Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Evaluation, Improvement, And Application Of Models Of Environmental Fate And Transport Of Atmosphere-Surface Exchangeable Pollutants (Aseps), Tanvir Khan

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Certain toxic, semivolatile chemicals, also known as atmosphere-surface exchangeable pollutants (ASEPs) are emitted into the environment from anthropogenic activities and natural sources. This dissertation focused on the (i) evaluation and improvement of dry particle deposition and atmosphere-surface exchange parameterizations of ASEPs for use in chemical transport models (CTMs), and (ii) application of a dynamic multimedia model to examine recovery of Lake Superior from historical inputs of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) compounds (a class of ASEPs) contamination.

Current knowledge has been inadequate to propose quantitative measures of the relative performance of available dry particle deposition parameterizations. In Chapter 1 of this dissertation, …

Treatment Wetland Remediation Via In Situ Solids Digestion Using Novel Blue Frog Circulators, Kyle T. Sipes

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

After 33 years of operation with little maintenance, the treatment wetlands at the Arcata Wastewater Treatment Facility (AWTF) suffer from reduced treatment capacity and internal loading issues, leading to reduced performance in recent years. The next NPDES permit for the facility will regulate discharge ammonia concentrations, and internal ammonia loads, associated with accumulated solids in the system, may lead to future regulation violations.

To begin addressing this problem, the City of Arcata entered into a rental agreement with Absolute Aeration to install two Blue Frog circulators in Treatment Wetland 3 (TW3). The goal of this project was to determine if …

Sewage Contaminated Lake Water Quality Remediation Through In-Situ Aeration, Dylan Michael Verburg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

India, and much of South-Asia is currently plagued with an epidemic that threatens one of the most fundamental resources for human survival – clean drinking water. Many of these issues are related to the improper management of sewage. Installation and implementation of conveyance and treatment infrastructure to help manage this waste is often impractical in many circumstances. In an effort to help address this issue, the practicality of implementing aeration technologies within existing drainage infrastructure contaminated with diffuse organic material was evaluated. For this evaluation, Sonia Vihar Lake, a small drainage pond in Delhi, India was found to be suitable …

Evaluation Of Cracking Indices For Asphalt Mixtures Using Scb Tests At Different Temperatures And Loading Rates, Katie E. Haslett

Honors Theses and Capstones

In recent years, there has been a shift towards implementing performance based pavement specifications (PBPS) to increase reliability of asphalt concrete mixture specifications and enhance service lives of roadways. Several of the performance indices used in PBPS are based on the asphalt mixture fracture tests. There is an increasing need for a better understanding the effects of temperature and loading rate interdependency for fracture properties of asphalt mixtures. The goal of this study is to build upon previous work conducted during a Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURF) project entitled, “Exploration of Temperature and Loading Rate Interdependency for Fracture Properties of …

Preferential Pathways For Vapor Intrusion: Site Screening And Field Sampling Of Sewers To Assess Inhalation Exposure Risks, Evan James Willett

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Hazardous waste sites and aging wastewater infrastructure are common in the United States. There are hundreds of thousands of contaminated sites and more than a million miles of sewer pipes. Populations living close to hazardous waste sites often suffer from increased risk of adverse health effects due to exposure to contaminated environmental media. Vapor intrusion is one process by which nearby populations can be exposed to volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Aging wastewater infrastructure is important for vapor intrusion site assessments because sewer pipes can serve as preferential vapor transport pathways. Near contaminated sites, pipe deterioration allows migration of contaminants into …

Advanced Technologies For Efficient Transportation Construction Inspection, Clyde Wesley Newcomer Iv

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Collecting load tickets is an example of an antiquated practice that puts inspectors in harm’s way either adjacent to traffic, in close proximity to moving or backing equipment, or at times requires climbing onto trucks to reach tickets. Technology exists to collect this information electronically allowing for safer, efficient inspection methods. Departments of Transportation are charged with inspecting an increasing work load with a diminishing number of inspection staff. Recently, doing more with less has led to the prioritization of inspection activities and resulted in less collection of data and visual inspection on projects. Technology advancements are available to improve …

Quantifying Non-Recurrent Delay Using Probe-Vehicle Data, Jacob Douglas Keaton Brashear

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Current practices based on estimated volume and basic queuing theory to calculate delay resulting from non-recurrent congestion do not account for the day-to-day fluctuations in traffic. In an attempt to address this issue, probe GPS data are used to develop impact zone boundaries and calculate Vehicle Hours of Delay (VHD) for incidents stored in the Traffic Response and Incident Management Assisting the River City (TRIMARC) incident log in Louisville, KY. Multiple linear regression along with stepwise selection is used to generate models for the maximum queue length, the average queue length, and VHD to explore the factors that explain the …

Investigation Of Volatile Organic Compounds (Vocs) Detected At Vapor Intrusion Sites, Mohammadyousef Roghani

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

This dissertation investigates unexplained vapor intrusion field data sets that have been observed at hazardous waste sites, including: 1) non-linear soil gas concentration trends between the VOC source (i.e. contaminated groundwater plume) and the ground surface; and, 2) alternative pathways that serve as entry points for vapors to infiltrate into buildings and serve to increase VOC exposure risks as compared to the classic vapor intrusion model, which primarily considered foundation cracks as the route for vapor entry. The overall hypothesis of this research is that theoretical knowledge of fate and transport processes can be systematically applied to vapor intrusion field …

Effect Of Socioeconomic And Demographic Factors On Kentucky Crashes, Aaron Berry Cambron

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

The goal of this research was to examine the potential predictive ability of socioeconomic and demographic data for drivers on Kentucky crash occurrence. Identifying unique background characteristics of at-fault drivers that contribute to crash rates and crash severity may lead to improved and more specific interventions to reduce the negative impacts of motor vehicle crashes. The driver-residence zip code was used as a spatial unit to connect five years of Kentucky crash data with socioeconomic factors from the U.S. Census, such as income, employment, education, age, and others, along with terrain and vehicle age. At-fault driver crash counts, normalized over …

Numerical Modeling And Isotope Tracers To Investigate Karst Biogeochemistry And Transport Processes, Admin Husic

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

This dissertation investigated the physical and biogeochemical processes affecting the source, fate, and transport of sediment, carbon, and nitrogen within a highly-coupled fluviokarst system. Elemental and isotopic datasets were collected at surface and subsurface locations for both dissolved and particulate contaminant phases, new methodology regarding data collection was presented to the karst research community, an in-cave sediment transport model coupling physical transport with elemental and isotopic mass balances of carbon and nitrogen was formulated, pathway and process control on nitrate leaching from agricultural karst watersheds was assessed, and nitrate mobilization and fractionation were modeled using high frequency storm sampling and …

Resilience Modeling Of Surface Transportation System In Mixed Traffic Environment, Shofiq Ahmed

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Large-scale natural disasters challenge the resilience of surface transportation system. The objective of this research was to develop a resilience model of surface transportation system in mixed-traffic environment considering varying Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) penetration scenarios. As deployment of CAVs are expected to improve traffic operations, a resilience model was developed in this research to evaluate the resilience performance of a transportation system with several CAV penetration levels (0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) for a given budget and recovery time. The proposed resilience quantification model was applied on a roadway network considering several disaster scenarios. The network capacity …

Seismic Performance Of Modular Steel Frames Equipped With Shape Memory Alloy Braces, Papia Sultana, Maged A. Youssef

Civil and Environmental Engineering Publications

The demand for modular steel buildings (MSBs) has increased because of the improved quality, fast on-site installation, and lower cost of construction. Steel braced frames are usually utilized to form the lateral load resisting system of MSBs. During earthquakes, the seismic energy is dissipated through yielding of the components of the braced frames, which results in residual drifts. Excessive residual drifts complicate the repair of damaged structures or render them irreparable. Researchers have investigated the use of superelastic shape memory alloys (SMAs) in steel structures to reduce the seismic residual deformations. This study explores the potential of using SMA braces …

Probabilistic Multilevel Constitutive Model Of The Compressive Strength Of Hardened Cement Paste Reinforced With Mwcnts, Yohanna Mejia Cruz

Theses and Dissertations

Constitutive models available in the literature typically describe the compressive strength of ordinary Portland cement paste (OPC) in a deterministic fashion, in some cases as a function of variables such as W/C, porosity, and the clinker chemical composition. The significant effect of the proportion of W/C on the final strength, porosity and density have been reported in several works in material science. Some studies have shown that the addition of MWCNTs can also modify the microstructure of cement significantly, and improve compressive strength and other mechanical and physical properties. In principle, W/C, MWCNTs addition, porosity, density, and compressive strength are …

Enhancing Frp-To-Concrete Bond Behavior By Epoxy Ribs, Cheng Jiang, Baolin Wan, John Omboko

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The bond between external bonding (EB) of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials to concrete is the weakest link in the strengthened concrete flexural members. There are three mechanisms to transfer the interfacial shear between FRP and the concrete substrate, i.e., adhesion, interlocking and friction. This paper proposes a new approach by grooving on the concrete surface before applying epoxy to make epoxy ribs to increase interlocking. An experimental program was conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed epoxy ribs. Six grooves perpendicular to the fiber direction were cut on the bonding surface of the concrete blocks. The grooves …

Basic Highway Workzone Safety, Collin Shamberger

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this essay will be to examine, and provide information detailing work zone safety practices, and maximizing safety in construction zones. This report will examine the functionality of components of a work zone and how they work together, the use of standard construction drawings of work zones, personal protective equipment of workers, possible hazards of work zones, minimizing risks and ultimately work zone safety training. Also this report will provide a spreadsheet which can be used to calculate and layout a construction work zone based on a GPS location.

Winter Maintenance Of Akron Roadways, Kayla Hillegass

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The city of Akron experiences several hundred crashes each winter season due to winter road and weather conditions. The winter maintenance practices of the city follow a guide by the Salt Institute that uses a combination of plowing and salting to clear the roads. This paper provides an understanding of winter maintenance from its beginnings to present day and will discuss how certain practices came to be. Looking at three other cities across the United States with similar characteristics in size or snowfall amount show many similarities with a few new concepts that Akron can consider (e.g., better communication via …

Building Entry Flood Barrier, Richard Esker, Shannon Mccall, Andrew Udovich, Brian Foust

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this project is to develop a flood barrier that would resist flood water from entering through the doorways of a building. The goal is to mitigate extensive flooding within a structure. After the disastrous weather events that impacted American citizens late in the year of 2017, the team was inspired to develop a project to help disaster victims. Through extensive preliminary and market research, it was discovered that flooding is a serious issue that affects people all over the world. A product to stop flooding could benefit people in developed countries, but it could also help citizens …

Applying Control Logic To The End Of The Ohio Canal Interceptor Tunnel Based On Downstream Capacity To Reduce Overflow Of Akron’S Wastewater Collection System, William Troyer

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

During the Akron Waterways Renewed Program, the city of Akron is studying ways to improve efficiency in the existing sewer system while also reducing the number and scale of combined sewer overflow (CSO) events. Real time control logic can be developed to reduce CSO events by improving flow and storage capacity. Looking at one point in the system, when the target capacity of the downstream pipe was increased from 20% to 80%, the peak volume of overflow from the Ohio Canal Interceptor Tunnel decreased from 9,067 gallons to 5,965 gallons the total system overflow increased from 10.3 million gallons to …

An Assessment Of Trihalomethanes And Haloacetic Acids On The Cancer Exposure Risk Of Ohio Drinking Water Systems, Stephen Sykes

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The cancer exposure risk from drinking chlorine-based disinfection by-products (DBPs) such as trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs) has been established as a major concern to public health as 98% of the United States drinking water systems in operation use chlorinated systems to disinfect the water they provide [2]. Using data collected from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency from January 2014 to September 2017 in the cites of Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Canton, and Akron this study attempts to look at the risk of cancer caused by the DBPs. To show the relative risk of several different systems in operation from …

Feasibility Study Of Solar Generation Facilities: Are Ccr Landfills A Viable Location, Jaden Beachy

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

this report will examine the feasibility of constructing and operating a solar generation facility on a coal combustion residual landfill. The total generation capabilities of a generation facility located near Nashville, Tennessee will be compared to the total cost of construction, including but not limited to Photo-voltaic panels, construction materials and labor.