In recent years, multiple historic and contemporary timber buildings have been instrumented with sensors to monitor the performance of wood products and novel engineering systems. While literature states the potential of structural health monitoring (SHM) data to inform decision-making process of key stakeholders in the architects, engineers, contractors and manufacturers...
Cross laminated timber (CLT) is a relatively new engineered wood product that has elevated the prospects of utilizing wood as the primary structural material for mid and high rise buildings. The hygrothermal performance of CLT, however, is still not well understood at the material, assembly and building scales. A major...
Post-tensioned (PT) self-centering shear walls were designed to reduce structural damage from seismic activity. However, these lateral force resistant systems experience post-tension loss negatively affecting the re-centering capability due to delayed deformations experienced by engineered wood products over time. The long-term mechanical response of mass-timber panels to in-plane PT loads...
Restoration programs effectively prevent or mitigate wildfires and pest outbreaks in the forest lands. The most common approach is to selectively harvest smaller and dead trees in order to preserve larger and superior trees. Ponderosa pine, Pinus ponderosa, (PP) lumber is one of the common species harvested from restoration programs...
The two primary considerations for construction project management are budget and time management. Modular construction has the potential to improve construction productivity by minimizing time and costs while improving safety and quality. Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) panels are beneficial for modular construction due to the high level of prefabrication, adequate dimensional...
This thesis consists of three manuscripts related to the methodology of evaluating charring behavior in cross laminated lumber panel specimens subjected to fire performance tests on cross-laminated lumber panel specimens. The topic of the first manuscript is the measurement of char rates of unprotected CLT layups fabricated with ponderosa pine...
In the last few decades new trends and innovations in wood products have emerged that are changing the way we can use this material in buildings. Additionally, wood is a material that has been touted to have many positive attributes in comparison to nonrenewable construction materials such as steel and...
Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) is one of the latest engineered wood products to show promising structural features for a variety of structural purposes including resisting lateral loads. For CLT to be widely adopted, its modal behavior needs to be fully evaluated through experimental and numerical methods. It is important to the...
As mass-timber building construction rises around the globe, there exists the need to verify the long-term, in-situ behavior and performance of these structural systems. Structural health monitoring (SHM), generally defined as a damage detection strategy consisting of a network of sensors, a data acquisition system, and algorithms for data analysis,...
This paper discusses elementary, and secondary (K-12) teachers’ perceptions of cross-reality (XR) tools for data visualization and use of sensor data from the built environment in classroom curricula. Our objective was to explore the use of sensor-informed XR in the built environment and civil engineering (BECE) field to support K-12...
In response to climate change and limited resources this paper reviews cohousing as a possible option for sustainable development. Sustainable design practices that incorporate economic, environmental and social issues need to be present in our neighborhoods. Other development methods incorporate one, but not all three, of the triple bottom line...
Organizations are significantly influenced by corporate cultures of the interacting organizations. Both the construction industry and engineered wood products (EWP) manufacturing industry are generally known for operating in a traditional environment maintaining conservative corporate cultures, which can create friction when they try to interact with a more liberal architectural industry...
Due to its availability, versatility, structural capability, and economic advantages, concrete is the most widely used material in building sewer networks and other wastewater structures such as treatment stations, wastewater digesters, septic tanks, pumping stations, hydraulic risers, utility risers and covers, etc. Concrete structures exposed to sewer environments can experience...
Chloride binding in Portland limestone cements (PLC) can be attributed to the chemical reaction between chloride ions and carboaluminate phases to form Friedel’s salt and the physical interaction between chloride ions and calcium-silicate-hydrates (C-S-H). This thesis examines the chloride binding of mortar samples containing varying amounts of limestone, fly ash,...
Conflicts and disasters displace millions of populations worldwide. There is a need for rapid and affordable housing to cater to the needs of the displaced and unhoused population. Experience from previous post-disaster responses shows that temporary housing should be rapidly deployable, planned for months to years, and should be environmentally...
The forest products industry relies on the production of high-quality wood to satisfy consumer requirements. Improving wood quality requires an effective and inexpensive technique for measuring critical properties such as density and microfibril angle. An emerging technology known as near-infrared hyperspectral imaging (NIR HSI) essentially captures surface images of samples...
With growing interest in mass timber, especially mass timber panels (MTP), there has been a need to better understand their structural properties. One of the most versatile uses for MTP are as floor systems. Under new code provisions, these floors can be utilized in new and taller building types, but...
Timber-concrete composite (TCC) floors have improved strength and stiffness when compared to timber-only floors, allowing for longer spans in buildings and improved life safety. However, North America does not have codes and standards that recognize TCC floors, particularly the improved life safety performance of these floors in fire. Therefore, alternate...
This thesis seeks to determine whether a self-driving car's behavior should depend on the hearing status of its passengers: namely, hard-of-hearing (including deaf) or hearing. It is believed that auditory deprivation provokes adaptations in visual attention. These adaptations may lead to atypical movement patterns that can translate to different driving...
Cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels have been gaining popularity as diaphragm elements in mid- to high-rise construction projects. In addition, CLT-concrete composite (CCC) diaphragms have been implemented to expand the use of CLT diaphragms. To understand the behavior of CLT and CCC diaphragms, this research effort sought to characterize the cyclic,...