Engineering Commons^™

Refinement Of A Regional Storm Surge Mesh For High-Resolution Topographic Representation Of Volusia County, Morgan Harbin

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

In 2022, Volusia and Flagler Counties of northeast central Florida were impacted indirectly by consecutive Hurricanes Ian and Nicole; the destabilization of dunes and armoring infrastructure caused by Ian left the region susceptible to Hurricane Nicole, which caused unprecedented coastal damage to dunes and seawalls. The extent of damage that occurred within Volusia and Flagler Counties during the 2022 hurricane season, the underrepresentation of this region within sustainability and resilience research, and the ecological, social, and economic value of the geography provide just cause for scientific inquiry of the area’s coastal dynamics. This thesis specifically describes an investigation of Hurricane …

Machine Learning Based Analysis Of Civil Infrastructure In The Presence Of Sparse Data, Megan Butcher

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The high computational cost of estimating engineering demand parameters (EDPs) via finite element (FE) models, which incorporate uncertainties in earthquake events and material properties, limits the application of the Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering (PBEE) framework. Previous efforts to replace FE models with surrogate models have typically focused only on building parameters, necessitating re-training for new, unseen earthquakes. This paper introduces a machine learning-based surrogate model framework that addresses both earthquake and material parameter uncertainties to predict responses for unseen seismic events. Earthquakes are characterized by their projections on an orthonormal basis, computed using Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) of a representative ground …

Safety Investigation Of Crash Rates During Hurricane Evacuations, Amelia K. Lawson

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This study aimed to investigate crash rates across four distinct periods—evacuation, re-entry, emergency, and non-emergency—during Hurricanes Matthew (2016), Irma (2017), and Michael (2018). A notable gap in existing research pertains to understanding crash rates during these critical phases of hurricane events. By addressing this gap, this research contributes to a deeper comprehension of evacuation transportation safety. The methodology employed ArcMap to construct an interactive map for data collection, encompassing key variables such as the number of crashes, traffic volumes, duration of each period under analysis, and roadway segment lengths for each hurricane. Evaluating the crash rate per million vehicular miles …

Understanding Unsteady Corner Separation Within Wing-Body Junction Flows, Paul G. Winner

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Wing-body junction flows, formed at the interface between a wing and fuselage surface, are a complex, coupled, three-dimensional, turbulent flow field. This thesis focused on the unsteady corner separation that develops at the trailing edge of this wing-body junction under certain conditions. A NACA 0015 wing mounted on a flat plate at an angle of attack of 13°was used as the model junction flow field. The wing had an aspect ratio of 8 with a linear washout twist of 15°. The Reynolds number based on the wing chord was Re_c = 4.5 × 10⁵. Time-dependent stereoscopic particle …

Inspection Of Flexible Fillers In Post-Tensioned Bridges, Carley Gonzalez

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is currently pushing toward the use of flexible fillers (FF) in new post-tensioned (PT) bridges. Flexible fillers have several advantages compared to the currently used cementitious grouts (CG) and can offer longer-lasting structures by providing better corrosion protection and allowing for replaceable tendons, which reduces the overall maintenance costs over the structure’s lifespan. Due to these fillers being used in new bridges, FDOT needs effective nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods to employ in their biennial inspections. There are currently numerous NDE methods available to inspectors that have been used to identify defects in PT bridges …

Effects Of Emergency Vehicle Warning Lighting System Characteristics On Driver Perception And Behavior, Emily Hiebner

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Secondary crashes, including struck-by incidents are a leading cause of line-of-duty deaths among emergency responders, such as firefighters, law enforcement officers, and emergency medical service providers. The introduction of light emitting diode (LED) sources and advanced lighting control systems, provides a wide range of options for emergency lighting configurations. This study investigated the impact of lighting color, intensity, modulation, and flash rate on driver behavior while traversing a traffic incident scene at night. The impact of retroreflective chevron markings in combination with lighting configurations, as well as the measurement of “moth-to-flame” effects of emergency lighting on drivers was also investigated. …

International Analysis On The Traffic Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Fanny Margaretha Kristiansson

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The purpose of this research was to assess, compare, and contrast the impact of COVID-19 activity restrictions on road-based transportation activity in regions of the US, Sweden, and China from January 1st to December 31st, 2020. Roadway traffic volumes were used to relate the progression of reported COVID-19 cases and government directives for social separation in three countries with diverse governmental responses.

Among the contributions of this paper was the illustration of the timeline and level of public responses to closures, lockdowns, and reopening as represented through rapid traffic decreases and increases. Traffic was greatly impacted, showing that the pandemic …

Artificial Intelligence Driven Infrastructure Management And Maintenance Plan, Julian Jesso

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Rapid development in trucking technology and increasing demands in freight transportation has led to longer and heavier vehicles traveling on Florida’s highway system. Vehicles with gross vehicle weight (GVW) over 80,000 pounds, or permit vehicles, have significant effects on infrastructure, thus requiring an approved permit prior to departure. The combination of these increasing loads and harsh environmental conditions that Florida is subject to requires an enhanced infrastructure management program. Additionally, there is a need to eliminate inconsistencies in permit applications and derive a uniform maintenance practice for Florida’s infrastructure. In this research, the focus was to develop an analytical procedure …

Analysis Of Crashes Involving First Responder Vehicles, Josie Gray

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

First responders face many hazards that put their lives at risk while on duty. A review of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund statistics shows that 553 police officers died in the line-of-duty between 2008 and 2017 as a direct result of a traffic related incidents. Sadly, the nation’s first responders are exposed to factors which make them uniquely vulnerable to traffic related injuries and deaths. The goal of this research is to investigate and analyze crashes involving first responder vehicles and struck-by crashes. This project concludes that approximately 1.2% of the crashes in the state of Florida involve …

Methodology For Quantifying Resiliency Of Transportation Systems, Hannah Rose Russell

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The National Science Foundation’s definition of resiliency is “the ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from, or more successfully adapt to actual or potential adverse events” (National Science Foundation, 2016). While this definition is informative and useful, it lacks a quantitative reference. There is a need for a method of quantifying resilience to better plan and prepare for system wide disruptions. The research effort described herein provides a quantifiable measures of system resiliency, consistent with NSF’s definition. Fundamentally, a system disruption can be partitioned into five distinctive states: the stable pre-event state, the absorption state, the disrupted state, …

Temporal-Spatial Analysis Of Emergency Evacuation Traffic, Lorraine Margot Acevedo Loreto

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Mass evacuations, particularly those at a statewide level, represent the largest single-event traffic movements that exist. These complex events can last several days, cover thousands of miles of roadway, and include hundreds of thousands of people and vehicles. Often, they are also marked by enormous delay and congestion and are nearly always criticized for their inefficiency and lack of management. However, there are no standardized methods by which to systematically quantify traffic characteristics at the proper scale. This paper describes research to develop and apply an analytical method to measure and describe statewide mass-evacuations in a practical, cost-effective manner. The …

Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Bridge Girders For Extremely Aggressive Environments, Abdellah Emad Azeez

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

In 2012, the federal government estimated that $17.5 billion was spent on inspection, rehabilitation, maintenance, and replacement of the nation’s bridges. While the average lifespan of steel and reinforced concrete bridges is 50 years, certain bridges subjected to extremely aggressive marine environments may not reach this desired target. This research paper investigates using fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials as primary bridge girders in medium span bridges (30 ft. to 75 ft.). The goal of this research is to identify the most efficient and cost-effective alternative for these corrosion-resistant materials and potentially extend the lifespan of these bridges up to 75 years. …

Determining The Location Of Runway Exits Using Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Christopher Bryan Clemmer

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Airport surface detection equipment, such as ASDE-X, is used by thirty-five commercially operated airports throughout the United States. ASDE-X is responsible for the safe monitoring of aircraft movements as well as ground support vehicle operating on the airfield. Like most radar-based technologies, ASDE-X can report the position of any aircraft within a one second time interval. This data not only contains the geographic position, but also reports speed, heading, altitude, and aircraft specific characteristics. Using a quantitative approach, this research will use the data reported by ASDE-X to analyze current runway exit locations and develop an improved method of determining …