Engineering Commons^™

A One‐Dimensional Model For Turbulent Mixing In The Benthic Biolayer Of Stream And Coastal Sediments, Stanley B. Grant, Jesus D. Gomez‐Velez, Marco Ghisalberti, Ian Guymer, Fulvio Boano, Kevin Roche, Judson Harvey

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, we develop and validate a rigorous modeling framework, based on Duhamel's Theorem, for the unsteady one‐dimensional vertical transport of a solute across a flat sediment‐water interface (SWI) and through the benthic biolayer of a turbulent stream. The modeling framework is novel in capturing the two‐way coupling between evolving solute concentrations above and below the SWI and in allowing for a depth‐varying diffusivity. Three diffusivity profiles within the sediment (constant, exponentially decaying, and a hybrid model) are evaluated against an extensive set of previously published laboratory measurements of turbulent mass transfer across the SWI. The exponential diffusivity profile …

Wildfires Force Thousands To Evacuate Near Los Angeles: Here’S How The 2020 Western Fire Season Got So Extreme, Mojtaba Sadegh, Ata Akbari Asanjan, Mohammad Reza Alizadeh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Two wildfires erupted on the outskirts of cities near Los Angeles, forcing more than 100,000 people to evacuate their homes Monday as powerful Santa Ana winds swept the flames through dry grasses and brush. With strong winds and extremely low humidity, large parts of California were under red flag warnings.

High fire risk days have been common this year as the 2020 wildfire season shatters records across the West.

More than 4 million acres have burned in California – 4% of the state’s land area and more than double the previous annual record. Five of the state’s six largest historical …

The Year The West Was Burning: How The 2020 Wildfire Season Got So Extreme, Mojtaba Sadegh, Ata Akbari Asanjan, Mohammad Reza Alizadeh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

More than 4 million acres of California went up in flames in 2020 – about 4% of the state’s land area and more than double its previous wildfire record. Five of the state’s six largest fires on record were burning this year.

In Colorado, the Pine Gulch fire broke the record for that state’s largest wildfire, only to be surpassed by two larger blazes, the Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires.

Oregon saw one of the most destructive fire seasons in its recorded history, with more than 4,000 homes destroyed.

What caused the 2020 fire season to become so extreme?

Increasing Concurrence Of Wildfire Drivers Tripled Megafire Critical Danger Days In Southern California Between 1982 And 2018, Mohammad Sadegh Khorshidi, Philip E. Dennison, Mohammad Reza Nikoo, Amir Aghakouchak, Charles H. Luce, Mojtaba Sadegh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Wildfire danger is often ascribed to increased temperature, decreased humidity, drier fuels, or higher wind speed. However, the concurrence of drivers—defined as climate, meteorological and biophysical factors that enable fire growth—is rarely tested for commonly used fire danger indices or climate change studies. Treating causal factors as independent additive influences can lead to inaccurate inferences about shifting hazards if the factors interact as a series of switches that collectively modulate fire growth. As evidence, we show that in Southern California very large fires and 'megafires' are more strongly associated with multiple drivers exceeding moderate thresholds concurrently, rather than direct relationships …

Data And Analysis Toolbox For Modeling The Nexus Of Food, Energy, And Water, Mojtaba Sadegh, Arvin Farid

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Energy, water, and food resources are highly interdependent. Agricultural irrigation accounts for 84% of global consumptive freshwater use, the food supply chain demands up to 30% of global primary energy use, and roughly 80% of global electricity generation depends on water for cooling (an average of nearly 100 L of water withdrawn per kWh). Improving understanding of the complex interactions of this resource nexus is, therefore, a top priority for human well-being, sustainable development, and policymaking. Here, we present an interactive analysis toolbox, Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water (NeFEW), that synthesizes available global data to …

A Century Of Observations Reveals Increasing Likelihood Of Continental-Scale Compound Dry-Hot Extremes, Mohammad Reza Alizadeh, Jan Adamowski, Mohammad Reza Nikoo, Amir Aghakouchak, Philip Dennison, Mojtaba Sadegh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using over a century of ground-based observations over the contiguous United States, we show that the frequency of compound dry and hot extremes has increased substantially in the past decades, with an alarming increase in very rare dry-hot extremes. Our results indicate that the area affected by concurrent extremes has also increased significantly. Further, we explore homogeneity (i.e., connectedness) of dry-hot extremes across space. We show that dry-hot extremes have homogeneously enlarged over the past 122 years, pointing to spatial propagation of extreme dryness and heat and increased probability of continental-scale compound extremes. Last, we show an interesting shift between …

Efficacy Of Enzymatically Induced Calcium Carbonate Precipitation In The Retention Of Heavy Metal Ions, Arif Ali Baig Moghal, Mohammed Abdul Lateef, Syed Abu Sayeed Mohammed, Kehinde Lemboye, Bhaskar C. S. Chittoori, Abdullah Almajed

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study evaluated the efficacy of enzyme induced calcite precipitation (EICP) in restricting the mobility of heavy metals in soils. EICP is an environmentally friendly method that has wide ranging applications in the sustainable development of civil infrastructure. The study examined the desorption of three heavy metals from treated and untreated soils using ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid (EDTA) and citric acid (C₆H₈O₇) extractants under harsh conditions. Two natural soils spiked with cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni), and lead (Pb) were studied in this research. The soils were treated with three types of enzyme solutions (ESs) …

Accuracy Comparison Of Aerial Lidar, Mobile-Terrestrial Lidar, And Uav Photogrammetric Capture Data Elevations Over Different Terrain Types, Mandar Khanal, Mahamudul Hasan, Nikolaus Sterbentz, Ryen Johnson, Jesse Weatherly

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Lidar and other remotely sensed data such as UAV photogrammetric data capture are being collected and utilized for roadway design on an increasing basis. These methods are desirable over conventional survey due to their efficiency and cost-effectiveness over large areas. A high degree of relative accuracy is achievable through the establishment of survey control. In this case study, elevations (z-values) derived from mobile-terrestrial lidar, aerial lidar, and UAV photogrammetric capture collected with survey control were statistically compared to conventionally surveyed elevations. A cost comparison of the methods is also included. Each set of z-values corresponds to a discrete horizontal point …

Work In Progress: Development Of A General Education First-Year Design Course, Courtney Hollar, Sondra M. Miller

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

We discuss in this Work in Progress paper the development of a new first-year engineering course at Boise State University. ENGR 180 Communication in Design Thinking, was developed in order to emphasize the importance of communication throughout the design process. Communication with the client at the start of the design process occurs in order to understand the problem to be solved. The team and other stakeholders continuously communicate in order to work toward developing a prototype to solve the problem. The ability to effectively communicate is equally as important to the design of the final product. The development of ENGR …

Changes In The Exposure Of California’S Levee-Protected Critical Infrastructure To Flooding Hazard In A Warming Climate, Iman Mallakpour, Mojtaba Sadegh, Amir Aghakouchak

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Levee systems are an important part of California's water infrastructure, engineered to provide resilience against flooding and reduce flood losses. The growth in California is partly associated with costly infrastructure developments that led to population expansion in the levee protected areas. Therefore, potential changes in the flood hazard could have significant socioeconomic consequences over levee protected areas, especially in the face of a changing climate. In this study, we examine the possible impacts of a warming climate on flood hazard over levee protected land in California. We use gridded maximum daily runoff from global circulation models (GCMs) that represent a …

Evaluating The Applicability Of Biostimulated Calcium Carbonate Precipitation To Stabilize Clayey Soils, Md Touhidul Islam, Bhaskar C.S. Chittoori, Malcolm Burbank

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Clayey soils with medium to high plasticity are prevalent in several parts of the world, causing billions of dollars in damage annually to various civil infrastructures. Several ground-improvement techniques can be employed to counteract this issue. However, these methods are impractical in certain situations and unsustainable in others due to their economic and environmental impacts. Microbial-induced calcite precipitation (MICP) could provide a more sustainable alternative. Researchers have successfully used MICP to alter specific geotechnical properties of sands and silts. This research investigates the applicability of MICP via biostimulation to treat clayey soils with low to high plasticity. The goal is …

Probabilistic Hazard Assessment Of Contaminated Sediment In Rivers, Shahab Aldin Shojaeezadeh, Mohammad Reza Nikoo, Ali Mirchi, Iman Mallakpour, Amir Aghakouchak, Mojtaba Sadegh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

We propose a probabilistic framework rooted in multivariate and copula theory to assess heavy metal hazard associated with contaminated sediment in freshwater rivers that provide crucial ecosystem services such as municipal water source, eco-tourism, and agricultural irrigation. Exploiting the dependence structure between suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and different heavy metals, we estimate the hazard probability associated with each heavy metal at different SSC levels. We derive these relationships for warm (spring-summer) and cold (fall-winter) seasons, as well as stormflow condition, to unpack their nonlinear associations under different environmental conditions. To demonstrate its efficacy, we apply our proposed generic framework to …

A Universal Model Of Unsaturated Hydraulic Conductivity With Complementary Adsorptive And Diffusive Process Components, Arash Modaresi Rad, Bijan Ghahraman, Abolfazl Mosaedi, Mojtaba Sadegh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Accurate estimation of unsaturated hydraulic conductivity (HC) is one of the most challenging problems in soil science. Here, we propose a novel approach to model HC using percolation theory. Transient behavior of water transport phenomena at low moisture contents requires additional physical process representation, beside capillary conductivity, to ensure accurate prediction of unsaturated HC. We augment the capillary model from percolation theory with two additional components, namely, (1) film flow, which is the product of volumetric flow rate per perimeter by specific perimeter of solid particles, and (2) isothermal vapor HC, derived from the Fick's law of vapor diffusion and …

Application Of Bio-Stimulated Calcite Precipitation To Stabilize Expansive Soils: Field Trials, Bhaskar C. S. Chittoori, Anish Pathak, Malcolm Burbank, Md Touhidul Islam

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper presents the results of a field implementation of microbial induced calcite precipitation to stabilize expansive soils in Marsing, Idaho. The field test was done by drilling 2.5” (6.35 cm) diameter holes at a spacing of 16” to 30” (40.6 cm to 76.2 cm) into the ground and, injecting bio-enrichment followed by bio-cementation solutions to stimulate the native bacteria and subsequently achieve calcite precipitation. The pH level of the soil, the calcite content, and free swelling potential were monitored over time by collecting periodic soil samples from the injection points. An increase in pH from 8.3 to 9.7 was …

Bench-Scale Investigation Of Remote Detection Of Clay Pockets In Granular Soils, Nick W. Hudyma, Brian Kopp, Joshua Oglesby, Sukris Vong

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The detection of deleterious materials in compacted soil fills is an important part of earthwork construction. These materials are often identified a priori using laboratory techniques such as the visual assessment of sieve analyses. However, it is possible that deleterious materials, such as clay pockets, can be larger than particles characterized in laboratory tests. Bench scale imaging using simulated unmanned aerial vehicle flights were conducted to determine if clay pockets, 15.24 cm by 15.24 cm by 5 cm thick, could be detected in granular soils. The imaging techniques employed were digital imaging, thermal imaging, and electromagnetic imaging. All imaging techniques …