2015-2016 Senior Capstone

Team Members: Gabriel Agrisi Paigel, Ian Morrell, Jon Thorpe, Madeline Fritzen, Daniel Barad, Lauren May, Luke Blanchart 

Faculty Advisor: Noel Bormann

Sponsor: US EPA

 

Center for Engineering Design and Entrepreneurship

Civil Engineering Department Student Project

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

Design Support for Green Building in the Wildland-Urban Interface to Enhance

Sustainability and Fire Resistance

Due Wednesday, October 14, 2015

CEDE - CIVIL ENGINEERING REQUESTS A STUDENT PROJECT PROPOSAL FOR THE FOLLOWING PROJECT:

 A) INTEGRATE GREEN BUILDING AND FIREWISE TECHNOLOGIES WITH SPECIFIC FIRE RESISTANT DESIGNS INTO 4 SCENARIOS.

B) USE ENERGY MODELS AND MONTE CARLO SIMULATION FOR BUILDING PERFORMANCE AND WILDFIRE OCCURRENCE.

C) DEVELOP INFORMATION TO SUPPORT IMPROVED DESIGN AND DECISIONS ON LIFE CYCLE COST FOR BUILDING.

 

 SUMMARY INFORMATION

Due October 14, 2015, before 4:00 PM PST

 One digital copy in pdf format to be uploaded to the FolioTek server.

 

Project Sponsor:

United States EPA P3 Program

 

Project Partners:

The Okanagan County Community Action Council (OCCAC), Okanagan, WA

Mr. Stan Carter, Stan Carter Construction, Okanagan, WA

Mr. George Brady, Mayor of Pateros, WA

Mr. Jord Wilson, Community Development, Pateros, WA

Mr. Wilson Woolschlager, Insurance Professional, Omak, WA

Ms. Kirsten Cook, Education and Outreach, Okanogan County Conservation District

Ms. Kelly Lerner, AIA, Spokane, WA

 

Project Description:

The CEDE - Civil Engineering Department is requiring a proposal from the group of student engineers to provide comprehensive engineering efforts required to develop a group of design support methods for  green building techniques for housing, or other buildings in central Washington, near Okanagan County.  The design support will improve efforts to provide replacement housing for those people impacted by the large fires in 2014-2015.  The designs will use methods to increase fire-resistance of the building, mitigate fire hazards, and improve effectiveness of fire response to promote community resilience. These results will also improve sustainability compared to the conventional housing in the area.

 

Efforts anticipated in the evaluation consist of five topic areas.

1       Sustainability Context and Metrics. Information on community needs and selection of metrics to evaluate sustainability of scenarios. This information will be used in later tasks.

 

2   Model Inputs. Develop detailed information required in performance modeling.

2.1     –Scenario material selections. Select material used in scenarios and required properties for structural design, fire-resistant designs, and energy modeling. Use in models.

2.2     –Scenario design. Each scenario will be designed and preliminary drawings will be prepared. Scenario, climatic data, and specific fire-resistant features will be designed and made compatible with model software.

2.3     –Scenario modeling development. Each scenario will be prepared for modeling using DOE EnergyPlus and Palisade @Risk mode software. Used in later tasks.

 

3   Model of Building Performance. Each scenario will be modeled and checked.

3.1     –Modeled performance of energy and fire resistance. Results from the model runs will be checked, summarized for evaluation, and provided as input to project partners for developing criteria and importance factoring in SMART. Also will be used in later tasks.

3.2     –SMART evaluation of model results. Based on interactions with project partners, the SMART evaluation will be completed using model results, the calculations of the discounts of costs and benefits, and the outputs from Task 1.

 

4   Preparation of decision-support materials. The team will use inputs from the project partners and the results/outputs from Tasks 1-3 to prepare informational products to provide to end-users of the project results. Two formats of information will be prepared: tabular graphics and spreadsheets.

 

5   Dissemination of project results/outputs. In conjunction with the project partners the two formats of materials will be distributed at the Okanogan County Fair. Table-top building models and activities will be prepared to encourage participation and increase dissemination.

 

Project activities will result in the preparation of reports, calculations, drawings and presentations that accomplish the tasks given in the scope. Meetings with community partners in Okanagan County will be required.

 

Effort	Student Area	Tasks	General Focus
Structural and house design	CENG	2, 3	Construction, estimating, drafting, construction inspection, scheduling
Energy modeling	MENG, CENG	2, 3	Computer applications, drafting, HVAC work
Social context for sustainability	ENVS	1, 4, 5	Public interactions, technical writing, developing metrics of sustainability
Monte Carlo modeling	CENG	2, 3	Uses of statistics, math
Preparation of informational products	ENVS, CENG, MENG	1, 4, 5	Writing, speaking, public interactions and developing graphical information.
SMART evaluation	ENVS, CENG, MENG	3	Group dynamics and scoring of feedback
Information dissemination	ENVS, CENG, MENG	5	Leading activities, workshops, trainings, sales, customer service

 

The project will also require the implementation of project management techniques in the completion of the engineering efforts, including interaction with the community partners, liaisons, project advisors, specific activities for monitoring effort and progress, updating the project schedule preparing status reports, gathering information required for design at the site and from appropriate regulatory agencies.

 

PROPOSAL EVALUATION PROCESS

The proposal evaluation process will be determined by the project advisor in conjunction with the CEDE, the project co-investigators, and the CEDE Design Advisory Board.  It will be based on the organization of the project efforts reflected in the proposal and the educational goals achieved in the completion of the proposal.  Note that some efforts in the project are oriented to achieve educational goals that are not required to achieve the project sponsors goals.

 

The proposal developed will focus primarily on the implementation of the EPA project proposal using the team members and resources available, with the project time table and EPA requirements as additional constraints.

 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

This project is a continuation of prior efforts. A detailed EPA proposal that is the basis for the project funding is available for the project team to review.

 

The Carton Complex fire began July 14, 2014 and the Okanogan Complex fire is burning now (August 25, 2015). Over 600,000 acres have been burned in the past two years and over 300 homes are destroyed.  The fire area lies between Omak and Chelan, between Highway 20 on the west and Highway 97 on the east. In addition to this fire, there are many other instances where wildfires have had huge impacts on communities throughout the country. Despite efforts of Federal, State, County, local governments and researchers, housing in the Woodland-Urban –Interface (WHI) faces significant hazards from wildfires. Approaches to mitigate the fire damage range from strategic land use policy to tactical efforts to effectively fight wild fires. Increasing the acceptance green building methods that can improve fire resilience can be a benefit to millions of people.  This project will identify opportunities for funding fire-resistant housing through reduced insurance premiums, energy savings and other programs. 

 

Using green building principals in a region with fire hazards can improve resilience to all hazards, and increase overall sustainability of the community. Development in the community is positive and proactive rather than exploitive and reactive.  By strengthening the building stock—homes, public buildings, and commercial properties—the community can more readily concentrate on developing other critical assets that allow for growth, opportunity, and stability for the long term.

 

PROJECT INFORMATION AVAILABLE FROM PROJECT PARTNERS

A Project report from 2015 is available for the team, and a detailed EPA proposal will be the basis for the proposal submitted.  A large amount of literature, books, drawings web sites and news also exist.

 

The project team must familiarize themselves with the existing condition of the project in order to properly prepare the project proposal.

 

The Okanagan County Community Action Council (OCCAC), Stan Carter Construction, the Mayor of Pateros, Mr. George Brady and Wilson Woolschlager, an insurance businessman have all agreed to support the project with the local, specific knowledge needed to properly address this effort. In addition various other political entities will be involved.

 

STUDENT PROJECT ACTIVITIES REQUIRED

The student project group will, at a minimum, provide the following efforts and deliverables in the completion of the project addressed in this proposal:

 

Scope of Activities Required to Meet Project Goals

 

 

Task 100                          Project Management and Coordination

The student group shall organize, manage and coordinate the efforts required to accomplish the project using standard project management and contract administration techniques. Key management activities are identified below:

 

          Sub-Task 110                   Kick-off Meeting

The Student Team will conduct a kickoff meeting with their project advisor and sponsor liaison's to gain familiarity for the project and to solicit input, gather available data and information.

 

          Sub-Task 120                   Routine progress-review meetings

Routine progress-review meetings will be conducted on a regular basis. Weekly progress reports are required and are to be submitted electronically to the advisor by 5:00 pm each Thursday. Weekly progress reports must include, at a minimum, activities completed by each team member for the current week, expected work for the upcoming week, and updates to the project design budget and schedule.

 

In addition, a complete hardcopy record of the project reports and files must be maintained by the student team and be made readily available during consultations with the advisor. Typical method would be a project notebook. The advisor and liaison will ask to review this notebook periodically to discover the status of the work being completed. 

 

          Sub-Task 130                   Regular Advisor and Liaison Meetings

After the kick-off meeting, the Student Team will have routine work sessions to accomplish deliverables. 

 

All meetings with advisor and liaison MUST be arranged by members of the Student Team at least 2 days in advance of the meeting. The Project Manager will send a meeting agenda and the minutes from the previous meeting to the advisor, project partners, and liaison at least 2 days prior to the meeting.  All meetings must be documented by the Student Team in the form of meeting minutes with action items identified and who will be responsible for that action.

 

 

          Sub-Task 140         Quality Assurance/Quality Control

The Student Team will perform a methodical QA/QC effort in a manner suitable to the project advisor and liaison, to prevent incorrect, sub-standard or dangerous results from being included in the end of semester project reports.

 

          Sub-Task 150         Project Schedule / WBS /Gantt Chart and Project Budget

The proposal must contain a Gantt chart that shows the due dates from the CEDE schedule as milestones, each sub-task, the duration of time proposed to complete the subtask and the team member responsible for the subtask. The Gantt chart will show at least the end date for the subtask (start date, duration are possible) dependent tasks.

 

The student group will include a “proposed” budget that details the costs of completing the project design tasks. This budget is not the “engineers construction cost estimate” to complete the implementation of the design; rather, it is the costs to perform the engineering tasks and includes the fictitious value of project team personnel hours. The value of the personnel hours and direct costs (travel, books, and models) will be the proposed budget and will simulate the budget a consulting group would charge to complete the project.

 

Task 100 Deliverables

• Electronic copy of agenda for team meetings.
• Electronic updates to project design budget and schedule that includes budget and personnel hours for each sub-task in the entire project.
• Electronic copy of resolutions and action items for each meeting.
• Statement on the QA/QC activities for reports submitted at the end of each semester to describe the review and checking procedure employed.

 

 

Task 200                          Project Data Collection and Required Site Visits

Participate in initial site visit to project area.

 

Work collaboratively with partners and regulatory agencies’ staff to develop project data suitable for a preliminary design.  Data may include climate, soils, geology, site survey, economic information and other data.  Proposal submitted is to identify data needs and collection methods for project.

           Sub-Task 210                  Collect Climate, Geological, Physical and Land use Data  

Collect and maintain a record of information gathered to support evaluation. 

 

           Sub-Task 220                  Collect Information on Political and Governmental Programs Applicable to the Project

Collect and maintain a record of information gathered to incorporate users’ needs and governmental needs into evaluation. Meetings in Okanagan County will be required. 

 

Task 200 Deliverables

• Electronic copy of data and mapping, reports or surveys completed for the project and to be included in the project report.

 

 

Task 300                          Sustainability Context and Metrics

The student team will develop information on community needs and selection of metrics to evaluate sustainability of scenarios. This information will be used in later tasks.

 

Task 300 Deliverables

• Electronic copy of community and sustainability data, analysis and evaluations, completed to be included in the project report.

 

Task 400                          Model Inputs    

Develop detailed information required in performance modeling

 

Sub-Task 410                   Scenario material selections

Select material used in scenarios and required properties for structural design, fire-resistant designs, and energy modeling. Use in models. 

 

           Sub-Task 420                  Scenario design   

Each scenario will be designed and preliminary drawings will be prepared. Scenario, climatic data, and specific fire-resistant features will be designed and made compatible with model software. 

 

           Sub-Task 430                  Scenario modeling development    

Each scenario will be prepared for modeling using DOE EnergyPlus and Palisade @Risk mode software. Used in later tasks.

 

Task 400 Deliverables

• Electronic copy of data and analysis and evaluations, completed to be included in the project report

 

Task 500                          Model of Building Performance   

The student team will Each scenario will be modeled and have performance features checked before use in establishing design recommendations.

 

          Sub-Task 510                   Modeled performance of energy and fire resistance

Results from the model runs will be checked, summarized for evaluation, and provided as input to project partners for developing criteria and importance factoring in SMART. Also will be used in later tasks.

 

          Sub-Task 520                   SMART evaluation of model results.

Based on interactions with project partners, the SMART evaluation will be completed using model results, the calculations of the discounts of costs and benefits, and the outputs from Task 1.

 

Task 500 Deliverables

•  Electronic copy of drawings, design calculations, calculations, data and analysis and evaluations, completed to be included in the project report.

 

Task 600                          Preparation of decision-support materials  

The team will use inputs from the project partners and the results/outputs from Tasks 1-3 to prepare informational products to provide to end-users of the project results. Two formats of information will be prepared: tabular graphics and spreadsheets.

 

Task 600 Deliverables

• Electronic copy of data and analysis and evaluations, completed to be included in the project report

 

Task 700                          Dissemination of project results/outputs  

In conjunction with the project partners the two formats of materials will be distributed at the Okanogan County Fair. Table-top building models and activities will be prepared to encourage participation and increase dissemination.

 

Task 700 Deliverables

• Electronic copy of data and analysis and evaluations, completed to be included in the project report.
• Physical demonstration displays

 

Task 800                          Project Reports and Presentations  

The project team is required to prepare and present on the progress of the project. 

 

Sub-Task 810                   CEDE Reports and Presentations

Prepare required reports, presentations, and materials for class requirements

 

Sub-Task 820                   EPA Report and Presentations and Phase II Proposal

Prepare required EPA report, National Design Expo presentation, and Expo demonstration materials for project requirement.

 

Task 800 Deliverables

•  Specific information to be placed into proposal document.