Due to slow draining soils, winter conditions and hilly terrain, Eastern Washington is considered to be a challenging region for implementation of permeable pavements. Four pervious concrete placements have been installed on the Washington State University campus in Pullman, WA. They have already weathered from two to four winters and are all functioning hydraulically. This paper provides information on the effectiveness of these facilities, and their current hydraulic functionality.
Widespread adoption and acceptance of pervious concrete systems are dependent on determining the in situ properties of the placement. The porosity of the pervious concrete layer is the dominant variable of the system, affecting durability, hydraulic, and mechanical properties. Current practice has the porosity of the system estimated prior to placement by a fresh concrete density test on the mix from the concrete mixer, and tested after placement by extracting cores and performing a hardened porosity test. This study provides a method for correlating the surface infiltration rate of a newly placed pervious concrete layer and its estimated porosity with simple linear equations. Although not intended to replace standardized acceptance porosity tests, using this existing nondestructive infiltration method for also estimating porosity may readily provide more information on the variable characteristics of an entire pervious concrete slab for correlation to additional studies, performance, and evaluation of installation techniques. The findings also indicate that the standard 300-mm-diameter single-ring surface infiltration test would have similar results to a more involved double-ring imbedded infiltration test. Finally, the research provides information on interpreting the relationship of laboratory measured infiltration rates for single-lift versus double-lift compaction methods, and shows that coring may have impacts on the surface infiltration rate performed on the extracted cores, probably because of coring debris clogging some of the pores.
In 2000, the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) adopted an outcomes based approach to the US engineering curriculum. The new accreditation criteria, commonly called EC2000, call for program outcomes and assessment that provide for a ‘well rounded engineer’. Approaching nearly a decade now, are students reaping the benefits of the reform? Are students able to design better? Apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering better? Are they able to communicate better and use techniques, skills and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice? Most importantly, are they more “well-rounded?” It may be argued that despite ABET accreditation reform, the undergraduate mechanical engineering curriculum has remained relatively static over the last decade, adjusting for obvious changes in cross-disciplinary study and some emergent technologies. Girt with hundreds of hours of core and required subjects such as calculus, physics, dynamics, fluid mechanics, strength of materials, thermodynamics, etc. the undergraduate mechanical engineering student generally has but one occasion to flex his/her intellectual and innovative acuity—the senior design project. While students occasionally work in teams, rarely are students exposed to genuine challenges of group interaction, delivery schedules and cost constraints as catalyzed in industry. How is authentic innovation achieved in a learning environment?
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