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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

A Comprehensive Framework For Life-Cycle Cost Assessment Of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Decks, Mohamed Soliman, Samir Ahmed, Ligang Shen Aug 2019

A Comprehensive Framework For Life-Cycle Cost Assessment Of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Decks, Mohamed Soliman, Samir Ahmed, Ligang Shen

Publications

Various environmental and mechanical stressors cause deterioration of concrete bridge decks. Normal wear and tear, freeze and thaw cycles, and chloride penetration due to deicing salts can cause aggressive deterioration that usually require frequent interventions during the life-cycle of the bridge. These interventions include deck maintenance and repairs (e.g., application of sealers or overlay placement) as well as bridge deck replacement. The quantification of the life-cycle cost of bridge decks considering maintenance and repair activities represents a significant challenge facing local and state transportation agencies. The life-cycle maintenance activities not only increase the direct life-cycle cost of the bridge, but …

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Portable Roadway High Water Detection System For Driver Safety And Infrastructure Assessment, Hatim Sharif, Samer Dessouky Aug 2019

Portable Roadway High Water Detection System For Driver Safety And Infrastructure Assessment, Hatim Sharif, Samer Dessouky

Publications

The state of Texas, local governments, and community groups are adopting several initiatives to address this problem. The main goal of this project is to develop an approach to enhance prediction and detection of roadway flooding and help efforts to prevent driving into flood roadways. The motivation of this work was initiated by the alarming number of vehicle related flood fatalities in Texas, mostly at low-water crossings. Texas leads the nation in the number of flood fatalities and about 77% of flood fatalities in Texas are motor vehicle-related. This percentage is much higher than the national percentage reported in several …

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Disaster Resilient And Self-Assessing Multifunctional Transportation Structures, Ibrahim Karaman, Darren Hartl Aug 2019

Disaster Resilient And Self-Assessing Multifunctional Transportation Structures, Ibrahim Karaman, Darren Hartl

Publications

This research designs and characterizes multifunctional materials, in particular inexpensive shape memory alloys, for transportation structures that possess excellent mechanical properties and self-sensing capabilities for strengthening and health monitoring. The properties are the Fe-SMAs are sensitive to part size in that the grain size of the material, which can be grown to several inches, should exceed the smallest dimension of the part. In the current work, maximum part size of the large dimension Fe-SMA rods were determined through detailed microstructural investigations. Samples were subjected to abnormal grain growth heat treatments and found out that part size be increased up to …

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Structural Vulnerability Of Coastal Bridges Under Extreme Hurricane Conditions, Arturo Montoya, Adolfo Matamoros, Firat Testik, Reza Nasouri, Adnan Shahriar, Arsalan Majlesi Aug 2019

Structural Vulnerability Of Coastal Bridges Under Extreme Hurricane Conditions, Arturo Montoya, Adolfo Matamoros, Firat Testik, Reza Nasouri, Adnan Shahriar, Arsalan Majlesi

Publications

This work presents the results of a numerical study evaluating the response of coastal bridges due to hurricane-induced waves. The analyses were conducted using the Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) approach, available on the commercial finite element software Abaqus, which allows modeling the interaction between water and the bridge. The work concentrated on (1) establishing an approach for modeling the desired wave characteristics (i.e., wave height, and frequency) within the CEL simulation, (2) conducting simulations using actual bridge dimensions of historically damaged bridges, (3) analyzing a range of foundation flexibilities to determine its effect on the uplift and shear forces acting on …

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Displacement Derived Energy Levels For Harvard Miniature Compaction, Ana Laura Errigo, Julia Loshelder Aug 2019

Displacement Derived Energy Levels For Harvard Miniature Compaction, Ana Laura Errigo, Julia Loshelder

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Previously, the amount of energy provided by the Harvard Miniature tamper was adjusted by changing the number of blows per lift or the number of lifts or was not adjusted at all. However, this research was conducted to investigate the effect of adjusting the displacement of the spring (increased or decreased) to change the potential energy of the spring and therefore change the compacive effort with a specific type of soil. Thus, the objective was to match the compaction energies using the Harvard miniature method with the compaction energies obtained using the Proctor method. Specifically, the goal was to show …

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Probabilistic Analysis Of Slide-Rocking Structures Under Earthquake Loads, Taylor J. Knickerbocker Aug 2019

Probabilistic Analysis Of Slide-Rocking Structures Under Earthquake Loads, Taylor J. Knickerbocker

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Estimates of rare seismic hazard are essential for the resilience of critical infrastructure and facilities. However, these estimates are highly uncertain at long return periods due to the lack of observed earthquake records. Several ground motion prediction equations have been proposed to close this gap and estimate rare seismic demands; however, these models were developed based on more moderate earthquake records and can yield physically unrealizable ground motions when extrapolated to long return periods. For this reason, seismologists have proposed using precariously balanced rocks (PBRs) as a way to constrain rare seismic hazard. PBRs are a type of fragile geologic …

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Effect Of Subgrade Conditions On Pavement Analysis And Performance Prediction: A Study For Idaho Conditions, Md Jibon Aug 2019

Effect Of Subgrade Conditions On Pavement Analysis And Performance Prediction: A Study For Idaho Conditions, Md Jibon

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The Mechanistic-Empirical (M-E) pavement design approach detailed in the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG), and subsequently implemented through AASHTOWare® Pavement ME Design relies extensively on detailed material properties that ultimately govern the analysis and performance prediction results. For unbound materials like soils and aggregates, Resilient Modulus (MR) is the most critical input parameter affecting layer response under vehicular and environmental loading. Representing a material’s ability to ‘recover’ after loading, resilient modulus is determined in the laboratory through repeated load triaxial testing. Although the original test protocol to measure the resilient modulus value of a soil or aggregate …

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Experimental Investigation Of Whitmore Section And Block Shear Failures In Steel Gusset Plates Using Digital Image Correlation, Prajwal Pokhrel Jul 2019

Experimental Investigation Of Whitmore Section And Block Shear Failures In Steel Gusset Plates Using Digital Image Correlation, Prajwal Pokhrel

Civil Engineering Theses

Gusset plates are necessary for transferring loads from one structural member to another. During load transfer gussets can undergo shear, net section rupture and gross section yielding. Gusset design is a complex process and there is still a lack of knowledge regarding the stress and strain distribution in gusset plates. Current design practices which use Whitmore method, may not be sufficient to accurately predict the capacity of a gusset plate. An experimental study was conducted at The University of Texas at Tyler to understand the failure mechanism of gusset plates under uniaxial tensile loading. Variables considered for the experiment are …

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Effects Of Epoxy Adhesive Layer Thickness On Bond Strength Of Joints In Concrete Structures, Jaeheum Yeon, Yooseob Song, Kwan Kyu Kim, Julian Kang Jul 2019

Effects Of Epoxy Adhesive Layer Thickness On Bond Strength Of Joints In Concrete Structures, Jaeheum Yeon, Yooseob Song, Kwan Kyu Kim, Julian Kang

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

In the construction field, adhesives are frequently used to improve adhesion between two objects. Epoxy adhesives are applied as long-term solutions, improving the bond between repair materials and existing concrete structures. Experimental investigations of the relationship between the thickness of an adhesive layer and its shear strength have been conducted by a number of industries outside of the construction sector. However, that research used metal plates as adherends when determining the shear strengths of epoxy adhesives. Therefore, this study examines epoxy adhesives’ shear strength development when applied to concrete adherends. The test results show that the thickness of the bond …

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Data Sheet For Cone Penetration Test In Soil-Bentonite Cutoff Wall, Jeffrey C. Evans Jul 2019

Data Sheet For Cone Penetration Test In Soil-Bentonite Cutoff Wall, Jeffrey C. Evans

NSF Soil-Bentonite Slurry Trench Cutoff Wall Datasets

This data sheet shows the measurements taken using a cone penetration test in a soil-bentonite slurry trench cutoff wall. The testing was done following ASTM D 3441.

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Evaluating The Variability Of Urban Land Surface Temperatures Using Drone Observations, Joseph Naughton, Walter M. Mcdonald Jul 2019

Evaluating The Variability Of Urban Land Surface Temperatures Using Drone Observations, Joseph Naughton, Walter M. Mcdonald

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Urbanization and climate change are driving increases in urban land surface temperatures that pose a threat to human and environmental health. To address this challenge, we must be able to observe land surface temperatures within spatially complex urban environments. However, many existing remote sensing studies are based upon satellite or aerial imagery that capture temperature at coarse resolutions that fail to capture the spatial complexities of urban land surfaces that can change at a sub-meter resolution. This study seeks to fill this gap by evaluating the spatial variability of land surface temperatures through drone thermal imagery captured at high-resolutions (13 …

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Application Of Cation Exchange And Nanofiltration To Treat Flue Gas Desulfurization Wastewater, Ayush R. Shahi Jul 2019

Application Of Cation Exchange And Nanofiltration To Treat Flue Gas Desulfurization Wastewater, Ayush R. Shahi

Civil Engineering ETDs

Flue gas emitted from coal-fired power plants is one of the major sources of sulfur and nitrogen oxides emissions to the atmosphere in the world today. Although coal use has decreased, it is still a major contributor to such emissions. The Clean Air Act in the United States established regulations for coal-fired power plants to limit SOx and NOx emissions into the atmosphere. To meet regulatory requirements, power plants have been using scrubbers to limit their air emissions. Flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) is a pollution prevention method that is employed to limit sulfur dioxide emissions directly in the environment …

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Is Transportation Planning Effective? A Critical Review Of Long-Range Regional Transportation Planning In The United States, Razieh Nadafianshahamabadi Jul 2019

Is Transportation Planning Effective? A Critical Review Of Long-Range Regional Transportation Planning In The United States, Razieh Nadafianshahamabadi

Civil Engineering ETDs

The Federal-Aid Highway Act requires urban areas with a population greater than 50,000 to create Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) to ensure that funding for transportation projects and programs are based on a continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive planning process. A major responsibility of each MPO is the creation of a long-range transportation plan (LRTP) that addresses the transportation needs of a metropolitan region over the next twenty years or more. While long-range regional transportation planning goals have grown to include a wide range of concerns and technical methods for evaluating planning scenarios have advanced substantially over the past 50 years, there …

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Field Monitoring Of A Tieback Wall And Comparison To Common Design Methods, Matheus Barbosa Santos De Miranda Jul 2019

Field Monitoring Of A Tieback Wall And Comparison To Common Design Methods, Matheus Barbosa Santos De Miranda

Graduate Theses - Civil Engineering

This thesis presents the monitoring of a 28-foot high retaining wall located on the Rose- Hulman Institute of Technology (RHIT) campus and compares inclinometer and load cell data with common design methods. In addition, it briefly provides discussion regarding how the retaining structure is used to enhance student learning. The wall consists of soldier piles and wood lagging with tiebacks that vary from 22.5 to 40 feet. Construction was completed in 2017. Instrumentation, including load cell and inclinometers were installed to measure deflection, tieback load, and water level. This thesis describes the construction activities and the data gathered to date. …

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Bamboo As A Sustainable Engineering Material: Mechanical Properties, Safety Factors, And Experimental Testing, Lorena Sánchez Vivas Jul 2019

Bamboo As A Sustainable Engineering Material: Mechanical Properties, Safety Factors, And Experimental Testing, Lorena Sánchez Vivas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With exponential global population growth occurring and associated environmentally destructive consumption of natural resources, alternative materials that are fast growing and sustainable are being sought out to satisfy human needs. One material that is fast growing and sustainable that can be used to meet most basic needs of humans (i.e. shelter, food, tools) is the plant bamboo, of the grass family Poaceae. Bamboo was used in the past by native peoples who lived in the environment where bamboo natively grows (all continents except Europe and Antarctica) with proven success for uses such as shelter, piping, tools, wells, food, fencing, baskets …

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Effects Of Support Fluid Type On Concrete Integrity And Durability In Drilled Shafts, Sarah J. Mobley Jul 2019

Effects Of Support Fluid Type On Concrete Integrity And Durability In Drilled Shafts, Sarah J. Mobley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Until recently, concrete flow in tremie-placed drilled shafts has been mischaracterized as rising uniformly with laitance formation occurring only at the top of the rising concrete in the shaft. In actuality, concrete first fills a portion of the reinforcement cage to a sufficient height to promote radial flow into the cover region. Depending on support fluid type, the radial flow can produce laitance-filled creases/channels projecting the reinforcing cage configuration to the side of shaft surface. The flow pattern (and creases) can affect filter cake thickness, cover quality and propensity for corrosion. This research examines 52 tremie-placed laboratory drilled shaft specimens …

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Cost-Effective Methods To Retrofit Metal Culverts Using Composites, Mahmoud Reda Taha, Susan Bogus Halter Jul 2019

Cost-Effective Methods To Retrofit Metal Culverts Using Composites, Mahmoud Reda Taha, Susan Bogus Halter

Data

One of the current pressing problems for all DOTs is the corrosion-oriented deterioration of existing metal culverts. These metal culverts typically are designed for a life of 50 years. However, corrosion is making them last no longer than 30 years. A Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymers (GFRP) pipe section has been evaluated as a fit-in GFRP profile liner for complete repair and rehabilitation of the corroded metal culvert with an expected life of 75 years. This is mainly because of the corrosion free nature of the GFRP material. A comprehensive rehabilitation methodology and laboratory scale three-point bending test was conducted to …

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Test Setup Design And Cyclic Evaluation Of Rocking Clt Wall And Floor Restoring Force Lateral System, Aaron Davis Smith Jul 2019

Test Setup Design And Cyclic Evaluation Of Rocking Clt Wall And Floor Restoring Force Lateral System, Aaron Davis Smith

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

The introduction of the demand for mass timber buildings in areas with seismic hazards has called for new lateral systems. Lateral systems in mass timber building typically utilize a rocking shear wall with post-tensioned rods to provide system re-centering. These post-tensioned rods add axial load to the shear wall and potentially endure long term creep affects. Mass Timber buildings consist of cross laminated (clt) shear walls and floor slabs along with glulam beams. The flexural capacity of the CLT floor slabs along with dead load can provide an alternative source for the restoring force. This project developed a test setup …

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Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach For Lagrangian Control: Improving Freeway Bottleneck Throughput Via Variable Speed Limit, Reza Vatani Nezafat Jul 2019

Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach For Lagrangian Control: Improving Freeway Bottleneck Throughput Via Variable Speed Limit, Reza Vatani Nezafat

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Connected vehicles (CVs) will enable new applications to improve traffic flow. The focus of this dissertation is to investigate how reinforcement learning (RL) control for the variable speed limit (VSL) through CVs can be generalized to improve traffic flow at different freeway bottlenecks. Three different bottlenecks are investigated: A sag curve, where the gradient changes from negative to positive values causes a reduction in the roadway capacity and congestion; a lane reduction, where three lanes merge to two lanes and cause congestion, and finally, an on-ramp, where increase in demand on a multilane freeway causes capacity drop. An RL algorithm …

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Developing Algorithms To Detect Incidents On Freeways From Loop Detector And Vehicle Re-Identification Data, Biraj Adhikari Jul 2019

Developing Algorithms To Detect Incidents On Freeways From Loop Detector And Vehicle Re-Identification Data, Biraj Adhikari

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A new approach for testing incident detection algorithms has been developed and is presented in this thesis. Two new algorithms were developed and tested taking California #7, which is the most widely used algorithm to date, and SVM (Support Vector Machine), which is considered one of the best performing classifiers, as the baseline for comparisons. Algorithm #B in this study uses data from Vehicle Re-Identification whereas the other three algorithms (California #7, SVM and Algorithm #A) use data from a double loop detector for detection of an incident. A microscopic traffic simulator is used for modeling three types of incident …

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Effect Of External Expanded Polystyrene (Eps) Panels On Slabs Subjected To Impact Load, Yosra El Maghraby Jul 2019

Effect Of External Expanded Polystyrene (Eps) Panels On Slabs Subjected To Impact Load, Yosra El Maghraby

Civil Engineering

No abstract provided.

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Ion Exchange Nutrient Recovery From Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor Permeate, Patrick Mullen, Kaushik Venkiteshwaran, Daniel Zitomer, Brooke K. Mayer Jul 2019

Ion Exchange Nutrient Recovery From Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor Permeate, Patrick Mullen, Kaushik Venkiteshwaran, Daniel Zitomer, Brooke K. Mayer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Nutrient recovery from municipal wastewater was evaluated using anion exchange media loaded with hydrated ferric oxide (HFO) and copper (Cu2+) (Dow‐HFO‐Cu resin) to selectively capture phosphate, followed by clinoptilolite for ammonium removal and recovery. Nutrients were concentrated in the regenerants and recovered as precipitated struvite. Media exchange capacity after multiple ion exchange cycles was determined using permeate from an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) treating synthetic or actual municipal wastewater from a full‐scale water reclamation facility. Regeneration through five ion exchange cycles using relatively low concentration regenerant solution (2% NaCl and 0.5% NaOH) resulted in the highest phosphate exchange …

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Bacteriophage Inactivation As A Function Of Ferrous Iron Oxidation, Joe Heffron, Brad Mcdermid, Brooke K. Mayer Jul 2019

Bacteriophage Inactivation As A Function Of Ferrous Iron Oxidation, Joe Heffron, Brad Mcdermid, Brooke K. Mayer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Iron-based disinfection has been promoted as a potential low-cost, low-byproduct means of virus mitigation. This research is the first to establish that virus inactivation due to ferrous iron is impacted both by the extent of iron oxidation (from ferrous to ferric iron) and the rate of iron oxidation. Log inactivation of bacteriophages increased linearly with ferrous iron concentration at low doses (< 3 mg/L Fe), but higher doses limited disinfection, likely due to floc formation. The rate of iron oxidation was controlled by independently varying pH and dissolved oxygen concentration. Bacteriophage inactivation increased with the inverse of ferrous oxidation rate, suggesting that slower iron oxidation rates allow better contact between viruses and reactive ferrous iron. Ferrous iron showed potential for disinfection in conditions of low pH and dissolved oxygen, though these conditions preclude effective iron coagulation/flocculation.

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Bs News July/August Jul 2019

Bs News July/August

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

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Modeling To Predict The Salt Transport Between A Scale Model Estuary And The Unconfined Aquifer With Groundwater Flow, Abeer Ibraheem Khazaly Jul 2019

Modeling To Predict The Salt Transport Between A Scale Model Estuary And The Unconfined Aquifer With Groundwater Flow, Abeer Ibraheem Khazaly

Theses and Dissertations

In many field studies, variation in fluid density may have important effects on controlling groundwater flow and solute transport processes. These studies include: Indian River Lagoon (IRL), a coastal estuary, located on the east coast of Florida, saline disposal basins, radioactive waste disposal and contaminant spills. In the environment, where the fresh groundwater region is in direct contact with the saline seawater region in coastal aquifers, dynamic equilibrium normally exists between these two regions, but there are numerous human and environmental factors that can adversely impact the equilibrium and lead to severe saltwater contamination of the freshwater region. Intrusion of …

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Cost-Effective Methods To Retrofit Metal Culverts Using Composites, Mahmoud Reda Taha, Susan Bogus Halter Jul 2019

Cost-Effective Methods To Retrofit Metal Culverts Using Composites, Mahmoud Reda Taha, Susan Bogus Halter

Publications

One of the current pressing problems for all DOTs is the corrosion-oriented deterioration of existing metal culverts. These metal culverts typically are designed for a life of 50 years. However, corrosion is making them last no longer than 30 years. A Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymers (GFRP) pipe section has been evaluated as a fit-in GFRP profile liner for complete repair and rehabilitation of the corroded metal culvert with an expected life of 75 years. This is mainly because of the corrosion free nature of the GFRP material. A comprehensive rehabilitation methodology and laboratory scale three-point bending test was conducted to …

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Modeling Particle Dispersal In Bedload Dominated Settings, Sanaz Borhani Jul 2019

Modeling Particle Dispersal In Bedload Dominated Settings, Sanaz Borhani

Theses and Dissertations

Tracer particles are used to study bedload transport in gravel bed rivers. One of the advantages associated with their use is that they allow for direct measurements of particle entrainment rates in bedload transport and particle displacement. The main issue in field studies with tracer particles is the difference between tracer short term and long term behavior. This difference is due to the fact that particles undergo vertical mixing or move to less active locations such as bars or even floodplains. For these reasons the mean tracer velocity decreases over time. This phenomenon has been called tracer slowdown and it …

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The Study Of Flow Hydrodynamics And Transport Processes Over Mixed Bedrock-Alluvial Reaches, Mohammad Sadegh Jafarinik Jul 2019

The Study Of Flow Hydrodynamics And Transport Processes Over Mixed Bedrock-Alluvial Reaches, Mohammad Sadegh Jafarinik

Theses and Dissertations

Research efforts on mixed bedrock-alluvial rivers primary focused on the bedrock incision and very few studies investigated the alluvial morphodynamics of such systems. To the best of my knowledge none of these models have been considered the spatial variability of the sediment grain size of the bed surface in mixed bedrock-alluvial reaches and very few models focused on the spatial changes in alluvial cover within these reaches. Furthermore, a perusal of the literature on mixed bedrock-alluvial river morphodynamics reveals that very little information is available on 1) bedform geometry and flow resistances and 2) sediment sorting patterns in presence of …

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Damping In Transient Pressurized Flows, Sahad Salim Elyass Khilqa Jul 2019

Damping In Transient Pressurized Flows, Sahad Salim Elyass Khilqa

Theses and Dissertations

Piping systems are commonly designed to withstand the first transient pressure peak, which is unaffected by dissipation. However, for multiple operations of control equipment, e.g., pump start-up following pump shutdown, load acceptance following load rejection on hydraulic turbines, etc., an accurate prediction of the dissipation of pressure oscillations is needed to determine a suitable time for the second operation. For this purpose, a method is presented to compute the dissipation of pressure oscillations in piping system following a simple procedure used for computing the dissipation of vibrations of bridges and other structures. Similar to structural engineering, this method is simple …

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Damage Evaluation Of Concrete Structures Using Acoustic Emission, Rafal Anay Jul 2019

Damage Evaluation Of Concrete Structures Using Acoustic Emission, Rafal Anay

Theses and Dissertations

The deterioration and aging of the infrastructure in the U.S. have become a crucial issue, especially for highway bridges and nuclear power plants. The reliability and safety of existing structures are affected by growing populations and limited resources. This issue has gained significant concern during the last two decades and efforts are being conducted to accelerate the improvement of nondestructive testing (NDT) and structural health monitoring (SHM) methods. Additional information regarding the condition of existing structures and the early detection of damage can aid in reducing overall maintenance costs. The studies presented in this dissertation employ acoustic emission (AE) as …

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