Human Sustainable Ecosystem Design – One Community Weekly Progress Update #438

This week the core team continued working on the “Earthbag Construction Footers, Foundation, and Flooring” live page. The web editor on our team continued proofreading the article, checking for areas that weren’t clear, adding comments related to the marking of the construction site and the security of the trenches, and making some suggestions related to the text. The pictures below share some of this work.

The core team also began helping with the Aircrete and earthbag compression testing team. We developed a Google Sheet to track data collection and doubled checked numbers. We also continued the energy demand work. Now we are 95% complete with the energy estimates for the Straw Bale Village. Additionally, we reviewed work on the City Center and provided feedback. See related pictures below.

And the core team continued what we hope will be the final review of the Murphy bed assembly instructions. We worked in 3D designing the wall materials list using SketchUp, and provided suggestions with detailed descriptions and related images about updates and corrections that need to be integrated. Pictures below are related to this work.

Jose Luis Flores (Mechanical Engineer) completed his 56th week helping finish the Net-zero Bathroom component of the Earthbag Village. This week Jose Luis updated the tangential beam dimensions from a 2×2 cross section to a 2×4 in the SolidWorks renderings, making sure the orientation of the cross section had its longer edge vertical relative to the radial beam cross section. This orientation provides less bending stresses in the tangential beam. He added supports to the radial beams to illustrate the way they will be attached to the radial beams. Jose Luis also updated the roof access dimensions to make use of 2x4s instead of 4x4s, further reducing weight and cost and increasing space for the entrance. And he started updating the roof flash to comply with the newly updated dimensions. The pictures below show some of this work.

Stacey Maillet (Graphic Designer) completed her 46th week working on the final edits and revisions to the Murphy bed instructions. Stacey finished her final round of revisions and submitted a PDF for review. As of now, a total of 121 pages are complete and ready for review. The areas that still need work are translations, cover pages, and QR codes to lead to assembly videos. Edits of the past few weeks (that we didn’t report on) focused on looking over all small details to ensure consistency. She switched some of the wall pages to keep all the components for electrical work within the electrical group and not within the wall group assembly. Because many components were duplicated, she also checked all pages for wall assembly and matched back to the component and procurement pages. All of the parts and amounts of each hardware were recounted and Stacey added 3 new types of lumber, reorganized how many boards were needed of each, and updated the related pages. Attempts have been made to reduce page numbers by reducing the scale of some boards of lumber or indicating identically cut lumber boards once visually with x2 , x3, etc. Suggestions were made to further reduce pages by doubling up components pages to fit 2 parts on 1 page where she thinks this could be done too. Screenshots below are related to this latest progress.

Jeson Hu (Aerospace Engineer) completed his 23rd week helping with research related to the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis specifics. This week Jeson focused on addressing the comments from all the reviewers, including clarification, rephrasing, revising, and rewriting. He also integrated the recommendations from the micro inverter company representative (Oran) into the solar hardware report. Jeson then followed up with Vicente and the diesel generator companies for quotes and product choices. The pictures below share some of this developing work.

Daniela Andrea Parada (Civil Engineering Student) completed her 18th week helping with the Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping tutorial development. This week Daniela focused primarily on the roads for the site on AutoCAD. She determined which pathways needed to be re-access roads based on the codes she was researching, then divided the roads into two categories. One hatching was used for roads that needed truck access pathways, a pedestrian pathway, and a bicyclist pathway. The second hatching was for pedestrian and bike pathways. These hatchings were placed on the sides of the original pathways for easier design. Once completed, Daniela reached out to Carol to ensure that all comments and details were explained. Lastly Daniela made more edits to the AutoCAD parking lot design. This included changing the loop direction. Pictures of some of this work are below.

Aidan Geissler (Sustainability Researcher) completed his 15th week helping with 2nd-to-final review, feedback, and content editing. This week Aidan continued to provide management and guidance to the Aircrete and earthbag compression testing team. He regularly reviewed their research, plans, and results. He also provided comments and suggestions to guide their research, fill in gaps, and make the mixing plan sound, comprehensive, and replicable. Additionally, Aidan assisted with the organization of the document and provided helpful resources on Aircrete. Pictures below are related to this work.

Prabhath Ekanayake (Electrical Engineering Assistant) completed his 10th week working on the grid-tie connection details for our solar microgrid designs. This week Prabhath continued finalization by reviewing and adding additional content to various sections. Below are some images related to this work.

Nicholas K. de León (Project Management Adviser) completed his 9th week helping with review of Highest Good Housing research and related tasks. This week Nicholas continued his edits and proofreading, completing a few research documents that are now ready for publication. Direct edits also continued in other documents, many of which are showing great improvement. Pictures below show some of his review work.

Frank Roland Vilcapaza Diaz (Mechanical Engineer) completed his 8th week helping with the Earthbag Village energy specifics. This week Frank worked on the energy demand of the ultimate classroom and finished up the related excel sheet. He also checked the calculations for the tropical atrium and fixed some errors. The pictures below relate to this.

Shreyas Dayanand (Battery Research Engineer) also completed his 7th week helping with the solar microgrid design specifics related to electric vehicles and battery sizing. This week Shreyas attempted to re-download the Homer Grid app to continue his analysis for charging on his secondary laptop. He conducted an analysis to determine the cost for charging at 150 kW/hr for a generic EV for approximately 20 minutes. Shreyas described the details of the results by plotting graphical representations. He also looked into a few websites regarding previous cases for solar farm battery storage options. Pictures below relate to this work-in-progress.

The Compression Team consisting of Dominick Banuelos (Civil Engineering Intern), Jarot Tamba (Civil Engineering Intern), John Paul D. Matining (Civil Engineer Intern), and Marcus Nguyen (Civil Engineering Intern) completed their 6th week helping with the Aircrete and earthbag compression testing. This week the team put together a successful test cylinder for each of the mixes which include the standard aircrete and concrete and the 4 compressed earth as well as the light, lighter, heavy, and heavier aircrete mixes. The success came after one of the team members mixed the mixture in the actual cylinder and the mixture worked perfectly. Previously the mixture for aircrete was shrinking inside the cylinder and that was unknown why. However, after it was mixed in the cylinder itself, it stayed at the same height and worked. So the aircrete mixture has finally turned successful and can be remade exactly the same with no issues. The diagram in the photos show the difference in the mixing methods. Whenever mixing aircrete it is absolutely important to have the auger bit as submerged in the cementitious mixture as possible. After learning this the group was able to make very sturdy and successful aircrete without being too brittle. Mixing until the mixture color and distribution was even was also important, this mixing was between 10-15 minutes.The successful methods were repeated to show that the outcome was not based on random luck, but with solid evidence. The team also worked together to fill out the documentation. If everything can be double checked by the core team this week, the cylinders will be made for the group to let them cure for the final compression testing.

Tiffany Gao (Sustainability/Plastics Researcher) completed her 4th week as a researcher, reviewer, and web developer. This week Tiffany spent a lot of time organizing and researching non-recyclable recycling options. First, she made a copy of the 230-page document and cut it down to the essentials focused on community options. Then, she created a table with the recycling options with the options already researched to be a bit more organized. Finally, Tiffany was able to look into small-scale waste-to-energy or other nonrecyclable recycling options along with many recycling companies that can help. The pictures below share some of this developing work.

Ian Oliver Malinay (Energy Modeler/Analyst) completed his 30th week helping run the energy analysis calculations to help us achieve LEED Platinum status for the Duplicable City Center. This week, Ian attended to all comments or reviews from the team for the energy modeling narrative report. He included additional explanations to Climate Zone, building spaces, and the lighting classification. He also added some pictures in the narrative report as per request based on our latest design, and collaborated with Jae to finalize the needed narrative report for energy modeling. Please see below related screenshots of activity for reference.

Carol Nguyen (Civil Engineer) also completed her 16th week helping with the Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping tutorial development. This week, Carol wrote the additional information for all the layers of each pavement type based on the cross sectional drawings on CAD and online resources (porous concrete pavement, rigid pavement, and porous asphalt pavement). She also added the references to each section so people can check for additional information. The pictures below share some of this developing work.

Venus Abdollahi (Architectural Designer) completed her 5th week helping finish the Duplicable City Center roof designs. This week Venus completed the Copula roof and the updates. For detailing the roof, she used Revit to create 3D details. Venus created the 3D isometric section of the roof and added different layers of materials to achieve 62.18 R-value. She also completed the 3D modeling and 3D detailing downspouts for the City Center Living Dome roof and the Copula roof. See pictures below.

And Carlos Lillo (Engineering Technician) also completed his 5th week helping with the pallet furniture designs for the Duplicable City Center guest rooms. This week Carlos continued improving the animations by focusing on Angles, Camera Flow, Direction, and other aspects. He also added the metal texture that is going to be used for all the screws, and another for the brackets. They have different colors to simulate reality but also to identify them according to the market color pallet. The next item to be completed is the bed Pallet Furniture with full 1st and 2nd Lvl Animations and then the Wardrobe. The others are now at 99% complete. Pictures below are related to this work.

Dipanshi Batra (Mechanical Engineer) also completed her 3rd week working on the Duplicable City Center connectors we’ll use to build the domes. This week Dipanshi worked further on the Gate Report document. She analyzed the aspect of a variety of Hub options rather than connectors. Dipanshi is working on analyzing the feasibility of a variety of hub options. The options will be narrowed down with ease of manufacture followed by an FEA analysis. Pictures of some of this work are below.

Ibukun Shogbamu (Junior Mechanical Engineer) completed his 3rd week working on the City Center HVAC Designs. This week Ibukun drew a mock Variable Refrigerant Flow system on the floor plans of the Duplicable City Center using AutoCAD. He did this to obtain the refrigerant piping lengths and ensure that they do not exceed the maximum specified by the manufacturer of the proposed outdoor condenser units he chose. The pictures below share some of this developing work.

Andrew Wilbert Vidianto (Mechanical Engineer) completed his 3rd week working on the Duplicable City Center connectors we’ll use to build the domes. This week, Andrew spent most of his hours changing the Geodesic Dome structure into a single beam and researching appropriate material for the beam connector. Section 3 in the Hub Connector Analysis report was done, and the rest of the 2 triangular array structures were also changed into a single beam. Pictures below are related to this work.

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