Engineering Commons^™

Performance Of One-Part And Two-Part Class C Fly Ash-Based Alkali Activated Mortars, Cedric Chani Kashosi

Masters Theses

“Seeking an eco-friendly concrete, researchers have conducted studies to fully replace ordinary Portland cement (OPC) with fly ash (FA) producing alkali-activated concrete (AAC). Results showed better performance of AAC in terms of high early compressive strength, and durability compared to conventional concrete. However, much is still unknown about the behavior of AAC. From the type of materials used, the curing procedure, and long-term strength development of these binders; a thorough investigation is needed in order to fill the existing gap from previous studies and thus make a step forward to the safely use of AAC in the construction industry. The …

Feasibility Study For Sustainable Controlled Low-Strength Material (Clsm) Incorporating Off-Specification Fly Ash And Bottom Ash, Alexis K. Vandomelen

Masters Theses

“Controlled low-strength material (CLSM) is a self-consolidating cementitious material used in applications requiring high flowability and low strength. The primary components of this material, being cement and sand, however, negatively impact the environment. Cement is a large contributor to CO2 emissions, and the vast depletion of sand causes physical and political issues. Furthermore, over 100 million short tons of coal combustion products (CCP), including fly ash and bottom ash, are created annually in the United States, while nearly half of all CCP remain unused. No off-specification fly ash has been implemented in CLSM. This study uses coal ashes sourced from …

Determination Of Shrinkage Of Fine-Grained Soils Using 3d Scanning Technology, Hemant R. Joshi

Honors Theses

Shrinkage Limit is the moisture content parameter in fine grained soil which is related to the volume stability of the soil. The conventional method, ASTM Standard D427-04 that uses mercury has been replaced by wax method, ASTM Standard D4943-02 that uses wax and water or MT-92 that uses spray coating. This modification has certainly minimized safety concerns of the laboratory technicians by avoiding the use of the health hazardous substance, mercury (Hg) but it is not really an economic and convenient method. This thesis proposes a 3D scanning method of determining the shrinkage limit of fine grained soils. The 3D …

Computational Modeling And Simulations Of Condition Deterioration To Enhance Asphalt Highway Pavement Design And Asset Management, Zul Fahmi Bin Mohamed Jaafar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A nation’s economy and prosperity depend on an efficient and safe transportation network for public mobility and freight transportation. A country’s road network is recognized as one of the largest public infrastructure assets. About 93 percent of 2.6 million miles of paved roads and highways in the United States (U.S.) are surfaced with asphalt. Longitudinal roughness, pavement cracking, potholes, and rutting are the major reasons for rehabilitation of asphalt roads. Billions of dollars are required annually for the maintenance and rehabilitation of road networks. If timely maintenance and rehabilitation are not performed, the pavement damages inflicted by heavy traffic repetitions …

Optimizing The Performance Of Complex Engineering Systems Aided By Artificial Neural Networks, Khalil Qatu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the first problem Polyetherimide graphene nanoplatelets papers (PEIGNP) were tested with different graphene loadings varying from 0-97 weight percent (WT%). The resulting stress-strain curves were utilized to develop two ANN models. Stress-controlled and strain-controlled models. Both models shoan excellent correlation to the experimental. Several Mechanical properties were calculated from the predicted stress-strain curves namely; toughness maximum strength maximum strain and maximum tangent modulus. Both models captured the same overall behavior of the PEIGNP composite. However the strain-controlled model was found to predict lower stress than the stress-controlled model. Finally a Graphical User Interface (GUI) was developed to aid in …

แบบจำลองพฤติกรรมการเลือกใช้ยานพาหนะร่วมกัน: กรณีศึกษาผู้ใช้รถจักรยานยนต์รับจ้างในกรุงเทพมหานคร, วีรชัย โสธนนันทน์

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

การบริการมอเตอร์ไซค์แชริ่งจะเป็นทางเลือกในเดินทางที่จะช่วยยกระดับคุณภาพชีวิตและเป็นทางเลือกการเดินทางของประชาชนในกรุงเทพมหานคร งานวิจัยนี้จึงมุ่งเน้นวิเคราะห์หาปัจจัยที่ส่งผลต่อการตัดสินใจเปลี่ยนรูปแบบการเดินทางของผู้โดยสารที่ใช้รถจักรยานยนต์รับจ้างมาเป็นการใช้บริการมอเตอร์ไซค์แชริ่ง โดยเจาะจงกลุ่มตัวอย่างเป็นผู้โดยสารที่ใช้บริการรถจักรยานยนต์รับจ้างเพื่อเชื่อมต่อกับระบบรถไฟฟ้าขนส่งมวลชนในพื้นที่ย่านศูนย์กลางทางธุรกิจของกรุงเทพมหานครจำนวน 349 ตัวอย่าง โดยใช้วิธีเก็บรวบรวมข้อมูลเชิงกล่าวอ้างด้วยการจำลองสถานการณ์สมมติ 6 สถานการณ์และสร้างแบบจำลองโลจิสติคทวินามบนพื้นฐานของทฤษฎีอรรถประโยชน์ นำข้อมูลมาวิเคราะห์ทางสถิติด้วยโปรแกรม Rstudio จากผลของการศึกษาพบว่าตัวแปรที่มีอิทธิพลเชิงบวกต่อการเลือกใช้บริการมอเตอร์ไซค์แชริ่งอย่างมีนัยสำคัญ ได้แก่ เวลาและค่าใช้จ่ายของรถจักรยานยนต์รับจ้าง ความเต็มใจจ่ายในการใช้บริการ ระยะเวลาเดินที่ยอมรับได้ ความถี่ในการใช้บริการรถจักรยานยนต์รับจ้างต่อสัปดาห์ การมีใบอนุญาตขับขี่รถจักรยานยนต์ สำหรับตัวแปรระยะทางในการเดินทาง สถานะภาพการสมรส จำนวนรถจักรยานยนต์และจำนวนรถยนต์ในครอบครองครอบครองส่งผลเชิงลบต่อการเลือกใช้บริการมอเตอร์ไซค์แชริ่ง โดยมูลค่าเวลาในการเดินทางของผู้โดยสารรถจักรยานยนต์รับจ้างของกลุ่มตัวอย่างมีค่าเท่ากับ 5.63 บาทต่อนาที

Smart Building And Construction Materials, Donglu Shi, Julian Wang, Wen Deng

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Advances and innovations in materials science and engineering have always played a substantial role in civil engineering, building structural design, and construction. In recent years, extensive effort has been devoted to the applications of stimuli-responsive smart materials and nanostructures in buildings. These smart materials used in the built environment can be defined as those offering specific functional and adaptable properties in response to thermal, optical, structural, and environmental stimuli. Not only do these materials enhance the overall performance of new building construction but also promise safer structures, longer durability of building elements, efficient building energy savings, greater environmental sustainability, and …

Stabilization Of Dredged Materials In Ohio: An Investigation Of Mechanical, Chemical And Biological Dewatering Techniques, Erika Howard

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Each year, materials are excavated from oceans and lakes in order to keep the waterways open so that ships can safely pass through. These excavated, or dredged, materials are then discarded, usually being returned to the body of water from which they were removed. Beginning in 2020, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) will no longer allow this to occur. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to investigate beneficial uses for dredged materials in Lake Erie, and to address the best management practices for dewatering these materials, as set forth in the Lake Erie Protection and Restoration Plan created …

Artificial Intelligence In Wet Weather Infrastructure, Matt Hammerstein

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Effective management of runoff from rain and snowmelt is critical as increased water flows can negatively affect efficiency and reliability at treatment facilities, as well as potentially damage property or the natural environment. Implementation of artificial intelligence for real-time decision making and support in wet weather infrastructure is a recent technological development; as such, a problem has emerged: experience and knowledge of best practices for successful implementation is limited. Artificial intelligence is being employed to inform operational decisions that are intended to improve the efficiency and reliability of physical wet weather infrastructure. The goal of municipalities and utilities in utilizing …

Incorporation Of Contaminated Sediment Into Environmentally Safe Concrete, Andrew Needs

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The research performed through this project provided some interesting results on how the different properties of the contaminated sediment can impact the strength of the new concrete.

Average three, seven, and fourteen-day strengths increased when comparing to the baseline mix developed for the experiment. Increases in strengths were notices in the ten and twenty-five percent soil replacement mixes. The largest increase was approximately thirty-three percent greater than the baseline average.

The results from the forty percent replacement test showed a significant decrease in strengths when comparing against the baseline mix. A loss of about thirty percent was observed between the …

Ultra-High Performance Concrete For Precast Seismic Bridge Column Connection, Titchenda Chan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Accelerated bridge construction (ABC) utilizes prefabricated bridge elements constructed off-site, delivered, and assembled on-site to expedite construction time and reduce traffic disruption. ABC has been increasingly used for super- and sub-structure elements in low seismic regions. However, its application in medium and high seismic regions remain limited, particularly for precast columns where connections typically coincide with plastic hinge (PH) regions. Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC), characterized by high compressive and tensile strength, and superior bond properties, is a potential material that can mitigate PH damage and enhance load transfer. This research proposes a new and simple damage tolerant precast column connection …

Stormwater Infrastructure And The Threat Of Climate Change, Eric Mccaslin

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this report is to analyze the modernization of stormwater infrastructure systems and the growing impact of climate change on said systems. Growing population rates and increasing urban settlement are leading to the water demand approaching the water supply capacity. Climate change is the root of several potentially severe issues affecting water resources as well as the rapidly increasing coastal and urban populations including but not limited to rising sea levels and the increasing severity and frequency of storms. Many cities, especially older or low income ones, also may not have adequate systems in place to handle the …

Artificial Intelligence Of Stormwater Operations, Eric Bednar

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The current infrastructure in our country will not be able to adequately support the growing demands of an exponentially increasing population. A rise in population contributes to a greater service demand necessary to treat sanitary sewer waste which in many cases contributes to the flow of combined sewers. When it comes to managing these combined sewers, rain and the snowmelt caused from climate changes are major factors that need to be addressed. Some water treatment facilities do not have the ability to treat the capacities or peak flows that a system experiences, resulting in combined sewer overflows which are both …

Artificial Intelligence In Wastewater Treatment Facilities: Implementing Practical New Technologies For The End User, Jordan Spano

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Design phase operator input can prove useful; however, it is not essential in every application, as Akron’s treatment plant implemented AI to increase treatment capacity without design-phase operator input. They implemented a system flight simulator, a few hours training, and have communicated with the designer to make system tweaks as needed. In larger applications, the owner may benefit greatly by incorporating design input from operational staff. Those representing a municipality as a project owner for a treatment plant upgrade should always maintain an active role in the design of smart water infrastructure. They must keep the operators in mind when …

Analysis Of Standardized Concrete Mixes, Riley Graybeal

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Concrete is one of the most common materials used in construction. It is mass produced throughout the country, with numerous different designs for concrete mixes. A common practice among concrete manufacturers is to use a standardized concrete mix design. These standardized mix designs are pre-tested and are not usually altered frequently. The hypothesis of this research project is that manufacturers do not constantly investigate new ways to save on their mixes, and simply use the same standardized mix designs.

In this research, investigations into what alterations may reduce the cost of standardized mixes began with a baseline mix design provided …

Flood Inundation Mapping For Huron Creek, Houghton County, Michigan, Sarah Washko

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The 2018 Father’s Day Flood rattled the Houghton County, MI community. Thousands of dollars in damage to public and private property were incurred due to slope failure, scour and stagnant water. Though the flood was billed as a once-in-a-lifetime event, hazard mitigation planning has become essential, as extreme weather events are expected to become more frequent with a changing climate. While Federal Emergency Management Agency funding will provide detailed flood hazard maps in the future, mapping is expected to be several years out. To aid the City of Houghton community with immediate flood hazard mitigation planning, a hydraulic-based flood depth …

Bs News January/February

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Demand On Shared Mobility Packages In University Campus, Sandar Win

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Shared mobility is the emerging service and comes in various forms. In Chulalongkorn University, innovative shared mobility services such as shared bicycle (CU Bike), small electric vehicle sharing (Ha:mo) and ride sharing tricycle (Muvmi) are offered along with conventional free bus (Pop bus) circulation. This study aimed to explore the attributes of the monthly mobility package which have effect on student’s decision while offering the integrated service package for CU students. Two phases of questionnaire surveys were conducted to find out the satisfaction on existing mobility services quality, barriers that discourage students from using shared mobilities, and factors that influence …

Global Food Security Under Climate-Water-Energy Nexus, Ehsan Najafi

Dissertations and Theses

During the last few decades, the global agricultural production has risen and technology enhancement is still contributing to yield growth. However, population growth, water and energy crisis, and extreme weather, climate change, etc. threaten the global food security. The focus of this study is to advance the understanding of the associations between crops productivity and large scale and local scale climatic variables, climate change, technology enhancement and assessing food-water-energy nexus to enhance global food security in a sustainable manner considering current available resources. As decision-makers try to improve food security, it is important to identify the impact of technology enhancement …

Heavy Truck Collision With Bridge Piers, Ran Cao

Dissertations and Theses

Based on bridge failure data compiled by the New York State Department of Transportation, collision, both caused by vessels and vehicles, is the second leading cause of bridge failures after hydraulic. The current AASHTO-LRFD (2017) specification recommends designing a bridge pier vulnerable to vehicular impacts for an equivalent static force of 2,670-kN (600 kips) applied in a horizontal plane at a distance of 1.5 m (5.0 feet) above the ground level. The vast majority of research studies on vehicular collision with bridge piers have been carried out with single-unit trucks, which are typically classified as medium-duty vehicles weighing about 89 …

Hydroclimate Drivers And Atmospheric Dynamics Of Floods, Nasser Najibi

Dissertations and Theses

Our preliminary survey showed that most of the recent flood-related studies did not formally explain the physical mechanisms of long-duration and large-peak flood events that can evoke substantial damages to properties and infrastructure systems. These studies also fell short of fully assessing the interactions of coupled ocean-atmosphere and land dynamics which are capable of forcing substantial changes to the flood attributes by governing the exceeding surface flow regimes and moisture source-sink relationships at the spatiotemporal scales important for risk management. This dissertation advances the understanding of the variability in flood duration, peak, volume, and timing at the regional to the …

A Dynamic Risk Management Framework For Water And Environmental Sustainability, Arun Ravindranath

Dissertations and Theses

The risks and vulnerabilities facing reservoir systems in river basins shift dynamically over time and space. These risks involve regime changes and shifts, throughout which one observes the transition of water availability from prolonged dry periods to prolonged wet periods. Ensuring reliability of water supply under these hydrological regime shifts involves understanding how these regime shifts can be identified, characterized, and quantified. This dissertation describes a dynamic risk management (DRM) framework for water management at the basin level whose main features are (1) a system of updating risk assessments and policy recommendations on a yearly basis, where the risk assessments …

Long-Term Impact On Environmental Attitudes And Knowledge Assessed Over Three Semesters Of An Environmental Engineering Sequence, Benjamin Michael Wallen, Nathaniel Sheehan, Luke Plante, Erick Martinez, Jeffrey A. Starke

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The pedagogy employed in a three-course environmental engineering sequence is investigated to determine the efficacy of enabling long-term improvement of knowledge and attitudes toward the environment. These three courses incorporate concepts of the five grand challenges released by the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Sciences and increase the breadth of knowledge for T-professionals. Previous studies of lengths from a few weeks to semester long courses evaluated the potential causality among various demographics and environmental knowledge and attitudes. The research presented herein contrasts and compares changes in environmental knowledge based upon a 12-question survey and changes in environmental …

Synthesis Of Fault Traces In Se Louisiana Relative To Infrastructure, David Culpepper, Elizabeth Chinn Mcdade, Nancye Dawers, Mark Kulp, Rui Zhang

Publications

Geological faulting has been implicated as a contributor to subsidence, coastal land-loss and submergence of marshlands in southern Louisiana. This report reviews whether fault motion, either by slow creep or more sudden slip, can cause deformation of engineered structures resulting in increased infrastructure maintenance and repair costs. The impact of surface, or near-surface, geologic faulting on critical infrastructure is insufficiently documented in southeastern Louisiana, but the state has a vast amount of energy-sector subsurface data that to date has been under-utilized for transportation and other near-surface engineering applications. Recent and on-going work by research groups at Tulane University, University of …

A Study On Erosion Resistance For Microbially Induced Calcite Treated Beach Sand, Abigail Chek

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Microbial induced calcite precipitation (MICP) was used to treat several sandboxes filled with naturally occurring beach sand collected from Atlantic Beach, FL. Unlike most previous MICP studies, a surface-spray technique was used to treat these sandboxes where relatively high-concentration bacteria solution and high concentration calcium chloride/urea solutions were applied directly to the boxes’ surfaces. Several different treatment combinations were tested whereby bacterial optical density, bacteria/urea/calcium chloride volume relative to void space, and bacteria/urea/calcium chloride ratio were manipulated. Treated sandboxes were tested for erodibility using a pocket erodometer and for calcification using a wash method. In addition, sandboxes were dissected after …

Evaluating The Performance Of Cooperative Merging Assistance System For Aging Drivers, Flavius Matata

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Freeway merging maneuvers demand considerable attention by drivers and are among the more complex operations drivers must perform on freeways. Aging drivers, a growing population in the United States, face added challenges when merging. This study utilized Vissim models created in a previous study that modeled the behavior of aging drivers during freeway merging. An algorithm for Cooperative Merging Assistance System (CMAS) that utilizes Connected Vehicle (CV) technology was developed in this study. The Vissim models were created for two interchanges on I-75 in Fort Myers, Florida, each with different geometric characteristics. Acceleration lane lengths of 1000ft and 1500ft were …

The Operational And Safety Effects Of Heavy Duty Vehicles Platooning, Ahmed Alzahrani

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Although researchers have studied the effects of platooning, most of the work done so far has focused on fuel consumption. There are a few studies that have targeted the impact of platooning on the highway operations and safety. This thesis focuses on the impact of heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) platooning on highway characteristics. Specifically, this study aims at evaluating the effects of platooning of HDVs on capacity, safety, and CO₂ emissions.

This study is based on a hypothetical model that was created using the VISSIM software. VISSIM is a powerful simulation software designed to mimic the field traffic flow …

The Mechanics Of Precision Presplitting, Anthony Joseph Konya

Doctoral Dissertations

"Precision Presplitting is a widely used method of presplit blasting for the mining and construction industries. In recent years considerable effort has gone into the development of empirical equations based on field data to be able to better design the Precision Presplit for various rock types and structural environments. However, the most widely discussed theory about the mechanics of the presplit formation, that of shockwave collisions, does not appear to be applicable for this method of presplitting.

This research has disproven this theory based on insufficient magnitude of the shockwave from modeling with basic wave mechanics. Other authors have suggested …

Feasibility And Assessment Of Using Recycled Rubber For Infrastructure Applications, Ahmed A. Gheni

Doctoral Dissertations

“The United States needs to mine billions of tons of raw natural aggregate each year. At the same time, millions of scrap tires are stockpiled every year. Therefore, replacing natural aggregate with recycled crumb rubber aggregate will be beneficial to the construction industry and environment. This research aimed to investigate the feasibility of using recycled rubber in new construction applications. Based on size, recycled rubber was selected to match its natural counterpart. Different ratios of recycled crumb rubber were used as a fine aggregate replacement in concrete masonry units (CMUs) where the rubberized units showed a lower unit weight, higher …

The Nola Development: Stormwater Management And Green Alternative Designs, Davis P. Odle

Honors Theses

In the design for any development, the management of storm and wastewater is crucial in creating a viable product. The NOLA complex is a development in Oxford, MS that consists of residential as well as commercial units. The stormwater management systems designed for this facility include: an underground storage device, separate ductile iron pipes for the stormwater and wastewater outflows, a rain garden for green alternative storage. The underground storage system is designed for the 500-year storm and to fit under the southwest parking lot on the site. The stormwater outflow pipe will be designed for the 100-year storm, while …