Civil Engineering Commons^™

Experimental And Numerical Evaluation Of Cured In Place Pipe Lining System For High Temperature Applications In Sewer Pipes, Shaurav Z. Alam

Doctoral Dissertations

Some of the older cities across North America and Europe had been using steam driven HVAC systems since beginning of the last century. Consolidated Edison (Con Ed.) of New York operates the New York City steam system, the largest commercial district heating system in the world, with more than 100 miles of transmission and distribution pipes serving Manhattan Island. Other steam district systems exist in San Francisco, Harrisburg, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Detroit, some dating back to 1903. In those cities the sewer pipes are used as venues for discharging the waste steam condensate from the HVAC system.

The …

Blind Pass Stability Analysis, Robert Burgin Neal Ii

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The stability of Blind Pass has been subjective since the opening of Redfish Pass in the 1920's. The inlet's stability, defined as its ability to maintain a consistent or equilibrium cross-section, is reviewed in terms of its historic performance and that provided through a 2009 maintenance project. Pre-project expectations are compared with physical results to illustrate the initial success of construction. The Escoffier relationship of tidal prism and cross-section area is implemented to gauge the 2009 projects long term stability. Additional monitoring within one year of construction is analyzed to further realize anticipated stability trends. The hydraulic benefit of a …

Application Of Noise Cancelling And Damage Detection Algorithms In Nde Of Concrete Bridge Decks Using Impact Signals, Gang Zhang, Ronald S. Harichandran, Pradeep Ramahulli

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Delamination is a commonly observed distress in concrete bridge decks. Among all the delamination detection methods, acoustic methods have the advantages of being fast and inexpensive. In traditional acoustic inspection methods, the inspector drags a chain alone or hammers on the bridge deck and detects delamination from the “hollowness” of the sound. The signals are often contaminated by ambient traffic noise and the detection of delamination is highly subjective. This paper describes the performance of an impact-based acoustic NDE method where the traffic noise was filtered by employing a noise cancelling algorithm and where subjectivity was eliminated by introducing feature …

Review Of "Handbook For Blast Resistent Design Of Buildings", Norbert J. Delatte

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Case Methods In Civil Engineering Teaching, Timothy A. Newson, Norbert J. Delatte

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

English: There have been significant changes in undergraduate civil engineering curricula in the last two decades. Key issues for university curriculum committees are selection and transference of appropriate skills and attributes for students to succeed in the industry. Despite significant changes occurring in teaching theories, civil engineering education still relies heavily on deductive instruction. Case-based teaching is one of the most widespread forms of inductive learning and this paper describes the differences between two of the most familiar types: 'case-histories' and 'case-studies'. These methods are presented using the Kansas City Hyatt Regency walkway collapse as an exemplar. The benefits of …

Bs News September/October

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Implementing A Long-Term Bridge Monitoring Strategy For A Composite Steel Girder Bridge, Shelley Plude

Master's Theses

The University of Connecticut and the Connecticut Department of Transportation have established a long-term bridge health monitoring system to monitor critical vulnerabilities in a group of bridges throughout the state. This research focuses on a three-span, simply supported composite steel girder bridge carrying three lanes of highway traffic. It has been a part of the University of Connecticut and Connecticut Department of Transportation monitoring network since 2004 and is fitted with 20 strain gauges located at midspan at the top and bottom of the web of each girder.

To monitor the critical vulnerabilities of the bridge, it is important to …

Development Of A High Strain-Rate Constitutive Model For Sands And Its Application In Finite Element Analysis Of Tunnels Subjected To Blast, William T. Higgins Iv

Master's Theses

This thesis describes the development of a constitutive model for simulating the high strain-rate behavior of sands and demonstrates the use of the model by analyzing underground tunnels subjected to blast. The constitutive model is based on the concepts of the critical state soil mechanics and bounding surface plasticity theory. The model captures the behavior of sand under multi-axial loading conditions and predicts both drained and undrained behavior at small and large strains. Perzyna’s overstress theory is incorporated in the model to simulate the viscoplastic behavior of sand under high strain rate. The model follows a nonassociated flow rule.

The …

Anaerobic Processes For Waste Treatment And Energy Generation, Melanie L. Sattler

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications - Archive

No abstract provided.

An Investigation Of Concrete Properties In Support Of International Testing Standards, Justine Barnes

Symposium on Research and Creative Expression (SORCE)

Fresh and hardened concrete testing is an important aspect in evaluating the quality of ready mixed concrete. The testing process requires many standards to ensure repeatable results. The research being conducted examines two particular standards ASTM C143-The Slump of Hydraulic Concrete and ASTM 496-Split Tension Testing of Hardened Concrete. The first test compares the slump on a flat and level surface with the slump when tested on a surface which slopes up to 8%. For each batch of concrete created, 30 slump tests are conducted and three 4x8 cylinders were created for compression testing. The second test examines whether the …

Constitutive Model For Rate Dependent Behavior Of Clay Internal Geotechnical Report 2011-3, Harry Martindale, Dipanjan Basu

Technical Reports

This report presents a strain-rate dependent plastic constitutive model for clays. Based on the concepts of critical-state soil mechanics and bounding surface plasticity theory, the model reproduces the mechanical response of clays under multi-axial loading conditions and predicts both the drained and undrained behavior. The model parameters are determined for Boston Blue Clay, London Clay and Kaolin Clay, and the performance of the model in simulating the mechanical response of these clays is demonstrated for low to medium strain rates. The sensitivity of each model parameter is checked by perturbing the calibrated values by ±20%. Subsequently, a probabilistic analysis using …

A High Strain-Rate Constitutive Model For Sand With Application In Finite Element Analysis Internal Geotechnical Report 2011-4, William Higgins, Dipanjan Basu

Technical Reports

The report presents a constitutive model for simulating the high strain-rate behavior of sands. Based on the concepts of critical-state soil mechanics, the bounding surface plasticity theory and the overstress theory of viscoplasticity, the constitutive model simulates the high strain-rate behavior of sands under uniaxial, triaxial and multiaxial loading conditions. The model parameters are determined for Ottawa and Fontainebleau sands, and the performance of the model under extreme transient loading conditions is demonstrated through simulations of split Hopkinson pressure bar tests up to a strain rate of 2000/sec. The constitutive model is implemented in a finite element analysis software to …

Laboratory Evaluation Of Dynamic Characterization Methods For Rapid Condition Assessment Of Bridges, Jason Kyle Herrman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this thesis was to devise and refine Structural Health Monitoring methods and the associated quantitative characterization methods with the specific goal of enabling rapid and reliable safety evaluations of bridges following natural or manmade hazards. Presently, the safety and serviceability of these transportation infrastructure assets for use in emergency response and recovery operations are evaluated through on-site visual inspections of individual structures by teams of specially trained engineers or technicians; a process that is manpower-intensive, subjective, and slow. Specifically, the researcher was able to identify and evaluate strategies and procedures for using dynamic testing methods to rapidly …

Evaluation Of Safe Routes To School Programs: Qualitative And Quantitative Analysis Of Parental Decision-Making, Lynn Weigand, Noreen Mcdonald

TREC Final Reports

In the United States, walking to school declined from 42% of 5-18 year olds in 1969 to 16% in 20011. The US Department of Transportation has responded to this dramatic decrease by funding the Safe Routes to School program for $612 million in SAFETEA-LU. The program’s funding emphasize infrastructure improvements such as completing sidewalks and adding crosswalks by requiring between 70% and 90% of funding be allocated toward infrastructure. However, recent research shows that 2 of 3 children who currently are driven to school, but live close enough to walk, do so because it is more convenient for parents. Currently, …

A Three-Dimensional Hydro-Environmental Model Of Dublin Bay, Zeinab Bedri, Michael Buen, Aodh Dowley

Articles

This paper compares a 3-dimensional hydro-ecological model with a 2-dimensional model simulating the distribution and fate of Escherichia Coli (E.Coli) discharges from a sewage treatment plant discharging into Dublin Bay, Ireland. Before being discharged, the effluent from the sewage treatment plant is mixed with cooling water from a thermal generation plant resulting in a warm buoyant sewage plume that can be 7 − 9oC higher than the ambient water in the Bay. The mixing of the stratified plume is complicated by the tidal currents which transport the plume into and out of the estuary. These processes have a direct impact …

Performance Rating Of De-Icing Chemicals For Winter Operations, Barbara M. Gerbino-Bevins

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

The cost of deicing chemicals is a significant part of the Nebraska Department of Road's winter maintenance budget. Many products are available for use in highway and bridge deicing and new products are introduced each year. The objectives of this research are to develop a laboratory test to evaluate the performance of chemical deicers, to investigate national, state, and local standards, and to develop best maintenance practices to optimize the use of chemical deicers.

This research project consists of two phases:

Phase 1: conduct a literature survey to find data from existing laboratory tests used to evaluate deicer performance.

Phase …

Application Of Shredded-Tire Biofilter And Membrane Bioreactor For Greywater Reclamation, Meng Hu

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

Water scarcity is a pressing global issue. Greywater (GW) reclamation is a viable option to reduce freshwater demand. The objectives of this work were to: a) evaluate the feasibility of the combination of shredded tire biofilter (STB) technology and membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology in GW reclamation; b) study the effects of various parameters on STB performance; and c) understand the fouling mechanisms to lower the energy consumption in MBRs. Bench-scale STBs and MBRs (flat-sheet membranes) were constructed to address the first two objectives, while an independent membrane (hollow-fiber membranes) fouling experiment was designed for the third objective.

It was found …

Assessing The Surface Energy Balance Components In The Snake River Basin, W Thilini Ajanthik Jaksa

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the interaction of land-surface processes and vegetation in both natural ecosystems and irrigated agricultural lands in a semiarid region using the Noah land surface model (LSM) in combination with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. This study was conducted in the semiarid Snake River plains of south central Idaho comprising of both natural vegetation and agricultural lands. This area is characterized by warm, dry summers with irrigation being the main moisture source during the growing season. In order to properly represent the conditions of agricultural lands and also to investigate the effects of irrigation on land-surface …

Comparison Of Design-Build And Design-Bid-Build Performance Of Public University Projects, James David Fernane

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With an unsure market and scarce work, owners across the United States, especially universities, are finding themselves in situations where they are unable to complete their projects within cost and schedule using the traditional delivery method: Design-Bid-Build (DBB). Under the DBB project delivery method, many competent contractors are electing to send low bids on projects just to keep work on their books, with plans to receive change orders once the project is underway; this practice is leading to cost and schedule overruns. Public universities across the United States are beginning to elect to use Design-Build (DB) as an alternate project …

Structural Health Monitoring Of Historic Masonry Monuments, Saurabh Prabhu

All Theses

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is a well-accepted diagnostic technique being used to evaluate modern structures. This method involves monitoring the vibration response of a structure to detect changes in its structural state. The primary intention of this thesis is to address two practical and technical difficulties encountered in deploying SHM on historic masonry monuments: (i) the selection of suitable low dimensional vibration response features that are highly sensitive to the presence and extent of damage, while having low sensitivity to extraneous noise and (ii) the selection of optimal sensor locations for efficient system identification applied to Gothic Cathedrals. Both of …