Engineering Commons^™

Climate-Informed Environmental Inflows To Revive A Drying Lake Facing Meteorological And Anthropogenic Droughts, Mojtaba Sadegh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The rapid shrinkage of Lake Urmia, one of the world’s largest saline lakes located in northwestern Iran, is a tragic wake-up call to revisit the principles of water resources management based on the socio-economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. The overarching goal of this paper is to set a framework for deriving dynamic, climate-informed environmental inflows for drying lakes considering both meteorological/climatic and anthropogenic conditions. We report on the compounding effects of meteorological drought and unsustainable water resource management that contributed to Lake Urmia’s contemporary environmental catastrophe. Using rich datasets of hydrologic attributes, water demands and withdrawals, as well …

Geophysical Assessment Of Subsurface Soil Conditions Using Capacitively Coupled Resistivity, Folaseye Coker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to explore the applicability of Capacitively-Coupled Resistivity (CCR) as an improvement on traditional drilling and sampling methods for subsurface soil investigations. The CCR method could be used to identify critical locations for drilling and sampling such as expansive clay layers and anomalies (sinkholes, unknown landfills, etc.) rather than uniformly sampling across a site. CCR surveys were performed at Alpena, Arkansas along a highway expansion project changing US 62 from a two lane to four lane highway, and at Alton, Illinois along the Mel Price Levee, a 5.2 mile levee along a portion of the …

Computer Modeling Of Close-To-Ground Tornado Wind-Fields For Different Tornado Widths, Mohammadhossein Kashefizadeh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tornadoes induce different wind forces on buildings than straight-line (SL) winds. The tangential velocity (Vθ) of tornados is the main parameter that causes damage to the buildings. In-field tornado measurements cannot evaluate the tornado’s Vθ at less than 20m above ground level (AGL). The laboratory tornado simulators suggest that the Swirl ratio (S) and the radius (ro) are the most influential factors affecting Vθ. However, due to scaling problems, laboratory simulators cannot report the Vθ for elevations less than 10m AGL. Well refined computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models can evaluate the Vθ at less than 10m AGL. However, the CFD …

Proposed Astm Standard For The Stokoe-Type Resonant Column Torsional Shear Device, Anh Tuan Tran

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Resonant Column Torsional Shear (RCTS) testing has become one of the most commonly used methods for determining laboratory soil stiffness and soil damping. The RCTS test has been accepted and is commonly utilized during the permitting of new nuclear facilities. However, there is still no available public standard for performing RCTS tests using the Stokoe-type device. Therefore, an ASTM standard for calibration and performance of RCTS tests using the Stokoe-type RCTS device is presented herein. Data collected using the Stokoe-type RCTS devices at the University of Arkansas (UofA) and at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) also aided in the development …

Testing And Development Of Pre-Stressed Cfrp Retrofit Strategies For Controlling Fatigue Cracking In Steel Waterway Lock Gate Structures, Maggie Langston

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Steel waterway lock gates across the national inland waterway transportation network are reaching and exceeding their intended service life, often experiencing component failures that lead to service interruptions. Unscheduled maintenance and repair of lock gates can be expensive and cause economic ripples throughout the entire inland waterway network. These lock gate component failures are often caused by fatigue cracking from repeated loading during operation. This thesis develops and tests a prestressed carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) fatigue retrofit for controlling fatigue demands within lock gate components. The study expands upon a recent analytical work by Lozano (2017) by experimentally investigating …

Evaluation And Strengthening Of Elevated Slab On Grade With Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (Frp) Laminates, Natawut Chaiwino

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Elevating a residential house appears to be one of the most effective techniques to eliminate or alleviate flood losses. In general, the elevation procedures involve raising a house as well as its typical slab-on-grade (SOG) foundation and supporting it with an additional support system. The unconcerned effects of the drastic changes in support condition could lead to severe structural damages and failure of houses. After elevated, thus, such slabs must be properly supported and retrofitted, for which the available methodology and know-how is almost nonexistent. The fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) application, considered as a promising technique in the rehabilitation of …

Experimental And Numerical Investigation Of The Concrete Shear Strength Of Reinforced Concrete Box Culverts Under Uniformly Distributed Load, Masoud Ghahremannejad

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

This research resulted in the development of a new method for performing displacement control analysis of distributed loads to obtain the ultimate shear strength of structural components. A framework, consisting of several sub-frames, was designed to convert the single displacement applied at the top of the framework to equivalent uniformly-distributed forces applied to the beam. To validate the loading mechanism, using the proposed framework, the load was applied on the top of a reinforced concrete beam in the laboratory, and numerical studies were conducted. The shear capacity of the beam under a concentrated load at mid-span was compared with the …

In-Service Performance Evaluation Of Fire And Impact Damaged Bridges With Cfrp Laminate Strengthening, Santosh Timilsina

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Fire events and impact damage on bridges are few of the least understood of common extreme events. Bridge infrastructures that are subjected to hazards such as fire or impact from over height vehicle can catastrophically collapse or be heavily damaged. External wrapping of damaged concrete bridge components with Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) laminates has been used as a strengthening technique for these bridges. Two such in-service bridges, one of which was fire damaged and the other impact damaged, both aged more than 50 years old in Irving, Texas, were selected for this study. The damaged beams of the concrete bridges …

Developing A Framework To Optimize The Operations Of An Intermodal Underground Freight Transportation Terminal Using Simulation, Fatemeh Rezaeifar

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), by 2040, nearly 30,000 miles of our busiest highways will be clogged daily and it is important to increase the capacity of our transportation system. Construction of intermodal underground freight transportation (UFT) systems for freight movement through underground pipelines or tunnels, can increase the capacity of the existing shipping network. The intermodal terminal is a major component of the UFT’s innovative infrastructure project. Increasing demand for container transportation systems in terminals will raise the risk of terminal congestion and delivery delay due to the increase in freight transportation system bottlenecks (traffic jams …

A Calibration Chamber For Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Studies Of Soil Behavior Via Resonant Column Testing, Daniel R. C. Green

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Abstract A Calibration Chamber for Thermo-hydro-mechanical Studies of Soil Behavior via Resonant Column Testing Daniel R. C. Green The University of Texas at Arlington, 2018 Supervising Professor: Dr. Laureano Hoyos A considerable portion of the emerging geothermal infrastructure in the country is located in earthquake prone areas while being supported and/or surrounded by soil deposits located well above the groundwater table. Geotechnical earthquake research in the country, however, continues to be mostly focused on soil response under saturated conditions, especially soil liquefaction phenomena, while most of the work on dynamic response of compacted soils has not taken suction or thermal …

Development Of A Framework To Estimate Social And Environmental Costs Of Truck, Railroad, And Underground Freight Transportation, Amir Tabesh

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Increasing freight transportation capacity is the most important factor to keep US economy viable. Trucks moved 11.5 billion tons of goods, or 63.8 percent of total freight shipments in 2015, which is projected to grow to 16.6 billion tons by 2045. It is predicted truck travel may increase from 282 million miles per day in 2012 to 488 million miles per day by 2045. The U.S. railroad system includes 138,000 rail miles, which 93,500 miles owned and operated by Class I railroad and the rest of them owned and operated by regional and local railroads. While the miles of railroad …

Planning, Design, And Operational Analysis Of Underground Freight Transportation Systems With Individual Autonomous Vehicles, Sirwan Shahooei

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Given the increases in freight transportation demand, the current infrastructure for freight transportation appears insufficient. Moreover, the future development of capacity for freight transportation infrastructure seems to be limited. Based on a U.S. DOT report, most of the U.S. freight transportation infrastructure’s construction dates back to the 1960s. This puts a heavy burden on the national highway and railroad systems. The growing demand for freight will increase truck traffic on both urban and rural highways. The increase in truck traffic on highways will result in multiple challenges, including traffic congestion, security concerns, infrastructure deterioration, environmental pollution, energy consumption, increase in …

Evaluation Of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (Frp) Strengthening For Deteriorated Bridge Bent Caps, Yazan Almomani

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Deterioration of aging highway bridges has been a serious concern in the U. S. A. Almost 39% percent of all bridges in the country have passed their 50-year design life, and approximately 9% of these bridges are structurally deficient due to concrete deterioration and truck weight increases on highways. Compared to superstructures, the deterioration of bridge substructures and associated repair/strengthening/evaluation has received much less attention in previous studies. A reinforced concrete bridge built in 1940 and located in Dallas, Texas, exhibited moderate to severe corrosion related concrete deterioration in the bent caps. Eight such bent caps were selected herein for …

A New Approach For Performance Evaluation Of Bridge Infrastructure Using Terrestrial Lidar And Advanced Mathematical Modeling, Ali Shafikhani

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

High plastic expansive clays when subjected to different climatic conditions undergo large ground movements causing distress to infrastructures including bridges, pavements, buildings, retaining structures, and others. Performance assessment of these structures built on problematic soils such as expansive clays is important to reduce maintenance and extending the design life of infrastructure. Rapid developments in remote sensing technologies with precise evaluation have influenced the monitoring techniques for assessing the health condition of civil infrastructure projects. While these technologies have considerably aided in performance evaluation, cogent procedures for evaluating the ground movements are still required that integrates technologies, climatic factors, soil behavior …

Highway Cross Slope Measurement Using Airborne And Mobile Lidar, Alireza Shams Esfandabadi

All Dissertations

Ensuring adequate pavement cross slope on highways can improve driver safety by reducing the potential for water sheeting and ponding. Collecting cross slope data is typically only based on small sample because efficient technology and means to collect accurate cross slope data has been evasive. The advent of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scanning technology has proven to be a valuable tool in the creation of 3D terrain models. Combined with other technologies such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Inertial Measurement Unit devices (IMU) it is now possible to collect accurate 3D coordinate data in the form of a …

Maintaining Deck Profile In Steel I-Girder Bridges During Deck Placement, Ali Naif Inceefe

Masters Theses

Conventional steel I-girder highway bridges utilize cast-in-place concrete deck. Maintaining the deck profile as per project specifications might be a challenging task. Deformation of girders and formwork used for deck placement need to be controlled during deck placement. Differential deflection between girders, exterior girder web out-of-plane deformation, exterior girder warping, or a combination thereof could impact the deck profile. These deformations challenge maintaining deck profile and need to be considered as a part of constructability evaluation. Determining deck profile due to potential girder deformations is necessary before deck placement so that the remedial actions can be implemented when deck finish …

Feasibility Of Aerial Tramway At Boise State University, Majed Alsaqyani

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The use of aerial tramways is becoming common in cities as a way to provide reliable, safe, sustainable, and cost-effective mass transportation. The aerial tramway is especially effective in the most congested areas of major cities. The growth of Boise State University (BSU) and downtown Boise makes this location especially attractive for a tramway. Moreover, based on data collected for this analysis, it is clear that the BSU community is open to using the tramway instead of more traditional modes of transportation.

The viability of the tramway is further enhanced because the computer science department has moved to City Center …

A Comprehensive Seismic Response And Slope Stability Analysis Framework For Evaluating The Stability Of Hydraulic-Fill Dams, Sayantan Chakraborty

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The stability and serviceability of earthen embankment structures such as dams and levees are extremely crucial to avoid the catastrophic consequences of the failure of these structures. Such man-made geo-structures are usually stable under normal working conditions; however, the stability and subsequent functionality may be affected during earthquake events. Hence, the evaluation of seismic response and structural stability of earthen dams is an important facet in the field of geotechnical earthquake engineering. Dams and levees built in earthquake-prone regions are usually designed to withstand expected seismic events, and in-depth time-history-based dynamic analyses are typically performed to assess the behavior of …

Algorithm Development For Sewer Pipe System Condition Assessment Using Multi-Sensor (Msi) Technology, Mohammed Al Asadi

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

This study investigates the performance of all the current large-diameter pipeline system of The City of Arlington (COA) sewer lines of 48 miles (24-inch inner diameter and above for rigid and flexible pipes). Proper inspection and rehabilitation plan for the city sewer pipeline system are better choice for the municipality and tax payers in terms of cost than dealing with pipe damage and collapsing problems when they happen. The City of Arlington (COA), University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) and RedZone Robotics have established a Technology Partnership Program (TPP) to perform a condition assessment on the all COA large diameter …

Using Finite Element Output To Detect Damage In A Steel Frame Model, Ai D. Nguyen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many structural collapses, all over the world, are related to inspection errors. The U.S. I- 35 Bridge in Minneapolis and the Canterbury Television building in New Zealand are a few examples. U.S. infrastructure conditions are poor, scoring a D+ according to ASCE report 2017. When the structures are inspected, the cost is high and service is lost. Inspectors use their trained but subjective judgment, which can lead to errors. Improved inspection techniques are required to reduce the cost, time, and subjectivity.

SHETM (Structural Health EvaluationTM) is an in-house software that has the ability to employ data to improve damage detection …

A Framework For Assessing Sustainability Impacts Of Truck Routing Strategies, Haluk Laman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The impact of freight on our transportation system is further accentuated by the fact that trucks consume greater roadway capacity and therefore cause more significant problems including traffic congestion, delay, crashes, air pollution, fuel consumption, and pavement damage. Assessing the actual effects of truck traffic is a growing need to support the ability to safely and efficiently move goods and people in areas where roadway expansion is not the best option. On one hand, trucks need to efficiently serve commerce and industry, while at the same time their activities need not contribute to a decline in the quality or public …

Evaluation And Development Of Cpt Based Pile Design In Nebraska Soils, Alex Silvey

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

Cone penetration testing (CPT) is a well established geotechnical subsurface investigation technique commonly used for site characterization and soil classification. The CPT gives real time end resistance, side friction, and pore pressure readings. Axially loaded piles also share these two resistance mechanisms, suggesting the cone can be considered similar to a miniature pile. This study focused on evaluating eight CPT methods prediction of pile bearing capacity. The Nebraska Department of Roads (NDOR) conducts dynamic load tests (PDA) of driven pile to verify pile capacity for bridge foundations. 91 comparisons of CPT logs and PDA data were evaluated. CPT prediction methods …

Studying The Applicability Of Biostimulated Calcite Precipitation In Stabilizing Expansive Soils, Md Touhidul Islam

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Of the four types of soils, clays are often associated with issues related to low bearing capacity, high compressibility, swelling and shrinking nature. For example, expansive soils swell and shrink with moisture ingress and digress and are prevalent in several parts of the world causing billions of dollars in damages annually to various civil infrastructures. Several ground improvement techniques such as chemical stabilization, deep soil mixing, moisture barriers, and others were employed to counteract these soils. However, these methods are impractical in certain situations and unsustainable in others due to their economic and environmental impacts. Microbiological treatment of soils could …

Understanding Asphalt Concrete Aging Using Nanoindentation, Hasan M. Faisal

Civil Engineering ETDs

Asphalt concrete (AC) is created by mixing liquid asphalt binder with solid aggregates. When asphalt binder is mixed with aggregates, it creates a thin film (about 7-16 microns thick) around the aggregate surface. Fine aggregate (smaller than 0.075 mm size) get entrapped within the binder film or mixed with the binder, and create a phase called mastic. Both asphalt film and mastic play significant roles in aging of asphalt pavement. To this day, tests were performed mainly on the bulk liquid asphalt, but not on the film or mastic. In this study, for the first time, nanoindentation tests were done …

My Catalyst, Gabrielle Gambino Lyon

Celebration of Learning

Over the course of my internship and shadow program with Pepper Lawson Construction and Ziegler Cooper Architects, I was able to explore the various career paths involved in the design, construction, and civil engineering fields. My work on the construction site of a high-rise apartment building located in the heart of Houston, TX allowed me first-hand experience working and learning alongside project engineers, contractors, building developers, and the construction team.

This project was the perfect confluence of my main areas of interest: structural, mechanical, civil, and environmental engineering, as well as architecture. My daily work consisted of on-site walk throughs, …

In Situ Strain And Damage Monitoring Of Gfrp Laminates Incorporating Carbon Nanofibers Under Tension, Yanlei Wang, Yongshuai Wang, Baoguo Han, Baolin Wan, Gaochuang Cai, Ruijuan Chang

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

In this study, conductive carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were dispersed into epoxy resin and then infused into glass fiber fabric to fabricate CNF/glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) laminates. The electrical resistance and strain of CNF/GFRP laminates were measured simultaneously during tensile loadings to investigate the in situ strain and damage monitoring capability of CNF/GFRP laminates. The damage evolution and conduction mechanisms of the laminates were also presented. The results indicated that the percolation threshold of CNFs content for CNF/GFRP laminates was 0.86 wt % based on a typical power law. The resistance response during monotonic tensile loading could be classified into three …

Investigating The Pavement Vibration Response For Roadway Service Condition Evaluation, Zhoujing Ye, Yang Lu, Linbing Wang

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Dynamic response of pavement provides service condition information and helps with damage prediction, while limited research is available with the simulation of pavement vibration response for evaluating roadway service condition. +is paper presents a numerical model for the analysis of the pavement vibration due to the dynamic load created by a passing vehicle. A quarter vehicle model was used for the determination of the vehicle moving load. Both random and spatial characteristics of the load were considered. The random nonuniform moving load was then introduced in a 3D finite element model for the determination of the traffic-induced pavement vibration. The …

Mathematical And Numerical Modeling Of Hybrid Adsorption And Biological Treatment Systems For Enhanced Nitrogen Removal, Karl A. Payne

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

High nutrient loading into groundwater and surface water systems has deleterious impacts on the environment, such as eutrophication, decimation of fish populations, and oxygen depletion. Conventional onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS) and various waste streams with high ammonium (NH4+) concentrations present a challenge, due the inconsistent performance of environmental biotechnologies aimed at managing nutrients from these sources.

Biological nitrogen removal (BNR) is commonly used in batch or packed-bed reactor configurations for nitrogen removal from various waste streams. In recognition of the need for resource recovery, algal photobioreactors are another type of environmental biotechnology with the potential for simultaneously treating wastewater …

Connected Autonomous Vehicles: Capacity Analysis, Trajectory Optimization, And Speed Harmonization, Amir Ghiasi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Emerging connected and autonomous vehicle technologies (CAV) provide an opportunity to improve highway capacity and reduce adverse impacts of stop-and-go traffic. To realize the potential benefits of CAV technologies, this study provides insightful methodological and managerial tools in microscopic and macroscopic traffic scales. In the macroscopic scale, this dissertation proposes an analytical method to formulate highway capacity for a mixed traffic environment where a portion of vehicles are CAVs and the remaining are human-driven vehicles (HVs). The proposed analytical mixed traffic highway capacity model is based on a Markov chain representation of spatial distribution of heterogeneous and stochastic headways. This …

Pressure Swing Adsorption Separation Of H2s/Co2/Ch4 Gas Mixtures With Molecular Sieves 4a, 5a, And 13x, Howell H. Heck, Merilyn L. Hall, Rudy Dos Santos, Manolis M. Tomadakis

Mechanical and Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Pressure swing adsorption experiments were carried out for the separation of equimolar mixtures of carbon dioxide and methane containing small amounts of hydrogen sulfide, utilizing 4A, 5A, and 13X molecular sieves. High-purity methane of zero or nearly zero hydrogen sulfide concentration was produced in the adsorption stage with 13X and 5A sieves, at high product recovery rates; high-purity carbon dioxide was obtained with the same sieves in the desorption stage. Zeolite 4A was found capable of raising considerably the hydrogen sulfide concentration in the accumulated desorption product (vs. the adsorption feed) at high recovery rates too. Adsorption selectivity values derived …