Engineering Commons^™

Lifecycle Modeling And Assessment Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Drones) Co2e Emissions, Miguel A. Figliozzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

There are no studies that model the potential effectiveness of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones to reduce CO2e lifecycle (including both utilization and vehicle phase) emissions when compared to conventional diesel vans, electric trucks, electric vans, and tricycles. This study presents a novel analysis of lifecycle UAV and ground commercial vehicles CO2e emissions. Different route and customer configurations are modeled analytically. Utilizing real-word data, tradeoffs and comparative advantages of UAVs are discussed. Breakeven points for operational emissions are obtained and the results clearly indicate that UAVs are more CO2e efficient, for small payloads, than conventional diesel vans in a …

From Probabilistic Socio-Economic Vulnerability To An Integrated Framework For Flash Flood Prediction, Sepideh Khajehei

Dissertations and Theses

Flash flood is among the most hazardous natural disasters, and it can cause severe damages to the environment and human life. Flash floods are mainly caused by intense rainfall and due to their rapid onset (within six hours of rainfall), very limited opportunity can be left for effective response. Understanding the socio-economic characteristics involving natural hazards potential, vulnerability, and resilience is necessary to address the damages to economy and casualties from extreme natural hazards. The vulnerability to flash floods is dependent on both biophysical and socio-economic factors. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of socio-economic vulnerability to flash flood alongside …

Comparative Analysis Of Mosquito Trap Counts In The Peruvian Amazon: Effect Of Trap Type And Other Covariates On Counts And Diversity, George W. Peck, Fanny Castro-Llanos, Victor Lopez-Sifuentes, Erica Lindroth

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Efficient detection of multiple species of adult mosquitoes in various habitats using effective traps is a crucial 1st step in any disease prevention program. Novel trap types that target tropical vectors of human diseases require field testing in the habitat of the vector–disease system in question. This paper analyzes a series of mosquito trapping studies conducted at Mapacocha, San Juan Bautista District, Loreto, Peru, during August–September 2013 and April–May 2014. Six trap configurations were evaluated in forest and rural locations. Adult mosquito counts were analyzed using full Bayesian inference of multilevel generalized linear models and posterior probability point estimates of …

Aliased Tidal Variability In Mesoscale Sea Level Anomaly Maps, Edward Zaron, Richard D. Ray

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sea level anomaly (SLA) maps are routinely produced by objective analysis of data from the constellation of satellite altimeter missions in operation since 1992. Beginning in 2014, changes in the Data Unification and Altimeter Combination System (DUACS) used to create the SLA maps resulted in improved spatial resolution of mesoscale variability, but it also increased the levels of aliased tidal variability compared to the methodology employed prior to 2014. The present work investigates the magnitude and spatial distribution of these tidal signals, which are typically smaller than 1 cmin the open ocean but can reach tens of centimeters in the …

Modeling The Sustainability Of Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Technologies: Final Report, Miguel A. Figliozzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the past decade, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have become increasingly more popular in the commercial sector. Drones are being used for all kinds of purposes, such as surveillance, inspecting architecture, filming, wildlife research, and more. Freight delivery is a potential application that is getting lots of attention from large companies.

This research presented novel data, relationship, and models for deliveries utilizing small UAVs. Small UAVs were defined as aircrafts with a tare of up to 15 kilograms (kg) and a potential payload of up to 15 kg. Since the weight of the UAVs is capped, only drones with engines …

The Influence Of Shared Mobility And Transportation Policies On Vehicle Ownership, Edgar Bertini Ruas

PSU Transportation Seminars

With the emergence of several new providers of shared mobility services, such as Uber, Biketown and Car2go, there has been the promise of changes to the traditional way of owning and using a vehicle. One potential consequence of the new mobility services is the reduction in vehicle ownership. At the same time, cities are trying to anticipate these changes by reducing the amount of space dedicated to parking. This thesis aims to asses the extent to which new shared mobility and transportation policy strategies (especially parking requirements and transit pass availability) relate to vehicle ownership among residents of multifamily dwellings. …

Webinar: Segmenting The Market For Transportation Demand Management Campaigns, Philip L. Winters, Amy Lester

TREC Webinar Series

Social marketing seeks to develop and integrate marketing concepts with other approaches to influence behaviors that benefit individuals and communities for the greater social good. It is a useful transportation demand management (TDM) planning approach to promote travel behavior change. The purpose of this study was to explore a consumer market segmentation technique successfully used in Europe for its applicability to marketing efforts in the United States. Attitudinal and demographic data were collected from 1900 individuals in Florida, Oregon, and Virginia modeled after the European approach. Clustering analysis was applied to divide the sample into segments so that members of …

Scenarios For Adoption Of Autonomous Vehicle Technologies In Freight, Sabya Mishra

PSU Transportation Seminars

Innovation adoption research has largely ignored organizational adoption, and little work has been done to understand or predict the adoption of innovations by freight organizations. Among the existing innovation adoption theoretical and methodological approaches this seminar will explore which are most appropriate methods for freight organizational adoption. The seminar will present a disaggregate market penetration model for freight transportation organizations adopting connected autonomous vehicle (CAV) technology and demonstrate an application using a case study area in Memphis, TN. The seminar will highlight ongoing and future organizational adoption research for CAVs, and other innovations.

Ensemble Data Assimilation For Flood Forecasting In Operational Settings: From Noah-Mp To Wrf-Hydro And The National Water Model, Mahkameh Zarekarizi

Dissertations and Theses

The National Water Center (NWC) started using the National Water Model (NWM) in 2016. The NWM delivers state-of-the-science hydrologic forecasts in the nation. The NWM aims at operationally forecasting streamflow in more than 2,000,000 river reaches while currently river forecasts are issued for 4,000. The NWM is a specific configuration of the community WRF-Hydro Land Surface Model (LSM) which has recently been introduced to the hydrologic community. The WRF-Hydro model, itself, uses another newly-developed LSM called Noah-MP as the core hydrologic model. In WRF-Hydro, Noah-MP results (such as soil moisture and runoff) are passed to routing modules. Riverine water level …

Driver Comprehension Of Permissive Right-Turns With A Flashing Yellow Arrow (Fya), Christopher Monsere, David Hurwitz

PSU Transportation Seminars

This research explored driver comprehension and behaviors with respect to right-turn signal displays with a focus on the Flashing Yellow Arrow (FYA) in a driving simulator and a comprehension survey. Flashing yellow arrows are used in place of other turn signals, such as solid green or flashing yellow or red circles, to indicate that drivers may turn after yielding to oncoming traffic. These turns are considered “permissive.” Turns where no conflicting traffic is present, such as those indicated with a green arrow, are “protected” turns. The flashing yellow arrow’s inclusion in the 2009 Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices sped …

Webinar: Addressing Bicycle-Vehicle Conflicts With Alternate Signal Control Strategies, Sirisha Kothuri

TREC Webinar Series

There is nationwide interest in supporting sustainable and active transportation modes such as bicycling and walking due to the many benefits associated with them, including reduced congestion, lower emissions and improved health. Although the number of bicyclists is increasing, safety remains a top concern. In urban areas, a common crash type involving bicycles at intersections is the “right hook” where a right-turning vehicle collides with a through bicyclist. While geometric treatments and pavement markings have been studied, there is a lack of research on signal timing treatments to address right-hook bicycle-vehicle conflicts.

Addressing Bicycle-Vehicle Conflicts with Alternate Signal Control Strategies …

Unobserved Heterogeneity And Spatial Correlation: Statistical And Econometric Analyses Of Heavy-Vehicle Hard Braking And Crash Frequency, Jason Anderson

PSU Transportation Seminars

In heavy-vehicles (a truck with a gross vehicle weight rating of greater than 10,000 pounds), a hard braking event is described as an event that prompts the vehicle’s “black box” to record an abrupt change in speed. More specifically, this occurs when the driver applies excess force to the vehicle’s brake. These hard braking events can then serve as a proxy for several factors, such as economic impacts, environmental impacts, and impacts on safety. In the context of the present study, being that approximately one-third of all heavy-vehicle-caused crashes in 2014 were attributed to faulty brakes, there is a need …

Modeling The Impact Of Traffic Conditions And Bicycle Facilities On Cyclists' On-Road Stress Levels, Àlvaro Caviedes, Miguel A. Figliozzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Past research efforts have shown that cyclists’ safety, stress, and comfort levels greatly affect the routes chosen by cyclists and cycling frequency. Some researchers have tried to categorize cyclists’ levels of traffic stress utilizing data that can be directly measured in the field, such as the number of motorized travel lanes, motorized vehicle travel speeds, and type of bicycle infrastructure. This research effort presents a novel approach: real-world, on-road measurements of physiological stress as cyclists travel across different types of bicycle facilities at peak and off-peak traffic times. By matching videos with stressful events, it was possible to observe the …

Removal Efficiencies, Uptake Mechanisms And Competitive Effects Of Copper And Zinc In Various Stormwater Filter Media, Emily Heleva-Ponaski

Dissertations and Theses

Polluted stormwater, if not treated, can compromise water quality throughout our hydrologic cycle, adversely affecting aquatic ecosystems. Common stormwater pollutants, copper and zinc, have been identified as primary toxicants in multiple freshwater and marine environments. For small-scale generators, stormwater management can be cumbersome and implementation of common BMPs impractical thus catch basins are popular though not the most environmentally conscious and sustainable option. This study aims to characterize the potential of a mobile media filter operation for the treatment and on-site recycling of catch basin stormwater. The removal capacities of various commercially available filter media (e.g. a common perlite; Earthlite™, …

Reducing Exposures Traffic-Related Air Pollution And Urban Building Design, Elliott T. Gall, Linda George

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Driver Distraction In Microsimulation Of A Mid-Block Pedestrian Crossing, Darryl Joseph Michaud

Dissertations and Theses

Traffic simulation has become an invaluable part of the traffic engineering toolbox. However, the majority of driver models are designed to recreate traffic performance based on interactions among vehicles. In keeping with this pursuit, most are fundamentally built to avoid collisions. This limits the applicability of using these models for addressing safety concerns, especially those regarding pedestrian safety performance. However, by explicitly including some of the sources of human error, these limitations can, in theory, be overcome. While much work has been done toward including these human factors in simulation platforms, one key aspect of human behavior has been largely …

Data From: Market Segment Prediction Tool, Philip L. Winters, Amy Lester

TREC Datasets and Databases

Social marketing seeks to develop and integrate marketing concepts with other approaches to influence behaviors that benefit individuals and communities for the greater social good. Social marketing is a useful transportation demand management (TDM) planning approach to promote travel-behavior change, and combines at least seven distinguishing features that sets it apart from other popular, behavior-change planning approaches, such as education and mass media campaigns. These seven features include a focus on socially beneficial behavior change; a strong consumer orientation; the use of audience segmentation techniques and the selection of target audiences; the use of marketing’s conceptual framework (marketing mix and …

Advancing Bridge Technology, Task 10: Statistical Analysis And Modeling Of Us Concrete Highway Bridge Deck Performance -- Internal Final Report, Omar Ghonima, Thomas Schumacher, Avinash Unnikrishnan, Adam Fleischhacker

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Concrete highway bridge deck repairs represent the highest expense associated with bridge maintenance cost. In order to optimize such activities and use the available monies effectively, a solid understanding of the parameters that affect the performance of concrete bridge decks is critical. The National Bridge Inventory (NBI), perhaps the single-most comprehensive source of bridge information, gathers data on more than 600,000 bridges in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Focusing on concrete highway bridge deck performance, this research developed a nationwide database based on NBI data and other critical parameters that were computed …

Internal Gravity Waves And Meso/Submesoscale Currents In The Ocean Anticipating High-Resolution Observations From The Swot Swath Altimeter Mission, Edward D. Zaron, Cesar B. Rocha

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The article offers information on the meeting “Interactions between Internal Gravity Waves and Meso/Submesoscale Currents in the Ocean," held in Portland, Oregon, on February 10-11, 2018. Topics discussed include the role played by geostationary satellites in atmospheric science, the result of interactions between high-frequency internal gravity waves and low-frequency mesoscale andsubmesoscale currents in the ocean, and kinetic energy spectrum of surface currents.

Development Of A Crash Risk-Scoring Tool For Pedestrian And Bicycle Projects In Oregon, Yi Wang, Christopher M. Monsere, Chen Chen, Haizhong Wang

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Methods for identifying and prioritizing high-crash locations for safety improvements are generally crash-based. There are fewer reported crashes involving non-motorized users and, in most states, reported crashes must involve a motor vehicle. This means that minor, non-injury events are not reported and those crashes that are reported tend to be more severe. Selecting projects based only on crash performance is sometimes limiting for these crash types and predicting where these crashes will occur next is also a challenging task. An alternative to crash-based selection is to develop risk-based criteria and methods. This paper presents the results of a research effort …

A Study Of Bus High-Resolution Gps Speed Data Accuracy, Miguel Figliozzi, Nicholas B. Stoll

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The recent availability of high-frequency transit (HFT) GPS data for buses has allowed the estimation of detailed bus-travel speed profiles between bus stops. HFT data are defined as data comprising GPS vehicle trajectory recorded at or less than 5 s intervals. With HFT data it is now possible to measure changes in bus speed at specific locations of interest, such as intersections, ramps, crosswalks, and so on. Previous research efforts have not compared GPS-based bus speeds with general traffic speeds at specific locations between stops. This research fills this knowledge gap, utilizing accurate stationary radar speed data as a baseline …

Webinar: Meeting & Exceeding Mobility User Expectations With Real-Time Transit Information, Sean J. Barbeau, Derek Fretheim

TREC Webinar Series

Every day transit riders ask the same question: when’s the next one coming? To answer this question, transit agencies are transitioning to providing real-time transit information through smartphones or displayed at transit stops.

The proliferation of transit planning and real time arrival tools that have hit the market over the past decade is staggering. Yet with transit ridership on the decline, agencies can’t afford to ignore the importance of providing accurate, real time information to their customers. Real-time transit information improves the reliability and efficiency of passenger travel, but barriers have prevented some transit agencies from adopting the GTFSrealtime v1.0 …

Twelve Questions For The Participatory Modeling Community, Rebecca Jordan, Steven Gray, Moira Zellner, Pierre D. Glynn, Alexey Voinov, Beatrice Hedelin, Eleanor J. Sterling, Kirsten Leong, Laura Schmitt Olabisi, Klaus Hubacek, Pierre Bommel, Todd K. Bendor, Antoine J. Jetter, Bethany Laursen, Alison Singer, Philippe J. Giabbanelli, Nagesh Kolagani, Laura Basco Carrera, Karen Jenni, Christina Prell, National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center Participatory Modeling Pursuit Working Group

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Participatory modeling engages the implicit and explicit knowledge of stakeholders to create formalized and shared representations of reality and has evolved into a field of study as well as a practice. Participatory modeling researchers and practitioners who focus specifically on environmental resources met at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) in Annapolis, Maryland, over the course of 2 years to discuss the state of the field and future directions for participatory modeling. What follows is a description of 12 overarching groups of questions that could guide future inquiry.

3d Hydrodynamic, Temperature, And Water Quality Numerical Model For Surface Waterbodies: Development, Verification, And Field Case Studies, Hussein Ali Mahdi Al-Zubaidi

Dissertations and Theses

Numerical modeling has become a major tool for managing water quality in surface waterbodies such as rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and estuaries. Since the two-dimensional longitudinal/vertical model CE-QUAL-W2 is a well-known model and it has been applied to thousands of waterbodies around the world successfully, its numerical scheme was adapted to develop a new three-dimensional numerical model for simulating hydrodynamics, temperature, and water quality in surface waterbodies. Finite difference approximations were used to solve the fluid dynamic governing equations of continuity, free water surface, momentums, and mass transport. No coordinate transformations were performed and the z-coordinate system has been used. Higher-order …

Experimental And Numerical Investigation On The Bond Strength Of Self-Sensing Composite Joints, Shafique Ahmed, Thomas Schumacher, Jennifer Mcconnell, Erik T. Thostenson

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Laboratory experiments demonstrate that a novel carbon nanotube (CNT)-based sensing layer embedded in the bondline of an adhesively bonded structural joint can detect and monitor deformation and damage progression of the adhesive layer. In this study, experimental and numerical investigations were performed to identify any effect of an embedded CNT-based sensing layer on the bond strength of that joint. To evaluate the mechanical behavior of such a bondline configuration, two sets of single-lap specimens, with and without sensing layer, were prepared and tested to determine the bond strengths of the respective types. Two-dimensional digital image correlation (2D DIC) was utilized …

Human-Centered Design Of An Air Quality Feedback System To Promote Healthy Cooking, Chantal Iribagiza

Dissertations and Theses

Household air pollution (HAP) is responsible for almost 4 million premature deaths every year, a burden that is primarily carried by women and children in developing countries. The mortality and morbidity impact of HAP can be significantly alleviated through clean cookstove interventions. However, for these interventions to be effective, the new intervention stove must be a substantially cleaner technology and adoption should be high and sustained over time.

Woody biomass is the fuel of choice in many developing communities, and contributes substantially to HAP. Several organizations have launched clean cooking interventions to address this issue. However, the majority of those …

Cyclists' Queue Discharge Characteristics At Signalized Intersections, Kirk Thomas Paulsen

Dissertations and Theses

Wider bike facilities intuitively accommodate a greater number of cyclists in the same amount of time, but specific queue discharge characteristics associated with varying widths and/or types of bike facilities have not been thoroughly documented.

The focus of this research analyzed queues of cyclists at four signalized intersections in Portland, OR with varying widths on the approach and downstream intersection legs. A total of 2,820 cyclists within 630 groups of queued cyclists were observed at five different intersection layouts in Portland, Oregon. The layouts consisted of: a standard bike lane six feet wide connecting bicyclists to a standard bike lane …

Assessment Of Seismic Retrofit Prioritization Methodology For Oregon's Highway Bridges Based On The Vulnerability Of Highway Segments, Selamawit Tesfayesus Mehary

Dissertations and Theses

Geologists have indicated that the question is not if a catastrophic earthquake will occur in Oregon but when one will occur. Scientists estimate that there is close to 40 percent conditional probability that a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake of magnitude 8.0 or above will strike Oregon in the next 50 years. In addition, the majority of Oregon's bridge inventory was built prior to the current understanding of bridge response and prior to current understanding of the expected earthquake demands. In order to minimize potential bridge damage in the case of an earthquake, one approach is to retrofit seismically deficient bridges. …

Lateral Deformation Behavior Of Mass Timber Beam To Column Gravity Connection, Tyler James Williams

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

A beam-to-column connection consisting of glulam beam and column and cross laminated timber floor slab was developed and experimentally evaluated for use in buildings that are expected to undergo earthquake-­­induced lateral drift. The connection utilized a passive gap closure mechanism designed to allow beam rotations during lateral drift while minimizing residual separation between the beam and the column following an earthquake. Full scale cyclic experiments were used to validate the connection’s minimal rotational stiffness and demonstrate low damage performance for lateral drifts exceeding 4.5% drift. The connection exhibited no degradation in gravity load capacity throughout the imposed lateral deformations. An …

Methods For Estimating Vehicle Fuel Consumption In Urban Road Networks Using Geographical Attributes, Ryan G. Conrad

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

This paper presents statistical techniques for estimating vehicle fuel consumption in urban road networks based on vehicle and geographical factors. A routing algorithm utilizing mapping data from OpenStreetMap and elevation data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission is presented and used to generate paths that minimize vehicle fuel consumption. The concept of a fuel consumption estimating function is proposed as an extension of the well-known distance-estimating functions that are widely used in logistics planning and research.

Statistical models are developed that estimate fuel consumption in three tested urban areas with vehicle weight, elevation and regional travel speed characteristics being the …