Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

14-03 Transportation System And Its Association With Human Health - A Review And Modeling Approach, Jun-Seok Oh, Valerian Kwigizile, Ali Hamzah Hussein Alzuhairi, Fnu Zahid

Transportation Research Center Reports

Transportation systems constitute of infrastructure, commute modes, land use and other policies. The purpose of transportation is to provide easy access to goods and services. While attaining this purpose, impacts of transportation on human health and well-being have been ignored to some extent. Recently, studies have begun analyzing the impact of transportation systems on quality of life and health disparities. While many studies have discussed the impact of the transportation system on individual factors from health, a very limited number of studies have focused on the impact of multiple factors associated with multiple morbidity and mortality forms. The focus of …

15-13 Exploring Bicycle Route Choice Behavior With Space Syntax Analysis, Zhaocai Liu, Anthony Chen, Seungkyu Ryu

Transportation Research Center Reports

Cycling provides an environmentally friendly alternative mode of transportation. It improves urban mobility, livability, and public health, and it also helps in reducing traffic congestion and emissions. Cycling is gaining popularity both as a recreational activity and a means of transportation. Therefore, to better serve and promote bicycle transportation, there is an acute need to understand the route choice behavior of cyclists.

This project explored the applicability of using space syntax theory to model cyclists’ route choice behavior. In addition, several bicycle-related attributes were also considered as influential factors affecting cyclists’ route choice. A multiple regression model was built and …

A Validated Tropical-Extratropical Flood Hazard Assessment For New York Harbor, Philip M. Orton, T. M. Hall, Stefan A. Talke, Alan F. Blumberg, Nickitas Georgas, S. Vinogradov

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Recent studies of flood risk at New York Harbor (NYH) have shown disparate results for the 100 year storm tide, providing an uncertain foundation for the flood mitigation response after Hurricane Sandy. Here we present a flood hazard assessment that improves confidence in our understanding of the region's present-day potential for flooding, by separately including the contribution of tropical cyclones (TCs) and extratropical cyclones (ETCs), and validating our modeling study at multiple stages against historical observations. The TC assessment is based on a climatology of 606 synthetic storms developed from a statistical-stochastic model of North Atlantic TCs. The ETC assessment …

Back-Flow Prevention Strategies For Stormwater Lines, Ron Evins

September 29, 2016: Adaptive Structures and Innovative Solutions

No abstract provided.

Landfill Elevated Internal Temperature Detection And Landfill Fire Index Assessment For Fire Monitoring, Aurora Musilli

Theses and Dissertations

Landfill fires are becoming a real threat to both people and environment due to lack of predictions and control methods. Processing of the infrared band from level-1 satellite images was employed and decades worth of archived data from USGS Earth Explorer databases were analyzed to obtain surface temperature values of Atlantic Waste Landfill, Virginia and Bridgeton Landfill, Missouri. Multitemporal thermal maps and frequency of maxima analysis maps of these two landfills showed the hotspots spreading through the waste site. A Landfill Fire Index (LFI) was created by investigating eight factors that give information about the hazardousness of the landfill conditions …

Liquid Phase Nano Metal Catalyzed Dechlorination Of Chlorinated Organic Compounds, Omneya El-Sharnouby

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

1,2-Dichloroethane (1,2-DCA) is among the most prevalent groundwater chlorinated organic compounds (COCs) found at hazardous sites throughout the world. Given its pervasive contamination and adverse health effects, there is considerable interest in developing novel remediation technologies for successfully treating 1,2-DCA along with other COCs from water sources. Chemical reduction by nano zero valent iron (monometallic (nZVI) or bimetallic (Pd-nZVI)) has proven to be a successful field applicable technology, yet it has failed in degrading such a recalcitrant compound as 1,2-DCA.

In this study, the development of a field applicable nano metal based technology capable of degrading 1,2-DCA was carried out. …

Factors Affecting Algal Biomass Growth And Cell Wall Destruction, Alicia E. Simosa

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Research using microalgae Chlorella vulgaris was conducted in order to determine the maximum CO₂ concentration under which algae can grow, within the emission range from oil and natural gas burning plants (0-20%).

After choosing the optimal CO₂ percentage, pH and alkalinity were determined; and finally, an electrochemical (EC) batch reactor connected to DC current was applied to achieve algae cell annihilation, and therefore, facilitate anaerobic digestion, methane production and energy recovery.

It was determined that algae can grow under 20% CO_2, being 15% CO₂ the most effective (pH of 6.64 and alkalinity of 617.5 mg/L CaCO …

Input Parameters In Discrete Element Modeling, Seyedali Yousefi

Civil Engineering ETDs

The discrete element method (DEM) is employed to study complex behaviors of particulate media. Input parameters may greatly affect the response of DEM models and should therefore be selected carefully. Scaling techniques are employed to enlarge prohibitively small time-steps. To study these techniques, dimensionless input parameters were defined. Responses of models in the dimensionless scale were invariant with choice of density, elastic modulus, and characteristic length if the dimensionless parameters were kept constant. Hence, density scaling is equivalent to use of a higher strain-rate, and stiffness scaling results in a higher strain-rate and an elevated stress state in the dimensionless …

Numerical Computation Of Transient Response Of 2d Wedge Impact, Naresh Kumar Koyyapu

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The diverse applications of advanced marine craft ascribed to their high speed and technological advancements has led to the use of stronger and lighter metals in such crafts. High speed, in effect also increases slamming loads as higher speed increases frequency of wave encounter while operating in waves. The present study is limited to wedge impact models. Fundamentally, the study is thus about two-dimensional (2D) wedge impact in water. In an attempt to predict the structural response to impact hydrodynamic force, a beam element based finite element (FE) computer program is written and the results of the code are presented …

An Evaluation Of The Safety Of The Cycling In Dublin City For Dit Students, Niamh O' Reilly

Articles

Cycling as a mode of transport offers many benefits including a cheap, cost effective, healthy, fast, mainly congestion free and environmentally friendly means of getting to and from places of employment and education. Given the central location of Technological University Dublin campus buildings this would seem an ideal option for its third level students, but on the contrary, a DIT online travel survey conducted in March 2014 found that only 7% of students chose cycling as their primary mode of transport. Concerns about cyclist safety were a major factor cited by students who chose alternative modes of transport. Based on …

Stability And Redispersion Of Platinum Nanoparticle Suspensions For Attachment To Dyes In Low-Cost Solar Cells, Jeffrey Rothstein

Honors Scholar Theses

The project involves optimizing the synthesis, washing, and redispersion of platinum nanoparticles. The nanoparticles are to be attached to dye molecules where they will act as nanocatalysts to reduce energy losses in low-cost dye-sensitized solar cells. The goal is to develop a process based on a pure or mixed solvent that will maintain a stable dispersion of the nanoparticles without interfering with their ability to bond with the dye molecules in the solar cell.

Investigation Of Grouted Dowel Connection For Precast Concrete Wall Construction, Douglas J. Provost-Smith

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The grouted dowel connection is a simple and cost-effective connection used in many precast concrete structural systems. The required dowel length is currently designed as a regular bar in reinforced concrete, which underestimates the bond strength, thus resulting in excessive connection lengths. Furthermore, precast wall construction continues throughout cold weather, where in-situ heating of the grout used in the grouted dowel connections is usually conducted for short periods of time. Hence, early-age exposure to subfreezing conditions may affect the quality of the grout and subsequently the bond strength of the connection, which can compromise structural integrity.

In this thesis, full-scale …

Solar Urban Planning: Addressing Barriers And Conflicts Specific To Renewable Energy Policy And The Current Field And Practice Of Urban Planning Within The Context Of A Changing Climate, Toryl P. Hanna

Capstone Collection

The world is in a period of rapid urbanization while experiencing unprecedented rise in global temperature as a result of climate change. Questions have been raised as to how strategies for urbanization will be able to address the fetish for energy, while halting carbon emissions produced by traditional energy sources for urban inhabitants around the world. First, this paper seeks to look to cities, at the intersection of solar energy and the field of urban planning, looking into the opportunities and challenges that are currently surfacing. Conflicts and barriers in traditional urban land use patterns emerge as a topic of …

The Impact Of Project Delivery Methods On Dispute Occurrence In Public Highway Projects, Samaneh Nasrollahi, Ghada M. Gad, Alan Atalah

Master of Technology Management Plan II Graduate Projects

The construction industry is a complex and competitive industry in which different participants with different expertise, talents, and levels of knowledge work together to achieve their objectives and complete a project. Sine different participants with different interest involve in a construction project, therefore, conflicts arise and become inevitable. Conflicts in projects will cause an adversarial environment which result to disputes. Hence, if conflicts are not well managed and resolved in a timely manner, they quickly turn into disputes, which prevent the successful completion of the construction project, in terms of cost and time, and increasing the potential for poor project …

Webinar: State-Wide Pedestrian And Bicycle Miles Traveled: Can We Estimate It?, Krista Nordback

TREC Webinar Series

Heard of Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT)? Wouldn’t it be great to know the corresponding value for walking and cycling?

This webinar discusses options for estimating the miles people walk and bicycle on the state-wide level, by investigating the practical considerations of trying to compute these values for one study state.

What strategies can be used, and what data sources do these require?

How do these strategies compare?

How do PMT/BMT estimates vary based on data?

Find out what researchers found and what obstacles they encountered when they tried to estimate bicycle and pedestrian miles traveled in the State of Washington.

Vicarious Calibration Of Suas Thermal Imagery For Scientific Remote Sensing Applications [B53h-0607], Alfonso F. Torres-Rua

AggieAir Presentations

Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS) have become an accessible technology for collection of spatially distributed temperature data at fine resolution. Nevertheless, lack of standard procedures for atmospheric temperature correction can have an adverse impact on the conclusions and replicability of studies using this technology. This work presents a vicarious calibration methodology for sUAS thermal imagery traceable back to NIST standards. For this methodology, a 3-yr. data collection campaign with a sUAS technology, called “AggieAir”, developed at the Utah Water Research Laboratory, was performed under different daytime conditions. A comparison between original and vicarious calibration for the sUAS thermal imagery is …

Hydraulic And Hydrologic Properties Of The Sabine River, Annie L. Bryant

Civil Engineering Theses

The Sabine River is located in Northeast Texas and is home to many threatened and endangered species as well as a growing human population. It is important to understand channel properties and flow characteristics of rivers in order better manage these important natural resources. The Sabine was monitored for hydraulic and hydrological properties as this is a poorly understood river at this point in time.

Hydraulic modeling was conducted to determine channel velocities and shear stresses during different storm frequencies. It was found that velocity and shear stress had a direct relationship at lower velocities. A comparison of existing Geographic …

Lucidpipe™ Power System, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets

In most gravity fed water transmission pipelines, it is desired to reduce excess pressure head to prevent undue strain on a pipeline and lower the incidence of leaks. Normally this is done with pressure reducing valves that essentially burn off this excess pressure as heat. The LucidPipe™ system converts it to low cost electricity thereby removing unwanted pressure and generating energy at the same time - energy that can be put used behind the grid or put back on the grid. The LucidPipe™ system extracts a small percentage of pressure head providing nearly invisible operation allowing water operators to fulfill …

Combined Analysis Of Tide- And Wave-Induced Water Table Fluctuations For Structural Characterization Of A Coastal Aquifer, Victoria A. Trglavcnik

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Understanding of coastal hydrogeology is essential for the assessment, management, and protection of coastal groundwater resources. Coastal groundwater is often an important source of drinking water for coastal communities but can be contaminated by saltwater or human-derived contaminants. The groundwater table in coastal aquifers fluctuates in response to various oceanic pressure forces acting at the shoreline, including tides, individual waves, and offshore storms. Measurements of water table fluctuations in response to tides and waves can be used to characterize coastal aquifers and provide important insight into the hydraulic properties and structure, including the connectivity between the aquifer and ocean. Most …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2016, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge. The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on …

Invasive Species Impacts On Infrastructure, Invasive Species Advisory Committee

National Invasive Species Council

Executive Summary

Invasive species represent one of the most significant threats to ecosystems, human and animal health, infrastructure, the economy, and cultural resources. Because potentially invasive, non-native species typically enter the United States through ports of entry in urban environments, some of the first observable impacts may be to infrastructure, yet little is known about the economic costs associated with these impacts to the “built” environment. In addition, federal agencies currently lack the authority necessary to effectively prevent, eradicate, and control invasive species that impact the human-built environment. This lack of authority prevents rapid response to some of the most …

I-94 Advanced Bridge Replacement, Saleem Alsharari

Honors Theses

The Michigan Department of Transportation has always felt the need of improving and increasing the capacity of the most critical highway in the state of Michigan, I-94. Part of the improvement plan is to increase the capacity of a 6-mile segment along a corridor of I-94 from French Avenue to Trumbull Avenue which is in a suburban neighborhood of Detroit. There are eight bridges built in the 1950’s that need to be re-constructed for a capacity increase. Vehicular and non-motorized traffic must be accounted for in the design of these bridges. The project is intended to increase the service life …

Total Bridge Replacement Of M-13 Over Cheboyganing Creek, Daniel Burns

Honors Theses

The Michigan Department of Transportation sought a proposal consisting of design and construction engineering services for the total bridge replacement of M-13 over Cheboyganing Creek. The M-13 Bridge Project is located on M-13 over Cheboyganing Creek on the Saginaw River in Portsmouth Township, Bay County, Michigan.

Several components of the existing bridge have been rated in poor or serious condition on the National Bridge Inventory rating scale. A total bridge replacement is required and aligns with MDOT strategies to address critical infrastructure needs in the state as well as the Bay Region's five-year plan for managing bridge and culvert infrastructure. …

Advances Of Cone Penetration Testing In Earthquake Engineering Applications, Robb E.S. Moss, R. Moffat

Civil and Environmental Engineering

The Cone Penetration Test (CPT), because of its precision, accuracy, and utility has been increasingly used in earthquake engineering applications in the last decade. This paper provides a brief survey of recent advances in applying the CPT to; liquefaction triggering, post-liquefaction deformations, cyclic failure of clays, dynamic slope stability, and seismic site response. In granular soils the continuous CPT measurements of tip and sleeve resistance are well correlated with the engineering properties of relative density and friction angle. In clay soils the CPT tip resistance is directly proportional to the undrained shear strength. CPT measurements are ideal for weak or …

On The Implementation Of The Iec 61850 Standard: Will Different Manufacturer Devices Behave Similarly Under Identical Conditions?, Mohamad El Hariri, Tarek A. Youssef, Osama A. Mohammed

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Standardization in smart grid communications is necessary to facilitate complex operations of modern power system functions. However, the strong coupling between the cyber and physical domains of the contemporary grid exposes the system to vulnerabilities and thus places more burden on standards’ developers. As such, standards need to be continuously assessed for reliability and are expected to be implemented properly on field devices. However, the actual implementation of common standards varies between vendors, which may lead to different behaviors of the devices even if present under similar conditions. The work in this paper tested the implementation of the International Electro-technical …

Civil Engineering And Construction News, Georgia Southern University

Civil Engineering & Construction News (2011-2022)

• 2016 Newsletter – Dr. Mike Jackson

Expression And The Functional Study Of Fusion Proteins Α-Amylase And Hemolysin- Αas An Application In Biofilm Polysaccharide Degradation, Gede Yuda Sugiarta, Anggoro Wiseso, Siska Yuliana Sari, Etri Dian Kamila, Vanessa Geraldine, Diana Christina, Muhammad Hanifi, Dwiantari Satyapertiwi, Robby Hertanto, Budiman Bela, Masafumi Yohda, Muhamad Sahlan

Makara Journal of Technology

Biofilm is an aggregate of consortium bacteria that adhere to each other on a surface. It is usually protected by the exopolysaccharide layer. Various invasive medical procedures, such as catheterization, endotracheal tube installation, and contact lens utilization, are vulnerable to biofilm infection. The National Institute of Health (NIH) estimates 65% of all microbial infections are caused by biofilm. Periplasmic α-amylase (MalS) is an enzyme that hydrolyzes α-1, 4- glicosidic bond in glycogen, starch, and others related polysaccharides in periplasmic space. Another protein called hemolysin-α (HlyA) is a secretion signal protein on C terminal of particular peptide in gram negative bacteria. …

Thermoeconomic Optimization Of Cascade Refrigeration System Using Mixed Carbon Dioxide And Hydrocarbons At Low Temperature Circuit, Nasruddin Nasruddin, Arnas Arnas, Ahmad Faqih, Niccolo Giannetti

Makara Journal of Technology

Many applications and industrial processes require very low cooling temperature, such as cold storage in the biomedical field, requiring temperature below -80 °C. However, single-cycle refrigeration systems can only achieve the effective cooling temperature of -40 °C and, also, the performance of the cycle will decrease drastically for cooling temperatures lower than -35°C. Currently, most of cascade refrigeration systems use refrigerants that have ozone depletion potential (ODP) and global warming potential (GWP), therefore, in this study, a cascade system is simulated using a mixture of environmentally friendly refrigerants, namely, carbon dioxide and a hydrocarbon (propane, ethane or ethylene) as the …

Effect Of Milling On The Densification Of Sic-Basedcomposites From Polysilazane, Alfian Noviyanto, Toshiyuki Nishimura

Makara Journal of Technology

High density SiC-based composites from polysilazane were fabricated by high energy milling and hot pressing. After cross-linking at 200 °C, the polysilazane was pyrolysed at 1000 °C in N2 for 2 h to form amorphous Si-C-N-O followed by high energy milling for 1 h. Milled amorphous Si-C-N-O was sintered in hot pressing at 1600 and 1700 °C for 1 h in vacuum under the applied pressure of 50 MPa. Although no sintering additives were used, dense SiC-based composites were obtained with this method. Sintered density was 3.04 g/cm3, while only 2.57 g/cm3 for amorphous Si-C-N-O without milling. It is suggested …

Design Of The Human Assembly Strategy In A Self-Optimizing Assembly Cell: A Case Study Of Indonesians, Novie Susanto, Ratna Purwaningsih, Kharisma Panca Kurniawati

Makara Journal of Technology

This paper presents a continuing study of the human cognitive aspect application in the technical systems. The last studies design a human-centered design based on the German culture. The result shows a significant difference of human performance between Germans and Indonesians. Therefore, this study examines the human cognitive model based on Indonesian culture to investigate whether the different cognitive model based on the culture aspect can improve the human performance. The study was conducted on 60 people classified by age, young (16-34 years old) and old (older than 34 years old). Participants render predictions on an assembly activity for two …