Civil Engineering Commons^™

Unsaturated Soil Behavior Under Large Deformations Using A Fully Servo/Suction-Controlled Ring Shear Apparatus, Claudia Liliana Velosa Gamboa

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

In recent years, the key hypotheses of most elasto-plastic constitutive frameworks postulated for unsaturated soils have been validated via suction-controlled oedometer, triaxial, and direct shear testing. These techniques, however, allow for the application of loads along limited modes and levels of soil deformation. Today, it is well known that most geotechnical infrastructure resting on unsaturated ground involves a wide range of deformations. Calculation of foundation settlement, for instance, requires a good estimation of soil stiffness at relatively small strains. Analysis of slopes, embankments, and soil bearing capacity, on the other hand, requires an adequate estimation of shear strength, from peak …

Web-Based Tidal Toolbox Of Astronomic Tidal Data For The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, Esturaries Sic] And Continental Shelf Of The South Atlantic Bight, Alfredo Ruiz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A high-resolution astronomic tidal model has been developed that includes detailed inshore regions of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and associated estuaries along the South Atlantic Bight. The unique nature of the model’s development ensures that the tidal hydrodynamic interaction between the shelf and estuaries is fully described. Harmonic analysis of the model output results in a database of tidal information that extends from a semi-circular arc (radius ~750 km) enclosing the South Atlantic Bight from the North Carolina coast to the Florida Keys, onto the continental shelf and into the full estuarine system. The need for tidal boundary conditions (elevation …

Evaluation Of Structural Monitoring Methods For Large Diameter Water Transmission Pipelines, Moksha Kizhakke Covilakam

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The water transmission lines span thousands of miles and form a significant part of the underground infrastructure of United States. The condition of water pipelines deteriorates with time and becomes more vulnerable to catastrophic failures and often results in costly replacement measures. With the advancement of technology, several new techniques have been developed for the condition assessment of water pipelines. However, no unified standards are followed for the selection of these technologies. Moreover, the current decision making methodology followed by water pipeline operators is usually based on individual experience and project requirements and resources. This research presents a comprehensive overview …

Shear Behavior Of Steel Fiber Reinforced Prestressed Concrete Beams Without Shear Reinforcement, Jae-Sung Cho

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The ACI 318-08 building code allows to use the steel fiber reinforcement as alternative shear reinforcement with satisfying certain criteria when a beam is required minimum shear reinforcement. However, this provision applies to a nonprestressed and prestressed concrete beam such that it could be conservative since the shear strength of prestressed concrete beam is generally enhanced due to the prestressing force. This is due partially to the fact that the provision has been accepted based on researches, mostly conducted in nonprestressed concrete beam. Most of experiments conducted for prestressed concrete beam in small scale tests, with a height of specimens …

Evaluation Of Resistivity Imaging (Ri) Method For Determining Unknown Deep Foundation Depth, Mohammad Sadik Khan

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

There are approximately 580,000 highway bridges in the National Bridge inventory and 104,000 of these bridges are estimated to have unknown foundations type and/or depth. Determining unknown foundation length and type of bridge foundation is becoming an important issue for State DOTs to ensure the safety of the bridge. There are several methods available to determine unknown foundation depth based on specific site conditions and type of foundation to be tested. Resistivity Imaging (RI) is a non destructive method to investigate the subsurface condition. The objective of current study was to determine unknown bridge foundation depth of three bridges at …

Carbon Footprint Analysis Of A Large Diameter Water Transmission Pipeline Installation, Lalit Chilana

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The term pipeline refers to a long line of connected segments of pipe, with pumps, valves, control devices, and other equipment or facilities needed for operating the system. Water transmission pipelines are generally large diameter (more than 12 in.) pipes which transport the water from one place to another. Installation of these pipes is a complex process due to variability of ground conditions over long distance installations. Sometimes, it is difficult to relate pipelines to the environment because of the out of sight nature. But it follows a close relationship with our environment due to various energy consuming activities involved …

Experimental Investigation Of The Behavior Of The Steel Reinforced High Density Polyethylene And Corrugated Metal Pipe, Safa Sadat Masajedian

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Steel reinforced high density polyethylene pipes are gaining popularity these days because of their good performance and advantages of them in comparison to the other pipe materials. By inverting the steel ribs vertically in to the HDPE materials, strength of steel and flexibility and light weight of HDPE materials have been combined. However due the limited study in this area, the failure modes and design parameters are not classified.This study investigates the behavior and failure modes of SR-HDPE pipes under the simulated soil load and compares the results with the data obtained from the test on corrugated metal pipe under …

Evaluation Of Building Information Modeling Applications For Small Construction Companies, Agustin Villafana

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

This thesis concerns developing recommendations to help small construction company's transition from traditional two dimensional plans to a Building Information Modeling (BIM) management process. Due to the cost of implementing BIM, the primary focus of the thesis is onthe transitioning state of these two management areas in an effort to facilitate full integration of smaller contractors into BIM technologies at a future time.Three case studies are used to assess and evaluate the effects of building information modeling on the schedule, material procurement, and information modeling aspects of a project. The intent of the case studies is to demonstrate a net …

An Overview Of Mitigation Strategies For Settlements Under Bridge Approach Slabs, Raja Veerendra Yenigalla

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Settlement and heave related movements of bridge approach slabs relative to bridge decks create a bump in the roadway causing inconvenience to the travelling public and at times so large as to make travelling unsafe. Hence, it is important to adopt suitable remedial methods to mitigate the approach settlements so as to ensure safe traveling conditions and also to decrease the repair/maintenance costs. This thesis presents an overview of a few case studies on different mitigation techniques applied on bridge approach settlement problems at various locations in the state of Texas. The methods employed to mitigate the settlement including Polyurethane …

Use Of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete In Structural Members With Highly Complex Stress Fields, Tarun Pareek

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Reinforced concrete (RC) members with significant geometric discontinuities and complex stress distributions under loading require considerable analyses and usually complicated reinforcement detailing. RC members with large openings are one of the examples. These large openings may interrupt the load transfer by direct concrete struts and cause substantial decrease in strength and unpredictable failure modes. The reinforcement detailing of these concrete members based on strut-and-tie models (STMs) is generally complicated and very often, these models cannot predict the failure mechanism due to localized damages. The actual stress fields in such members are typically very different from that predicated by STMs, as …

The Effects Of A Variable Modulus Of Elasticity On Prestress Losses In Bridge Girders, Brahama Prakashni Singh

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The purpose of this research is to evaluate a method proposed by Franz Dischinger (Dischinger, 1939) to consider the effects of a variable modulus of elasticity (MOE) of concrete over a period of time. Current guidelines suggested by the American Association of State Highways and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) assume a constant value for the MOE and base its calculation on the unit weight of concrete and the twenty eight day compressive strength of concrete. A few methods such as the ACI 209 Model Code (ACI 209, 1982) and CEB-FIP 1990 (CEB-FIP 1990, 1990) provide guidelines for the calculation of a …

Durability Performance Of Frp Strenghtened Concrete Beams And Columns Exposed To Hygrothermal Environment, Abulgasem Mohamed Elarbi

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

DURABILITY PERFORMANCE OF FRP STRENGHTENED CONCRETE BEAMS AND COLUMNS EXPOSED TO HYGROTHERMAL ENVIRONMENT

by

ABULGASEM M. ELARBI

August 2011

Advisor: Dr. Hwai-Chaung Wu

Major: Civil and Environmental Engineering (Structural Engineering)

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

Concrete structures deteriorate over time due to exposure to various environments, including hot and humid weather. High temperature, wind, and air humidity in many hot climates can all have a negative impact on the performance of concrete structures. The most important factors are temperature and humidity - often times these effects are not immediately evident and develop years later - making determination of responsibility difficult …

Modeling Same-Direction Two-Lane Traffic For Bridge Loading, Eugene J. Obrien, Bernard Enright

Articles

Many highway bridges carry traffic in two same-direction lanes, and modeling the traffic loading on such bridges has been the subject of numerous studies. Different assumptions have been used to model multiple-presence loading events, particularly those featuring one truck in each lane. Using a database of weigh-in-motion measurements collected at two European sites for over 1 million trucks, this paper examines the relationships between adjacent vehicles in both lanes in terms of vehicle weights, speeds and inter-vehicle gaps. It is shown that there are various patterns of correlation, some of which are significant for bridge loading. A novel approach to …

Adaptation Of Low Impact Design To The Desert Southwest, Abubaker Ali Alamailes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A low Impact Development (LID) practices were used to design an Integrated Management Practices (IMP) system for a residential lot .The design was adapted to the Desert Southwest region based on twenty years of climate data including precipitation and temperature for three representative cities: El Paso, TX, Albuquerque, NM, and Phoenix, AZ. In order to capture stormwater runoff close to its source and to provide as much stored water as possible for plants, LID practices including bioretention cells and vegetated swales were applied throughout the lawn. The purpose of the design is to maintain the pre-development hydrologic characteristics of the …

Improved Joining Method For Segmental Prestressed Structures, Ralph Warren Jensen

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the need for more robust and materially efficient structures, specifically structures that absorb higher levels of energy, can self-erect and which have variable reaction capabilities. These structures can take much higher levels of strain and loading compared to current technologies in reinforced concrete and carbon fiber composites. These structures are made using a novel method of joining segmental elements. A great advantage with this segmental structural system is it's survivability under overloaded conditions. During an impact, or concentrated pressure load, the structure will wrap around the impact zone thereby widely distributing the contact stresses. This function or …

Determination Of Critical Parameters For Solar Probe Plus Shielding, Sergio Rafael Mendez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A methodology to determine critical design parameters such as critical "design" particle size, and critical "design" impact speed for the shielding of the Solar Probe Plus spacecraft was developed in this thesis. Several critical components and surfaces of the spacecraft such as the Solar Array North, the Thermal Protection System, and the ISIS Instruments were analyzed in this study. The methodology determines the critical "design" particle size based on the required reliability or probability of no impact. Current NASA methods do not provide means to calculate critical "design" impact speeds for missions such as Solar Probe Plus, where the distributions …

Flexural Behavior Of Steel Fiber Reinforced Prestressed Concrete Beams And Double Punch Test For Fiber Reinforced Concrete, Netra Bahadur Karki

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Steel fibers have widely been used in the past to reinforce brittle materials in many nonstructural applications such as pavement, tunneling lining, etc. On the basis of numerous previous studies, ACI 318-11 [2011] has recently accepted steel fiber as a minimum shear reinforcement replacement with minimum 0.75% volume fraction for both reinforced concrete and prestressed concrete members. However, not much previous research has talked about the flexural behavior of fiber reinforced concrete (FRC). As per ACI 318-11 for tension-controlled sections, the net tensile strains in the outermost layer of steel, εt, should be greater than or equal to 0.005 and …

Evaluation Of Training Needs For Building Information Modeling (Bim), German Pena

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The basic premise of Building Information Modeling (BIM) is to use and share the digital model of a project as a source of information for all participants, in order to simulate and analyze potential problems during the project's life-cycle, from conception to operation. BIM is a relatively new technology praised by all participants in the Architecture-Engineering-Construction (AEC) industry for its innovative tools, and the promise of a high return of investment and productivity increase. The construction industry experimented little growth in productivity in the last decades, and is heavily relying on technology rather than intense labor in order to boost …

Effect Of Pavement Type On Fuel Consumption In City Driving, Palinee Sumitsawan

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Vehicular fuel consumption and emissions are two increasingly important measures of effectiveness of sustainable transportation systems, particularly considering that mobile sources in the U.S. account for the largest consumption of energy and generation of air pollution. Improving the energy efficiency of the transportation sector including improving vehicle shape, weight, engine size, and tire quality could play a vital role in reducing fuel consumption and exhaust gas emissions. Pavement surface type and other surface characteristics such as skid resistance and roughness affect vehicular fuel consumption. The main objective of this study has been to investigate any differences that might exist in …

Development Of A Model Of Productivity For Horizontal Directional Drilling (Hdd), Mohmd Sarireh

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) is a growing method for installation of pipes in urban areas and where ever trenching is impossible or undesirable; such as in crossing rivers, lakes, and railways, and special areas such as airports. This technique utilizes downhole cutting heads to create a pilot borehole before it is enlarged with back reamers to allow pulling back of a product pipe. The utilization of HDD for the installation of underground infrastructure (i.e., water, oil and gas pipes, telecommunication, power conduits, in some cases gravity pipes, and so on), has shown a rapid growth compared to other trenchless technologies. …