduction to a Demolition Topics Course
Get PDFThe California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) Construction Management (CM) program was created to allow graduates the opportunity to work effectively in practically every part of the construction industry. The curriculum covers a wide range of topics and prepares students with the ability to join various projects, such as residential, commercial, and heavy civil projects. What these projects all have in common, a topic almost entirely ignored at Cal Poly but nonetheless very important and relevant, is demolition in the construction industry. By offering a course focused entirely on the demolition process, principles, and safety, students will be better prepared for the workforce and will have a much broader knowledge on demolition in general. Ensuring smart and safe practices and procedures in demolition is integral and can be applied to the whole industry. This research paper analyzes students\u27 prior knowledge on demolition and then explains why demolition knowledge is important for the industry. This paper explores students’ interest on the topic and ensures there is a desire for new knowledge. A topics course on the subject will better prepare students as effective construction managers
Teaching Feminist Media Studies in a Post-Weinstein Era
Get PDFIn this critical commentary, I will address the concept of witnessing as it relates to contemporary feminist empowerment while also properly situating Weinstein-produced films as historical mediated texts
ARCE 415 Portfolio
Get PDFThe purpose of this studio is to design a sun shelter for children at the SLO Botanical Gardens. It will be used for outdoor presentations and learning experiences. When coming up with the initial design of the shell structure for the SLO Botanical Gardens, the team needed to consider the material being used, the constructability of the structure, the people who would be using the structure, and the overall lifespan of the shell
\u3cem\u3eIn Situ\u3c/em\u3e Marine Biodegradation of Poly(lactic) Acid and Thermoplastic Starch Blends
Get PDFMarine life has been suffering from macro- and microplastics since the inception of petroleum-based plastic. Bio-based biodegradable polymers such as PLA and TPS can help mitigate the damage done by petroleum plastics. Blending PLA and TPS can reduce the cost while preventing a significant effect on the material properties. PLA/TPS blend compositions such as 90/10, 80/20, 70/30 could be candidates for a solution. The PLA/TPS blends have been submerged in a marine environment at the Cal Poly Pier in Avila Beach for 8 weeks. Three sample sets containing three of each blend composition were collected every week and tested in order to measure the change in material properties due to biodegradation over time with respect to TPS percentage. Testing via thermogravimetric analysis, tensile testing, and Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy showed that there were signs of biodegradation, but there is not enough significance to determine if the samples biodegraded in a quantifiable amount over this time-frame
Effect of Oxygen Equivalence on the Strength and Toughness of Ti-6Al-4V Forgings
Get PDFTensile testing and fracture toughness testing were conducted to establish a numerical relationship between interstitial content and performance in forged Ti-6Al-4V. The value of oxygen equivalence was used to represent the interstitial content by combining the weight percent of oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen. The correlation between oxygen equivalence and mechanical properties can be used to accurately predict the performance of forged parts. Samples of forged parts with varying levels of interstitial content were subjected to a recrystallization anneal at 75 F below the beta transus temperature to decrease microstructure variability across parts with a second anneal at 1300 F to relieve residual stress. There was an increase in tensile strength with oxygen equivalence, but the numerical correlation could not be found due to lack of fit. There was a high amount of variation within the data for compositions A and B. The variation in tensile strength for compositions C-F is unknown because only one sample was tested from each composition. Specimen direction (longitudinal vs. transverse) was found to be insignificant for tensile strength. Fracture toughness was on average 11.4 ksi*in^0.5 higher in the L-T direction as compared to the T-L direction. The numerical effect of oxygen equivalence on fracture toughness was inconclusive due to the small data set
Wave Goodbye to Salt
Get PDFOur team of Cal Poly Mechanical Engineers ideated, designed, built, and tested a system to help combat the growing problem of widespread drought in coastal and island communities. We developed a proof-of-concept model of a wave powered, mechanical system to desalinate ocean water using a reverse osmosis process. From topical research, it was found that there are many ways to harness a portion of the huge amount of energy that the ocean provides. While large scale ocean water desalination plants are already in operation, smaller scale desalination units powered by ocean waves are largely underdeveloped. Our relatively small and inexpensive system proved to be effective in many aspects of our testing process, confirming the feasibility of our design concept as we exceeded a flowrate of 1 gallon per hour of desalinated water during ocean testing. In an era where global access to clean drinking water is a huge issue that has been unresolved for decades, this system may be able to make an impact in small coastal communities everywhere around the world
Heating Lanyard to Warm Body Core
Get PDFCalculated Industries, a company that specializes in construction products headquartered in Carson City, Nevada, has sponsored the Heating Lanyard to Warm Body Core senior project. The objective of the project was to design and manufacture a body core heating device that will be used by construction workers to keep warm in cold environments. The goal is to create a device that is safe, comfortable, and temperature controllable. Our team consists of four mechanical engineering students at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Research was performed to analyze current products in the market, analyze how to best provide heat to the body, and determine a product idea to disrupt the current market. Our team designed, manufactured, and tested a body core heating device that will be used by construction workers to keep warm in cold environments. The power and body subsystems are explored and justified by ergonomic and temperature tests on all prototypes. The final prototype exhibits desired specifications such as reaching a high surface temperature of 141F, lasting a minimum of five hours, and weighing 0.56 pounds. A detailed procurement plan of materials necessary to build a single concept prototype was provided and indicates a total cost of 10.70 per unit
Non-Destructive Material Analysis of Metals and Composites via Thermography
Get PDFThe Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, is interested in the development of non-destructive damage assessment of shipboard materials via drones at distance. Long Pulsed Thermography (LPT), a method of non-destructive evaluation, was investigated as a possible method for detecting damage in metals (5005h24 Al alloy and 1008 carbon steel) and composites (aramid fiber honeycomb sandwich structure) at distances from 0.5 m to 3.0 m. LPT was conducted using two 1000 W can lights to heat the samples, and a FLIR E8-XT thermal camera. The images were then analyzed using ImageJ software to determine if damage could be detected from the thermal images. LPT detected damage most consistently in the composite material at distances of 0.5 m and 1.5 m. Camera resolution limited measurement at longer distances. Damage was only detectable at 0.5 m in both metal samples due to the reflection of heat from their surfaces. Though the ImageJ software was able to detect some defects that were visually detectable in the thermal images, it failed to consistently or accurately determine damage size. This study shows that damage detection is possible at near distances (0.5 m-1.5 m) for composites and even shorter distances for metals. However, characterization of samples with marine coatings aided by better image analysis algorithms are needed prior to implementation of this technolog
Eagle Medical Tray Denesting & Debris Removal Process
Get PDFEagle Medical Incorporated is a contract medical device packaging and sterilization company. The company purchases thermoformed medical packaging trays, which maintain the sterility of medical devices, from various manufacturers. To ensure packaging quality and to prevent cleanroom contamination, Eagle Medical inspects and sterilizes each blister tray that they order. This process is an essential non-value-added activity that creates a bottleneck. Cleanroom employees must stop packaging medical devices and attend to the processing of blister trays and packaging solutions. The blister trays arrive at Eagle’s facility in nested stacks. Vibration and movement during shipping further compresses the stacks, which makes separation (denesting) time-consuming. Currently, two employees work simultaneously to manually denest, inspect, and sterilize the trays. They are able to sterilize one blister tray every 1.65 seconds. Eagle Medical is looking to expand this process capacity by 150-200%. The cycle time must be reduced to 0.66 seconds per tray to meet Eagle Medical’s throughput requirements. After conducting research, direct time studies, and observations of the process, the project team concluded that an automated system is the most appropriate solution. The team intends to create a system that utilizes off-the-shelf components to automatically perform the denesting, inspection, and sterilization process. By fully automating this process, clean room employees can focus their time and expertise on the packaging of the medical devices rather than on the blister packaging itself. This shift in resources will allow Eagle Medical Incorporated to meet their expanded capacity goals
Bicep Muscle Rep Counter with SEMG
Get PDFThe Bicep Muscle Rep Counter with SEMG is a device that was made to develop three repetition thresholds or difficulty levels from a fully-flexed bicep brachii muscle and signal to the user when consequent bicep muscle contractions pass said thresholds or levels. This device can be used when performing a bicep-focused movement or when generally flexing the bicep muscle. Essentially, this device serves to make sure each repetition of a muscle contraction passes a percentage value calculated from the electrical activity outputted from a max contraction.
The device is not designed for and does not produce data for muscle growth, workout regimes, muscle health diagnoses, or anything other than the purpose of creating difficulty levels from a sample taken and notifying the user when following muscle contractions pass the threshold