Construction Engineering and Management Commons^™

Laboratory Testing And Mechanistic Analysis Of Treated Subgrade Soils, Hari Kumar Reddy Yarrapureddi

Civil Engineering Theses

Calcium-based stabilizing agents such as cement and lime have been extensively used to improve the engineering properties of base and subgrade layers of pavement systems. Recently, polymers and chemical stabilizers have become popular due to cost efficiency, ease of application, and fast curing times. In this study, California Bearing Ratio (CBR) values of polymer and chemical treated soils were compared with the CBR values of soils treated with conventional stabilizers. Parametric sensitivity analyses was carried out on key parameters including the type of subgrade soil, stabilizing agent, stabilizing agent treatment levels, and moisture conditioning. Additionally, numerical analyses was performed to …

Expanding The Concept Of Comprehensive Area Ratio Parameter To The South-Central States Towards Simplifying The Structural Evaluation Of Flexible Pavements At The Network Level, Nitish R. Bastola

Civil Engineering Theses

The surface deflection bowl data collected through Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) has been widely utilized by various Department of Transportation (DOTs) in the South-Central States and other places. The primary purpose of using deflection-based NDTs in network-level assessment is to identify a weak pavement section that requires further analysis at the project level. The falling weight deflectometer (FWD) test is one of the common NDT based tests utilized by highway agencies in assessing the performance of the flexible pavement. However, a robust method to evaluate pavement sections utilizing FWD data from all the sensors are seldom developed. There is always a …

Bio-Binder—Innovative Asphalt Technology, Amir Tabakovic

Articles

The global road network spans 16.3 million km [1], of which 5 million km is in the EU. These road networks fulfil major economic and social goals by facilitating the movement of goods and people throughout the EU, and are therefore of the utmost importance to the economic and social life of the EU [2]. National governments invest heavily in their road networks, e.g., in 2014, EUR 53.33 billion was invested in the development and maintenance of the EU road network [3]. Each year, the world produces 1.6 trillion tonnes of asphalt [4], of which 218 million tonnes is produced …

Behavior Of Concrete Structures Reinforced With High Strength Steel, Rahman S. Kareem

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The structural strength and corrosion resistance of concrete members are improved when A1035 steel is used as the main reinforcement. The enhancement of A1035 is achieved by the modification of the composition and microstructure of the steel. Therefore, the behavior of concrete structures reinforced with high-performance steel (A1035) is different from those reinforced with the regular steel (A615). Concrete bridge decks reinforced with different amounts of A1035 were studied in this research program. The structural behavior of twelve concrete bridge decks reinforced with A615 Grade 420 (60 ksi) and A1035 Grade 830 (120 ksi) steel was investigated at both service …

Using Bcsa Cement To Repair Waterway Transportation Structures, Anazaria Johanis Ortega Gonzalez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many maritime structures (e.g., locks, dams, ports) in the US are either reaching or are past their design lives, and there are limited funds for the necessary maintenance activities which can lead to repairs that requires closures. These structures are not easy to detour and often require dewatering before repairs can be made, closures can cause delays and business-related losses which can have a large effect on the nation’s economy. Thus, it is advantageous to reduce the repair time for maritime structures. BCSA (belitic calcium sulfoaluminate) cement is a promising material to perform this type of repair due to its …

Seismic Loading Effects Within Orthogonally Connected Steel Lateral Force Resisting Systems, Alhussin Faraj Aliwan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Steel buildings located within seismically active regions require special design considerations to ensure public safety and prevent collapse during an extreme seismic event. Two commonly used steel systems are special moment frames (SMFs) and buckling-restrained braced frames (BRBFs). When two seismic systems share a common column in an orthogonal configuration (such as at a building corner), design specifications currently consider a 100+30 rule wherein the shared column is designed for 100% fuse demand in one direction, plus 30% fuse demand from the other direction. While this rule has been shown to be reasonable for elastic building response, a few studies …

Real Records Scaling Factors Optimization To Fit The Syrian Design Spectra Using Genetic Algorithm, Seraj Jdyd

Journal of the Arab American University مجلة الجامعة العربية الامريكية للبحوث

After selecting real seismic records it is necessary to scale these records to match the intensity of the earthquake expected for the site. Generally, scaling can be made by ground motions uniform scaling in time domain which is simply scaled up or down the ground motions uniformly to best match (in average) the target spectrum within a period range of interest. It’s an engineer’s job to find the best scaling factors to best match the target spectrum, which is a complex task, so we employed the Genetic Algorithm (GA) in finding those scaling factors to achieve the best results.

Genetic …

Novel Adhesive Anchoring System Through Engineered Interface, Hua Liu, Jian Zhao

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Articles

This report describes a study of an innovative adhesive anchoring system. The weak link in the load transferring path of adhesive anchors is at adhesive-concrete (A-C) interface; hence, the innovation is about creating threads/grooves in drilled holes in concrete before the holes are filled with adhesive and anchors are installed. The new anchoring system is expected to improve the robustness of A-C interface and the consistence of adhesive anchors.

The new adhesive anchoring system was verified in this study using both unconfined and confined pullout tests in uncracked concrete. The tests were divided into to two groups, one using traditional …

Lessons Learned From Six Different Structural Health Monitoring Systems On Highway Bridges, Abheetha Peiris, Charlie Sun, Issam E. Harik

Kentucky Transportation Center Faculty and Researcher Publications

Structural health monitoring has been utilized in numerous ways to investigate the performance and integrity of highway bridges. This paper highlights the use of six structural health monitoring systems, which were deployed to monitor distinct behaviors on six bridges in Kentucky. The structural health monitoring systems are as follows: (1) Over-height truck impact detection and monitoring on the I-64 over US 60 bridge, (2) Barge impact detection and monitoring on northbound US 41 over the Ohio River, (3) effectiveness of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer retrofit evaluation based on prestressed concrete I-girder crack movement on the I-65 elevated expressway in Louisville, (4) …

Challenges And Opportunities To Deep Retrofitting Of Traditional Fabric Buildings To Achieve Nearly Zero Energy Building (Nzeb), Maria Lopez Zambrano, Paul Kenny, Jamie Goggins

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Many of our traditional buildings are disappearing or in danger of being under utilised because they are not comfortable for modern day living and do not meet our present day needs. If a building does not have a use, inevitably it deteriorates and eventually becomes a ruin or gets demolished. It is important to retrofit these buildings, which are part of our identity and can be powerful tourist attractions even though most of them are not listed. Some owners want to apply for retrofitting schemes and grants, but they are rejected because there are no standard solutions to achieve low …

Can Deap Help Us To Predict The Energy Demand And Indoor Temperature Of Homes Before And After Renovation? A Case Study From Dublin, Paul Moran, Jamie Goggins

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Improving the energy efficiency of buildings via retrofitting is seen as one of the key mitigation measures to reducing the energy demand and carbon emissions of the built environment in Ireland. However, while energy efficiency retrofits for buildings are effective in theory, the energy savings estimated by statistical or engineering models can often be inaccurate. The Domestic Energy Assessment Procedure (DEAP) is the standard assessment procedure used for assessing the energy performance standard of residential buildings in Ireland. This paper examines the gas energy demand for space and water heating and the internal temperature profiles in contrast to DEAP estimates …

St. Mary And St. Anne Cathedral, Cork: An Optimum Heating Solution For Heritage Buildings?, Christopher Shiell, Roger P. West

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Cathedrals and most churches are characterised by having large internal, undivided spaces and permeable building envelopes. They are often used little, intermittently, but predictably and, in spite of the fact that they are unique in still being largely used for the purpose for which they were built many centuries ago, they are now often used for additional purposes, for which they were never designed. These uses include concerts, graduation ceremonies, filming and a host of other uses all of which require a level of thermal comfort not envisaged by the original builders. Research was undertaken by the authors into the …

Art In Engineering: Evoking A Creative Response From Engineering Students And More, Jamie Goggins, Marta Fuente, Eamonn Madden

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

The concept of creativity being only associated with writers, painters, and artistic professions is outdated. The future engineer must embrace maths, art and creativity to unlock innovative solutions. Traditional engineering courses with an emphasis predominately on maths and science can produce graduates who are constrained in developing design solutions without creativity to unlock innovative solutions. This paper describes a short course introduced in the School of Engineering at NUIGalway in 2018 to expose students to creative thinking research and principles and engage in various forms of creative expression (photography, painting and essay writing) to articulate their response to a set …

Teaching Of Structural Analysis Into The Future, Dermot O'Dwyer

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

The engineering curriculum has always been full. In the past civil and structural engineers studied a wide variety of technical subjects within the broad field of engineering science and spent many hours working on design projects. Modern engineering curricula try to cover these areas while also dedicating more time to structured group-work, report writing and communication skills. Although students spend longer in college the number and range of technical fields that students must master is considerably larger than in the past. As a result the time available to any one topic area has reduced. At the same time the work …

The Broader Development Of The Student Engineer Through Industry Based Experiential Learning, Donogh Coleman, Ted Mckenna, Mary Moloney

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

The global drive for industry-aware and industry-ready engineering graduates, has led to the development and integration of experiential learning through work placements. Industry is looking to recruit graduates with not just the requisite technical engineering skills, but also graduates with inter alia high levels of teamwork and communications skills. This has been recognised by CIT with the integration of work placement in most of its undergraduate programmes. This paper provides an overview of the student placement process in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering at CIT, includes the work placement alternative which was implemented due to the COVID-19 …

Operational And Embodied Energy Analysis Of 8 Single-Occupant Dwellings Retrofit To Nzeb Standard, Richard O'Hegarty, Shane Colclough, Oliver Kinnane, Donal Lennon, Etienne Rieux

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

In line with the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, Irish dwellings are being retrofit to near Zero Energy Building (nZEB) standards - with a number of the deep energy retrofits classified as A-rated. As a result of the low operational energy, the embodied energy share of an nZEB's life cycle energy is significantly increased. Therefore, to obtain a holistic picture of the change in energy profile of buildings, the embodied energy of the material added to achieve that low performance should also be taken into account. This paper presents results from a case study of 8 single-occupant terrace bungalows retrofit …

Loading On Long Span Bridges In Heavily Trafficked Areas, Michael Quilligan, Eugene O'Brien

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

The critical traffic loading condition for long-span bridges is congestion when vehicles may be closely spaced together. Data on very high traffic flows is limited however, as induction loops which are typically used to collect traffic data, are ineffective when traffic flow breaks down. A number of long span bridges are located in areas of high traffic with periods of recurring congestion occurring daily. While the inter-vehicle gap distances are greater than those occurring during non-recurring full stop accident type events, the high frequency of the recurring congestion events can increase the probability of a critical load case occurring.

A Numerical Study Of The Effect Of Wind Barriers On Traffic And The Bridge Deck, Yuxiang Zhang, Philip Cardiff, Jennifer Keenahan

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Wind actions can have a great impact on both bridges and traffic on bridges. However, structures designed to shelter the traffic from wind can influence the aerodynamic performance of the bridge deck, especially for long-span bridges. This study compares the effect of non-perforated walls and perforated walls used as wind barriers for traffic by conducting Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations on three-dimensional geometries of a four-lane bridge deck. Steady-state simulations employ the Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) method with the k-epsilon turbulence model and all simulations use parallel computing. An open-sourced software OpenFOAM is used.

Repair & Rehabilitation Of Daly's (Shakey) Bridge, Cork City, Michael Minehane, John Gamble

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

This paper describes the rehabilitation of (Shakey) Bridge, an existing single-span suspension bridge crossing the northern channel of the River Lee in Cork City. The bridge was opened in 1927 to replace an earlier ferry crossing at the same location. Daly’s bridge is included on the Record of Protected Structures and the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. It remains the only suspension bridge in Cork City and is the only surviving bridge of its kind in Ireland. It is considered to be a significant contributor to the architectural heritage of the city. This case study describes the project development including …

Long-Run Traffic Simulations For Multi-Lane Road Bridges, Róisín Donnelly, Lorcan Connolly, Ilaria Bernardini

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

The maintenance and repair of ageing bridges is a concern for road infrastructure managers. This issue is amplified by the increasing weights and frequency of travel of freight vehicles in recent times. In order to accurately assess the risk of damage for road bridges, it is essential to have knowledge of both historical and current bridge loading. When available, site-specific Weigh-in-Motion (WIM) data can be effective in creating representative load models for a structure. However, for cases where WIM data is not available and in cases where future damage must be predicted, it is necessary to simulate appropriate data using …

Simulation Of Traffic Loading On Long Span Bridges, Hang Zhang, Michael Quilligan

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Existing long span load models have typically been developed using a number of conservative assumptions, and as such are more applicable to the design of new bridges rather than the assessment of existing structures. Excessive conservatism in such assumptions can lead to expensive and unnecessary interventions in existing bridges. Furthermore, existing load models do not always allow for correlations in traffic weights and vehicle positions on the bridge.

Development And Testing Of A Deployable Double Layer Tensegrity Grid, Michael Quilligan, Valentin Gomez-Jauregui, Cristina Manchado, Cesar Otero

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Tensegrity is a structural principle based on the use of isolated or contiguous pin jointed components in compression inside a net of continuous tension. Although the concept has been studied for many decades, relatively few examples of tensegrity structures have been used for civil engineering purposes.

Reinforcement Of Timber Elements In Compression Perpendicular To The Grain Using Compressed Wood Dowels, Michael Conway, Conan O'Ceallaigh, Sameer Mehra, Annette M. Harte

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

In the past decade, there has been an increased focus on the environmental impacts of construction and a movement towards more sustainable construction products. Timber is one such sustainable product that can achieve these environmental targets but, while timber has a high strength-to-weight ratio parallel to the grain, it demonstrates poor strength perpendicular to the grain. As a result, stress perpendicular to the grain is an important factor in the design of timber structures, especially in areas of concentrated loading, such as supports. This paper describes a study, which examines the use of compressed wood dowels as a sustainable alternative …

An Evaluation Of Design Issues Identified During Reviews Of Structural Designs Of Buildings From 2015 To 2020, Patrick Crean, Richard Osborne

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

A recent study on failures of structures in Ireland indicated that approximately 40% could be apportioned to designer error. A 2019 report into recent structural cracking of a high-rise building in Sydney Australia recommended that Independent third party checking by a Chartered Engineer should be a requirement on all major projects prior to construction. The report also stated that the critical elements of the design on these projects should be identified. It is obvious that a certain percentage of buildings constructed each year contain design flaws and only a small proportion of these ever result in a failure. However there …

A Review Of The Engineering Constraints And Project Management Challenges Involved In Utilising Scot’S Church As A Heritage Asset Through Responsible Adaptive Reuse And Conservation Strategies, Óisín Smith

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

In the field of structural building, there has been a rising popularity in adaptive reuse of older structures, which stems from a variety of stimuli. Apart from preserving built heritage, providing old buildings with new functions promotes sustainability while preventing and containing urban sprawl. Target 11.4 of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals Agenda 2030 explicitly outlines that “more efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage” are required. In order to valorise and regenerate obsolescent structures, intervention is often required. The dissertation provides a comprehensive overview of conservation engineering and demonstrates the importance of an engineer’s …

Potential Of A Low-Calcium Fly Ash (Fa) For The Production Of Alkali-Activated Materials., Omar Alelweet, Sara Pavia

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Coal-FA from power stations is an industrial waste abundantly produced in the world. FA can be used as a silicate precursor, and activated with an alkali-metal source to produce alkali-activated materials (AAMs). AAMs are more sustainable than other traditional products, as the use of waste for their production, reduces carbon emissions, and raw materials and energy consumption. This paper studies the properties, composition and reactivity of an Irish FA to establish its potential for the production of AAMs. The results clearly evidenced that the FA is reactive. It is ultrafine, it has a high specific surface area and is partially …

Durability And Sustainability Of Pavement Quality Concrete In Airfields, Aidan Fogarty, Mark Richardson

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Direct emissions from the aviation industry accounts for 2% of global emissions. If global aviation was a country it would be in the top 10 emitters. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) forecasts that emissions could grow by a further 300-700% by 2050. In 2010 global cement manufacture released 3270 million metric tonnes of CO2 into our atmosphere. In 2020 that amount is estimated to be 4370 million metric tonnes of CO2. This will account for around 8% of global CO2. Replacing Portland cement with 70% GGBS in concrete reduces the carbon footprint associated with the cement content in concrete. …

Preliminary Investigation On The Use Of Dolomitic Quarry By-Product Powders In Grout For Self-Compacting Concrete Applications, Ahmed Abdalqader, Katrina Wilson, Neil Thornton, Kieran Mchugh, Mohammed Sonebi, Su Taylor

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) flows under its own weight without requiring external vibration for compaction. This is very useful in applications where normal vibrated concrete cannot be used such as narrow forms and reinforcement congested members. To attain the self-compacting property, it is required that the concrete have adequate viscosity, high deformability and high resistance to segregation. This is can be achieved by adding mineral admixtures (fillers) and/or viscosity modifying agents (VMAs). The former is the main practice in Europe and processed limestone powder is the most commonly used filler in the production of SCC. However, the quarrying process of the …

Predicting Mortar Compressive Strength Using Hydcem, Ewoma Ogoro, Niall Holmes, Denis Kelliher, Mark Tyrer

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

The compressive strength of mortar is a significant property that will influence its performance in concrete or masonry. Being able to accurately model and predict the mortar compressive strength would be of great benefit to suppliers and end users alike that could possibly reduce the need for multiple physical testing.

Maximising The Potential Use Of Ground Granulated Blast-Furnace Slag (Ggbs) In Cement: An Irish Investigation, Brendan Higgins, Michael Curran, John P. Spillane

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

The production of cement is estimated to account for around 8% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions worldwide, and the Irish construction industry yields fifteen million tonnes of CO2 annually. Measures must be employed to reduce these emissions by incorporating less CO2 intensive admixtures such as blast-furnace slag, however, the Irish construction industry can often be resistant to change. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the potential implementation of ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) into the use of cement in Ireland, on the basis of maximisation over optimisation. This research is based on the hypothesis that if GGBS produces drastically less …