Civil Engineering Commons^™

Investigating Fate Of Silver Nanoparticles In Wastewater Biofilms, Connie Marie Walden

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As industrial advances make everyday life easier for human kind, the processes by which we need to maintain sanitary conditions for both water and wastewater treatment will become increasingly complex. Innovations in food packaging and textile design incorporate engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) to increase antimicrobial properties of clothing, maintain product color, and keep food in packaging from spoilage. For most products, ENPs released will enter the sanitary sewer system, and ultimately wastewater treatment plants. Biofilms grow universally on surfaces where a protective layer of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) shields attached cells from stressors. In wastewater treatment, complex biofilms are utilized as …

Development Of Pre-Stressed Retrofit Strategies For Mitigating Fatigue Cracking In Steel Waterway Lock Gate Components, Christine Michelle Lozano

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lock gates are an important part of the transportation infrastructure within the United States (US), having many economic, safety, and environmental benefits over rail and highway transportation systems. Unfortunately, many existing lock gates throughout the US have reached or exceeded their initial design life and require frequent repairs to remain in service. Unscheduled repairs often increase as gates age, having a local economic impact on freight transport which can create economic ripples throughout the nation. Fatigue and corrosion are key causes of unscheduled service interruptions, degrading lock gate components over time. Additionally, because lock gates are submerged during operation, crack …

Evaluating The Chemical And Biological Stability Of Finished Waters Blended For Direct Potable Reuse In A Simulated Distribution System, Assumption Grimaldi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This work evaluated the impacts of blending several different high grade recycled waters with conventional source waters for direct potable reuse (DPR) applications. Bench-scale laboratory tests were conducted for recycled water-source water blends from four participating facilities that have either considered adopting DPR or have already implemented DPR as a feasible approach to overcome water scarcity. The chemical and biological stability of the finished waters was investigated after pipe rig incubation to simulate the quality of blended waters that had aged in a potable water distribution system. The effects of blend ratio, reclaimed water treatment, and source water quality were …

Development Of Artificial Intelligence Approach To Nowcasting And Forecasting Oyster Norovirus Outbreaks Along The U.S. Gulf Coast, Shima Shamkhali Chenar

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Oyster norovirus outbreaks pose increasing risks to human health and seafood industry worldwide. This study presents an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based approach to identifying the primary cause of oyster norovirus outbreaks, nowcasting and forecasting the growing risk of oyster norovirus outbreaks in coastal waters. AI models were developed using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Genetic Programming (GP) methods and time series of epidemiological and environmental data. Input variable selection techniques, including Random Forests (RF) and Forwards Binary Logistic Regression (FBLR), were used to identify the significant model input variables among six independent environmental predictors including water temperature, solar radiation, gage height, …

Modelling Tree Contribution In Susceptibility Analysis Of Shallow Llandslides, Roberto José Marín Sánchez, Juan Pablo Osorio

Articles

In this paper an assessment of shallow landslides susceptibility in a tropical and mountainous terrain is made. A method that allows to model slope stability over large areas is used. Tree contribution is quantified by means of three parameters: rainfall interception, root reinforcement and tree surcharge. A rainfall interception model is used to determine the rain available for infiltration and its temporal distribution during the simulation. The hydrological models included in TRIGRS are described, which allows to determine the pore water pressure depending on the initial conditions. This pore water pressure is used in the revised infinite slope stability model, …

Microbial Dynamics And Design Considerations For Decentralized Microbial Fuel Cell Applications, Cynthia Castro

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to assess the practicality of using microbial fuel cells (MFCs) as alternative sanitation systems for wastewater treatment and energy recovery, focusing on identifying key design considerations for treating high strength wastewater and managing alternative metabolic pathways. We evaluated the energetic outputs of a lab-based pilot MFC designed to treat complex organics present in both synthetic feces and municipal wastewater. The pilot MFC produced two energetic products, methane and electricity, when treating two types of complex wastewaters. The energetic products associated with anode respiration and methanogenesis were simultaneously observed and yielded a combined energy ouput …

Mass-Balance Assimilative Capacity Model Of Inniscarra Reservoir, Zeinab Bedri, Ahmed Nasr, Sean Crowley

Conference papers

Wastewater arising from the Coachford agglomeration is treated at the existing Coachford Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP). This wastewater treatment facility has a primary treatment only with a design capacity of 450 population equivalent (PE) and it discharges the effluent into the Inniscarra Reservoir. The discharge from Coachford WWTP has been identified by the Lower Lee - Owenboy Water Management Unit Action Plan (WMUAP) as a point source pressure on the waters of the Lower Lee - Owenboy catchment and also as a cause of the strongly eutrophic status of Inniscarra Reservoir water quality by the EPA in 2009. Therefore, …

Weighting The Perceived Importance Of Minimising Economic, Social And Environmental/Cultural Risks In Flood Risk Management, Zeinab Bedri, John O'Sullivan, Mark Adamson

Conference papers

In 2006, the Office of Public Works (OPW) began the National Catchment-based Flood Risk Assessment and Management (CFRAM) Programme through a series of pilot studies. A Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) Framework was developed through the CFRAM pilot studies that integrated a range of objectives related to human health and society, the environment and cultural heritage and the economy into the core process of selecting suitable flood risk management measures for a given area or location, and then for prioritising national investments for different schemes and projects. In support of this MCA framework, UCD, was commissioned to undertake a collaborative study with …

Establishing The Key Pillars Of Innovation Required To Execute A Successful Bim Strategy Within A Construction Sme In Ireland, Barry Mcauley, Patrick Carroll

Conference papers

The recent resurgence of the Irish Construction Industry comes at a time of global transition towards an information revolution, with technology now playing a vital role within our post-recessionary society. BIM is now seen as a core technology at the forefront of this transformational change which can present Construction SMEs with opportunities to new financial ventures. If any SME organisation is to be successful with BIM adoption then innovation must be the starting point. The aim of this paper is to establish the enabling factors required for innovating a BIM strategy within a SME Construction Organisation. The methodology involved a …

Datumate, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets

Datumate is digitally transforming civil engineering processes used in construction, surveying and infrastructure inspection markets with fully automated, highly precise, cost effective and safe tools. It utilizes state-of-the-art image processing and advanced drones and camera technologies dramatically reducing the amount of time surveying crews spend in the field, speeding up construction progress checks and shortening infrastructure inspection duration, while maintaining survey grade accuracy. The intuitive, simple and automated solutions increase productivity by saving field and office time in civil engineering and inspection projects of roads, intersections, stockpile volumes, topography, piping, industrial facilities, bridges, property surveys, building facades, railways, cellular infrastructure …

Static And Dynamic Properties Of Controlled Low-Strength Materials Incorporating Treated Oil Sands Waste, Ahmed Mneina

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Controlled Low-Strength Materials (CLSM) is a self-compacted self-leveling cementitious material with compressive strength of 8.3 MPa or less. It is used as an alternative of soil backfill materials in geotechnical and infrastructure applications. This study investigates the effects of incorporating treated oil sand wastes (TOSW) as a partial replacement of sand or fly ash on fresh and hardened properties of CLSM. In addition, the environmental impact of the proposed new mixtures was evaluated. The results show that CLSM mixtures incorporating TOSW had satisfied the limits and requirements of ACI committee 229 for CLSM with no environmental hazards. The incorporation of …

A Decision Making Tool For Incorporating Sustainability Measures In Rigid Pavement Design, Neveen Samy Talaat Soliman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

One of the most important tools in assessing rigid pavement design sustainability (or environmental impact) is a lifecycle assessment (LCA), which may be applied in any stage of a product’s lifecycle from cradle to grave, such as pavements. Although LCA was the focus of much research and codification by organizations such as the International Organization for Standards and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, limitations exist, such as a) LCA is time consuming; and b) the used data may become outdated, inaccurate, biased, incomplete, and/or expensive to use. These limitations are not a deficiency in LCA as a tool, …

Full-Water Column Turbulence Parameterization Of Stratified Waters In Southern Lake Michigan, Kyla A. Prendergast, Cary D. Troy, David Cannon

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Full water column mean flow and turbulence structure was characterized at two stratified locations in Lake Michigan (a. Muskegon, MI; b. Michigan City, IN) in order to better understand the filtration potential of invasive quagga mussels. Invasive quagga mussels in Lake Michigan are filter feeders and can dramatically alter clarity as well as the biological/chemical characteristics of the water column. This filtering capacity is highly contingent on turbulence characteristics throughout the water column, which is poorly understood in the Great Lakes. Using velocity, temperature, and turbulence data collected from these locations, the structure of the water column turbulence was modeled …

Technology To Manufacture Oriented Pvc (Pvc-O) Pipes, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets

The development of Molecor´s technology, which is based on the application of a Molecular Orientation process, has delivered a significant turning point in the pipelines sector. With this technological development, the company has begun to manufacture TOM® PVC-O pipes, the most eco-friendly pipes on the market. The Molecor technology enabled eradicating many of the existing disadvantages of thermoplastic pipes.

This technology delivers a clear objective; to provide the water industry with a solution for pipes carrying pressurized water in an environmentally friendly, yet cost efficient manner. This also extends a service life compared to pipeline materials currently in use.

The …

Electrochemical Removal Of Lead In Water With Multi-Wall Carbon Nanotube Filters, Benjamin M. Stryker, Sol Park, Zhi Zhou

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Heavy metals, such as lead, are highly toxic and typical removal techniques are costly for household applications; causing serious public health risks and economic burdens. Previous studies using electrochemical filtration showed that singe-wall carbon nanotube membranes (SWCNTs) were effective at removing lead, but the use of less expensive multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) has not been fully explored. Therefore, there is a critical need to determine if MWCNTs are cost-effective for the removal of lead in water. The removal efficiency of lead(II) ions in an aqueous solution was evaluated in a flow-through filtration system over 50 minutes at 1.5 mL/min. Calcium …

Simulation And Prediction Of The Groundwater Level In The Surrounding Area Of The Nebraska Management System Evaluation Area Site In Central Nebraska., Cesar Augusto Gomez Peña

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

An efficient water budget is necessary to develop sustainable practices in irrigated lands and determine future trends. Despite a lack of detailed knowledge, climate change is found to profoundly influence groundwater resources through changes in groundwater recharge, groundwater elevation, and groundwater flow processes. Prediction of the groundwater level (GWL) under a changing climate is essential to improve agricultural management.

The goal of this research is to predict the GWL from 2056 to 2060 in the surrounding area of the MSEA. In order to achieve the target, the first research task is to develop a groundwater flow model and then simulate …

Performance Study On Evacuated Tubular Collector Coupled Solar Still In West Texas Climate, Roy Issa, Byungik Chang

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Experimental study was performed on a single basin active solar distillation system augmented with a solar collector using evacuated solar tubes. Field tests were conducted over several days under the climatic conditions of West Texas to evaluate the effect evacuated solar tubes have on the daily distillate yield rate. To investigate the feasibility of the solar tubes, active and passive solar stills with and without exterior insulation were examined. The maximum daily production rate for the active distillation system using evacuated solar tubes and the passive distillation system was 3.6 and 1.4 kg/m²day, respectively. The results showed the …

An Improved Method Of Arsenic (Iii) Removal By Reverse Osmosis Membrane, Yizhi Hou

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Arsenic is a Group 1 carcinogen as there is abundant research to support that ingestion of arsenic in drinking water and food can lead to liver, lung, kidney, or bladder cancer in humans. The recommend World Health Organization (WHO) arsenic standard in drinking water is 10 µg/L, while the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of arsenic in drinking water is 10 µg/L. Globally, at least 40 million people face more than 10 µg/L arsenic contamination in their drinking water. As(III) (trivalent state, such as arsenite), and As(V) (pentavalent state, such as arsenates) are the dominant arsenic forms …

Simulated Dynamics Of Soil Water And Pore Vapor In A Semi-Arid Sandy Ecosystem, Shohreh Pedram

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Understanding dynamics of soil water content (SWC) and pore air relative humidity (RHpa), as influenced by wetting-drying cycles, is crucial for sustaining fragile ecosystems of desert lands across the world and needed for improving the prediction accuracy of global climate change. However, to date, such an understanding is still incomplete. The objective of this dissertation was to examine such dynamics at a typical desert site within the Horqin Sandy Land, located in Mongolian Plateau of north China. The examination was done by using a HYDRUS-1D computer simulation model and the continuous sensor-based soil water data for two calendar years. HYDRUS-1D …

Everglades Drainage District: Biennial Report 1927-1928 To The Board Of Commissioners Of Everglades Drainage District, F C. Elliot

City and Regional Planning -- Florida

Everglades Drainage District report 1927-1928

Large-Scale Flexible Membrane For Automatic Strain Monitoring Of Transportation Infrastructure, Simon Laflamme, Venkata D. Kolipara, Hussam S. Saleem, Randall L. Geiger

Randall Geiger

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of transportation infrastructures is a complex task, typically conducted by visual inspection due to the technical and economical constrains of existing health monitoring technologies. It results that health monitoring is highly dependent on scheduling and on the judgment of the inspectors, which can be costly and ineffective. Thus, it is fundamental to automate the SHM process to allow timely inspection, maintenance, and management of transportation infrastructure. The authors propose a flexible membrane that can be deployed over large surfaces, at low cost, for automatic and continuous monitoring of strains. The membrane, termed sensing skin, is constituted …

Comprehensive Silica Removal With Ferric Compounds For Industrial Wastewater Reuse, Ehren D. Baca

Civil Engineering ETDs

Cooling towers, integrated circuit (IC) manufacture and reverse osmosis (RO) generate copious amounts of wastewater high in colloidal and reactive silica inhibiting on-site or synergistic reuse. Silica present in cooling water can reach solubility limits via evaporation and form impervious scale on heat transfer surfaces that decreases efficiency. When water is treated by RO operating at high rejection, silica forms difficult-to-remove scale on the membrane feed side in the form of glassy patches and communities of aggregate particles, inhibiting aspirations for zero liquid discharge. Current methods for silica scale mitigation include abundant dosing with chemical antiscalents or complex operating schemes. …

Building Information Modelling In Ireland 2017, Barry Mcauley, Alan Hore, Roger West

Reports

BIM is perhaps the most topical issue in construction throughout the world at present, as it is associated with solving so many of the present concerns in our industry.

Our lack of housing, shortage of skilled workers, poor document management, overrunning project budgets and sustainability challenges are just a few of the challenges that BIM promises to assist in solving.

The increasing importance of “digitisation” to modern construction and engineering businesses is becoming more apparent as more and more clients are explicitly asking for BIM in the design and delivery of new facilities and infrastructure.

This report provides a snapshot …

Quantifying The Impact Of Truck Only Lanes On Vehicular Emissions On A Limited-Access Highway, Edward Chee Tang

Master's Theses

This thesis seeks to estimate CO₂ emissions on a portion of the U.S. 101 highway in San Luis Obispo County before and after construction of a truck only lane on the Cuesta Grade. Towards that aim, the microsimulation software, VISSIM, was used in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency’s emissions model, MOVES. The microsimulation model was calibrated and validated against historical and present traffic volumes obtained from Caltrans with good results using several validation measures. It was found that CO₂ emissions did decrease between 1998 and 2012 (pre and post lane addition), but this effect was shown to …

Netpoint®, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets

The vast majority of construction scheduling software uses a combination of spreadsheets and Gantt charts for developing and depicting Critical Path Method (CPM) schedules. While this paradigm works for the expert scheduler, it is not conducive to collaboration, and it is prohibitively difficult for non-scheduling experts to understand.

NetPoint® provides a dynamic, visual interface conducive to touch and gestural input. Activities are drawn directly on a time-scale and may be placed on the same row or arranged automatically using codes or the WBS. Such control of the presentation makes it easier to communicate the plan to any type of audience. …

Fluid Isolator, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets

The reliability of concrete infrastructure is vital to ensuring daily life, as well as commerce, can progress without interruption. From the pavement of interstate highways to the driveways and sidewalks in a local neighborhood, concrete is expensive to install and often even more expensive, and intrusive, when it needs to be replaced. Unfortunately, to maintain functionality in winter climates concrete is heavily exposed to deicing salts. This not only affects the roads, driveways, and sidewalks where salt is applied directly, but many other areas such as parking and residential garages where vehicles (and people) will track salt along with water …

Sustainable Infrastructure Development: A Holistic System Based Decision Making Framework Integrating Vulnerability Indicators And Stakeholders Objectives, Mohamed Saeid Eid

Doctoral Dissertations

Infrastructure systems enable the host communities to expand, develop, and prosper in adequate socioeconomic conditions and healthy environment. Thus, the strategies for sustainable infrastructure development should aim to increase the individual utility of the local stakeholders, while reducing the vulnerability of the built environment to perturbations. Nevertheless, the available frameworks consider the development of the infrastructure systems as isolated projects and do not simultaneously address the needs of the stakeholders or the vulnerability of the built environment. The goal of this research is to provide decision makers and the research community with a novel infrastructure development framework that holistically balances …

Trihalomethane, Dihaloacetonitrile, And Total N-Nitrosamine Precursor Adsorption By Carbon Nanotubes: The Importance Of Surface Oxides And Pore Volume, Erin Needham

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As drinking water sources become increasingly impaired, enhanced removal of natural organic matter (NOM) may be required to curb formation of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) upon chlor(am)ination. While carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can adsorb NOM, their properties for DBP precursor adsorption have not been elucidated. Nine types of CNTs were assessed for trihalomethane (THM), dihaloacetonitrile (DHAN), and total N-nitrosamine (TONO) precursor adsorption. Batch isotherm experiments were completed with lake water and, to simulate an impaired condition, effluent from a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). Adsorption varied with CNT type and dose, with TONO precursors having the highest percent removals from WWTP effluent (up …

Total N-Nitrosamine Precursor Adsorption With Carbon Nanotubes: Elucidating Controlling Physiochemical Properties And Developing A Size-Resolved Precursor Surrogate, Erin Needham

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As drinking water sources become increasingly impaired with nutrients and wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent, formation of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) – such as trihalomethanes (THMs), dihaloacetonitriles (DHANs), and N-nitrosamines – during water treatment may also increase. N-nitrosamines may comprise the bulk of the chronic toxicity in treated drinking waters despite forming at low ng/L levels. This research seeks to elucidate physicochemical properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for removal of DBP precursors, with an emphasis on total N-nitrosamines (TONO).

Batch experiments with CNTs were completed to assess adsorption of THM, DHAN, and TONO precursors; physiochemical properties of CNTs were quantified through …

Gis Internship At Tighe And Bond, Yuanting Qu M.S.

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

I started working as GIS Intern at Tighe and Bond Worcester Office on May 11, 2016. I was given a multitude of civil engineering related projects to edit, verify, do analysis and process data. I was able to apply my computer programming skills to help the GIS team develop a useful script tool set that will improve efficiency work. This internship provided me insight into how GIS operate as a part of engineering project on a day-to-day basis. Working background, my responsibilities and what I have learned from this internship is discussed in this report.