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Articles 1 - 21 of 21
Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Characterization Of Fractures Subjected To Normal And Shear Stress, Min-Kwang Choi
Characterization Of Fractures Subjected To Normal And Shear Stress, Min-Kwang Choi
Open Access Dissertations
Results from a series of laboratory experiments to determine fracture specific stiffness, for a fracture subjected to shear and normal stress, are presented and analyzed. The experimental work focuses on the determination of relations between normal and shear fracture specific stiffness and between spatial distribution of fracture specific stiffness and fluid flow through the fracture
The ratio of shear to normal fracture specific stiffness is experimentally investigated on a fracture subjected to shear as well as normal stress. Synthetic fractures made of gypsum and lucite were prepared with different fracture surface conditions: either well-mated or non-mated. For well-mated fracture surfaces, …
Manifold Learning Based Spectral Unmixing Of Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Data, Jun-Hwa Chi
Manifold Learning Based Spectral Unmixing Of Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Data, Jun-Hwa Chi
Open Access Dissertations
Nonlinear mixing effects inherent in hyperspectral data are not properly represented in linear spectral unmixing models. Although direct nonlinear unmixing models provide capability to capture nonlinear phenomena, they are difficult to formulate and the results are not always generalizable. Manifold learning based spectral unmixing accommodates nonlinearity in the data in the feature extraction stage followed by linear mixing, thereby incorporating some characteristics of nonlinearity while retaining advantages of linear unmixing approaches. Since endmember selection is critical to successful spectral unmixing, it is important to select proper endmembers from the manifold space. However, excessive computational burden hinders development of manifolds for …
Adaptive Targeting: Engaging Farmers To Assess Perceptions And Improve Watershed Modeling, Optimization, And Adoption Of Agricultural Conservation Practices, Margaret Mccahon Kalcic
Adaptive Targeting: Engaging Farmers To Assess Perceptions And Improve Watershed Modeling, Optimization, And Adoption Of Agricultural Conservation Practices, Margaret Mccahon Kalcic
Open Access Dissertations
Targeting agricultural conservation practices to farmland that has the greatest impact on surface water quality has received wide support from scientists and watershed managers. The targeting approach has, however, been politically contentious as many believe farmers will oppose the approach on grounds such as privacy invasion and unfair distribution of government incentives. Targeting conservation practices using complex optimization models has become common in the scientific community, and yet targeted results are underutilized in practice because of difficulties such as knowledge transfer and absence of a political framework for their use. For targeting to be successful, it must be politically supported …
Detecting And Quantifying Damage In Buildings Using Earthquake Response Data And Capacity Curves, Jeffrey David Dowgala
Detecting And Quantifying Damage In Buildings Using Earthquake Response Data And Capacity Curves, Jeffrey David Dowgala
Open Access Dissertations
In the process of designing a building for seismic resistance, structural engineers design with the intent of preventing collapse while expecting inelastic behavior to occur in extreme strong ground motion events. Structural engineers rely on idealized mathematical models of the structural systems and nonlinear analysis methods to estimate the capacity of a building to resist the demand of strong earthquake ground motions. Compared to estimates and approximations based on numerical nonlinear analyses, a capacity curve constructed from actual building response data would be a more realistic representation of the behavior for the building. A method is presented on how capacity …
Developing A Framework For Determining The Contribution Of Transportation Project To Sustainable Development, Karim Ahmed Abdel Warith
Developing A Framework For Determining The Contribution Of Transportation Project To Sustainable Development, Karim Ahmed Abdel Warith
Open Access Dissertations
In the past few years, stakeholders in the transportation industry have been concerned with sustainability. However, transportation decision makers have had difficulty incorporating sustainability into transportation infrastructure decisions. This is mainly attributed to the vagueness of the term. Incorporating sustainability into transportation decision making has been a desire put forth by engineers for that past 10 years. However, with no apparent method of defining sustainability, designers and decision makers have not been able to fulfill this desire.
This investigation attempts to define sustainability in a comprehensive and quantitative manner. The research proposes a new methodology that relies on the objective …
Influence Of Strand Debonding On The Shear Strength Of Prestressed Concrete, Michael David Wesson
Influence Of Strand Debonding On The Shear Strength Of Prestressed Concrete, Michael David Wesson
Open Access Dissertations
Strand debonding is a common method used to reduce flexural stresses caused by prestress transfer in the end regions of pretensioned concrete beams. Debonding is especially useful when section geometries prohibit draping such as U-beams. Based on concerns regarding shear strength, the AASHTO bridge design specification currently limits the percentage of strands that can be debonded. These limits have been found in practice to limit both the efficiency and economy of bridge girders. For this reason, a number of states chose to ignore these limits. The objective of this research is to improve the understanding of the influence of debonding …
The Application And Analysis Of Automated Triangulation Of Video Imagery By Successive Relative Orientation, Jae Sung Kim
The Application And Analysis Of Automated Triangulation Of Video Imagery By Successive Relative Orientation, Jae Sung Kim
Open Access Dissertations
The purpose of this thesis is the analysis and evaluation of methods to orient a strip of images using an automated approach. Automatic orientation of strips of video frame imagery would facilitate the construction of three dimensional models with less demand on a human operator for tedious measurement. Often one has no control points, so only relative orientation is possible. The relative orientation process gives camera parameters such as attitudes and selected baseline components and it can be implemented by using either collinearity or coplanarity equations. To automate the point selection, the pass and/or tie points were detected by the …
Cloud To Cloud Registration For 3d Point Data, Darion Shawn Grant
Cloud To Cloud Registration For 3d Point Data, Darion Shawn Grant
Open Access Dissertations
The vast potential of digital representation of objects by large collections of 3D points is being recognized on a global scale and has given rise to the popularity of point cloud data (PCD). 3D imaging sensors provide a means for quickly capturing dense and accurate geospatial information that represent the 3D geometry of objects in a digital environment. Due to spatial and temporal constraints, it is quite common that two or more sets of PCD are obtained to provide full 3D analysis. It is therefore quite essential that all the PCD are referenced to a homogeneous coordinate frame of reference. …
Simulating Land Use Land Cover Change Using Data Mining And Machine Learning Algorithms, Amin Tayyebi
Simulating Land Use Land Cover Change Using Data Mining And Machine Learning Algorithms, Amin Tayyebi
Open Access Dissertations
The objectives of this dissertation are to: (1) review the breadth and depth of land use land cover (LUCC) issues that are being addressed by the land change science community by discussing how an existing model, Purdue's Land Transformation Model (LTM), has been used to better understand these very important issues; (2) summarize the current state-of-the-art in LUCC modeling in an attempt to provide a context for the advances in LUCC modeling presented here; (3) use a variety of statistical, data mining and machine learning algorithms to model single LUCC transitions in diverse regions of the world (e.g. United States …
Laboratory Testing Of Railroad Flatcars For Use As Highway Bridges On Low-Volume Roads To Determine Ultimate Strength And Redundancy, Teresa Lynn Washeleski
Laboratory Testing Of Railroad Flatcars For Use As Highway Bridges On Low-Volume Roads To Determine Ultimate Strength And Redundancy, Teresa Lynn Washeleski
Open Access Theses
Railroad flatcars (RRFCs) are a convenient option to replace existing deteriorating bridge structures on low-volume roads. They are typically used as the bridge superstructure by placing two or more flatcars side-by-side to achieve the desired bridge width. Utilizing RRFCs as a bridge allows for rapid construction and greater cost savings compared to traditional practices. These benefits make them an attractive solution for rural communities in Indiana, as well as other states.
Uncertainty remains about the response under higher loads than could be easily achieved in the field and the level of redundancy of railroad flatcar bridges. Using RRFCs as bridges …
An Evaluation Of Spatial Variability Of Water Stress Index Across The United States: Implications Of Supply And Demand In The East Vs The West, Jennifer Ann Roath
An Evaluation Of Spatial Variability Of Water Stress Index Across The United States: Implications Of Supply And Demand In The East Vs The West, Jennifer Ann Roath
Open Access Theses
In order to support both human and environmental needs, high quality fresh water must be available when and where it is required. As a metric for indicating unsustainable water usage, WSI is only useful when the values reflect accurate interactions between supply and demand; however, the complexity of temporal and spatial variability of available fresh water complicates the analysis of water stress.
The overall goal of this project was to investigate the spatial variability of water stress across the United States and the appropriate spatial scale for management decisions. To accomplish this, a national dataset describing spatial distribution and breakdown …
Modeling The Dynamics Of Household-Level Hurricane Evacuation Timing Decisions, Md. Tawfiq Sarwar
Modeling The Dynamics Of Household-Level Hurricane Evacuation Timing Decisions, Md. Tawfiq Sarwar
Open Access Theses
Frequent occurrences of hurricanes in the coastal areas of the United States in recent times have indicated the necessity of comprehensive evacuation planning. Failure to ensure efficient and timely evacuation causes devastating impacts including loss of lives and property damages. In order to ensure efficient evacuation, emergency officials need to understand how households make evacuation decisions and how their decisions can be influenced. Households' decisions to evacuate/stay, time of departure, route choice and destination choice are four fundamental behavioral issues in the evacuation process. In this thesis, we develop a joint modeling approach for both household-level evacuation decision and departure …
Product Characterization And Headspace Analysis Of Solar Irradiated Aqueous C60 Clusters, Dan Su
Product Characterization And Headspace Analysis Of Solar Irradiated Aqueous C60 Clusters, Dan Su
Open Access Theses
Buckminsterfullerene (C60) is an important fullerene material that has drawn much attention and is currently being applied in many different fields. It was discovered in 1985. As its production has largely increased to meet these industrial needs, it is obvious that its environmental occurrence, especially in aqueous systems, will occur. To further provide information for environmental toxicity studies and for its risk assessment, this thesis focuses on the photo transformation processes of aqueous C60 clusters (Aqu/nC60), with a particular interest in measuring any mineralization that occurs under different irradiation conditions. Two sets of experiments were conducted to test for CO2 …
Review Of Load Rating And Posting Procedures And Requirements, Raymond Neal Chou
Review Of Load Rating And Posting Procedures And Requirements, Raymond Neal Chou
Open Access Theses
All states are required to load rate and post bridges in order to comply with federal standards. Load ratings are performed in order to determine the safe live load capacity of a bridge, considering the existing conditions of the bridge. Based on the load ratings, the bridge is evaluated for load posting or strengthening. The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) was notified that their practice for load rating and posting did not satisfy 23 CFR 650.313, which states that bridges shall be load rated and posted according to an American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) manual. The …
Biomass Production And Hydrological/Water Quality Impacts Of Perennial Crop Production On Marginal Land, Qingyu Feng
Biomass Production And Hydrological/Water Quality Impacts Of Perennial Crop Production On Marginal Land, Qingyu Feng
Open Access Theses
Marginal land has been proposed to be a viable choice for biomass production to meet the biofuel development goal set by Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA). However, very little information is currently available for quantifying biomass production potential and impacts on hydrology and water quality. The objectives of this study were to: (1) quantify availability of marginal land in a typical agricultural watershed; (2) test whether the biomass feedstock produced from marginal land in the study watershed can support a hypothetical small bio-refinery with annual capacity of 50 million gallons of ethanol produced; and (3) evaluate the hydrological/water quality …
A Framework For Coordinating Water Distribution System And Pavement Infrastructure M&R Based On Lcca, Majed Fedhi Alinizzi
A Framework For Coordinating Water Distribution System And Pavement Infrastructure M&R Based On Lcca, Majed Fedhi Alinizzi
Open Access Theses
The disruptions the public faces daily around the world due to urban infrastructure Maintenance and Rehabilitation (M&R) activities are having significant social, economic, and environment impacts on communities. With respect to water distribution systems, there have been millions of water main breaks in the U.S. since January 2000, with an average of nearly 700 water main breaks every day. The majority of these water utilities lie under paved roads, and the Open Cut method is the most widely used technology for repairing water main breakages. Subsequently, this continually increasing pipe breakage requires the destruction of pavements that may be in …
Size And Rate Effects On Mechanical Behavior Of Ultra High Performance Concrete, Boon Him Lim
Size And Rate Effects On Mechanical Behavior Of Ultra High Performance Concrete, Boon Him Lim
Open Access Theses
Cor-Tuf, broadly characterize as a reactive powder concrete is a type of cementitious material. Cementitious materials have been observed to exhibit a strain-rate dependent mechanical behavior. The mechanical behavior of cementitious materials can also depend significantly on specimen sizes. Therefore it is crucial to determine the behavior of Cor-Tuf with different specimen sizes for high-rate applications. For this purpose, split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB), also known as Kolsky bar was utilized to determine the dynamic behavior of Cor-Tuf for different specimen sizes under uniaxial dynamic compression loading at different strain rates. It was observed that as strain rate increases the …
Nutrient Recovery From Anaerobically-Digested Dairy Manure By Struvite Formation And Its Effect On Gas Releases, Zhong Qiao
Open Access Theses
Manure management practices such as anaerobic digestion and lagoon storage have become important issues for large dairy farms partially due to water quality and air quality concerns caused by excess nitrogen and phosphorus. Prior research efforts have proven that struvite formation is an effective method for nutrients recovery from both municipal and agricultural wastewaters. However, little is known about nutrient recovery through struvite formation from anaerobically-digested dairy manure effluents.The effects of struvite precipitation on the releases of gases such as NH3, H2S, and CO2 are also unclear.
In this thesis, both bench-scale tests and pilot-scale storage tests were conducted to …
Photochemical Reactions Of Naproxen, Ibuprofen And Tylosin, Yang He
Photochemical Reactions Of Naproxen, Ibuprofen And Tylosin, Yang He
Open Access Theses
Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) include a wide range of compounds that are used extensively and sometimes daily by people. Some PPCPs have been detected in surface water (streams, rivers, lakes) due to incomplete removal in wastewater treatment plants. The water contaminated by PPCPs is harmful to aquatic organisms and human. Naproxen (NXP), ibuprofen (IBP) and tylosin (TYL) are chosen as representative PPCPs in the current research, because they are consumed in large quantities throughout the world and there is limited data about photodegradation of these compounds in aqueous solution at the wavelength of 254 nm.
The combination of …
Evaluating Different Bridge Management Strategies Using The Bridge Management Research System (Bmrs), Timothy Paul Stroshine
Evaluating Different Bridge Management Strategies Using The Bridge Management Research System (Bmrs), Timothy Paul Stroshine
Open Access Theses
This project investigated the effects of varying two different elements of bridge management strategies. The first element was a trigger value (an NBI condition rating for a bridge component) at which a maintenance treatment can be performed. The second element was the budget.
A new software program, the Bridge Management Research System (BMRS), was created to test these elements of bridge management strategies for Indiana's bridge network. BMRS is a simplified version of a previous bridge management software package developed by Purdue University, the Indiana Bridge Management System (IBMS). To test variations in the trigger values, three different bridge management …
Interactional Analysis Of Emergent Risks In Institutionally Diverse Construction Projects, Nader Naderpajouh
Interactional Analysis Of Emergent Risks In Institutionally Diverse Construction Projects, Nader Naderpajouh
Open Access Dissertations
Naderpajouh, Nader Ph.D., Purdue University, December 2013. Interactional Analysis of Emergent Risks in Institutionally Diverse Construction Projects. Major Professor: Makarand Hastak.
Construction projects, as complex systems of systems (SOS), increasingly involve institutionally diverse actors that escalate complexity of the projects. Examples of these actors include the export credit agencies, international organizations such as the World Bank, non-governmental organizations (NGO), regulatory actors, transnational organizations, as well as public and community groups. The observed surge in complexity of the projects aim to enhance their robustness in: i) sustaining the increasing demand for service of these projects, and ii) sustaining the contextual fluctuation …