Engineering Commons^™

Field Testing And Simulation Of Vadose-Zone Recharge Wells In The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer As An Artificial Recharge Method, Kyungwon Kwak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increasing concerns regarding depletion of groundwater in the Delta region of Mississippi have led to a need to augment natural recharge. Infiltration basins are often one of the simplest means of artificially recharging aquifers. However the Delta has a layer of clay and silt at the surface so it is a better idea to use vadose-zone recharge wells that are not limited by the surficial layer of fine soils. The purpose of this study is to use full-scale field testing to assess the feasibility of using vadose-zone wells for artificial recharge of the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer by using …

Optimizing The Performance Of Complex Engineering Systems Aided By Artificial Neural Networks, Khalil Qatu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the first problem Polyetherimide graphene nanoplatelets papers (PEIGNP) were tested with different graphene loadings varying from 0-97 weight percent (WT%). The resulting stress-strain curves were utilized to develop two ANN models. Stress-controlled and strain-controlled models. Both models shoan excellent correlation to the experimental. Several Mechanical properties were calculated from the predicted stress-strain curves namely; toughness maximum strength maximum strain and maximum tangent modulus. Both models captured the same overall behavior of the PEIGNP composite. However the strain-controlled model was found to predict lower stress than the stress-controlled model. Finally a Graphical User Interface (GUI) was developed to aid in …

Groundwater Transfer And Injection Pilot Project: Construction Of A Three Dimensional Groundwater Flow Model, Wesley Bluvstein

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer has experienced substantial groundwater declines in eastern Arkansas and northwest Mississippi due largely to irrigation for rice corn soybeans and other water intensive crops. To alleviate groundwater decline and ensure future sustainability of water resources the U.S. Department of Agriculture has in conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Mississippi initiated studies to determine potential avenues of remediation. Options include improved irrigation efficiency installation of surface weirs inter-basin transfers and groundwater transfer and injection. This study develops a three-dimensional groundwater flow model of a withdrawal well adjacent to a river for …

Ductile Corrosion-Free Self-Centering Concrete Elements, Maged Youssef, Mohamed E. Meshaly, Ahmed Elansary

Civil and Environmental Engineering Publications

Corrosion is a major factor in the deterioration of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. To mitigate this problem, steel bars can be replaced with glass-fiber-reinforced-polymer (GFRP) bars. However, the lack of ductility of GFRP-RC elements has prevented their use in many structural applications, especially in seismic areas. Superelastic shape memory alloy (SMA) bars have been proposed to be used in seismic areas because of their self-centering characteristics. Also, they have the added advantage of being corrosion resistant. This paper examines the combined use of SMA and GFRP bars to achieve ductile self-centering and corrosion-free elements. The first challenge for such a …

Osha-30 Interactive Laboratory Course, Matthew Bramlett

Construction Management

This course is aimed to give the students of the Construction Management (CM) department a more in depth knowledge on topics covered in the online OSHA-30 hour safety course. The online focuses on a wider range of topics that are covered in the OSHA-10 hour course that students are required to complete in CM 413: Jobsite Management, such as hazard communication, OSHA inspection procedures, industrial hygiene & bloodborne pathogens, and much more. The course will also include topics outside the scope of the 30-hour class such as: heavy equipment inspections, rigging safety and techniques, challenges of working in the marine …

Flexural Behaviour Of Superelastic Shape Memory Alloy Reinforced Concrete Beams During Loading And Unloading Stages, Yamen Ibrahim Elbahy, Maged Youssef

Civil and Environmental Engineering Publications

Trend of using smart structures, which can adjust when exposed to severe unexpected loading, is increasing. One of the methods to achieve such structures relies on smart materials. For example, replacing conventional steel reinforcing bars in Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures with superelastic Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) bars significantly reduces the residual deformations caused by post-yielding behaviour. This paper provides in-depth understanding of the flexural behaviour of SMA RC beams. A sectional analysis method, which predicts the flexural behaviour of SMA RC beams during both loading and unloading stages, is adopted and validated using available experimental data. An extensive parametric study …

Seismic Performance Of Reinforced Concrete Frames Retrofitted Using External Superelastic Shape Memory Alloy Bars, Yamen Ibrahim Elbahy, Maged A. Youssef, Mohamed E. Meshaly

Civil and Environmental Engineering Publications

Pre-1970s designed and built reinforced concrete frame structures are considered unsafe when subjected to seismic loads. Insufficient anchorage of the beam reinforcement in the beam-column joints of these structures is considered a main deficiency. Newly built frame structures are seismically designed for safety, where high inelastic deformations can occur under moderate to strong earthquakes. Minimizing these inelastic deformations makes the structure repairable. One way to minimize these residual deformations is by using smart materials such as superelastic shape memory alloys (SMAs). In this paper, the seismic performance of RC frames retrofitted using external superelastic SMA bars is investigated and compared …

The Nola Development: Stormwater Management And Green Alternative Designs, Davis P. Odle

Honors Theses

In the design for any development, the management of storm and wastewater is crucial in creating a viable product. The NOLA complex is a development in Oxford, MS that consists of residential as well as commercial units. The stormwater management systems designed for this facility include: an underground storage device, separate ductile iron pipes for the stormwater and wastewater outflows, a rain garden for green alternative storage. The underground storage system is designed for the 500-year storm and to fit under the southwest parking lot on the site. The stormwater outflow pipe will be designed for the 100-year storm, while …

Research On High-Rap Asphalt Mixtures With Rejuvenators - Phase Ii, Hamzeh Haghshenas, Gabriel Nsengiyumva, Yong-Rak Kim, Kommidi Santosh, Soroosh Amelian

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

A previous study by the authors have demonstrated effectiveness of three rejuvenators: R1 (triglyceride/fatty acid: agriculture-tech based), R2 (aromatic extract: petroleum-tech based), and R3 (tall oil: green-tech based) on rejuvenating properties of the aged binder. In that study, it was observed that the rejuvenators made high-RAP mixtures softer and more compliant, which may increase the rutting potential, while they simultaneously improve cracking resistance of the high-RAP materials. Research outcomes and findings from the previous study resulted in consequential research needs for more specific investigation of high-RAP mixtures with rejuvenators in order to achieve realistic implementation into future high-RAP paving projects …

Effect Of Moisture Condition On Concrete Core Strengths, Wally Heyen, Lieska Halsey

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The main purpose of this study was to determine if there would be any major differences between curing methods of cores taken for acceptance testing from a highway slab on a project. The comparison provided data to determine the effect of the moisture gradients created by these different curing treatments on core strength and core permeability. The strengths were measured of moist cured cores and sealed plastic bag cured cores from the day cores were obtained (14, 21 and 26 days) until they reached 28 days. Permeability was also measured at 26, 28 and 32 days. According to ASTM C42, …

Validation Of The Mechanical Rocker Test Method For Ice Melting Capacity (Mrt-Imc), Lieska Halsey, David Hansen

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The anti-icing and deicing industry has interest in the development of an objective, repeatable test procedure for the evaluation and comparison of anti-icing and deicing products. Pursuant to this goal, the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) funded research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) to investigate methods for evaluating deicing products, beginning in 2011[1]. Researchers at UNL developed the procedure for the Mechanical Rocker Test for Ice Melting Capacity (MRT or MRT-IMC) in 2014[2].

From 2017-2019, NDOT evaluated the MRT-IMC procedure for validity and suitability as a standard test procedure for assessing deicer performance. NDOT also explored opportunities to improve …

Investigating The Interaction Of Ndot Hot-Pour Pcc Joint Sealant And Penetrating Concrete Sealers, Bruce Barrett, Dale Byre, Wally Heyen, Lieska Halsey, David Hansen

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Based on the field observations on NE-83, PCS potentially impacts the bond between the concrete and hot-pour sealant after application. If penetrating sealers break the interfacial bond after application, concrete pavements could become compromised and subject to freeze-thaw damage, chloride attack, and other deleterious effects.

The results show that discoloration occurred when applying the five PCS products to the NE-3405 hot-pour sealed testing blocks. All three test methods of application; spraying, 1-min, and 5-min soaks, caused discoloration. The level of discoloration increased with the duration of contact with the PCS. Despite discoloration, none of the five PCS products caused de-bonding …

Ua66/9/1 Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Engineering Administration, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

No abstract provided.

Autonomous Vehicles, Sarah Flis

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Some research objectives to be considered in this paper will include: What are the general advantages and disadvantages of having fully autonomous vehicles? What research has been done on the safety of them and what needs to be done to improve that safety? In order to have the safest and most efficient system for autonomous vehicles, will there be a place for older vehicles that require a human to operate in this new transportation system? Where does Ohio stand in the development of autonomous vehicles and what steps are they taking to prepare for such technology?

Another important research objective …

Analysis Of Standardized Concrete Mixes, Riley Graybeal

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Concrete is one of the most common materials used in construction. It is mass produced throughout the country, with numerous different designs for concrete mixes. A common practice among concrete manufacturers is to use a standardized concrete mix design. These standardized mix designs are pre-tested and are not usually altered frequently. The hypothesis of this research project is that manufacturers do not constantly investigate new ways to save on their mixes, and simply use the same standardized mix designs.

In this research, investigations into what alterations may reduce the cost of standardized mixes began with a baseline mix design provided …

Investigation Of Dredge Material Dewatering Through Hydraulic And Ground Improvement Methods, Monica Moody

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Every year almost 1.5 million tons of material is dredged from Lake Erie to allow passage for boat traffic. In the past, this material has been placed back into the open waters of the lake. However, starting July 2020 this will no long be permitted due to the passing of Senate Bill 1. Therefore, secondary uses of this dredging material are being investigated. To be used, the material needs to be quickly dewatered and stabilized. This project consists of literary reviews of two methods of rapid dewatering, hydraulic placement and ground improvement methods. Hydraulic placement dewatering requires the use of …

Artificial Intelligence In Wet Weather Infrastructure, Matt Hammerstein

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Effective management of runoff from rain and snowmelt is critical as increased water flows can negatively affect efficiency and reliability at treatment facilities, as well as potentially damage property or the natural environment. Implementation of artificial intelligence for real-time decision making and support in wet weather infrastructure is a recent technological development; as such, a problem has emerged: experience and knowledge of best practices for successful implementation is limited. Artificial intelligence is being employed to inform operational decisions that are intended to improve the efficiency and reliability of physical wet weather infrastructure. The goal of municipalities and utilities in utilizing …

Incorporation Of Contaminated Sediment Into Environmentally Safe Concrete, Andrew Needs

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The research performed through this project provided some interesting results on how the different properties of the contaminated sediment can impact the strength of the new concrete.

Average three, seven, and fourteen-day strengths increased when comparing to the baseline mix developed for the experiment. Increases in strengths were notices in the ten and twenty-five percent soil replacement mixes. The largest increase was approximately thirty-three percent greater than the baseline average.

The results from the forty percent replacement test showed a significant decrease in strengths when comparing against the baseline mix. A loss of about thirty percent was observed between the …

Artificial Intelligence Of Stormwater Operations, Eric Bednar

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The current infrastructure in our country will not be able to adequately support the growing demands of an exponentially increasing population. A rise in population contributes to a greater service demand necessary to treat sanitary sewer waste which in many cases contributes to the flow of combined sewers. When it comes to managing these combined sewers, rain and the snowmelt caused from climate changes are major factors that need to be addressed. Some water treatment facilities do not have the ability to treat the capacities or peak flows that a system experiences, resulting in combined sewer overflows which are both …

Artificial Intelligence In Wastewater Treatment Facilities: Implementing Practical New Technologies For The End User, Jordan Spano

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Design phase operator input can prove useful; however, it is not essential in every application, as Akron’s treatment plant implemented AI to increase treatment capacity without design-phase operator input. They implemented a system flight simulator, a few hours training, and have communicated with the designer to make system tweaks as needed. In larger applications, the owner may benefit greatly by incorporating design input from operational staff. Those representing a municipality as a project owner for a treatment plant upgrade should always maintain an active role in the design of smart water infrastructure. They must keep the operators in mind when …

Stabilization Of Dredged Materials In Ohio: An Investigation Of Mechanical, Chemical And Biological Dewatering Techniques, Erika Howard

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Each year, materials are excavated from oceans and lakes in order to keep the waterways open so that ships can safely pass through. These excavated, or dredged, materials are then discarded, usually being returned to the body of water from which they were removed. Beginning in 2020, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) will no longer allow this to occur. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to investigate beneficial uses for dredged materials in Lake Erie, and to address the best management practices for dewatering these materials, as set forth in the Lake Erie Protection and Restoration Plan created …

A Bridge Rehabilitation Strategy Based On The Analysis Of A Dataset Of Bridge Inspections In Co. Cork, Liam Dromey

Masters

Ageing highway structures present a challenge throughout the developed world. The introduction of bridge management systems (BMS) allows bridge owners to assess the condition of their bridge stock and formulate bridge rehabilitation strategies under the constraints of limited budgets and resources. This research presents a decision-support system for bridge owners in the selection of the best strategy for bridge rehabilitation on a highway network. The basis of the research is an available dataset of 1,367 bridge inspection records for County Cork that has been prepared to the Eirspan BMS inspection standard and which includes bridge structure condition ratings and rehabilitation …

Introducing Gaseous Transport Fuel To Ireland: A Strategic Infrastructure Framework, Niamh Power, Daniel Goulding, Dan Fitzpatrick, Rodger O'Connor, James D. Browne

Publications

European Union legislation in the form of the Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC and the Deployment of Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive 2014/94/EC have placed mandatory requirements on Member States to deliver sustainable forms of alternative transport infrastructure in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector. However, there is currently little or no refuelling infrastructure to support the development of an alternative transport fuel market for compressed natural gas and its renewable form biomethane in a number of EU Member States. Primarily focussing on a combination of biomethane and compressed natural gas (bio-CNG), this paper analyses the key considerations …

Evaluation Of Naturally Occurring And Anthropogenic Contamination In Missouri Streams, Christina Jane Sehrt

Masters Theses

"The goal of this study is to observe the values and variability of water quality parameters and benthic macroinvertebrates in watersheds with very little anthropogenic impact and to compare these values with those acquired in watersheds with more anthropogenic impact. The following five HUC 12-digit watersheds had very little anthropogenic impact and were considered "pristine": Rogers Creek, Mill Creek, Middle West Fork-Black River, Bee Fork, and Ottery Creek. Five largely urban sub-basins were also considered; these basins are: Grand Glaize Creek, Glaize Creek, Sugar Creek, Hominy Creek, and Grindstone Creek. For each watershed, both water quality parameters and benthic macroinvertebrates …

Assessing Impact And Blast Resilience Of Polymer Coated Cementitious Materials, Murtaza Nalwala, Gabriel Nsengiyumva, Yong-Rak Kim

UCARE Research Products

RESEARCH MOTIVATION The bridge piers are highly vulnerable to the impact and blast loads. The position in which they are constructed makes it difficult to install protective devices around them. By the current AASHTO standard, it is possible to under-design bridge piers for commercial vehicle impacts and other events such as blast.

OBJECTIVE To improve impact and blast resilience of bridge piers using polymeric coatings.

CONCLUSION Polymer coating of Portland cement concrete can be achieved with a good bonding. ü The polymeric coating seem to improve impact resilience of Portland cement concrete by increasing absorbed impact energy (i.e., area underneath …

A Route Navigation Algorithm For Pedestrian Simulation Based On Grid Potential Field, Minghua Li, Yun Wei, Yan Xu

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Pedestrian simulation modeling has become an important means to study the dynamic characters of dense populations. In the continuous pedestrian simulation model for complex simulation scenario with obstacles, the pedestrian path planning algorithm is an indispensable component, which is used for the calculation of pedestrian macro path and microscopic movement desired direction. However, there is less efficiency and poor robustness in the existing pedestrian path planning algorithm. To address this issue, we propose a new pedestrian path planning algorithm to solve these problems in this article. In our algorithm, we have two steps to determine pedestrian movement path, that is, …

Future Climate And Land Use Change Impacts On River Flows In The Tapajós Basin In The Brazilian Amazon, Fabio Farinosi, Mauricio E. Arias, Eunjee Lee, Marcos Longo, Fabio F. Pereira, Angela Livino, Paul R. Moorcroft, John Briscoe

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Land conversion and changing climate are expected to significantly alter tropical forest hydrology. We used a land surface model integrated with a river routing scheme to analyze the hydrological alterations expected in the Tapajós River basin, a large portion of the Brazilian Amazon, caused by two environmental drivers: climate and land use. The model was forced with two future climate scenarios (years 2026–2045) from the Earth System Model HadGem2-ES with moderate (+4.5 W/m² radiative forcing value in the year 2100 with respect to preindustrial levels) and severe (+8.5 W/m²) representative atmospheric carbon dioxide pathways (Representative Concentration Pathways). …

Timescales Of Global Tidal Flooding, Maria Bower

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Millions of people in low-lying areas are already affected by flooding, and the number will increase substantially in the future. Tidal flooding, the form of flooding caused by a combination of high tides and sea level rise to overcome protection levels, can cause damage and inconveniences such as road closures, overwhelmed drainage systems, and infrastructure deterioration from water damage. Tidal flooding already occurs annually in cities along the U.S. east coast, most notably Miami. However, the time it will take for other regions globally to begin to experience tidal flooding has not yet been assessed. Therefore, there is a limited …

Analysis Of Truck-Related Crashes Of Freeways In China, Ting Xu, Rui-Sen Jiang, Lei Zhao, Long Qi, Yu Zhang

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Truck-related crashes result in tremendous lives and property loss and become a serious safety issue in China. The goal of this article is to identify the influential factors for severity of truck-related crashes using data from Jingjintang freeways in China and to design an ordered probit model to explore their relationship. Records including crashes, traffic flow attributes, and geometric design features ranging from 2009 to 2012 were collected from Jingjintang freeway. Crashes are divided into three severity levels: slight injury, injury, and fatal injury. The injury crashes is ranking the first place occupying 64.37%. Truck-related crashes are likely to occur …

Coupled Thermal-Hydrological-Mechanical-Chemical Processes In Geothermal And Shale Energy Developments, Arash Kamali-Asl

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Coupled Thermal-Hydrological-Mechanical-Chemical (THMC) processes that exist in the development of different geo-resources (e.g. deep geothermal and shale gas) affect the fracture response (i.e. aperture and permeability), which in turn influences the reservoir production. The main goal of this study was to experimentally evaluate the impact of THMC processes on the response of rock specimens relevant for deep geothermal and shale gas formations. The effects of THMC processes were investigated on: (i) success of the hydraulic fracturing/hydro-shearing mechanism during stimulation stage, and (ii) closure of the created network of fractures during production stage.

The elastic, cyclic, creep, and failure characteristics of …