Civil Engineering Commons^™

Preliminary Feasibility Of Transporting And Geologically Sequestering Carbon Emissions In The Florida Pan-Handle, Brandon Keith Poiencot

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

According to the United States Department of Energy, fossil-fueled power plants account for 78% of stationary source CO2 emission in the United States and Canada. This has led electric utilities across the globe to research different alternatives for energy. Carbon sequestration has been identified as a bridge between fossil fuels and clean energy.

This thesis will present research results regarding the transportation costs of CO2 and the suitability of geology in the Florida Pan-Handle for sequestration infrastructure. The thesis will utilize various evaluation tools including GIS, numerical models, and optimization models.

Analysis performed for this thesis and review of published …

Structural Topology Optimization: Moving Beyond Linear Elastic Design Objectives, James K. Guest, Reza Lotfi, Andrew T. Gaynor, Mehdi Jalalpour

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Topology optimization is a systematic, free-form approach to the design of structures. It simultaneously optimizes material quantities and system connectivity, enabling the discovery of new, high-performance structural concepts. While powerful, this design freedom has a tendency to produce solutions that are unrealizable or impractical from a structural engineering perspective. Examples include overly complex topologies that are expensive to construct and ultra-slender subsystems that may be overly susceptible to imperfections. This paper summarizes recent tools developed by the authors capable of mitigating these shortcomings through consideration of (1) constructability, (2) nonlinear mechanics, and (3) uncertainties.

Conx Chassis System, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets

Often referred to as a full-scale “Erector Set”, the ConX System applies technology to the building industry resulting in dramatic efficiencies. The systems approach is made possible by employing automated and efficient processes, from design through fabrication, shipping, and field assembly.

Autodesk Buzzsaw®, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets

Autodesk® Buzzsaw® is a software solution enabling the successful execution of construction projects through a central database, collaboration and communication with access control. The software has capacities of exchanging and viewing drawings, schedule reminders and specifications. Users can directly comment on AutoCAD drawings with the date of comment and name of commenter displayed.

Contour Crafting, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets

Victims of disasters such as floods, earthquakes and war have to seek shelter elsewhere. A need arises to rapidly construct houses on site and at minimal cost. This will eliminate the need to transport pre-fabricated shelters long distances, saving the time and costs associated with transportation. Since Contour Crafting is an automated process, labor needs are highly minimized allowing relief workers to allocate their time and effort to rebuilding local infrastructure such as water sanitation and distribution systems, roads, electrical and communication systems as well as irrigations systems.

The Quantification Of The Fly Ash Adsorption Capacity For The Purpose Of Characterization And Use In Concrete, Zeyad Tareq Ahmed

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Fly ash has been shown to be an effective replacement for portland cement in concrete mixtures. However, many fly ash materials contain unburned carbon from the combustion process. Unburned carbon in fly ash adsorbs air entraining admixtures (AEAs) reducing their effectiveness in providing a specified air void system in concrete materials. Measurement tools and methods for characterization of the adsorption properties of fly ash materials are necessary for beneficial use of fly ash materials in concrete. In this research, two methods were developed to measure and quantify the adsorption capacity AEAs on fly ash materials. The first method is the …

Impacto Del Sistema Transmilenio En El Tiempo De Viaje Y Gastos En Transporte De Los Usuarios, José Eduardo García Quiroga

Ingeniería Civil

TM desde su implementación en el año 2000 se ha consolidado como una alternativa real para atender las necesidades de desplazamiento de la población en Bogotá, competitiva en términos de velocidad especialmente durante las horas de mayor congestión. El sistema además ha entregado externalidades positivas en términos ambientales, económicos, sociales, urbanos que han contribuido al desarrollo de la ciudad. Bajo este escenario, TM es un componente urbano con notable influencia en la calidad de vida de la población. Sin embargo, el modelo operacional y tecnológico dentro de un esquema de auto-sostenibilidad financiera ha representado un costo que la sociedad ha …

Estimation Of The Impact Of Single Airport And Multi-Airport System Delay On The National Airspace System Using Multivariate Simultaneous Models, Nagesh Nayak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Airline delays lead to a tremendous loss of time and resources and cost billions of dollars every year in the United States (U.S.). At certain times, individual airports become bottlenecks within the National Airspace System (NAS). To explore solutions for reducing the delay, it is essential to understand factors causing flight delay and its impact on airports in the NAS. Major causal factors of flight delay at airports include over-scheduling, en-route convective weather, reduced ceiling and visibility around airports, and upstream delay propagation. Delay at one airport can be passed on to other airports in the NAS, in another word, …

On The Development Of The Extradosed Bridge Concept, Steven Lynn Stroh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Extradosed Prestressed Bridge represents a relatively new bridge type. The first of this type bridge was constructed in Japan in 1994, and Japan has since built at least 29 examples of this bridge type. Throughout the rest of the world, another 34 of this bridge type have been built, with most countries having only one, or at most a few, examples. A broader application of this bridge type has been hampered by lack of design information and in particular lack design criteria for the stay cables. The purpose of this dissertation is to progress the understanding and application of …

Hardened Mechanical Properties And Durability Performance Of Specialized Concretes, Kyle Richard Holman

Masters Theses

"Concrete is one of the most produced and utilized materials in the world. Due to the labor intensive and time consuming nature of concrete construction, new and innovative concrete mixes are being explored. Self-consolidating concrete (SCC) is one such method of improving the overall cost and time efficiency of concrete production. SCC is a highly flowable form of concrete. This characteristic drastically reduces the amount of labor and time needed to place the concrete. The highly flowable nature also allows for much easier placement in applications of highly congested reinforcement.

Another rising concern in today's construction industry is environmental responsibility. …

Nitrification Performance Of Activated Sludge Under Low Dissolved Oxygen Conditions, Guoqiang Liu

Doctoral Dissertations

"The combined effects of solids retention time (SRT) and dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration on nitrification, nitrifying bacterial communities, and aeration needs in the activated sludge process were studied. Nitrification was almost completed in the 10, 20, and 40-day SRT reactors with a minimum DO of 0.37, 0.25, and 0.16 mg/L, respectively. Under long-term low DO conditions, the endogenous decay of nitrifiers was slowed down and then nitirfier biomass concentration increased, thereby reducing the adverse effect of low DO on nitrification. Under long-term low DO conditions, the oxygen affinity of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) increased significantly and as a result, NOB became …

Self-Consolidating Concrete For Infrastructure Elements Shear Characteristics, Eric B. Sells

Masters Theses

"Because of its unique ability to maintain high flow-ability and remain homogeneous, self-consolidating concrete (SCC) has the potential to significantly reduce the costs associated with civil infrastructure; however, the use of higher paste and lower coarse aggregate volumes than non-SCC concretes raises concerns about shear strength of SCC mixes. This research focused on the components that contribute to the concrete's ability to provide shear by aggregate interlock. Variables investigated by push-off tests included concrete compressive strength, coarse aggregate type , and volumetric content level of the coarse aggregate portion . Post-failure digital imaging software was used to confirm fresh concrete …

Calibration Of Concrete Pavement Performance Models, Alejandra Gallegos

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Pavement performance models exist in various forms to cater to the pavement management agencies' needs and resources. Well-calibrated models are needed to accurately predict future pavement conditions, and to forecast and prioritize confidently the future rehabilitation and maintenance expenditures. Statistical tools are commonly used to develop the performance models. These statistical models may be impractical or misleading if not constrained with experts' opinions. This paper presents a hybrid technique where statistical tools and expert knowledge are combined for the calibration of pavement performance models. This technique was validated using historical pavement condition data for continuously-reinforced-concrete pavements (CRCP) from the Texas …

Real-World Performance Of Longitudinal Barriers Struck By Large Trucks, Doug Gabauer

Faculty Journal Articles

Outside of relatively limited crash testing with large trucks, very little is known regarding the performance of traffic barriers subjected to real-world large truck impacts. The purpose of this study was to investigate real-world large truck impacts into traffic barriers to determine barrier crash involvement rates, the impact performance of barriers not specifically designed to redirect large trucks, and the real-world performance of large-truck-specific barriers. Data sources included the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (2000-2009), the General Estimates System (2000-2009) and 155 in-depth large truck-to-barrier crashes from the Large Truck Crash Causation Study. Large truck impacts with a longitudinal barrier were …

Finite Element Modeling Of Seismic Wave Propagation In Earthen Embankments, Binyam Tadese

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The detection of internal seepage zones in embankments (dams and levees) by geophysical seismic techniques such as seismic refraction is limited by a number of factors. Some factors are associated with inversion and smoothing problems during processing, while others are associated with the natural characteristics of embankments and seepage anomalies. In this research, changes in the seismic response associated with: embankment soil compositions and moisture, characteristics of the seepage zone, presence of water in the reservoir, and shape of embankment was studied via 2D and 3D finite element (FE) embankment models. Artificial reflections from external boundaries and numerical dispersion were …

Inspection Of Earthen Embankment Dams Using Time Lapse Electrical Resistivity Tomography, Jared Stewart Case

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

According to the National Inventory of Dams (NID), the number of dams across the United States is approximately 85,000. Many of these dams are more than 50 years old and need vast attention to ensure their safety. It is difficult to obtain a full assessment of the dam just by visual inspections alone. This is because many problems associated with dam failure occur internally, which makes it difficult to be observed by the dam inspectors. Examples of these flaws are piping and seepage (flow of water through or around dam walls). It is in this area where geophysical methods can …

Failure Analysis Of Impact-Damaged Metallic Poles Repaired With Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites, Robert Arthur Slade

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Metallic utility poles, light poles, and mast arms are intermittently damaged by vehicle collision. In many cases the vehicular impact does not cause immediate failure of the structure, but induces localized damage that may result in failure under extreme service loadings or can promote degradation and corrosion within the damaged region. Replacement of these poles is costly and often involves prolonged lane closures, service interruption, and temporary loss of functionality. Therefore, an in situ repair of these structures is required. This thesis examines the failure modes of damaged metallic poles reinforced with externally-bonded fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. Several FRP …

Microscopic Assessment Of Transportation Emissions On Limited Access Highways, Hatem Abou-Senna

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

On-road vehicles are a major source of transportation carbon dioxide (CO2) greenhouse gas emissions in all the developed countries, and in many of the developing countries in the world. Similarly, several criteria air pollutants are associated with transportation, e.g., carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter (PM). The need to accurately quantify transportation-related emissions from vehicles is essential. Transportation agencies and researchers in the past have estimated emissions using one average speed and volume on a long stretch of roadway. With MOVES, there is an opportunity for higher precision and accuracy. Integrating a microscopic traffic simulation model (such …

Geospatial Assessment Of Sustainable Built Infrastructure Assets And Flood Disaster Protection, Alper Durmus

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research was initiated with a review and synthesis of infrastructure related to city and urban growth, built infrastructure to meet transportation needs and travel demand, and role of mass transit in reducing adverse impacts on the environment and greenhouse gas emissions. Floods are the most frequently occurring natural disaster in the world, which so far claimed millions of lives and resulted in billion-dollar economic costs. Built infrastructure assets in urban and rural areas are not spared from floods' aftermath. A major motivation for this thesis was the 2011 megaflood disaster of Thailand which devastated the green campus of Asian …

Characterization Of Soil Variability For Reliability-Based Design, Sitenikechukwu Onyejekwe

Doctoral Dissertations

"A very carefully planned Missouri-wide field exploration and laboratory investigation program, with a focus on fine-grained soils, was executed with the aim of characterizing the variability of geotechnical parameters statistically with a view to increasing the use of reliability-based design (RBD) among geotechnical engineers. Geotechnical parameters were characterized in terms of both their first and second statistical moments and their coefficient of variation (COV). Their probability distributions and their scale of fluctuation, θ, were also determined. Correlations between difficult-to-obtain parameters and more easily-obtained parameters were developed and the degree of fit of study data to published empirical correlations was investigated. …