UPDATES

September 19, 2013:

This past week we have been in the preliminary design process of our project. We have been creating drawings of how we would like the connection to look. We have constraints for our projects including the fire lane that is currently between the Biology Building and Holman Hall. We have to design the connection so that it is high enough and so that the middle portion is high enough for the fire lane requirements to be met.

This week we measured the exisiting connection between the Chemistry building and the Biology building to use those measurements as a reference for our project. We would like the connection that we design to look very similar to the one that is already created so we want to have similar spacing and aesthetics.

September 25, 2013

This week we surveyed the area between the Biology building and Holman Hall. We did not use a data collector, therefore it was necessary for one person to write down the number of each point and what that point was collecting data for. We surveyed so that we could know the elevations of the ground, the first floor elevations of the two buildings, and the exact distance between the two buildings. We have found physical copies of the design manual that is needed for our loads and will use the description of 'school corridor' to depict which loads will be plausible for use.

We have an idea that if necessary we will excavate the ground between the two buildings about a foot deeper as to not need to raise the connection drastically. If using handicap accessible ramps in our connection, we will make the ramps more shallow than necessary, using a slope of 1:15 instead of 1:12 just to be conservative. This coming week we will have a final design for the shape of the connection and design most of the loads that will be on the structure.

October 2, 2013:

After meeting with Professor Vallee, the current surveying professor, we concluded that the most efficient way to survey the land was to use more advanced technology. Professor Vallee offered to bring his surveying equipment from his office and help us survey. We will be doing that on Friday, October 4th. Besides surveying, this week we have compiled a more accurate list of the components involved in the dead loads, live loads, and loads from nature for our structure.

We have talked to Ms. Rothermel about the architechtural design of the connection and we have made a final decision that the connection will definitely go from second floor to second floor and be in the center of the two buildings. This situation may involve excavating the ground below the connection to accomodate for the fire lane, but we are still determining if that is necessary. We have decided that we are definitely going to have ramps on the end of the connection with a flat hallway connecting the two ramps.

The spacing of the columns is the next feature we need to make a concise decision on becuase we are not sure if it is supposed to be identical spacing as the other connection or if we should make them wider considering the link is longer between Biology and Stem. This next week we will work on calculating the live, dead and nature loads and determining a final spacing.

Structural

Geotechnical

September 12, 2013:

Today the team met with Linda Rothermel, The College of New Jersey's Campus Architect and Director of Planning. Ms. Rothermel was extremely helpful in helping the team find a design project for the 2013 - 2014 academic year. During this meeting, Ms. Rothermel gave Evan the Soil and Foundation Engineering Reports for the New Education Building, Library, and Phelps and Hausdoerffer Halls. Evan was also given the utilities plan for the campus.

September 19, 2013:

Evan has been working to identify the soil layers that exist throughout the TCNJ campus using the Soil Reports provided by Ms. Rothermel, as well as the Soil Report for the Art and Interactive Multimedia Building, provided by Dr. Krstic, the geotechnical engineering professor at TCNJ.

October 15, 2013:

This past week the utilities in between Hollman Hall and the Biology Building were marked out by PSEG. With the utilities marked out, Evan can put in a groundwater monitoring well and can also obtain soil samples for laboratory testing. Evan will also attempt to hand auger to a depth where he sees a change in soil strata. This information will be used to create a soil profile along with the Soils Report provided for the New Education Building. Evan was also able to create a topographic map this week with the surveying data that was collected by the team with the help of Professor Vallee.

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October 16, 2013:

These past two weeks we ended up surveying with Professor Vallee. He brought his equipment to campus and we used that to survey the area. Professor Vallee sent us the data points in a format that is compatible with AutoCad. We used these points to create a topographic map of our area. We concluded that the center of the fire lane in between the two buildings is 2.5 feet lower than the first floor elevation of the biology building. We have decided that the spacing of the columns will be 12.4 feet. This leaves 36' in the center of the connection for the fire lane with five columns on each side of the fire lane arch. We created a drawing of the connection on AutoCad that shows the slope of the ends and the spacing of the columns.

Also these past two weeks we talked to Ms. Rothermel and received plans of the education building as well as the specification books. With these items along with the design manual that we were given in structural, we completed a list of the materials that were to be used in the construction of the connection. We compiled a spreadsheet of the dead loads and live loads that are necessary to design the beams and columns of this connection. This next week we are planning on designing the beams and columns using the loads that we have found.

October 30, 2013:

The past two weeks we have been finalizing some calculations and preparing our presentation for the preliminary design review. We created CAD drawings of the side, top, and cross section views of our connection. We also completed the loads from nature using the ASCE 7 Manual. We finalized the topographic map that shows points throughout the specified area. Beringer calculated the dead loads that were to be applied from both the floor and the roof onto the slab, beams, and columns. He also calculated the wall load calculations and designed a one way slab. We are in line with our progress schedule for the time being and hope to stay that way.

The next few weeks we will be learning STAAD.pro and applying the loads that were calculated to the members using this program. We will be designing the connection using both steel and concrete to see which material is more feasible.

November 13, 2013:

We have started to design the beams and columns for the structure using steel members. This is done using the AISC Manual. We have to take the gravity loads, live loads, and lateral loads into consideration when completing these calculations. We have started to learn Viusal Analysis to apply the loads through a program and check the adequacy of the members.

Beringer has been designing the beams for the floor while Flores is designing the beams for the roof. Stephanie is designing the columns as beam-columns using methods from Structural Steel Design I.

The next few weeks we will be completing the design of the steel members and applying the loads via Visual Analysis. We may begin to design the structure using concrete as well.

January 25, 2014:

The steel design is now completed and the Fall final report was given back to us and corrected.

The team spoke with Professor Al'Omaishi and is beginning to design the concrete floor beams, roof beams, and columns.

February 15, 2014:

The team has continued to design the reinforced concrete members. We have met with our advisor and changed our calculations multiple times. We are deciding whether to use reinforced concrete or steel for the final design of our structure.

February 28, 2014:

The team has chosen to use steel members in the final design of the structure. We are now looking into designing the connections between the steel members.

We are using our knowledge obtained in Steel Design I as well as Steel Design II to correctly design the structure and connection.

March 15, 2014:

The team has had to make multiple adjustments on the design of the concrete members. The team has given Professor Al'Omaishi their final concrete calculations to make sure they are correct. The team has done some research on the pros and cons of using steel instead of concrete.

Stephanie did research on steel connections between beams and columns. The team has chosen to use a bolted connection between the beams and columns in the connection between the Biology and Stem building.

In the next couple weeks, the team needs to finalize the bolted connections in the steel and come up with a cost analysis for the entire project.

March 31, 2014:

Professor Al'Omaishi checked our concrete design and it was correct. The team has almost finalized the steel connections. This week we will be working on completing a cost analysis of the entire project as well as starting our final report for the Spring.

The team must also begin to work on the final Spring presentation and write the final abstract.