reflection

Thought my experience with my senior project, not only i learned a lot about my project, but a lot about my self. During my research i got to know my mentor even more than i normally do. It was very entertaining on how we got to know each other. The visits down to Stanford were probably the most effective to me because i never really experienced a hard hat working construction site. Showing me around the site was very interesting because, it showed me how everybody worked together as a team to finish the job.

On a personal not i felt that i had a bigger responsibility because of the visits but also the project itself. I had to make time from doing other things like baseball to volunteer. I think the volunteering part was the funnest part of the project because i got to meet new people and got to see what kind of work my mentor actually did.

It was a good experience for me honestly, it gave me a chance to see what life is like out of high school. It gave me a chance to mentally prepare me for what i need to do. It also gave me a idea of what i want to do with life after high school.  I think it was a good experience for me.

final volunteering blog

This pipe is in the preliminary stages of fabrication. It is cut and sized and then will be welded. It will be used to tie in the pumps.







This is a pump that will move the chilled water. It is mounted on a inertia base that is filled with concrete. The attachment has been calculated due to seismic  activity in California.  

Here shown is the heart of the chill water system. It has tanks, heat exchanges and pumps. They all work together to provide chilled water. Within the next three weeks this will all be online to provide a more energy and cost effective system for Stanford. GO GREEN.

completion updated

This a condensate trap. It is used to drain the water that the coils produce  the pans.

In the earlier pictures of the fan walls there is no wiring. The next step will be to take 12 individual runs of wiring from this VFD to the fans. VFD mean variable frequency drive. The VFD's will control the fan speed. The speed will be activated upon the amount of air needed to cool the building. The heat load is determined by the vices people and outside air temperatures. The control panel (not shown) will determine this. It interacts with the building energy system                                                                                

updated pictures

This picture shows the over head chill water piping. These are the risers that tie in the piping to the coils.

This  picture shows the over head piping after it  has been insulated. the reason chill water piping needs to be insulated is because it will sweat. The temper differential change will make the piping appear to be leaking. The coils pans have been tied together with the copper pipe shown. The copper pipe is necessary from pan to pan, because the air flow through the coils would send the water all over.

The fan wall has now been assembled. The 12 fans will add up for a combination of 27,000 CFM. This a cost effective way to add or subtract the amount of air needed.

mentor meeting

We are now continuing to weld structural clips to the columns. This will tie the colums, beams, and walls together. It is neccesary for the seizmec retrofit. The chilled water pipes are being installed overhead. We will set and achor the pans, after the pans are ancored we wil installed the coils. There are two types of coils, the first type is the chilled water coil which provides cooling. The other style of coil is a re-heat, which uses existing warm air to be transfered into the air system. It is part of a grren system which re-uses conditioned air. the fitters now will install piping headers. These headers will tie all the coils into a loop system.

extended plenum system

 

 The plenum and  ceiling walls of the air handler are  assembled. A connection to the new duct system is shown. This duct acts as another passage way to the existing systems. Instead of building a larger panel and plenum system this will suffice. It is a value engineered judgment to tie in to the existing system.

  Shown here is the 100 by 46 inch duct work. Its acts as a extended plenum, it is hung with half inch all thread and 2x2x1/25 inch angle iron. It has been fabricated in the shop in 4ft joints. They are connected together by a ductmate gasket system. It will hold 8inches wg for pressure testing.

job visit (continued)

As the walls and roof plenum panels are installed lighting needs to be provided. In this picture they are installing temporary light for safety and installation purposes. Later on this will be removed and permanent egress lighting will take its place.

 

 

 

 

During the iron fabrication process, welding is needed. This piece is used as a intermediate. It will join the roof panels together in the center of the structure. Shown here is a certified welder attaching the H piece to the iron for the roof structure. After completion it will need to be inspected before installation. The inspector will want to see millcerts for the iron. He will also want to see a welding procedure for this specific application

first visit

On march 21st we made our first visit to the job site at Stanford university. My mentor Tommy and I inspected the installation of the existing HVAC system. This picture shows the HVAC duct work above the chilled and heating hot water lines. The duct work with the chilled and heating water lines was demolished. After that process they were put into the dumpster for recycling. They will be recycled at the local garbage company, Allied Waste Services.

 

We then continued to tour the site. we observed the new HVAC system installation taking place. This picture indicates the installation of a plenum wall system. the two men are working on the roof. The walls are 80% complete.

job visit

My mentor and I met on Monday 3/17. We decided to  visit  the job site on Friday located at Stanford University on 267 campus drive . It is a research animal facility which requires retrofitting to bring it online with todays standards. We will walk the site on discuss the logistics of this remodel. It requires relocation of the research animals first. We will observe how the animals are moved to the temporary location. After that we will look at the HVAC systems that need to be demolished. This includes ductwork, chilled water, boilers cooling towers,etc.We will then check the logistics of the new installation of these systems. We will measure the equipment versus the buildings openings and crane access for fitment.

metting number 2

On Sunday March 2nd we made our way down to Critchfield Mechanical Inc., 1901 junction avenue San José 95131. We took a tour of the facilities. We went into the office first where the engineers designed the systems, the detailer's detailed the systems, the shop foreman watches over the shop and the sheet metal mechanic inputs the computer to send to the water jet plasma cutter. We then entered the shop where I was shown the piping and sheet metal departments. The piping department has large cranes to positions the pipe for loading and spherical welding. Then we walk through the shop to the warehouse where all the material delivery trucks are staged. These trucks are used for delivery for sheet metal, piping, tools and material need. After that we walked back to the sheet metal fabrication shop. We observed a press brake in action that bends metal to fabricate duct work. then we walked over to the shear machine which cuts metal for duct fabrication. After that we observed the plasma machine burning metal that had been downloaded from the sheet metal mechanic to fabricate duct work for HVAC systems.
                                                        WATER JET PLASMA CUTTING MACHINE

Since i've been making mistakes and not blogging about meeting with my mentor im just going to start from here. My mentor and i met up yesterday after the baseball game and we discussed going down to his work and showing me around and teaching me somethings about what he does and how everything works. My mentor Tom Keenan is a superintendent at Critchfeild Mechanical Inc. He enigineers, designs, details and installs HVAC systems ( Heating Ventalation and Air Conditioning systems). On sunday March 2nd were going to visit Tom's work place, location is 1901 junction ave San Jose CA 95131. During this visit we will tour where the engineers design the systems, where the detailers detail the systems and where the shop fabricates she sheet metal ducting for the systems. We are going to look at plans and drawings that are supplied by an owner for review and bid. We will then visit the shop the fabricates the duct work. Tom is going to show me how to input the plasma machine for imput. After that we will visit the warehouse where we load material and duct work to send to jobs for insulation.