Civil Engineering Commons^™

Integrating Manufacturing Geometric Imperfections In The Inelastic Behavior Modeling Of Joints Used In Three-Dimensional Structures, Alfonso Andres Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Three-dimensional structures follow design practices on the common assumption that joints are either rigid, or pinned. However, the non-linear behavior of engagement of the joints is required to be incorporated into the analysis. This research is intended to incorporate manufacturing geometric imperfections into the mechanical analysis of reticulated space structures jointing systems. Imperfect jointing systems deviate from the as-designed models in such a way that the location of the connecting surfaces does not follow the designed interaction path between the component elements. However, current structural analysis methodologies do not consider manufacturing geometric imperfections and often fail to consider the stresses …

Asset Management Support Tools To Assist Agencies In The Development Of Guardrail Preservation Programs, Sandra N. Gutierrez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this Thesis is to develop a Guardrail Asset Management Framework and a Condition-Based Model to assist agencies in the development of guardrail preservation programs. Both of the guardrail asset management tools can be incorporated into an existing asset management program to assist agencies in utilizing guardrail inventory to forecast key asset management parameters such as the guardrail condition, funds necessary for maintenance and repair, backlogged funding, guardrail system value, and the guardrail sustainability ratio. Each of these parameters is described and determined for a case study involving six scenarios modeling funding and maintenance constraints that can arise …

Quantification Of The Impact Of Asphalt Pavement Conditions On Gas Emissions, Oscar Daniel Gonzalez Calvo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research develops a methodology to quantify the impact of asphalt pavement conditions on vehicular gas emissions based on statistical analysis to correlate the relationship between asphalt pavement roughness and gas emissions. ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) hypoThesis tests were used to compare the factors affecting the results. The roughness was measured with the International Roughness Index (IRI) using a profilometer provided by TxDOT and the gas emissions were measured with a Portable Emission Measurement System (PEMS).

This research also presents the savings obtained in gas emissions using different maintenance and rehabilitation strategies established by TxDOT (Preventive Maintenance, Light Rehabilitation, Medium …

Impact Of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement And Recycled Asphalt Shingles On Laboratory And Field Performance Of Texas Asphalt Concrete Pavements, Berenice Salaices Gomez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The use of recycled materials in Asphalt Concrete (AC) mixes is highly promoted in the transportation industry. Recycled materials minimize the use of virgin materials, reduce the consumption of resources, and cut costs for new construction or rehabilitation projects. The incorporation of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) and Recycled Asphalt Shingles (RAS) in the AC mixture is promoted as long as equal or improved performance is achieved. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is currently placing asphaltic concrete (AC) mixes that are lasting less than their expected performance life when recycled materials are used.

The objective of this Thesis is to …

Air Injection As A Scour Countermeasure At Bridge Piers, Ravi Teja Reddy Tippireddy

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Local scour is a major cause of concern for the stability of bridge piers and the safety of the public using the bridges. Structural countermeasures and flow-altering devices have been developed to deal with local scour. Many armoring structural countermeasures are very effective and efficient in clear water conditions but are susceptible to moving bed forms and leaching. The flow-altering devices are effective in both clear water conditions and moving bed forms, but are prone to clogging, less efficient in changing flow direction, etc. This study aims to reduce the local scour by injecting air in order to reduce the …

A Case Study Of Student Veteran Efficacy In The College Of Engineering And Information Technology At Georgia Southern University, Kevin G. Finley

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This thesis addresses the issues student veterans face in their transition from military to academic life while pursuing an undergraduate degree in the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) at Georgia Southern University’s College of Engineering and Information Technology (CEIT). Historically this transition has been a difficult one. Through the implementation of a mentorship program comprised of military veterans on the staff and faculty of Georgia Southern University as well as assistance and participation from members of the case study researcher team and primary researcher this program assisted incoming military student veterans as they assimilated into the collegiate atmosphere. The …

Fate And Impacts Of Triclosan, Sulfamethoxazole, And 17Β-Estradiol During Nutrient Recovery Via Ion Exchange And Struvite Precipitation, Yiran Tong, Patrick J. Mcnamara, Brooke K. Mayer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Increasing emphasis on resource recovery from wastewater highlights the importance of capturing valuable products, e.g., nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, while removing contaminants, e.g., organic micropollutants. The objective of this research was to evaluate the fate of the micropollutants triclosan (present as a mixture of neutral and anionic species at neutral pH), 17β-estradiol (neutral at neutral pH), and sulfamethoxazole (anionic at neutral pH) during nutrient recovery using ion exchange-precipitation. Adsorption of the three micropollutants to the phosphate-selective ion exchange resins LayneRT and DOW-HFO-Cu ranged from 54% to 88% in Milli-Q water tests and 50% to 71% in …

Virtual Reality Of Earthquake Ground Motions For Emergency Response, Ting Lin

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Ground motions interface earthquake science and engineering to advance understanding of seismic hazards and risk. Virtual reality provides an attractive tool to extend knowledge of the research community to a larger audience. This work visualizes emergency response under extreme motions, in the CAVE of the MARquette Visualization Laboratory. The visualization (a) displays ground motions (from the science community), (b) inputs these motions to structural models (from the engineering community) and illustrates the resulting responses, (c) translates structural responses to damage states of building elements, (d) creates a virtual room subjected to the perception associated with such earthquake shaking, and (e) …

Editorial" Fibre Reinforced Polymer Composites For Structural Applications In Construction, Jun Deng, Marcus M.K. Lee, Baolin Wan, Giuseppina Amato

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Baseline Rolling Resistance For Tires’ On-Road Fuel Efficiency Using Finite Element Modeling, Jaime Hernandez, Imad L. Al-Qadi, Hasan Ozer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Calculation of truck tires rolling resistance, using the finite element method and considering variables such as incompressible visco-hyperelastic rubber materials, accurate tire geometry and steady temperature distribution, is presented. The model was validated using experimentally measured contact area and contact stresses. Rolling resistance was calculated for three values of axle load, tire inflation pressure, temperature and speed. In addition, regression analysis was used to propose a mathematical expression for predicting rolling resistance as a function of the considered variables. Finally, the contribution of tire’s rubber components to the internal energy was quantified, and it was found that sidewall and subtread …

Life Cycle Assessment (Lca) Of Ore Transportation Route Alternatives For Eagle Mine, Soumith Kumar Oduru

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Transportation sector at large is a major consumer of fossil fuels and constitutes more than a quarter of the global greenhouse gas emissions. When making infrastructure route and mode choice decisions for new freight-oriented projects, it is important that environmental and emissions considerations are included as an integral part of the selection process. Emissions from freight transportation projects related to mining and natural resource industry are especially critical, as they involve high volumes and tonnages often in pristine environments. The most logical time for emissions analysis is during modal and route analysis that are often conducted in the planning stage …

Social, Economic, And Technical Feasibility Of Ablution Gray Water Reuse In Tong, Ghana, Adrienne Masterton

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Water insecurity is a constant stressor for millions of people around the globe. The potential of gray water as an alternative water source has gained increasing attention in the literature. In water-scarce Muslim communities, the practice of ablution – the rinsing of the face, hands, and feet before prayer – offers a unique opportunity for gray water reuse.

This report investigates the feasibility of treating and reusing ablution gray water (AGW) with respect to religious acceptability, economic measures, and physical parameters in Tong, a rural community of Muslim subsistence farmers in northern Ghana. Investigatory tools included: household water use surveys, …

Design, Laboratory Testing, And Yield Line Analysis Of A Ferrocement Pit Latrine Slab, Larry Alan Schirmer Jr

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Access to sanitation for rural and indigenous Panamanians is the vision of global efforts to improve their quality of life. As part of on-site work from the Peace Corps to change public perceptions about open defecation, the author designed and tested a new type of ferrocement latrine slab to reduce the amount of materials involved in building latrines and by extension the manual labor involved. In the course of this investigation, a sanitation based case study establishes the precedent for working with ferrocement in these areas, and the author explores the history and structural properties of ferrocement. In laboratory experiments, …

Polyvinyl Alcohol (Pva) Fiber-Reinforced Rubber Concrete And Rubberized Self-Compacting Concrete, Jiaqing Wang

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This study experimentally investigates the mechanical performance and durability of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) fiber-reinforced rubber concrete and the rubberized self-compacting concrete. The waste rubber particles were introduced as a partial replacement of fine aggregate in the plain concrete. In addition, the waste tire rubbers were pre-treated with alkali surface treatment method to enhance the performance. The PVA fibers were added to the concrete mixes to enhance the post-failure resistance and thus fracture energy. Rubberized fiber concrete samples were prepared with different fine aggregate replacement ratios and the optimum fiber content. At the same time, the rubber particles had been used …

Travel Time Estimation And Prediction For Urban Arterial Roads, Porntep Puangprakhon

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Travel time information has been accepted as the core of advanced traveler information systems (ATIS) and advanced traffic management systems (ATMS). Providing the accurate travel time information to traffic operators and travelers allows them to make informed decisions, leading to more advantage for individual road users and the entire transportation system. Most of the traffic information providers normally deliver the current traffic conditions or current travel times to public assuming the state of traffic remains constant in the near future. Aimed at the more effective applications, short-term future traffic conditions have been proposed as a valuable piece of information in …

Uav-Based Bridge Inspection And Computational Simulations, Luis Duque

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), commonly known as drones, has significantly increased in the field of civil engineering due to the poor condition of the United States’ infrastructure. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) recently reported that more than 9.1% of the United States’ bridges were structurally deficient and required attention and maintenance to ensure appropriate structural performance. Meanwhile, current practices are expensive and unsafe for bridge inspectors, requiring innovative and safer methods for the study of bridges. The goal of this paper was to identify better techniques to not only inspect, quantify, and determine the effect …

Rubber Additives To Concrete Specimens, Kendall J. Sweitzer, Mary Mccannon

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Rubber, as an additive to concrete, would hypothetically cause a concrete specimen to take on some mechanical characteristics of the rubber to a certain degree. In particular, the concrete’s durability should increase when exposed to fluctuating temperature conditions due to the rubber additive. This experiment sets out to test crumb rubber as a concrete additive, cured under various atmospheric conditions. The effects shall be measured via a simple concrete compression test.

Unfortunately, several errors took place during experimental process that led to inconclusive results. However, it can be reasonably considered from testing Matrix One that the addition of crumb rubber …

Compressive Strength Relative To Sustainable Materials In Concrete, Brad Harvey

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The objective of this study is to determine how integrating abundant waste materials into concrete affects its compressive strength. This research will be used to benefit the construction industry by replacing a portion of a conventional concrete mix (cement, stone, sand, and water) with more sustainable materials. In order to create a more sustainable concrete mixture, the following mix design and methodology was followed.

The initial step was to create an updatable MS Excel spreadsheet to aid in the mix development (the spreadsheet is shown in Appendix A). These sheets allowed for easy transitions from one mix to another by …

Chemical Modification Of Crumb Rubber To Increase Its Bonding With Concrete, Mary T. Mccannon, Kendall J. Sweitzer

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The hydrophilicity of crumb rubber was increased with wet chemical modification and added to concrete to increase its adhesion with concrete, consequently the compressive strength relative to that of concrete with untreated rubber. Other modification methods were tested on crumb rubber and rubber sheets to yield an increase in hydrophilicity. Certain tests were less reliable for powder testing or tedious and time consuming and concrete materials and rubber may not be homogeneous.

For wet chemical modification, several approaches were attempted. First, crumb rubber was soaked in 5% sodium hydroxide, 5% potassium permanganate and saturated sodium bisulfite, tested for hydrophilicity using …

Experiences Of Public Agency Managers When Making Outsourcing Decisions, Shakeel Baig

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Managers in state transportation agencies in the United States must frequently choose between using the talents and abilities of in-house staff or outsourcing for road and bridge design projects. Budgetary crises have strongly affected funding for transportation infrastructure. Facing budgetary pressures to suppress costs, managers must frequently make the choice of outsourcing a project or performing it in-house. Yet, decision-making models for these decisions are inadequate. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and describe the lived experiences of public agency managers when making decisions to outsource the core government functions such as road and bridge design projects. …