Construction Engineering and Management Commons^™

Evaluation And Development Of Cpt Based Pile Design In Nebraska Soils, Alex Silvey

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Cone penetration testing (CPT) is a well established geotechnical subsurface investigation technique commonly used for site characterization and soil classification. The CPT gives real time end resistance, side friction, and pore pressure readings. Axially loaded piles also share these two resistance mechanisms, suggesting the cone can be considered similar to a miniature pile. This study focused on evaluating eight CPT methods prediction of pile bearing capacity. The Nebraska Department of Roads (NDOR) conducts dynamic load tests (PDA) of driven pile to verify pile capacity for bridge foundations. 91 comparisons of CPT logs and PDA data were evaluated. CPT prediction methods …

Hyperelastic Structural Fuses For Steel Buildings, Francys López

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Why to upgrade traditional systems?

The FEMA P-58-1 listed some of the limitations in present-generation procedures:

Questions regarding the accuracy and reliability of available analytical procedures in predicting actual building response.

“High” level of conservatism underlying the acceptance criteria.

Inability to reliably and economically apply performance-based procedures to the design of new buildings; and Lack of alternative ways of communicating performance to stakeholders that is more meaningful and useful for decision making purposes.

Performance based design (PBD) emerges as the methodology aiming to bridge this gap, raising the design level performance from life safety (traditional systems) to keep structures fully …

Impact-Resistant Behavior Of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Columns, Chen Fang

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The damage caused by a vehicle collision on a pier column can be catastrophic for the functionality of a bridge, even a total collapse of the bridge. ❖ A vehicle collision and a subsequent vehicle blast cause more damages on the bridge. ❖ Limited researches have been conducted to investigate the behavior of the bridge subjected to the combined effect of vehicle collision and blast. ❖ It is necessary to analyze the responses of the bridge under the vehicle collision and blast and provide some design suggestions to strengthen the bridge.

Conclusions ❖ The finite element models including column, pile …

Optimizing Steel Railway Truss Bridge Health Monitoring, Ahmed Rageh, Daniel Linzell

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Problems - Steel Railway Trusses • Aging • Large system – bridge AND railway • Labor intensive condition eval • Reported conditions: Stringer-to-floor beam connections [Haghani 2012] Stringer flange clip angle cracks [Haghani 2012] Unequal eyebars stress distribution [DelGrego 2008] Displaced eyebar pins [DelGrego 2008

Problems – Condition Evaluation • Visual inspection: Prescribed frequency Costly Subjected to human interpretation • Sensors: Focused on a single bridge Extensive array Costly

Influence Of Skew And Nonlinear Deck On Elastic Versus Inelastic Distribution Behavior And Ultimate Capacity Of Steel Girder Bridges, Fayaz Sofi, Joshua Steelman

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Research Objectives

• Assessment of alternative load distribution methodologies for potential discrepancies that arise when evaluating distribution behavior of skewed steel girder bridges.

• Investigate the influence of skew and material nonlinearities (concrete cracking and steel yielding) on

• Load distribution behavior (elastic versus inelastic).

• System capacities (yielding and ultimate).

Summary and Conclusions • Influence of skew was examined on load distribution behavior, and nonlinear system-based capacities (yielding and ultimate) of composite steel girder bridges in presence of full material nonlinearities. In addition, assessment of two general definitions (beam-line and response fraction approaches) for quantifying load distribution behavior was …

Dynamic Vulnerability Assessment Of Highway And Railway Bridges, Mehdi Mohseni

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Dynamic loads can cause severe damage to bridges, and lead to malfunction of transportation networks. A comprehensive understanding of the nature of the dynamic loads and the structural response of bridges can prevent undesired failures while keeping the cost-safety balance. Dissimilar to the static behavior, the dynamic response of bridges depends on several structural parameters such as material properties, damping and mode shapes. Furthermore, dynamic load characteristics can significantly change the structural response. In most cases, complexity and involvement of numerous parameters require the designer to investigate the bridge response via a massive numerical study.

This dissertation targets three main …

Seamless Bridge And Roadway System For The U.S. Practice, Nima Ala

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Expansion joints are one of the main causes for high maintenance costs in bridges. The search for ideal expansion joints has proven fruitless. That is why it has been said that “the best joint is no joint”. A seamless bridge system is envisioned that results in bridges with long service lives by eliminating the joints over the entire length of the bridge, approach slab and a segment of the roadway called transition. All bridge thermal movements are dissipated to zero in the transition. The system is similar to a system developed in Australia but modifications had to be made to …