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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Development Of Daily, Monthly, Inter-Annual, And Mean Annual Hydrological Models Based On A Unified Runoff Generation Framework, Marwan Kheimi
Development Of Daily, Monthly, Inter-Annual, And Mean Annual Hydrological Models Based On A Unified Runoff Generation Framework, Marwan Kheimi
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The main goal of this dissertation develops a unified model structure for runoff generation based on observations from a large number of catchments. Furthermore, obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the physical controlling factors that control daily, monthly, and annual water balance models. Meanwhile, applying the developed Unified model on different climate conditions, and comparing it with different well-known models. The proposed model was compared with a similar timescale model (HyMOD, and abcd) and applied on 92 catchments from MOPEX dataset across the United States. The HyMOD and abcd are a well-known daily and monthly hydrological model used on a variety …
Applications Of Deep Learning Models For Traffic Prediction Problems, Rezaur Rahman
Applications Of Deep Learning Models For Traffic Prediction Problems, Rezaur Rahman
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Deep learning coupled with existing sensors based multiresolution traffic data and future connected technologies has immense potential to improve traffic operation and management. But to deal with complex transportation problems, we need efficient modeling frameworks for deep learning models. In this study, we propose two different modeling frameworks using Deep Long Short-Term Memory Neural Network (LSTM NN) model to predict future traffic state (speed and signal queue length). In our first problem, we present a modeling framework using deep LSTM NN model to predict traffic speeds in freeways during regular traffic condition as well as under extreme traffic demand, such …
Point Cloud Technology For Analysis Of Existing Structures, Jacob Cano
Point Cloud Technology For Analysis Of Existing Structures, Jacob Cano
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
For this thesis, a study was completed on two different structures on the UCF Orlando campus through the use of both structural plans and point cloud technology. The results sought to understand the viability of point cloud technology as an accurate tool for the static and dynamic modal analysis of existing structures. For static analysis, a portion of the framing of Spectrum Stadium was rendered, modeled, analyzed and compared to a previous case study. The results emphasized how different users can render dissimilar member sizes and lengths due to human judgment on point cloud visuals. The study also found that …
Streamflow Prediction In Ungauged Basins Located Within Data-Scarce Regions, Mohammadhossein Alipour
Streamflow Prediction In Ungauged Basins Located Within Data-Scarce Regions, Mohammadhossein Alipour
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Preservation and or restoration of riverine ecosystem requires quantification of alterations inflicted by water resources development projects. Long records of streamflow data are the first piece of information required in order to enable this analysis. Ungauged catchments located within data-scarce regions lack long records of streamflow data. In this dissertation, a multi-objective framework named Streamflow Prediction under Extreme Data-scarcity (SPED) is proposed for streamflow prediction in ungauged catchments located within large-scale regions of minimal hydrometeorologic observation. Multi-objective nature of SPED allows for balancing runoff efficiency with selection of parameter values that resemble catchment physical characteristics. Uncertain and low-resolution information are …
Analysis Of Hydrodynamic And Bathymetric Gradients In Canaveral National Seashore Following Living Shoreline And Oyster Restorations, David Spiering
Analysis Of Hydrodynamic And Bathymetric Gradients In Canaveral National Seashore Following Living Shoreline And Oyster Restorations, David Spiering
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Coastal vulnerability has been gaining recognition as a critical issue, especially with the increasing predictions of sea level rise. Susceptibility to extreme events, eutrophication, and shoreline modification has left many coastal regions in a degraded state. Shoreline protection has traditionally taken the form of seawalls and offshore breakwaters which can be detrimental to both the local ecosystems and adjoining shorelines. The objective of this thesis is to analyze the hydrodynamic and bathymetric variation that occurs within Mosquito Lagoon, Florida following living shoreline and oyster reef restorations. The shoreline sites were sampled using a Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI) design and data were analyzed …
Arterial-Level Real-Time Safety Evaluation In The Context Of Proactive Traffic Management, Jinghui Yuan
Arterial-Level Real-Time Safety Evaluation In The Context Of Proactive Traffic Management, Jinghui Yuan
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In the context of pro-active traffic management, real-time safety evaluation is one of the most important components. Previous studies on real-time safety analysis mainly focused on freeways, seldom on arterials. With the advancement of sensing technologies and smart city initiative, more and more real-time traffic data sources are available on arterials, which enables us to evaluate the real-time crash risk on arterials. However, there exist substantial differences between arterials and freeways in terms of traffic flow characteristics, data availability, and even crash mechanism. Therefore, this study aims to deeply evaluate the real-time crash risk on arterials from multiple aspects by …
Investigation Of The Effect Of Edge-Oxidized Graphene Oxide (Eogo) On The Properties Of Cement Composites, Yousef Alharbi
Investigation Of The Effect Of Edge-Oxidized Graphene Oxide (Eogo) On The Properties Of Cement Composites, Yousef Alharbi
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The use of edge-oxidized graphene oxide (EOGO), produced by a mechanochemical process that allow to deliver a product suitable for large-scale production at affordable cost, as an additive in cement composites was investigated. Comprehensive experimental tests were conducted to investigate the effect of EOGO on the properties of cement composites. The experimental tests were designed for three subtasks: (1) investigation of the performance of EOGO and its mixing method on the strength, pore structure and microstructure of EOGO-cement composites, (2) evaluation of the rheological and fluidity behavior of EOGO-cement paste and mortar, and (3) investigation of the mechanism of the …
Investigation Of Coastal Vegetation Dynamics And Persistence In Response To Hydrologic And Climatic Events Using Remote Sensing, Subrina Tahsin
Investigation Of Coastal Vegetation Dynamics And Persistence In Response To Hydrologic And Climatic Events Using Remote Sensing, Subrina Tahsin
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Coastal Wetlands (CW) provide numerous imperative functions and provide an economic base for human societies. Therefore, it is imperative to track and quantify both short and long-term changes in these systems. In this dissertation, CW dynamics related to hydro-meteorological signals were investigated using a series of LANDSAT-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data and hydro-meteorological time-series data in Apalachicola Bay, Florida, from 1984 to 2015. NDVI in forested wetlands exhibited more persistence compared to that for scrub and emergent wetlands. NDVI fluctuations generally lagged temperature by approximately three months, and water level by approximately two months. This analysis provided insight …
Safety, Operational, And Design Analyses Of Managed Toll And Connected Vehicles' Lanes, Moatz Saad
Safety, Operational, And Design Analyses Of Managed Toll And Connected Vehicles' Lanes, Moatz Saad
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Managed lanes (MLs) have been implemented as a vital strategy for traffic management and traffic safety improvement. The majority of previous studies involving MLs have explored a limited scope of the impact of the MLs segments as a whole, without considering the safety and operational effects of the access design. Also, there are limited studies that investigated the effect of connected vehicles (CVs) on managed lanes. Hence, this study has two main objectives: (1) the first objective is achieved by determining the optimal managed lanes access design, including accessibility level and weaving distance for an at-grade access design. (2) the …
Mechanical Study On Edge-Oxidized Graphene Oxide (Eogo) Reinforced Concrete, Mohammad Khawaji
Mechanical Study On Edge-Oxidized Graphene Oxide (Eogo) Reinforced Concrete, Mohammad Khawaji
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
It is known that graphene oxide (GO) has superior mechanical properties and can enhance mechanical properties of cement composites. However, Hummer produced conventional GOs have been limited to small-scale specimens (e.g., cement paste and mortar) and applications to concrete have not been implemented due to their high cost and large volume of concrete. Edge-oxidized graphene oxide (EOGO) is a low-cost, carbon-based nanomaterial produced by a mechanochemical process with ball milling and a non-toxic oxidizing agent. The low cost (less than $50/kg) of EOGO enables its use in bulk-scale concrete materials/structures, which is a prerequisite for the field implementation. In this …
Developing A Traffic Safety Diagnostics System For Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Usingdeep Learning Algorithms, Ou Zheng
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This thesis presents an automated traffic safety diagnostics solution using deep learning techniques to process traffic videos by Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Mask R-CNN is employed to better detect vehicles in UAV videos after video stabilization. The vehicle trajectories are generated when tracking the detected vehicle by Channel and Spatial Reliability Tracking (CSRT) algorithm. During the detection process, missing vehicles could be tracked by the process of identifying stopped vehicles and comparing Intersect of Union (IOU) between the tracking results and the detection results. In addition, rotated bounding rectangles based on the pixel-to- pixel manner masks that are generated by …
A System Dynamics Approach On Sustainability Assessment Of The United States Urban Commuter Transportation, Tolga Ercan
A System Dynamics Approach On Sustainability Assessment Of The United States Urban Commuter Transportation, Tolga Ercan
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Transportation sector is one of the largest emission sources and is a cause for human health concern due to the high dependency on personal vehicle in the U.S. Transportation mode choice studies are currently limited to micro- and regional-level boundaries, lacking of presenting a complete picture of the issues, and the root causes associated with urban passenger transportation choices in the U.S. Hence, system dynamics modeling approach is utilized to capture complex causal relationships among the critical system parameters affecting alternative transportation mode choices in the U.S. as well as to identify possible policy areas to improve alternative transportation mode …
Ultra-High Performance Concrete For Precast Seismic Bridge Column Connection, Titchenda Chan
Ultra-High Performance Concrete For Precast Seismic Bridge Column Connection, Titchenda Chan
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Accelerated bridge construction (ABC) utilizes prefabricated bridge elements constructed off-site, delivered, and assembled on-site to expedite construction time and reduce traffic disruption. ABC has been increasingly used for super- and sub-structure elements in low seismic regions. However, its application in medium and high seismic regions remain limited, particularly for precast columns where connections typically coincide with plastic hinge (PH) regions. Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC), characterized by high compressive and tensile strength, and superior bond properties, is a potential material that can mitigate PH damage and enhance load transfer. This research proposes a new and simple damage tolerant precast column connection …
Development Of Decision Support System For Active Traffic Management Systems Considering Travel Time Reliability, Whoibin Chung
Development Of Decision Support System For Active Traffic Management Systems Considering Travel Time Reliability, Whoibin Chung
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
As traffic problems on roadways have been increasing, active traffic management systems (ATM) using proactive traffic management concept have been deployed on freeways and arterials. The ATM aims to integrate and automate various traffic control strategies such as variable speed limits, queue warning, and ramp metering through a decision support system (DSS). Over the past decade, there have been many efforts to integrate freeways and arterials for the efficient operation of roadway networks. It has been required that these systems should prove their effectiveness in terms of travel time reliability. Therefore, this study aims to develop a new concept of …
Implications Of Groundwater Plume Transport And Analysis Of Karst Aquifer Characteristics In Central Florida, Daljit Sandhu
Implications Of Groundwater Plume Transport And Analysis Of Karst Aquifer Characteristics In Central Florida, Daljit Sandhu
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Groundwater aquifers make up the primary source of drinking water in Florida. It is imperative to protect and maintain water quality to ensure optimal drinking water conditions. Florida is known for being prone to sinkholes due to karst features. One sinkhole event occurred beneath a phosphogypsum stack, and leaked a large amount of radioactive waste in the Floridan aquifer, raising water quality concerns. To study the behavior of contaminant transport, the radioactive waste plume was modeled by coupling hydraulic and chemistry concepts. Adsorption was studied to see if it can serve as a potential remediation solution to the contaminant waste, …
Improving Traffic Safety At School Zones By Engineering And Operational Countermeasures, Md Hasibur Rahman
Improving Traffic Safety At School Zones By Engineering And Operational Countermeasures, Md Hasibur Rahman
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Safety issues at school zone areas have been one of the most important topics in the traffic safety field. Although many studies have evaluated the effectiveness of various traffic control devices (e.g., sign, flashing beacon, speed monitoring display), there is a lack of studies exploring different roadway countermeasures and the relationship between school-related factors and crashes. In this study, the most crash-prone school zone was identified in Orange and Seminole Counties, Florida, based on crash rate. Afterward, a microsimulation network was built in VISSIM environment to test different roadway countermeasures in the school zones. Three different countermeasures: two-step speed reduction …
Biomass Density Based Adjustment Of Lidar-Derived Digital Elevation Models: A Machine Learning Approach, Khalid Abdelwahab
Biomass Density Based Adjustment Of Lidar-Derived Digital Elevation Models: A Machine Learning Approach, Khalid Abdelwahab
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Salt marshes are valued for providing protective and non-protective ecosystem services. Accurate digital elevation models (DEMs) in salt marshes are crucial for modeling storm surges and determining the initial DEM elevations for modelling marsh evolution. Due to high biomass density, lidar DEMs in coastal wetlands are seldom reliable. In an aim to reduce lidar-derived DEM error, several multilinear regression and random forest models were developed and tested to estimate biomass density in the salt marshes near Saint Marks Lighthouse in Crawfordville, Florida. Between summer of 2017 and spring of 2018, two field trips were conducted to acquire true elevation and …
Assessing The Safety And Operational Benefits Of Connected And Automated Vehicles: Application On Different Roadways, Weather, And Traffic Conditions, Md Sharikur Rahman
Assessing The Safety And Operational Benefits Of Connected And Automated Vehicles: Application On Different Roadways, Weather, And Traffic Conditions, Md Sharikur Rahman
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technologies have recently drawn an increasing attention from governments, vehicle manufacturers, and researchers. Connected vehicle (CV) technologies provide real-time information about the surrounding traffic condition (i.e., position, speed, acceleration) and the traffic management center's decisions. The CV technologies improve the safety by increasing driver situational awareness and reducing crashes through vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I). Vehicle platooning with CV technologies is another key element of the future transportation systems which helps to simultaneously enhance traffic operations and safety. CV technologies can also further increase the efficiency and reliability of automated vehicles (AV) by collecting real-time …
Warrants For Right-Turn Flashing Yellow Arrow Signal Phases, Mohammed Alfawzan
Warrants For Right-Turn Flashing Yellow Arrow Signal Phases, Mohammed Alfawzan
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The right-turn flashing yellow arrow (FYA) signal phasing is a new signal practice in the United States. The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices MUTCD (2009) allocates a signal phasing section for the right-turn FYA, which requires a four-section head FYA signal. It supports multiple phases' indications that guide the motorist through permissive, protected, and/or permissive/protected phases. For this dissertation, I investigated three permissive right-turn FYA signal phases in various traffic conditions and signal timing circumstances. The first permissive right-turn FYA signal phase is the tight-turn on impeding through (RTOIT) taking place during the cross-street through traffic movement. The second …
Basic Turbo Roundabouts As An Alternative To Conventional Double-Lane Roundabouts: Operational Performance Evaluation, Zuhair Elhassy
Basic Turbo Roundabouts As An Alternative To Conventional Double-Lane Roundabouts: Operational Performance Evaluation, Zuhair Elhassy
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Conventional roundabouts have been prevalent worldwide since the emergence of modern roundabouts in 1966. An innovative design of multilane roundabouts known as turbo roundabouts, however, has been recently introduced as an alternative to conventional multilane roundabouts. Due to several reasons, there has been no general consensus on the operational performance of turbo roundabouts throughout the world. Nationwide, turbo roundabouts have yet to be part of roadway systems, but there is an ongoing project expected to be finished in early 2020. Therefore, this dissertation aims to evaluate the operational performance of a widespread variant of turbo roundabouts, namely basic turbo roundabouts, …
Assessing Pedestrian Safety Conditions On Campus, Morgan Morris
Assessing Pedestrian Safety Conditions On Campus, Morgan Morris
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Pedestrian-related crashes are a significant safety issue in the United States and cause considerable amounts of deaths and economic cost. Pedestrian safety is an issue that must be uniquely evaluated in a college campus, where pedestrian volumes are dense. The objective of this research is to identify issues at specific locations around UCF and suggest solutions for improvement. To address this problem, a survey that identifies pedestrian safety issues and locations is distributed to UCF students and staff, and an evaluation of drivers reactions to pedestrian to vehicle (P2V) warning systems is studied through the use of a NADS MiniSim …
Investigation Of Computer Vision Concepts And Methods For Structural Health Monitoring And Identification Applications, Chuanzhi Dong
Investigation Of Computer Vision Concepts And Methods For Structural Health Monitoring And Identification Applications, Chuanzhi Dong
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This study presents a comprehensive investigation of methods and technologies for developing a computer vision-based framework for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and Structural Identification (St-Id) for civil infrastructure systems, with particular emphasis on various types of bridges. SHM is implemented on various structures over the last two decades, yet, there are some issues such as considerable cost, field implementation time and excessive labor needs for the instrumentation of sensors, cable wiring work and possible interruptions during implementation. These issues make it only viable when major investments for SHM are warranted for decision making. For other cases, there needs to be …
Enhanced Concrete Bridge Assessment Using Artificial Intelligence And Mixed Reality, Enes Karaaslan
Enhanced Concrete Bridge Assessment Using Artificial Intelligence And Mixed Reality, Enes Karaaslan
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Conventional methods for visual assessment of civil infrastructures have certain limitations, such as subjectivity of the collected data, long inspection time, and high cost of labor. Although some new technologies (i.e. robotic techniques) that are currently in practice can collect objective, quantified data, the inspector's own expertise is still critical in many instances since these technologies are not designed to work interactively with human inspector. This study aims to create a smart, human-centered method that offers significant contributions to infrastructure inspection, maintenance, management practice, and safety for the bridge owners. By developing a smart Mixed Reality (MR) framework, which can …
Probabilistic Spatio-Magnitude Sinkhole Hazard Analysis For East Central Flrodia, Yong Je Kim
Probabilistic Spatio-Magnitude Sinkhole Hazard Analysis For East Central Flrodia, Yong Je Kim
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In Karst areas, sinkholes are a major geohazard that creates damage and economic loss to building and civil infrastructure. The main goal of the proposed study is to develop a probabilistic spatio-magnitude sinkhole susceptibility model that predicts the potential of sinkhole occurrence on a regional scale. The dissertation presents statistical techniques such as frequency ratio (FR) and logistic regression (LR), and a machine learning technique such as artificial neural network (ANN) to develop the sinkhole hazard models. The study area was limited to the East Central Floria (ECF) region. Seven hydrogeological factors were identified as key contributing factors to sinkhole …