Civil Engineering Commons^™

Infrared Thermography-Driven Flaw Detection And Evaluation Of Hot Mix Asphalt Pavements, Yong K. Cho, Yong-Rak Kim Ph.D., Thaddaeus Bode

Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs

This research was conducted to study more realistic explanations of how variables are created and dealt with during hot mix asphalt (HMA) paving construction. Several paving projects across the state of Nebraska have been visited where sensory devices were used to test how the selected variables contribute to temperature differentials including density, moisture content within the asphalt, material surface temperature, internal temperature, wind speed, haul time, and equipment type. Areas of high temperature differentials are identified using an infrared camera whose usefulness was initially confirmed with a penetrating thermometer. A non-nuclear density device was also used to record how the …

Computational Design Tool For Bridge Hydrodynamic Loading In Inundated Flows Of Midwest Rivers, Junke Guo, David M. Admiraal, Tian C. Zhang

Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs

The hydraulic forces experienced by an inundated bridge deck have great importance in the design of bridges. The proper estimation of loading exerted by the flow on the structure is important for design plans and is pertinent for evaluating its vulnerability. During a flood or hurricane highway bridges over the sea or other waterways may become partially or completely submerged. Flood flows add significant hydrodynamic loading on bridges, possibly resulting in the shearing or overturning of the bridge deck and failure of the bridge superstructures. The overall objective of the study was to establish validated computational practice to address research …

Investigating Rfid For Roadside Identification Involving Freight Commercial Vehicle Operators (Cvo), Erick C. Jones Ph.D., Judy Perkins Ph.D.

Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an emerging technology to track commercial vehicles. This transcript describes research that investigates the ability for RFID technologies to work in license plates. Mile markers are common fixtures on the roadside and may provide infrastructure to support identifying RFID to enabled Commercial Vehicle Operators (CVO). This research considers variables that affect the performance of a RFID License Plate System that uses a scanner located at the mile marker. Mile marker characteristics, such as horizontal distance and vertical height, were evaluated along with RFID tag characteristics, such tag type and license plate location.

Safety Investigation And Guidance For Work-Zone Devices In Freight Transportation Systems Subjected To Passenger Car And Truck Impacts With New Crash Standards, Ronald K. Faller Ph.D., P.E., Dean L. Sicking Ph.D., P.E., Karla A. Lechtenberg M.S.C.E., E.I.T., James C. Holloway M.S.C.E., E.I.T., Jennifer D. Schmidt

Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs

Crashworthy, work-zone, portable sign support systems accepted under NCHRP Report No. 350 were analyzed to predict their safety peformance according to the TL-3 MASH evaluation criteria. An analysis was conducted to determine which hardware parameters of sign support systems would likely contribute to the safety performance with MASH. The acuracy of the method was evaluated through full-scale crash testing. Four full-scale crash tests were conducted with a pickup truck. Two tall-mounted, sign support systems with aluminum sign panels failed the MASH criteria due to windshield penetration. One low-mounted system with a vinyl, roll-up sign panel failed the MASH criteria due …

Impact Of Truck Loading On Design And Analysis Of Asphaltic Pavement Structures, Yong-Rak Kim, Hokie Ban, Soohyok Im

Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs

Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) is an improved methodology for pavement design and the evaluation of paving materials. However, in spite of significant advancements to pre-existing traditional design methods, the MEPDG is known to be limited in its accurate prediction of mechanical responses and damage in asphaltic pavements. This restriction is both due to the use of simplified structural analysis methods, and a general lack of understanding of the fundamental constitutive behavior and damage mechanisms in paving materials. This is additionally affected by the use of circular tire loading configurations. Performance prediction and pavement life are determined based on the …

Layer Moduli Of Nebraska Pavements For The New Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (Mepdg), Yong-Rak Kim, Soohyok Im, Hoki Ban

Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs

As a step-wise implementation effort of the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) for the design and analysis of Nebraska flexible pavement systems, this research developed a database of layer moduli — dynamic modulus, creep compliance, and resilient modulus — of various pavement materials used in Nebraska. The database includes all three design input levels. Direct laboratory tests of the representative Nebraska pavement materials were conducted for Level 1 design inputs, and surrogate methods, such as the use of Witczak’s predictive equations and the use of default resilient moduli based on soil classification data, were evaluated to include Level 2 and/or …

Bottom Flange Reinforcement In Nu I-Girders, George Morcous Ph.D., Kromel Hanna Ph.D., Maher K. Tadros Ph.D., P.E.

Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs

The 1996 edition of AASHTO Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges stated that nominal confinement reinforcement be placed to enclose prestressing steel in the bottom flange of bridge girders from girder ends to at least a distance equal to the girder’s height. The 2004 edition of AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications changed the distance over which the confinement reinforcement was to be distributed from 1.0h to 1.5h, and gave minimum requirements for the amount of steel to be used, No.3 bars, and their maximum spacing, not to exceed 6.” Research was undertaken to study what impact, if any, confinement reinforcement had …

A Field Investigation For The Wind Load Performance Of Vegetated Greenroofs Using Monitoring Systems, Melike Minareci

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Greenroof systems have been shown to be an environmentally friendly alternative based on various factors; such as, reduced lifecycle cost, improved air quality, ambient temperature reduction, stormwater management credit, sustainability and preservation of the environment. Recent research studies attempt to determine the construction methods of an ideal greenroof for environmental purposes, yet there is an absence of standards for the best design required to achieve acceptable structural performance and sustainability under wind loads. As a result, there is a need to document the effectiveness of greenroofs under high wind events by addressing the following questions: Do winds have an effect …

Evaluation Of Liquefaction-Induced Lateral Spreading In The Midwest, Kermit Nathanial Applegate

Masters Theses

"The Central United States is home to several seismically active regions: the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone, the South Central Illinois Seismic Zone, and the New Madrid Seismic Zone. All three of these regions are capable of inducing large ground motion throughout the Mississippi Valley and along the eastern border of Missouri. This has been supported by many paleoseismic studies conducted throughout the region, which have identified numerous instances of liquefaction phenomena. The fluvial deposition process associated with the Mississippi river valley makes it a prime location for possible liquefaction and lateral spreading effects. However, there are few studies pertaining to …

Skewed Bridge Behaviors: Experimental, Analytical, And Numerical Analysis, Bang-Jo Chun

Wayne State University Dissertations

In the US, nearly 33.5% of highway bridges are skewed. In the past, these skewed bridges have been analyzed as straight bridges. Nevertheless, there exists an extensive literature indicating the mechanical behavior of skewed bridges being quite different from their straight counterparts. In this thesis, to better understand the behavior of skewed bridges, experimental, numerical, and analytical researches have been conducted. The analytical method proposed here is the first of its kind in the skewed bridge research, and is expected to aid the bridge engineers with their design.

First, a three dimensional finite element analysis (FEA) model was developed and …

Production Of High Strength Concrete Incorporating An Agricultural Waste- Rice Husk Ash, Hilmi Mahmud

Hilmi Mahmud

Rice husk which is an agricultural waste, constitutes about one-fifth of the 500 million tonnes of rice produced annually worldwide. Normally, the residue is disposed off by burning at the mill sites and the resultant rice husk ash (RHA) is dumped on a waste land. This generates environmental, pollution and land dereliction problems. Under controlled burning and if sufficiently ground, the highly reactive ash that is produced can be used as a supplementary cementing material or in the production of high strength concrete (HSC). This paper shows that it is relatively easy to produce high strength Grade 80 concrete incorporating …

An Innovative Concrete Practice Performance Measurement Towards Environmental Improvement In Malaysia, Hilmi Mahmud

Hilmi Mahmud

The environmental impact from the concrete construction industry is quite alarming. The industry is embarking into improving the concrete performance and exploring into alternative materials to reduce such impact. An area which is lacking is improvement in the quality of concrete practice itself. By having good concrete practice, a good quality concrete can be achieved. This paper proposed a performance measurement of concrete practice and applies the measurement to assess the quality of concrete practice for a concrete structure project in Malaysia. © 2010 IEEE.

Effect Of Aggregate Size And Proportion On Strength Properties Of Palm Kernel Shell Concrete, Hilmi Mahmud

Hilmi Mahmud

This paper presents information on the physical and mechanical properties of different sizes of palm kernel shells (PKS) used here as lightweight aggregates (LWA) and their influence on mechanical properties of palm kernel shell concrete (PKSC). Silica fume and fly ash were used as cementitious materials and all mixes had 1% superplasticizer on cement weight. It has been found that PKS consists of about 65 to 70% of medium size particles in the range of 5 to 10 mm. The other two sizes, namely, small (0-5 mm) and large (10-15 mm) sizes were found to influence the mechanical properties of …

Development Of Lightweight Concrete Using Industrial Waste Material, Palm Kernel Shell As Lightweight Aggregate And Its Properties, Hilmi Mahmud

Hilmi Mahmud

Agricultural industrial wastes produced after extracting palm oil from palm fruits known as palm kernel shell (PKS) are available in large quantities in Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria and other tropical countries. Malaysia is the second largest palm oil producing country in the world. This paper reports the results of an investigation conducted to utilize the PKS as lightweight aggregate to produce grade30 concrete with density of about 1850kg/m 3. The properties of both PKS and crushed granite aggregates were compared. The concrete produced using PKS referred to here after as palm kernel shell concrete (PKSC) and its properties were compared with …

Comparison Of Mechanical And Bond Properties Of Oil Palm Kernel Shell Concrete With Normal Weight Concrete, Hilmi Mahmud

Hilmi Mahmud

The comparison of the fresh, mechanical and bond properties of grade 30 lightweight concrete, namely oil palm kernel shell concrete (OPKSC) with normal weight concrete (NWC) of similar strength is presented in this paper. Oil palm kernel shell (OPKS), an industrial waste has been used as lightweight aggregates (LWA) in the OPKSC. In addition, mineral admixtures, 10% of silica fume and 5% fly ash have been used. The OPKSC produced a density reduction of about 20% compared to NWC. The addition of silica fume enhanced the compressive strength and thus OPKSC produced 28-day compressive strength up to 37 MPa. The …

Effect Of Aggregate Size And Proportion On Strength Properties Of Palm Kernel Shell Concrete, Zamin Jumaat

Zamin Jumaat

This paper presents information on the physical and mechanical properties of different sizes of palm kernel shells (PKS) used here as lightweight aggregates (LWA) and their influence on mechanical properties of palm kernel shell concrete (PKSC). Silica fume and fly ash were used as cementitious materials and all mixes had 1% superplasticizer on cement weight. It has been found that PKS consists of about 65 to 70% of medium size particles in the range of 5 to 10 mm. The other two sizes, namely, small (0-5 mm) and large (10-15 mm) sizes were found to influence the mechanical properties of …

Economic Design Of Retaining Wall Using Particle Swarm Optimization With Passive Congregation, Mohammad Khajehzadeh, M R., Taha, A., El-Shafie, Mahdiyeh Eslami

Dr. Mahdiyeh Eslami (مهدیه اسلامی)

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Damping Device Nonlinearity On The Performance Of Semiactive Tuned Mass Dampers, C Lindh, Simon Laflamme, Jerome J. Connor

Simon Laflamme

Studies have already demonstrated the successful use of linear semiactive damping devices, such as variable orifice (VO) dampers, for semiactive TMD systems. More recently, nonlinear semiactive damping devices, such as magnetorheological (MR) dampers, have also been shown to be effective for semiactive control of TMDs. Though semiactive dampers differ widely, with responses ranging from linear (VO) to nonlinear (MR), criteria for choosing an optimal semiacive device for a TMD have not been rigorously developed. This paper expands knowledge of semiactive TMD systems by assessing the effect of nonlinearity in the damping device on the effectiveness of a semiactive TMD. This …

Large-Scale Capacitance Sensor For Health Monitoring Of Civil Structures, Simon Laflamme, Matthias Kollosche, Jerome J. Connor, Guggi Kofod

Simon Laflamme

In this paper, a new type of sensing technique for damage localization on large civil structures is proposed. Specifically, changes in strain are detected using a capacitance sensor built with a soft-stretchable dielectric polymer with attached stretchable metal film electrodes. This sensor is sensitive to a change in strain that causes a change in its capacitance. Fixed to a structure, small changes in the strain can be monitored directly by measuring the change in the capacitance of the unit. This technology allows for simple yet highly accurate measurements of cracks occurring due to deformation, aging, or other structural failures. The …

Validación De La Dotación Para El Diseño De Acueductos Y Alcantarillados Para Municipios Colombianos Tomando Como Base De Búsqueda El Municipio De Acacías Meta, Darío Caballero Herrera

Ingeniería Civil

No abstract provided.