Structural Engineering Commons^™

Column-Footing Connection Evaluation Of Hollow-Core Composite Bridge Columns, Mohanad M. Abdulazeez, Mohamed Elgawady

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents the seismic behavior of two large-scale hollow-core fiber-reinforced polymer-concrete-steel (HC-FCS) precast columns having two different footing connections. The precast HC-FCS column consists of a concrete shell sandwiched between an outer fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) tube and an inner steel tube. The steel tube was embedded 635 mm (25 inches) into a reinforced concrete footing, while the outer FRP tube confined the concrete shell only i.e. it was truncated at the top surface of the footing. One connection included embedding the steel tube into the footing. The other one included using a corrugated steel pipe (CSP) embedded into the …

Feasibility Of Distributed Fiber Optic Sensor For Corrosion Monitoring Of Steel Bars In Reinforced Concrete, Liang Fan, Yi Bao, Genda Chen

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study investigates the feasibility of distributed fiber optic sensor for corrosion monitoring of steel bars embedded in concrete. Two sensor installation methods are compared: (1) attaching the sensor along the bar and (2) winding the sensor on the bar. For the second method, optical fibers were winded spirally on steel bars with different spacings: 0 mm, 2 mm, 5 mm, and 10 mm. Steel bar pull-out testing was conducted to evaluate the effect of presence of distributed sensor on the bond strength of steel—concrete interface. Electrochemical testing was carried out to assess the influence of the installation methods on …

Program Progress Performance Report #3, Missouri University Of Science And Technology. Inspire - University Transportation Center

Semi-Annual Progress Reports

No abstract provided.

Webinar: Addressing Bicycle-Vehicle Conflicts With Alternate Signal Control Strategies, Sirisha Kothuri

TREC Webinar Series

There is nationwide interest in supporting sustainable and active transportation modes such as bicycling and walking due to the many benefits associated with them, including reduced congestion, lower emissions and improved health. Although the number of bicyclists is increasing, safety remains a top concern. In urban areas, a common crash type involving bicycles at intersections is the “right hook” where a right-turning vehicle collides with a through bicyclist. While geometric treatments and pavement markings have been studied, there is a lack of research on signal timing treatments to address right-hook bicycle-vehicle conflicts.

Addressing Bicycle-Vehicle Conflicts with Alternate Signal Control Strategies …

Load Bearing Clip Angle Design -- Phase Ii, Cheng Yu, Zhishan Yan, Wenying Zhang, Lanping Qian

American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) Specifications, Standards, Manuals and Research Reports (1946 - present)

The report presents the second phase of a research project aimed at developing design methods for three limit states of CFS clip angles: shear, compression, and pull-over of the screw connections. In the Phase II work, the research focus was on investigating (1) the fastener pattern effects on the behavior and strength of clip angles; (2) the serviceability of clip angles subjected to tension; (3) the strength and behavior of clip angles subjected to combined shear and bending. Based on the research findings, revision to the Phase I method was proposed to account for the impact of the fastener spacing. …

Flexural Rigidity Estimation Using Noisy Static Influence Lines, Yasha Hajizeinalibiouki

Civil and Environmental Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Society depends on critical infrastructure to support everyday activities. Even as critical components of civil infrastructure approach and exceed their design lives, demand on these structures continues to increase. In light of the need for managing aging infrastructure, several opportunities exist for research that can aid infrastructure managers in significant the challenge of detecting, classifying, and mitigating structural impairments. This dissertation presents a novel framework for impairment detection through the capture and utilization of deformation influence lines for flexural rigidity estimation on Euler-Bernoulli beams. In this research study, mechanical theory, a computer-vision algorithm, and multiple numerical methods are integrated to …

Sensor-Enhanced Analysis And Behavior Of Steel Beams In Fire, Genda Chen

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Traditionally, strain data are difficult, if not impossible, to obtain from steel structures in fire due to their harsh environment and temperature measurements are limited to the locations of thermocouples. This paper presents high-temperature measurements using a Brillouin scattering based (distributed) fiber optic sensor and the application of the measured temperatures and material parameters recommended in building codes into the enhanced thermo-mechanical analysis of simply-supported steel beams subjected to combined thermal and loading effects. The distributed temperature sensor captures detailed, non-uniform temperature distributions that are compared locally with thermocouple measurements by less than 5% at a 95% confidence level. The …

Thermal Bridging In Concrete Sandwich Walls, Taylor J. Sorensen, Robert J. Thomas, Sattar Dorafshan, Marc Maguire

Faculty Publications

Energy efficiency requires continuity of the insulation system in structural and architectural details.

Experimental Tests And Numerical Simulations For Failure Investigation On Corrugated Boxes Used On Household Appliance Packaging, Diego Fernandes Rodrigues, José Carlos Pereira

Journal of Applied Packaging Research

Packages made of corrugated paper are fundamental to the protection, transportation and handling of the appliance product market. During the storage and sales stages of a product, the package must resist compressive loads in different directions beyond moderate impacts. In this context, the objective of this work is to develop and implement a post-processor that allows the simultaneous analysis of two of the most common failure modes of packages made of corrugated paper: failure due to tensile or compressive stress limit, and failure due to local buckling, when the buckling of the faces of the corrugated paper between two peaks …

Toward Autonomous Wall-Climbing Robots For Inspection Of Concrete Bridges And Tunnels, Jizhong Xiao

INSPIRE Archived Webinars

In addition to visual inspection for surface flaws, inspectors are often required to detect subsurface defects (e.g., delamination and voids) using nondestructive evaluation (NDE) instruments, such as ground penetration radar (GPR) and impact sounding device, in order to determine the structural integrity of bridges and tunnels. In these cases, access to critical locations for reliable and safe inspections is a challenge.

Since 2002, Dr. Jizhong Xiao’s group has developed four generations of wall-climbing robots for NDE inspection of bridges and tunnels. These robots combine the advantages of aerodynamic attraction and suction to achieve a desirable balance of strong adhesion and …

Advancing Bridge Technology, Task 10: Statistical Analysis And Modeling Of Us Concrete Highway Bridge Deck Performance -- Internal Final Report, Omar Ghonima, Thomas Schumacher, Avinash Unnikrishnan, Adam Fleischhacker

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Concrete highway bridge deck repairs represent the highest expense associated with bridge maintenance cost. In order to optimize such activities and use the available monies effectively, a solid understanding of the parameters that affect the performance of concrete bridge decks is critical. The National Bridge Inventory (NBI), perhaps the single-most comprehensive source of bridge information, gathers data on more than 600,000 bridges in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Focusing on concrete highway bridge deck performance, this research developed a nationwide database based on NBI data and other critical parameters that were computed …

Pedestrian Bridge Test Demonstration, Genda Chen, R. Zoughi

INSPIRE-UTC Annual Meetings

The INSPIRE UTC, with permission and the cooperation of Missouri S&T Facilities Operations, is conducting research testing on the Computer Science Pedestrian Bridge through the end of September 2018. The technologies employed in the Pedestrian Bridge test include: microwave imaging, ground penetrating radar and impact-echo tests, hyperspectral, and thermal imaging.

Developing A Robotic Simulator And Video Games For Professional And Public Training, Sushil Louis

INSPIRE-UTC Annual Meetings

Civil engineers are not educated with robotics. They need to be trained on the job with effective tools. The most recent simulation trainer that the PI has built is currently being used by the United States Navy to train surface warfare officers in decision making under stress. In a crowded in-port environment, the crew on a ship’s bridge is trained to probe and identify suspicious boat behavior within the port’s traffic pattern. Officers in charge of the simulation training lesson use software for high-level control of dozens of other ships, boats, and aircrafts that quickly react and adapt to the …

Training Framework Of Robotic Operation And Image Analysis For Decision-Making In Bridge Inspection And Preservation, Ruwen Qin

INSPIRE-UTC Annual Meetings

Inspection and preservation of existing transportation infrastructure to extend their service life is an effective way of mitigating the pressure of steadily growing transportation demands on the aging infrastructure. Their current practice, though, represents one of the most costly operations in state departments of transportation.

The INSPIRE University Transportation Center will develop a remotely-controlled robotic platform that helps with these labor-intensive tasks and allows engineers to focus on decision-making processes. An important mission of INSPIRE is to leverage users’ capability of implementing, and interacting with, the robotic platform. Therefore, a long-term plan has been made to create a framework of …

Autonomous Wall-Climbing Robots For Inspection And Maintenance Of Concrete Bridges, Jizhong Xiao

INSPIRE-UTC Annual Meetings

Since 2002, the PI’s group has developed four generations of wall-climbing robots for NDE inspection of civil infrastructure. These robots combine the advantages of aerodynamic attraction and suction to achieve a desirable balance of strong adhesion and high mobility. They don’t require perfect sealing and can thus move on smooth and rough surfaces, such as brick, concrete, stucco, wood, glass, and metal. For example, Rise-Rover uses two drive modules to carry their middle compartment with payload up to 450 N. Ground penetrating radar (GPR)-Rover and Mini GPR-Rover are custom designed to carry a GSSI’s GPR antenna for subsurface defect detection …

Climbing Robots With Automated Deployment Of Sensors And Nde Devices For Steel Bridge Inspection, Hung La

INSPIRE-UTC Annual Meetings

The PI was a research scientist/faculty at Rutgers University who successfully developed in 2014 a Robotic Assisted Bridge Inspection Tool (RABIT) for bridge deck inspections. Other bridge elements, such as girders and columns, or even underside of bridge decks are difficult to access and remain a challenge for efficient inspection. Like visual inspection, current practices for bridge maintenance are equally time consuming and expensive. Automation of simple maintenance actions such as bearing cleaning and concrete sealing with robots will lead to a leap forward to the next-generation strategy of bridge maintenance.

This project aims to develop and prototype automated climbing …

Mobile-Manipulating Uavs For Sensor Installation, Bridge Inspection And Maintenance, Paul Oh

INSPIRE-UTC Annual Meetings

Mobile manipulating UAVs have great potential for bridge inspection and maintenance. Since 2002, the PI has developed UAVs that could fly through in-and-around buildings and tunnels. Collision avoidance in such cluttered near-Earth environments has been a key challenge. The advent of light-weight, computationally powerful cameras led to breakthroughs in SLAM even though SLAM-based autonomous aerial navigation around bridges remains an unsolved problem.

In 2007, the PI integrated a mobile manipulation function into UAVs, greatly extending the capabilities of UAVs from passive survey of environments with cameras to active interaction with environments using limbs. Mobile-manipulating UAVs have since been demonstrated to …

Quantitative Bridge Inspection Ratings Using Autonomous Robotic Systems, Anil Agrawal

INSPIRE-UTC Annual Meetings

The 2001 study sponsored by FHWA raised serious concern on the consistency and reliability of visual inspection. Although consistent ratings can be obtained with a good QA/QC program, based on a recent study by the PI, the concern for reliability of defect detection remains. With the adoption of the recent AASHTO Manuel for Bridge Element Inspection, the new inspection approach not only requires rating for bridge elements, but also the location and extent of deterioration. Since autonomous robotic systems generate an enormous amount of inspection data, deducing from the data to a simple rating along with the location and extent …

Hyperspectral Image Analysis For Mechanical And Chemical Properties Of Concrete And Steel Surfaces, Genda Chen

INSPIRE-UTC Annual Meetings

A typical human eye will respond to wavelengths from approximately 400 to 700 nm. A hyperspectral camera can extend the wavelength to as high as 2500 nm. This extension will allow engineers to find objects, identify materials, and detect processes on structural surface, which cannot be done with visual inspection.

This project aims to develop an open-source catalogue of concrete and steel surfaces and their spectral/spatial features (discoloration, characteristic wavelength, roughness, texture, shape, etc.), extract spatial/spectral features of hyperspectral images, and develop/train a multi-class classification or regression classifier through machine learnings (supervised and/or semi-supervised), and validate the classifier as a …

3d Microwave Camera For Concrete Delamination And Steel Corrosion Detection, R. Zoughi

INSPIRE-UTC Annual Meetings

Corrosion of embedded steel reinforcement in concrete leads to concrete cracking and delamination, followed by increased salt and moisture permeation and further damage. Invisibility of the embedded rebar in combination with physical inaccessibility in elevated bridges presents a challenge in the assessment of RC bridge elements. Wideband (3D) microwave synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging techniques that can be integrated into a UAV offer a practical solution to overcome this challenge.

This project aims to develop and optimize a 3D microwave camera for bridge inspection on a UAV platform, quantify its performance for steel corrosion evaluation and concrete delamination detection in …