Engineering Commons^™

Implementation Of Fluid Viscous Damper For 2023 Eeri Seismic Design Competition, Dalton J. Muck, Payton S. Mcgee, Payton R. Filippin, Tynan Castro

Architectural Engineering

The authors of this report were a part of the 2023 Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) student chapter for California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). With thirteen other team members, they traveled to San Francisco, CA to compete in the Seismic Design Competition (SDC) hosted by EERI. The team was tasked with preparing a written proposal, design and computer analysis of the structural system, construction of two physical models, as well as creation of a poster and a presentation for a proposed mid-rise building located in the competition host city. The goal of the design of Cal …

Effect Of Transverse Post-Tensioning On Moment Distribution Between Channel Girders, William Eubanks

All Theses

This thesis investigates the strength of prestressed concrete channel girders used

in bridges in South Carolina and how to improve their load distribution. The specimens

are 30 feet in length, 33 inches wide and 17 inches deep. South Carolina has 377 bridges

containing prestressed concrete channel girders and many of these bridges received a

poor load rating in a recent load rating project conducted by the South Carolina

Department of Transportation (SCDOT). The research included flexural testing of seven

individual channel girders and load distribution tests of three transversely post-tensioned

channel girders. Individual flexural testing was done to determine the …

Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Project, Courtney Huitt, Cormack Williams

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Offshore wind is a developing industry in the Central Coast with the advent of the future offshore wind project planned off the north coast of San Luis Obispo County. This senior design project aligns with the recently leased wind energy project as a detailed study on the structural design, geotechnical design, and construction of a single 14 MW floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) located 40 km NW of Morro Bay (NOAA buoy 46028). A preliminary design of a spar FOWT is presented in this project as a solution to the rapidly increasing water depth off the coast of Morro Bay, …

Highway 17 Wildlife Crossing, Taryn Chisholm, Seema Singh, Justin Uyeno

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

Highway 17 is an essential corridor for people to commute between the Bay Area and the Santa Cruz regions, but this highway also creates a barrier between wildlife territories, fragmenting their habitats and stranding animal populations on either side. The lack of crossing infrastructure along Highway 17 forces wildlife to attempt to cross the highway into oncoming traffic, causing wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) which endangers the lives of motorists and animals alike. In order to address this problem, the team designed a precast, concrete culvert crossing underneath Highway 17 to provide a safer passageway to increase habitat connectivity as well as …

Emergency Relief Structure For Natural Disaster Evacuees And The Homeless Population, Madeline Yee, Margaret Tolan, Rodrigo Mendez

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

In California, many communities lack the resources to provide support for natural disaster evacuees and those devastated by economic loss (our growing homeless community). An improved interim housing solution needs to be developed - a solution that provides comfort, privacy, and community - in the hopes of maintaining the dignity of those experiencing these hardships. In order to address this problem, the team designed a modular, panelized structure to provide shelter to those who are subject to emergency situations. A structural design and analysis was completed for both a cold-formed steel and a timber structure. A parcel of land in …

A Comparison Of Common Structural Materials, Molly Green

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This report will compare structural steel, concrete, and lumber through the lenses of mechanical properties, design process, cost, and environmental impact. Steel is a versatile, strong, and lightweight material that comes at a premium price – both financially and environmentally. It is the most expensive material of the three included in this report. This is largely due to its complex manufacturing process that is also responsible for a significant amount of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. Concrete is significantly less expensive than steel, but the carbon dioxide emissions from manufacturing are approximately equal. Concrete also only performs well in compression …

Comparative Analysis Of Bridge Abutment Types, David Fell

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project was developed to serve as a brief overview of design practices and considerations in the selection of highway bridge abutment types. This involved a review of literature in the form of reviewing national design guides and department of transportation (DOT) requirements from both US DOTs and international DOTs. The abutment types covered in this research included conventional reinforced concrete abutments with bearings, integral abutments, and semi-integral abutments. This research focused solely on highway bridge abutments, particularly on Ohio Department of Transportation design requirements due to their extensive use of semi-integral abutments. Superstructure elements and geometric requirements are primary …

Repairable Precast Bridge Bents For Seismic Events, Kallan Hart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Concrete bridge columns are designed to withstand earthquakes by undergoing large displacements. Current seismic bridge codes guarantee collapse prevention, but damage to concrete and longitudinal reinforcement often requires demolition of the structure. Repairable detailing and advanced bridge construction connections may be utilized in concrete bridge columns to allow for quick construction as well as replacement of damaged reinforcement after an earthquake. This detailing may be an attractive alternative to bridge owners to reduce construction and replacement costs as well as ensure the functionality of critical routes after an earthquake. Three repairable precast bridge columns with exposed longitudinal reinforcement were tested …

Analysis Of Phasing Seismic Retrofits: A Case Study, Sydney I. Lee

Construction Management

Building performance and safety have always been a high concern in seismic areas, especially as certain building configurations and designs have proven inadequate and dangerous in large earthquakes. Building failures due to earthquake forces are combated by local seismic ordinances, which describe the types of buildings at risk and mandate when they are required to be seismically retrofitted. This paper investigates the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry and the necessity of seismically retrofitting buildings, particularly soft story wood frame, non-ductile concrete, and welded steel moment frame structures. This case study focuses on the voluntary seismic retrofit of a high-rise …

Rehabilitation Of Timber Piles Using Fiber Reinforced Polymers Analyzed With Acoustic Emission, Rebekah Marie Krol

Theses and Dissertations

Assessing the current state of infrastructure and implementing strengthening or rehabilitation methods on old or damaged members is important to ensure safety and longevity of structures. Non-destructive testing is an important tool for localizing and characterizing damage in structures, especially structures that are more susceptible to damage because of age or environment. In addition to locating inadequate members, it is essential to have a repair technique in place so that the structure can continue to be used in a safe manner.

This study aims to review the use of acoustic emission for evaluating damage obtained in timber piles subjected to …

Novel New Modeling Procedure For Industrial Machinery With Nonlinear Connections, Steven Whitican

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Given current timelines for rolling out production at volume, the ability to model portions of the production process is of paramount importance. To model production, high-fidelity models of production assets must be obtained. The production assets are comprised of linear and nonlinear structures. The linear structures are well understood and defined. Significant work has, and is, being done to understand the nonlinear components. This work focuses on developing and correlating a model of a nonlinear component. The component studied and modeled is a linear guide. Linear guides are bearings which facilitate translational motion of machine axes. An accurate model of …

A Comparative Study On Seismic Analysis Methods And The Response Of Systems With Classical And Nonclassical Damping, Noah G. Bleichner

Master's Theses

This thesis investigated the application of seismic analysis methods and the response of idealized shear frames subjected to seismic loading. To complete this research, a Design Basis Earthquake (DBE) for a project site in San Luis Obispo, CA, and five past earthquake records were considered. The DBE was produced per the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures (ASCE 7-10) and used for application of the Equivalent Lateral Force Procedure (ELFP) and Response Spectrum Analysis (RSA). When applying RSA, the modal peak responses were combined using the Absolute Sum (ABS), Square-Root-of-the-Sum-of-Squares (SRSS), and Complete …

Hester Gardens - A Lifemoves Temporary Interim-Housing Facility, Jeffrey Meier, Megan Sauter, Jenna Tran, Taylor Klauser

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

LifeMoves, an organization that provides interim housing and supportive services to families and individuals experiencing homelessness, recently purchased 0.35 acres of land, located at 1759 Hester Avenue, San Jose, CA 95128. LifeMoves has challenged the design team to provide preliminary building layouts, a structural alternative analysis, construction management plans, and general civil plans for a multi-story, family-friendly, interim housing facility, which has been named Hester Gardens. The design team considered both steel, a traditional building material, and shipping containers, a sustainable alternative building material, for this project. Each alternative included a structural design and analysis, as well as a cost …

Structural Design Of Complex Components, Armando Antonio Ochoa

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and the Center for Space Exploration and Technology Research (cSETR) is determined to develop a launch vehicle that is made completely of additive manufacturing materials, has the capability to transport a 100 lb payload to low earth orbit (LEO) as well as completing the design of a strucutral steel mobile launch stand that has the capability of withstanding the launch vehicle's static and dynamic loadings. The project will consist of carbon composite components to reduce weight while maintaining efficiency, strucutral steel components to resist extreme loadings and maintain strucutral shape, and lastly …

Effect Of Continuity Plate Eccentricity On The Performance Of Welded Beam-To-Column Connections, Jason Thomas Norwood

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Beam-to-column connections in structural steel buildings may have varying degrees of rotational restraint and varying degrees of moment transfer. In fully restrained moment connections, shear is typically transferred through the beam web, while the moment is mostly transferred through the beam flanges which create tension/compression force couples. Column sections that are incapable of resisting these flange forces are often retrofitted with continuity plates within the connection region to improve capacity. In cases of unequal beam depths on either side of the column, an eccentricity between the framed-in beam flange and continuity plate may be required; however, limited research exists to …

Risk Assessment Of Concrete Gravity Dams Under Earthquake Loads, Ufuk Sen

LSU Master's Theses

Dams are important structures to supply water for irrigation or drinking, to control flood, and to generate electricity. In seismic regions, the structural safety of concrete gravity dams is important due to the high potential of life and economic loss if they fail. Therefore, the seismic analysis of existing dams in seismically active regions is very crucial to predict responses of dams to ground motions. In this thesis, earthquake response of concrete gravity dams is investigated using the finite element (FE) method. The selected dam is the Pine Flat Dam which is located in the Central Valley of Fresno County, …

High Performance Computing Applied To Structural Analysis Of Concrete Structures, Jose A. Mena Ortiz

Civil Engineering ETDs

Continuum mechanics models are the main tool in structural analysis. Due to

their continuity assumption, some of them do not predict accurately the behavior of

concrete structures. While these models are widely used by design engineers, many

are flawed for fundamental reasons.

The State-Based Peridynamic Lattice Model (SPLM) is presented in this thesis

as a viable alternative to continuum models. The SPLM is shown to have a simple

formulation that allows the engineer to fully understand the underlying theory. The

elastic, plastic and damage SPLM models are presented. Moreover, SPLM is shown

to be capable of modelling essential mechanisms in …

Dynamic Moving Load Identification Using Optimal Sensor Placement And Model Reduction, Paul Augustine

Theses and Dissertations

A structure in service can be subjected to static, dynamic or moving loads. Several situations in practice involve estimation of moving loads which induce vibrations in the structure on which they are applied. An accurate estimation of these loads will ensure product quality and reliability of the final design, and mitigate the cost of structural health monitoring systems. The moving nature of dynamic loads increases the computational difficulty of the problem. One of the types of Inverse Problems involves estimation of the applied load from measured structural response such as strain or accelerations.

Measuring response at a limited number of …

Reliability And Sensitivity Analysis For Micro-Meteoroids And Orbital Debris Protection Models Using First-Order Reliability Methods (Form)., Levi Pereda

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Abstract This Thesis provides a probabilistic assessment of the micro-meteoroids and orbital debris (MMOD) impact protection structures. The assessment is based on first-order reliability methods that use Ballistic Limit equations traditionally used by NASA for the design of shields. The research demonstrates how the structural reliability methods can be implemented into the aeronautics and astronautics field. NASA is continuously developing new techniques that allow the consideration of the uncertainty that exists in the design of their space structures. Nevertheless, some of their design approaches are still deterministic. For example MMOD ballistic limit equations used for the design of the MMOD …

Preliminary Evaluation Of Kenaf As A Structural Material, Andrew Sheldon

All Theses

Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) is an annual fiber plant that is kin to cotton and okra and native to east-central Africa, though it is currently grown in numerous locations around the globe. The plant's apparent high strength and light weight along with its environmental and sustainability advantages makes it a good candidate for use in structural materials. The goal of this study was to design a kenaf product that resembled parallel strand lumber and required minimal processing of the kenaf. The mechanical properties of the two main components of kenaf, the bast fibers and the core, were evaluated using experimental …

High Throughput Multi-Solution Genetic Algorithm (Htmga) For Identification Of Alternate Solutions In A Structural Model Updating Context, Muslum Kilinc

Theses and Dissertations

Model updating techniques seek to improve numerical models of existing structure by integrating experimental data from the structure. Many techniques use an error function that describes the differences between the numerical model and the experimental data. For example, if dynamic data is available, the error between experimental and numerical modal parameters can be used. Optimization techniques are used to identify the structural parameters that minimize this function. Most model updating techniques are interested in finding the global minima of the error function. However, one could argue that due to a number of factors, such as modeling errors and low sensor …

Load Carrying Capacity Assessment Of A Masonry Dome, Tun Li

All Theses

This thesis first establishes a semi-empirical relationship to estimate the reduction in load carrying capacity of a masonry dome due to damage by exploiting deviations in the fundamental natural frequency. A macro finite element model of the dome is developed and calibrated using both non-destructive vibration measurements and destructive load-displacement measurements up to failure. The macro-model is then executed to simulate incremental development of cracks. The first natural frequency and remaining load carrying capacity of the dome are monitored to define a semi-empirical relationship, which is ultimately generalized for spherical domes with varying span-to-height ratios.
Subsequently, in order to numerically …

Bridge Design For Earthquake Fault Crossings – Synthesis Of Design Issues And Strategies, Osmar Rodriguez

Master's Theses

This research evaluates the seismic demands for a three-span curved bridge crossing fault-rupture zones. Two approximate procedures which have been proved adequate for ordinary straight bridges crossing fault-rupture zones, i.e., the fault-rupture response spectrum analysis (FR-RSA) procedure and the fault-rupture linear static analysis (FR-LSA) procedure, were considered in this investigation. These two procedures estimate the seismic demands by superposing the peak values of quasi-static and dynamic bridge responses. The peak quasi-static response in both methods is computed by nonlinear static analysis of the bridge under the ground displacement offset associated with fault-rupture. In FR-RSA and FR-LSA, the peak dynamic responses …

A Proposed Data Qualification Procedure For The Connecticut Bridge Monitoring Network, Stephen R. Prusaczyk

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Increasing The Structural Engineer’S Influence Over Sustainability By Using Integrated Design Teams, Mary Elizabeth French

Masters Theses

Sustainability is quickly becoming a “buzz word” in today’s environmentally conscious world from political leaders to building professionals to design experts to consumers as they rethink their impact on current healthy, efficient indoor/outdoor environments as well as long term benefits to future generations.

This paper seeks to investigate ways to increase the structural engineer’s influence over the sustainability of the building industry by using integrated design teams. It explores current practices within the building industry, in particular the housing industry and the ways in which the integrated design team differs from most current practices. It strives to promote the positive …