This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
Peter Totev ’04 (Oberursel, Germany) is uncovering the secrets to a dramatic construction method called thin-shell concrete in an analysis of one building’s dimensions this fall.
Totev is studying the Pennsylvania Skating Club Arena near Ardmore, Pa., designed by Austrian engineer Antod Tedesko. The revolutionary, and yet no longer popular, thin-shell concrete method used by Tedesko produced a curved span with no columns, ideal for ice skating.
Totev is a participant in Lafayette’s distinctive EXCEL Scholars program, in which students assist faculty with research while earning a stipend. He is working with Edmond P. Saliklis, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering.
“We are trying to obtain the original plans of the structure, which is often quite hard, since it was constructed as early as 1938,” says Totev, a double major in civil engineering and economics & business. “We will use these to repeat the calculations and compare them with the results Tedesko obtained 63 years ago. Finally, a computer simulation is also designed to compare with the hand calculations.”
One stumbling block has been the lack of documentation. Saliklis has found only a few of the calculations (written in German by Tesesko, which Totev can translate). The two are also in contact with people from the arena as well as the original contractor, who lives in Philadelphia.
“It’s a hunting mystery,” says Saliklis. Totev may, in fact, have to create drawings from photographs of the building. Another student is looking at why thin-shell concrete is no longer widely used, which may have to do with fashion or with the precise framework needed to make the concrete.
Totev says the study is still in the research stage, but he will soon begin drawing a preliminary AutoCAD model. He calls EXCEL “a great pre-professional experience since we are working on real-life situations” and notes that Saliklis is very consistent and patient.
A member of the German, Investment, and International Affairs clubs, Totev spent two years at Frankfurt International School in Germany and before that three years in the American College of Sofia, Bulgaria. He plays tennis and is a DJ at WJRH, the Lafayette radio station.
Peter Totev ’04 (right), double major in civil engineering and economics & business, researched the structure of the Pennsylvania Skating Club Arena in EXCEL Scholars research with Edmond Saliklis, assistant professor of civil & environmental engineering.