Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Combined Behavioral And Engineering Approach To Preventing Highway Fatalities, Benjamin Blandford, Reginald Souleyrette, Caitlin N. Pope, Tony Fields, Erin Lammers-Staats

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Traditional, single-discipline highway safety approaches can be augmented through multidisciplinary approaches that consider both engineering and behavioral interventions (e.g., education, enforcement, public outreach campaigns). Leveraging a systems-based conceptual framework of roadway safety, multiple forms of statistical and geospatial analysis, and SPF modeling and network screening, this report proposes and demonstrates methods for unpacking the influence of behavioral-related factors on crash occurrences and outcomes. The primary focus is on behaviors targeted in the Strategic Highway Safety Plan — aggressive driving, distracted driving, impaired driving, and driving without proper restraint (i.e., seatbelts). Based on application of these methods, the report highlights areas …

Comparing 1d, 2d, And 3d Hydraulic Models In Urban Flooding Applications, Taylor Kesler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Floods have been a hazard to people since people first started building near rivers. Predicting floods can be very beneficial to save lives and property. Computers have made it possible to solve fluid dynamics equations in a fast and efficient manner. Computer programs have been designed to solve these equations and create digital models of floods.

This study compares three different methods of computer modeling and explores their advantages and disadvantages. One-dimensional models solve fluid equations by setting up a series of cross sections. Two-dimensional models use a grid-like mesh to solve fluid equations from one cell to the next. …

Development Of A Unified Personal And Commercial Residential Hurricane Vulnerability Model Including Sensitivity And Uncertainty Studies, Roberto Vicente Silva De Abreu

Theses and Dissertations

As the population and properties in the state of Florida increase, there is an increase in hurricane losses. Hurricane winds and debris can impact the exterior components of a building envelope. The envelope breaches and defects of these components provide a pathway to hurricane wind-driven rain into the building, which causes interior and contents damage. Loss models, such as the Florida Public Hurricane Loss Model (FPHLM), estimate hurricane insured losses for portfolios of buildings. The vulnerability component of the FPHLM has a personal residential module (PR), for single family homes, and a commercial residential module (CR-LR), for apartment buildings. They …

Estimating Seasonal Crop Water Consumption In Irrigated Lands Using Soil Moisture And Reference Evapotranspiration, Oliver Henry Hargreaves

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The increase in population and the megadrought that the American west has been experiencing for the past two decades and for the foreseeable future are the cause of great stress on the region’s water resources. In an effort to mitigate the worst effects of water shortages many public and private agencies have been pursuing ways to reduce water use while maintaining the current status quo of living standards, industrial productivity, and agricultural yield. This project aims to study water use in irrigated lands dedicated to agriculture with the objective of quantifying crop water use, often referred to as evapotranspiration (ET), …

Implications Of Good Faith In Construction Contracts, Nadine Rashed

Theses and Dissertations

The principle of good faith is making inroads and continues to significantly impact various contractual arrangements. In most civil legal systems, good faith is present as a core principle. Nevertheless, its definition is beyond doubt scarce in the construction industry. However, the common law lacks the good faith obligations. Good faith is one of the fundamental principles that impact the contractual obligations between the contracting parties. This paper creates an urge to address the implications of good faith on construction contracts in the pre-contract and post-contract award stages. Therefore, the paper’s objective is to propose a legal/contractual clause that meets …

Spatial Data Analysis For The Development Of Expected Adverse Weather Charts For Transportation Construction Projects, S M Rahat Rashedi, Akosua Ofosua Okyere-Addo

SDSU Data Science Symposium

Problem - Seasonal and daily weather events impact construction projects across the various climate regions of South Dakota in differing fashions. Additionally, the impacts for similar weather events can impact grading, surfacing, and structural construction activities in various ways. Adverse weather conditions can cause major delays which may lead to time extensions and increase project cost.

Purpose – To address these issues, South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT) developed Working Day Weather Charts in 1998. However, advances in construction practices and weather prediction as well as climatic changes have occurred over the interim 25 years. This study is focused on …

Spatial Data Analysis For Traffic Safety Network Screening, Akosua Okyere-Addo, S. M. Rahat Rashedi

SDSU Data Science Symposium

Problem - The roadway system represents a major investment, both public and private, and a valuable resource that enables mobility and accessibility to users. Due to degradation of aging infrastructure and increasing traffic, transportation agencies are seeking to effectively update or improve the system. With rising costs, tight budgets, and limited land resources, agencies are seeking effective techniques for identifying critical mobility and safety concerns. Historically, assignment of crashes to portions of the network, whether segments or intersections, has been the primary manner to link crash and road elements.

Purpose – The primary goal is to explore a potentially more …

Estimating Solar Energy Production In Urban Areas For Electric Vehicles, Shaimaa Ahmed

Theses and Dissertations

Cities have a high potential for solar energy from PVs installed on buildings' rooftops. There is an increased demand for solar energy in cities to reduce the negative effect of climate change. The thesis investigates solar energy potential in urban areas. It tries to determine how to detect and identify available rooftop areas, how to calculate suitable ones after excluding the effects of the shade, and the estimated energy generated from PVs. Geographic Information Sciences (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) are used in solar city planning. The goal of this research is to assess available and suitable rooftops areas using …

An Artificial Intelligence Framework To Contractor Financial Prequalification, Salah Elgamal

Theses and Dissertations

Financial distress in the construction industry always causes major disruptions that

usually result in a rippling effect on the economy. Avoiding such defaults is a top priority for employers to meet their demands. Artificial Intelligence (AI) models have provided increased accuracy in predicting financial distress compared to statistical, fuzzy and logistic regression models, and other classification models. The main objective of this work is to support project employers in pre-qualifying contractors by predicting the status of construction contractors during a bid analysis to disqualify contractors with a high probability of experiencing financial distress during the project duration. Eight financial indicators …

Nanopesticide Influence On Nitrogen Cycling In Soils, Jacob Richardson

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Nanotechnology has several applications in the agricultural industry, as the small size of nanoparticles and high reactivity enables targeted delivery of pesticides and fertilizers to the intended crop. Copper-based nanopesticides such as Kocide, are proposed as a more efficient method for targeted pest control. Despite the potential benefits of nanopesticides, little is known regarding the transport and implications of nanopesticides under long-term inundation conditions often found in downstream wetlands. Specifically, the impact of nanopesticides on microbial nitrogen processes in wetland environments remains unknown. Therefore, this thesis explores the impact of nanopesticides, specifically Kocide, on microbial nitrogen cycles in agricultural and …

Winter Dynamics Of Storm Water Management Ponds And Winter Tolerance In Three Aquatic Plant Species, Patrick Strzalkowski

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The vast majority of the research into the performance of stormwater management ponds (SWMPs) has been performed in warm regions or during the warmer seasons in temperate regions. It is presumed that SWMPs are inactive in the winter as any potential stormwater is trapped in snow and ice. The main goal of this thesis was to test this presumption and to study the dynamics and performance of three SWMPs during the winter. Remote water level loggers were installed into the three SWMPs and daily grab samples from the influents and effluents were taken and analyzed for total phosphorus (TP), chloride, …

Faceted Nanomaterial Synthesis, Characterizations And Applications In Reactive Electrochemical Membrane Filtration, Qingquan Ma

Dissertations

Facet engineering of nanomaterials, especially metals and metal oxides has become an important strategy for tuning catalytic properties and functions from heterogeneous catalysis to electrochemical catalysis, photocatalysis, biomedicine, fuel cells, and gas sensors. The catalytic properties are highly related to the surface electronic structures, surface electron transport characteristics, and active center structures of catalysts, which can be tailored by surface facet control. The aim of this doctoral dissertation research is to study the facet-dependent properties of metal or metal oxide nanoparticles using multiple advanced characterization techniques. Specifically, the novel atomic force microscope-scanning electrochemical microscope (AFM-SECM) and density functional theory (DFT) …

Effect Of Hot Weather Concreting On The Mechanical And Durability Properties Of Concrete-A Review, Rawan Ramadan, Hassan Ghanem, Jamal Khatib, Adel Elkordi

BAU Journal - Science and Technology

Nowadays, hot weather is an essential motivator that leads concrete to lose its special characteristics. The high loss of moisture by evaporation and rapid hardening encourage the cracking potential and placement operations. The fresh mixed and hardened concrete tend to be damaged due to several conditions such as: high concrete temperature, High ambient temperature, low relative humidity, and high wind speed. These circumstances accelerate the rate of moisture loss and cement hydration. This article briefly reviews hot weather concreting problems precautions, and curing methods and also discusses the role of incorporation SCMs in reducing the temperature of concrete and enhancing …

Assessing The Influence Of Overweight Axles On Rutting Lives In Flexible Pavements Using Parametric Survival Analysis, Ali Hatoum, Jamal Khatib, Firas Barraj, Adel Elkordi

BAU Journal - Science and Technology

The existence of rutting or permanent deformation on flexible pavement layers has always been a concern that negatively affects the performance of roads by reducing the lifespan of pavement structure and by posing a safety risk for vehicles over the road. Traffic overloading is one of the primary factors that accelerates the deterioration of flexible pavement. This study aims to determine the time to failure of the flexible pavement structures associated with rutting, to indicate the most significant factors affecting rutting, and to assess the influence of overweight axles on pavement rutting life using parametric survival analysis. The data used …

Damage Stability Study Of A 500 Dw Ro-Ro Ferry Vessel, Zulfaidah Ariany, Budhi Santoso, Sarwoko Sarwoko, Nauval Abdurrahman Prasetyo

Makara Journal of Technology

The development of the crossing transportation industry is currently increasing in the island areas. The use of Ro-Ro type ferry boats is extremely efficient in moving people, goods, and vehicles. The current research focuses on the damage stability of the 500 DWT Ro-Ro ferry, which aims to meet the needs of the Ro-Ro ferry in the archipelago area. The previously existing initial design of a barge hull with a main size Lpp = 40.15 m, B = 12 m, H = 3.2 m, and T = 2.15 m was used to analyze the damage stability condition further. First, the drawings …

Using Naming Conventions To Facilitate Data Transfer Between Asset Management Systems And Building Information Models, John D. Foster

Theses and Dissertations

An improvement to the workflow developed by Loeh et al. (2021) is proposed using a Revit template with BUILDER SMS naming conventions when creating the Sustainable Facility Management-enhanced BIM Model. The method presented by Loeh et al. (2021) is modified by integrating BUILDER SMS parameters and naming conventions into the BIM model during, as opposed to after, the creation of the model. Four building models created in 2020-21, four from 2021-22, and one building from 2019 were used in this study. Two groups of students were used to evaluate the effect of the building-specific BIM templates. Evaluating the 2020 and …

Design, Concept, And Visualization Of Urban Multi-Level Growing Table Systems In Hyper Urban Areas, Aaryan Manoj Nair, Shaheed Mohammed, Omar Rahama

Publications and Research

As of a 2019 study conducted by the National Urban Gardening Program (National Urban Gardening Program), urban farming accounts for approximately 19% of the total national farming output and is expected to triple to almost 45% by 2025. There is intensive research being conducted on aspects of reduced recidivism, communal health benefits, natural carbon capture systems, improved urban ecology and the necessity for reducing the carbon footprint of food, (informally dubbed “food miles”) there is little substantive research on optimisation, and maximation of crop productivity in hyper-urban areas.

The purpose of this report is to understand the functionalities of urban …

Reduction Of Embodied Carbon In Buildings Through Use Of Low Carbon Strategies And Standardization And Enforcement Of Life Cycle Assessment, Bhargavi Sai Sudhakar

Master's Projects and Capstones

The building and construction industry is energy intensive and as of 2021, this industry is responsible for 37% of the total global greenhouse gas emissions. In previous studies of conventional buildings, the operational energy of a building contributed to 80% and the embodied energy contributed to 20% of the total life cycle energy. With increase in policies and standards that focus on reducing the operational energy, low energy and certified green buildings have emerged where the operational energy has considerably reduced. The relative and absolute share of embodied energy in these energy efficient buildings have increased due to excessive use …

Modeling The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Speeding At Rural Roadway Facilities In Maine Using Short-Term Speed And Traffic Count Data., Amirhossein Shahlaeegilan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant change in traffic operations and safety. For instance, various U.S. states reported an increase in the rate of fatal and severe injury crashes over this duration. In April and May 2020, the comprehensive stay-at-home orders were issued across the country, including in Maine. These orders resulted in drastic reductions in traffic volume,switching working policies of noticeable number of corporations and educational administrations like universities to the remote working, closure of many organizations during the lockdown period, and people avoidance to public places to suppress the possible exposure to the virus were among the most …

Anthropogenic Effects On Tidal Distortion In A Tidal River, Matthew D. Fischer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tidal rivers are landward portions of estuarine systems constituting the union between coastal, tidally controlled settings and rivers, where fluvial processes dominate. In these reaches, river discharge (mean flow) and tides are the two most important mechanisms in controlling geophysical flows. The processes governing water levels and current amplitudes in tidal rivers are highly nonlinear and modulated by external forcings- thus requiring sophisticated techniques for accurate prediction and forecasting. Physical oceanographers and estuarine physicists tend to limit their study area to the maximum extent of the horizontal tide (salinity intrusion), not the most landward point influenced by tidal water levels. …