Engineering Commons^™

Integration Of A Prototype Wireless Communication System With Micro-Electromechanical Temperature And Humidity Sensor For Concrete Pavement Health Monitoring, Shuo Yang, Keyan Shen, Halil Ceylan, Sunghwan Kim, Daji Qiao, Kasthurirangan Gopalakrishnan

Daji Qiao

In recent years, structural health monitoring and management (SHMM) has become a popular approach and is considered essential for achieving well-performing, long-lasting, sustainable transportation infrastructure systems. Key requirements in ideal SHMM of road infrastructure include long-term, continuous, and real-time monitoring of pavement response and performance under various pavement geometry-materials-loading configurations and environmental conditions. With advancements in wireless technologies, integration of wireless communications into sensing device is considered an alternate and superior solution to existing time- and labor-intensive wired sensing systems in meeting the requirements of an ideal SHMM. This study explored the development and integration of a wireless communications sub-system …

Geopolymer Concrete-Filled Pultruded Composite Beams – Concrete Mix Design And Application, Wahid Ferdous, Allan Manalo, Amar Khennane, Obada Kayali

Wahid Ferdous

The limited research on the geopolymer concrete mix design for targeting a specific strength is identified an obstacle for their effective design and wide use. In this paper, a mix design procedure has been proposed for fly-ash based geopolymer concrete and its use as infill hybrid composite beam is investigated. Then, the structural performance of geopolymer concrete filled hybrid composite beam is investigated to determine their possible application in civil infrastructure. Firstly, a detailed procedure of mix design for fly-ash based geopolymer concrete is presented. Secondly, three hybrid beams filled with geopolymer concrete were prepared and tested in a four-point …

Stiffness Performance Of Polyethylene Terephthalate Modified Asphalt Mixtures Estimation Using Support Vector Machine-Firefly Algorithm

Faculty of Engineering University of Malaya

Predicting asphalt pavement performance is an important matter which can save cost and energy. To ensure an accurate estimation of performance of the mixtures, new soft computing techniques can be used. In this study, in order to estimate the stiffness property of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) modified asphalt mixture, different soft computing methods were developed, namely: support vector machine-firefly algorithm (SVM-FFA), genetic programming (GP), artificial neural network (ANN) and support vector machine. The support vector machine-firefly algorithm (SVM-FFA) is a metaheuristic search algorithm developed according to the socially dashing manners of fireflies in nature. To develop the models, experiments were performed. …

Benefits Of Geopolymer Concrete-Filled Frp Beams And Its Flexural Behavior, Wahid Ferdous, Allan Manalo, Amar Khennane, Obada Kayali

Wahid Ferdous

Agricultural Wastes As Aggregate In Concrete Mixtures – A Review, Hilmi Mahmud

Hilmi Mahmud

Concrete is the most widely used construction material. With the ever-increasing industrialization and urbanization, huge amounts of natural resources are required to make concrete. This, in turn, means that large volumes of natural resources and raw materials are being used for concrete production around the world. To eliminate or minimize the negative environmental impact of the concrete industry and promote environmental sustainability of the industry, the use of wastes from industry as materials for concrete making is considered as an alternative solution for preventing the excessive usage of raw materials. The wide availability of agricultural wastes make them a suitable …

Sources Of End Zone Cracking Of Pretensioned Concrete Girders, Christie J. Hasenkamp, Sameh S. Badie, Christopher Y. Tuan, Maher K. Tadros

Christopher Y. Tuan

Recent developments of high performance concrete, increasing amounts of prestressing, and increasing use of deep girders have resulted in increasing popularity of precast pretensioned concrete girders in bridge construction. These developments have increasingly contributed to end zone cracking. This paper summarizes the interim results of an ongoing research sponsored by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 18-14. The objectives of the research are: (1) to establish procedures for the acceptance, repair, or rejection of precast/prestressed concrete girders with longitudinal web cracking, and (2) to prepare a user's manual for the application of these procedures. The results from a …

End Zone Reinforcement For Pretensioned Concrete Girders, Christopher Y. Tuan, Sherif A. Yehia, Nipon Jongpitaksseel, Maher K. Tadros

Christopher Y. Tuan

In this study, a literature review was conducted to establish the background of current specifications and to evaluate the applicability of various theories and methods for design of end zone reinforcement. Analytical methods reviewed in this paper include finite element analysis, strut-and-tie modeling, and the Gergely-Sozen equivalent beam method. Previous experimental work combined with work conducted as part of this study was used to correlate between various theoretical and experimental results. This paper illustrates that no single theoretical method adequately represents the complex behavior at the end of a pretensioned concrete member. A general semi-empirical design procedure is proposed here. …

Curved, Precast, Pretensioned Concrete I-Girder Bridges, Wilast Amorn, Christopher Y. Tuan, Maher K. Tadros

Christopher Y. Tuan

Modern highway construction frequently requires bridges with horizontally curved alignments. Such bridges can be created by superimposing a curved deck slab onto straight girders or by splicing segmental straight girders on the chords of a curved roadway. Of these two methods, a curved superstructure usually results in simpler construction and better appearance.

Hybrid Frp-Concrete Railway Sleeper, Wahid Ferdous, Amar Khennane, Obada Kayali

Wahid Ferdous

The aim of this research was to investigate the feasibility of a hybrid FRP-concrete beam as a rail sleeper. It was hoped that the new design would overcome some of the sustainability issues associated with traditional sleepers. The hybrid system consisted of a Rectangular Hollow Section (RHS) pultruded profile filled with geo- polymer concrete. The specimens were tested in a four-point bending setup to determine the flexural properties such as the bending modulus (E) and modulus of rupture (MOR). It was found that the proposed composite beam satisfied the minimum flexural requirements for composite railway sleepers as stated in the …

Affordable Lightweight High Performance Concrete (Alwhpc) - Expanding The Envelope Of Concrete Mix Design, Kevin J. Simons

Kevin J Simons

One way to reduce excess material would be to lighten the load on a structure with the use of affordable lightweight high performance concrete (ALWHPC). Most or all lightweight high performance concrete mixes used today include lightweight aggregates as the coarse aggregate and sand for the fine aggregate. ALWHPC mix designs contain all lightweight aggregates and cementitious materials that are readily available throughout the United States. Instead of 115 – 120 pcf, ALWHPC mix designs range from 88 – 100 pcf and strengths from 2,700 – 8,700 psi compressive strength. This research will explore the use of local lightweight aggregates …

Static Flexural Behaviour Of Fly Ash-Based Geopolymer Composite Beam: An Alternative Railway Sleeper, Wahid Ferdous

Wahid Ferdous

These days, the most commonly used materials for railway sleepers are timber, concrete and steel. High maintenance cost, installation issues, deterioration of materials, and environmental considerations are among the factors that prompt research and industry to seek a different and more efficient system. This research was undertaken with the aim of developing a material for sleepers which may overcome some of these problems. Through a comprehensive survey of the literature, it was decided to propose and investigate a sleeper system composed of fly ash-based geopolymer concrete and pultruded FRP profile composites. Although the engineering properties of fly ash-based geopolymer concrete …