Structural Engineering Commons^™

A Comparative Study Between Soft Structures And Hard Structures For The Protection Of Egypt’S Coastlines Against Climate Change, Donia Eldwib

Theses and Dissertations

Coastal communities worldwide face unprecedented threats from climate change, with rising sea levels, increased storm intensities, and accelerated coastal erosion posing significant risks. Egypt, with over 3,000 kilometers of coastlines along the Mediterranean and Red Seas, it is particularly vulnerable due to its densely populated and economically critical low-elevated coastal zones. With the Mediterranean Sea, and the Nile Delta specifically under huge threats, this study examines the different coastal protection strategies used to address these climate change impacts. Different coastal protection structures have been used throughout the years starting with the well-known hard structures moving on to greener alternatives such …

The State Of The City's Bridges, Leo G. Miranda

Capstones

An analysis by NYCity News Service of 2024 federal bridge inspection found that 118 segments of city bridges are in poor condition, around 8% of all bridges citywide. Among these are segments of major highways and bridges like the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, FDR Drive, Harlem River Drive, Grand Central Parkway and even a part of the iconic Brooklyn Bridge. On a single stretch of highway, where the Grand Central Parkway and the Whitestone Expressway meet in Queens, there are seven parts of highway or ramps in poor condition.

Bridge segments can be any raised roadway that passes over another parkway, …

Enhancing Civil Infrastructure Performance Through Lidar-Based Dynamic Monitoring And Phased-Construction Bridges, Khalid Hossam Alkady

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This dissertation aims to enhance the performance and structural integrity of civil infrastructure systems through two primary goals. The first goal is to develop and rigorously validate end-to-end frameworks for full-field monitoring of the dynamic response of civil structures via Ground-based Lidar (GBL) scanners. GBL can be employed to sample point clouds at a high sampling rate for dynamic data collection, which addresses the limitations of using contact-based sensors in structural health monitoring (SHM) applications used for early-detection of structural damage.

The second goal of this dissertation concerns the challenges associated with constructing bridges in phases, so they can remain …

Increasing Drift Capacity Of Non-Ductile Concrete Shear Walls Through Confinement With Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Application, Andrew Duong, Sophia Maglabe, Sheyna Rongong

Architectural Engineering: Graduate Reports

The seismic response and laboratory testing of pre-1980s reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls commonly exhibit undesirable concrete crushing and rebar buckling in the wall end-zones leading to a flexural compressive failure. The lack of ductility of these walls is attributed to low reinforcement ratios and absence of special boundary elements (SBE) as required by modern design code. Thus, the authors are proposing a fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) retrofit method to provide confinement to the end-zones of pre-1980s walls equivalent to that of an SBE. Current industry applications of FRP have largely been for shear strengthening of RC beams, columns, and …

Analyzing Tms 402 -22 : Design Of Special Reinforced Masonry Shear Walls, Tristan D. Aranda

Architectural Engineering

This experiment examines possible inconsistencies in the TMS 402-22 masonry code between Section 7.3.2.5 and Section 9.3.5.6.2, regarding the requirements for special boundary elements in Special Reinforced Masonry Shear Walls. By investigating the two sections, it can be determined whether the two sections are in accordance with each other regarding aspect ratio. Tensile forces and strains are calculated respectively for each wall and block type and are compared to the respective tensile yield forces and ductile strains. This determines which respective boundary elements go past yield and become ductile. Based on this determination, recommendations can be made to the …

Deep Learning Vision-Based Bridge Inspection With Resource-Constrained Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Ji Young Lee

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Bridge inspection is critical for ensuring structural integrity, extending the service life of infrastructure, and minimizing maintenance costs. As bridges age and endure increasing loads, regular inspections help detect early signs of wear, such as cracks or corrosion, that could impact safety and performance. However, traditional inspection methods are labor-intensive, requiring significant time, specialized equipment, and manual access to challenging areas, which can lead to costly disruptions. Additionally, reliance on human inspectors introduces subjectivity, with assessments varying by individual expertise. These factors highlight the inefficiencies and safety risks in current inspection practices, underscoring the need for more objective, efficient solutions. …

Dynamics Of Flexible Freestanding Structures Under Ground Motion Excitation, Seyed Mohammadreza Farooghi Mehr

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Freestanding structures are characterized by being unattached at the base, exhibiting rigid or flexible motion under ground motion excitation with various potential responses including rocking (rotation at the base about corner points), pure sliding, slide-rocking, and overturning. While rigid freestanding structures have been extensively studied, the behavior of flexible freestanding structures—particularly the interaction between modes involving sliding—remains underexplored. Existing literature has focused on the deformation and rocking motions of flexible freestanding structures through both analytical and experimental approaches, which have shown indications of sliding at the base. These findings highlight the necessity of incorporating sliding motion into analytical models to …

Fitting Quality Of Nmr Relaxation Data To Differentiate Asphalt Binders, Rebecca M. Herndon, Kevin Lai, Magdy Abdelrahman, Klaus Woelk

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Asphalt binder performance grades (PGs) are important metrics in designing pavements for effective transportation infrastructure. the PG system relies on the binder's stiffness and is determined through energy- and time-intensive physical testing. Physical properties, like stiffness, can also be determined by spin–lattice NMR relaxometry, a non-destructive chemical method. NMR relaxometry can quantify the molecular mobility of materials by determining relaxation times from exponential decays of excited nuclear magnetization. While relaxation times have been used to determine physical properties of materials, a quantitative relation to the PG grades of asphalt binder is yet to be established. in this study, T1 NMR …

Field Evaluation Of Transverse Post-Tensioning And Latex Modified Concrete On Bridge Load Distribution, Paige Waters

All Theses

The Airport Road Bridge (ARB) over Rocky Creek in Greenwood, SC is one of 377 channel bridges in South Carolina currently load-posted, limiting vehicle weight and potentially restricting access to vital services. The South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) seeks a cost-effective method to strengthen these bridges and enhance their load-sharing capacity.

Through live load field testing, this research seeks to use two retrofitting techniques – transverse post-tensioning (PT) and latex modified concrete (LMC) overlay – to determine whether or not channel bridges can be improved. Direct tension testing was also performed to evaluate the substrate-overlay bond of the LMC …

Final Report - Qa/Qc Guidelines On Drone-Based Remote Sensing For Bridge Element Inspection, Genda Chen, Woubishet Z. Taffese, Ritesh Sharma, Zhenhua Shi

Project IM-4

Remote sensing of elevated infrastructure via robotic platforms has recently gained increasing interest in bridge inspection. Such automated bridge inspection can not only overcome accessibility and safety challenges but also improve objectivity and consistency of the measured data compared to current visual inspection practices. With the advent of advanced technologies, quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) for robot-based bridge inspection become imperative. This study aims (1) to understand actionable inspection activities and procedures in route planning, sensor preparation and measurement, ground truth selection, and statistical analysis; (2) to outline assessment matrices and best practices for drone-based images to achieve …

Enhancing Frp-Concrete Interface Bearing Capacity Prediction With Explainable Machine Learning: A Feature Engineering Approach And Shap Analysis, Yanping Zhu, Woubishet Zewdu Taffese, Genda Chen

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study introduces a novel approach to predict the shear bearing capacity of FRP-concrete interfaces using explainable machine learning. Eight algorithms are employed: three standalone models (Artificial Neural Network, Support Vector Regression, and Decision Tree) and five ensemble learning models (Bagging, Random Forest, Adaptive Boosting, Gradient Boosting, and Extreme Gradient Boosting). Four scenarios with varying input features, including engineered features inspired by mechanics-based bearing capacity equations, are examined. Notably, the inclusion of engineered features such as the stiffness of the FRP strip (Kf) significantly enhanced prediction accuracy and efficiency, although the width correction coefficient (bf/bc) did not yield significant benefits, …

Anti-Corrosion Performance Of Magnesium Potassium Phosphate Cement Coating On Steel Reinforcement: The Effect Of Boric Acid, Fan Zhang, Jihui Qin, Kangyi Cai, John J. Myers, Hongyan Ma

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

It has recently been found that magnesium potassium phosphate cement (MKPC) paste coating applied on the surface of steel reinforcement can effectively retard the onset of corrosion and suppress corrosion reactions. However, the fast-setting nature of MKPC—which is a merit in repair—can be problematic in a practical engineering process of coating the steel reinforcement with MKPC paste. To address this problem, boric acid (H₃BO₃) was added as a retarder in an MKPC formulation to prolong the setting time. This work investigated the impact of boric acid (at 5% by weight of MgO) on the anti-corrosion performance …

Development Of Multifunctional Wood Composites With Integrated Phase Change Materials For Enhanced Thermal Management, Self-Healing, And Sustainability., Emmanuel Igbokwe

LSU Master's Theses

Abstract

This study focused on incorporating self-healing, flame retardancy, and energy harvesting capabilities into the wood composite to contribute to more sustainable and energy-efficient building practices. Oriented strand board has been widely used as sheath for roofing or dry walls in residential buildings. Residential buildings account for a large portion of energy consumption. Therefore, an oriented strand board with energy harvesting capability is highly desired. Additionally, flame retardancy and damage self-healing and end-of-life recycling are also critical features for buildings.

In this study, we prepared a novel oriented strand board by constructing sandwich structures. The face sheets of the sandwich …

Semi-Annual Progress Report #15, Missouri University Of Science And Technology

Semi-Annual Progress Reports

No abstract provided.

2017-2024 Emerging Technologies And Milestone Achievements Toward Automated Bridge Inspection And Maintenance, Genda Chen

INSPIRE Archived Webinars

Main hardware and software systems developed in the INSPIRE University Transportation Center from 2017 to 2024 will be presented. Their characteristic parameters, operation procedures, performance metrics, advantages over the state of practice, and application limitations will be summarized. These systems include, but not limited to,

 Flying and climbing robots for high-quality data collection from remote sensing and nondestructive testing,

 Explainable artificial intelligence and machine learning for element segmentation and defect classification,

 3D reconstruction and digital twins for virtual inspection,

 Framework for the probability of detection for various defects and damage from in-situ sensors,

 Defect detection, …

The Influence Of Planning And Architectural Styles On The Sustainability Of The City Of Kumasi, Ghana, Elom Ayeke

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

The city of Kumasi that was once dubbed the ‘Garden City of West Africa’ was founded in the late 17th century and served as the seat of government for the medieval Greater Asante Union. It later served as a commercial hub for the British Colony after undergoing massive transformation in the first two decades of the 19th century. Post-independence, the city went through various urban planning projects that mostly targeted social development. The architecture of Kumasi has also been changing through different periods of its history. This article examines the relationship between the evolution of the city of Kumasi through …

Relationship Between Historic Evolution, Urbanization And Mobility In Ibadan, Nigeria, Aisha Adams

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Ibadan is said to be the biggest indigenous city in Nigeria with a population of about 4.04 million, making it the third largest city in the country after Lagos and Kano. Since its founding in 1829, Ibadan has experienced urban evolution that is mostly unguided. With its high fertility rate, population growth and rural-to-urban migration, Ibadan has experienced significant urban sprawl that has resulted in challenges in urban mobility especially to the lower-income earners. This study looks at the relationship between urban planning, urbanization and mobility in the city of Ibadan. The study found that lack of integrated land use …

Urbanization And Urban Sprawl In The Post-Colonial Era Douala City, Cameroon, Sylvia Munisi

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

The history of the port city of Douala spans pre-colonial period, colonial period of the Germans and French occupation, the post-colonial era and the contemporary situation with continuous occupancy of the coastal environment. This article looks at the relationship between the history of the city of Douala to the resulting urban situation focusing on governance structure as well as rapid urbanization. The findings show that governance structure allowing for a duality of modern political system and traditional cultural system of kingships and chiefdoms has an effect to the resulting urban sprawl. Moreover, rapid urbanization under this condition has an overall …

The Use Of Locally Available Materials Towards Urban Planning For Sustainable Construction: The Case Of Gondar-Ethiopia, Kidist Dereje

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

The city of Gondar in northern Ethiopia has a rich history that is connected to urban planning and construction. From the era of the Fasiledes that built masonry castles, Italian colonialism that zoned the city on racial boundaries and the post-colonial planning that wanted a more global standard, Gondar has been subjected to different planning and construction methods. This evolution however, has brought about challenges related to the sustainability of the construction industry and the communities within the city. This paper analyses the relationship between urban planning and use of local construction materials to attain sustainable development of the city. …

Transport Mobility Analysis For Informal Settlements In Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, Fatma Kassim Mohamed

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Dar es Salaam is one of the world’s fastest growing cities and is expected to be the third largest by 2100 with a population of 76 million. Dar es Salaam city is made of multiple neighbourhoods that are very diverse in terms of socio-economic status, gender, age and prevalent activities. One of the biggest challenges facing the city of Dar es Salaam is urban sprawl due to informal settlements that in turn leads to very long travel time and hinders equal mobility and accessibility of labour and goods. This study found that the current mobility vision for Dar es Salaam …