Master of Science / Department of Architectural Engineering and Construction Science / Kimberly Waggle Kramer / Architecturally exposed structural steel, AESS, is a unique member designation used in contract documents to describe steel members designed according to stringent provisions as to be completely exposed in close proximity to the human eye after the structure is completed, rather than concealed from view. These members are often used to convey architectural art or expression, and have a distinctive beauty that attracts the eye. The requirements for AESS members are much more stringent than those for typical structural steel members, and therefore is more controversial as to whether it is worth the extra attention it requires. The purpose of this report is to examine the design, detailing, fabrication and execution of architecturally exposed structural steel. This is done by examining what contributes to each of these stages from design to field erection. Much of this report is based on guides and sample specification by various sources, including the Structural Engineers Association of Colorado (SEAC), Rocky Mountain Steel Construction Association (RMSCA), and the AISC 303-10 Code of Standard Practice for Steel Buildings and Bridges (American Institute of Steel Construction Committee on the Code of Standard Practice, 2010) in addition to other sources. The conglomeration and in-depth review of this information provides the Structural Engineer, Architect, Fabricator and Owner an enhanced understanding and knowledge of AESS, as to make better decisions throughout its use.

Master of Science / Department of Architectural Engineering / Fred Hasler and Russ Murdock / The correlation between natural and artificial lighting and the human circadian rhythm was researched to determine how changing artificial lighting design could improve the working environment in healthcare facilities. Research showed that human circadian rhythm is largely influenced by daylight and the accompanying light color (CCT) change in a day. Consequently, healthcare providers who are not exposed to daylight are isolated from this natural indicator. This can disjoint their circadian cycles from a normal rhythm and lead to physiological and psychological complications. Daylighting and standard artificial lighting design conditions were observed at Mercy Regional Medical Center (MRMC) in Manhattan, Kansas,. Then, healthcare providers at MRMC were anonymously surveyed about their perceived alertness throughout a typical working shift . The data was charted and plotted against a normal circadian rhythm to demonstrate whether a normal or disjointed cycle was experienced by healthcare providers. The comparison of this data to observed lighting conditions exhibited the necessary influence of daylight on achieving a normal circadian rhythm. This study reinforced the information available from many other sources connecting healthcare lighting and the circadian rhythm. Working on this premise, research suggested two lighting designs that would improve the working environment in healthcare facilities. The first of these would be the inclusion of circadian rooms. Special rooms in a healthcare facility would be available to staff in order to provide light therapy. Short wavelength blue light, experienced at optimal times throughout a shift, would act as stimulants (similar to daylight cues), adjusting employees' circadian cycles to normal when daylight exposure was unattainable. Alternately, a healthcare facility working on set, not-staggered, shifts could incorporate a variable lighting system. This system would rely on specialized lights to alter light color (CCT) throughout a shift to mimic daylight rhythms. Accordingly, staff would be exposed to daylighting cues from artificial sources and experience normal circadian rhythms.

Master of Science / Department of Architectural Engineering and Construction Science / Kimberly Waggle Kramer / This report discusses the two main types of structural connections used for fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) pultruded shapes, which are mechanical and bonded connections. The most common types of mechanical and bonded connections for FRP pultruded shapes are bolted and adhesively bonded joints respectively, and the advantages and disadvantages of each are discussed. Bolted connections are the most common type of connection used for FRP pultruded shapes and are therefore the focus of this report. Limit states and critical stresses for FRP bolted connections are explained along with the appropriate material properties that are needed to determine them. A simplified mechanics approach to determining the stresses in the FRP material and connection is presented along with a design procedure for FRP connections. A design example is given for a simple beam-to-column shear connection using three materials: FRP pultruded shapes, W-flange steel shapes, and wood sawn lumber in which the beam-to-column shear connection is compared. It is found that the FRP connection is comparable to the steel and wood connections, and all three are able to meet the requirements for the loading conditions given with reasonable results. Possible uses for FRP that would be more ideal than using steel or wood members are presented and areas that still need to be developed or require further research are discussed.

Master of Science / Department of Architectural Engineering and Construction Science / Raphael A. Yunk / The conservation of energy is an increasingly important issue. To raise awareness of energy conservation, the State of Kansas initiated the Take Charge Challenge, which focuses on energy conservation in homes across Kansas. The program pits city against city in a competition to determine which city can conserve the most energy in one year. In the spirit of friendly competition, Manhattan, Kansas, home of the Kansas State University Wildcats, and Lawrence, Kansas, home of the University of Kansas Jayhawks, competed in the Challenge during 2011. At the end of the Challenge, Kansas State was victorious saving a total of 5,783 million Btu (MMBTUs). In the Spring of 2011, Noel Shultz, first lady of Kansas State University and co-chair of the Take Charge Challenge in Manhattan, set an example for other area residents by having an energy audit performed on her home, the historic Kansas State University President's Residence. The author used the audit, which was performed by an independent company, thermal images, a lighting survey, and various performance calculations to examine energy use in the building. The audit results include suggested improvements in order of importance. The suggestions were to install programmable thermostats, reduce air infiltration, and increase insulation. These improvements have the potential to provide a return on investment, although not all the suggestions are applicable to the home because of its historic nature. Other improvements, such as replacing lamps and insulating windows, were also researched by the author as means to reduce energy use. This paper compares the audit results and the author's calculations to verify whether the suggestions are feasible and would provide a return on investment. Materials were donated by Kansas State University’s Facilities Department for the improvements. Students and faculty volunteers participated in a work project to install the donated material. Only days after the insulation was installed, Mrs. Shultz mentioned that the family could feel an improvement in comfort. Thermal images of the roof verified that the insulation had reduced the heat loss. It is hoped that the improvements will also reduce energy consumption during the winter months.

In this paper a method for evaluating the performance of sunshades and the controlling of the sunshades is presented. The method evaluates the sunshades in the perspective of the availability of useful daylight over the year in the room where the sunshades are installed. The metric is based on a climate based daylight metric called “Useful daylight illuminance” (UDI), which shows the fraction of the occupied time that the illuminance in one point is within a predefined illuminance interval. Furthermore the relation between the presented metric and the consumption of energy was investigated. The method is a result from a literature study. The literature used in the study mainly consists of articles on the subject daylight in buildings and daylight metrics. Two different sunshade technics was evaluated with the presented method, an electrochromic window and an external textile screen. The simulations were made in Rhino 6 and the levels of daylight were calculated with daylight coefficients. According to the results the electrochromic window had a better performance in both the availability of useful daylight and in the consumption of energy for heating and cooling the room.

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 base model building (six-story, steel moment frame, office located in San Francisco) was designed to meet the minimum requirements of the LS or stricter code requirements of the IO performance objectives, respectively. Performance levels were verified using the ASCE 41-06 linear static procedures and ETABS models. The overall cost and cost difference for building the two structures were determined using RSMeans reference manuals. The structural upgrade cost from LS to IO is roughly 1.6% of the $33.4 million initial building cost for a total of approximately $500,000. The financial damage caused to the two buildings due to a series of earthquakes was determined using the ATC-58 Guidelines and the modeling capabilities of its companion software Performance Assessment and Calculation Tool (PACT). Due to PACT’s work-in-progress status and limited quantity of fragility curves representing building components, results are questionable and expected to become more fine-tuned as the software develops and there is an increased availability of fragility curves. Using the PACT program, the difference in annualized loss between the IO and LS buildings was determined to be roughly $40,000. This is equivalent to a 2009 present cost of $590,000 over a 50-year building lifespan. By designing the building to an IO performance level, the owner potentially saves 18% ($590,000 loss to future seismic damages/ $500,000 cost to upgrade) over the life-span of the building. As buildings begin to incorporate state-of-the-art, more expensive and efficient components, designing higher performing structures to protect these upfront costs will prove more beneficial than repairing the components at a future date. Considering building downtime and loss of life would increase the value of savings and provide an additional incentive to design a structure directly to a higher performance level.

This report aims to raise awareness of the hazards of surface fault rupture and to identify parameters that influence structural performance during earthquake fault rupture. In researching structures subject to surface rupture, both damaged and sound, guidelines and procedures to evaluate buildings in potential hazard areas are developed herein. Little to no guidance on how to design for surface fault offset exists in current codes and design guides. Thus it is important create tools for designers to appropriately analyze structures by developing guidance and requirements to aid designers in their strength assessment of a structure subject to this particular hazard. Case studies of structures damaged by fault rupture, detailed in Section 4.0, provide important clues as to how structures respond when subject to surface offset. These case studies highlight structures that have been tested under the imposed deformations of the ground, providing insight into how building layout and construction techniques can protect the structure, even under extreme offsets. A sample evaluation for Bowles Hall (UC Berkeley) is provided herein in addition to preliminary code equations that may be used to verify and determine a structure’s resistance to surface rupture.

By the 1970s the international markets had begun to change and the region’s industries were becoming less competitive. Mines began to close. Factories that had operated night and day fell silent. Their gates closed and they became “brownfield” sites in need of restoration. For the over past 20 years, city planners regenerated these derelict industrial lands in different ways especially focus on renaturalizing them. Less attention is being paid to them as active and strategic roles in contemporary affairs. Today, people’s thinking about this issue demands more the character of sentimental stimulus- for either the re-creation or preservation of past industrial sites- than of visionary or ambitious reprogrammed landscape projects. A combination of nostalgia and consumerism drives this desire while suppressing ambitions to experience and invent.

<p> With the advent of inexpensive computing and efficient power electronics, the load mix in commercial buildings has experienced a fundamental shift away from almost exclusively traditional alternating current (AC) loads toward primarily direct current (DC) loads&mdash;devices which use DC electricity either for end-use or as a power conditioning stage. Simultaneously, installations of DC distributed generation sources for commercial buildings, such as rooftop photovoltaic arrays, are accelerating. Despite this proliferation of DC devices, the basic design of building electrical distribution systems has changed very little in the past century: AC distribution remains the industry standard. The AC-DC electricity conversions required to connect DC sources and loads to the AC electric grid result in wasted energy. Partial replacement of AC distribution with DC distribution can improve overall building electrical energy efficiency; the result is a mixed AC-DC electrical distribution system. This dissertation develops a modeling framework, mathematical program, and global optimization algorithm which determine maximally energy efficient designs for mixed AC-DC building electrical distribution systems. The research approach precisely quantifies building electrical energy efficiency at a systems level, not simply the level of individual devices. The results of two case studies validate the power of the optimization algorithm and demonstrate that well designed mixed AC-DC building electrical distribution systems can achieve higher efficiency than either AC or DC distribution used alone.</p>

<p> Life cycle assessment (LCA) can aid in quantifying the environmental impacts of whole buildings by evaluating materials, construction, operation and end of life phases with the goal of identifying areas of potential improvement. Since buildings have long useful lifetimes, and the use phase can have large environmental impacts, variations within the use phase can sometimes be greater than the total impacts of other phases. Additionally, buildings are operated within changing industrial and environmental systems; the simultaneous evaluation of these dynamic systems is recognized as a need in LCA. At the whole building level, LCA of buildings has also failed to account for internal impacts due to indoor environmental quality (IEQ). The two key contributions of this work are 1) the development of an explicit framework for DLCA and 2) the inclusion of IEQ impacts related to both occupant health and productivity. DLCA was defined as &ldquo;an approach to LCA which explicitly incorporates dynamic process modeling in the context of temporal and spatial variations in the surrounding industrial and environmental systems.&rdquo; IEQ impacts were separated into three types: 1) chemical impacts, 2) nonchemical health impacts, and 3) productivity impacts. Dynamic feedback loops were incorporated in a combined energy/IEQ model, which was applied to an illustrative case study of the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation (MCSI) building at the University of Pittsburgh. Data were collected by a system of energy, temperature, airflow and air quality sensors, and supplemented with a postoccupancy building survey to elicit occupants&rsquo; qualitative evaluation of IEQ and its impact on productivity. The IEQ+DLCA model was used to evaluate the tradeoffs or co-benefits of energy-savings scenarios. Accounting for dynamic variation changed the overall results in several LCIA categories&mdash;increasing nonrenewable energy use by 15% but reducing impacts due to criteria air pollutants by over 50%. Internal respiratory effects due to particulate matter were up to 10% of external impacts, and internal cancer impacts from VOC inhalation were several times to almost an order of magnitude greater than external cancer impacts. An analysis of potential energy saving scenarios highlighted tradeoffs between internal and external impacts, with some energy savings coming at a cost of negative impacts on either internal health, productivity or both. Findings support including both internal and external impacts in green building standards, and demonstrate an improved quantitative LCA method for the comparative evaluation of building designs.</p>