Canadian Consulting Engineer August/September 2009

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2009

For professional engineers in private practice

VANCOUVER CONVENTION CENTRE WEST BACNET 20 YEARS ON SMOKE DETECTORS IN HVAC DUCTS HOW EFFECTIVE ARE THEY?

Preparing for

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contents

August/September 2009 Volume 50, No. 5

Cover: Vancouver Convention Centre West.

Bob Matheson Photography, courtesy DA/MCM/LMN. See page 12.

features Buildings Ocean View: Vancouver Convention Centre West. Engineers describe the challenges of this complex project, which was built largely over the water.

WorleyParsons Westmar, Glotman Simpson, 12

Stantec, Schenke/Bawol Sports Facilities 2010 Winter Olympics. Stunning new venues in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C. are already on display.

22

By Jean Sorensen 2010 Winter Olympics.

See story page 22.

Opinion Piling It On: Engineering Calculations Today. Technology developments have led to engineers producing

departments

masses of calculations — at a cost.

Comment

4

Up Front

6

Calendar

10

Security

28

Lighting

37

Products

38 & 40

Advertiser Index

41

The Human Edge

42

Next month: 2009 Canadian Consulting Engineering Award-winners!

Includes the Schreyer and the Tree of Life awards.

29

By Robert Mote, P.Eng. Building Controls BACnet 20 Years On. How ASHRAE’s IT protocol for building automation is being continually refined. Plus “Cooling the Towers of Dubai.”

31

By Bronwen Parsons Computers BIM: an Experience. A firm of structural engineers ventures out with building information modeling.

Fire Protection Finding Smoke in HVAC Ducts. Are smoke detectors effective?

Research has put to rest some of the doubts.

By G.D. Lougheed, NRC/IRC August/September 2009

p03-05 CCE Aug_09 ContComment.indd 3

33

By Jonathan Hendricks, Halcrow Yolles

35 Canadian Consulting Engineer 3

12/08/09 10:05 AM

engineer FOR PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS IN PRIVATE PRACTICE

comment

C A N A D I A N C O N S U LT I N G

Editor

Bronwen Parsons E-mail: bparsons@ccemag.com (416) 510-5119 Senior Publisher

“But the client pays the bills”

Maureen Levy E-mail: mlevy@ccemag.com (416) 510-5111 Art Direction

ith the sentencing of Garth Drabinsky to seven years in jail in August, yet another high-flying public figure was brought low due to following corrupt business practices.

But the likes of Drabinsky, Conrad Black and Martha Stewart don’t act alone. They need the help of professional accountants to manipulate their books and show them how to get around the laws.

Professionals are supposed to have the highest ethical standards, which of course applies to engineers. The trouble is that life is complex, and businesses need to compete to survive, so it’s not always easy to keep entirely to the high moral ground.

This is not to suggest that consulting engineers would stoop to illegal practices or advise clients to do so, but it can be all too easy to acquiesce to clients whose projects are not the best solution for society at large.

The conflicts consulting engineers sometimes face came up at Consulting Engineers of Ontario’s conference in Ottawa in June. Doris Dumais, director of approvals at the Ontario Ministry of Environment, was on a panel discussing how consulting engineers could wield more influence over public policies. She suggested that they might be better heard if the Ministry was able to feel that the consultants were their partners in protecting the environment and developing the economy. Why didn’t she feel they were partners already?

To paraphrase, Dumais said, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat around the table with consultants discussing a project’s impacts and the consultants have said “We agree with you, but the client pays the bills.” Implicitly Dumais was asking consulting engineers, Are you willing to stand up to your clients in favour of protecting the environment?

Fellow panelist Dr. John Boyd, P.Eng. followed the same theme at the end of his talk. A principal with Golder Associates in Toronto, Boyd is currently president of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC).

He said engineers should “refuse to do dumb things for clients,” and they should be willing to stand up and explain to the public what’s wrong. He advised, “pick your projects” and “pick your clients” carefully. A few years ago, he explained, Golder decided to drop some clients who were following dubious practices. When a few of these phoned to ask Golder why, “amazingly,” he said, in many cases these companies said they would try to become better clients.

Ethics and integrity also came up during an interview with Peter Buckland, P.Eng. of Vancouver for the Human Edge story (page 42). Buckland explained that years ago a construction company asked his partner to provide advance information about a project, information that would have helped the company get the work. The company also happened to be an important client of Buckland and Taylor, but Peter Taylor refused the request. At first the clients were upset, but eventually they came around and respected their consultants all the more for not crossing the ethical line.

Doing the right thing nearly always involves a short-term sacrifice, but it can eventually lead to greater rewards. As Boyd said, “We should not undermine our influence. Consulting engineers bring a huge amount of credibility to a project and are in a strong position to lead.”

Bronwen Parsons

Contributing Editor

Rosalind Cairncross, P.Eng. Advertising Sales Manager

Vince Naccarato E-mail: vnaccarato@ccemag.com (416) 510-5118 Editorial Advisors

Andrew Bergmann, P.Eng., Bruce Bodden, P.Eng., Gerald Epp, P.Eng., Kevin Hydes, P.Eng., Chris Newcomb, P.Eng., Laurier Nichols, ing., Lee Norton, P.Eng., Jonathan Rubes, P.Eng., Paul Ruffell, P.Eng., Ron Wilson, P.Eng. Circulation

Beata Olechnowicz (416) 442-5600 x3543 Production Co-ordinator

Karen Samuels (416) 510-5190 Vice President, Publishing Business Information Group (BIG)

Alex Papanou

President, Business Information Group (BIG)

Bruce Creighton Head Office

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©2

up front

BUILDINGS

Rising towers at Niagara Falls The roar of falling water at Canada’s most famous natural landmark is now echoing against the walls of a soaring hotel tower. The 53-storey Hilton Niagara Falls Fallsview opened in July as Phase 1 ($120-million) of an ongoing building program. It is the tallest hotel tower in Canada. Design was

by Stanford Downey Architect, with Quinn Dressel Associates as structural engineers, and Smith & Andersen as mechanical/electrical engineers.

PROFESSION

New home for Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

its architects -- the same firm that designed the acoustically acclaimed Four Seasons Centre for the Arts for the home of the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto. SNC-Lavalin (Charles Chebl., ing.) is doing the structural, mechanical and electrical engineering, as well as construction.

PROFESSION

Hilton Niagara Falls Fallview Hotel BUILDINGS

Montreal Symphony Orchestra hall under way A new concert hall is being constructed for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra in downtown Montreal, to open in 2011. Groupe immobilier Ovation, a limited partnership wholly owned by SNC-Lavalin, has been given the contract to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the 2,100-seat hall. It is being constructed on the northeast corner of Place des Arts, next to the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier where the Montreal Symphony currently performs.

SNC-Lavalin has hired Torontobased Diamond & Schmitt as one of 6

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p06-11 CCE Aug_09 Upfront1.indd 6

ACEC reclaims “consulting” in its name At its annual general meeting in Whistler on June 29, the Association of Canadian Engineering Companies (ACEC) adopted a new name. It is the second time the association has changed its name in two years.

The organization will now be called the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies - Canada (ACEC-Canada). In French the name is l’Association des firmes d’ingénieurs-conseils - Canada (AFIC-Canada).

From its inception in 1925, ACEC stood for the Association of Consulting Engineers of Canada, but in 2007 it changed to emphasize the “companies” as opposed to the “consulting” role of its member firms. The new name for ACEC - Canada, manages to combine both “consulting” and “engineering companies.”

Most of the provincial associations such as in Alberta and Quebec have remained as organizations of “consulting engineers,” so it will be interesting to see if they now incorporate “companies” into their names.

Where are the women?

“Women’s share of undergradu­ ate enrolments in university engineering programs has fallen back to 17.5%, which is down from 21% in 1999…

“Most [young women] equate engineering and technol­ ogy (but especially engineering) with construction work, outdoor work, working in a cubicle, and relating primarily to computers and machines, rather than peo­ ple. Lower status is attributed to engineering and technology occupations in comparison with the health and social sciences.”

— Executive summary from “Right for Me?” study by Engi­ neers Canada and Canadian Council of Technicians and Tech­ nologists, March 2009.

PEOPLE

Mark Brightman leads Golder in Canada Golder Associates has appoint­ ed Mark Brightman as its new president of Canadian opera­ tions. He joined Golder’s office in Nottingham, United Kingdom as a hydrogeo­ logist 19 years ago. He later Mark Brightman moved to the Washington, D.C. office and finally to the Calgary office.

“

continued on page 8

August/September 2009

12/08/09 10:56 AM

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up front

continued from page 6

PROFESSION

ACEC has new Chair & new President Andy Robinson, P.Eng. of Ottawa is the 2009-2010 Chair of the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies (ACEC) - Canada in June.

Robinson is president of Robinson Consultants of Ottawa.

In August, ACEC appointed John Gamble, P.Eng., to be its new President and Chief Operating Officer.

Left: Andy Robinson, P.Eng. Right: John Gamble, P.Eng.

Gamble has been president of Consulting Engineers of Ontario for the last eight years. Previously he managed government affairs for Professional Engineers Ontario, worked as policy advisor to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, and for Gore & Storrie (now CH2M Hill).

Gamble takes over from Jeff Morrison, who left ACEC in June.

MAILBOX

No Schreyer for CN Tower Congratulations on the June-July issue of CCE magazine! Fifty years is quite the milestone. In all the years I have read the magazine, I have always found it interesting. It may even have inspired me to convince an organization for which I served on the executive — Western Canada Water — to let me create our own quarterly magazine in 1996 to serve our members, now numbering over 4,000.

Something in the June-July issue caught my eye. On page 25 it is noted that the first Schreyer Award was presented in 1981.

But then on page 32, the story on the CN Tower CN Tower states that it received the Schreyer Award in 1977.

In a time warp, maybe?

W.H. (Bill) Brant, P.Eng. Genivar, Winnipeg Editor’s Note. The error is ours. The article on page 32 should have said that in 1977 the CN Tower won an Award of Excellence, not a Schreyer Award. The Schreyer Awards did not exist until 1981. continued on page 10

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August/September 2009

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up front

calendar

continued from page 8

seems to be on the horizon, PSMJ, the U.S. business advisors to the architectural/engineering/contractor sectors, polled their clients about what challenges they see ahead.

These are the top seven responses from the firms: 1. Making sure they have enough capacity to build up a new pipeline of work quickly.

2. Keeping cash flowing so they can devote more resources to building the business.

3. Protecting their investment in young staff by providing them with interesting work and a solid career path.

4. Developing processes to ensure clients pay invoices faster.

5. Making sure they’re paid enough for change orders.

6. Figuring out how to diversify in BUSINESS order to be recession proof.

Steps to economic recovery 7. Rebuilding their organizations to MEP-Pub SCGC 0709 17/07/2009 12:47 Page 1 Given that an economic recovery get back on the growth track.

COMPANIES

Walker, Naylor and iTRANS bought Genivar of Montreal has acquired Wm. R. Walker Engineering, a multidisciplinary firm in Sault Ste. Marie that was founded in 1981 and has 15 employees.

Dessau of Quebec has acquired Naylor Engineering Associates of Kitchener, Ontario. Naylor was founded in 1983 and has 60 employees. It will become part of Dessau’s LVM Group.

Transportation specialists iTRANS Consulting of Toronto have been acquired by HDR, an international company with its headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. iTrans employs 120 professionals and has offices across Canada, and one in the U.S.

@ARTICLECATEGORY:651; 3541; 668;

October 15-17 — Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of B.C. (APEGBC) Annual Conference. Victoria, B.C. Tel. 604-430-8035, www.apeg.bc.ca October 21-22 — Security Canada Central Trade Show and Conference.

Toronto. Held by Canasa/Canadian Security Association. Tel. 800-5389919, www.canasa.org October 26-28 — Canadian Brownfields Conference 2009 - “Going for Gold.” Vancouver. Tel. 416-365-0816 Ext. 221, www.canadianbrownfields.ca October 28-29 — Canadian Waste and Recycling Expo. Vancouver. Tel. 877-5347285, www.MesseFrankfurt.us November 3 — 2009 Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards Presentation.

Ottawa. Tel. 613-236-0569, www.acec.ca @ARTICLECATEGORY:651;

The award was bestowed on the Ontario-based firm Cast ConneX Corporation, a University of Toronto spinoff Company, for the development of High-Strength Connectors specially designed to improve building safety in seismically active zones.

Canam Group is proud to sponsor this award and encourage innovation in the field of civil engineering in Canada.

Sponsored by:

The founders of Cast ConneX Corporation: Professor Constantin Christopoulos, Michael G. Gray, Carlos de Oliveira and Professor Jeffrey A. Packer

www.castconnex.com • www.csce.ca • www.canamgroup.ws 10

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p06-11 CCE Aug_09 Upfront1.indd 10

August/September 2009

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Night view from the east.

Bob Matheson Photography

buildings

Below Water - Foundation & Marine Design WorleyParsons Westmar

B

uilding on work from other proposed developments at the site, we first conducted an intensive review of historic records to assess the level of risk to the deep foundation components.

We changed the structural supporting system for the foundation from a drilled-shaft (caisson) concept to a high capacity driven piled structure.

The new concept is estimated to have saved over $10 million in costs and it removed the high risk of installing deep foundations from the critical path of this fast tracked project.

The elevation of the structure is almost a metre below normal wharf level in order to accommodate existing infrastructure on shore. This meant that the main electrical and mechanical systems tunnel and the truck loading bays were located below high tide.

The final structure included over 900 driven steel pipe piles. It has precast concrete deck beams and girders, a segmental post-tensioned precast concrete utility tunnel, wave impact protection, and three construction tower crane runways.

Among the other challenges facing the design team were the tight schedule, poor ground conditions, and environmental challenges. A unique bolt-on precast concrete marine “habitat skirt� surrounds the perimeter of the foundation creating a critical link between the existing marine habitat on adjacent shorelines and a new reef habitat offshore from the facility. — Richard Malinek

continued on page 14 August/September 2009

p12-21 CCE Aug09 VancouvConvCtr1.indd 13

Canadian Consulting Engineer

13

12/08/09 10:28 AM

buildings

OCEAN VIEW Vancouver Convention Centre West was an engineering challenge because it was built largely over water. However it uses the oceanfront site to save on energy.

a

nyone who attends a conference in Vancouver appreciates spending time at the Canada Place convention centre. It’s wonderful to step outside onto the quayside and inhale the bracing ocean air. Above, a row of white sail roofs soars upwards, facing across the water to the towering North Shore mountains.

Now, the 1986 building has a sister a few hundred metres along the shore. Vancouver Convention Centre West opened in April, and it too faces out over the water’s edge in dramatic style. However, instead of soft organic forms and materials, the new structure is glass, steel and wood, with jutting angles that are “folding, sliding and rising from the waterfront and adjacent public park,” say the designers.

The building has already accumulated some history, mostly because of its rising construction costs, which were subjected to a provincial auditor’s report in 2007. The auditor found that the cost escalation from $495 million budgeted in 2004, to the final (and achieved) $883.2 million, was partly due to the fast-track design-build approach, and also partly due to the inflated cost of labour and materials in a city bursting with construction activity for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The new convention centre will serve as the media centre for the Winter Olympics in February. Rising only to five stories, it has 1.2 million square feet, including exhibition halls (223,000 sq.ft.), meeting rooms (60,000 sq.ft.), retail space (90,000 sq.ft.), ballroom (55,000 sq.ft.) and 400,000 sq.ft. of open public meeting areas, plazas and walkways.

The low roof profile was necessary to allow for view corridors to the mountains, but the designers took advantage of this feature by outfitting it with what’s believed to be the largest green roof in Canada. The roof stretches six acres and is planted with 400,000 indigenous plants. This and other unusual features such as a blackwater (sewage) treatment facility and use of ocean water cooling are intended to earn the building a LEED Gold rating.

The civil and structural engineering were a formidable challenge, not least because twothirds of the construction was over water. Also, the architecture is irregular (one facade “leans”), there is no basement space for equipment or parking, and there is the ever-present risk of seismic activity in this region.

Some of the engineering challenges in this complex project are described in the articles that follow. — BP

Architects: LMN, Musson Cattell Mackey, DA Structural: Glotman Simpson (Robert Simpson, P.Eng., Geoffrey Glotman, P.Eng., Phil Espezel, P.Eng.) Mechanical & project management: Stantec (Blair McCarry, P.Eng., David Walker) Electrical: Schenke/Bawol (Wolf Schenke, P.Eng.) Marine/foundation: Worley Parsons/Westmar (Harold Kullmann, P.Eng., Ryan MacPherson, P.Eng., Geoff Harrison, P.Eng., Carol Turner, P.Eng.) Civil: Sandwell. Geotechnical: Golder. Building envelope/wall: Morrison Hershfield.

Fire protection: GHL. Lighting: HLB, Schenke/Bawol General contractor: PCL. Owner: PAVCO/VCCEP, BC Pavilion Corporation Supplier: Osram Sylvania (lighting controls and DALI ballasts)

12

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August/September 2009

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MEP_Form

buildings

continued from page 13

Bob Matheson Photography

Left: sloping columns of north face.

Trusses Floor to Floor Structural Design Glotman Simpson Consulting Engineers

W

ith strict zoning restrictions and two thirds of the building hovering over Coal Harbour, this was never going to be a straightforward project. The architectural concept included very large spans, juxtaposed spaces, angular shapes and heavy loads. The superstructure design and construction was complicated by the high seismic zone, sloping columns on the north face, the irregular geometry throughout, and the glass curtain wall.

Pinched within the confines of two immovable limits — the harbour high tide mark and an existing city street — the structure spanning above the expansive exhibition hall on the lowest level could be no deeper than 600 mm to allow for the 9-m clear height required for a world-class exhibition space. Fortunately a few columns could be permitted in

the exhibition hall in 27.4 by 36.6-m bays. However, the meeting rooms, ballroom and foyer had to be clear span.

The key solution for planning the structure turned out to be steel trusses the full depth of floor levels — and in a number of cases, multiple floor levels. The special configuration of deep trusses allowed for door openings through the truss walls as required by the architectural layout.

Dozens of large-format wall trusses, scattered eccentric braced bays and floor beams take lateral loads. Trusses over 22 metres deep in the ballroom receive the roof framing supporting a green living roof that spans 55 metres. The multitude of eccentric braced bays help to widely distribute seismic systems to give excellent redundancy and sequential yielding. They also distribute load onto the marine deck over the ocean.

The sloping columns of the north face that lean over the bikeway and open water place a lateral push on the building that the structure needs to resist. We had to find a system that would resolve the forces and still allow the building to go through reverse cyclic yielding, so we used a series of diagonal tensioned braces with disk springs. The spring is tensioned to match the diagonal push of the gravity force of the leaning column. When balanced, the spring frees the seismic system of the lateral loads so it can oscillate through yield excursions without leaning excessively in just one direction.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) transformed the design process and enhanced the construction. Glotman Simpson proposed BIM for this project, and we also took full advantage of electronic communications for 3D modeling, design, presentation and document delivery.

The architectural design used Revit 3D modeling for massing, layout and design. Glotman Simpson implemented steel detailing software Tekla together with SAP2000 and Revit Structure to provide the structural modeling at the design development stage. By employing Tekla early in the project, the structural design information became the springboard for the shop drawings and foreshortened the tendering and shop drawing period considerably.

As an example, 3D conceptualization allowed us to approximate and shortcut methods to estimate preliminary steel quantities within 5% of the final built configuration on this highly complex and challenging building.

— Robert Simpson, P.Eng. continued on page 16

14

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August/September 2009

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continued from page 14 Tomas Cho/DA

buildings

Ron Beeton/DA Architects

Left: open lobby rises three floors. Above: green roof is free of mechanical equipment.

Cooling with Sea Water Mechanical Design Stantec Consulting

T

he 111,000-m2 Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion project set an early target of LEED Gold certification in sustainable design.

Built over the harbour, a sea water heat pump/chiller arrangement was chosen for its lower operating cost and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. The temperature of the sea water allows the system to extract heat from the ocean or reject heat into it. Two heat pump chillers and one variable speed cooling-only chiller meet the heating and cooling demands. A steam back-up from Central Steam, a utility company in Vancouver, is provided for reliability and for the kitchen services.

The sea water is pumped from an intake chamber located just outside the structure’s marine habit skirt to heat exchangers in the chiller room. The heat exchangers provide a separation between the chillers and the sea water, since sea water is very corrosive for mechanical equipment. Also, there are self-cleaning backwash strainers to ensure small particles do not get into the heat exchangers. High density plastic pipe was used since steel pipe would rust out in a very

short time between the pumps and the heat exchangers.

With the parking area located within the structural truss space of the exhibit hall, the duct space allowance at the ceiling level in the exhibit hall is small and could not accommodate conventional size ductwork. Two-thirds of the cooling load in this space is met by the ventilation system, while a radiant ceiling provides additional cooling, giving both lower first and operating costs.

The perimeter pre-function spaces with full glazing use radiant floors for heating and cooling, with a demandcontrolled air supply system to suit the occupancy. Some pre-function areas can use natural ventilation during times of low occupancy. The Signature ballroom to the North, which has full glazing for views of the harbour and mountains, also has a radiant floor for comfort heating.

The meeting rooms have individual controls, with allowance made for different partition positions. They turn on and off according to the function schedule, or a local operator can override them using a PDA. Since the 26,000-m2 green roof was deemed a “DMZ – delete mechanical zone,” all the mechanical equipment is within the building enclosure with louvers on the exterior only. With the use of sea water for rejecting the heat from the chillers, the need to have cooling towers on the roof was eliminated.

End

Sewage treatment on-site A membrane bioreactor sewage treatment system treats the building sewage on site. It produces clean, reclaimed water for flushing toilets and irrigating the green roof and landscaping. Located in the northeast corner on the lowest floor of the building, the treatment system has a capacity of 20,000 gpd. Thanks to the water treatment, the building achieves a 70% reduction in potable water use (excluding kitchen use).

In terms of its energy use, the building is projected to achieve the highest LEED energy points and may exceed its LEED Gold target. Greenhouse gas emissions are projected to be very low at 15 kg/m2 or about one-sixth those of the existing convention centre. — Blair McCarry, P.Eng. continued on page 18

16

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August/September 2009

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13041_mil

buildings

continued from page 16

The Utilidor - Electrical Design Schenke /Bawol Engineering

T

here are many unique electrical features in the Vancouver Convention Centre expansion, but one of the most innovative is the Utilidor.

Located below the floor of the exhibition hall, the utilidor is a long service space or tunnel. It runs east-west below the floor and on the centre line of the exhibition hall for the entire length of the hall, some 225 metres. The utilidor is approximately 3 metres high and 3 metres wide and is continuous except for a 3.5-m gap in the centre of the run where it crosses

the main building expansion joint.

All services for the exhibition hall floor run from the utilidor. It contains two 2000A – 600V bus ducts, one from the west electrical room and one from the east room, each running to the centre of the hall. These busses are tied through the floor expansion joint section, with a tie breaker on the east side providing some redundancy for the exhibition hall power.

Connected to the bus duct, a series of 300 kVA transformers is located along the length of the utilidor, which provides 120/208V power to the floor

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ports. The utilidor also contains voice/data racks and cable trays. It is organized so that all of the power elements are along one wall, and the voice/data/systems equipment and cable trays are run on the opposite side to reduce possible electromagnetic interference (EMI).

The 21,000-m2 exhibition hall includes a series of floor ports based on a 9.1 m x 9.1m grid, the standard for convention centres. The floor ports are large boxes with highway-rated lids, each containing 100A three phase receptacles and other receptacles, as well as voice/data access points. The floor port system is connected to the utilidor with conduits run in the concrete floor. The organization of the floor ports provides low tension conduits into one side and line voltage into the opposite side of each box in such a way that these conduits never cross in the floor slab, again reducing the possibility of EMI. Running in the floor, radiating out of the utilidor in line with the floor port rows, are empty cable chases to allow temporary connections on a per show basis. The chase rows alternate between an empty 100-mm conduit and a 100-mm x 300-mm raceway. In designated rows, the larger chases are extended beyond the exhibition hall out to the loading dock, allowing temporary cables to connect the loading dock to the utilidor and, via the utilidor, to any of the floor ports. This allows cables from temporary facilities such as broadcast service trailers access to any location on the floor.

The whole system is designed for maximum flexibility as the convention floor needs to deal with many different configurations and events.

— Wolf Schenke, P.Eng. continued on page 20

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buildings

continued from page 18

DA

Fire Protection, Security and Lighting Above: custom pendant lamps in ballroom.

Fire Protection Using Objective Codes

T

he building’s fire protection design took advantage of the flexibility of a performance, or “objective-based” approach, as is provided in Canada’s National Building Code.

Ron Beaton, project architect with DA/MCM, explains that for example the building’s sprinkler system has multiple connections to the city water supply. In case these fail, there is a secondary salt-water intake from the ocean. There is also an overlapping dual sprinkler system in certain areas.

With this redundancy in the fire protection, the designers were able to leave the steel structure in the exhibition hall exposed, rather than cover it with a sprayed fire protective coating as would be normally required.

The designers also did extensive computer modeling of fires and smoke management. This approach enabled them to have a totally interconnected public space of three stories in the lobby (see photo page 16).

Above: LED district lighting.

DA

Security For the 2010 Olympics security will be at a premium and special measures will be put in place. For now, though, Beaton says that the security infrastructure in the new building is fairly standard.

There are door access controls and a network of CCTV

pan and tilt cameras, which serve both for security and life safety. The entire system is monitored in a cwentral control room and connected to Canada Place to the east.

Lighting - Bringing It All Alive Perhaps the building’s most striking architectural lighting feature is the flood of indirect lighting onto the Douglas Fir and Hemlock wood slatted panels that line the main lobby and prefunction areas. Lit up at night, the panels make a rich and dramatic play behind the building’s leadfree clear glass walls. (See photo page 14).

The meeting rooms have T5 fluorescent lamps with network addressable DALI dimming ballasts that allow each individual luminaire to be controllable. In the ballroom are metal halide, T8 fluorescent and tungsten halogen lamps in a series of pendants that provide both direct and indirect illumination. In the exhibition hall, the lighting includes both metal halide and high lumen package, fluorescent luminaires, which have networked addressable ballasts and relay-controlled multi-level switching.

Some LED lighting is used to illuminate artwork in the building, and also to light 15-m high signage systems. On the exterior walkways, “dark sky” lighting fixtures confine the light downward to prevent light pollution.

HLB of California were the lighting designers, except for in the main exhibition hall where the lighting was designed

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August/September 2009

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sports facilities

2010

WINTER OLYMPICS

The sports spectacle is still to come, but the stunning new venues for the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Vancouver and Whistler are already on display.

BY JEAN SORENSEN

The 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympics will leave a legacy of stunning venues in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. Difficult sites, budgets, and unusual architectural designs challenged the engineering community who had to find new means to deal with various constraints. They fitted facilities onto remote mountain slopes, spanned hectares of open area under a roof, created a LEED neighborhood with a sewage waste-heat system, and folded an existing community centre into a new venue. The structures now in place will be seen worldwide by millions in February 2010. Here’s a thumbnail look at some of the venues and the ingenuity that engineers rallied forth to make it all work.

Whistler Sliding Centre

Structural, mechanical, civil engineering: Stantec Consulting (Brent Fussell, P.Eng., Dejan Radoicic, P.Eng., Garry Romanetz, P.Eng., Jim Beveridge P.Eng.) Architect: Stantec Architecture (Laurenz Kosichek)

Stantec

The $70-million venue featuring the U-shaped sliding track designed by Udo Gurgel of IBG Designs of Germany will accommodate 12,000 fans for the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton events. The slide -- just one of 16 competitive tracks worldwide -- features the world’s highest drop at 152 metres. It has 16 corners and 1,660 metres of refrigerated and highly groomed track expected to generate G-forces of up to 5.01 in the men’s luge event.

Stantec, drawing upon its successful design of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games Sliding Centre, engineered the track and designed all seven buildings and the site’s infrastructure.

The largest buildings are the Track Lodge located at

the bottom of the slide, and the Men’s Start building at the top of the run, which has a large deck with a panoramic view. The other buildings include the Women’s Start building, operations and refrigeration buildings, and the control tower.

Environmental features include minimizing the footprint to preserve the forest habitat, use of shotcrete with 15% fly-ash, and energy conservation measures such as using waste heat from the refrigeration system in different buildings.

The project has won several awards, including the Century Award, since it was completed in 2007.

Above: sliding track surges around the women’s start building.

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sports facilities

Stephanie Tracey/Fast + Epp

Above: the soaring roof with its 100-m span.

Richmond Olympic Oval The spectacular Richmond Olympic Oval across the river from Vancouver International Airport has a design that embraces the grace of flight. The showcase roof system is made from unique panels of salvaged mountain pine beetle wood. Inside, the roof carries arches merging to a skater’s blade, but externally its design is made to resemble the outstretched swooping of a heron’s wing, a native bird often seen in fields and foreshore.

The heron’s same powerful yet graceful flight will be replicated in the swooping stride of world-class speed skaters striding around the 400-metre track in 2010.

One major engineering challenge was placing the structure on the site which lies on the river delta. The ground was “soft, spongy and that made it jiggly,” tells Rob Simpson P.Eng. of Glotman-Simpson. An extremely flat ice-surface is needed for competitive speed skating.

Glotman-Simpson’s solution was to drive more than 400 base piles 15 metres deep around the edges of a foundation that Simpson describes as like a “raft.” The slabs of

two concrete levels connect opposing pairs of concrete buttresses that support the shallow, arched-roof.

Fast + Epp’s design for the roof uses composite glulam and steel arches which spring from the top of the concrete buttresses with a free span of 100 metres across the arena.

The arch cross-sections, where they meet, are joined together by a steel frame formed in the shape of a skater’s blade. Specially-designed WoodWave panels, built from MPB wood, are used for the roof. Utilities such as heating, ventilation and sprinkler systems are inside the panels or the arches to preserve a clean line.

Sustainability features include heat recovery from both the ventilation system and ice-making system, and rainwater collection for irrigation and toilet flushing. Excellent acoustics in the $63-million structure will allow it to be used Post-Olympics for concerts.

Architect: Cannon Design Base structure: Glotman-Simpson (Rob Simpson P.Eng., Anthony El-Araj, P.Eng.) Roof: Fast + Epp (Paul Fast. P.Eng.).

Geotechnical: Thurber Engineering (David Tara, P.Eng.).

Electrical & mechanical: Stantec (Behzad Mehrabadi, P.Eng.) continued on page 24 August/September 2009

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Canadian Consulting Engineer

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L

sports facilities

continued from page 23

Peak 2 Peak Lift

Doppelmayr

The new $50 million Peak 2 Peak world-class ski lift is not an official Olympic 2010 venue but its image on the skyline will be hard to miss. Linking ski facilities on Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains, the lift is considered to have the world’s longest unsupported span between towers of just over 3 ki-

lometres. There are four towers varying from 35 to 65 metres high, and over Fitzsimmons Creek the lift is 435 metres above the valley floor.

A ride from one mountain to the other takes approximately 11 minutes in one of the 28 gondolas that can carry in total about 2,000 passengers an hour.

Timberline Construction Group carried out the foundation and superstructure construction on the towers and associated buildings. The largest challenge says Brent Hawkins, P.Eng. of Timberline was the short construction season. “The first year on site we had over 30 feet of snow and there was probably a week and half where two D8 Cats did nothing but push out snow,” he says.

One of the interesting features of the foundation of the terminals is that the concrete has no rock anchors. “There are probably 3,000 metres of concrete on the two terminals,” he says, adding that the sheer mass will give durability to the terminals plus eliminate the corrosion maintenance required for rock anchors.

Lift ropeway & tower design - Doppelmayr. Terminal design Architect: Cannon Design. Structural: Glotman-Simpson (Anthony El-Araj, P.Eng., Robert Simpson, P.Eng.). Geotechnical: Trow Associates (Ben Weiss, P.Eng.)

The City of Vancouver’s 32-hectare Southeast False Creek (SEFC) development, which includes the Olympic Village as well as market and non-market housing, uses raw sewage in an urban setting to extract residual warmth. It recycles the heat back to the condominium towers.

Reclaiming the foreshore for the development was a major task as the area had been used by industry for decades. Crews removed abandoned pilings from the late 1800s, and even an old sunken boat. Today the reclaimed foreshore features a nautical theme.

The Neighbourhood Energy Utility System (NEU) has three components: the energy plant located under the Granville Street bridge, hot water distribution pipe looping around to the Olympic Village and other buildings, and energy transfer stations located in each building. The water is distributed to the units though European-style heating coils in ceilings. The hot water in the distribution system loses only a few degrees before returning to the plant.

Sewage is first screened to remove solids and the heat pump has been designed with a self-cleaning system. The system can generate 2.7 megawatts of energy supplying 70% of the SEFC community’s needs. (Three buildings also have solar thermal panels on the roof).

Jean Sorensen

Olympic Village Neighbourhood Utility

NEU design - Sandwell (Ray Tarnai, P.Eng.); FVB Energy (Peter Beckett, P.Eng., Bard Skagestad P.Eng., John Chin P.Eng.); project management: City of Vancouver. Foreshore - Hayco/EBA (Ralph Everts, P.Eng., Tara Hirsekorn, P.Eng.) continued on page 26

24

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August/September 2009

12/08/09 10:36 AM

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12/08/09 10:36 AM

sports facilities

continued from page 24

The $102-million Whistler Olympic Park/Whistler Paralympic Park – also called the Nordic Centre – is the first venue in Olympic history to combine all four Nordic disciplines (biathlon, ski jumping, Nordic combined and cross-country) into one facility.

The Whistler facility features a standard and large jump, with judges towers and start houses, a day lodge, kilometres of groomed track, a shooting range and three stadia.

VANOC wanted sustainable development for the project. Joe Scholte, P.Eng., project leader for Sandwell, says. “There was not a tree cut and taken from the site,” adding the wood was either used or turned into mulch and left on site.

Nudged into the foot of scenic Queen Elizabeth Park is Vancouver’s Olympic Centre/Paralympic Centre, venue for the Winter Olympics curling events. Also known as the Hillcrest Park Recreation Centre, the complex will be converted post-Olympics for community uses.

Creative engineering forged synergies between the complex’s dual usages – the ice rinks and the pool areas. A glazed concourse acts as a buffer between these hot and cool zones.

The complex is built to last 70 years and to achieve LEED Gold certification. Its major sustainability feature is the ability through heat pumps to use the ice arena’s waste heat in the pool area, with desiccant dehumidifiers serving the curling area.

Prime engineering consultant: Sandwell Engineering (Joe Scholte, P.Eng., Ray Tarnier, P.Eng., John Karlsson, P.Eng., John Sherstobitoff, P.Eng.) Jump Design: CJP

Architect: Hughes Condon Marler. Structural: Read Jones Christoffersen (Robert Neville P.Eng., Leslie Peer, P. Eng.). Mechanical & electrical: Stantec Consulting (M.H. (Sid) Siddiqui P.Eng.) CCE

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6/5/09 10:15:26 AM

12/08/09 10:36 AM

security

Protecting 2010 Winter Olympics is big business

CCE

Contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars are flowing to companies involved in providing security for the 2010 Winter and Paralympic Olympic Games. At least half a million visitors are expected to come to Vancouver and Whistler for the Games, which start February 12.

Three cruise ships are being used to accommodate military staff, in a contract worth $76-million. Meanwhile, a security consortium known as Contemporary Security Canada, which includes Edmonton firm United Protection Services, has been contracted for $94 million to provide 5,000 private security guards to supplement the RCMP and military personnel.

A $30-million contract went to Honeywell in May provide perimjune09gm1020 SaaSto half page.qxd eter intrusion detection systems for

18 of the venues. The company provided perimeter security and surveillance cameras at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, including for the famous Bird’s Nest stadium.

In B.C., the venues that Honeywell will protect include the media centre at the Vancouver Convention Centre and the athletes’ village, but also a wide variety of other scattered venues in Vancouver and the Whistler mountains.

Paul Orzeske, president of Honeywell Building Solutions, says: “ The challenge lies in the geographic scope, which entails securing approximately 27 kilometers of event perimeter across a wide range of locations, including diverse landscapes from mountain11:07 terrain urban1 settings.”

8/6/09 AM to Page Orzeske adds: “It’s not a one-size-fits-

all, plug-and-play type of installation.”

The Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit will operate the system, while Honeywell will provide system maintenance and support.

No-one is allowed to reveal what type of equipment will be used to secure the sites, but it will no doubt include electronic sensors along the physical walls and fences, as well as electronic surveillance.

CanWest News reported that the RCMP intends to use hundreds of cameras that employ face recognition.

In July, a New Brunswick company, Allain Equipment, was awarded a contract to build an undisclosed number of mobile security units. The 5-metre long trailers will be loaded with hightech equipment for screening hundreds of visitors at a time.

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opinion

PilingÊ itÊ On

Illustration by Michael Eddenden

engineeringÊ calculationsÊ today

TechnologyÊ developmentsÊ haveÊ ledÊ toÊ engineersÊ producingÊ massesÊ ofÊ calculationsÊ toÊ justifyÊ theirÊ designsÊ ratherÊ thanÊ developingÊ criticalÊ thinking.

B Y Ê R O B E R T Ê M O T E , Ê P. E N G

When

it comes to doing calculations, I believe we are a profession in crisis.

Let me relate a common story. On an onshore oil refinery project, I was asked to check a calculation that was long overdue for a wide operators’ platform supported on three buried vessels.

In essence, the platform is a continuous beam over multiple supports and lots of point loads for grating dead and live loads. I had a picture in my mind of what to expect: perhaps, two pages describing the platform, a general arrangement plan of beams, loading and vendor information, followed by a sketch layout for the designer. There might be an additional two pages of simple numbers to confirm beam sizes. My effort would equate to checking a calculation in the range of seven to 10 pages — all in a morning’s work. What I actually received was closer to 250 pages analyzing 242 possible load combinations, a document that took the engineer three months, with overtime, to prepare. The design was not ultimately flawed, the calculation was accepted, without continued on page 30

August/September 2009

p29-30 CCE Aug09 Mote_1.indd 29

Canadian Consulting Engineer

29

12/08/09 10:41 AM

opinion

continued from page 29

Explaining these aspects change, and the engineer in simple terms as posithought his work was a CHANGING THE WAY WE WORK tive declarative statements progressive piece of engiTo break the mould, engineers need to look at the way they work: would help the checker. neering. I know this is the • Brainstorm the details together They are not intuitive tip of the iceberg. It gives • Talk to each other and don’t work in isolation but critical statements me a sense of engineerthat form the core of the ing walking backwards.

• Identify, agree and focus on the key component of the design calculations. It would be Engineering calcula• Break the work into smaller components helpful, for example, to tions are a legal and prac(e.g. reactions, concrete and structural steel) know that a tension bractical requirement for any • Perform more frequent regular checks ing and its connection is structural engineering • Use more illustrations, drive the calculations visually the most critical part of project. They record the • Use proforma templates the pipe rack design at design assumptions, estab650 kN; or to read that a lish the basis for design • Go forward in time, do not recycle work for small changes total of 300 kN of wind is and demonstrate its ade• Do not keep a history of superseded pages in the calculations applied to the structure. I quacy. The documents • Design the calculations for the reader/checker have used simple numbers are subjected to scrutiny and save their time but you will see 298.465 and verification by a third • Use simple numbers kN or 3.02332E+05 N. Try party before the design is • Summarize the major loads and material take-offs to remember them in 20 approved. minutes time! I receive calWithin the oil and gas • Remember that the sequence of work is not culations lacking in these industry, with which I have the same as the sequence of the calculations summaries and simple been involved for over • Avoid automatically performing 3D analysis numbers and am expected 20 years, there has been • Use the structural analysis to verify the thinking to approve them. a sea change in the way • Ensure the calculations are an active document we work, where we work, in the engineering design cycle What happened and how we work. Many to us? of us are familiar with the • Leave the analysis towards the end of the design cycle The last 15 years has seen changes. From an environ• Remember that the calculations are a minimum basis a strait-jacket mentality ment of smoky, noisy halls, for design, not the final evolve in the way civil/ stand-up drawing boards structural engineers work and hand power, we have moved to silent office space, cubicles and screen power. I in the design office. The emergence of desktop computhave experienced the generational changes and have seen ers has ironically killed the engineer’s ability to interact with the technology and produce calculations effectively. how we are losing our craft.

Up to the time of the supremacy of the desktop, mainCrucially, in a world of high expectations we have lost time to learn, think and talk to each other about our com- frame computers were designed, programmed and manmon tools. Consequently, I find that engineers do not aged by engineers. The languages of FORTRAN, Basic and challenge the go-by or hand-me-down examples, or seek COBOL ruled the world. The on-screen data was not pretty to improve upon the agreed design concept established by -- graphical charts were a ghastly series of Xs! But the techothers. On large projects, change is frowned upon and engi- nology worked. More importantly, engineers were formally neers are not encouraged to go against the grain. It takes a trained to master the programming.

Desktop computer technology and Windows smashed special engineer, with confidence, to challenge it.

And today, the chances are high that calculations are that. Like those in the proverbial Tower of Babel, we lost not concise or simplified; they are voluminous, detailed and the computer technology plot; it was taken out of our address every component of the design without identifying hands. The computer languages proliferated into Pascal, C+, VB, Java and we saw the dawn of the modern comthe critical behaviour.

Checking another engineers’ calculations is requiring puter profession.

When the programming was step-by-step in machine more and more time and resources. I see fundamental steps code, many engineers produced flowcharts and documenoverlooked, steps such as: tation to explain their logic and assumptions. Structural – identifying the critical load path engineering calculations produced by hand were concise – identifying the critical load combination – assumptions of the design, such as support conditions, and simplified; they identified and addressed the key elements of the design. But with the desktop computer, joint behaviour, etc. continued on page 38 30

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building controls

BACnet The popular IT protocol for building automation is being continually refined.

Recent addenda deal with issues as diverse as load shedding, encryption, and lighting controls.

F

20

rom its roots in North America, the building systems protocol BACnet became an ISO standard in 2003 and is gaining acceptance around the world, used in countries as far afield as Dubai and Korea.

In Germany, government buildings are now required to use BACnet, while in Russia, the Moscow State Construction University recently made a BACnet training course a required part of the curriculum. The protocol is even gaining 30% acceptance in Scandinavia where the rival open system LonWorks traditionally held sway.

It is more than 20 years since the American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) began devising the open IT protocol to ease the communications between HVAC equipment and controls in buildings. And it is 14 years since the resulting ANSI/ ASHRAE Standard 135, BACnet, A Data Communication Protocol for Building Automation and Control Networks, was actually produced.

BACnet is defined by ASHRAE as “a set of rules governing the exchange of data over a computer network.” The rules are a written specification that governs “everything from what kind of cable to use, to how to form a particular request or command.” The rules cover things like how to ask for the value of a temperature, define a fan operating schedule, or send a pump status alarm.” While there are other IT communication protocols, BACnet is unique in being designed specifically for building automation and control equipment.

Since BACnet’s inception ASHRAE’s technical committees have worked hard to expand and improve its applications, a task which is often complex and time-consuming.

Bill Swan of ASHRAE

years on

BY BRONWEN PARSONS

The latest version of Standard 135 was produced in 2008. It included seven addenda, and 11 more are in the process of being developed. Bill Swan, former chair, (20042008) of ASHRAE’s BACnet Committee and vice-president of the BACnet Interest Group of Europe, says “We are making a lot of changes, or extensions, to the standard. Our pace of activity is such these days that we are putting out large numbers of addenda at the same time.”

Swan, who is also the building standards initiatives leader for Honeywell and lives in Redmond, Washington, explains some key addenda that have been incorporated in the 2008 BACnet standard. He also discusses developments on the horizon that different BACnet SSPC (Standing Standard Project Committee) teams are focusing on.

Load control - talking to utilities The brainchild of one team -- the BACnet Smart Grid working group -- is the load control data “object.” It was added to the BACnet protocol as a standard means to configure a building’s automation system to work with a utility. Should the utility be suffering from demand overload, or if the building owner wants to take advantage of off-peak energy rates, the building’s energy consumption can be adjusted.

Swan explains that until now these demand control, or load shedding, exchanges have generally been arranged via a telephone call to the facility manager. “What’s being done now is to automate that whole process.” The building automation system can even send meter information back to the utility to verify that it did comply with the request.

With BACnet, no matter what proprietary system is installed, you can add a BACnet box, “put it in your building and you’ve got the capability for the system to talk to the utility.”

The Smart Grid working group is also developing an continued on page 32 August/September 2009

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continued from page 31

addendum for energy trading.

Because much of the communication with the utilities will take place over the internet, security has become increasingly important. In July, the BACnet committee said they will publish an addendum to enable FIPScompliant secure communications to be used with BACnet Web Services.

Wireless Networks ASHRAE recently published BACnet for ZigBee wireless networks. While wireless networks are still relatively rare, Swan says that they can be useful in older buildings where it’s difficult to run wiring, or in interiors where there could be lots of occupancy changes.

Applications Profiles The task of the Applications working group is so complex they have been working on it since 1996. They are developing BACnet standard “profiles” or “macro objects” that are tailormade for particular pieces of equipment, such as chillers and variable frequency drives. Ordinarly BACnet handles data at a more granular level, but the new profiles will represent a larger set of values. “It’s been a difficult job,” says Swan, “but we think that BACnet will be greatly improved by having the larger objects.” The committee has almost completed a profile for variable frequency drives that will be used as a model for developing profiles for other devices.

Testing BACnet devices Since 2003 there has been a testing standard for BACnet devices, and there are two laboratories that test equipment and authorize the BACnet Testing Laboratory (BTL) mark. Now the Testing and Interoperability working group is finding ways to make the tests much more comprehensive. The group has just achieved a milestone, having completed testing of BACnet building operator workstations. “This means we now have the capability to test all kinds of BACnet devices,” says Swan.

“I always, always, always suggest that

Cooling the Towers of Dubai

T

oronto-based NORR Architects and Engineers design tall buildings in Dubai and other Persian Gulf states where the hot and humid climate hovers around 40°C for much of the year. NORR designed the signature Emirates Tower, as well as the Shangri-La Hotel, both over 48 stories in Dubai. They are also the architect of record for the Burj Dubai, the world’s new tallest building, which is nearing completion.

Chris Pal, P.Eng., director of engineering for NORR in Dubai, explains that while the architecture of towers in the Gulf states is futuristic, their building systems have many of the same Emirates Towers, a 150,000-sf landcomponents as in North America or Europe. mark in Dubai, designed by NORR. “Much of the technology is the same,” Pal says. “Obviously we don’t need heating in Dubai, and free cooling (using outside air) is not viable. The devices that we control might be a little different. But we have cooling, we have dehumidification, we have to all intents and purposes all the things we would have in North America. So the automation system itself has to be smart enough to do all the same kinds of things there as here in Canada.”

Pal says that single-sourcing building automation systems isn’t common in Dubai.

Instead, the towers tend to use BACnet as the open protocol to harmonize different manufacturers’ products. The devices themselves may have distributed intelligence, he says, “But every singer has to sing from the same songbook, so they’re all reporting back to a mothership, as it were, on a BACnet compatible network.”

Because the largest towers and complexes are multi-use, each occupant zone will tend to have autonomous building systems control. There might be two hotels, office space and residences all in one development. “They all want control of their own destiny,” Pal explains. “A five-star hotel, for example, must react in minutes if there is an air-conditioning problem.”

At the same time, those autonomous systems are all connected together “ so that the building owner can monitor information such as doing energy analysis, trending, costs, etc.

Pal says that despite the steaming temperatures in Dubai, some of the older buildings are actually uncomfortably chilly inside. That’s because the building systems try to make up for lack of dehumidification by excessively cooling building spaces.

Dehumidifying enables temperatures to be kept a little higher, increasing comfort and saving energy costs, a factor that is becoming more important as LEED-Silver is being mandated for new buildings in a large swath of the city.

NORR

building controls

continued on page 38 32

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By Jonathan Hendricks Halcrow Yolles

computers

BIM - an experience Structural engineers explain how Business Information Modeling has opened up the “palette of engineering solutions” on different projects and is transforming the way they work.

continued on page 34

Walters Inc.

Halcrow Yolles

W

hen Halcrow Yolles adopted Building Information Modeling (BIM) in 2002, the full potential of the technology and the resulting implications for in-house design processes were not understood as well as they are today. However, it was obvious that this type of modeling greatly helped designers meet a growing demand to manage projects with complex geometric arrangements.

The advantages of modeling complex geometry in BIM extend beyond coordinating the input of different consultants on a project. The process can also increase the palette of engineering solutions that can be developed. Foster + Partners’ Leslie Dan’s School of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto, for example, contains an 18-metre tall entrance space featuring two mildly distorted hemispherical pods elegantly suspended over the lobby. The pods contain auditorium seating.

Traditional engineering framing solutions to these notquite egg-shaped elements would likely have gravitated towards one of two solutions: radial ribs (like the wedges of a cut orange) or transverse ribs (like slices of a baguette).

While either of these options would form an adequate structure, both would have resulted in curved elements with a constantly changing radius of curvature, driving up the complexity and cost of fabrication.

Using BIM, the engineers realized that by offsetting the framing off vertical to follow the geometry more closely, the framing could be fabricated using constant curvature elements. Beyond being a more economic construction, the new framing arrangement developed through BIM closely matched the panelization of the finishes, eliminating the need for significant infill steelwork to support the cladding.

These early trials revealed that BIM technology not only greatly assists the manipulation of projects with challenging topographical relationships but also enables more meaningful solutions to be developed. However the deliverables of this time were quite traditional -- consisting of 2D drawings (albeit with a higher degree of sophistication) and associated specifications.

A new approach to project deliverables was used on the Art Gallery of Ontario’s recent transformation by Gehry architects. It was divided into two main structural packages;

Top: Leslie Dan Pharmacy Building, University of Toronto. Above: Tekla Model of the auditorium pods in the lobby, courtesy of Walters Inc. August/September 2009

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computers

continued from page 33

the main building and the feature elements (the Stair, the Walker Court feature stair, and the Dundas Façade). For the feature elements, the contract documents consisted of three components: 1. 2D drawings and specifications 2. 3D Master Model (wire frame) 3. 3D Information Model The Master Model contained all the dimensioning and dimensional information and, combined with the drawings and specifications, formed the basis of the contract. The Information Model contained 3D extruded shapes of all the structural framing. This model was to be used as a reference only and did not govern the contract.

Halcrow Yolles

In the interim It may be that we are passing through an interim stage on the way to the industry accepting full 3D model information as the basis for the contract. If the design process operates virtually in 3D, and construction is by its very nature 3D, then procurement becomes increasingly isolated as the only part of the workflow that remains in 2D. Ideally, if the project team’s energy is dedicated to creating a full BIM-based model, then the model should be leveraged to serve not only in producing quality deliverables (3D

Above: Art Gallery of Ontario Stair, Catia Model.

or 2D), but also as the basis of all analytical and design processes. Realizing this potential, however, may require change to permeate through companies’ internal processes, organizational structures, and even the business model for a project.

Not unexpectedly perhaps, Halcrow Yolles’ first project that was fully delivered in BIM, an auditorium project with

With BIM we tend to see an erosion of the traditional division of drafting and engineering roles, and the emergence of a combined “modeler” role.

ShoP architects at Site 26 in New York City, was a learning experience. Through a formula of dedication, stubbornness, great skill and a pinch of luck, the project was delivered successfully. But following this, and building on “lessons learned,” the company committed itself to a process of customizing the software to best suit our wants, developing or adapting official standards and processes, and rolling out a training program for all our drafting staff and, more recently, our engineering staff.

With BIM we tend to see an erosion of the traditional division of drafting and engineering roles, and the emergence of a combined “modeler” role. Successful modeling, however, requires both contractual accuracy and analytical accuracy, so modeling specialists with a background in either drafting or engineering are highly valued.

Effect on fee structures Having made some progress along the learning curve towards fully leveraging BIM, Halcrow Yolles is on track to having all of its projects in BIM by the end of 2009. Areas of focus for the BIM implementation team include looking at developing smart modeling objects that respond to their environment (a footing that resizes to suit the load in the column bearing on it, or a foundation wall that adjusts with thickness with a change in height). The team is also looking at streamlining the data exchange between the BIM model and analytical software, and exploring the potential to modify our fee structures to reflect that BIM requires consultants to shift their work effort to earlier phases in the design process.

While companies can achieve greater in-house efficiencies by streamlining their processes and their customization work, by far and away the major gains of BIM can be found in interfacing with other members of the design and construction team when all parties are working on a common platform. Achieving these efficiencies requires the buy-in from the whole of the industry. It is generally agreed that the U.S. industry is two years ahead of Canada in the adoption of BIM. Should the Canadian industry be happy to remain as followers delivering the competitive edge to our southern neighbours? Or should we work together to adapt industry best practice in order to leverage and drive the potential of current technology?

CCE Jonathan Hendricks is a principal with Halcrow Yolles, international consulting engineers based in Toronto. @ARTICLECATEGORY:661; 668

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By G.D. Lougheed, National Research Council Institute for Research in Construction

fire protection

Are smoke detectors in HVAC ducts effective? Research has settled some questions over whether their installation is worthwhile.

FINDING SMOKE IN

HVAC DUCTS M

ost building codes, includReturn air duct ing the National Building smoke detector Exhaust Code of Canada, require with sampling tube damper smoke detectors in HVAC ducts to shut down the HVAC system during Air return Exhaust from space air a fire to minimize the circulation of Return fan smoke through a building.

However, there have been many Supply air duct questions about the effectiveness of Return smoke detector air damper duct smoke detectors and whether with sampling tube Humidifier Reheat coil Filter their expense is worth the degree of protection they might provide.

Air supply To address the doubts that have Outside to space air surfaced in past decades about the Supply fan usefulness of HVAC smoke detecOutside Preheat Cooling air damper coil coil tors, research was conducted at the National Research Council of Can- Above: typical constant-volume, single-zone HVAC system. ada’s Institute for Research in Construction (NRC-IRC) in Ottawa, and at the University of important for small, compact buildings because smoke disMaryland. NRC-IRC conducted full-scale experiments using tribution through the ductwork is a larger proportion of its 10-storey building test facility, and the university did smoke movement than in tall buildings, where stack effect small-scale experiments and modeling studies. and other mechanisms are large factors.

Most codes require duct smoke detectors in the supply air duct downstream of the fresh air inlets, filters and fans Smoke dilution and different detectors (see figure). Some codes also require detectors in return air There has long been concern that the concentration of ducts. Installation requirements for HVAC smoke detectors smoke in HVAC ducts might be too low to activate duct are provided in such standards as CAN/ULC-S524, Stan- smoke detectors in time to allow evacuation. To address this dard for the Installation of Fire Alarm Systems. question, experiments were made using four different types of commercially available duct smoke detectors: ionization, Confirmation: shut down HVAC fans in a fire photoelectric, sampling and multi-sensor.

The research investigated whether the smoke movement It was found that all four types of detectors would respond created by HVAC fans is significant compared to that result- to smoke in the HVAC system once it reached concentrations ing from the fire itself and other effects. The tests confirmed comparable to those used as criteria for safe building evacuthat unless an active smoke management strategy is in place, ation. In other words, HVAC smoke detectors are indeed the HVAC fans should indeed be shut down upon detection capable of shutting down HVAC systems at smoke levels that of a fire, as required by codes and standards. It was found still allow time for the evacuation of building occupants. that the HVAC-related pressure differences were generally larger than those stemming from other factors, including Smoke aging the fire itself. These greater pressure differences also led to There has been speculation that “smoke aging” might influthe distribution of smoke to floors where there was no fire. ence the effectiveness of HVAC smoke detectors. As smoke It was found that HVAC system shutdown is particularly continued on page 36 August/September 2009

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fire protection

continued from page 35

moves away from a fire source, it cools and changes in terms of smoke particle size, shape and colour, and it was suspected that the farther smoke is from the source, the less detectable it becomes. The full-scale experiments determined that this “smoke aging� did not adversely affect smoke detection.

Detectors with sampling tubes It was found that most buildings have air flow velocities that fall within the range over which smoke detectors are tested.

Smoke detectors with sampling tubes were shown to be effective in this range.

Effect of HVAC filters HVAC filters remove larger particles of smoke and there have been questions about the possibility of the filter reducing smoke density and making it undetectable. The filters are situated in the air supply downstream of the fresh air inlet, the filter, the conditioning area, and the fan.

Testing of Group 1 (Glass fibres in a cardboard frame) and Group 2 (Extended area, pleated wet-laid cellulose) filters showed that filters do indeed affect smoke detection, but the detectors will respond while evacuation is still possible. However, ionization detectors are recommended in systems with Group 2 filters. Multi-use detectors that combine photoelectric and ionization detection are better yet.

The NRC-IRC test facility was not configured to test high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters, but it is known that HEPA filters would further reduce smoke reaching detectors and therefore multi-use detectors should be used.

Stratified flow The research addressed how the location of a smoke detector in a duct affects detection. The research indicated that at low air velocities, buoyancy causes smoke to concentrate in the upper part of the duct. However, the results suggest there is no justification as required in some standards for requiring duct smoke detectors to be located at set distances (3 - 10 duct diameters) from bends, inlets and outlets. Updates to standards that require this might consider this information.

It is recommended that HVAC smoke detectors be located at the top of the ductwork where the smoke concentration would be highest if stratification did occur. They should also be placed at the mid-point of straight runs, and sampling tubes should be installed vertically.

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p35-36 CCE Aug09 Fire_Prod.indd 36

Dr. G.D. Lougheed is a principal research officer in the Fire Research Program at the National Research Council Canada Institute for Research in Construction in Ottawa. @ARTICLECATEGORY:1781;

August/September 2009

12/08/09 10:44 AM

events

Seminars at Light Canada To be held September 24-25 at the Direct Energy Centre, Toronto, the IIDEX/NeoCon interior design conference and exhibition is now held in conjunction with the Green Building Festival and Light Canada.

Sponsored by the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES), Light Canada has a number of seminars presented by or for consulting engineers, with highlights below. For a full schedule, see www.iidexneocon.com THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 8.30-10.30 a.m. LEED and Lighting Design. Presentations

by Howard Procyshyn, P.Eng. of Smith Carter on the “SC3” office, Winnipeg, Lana MacInnes of Smith and Andersen on lighting for sports facilities, and Katharine MacKay of MMM Group on their firm’s LEED Silver head office in Toronto.

11.30 a.m.-12.30 p.m. Out of the Shadows. Abhay Wadhwa, an international award-winning designer and adjunct professor at the Lighting Research Centre at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. 1.00-3.00 p.m. Lighting for Architects and Designers. Common

issues ranging from lamp types, lighting effects and lightcove sign, to how to avoid scalloping, socket shadows and hot spots. Presented by Paul Boken of Mulvey + Banani Lighting of Toronto and Brad Hindson of KPMB Architects.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 8.30-9.30 a.m. Addressing Dimmable Controls. Presentation by Andrew Parker, Encelium Technologies. Includes integrating lighting controls with other building systems.

8.30-9.30 a.m. Lighting the Way to Global Economic Transformation, One Home at a Time. Presentation by Dr. David Irvine-Halliday of the University of Calgary’s Schulich School of Engineering.

10.30-11.30 a.m. Lightpaintings in Art and Architecture.

American artist Stephen Knapp designs large-scale works with light.

11.45 a.m.-12.45 p.m. Rethinking Lighting – the LED Promise. Evaluating white light LEDs. 2.30-4.30 p.m. Taking it to the Streets: Using LEDs for Outdoor Lighting Applications. Case studies in Canada and the U.S. CCE @ARTICLECATEGORY:672; 651;

Give Water, Give Life

WaterCan is a leading Canadian charity dedicated to fighting global poverty by helping the world’s poorest people gain access to clean water, basic sanitation and hygiene education.

WaterCan works with local partner organizations in east Africa to support small-scale, community-driven projects that dramatically improve quality of life.

To learn more please visit: www.watercan.com 321 Chapel Street, Ottawa, ON K1N 7Z2 1.800.370.5658 info@watercan.com

August/September 2009

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building controls

opinion

continued from page 32

when people specify BACnet devices, they should specify devices that have the BTL Mark,” says Swan. Otherwise, “what we find is that frequently implementers make mistakes or they make improper choices, so that devices without the mark don’t always work with others as well as they should.”

Swan estimates that only around 30-40% of devices are currently tested in the BACnet lab and receive the BTL mark. It can cost around $5,000 to test a small controller, for example, he says.

Lighting Controls The Lighting Applications working group is developing lighting control extensions for BACnet. This is a typical example of how addenda are initiated, says Swan. “A lighting control manufacturer sent a representative to the committee saying they wanted to do lighting in BACnet. He got representatives from other lighting control companies to come and they started hammering out what was needed.”

The committee is working on standardized interfaces for controls, a task that involves “lots of complexity in not obvious ways,” says Swan.

The group’s work must take into account issues such as expected lamp life, dimming and fading, and new schedules for sunrise and sunset. They’re also working on extensions for theatrical lighting, which can change in 100th of a second.

Access Doors The 2008 BACnet protocol incorporates the Access Door “object” relating to controls over the physical doors of a building. Another object was added for card readers, and there are also new extensions representing the database of who is permitted inside, when and where, explains Swan.

Encryption is very much needed for the security of the access control extensions, he says.

All the initiatives to expand the usability of BACnet are undertaken by volunteer experts drawn from the consulting engineering and manufacturing sectors, with employers paying for the extensive time involved to serve on the BACnet committees. “I think last year we spent 21 days in face-to-face meetings alone,” says Swan.

CCE

continued from page 30

engineers pursued the opportunity to analyze details.

When the giant structural analysis programs of the MS-DOS days were upgraded to the Windows environment, it was achieved by building the graphical user interface i.e. enabling the engineer to graphically build a 3D structural model. But this approach did not extend to the output report. The structural analysis programmers provide their own built-in routines for producing reports, and these remain today in their dreadful original MS-DOS formats.

Engineers are not trained to transfer the structural analysis results into Microsoft Word or Excel where the information can be manipulated and reduced into an accessible format for justifying the design and the calculations. Consequently, the result for every single structural member is printed out and presented as the calculation and the proof. Engineers have been drawn into the quantity, not the quality of the calculations, and as a result calculations for the analysis have become quantitative tomes of work, failing to meet the primary and fundamental requirements which are to prove the structure’s stability, adequacy and reasonableness.

The calculations can become a very useful document during the lifecycle of the engineering design, from the conceptual phase through to material purchase, delivery, fabrication, transportation and construction. But it is very difficult to achieve this aim if we’re waiting three months and we have 400 pages to look forward to. The quantitative approach is not practical engineering.

We, as practising and professional individuals, need to recognize how we can do better in our calculations, set a benchmark for expectations, and engender critical thinking in a world of too much information. Quality calculations are about performance, communication and teamwork. Let’s start talking.

CCE Robert Mote P.Eng. is a civil/structural engineering consultant to the global oil and gas industry with over 20 years’ experience.

He is the author of The Engineer’s Word and The Engineer’s Tables. E-mail rmote@motagg.com

@ARTICLECATEGORY:651; 661;

@ARTICLECATEGORY:663;

products SECURITY

Digital Monitoring Products (DMP) has released Entré CS Access and Security management software. This new version provides integrated systems management for central control. www.dmp.com Makrolon 15 from Bayer Corpora-

tion’s Sheffield Plastics is polycarbonate sheet glazing material that resists severe impacts from vandals. www.sheffieldplastics.com The new NVS Series of network video recorders by Toshiba supports 32 IP network cameras, including megapixel models. Suit-

able for ultra-high resolution recording with mass storage up to 4TB. www.toshiba.com Videocomm Technologies makes a Wireless Elevator Camera system with a range of up to 200 floors. It has a plug and play design. www.videotransmitters.com CCE @ARTICLECATEGORY:673; 1781;

38

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August/September 2009

17/08/09 10:27 AM

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Therefore, we have developed the Grundfos Pump Handbook which, in a simple manner, deals with various considerations when sizing pumps and pump systems. This handbook, developed for engineers and technicians who work with design and the installation of pumps and pump systems, includes answers to a wide range of technical questions. For more information please visit our website at www.grundfos.com SUPPLIER: GRUNDFOS CANADA

CITY MULTI

SOFT STARTER SSW-06

Introducing Mitsubishi Electric’s City Multi modular units. This flexible heating and cooling system is now more efficient and provides more outdoor space savings than ever. City Multi is famous for its industry-leading VRF technology, geothermal applications, and the world’s only 2-pipe system featuring simultaneous heating and cooling along with reduced installation costs. City Multi also offers complete sustainable heating and cooling solutions, which qualify for LEED credits.

For more information, visit www.mitsubishihvac.ca SUPPLIER: MITSUBISHI

The SSW-06 is WEG’s third generation Soft Starter line. Its Keypad with dual display provides high visibility with bright red LED digits and easy programming. With built-in bypass contacts to eliminate heat dissipation once the motor is at full voltage it is extremely compact. This allows for simple integration in non-ventilated enclosures and replacement of electromechanical starters in Motor Control Centers. This product recently won the IF Design Award - Industrial Products Category. The main design attributes which conferred this award to the SSW-06 were the simplicity of constructive solutions and its user friendly operator interface. Call 1 877 PAMENSKY www.pamensky.com SUPPLIER: V.J. PAMENSKY

12/08/09 10:58 AM

S-CONCRETE FOR WINDOWS S-CONCRETE is a reinforced concrete section design and detailing software that operates in stand-alone mode or integrated with our structural analyis software, S-FRAME and P-FRAME. S-CONCRETE supports the current American, Canadian, British, and Singapore standards. It will design beams, columns, composite columns, and shear walls subjected to wind and earthquake loads. For more information please visit our website at www.s-frame.com SUPPLIER: SOFTEK SERVICES LTD.

VICTAULIC CIRCUIT BALANCING Enhance comfort and cut energy costs through precise control of building temperature.

Hydronic balancing is the means and method to control hydronic systems thus providing a comfortable indoor climate, minimizing energy costs and preventing problems during operations. Victaulic provides a complete line of balancing products that allow for accurate control of building temperatures while optimizing energy efficiency. For more information visit, www.victaulic.com/balancing SUPPLIER: VICTAULIC

UPONOR COMMERCIAL SYSTEMS BROCHURE The newly revised 28-page Uponor Commercial Systems Brochure highlights a variety of commercial applications featuring Uponor (formerly Wirsbo) PEX Plumbing, Radiant Heating and Cooling, Snow and Ice Melt, Permafrost Prevention and Turf Conditioning systems. For more information, visit www.uponor.ca or call (888) 994-7726.

SUPPLIER: UPONOR LTD.

CANADIAN CONSULTING ENGINEER 2010 MEDIA KIT Canadian Consulting Engineer magazine provides high quality editorial coverage of the most pertinent and timely issues that affect engineers across Canada. The magazine reaches the consulting engineers who make the critical decisions on building and construction projects. This is exactly the audience you need to reach. Advertise your product or service with us. Be seen and be specified!

To order your 2010 media kit, please send along your request to Maureen Levy at (416) 510-5111 or email: mlevy@ccemag.com

professional directory

products HVAC

The P266 condenser fan speed controller by Johnson Controls/ PENN is for single-phase Permanent Split Capacitor (PSC) motors used in outdoor low ambient refrigeration and airconditioning condenser applications. The patent-pending P266 design can extend motor life by reducing power and motor temperature at lower speeds. www.johnsoncontrols.com OptimumHVAC by Optimum Energy is patented plug and play software that is networked with building automation systems to optimize centrifuge chiller plants and variable air volume handling systems. The software tracks energy savings and can lower HVAC energy costs by 60%. www.optimumenergyHVAC.com ELECTRICAL

Schneider Electric’s multi-protocol, intelligent motor control center (iMCC) integrates cabling and device-level networks.

The high-performance controls streamline troubleshooting and are for any industry requiring critical motor applications, including water and wastewater treatment and HVAC systems. www.schneider-electric.ca CCE

For information on placing an advertisement in the Canadian Consulting Engineer Professional Directory, contact Maureen Levy, Senior Publisher, 416-510-5111, email: mlevy@ccemag.com Vince Naccarato, Sales Manager, 416-510-5118, email: vnaccarato@ccemag.com

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the human edge

Working Together Peter Buckland and Peter Taylor

T

he firm of Buckland and Taylor in Vancouver has won numerous awards for bridge designs and is working on projects all over the world. The founding principals, now semi-retired, belong to the Order of Canada and last year won the ACEC Beaubien Award. CCE asked them individually what made their partnership so successful.

PETER BUCKLAND

Obviously a big reason is trust, in a number of ways -I mean trusting each other’s technical ability, but also trusting that we’ll do what we say we’ll do and what it takes to get things done. So I can trust that if I leave something in Peter’s hands, it will happen.

I think, though, another reason is that we have the same sort of business ethic PETER TAYLOR and outlook on how we want That’s a good question, beto conduct our lives, and cause when you look at particularly our business lives. So there wasn’t a lot of other companies, a partnerconflict there. ship of similarly qualified Peter Taylor (left) and Peter Buckland (right) receiving an award from Mostly I think for me I equals doesn’t always work Consulting Engineers of B.C. in 2006. needed someone to talk to in the long run.

I think it worked because although we are both designers occasionally, to bounce ideas off. I can remember very often we come at it from slightly different angles, and we have a going into Peter’s office and saying, look I need to discuss this with you. By the time I’d finished explaining what the high degree of respect for each other’s contributions.

From Day One, Peter Buckland had the vision that we problem was, I kind of had a solution.

I think very largely we had the same skills, to be honest. were going to create a world class engineering company. He was completely confident of that vision and that it could be I’ve always regarded Peter as technically very strong indeed.

It’s also important to note that Brian Morgenstern, made to happen.

My very simple analogy for running a consulting com- P.Eng. was an equal partner in the firm. He has had an pany was, first you need to generate the work, and second enormous contribution to the company, really enormous. you need to do the work, and third you need to get paid for So we three ran it as a sort of triumvirate. the work. You need all of those things and without them Now all good books on how to run a business will tell you you won’t be able to succeed. that you need some kind of a structure with somebody at the I did some business development and lots of design. top, a chief executive. We never did that. We did everyAnd Peter did lots of business development and lots of thing by consensus, which is slow because it’s difficult somedesign. There was overlap, but there’s no question times to get all three on board. But it’s very solid, because that the vision end of things was his strength, and hold- once you’re on board, the decision stands. ing it all together and getting the stuff out of the door was my strength.

Q. Is it confusing for the staff with the two Peters?

We also developed a very close dialogue. We would have Well it’s not confusing for me, because I know he’s the lunch together four or five times a week. And all the time other one. We are known as Peter T and Peter B. I think we would talk about engineering. So we were both aware of the staff can sort it out. For clients it’s a bit more diffieverything that was going on in the company and were able cult because sometimes they can’t remember which one to back stop for each other with perfect fluency. is which.

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