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Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2023

University of Texas at El Paso

Articles 1 - 12 of 12

Full-Text Articles in Civil and Environmental Engineering

Analysis Of Travel Behavior At International Border Crossings: Application Of Travel Surveys, Jennifer Areli Moreno Escamilla Dec 2023

Analysis Of Travel Behavior At International Border Crossings: Application Of Travel Surveys, Jennifer Areli Moreno Escamilla

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Transportation planning provides an insight into the demand and traffic distribution of existingconditions of a region and helps identify future transportation needs. The results generated from forecasting models influence many decisions on the selection of transportation projects and funding allocations. Thus, forecasting models require up-to-date trip information to represent trip patterns and generate representative traffic demand analysis in a such complex areas as binational regions. The purpose of this study is to provide an analysis on travel survey methodology applied to collect trip information at international border crossings. Based on the results of the survey, an analysis on trip pattern …

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Impact Of Clay Contamination On Rutting Performance Of Asphalt Mixes, Sharmila Afsha Aug 2023

Impact Of Clay Contamination On Rutting Performance Of Asphalt Mixes, Sharmila Afsha

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Sustainability of asphalt mixtures can be improved by using natural sands. They can enhance workability and lower the amounts required for asphalt binder and manufactured fine aggregate of mixes. However, one of the primary concerns with incorporating natural sands in a mixture is clay contamination. Harmful clays are chemically active particles that swell when exposed to moisture and reduce the bond between aggregate and asphalt binder. As a result, this study explores the effect of clay contamination on the rutting and moisture susceptibility of asphalt mixes. Twenty-one clay combinations of material passing the 0.075 mm (#200) sieve were selected utilizing …

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Rigid Pavement Analysis System (Rpas): An Enhanced Graphical User Interface, Samina Samrose Aug 2023

Rigid Pavement Analysis System (Rpas): An Enhanced Graphical User Interface, Samina Samrose

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In recent decades there has been a significant interest among researchers in developing pavement analysis tools that will work with high efficiency and provide accurate results within a short timeframe. The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) has developed a finite element-based pavement analysis software named â??Rigid Pavement Analysis Systemâ?? (RPAS) capable of analyzing Jointed PCC pavements of any number of PCC and soil layers. The processing core of this software was developed in MATLAB with a pre- and post-processing user interface developed in C++. The MATLAB code is compiled into an executable and together with the C++ interface …

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Biomass-Mediated Metastable Zinc(Ii) Oxide Nanoparticles And Its Nanocomposites For Sustainable Water Treatment, Kazi Afroza Sultana Aug 2023

Biomass-Mediated Metastable Zinc(Ii) Oxide Nanoparticles And Its Nanocomposites For Sustainable Water Treatment, Kazi Afroza Sultana

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Water is undeniably the most crucial resource that allows all living entities to thrive and survive. Due to a continuously growing population and the expansion of industrial sectors, water pollution has emerged as a global issue. Consequently, people face challenges in obtaining the required quantity and quality of water for their daily activities such as drinking, cooking, hygiene, and agriculture. Hence, there is a compelling need to develop an effective and environmentally friendly approach to eliminate harmful pollutants in water, promoting the establishment of a sustainable society with widespread access to clean and safe water resources. Although there are a …

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Performance Evaluation Of A Coupled Photovoltaic-Thermal Solar Powered Desalination Pilot System, Martin Chavarin Aug 2023

Performance Evaluation Of A Coupled Photovoltaic-Thermal Solar Powered Desalination Pilot System, Martin Chavarin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A pilot scale coupled photovoltaic-thermal solar powered desalination system was evaluated at the Brackish Groundwater National Desalination Research Facility (BGNDRF). The pilot system consisted of a 3-kW photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) solar panel array and a 2.3 kW photovoltaic (PV) array coupled with a 4 gal/min single-stage 4 membrane reverse osmosis (RO) desalination system. A heat exchange system was in place to provide simultaneous cooling for the PVT system and heating to the RO system feed water. This system was evaluated with three objectives in mind. The first objective was to identify whether cooling of the PVT panels resulted in a significant …

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How Active Rainwater Harvesting May Help Reduce Nuisance Flooding: Flood Analysis And Social Barriers To Adoption, Isabel Lopez Aug 2023

How Active Rainwater Harvesting May Help Reduce Nuisance Flooding: Flood Analysis And Social Barriers To Adoption, Isabel Lopez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As urbanization continues to expand, fewer pervious surfaces are available to help reduce stormwater runoff from rainfall. The impacts of urbanization are becoming evident through sunny day flooding - flooding that occurs in areas not designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as flood zones. Nevertheless, water accumulates in low-lying areas and compromises street intersections and other parts of neighborhoods. Some methods can help alleviate the impacts of unexpected heavy rains, such as passive and active rainwater harvesting. As a pilot study, in a selected area in the northeast of El Paso, the level of adoption (e.g., what percentage …

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Using Machine Learning And Distributed Hydrologic Modeling To Predict Soil Texture, Surface Soil Moisture And Evapotranspiration In Jornada Experimental Range, Southwestern U.S., Jorge Andres Mayo Jul 2023

Using Machine Learning And Distributed Hydrologic Modeling To Predict Soil Texture, Surface Soil Moisture And Evapotranspiration In Jornada Experimental Range, Southwestern U.S., Jorge Andres Mayo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In water-limited ecosystems, detailed knowledge of the soil, vegetation, and atmosphere interactions is critical to understand the processes that control the partitioning of energy, water fluxes, and biogeochemical cycles within the critical zone. This Master's thesis is divided into two main contributing sections. The first, is on the use of machine learning to reconstruct missing soil type information, and the second, on the calibration and validation of a physically-based distributed hydrological model to estimate soil moisture and evapotranspiration within the Jornada Experimental Range of the U.S. in southern New Mexico. For the first contribution, three explainable, shallow machine-learning techniques are …

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Optimizing Laboratory Curing Conditions For Hot Mix Asphalt To Simulate Field Behavior, Benjamin Arras May 2023

Optimizing Laboratory Curing Conditions For Hot Mix Asphalt To Simulate Field Behavior, Benjamin Arras

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The engineering properties of asphalt mixtures change with time. Shortly after placement, asphalt concrete (AC) layers are more susceptible to rutting. As the pavement ages, the AC layer becomes stiffer, brittle, and thus more susceptible to cracking. Current protocols provide guidelines for the selection of materials, the determination of the material proportions (e.g., aggregates and binder content), and the evaluation of the engineering properties (e.g., cracking and rutting potentials) of any given asphalt mix design. However, these protocols do not consider the impact of aging on the mixture. This study investigated existing and novel laboratory methods to determine protocols that …

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Thermal Behavior Of Plain And Fiber-Reinforced Rigid Concrete Airfield Runways, Arash Karimi Pour May 2023

Thermal Behavior Of Plain And Fiber-Reinforced Rigid Concrete Airfield Runways, Arash Karimi Pour

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The environmental condition and temperature gradient are important factors resulting in concrete airfield runways cracking during the time. Rigid concrete airfield runways experience different thermal gradients during the day and night due to changes in air temperature. Curling and thermal expansion stresses are the main consequences resulting in various types of cracking over the surface and thickness of concrete airfield runways and increasing maintenance costs. The curvature of concrete slabs increases with an increase in the temperature gradient which is amplified when runways open to traffic. Additionally, the combination of the curling and shrinkage stresses, in rare circumstances, can be …

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Characterization And Modeling Of Unbound And Cementitiously Stabilized Materials For Structural Analysis Of Multilayer Pavement Systems, Edgar Daniel Rodriguez Velasquez May 2023

Characterization And Modeling Of Unbound And Cementitiously Stabilized Materials For Structural Analysis Of Multilayer Pavement Systems, Edgar Daniel Rodriguez Velasquez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The incorporation of cement for soil improvement is a sustainable solution for utilizing marginal materials in the construction of new pavements and the rehabilitation of existing roadway systems. To effectively design and assess the performance of pavement structures, it is crucial to determine the strength and resilient properties of cementitiously stabilized aggregates. Accurate determination of the Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS), tensile strength, and Resilient Modulus (Mr) is of utmost importance for thoroughly characterizing the structural capacity of pavement layers through a mechanistic approach.The tensile strength of stabilized materials can be assessed in a laboratory setting through the implementation of two …

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An Approach For Verification Of Traffic Speed Deflectometer Measurements, Mahsa Beizaei May 2023

An Approach For Verification Of Traffic Speed Deflectometer Measurements, Mahsa Beizaei

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Recent research studies have shown the usefulness and applicability of Traffic Speed Deflectometers (TSD) in support of the network-level pavement management process. There are, however, no accepted procedures for verification and validation of the TSD measurements to be utilized by practitioners. To address this need, TSD measurements may be verified with the data obtained by widely accepted road-testing equipment, Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD). In this study, TSD and FWD operations on pavement sections were simulated employing the finite layer approach which resulted in the development of a comprehensive database of pavement responses. Using the established numerical simulation database, theoretical relationships …

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A Multiple Model Approach To Bridge Deterioration Modeling, Jin A. Collins May 2023

A Multiple Model Approach To Bridge Deterioration Modeling, Jin A. Collins

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Bridge Management Systems (BMSs) have been used to support decision-making in bridgeprojects, including maintenance, rehabilitation, and replacement under financial constraints. These decisions are predicated on the ability to estimate bridgesâ?? future condition states to optimize bridge network systems' performance. Deterioration models are commonly used tools to help transportation agencies make predictions of future condition states of infrastructure facilities, schedule capital investments, and make comparative decisions. Numerous deterioration models have been developed over the last few decades. In particular, Markov chain models utilize bridge data collected from the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) database to make predictions. The accuracy of predictions is …

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