Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1981. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

The metaphor of buildings as "living beings" offers insight into our attitudes towards buildings and how we might conceive of buildings differently as architects. By personifying buildings as being alive, we understand the full life of a building, not only its past history but also its future needs, transformations or uses. The ceremonial opening of a building often assumes a finished construction existing within a fixed moment in time. In reality, however, buildings perpetually evolve throughout their entire lifetime. The story of a building's life, a chronicle of both the process of making and its evolution, can be narrated by the architect through the language of details. This thesis proposes a Gallery + Library Archive for Black Mountain College at the site of a fire-ravaged cotton mill within the River Arts District of Asheville, North Carolina. The project seeks to establish a continuum between the historic past of the site and the current transformations of the district. The architectural design of the new building serves as a vehicle to study buildings in time and details that reveal the process of a building's making. / Master of Architecture

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The thesis started from the nostalgia for the historic district and the life within it. I don't agree with the radical method of reforming the historic district at the moment, which is rebuilding the whole district or demolishing it. I tried to find a new way to reform the historic district, so that the new project can blend into the habitats' lifestyle, in which way people can reconnect to their home land. During the design process, there is movie scenes, kungfu novels, and the living moment from my childhood came to my mind. And I translate those scenes into the spaces in the project through an architectural language. / Master of Architecture / I tried to find a new way to reform the historic district, so that the new project can blend into the habitats' lifestyle, in which way people can reconnect to their home land. During the design process, there is movie scenes, kungfu novels, and the living moment from my childhood came to my mind. And I translate those scenes into the spaces in the project through an architectural language.

Estimates of the depth and variation of lateritic weathering profiles are especially important in tropical areas such as Oahu, HI. Shear-wave velocity data were obtained by a new application of Multi-channel Analysis of Surface Waves (MASW) to map the base of the critical zone, to show variations in the LWP, and to derive weathering rates. The MASW technique proved highly capable of imaging the base of the critical zone, confirmed by lithological well data and direct field measurements. Profile thickness can be obtained without drilling, which has applications in engineering and geochemical studies. The measured rate of advance of the weathering front derived from the thickness measured by MASW ranged from 0.019 m/ka to 0.30 m/ka in mesic zones; about 1500 mm of annual rainfall, while a zone of 800 mm of annual rain fall revealed rates ranging from 0.011 m/ka to 0.013 m/ka. These rates are comparable to geochemically derived rates in previous studies. Standard p-wave seismic reflection data were insufficient for detecting boundaries as the weathering boundaries are gradational and do not produce reflections. Shear-wave models also showed internal velocity variations that may be caused by weathering heterogeneity due to textural differences in parental lava flows. Soil chemistry revealed the nature of weathering products as enriched in Al, Fe, Ni, and Cr, and commonly contain alteration minerals such as halloysite, kaolinite, maghemite, and ferrihydrite. Imaging depth limitations were overcome by innovative experiment designs, pushing the boundaries of the current technology. Increasing offsets and combining dispersion curves allowed for a more objective picking of the dispersion curve into the lower frequency domain. Even further improvements were made from a newly developed form of the active/passive technique. These advancements in technology allowed for detailed imaging of the subsurface with greater modeling confidence. This study showed that velocity models derived from MASW are accurately able to describe laterite weathering profiles in terms of depth and variability, expanding the use of the MASW technique beyond its traditional applications and making it a potential tool of interest for many fields of geoscience.

The goal of service life prediction is to accurately predict the useful lifetime of a coating system in a typical service environment. Field testing is the most true-to-life form of service life testing but requires long exposure times, often not quick enough to readily aid redesign in the product development cycle. As an alternative, accelerated weathering chambers are used to speed up coating failure in a laboratory setting. These devices do indeed accelerate failure but often produce failure modes that are not seen in actual service or produce material rankings that are not reproducible. This work explores the principle of cumulative stressor damage for an exterior architectural coating being exposed to outdoor conditions in San Luis Obispo, California, as well as an accelerated UV/moisture protocol. The accelerated UV/moisture protocol is executed first by ASTM D4587, and then by creating a custom exposure test cycle based on locally observed weather. Comparison of failure mode and quantification of failure is determined by gloss and spectral reflectance measurements. Finally, acceleration factor determination for the new SLO-in-a-box protocol is outlined, with a discussion of preliminary results.

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A severe shortage of many, to mankind, valuable elements are to be expected in the near future. Therefor is it of utmost importance to find these deposits and a way to refine the elements with as little negative effect on the environment as possible. One deposit of valuable elements such as U, V, Mo and Sr are the so called alum shale. Alum shale is a variety of sulfidic black shale which is rich in pyrite, FeS2, and organic carbon. Primary due to its contents of hydrocarbons and uranium the alum shale has been mined at different sites throughout Sweden. One of these sites was Kvarntorp in the region of Närke. The shale which had have its contents of hydrocarbons extracted through dry distillation was dumped into a heap that is now known as Kvarntorpshögen. The remaining hydrocarbons that this processed material still contain are to this day (2011) warm, with temperatures up to some hundred degrees Celsius. Due to this heat, infiltration of rainwater is held at a minimum. What no one knows however; is for how long Kvarntorpshögen will remain warm. Once it cools; many toxic elements will leak into the surrounding environment due to natural weathering caused by precipitation and frost wedging. The study also included a heating treatment of 70°C which is a temperature that the material of Kvarntorpshögen may be capable of generating by itself. This is assumed to be a good temperature for weathering processes; because it increases the kinetics of chemical reactions but also allows the presence of water. The results of this study shows that summer will be the season that contributes the most to the leaching of elements, of which some are toxic. Newly exposed surfaces of various shale materials often contain elements that is easily leached by water. Once this coat is washed away however, further leaching of that element decreases. Exceptions from this pattern in some shale products were shown by for example vanadium and molybdenum. The digestion data show that the completely processed shale, which makes up the majority of Kvarntorpshögen, still have a high content of rare and valuable elements. Making Kvarntorpshögen itself interesting for extraction processes in the future.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 219-237). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

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