Civil Engineering Commons^™

Development Of High Early-Strength Concrete For Accelerated Bridge Construction Closure Pour Connections, Stephanie Castine

Masters Theses

Accelerated bridge construction (ABC) has become a popular alternative to using traditional construction techniques in new bridge construction and existing bridge deck replacement because of the reduction of time spent in field activities. A key feature of bridges built using ABC techniques is the extensive use of prefabricated components. Prefabricated components are joined in the field using small volume closure pours involving high performance materials (steel and concrete) to ensure adequate transfer of forces between components. To date, the materials developed for closure pours have been based on proprietary components, so a need has arisen for development of mixes that …

Evaluation Of New England Bridges For Bat Roosting Including Methodology And Case Studies, Angela Berthaume

Masters Theses

Bats are known and documented to use bridge structures as roosts in various locations throughout the United States and abroad, but there is limited knowledge of how bats use bridges in New England. Significant population declines due to White-Nose Syndrome have resulted in several bat species being listed as state or federally threatened or endangered. If bats are using bridges as roosts, significant effort is required to ensure they are not disturbed or harmed during construction or maintenance work, requiring knowledge of assessment methods to identify likely roost locations in bridges. This thesis describes a two summer study evaluating the …

I. The High Strain Rate Response Of Hollow Sphere Steel Foam; Ii. The Dynamic Response Of An American Elm Tree, Ignacio Cetrangolo

Masters Theses

PART I

Hollow-sphere (HS) steel foam is a relatively new material whose cellular morphology and material properties qualify it as a metallic foam. This is an innovative foam-like material that exhibits high stiffness paired with low relative densities. Technological advancements in the past few decades have enabled the manufacturing of this material by a sintering process and, as a result, research has begun to accelerate as a multi-school collaboration effort for this particular work. Even though commercialization has been a challenge for metallic foams, it is imperative that researchers continue to prove and promote the advantages of metallic foams despite …