Engineering Commons^™

Comparing 1d, 2d, And 3d Hydraulic Models In Urban Flooding Applications, Taylor Kesler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Floods have been a hazard to people since people first started building near rivers. Predicting floods can be very beneficial to save lives and property. Computers have made it possible to solve fluid dynamics equations in a fast and efficient manner. Computer programs have been designed to solve these equations and create digital models of floods.

This study compares three different methods of computer modeling and explores their advantages and disadvantages. One-dimensional models solve fluid equations by setting up a series of cross sections. Two-dimensional models use a grid-like mesh to solve fluid equations from one cell to the next. …

Advances In Process Understanding And Methods To Support River Temperature Modeling In Large Regulated Systems, Bryce A. Mihalevich

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

River temperatures play a key role in determining the suitability of habitat for aquatic ecosystems. While thermal regimes are influenced by many factors, flow and temperature patterns in large rivers are often shaped by water development. As such, water management associated with large reservoirs and diversions have also altered aquatic ecosystems. As climate change introduces new climate and hydrologic patterns, the decisions water managers make to address changes in runoff may further impact aquatic ecosystems. This calls for robust modeling tools that can predict river and reservoir temperature responses to water management decisions over large regions. However, highly variable topography …

A Review Of Harmful Algal Bloom Prediction Models For Lakes And Reservoirs, Jade Snyder Echard

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Anthropogenic activity has led to eutrophication in water bodies across the world. This eutrophication promotes blooms, cyanobacteria being among the most notorious bloom organisms. Cyanobacterial blooms (more commonly referred to as harmful algal blooms (HABs)) can devastate an ecosystem. Cyanobacteria are resilient microorganisms that have adapted to survive under a variety of conditions, often outcompeting other phytoplankton. Some species of cyanobacteria produce toxins that ward off predators. These toxins can negatively affect the health of the aquatic life, but also can impact animals and humans that drink or come in contact with these noxious waters. Although cyanotoxin’s effects on humans …

Stream Temperature Monitoring And Modeling To Inform Restoration: A Study Of Thermal Variability In The Western Us, Jessica R. Wood

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Water temperature is an important variable for aquatic ecosystems. Salmonid population numbers and distribution are heavily influenced by stream temperature, and there is growing concern about the health of salmonid populations with anticipated climate change. Managers are looking to efficiently evaluate options to maintain stream temperatures needed by salmonids. This study evaluated and compared stream temperature restoration alternatives in two streams with warm temperatures using stream temperature monitoring and modeling.

The first study identified pockets of cold water that are important to native fish species in Nevada’s Walker River. Comparison of monitoring results with existing basin-scale model outputs identified two …

Systems Modeling And Economic Analysis Of Photovoltaic (Pv) Powered Water Pumping Brackish Water Desalination For Agriculture, Michael A. Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The objective of this study was to determine the economic viability of solar powered water pumping and desalination systems for agriculture. Growing global demand for agricultural production has put increased pressure on limited freshwater resources in various locations around the word. Many areas have low quality groundwater resources that have not been utilized for agriculture due to limited availability to electricity, high operational costs of diesel generators and the economics associated with water pumping and processing. Reverse osmosis is a desalination technology that removes salts and other minerals from low-quality water, making it fit for drinking or irrigation. Reduced costs …

Modeling Transportation Planning Applications Via Path Flow Estimator, Seungkyu Ryu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The current practice for modeling in the field of transportation planning is through a four-step travel demand forecasting procedure (i.e., trip generation, trip distribution, mode choice, and traffic assignment); the practice is commonly referred to as the four-step model. Although such a modeling approach has become standard practice, it is deficient in several areas. Specifically, (1) it lacks capability for modeling non-motorized modes such as bicycles, (2) it is inadequate for modeling multiple vehicle types sharing the same roadway space, and (3) it is difficult to apply to small communities with limited resources. This dissertation recognizes these deficiencies and responds …

Microscopic Modeling Of Crowds Involving Individuals With Physical Disability: Exploring Social Force Interaction, Daniel S. Stuart

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Nearly one quarter of a population is affected by a disability which influences crowd evacuation. Emergencies such as stampede or crowd crush can occur during evacuations. While research has investigated crowd evacuation, little has been researched involving individuals with disabilities. There is a need to understand and model individuals with disabilities in their interaction and how it impacts crowd movement. This dissertation creates a video tracking system to study heterogeneous crowds with individuals with disabilities towards conducting crowd experiments. A large-scale crowd experiment is conducted and the results are analyzed through a developed analysis graphical user interface. Preliminary results of …

Using Qual2kw As A Decision Support Tool: Considerations For Data Collection, Calibration, And Numeric Nutrient Criteria, Andrew J. Hobson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Surface water quality in the United States is managed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under direction of the Clean Water Act. Designated uses are required for all state waters. Numeric or narrative water quality standards provide measures to determine if each waterbody meets the intended use. Narrative standards typically include vague terminology that is difficult to interpret and this has led EPA to encourage states to develop numeric criteria for nutrients in all its streams, rivers, and lakes. These numeric nutrient criteria are intended to stave off the harmful effects of over-growth of aquatic plants which can result …

Hydraulic Modeling: Pipe Network Analysis, Trevor T. Datwyler

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Water modeling is becoming an increasingly important part of hydraulic engineering. One application of hydraulic modeling is pipe network analysis. Using programmed algorithms to repeatedly solve continuity and energy equations, computer software can greatly reduce the amount of time required to analyze a closed conduit system. Such hydraulic models can become a valuable tool for cities to maintain their water systems and plan for future growth. The Utah Division of Drinking Water regulations require cities to maintain hydraulic models of their culinary water systems, and before additional connections can be made to the water system, a licensed professional engineer must …

Analysis Of Irrigation Decision Behavior And Forecasting Future Irrigation Decisions, Sanyogita Andriyas

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Farmers play a pivotal role in food production. To be economically successful, farmers must make many decisions during the course of a growing season about the allocation of inputs to production. For farmers in arid regions, one of these decisions on any given day is whether to irrigate. This research is the first of its kind to investigate the probable reasons that lead a farmer to make irrigation decisions and use those reasons/factors to forecast future irrigation decisions. This study can help water managers and canal operators to estimate short-term irrigation demands, thereby gaining information that might be useful to …

Planning And Management Modeling For Treated Wastewater Usage, Leila Ahmadi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Population growth, urbanization and water scarcity in many parts of the world has resulted in transfer of agricultural water to municipal and industrial users on one hand and excessive production of wastewater on the other hand. Due to importance of agriculture in food production and in the economy of many regions around the world,
water resources management and considering new water resources (such as treated wastewater) is critical.This study focused on analyzing the effects of population and
urban growth on water demand for various users and municipal wastewater quantity changes; as well as investigating the feasibility of wastewater reuse projects. …

Turbulence Modeling Of Strongly Heated Internal Pipe Flow Using Large Eddy Simulation, Michal Hradisky

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of three Large Eddy Simulation (LES) subgrid scale (SGS) models on a strongly heated, low Mach number upward gas flow in a vertical pipe with forced convection. The models chosen for this study were the Smagorinsky-Lilly Dynamic model (SLD), the Kinetic Energy Transport model (KET), and the Wall-Adaptive Local-Eddy viscosity model (WALE). The used heating rate was sufficiently large to cause properties to vary significantly in both the radial and streamwise directions. All simulations were carried out using the commercial software FLUENT.

The effect of inlet turbulence generation techniques …

An Exploration Of Formal Methods And Tools Applied To A Small Satellite Software System, Russell J. Grover

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Formal system modeling has been a topic of interest in the research community for many years. Modeling a system helps engineers understand it better and enables them to check different aspects of it to ensure that there is no undesired or unexpected behavior and that it does what it was designed to do. This thesis takes two existing tools that were created to aid in the designing of spacecraft systems and creates a layer to connect them together and allow them to be used jointly. The first tool is a library of formal descriptions used to specify spacecraft behavior in …

Mathematical Modeling Of Light Utilization And The Effects Of Temperature Cycles On Productivity In A Steady-State Algal Photobioreactor, Peter Edwin Zemke

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The work presented here investigated two methods of improving productivity in microalgal photobioreactors: applying temperature cycles intended to maximize photosynthesis and minimize respiration, and development of a mathematical model that predicts improvements in photon utilization using temporal light dilution (flashing).

The experiments conducted on diurnal temperature cycles with Dunaliella tertiolecta in 30-L outdoor photobioreactors showed that a properly chosen temperature cycle can improve mass and energy productivity by 18% over an identical photobioreactor with a constant temperature. However, excessively large temperature cycle amplitudes reduced productivity. A 4-7% increase in energy content was observed in microalgae exposed to temperature cycles. The …

Evaluation Of Two-Dimensional Hydraulic Modeling In A Natural River And Implications In Instream Flow Assessment Methods, Karl L. Tarbet

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Logan River was used as a study site to assess the capabilities of two-dimensional depth-averaged hydraulic modeling in the x-y plane of a natural river for use with instream flow studies. Data were collected to spatially represent the study reach with depth, velocity, northing, easting, elevation, and substrate values using a total station and electronic velocity meter. Computational finite element meshes were generated using four different density levels of geometry data to examine the relationship between field data density and computational mesh on geometry errors. Geometry errors were found to be related to smoothing effects, which removed complex channel …