Courses Taught

Outreach

Mechanical Systems

Mechanical Systems are among the most important parts of a building. It is the responsibility of these systems to maintain a comfortable and healthy environment for the occupants of a building.


The above picture is of the Air Handling Unit (AHU) in the mechanical room of the Health and Human Development Building on Penn State's University Park Campus. This air handling unit is responsible for drawing return air from the ducts, mixing it with outdoor air and processing that air to the appropriate conditions to be supplied to the building spaces. Air moves from the right end to the left end of the unit as its parameters are changed to meet the occupants' needs. By opening the doors along the unit it is possible to see the individual components of the AHU.

To use the interactive tour of the AHU hover the pointer over the door labels. Each door gives a thorough description of the equipment in that portion of the AHU as well as some of the concerns to address. This tour is by no means a complete evaluation of a mechanical system, but it provides an excellent point to begin an understanding of the complexity and importance of these building components.

Behind the first door is the return fan. This fan pushes the return air from the building's ducts through the Air Handling Unit (AHU). The fan is over four feet tall.
In the second room there are dampers which can be used to control what percent of the return air is recirculated and what percent is exhausted through the relief louvers on the back wall.
The room behind the third door is a mixing chamber. On the right wall are the dampers which control the return air intake. On the left wall there are mixing veins which ensure proper mixing of the return air with the outdoor air. The outdoor air enters this chamber through louvers on the back wall.
Behind door four we see a large filter on the right wall. The air enters this filter after passing through the mixing veins. The purpose of the filter is to clean contaminants and particles from the air. This ensures that the air is of good quality and that dirt does not build up on the coils such as the cooling coil seen on the left. This coil cools the air to temperatures lower than 55°F. Because cooling could lower the temperature below the dew point a condensate pan is placed below the coil to collect and drain away any water that forms.
Behind door five on the right we get a better view of the cooling coil and the condensate pan. The pan is presently filled with water. This water needs to be drained away or treated so that bacteria don't develop. On the left side of this room we see the heating coil. After the air has been cooled it is reheated to the desired supply temperature, in this case 55-60°F. Because we are heating the air, there is no need for a condensate pan on this coil. This combination of cooling and reheating is one way to control the relative humidity of your supply air.
In the last room, behind the sixth door we see the other side of the heating coil and the supply fan. The air that comes into the room through this coil is pushed, by the fan, through the ducts to the building spaces.

Graduate Student Lectures

The Graduate Student Lectures are an opportunity for graduate students in the Architectural Engineering department to share their research with their peers and the community. It also serves as a valuable tool for the graduate students by giving them experience in speaking in the public forum, a tool that will prove most valuable when they defend their thesis.

The Graduate Student Lectures are back for Spring of 2007. The Schedule for this series of lectures follows and will be updated as more information becomes available. If you are interested in a previous year of the GSL series please follow the appropriate link below.

Previous Series
Spring 2004 Series

Current Series
Name Date Topic
Sezer Atamturktur January 25, 2007 Nonlinear Finite Element Validation with Nonlinear Dynamics: When can a Historic Masonry Monument be Left without Repair?
Leidy Klotz February 22, 2007 The Relationships between Transparency, Process Mapping, and Sustainable Building Delivery
Sinem Korkmaz March 22, 2007 High Performance Green Project Delivery
Paulo Cesar Tabares Velasco April 19, 2007 Studying Thermal Performance of Green Roofs with Laboratory Experiments

Remember to check back regularly for the latest information on Graduate Student Lectures.

Nonlinear Finite Element Validation with Nonlinear Dynamics: When can a Historic Masonry Monument be Left without Repair?
Thursday, January 25 - 12:00PM - 107 Engr. Unit B
Sezer Atamturktur
Flyer

Today's historic masonry monuments were built based on geometric pre-scientific tools, which were developed through accumulated experience rather than modern engineering codes. Contemporary engineers, when called upon to assess the performance of a historic building or to design a retrofit scheme, are confronted with a perplexing structure, which clearly defies the rules of modern engineering. Although several techniques have been proposed in the last century, much needs to be done to accurately understand the real behavior of masonry monuments. Given the known vulnerability of masonry monuments to earthquakes and the number of in-service historic buildings in seismically active regions, assessment of the dynamic response of these structures is particularly important. The present study hypothesizes that the nonlinear finite element method, when validated against nonlinear dynamic testing, can be used to understand the earthquake performance of a monumental historic masonry structure. Based on this hypothesis, the prior knowledge on the topic is evaluated with a critical view and to remedy this problem, a proposed research program is presented.

Attendance: 22 (20 Students, 2 Faculty)

The Relationships between Transparency, Process Mapping, and Sustainable Building Delivery
Thursday, February 22 - 12:00PM - 107 Engr. Unit B
Leidy Klotz
Flyer

Transparency is recognized as valuable in sustainable building delivery. Process mapping is recognized as facilitating transparency. Through study of ongoing process mapping and sustainable building delivery at Penn State’s Office of the Physical Plant (OPP), greater understanding of the relationship between transparency, sustainable building delivery, and process mapping can be acquired. This enhanced understanding will benefit the building industry, and particularly the growing sustainable building market sector. This presentation will outline the current status of the research at OPP, sharing developed process maps and discussing potential value for all Architectural Engineering disciples. In addition, the planned next steps of the research will be presented.

Attendance: 12 (11 Students, 1 Faculty)

High Performance Green Project Delivery
Thursday, March 22 - 1:00PM - 108 Engr. Unit B
Sinem Korkmaz
Flyer

High performance green (HPG) buildings are becoming more widely adopted due to their potential to reduce energy costs and improve the health and productivity of occupants. Delivering a high performance green facility without increasing project costs can be challenging. Although it is widely accepted in the green building community that HPG building project delivery requires intense interdisciplinary collaboration, owner commitment to sustainability and inclusive project teams to meet the set performance goals, little discussion has been devoted to the definitions of HPG project delivery processes and project performance. This presentation will outline the development of a set of metrics to assess HPG building delivery processes and performance outcomes. Lessons learned from preliminary data collection and certain steps of the process will be discussed.

Attendance: 19 (18 Students, 1 Faculty)

Studying Thermal Performance of Green Roofs with Laboratory Experiments
Thursday, April 19 - 12:00PM - 107 Engr. Unit B
Paulo Cesar Tabares Velasco
Flyer

Green roofs are becoming increasingly popular in the U.S. with the green roof industry growing at a rate of 50% for the last four years. Moreover, more than 15 local governments in the U.S. are in the process of establishing incentives to promote green roofs. At present, design engineers do not have a standard calculation procedure or a tool to calculate energy savings from green roofs. This presentation will introduce green roofs and their benefits to society and the environment and outline the current status of the green roof research in thermal performance. Moreover, it will present preliminary results of the thermal performance of a new lightweight tray for the green roof medium. The presentation will further describe the experimental procedure used to measure the heat flux and to calculate the thermal resistance of green roofs.

Attendance:


Original Design by Eric Hough
Webmaster: Brendon Burley
Revised: March 19, 2007