Engineering Commons^™

The Economic Implications Of Evolving Aviation Funding Policy In Tennessee, Hunter Pressley Mccracken

Masters Theses

The majority of state funding for capital improvements at Tennessee’s general aviation and commercial airports comes through grants awarded from the Tennessee Transportation Equity Trust Fund (TETF). Through a 4.5 percent sales and use tax on the consumption of aviation fuel, users help to fund the continued improvement and maintenance of aviation facilities around the state. Aircraft refueling operations associated with the FedEx “SuperHub” in Memphis were responsible for two-thirds of the TETF’s revenue for Fiscal Year 2014. In response to speculation that FedEx would relocate its refueling operations to reduce its fuel tax liability, the Tennessee General Assembly passed …

Non-Residential Pedestrian Access To Transit Systems: A Gis Modeling Application, Luis Miguel Taboada

Masters Theses

The success of a city’s urban transit system relies on the efficacy of its pedestrian infrastructure. A functional and access-oriented pedestrian network translates into safer pedestrian travel, increased demand in transit ridership, increases in commerce patronage, and reduced motorized travel (i.e., less congestion, and less vehicle emissions). Prioritization and allocation of sidewalk construction improvements are not always done in conjunction with transit service provisions. As a result, potential destinations are left inaccessible to pedestrians using the transit system. This study is motivated by concurrent research involving sidewalk improvement prioritization methods, within the scope of home-based work pedestrian transit trips. This …

Evaluation Of A Training Program (Strap) Designed To Decrease Young Drivers Secondary Task Engagement In High Risk Scenarios, Akhilesh Krishnan

Masters Theses

Distracted driving involving secondary tasks is known to lead to an increased likelihood of being involved in motor vehicle crashes. Some secondary tasks are unnecessary and should never be performed. But other secondary tasks, e.g., operating the defroster, are critical to safe driving. Ideally, the driver should schedule when to perform the critical tasks such that the likelihood of a hazard materializing is relatively small during the performance of the secondary task. The current study evaluates a training program -- STRAP (Secondary Task Regulatory & Anticipatory Program) -- which is designed to make drivers aware of latent hazards …

Economic And Environmental Optimization In The Supply Of Switchgrass In Tennessee, Jia Zhong

Masters Theses

The low efficiency of collection, storage and transportation in the switchgrass supply chain has hindered the commercialization of a switchgrass-based biofuel industry, even given its ecological and environmental advantages in carbon sequestrate, soil quality, water use, and pollution pressure. Thus, designing a switchgrass-based supply chain balancing both environmental and economic performance is important to expedite the development of the cellulosic biofuel industry to meet the national energy plan.

The objectives of this study are to 1) determine economic cost and multiple environmental outcomes in feedstock supply chains and 2) identify the relation between the economic and environmental performances. The first …

Determining Rockfall Volumes In Three Sites Along Habs Mountain Road In Southwestern Saudi Arabia, Using Lidar Technology, Abdullah Ayed Al-Otaibi

Masters Theses

"The rugged elevated topography is a characteristic feature of the western and southwestern regions of Saudi Arabia. Few arterial roads connect the scattered villages of these regions to major cities, such as Habs Road in Jazan region. Rock fall poses a serious hazard to people, property and animals along the rock cuts of this road. Although no traditional Rockfall studies have previously been applied to this road, accessibility and rock formation shape and structure variability influenced the choice of using Terrestrial Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) technology to calculate the volume of rockfall at selected sites along this road.

Software …

A New Technique For Modeling The Geomorphology Of A Slow Moving, Soft-Slope Landslide Using Terrestrial Lidar, Nathan Bradley Rohrbaugh

Masters Theses

"Soft slope movement is a big problem whether it involves an engineered slope, one that is near infrastructure, or both. Active landslides that fail slowly sometimes allow ample time to affect remedial works. In order to plan effective remedial works, there needs to be a model of the entire geometry of the slide. This thesis describes a new approach to evaluate the morphology of slope geometry using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data obtained from simple targets strategically positioned on a slide body. The data was gathered in three-month intervals over a period of one year to allow enough time …