Engineering Commons^™

Twelve Factors Influencing Sustainable Recycling Of Municipal Solid Waste In Developing Countries , Alexis Manda Troschinetz

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

Sustainable management of solid waste is a global concern, as exemplified by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) that 191 member states support. The seventh MDG indirectly advocates for municipal solid waste management (MSWM) by aiming to ensure environmental sustainability into countries’ policies and programs and reverse negative environmental impact. Proper MSWM will likely result in relieving poverty, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and preventing disease, which are MDG goals one, four, five, and six, respectively (UNMDG, 2005).

Solid waste production is increasing worldwide as the global society strives to obtain a decent quality of life. Several means …

Quickbird Satellite Imagery For Riparian Management : Characterizing Riparian Filter Strips And Detecting Concentrated Flow In An Agricultural Watershed , Sarah Volkman

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

Riparian ecology plays an important part in the filtration of sediments from upland agricultural lands. The focus of this work makes use of multispectral high spatial resolution remote sensing imagery (Quickbird by Digital Globe) and geographic information systems (GIS) to characterize significant riparian attributes in the USDA’s experimental watershed, Goodwin Creek, located in northern Mississippi. Significant riparian filter characteristics include the width of the strip, vegetation properties, soil properties, topography, and upland land use practices. The land use and vegetation classes are extracted from the remotely sensed image with a supervised maximum likelihood classification algorithm. Accuracy assessments resulted in an …

Corrugated Wood Composite Panels For Structural Decking, Wei Chiang Pang

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

High flexural strength and stiffness can be achieved by forming a thin panel into a wave shape perpendicular to the bending direction. The use of corrugated shapes to gain flexural strength and stiffness is common in metal and reinforced plastic products. However, there is no commercial production of corrugated wood composite panels. This research focuses on the application of corrugated shapes to wood strand composite panels.

Beam theory, classical plate theory and finite element models were used to analyze the bending behavior of corrugated panels. The most promising shallow corrugated panel configuration was identified based on structural performance and compatibility …

Testing Wisconsin Asphalt Mixtures For The 2002 Aashto Mechanistic Design Procedure , Christopher J. Robinette

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

There has been a continuous evolutionary process in asphalt pavement design. In the beginning it was crude and based on past experience. Through research, empirical methods were developed based on materials response to specific loading at the AASHO Road Test. Today, pavement design has progressed to a mechanistic-empirical method. This methodology takes into account the mechanical properties of the individual layers and uses empirical relationships to relate them to performance. The mechanical tests that are used as part of this methodology include dynamic modulus and flow number, which have been shown to correlate with field pavement performance.

This thesis was …

Countermeasures Against Scour At Bridge Abutments, Hua Li

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

Scour at bridge abutments can cause damage or failure of bridges and result in excessive repairs, loss of accessibility, or even death. To mitigate abutment scour, both clear-water and live-bed laboratory experiments in a compound channel were performed using parallel walls and spur dikes as countermeasures, respectively. In addition, collars were tested under clear-water conditions only. It was found that both parallel walls and spur dikes can efficiently protect the abutment from scour provided that they are properly designed. Design guidelines were discussed for both countermeasures. Preliminary clear-water tests of collars as countermeasures against scour showed some promising results although …

Study Of Particle Movement In The Nearshore Region Of Lake Superior With Radioisotope Tracers, Yingtao Chai

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

Biogeochemical processes in the coastal region, including the coastal area of the Great Lakes, are of great importance due to the complex physical, chemical and biological characteristics that differ from those on either the adjoining land or open water systems. Particle-reactive radioisotopes, both naturally occurring (²¹⁰Pb, ²¹⁰Po and ⁷Be) and man-made (¹³⁷Cs), have proven to be useful tracers for these processes in many systems. However, a systematic isotope study on the northwest coast of the Keweenaw Peninsula in Lake Superior has not yet been performed.

In this dissertation research, field sampling, laboratory measurements and …