Civil Engineering Commons^™

Interdependency Between Water And Road Infrastructures: Cases And Impacts, Shihab Uddin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation studies the interdependency between road and water infrastructures and associated interdependency impact on these two critical infrastructure systems. Critical infrastructures and the interdependency among these infrastructures have gained much attention recently because of its growing complexity, importance, and vulnerability to natural and man-made threats. In response, researchers have spent significant effort to study these infrastructures individually as well as when they are interdependent to understand complex interdependency relationship and to figure out ways to make these infrastructures more reliable, robust, and resilient. However, water and road infrastructure systems have not been studied as vastly as other critical infrastructures …

Hurricanes And Tropical Storms’ Impact On Water Quality In Lake Okeechobee, Florida, Daniela Vasquez Diaz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hurricanes are natural events with catastrophic outcomes, while climate change's effects on their intensity and frequency remain discussed. However, it is crucial to analyze these through models and statistics to understand their behavior and impact on the basins. Particularly in lakes on tropical coasts since disruptive events such as hurricanes tend to be highly affected. Lake Okeechobee is a unique lake located in Florida and one of the largest freshwater lakes. The lake and some of its significant stations are the locations chosen to perform the investigation. The main focus of the investigation is determining the effect that hurricanes have …

Effects Of Downdrag On Pile Performance, Ruthvik Pendyala

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The behavior of piles under varying load conditions has sparked significant interest and research within the geotechnical engineering field. Specifically, in the context of MSE wall-type embankments, piles are installed before embankment construction commences. In these scenarios, soil settlement beneath the embankment initiates following pile installation, consequently generating downward lateral shear loads on the piles, known as downdrag.

Research pertaining to the downdrag phenomenon in cohesionless granular soils is limited. Hence, the primary focus of this study revolves around examining the impact of downdrag on pile performance in sandy soils using numerical modeling as the investigative approach. To accomplish this, …

Exploration Of Shared Passenger Urban Air Mobility – Integrated Network Design, Operation Scheduling And System Configuration, Zhiqiang Wu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Urban air mobility (UAM) is an emerging concept proposed in recent years that uses electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOLs). UAM is expected to offer an alternative way of transporting passengers and goods in urban areas with significantly improved mobility by making use of low-altitude airspace. Considering the high capital investment of eVTOLs and relative high fee of using UAM passenger service, a viable UAM format is shared passenger service. Such a service is usually station-based, i.e., with vertiport located in popular sites where potential passengers can access. To understand the viability of such use cases, the vertiport owners …

Characteristics And Hydraulic Behavior Of Adsorptive Media For Use In Permeable Reactive Barriers, Shelby Rocha

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Cargill ditch is located on the property of Se7en Wetlands, a 1600-ac treatment wetland system in Lakeland, Polk County, Florida. The Se7en Wetlands property was previously utilized for phosphate mining prior to the construction of the system. Nonpoint nutrient sources derived from remnants of abandoned phosphate mines – known as “legacy phosphorus” – become mobilized by stormwater runoff and impair surface water bodies by promoting harmful algal blooms (HABs). Thus, the Cargill ditch likely conveys nutrient rich flow resulting from legacy phosphorus and is thought to be one contributing factor in the occurrence of HABs within the treatment wetland …

Adiabatic Temperature Rise And Durability Performance Of Slag Blended Concrete, Hai Zhu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Performance and durability of slag blended concrete was investigated in this study focusing on slag and cement characteristics. Seven slags with variable Al2O3 content, Al2O3/MgO ratio and fineness were selected for investigation. The eight selected cements included ASTM Type I, Type I(HA), Type II(MH), Type II(MH)(HA), and Type IL(10 and 14). Cementitious materials studied here were subjected to a battery of tests including physical, chemical and mineralogical characterization. Performance and durability testing included heat of hydration measurements, sulfate optimization, external sulfate resistance, adiabatic temperature rise and chloride ingress.

Adiabatic temperature rise was assessed on 60% slag blended concrete, using Type …

The Influence Of Corrosion Mitigating Fluids On Post Tensioned Tendon Grout Properties And Steel To Grout Bond Strength, Sarita Ale Magar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Corrosion has been a persistent problem causing the failure of post-tensioned tendons in segmentally constructed bridges. To address this issue, the impregnation method has been considered where the corrosion-mitigating fluids are pressure injected into the interstitial spaces between the seven wires of steel strands. A previous study showed that this method was able to arrest corrosion. However, it compromised the bond strength between the steel and the strand. For that reason, this study aims to identify a fluid that can be impregnated into the interstitial spaces without sacrificing bond performance. The most promising fluid found in the study is an …

The Influence Of Bipolar Electrochemical Cell Geometry On The Studies Of Pitting Corrosion, Amin Kazem Ghamsari

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bipolar electrochemistry (BPE) is a technique that provides a wireless alternative totraditional electrochemistry to elicit redox reactions. It has been utilized in different applications, including studying localized corrosion, gradient electrodeposition, propulsion of micromotors, and water treatment. The popularity of the method is not solely dependent on its wirelessness but more due to the simultaneous presence of cathodic and anodic poles on the same surface, which also begets its name as bipolar. The concept of the method is based on the polarization of conductive objects in an electric field in the presence of an electrolyte. In BPE, instead of controlling the …

Rehabilitation Technologies To Abate Infiltration In Sanitary Sewers, Steve Youssef

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In urban coastal environments, sewer infrastructure is plagued by infiltration which seeps into aging and compromised pipes. Infiltration increases pumping costs, reduces treatment efficiency, and may trigger release of partially treated wastewater at water reclamation facilities. To restore pipes and abate infiltration, local utilities rely on structural and non-structural trenchless rehabilitation technologies. These methods are commonly used throughout the United States and the world due to their numerous benefits compared to traditional open-cut construction. However, limited data is available regarding their efficacy in reducing infiltration in sewer systems. In this study, we analysed infiltration in a small urban sewershed in …

Load And Resistance Factor Design (Lrfd) Resistance Factors For Tip Grouted Drilled Shafts, Anhar Sarsour

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pressure grouting beneath the tip of drilled shafts, also known as postgrouting, has been used for more than fifty years throughout the world and has shown to be an effective means to enhance both the usable and ultimate end bearing resistance. In short, postgrouting is a form of compaction grouting beneath the shaft tip (performed after concrete has cured) that can improve the soil strength and increase the axial shaft stiffness. Until 2006, there was no published design methodology and hence the anticipated performance was speculated to be a function of injected grout volume, shaft uplift and/or the achieved grout …

Quantifying A 21-Year Surface Water And Groundwater Interaction In A Ridge And Valley Lake Environment Using A Highly Constrained Modeling Approach, Richard T. Bowers Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Karst lakes are ubiquitous in ridge terrain settings in limestone aquifer coastal plain environments. In west-central Florida, these lakes are frequently connected to the Upper Floridan aquifer and have unique aquifer recharge characteristics. They have been selectively studied because they commonly have no or very limited surface water discharge and limited drainage areas, have appreciable surface water and groundwater interaction and leak to the deep aquifer. An innovative modeling approach was developed to collectively understand and more precisely quantify this vertical leakage, both from a lake-specific and regional water budget standpoint, for a 21-year study period (2000-2020). A unique, calibrated …

Comparison Study Of Consumer’S Perception Toward Urban Air Mobility In The United States And Rest Of The World Using Social Media Information, S M Toki Tahmid

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is a wide concept that will enable access to on-demand air mobility, cargo delivery, medical applications, and emergency services that is run through a connected and integrated transportation system. This study aims to investigate social media data to compare the major topics discussed in the United States and rest of the world and perform a sentiment analysis to see if the comments are positive, negative, or neutral. Twitter was the primary source of information that was used in this thesis, as it is a place where people interact, create, and share information and ideas online. In …

Assessment And Prevention Of Bacterial Regrowth In Stored Household Water In Eastern Coastal Madagascar, Lauren Judah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As of 2020, diarrheal diseases were the leading cause of death in Madagascar. A major cause of diarrheal illness is contaminated water, and one crucial aspect of preventing contaminated water is safe household storage. Bacterial regrowth between point-of-collection and household storage has been well established in literature. A frequently implicated source of regrowth is the storage container’s biofilm, which is a community of varying bacteria enclosed in a “slimy” extracellular polymeric substance that forms on surfaces in wet environments and anchors bacteria to those surfaces. The overall goal of this thesis was to quantify and control bacterial regrowth in household …

Passive Radiative Cooling By Spectrally Selective Nanoparticles In Thick Film Nanocomposites, David Allen Young

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Passive cooling of buildings is a benefit to society since no energy input is required for space cooling which reduces electricity consumption, fossil fuel burning, and greenhouse gas emissions. When a passive cooling technology radiates heat from the earth through the atmospheric windows to space higher levels of cooling power are possible -- this phenomenon is classified as passive “radiative” cooling. Spectrally selective surface coatings provide radiative cooling to lower surface temperatures by reflecting most solar radiation, while emitting infrared radiation at wavelengths between 8-13 μm through the primary atmospheric window to the cold of space. Multiple applications of radiative …

Evaluation Of Aluminum Dissolution, Current Density, And Pitting Patterns During Electrocoagulation, Monica Castro Carias

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Electrocoagulation (EC) is a sustainable water treatment process involving the generation of coagulants on-site through the application of a voltage on metal (usually aluminum or iron alloys). The factors that impact EC system performance have been well researched, however further research is needed on the factors that impact anodic dissolution of aluminum electrodes, especially when the technology is transferred to full-scale applications. Electrode fouling is one of the factors that can impact dissolution of the anode during EC due to the formation of a protective oxide/hydroxide layer on the electrode surface. Previous studies have addressed electrode fouling by reversing polarity, …

Simulating Flood Control In Progress Village, Florida Using Storm Water Management Model (Swmm), Azize Minaz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Flooding is a natural event caused by heavy rains, melting snow, high tides, and anthropogenic impacts such as channel clogging, improper land use, and deforestation. In this study, the strategies for controlling flooding seek to establish flood prevention systems by implementing grey infrastructure and green infrastructure practices. The main objective of this thesis is to analyze the study area, Progress Village Neighborhood in Delaney Creek Watershed, regarding flood risk and flood mitigation techniques. The analysis was performed using EPA SWMM 5.1 and Arcmap 10.7.1. The study used design storms,10-years 24 hours and 25-years 24 hours, to analyze flood risk in …

Impedance Analysis Of Anodized Aluminum And Structural Bridge Tendons, Justin Silnutzer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This is a two-part thesis with the overall investigation technique being electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). In the first part, EIS is used to estimate the layer thickness of anodized aluminum oxide. This required the development of an appropriate electrical circuit model; that with parameters that correspond to physical properties of the oxide. In this work, it was found that for thicker oxides of which the outer porous layer is greater than 12 microns, impedance may be used to estimate the outer layer thickness. However, further research is required to understand the role of outer porous layer structure on the impedance …

Effects Of Slurry Type On Drilled Shaft Strength, Cesar Quesada Garcia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this research is to identify how the strength of drilled shafts is affected by the use of various types of drill slurry. When concrete is placed in drilled shafts it flows out radially and a laitance interface forms creating a crease on the backside of the reinforcement cage due to the laitance trapped in concrete flowing around the rebar. This can cause concrete to not fully encapsulate the steel making the shafts prone to corrosion and the strength of the cover concrete is locally reduced. Over the past 9 years 58, 42-inch diameter shafts have been …

High-Risk Traffic Crash Pattern Recognition And Identification Using Econometric Models And Machine Learning Models, Runan Yang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Roadway crashes have become a major cause of human deaths and injuries and caused much economic damage. According to World Health Organization (WHO), about 1.35 million people died in traffic crashes and over 50 million people injured from traffic crashes in the year of 2016 (World Health Organization, 2020). Nationally, in the U.S., the latest decade witnessed an increase of over 10% in traffic fatalities (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 2019). Similarly, in state of Florida, the fatal crashes increased by 4.62% from 2019 to 2020 (Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, 2021). To prevent injuries and …

Assessment Of Scoured Bridges Subjected To Vessel Impact Using Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis, Amir S. Irhayyim

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Scour has been the number one cause of bridge failure in the United States with an average of 22 bridges collapsing or being closed owing to severe deformation each year [1]. This work attempts to deal with two important issues: (1) Potential bridge failures during the co-occurrence of scour and ship impact; (2) Incorporating IDA analysis to predict bridge responses based on barge and collision parameters, and to generate fragility curves to predict the probability of exceedance damage states.

For bridges, flooding is considered the most threatening hazard. According to the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) [2], 500,000 out of 615,000 …

Estimating The As-Placed Grout Volume Of Auger Cast Piles, Tristen Mee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Augered Cast-in-Place (ACIP) piles are a geotechnical foundation element increasingly used to support large publicly funded structures as an alternative to drilled shafts or driven piles. ACIP piles are constructed by drilling an excavation to the full length of the designed pile with a continuous flight auger. Grout (cement, sand, and water mixture) is then pumped through the hollow auger stem to begin grouting the excavation. After establishing an initial head pressure, the auger is slowly extracted while the remainder of the pile is grouted. Once the auger is completely removed, the steel reinforcement cage is lowered into the grouted …

Effects Of Downdrag On Pile Performance, Malaak Omelia Araujo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

All soils settle under the weight of newly constructed embankments. In the case of MSE wall-type embankments, piles are driven prior to embankment construction. Under the weight of the newly constructed embankment, the soil surrounding the piles may settle more than the piles themselves. This downward movement potentially drags the piles down and induces a force within the pile known as downdrag. The research on the downdrag phenomenon involving cohesionless granular soils is sparse, thus the focus of this study is to investigate the effects of downdrag on pile performance driven in Florida sandy soils. A site consisting of soil …

The Impact Of Land Use Change On Hydrology Using Hydrologic Modelling And Geographical Information System (Gis), Nattachan Luesaksiriwattana

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Surface and groundwater conditions in west-central Florida are highly interactive, with shallow water table and sandy soil. Land use types including forests, agricultural areas, and urbanization affect water resources differently. Change in land use, associated with expanding the urban environment to support human needs, significantly impacts surface water infiltration and runoff characteristics. Construction of infrastructures such as buildings and housing can result less water to infiltrate through the soil, with increased surface water runoff and decline in evapotranspiration. A computerized hydrologic model, Hydrological Simulation Program-FORTRAN (HSPF), couple to a spreadsheet groundwater model and a Geographical Information System (GIS) were applied …

A System Architecture For Water Distribution Networks, Noha Abdel-Mottaleb

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines structure-function relationships of water distribution networks (WDNs), with focus on improving the decision-making process for water utilities. WDNs are lifeline infrastructure systems, necessary for the functioning of cities. Yet water utilities around the world struggle with emerging challenges that include but are not limited to aging infrastructure components, limited budgets, increased interdependencies between infrastructure systems, increased rates of urbanization, and increasing extreme weather conditions. This is why enhancing the performance of WDNs is a priority for water utilities around the world. This research begins to delineate a system architecture for WDNs and evaluates the use of various …

An Assessment And Exploration Of Recent Methodological Advances In Safety Data Analysis, Suryaprasanna Kumar Balusu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The injury severity and frequency of traffic crashes can be further reduced by implementing appropriate traffic safety measures. Several advanced methodologies have been developed in the recent decades to more accurately identify the factors affecting road safety. Such methodologies have helped policy makers formulate appropriate safety measures directed toward increasing seatbelt and helmet use, reducing speed limits in school zones, implementing adolescent driver programs, and so on. However, each methodological approach has its own strengths and weakness and could lead to different inferences. This dissertation assesses and explores a number of recently developed methodologies and their application to traffic safety …

Minimum Cut-Sets For The Identification Of Critical Water Distribution Network Segments, Xiliang Mao

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

To ensure adequate performance of water distribution networks, utilities must identify critical segments within the network that will adversely affect users when failures occur. Currently, time consuming hydraulic simulations are used for such criticality analyses. A method can be of great benefit for utilities if it can easily evaluate the criticality of water distribution network segments. This research applies topology-based methods for the preliminary screening of critical segments. This study evaluated the connectivity between sources and each demand segment in water distribution networks using minimum cut-sets. Through topological analysis, the minimum cut -set between the source node and each demand …

Corrosion Propagation Of Stainless Steel Reinforced Concrete, Nelly Sofía Orozco Martínez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Structural durability is a growing concern in global infrastructure. The infrastructure report card released by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) indicates that approximately 9.1% of the total bridges in the United States were structurally deficient in 2016. In addition, it suggests that about 40% of the total bridges in the country are now 50 years or older. This issue becomes even more critical in structures exposed to aggressive environments such as marine structures. Thus, federal and regional efforts are now being directed towards infrastructural durability improvement to improve the long-term cost-efficiency of civil infrastructure.

Corrosion prevention strategies may …

Influence Of Coating Defects Within The Lock Seams On The Corrosion Performance Of Aluminized Steel Drainage Pipes, Mohammed Al Yaarubi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The electrochemical behavior of aluminized steel is investigated to determine the corrosion performance of coating deficiencies generated within the lock seams during the fabrication of aluminized steel corrugated pipe. Electrochemical techniques and visual and profilometric analysis are used to assess the ability of the aluminum and zinc coating to provide sufficient galvanic protection to the underlying steel in the presence of a crevice. Also, Crevice coupons and lock-seam samples were used in this investigation in different environmental conditions simulating natural water conditions to relate the corrosion rate with the level of protection that the coating will provide. In addition, a …

Corrosion Durability Service Life Of Calcium Silicate-Based Reinforced Concrete, Carolina Páez Jiménez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Corrosion of reinforcing steel is a major area of study for assessing durability of reinforced concrete infrastructure. Conventional concrete infrastructure designs use ordinary Portland cement (OPC) as the primary cementitious material. However, the world's current challenge to achieve sustainable development requires the cement industry to reduce its environmental impact, as it is responsible for 8% of the anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Hence, a new type of cement has been developed. This novel calcium silicate cement (CSC) reduces the carbon dioxide emissions during its manufacturing process as compared to OPC, providing an environmentally-sound alternative for reinforced concrete fabrication.

Corrosion of steel reinforcement …

Corrosion Rate Prediction In Frp-Concrete Repair, Mohammad A. Khawaja

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research has proven that wrapping structural elements with fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) slows down chloride-induced corrosion rate but does not stop it. Although FRP has been used for corrosion repair for over 40 years, predictive corrosion rate models for FRP-concrete systems are limited in literature. This dissertation presents an oxygen diffusion-based predictive framework to estimate corrosion rate in FRP-concrete systems.

The dissertation has three main components. First, a core framework that is referred to as Khawaja-Sen-Bhethanabotla (KSB) model. In the KSB model, statistical methods were used to extend experimental data on oxygen permeation coefficients. These data were for one and two …