Structural Engineering Commons^™

Matlab Shake Table Control And Data Acquisition System, Abigail Austin

Architectural Engineering

The College of Architecture and Environmental Design’s (CAED) seismic laboratory shake table is used for earthquake engineering education and experimental testing. However, the existing control system is outdated and difficult for students unfamiliar with the system to operate. The objective of this project was to develop a MATLAB-based control and data acquisition application to simplify shake table operation and improve accessibility, of both operation and output, for student users.

The developed application imports earthquake acceleration records, scales the input motions to the operational limits of the shake table, and executes the desires motion through the existing hardware system. Experimental data …

Reinforced Concrete Design Fundamentals, Belen Stephanie Martinez Espinoza, Estevan Jacob Perez

Architectural Engineering

Hispanic workers make up a large and growing portion of the construction workforce in the United States; particularly in California, the percentage of construction workers who are Hispanic is estimated to be about 55% as of 2021 (Elkins). Many of these workers are Spanish-speaking, yet there is still a gap between technical engineering design and what is understood and applied in the field. One major reason for this gap is the lack of clear bilingual resources. To bridge the gap, a 48-page bilingual booklet titled Reinforced Concrete Design Fundamentals (Fundamentos del Diseño de Concreto Reforzado in Spanish) was created. This …

Design And Construction Of Caed Support Shop Steel Fence On Existing Cmu Wall, Jared Gustavo Martinez, Agustin Dominguez Jimenez

Architectural Engineering

This project involved the design, testing, fabrication, and construction of a new steel fence system for the CAED support shop at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The fence was designed to attach to an existing CMU wall and serve as a future attachment point for a removable shade canopy system. Experimental testing was performed on multiple turnbuckles to establish a conservative design load for the structural design of the fence posts, baseplates, welds, and anchorage connections. In addition to meeting structural requirements, the project incorporated architectural elements inspired by the original fence and surrounding CAED shop environment. The …

Tanzania Mbesese Initiative 2026, June Ezzell, Sam Liebman, Noah Beyer, Kate Hamilton, Luke Vollert, Kylee Borgen, Cody Balazs, Meg Mclaughlin

Architectural Engineering

The Tanzania Mbesese Initiative 2026 Senior Project supports a multi-year design-build effort to establish the Same Polytechnic College in Same, Tanzania. This community faces high poverty levels and limited access to higher education, necessitating sustainable infrastructure to support tertiary education. To prepare for the upcoming July phase of construction, an eight-student Architectural Engineering team designed three practical and resilient structures: a Shade Structure, a Water Collection Structure, and a Reusable Scaffolding system. The final design applied structural analysis, modeling, and hand-tool fabrication practice to balance material efficiency with long-term structural durability. The deliverables provide comprehensive construction documentation, complete material takeoffs, …

Design And Implementation Of A Honeycomb Damping System For The 2026 Eeri Seismic Design Competition, Vera Nguyen, Lauryn Wojcik

Architectural Engineering

The authors of this report were a part of the 2026 Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) chapter at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. In July 2026, they will travel to Portland, Oregon with 12 students to compete in the Undergraduate Seismic Design Competition hosted by EERI. The competition required teams to develop a comprehensive structural design proposal that included computer-based modeling and analysis, construction of three physical models, and the preparation of both a technical poster and oral presentation for a proposed high-rise building located in Portland, Oregon. Cal Poly’s “Illahee Tower” was designed with an emphasis on …

Contribution Of Slotted Web To The Cyclic Behavior Of Bare And Composite Beam-To-Hss Column Connections, Pablo Ulargui Ramos

Master's Theses

Slotted web connections produce consistent and meaningful improvements in the cyclic behavior of bare and composite beam-to-HSS column connections. Across the eight connections investigated in this thesis, the introduction of a slotted web increased rotational capacity by approximately 7% to 37% and increased cumulative energy dissipation at the strength-degradation limit by approximately 37% to 81%. These improvements were accompanied by only a small reduction in ultimate flexural resistance on the order of 3% to 8%, attributable to the loss of web cross-section at the slot and, for the more flexible H/t = 16 columns, to increased out-of-plane deformation of the …

Recent Advances In The Rheological Properties Of Ultra-High-Performance Concrete: A Critical Review, Le Teng, Kamal H. Khayat, Jiaping Liu

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) with adapted rheology continues to attract interest considering the requirement for novel processing techniques such as self-consolidating, pumping, spraying, and three-dimensional (3D) printing. The rheology of UHPC is complex due to its high solid volume fraction, low water content, and wide range of constituent materials that affect its flow properties. This work provides guidance for tailoring the mixture proportioning of UHPC to secure proper rheological properties and performance of UHPC for various applications. In the first part of this work, key physical, physicochemical, and chemical factors that can affect the rheological properties of UHPC are discussed. Rheological …

An Analytical Framework For Quantifying Urban And Community Resilience To Natural Hazards From Cell-Phone Gps-Location And Traffic-Flow Data, Georgios Chatzikyriakidis

Civil and Environmental Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Urban areas are increasingly exposed to natural hazards while accommodating a growing share of the global population, yet a consistent science-based framework for quantifying urban and community resilience remains lacking. This dissertation develops a physics-based analytical framework grounded in statistical mechanics and the quantitative theory of Brownian motion. A city is conceptualized as a complex medium in which citizens move analogously to Brownian particles within a viscoelastic environment, influenced by socioeconomic interactions and infrastructure functionality.

A central premise is that urban resilience, interpreted as engineering resilience (an outcome), can be quantified through a single metric: the mean-square displacement MSD=⟨r²(t)⟩, of …

Structural Design And Analysis Of The Civil Engineering Capstone Project, William R. Webster

Honors Theses

The structural elements of a office building designed for the University of Mississippi civil engineering senior design project were designed and analyzed. The proposed building is a shared office building located on an empty parcel on Oxford Commons Boulevard. Using the 2018 International Building Code (IBC), the structural loads were determined to be the following: 20 psf roof live load, 20 psf dead load, 20 psf snow load, and 15.6 psf rain load. These loads yielded a factored LRFD design load of 56 pdf. Using these loads and manuals provided by Nucor Vulcraft, the roof deck was determined to be …

Uav Blast Load Characterization For Structural Design, Jalee Grace Spain

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

As the use of drones, or UAVs, increases, so does the risk of collision with infrastructure. When drones collide with a building, an impact or blast load is applied. Using current literature and structural analysis, a load case can be defined for a blast load induced by a drone.

Capacity Reduction Factors For Steel Beam Ends With Holes, Kevin Saleh Makubuli

Masters Theses

The presence of holes at steel beam ends can decrease the nominal resistance (capacity) of beam ends. Codes such as AASHTO LRFD and AISC include equations for evaluating the nominal resistance of steel beam ends. While these equations are appropriate for as-designed beam ends, they may not apply to deteriorated beam ends, such as those with holes. Thus, this study aims to develop procedures to calculate the capacity of steel beam ends with holes. First, the FEA of an as-designed beam is performed for capacity evaluation (numerical result). The latter is compared with the analytical result (as-designed beam capacity) to …

Behavior Of A Mildly Skewed Network Tied-Arch Bridge During Construction And Early Service Life, Harsha Amunugama

Dissertations

This dissertation work investigated the structural performance of the 2nd Avenue Bridge in Detroit, Michigan, the first skewed, unbraced network tied-arch bridge in the U.S. The 245-ft long, 96.5-ft wide bridge features an 18-degree skew. The bridge was constructed using accelerated bridge construction (ABC) techniques, including off-site fabrication at a bridge staging area (BSA) and installation via self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs) and lateral launching, enabling the completion of construction with minimal disruptions to I-94 traffic and improved safety.

Given the unique structural configuration of the bridge, the use of innovative construction techniques, and differences observed in structural responses predicted by …

Exploring The Role Of Video Games In Civil Engineering Education And K-12 Stem Engagement, Jillian S. Codron

Architectural Engineering

Civil engineering education has traditionally emphasized a linear progression from theory to application, with foundational concepts introduced in lecture before being reinforced through laboratory or design experiences. While effective for advanced learners, this approach can limit early engagement for K–12 students who may struggle to connect abstract principles to realworld engineering practice. This project examines the use of video games as interactive, feedback-driven environments for introducing civil engineering concepts and practices to younger learners in more exploratory and accessible ways.

The study pursues four primary objectives: evaluating the educational affordances of selected video games; examining how gaming experiences have influenced …

Designing A Steel Bridge: A Structural Overview, Andrew Orr

Honors Theses

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) host the Student Steel Bridge Competition (SSBC), a nation-wide competition where students design, fabricate, and construct a model bridge based on a provided rule set. A group of Arkansas State University civil engineering students participated in that competition in Spring 2026.

Enameling Coating Of Pipes: Thermal Proprieties And Corrosion Tests, Signo Reis, Genda Chen, Mike Koenigstein, Liang Fan

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Enamel coating on pipelines can be done in several ways such as the wet process, plasma spray, and electrostatic process. Wet process requires little capital expenses and provides an acceptable finish for industrial applications particularly when the part to be coated is small. Electrostatic process of enamel powder is most promising to coating large pipelines in field conditions. The enamel coating applied by the electrostatic process is very consistent and smooth since each particle is glass only. However, the powder is very fragile until fired and the charge retention is lowered in high humidity conditions. Coupons cut from a full-size …

Estimation Of The Mechanical Properties Of South Carolina Timber Piles Using Non-Destructive Evaluation Methods And Experimentally-Informed Models, Aashish Sapkota

All Theses

South Carolina has about 2,600 bridges that are supported by nearly 75,000 timber piles. They are increasingly vulnerable to biological decay, cracking and impact damages after decades of service. Current inspection methods used by the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT), such as hammer sounding and awl probing, are labor-intensive and expensive. This study investigated non-destructive evaluation (NDE) methods, including micro-resistance drilling and stress wave timing, as alternatives for assessing timber pile condition.

Ten timber piles were collected from two South Carolina bridges, and their above-grade portions were cut into 40 specimens approximately 13 to 15 inches long. Specimens were …

Computer Vision And Machine Learning Approaches For Defect Detection In 3d-Printed Cementitious Materials: A Systematic Review, Muhammad Ali Musarat, Ruben Paul Borg, Jingjie Wei, Carl James Debono, Kamal Khayat

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

3D printing is evolving at a fast pace in both the manufacturing and construction sectors. These advancements can greatly benefit these industries. However, the 3D printing of concrete structures presents some challenges due to defects in the 3D concrete printed elements. Hence, this study systematically reviews Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven techniques, such as Computer Vision and Machine Learning, to identify surface defects that can occur in 3D-printed cementitious material structures. The adopted methodology was the PRISMA statement with the aim of reporting the systematic review and meta-analysis. Two well-known databases, Web of Science and Scopus, were utilised for data extraction of …

Exploring Scms And Fibers For Structural Build-Up In 3d Printing Using Penetration Test, Shiva Kumar Goud Kasani

Miners Solving for Tomorrow Research Conference

Additive manufacturing with cementitious materials advances rapidly, but predicting structural build-up is critical for 3D printed structure buildability. Various supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) and fibers are commonly used to enhance structural build-up in 3D printing. Evaluating their effects is necessary for successful printing. In this research, this effect is studied for common SCMs, including fly ash and silica fume, and fibers including polypropylene (0.375% and 0.75% by volume), steel (0.75% and 1.5% by volume), and hemp fibers (0.375% and 0.75% by volume). The Structural build-up was quantified through continuous static yield stress measurements (via vane rheometer, penetration, and slump) during …

Toward Sustainable 3d Printable Cementitious Materials: Low-Carbon Design With Fiber Reinforcement, Nima Mahmoudzadeh Vaziri

Miners Solving for Tomorrow Research Conference

3D printing of cementitious materials, as an emerging construction technology, faces challenges in both mechanical performance and sustainability. Conventional mixture designs rely on high cement contents, leading to increased CO2 emissions, while printed elements often exhibit brittle behavior with limited crack resistance and reduced post-cracking performance. This study investigates the development of low-carbon 3D printed cementitious composites using environmentally friendly supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) and fillers, combined with fiber reinforcement to enhance mechanical performance. Locally available SCMs and fillers were incorporated to significantly reduce cement content (>40%) and improve sustainability. Fiber reinforcement was introduced to mitigate brittleness and enhance …

An Ultrafine-Resolution Numerical Investigation Of The Influence Of Terrain On Tornado Behavior, Jiamin Dang, Jana Houser, Leigh Orf, Peng Yue, Guirong Yan

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study investigates the effects of idealized and realistic terrain on tornado characteristics and behavior. It uses a novel simulation approach, nesting a high-fidelity, ultrafine-resolution, tornado-scale, engineering large-eddy simulation (LES) within a Cloud Model 1 (CM1) simulation of a tornadic supercell. We analyze the effects of terrain on the tornado's central pressure, horizontal and vertical velocities, vortex shape, and path. Seven idealized terrain configurations are used including 1) a control run with flat ground, 2) and 3) an idealized hill with steep and gradual slopes having the height of 25.4 m, 4) and 5) an idealized escarpment with steep and …