Engineering students take first place in HVAC design competition
Monday, Aug. 20, 2018
MANHATTAN — A team from the architectural engineering and construction science department at Kansas State University has taken first place in the 2018 ASHRAE Student Design Competition and Setty Family Foundation Applied Engineering Challenge in the HVAC System Selection category.
The competitions recognize outstanding student design projects and encourage students to become involved in the design of energy-efficient HVAC systems. A total of 63 teams participated with 35 judged at the society level.
The Kansas State University team submitted its competition presentation and report digitally in May to the judging committee at the local level, which for the university is the Kansas City ASHRAE chapter. From there the entry went on to the region level, ASHRAE Region IX, for judging. First-place entries from each of the 15 regions were then sent to the international level of the society for judging in June at ASHRAE’s annual conference in Houston.
This year’s competition project focused on a new 70,000-square-foot, four-story, mixed-use complex north of Istanbul, Turkey, near the new international airport. The facility featured retail and office spaces, a restaurant and a hotel in support of the upcoming rapid growth in the area when the airport is completed in 2019.
The students selected water-to-air heat pumps, water-to-water heat pumps, active chilled beams and a hybrid ground loop/cooling tower. The system proposal allows for integration of sustainable solutions encompassing energy efficiency, human comfort and productivity, indoor environmental quality and architectural aesthetics.
Team members, all spring 2018 graduates in architectural engineering, were as follows: Whitney Luck, El Dorado; Andres Saldivar, Garden City; Madison Hopfinger, Overland Park; Kevin Clark, Solomon; and Evan Reese, St. Marys.
Faculty advisers were Julia Keen, professor, and Fred Hasler, associate professor, both from the department of architectural engineering and construction science.
The projects will be shared and awards presented at the 2019 ASHRAE Winter Conference, Jan. 12-16, in Atlanta.
ASHRAE, founded in 1894, is a global society advancing human well-being through sustainable technology for the built environment. The society and its more than 56,000 members worldwide focus on building systems, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, refrigeration and sustainability.
