UP COE Technical Bulletin 2020: PCA and TRA Book of Abstracts

TEACHING AND RESEARCH GRANT 183

MITCH-IRENE KATE G. OYALES

Mitch-Irene Kate G. Oyales is Assistant Professor of BS Materials Engineering program at the Department of Mining,
Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering, University of the Philippines Diliman, and the current
Faculty-in-Charge of the Materials R&D and Consulting Facility of DMMME.

She received her BS degree in Materials Engineering and M.S. degree in Materials Science and Engineering at the
University of the Philippines Diliman. She’s currently a Ph.D. candidate in Materials Science and Engineering at the
University of the Philippines Diliman.

Her field of specialization covers materials science, rubber engineering, nanocomposites, biomaterials, valorization of
locally-sourced materials, materials testing and characterizations, and materials degradation and failure analysis.

INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL AGEING ON THE DEGRADATION AND FAILURE
MECHANISM OF RUBBER COMPOSITE

Materials degradation is inevitable and may lead to eventual failure of the engineering product or
system. Material failure could lead to loss of product integrity, costs, or in worst cases, loss of lives.
There are several studies on the degradation and failure of monolithic materials, i.e., metals,
ceramics, and polymers that have been conducted on the past decades. The influences of the
immediate environment and the distinct fracture features for these materials have been established.
For the case of composite materials, which is a combination of two or more monolithic material, the
degradation and failure mechanism is still an area under investigations. In this research, the fracture
features of rubber composites filled with carbon black that are commonly used for rubber tires,
fenders, matting, etc., will be explored. The effect of thermal ageing on the fracture features of
rubber composite will also be investigated. Then, these fracture features will be correlated to the
mechanical performance of rubber composite.

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

184 TEACHING AND RESEARCH GRANT

JIHAN S. PACER

Ms. Pacer is an Instructor and a part of the Wind Engineering team under the Structural Engineering Group of the
Institute of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, University of the Philippines Diliman.
She received her BS degree in Civil Engineering at the University of the Philippines Diliman (Magna Cum Laude) and
graduated as the batch valedictorian of her class. She is currently taking her MS degree in Civil Engineering major in
Structural Engineering also in University of the Philippines Diliman. Her field specialization in Structural Engineering is
Wind Engineering and her current thesis is on the study of vulnerability of residential buildings against severe wind
loadings brought about by strong typhoons.

GRID INDEPENDENCE ANALYSIS IN DETERMINING PRESSURE COEFFICIENTS
DUE TO WIND LOADS ON GABLE STRUCTURES

This study investigates the difference of using default mesh parameters and hybrid mesh in
determining pressure coefficients from a gable structure. This study attempted to do grid
independent analysis using hybrid mesh. Due to lack of resources, the model used was from Tokyo
Polytechnic University (TPU) database which has available experimental results from wind tunnel
testing. These experimental results were used in determining the accuracy of the simulation. Results
from the hybrid mesh is more accurate in predicting the pressure coefficients but needs more mesh
refinement as it is still enough to resolve wind flow when compared to experimental results. Usually
these mesh refinements are geometry specific and will need iterative simulation trials to improve
mesh quality every simulation.
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UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

TEACHING AND RESEARCH GRANT 185

MATTHEW HARVEY T. PERALTA

With co-authors Phillip Eleazar S. Aguilar and Justin Royce P. Dela Peña

Engr. Peralta has been a faculty member at the Institute of Civil Engineering since 2014. He is a member of the
Transportation Engineering Group and a former Program Coordinator of the Engineering Sciences Program of the
College of Engineering. He teaches undergraduate level basic and advanced engineering mechanics, traffic engineering,
and highway design.

His research interests include transportation planning, transport mode choice parameters, traffic impact assessment of
transport infrastructure, and service area analysis of transport and other public service facilities. He is also involved in
research regarding alternative materials for Philippine construction.

Engr. Peralta earned both his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering magna cum laude and his master’s degree in Urban
and Regional Planning from the University of the Philippines.

TRAFFIC IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF THE PROPOSED LACSON FLYOVER ON ITS
ADJACENT ROAD NETWORK

Arsenio H. Lacson Avenue, a segment of the C-2 arterial, is one of the busiest roads in the City of
Manila. To address the high levels of traffic congestion on the area and its adjacent intersecting
roads, DPWH proposed the construction of a flyover along Lacson Avenue. The analysis of the
impacts of this project is necessary to determine its effectiveness and to confirm if the corresponding
changes in traffic conditions are substantial enough considering different scenarios. For this study,
the obtained data were simulated using VISSIM to analyze the performance per intersection using
average travel speed, average travel time, and average delay time as main parameters. The traffic
and geometric data from the base year (2016) and projected data, for the year of start of operation
(2019) and end of design life (2039), with and without flyover cases, were subjected to traffic impact
analysis. After analysis and evaluation, the results show that the flyover has significant effects on the
road network. The analysis of the 2019 traffic data with the proposed flyover shows that the average
delay decreased by 11.04%, the average speed increased by 25.17% and the average travel time
reduced by 1.99% for the whole network, decreased by 60% for vehicles using the flyover and
increased by 5% for vehicles not using the flyover.

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

186 TEACHING AND RESEARCH GRANT

DEAN ASHTON D. PLAMENCO

With co-author Paolo M. Caparros

Ashton is an instructor and a junior member of the Construction Engineering and Management Group at the Institute of
Civil Engineering. He received his BS degree in Civil Engineering at the University of the Philippines Diliman (cum laude)
and is currently finishing his master’s degree in Industrial Engineering (Operations Research). His research interests
include corrosion in concrete, productivity in construction, and reliability analysis of construction materials.

PRODUCTIVITY ANALYSIS OF SHOTCRETE METHOD IN DIVIDER WALL
CONSTRUCTION USING DISCRETE EVENT SIMULATION IN MS EXCEL

Productivity rates of divider wall construction by shotcrete was estimated using a discrete event
simulation (DES). The study aims to document the shotcreting process and to apply DES to estimate
throughput rates of using shotcrete in divider walls. Process times were obtained using survey
method validated professional opinion of practicing engineers who worked on projects that used this
process. The work data are assumed to follow beta distribution as input to the simulation model. The
productivity rate of shotcreting a case 110-sqm wall estimated at 1.59 manhours/sqm compared to
the PERT-CPM computed rate of 1.33 manhours/sqm. While the shotcrete method is significantly
faster compared to the standard CHB laying (2.50 manhours/sqm) it also affects the project cashflow
significantly due to large capital investment, setup time, and worker training requirements.

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

TEACHING AND RESEARCH GRANT 187

ALDREN A. RIBALDE

With co-authors Georgette Anne T. Battad, Jericho G. Estacio, and Junel
Lawrence C. Indiongco

Engr. Aldren A. Ribalde obtained his Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of the Philippines
Diliman and he obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of the Philippines Visayas in
2014.
Engr. Ribalde is now affiliated with the Laboratory of Electrochemical Engineering in UP Diliman and is currently an
Instructor at the Department of Chemical Engineering UP Diliman.

PRODUCTION OF FOOD GRADE CARBOXYMETHYL CELLULOSE FROM CORN
COB AGRO-WASTE

Food grade carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) with a purity of 99.5% is produced from corn cobs based
on the process presented by Mondal et al. (2015). The proposed CMC plant can produce high-value
products with annual capacity of 160,000 MT from waste biomass of a corn processing plant
particularly in Isabela, Philippines. Process optimization for CMC production was performed leading
to an overall conversion of 79.12% and a yield of 259.63 g CMC/g cellulose. Recovery of ethanol
from CMC purification using a distillation tower and a series of pervaporation modules was also
demonstrated in this study which enabled reduction of raw material consumption to about 80%
Economical evaluation shows that the plant is profitable with immensely high internal rate of return
with a 3.04 years of payback period. With this, further profitability analysis suggests that decreasing
the CMC market price to 60% and purchasing agro-waste still yields to a feasible and profitable plant.

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

188 TEACHING AND RESEARCH GRANT

CARLO ANGELO A. SONDAY

Mr. Sonday is an Instructor at the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, College of
Engineering, University of the Philippines Diliman.
He received his Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering at the University of the Philippines Diliman (Magna Cum
Laude) and is currently a candidate for an MS degree in Industrial Engineering with a specialization in Information
Systems.
His teaching research interests include computer simulation, decision support systems, data engineering, and machine
learning.

THE ABILITY (OR INABILITY) OF AUTOMATED COURSE SELECTION TOOLS IN
MEETING STUDENT CRITERIA

In this paper, a survey was performed to determine and summarize how recently published
automated course selection tools decide course recommendations for students. Based on another
set of literature, there are five basic criteria that students use when choosing courses to enroll for a
term: Learning Value, Course Difficulty, Curriculum Requirement, Schedule Preference, and Lecturer
Style. The studies were classified based on the criteria that they are able to address, then, analysis
on trends was performed. It was found that Curriculum Requirements is the most popular criterion for
these course selection tools. For studies that aim to include student interaction in course
recommendation. Finally, the study found a recent trend in this field where advanced machine
learning or artificial intelligence was used to learn recommendations using historical data.

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

TEACHING AND RESEARCH GRANT 189

KARL ADRIAN P. VERGARA

With co-authors M.N. Manansala and R.M. Ong

Karl Adrian P. Vergara has been serving as a ful-time faculty member with rank instructor 6 from the Department of
Geodetic Engineering since 2016 and is currently serving as the Assistant College Secretary of the College of
Engineering. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Geodetic Engineering at the University of the Philippines Diliman and is
currently pursuing Masters in Geomatics Engineering (Geoinformatics) at the same university.

To further his interests in photogrammetry and GIS applications, he took part in various trainings in Indonesia,
Malaysia, Taiwan and Japan and has published papers in The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote
Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences archives. He received the 2019 Limcaoco Young Instructor Award for Teaching
Excellence and 2020 Outstanding Engineering Instructor Award from the College of Engineering.

VISIBILITY ANALYSIS OF HUGE OUTDOOR ADVERTISEMENTS FROM
STRUCTURE-FROM-MOTION PHOTOGRAMMETRY

When it comes to business and marketing, huge outdoor advertising is considered as one of the best
ways by contributing largely to disseminating information about a product, service or even raise
awareness. With commuters or the people riding in a moving car as its target audience, the
placement of advertising materials is very crucial since it should be visible and must deliver its
message in a short span of time. This study tests the methodology of gathering data using action
camera and DSLR mounted and situated on a moving vehicle, utilizing structure from motion
techniques, to extract the geometry of the billboards from the point cloud generated from structure-
from-motion as acquired from camera videos that would be used to represent these billboards in the
three-dimensional space. These extracted geometries would be used for visibility analysis from a
passenger’s point of view by assessing the percentage of visible content and logos of each billboard
from each point of observation along the path of a moving vehicle. The results of this study are nine
sets of mean percent visibilities and raster representations that show the mean percent visibility of
the billboards as viewed from the road of interest. To assess product placement effectiveness of the
billboards, visibility percentage of the product logos contained in the nine billboards was also
obtained.

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190 TEACHING AND RESEARCH GRANT
UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS