Date of Award
Fall 2005
Document Type
Thesis - Restricted
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Mechanical Engineering
First Advisor
Marklin, Richard
Second Advisor
Papanek, Paula
Third Advisor
Seeley, Patricia
Abstract
The working environment of electric utility workers is hostile because of the harsh working conditions they work in. Due to this, the injury rate is high in this particular industry ( electric utility) compared to other industries. Electric utility workers perform several manual material handling (MMH) tasks, which have a high risk of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs ). One such task is digging and shoveling wet clay. Currently, most of the electric utility workers use the conventional shovel, which has an opaque blade to perform digging and shoveling tasks. But there are other shovels such as the perforated shovel available commercially in the market, which tend to be a better tool than the conventional shovel while working on moist soil. However, there have been no studies that quantify how much better are the perforated shovels compared to the conventional shovels. Hence, the objective of this study is to measure oxygen consumption, heart rate and energy expenditure while digging and shoveling wet clay using the conventional and the perforated shovel. The findings can illustrate how much energy can be conserved using the perforated shovel over the conventional shovel.
Recommended Citation
Harivanam, Sridhar, "Digging & Shoveling Wet Clay with a Perforated Shovel" (2005). Master's Theses (1922-2009) Access restricted to Marquette Campus. 4771.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/theses/4771