Practical Concepts for Capstone Design Engineering

Frederick Bloetscher, Daniel Meeroff

• Publisher: J. Ross Publishing
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781604277616
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Civil Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Practical Concepts for Capstone Design Engineering is the first and only comprehensive senior-level college textbook that provides the essential information needed to complete a successful capstone project in civil, construction, or environmental engineering. The concept for the book is based on replication of the steps commonly used by practicing engineers to complete design projects, from site selection, investigation, and site planning, through the preliminary design calculations and drawing preparation. Students will gain valuable insight and preparation for civil and construction engineering professional practice, and will learn how to smoothly transition from strictly academic work to solving real-world problems in the context of their capstone projects. The authors provide professional quality work examples, case studies, helpful hints, and assignments at the end of each chapter that further enhance comprehension. In addition to providing students with the key skills necessary to successfully enter the profession, they will also be well prepared for the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam upon graduation.

Introduction to Capstone Design

As noted in the preface, training the next generation of engineers and engineering educators is a national priority (National Academy of Sciences 2005). Declining interest in engineering education and the consistent erosion of the number of required credits for a degree have created a critical shortage of qualified professionals, yet the complexity of societal issues has intensified the need to increase and expand the professional competency of the engineering workforce for the next generation (Seymour 2001). Students need to learn more, but have less time to do so, and currently much of that time is devoted to rote problem solving as opposed to actual engineering. The key obstacle for undergraduate students is transitioning from traditional lecture-based coursework to more realistic, practice-oriented training. As a result, there is widespread agreement on the value of offering a capstone design course that involves real-world projects (Padmanabhan and Katti 2002), industry partnerships (Kumar 2000), and student teamwork in preparation for entering the engineering workforce (Todd et al. 1995).

The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) calls for accredited undergraduate engineering degree programs to have a capstone design experience in which fourth-year students work in teams for one or two semesters on a practical design project. The purpose of a capstone course is to provide students with a culminating engineering design experience that allows them to apply the fundamental coursework and skills learned during their engineering curriculum to solve an engineering problem in a way that incorporates appropriate engineering standards with multiple realistic constraints. Capstone projects should be industry-related, which helps to bridge the gap from the university environment to the professional ranks.

Engineering infrastructure projects typically are designed to last for long periods of time, and their life cycle impacts on the environment are not fully explored during typical undergraduate coursework. By integrating concepts such as teamwork, mentoring, life cycle analysis, and environmental stewardship into the preliminary design phase, engineering graduates will be better prepared to actively play a role in improving the condition of both the built environment and the natural environment, putting them in position to make lasting contributions to building a sustainable future. One way to accomplish this is by introducing the concept of high-performance building design and green engineering into the capstone course.

The goal of a capstone design course, or sequence, must be to encourage students to use their creativity, innovation, curiosity, and educational foundations to solve complex, real-world problems. To enrich the learning experience of fundamental coursework in the undergraduate program, it is necessary to expose students to practical applications of the basic subdisciplines of the engineering curriculum, including elements of the key courses they have taken prior to their senior year. In addition, classes that students typically will take as seniors, such as engineering economics, construction management, and other technical electives, will be important.

1.1 The Capstone Design Process

For students whose academic goal is to become a professional engineer, the capstone design course should be the most exciting and valuable learning experience before entering into practice. According to ABET, many subjects make up the engineering disciplines, and students need an understanding of all of those subjects to be successful in their careers and to obtain their professional licenses. The focus of this book is different from traditional textbooks in that this one is designed to integrate many aspects of the professional practice experience, instead of just covering the fundamentals of engineering. The capstone course and the resulting project center around skills that involve the successful design development of a real-world project such as a commercial/institutional high-performance building, with ancillary issues such as environmental impacts, transportation, resiliency against natural disasters, flood protection, compliance with local ordinances, application and interpretation of building codes, and concepts that limit options such as economics, local politics, and even historical preservation. These multiple realistic design constraints are similar to those that professionals have to address every day in their careers. The project should be real or based on a real project. It may actually be in the design process when assigned, and, whenever possible, the design professionals working on the project should be a part of the course in some meaningful way.

In the first phase of the capstone project, students perform a project needs assessment, conduct site reconnaissance, and develop a conceptual design that often includes floor plans and site plans. In the second phase, the project is taken from the conceptual stage to a set of preliminary design drawings. A professional engineer should be engaged to approve acceptable conceptual plans, which serve as the basis for developing a set of preliminary design drawings (using AutoCAD^® and Revit^® or other three-dimensional building information modeling software), along with all of the design calculations, modeling results, and support documents that comprise a basis of design report. Throughout the course, student teams will present their progress to an invited jury of outside professionals (e.g., department advisory council members, practicing engineers, regulators, owners, and other interested stakeholders) to provide feedback and comments whenever possible. This interaction with working professionals is critical for the growth of student engineers into practice. The intent is to transition students from purely academic work to solving actual problems in a more realistic setting.

1.2 Course Objectives

Students are expected to learn how to approach complex challenges, discover solutions, and deal with multiple realistic design constraints while incorporating engineering design standards. It is important to realize that there is no solution manual for capstone projects. While often there are many different answers that will work in the real world, designs are considered elegant, clever, and innovative instead of partially correct. The idea is to expose students to the thought process of how an engineer arrives at an appropriate solution. Creativity, ingenuity, and innovation are important and always must be encouraged. Professionals will find that students have great ideas and often challenge the status quo, which is a good thing for the profession and society.

Participants in the course are expected to communicate effectively in a professional manner, both in written and presentation format. The following is an example of the stated objectives in a capstone course syllabus:

• Develop design project teams and deliverables acceptable to a sponsor or client
• Develop effective communication, teaming, and leadership skills
• Develop an understanding of professional practice issues, such as involvement in professional societies, licensing, ethics, and continuing education
• Develop a practical understanding of the application of engineering economics
• Integrate prior engineering coursework to develop feasible solutions while incorporating appropriate engineering standards with multiple realistic constraints (see Figure 1.1)

Figure 1.1 Integrated design approach that utilizes all prior coursework for design of a high-performance building project

1.3 Project Selection

A suitable design project will incorporate as many of the aspects of the engineering curriculum as possible. The local zoning board, community redevelopment board, members of the department industry council, and even alumni are great sources for capstone projects. Locally significant construction projects may be easier to coordinate compared to theoretical exercises or projects that are located great distances away. Local governments often start planning years in advance for projects, which makes them perfect for students to work on. Students should physically visit potential development sites to learn how to gather data in the field. This is not a satellite image activity done by computer. Students need to experience the sites with their own senses. Realization that the work will be evaluated by professionals in the field or the actual owner of the project adds to the richness of the learning experience.

It is important to make sure that the capstone project is not too focused on one single aspect of engineering, such as site development or highway design, which may alienate students interested in other engineering disciplines. For example, design of a multistory building encompasses nearly all of the elements of engineering training, with the possible exception of certain aspects of environmental engineering. That is why it is important to place an emphasis on high-performance building design by requiring students to meet sustainability criteria such as the LEED^® checklist from the U.S. Green Building Council^® or other systems such as BREEAM, CEEQUAL, PERSI, and Green Globes, among many others. Examples of suitable projects that have been successfully pursued by students of the authors include college dormitories, hospital buildings, libraries, water and wastewater treatment plants, digester gas energy capture projects, school buildings, mixed-use buildings, hotels, train stations, local multimodal transportation projects, office buildings, apartments, airport terminals, recreation centers, civic buildings, and parks.

When developing a capstone project for this course, each student team should be provided with (1) a scope of work that outlines the client’s needs, (2) key technical information such as a geotechnical report near the job site with results of a soil boring log and soil bearing capacity tests, and (3) a contact person at the job site (from either the ownership group, the construction management team, or the architect’s office) to assist in coordinating site visits, interviews, and information requests.

1.4 Course Management Structure

A capstone design course works best when it is team taught by faculty members (representing the fundamental academic engineering perspective), consulting engineers (representing the practical engineering perspective), and government officials (representing the owner’s perspective or the regulatory perspective), along with contributions from a variety of outside lecturers to provide both academic and real-world connections. It is vital that at least one (and preferably as many as possible) of the members of the instructional team is a licensed professional engineer. By focusing on project-based learning through the development of a high-performance building for example, students also will learn how to practice responsible stewardship. Thus, students will be better prepared to deal with an evolving job market in an ever-changing world with an increasing human population, energy and water limitations, adaptations to climate change, and economic and social inequities.

The role of the instructional team is to act as the principal engineers in charge of the students’ fictional consulting firms. They also serve a guidance function by providing the project background, interpreting scope issues, acting as an initial facilitator or liaison between the student groups and the client, providing critical reviews and feedback, assigning change orders, and enforcing class policies and procedures. The instructors also have the final say in conflict resolution.

1.5 Group Selection

Prior to becoming eligible for the capstone design course, students typically must obtain department approval. It is recommended that the following prerequisites be completed prior to enrolling in the course:

1. Introductory transportation engineering
2. Soil mechanics
3. Applied hydraulics or fluid mechanics
4. Materials science
5. Structural analysis
6. Surveying
7. Computer-aided drafting
8. Introductory environmental engineering

In other words, students should be eligible to register for the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam within 6 months of registering for the class.

For the second portion of the course, it is strongly recommended that the following coursework be completed before starting:

1. Steel and/or concrete structures
2. Foundation design
3. Transportation engineering design
4. Environmental engineering design
5. Water resources, hydrology, or drainage design

By the first class meeting, each student should submit a resume and brief personal statement that identifies his or her engineering interests, past and current employment, career goals, perceived strengths and weaknesses, and geographic information. This last piece of information is critical because the class may be made up of widely diverse commuter students or the course may be delivered through a long-distance learning platform; hence, appropriate arrangements can be made to facilitate effective student teams.

Several lessons have been observed through the process of team selection. Groups should...