NUASCE

Lecture Series:

On Wednesday at 11:45 (108 SN), we have Suffolk in to talk about the renovations to Matthews Arena. We are also trying to get a field trip planned in the next few weeks to Matthews. This lecture would be a good opportunity to learn about the renovations before you see them in person. Pizza will be served.

Concrete Canoe:

Email Ezra Jampole at jampole.e@neu.edu if you are interested.

Steel Bridge:

Email Nicole Serafin at serafin.n@neu.edu if you are interested.

NUASCE Bocce:

Take a look at the Bracket and lets try to get the tournament finished by Friday or early next week.

Community Service:

Over the past few weeks we have been in talks with various organizations and we are trying to get two work days planned for this semester. One being with Boston Water and Sewer and the other a cleanup on the Watertown side of the Charles River. It looks like we will have a work day at the Charles River on November 21st. Look for more information next week.

Today, Jason Sobel gave a great presentation on the traffic engineering, analysis, and simulation for the preparation of the preliminary environmental studies involving the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Route in the Urban Ring Project.  The purpose of the BRT route in the Urban Ring is to facilitate travel between the communities of Boston.  The first step in the analysis of the project was to look at future traffic projections for bus routes and private shuttles in 2030.  There will be greater employment in the area as well as a much greater population, increasing the demand for a system like this.

One of the advantages the BRT would have over the MBTA is having larger and more substantial stations that are spread further apart.  Because they are space slightly less frequently, the busses would make fewer unnecessary stops and would therefore have less travel time for users.  The BRT would also have better traffic controller information as well as still connecting with the MBTA and commuter rail.

The main focus of this presentation of the BRT was the engineering challenges faced at the critical location of Commonwealth Ave. at the Boston University Bridge.  AECOM gave several proposed options for implementing the BRT in this area.   Some options included ideas such as the creation of new structures, a separate route built for the BRT, and the relocation of the Boston University Academy building.  AECOM also played a very interesting simulation video made for one of the proposed solutions.

Lecture Series:

On Wednesday at 11:45 (108 SN), we have AECOM in to talk about transportation planning and design. The lecture with be centered around their work on the Urban Ring in Boston. Pizza will be served.

Concrete Canoe:

Email Ezra Jampole at jampole.e@neu.edu if you are interested.

Steel Bridge:

Has a meeting Thursday at 7pm in the design studio.

NUASCE Bocce

The brackets for the NUASCE Bocce Tournament have been posted outside Professor Tillman’s office. Everyone should get their matches finished by this Wednesday and their second round matches done by Friday.

NSTAR, the largest Massachusetts-based electric and gas utility company gave a presentation today focusing on their environmental engineering activities.  Presenter representing NSTAR included; Principal Engineer Daniel Watton, Senior Engineer Eric LaMontagne, Engineer Kristen Trudell, Co-op Engineer Andy Crawford, and Co-op Engineer Raj Punjabi.

NSTAR has well over 3,000 employees and serves over 100 communities with 1.1 million electric and 300,000 natural gas customers.  The main focus areas for their environmental engineering are environmental sustainability, maintenance and construction environmental compliance, facility environmental compliance, and oil and hazardous material (OHM) release management.

For environmental sustainability, NSTAR recycles materials such as utility pole wood, dielectric fluid, waste motor oil, batteries, copper, aluminum, lead, steel, etc.  They look to use renewable products such as vegetable oil which is non-toxic, bio-degradable, non-petroleum based because it comes from a vegetable source.  Reducing their Carbon footprint is also very important to NSTAR.  The company tries to achieve this by reducing the use of energy and water, efficient fleet fuel use, and reducing the loss of SF6 gas, which has a great global warming potential.

NSTAR also talked about the engineering challenges faced with a specific example of the 2,000 gallon leak found at station 49 in Kenmore Square.

Lecture Series:

This week we have Daniel Watton from NSTAR talking about environmental management and quality assurance at electric generation and distribution facilities. Please join us Wednesday, 7 October in 108 Snell Engineering at 11:45. As always, pizza will be served.

NUASCE Bocce:

The NUASCE Fall Bocce tournament is back! There will be a sign up sheet at the meeting on Wednesday. If you are interested, sing up ASAP so we can get started making the brackets. Winner gets a pair of tickets to see the Bruins take on the Tampa Bay Lighting on Wednesday December 2nd.

Membership Dues:

We received more signup sheets so we will begin to collect dues again.

Freshman Free
Sophomore $10.00
Middler $10.00
Junior $15.00
Senior $15.00

Review sessions for the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam on 24 October are being offered by Chi-Epsilon. Your familiar professors are back reviewing all of the knowledge you need to know for the exam. Please check the NUASCE Calendar for dates, topics, and instructors.

Peter Finch, project director from Amtrak gave a great technical presentation on the work done for the replacement of the vertical lift span of the Thames River Bridge located in Groton and New London, CT.  This bridge has a lot of traffic with about 38 trains per day and over 1600 annual openings, including opening for the United States Navy and Coastguard.

Some of the major design elements for this project were replacing the bascule, modifying the channel piers and constructing two 135 foot lift towers for a span of 188 feet, while retaining the approach spans and finding an efficient way to remove the old counterweights.

A major problem faced during this project was the settling of one of the piers after construction.  This became most important when the settlement did not appear to be stopping.  The settlement caused sinking and tilting of the pier which prohibited the opening of the bridge.  This problem was eventually solved through permeation grouting which filled the voids that had been causing settlement underneath the pier.

Though there were unforeseen challenges in the replacement of this lift span, the problems were solved effectively.  With a goal of July 4th, the bridge was complete for limited scheduled openings by July 1st and the approach spans are ready for painting in the near future.

This week, COE distinguished professor, PhD., P.E., and fellow ASCE member Mishac K. Yegian gave an enthusiastic presentation on the research he did for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston involving the preservation of precious artifacts from the damaging effects of earthquakes.  The museum gets paid to lend the age old artifacts to other museums for viewing; however there was great apprehension in lending four particular sculptures to the Nagoya Museum in Japan due to the high seismic activity in that area.

Extensive research was done through the collaboration of Northeastern and the Museum of Fine Arts to evaluate the reduction of these seismic effects on the statues when placed on mechanical isolators.  When an object is placed on a mechanical isolator, the bottom plate of the mechanical isolator moves with the ground during an earthquake while the top plate, on which the object rests, undergoes far less disturbance.  This is occurs because the plates are separated by a geo-synthetic material that permits the plates to slide independently, allowing friction to absorb the earthquake and the energy to be isolated before it reaches the sculpture.

Models of the statues were made to conduct the research needed to find out if the mechanical isolators would actually be sufficient the aide against the seismic disturbances associated with the area.  The models were tested on a shaking table that simulated the museum floor during Kobe and Taft earthquakes.  The project was ultimately successful and the statues were able to be shipped and displayed in the Nagoya Museum in Japan.

Yesterday’s tournament was a great success, thanks to all who participated and a special thanks to the organizers.  Congratulations to our winners Matt Buttimer and Ryan Snow of team (PhatAss)’ and runners up Mike Seluga and Mellisa Recos, the Bumper Bandits.  Over 60 people signed up and we had a great turnout with pizza, soda, and cupcakes courtesy of Kaity McCarthy and Dana Peck.  We look forward to having another tournament with the Younger Members group soon!