Engineering Commons^™

Eulerian-Lagrangian Two Phase Debris Flow Model, Cora E. Martinez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this work is to develop a quasi three-dimensional numerical model to simulate stony debris flows, considering a continuum fluid phase, composed by water and fine sediments, and a non-continuum phase including large particles, such as pebbles and boulders. Large particles are treated in a Lagrangian frame of reference using the Discrete Element Method, the fluid phase is based on the Eulerian approach, using the Finite Element Method to solve the depth-averaged Navier–Stokes equations in two horizontal dimensions. The particle’s equations of motion are in three dimensions. The model simulates particle-particle collisions and wall-particle collisions, taking into …

A Methodological Framework For Modeling Pavement Maintenance Costs For Projects With Performance-Based Contracts, Kamalesh Panthi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Performance-based maintenance contracts differ significantly from material and method-based contracts that have been traditionally used to maintain roads. Road agencies around the world have moved towards a performance-based contract approach because it offers several advantages like cost saving, better budgeting certainty, better customer satisfaction with better road services and conditions. Payments for the maintenance of road are explicitly linked to the contractor successfully meeting certain clearly defined minimum performance indicators in these contracts. Quantitative evaluation of the cost of performance-based contracts has several difficulties due to the complexity of the pavement deterioration process. Based on a probabilistic analysis of failures …

Development Of A Hurricane-Resistant Roof-To-Wall Connection Using High-Performance Fiber Composites, Cetin Canbek

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Significant portion of losses in hurricanes occur due to a discontinuous load path and weak connections. The purpose of this study was to develop an innovative, efficient and non-intrusive roof-to-wall connection for wood-frame structures using high-performance fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials.

The development of new connections was carried out at the component level tests. Initially the bond strength between FRP and wood interface was investigated. Subsequently, a progressive FRP tie development test was conducted and several alternatives were tested and the most feasible one was chosen.

The new FRP tie was then tested in a full-scale wood-frame structure to …

Integrated Surface-Ground Water Modeling In Wetlands With Improved Methods To Simulate Vegetative Resistance To Flow, Mauro Nalesso

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focused on developing an integrated surface – subsurface hydrologic simulation numerical model by programming and testing the coupling of the USGS MODFLOW-2005 Groundwater Flow Process (GWF) package (USGS, 2005) with the 2D surface water routing model: FLO-2D (O’Brien et al., 1993). The coupling included the necessary procedures to numerically integrate and verify both models as a single computational software system that will heretofore be referred to as WHIMFLO-2D (Wetlands Hydrology Integrated Model). An improved physical formulation of flow resistance through vegetation in shallow waters based on the concept of drag force was also implemented for the simulations of …