Engineering Commons^™

Leveraging Telematics And Weather Data To Study The Productivity Of Roadside Mowers, Jijo K. Mathew, Matt Kraushar

Purdue Road School

Mowing activities are usually reported by daily work orders and it is difficult to obtain quantitative information characterizing the utilization and productivity of the mowing operations. This research uses telematics data from commercial sensors to track the daily activity of seven mowers in the Fort Wayne district. Weather data from NOAA was also captured to estimate the weather related delays. During a one-month period, the mowers collectively covered a total of around 1170 miles and an area of nearly 1800 acres of mowing. Crews worked alternative work schedules with extended hours four days a week. On an average 9.5 hour …

Quantifying The Impact Of Weather Events On Travel Time And Reliability, Xu Zhang, Mei Chen

Kentucky Transportation Center Faculty and Researcher Publications

It is of practical significance to understand the specific impact of weather events on the operating condition of the surface transportation system so that proactive and reactive strategies can be quickly implemented by transportation agencies to minimize the negativity resulted from adverse weather events. Many studies have been conducted on quantifying such effects yet suffer from limitations such as subjectively defining a time window under uncongested conditions and not being able to account for the severe impact from weather events which result in travel time unreliability. To overcome those shortcomings in existing literature, an integrated data mining framework based on …

Final Design Review: Mascoma River Greenway Extension, Sebastian Strong, Sarah Atac, Eleanor Dowd, David Ruiz, Isalys Quiñones

ENGS 89/90 Reports

This report outlines current conditions surrounding the extension of the Mascoma River Greenway (MRG) to downtown West Lebanon, NH and recommends a route to completion. Included in the report are maps detailing potential route alignments and recommendations based on outside research and interviews with numerous stakeholders, Lebanon City officials, and community members. The report is intended to provide context and updated insight into the present and future of the MRG, following in the spirit of the 2010 MRG Action Plan, a document that created a vision for redevelopment of the Northern rail corridor and motivated stakeholders to move the project …

Development Of A Laboratory Test For Evaluation Of Geogrid Materials, Charlie Sun, R. Clark Graves

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Two test methods have been developed in this project. The first test method is a compression test of a cylinder constructed out of geogrid material and filled with crushed stone. This test is simple and can be easily performed. Only a compression loading machine is needed for this test. The sample preparation is straightforward. However, multiple tests must be run to analyze geogrids with different ultimate tensile strength or different grid aperture size on machine direction and cross machine direction. The second test method is Geogrid Bearing Ratio (GBR) test. This test was developed to measure the effect of geogrids …

Process Analysis For Disposal Of Surplus Property, Bryan Gibson, Christopher Van Dyke, Candice Y. Wallace, Jeff Jasper, Steven Douglas Kreis

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) frequently acquires property to secure the right of way for transportation projects. Some property may eventually be declared excess and deemed surplus, enabling the Cabinet to dispose of it. Excess property can be declared surplus by an official order of the Secretary or Commissioner of the Department of Highways. Current law and policy require that KYTC undertake a 21-step process to dispose of surplus property, including reviews by the Governor, Finance and Administration Cabinet, and several KYTC personnel. The Cabinet lacks the personnel required to undertake the lengthy disposal process. This report provides background on …

Thermographic Laplacian-Pyramid Filtering To Enhance Delamination Detection In Concrete Structure, Chongsheng Cheng, Ri Na, Zhigang Shen

Department of Construction Engineering and Management: Faculty Publications

Despite decades of efforts using thermography to detect delamination in concrete decks, challenges still exist in removing environmental noise from thermal images. The performance of conventional temperature-contrast approaches can be significantly limited by environment-induced non-uniform temperature distribution across imaging spaces. Time-series based methodologies were found robust to spatial temperature non-uniformity but requires extended period to collect data. A new empirical image filtering method is introduced in this paper to enhance the delamination detection using blob detection method that originated from computer vison. The proposed method employs a Laplacian of Gaussian filter to achieve multi-scale detection of abnormal thermal patterns by …

Health Benefits From Upgrading Public Buses For Cleaner Air: A Case Study Of Clark County, Nevada And The United States, John O. Olawepo, L.-W. Antony Chen

School of Public Health Faculty Research

Public transit buses, which move more than 5 billion passengers annually in the United States (U.S.), can contribute substantially to the environmental health burden through emitted air pollutants. As a leader in transforming to cleaner bus fleets, the Regional Transport Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) has been transitioning from diesel to compressed natural gas (CNG) transit buses since 1999. By 2017, ~75% of RTC’s buses operating in Clark County, Nevada were CNG-powered. This study assesses the health benefits of the venture using the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Co-Benefits Risk Assessment (COBRA) model, considering the emission and exposure changes from …

Webinar: Rethinking Streets For Bikes: An Evidence Based Guide Of Bike-Friendly Street Retrofits, Marc Schlossberg, Roger Lindgren

TREC Webinar Series

There is a growing demand for better infrastructure and fewer barriers to biking and other forms of space-efficient micromobility. Tackling daily trips by bike is easier on the environment, healthier for users and non-users alike, uses precious urbanized public and private land more efficiently, costs taxpayers less to build and maintain infrastructure, and when routes are safe and comfortable, moving by bike is also fun! Complete Streets policies are being adopted across the country, and there is an active conversation around the safety imperative of a Complete Streets approach. Yet, local officials often need both design guidance and the …

The Influence Of Asphalt Ageing On Induction Healing Effect On Porous Asphalt Concrete, Shi Xu, Xueyan Liu, Amir Tabakovic, Erik Schlangen

Articles

Induction healing is a proven technology which is able to improve the self‐healing capacity of asphalt concrete. Healing is achieved via electromagnetic current produced by passing induction machine, where steel asphalt constituents heat up which in turn soften the bitumen in the asphalt layer, allowing it to flow and close cracks, repairing the damage. This paper reports on the study which investigated the influence of ageing on the healing capacity of Porous Asphalt (PA) concrete. Porous Asphalt concrete mix was prepared first, then subjected to an accelerated (laboratory) ageing process using a ventilated oven. In order to further evaluate the …

Aid Project Summary Report For Intelligent Compaction, David Q. Hunsucker, Kean H. Ashurst Jr., Brad W. Rister

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This study reviews data from five roadway construction projects on which intelligent compaction (IC) techniques were used to achieve the more uniform compaction of road-building materials. Kentucky Transportation Center (KTC) researchers looked at IC data collected from these projects — resulting in the production of eight analyzable data sets — to determine whether they complied with the special construction note included in contract documents. The report also compares the intelligent compaction measurement value (ICMV) collected on each project to traditional laboratory results. Researchers used Veta software to analyze geospatial data collected from IC machines during construction work. Of the data …

17-07 Phase-Ii: Community-Aware Charging Station Network Design For Electrified Vehicles In Urban Areas: Reducing Congestion, Emissions, Improving Accessibility, And Promoting Walking, Bicycling, And Use Of Public Transportation, Saravanan Venkatachalam, Ratna Babu Chinnam, Alper E. Murat

Transportation Research Center Reports

A major challenge for achieving large-scale adoption of EVs is an accessible infrastructure for the communities. The societal benefits of large-scale adoption of EVs cannot be realized without adequate deployment of publicly accessible charging stations due to mutual dependence of EV sales and public infrastructure deployment. Such infrastructure deployment also presents a number of unique opportunities for promoting livability while helping to reduce the negative side-effects of transportation (e.g., congestion, emissions, and noise pollution). In this phase, we develop a modeling framework (MF) to consider various factors and their associated uncertainties for an optimal network design for electrified vehicles. The …

Optimization Of The Calcium Alginate Capsules For Self-Healing Asphalt, Shi Xu, Amir Tabakovic, Xueyan Liu, Damian Palin, Erik Schlangen

Research and Innovation - Articles

Featured Application: This self-healing technology for asphalt pavements has the potential to greatly disrupt asphalt production methods (which have been stable over the past 100 years).This paper presents a development process of ‘calcium-alginate microcapsules encapsulating an asphalt bitumen rejuvenator’. The encapsulated rejuvenator is released when required (on demand) which rejuvenates the aged binder. Once crack is initiated and starts propagating it encounters a microcapsule, energy at tip of the crack opens the microcapsule, releasing the rejuvenator (healing agent). The rejuvenator will infuse into the aged binder soften it, allowing to flow, two broken edges to get into a contact and …

Long-Term Durability Of Frp Bond In The Midwest United States For Externally-Strengthened Bridge Components, Sasan Siavashi, Christopher D. Eamon, Abdel A. Makkawy, Hwai-Chung Wu

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research Publications

In this study, the bond strength of a typical FRP system subjected to long-term natural weathering in the Midwest United States is experimentally investigated, and the rate of degradation is estimated. To do this, the bond strength of an FRP system exposed to over fifteen years of weathering is determined with pull-off testing, and a relationship between strength reduction and exposure time is developed using regression analysis. For unweathered specimens, it was found that the attachment strength of the FRP system was governed by the concrete substrate, while for weathered specimens, the FRP system could detach by either a failure …

Webinar: Modeling Freeway Traffic In A Mixed Environment: Connected And Human-Driven Vehicles, Xianfeng Terry Yang

TREC Webinar Series

Although connected vehicles (CVs) will soon go beyond testbeds, CVs and human-driven vehicles (HVs) will co-exist over a long period. Hence, it is critical to consider the interactions between these two types of vehicles in traffic flow modeling. In this study, we aim to develop a macroscopic model to understand how CVs would impact HVs in the traffic stream. Grounded on the second-order traffic flow model, we study the relationships among flow, density, and speed by two sets of formulations for the groups of CVs and HVs, respectively. A set of friction factors, which indicate CVs' impact to HVs, are …

Pedestrian Safety -- Fundamental To A Walkable City, Joshua Herrera, Patrick Mcdevitt, Preeti Swaminathan, Raghuram Srinivas

SMU Data Science Review

In this paper, we present a method to identify urban areas with a higher likelihood of pedestrian safety related events. Pedestrian safety related events are pedestrian-vehicle interactions that result in fatalities, injuries, accidents without injury, or near--misses between pedestrians and vehicles. To develop a solution to this problem of identifying likely event locations, we assemble data, primarily from the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, that include safety reports from a five year period, geographic information for these events, citizen survey of pedestrian reported concerns, non-emergency requests for service for any cause in the city, property values and public transportation …

Optimizing In-Place Density Of Asphalt Pavements During Cold Weather Paving In Nebraska, Robert C. Rea, Hamzeh Haghshenas

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Late season paving is common and often performed in colder temperatures, which is the most challenging environment for attaining optimal in-place density/compaction The in-place density of asphalt pavement greatly affects the lifespan of the pavement. It is also a key factor in preventing major pavement distresses, such as rutting, cracking, stripping (due to water damage) and aging. This research project aims to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of different compaction, delivery, and mix design characteristics to ensure the optimization of in-place asphalt pavement density. To this end, various laydown methods (i.e., Standard Pick-up Machine (SPM) and Material Transfer Vehicle (MTV)) …

Sensitivity Of Evacuation Time Estimation To Modeling Parameter Adjustment, Nelida Andreina Herrera

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Over the past 40 years, a range of tools and techniques have been employed to assess traffic and travel conditions associated with evacuation events. These tools provide key insights into the temporal-spatial conditions of traffic during an evacuation. The representation of an evacuation in a traffic simulation model requires a number of assumptions about the input and modeling parameters needed to capture relevant aspects of such event. Therefore, a key aspect to ensure appropriate estimations of evacuation clearance times and overall efficacy of emergency planning is to better understand the influence and the importance that simulation modeling parameters have on …

Effect Of Different Traffic Signal Control Plans On Simulation Of Hurricane Evacuation Traffic, Divya Kolasani

LSU Master's Theses

The majority of hurricane evacuation modeling studies concentrate on evacuation traffic on freeways with relatively little attention being given to traffic on arterials. This study is focused on evaluating the evacuation efficiency of a network under different traffic signal settings on arterials using microscopic simulation. This is achieved by changing the traffic signal settings from existing signal timing plans to flashing yellow on major evacuation routes and flashing red on cross streets, for a given evacuation order. Time-dependent origin-destination matrices for hurricane evacuation up to 72 hours away from landfall for No Evacuation order, as well as a Voluntary/Mandatory Evacuation …

18-02 Investigating And Prioritizing Factors For Quantifying Bikeability, Valerian Kwigizile, Jun-Seok Oh, Sia M. Lyimo

Transportation Research Center Reports

Bikeability is an important element that must be considered in planning bicycle facilities. The resource constraints make it imperative for the planners and engineers to be able to identify and shortlist important factors that promote cyclists’ friendly environment. The current study utilized the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), a multiple criteria decision analysis technique, to rank the relative importance of bikeability factors for on-road bicycle facilities. AHP is the most applied multiple criteria decision analysis technique due to its ability to convert subjective judgment to a numerical value which can easily be incorporated in the decision-making process. A survey was administered …

Smart Roads: Investigating Roadways As Energy Sources For Potential Application Of In-Lane Charging, Dhruvalkumar Hitendrakumar Patel

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The main aim of this thesis is to explore the potential for using pavements as part of energy harvesting infrastructure. Asphalt pavements can be used for multiple purposes such as for energy harvesting, eco-friendly use of the car, and the utilization of the natural renewable resources to produce electricity and that electricity use for in-lane charging technology which helps to charge a car when it is being driven on the road. The wireless charger is set-up under the asphalt pavement, and it will produce the magnetic field. The piezoelectric material and wind turbine are the electric source for applications such …

Fuel Consumption And Emissions Performance Under Real Driving: Comparison Between Hybrid And Conventional Vehicles., Yuhan Huang, Surawski C. Nic, Organ Bruce, John L. Zhou, Oscar H.H Tang, Edward F.C. Chan

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are perceived to be more energy efficient and less polluting than conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. However, increasing evidence has shown that real-driving emissions (RDE) could be much higher than laboratory type approval limits and the advantages of HEVs over their conventional ICE counterparts under real-driving conditions have not been studied extensively. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the real-driving fuel consumption and pollutant emissions performance of HEVs against their conventional ICE counterparts. Two pairs of hybrid and conventional gasoline vehicles of the same model were tested simultaneously in a novel convoy mode using …

Characterisation Of Diesel Vehicle Emissions And Determination Of Remote Sensing Cutpoints For Diesel High-Emitters., Yuhan Huang, Organ Bruce, John L. Zhou, Surawski C. Nic, Yat-Shing Yam, Edward F.C. Chan

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

Diesel vehicles are a major source of air pollutants in cities and have caused significant health risks to the public globally. This study used both on-road remote sensing and transient chassis dynamometer to characterise emissions of diesel light goods vehicles. A large sample size of 183 diesel vans were tested on a transient chassis dynamometer to evaluate the emission levels of in-service diesel vehicles and to determine a set of remote sensing cutpoints for diesel high-emitters. The results showed that 79% and 19% of the Euro 4 and Euro 5 diesel vehicles failed the transient cycle test, respectively. Most of …

Ua66/9/1 Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Engineering Administration, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

No abstract provided.

Improving Traffic Safety At School Zones By Engineering And Operational Countermeasures, Md Hasibur Rahman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Safety issues at school zone areas have been one of the most important topics in the traffic safety field. Although many studies have evaluated the effectiveness of various traffic control devices (e.g., sign, flashing beacon, speed monitoring display), there is a lack of studies exploring different roadway countermeasures and the relationship between school-related factors and crashes. In this study, the most crash-prone school zone was identified in Orange and Seminole Counties, Florida, based on crash rate. Afterward, a microsimulation network was built in VISSIM environment to test different roadway countermeasures in the school zones. Three different countermeasures: two-step speed reduction …

Policies Required To Encourage Biomethane As A Transport Fuel, Daniel Goulding

PhDs

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the transport industry is a major environmental issue which the world currently faces. In Ireland, the transport sector accounted for 19% of its total GHG emissions in 2015 which is projected to increase to 29% by 2030. The European Union Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC) mandates Ireland to achieve a 10% share of renewable energy sources in transport (RES-T) by 2020. The Irish Government proposes to achieve the RES-T through biofuels (9%) and electric vehicles (1%). However, in 2016 the RES-T of Ireland stood at 5.0% and requires significant renewable energy penetration to reach the 2020 …

Impact Of Potential Engine Malfunctions On Fuel Consumption And Gaseous Emissions Of A Euro Vi Diesel Truck., Yuhan Huang, Elvin C.Y. Ng, Yat-Shing Yam, Casey K.C. Lee, Surawski C. Nic, Wai-Chuen Mok, Organ Bruce, John L. Zhou, Edward F.C. Chan

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

Although new vehicles are designed to comply with specific emission regulations, their in-service performance would not necessarily achieve them due to wear-and-tear and improper maintenance, as well as tampering or failure of engine control and exhaust after-treatment systems. In addition, there is a lack of knowledge on how significantly these potential malfunctions affect vehicle performance. This study was therefore conducted to simulate the effect of various engine malfunctions on the fuel consumption and gaseous emissions of a 16-tonne Euro VI diesel truck using transient chassis dynamometer testing. The simulated malfunctions included those that would commonly occur in the intake, fuel …

Assessing Impact And Blast Resilience Of Polymer Coated Cementitious Materials, Murtaza Nalwala, Gabriel Nsengiyumva, Yong-Rak Kim

UCARE: Research Products

RESEARCH MOTIVATION The bridge piers are highly vulnerable to the impact and blast loads. The position in which they are constructed makes it difficult to install protective devices around them. By the current AASHTO standard, it is possible to under-design bridge piers for commercial vehicle impacts and other events such as blast.

OBJECTIVE To improve impact and blast resilience of bridge piers using polymeric coatings.

CONCLUSION Polymer coating of Portland cement concrete can be achieved with a good bonding. ü The polymeric coating seem to improve impact resilience of Portland cement concrete by increasing absorbed impact energy (i.e., area underneath …

Evaluation Of Nebraska’S Aggregate Reactivity By The Miniature Concrete Prism Test Method – Aashto T380, Lieska Halsey, Wally Heyen

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The evaluation of nine different aggregates shows the viability of the T380 test method as an alternative to the standard C1293 test method. The T380 assesses the Alkali-Silica Reaction potential of aggregates with the same reliability as C1293 and correlates well with the C1293 test method. Results are obtained within 56 days by T380 compared to 365 days required by C1293. The T380 method at 56 days appears to characterize the aggregate reactivity similarly to C1293 for all the aggregates evaluated in this study. Therefore, T380 will be part of the Department test method for approval of interground/blended cements along …

Arterial-Level Real-Time Safety Evaluation In The Context Of Proactive Traffic Management, Jinghui Yuan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the context of pro-active traffic management, real-time safety evaluation is one of the most important components. Previous studies on real-time safety analysis mainly focused on freeways, seldom on arterials. With the advancement of sensing technologies and smart city initiative, more and more real-time traffic data sources are available on arterials, which enables us to evaluate the real-time crash risk on arterials. However, there exist substantial differences between arterials and freeways in terms of traffic flow characteristics, data availability, and even crash mechanism. Therefore, this study aims to deeply evaluate the real-time crash risk on arterials from multiple aspects by …

Assessing Pedestrian Safety Conditions On Campus, Morgan Morris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pedestrian-related crashes are a significant safety issue in the United States and cause considerable amounts of deaths and economic cost. Pedestrian safety is an issue that must be uniquely evaluated in a college campus, where pedestrian volumes are dense. The objective of this research is to identify issues at specific locations around UCF and suggest solutions for improvement. To address this problem, a survey that identifies pedestrian safety issues and locations is distributed to UCF students and staff, and an evaluation of drivers reactions to pedestrian to vehicle (P2V) warning systems is studied through the use of a NADS MiniSim …