Engineering Commons^™

2-D Non-Linear Finite Element Analysis Of Folsom Dam: Seismically Induced Separation And Pore Pressure Along The Soil-Concrete Interface, Grace Amoussou

Master of Science in Civil Engineering Theses

The seismic soil-concrete interface stability of composite dams has been an area of interest to many researchers. However, the true interface behavior during a seismic event has not been well understood. During a ground shaking, bonding and de-bonding action along the interface may cause significant separation of soil and concrete surfaces, and such a separation may take place at any depth along the interface creating a stability concern for the overall dam. Moreover, the repetitive nature of bonding/debonding behavior may induce excess pore pressure along the interface, which in turn, may trigger a liquefaction failure or a hydraulic fracture ...

Faith Promise Lane: From Cherahala Boulevard To Tn-162 Mp 1.9, Zachary W. Jerome

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Preliminary Investigation Of Required Bsca Amount For Soil Cement Mixtures, Mariel Mayori Rivero

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The recent increase of flooding in the United States and the high expenses related to the damage that these floods have caused to waterway structures suggests a potential interest in rapid setting soil cement to make effective repairs. For this thesis, mix designs of soil only at three different sand-clay proportions were prepared and tested for moisture content and maximum dry density. Due to the early closing of the laboratory and research activities, reliable results were collected from the 70% sand and 30% clay proportions. At those proportions of soil, the optimum moisture content was found to be 8.88 ...

Understanding Workability In Belitic Calcium Sulfoaluminate Concrete Mixtures, Caleb W. Chesnut

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Belitic Calcium Sulfoaluminate cement (BCSA) is an emerging technology in the concrete industry. BCSA has similar hardened properties to portland cement (PC) but can set in under 20 minutes and reach 4,000 psi in less than 2 hours. Portland cement accounts for 8% of the world’s CO2 emissions, BCSA cements require less energy to produce. Studies have shown that 40% less CO2 is emitted during the production of BCSA cement than portland cement. This environmental benefit also makes it a very promising PC alternative. Before a new material can be used, designers need to understand the material’s ...

Extremely Low Cycle Fatigue Behavior Of Additively Manufactured 17-4ph Stainless Steel, Kaley Collins

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Steel structures survive seismic loading thanks to components capable of dissipating large amounts of energy through large deformations. Future optimizations of these components include complex free-form geometries that are difficult to fabricate with traditional casting processes. Additive manufacturing (AM) is an alternative for producing optimized free-form geometries. AM material contains significant differences in microstructural characteristics and mechanical behavior compared to its wrought counterparts. Research has been conducted to understand the effect of microscopic features in the high cycle fatigue (HCF) and low cycle fatigue (LCF) regimes. This study focuses on the behavior of 17-4 Precipitation Hardening (PH) stainless steel in ...

Performance Of A Precast Wall With End Columns Rocking-Wall System With Precast Surrounding Structure, Qingzhi Liu, Catherine W. French, Sri Sritharan

Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering Publications

A large-scale structural assemblage was tested under quasi-static loading to investigate the seismic performance of a rocking-wall structure assembled by precast members. An innovative PreWEC (precast wall with end columns) system, which consisted of a precast non-bearing rocking wall, energy-dissipating O-connectors, and adjacent load-bearing end columns was used as the rocking-wall system. The structure surrounding the PreWEC included precast edge beam and columns and a floor system formed by untopped precast planks. Wall-floor connections were used to isolate the floor from vertical movements of the wall. Test results showed that the floor was successfully isolated from the uplift of the ...

Nucor Steel Storage Rack Design, Mac Hanson, Hannah Cataldo, Jason Ziganto, Robert Wozek

Scholar Week 2016 - present

The goal of this design project was to build effective steel storage racks for Nucor Steel Kankakee. The important criteria that the design team needed to meet was that the rack was adjustable, could fit all of the manufactured products that Nucor makes, and could fit various lengths of product. Nucor needs a new rack system because their current process makes the shipping process very inefficient.

Quantification Of Thermal Bridging Effects In Cold-Formed Steel Wall Assemblies, Divyansh Kapoor

Masters Theses

Thermal bridging can be defined as the phenomenon where a structural element spanning the building envelope acts like a thermal pathway which collects and moves energy (heat) from the interior to the exterior of the structure. CFS construction, due to the high thermal conductivity of steel with respect to its surrounding structural components and repetitive nature of framing, is highly prone to thermal bridging. Thermal bridging significantly alters the thermal performance of wall assemblies.

Hence, the objective of this research project was to quantify the magnitude of energy loss through cold-formed steel (CFS) stud wall assemblies at a component level ...

The Challenge Of Calculating U-Factors For Cold-Formed Steel C-Shape Wall Assemblies Using Framing Factors, American Iron And Steel Institute

AISI-Specifications for the Design of Cold-Formed Steel Structural Members

No abstract provided.

Development Of A U-Factor Calculation Procedure For Cold-Formed Steel C-Shaped Clear Wall Assemblies, American Iron And Steel Institute

AISI-Specifications for the Design of Cold-Formed Steel Structural Members

No abstract provided.

Structural Design Of Pool House In The City Of Columbia, Nathan F. Gates

Senior Theses

This report presents a structural design for a one-story pool house in the City of Columbia. The most important part of the project was determining critical horizontal and vertical loads, and designing each member in accordance to those governing loads. The loads we analyzed were dynamic, dead, live and seismic. By means of the LRFD method, the greatest possible load combination was calculated, combining the previously mentioned loads. These load combinations were different for each analysis, as the loading pressures will change depending on what structural system is being analyzed. This comprises the large part of the report and of ...

Numerical Study Of Bolted Moment Connections In Cold-Formed Steel Frames, Mohamed El Aghoury, Essam Amoush, Mohamed Soliman

Future Engineering Journal

Bolted moment connections for cold-formed steel frames are considered very important and complicated items which need in depth studies. This paper studies the behaviour and strength of eave connections for members that consist of back to back cold-formed double channels in portal (right angle) steel frames. Relatively new configuration is suggested to facilitate the construction and reduce the cost of this type of connections. The connection is comprised of two stubs (welded built-up I shape) connected with two head plates, each stub is welded to its head plate, keeping in mind that the rafter stub is tapered I-shape. The web ...

Compressive Strength Of Axially Loaded Built-Up Sigma Cold Formed Sections Columns, Mohamed El Aghoury, Maged Tawfic, Essam Amoush

Future Engineering Journal

The use of cold formed steel sections in building constructions has lately seen rapid growth due to their light weight and easier erection. Generally, lipped channel sections are used more frequently .Sigma sections while requiring more effort in fabrication, they exhibit high strength to weight ratios compared with the lipped channel sections. This work presents experimental as well as numerical study of the strength of pinned-pinned axially loaded columns utilizing sigma sections. The column section consists of two back to back sigma cold formed sections. The two sections are connected through their webs with connecting fasteners. Eight specimens with variable ...

Non-Contact Air-Coupled Sensing For Rapid Evaluation Of Bridge Decks, Jinying Zhu

INSPIRE Archived Webinars

Elastic wave-based non-destructive testing (NDT) methods are commonly used for evaluation of civil engineering infrastructure, including bridges, dams and buildings. However, most of these methods require coupling (direct contact) between sensors and the test surface, which significantly restricts the testing speed and consistency, especially for large scale concrete structures in civil engineering. The air-coupled sensing technology was developed by Dr. Jinying Zhu as a solution for rapid scanning of concrete infrastructure. In this webinar, Dr. Zhu will review the development of air-coupled sensing technique for civil engineering applications, including fundamental theory and field application of air-coupled sensing on concrete structures ...

Railway Bridges Up-To-Date, Stephen Dick

Purdue Road School

Railroad bridges are not foremost on people’s minds, but they are still a critical item in our nation’s infrastructure. The railroads have a major investment in their bridges, and with many beyond 100 years old, maintenance and replacement of them is still a major cost item. This presentation describes the current state of railroad bridges, discusses older and new bridges, and addresses the current regulatory environment.

Waterproofing Membrane For Concrete Boxes And Culverts, Keith Alan Lytton P.E., Jeremy Hunter P.E.

Purdue Road School

In 2019 a new INDOT Specification went into effect for waterproofing on concrete pipes and three- and four-sided boxes. The new specification decreased the leakage at these structures joints from 95% to less than 5%. This presentation will provide the background on why the change was needed and the solution, complete with construction examples and results.

Interfacial Shear Bond Strength Between Steel H-Piles And Polymer Concrete Jackets, Mohanad M. Abdulazeez, Kyle Brown, Mohamed Elgawady

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Steel H-piles have been used widely in bridge construction throughout the U.S. because of their relatively large load-carrying capacity while occupying a small area. However, many H-piles suffer from corrosion, which may lead to abrupt collapse. A cost-effective repair technique, including encasing the corroded region of the steel pile into a concrete jacket, which acts as an alternative load path for the applied axial load, has been used by several state Departments of Transportation. Methyl methacrylate polymer concrete (MMA-PC) is a type of concrete that is commonly used as a repair material. However, there is limited research on the ...

Bim For Bridges And Structures Pooled Fund Initiative, Julie Rivera, Connor Christian

Purdue Road School

The BIM for Bridges and Structures initiative, also known as TPF-5(372), is a transportation pooled fund project that is a collaborative effort of 20 states, FHWA, and the AASHTO Committee on Bridges and Structures. The pooled fund objective is to develop an open, national standard for exchanging information necessary for the design, fabrication, and construction of bridges and structures in the United States. The presentation will provide an overview of the project and explain ways in which stakeholders can get involved.

Load Rating Of Bridges Without Plans, Rafael Armendariz, Mark Bowman

Purdue Road School

The presentation will address the challenges of load rating bridges without plans and how a four-step procedure can be used to guide the engineer in determining bridge ratings for poorly documented bridges. The procedure is illustrated through the assessment of an earth-en-filled reinforced concrete arch bridge with no available bridge information.

A Look At Indot's Overhead Sign Structures, David Boruff

Purdue Road School

This presentation highlights results of sign sheeting field review and associated changes in policy and standards, as well as how we’re implementing the findings from our overhead sign structure inspection program through the first statewide overhead sign structure repair and replacement contract.

Corrosion-Induced Mass Loss Measurement Under Strain Conditions Through Gr/Agnw-Based, Fe-C Coated Lpfg Sensors, Chuanrui Guo, Liang Fan, Genda Chen

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this study, graphene/silver nanowire (Gr/AgNW)-based, Fe-C coated long period fiber gratings (LPFG) sensors were tested up to 72 hours in 3.5 w.t% NaCl solution for corrosion-induced mass loss measurement under four strain levels: 0, 500, 1000 and 1500 µ∈. The crack and interfacial bonding behaviors of laminate Fe-C and Gr/AgNW layer structures were characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and electrical resistance measurement. Both optical transmission spectra and electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) data were simultaneously measured from each sensor. Under increasing strains, transverse cracks appeared first and were followed by longitudinal cracks on ...

Solar Powered Parking Lot Lights, Jordyn Taylor

Sustainability Conference

Solar energy is a renewable resource growing exponentially around the country over the past few decades. Solar energy works through the use of photo-voltaic cells, which work to convert energy from sunlight into electricity. This is done within solar panels, which are then connected to batteries for energy storage to use as needed. As production has increased over past decades, the cost for solar panel hardware and installment has thus fallen to meet consumer need. While most common implementations include solar panels attached to one’s home or solar panel ‘fields’ for charging entire towns, there has been a steady ...

A Weigh-In-Motion Characterization Algorithm For Smart Pavements Based On Conductive Cementitious Materials, Hasan Borke Birgin, Simon Laflamme, Antonella D’Alessandro, Enrique Garcia-Macias, Filippo Ubertini

Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering Publications

Smart materials are promising technologies for reducing the instrumentation cost required to continuously monitor road infrastructures, by transforming roadways into multifunctional elements capable of self-sensing. This study investigates a novel algorithm empowering smart pavements with weigh-in-motion (WIM) characterization capabilities. The application domain of interest is a cementitious-based smart pavement installed on a bridge over separate sections. Each section transduces axial strain provoked by the passage of a vehicle into a measurable change in electrical resistance arising from the piezoresistive effect of the smart material. The WIM characterization algorithm is as follows. First, basis signals from axles are generated from a ...

Liability Of The Structural Engineer: Establishing, Quantifying, And Managing Risks, Justin Thomas Ittmann

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Liability is an important topic to all practicing professionals—including practicing engineers. However, the topic of liability does not receive the necessary attention required relative to other professions. Further, engineers that desire to learn more about liability in relation to their practice do not have many university options within an engineering curriculum or from outside materials available to a non-legally trained engineer. The goal of the study is to provide a comprehensive overview of liability directed towards an intelligent practicing engineer, while avoiding unnecessary over-simplification of the material. This study initially provides an in depth survey of the legal standard ...

Improving An Experimental Test Bed With Time-Varying Parameters For Developing High-Rate Structural Health Monitoring Methods, D. T. Foley, B. S. Joyce, J. Hong, Simon Laflamme, J. Dodson

Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering Publications

With the development of complex structures with high-rate dynamics, such as space structures, weapons systems, or hypersonic vehicles, comes a need for real-time structural health monitoring (SHM) methods. Researchers are developing algorithms for high-rate SHM methods, however, limited data exists on which to test these algorithms. An experimental test bed to simulate high-rate systems with rapid parameter changes was previously presented by the authors. This paper expands on the previous work. The initial configuration consisted of a cantilevered steel beam with a cart-roller system on a linear actuator to create an adjustable boundary condition along the beam, as well as ...

Battery-Free Antenna Sensors For Strain And Crack Monitoring: Data Report, Yang Wang, Dan Lin

Project SN-2

A total of 15 data sets are submitted along with the final project report. The submission contains a combination of simulated and experimental data sets. The formats include text files (both *.txt and *.tff), MATLAB data *.mat files, and MATLAB plotting code *.m files.

The simulation and experimental procedures generating each data set is elaborated in detail in the final report, and are thus not repeated herein. Upon unzipping the data package, the 15 data sets can be seen organized in 15 subfolders (some in the first level and some in the second level subfolders).

To help a reader relate ...

Battery-Free Antenna Sensors For Strain And Crack Monitoring: Technical Report, Yang Wang, Dan Lin

Project SN-2

This project studies a wireless patch antenna as a novel strain/crack sensing technique for structural health monitoring (SHM). The strain/crack induced resonance frequency shift of the antenna can be wirelessly detected and utilized to estimate the surface strain and crack propagation. However, temperature fluctuation can generate some unwanted changes in resonance frequency and introduce significant noises in measurement. This project studies a thermally stable patch antenna sensor through both numerical simulations and laboratory experiments. Using a substrate material with a steady dielectric constant, a patch antenna sensor is designed to perform reliably under temperature fluctuations. In addition, a ...

On-Site Measurement Of The Water-Cementitious Ratio And Heat Of Hydration Of Delivered Concrete, Seyednavid Mardmomen

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

In this study, AASHTO T318-15 was adopted to estimate the water content of fresh concrete mixes and then revised to have better precision. The additional step required sieving out the coarse aggregate after drying the sample in a microwave oven, and it was then used in the calculation of the absorbed water and cementitious material content. Several laboratory batches, as well as on-site water-cementitious (w/cm) ratio tests, were performed on concrete mixes containing ordinary Portland cement, ground granulated blast furnace slag, and Class F fly ash. The results of the experiments indicated that the accuracy of the revised method ...

Field Evaluation Of A Modular Press-Brake-Formed Steel Tub Girder In An Application That Includes Skew And Superelevation, Adam D. Roh

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The Short Span Steel Bridge Alliance (SSSBA) is a group of bridge and culvert industry leaders (including steel manufacturers, fabricators, service centers, coaters, researchers, and representatives of related associations and government organizations) who have joined together to provide educational information on the design and construction of short span steel bridges in installations up to 140’-0” in length. A technical working group from within the SSSBA developed the notion for the modular shallow press-brake-formed steel tub girder as a solution for the short span steel bridge market.

After extensive testing at West Virginia University and multiple successful field demonstrations, members ...

Steel Bridge Truss Analysis, Alastair Seed

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this project is to conduct a study comparing the effectiveness of different cross frame orientations in lowering the deflection of the main stringers of a bridge. Three different orientations of cross frames were researched; vertical, angled with the superstructure webbing, and halfway-angled. All of these were studied when the stringers were placed directly under the superstructure and when the superstructure was placed outside of the stringers. Analysis was performed in a program called SAP 2000 to find the deflections along the stringers under different loading conditions. The results showed that when the superstructure was oriented over the ...