Civil Engineering Commons^™

Hydrodynamic Modeling Of The Green Bay Of Lake Michigan Using The Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code, Paula Estefania Cedillo

Theses and Dissertations

In this project we created a hydrodynamic model of the Lower Green Bay of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin, United States using the Visual Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code (EFDC). The model includes four tributary rivers to Lower Green Bay as well as the open boundary flow conditions at Chambers Island. This case study is used to: 1) compare the results obtained with a previous study of Lower Green Bay to validate the creation of the model 2) examine the hydrodynamics of the bay, and 3) create a framework for future studies at Lower Green Bay. The Geographic Information used to build …

College Students' Perceptions Of Sustainability: A Regional Survey, Michael Myung Jeong, Younghan Jung, Dan Daehyun Koo

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Understanding college students’ perception of sustainability is paramount as today’s students will soon be driving our economy and taking on the responsibility of maintaining a sustainable society. This study conducted a survey of college students attending two regional universities in the United States to capture their current experience levels, expectations, and perceptions with regard to various aspects of sustainability utilizing a questionnaire consisting of structured questions about sustainability knowledge/familiarity levels, green product purchase behavior, attitude-behavior relationship, and sustainability education. The results reveal useful insights into the students’ views on these topics and the demographic data collected were further analyzed to …

Alkali-~Activated Fly Ash Binders: Feasibility As A Sustainable Alternative To Ordinary Portland Cement For Pre-~Cast Systems, Kimberly Sierra

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Fresh, load-dependent, transport, and durability properties of alkali-activated fly ash mortars were studied. The influences of activator concentration, solution-to-binder ratio, curing condition, activator type, and sodium silicate-to-total solution ratio on the properties of the studied alkali-activated mortars were examined. This study was divided in two phases. The first phase dealt with the use of sodium hydroxide as the sole activator. The second phase of the study was divided into two parts, both of which used a combination of sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate as the activator solution. Part I of phase II used elevated temperature curing conditions, whereas part II …

Evaluation Of Low-Cost Low Impact Development Practices In Southwest Florida For The Control Of Urban Runoff, Laura Kathren Rankin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Stormwater management is required due to development and alteration of the natural environment. It is heavily regulated in Florida and at the national level. Over the last two decades, Low Impact Development (LID) has been promoted as a sustainable and environmentally friendly method of controlling urban runoff. Case studies, provided in Chapter 2, show that LIDs can restore watershed hydrology by balancing the water budget. The difference in runoff between pre-development and post-development appears to increase with soil perviousness. However, the potential for mitigating the impacts of urbanization through runoff reduction is also greater for pervious, sandy soils that dominate …

Gc/Ms Analysis Of Some Extractives From Eichhornia Crassipes, Héctor A. Fileto-Pérez, O. Miriam Rutiaga-Quiñones, Mark D. Sytsma, Isabelle M. Lorne, Wentai Luo, James F. Pankow, José G. Rutiaga-Quiñones

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth) is an invasive weed that causes serious issues for rivers, lakes, and other reservoirs around the world, although it can be an excellent source for bioactive compounds such as phytosterols and some steroids found in many plants. In this study, water hyacinth samples from both Durango and Distrito Federal in Mexico were collected. Ascendant extracts (cyclohexane, hexane, acetone, and methanol) from their leaves, stems, and roots were analyzed. Using boron trifluoride (similar to 10% [similar to 1.3 M] in 1-butanol), all extracts were derivatized. Twenty-four derivatized samples were analyzed using a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) method. …

Development Of A Decision Support Framework For The Planning Of Sustainable Transportation Systems, Pankaj Maheshwari

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With the rapid increase in economic development throughout the world, there is stress on the resources used to support global economy, including petroleum, coal, silver, and water. Currently, the world is consuming energy at an unprecedented rate never seen before. The finite nature of such non-renewable natural resources as petroleum and coal puts pressure on the environmental system, and ultimately reduces the availability of resources for future generations. Hence, it is critical to develop planning and operational strategies that seek to achieve a sustainable use of existing natural resources.

With this motivation, this dissertation focuses to develop a decision support …

Decision Environments To Encourage More Sustainable Infrastructure Outcomes, Earl Shealy

All Dissertations

Physical infrastructure (i.e. roads, pipelines, airports, dams, landfills, and water treatment systems) contributes directly to sustainability outcomes such as energy and water use and climate changing emissions. The infrastructure built today will likely impact future generations for many years. Planning, design and development decisions about infrastructure are critical to the future performance of these systems. Such decisions about infrastructure are complex with multiple variables, alternative options, and design stages. To manage decisions that exceed cognitive capacity to consider all options, decision makers often create mental shortcuts (heuristics), and accompanied errors (biases). The potential cognitive biases when dealing with complex decisions …

Spatial Analysis Of Passenger Vehicle Use And Ownership And Its Impact On The Sustainability Of Highway Infrastructure Funding, Matthew Volovski

Open Access Dissertations

Across the United States, the sustainability of highway funding is at risk due to increasing need and uncertainty in the factors that drive revenue. Past studies on highway funding sustainability have identified that the root cause of changing highway revenue are the shifts in social demographics and economic characteristics. Unfortunately, from the revenue perspective (the focus of this dissertation), the ability of previous research to account for these factors has been rather limited in two ways; first, the inability to accurately assess current regional vehicle use (a typical prerequisite for statistical modeling of highway revenues) due to difficulties associated with …

Functional Characterization Of Green Sorption Media And Scaling Of Pilot Studies For Copper Removal In Stormwater Runoff, Cameron Houmann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Green adsorption media with the inclusion of renewable and recycled materials can be applied as a stormwater best management practice for copper removal. A green adsorption media mixture composed of recycled tire chunk, expanded clay aggregate, and coconut coir was physicochemically evaluated for its potential use in an upflow media filter. The results found that the use of the green adsorption media mixture in isolation or the coconut coir with an expanded clay filtration chamber could be an effective and reliable stormwater best management practice for copper removal. A suite of tests were conducted on the media mixture and the …

Double Vault Composting Latrines In Rural Paraguay : Feasible Construction And Optimal Use, Paul T. Pebler

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Water resource depletion and sanitation are growing problems around the world. A solution to both of these problems is the use of composting latrines, as it requires no water and has been recommended by the World Health Organization as an improved sanitation technology. However, little analysis has been done on the decomposition process occurring inside the latrine, including what temperatures are reached and what variables most affect the composting process. Having better knowledge of how outside variables affect composting latrines can aid development workers on the choice of implementing such technology, and to better educate the users on the appropriate …

The Simulation & Evaluation Of Surge Hazard Using A Response Surface Method In The New York Bight, Michael H. Bredesen

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Atmospheric features, such as tropical cyclones, act as a driving mechanism for many of the major hazards affecting coastal areas around the world. Accurate and efficient quantification of tropical cyclone surge hazard is essential to the development of resilient coastal communities, particularly given continued sea level trend concerns. Recent major tropical cyclones that have impacted the northeastern portion of the United States have resulted in devastating flooding in New York City, the most densely populated city in the US. As a part of national effort to re-evaluate coastal inundation hazards, the Federal Emergency Management Agency used the Joint Probability Method …

Development Of An Automated Method For Identification Of Wet And Dry Channel Segments Using Lidar Data And Fuzzy Logic Cluster Analysis, Chris Rowney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research into the use of LiDAR data for purposes other than simple topographic elevation determination, such as urban land cover classification and the identification of forest biomass, has become prominent in recent years. In many cases, alternative analysis methodologies conducted using airborne LiDAR data are possible because the raw data collected during a survey can include information other than the classically used elevation and coordinate points, the X, Y, and Z of the plane. In particular, intensity return values for each point in a LiDAR grid have been found to provide a useful data set for wet and dry channel …

Dynamic Behavior Of Operational Wind Turbines Considering Aerodynamic And Seismic Load Interaction, Mohammad-Amin Asareh

Doctoral Dissertations

"With the advancements in the wind energy production industry, the demand for a cost effective and safe design of wind turbine structures is growing rapidly. The wide deployment of wind turbines in locations with high seismic hazard has lead engineers to take into account a more comprehensive seismic design of such structures. In response to the need for a computational tool that can perform coupled simulations of wind and seismic loads, a seismic module has been developed for the publicly available National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) code, FAST, at the first step of this research. This achievement allows engineers working …

Performance Analysis And Modelling Of Hybrid Photovoltaic-Thermal Solar Panels, Nicole C. Annis

Doctoral Dissertations

A photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) panel was constructed, tested, and modelled using both MATLAB and TRNSYS. During the experimental testing, which took place on the Missouri University of Science and Technology campus in Rolla, Missouri; two identical PVT panels were tested alongside two PV panels to gather an electrical baseline for comparison. Approximately 69 days’ worth of data were of data were collected during the summer of 2014. The PV electrical, PVT electrical, PVT thermal and PVT combined (electrical and thermal) efficiencies were 3.5-5.6%, 3.4-5.4%, 20.9-11.6%, and 24.3-17.0%, respectively.

A MATLAB program was developed using existing equations for one-dimensional, quasi-steady model of …

Advanced Sustainable Concrete Materials For Infrastructure Applications, Kaylea Ann Smith

Masters Theses

"This study was performed to examine the effects of cement replaced by high volumes of Class C fly-ash on durability characteristics of concrete up to 120 days. Specifically, this study investigates possibility of amending American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) to allow High Volume Fly-ash (HVFA) concrete to cure until later ages prior to testing instead of 28 days. Five mix designs were compared with varying fly-ash percentages from 0 to 70% (by total cementitious mass). No other additives were present in any of the five mix designs. Water-to-cementitious ratio (w/cm) and total cementitious material remained constant as 0.40 …