Civil Engineering Commons^™

Evaluation Of Ndor’S Actuated Advance Warning Systems, Justice Appiah Ph.D., P.E., Laurence Rilett Ph.D., P.E., Zifeng Wu

Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs

Driver behavior within the dilemma zone can be a major safety concern at high-speed signalized intersections. The Nebraska Department of Roads (NDOR) has developed and implemented an actuated advance warning (AAW) dilemma zone protection system. Although these systems have received positive reviews from the public—and commercial vehicle operators in particular—there has been no comprehensive analysis of their effects on safety and traffic operations. The focus of this research was to conduct a quantitative study to ascertain the efficacy of the NDOR advance warning system. First, crash records from before and after the implementation of the system at 26 intersections were …

Model For Predicting The Impact Upon Economic Development Resulting From Highway Improvement Projects, Eric Thompson, Kanou Comlavi, Mallory Dimmit

Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs

The Nebraska Department of Roads (NDOR) has an interest in integrating state economic development impact as another factor in prioritizing transportation investments. Such efforts require the development of a comprehensive model that can be used to estimate a consistent final measure of economic development impact that can be readily integrated into existing prioritization formulas. This report summarizes the efforts of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Bureau of Business Research (UNL-BBR) to develop such a model, by measuring the impact of expressway, viaduct, and other major investments projects around the state. Specifically, UNL-BBR developed an economic model to predict the economic impact …

Missouri Work Zone Capacity: Results Of Field Data Analysis, Ghulam Bham Ph.D., S. Hadi Khazraee

Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs

This report presents the results of work zone field data analyzed on interstate highways in Missouri to determine the mean breakdown and queue-discharge flow rates as measures of capacity. Several days of traffic data collected at a work zone near Pacific, Missouri with a speed limit of 50 mph were analyzed in both the eastbound and westbound directions. As a result, a total of eleven breakdown events were identified using average speed profiles. The traffic flows prior to and after the onset of congestion were studied. Breakdown flow rates ranged between 1194 to 1404 vphpl, with an average of 1295 …

Roadside Grading Guidance - Phase I, Kevin D. Schrum, Francisco D. B. Albuquerque, Dean L. Sicking, Ronald K. Faller, John D. Reid

Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs

Provisions for the design of roadside foreslopes are not readily available. As a result, engineering judgment is often employed. Unfortunately, this can lead to inconsistent designs, where, inevitably, some designs will be too costly and other designs will be too dangerous. Therefore guidance has been compiled to lend consistency to the design of these foreslopes while maintaining the most economical and safe design.

This guidance was prepared after conducting a benefit-cost analysis using the Roadside Safety Analysis Program (RSAP). A large test matrix was developed in an attempt to simulate the most possible scenarios, leaving interpolation to a minimum. However, …

Leaching Characteristics Of Inorganic Contaminants From Coal Fly Ash, Tingzhi Su

Doctoral Dissertations

"Leaching of trace elements raises environmental concerns in coal fly ash disposal and reuse. US EPA is in the process of creating the first national rule on coal ash management. However, due to the complexity of coal fly ash composition, the leaching characteristics of trace elements are not well understood. Meanwhile, driven by the tightening emission regulations, new types of coal fly ashes are continuously generated as a result of the technological evolution at coal energy industry. The changing landscape highlights the needs for a comprehensive database to assess the leaching characteristics of different types of coal fly ashes, evaluation …

Evaluation Methods For Health Monitoring Of Aerospace Structure Rotary Joints, Sergio Armando Navarro

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In September 2007, the excessive vibrations played a significant role in the station operation since one of the rotary joints, which provides the station electrical energy, presented an anomaly. The replacement of its bearing components and re-lubrication were necessary to reduce the problem. To avoid a new anomaly, the inspection of the rotary joints performance continues by using the accelerometers data. This thesis presents three new approaches to monitor the vibrations at the International Space Station based on Root-Mean-Square, kurtosis, and Approximate Entropy (ApEn). MATLAB functions and codes were necessary to implement the three monitoring techniques results from the provided …

Modeling Roadside Safety Hazards To Predict Annual Crash Cost To Encroaching Vehicles In Rural Road Networks, Isidro Delgado

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Roadside crashes account for a large portion of total fatal crashes that occur annually in the United States. About 30% of those fatalities are the result of single vehicle run-off-road crashes. A large proportion of these fatal crashes occur in rural roads when vehicles depart from the travel lane and collide with trees or other roadside safety hazards. Many of these run-off-road accidents occur in local roads that carry traffic volumes between 1,000 and 20,000 vehicles per day. Many of these roads are part of the jurisdiction of county authorities faced with the dilemma of having too many "potentially dangerous" …

Thermal Integrity Profiling Instrumentation Development, Byron Keith Anderson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis has shown that the development of the instrumentation necessary to provide in-situ thermal imaging for the determination of homogeneity of concrete is theoretically sound.

Drilled shafts are large diameter underground cast-in-place columns that necessarily rely on sound integrity to properly withstand imposed loadings. As a by-product of the most common construction techniques, the entire process is often completely blind whereby the excavation and concreting processes are conducted beneath the surface of the water table (or slurry level). This results in an inability to inspect the final product and in many cases allows anomalous inclusions (soil cave-ins, slurry pockets, …

Correlations Between Index Properties And Unconfined Compressive Strength Of Weathered Ocala Limestone, Raoaa Farah

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Weathering has a negative effect on both physical and engineering properties of rock specimens and rock masses. When rock masses are weathered it is often difficult to obtain core segments that are the correct size for unconfined compressive strength testing. Thus engineers must use index testing to estimate the strength of specimens for design purposes. This thesis relates the unconfined compressive strength to index strength tests of Ocala limestone. The relationships developed include weathering states of the specimens and proximity of unconfined compressive strength specimens to index specimens.

One hundred and ninety five specimens were classified using International Society for …

Design Mentoring Tool, Bob Mccullouch, Walter Land

JTRP Technical Reports

In 2004 a design engineer on-line mentoring tool was developed and implemented The purpose of the tool was to assist senior engineers mentoring new engineers to the INDOT design process and improve their technical competency. This approach saves senior engineers time while developing a consistent mentoring approach and standardizing technical knowledge in road and bridge design. It is a self-guided tool that utilizes multi-media and web-based technologies, trains engineers in the design process and provides resources to use for developing plans and specifications. Available resources include INDOT design practices, design standards, design memos, specification and construction standards, procedures, and check …

Evaluation Of Building Information Modeling (Bim) For Water Transmission Pipelines, Rakesh Gopala Raju Doraiswamy

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

In the construction industry, water transmission pipelines projects typically require two-dimensional drawings for transferring design data to the field. These drawings are referred as construction documents and serve as the source documents for subsequent facility management. However, two-dimensional drawings become difficult to interpret when there are too many entities involved needing information. In addition, when there are too many drawings for separate components such as plans, sections, and details, the chances of errors and omissions are more likely to happen. On the other hand, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a new trend in construction industry and is being increasingly used …

Characterizing Liquefaction Potential Of Pleistocene Soil Deposits In The Charleston Area, South Carolina, Tahereh Heidari

All Dissertations

Liquefaction potential of major Pleistocene deposits in the Greater Charleston area, South Carolina is investigated in this dissertation. The data considered to characterize liquefaction potential include field performance information the 1886 Charleston earthquake and the results of many seismic cone penetration tests with pore water measurements (SCPTu). The investigation begins with the Mount Pleasant area, and then expands to the entire Greater Charleston area.
A liquefaction potential map of Mount Pleasant is created through reviewing available first-hand accounts of ground behavior during the 1886 earthquake, analyzing cone penetration test and shear wave velocity data, and correlating the results with geology. …

Optimal Loop Placement And Models For Length-Based Vehicle Classification And Stop-And-Go Traffic, Heng Wei, Qingyi Ai, Deogratias Eustace, Ping Yi

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Faculty Publications

Inductive loops are widely used nationwide for traffic monitoring as a data source for a variety of needs in generating traffic information for operation and planning analysis, validations of travel demand models, freight studies, pavement design, and even emission impact analysis of traffic operation. The loop data have also been used for vehicle length-based classification in many states including Ohio. The dual-loop detector consists of two single loop detectors which are placed apart at a fixed short distance, and this configuration enables the dual-loop detector data a potential real-time data source for speed and vehicle classifications. However, the existing dual-loop …

Towards A Better Monitoring Of Soil Moisture Using A Combination Of Estimates From Passive Of Microwave And Infrared Observations, Zulamet Z. Vega-Martinez

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Quikscat Data For Monitoring Vegetation Phenology, Doralee Pellot

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Hardened Concrete Properties And Durability Assessment Of High Volume Fly Ash Concrete, Kyle Marie Marlay

Masters Theses

"Concrete is produced more than any other material in the world. Sustainable construction is extremely important in today's industry and fly ash is the leading material for sustainable concrete design. The addition of fly ash improves many fresh and hardened concrete properties. However, the slow hydration process associated with fly ash makes the use of the material in large amounts undesirable in conventional construction. This study evaluated the hardened concrete and durability performance of several high-volume fly ash (HVFA) concrete mixes. The various HVFA concrete mixes evaluated within this study consisted of 70 percent replacement of portland cement by weight …

Developing A Retrofitting System To Mitigate Floodwall Failures Of New Orleans, James Tyler Kidd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Calorific Values Of Building Materials And Their Effect On The Structural Environment, Graham Doyle

Theses

As materials are seen to be a distinct source of fire and to avoid the destructive effects of fire to people and the environment, there is certainly a need for an assessment of building materials, internal finishes and contents to be conducted in a fire engineering context. This report examines the effect of these materials on the structural environment with a view of ultimately determining compartmental fire loads.

Research has shown that there is a significant lack of information available in regards to the calorific values of materials, and in particular building materials. In addition, material calorific values and generic …

Design Of A Centralised Anaerobic Digestion Plant In Ireland., Diarmuid O'Meara

Theses

Climate change is brought about by greenhouse gases emitted to the earth’s atmosphere by fossil fuels. Renewable energy sources are seen as an alternative to fossil fuels. Examples of renewable energy sources are biofuels which are a method of reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. One form of biofuels is biogas that is produced during the anaerobic digestion process. In this thesis pig slurry is used to produce biogas.

In this project, the optimum design process for a centralised anaerobic digestion plant was established in the literature review, The optimum process for anaerobic digestion plant design in Ireland was investigated. …

A Finite Element Study Of Precast Prestressed Concrete Circular Tanks Subject To Elevated Temperatures, Michael Minehane

Theses

The current study investigates the influence of heated water storage, upward of 95°C, on precast prestressed concrete circular tanks. Modem design standards for liquid- retaining concrete structures stipulate that thermal effects are to be considered for the serviceability limit state. They are also to be considered for the ultimate limit state when deemed significant. The standards, however, do not provide guidance for the analysis of such effects. Research in this area is also limited and exclusively concerned with ambient thermal conditions, with a maximum temperature of 30 °C in any instance.

A finite element study incorporating thermo-mechanical coupling investigates the …