Civil Engineering Commons^™

Piedras Blancas Light Station Vista Point Improvement Plan, Larissa Heeren, Reuben Juster, Annamarie Usher, John Rossi, Nick Mitchell

Mechanical Engineering

Piedras Blancas Light station Improvement Involved the design of two separate parking lot/vista point plans as well as the creation of a concrete Iron Ranger located near the gift shop on site.

Low Cycle Fatigue Behavior Of Concrete With Recycled Concrete Aggregates, Paul Mark Gordon

Master's Theses

A comparison of concrete containing recycled concrete coarse aggregates and natural coarse aggregates subjected to high strain, low cycle compressive fatigue is presented. Using a strain based feedback control loop, concrete cylinders are compressed at 15µε/s to a specified strain then unloaded to zero stress for 10 cycles. After cycling, all samples are loaded to a strain of 0.008. Direct concrete material variables are the water to cement (w/c) ratio, taken as 0.60, 0.45, and 0.39, and percent coarse recycled concrete aggregate content, varied from zero to 100 percent. The primary testing variable is the specified unloading strain. Unloading strains …

Computational Micromechanics Modeling Of Damage-Dependent Bituminous Composites Based On Two-Way Coupled Multiscale Approach, Jamilla Lutif

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

This study presents a multiscale computational model with its verification and validation to mechanical behavior predictions of bituminous composites that are subject to fracture damage. Bituminous composites are classical examples of multi-phase composites in different length scales. The understanding of the mechanical behavior of asphaltic media has been a challenge to the pavement mechanics community due to multiple complexities involved: heterogeneity, anisotropy, nonlinear inelasticity, and damage growth in multiple forms. To account for this problem in an accurate and efficient way, this study proposes the use of the two-way coupled multiscale computational modeling technique.

The two-way coupled multiscale model is …

The Effect Of On-Line Videos On Learner Outcomes In A Mechanics Of Materials Course, Jeffery S. Thomas, Richard H. Hall, Timothy A. Philpot, Douglas R. Carroll

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Mechanics of Materials course is one of the core engineering courses included in the curriculum of mechanical, civil, mining, petroleum, marine, aeronautical, and several other engineering disciplines. As a core course, the Mechanics of Materials course typically has large enrollment. Initiatives aimed at improving the effectiveness of the engineering core courses can have a major impact on engineering education by virtue of the large number of students affected.

Computers afford opportunities for creative instructional activities that are not possible in the traditional lecture-and-textbook class format. The study described in this paper examines the effectiveness of asynchronous online video that …

Elasto-Plastic Lateral Torsional Buckling Of Steel Beams With Perforated Web, Mohammad Iqbal Mohammad Hesham Martini

Theses

I-shaped steel members represent the basic structural element in the majority of steel structures. Perforated-web I-shaped steel sections have been used as structural members since the Second World War in an attempt to enhance the flexural behavior of traditional solid-webbed I-shaped steel sections without increasing the cost of the material. In general, two types of web perforations are commonly used in engineering practice; hexagonal and circular. Although, the main intent of the perforation process is to produce stiffer I-sections by increasing the web height and providing higher major-axis flexural capacity than solid-webbed members of the same weight, it also provides …

Evaporation From Soils Under Thermal Boundary Conditions: Experimental And Modeling Investigation To Compare Equilibrium- And Nonequilibrium-Based Approaches, Kathleen M. Smits, Abdullah Cihan, Toshihiro Sakaki, Tissa H. Illangasekare

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications - Archive

In the shallow subsurface immediately below the land-atmosphere interface, it is widely recognized that the movement of water vapor is closely coupled to thermal processes. However, their mutual interactions are rarely considered in most soil water modeling efforts or in practical applications where it becomes necessary to understand the spatial and temporal distribution of soil moisture. The validation of numerical models that are designed to capture these processes is difficult due to the scarcity of field or laboratory data with accurately known hydraulic and thermal parameters of soils, limiting the testing and refinement of heat and water transfer theories. The …

Effects Of Coupling In Understanding The Surface Energy Balance In The Snake River Basin, Idaho, Thilinl Jaksa, Kevin Nuss, Venkataramana Sridhar

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

An accurate estimation of surface fluxes and evapotranspiration is critical in understanding the hydrological and meteorological processes linking the land and the atmosphere. Due to difficulties in obtaining extensive and timely field measurements, land surface and atmospheric models are widely employed in estimating such fluxes. This study focuses on testing the ability of Noah LSM to simulate the surface fluxes both in an uncoupled mode and coupled within an atmospheric model. An agricultural area in the Snake River Basin in Idaho and its surrounding natural vegetation regions are the study area. Two model improvements are tested in this investigation: modification …

The Adaptability And Sustainability Of Surface Water Diversions Along The Main Stem Of The Snake River In Southern Idaho, David J. Hoekema, Venkataramana Sridhar, Xin Jin

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Agriculture in southern Idaho depends heavily on the conversion of snowpack into spring runoff. The Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) has developed a Surface Water Supply Index (SWSI) as a tool to predict whether or not forecasted runoff and reservoir storage will be adequate to meet irrigator’s needs at a basin scale. This research by comparing SWSI to diversions for individual canals advances the use of SWSI to develop a Surface Water Supply Metric (SWSM) that can be used to estimate the reliability and sustainability of diversions under historic and projected time periods. An historic analysis of diversions during three …

Wired For Business: The Roebling Story., Kelley Marie Hatch-Draper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

John Augustus Roebling, a classically educated civil engineer and young Hegelian, immigrated to America in 1831 in search of freedom from a repressive political system that afforded him no opportunity for advancement. Arriving in the midst of the American market revolution, his dream of establishing an agrarian farming colony changed in response to societal transformations resulting from mechanization and the rise of industry. Within forty years, Roebling achieved fame as a canal engineer and bridge designer while establishing the American wire rope industry. Without Roebling's innovation in wire-rope, modern suspension bridges, high-rise elevators, construction cranes, and cable cars would not …

The Impacts Of Road Capacity Removal, Jason E. Billings

Master's Theses

The road infrastructure of North America is aging, and many governments are faced with a critical decision:  do we repair or remove freeways from our urban centers?  Freeway repair is exceptionally expensive, but removing a freeway is widely seen as a risky venture which may result in negative traffic effects.  Therefore, it is necessary to gain a clearer understanding of how removing road capacity effects traffic distribution.  Three freeway segments were ultimately selected for case study analysis: two in San Francisco and one in Milwaukee.  This analysis consisted of identifying changes in the traffic volumes and volume-capacity (V/C) ratios in …

Rate-Dependent Behavior Of Clay, Harry F. Martindale Iv

Master's Theses

This thesis presents a strain-rate dependent two-surface plasticity constitutive model for clays based on the critical-state soil mechanics.  The model reproduces the mechanical response of clays under multi-axial loading conditions and predicts both drained and undrained behaviors at small and large strains.  Model parameter values are determined for Boston Blue Clay, London Clay and Kaolin Clay.  The performance of the model in simulating the mechanical response of clays is demonstrated for a variety of strain rates. Sensitivity of each model parameter is checked for ±5, ±10 and ±20% of the deterministic values. Probabilistic analysis using Monte Carlo simulations were done …

Comparative Field Performance Study Of Flat Plate And Heat Pipe Evacuated Tube Collectors (Etcs) For Domestic Water Heating Systems In A Temperate Climate, Lacour Ayompe, Aidan Duffy, Sarah Mccormack, Michael Conlon, Mick Mckeever

Articles

This paper presents a year round energy performance monitoring results of two solar water heaters with 4 m² flat plate and 3 m² heat pipe evacuated tube collectors (ETCs) operating under the same weather conditions in Dublin, Ireland. The energy performance of the two systems was compared on daily, monthly and yearly basis. Results obtained showed that for an annual total in-plane solar insolation of 1,087 kWh/m², a total of 1,984 kWh and 2,056 kWh of heat energy were collected by the 4 m² FPC and 3 m² ETC systems respectively. Over the year, …

Assessing The Potential For Seepage Barrier Defects To Propagate Into Seepage Erosion Mechanisms, Ryan G. Van Leuven

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Seepage barriers have been used extensively to mitigate seepage problems in dams and levees. Although the design of many of these dams and levees has been based on intact barriers, seepage barriers have been shown to be susceptible to deformation and cracking when high differential hydraulic pressures act across the barrier. Under certain conditions, these cracks can lead to serious seepage problems, which could potentially lead to the development of a low-resistance seepage pathway. Three scenarios have been identified where there is the potential for erosion to occur adjacent to a crack in a barrier: 1) erosion at the interface …

Piano Key Weir Head Discharge Relationships, Ricky M. Anderson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A piano key (PK) weir is a type of nonlinear (labyrinth-type) weir developed specifically for free-surface flow control structures with relatively small spillway footprints. Currently, no generally accepted standard PK weir design procedure is available. This is due, in part, to the large number of geometric parameters and a limited understanding of their effects on discharge efficiency (discharge efficiency is quantified by the discharge coefficient of the standard weir equation). However, Hydrocoop, a non-profit French dam spillways association, has recommended a PK weir design and a head-discharge relationship specific to that geometry.

To develop a better understanding of the effects …

Live Load Test And Finite Element Model Analysis Of A Box Girder Bridge For The Long Term Bridge Performance Program, Dereck J. Hodson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Long Term Bridge Performance (LTBP) Program is a 20-year program initiated by the Federal Highway Administration to better understand the behavior of highway bridges as they deteriorate due to environmental variables and vehicle loads. Part of this program includes the periodic testing of selected bridges.

The Lambert Road Bridge was subjected to nondestructive testing in the fall of 2009. Part of this testing included a live load test. This test involved driving two heavy trucks across the instrumented bridge on selected load paths. The bridge was instrumented with strain, displacement, and tilt sensors. This collected data was used to …

Discharge Coefficient Performance Of Venturi, Standard Concentric Orifice Plate, V-Cone, And Wedge Flow Meters At Small Reynolds Numbers, Colter L. Hollingshead

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The relationship between the Reynolds number (Re) and discharge coefficients (C) was investigated through differential pressure flow meters. The focus of the study was directed toward very small Reynolds numbers commonly associated with pipeline transportation of viscous fluids. There is currently a relatively small amount of research that has been performed in this area for the Venturi, standard orifice plate, V-cone, and wedge flow meters. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) program FLUENT^© was used to perform the research, while GAMBIT^© was used as the preprocessing tool for the flow meter models created. Heavy oil and water were used …

Dynamic Testing For A Steel Truss Bridge For The Long Term Bridge Performance Program, Cody Joshua Santos

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Under the direction of the Federal Highway Administration the Long Term Bridge Performance Program (LTBP) selected Minnesota Bridge number 5718 as a pilot bridge for evaluation. This program focuses on the monitoring of bridges for a 20-year period to understand the structural behavior over time due to the various loads and weathering. In monitoring this bridge a better understanding can be acquired for the maintenance issues related to the nation's deteriorating bridge infrastructure.

Bridge Number 5718, which is located just outside of Sandstone Minnesota, is a steel truss bridge that spans the Kettle River. Constant monitoring of the bridge along …

Estimation Of Field Alfalfa Evapotranspiration In A Windy, Arid Environment, J. Burdette Barker

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Evapotranspiration (ET) of center pivot irrigated alfalfa was studied in the windy, arid, Curlew Valley, Northern Box Elder County, Utah, during the summers of 2009 and 2010. ET was estimated using eddy covariance (EC) and surface renewal (SR) techniques. ET estimates from the EC and SR analyses were compared with estimates using ASCE Standardized Reference ET Equation, with both dual and mean crop coefficients.

EC energy balance closure was 0.80, on average, in 2009 and 0.76 in 2010. The SR weighting parameter (α) was calculated through linear regression of EC and SR sensible heat flux estimates. Alpha was found to …

Live-Load Testing And Finite-Element Analysis Of A Steel Cantilevered Deck Arched Pratt Truss Bridge For The Long-Term Bridge Performance Program, Matthew P. Laurendeau

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Long Term Bridge Performance (LTBP) program is an organization within the Federal Highway Administration that inspects, tests, analyzes, and observes, for an extended period of time, a variety of bridge types throughout the United States. Part of the program includes periodic testing of select bridges of a span of 20 years. The Kettle River Bridge located outside of Sandstone, Minnesota was selected for study due to its unique design.

The Kettle River Bridge is a historical steel cantilevered deck arched Pratt truss bridge. The bridge was instrumented with 151 strain gauges on various floor and truss members along with …

Performance Of Transverse Post-Tensioned Joints Subjected To Negative Bending And Shear Stresses On Full Scale, Full Depth, Precast Concrete Bridge Deck System, Kayde Steven Roberts

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Accelerated bridge construction has quickly become the preferred method for the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) as well as many other DOT’s across the United States. This type of construction requires the use of full depth precast panels for the construction of the bridge deck. The segmented deck panels produce transverse joints between panels and have come to be known as the weakest portion of the deck. Cracking often occurs at these joints and is reflected through the deck overlay where water accesses and begins corrosion of the reinforcement and superstructure below. For this reason post-tensioning of the deck panels …