Engineering Commons^™

Strengthening Of Corroded Steel Structures Using Cfrp – An Experimental Review, Ghada El-Mahdy Ph.D., P.Eng, Abdallah H. Yassin, Abdel El Rahman Khaled

Civil Engineering

Fibre reinforced polymers (FRP) have been widely used to strengthen reinforced concrete structures, however, nowadays their use to strengthen steel structures is under investigation. In particular, the need to strengthen corroded steel structures found in aggressive environments, such as marine environments, which have undergone a reduction in cross-sectional area and hence a reduction in their load-carrying capacity is in need of studying. The main problems that arise when using carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets to strengthen steel structures is the weakness in the interfacial bond between the CFRP and the steel surface, the thinness of CFRP sheet, and the …

Sway And No-Sway Behaviour Of Pitched Roof Portal Frames Composed Of Cold-Formed Steel Sections, Ghada El-Mahdy Ph.D, P.Eng., Maged Tawfick Hanna Ph.D

Civil Engineering

Cold-formed sections buckle locally and distortionally in combination with overall buckling of the member. When these sections are incorporated into a portal frame structure, this combination of buckling modes affects the overall buckling behaviour of the portal frame. The objective of this paper is to study the effect of local and distortional buckling on the overall behaviour of portal frames. The portal frames studied have a span of 10 m and an eave height of 3 m with a roof pitch of 1:10. Two frames are studied the first with one intermediate interconnector at the midpoints of the column and …

Diffusion And Uniformity Of Recycled Asphalt In Pavements, Baoshan Huang

Abbett Distinguished Seminar Series

Asphalt pavements covers over 93 percent of the paved roads in the United States. The use of recycled asphalt into pavement maintenance and construction has been a common practice. However the lack of understanding of the interaction between recycled and virgin asphalt poses a change on the efficient use of recycled asphalt, and often causes pavement premature failures. The present study addressed some fundamental aspects associated with the beneficial use of recycled asphalt into asphalt paving mixtures: 1) how much recycled asphalt can be mobilized into a uniform asphalt coating in the mixture? and 2) will the mobilized old asphalt …

Simulation Training And Route Optimization For Bridge Inspection, Sushil Louis

INSPIRE Archived Webinars

Since the 1970s, simulation training has developed opera­tional trainers for a variety of complex systems from pilot flight simulations to cultural awareness training simulations. When connected to the real world, such simulation training interfaces can drive real vehicles and systems. We have been building a Simulation Training And Control System (STACS) for autonomous bridge inspection that uses a simulated world to train inspectors to control a heterogeneous group of robots. The objective is that, once trained, inspectors can use the same STACS interface used in training to control multiple real robots simultaneously during a bridge inspection task. We first built …

Behavior Of Hollow-Core Composite Bridge Columns Having Slender Inner Steel Tubes, Mohanad M. Abdulazeez, Mohamed Elgawady

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper experimentally investigates the seismic behavior of three large-scale hollow-core fiber-reinforced polymer-concrete-steel (HC-FCS) columns. An HC-FCS column consisted of a concrete shell sandwiched between an outer glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) tube and an inner steel tube. Both tubes provided continuous confinement for the concrete shell along with the height of the column. The columns had two different steel tube diameter-to-thickness (Ds/ts) ratios of 85, and 254. Each steel tube was embedded into the footing, with an embedded length of 1.25-1.6 times its diameter, while the GFRP tube was not embedded into the footing. Two columns were tested as as-built …

Review On Rheological Characterization Of Bio-Oils/Bio- Binders And Their Applicability In The Flexible Pavement Industry, Ahmed Hemida, Magdy Abdelrahman

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper mainly presents a qualitative review on to what extent the bio-oil has the potential to replace asphalt binder for a sustainable, flexible pavement industry. The current research comprises reviews on the rheological characterization of pure bio-oils and bio-oil modified binders (bio-binders) investigated in the literature. The literature showed that several sources of bio-oils have the potential to contribute to the flexible pavement industry. This research mainly discusses the high-temperature properties, especially viscosity for the construction process (mixing and compaction) and viscoelasticity for the elevated temperature of in-service roads. This review paper encourages orientation towards these kinds of renewable …

Multifunctional Lightweight Aggregate Containing Phase Change Material And Water For Damage Mitigation Of Concrete, Wenyu Liao, Aditya Kumar, Kamal Khayat, Hongyan Ma

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents an innovative concept of multifunctional lightweight aggregate, which is produced by loading phase change material (PCM) into the interior of lightweight sand (LWS) and sealing the surface pores using water. The PCM loaded in the LWS functionalizes it as a temperature management agent in concrete, and the water in surface pores enables internal curing. It has been found that the particle shape and pore structure of crushed expanded shale LWS makes it an ideal carrier for PCM, loading sufficient PCM and maintaining better (compared to natural sand) mechanical interlocking. When coupled with the internal curing effect, the …

The Application Of Gray-Scale Level-Set Method In Segmentation Of Concrete Deck Delamination Using Infrared Images, Chongsheng Cheng, Zhigang Shen

Department of Construction Engineering and Management: Faculty Publications

Conventional nondestructive delamination detection of concrete pavements through thermography is often based on temperature contrasts between delaminated and sound areas. Non-uniform backgrounds caused by the environmental conditions are often challenging for contrast-based methods to robustly differentiate the delaminated areas from the sound areas. Instead of focusing on the temperature contrast, this study proposes a temperature gradient-based level set method (LSM) to detect boundaries for delamination segmentations. A modified edge indicator function is developed to represent the normalized temperature gradient of a thermal image. The experimental study was conducted to evaluate its applicability and stability for boundary detection in terms of …

Conditional Survival Analysis For Concrete Bridge Decks, Azam Nabizadeh, Habib Tabatabai, Mohammad A. Tabatabai

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Articles

Bridge decks are a significant factor in the deterioration of bridges, and substantially affect long-term bridge maintenance decisions. In this study, conditional survival (reliability) analysis techniques are applied to bridge decks to evaluate the age at the end of service life using the National Bridge Inventory records. As bridge decks age, the probability of survival and the expected service life would change. The additional knowledge gained from the fact that a bridge deck has already survived a specific number of years alters (increases) the original probability of survival at subsequent years based on the conditional probability theory. The conditional expected …

Development Of Local And Global Corrosion Sensing Technique To Monitor Structural Behavior Of Prestressed Concrete Structures, Dewan Z. Hossain

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Corrosion of steel rebar in reinforced concrete structures is a concern for highway bridge owners. According to 2002 study by the Federal Highway Administration, ~15% of the highway bridges in the US are structurally deficient due to corrosion and have an estimated annual direct cost of $8.3 billion. Generally, in post-tensioned bridges, ducts filled with poor or incomplete grouting can allow the tendons to come into contact with water, leading to corrosion and fracture. Although new and improved procedures of grouting have been developed to reduce the instances of poor grouting, the problem of how to reliably inspect tendons on …

Corrosion Durability Of A Nano-Particle Enriched Zinc-Rich Coating System For Highway Steel Bridges, Saiada Fuadi Fancy

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Corrosion is a major concern for the long-term durability and structural integrity of steel components of highway bridges when unprotected. The application of protective coatings has been widely used for corrosion mitigation of atmospherically exposed structural steel. At present, the zinc-rich primer (ZRP) based three-coat system is widely used in the United States. The metallic zinc pigment ideally would provide corrosion resistance by sacrificial as well as barrier protection. The life of these coating systems is at best only half of the bridge design life. Furthermore, premature degradation may occur if there are flaws in the system due to improper …

Program Progress Performance Report #5, Missouri University Of Science And Technology. Inspire - University Transportation Center

Semi-Annual Progress Reports

No abstract provided.

Improving The Sustainability Of The Built Environment By Training Its Workforce In More Efficient And Greener Ways Of Designing And Constructing Through The Horizon2020 Bimcert Project, Barry Mcauley, Avril Behan

Conference papers

The construction industry consumes up to 50% of mineral resources excavated from nature, generates about 33% of CO2 present in the atmosphere and is responsible for 40% of total global energy through both construction and operation of buildings. The realisation that current pervasive construction practices now face globalization, sustainability, and environmental concerns, as well as ever-changing legislation requirements and new skills needed for the information age has resulted in technologies such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) becoming a key enabler in navigating these barriers. To assist in overcoming these barriers, a number of funding initiatives have been put in place …

Centres Of Excellence And Roadmaps For Digital Transition: Lessons For Ireland’S Construction Industry, Barry Mcauley, Alan Hore, Roger West

Conference papers

Like most sectors in today’s working world, construction businesses are challenged to work in an increasingly digitised world with sophisticated demands from intelligent clients. So much has been written about the inefficiencies of the construction industry, its fragmentation, lack of collaboration, low margins, adversarial pricing, poor productivity, financial fragility, lack of research and development, poor industry image and relatively weak use of digital solutions. The Irish government recognises the importance of digital innovation to address many of the challenges the construction industry faces. With recent high profile reports of escalating spend on signature public sector projects and weak productivity performance …

From Roadmap To Implementation: Lessons For Ireland’S Digital Construction Programme, Barry Mcauley, Alan Hore, Roger West

Conference papers

As part of their Future of Construction initiative in 2018 the World Economic Forum published an action plan to accelerate Building Information Modelling adoption. The WEF report highlighted actions that companies, industry organisations and governments are advised to implement to accelerate BIM adoption and better capitalise on delivering better project outcomes. According the authors of the report BIM is seen as the centrepiece of the construction industry’s digital transformation, however they acknowledged that BIM adoption globally remain slow. Anecdotal experience would suggest that BIM usage in Ireland is also very low and that a similar initiative or an adaptation of …

Data To Risk-Informed Decisions Through Bridge Model Updating, Iris Tien

INSPIRE Archived Webinars

Across the country, bridge structures are aging with use commonly extending beyond their original design lives. Decisions to repair, retrofit or rehabilitate these structures will support continued reliability and resilience of these structures. To better understand the states of the bridges at any point in time, there are new technologies to inspect, monitor and assess bridge conditions.

To effectively use the results of these inspections and monitoring activities, we need an understanding of the relation between varying inspection parameters and the predicted performance of bridge structures.

In this seminar, we will describe methods to use inspection data to update assessment …

Experimental Calibration Of Centrally Loaded Built-Up Battened Compression Members, Ghada El-Mahdy Ph.D., P.Eng.

Civil Engineering

There is a large diversity in the requirements for designing built-up compression members between international design codes. Most codes, including the North American standards and specifications specify the use of an equivalent or modified slenderness ratio. In general, all North American standards and specifications agree on the need of using a modified slenderness ratio, but differ in the factor used to multiply the local slenderness ratio. Theoretically it is difficult to estimate the exact value of this factor, and using experimental methods does not capture the exact value of this factor either. Hence, a different approach is needed to determine …

Performance Of Drilled Shaft Under Combination Of Complicated Loads Under Hurricane Event, Jie Huang, Sazzad Bin-Shafique

Publications

This project includes experimental and numerical studies to investigate and assess the impact of vertical loads on a laterally loaded drilled shaft under various conditions. The experimental study includes lab testing and lab-scale load test to examine a drilled shaft subjected to vertical and lateral loads at a reduced scale. With the data obtained from the lab-scale testing, a numerical model was calibrated, which was used to perform a parametric study to scrutinize the effect of many possible factors such as soil stiffness, soil friction angle, and drilled shaft geometry. With all the factors considered in this study, the vertical …

Toward Non-Corrosion And Highly Sustainable Structural Members By Using Ultra-High-Performance Materials For Transportation Infrastructure, Shih-Ho Chao, Ashish Karmacharya

Publications

This research focused on investigating a highly sustainable and efficient reinforced concrete structural member for future infrastructure by utilizing emerging high-performance materials. These materials include ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHP-FRC) and corrosion-resistant high-strength fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars. Four reduced scale UHP-FRC specimens were tested under large displacement reversals to prove the proposed new ductile-concrete strong-reinforcement (DCSR) design concept by fully utilizing these ultra-high-performance materials. Micro steel fibers were incorporated into three specimens and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fibers were blended into the fourth specimen. One specimen with ASTM A1035 MMFX high-strength steel rebars, one with high-strength glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) …

Influence Of Guayule Resin As A Bio-Based Additive On Asphalt-Rubber Binder At Elevated Temperatures, Ahmed Hemida, Magdy Abdelrahman

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study seeks to find the influence of replacing a portion of the asphalt–rubber binder with the bio-based material “guayule resin.” This replacement could be beneficial in terms of sustainability, economics, and environmental concerns related to the asphalt industry. Nine asphalt-rubber-guayule binders were investigated to find their rheological properties. Consecutively, the study proceeded with five selected binders being compared to the original asphalt (PG64-22). Investigations underwent whole matrices (crumb rubber modifier (CRM) residue included) and liquid phases (CRM residue extracted). Additionally, these properties were partially sought for their corresponding asphalt–rubber binders to compare and judge the contribution of the guayule …

Generalized Beam–Spring Model For Predicting Elastic Behavior Of Partially Composite Concrete Sandwich Wall Panels, Salam Al-Rubaye, Taylor Sorensen, Robert J. Thomas, Marc Maguire

Faculty Publications

Partially composite sandwich wall panels (SWP) have been used in the construction industry for at least twenty years. Currently there is limited codified guidance for designers of partially composite concrete SWP, but they are being designed safely and routinely. Design is often guided by the composite connector manufacturers who sell proprietary composite connectors often using a variation of truss-type matrix methods for prediction of elastic behavior of SWPs. The purpose of this paper is to quantify the accuracy of such a model in a uniform manner by developing a generalized version of these matrix models called the beam-spring model (BSM). …

Alfond W2 Ocean Engineering Lab, Advanced Structures & Composites Center, University Of Maine

General University of Maine Publications

The Alfond W2 Ocean Engineering Lab at the University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center is a unique facility equipped with a high-performance rotatable wind machine over a multidirectional wave basin. The facility will accurately simulate towing tests, variable water depths, and scaled wind and wave conditions that represent some of the worst storms possible anywhere on Earth.

Proceedings Of The 9th International Conference On Structural Health, Monitoring Of Intelligent Infrastructure: Transferring Research Into Practice, International Society For Structural Health Monitoring Of Intelligent Infrastructure (Ishmii), Genda Chen, Sreenivas Alampalli

INSPIRE Conference Contributions

No abstract provided.

Augmented Reality Enhancing The Inspections Of Transportation Infrastructure: Research, Education, And Industry Implementation, Fernando Moreu, Chris Lippitt, Dilendra Maharjan, Marlon Aguero, Xinxing Yuan

Publications

Transportation infrastructure needs continuous monitoring that is conducted by field inspectors regularly in the field. Currently, infrastructure inspectors climb, measure, and photograph structures annually to inform repair needs and prioritize decisions. In order to promote and accelerate early learner's expertise in decision-making capabilities during infrastructure inspections, this research project developed various software applications using augmented reality (AR) as an inspection tool for bridges and bridge management, more specifically. By objectively quantifying infrastructure field inspections, inspectors can make more accurate field assessments and managers can make better-informed decisions. This project collaborated with stakeholders, national laboratories, DOT agencies such as NCHRP and …

A Comprehensive Framework For Life-Cycle Cost Assessment Of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Decks, Mohamed Soliman, Samir Ahmed, Ligang Shen

Publications

Various environmental and mechanical stressors cause deterioration of concrete bridge decks. Normal wear and tear, freeze and thaw cycles, and chloride penetration due to deicing salts can cause aggressive deterioration that usually require frequent interventions during the life-cycle of the bridge. These interventions include deck maintenance and repairs (e.g., application of sealers or overlay placement) as well as bridge deck replacement. The quantification of the life-cycle cost of bridge decks considering maintenance and repair activities represents a significant challenge facing local and state transportation agencies. The life-cycle maintenance activities not only increase the direct life-cycle cost of the bridge, but …

Structural Vulnerability Of Coastal Bridges Under Extreme Hurricane Conditions, Arturo Montoya, Adolfo Matamoros, Firat Testik, Reza Nasouri, Adnan Shahriar, Arsalan Majlesi

Publications

This work presents the results of a numerical study evaluating the response of coastal bridges due to hurricane-induced waves. The analyses were conducted using the Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) approach, available on the commercial finite element software Abaqus, which allows modeling the interaction between water and the bridge. The work concentrated on (1) establishing an approach for modeling the desired wave characteristics (i.e., wave height, and frequency) within the CEL simulation, (2) conducting simulations using actual bridge dimensions of historically damaged bridges, (3) analyzing a range of foundation flexibilities to determine its effect on the uplift and shear forces acting on …

Disaster Resilient And Self-Assessing Multifunctional Transportation Structures, Ibrahim Karaman, Darren Hartl

Publications

This research designs and characterizes multifunctional materials, in particular inexpensive shape memory alloys, for transportation structures that possess excellent mechanical properties and self-sensing capabilities for strengthening and health monitoring. The properties are the Fe-SMAs are sensitive to part size in that the grain size of the material, which can be grown to several inches, should exceed the smallest dimension of the part. In the current work, maximum part size of the large dimension Fe-SMA rods were determined through detailed microstructural investigations. Samples were subjected to abnormal grain growth heat treatments and found out that part size be increased up to …

Workforce Development Symposiums For Uhpc, Brad Weldon, Craig Newtson, Grace Mcmurry, Leticia Davila

Publications

Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) is a cementitious material with a dense microstructure that contributes to high compressive strengths as well as enhanced durability properties. UHPC also possesses significant post-cracking strength and ductility due to the addition of fibers. These characteristics produce a material that provides advantages over conventional concrete; however, high costs attributed to materials and production, lack of industry familiarity and knowledge, and the absence of standardized design procedures have impeded its widespread use. To help disseminate knowledge on UHPC, two workforce development symposiums on UHPC were held in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The symposiums consisted of presentations and …

Probabilistic Analysis Of Slide-Rocking Structures Under Earthquake Loads, Taylor J. Knickerbocker

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Estimates of rare seismic hazard are essential for the resilience of critical infrastructure and facilities. However, these estimates are highly uncertain at long return periods due to the lack of observed earthquake records. Several ground motion prediction equations have been proposed to close this gap and estimate rare seismic demands; however, these models were developed based on more moderate earthquake records and can yield physically unrealizable ground motions when extrapolated to long return periods. For this reason, seismologists have proposed using precariously balanced rocks (PBRs) as a way to constrain rare seismic hazard. PBRs are a type of fragile geologic …

Cost-Effective Methods To Retrofit Metal Culverts Using Composites, Mahmoud Reda Taha, Susan Bogus Halter

Publications

One of the current pressing problems for all DOTs is the corrosion-oriented deterioration of existing metal culverts. These metal culverts typically are designed for a life of 50 years. However, corrosion is making them last no longer than 30 years. A Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymers (GFRP) pipe section has been evaluated as a fit-in GFRP profile liner for complete repair and rehabilitation of the corroded metal culvert with an expected life of 75 years. This is mainly because of the corrosion free nature of the GFRP material. A comprehensive rehabilitation methodology and laboratory scale three-point bending test was conducted to …