Engineering Commons^™

Performance Comparison Of High Density Polyethylene Pipe, Chandan Venkatesh

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The current and forecasted major challenge faced by water utilities is delivering potable water efficiently with minimum loss to end users. Water pipe failure has negative impact not only local communities but also on the nation's economy. The American Water Works Association (AWWA) has estimated that it will cost over $250 billion to replace and renew the nation's water pipes over the next 20 years. According to the 2009 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Report Card, seven billion gallons of water are lost in this country every day!Every pipe has unique properties with advantages and limitations. During a pipe's …

Effect Of Stress And Suction Histories Dynamic Properties Of Statically Compacted Silty Sand, William Allan Douglas

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

This paper is devoted to the analysis of the experimental study whose intent is to find the effect of the stress/suction history on the dynamic properties of silty sand subjected to small- to mid-strains. The practical application of this study includes determining the effect on soil stiffness properties of increased soil suction (transpiration of water) followed by loading induced by shallow foundations and vice versa. Small-strain stiffness properties such as shear modulus, material damping, and shear wave velocity, are important subsoil parameters for proper analysis and design of unsaturated earth structures subject to static and dynamic loading. Traditional soil testing …

An Evaluation Of Failure Modes For Cast Iron And Ductile Iron Water Pipes, Ameya Brahmanand Paradkar

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The need to evaluate the performance of cast iron and ductile iron water pipes is of great importance since they are the most common pipe materials for water mains. The concern in the water industry is about the cost involved in repairs and replacement of water pipes due to failure. The rate of pipe failures increases as the design life ends and become a financial burden on the water industry. This thesis evaluates the failure modes for the two most used pipe materials for water mains in the United States which are cast iron and ductile iron pipes. A study …

Development Of Traffic Inputs For The Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide In New York State, Ferdous Intaj

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Proper characterization of traffic data is a prerequisite for the determination of appropriate traffic inputs to Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG). The development of proper traffic inputs helps reflect the traffic conditions over the life of pavement which would decrease the maintenance, repair and traffic disruptions and improve the traffic conditions of a road network.The objective of the study was to characterize the traffic data and suggest the site-specific, regional or state wide average values for traffic inputs to MEPDG for New York State. Vehicle class distribution (VCD), monthly distribution factors (MDF), hourly distribution factors (HDF), average number of axle …

Selective Catalytic Reduction Of Nitric Oxide Over Cerium-Doped Activated Carbons, Annaprabha Athappan

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) with ammonia for diesel engine NOx reduction using activated carbon (AC) was studied. Comparisons of unmodified and cerium-doped Granular Activated Carbon (GAC), Activated Carbon Fiber (ACF), and Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs) were conducted. Physical and chemical properties and durability of the catalysts were examined using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), carbon hydrogen and nitrogen (CHN) analysis, X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray Photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), Braunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis and density analysis. Experiments were carried in a fixed bed column at various temperatures from 100º to 400º …

Visualising Urban Flooding Scenarios Using Video Game Technology, William Elliott Lynn

Theses

This thesis investigates the application of computer graphics to the visualisation of urban flooding scenarios. The demand for urban flooding visualisations is presented in the context of an EU wide climate change response strategy. An analysis of the requirements from various stakeholders is presented and a strategy that addresses these requirements is synthesised. A study on the appropriate computer graphics methods and technologies is outlined and limitations of current technologies are assessed. Systems that solve these limitations are described and the result of usability and user acceptance testing are offered as evidence.

Interfacing Building Response With Human Behavior Under Seismic Events, Z. Liu, Mehdi Jalalpour, C. Jacques, S. Szyniszewski, J. Mitrani-Reiser, James K. Guest, T. Igusa, B. W. Schafer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The goal of this paper is to model the interaction of humans with their built environment during and immediately following a natural disaster. The study uses finite element simulations to evaluate the response of buildings under input ground motions and agent-based dynamic modeling to model the subsequent evacuation of building occupants in the study area immediately following the seismic event. The structural model directly captures building damage and collapse, as well as floor accelerations and displacements to determine nonstructural damage, injuries and fatalities. The goal of this research is to make connections between building damage and occupant injuries, with geographic …

Performance Of Prestressed Concrete Cylinder Pipe (Pccp) In Water Applilcations, Rahul Manda

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The analysis of water pipes failure data is of great importance as it has a significant impact society and the environment. These failures also have the overall impact on the financial burden on the water industry. This thesis evaluates the failure rate of Prestressed Concrete Cylinder Pipe (PCCP), which is one of the most conventional rigid pipes and are extensively used as the water and wastewater pipeline in the US and around the world. A statistical analysis of the failure rate based on the diameter size over multiple years will help in determining the performance of PCCP pipes. Also, the …

Effects Of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (Frp) Wrap On Reducing Chloride Penetration In Concrete, Gunther G. Garcia

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of FRP wrap on reducing chloride penetration in concrete. It has been established that FRP wrap used to retrofit concrete structures offer a high resistance to chemical solutions. The ACI 318-11 Code allows for a reduction of clear cover depth if an equivalent clear cover depth can be establish. The FRP material used herein consisted of Tyfo SCH-41 and Tyfo SEH-51A composites fabricated from carbon and glass fibers, respectively. The wrapped FRP concrete specimens and control specimens without FRP wrap were tested according to ASTM C 1543 and ASTM C …

Determining The Effectiveness Of Chlorine-Based Biofilm Control On The Friction Factors Of Large Diameter Pipelines In Raw Water, Shelly Stamler Hattan

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Large diameter transmission mains pumping raw water experience capacity loss during the summer months due to the growth of biofilm. The loss of capacity impacts power costs at a time when power is obtained at a premium. Biofilm growth varies with the seasons and varies along the length of the pipeline. Biofilm growth and decay directly impacts the friction factors. Future design work should consider a seasonal friction factor rather than an aged friction factor over time.The method of controlling biofilm is with the application of chloramines at the lake pump stations. This study compares the difference between little to …

Water Permeability In Fiber Reinforced Plastic (Fpr)-Wrapped Concrete, Jyoti Ojha

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

A finite element analysis is performed using ANSYS software to analyze progress of water and its circulation in FRP wrapped concrete. This paper presents the modeling of water diffusion in FRP. Finite element programs do not usually employ issue permeability or diffusion. Therefore, diffusion of water in FRP is modeled by analogy with thermal conduction. A brief description of theoretical background is presented in the paper. The recommended FE modeling procedures are listed. Diffusion coefficient of Tyfo SCH 41S-1 obtained from an inspection report is used to analyze water permeably of FRP. Tyfo SCH 41S-1 is the most popular FRP …

Resilient Moduli Properties Of Compacted Unsaturated Subgrade Materials, Pinit Ruttanaporamakul

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

According to the new Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) and 1993 AASHTO flexible pavement design guide, Resilient Modulus (MR) has been used extensively as an important material property in structure design of pavement. The modulus is used as the primary input parameter to determine the stiffness parameters and constitutive behavior of pavement components. The system of pavement basically consists of the layers of surface, base, subbase (optional), and subgrade. The compacted subgrade soils supporting pavement structure are typically unsaturated with degrees of saturation varying from 75 to 90%. The effect of unsaturated soil behavior on the mechanical properties of …

Productivity Analysis Of Box Jacking, Hossein Tavakoli

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Trenchless Technology (TT) offers methods to install utilities through the ground without damaging the surface. Box Jacking is a trenchless method for installation of prefabricated box and drainage structures without digging a trench. The concept of box jacking is similar to pipe jacking operations by first excavating an entry shaft, building the thrust block and concrete base, and setting jacking equipment. The process starts with pushing boxes while excavating at face, however, the movement of each box is achieved each time excavation at the shield is completed. Additionally, a pilot tube might be required in advance of box jacking operations. …

Assessment And Rating Of Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls, Noel Janacek

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls have been increasingly utilized in the United States since 1972 and in Texas since 1979. MSE walls provide earth retention for commercial, industrial and transportation projects throughout Texas. Within the transportation industry, the traditional design life of MSE walls is 75 years, with new projects requiring 100 year design life. The millions of square feet of existing MSE walls are generally less than half of the anticipated design life, making identifying and assessing the existing wall inventory a significant asset management component for optimizing maintenance expenditures. This thesis proposes and applies a system that assesses …

Resilient Properties Of Unsaturated Base Materials, Ranjan Kumar Rout

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

A pavement system basically consists of a surface layer, a base course, a subbase (optional) and the subgrade. As per MEPDG and 1993 AASHTO flexible pavement design guide Resilient Modulus (MR) is used as the primary input parameter to determine the stiffness parameters and the constitutive behavior of pavement components, such as subgrade and unbound bases. Generally, pavements are constructed on compacted soils that are typically unsaturated with degrees of saturation varying from 75 to 90%. The main focus of this research is to determine the effect of matric suction on the resilient moduli property of the base materials. The …

Design Of Controlled Low Strength Material For Bedding And Backfilling Using High Plasticity Clay, Anil Kumar Raavi

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Flowable fill or Controlled Low Strength Material (CLSM) is a self-compacted cementitious material used in the field in the place of compacted fill. It is also known as unshrinkable fill, controlled density fill, flowable mortar, plastic-soil cement, soil-cement slurry, and others. The advantages of this material include lesser soil settlements, elimination of compaction, and lower costs when compared to chemically treated and compacted subsoils. CLSMs have a wide range of applications such as using them as a backfill, bedding material, trench filling material, void filling material, bridge abutment and embankment materials and also in pavement bases. Current research is aimed …

Selecting A Shaft/Pit Construction Method For Trenchless Technology, Bassam Abusad

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The word shaft describes a vertical access point that is created by excavating, vertical boring, or blasting required before the start of tunneling or boring operations. Most trenchless technologies require entry shafts and exit shafts and in some cases and intermediate shaft Trenchless technologies are methods used for the construction and rehabilitation of underground utility pipes. Since pits and shafts are excavated below the ground surface level, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules and regulations are enforced for the safety of the workers. The focus of this research is to describe shaft and pit construction methods as applied to …

Comparison Of Measured And Predicted Response Of Six Mnroad Asphalt Test Sections, Veni Valli Nagarajan

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The study, sponsored by MnRoad, aimed to compare the measured and predicted values of strains and stresses for six cells 33, 34, 35, 77, 78 and 79 of the third MnRoad experiments. Cells 33, 34 and 35 were constructed for studying the polyphosphoric acid study while cells 77, 78 and 79 for the fly-ash stabilization study, during 2007. Each cell is instrumented with three transverse strain gauges and three longitudinal strain gauges at the bottom of HMA layer while three pressure cells were located at the top of the subgrade layer to measure vertical compressive stress.The FWD deflection data collected …

Financial Evaluation Of Milege Based User Fees For Florida's Transportation Funding, Massoud Moradi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Motor fuel taxes have been collected as a principal source of highway funding for close to a century. They account for approximately two thirds of all the highway user fees and about half of all highway expenditures. Federal fuel taxes have not kept pace with the inflation in general and increasing traffic demand and resulting construction, maintenance and operation costs of the transportation assets in particular. Lack of political will, combined with rising anti-tax sentiment among the populace, has kept the federal tax level not only well below its initial intents, but also at a unsustainable level in future. Mileage …

Land Use Effects On Energy And Water Balance-Developing A Land Use Adapted Drought Index, Chi Han Cheng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is expected to increase the frequency, intensity and duration of droughts in all parts of the United States (US). Snow packs are disappearing earlier in the spring and summer, with reduced stream-flow. Lower reservoir levels, higher temperatures, and greater precipitation variability have been observed. Drought events in the US have threatened drinking water supplies for communities in Maryland and Chesapeake Bay as observed in 2001 through September 2002; Lake Mead in Las Vegas in 2000 through 2004; Peace River and Lake Okeechobee in South Florida in 2006; and Lake Lanier in Atlanta, Georgia in 2007. ENSO influences the …

Resilience Of Bridges Following Aftershocks, Diego Francisco Espinosa

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ability to predict the reduction in capacity of a structure after an earthquake is vital in the process of assessing a structure after a main-shock or an after-shock. Main-shocks are normally followed by a few aftershocks in a short period of time. Researchers in the past have focused for the most part on the effects of main-shocks on buildings. Very little research has been performed on the ability to predict the reduction in capacity of bridges in aftershocks. This thesis focuses on providing a way of assessing the reduction in capacity for main-shocks as compared to aftershocks and the …

Performance Of Mechanical And Non-Mechanical Connections To Gfrp Components, Nnadozie N. Dike

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There are presently many solutions to dealing with aging or deteriorated structures. Depending on the state of the structure, it may need to be completely over-hauled, demolished and replaced, or only specific components may need rehabilitation. In the case of bridges, rehabilitation and maintenance of the decks are critical needs for infrastructure management. Viable rehabilitation options include replacement of decks with aluminum extrusions, hybrid composite and sandwich systems, precast reinforced concrete systems, or the use of pultruded fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) shapes. Previous research using pultruded glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) decks, focused on behaviour under various strength and serviceability loading conditions. …

Macroscopic Crash Analysis And Its Implications For Transportation Safety Planning, Chowdhury Kawsar Siddiqui

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Incorporating safety into the transportation planning stage, which is often termed as transportation safety planning (TSP), relies on the vital interplay between zone characteristics and zonal traffic crashes. Although a few safety studies had made some effort towards integrating safety and planning, several unresolved problems and a complete framework of TSP are still absent in the literature. This research aims at examining the suitability of the current traffic-related zoning planning process in a new suggested planning method which incorporates safety measures. In order to accomplish this broader research goal, the study defined its research objectives in the following directions towards …

Multi-Level Safety Performance Functions For High Speed Facilities, Mohamed Ahmed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

High speed facilities are considered the backbone of any successful transportation system; Interstates, freeways, and expressways carry the majority of daily trips on the transportation network. Although these types of roads are relatively considered the safest among other types of roads, they still experience many crashes, many of which are severe, which not only affect human lives but also can have tremendous economical and social impacts. These facts signify the necessity of enhancing the safety of these high speed facilities to ensure better and efficient operation. Safety problems could be assessed through several approaches that can help in mitigating the …

Reliability And Effect Of Partially Restrained Wood Shear Walls, John Joseph Gruber

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

RELIABILITY AND EFFECT OF PARTIALLY RESTRAINED WOOD SHEAR WALLS

by

JOHN J. GRUBER

MARCH 2012

Advisor: Dr. Gongkang Fu

Major: Civil Engineering

Degree: Doctor or Philosophy

The prescriptive design of the most widely used residential building code in the United States, the IRC, allows the use of partially restrained wood shear walls to resist wind and seismic loads. Wind load is the most common controlling lateral design load for these structures. In contrast, the complimenting building code, the IBC, requires either a restraining dead load or a mechanical hold down device to resist overturning. To prescribe a safe structure, …

Portable Bridge Wim Data Collection Strategy For Secondary Roads, Bernard Enright, Cathal Leahy, Eugene J. Obrien, Jennifer Keenahan

Conference papers

A common method of collecting traffic loading data across a large road network is to use a network of permanent pavement-based WIM systems. An alternative is to use one or more portable Bridge Weigh-In-Motion systems which are moved periodically between bridges on the network. To make optimum use of such a system, a suitable data collection strategy is needed to choose locations for the system. This paper describes a number of possible strategies which the authors have investigated for the National Roads Authority in Ireland. The different strategies are examined and their advantages and disadvantages compared. Their effectiveness at detecting …

Computational Benchmarks In Simulation Of Cyclic Performance Of Steel Connections Using Three Dimensional Nonlinear Finite Element Method, Ali Abolmaali, Mohammad Razavi, Roozbeh Kiamanesh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications - Archive

The presented manuscript is intended to introduce accurate computational benchmarks to predict the hysteresis behavior of beam-column steel connections by means of a 3D non-linear finite element analysis. In this study, element type, inelastic material behavior, bolts pre-tensioning, and contact properties between different components of connections are discussed. Incremental nonlinear analysis takes into account all three types of nonlinearities including material, geometry, and contact properties in predicting moment-rotation hysteresis loops. A series of full-scale structural tests are performed to validate the results obtained from the finite element analyses. This study shows that cost efficient numerical analysis simulation is capable of …

Monte Carlo Simulation Of Extreme Traffic Loading On Short And Medium Span Bridges, Bernard Enright, Eugene J. Obrien

Articles

The accurate estimation of site-specific lifetime extreme traffic load effects is an important element in the cost-effective assessment of bridges. A common approach is to use statistical distributions derived from weigh-in-motion measurements as the basis for Monte Carlo simulation of traffic loading. However, results are highly sensitive to the assumptions made, not just with regard to vehicle weights but also to axle configurations and gaps between vehicles. This paper presents a comprehensive model for Monte Carlo simulation of bridge loading for free-flowing traffic, and shows how the model matches results from measurements on five European highways. The model has been …

Effective Construction Schedule Management: Construction Project Monitoring With Project Performance Indicators & The Project Status Report, Christopher Michael Totin

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

A thorough review of construction and engineering literature was conducted to discover and organize current best practices and standards for the purpose of monitoring a construction project. The status of a construction project is a measurement of its progress and performance in terms of time, cost, and scope. Awareness of a construction project's status improves decision-making on the part of owners, engineers, contractors, and other project stakeholders. Project Performance Indicators (PPI) are metrics generated by construction project schedules that define a project's status. Project personnel must monitor critical schedule and cost data, or PPI, in order to maintain control of …

Investigation Of Co-Pyrolysis Between Sargassum Macroalgae And Polystyrene, Ketwalee Kositkanawuth

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Biomass is one source of renewable energy which helps minimize greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, specifically carbon dioxide (CO2), since biomass utilizes CO2 via photosynthesis. Various conversion processes are applied to utilize energy from biomass, including pyrolysis. Pyrolysis is a thermal route of decomposing biomass at high temperature without the presence of oxygen. The process generates three main products including bio-oil, residue, and non-condensable gases; however, the most promising product is the biomass oil, which is in liquid form and convenient for handle and transport. Numerous studies on pyrolysis of terrestrial biomass reveal that the crude bio-oil cannot be directly used …