Because of the crack’s appearance in concrete over time, the concrete strength decrease. To prevent deterioration and heavy costs of reparation, concrete chemical additives are usually added but their cost are prohibitive and not very sustainable along time. Successful research projects have been using encapsulated bacteria in the concrete which reactivate at the contact of air and water -when cracks appear. These bacteria multiplicate in the cracks and die which create a precipitation and fill the cracks.
Heavy industrial construction projects consist of oil refinaries which generally involve complex structures, large-scale sites, and large numbers of workers from different disciplines such as civil, mechanical, and chemical. These disciplines may require similar or completely different scaffolding systems in order for workers to not only access their working areas but also move material horizontally and vertically.
Concrete elements are extensively used in urban structures including high-rises, bridges, dams and tunnels, and testing their quality and monitoring their health is of extremely high importance in the industry.
In this project, use of piezoelectric transducers along with wireless communication and memory elements is suggested to overcome the limitations with the current methods. Piezoelectric elements are embedded in a concrete element at the time of construction. They will later generate alternating forces in the concrete and sense the reaction of the elements.
The overarching goal of this partnership is to develop a modular accelerated building construction system that is suitable for implementation into the Canadian marketplace. The use of the post-tensioned, and friction-based, connections for modular system connections is atypical of North American design procedures and the reliance on these connections for resisting sustained gravity loads is generally not supported in existing Canadian building design standards.
Working closely with me, the two interns will have an opportunity to engage with a timely question engendered by the global pandemic: What is changing in our approach to the public realm, and how can we embrace these changes as positive forces in urban design. We will be working quickly on a time-sensitive challenge, in ways that bridge the conceptual thinking that characterizes architectural education with the pragmatic and pressing problem of a local economy in distress.
Our proposal continues our SFPE International research project on Anthropometric Data and Movement Speeds but directs the project’s goal to enhancing fire engineering resource development and research dissemination in Quebec. Our proposal is multi-staged. We primarily focus on the finalization of the compilation of existing emergency movement data which can be used by various engineering consultancies conducting ASET / RSET analyses or alternative solutions for egress management.
The Canadian federal government committed to encouraging low carbon alternatives and the growth of clean technology that reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It is stated that the new target is to reduce GHG emissions by 80% by 2050, relative to 2005 GHG levels. In order to achieve this goal, one of the government’s strategic plan is to promote systems and technologies that minimize natural gas/fossil fuel usage and increase the use of clean electricity.
Tooliaba is a web based software as a service platform that provides coordinated rental of tools and equipment. The research project into the site will test the UX/UI viability as well as the overall user experience. The desired project is the creation of a well-designed, user friendly app/MVP (minimum viable product) that follows good UI/UX design principles. The app will allow users to rent tools online. Many people working on home improvement or building projects require specialized tools for one time use.
3D concrete printing and the digital design processes associated with this technology are developing quickly across the world, both in academia and in practice, moving from the realm of the artisan to the early stages of automated manufacturing.
How do architects engage this emerging new field that combines fabrication technologies with material in their design processes? Emerging use of ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) creates designs without steel reinforcing in thinner structures by using fine sand and integrated fibre reinforcements.
Vent & Cover wants to develop in conjunction with UBC and UWO, an enclosure that can slip over electric baseboard heaters and create a safe-to-touch exterior while still allowing the heater to heat the room safely and effectively. The project will have 2 major components, the first of which is to develop an efficient thermal design that redistributes the heat safely. The second component is to determine the optimal material to compliment the design and maintain the objective of a safe-to-touch exterior.
