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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Investigation Of Geopolymer Based Soil Stabilization Methods For Expedient Airfield Pavement Surfaces, Brett Albertson Dec 2022

Investigation Of Geopolymer Based Soil Stabilization Methods For Expedient Airfield Pavement Surfaces, Brett Albertson

All Theses

The United States Air Force (USAF) has the unique capability of being able to interdict superior airpower anywhere, at any time. However, superior airpower is only as effective as the amount of time an aircraft can spend in a particular area. The closer an aircraft can get to the mission need, the more time that can be spent in the air, or the less time that must be spent moving in and out of the operational area. Through the use of skilled and experienced men and women, the USAF is able to apply expedient and unsurfaced airfield paving techniques that …


Flexural Testing Of Precast Reinforced Concrete Bridge Slabs, Evaluation Of Deterioration And Strengthening Applications, Alyssa Leaman Dec 2022

Flexural Testing Of Precast Reinforced Concrete Bridge Slabs, Evaluation Of Deterioration And Strengthening Applications, Alyssa Leaman

All Theses

This thesis investigates the strength of flat precast concrete slabs that were taken from decommissioned South Carolina bridges. The specimens tested spanned 14 ft (4.3 m) or 15 ft (4.6 m), were 5 ft (1.5 m) or 5.5 ft (1.7 m) wide, and 8.25 in (210 mm) thick. In South Carolina, there are approximately 3000 similar bridges that use these slab members. Testing was conducted to determine the flexural capacity of “typical” slabs and the residual strength of slabs having visible deterioration of both the rebar and the concrete. For the slabs that were load rated below the new standards, …


Influence Of Climate And Droughts On Visibility Degradation In Saudi Arabia, Saleh Alhathloul Dec 2022

Influence Of Climate And Droughts On Visibility Degradation In Saudi Arabia, Saleh Alhathloul

All Dissertations

The spatial and temporal distribution of temperature and precipitation determines the availability of water resources for ecosystems. The hydrological cycle can be disrupted by differences in meteorological variables and the random nature of water demand. Horizontal visibility degradation is an indicator of the changes in local meteorological variables, rainfall deficits, and drought conditions. Long-term analysis of meteorological variables and visibility records helps understand the causes of visibility degradation. The first objective of this dissertation is to investigate the long-term variability of horizontal visibility along with metrological variables based on annual and seasonal time scales over Saudi Arabia. The second objective …


Active Rheological And Stiffening Control Of Cementitious Systems For Additive Manufacturing, Abdul Basit Peerzada Dec 2022

Active Rheological And Stiffening Control Of Cementitious Systems For Additive Manufacturing, Abdul Basit Peerzada

All Dissertations

Technological advancements and automation in the last two decades have made additive manufacturing of cementitious systems a reality. Among all the additive manufacturing techniques used for cementitious materials, layer-by-layer extrusion-based printing is the most used technique. For a layer-by-layer printing process, the requirements of cementitious materials vary from those of a conventional construction process. Typically, the cementitious materials are pumped to a print head using a positive-displacement pump. The pumpability of the cementitious material for a specific pumping system depends on its rheological properties. For effective pumping, the yield stress and plastic viscosity of a cementitious system should be low. …


Performance Based Design And Machine Learning In Structural Fire Engineering: A Case For Masonry, Deanna Craig Dec 2022

Performance Based Design And Machine Learning In Structural Fire Engineering: A Case For Masonry, Deanna Craig

All Theses

The volatile and extreme nature of fire makes structural fire engineering unique in that the load actions dictating design are intense but not geographically or seasonally bound. Simply, fire can break out anywhere, at any time, and for any number of reasons. Despite the apparent need, fire design of structures still relies on expensive fire tests, complex finite element simulations, and outdated procedures with little room for innovation. This thesis will make a case for adopting the principles of performance-based design and machine learning in structural fire engineering to simplify the process and promote the consideration of fire in all …


Flexural Bond Strength Of Masonry Assemblies With Lightweight Grout, Benjamin L. Hiner Dec 2022

Flexural Bond Strength Of Masonry Assemblies With Lightweight Grout, Benjamin L. Hiner

All Theses

Lightweight grout has many potential benefits in masonry construction, including minimizing mass, improving thermal performance, and potentially reducing shrinkage cracking via internal curing. However, insufficient testing of masonry assemblies with lightweight grout has been conducted to suggest appropriate design modification factors akin to the lambda factor in ACI 318-19. The objective of this paper is to study the tensile bond behavior of masonry assemblies grouted with lightweight grout and to suggest appropriate equations for predicting design capacity. A moment couple test is designed specifically for grouted masonry assemblies and has additional capacity compared to the traditional ASTM 1072 bond wrench …


Feasibility Of Using Ultra-High-Performance Concrete (Uhpc) As A Repair Material Durability Performance, Rebar Coating, And Bond Characterization, Haitham Hussein Aug 2022

Feasibility Of Using Ultra-High-Performance Concrete (Uhpc) As A Repair Material Durability Performance, Rebar Coating, And Bond Characterization, Haitham Hussein

All Dissertations

Ultra-High Performance Concrete can be a very good material for use in repair works. The ability of chloride ions to pass through repaired concrete layers is suppressed if an impermeable concrete like UHPC is used. However, thickness of the UHPC layer and the orientation of the repair layer relative to the direction of chloride ingress may influence its effectiveness. This study is an attempt to evaluate the effect of varying thicknesses and cross sections areas of UHPC over a precast concrete and the direction of the UHPC layers relative to the direction of chloride ion movement on the resistance offered …


Crack Control And Bond Performance Of Alternative Coated Reinforcements In Concrete, Sachin Sreedhara Aug 2022

Crack Control And Bond Performance Of Alternative Coated Reinforcements In Concrete, Sachin Sreedhara

All Dissertations

Concrete cracking in structures is a ubiquitous problem which can lead to the deterioration of the structure. Other than affecting the strength aspect of a structure, cracking impacts the serviceability criteria as well. Although cracking phenomenon in any structure is highly inevitable, it has to be minimized in order to maintain a structure’s life effectively. Cracking in reinforced concrete structures is related to the bond strength developed between the bar and the concrete. It also depends on an ability of the bar to resist the stresses due to shrinkage to minimize the crack. Another important aspect is the resistance offered …


Machine Learning-Enabled Model-Based Condition Assessment Of Water Pipelines By Leveraging Hydraulic Monitoring Data, Ahmad Momeni Aug 2022

Machine Learning-Enabled Model-Based Condition Assessment Of Water Pipelines By Leveraging Hydraulic Monitoring Data, Ahmad Momeni

All Dissertations

Overpopulation and climate change have direly challenged the freshwater resources, specifically potable water supplied by water distribution networks (WDNs). One aggravating issue associated with the WDNs is associated with the pipeline leakage, which accounts for almost 20% of freshwater loss in WDNs throughout the US. Leakage detection and severity measurement are of top
asset management priorities in water utilities to minimize and mitigate complicated risks attributed to background and burst leakage. Accordingly, decline in other pipe condition parameters such as effective hydraulic diameters and roughness coefficients, which are complex and uncertain in nature, abets leakage by worsening the WDN status …


Influence Of Specimen Geometry And Anisotropy On Dynamic Modulus Of Asphalt Mixes In South Carolina, Srinivasan Nagarajan Aug 2022

Influence Of Specimen Geometry And Anisotropy On Dynamic Modulus Of Asphalt Mixes In South Carolina, Srinivasan Nagarajan

All Dissertations

The objective of this study was to characterize the variability of dynamic modulus of asphalt mixes in South Carolina on the basis of geometry and anisotropy. High priority mixes Surface Type B, and C; Intermediate Type B and C and Base Type A from three different days of production were collected from seven different contractors each having a different aggregate source and the dynamic modulus was measured using the Asphalt Mixture Performance Tester (AMPT) at temperatures of 40, 70, 100 and 130℉ (4.4, 21.1, 37.8, and 54.4℃) and at frequencies of 25, 10, 5, 1, 0.5, and 0.1 Hz. One-way …


The Evacuation Simulation Of Wheelchair Users In A Building Fire: An Initial Dynamic Characterization Of Structural Egress Components, Haley Hostetter Aug 2022

The Evacuation Simulation Of Wheelchair Users In A Building Fire: An Initial Dynamic Characterization Of Structural Egress Components, Haley Hostetter

All Theses

People with disabilities are one of the most vulnerable groups involved in building fires. According to the U.S. Fire Administration, in the United States alone, an estimated 700 home fires involve people with physical disabilities each year while over 1700 involve those with mental health disorders. Despite this, the current body of literature shows few studies focused on the evacuation of disabled people. This is a direct result of past and present social injustice on people with disabilities and has resulted in high injury and death rates during fires. To combat this, enrich the literature, and improve their experiences in …


Digitalization Of Construction Project Requirements Using Natural Language Processing (Nlp) Techniques, Fahad Ul Hassan May 2022

Digitalization Of Construction Project Requirements Using Natural Language Processing (Nlp) Techniques, Fahad Ul Hassan

All Dissertations

Contract documents are a critical legal component of a construction project that specify all wishes and expectations of the owner toward the design, construction, and handover of a project. A single contract package, especially of a design-build (DB) project, comprises hundreds of documents including thousands of requirements. Precise comprehension and management of the requirements are critical to ensure that all important explicit and implicit requirements of the project scope are captured, managed, and completed. Since requirements are mainly written in a natural human language, the current manual methods impose a significant burden on practitioners to process and restructure them into …


Computational Study Of Dense Gas Dispersion In Urban Areas, Rasna Sharmin May 2022

Computational Study Of Dense Gas Dispersion In Urban Areas, Rasna Sharmin

All Dissertations

A series of steady-state simulations have been conducted to investigate removal of dense gas from a simple square canyon formed between two square cross-section obstacles. Due to urbanization and industrialization, there always lies a high risk of exposure to harmful pollutants which can result from accidental release of toxic gasses. Those are often denser than the atmosphere. and can easily get trapped in between buildings in urban canopies. It is important to have full understanding of flushing mechanism of dense fluid inside urban canopies by steady turbulent flow because the exposure to these toxic dense gasses can be catastrophic. There …