Matching Items (53)
Description
Hospitals constitute 9 percent of commercial energy consumption in the U.S. annually, though they only make up 2 percent of the U.S. commercial floor space. Consuming an average of 259,000 Btu per square foot, U.S. hospitals spend about 8.3 billion dollars on energy every year. Utilizing collaborative delivery method for hospital construction can effectively save healthcare business owners thousands of dollars while reducing construction time and resulting in a better product: a building that has fewer operational deficiencies and requires less maintenance. Healthcare systems are integrated by nature, and are rich in technical complexity to meet the needs of their various patients. In addition to being technologically and energy intensive, hospitals must meet health regulations while maintaining human comfort. The interdisciplinary nature of hospitals suggests that multiple perspectives would be valuable in optimizing the building design. Integrated project delivery provides a means to reaching the optimal design by emphasizing group collaboration and expertise of the architect, engineer, owner, builder, and hospital staff. In previous studies, IPD has proven to be particularly beneficial when it comes to highly complex projects, such as hospitals. To assess the effects of a high level of team collaboration in the delivery of a hospital, case studies were prepared on several hospitals that have been built in the past decade. The case studies each utilized some form of a collaborative delivery method, and each were successful in saving and/or redirecting time and money to other building components, achieving various certifications, recognitions, and awards, and satisfying the client. The purpose of this research is to determine key strategies in the construction of healthcare facilities that allow for quicker construction, greater monetary savings, and improved operational efficiency. This research aims to communicate the value of both "green building" and a high level of team collaboration in the hospital-building process.
ContributorsHansen, Hannah Elizabeth (Author) / Parrish, Kristen (Thesis director) / Bryan, Harvey (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
The problem is that children in developing countries are doing our dirty work. Electronic waste that end up in landfills in these developing countries pose a danger to the children extracting metals that are then resold in local markets. The dumping of solar panels in these landfills is sometimes the only alternative for some manufactures because there is no viable option for silicon wafers. Solar panel installations started to peak in the early 1990's . With the lifespan of a solar panel being 25 years, recycling these panel is not a priority task in government policies. First Solar is currently the only company in the United States that executes the full recycling process. However, there is an environmental hotspot and an energy intensity phase identified in their process. The second stage in First Solar's recycling method consist of hammering and shredding the solar panel to reduce the surface area to then move on the chemical path stage. This stage currently uses 1.1 kWh for a meter by meter solar cell. A thermal processing method was explored and found to be the most environmentally conscious chose in terms of emissions and energy cost. The thermal method uses a conventional furnace to burn away the EVA, leaving the internal components of the cell intact and ready for the remaining process of recycling. SLICE method aims to introduce an industry tailored, low energy cost process, that initiates a solar panel recycling infrastructure in the United States. The recycling infrastructure is needed to sustain the exponential growth of solar panels and avoid third party recycling to developing countries. This new method transitions from lab tested batch processes to a continuous process.
ContributorsMartinez, Mariana (Co-author) / Grayson, Madison (Co-author) / Seager, Thomas (Thesis director) / Ravikumar, Dwarak (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Engineers spend several years studying intense technical details of the processes that shape our world, yet few are exposed to classes addressing social behaviors or issues. Engineering culture creates specific barriers to addressing social science issues, such as unconscious bias, within engineering classrooms. I developed a curriculum that uses optical illusions, Legos, and the instructor's vulnerability to tackle unconscious bias in a way that addresses the barriers in engineering culture that prevent engineers from learning social science issues. Unconscious bias has documented long-term negative impacts on success and personal development, even in engineering environments. Creating a module in engineering education that addresses unconscious bias with the aim of reducing the negative effects of bias would benefit developing engineers by improving product development and team diversity. Engineering culture fosters disengagement with social issues through three pillars: depoliticization, technical/social dualism, and meritocracy. The developed curriculum uses optical illusions and Legos as proxies to start discussions about unconscious bias. The proxies allow engineers to explore their own biases without running into one of the pillars of disengagement that limits the engineer's willingness to discuss social issues. The curriculum was implemented in the Fall of 2017 in an upper-division engineering classroom as a professional communication module. The module received qualitatively positive feedback from fellow instructors and students. The curriculum was only implemented once by the author, but future implementations should be done with a different instructor and using quantitative data to measure if the learning objectives were achieved. Appendix A of the paper contains a lesson plan of the module that could be implemented by other instructors.
ContributorsLauber, Emily Anne (Author) / Wernimont, Jacqueline (Thesis director) / Mertz, Benjamin (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Hydrogen is a key indicator of microbial activity in soils/sediments and groundwater because of its role as an electron donor for reducing sulfate and nitrate and carrying out other metabolic processes. The goal of this study was to quantitatively measure the total biological hydrogen demand (TBHD) of soils and sediments in anaerobic environments. We define the total biological hydrogen demand as the sum of all electron acceptors that can be used by hydrogen-oxidizing microorganisms. Three sets of anaerobic microcosms were set up with different soils/sediments, named Carolina, Garden, and ASM. The microcosms included 25g of soil/sediment and 75 mL of anaerobic medium. 10 mL of hydrogen were pulse-fed for 100 days. Hydrogen consumption and methane production were tracked using gas chromatography. Chemical analysis of each soil was performed at the beginning of the experiment to determine the concentration of electron acceptors in the soils/sediments, including nitrate, sulfate, iron and bicarbonate. An analysis of the microbial community was done at t = 0 and at the end of the 100 days to examine changes in the microbial community due to the metabolic processes occurring as hydrogen was consumed. Carolina consumed 9810 43 mol of hydrogen and produced 19,572 2075 mol of methane. Garden consumed 4006 33 mol of hydrogen and produced 7,239 543 mol of methane. Lastly, ASM consumed 1557 84 mol of hydrogen and produced 1,325 715 mol of methane. I conclude that the concentration of bicarbonate initially present in the soil had the most influence over the hydrogen demand and microbial community enrichment. To improve this research, I recommend that future studies include a chemical analysis of final soil geochemistry conditions, as this will provide with a better idea of what pathway the hydrogen is taking in each soil.
ContributorsLuna Aguero, Marisol (Author) / Krajmalnik-Brown, Rosa (Thesis director) / Delgado, Anca (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Too often are American superhero comics dismissed as childish or simplistic. However, American superhero comics have evolved alongside American society throughout history, and have, in many cases, made a conscious effort to represent progressive movements that have arisen within various respective decades. This thesis will analyze the progression of American superhero comics as they have evolved throughout the decades, this essay will focus primarily on the comic book storylines of DC's, The Green Lantern, throughout the Golden, Silver, Bronze and Modern Ages of comic book history. The Golden Age was defined by war efforts and support for World War II. The Silver Age was under heavy regulation by the Comic Code Authority and had to water down content from serious topics. Despite this regulation, Silver Age comics were able to symbolize and support or oppose social movements during their respective decade. However, the Bronze Age acted as a turning point for comic book plotlines and characterization. After the Bronze Age, censorship of comic book content was nonexistent and more complex plotlines were developed. From then on the Modern Age of comics would continue to openly explore societal movements and serve as a social commentary. To explore this change, the contents of this essay will usher a discourse on how the American superhero was used to first express American propaganda, and how, throughout the twentieth century and even to this day, the superhero was transformed into a medium that examines social phenomena such as political causes and discrimination. To further analyze and compare social movements to American comics, this will focus primarily on DC's The Green Lantern comic books and how the superhero changed throughout comic book history.
ContributorsTomlin, Andrea (Co-author) / Baily, Alka (Co-author) / Arena, Paul (Thesis director) / Stanford, Michael (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
There has been much work done predicting the effects of climate change on transportation systems, this research parallels that past work and focuses on the effect of changes in precipitation on roadway drainage systems. On a macro level, this work addresses the process that should be taken to make predictions about the vulnerability of this system due to changes in precipitation. This work also addresses the mechanisms of failure of these drainage systems and how they may be affected by changes in precipitation due to climate change. These changes may entail more frequent failure by certain mechanisms, or a shift in the mechanisms for particular infrastructure. A sample water basin in the urban environment of Phoenix, Arizona is given as a case study. This study looks at the mechanisms of failure of the infrastructure therein, as well as provides a process of analyzing the effects of increases in precipitation to the vulnerability of this infrastructure. It was found that drainage structures at roadways being currently designed will see increases from 20-30% in peak discharge, which will lead to increased frequency of failure.
ContributorsHolt, Nathan Thomas (Author) / Chester, Mikhail V (Thesis director) / Mascaro, Giuseppe (Committee member) / Underwood, Benjamin S. (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Clean and accessible drinking water is a crucial and limited resource. As the world's population grows and demand increases, water resources will become more limited. This project aims to educate students on water resources, drinking water, and how biomimicry can allow society to improve its water usage. The project consists of a ten day unit plan which addresses several water topics such as: the various uses of water, water distribution, where drinking water comes from, the water treatment process, and more. After establishing background knowledge on water and surrounding issues, the students will be challenged to design a water bottle using biomimicry. Biomimicry is looking at nature to draw and inspire solutions to human problems. This unit has been optimized for use by elementary teachers. The ten day unit consists of a lesson summary, objectives, standards, and recommended activities for each day. Of the ten days, three lesson plans were fully developed using the 5E format. The research supporting this project is compiled in the following report.
ContributorsSalik, Rachael (Co-author) / Burke, Aurora (Co-author) / Walters, Molina (Thesis director) / Larson, Kelli L. (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
The culture of the 1970s in the United States of America was progressive and revolutionary. Due to various events that were unfavorable to the public, U.S. citizens began to lose trust in their government. Signs of the public's revolt and dissention began to show in laws and propositions voters passed. In California, Proposition 13 was one of many anti-tax laws taxpayers voted for to cut back the control of the government. As a result, revenues for public services and improvements decreased and maintenance allocations for infrastructure systems were considerably reduced. Fast-forwarding to today, infrastructure systems in the U.S. are reaching their retirement period and are requiring extreme maintenance and attention. Los Angeles has been experiencing severe water main breaks in its water distribution system for several years now, but the city is lacking funds to replace the aging pipes. The lack of funds paired with aging infrastructure indicates there is a flaw in the forecasting analysis techniques used today to project infrastructure costs. Therefore, an alternative discounting function to the exponential is proposed: the hyperbolic discounting function. A comparative analysis was performed using a hyperbolic and an exponential discounting function. The two functions were calibrated over the course of 50 years and the parameters r and a were determined. Then the discounts were applied to a 50-year expenditure projection for pipe replacements of a water distribution system. The present value was computed with each discount function and results were obtained. By year 50, the hyperbolic function yielded a higher present value of $25.06 million and the exponential function yielded a present value of $14 million. These results lead to the conclusion that the hyperbolic discounting function is the preferred methodology when calculating long-term expenditures, especially those dependent on tax revenue.
ContributorsSawyer, Madeline Elizabeth (Author) / Seager, Thomas (Thesis director) / Clark, Susan (Committee member) / McBurnett, Lauren (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Productivity in the construction industry is an essential measure of production efficiency and economic progress, quantified by craft laborers' time spent directly adding value to a project. In order to better understand craft labor productivity as an aspect of lean construction, an activity analysis was conducted at the Arizona State University Palo Verde Main engineering dormitory construction site in December of 2016. The objective of this analysis on craft labor productivity in construction projects was to gather data regarding the efficiency of craft labor workers, make conclusions about the effects of time of day and other site-specific factors on labor productivity, as well as suggest improvements to implement in the construction process. Analysis suggests that supporting tasks, such as traveling or materials handling, constitute the majority of craft labors' efforts on the job site with the highest percentages occurring at the beginning and end of the work day. Direct work and delays were approximately equal at about 20% each hour with the highest peak occurring at lunchtime between 10:00 am and 11:00 am. The top suggestion to improve construction productivity would be to perform an extensive site utilization analysis due to the confined nature of this job site. Despite the limitations of an activity analysis to provide a complete prospective of all the factors that can affect craft labor productivity as well as the small number of days of data acquisition, this analysis provides a basic overview of the productivity at the Palo Verde Main construction site. Through this research, construction managers can more effectively generate site plans and schedules to increase labor productivity.
ContributorsFord, Emily Lucile (Author) / Grau, David (Thesis director) / Chong, Oswald (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
As inhabitants of a desert, a sustainable water source has always been and will continue to be a crucial component in developing the cities Arizonans call home. Phoenix and the surrounding municipalities make up a large metropolitan area that continues to grow in spatial size and population. However, as climate change becomes more of an evident challenge, Arizona is forced to plan and make decisions regarding its ability to safely and efficiently maintain its livelihood and/or growth. With the effects of climate change in mind, Arizona will need to continue to innovatively and proactively address issues of water management and the effects of urban heat island (UHI). The objective of this thesis was to study the socioeconomic impacts of four extreme scenarios of the future Phoenix metropolitan area. Each of the scenarios showcased a different hypothetical extreme and uniquely impacted factors related to water management and UHI. The four scenarios were a green city, desert city, expanded city into desert land, and expanded city into agricultural land. These four scenarios were designed to emphasize different aspects of the urban water-energy-population nexus, as the future of the Phoenix metropolitan area is dynamic. Primarily, the Green City and Desert City served as contrasting viewpoints on UHI and water sustainability. The Expanded Cities showed the influence of population growth and land use on water sustainability. The socioeconomic impacts of the four scenarios were then analyzed. The quantitative data of the report was completed using the online user interface of WaterSim 5.0 (a program created by the Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC) at Arizona State University). The different scenarios were modeled in the program by adjusting various demand and supply oriented factors. The qualitative portion as well as additional quantitative data was acquired through an extensive literature review. It was found that changing land use has direct water use implications; agricultural land overtaken for municipal uses can sustain a population for longer. Though, removing agricultural lands has both social and economic implications, and can actually cause the elimination of an emergency source. Moreover, it was found that outdoor water use and reclaimed wastewater can impact water sustainability. Practices that decrease outdoor water use and increase wastewater reclamation are currently occurring; however, these practices could be augmented. Both practices require changes in the publics' opinions on water use, nevertheless, the technology and policy exists and can be intensified to become more water sustainable. While the scenarios studied were hypothetical cases of the future of the Phoenix metropolitan area, they identified important circumscribing measures and practices that influence the Valley's water resources.
ContributorsVon Gnechten, Rachel Marie (Author) / Wang, Zhihua (Thesis director) / White, Dave (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12