Robert M. Henry

Interdisciplinary Experiential Education of Intellectual Property Concepts in an Engineering Context

Abstract-Drawing from a curricular model proposed in a recent report from educators in the UK, this article examines the need to educate US engineering students in intellectual property concepts through partnerships between law students and undergraduate engineering students [1]. The educational vehicle that is the focus of this article is the engineering senior capstone design project. In the proposed pedagogical model, law students studying intellectual property will take on the role of advisors to engineering students (their clients) while the latter group endeavors to develop an engineering solution to a real world problem. This article also seeks to identify and address concerns of licensing authorities and professional associations that may arise as a result of implementation of the model.

A comparative study of the effects of cladding panel modelling

Abstract A study was done on the macroscopic effects on a frames behavior when cladding panels are structurally incorporated into the analysis. The following is a report on the effects of cladding panels on the natural vibration frequencies of a structural frame. The microscopic effects of the panels inclusion, i.e. the stresses internal to the panel itself, are not studied. A two story, one bay frame with a single cladding panel at mid-height was used throughout the analysis. The cladding panel was represented by five different models; 4 noded, 16 DOF (degrees-of-freedom) rectangular finite element, 4 noded, 12 DOF rectangular finite element, 4 and 8 noded quadrilateral plane stress elements with only two translational DOF at each node, and an analogous frame model. To analyze the effect of discretization on the results with each model, the cladding panel was subdivided into meshes varying from 1 to 16 elements. The results of each model with the various meshes were compared. Frame behavior as a function of panel height was also studied. Ratios of panel height to story height of 30%, 50%, 70% and 90% were used. The degree of fixity of the elements connecting the panel to the frame varied from a pinned connection to full fixity. The data indicates that incorporation of cladding panels results in a dramatic reduction in a structures natural periods of vibration.

Column sizing design aid

Presented in this paper is an interactive computer program which will aid the engineer in selecting the trial section properties of a column for the iterative design and analysis process. An algorithm is developed around the effective length factor (K) and the end restraint factor (ψ) for an unbraced frame. The output is a table of values of the ratio of the column moment of inertia to the beam moment of inertia (IR) as a function of the effective length factor (K). The program is written in standard Fortran.