Civil Engineering Commons^™

Spatial Analysis Of Travel Behavior And Response To Traveler Information, Xin Wang

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Transportation planners have long recognized that it is urgent to integrate emerging spatial analysis with travel behavior studies. A clearer understanding of the spatial interactions among travelers and the complex environment they face has the potential to reap benefits of the ongoing technologies of travel behavior, spatial analysis and Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS).

Considering that spatial patterns have been overlooked in the literature of travel behavior and ATIS, the main objective of this research is to use robust methods of spatial analysis to enhance the understanding of how the associations between traveler decisions, built environment and socio-demographic characteristics are …

Evaluation Of Hydraulic Conductivity Of Non Aqueous Phase Liquids In Partially Saturated Soils, Chijioke Ekeleme Akamiro

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This study seeks to investigate a problem of predicting the hydraulic conductivity of NAPLs in partially saturated soils and to relate the hydraulic conductivity to basic soil parameters that are either easy to determine or are in wide use. To evaluate hydraulic conductivity in partially saturated soils, previous researchers have focused on flow geometry, soil and chemical properties, etc. used in CHEMFLO program by Nofziger et al., (1989) and saturation equations by such authors as Van Genutchen (1980) and Brooks and Corey (1964). Among those, the soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) is the most widely used constitutive relations for unsaturated soils …

Static And Impact Load Response Of Reinforced Concrete Beams And Slabs With Nsm-Cfrp Retrofitting, Nakul Ramanna-Sanjeevaiah

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The use of Near-Surface Mounted Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (NSM-CFRP) reinforcement such as carbon FRP strips holds a high potential for increasing the flexural strength of reinforced concrete members. In comparison to externally bonded CFRP laminates, NSM-CFRP reinforcement approach has several advantages. The main advantages include increased stiffness and strength, better bonding, the possibility of anchoring the reinforcement into adjacent members, and minimal installation time. Thus, the structural engineers worldwide are developing a considerable interest in practical applications of the NSM-CFRP reinforcement technique. A considerable amount of research is still needed in order to fully benefit from this method not …

Interaction Between Electromagnetic Waves And Transport In Saturated Media, Mahsa Azad, Harlan Sangrey, Arvin Farid, Jim Browning, Elisa Barney Smith

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Air sparging is one of the most popular remediation technologies. However, it is limited to a small radius of influence (ROI) surrounding the air injection well. Hence, there have been several efforts to improve its effectiveness. To study the possibility of improving the effectivity of air sparging electromagnetic (EM) waves, an easily visible analogous problem (dye transport in water) is studied in this paper. In order to quantify the effects of EM stimulation on flow of an inert, nonreactive dye in water, EM-stimulated and unstipulated dye transport experiments tests were performed and compared. To quantify this interaction, both dye transport …

Removing 17Β-Estradiol From Drinking Water In A Biologically Active Carbon (Bac) Reactor Modified From A Granular Activated Carbon (Gac) Reactor, Zhongtian Li

Z Li

Estrogenic compounds in drinking water sources pose potential threats to human health. Treatment technologies are needed to effectively remove these compounds for the production of safe drinking water. In this study, GAC adsorption was first tested for its ability to remove a model estrogenic compound, 17β-estradiol (E2). Although GAC showed a relatively high adsorption capacity for E2 in isotherm experiments, it appeared to have a long mass transfer zone in a GAC column reactor, causing an early leakage of E2 in the effluent. With an influent E2 concentration of 20 μg/L, the GAC reactor was able to bring down effluent …

Understanding The Impact Of Bead Type On Paint And Thermoplastic Pavement Markings, Joshua D. Hollingsworth

Theses and Dissertations

Each year the United States spends approximately two billion dollars maintaining pavement markings. In addition, an impending Federal policy establishing a minimum retro-reflectivity value for pavement markings has driven asset managers to develop performance models to effectively and efficiently manage these high quantity, low cost assets. Research over the past decade has sought to identify and understand the many factors influencing pavement marking degradation. Despite the fact that reflective glass beads are foundational to pavement marking retro-reflectivity, little research has specifically considered the impacts of bead type. The purpose of this study is to quantify the impact that bead type …

An Analysis Of Turnover Intentions: A Reexamination Of Air Force Civil Engineering Company Grade Officers, Joshua D. Connell

Theses and Dissertations

A potential retention problem is facing company grade officers (CGOs) in the Air Force Civil Engineer (CE) career field. This is due to the stress caused by a demanding workload experienced during a prolonged period of conflict (Iraq and Afghanistan), which is compounded by a reduction in force. The possibility of reduced retention is thus a concern for CE leadership. Based on past research, and the prior study conducted by Riddel (2010), a new model of turnover intentions was developed. The new model expands on Riddel's simplified model of turnover and attempts to focus on key factors that may help …

Turnover Intentions: A Quantitative Analysis Of Comments From Air Force Civil Engineering Company Grade Officers, Tj E. Gabrielson

Theses and Dissertations

Voluntary turnover is a concern for the military and many other organizations from a financial and performance standpoint. This study applied grounded theory to code and network comments provided by CE officers in 2010. The results of this study found the most influential construct that predicts turnover intentions to be the relationship of OPSTEMPO influencing interrole conflict. This conflict is increased by the workload at home station due to under manning within CE. OPSTEMPO is an important aspect of a military member's decision to stay or leave the service because it was found to interact with a multitude of other …

Rainwater Harvesting Storage Methods And Self Supply In Uganda, Jonathan Peter Blanchard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Self supply is an emerging approach to water supply which focuses on fostering household investment in incremental improvements to their water sources. When successful, it can lower costs and increase sustainability by offering users a larger share

of ownership in their own supply, and harnessing the already existing strengths of a community rather than trying to impose an external perspective. In addition to well upgrading and source protection, one of the key self supply areas is rainwater harvesting.

Uganda has a diverse selection of rainwater storage options, but many of them are scattered and disparate.

The objective of this study …

Willingness-To-Pay For Maintenance And Improvements To Existing Sanitation Infrastructure: Assessing Community-Led Total Sanitation In Mopti, Mali, Justin Vern Meeks

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, much focus has been put on the sustainability of water and sanitation development projects. Experts in this field have found that many of the projects of the past have failed to achieve sustainability because of a lack of demand for water and sanitation interventions at a grassroots level. For years projects looked to create this demand through various subsidy schemes, with the "software" of behavior change and education taking a backseat to the "hardware" of infrastructure provision. Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is a fairly new way of looking at the issues of increasing basic sanitation coverage, promoting …

Maintenance Operations Degradation Of Airfield Pavement Markings, John C. Jaszkowiak

Theses and Dissertations

Pavement markings are an essential element in the navigational aids subsystem for any airfield. Most airfields still use waterborne paint as the primary marking material, although there are other materials in use on roadways that airfield managers could use to save time and money. An airfield experiences a host of maintenance operations that cause degradation of the pavement markings. Of particular concern are rubber removal operations, sweeping operations, and snowplowing operations. This research focuses on chemical rubber removal operations and sweeping operations. The study evaluates waterborne paint markings and thermoplastic marking strips to determine if these marking materials perform differently …

Characterization And Pollutant Loading Estimation For Highway Runoff In Omaha, Nebraska, Camilo Torres

Camilo Torres

Stormwater from roadways could have negative effects on the environment. Typical highway runoff pollutants include heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons, gasoline constituents, PAHs (polyaromatic hydrocarbons), oxygen demanding compounds measured as COD (chemical oxygen demand) and BOD (biochemical oxygen demand), and road salts. The objectives of this research were: characterize the pollutants in roadway runoff and determine the effectiveness of the existing stormwater BMPs at the study site. To accomplish these objectives, eleven rainfall events were sampled from November 2008 through November 2010. First flush and composite highway runoff samples were analyzed for heavy metals, anions, nutrients, particulates, BOD, COD, VOCs, and …

Evaluation Of Toxicity Analysis For Foundry Sand Specifications, M. Katherine Banks, A. Paul Schwab

Arthur Paul Schwab

Byproducts from many industries have the potential to be used as construction materials, but some means is required to determine if the material is environmentally benign. Foundry sands are produced in many states and can be useful as in transportation projects. However, INDOT currently requires the use of the MICROTOX test to assess the potential toxicity of the sands, and this requirement is viewed as an unnecessary impediment by the producers of foundry sands and is a requirement not encountered in other states. Therefore, the goal of this project was to review current requirements for testing of recycled materials, determine …

Estimating Dilemma Zone Hazard Function At High Speed Isolated Intersection, Anuj Sharma, Darcy Bullock, Srinivas Peeta

Darcy M Bullock

The traditional surrogate measures of safety (like number of vehicles in dilemma zone) fail to quantify the risk of crash. Traffic conflict has been proposed as an improved surrogate measure of safety for operations at isolated intersections to quantify the risk. This paper develops a dilemma zone hazard function estimating procedure to obtain the probability of traffic conflict occurring. This approach is an extension of the current approach of dilemma zone boundaries to determine the risk of traffic conflict for an individual vehicle in the case of a dilemma zone incursion. Field data collected from the intersection of SR37 and …

Evaluation Of Stop Bar Video Detection Accuracy At Signalized Intersections, Avery Rhodes, Darcy M. Bullock, James R. Sturdevant, Zachary Thomas Clark

Darcy M Bullock

Many agencies nationwide have adopted video vehicle detection technology as an alternative to inductive loops. While many product evaluations have been performed, the majority of these evaluations have concentrated on freeway applications where speed and volume were the primary evaluation criteria. At an actuated intersection, the metrics of speed and volume do not necessarily represent how well a device will operate as a presence detector. Video detection was evaluated at two signalized intersections in West Lafayette, Indiana and Noblesville, Indiana. A camera on each approach was located at the vendor recommended position, at a height of 40 feet and offset …

Recasting Dilemma Zone Design As A Marginal Cost-Benefit Problem, Anuj Sharma, Darcy M. Bullock, Srinivas Peeta

Darcy M Bullock

One control objective at high-speed isolated intersections is to provide safe phase transition by minimizing the occurrence of high-speed vehicles in the dilemma zone before the phase is terminated. An upper limit for extending the green (maximum green time) is used to avoid an indefinite extension of the main-street green. Currently, the maximum green times are chosen by using engineering judgment. This approach does not explicitly consider the trade-offs between safety and delay and hence often results in both unsafe and inefficient performance at the intersection under medium to heavy traffic volumes. The dilemma problem is recast as one of …

Statewide Wireless Communications Project, Volume 3: Data Collection And Signal Processing For Improvement Of Road Profiling And Proof Of Concept Of A Vehicle-Infrastructure Based Road Surface Monitoring Application, J. V. Krogmeier, Darcy M. Bullock

Darcy M Bullock

The Statewide Wireless Communications Project was an umbrella project intended to support various INDOT activities in the area of wireless communications. As these activities were conducted independently the report for the project is organized into three volumes. Volume 1 contains the results of satellite and cellular communications field testing undertaken in support of INDOT’s SiteManager application. Volume 1 also contains the results of an evaluation of spread spectrum radios for long-range communications. Volume 2 contains the results of detection zone evaluation for loop detection of bicycles and the results of testing algorithms for travel time estimation using vehicle re-identification based …

Construction Work Zone Safety, Christopher Ryan Huebschman, Camilo Garcia, Darcy M. Bullock, Dulcy M. Abraham

Darcy M Bullock

The need of maintaining safety of motorists and workers during periods of construction activities on interstates has prompted the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) to initiate a study aimed at improving the safety in work zones on rural interstates. The two main objectives of the project are 1) determine if active warning devices or improved signing have an impact in work zone safety and 2) determine if it is appropriate to consider temporary roads and bridges during construction activity on interstates in an effort to maintain two lanes open at all times. This report describes the methods used to meet …

Performance Metrics For Freeway Sensors, Christos D. Achillides, Darcy M. Bullock

Darcy M Bullock

Performance measures play a critical role in the operation of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), because they provide feedback to the operators regarding system operations and efficiency. Traffic management systems use archived data, provided by various sensors, as a basis for describing normal conditions and predicting traffic conditions that may be expected at a particular time and place in the highway system. However, data quality is one of the principal concerns of archived ITS data users for the following reasons: 1) Manual inspection techniques are unable to detect significant errors because of the large volume of ITS data; 2) Only minimal …

Event-Based Data Collection For Generating Actuated Controller Performance Measures, Edward J. Smaglik, Anuj Sharma, Darcy M. Bullock, James R. Sturdevant, Gary Duncan

Darcy M Bullock

Cycle-by-cycle data have been shown to be effective in the analysis of a signalized intersection with measures of effectiveness such as volume-to-capacity ratios, arrival type, and average vehicular delay. Currently, actuated traffic controllers are unable to store vehicle counts and vehicle occupancy in cycle-by-cycle bins, requiring extra equipment and personnel to collect data in these bins. The objective of this research was to develop an integrated general purpose data collection module that time stamps detector and phase state changes within a National Electrical Manufacturers Association actuated traffic signal controller and uses those data to provide quantitative graphs to assess arterial …