Articles

CE Club April 2016 Update

Build-a-Beam with L.A. Fuess Partners

James Kleineck and Phillip Pesek from L.A. Fuess Partners put on the Build-A-Beam Challenge for the CE Club students, which was perfect given that they had just gone over a simple beam analysis problem the previous day. Each class was split into teams that were given six 2”x20” strips of foam core board to build a beam. They were also given hot glue guns and roofing nails to connect the foam core board pieces together. The teams were free to use the nails, hot glue, or both to build their beam section. Finally, the teams were informed that the ultimate goal of the Build-A-Beam Challenge was not to achieve the highest capacity but to achieve the highest efficiency by dividing the ultimate capacity of each team’s beam by the beam weight. This challenged the students to consider carefully the amount of materials used in their beam design. The beams were loaded to failure by hanging a paint bucket at mid-span and adding one and two pound increments of sand into the bucket. In the end, it wasn’t always the “strongest” beam that was the most efficient! James and Phil helped students during the design and construction phases of the project, offering advice on beam stiffening and section design. After testing, each beam was examined upon failure and the mentors explained the various failure modes. Additional pictures from the Build-A-Beam challenge can be found here and here. A video recap can also be seen here.

Water Resources Engineering with Kimley-Horn

Troy Hotchkiss and William Weidman of Kimley-Horn Associates talked to the WWHS CE Club about the challenges faced by environmental engineers. The students had the unique opportunity to learn about a real-world project in Dallas: The Bachman Interceptor. The project revolved around an aging reinforced concrete sanitary sewer running underneath the Bachman Lake Dam and alongside the majority of the lake. The existing pipeline was corroding, leaking, and had inadequate capacity for projected future growth in the area it was serving. A condition assessment was conducted to determine the extent of the pipeline replacement that would be required. Troy outlined many of the constraints and influences that he had to deal with while working on this project including: balancing public impact issues, the close proximity to Love Field Airport and Bachman Lake, very challenging underground conditions including high groundwater and unstable soils, overhead power lines, unknown private lines underground, and surrounding wetlands.

The students were split into four groups with each group being given one of the four alternative routes that were given to the City of Dallas for the pipeline replacement. Each group had to then consider the routing criteria for the pipeline and fill out a criteria matrix that rated the importance level of each criteria item. These criteria items included cost, constructability, permitting, operations and maintenance, public inconvenience, and coordination with major stakeholders. Troy then showed the students the actual results from the coordination meetings that took place on the project. The students then had the opportunity to learn about and discuss why each criteria was given more weight or importance over others.

Finally, Troy discussed and showed pictures of the trenchless technology (microtunneling) that was used on the project in order to minimize the impact construction would have on the facilities and roads above ground.