Civil Engineering Commons^™

Low-Density Static Granular Media Filter Bed Turbidity Removal Model, Matthew Louque

LSU Master's Theses

The scattering of light within a fluid, referred to as its turbidity, was investigated against the presence of suspended solids. A linear regression analysis was conduced against turbidity and the total count, combined surface area, and combined volume of the suspended particles for various surface water sources (lakes, rivers, indoor aquaculture systems). It was found that the total combined surface area of suspended particles had the best linear correlation to turbidity, with an adjusted R² of 81.79%. This correlation was integrated with a current theoretical model for predicting solids removal across a granular bed to yield an Integrated Turbidity …

Groundwater Modeling For Mississippi River Alluvial Aquifer Of Northeastern Louisiana, Ramazan Karakullukcu

LSU Master's Theses

The Mississippi River Alluvial Aquifer (MRAA) locates in northeastern Louisiana, extending from the north border of Louisiana and Arkansas to south central Louisiana and underlies the Mississippi River Valley. The MRAA is the second most used groundwater source with about 390 million gallons per day in 2010, which accounts for 25% of all groundwater withdrawals in Louisiana. The groundwater uses are mainly for irrigation, public supply and industries. The excessive groundwater pumping and the economic importance of the MRAA have drawn attention to build a groundwater model to study future water resources management and sustainability plans. The model is the …

Evaluation Of Undrained Shear Strength And Soil Classification From Cone Penetration Test, Md Imran Hossain

LSU Master's Theses

The in-situ cone and piezocone penetration tests (CPT, PCPT) has been widely used by the geotechnical engineering community for subsurface soil characterization and classification, and for the evaluation of many engineering soil properties, such as undrained shear strength (s_u), unit weight (γ), constrained modulus (M), coefficient of consolidation (c_v), and stress history (OCR). The objective of this research study was to estimate the undrained shear strength of clayey soil using CPT/PCPT data in addition to some soil boring log data. At the same time, soil classification charts/methods based …

Development Of Long-Term Aging Factor For Asphalt Mixtures’ Cracking Resistance, Yucheng Shi

LSU Master's Theses

To characterize the cracking resistance of asphalt mixtures, semi-circular bend (SCB) test has been developed and subsequently accepted as a routine test in mixture design in Louisiana. However, SCB test requires specimens to be aged for five days in laboratory, which makes it not implementable in quality control (QC)/quality assurance (QA).

The primary project objective was to develop an aging factor to transfer the unaged SCB Jc to the aged SCB Jc. Specific objectives were to: (1) investigate the effect of laboratory aging on asphalt mixtures’ cracking resistance and asphalt binders’ rheological and chemical properties, (2) develop an aging …

Evaluation Of Site Variability And Its Application In Design, Abu Hakim Muhammad Hasan Faisal

LSU Master's Theses

Geotechnical characterization has an important role in engineering geology as well as in implementation of any project. There are several variables and uncertainties involved in characterizing a project site. Four different sources of uncertainties represent the characterization of geotechnical variability, which include spatial variability, measurement error, statistical error and model bias. Spatial variability is expressed in terms of the mean, variance, and scale of fluctuation. Several statistical techniques such as the Gauge R & R, which includes X-Bar/R and ANOVA, and the Second Moment can be applied to compute site variability in terms of the coefficient of variations. Measurement error …

Comparative Study Of One Parameter Budyko Model Index And The Scs Curve Number, Cihad Ayberk Doner

LSU Master's Theses

This study investigates two water balance models from different levels of complexity to recognize the impacts of climate change on water resources. The main objective is to examine the capacity of future runoff calculations of a parsimonious simple water balance model compared to a more complex model under the climate change variables. The selected water balance models are the simple one-parameter Budyko-type model using the Zhang’s equation with single parameter (a) and the more complex model (HELP3) applying Soil Conservation Service (SCS) curve number method to calculate future runoff predictions. The study has a twofold focus, first on explaining the …

Wave Attenuation By Constructed Oyster Reef Breakwaters, Jason M. Chauvin

LSU Master's Theses

Biloxi Marsh, located along the shoreline of Eloi Bay in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana has experienced significant shoreline erosion in recent years. The Living Shoreline Demonstration Project, completed in November 2016, constructed three miles of living shoreline structures to attenuate waves and thus combat marsh edge erosion along the shoreline of Eloi Bay. Several types of constructed oyster reef breakwaters were installed for this demonstration project. Due to the experimental nature of these products, available performance characteristics are limited.

This research measures wave attenuation across the constructed oyster reef breakwaters using bottom-mounted pressure gauges. Seven pressure gauges were deployed to …

Artificial Recharge Of Groundwater As A Management Tool For The Kabul Basin, Afghanistan, Mohammad Farid Masoom

LSU Master's Theses

Decades of war and political instability, consecutive droughts, population increase and displacement, caused serious infrastructural damages to water resources of Afghanistan. The main source of water supply for people in Afghanistan is groundwater. However, over-exploitation of groundwater has led to groundwater level declines in most parts of the country. Kabul, the largest city of Afghanistan, is the capital city with a population of 4.5 million and the fifth fastest-growing city in the world. The city has observed groundwater level declines of 5-10 meters (m) since 1980. Decline of about 30 m has also been observed in one of the monitoring …

Multi-Hazard Performance Assessment Of High-Rise Buildings, Jad El Khoury Antoun

LSU Master's Theses

In the last few decades, there has been an important increase in building high-rise constructions in many cities around the world. Since they offer several benefits in populous areas in terms of space efficiency, economy and sustainability, tower buildings attracted practitioners and researchers to understand better their exclusive behavior and response to natural hazards (e.g., hurricanes, earthquakes). Because of their flexibility and their commonly limited damping, skyscrapers are more susceptible to wind and earthquake actions than low- and mid-rise buildings. Moreover, many locations are prone to multiple hazards; hence, it is important to understand thoroughly the structural behavior of structures …

Field Investigation And Performance Evaluation Of Interface Bonding Between Pavement Layers, Ramendra N. Das

LSU Master's Theses

Proper bonding between pavement layers is essential to provide a monolithic pavement structure that allows distribution of loading over a larger area. Inadequate interface bonding may cause debonding or shear failure at the interface due to the accumulation of concentrated tensile stresses at the bottom of the overlay. Tack coat, a light application of asphaltic cement emulsion is applied on the existing surface to create a strong adhesive bond between pavement layers. The objectives of this study are to investigate the effects of various factors affecting bond strength between hot-mix asphalt (HMA) overlay and underlying pavement layers in the field. …