Engineering Design Projects Research Articles

Student-led development of a lightboard to enhance future student learning

Lightboards are emerging technologies, helping to optimize online and flipped classroom environments by enabling the instructor to face the audience while writing on a transparent board. Although both commercial and do-it-yourself designs of lightboards are currently available, we have conducted a student-led engineering research and design project to optimize a lightboard design for broader use on campus to enhance the learning of future students. Through systematic side-by-side comparison, the team determined that Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass is more appropriate than standard window glass for larger lightboard designs, despite its higher cost. The fully built and validated solution is housed in the campus Library for broad implementation into classroom environments throughout all institution outlets. The effectiveness of the lightboard is evaluated through a student comparison of short online videos generated using three separate formats: narrated slides, whiteboard, and the new lightboard. Students in a hybrid in-person and online class favored having the instructor facing the camera (76%), hand-written content (64%), and the use of more advanced technology (67%). Furthermore, through a pairwise polling comparison, students consistently favored the lightboard over narrated slides or simple whiteboard presentation formats.

Promoting Equity by Scaling Up Summer Engineering Experiences: A Retrospective Reflection on Tensions and Tradeoffs

A central challenge in engineering education is providing experiences that are appropriate for and accessible to underserved communities. However, to provide such experiences, we must better understand the process of offering a geographically distributed asset-based out-of-school program. This paper focuses on a collaborative research project that examined the broad implementation of the Summer Engineering Experiences for Kids (SEEK) program organized by the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). SEEK is a three-week summer program that engages participants in hands-on, team-based engineering design projects. NSBE’s goal is to make SEEK culturally sustaining, community-connected, and scalable. The purpose of this paper is to provide a retrospective reflection on various aspects of our collaborative project and highlight a series of tradeoffs that must be carefully considered to offer and examine the effectiveness of an intervention designed both to affirm cultural background as well as to broaden access. Guided by Yosso’s community cultural wealth (CCW) framework, we engaged in individual reflection and group discussions about the evolution of our three-year project. We considered the six types of capital outlined in CCW to examine various program design elements and tradeoffs. By illuminating the tradeoffs that are required, we hope this paper can help other program designers and researchers to intentionally, preemptively, and proactively consider such tradeoffs.

Analysis of Damages in Layered Surrounding Rocks Induced by Blasting During Tunnel Construction

A layered rock mass is a special type of geological body. The existence of a bedding surface may lead to a poor cutting effect (over/under-excavation of the surrounding rock), falling of blocks, or collapse, thereby affecting most constructions in areas with such rocks. Given the lack of a proper quantitative analysis method for surrounding rock damages, the construction process of layered surrounding rock tunnels becomes difficult. To address these problems, three types of cut blasting models with single, double, and four holes are studied in this paper. With this, the LS-DYNA program is used to analyze the behaviors of stress wave propagation, crack propagation, and fracture modes, as well as fracture mechanisms of mudstone, sandstone, and layered rock. Using the image processing technology and fractal theory, the fractal dimension change trend and progressive damage evolution behavior of the three types of rocks under different cut blasting conditions are determined. Also determined is the corresponding relationship between the fractal dimension and the rock damage degree. The results indicate that crack initiation, propagation, bifurcation, and fractal dimension evolution are more closely related to the phenomenon where the compression wave is ahead of the tension wave, and the[Formula: see text]incompatible deformation of the bedding under single-hole blasting. Under double-hole and four-hole blasting, the phenomena, such as spalling, bedding crack penetration, and fracture connection between the explosive holes are caused mainly by the effects of stress concentration, reflected tension waves, and stress wave superposition. Moreover, under different blasting conditions, the rocks exhibit a similar progressive damage process, i.e. a rapid increase at first, then a slow rise, and finally a stabilization phase. The dynamic damage degree of the rock exhibits a linear increasing trend under different blasting holes. The study results provide a useful reference for blasting scheme design and optimization of underground engineering projects.

Incorporating Global Distribution with Site-Specific Data for Probabilistic Analysis of Soil–Water Characteristic Curve of Bentonite

Abstract Probabilistic analysis of the soil–water characteristic curve (SWCC) is essential for the application of reliability-based design (RBD) in unsaturated geotechnical engineering projects. Co...

Design, Synthesis, and Manufacturing of a Competitive Lightweight, Space-Frame, Open Wheeled, Single Seated All-Terrain Vehicle

The process of designing a vehicle isn’t a simple task. The procedures of designing a safe, reliable, high performance, lightweight, space-frame, and single seated All - terrain vehicle (ATV) through applying the necessary scientific tools, engineering knowledge, and skills are highlighted in this work. An ATV was designed according to specific rules predefined by the Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE) board to ensure a high level of safety during the execution of different steps. The project was created with the idea that the best way to learn engineering is by doing engineering, where the vehicle described in this project is the result of the integration of several junior and senior engineering design projects. An innovative steering system design is introduced, including mathematical optimization of an inverted Ackerman steering system linkages. Experimental testing of suspension system components took place, and for improving ride comfort, anti-dive and anti-squat mechanisms were implemented. The vehicle was designed mainly for endurance purposes, so more attention was drawn to components’ durability and frame rigidity to sustain the severe conditions of stress arising from typical off-road driving obstacles (sand, mud, gravel, stone, dirt,...etc.), in addition to driver comfortability to secure sustainable driving as much as possible on rough terrains.

Comparative Study of Engineering Design Project Assessment Rubrics to Address the Washington Accord’s Complexity Attributes

Over the years, various reports confirmed the importance of complex problem-solving in the workplace. However, in most cases, engineering educators often fail to design assessment rubrics that drive the ability to solve complex problems among the students. Literature review revealed that the studies of assessment rubrics in higher education have been undertaken in a wide range of disciplines but not in the field of engineering. Hence this study attempts to present the gaps in four assessment rubrics which were designed to assess engineering design projects. It applied comparative case studies to analyze and synthesize the similarities, differences and patterns from the assessment rubrics to produce generalizable knowledge about how and why particular assessment rubrics work or fail to work against the attributes of complex engineering problem solving and complex engineering activities defined by the International Engineering Alliance (2013), and the essential features of rubrics proposed by James Popham (1997). The results showed that engineering rubric designers generally fulfilled the requirements of designing a rubric. The shortcomings, however, it was found that not all-important design skills were addressed and limited characteristics of complex engineering problem solving were practiced by engineering educators, and the absence of complex engineering activities in the design of assessment rubrics. The understanding of these shortcomings is expected to benefit engineering educators in enhancing their instructional materials for implementing complex problem solving in engineering design projects and subsequently improve the ability of the engineering graduates to solve complex problems.

Spatial interpolation of the extreme hourly precipitation at different return levels in the Haihe River basin

The return level is an important measure for the extreme precipitation, and maps of the return level are used to derive information for the design of hydrological and hydraulic engineering projects. The interpolation of hourly extreme precipitation is challenging due to low station density and high inhomogeneity. Hourly precipitation observations at 232 weather stations in the Haihe River basin from 1961 to 2012 were used to evaluate six interpolation methods including Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW), Ordinary Kriging (OK), Kriging with External Drift (KED) assisted by different covariables and Empirical Bayesian Kriging (EBK) for generating 2-, 5-, 10-, 20-, 50-, and 100-year return level maps for the basin. Leave-one-out cross-validation showed that although there was a high correlation coefficient between hourly extreme precipitation and the elevation (DEM), KED incorporating DEM as the covariable (KED_DEM) did not improve the interpolation efficiency compared with OK. KED with the annual average precipitation as the covariable (KED_AP), which had the largest Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient (NSE, 0.89–0.45) and the smallest root mean square error (RMSE, 2.23–15.05 mm) for the six return levels, outperformed the other five methods compared. The return levels varied from 13 to 46, 20–66, 24–78, 26–89, 29–110 and 30–134 mm, with mean values of 30, 40, 48, 57, 67 and 75 mm for the 2-, 5-, 10-, 20-, 50- and 100-year return levels, respectively, in the Haihe River basin. The return level maps of extreme hourly precipitation in the Haihe River basin were generated based on the KED_AP method and showed a spatial distribution of decreasing trend from the southeastern part to the northwestern part of the basin. The high-value centre moved from the eastern coastal area for smaller return level maps to the southern area for the 50- and 100-year return level maps. This study may provide some insights into the spatial interpolation of extreme precipitation on an hourly scale.

Application Research on the Integration of Civil Engineering and Computer-aided Building System Based on the Development of BIM

Building informatization and industrialization are mutually advancing in the development process. After BIM technology is widely used in the construction industry, the modeling functions of BIM include standardized components for building building models, “error and leakage collision” inspection, and simulation simulation construction. These functions are in Building industrialization has great advantages in the construction process of prefabricated buildings, especially the standardized design process in the engineering project design stage, which helps to vigorously promote the standardized construction. There is a certain correlation between the improvement of civil engineering construction quality standards and the background of intelligent development. People are more concerned about the quality of engineering projects, and social publicity has been reached for the safety and green environmental protection of buildings. It is imperative to realize technological innovation in civil engineering. The fusion technology of civil engineering technology and computer-aided building system combines building technology, civil engineering technology, control technology, etc. with computer support systems to develop a new type of intelligent building technology. The integration and application of civil engineering and computer-aided building systems are highly valued by the country, which will lead the development direction of the wood construction industry. For colleges and universities, the research and study of the integration and application of civil engineering and computer-aided building systems not only puts forward new requirements for student learning, but also provides new ideas for the direction of employment, and at the same time has a deeper understanding of the relevant research system of universities change. The article mainly explains the working principle of BIM, based on the BIM development background and the integration advantages of civil engineering and computer-supported building systems for specific applications in construction projects, with the goal of promoting the further development and popularization of this technology.

The Manchester perspective on using the Design Project to enhance the education of chemical engineering students

AbstractThe Design Project is a major piece of work for any undergraduate in chemical engineering, and it enables students to demonstrate skills and knowledge gained elsewhere in the degree programme alongside their own abilities to create and innovate. As such, the main learning process is activity based and associated with the undertaking of an open‐ended, but time‐limited, project that poses significant challenges to most students. Particularly in the UK context, the importance of the Design Project is recognized via its inclusion as a separate and very significant element in the accreditation of all engineering degrees. During the past decade, developments in the Chemical Engineering Design Project at the University of Manchester have led to international recognition and prestigious awards. This perspective article aims to identify the best education practices associated with the Manchester experience and to share these for the potential benefit of programmes elsewhere. The paper includes specific details regarding the module specifications, learning outcomes, organization of the Design Project activities, individual and team‐based work, reporting requirements, assessment procedures, and other aspects. The feedback received annually from students and fellow Design Project programme directors from other universities is also considered and the different perspectives are evaluated. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).

Response Surface Method Analysis of Chemically Stabilized Fiber-Reinforced Soil.

One of the significant issues persisting in the study of soil stabilization is the establishment of the optimum proportions of the quantity of stabilizer to be added to the soil. Determining optimum solutions or the most feasible remedies for the utilization of stabilizing products in terms of their dose rates has become a significant concern in major civil engineering design projects. Using the response surface methodology, this study primarily focused on investigating the optimal levels of reinforcement fiber length (FL), fiber dosage (FD), and curing time (CT) for geotechnical parameters of stabilized soil. To realize this objective, an experimental study was undertaken on the California bearing ratio (CBR) and unconfined compressive strength (UCS). Hydraulic conductivity (HC) tests were also performed, with stabilizer proportions of 6–12 mm for the FL and 0.2–0.6% for the FD calculated for the total dry weight of soil and 6% lime (total weight of dry soil). The curing times used for testing were 0, 7, and 14 days for the CBR tests; 60, 210, and 360 days for the UCS tests; and 7, 17, and 28 days for the HC tests. All practical experiments were conducted with experimental techniques using stabilizer proportions and curing times. The FL, FD, CT, CBR, UCS, and HC response factors were determined using the central composite design. The results point toward a statistically significant model constructed (p ≤ 0.05) using the analysis of variance. The results from this optimization procedure show that the optimal values for the FL, FD, and CT were 11.1 mm, 0.5%, and 13.2 days, respectively, as these provided the maximum values for the CBR; 11.7 mm for the FL, 0.3% for the FD, and 160 days for the CT corresponded to the maximum values for the UCS; and 10.5 mm for the FL, 0.5% for the FD, and 15 days for the CT led to the minimum value for the HC. In practice, the suggested values may be useful for experiments, especially for preliminary assessments prior to stabilization.

Cultural Inheritance and Innovation—Taking the Heilongjiang Garden Design of the Garden Expo as an Example

With the rapid development of social science and technology civilization, and the acceleration of urbanization, the requirements of urban landscape planning and design are also paying more and more attention to the design concept of “adopting measures to local conditions and putting people first”. Therefore, the inheritance and innovation of urban landscape planning and design based on the culture that can represent local characteristics is a respect for and inheritance of traditional regional culture, the integration of traditional culture and the culture of the new era, and the inevitable trend of modern landscape planning and development. This essay uses the Heilongjiang Garden Engineering Design Project of the Garden Expo as a case to carry out the regional landscape planning and design, inheriting the regional characteristics, and proposing the design concept of “nature and culture growing on black soil”, integrating the characteristics of white mountains and black water into the garden, and seeing the big from the small Interpret the characteristic landscape impression of Heilongjiang and provide a reference for the design of the exhibition garden project in the future.

Chemical engineering design project undertaken through remote learning

The design project represents the culmination of a chemical engineering student’s degree, which is intended to enable students to demonstrate technical competency and achieve team-based learning outcomes. Conventionally the design project is taught through face-to-face learning, however recent circumstances around Covid-19 have required engineering degrees to pivot to remote learning and here the outcome of chemical engineering design project taught through remote learning is reported. The class was tasked with designing processes for vitamin B2, B3 or E production, based on teams of 5 students. The structure of the design project consisted of three major assessments tasks around process feasibility and development, unit operation designs and economics, with students required to undertake group as well as individual assessments. The process by which the design project was taught remotely is presented here; in terms of educator-student engagements, promotion of student interaction within teams, online tools and ensure students had access to appropriate software. The outcome was a successful final year design project for chemical engineering students, which achieved comparable performance outcomes to previous years’ face-to-face teaching as well as demonstration that student interactions within teams are vital to a successful outcome.

Roles of curing conditions on properties of soil reinforced with palm fiber and lime

Due to the environment-friendly properties of palm fiber, its use was attempted to improve the quality of soil together with lime. Unconfined compressive tests were carried out on soils mixed with palm fiber and lime under the three curing conditions of immersion in water, cyclic wetting–drying and air-curing for a series of contents of additives. The static stiffness of five types of samples (the number 1 type is the control sample) was also analyzed against curing conditions, curing time and sample type. Results from the tests show that the immersion in water condition is the best for the formation of unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and static stiffness, while the air-curing condition is the worst. The highest UCS can be acquired with 1% palm fiber and 20.7% lime, and the highest static stiffness was acquired with purely 20.7% lime content. The fastest increase rate is presented by the curing condition of immersion in water. The logarithmic function is more suitable for expressing the relationship between static stiffness and curing time. It is important for site engineers to understand the curing conditions and stabilizing mechanism of palm fiber and lime for the design and construction of civil engineering projects.

Attempts at low carbon dioxide construction: successes, failures and the way forward

Many public-sector construction clients and their civil and structural engineering consultants are trying to address the climate emergency, but with varying degrees of success. Ambitions include reusing structures and selecting construction materials with low or negative carbon dioxide emissions. This paper evaluates attempts at low carbon dioxide design in typical building and civil engineering projects, including using local hardwood for structural purposes. It concludes that while major opportunities exist in many projects to lower the structure’s embodied carbon dioxide, misconceptions and commercial realities can get in the way. Suggested actions for civil engineers and others are proposed.

Effects of Rock Specimen Size on Mechanical Properties in Laboratory Testing

AbstractThe design of rock engineering projects requires an estimation of the strength of intact rock blocks. These blocks can be significantly larger than the typical laboratory test specimen; thu...

Numerical Simulation of Deep Foundation Pit Construction under Complex Site Conditions

Based on the deep foundation pit project of Laoguancun station of Wuhan rail transit line 16 and according to the engineering characteristics of the construction conditions and the site surrounding the environment, the method of combining field monitoring and finite element numerical simulation is adopted to analyze the law of stress and deformation of the deep foundation pit during excavation and support construction; it includes the horizontal displacement of the underground diaphragm wall, supporting axial force, and the ground surface settlement, which can be compared with measured data. Finally, some suggestions for monitoring and construction of the deep foundation pit in the subway station have been put forward and have certain reference value and practical guiding significance for the design and construction of similar engineering projects. The deformation monitoring of the retaining structure at the middle of the long side of the foundation pit should be strengthened during the construction process.

Post-Evaluation Feedback Mechanism of Geological Oil Reservoir Engineering

Post evaluation of oilfield productivity construction project is a comprehensive work. Reservoir engineering project, as the hardcore of entire post evaluation, is the basis of oil production and surface engineering project post evaluations. The feedback effect of post evaluation on reservoir engineering project has two points: later adjusting on block evaluated and guidance for reservoir engineering project design. It has important significance to oilfield development adjusting that accomplishing feedbacks well of post evaluation work and information.

Magnitude amplification of flash floods caused by large woody in Keze gully in Jiuzhaigou National Park, China

Wood is an important component of flash floods and debris flows in forested mountainous areas. To better understand the characteristics of large wood (LW) movement and its destructive effects on check dams, bridges, and buildings, we conducted field investigations and theoretical calculations on the flash flood process in Keze gully in Jiuzhaigou National Park (China). Based on the gully characteristics and the calculation method, the magnitude amplification ratio of flash flood peak discharge caused by the clogging and breakage processes associated with LW transport reached 2.83 to 3.03 times the mean peak discharge upstream of check dam No. 1. Moreover, the limit analysis and limiting equilibrium state methods were adopted to analyze the additional impact force of LW on the sidewalls of check dams, which resulted in sidewall breaking and sediment block function loss of the check dam. Furthermore, we analyzed the LW transport pattern and formulated a conceptual model of LW transport, including the LW length, channel width, and standing tree spacing. Through this case study, we put forward that the magnitude amplification ratio and the additional impact force of LW should be considered in the design and construction of mitigation engineering projects in forested mountainous areas.

Rock Mass Classification for Columnar Jointed Basalt: A Case Study of Baihetan Hydropower Station

Rock mass classification is important in preliminary design of geotechnical engineering projects. Using the columnar jointed basalt at the foundation of Baihetan Hydropower Station as an example, this paper presents a classification scheme of the columnar jointed rock. Unlike many common rock masses, an obvious characteristic of columnar jointed rock is that it is discontinuous in geometry while continuous in mechanics. Due to the inapplicability of existing rock mass classification systems, a classification scheme, combined with rock mass integrity, weak plane tightness, and permeability, is proposed. The new classification system has five grades with quantitative factors, which takes into account the features of columnar joints. As an easy-to-use scheme and case study, it would be helpful as a reference in the rock mass classification of similar problems.

Development of an AI Userbot for Engineering Design Education Using an Intent and Flow Combined Framework

As the inclusion of users in the design process receives greater attention, designers need to not only understand users, but also further cooperate with them. Therefore, engineering design education should also follow this trend, in order to enhance students’ ability to communicate and cooperate with users in the design practice. However, it is difficult to find users on teaching sites to cooperate with students because of time and budgetary constraints. With the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in recent years, chatbots may be the solution to finding specific users to participate in teaching. This study used Dialogflow and Google Assistant to build a system architecture, and applied methods of persona and semi-structured interviews to develop AI virtual product users. The system has a compound dialog mode (combining intent- and flow-based dialog modes), with which multiple chatbots can cooperate with students in the form of oral dialog. After four college students interacted with AI userbots, it was proven that this system can effectively participate in student design activities in the early stage of design. In the future, more AI userbots could be developed based on this system, according to different engineering design projects for engineering design teaching.