Engineering Commons^™

Smartvid.Io, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets Archive

The collection, organization, and retrieval of industrial media is a pervasive challenge that is especially glaring for companies in the AEC industry. Construction projects often generate large volumes of pictures & videos from the field for tracking progress and communicating between engineers, contractors, and subcontractors. It is not uncommon for field personnel to capture hundreds of photos per week on any given jobsite.

Smartvid.io is a cloud-based software solution designed for the specific needs of industrial media. The application’s internal deep-learning engines, collectively nicknamed VINNIE (for ‘Very Intelligent Neural Network for Insight and Evaluation’), use speech and image recognition to …

Hillman Composite Beam (Hcb®), Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets Archive

The Hillman-Composite Beam (HCB®), is an innovative structural member for use in highway and railroad bridges as well as marine facilities. The HCB is essentially a lightweight reinforced concrete beam strengthened and protected by a corrosion-resistant and resilient Fiberglass Reinforced Polymer (FRP) shell.

The beam is comprised of three main components, a concrete arch (compression reinforcement), an FRP bottom flange encapsulating steel strands tying the ends of the arch together (tension reinforcement) and the FRP shell. Galvanized Rebar “shear connectors” are used to make the beam composite with the concrete deck in the same manner as pre-stressed concrete beams.

The …

A Conceptual Framework For Understanding Latent Demand: Accounting For Unrealized Activities And Travel, Kelly Clifton

PSU Transportation Seminars

Latent demand—the activities and travel that are desired but unrealized because of constraints—have been historically examined from the standpoint of understanding the impacts of proposed capacity or service improvements on travel demand.

Drawing on work from a variety of theoretical perspectives, this paper presents a broader conceptual view of latent demand that provides a useful framework for researching and understanding these unmet needs. This is important from an equity standpoint, as it provides insights into to questions of transport disadvantage, social exclusion and poverty.

The framework presented here is theoretical in nature and untested empirically. This study aims to promote …

Increased Span Length For The Mgs Long-Span Guardrail System Part Ii: Full-Scale Crash Testing, Dylan T. Meyer, John D. Reid, Karla A. Lechtenberg, Robert W. Bielenberg, Ronald K. Faller

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The objective of this research study was to design and evaluate the MGS long-span design for use with unsupported spans greater than 25 ft (7.6 m). Two full-scale crash tests were conducted to evaluate the MGS long-span system with increased span lengths and the use of UBSP posts adjacent to the long span. Both tests were conducted according to the TL- 3 criteria outlined in MASH. Both test nos. MGSLS-1 and MGSLS-2 were conducted with the 2270P vehicle impacting their respective critical impact points at a speed of 62 mph (100 km/h) and an angle of 25 degrees. Test no. …

Getting To Know The Data: Understanding Assumptions, Sensitivities, Uncertainty, And Being "Conservative" While Using Ite's Trip Generation Data In The Land Development Process, Kristina Marie Currans

PSU Transportation Seminars

Many agencies rely on trip generation estimates to evaluate the transportation impacts of land development in urban and suburban areas alike. Over the past decade, substantial attention has been paid to one national set of guidelines—the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Trip Generation Handbook (2014) and corresponding Manual (2012)—focusing in particular to improve the use of these data and supplementary methods for urban contexts.

The purpose of this study is to explore the typical data provided in the Handbook, within the context of these new improved state-of-the-art methods. As ITE’s describes, “an example of poor professional judgment is to rely …

Industrial-Grade Monitoring Solution: Hoistcam, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets Archive

Safety and productivity are top priorities for contractors and industrial operations. Improving either makes a company more profitable and competitive. Technology advancements that can do both are important for every company to consider. HoistCam^TM industrial-grade video monitoring solutions can improve employees’ productivity and workplace safety in the construction industries. HoistCam also improves efficiency of operations and reduces job site accidents resulting in substantial cost savings to a contractor.

HoistCam™ is an integrated, wireless video system. The use of HoistCam eliminates blind lifts, blind spots and can share the live video with anyone, anywhere with solid security and easy control. …

Ls-Dyna® Modeling Enhancement Support, John D. Reid, Robert W. Bielenberg, Chaz Ginger

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The Pooled Fund Program member states provided funding for LS-DYNA modeling enhancements in Years 17 thru 22 (2006-2011), with a project period of 2006-2016. This report documents many of the modeling issues addressed throughout the project period. The funding has been effectively utilized to advance the current state-of-the-art for computer simulation and has provided the following benefits for the entire industry: (1) improved roadside safety hardware, (2) reduced development time and cost, (3) improved understanding of the behavior of roadside safety features, especially for impacts outside of normal crash test conditions, (4) improved LS-DYNA modeling techniques and procedures, and (5) …

Evaluating The Impact Of Different Types Of Stabilized Bases On The Overall Performance Of Flexible Pavements, Andrae Anthony Francois

Theses and Dissertations

This study was initiated with the aim of evaluating the impact of stabilized and untreated base layers on the performance (i.e., fatigue and rutting) of flexible pavements. Four field sections constructed using stabilized base layers (i.e., bituminous (asphalt emulsion), calcium chloride (CaCl-2), Portland cement, and geogrid stabilized base layers) and a control section constructed using untreated RAP aggregates were analyzed in this study. Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) tests were conducted on all the field sections and the collected data was used to backcalculate the elastic moduli for all layers. The influence of the stabilized bases and the untreated RAP base …

Transportation Engineering: Traffic Control Simulator, Sarah V. Hernandez, Karla Diaz-Corro, Taslima Akter, Magdalena Asborno, Fu Durandal

Civil Engineering Teaching and Learning

The purpose of these lesson plans is to introduce students to traffic signalization basics. Students will be lead through a series of mini-lectures on traffic control and signalization including a discussion on the limitations and benefits of traffic signalization. The lesson plans compliment a computer simulation “game” in which students act as manual operators for a single up to four by four gridded intersection. Students attempt to control the progression of signals to understand the relationship between signal timing and user delay. Through experimentation with the simulation, students generate a presentation discussing the benefits and drawbacks of signal timing and …

Dynamic Evaluation Of Transportation Structures With Ipod-Based Data Acquisition, Charles Riley

TREC Final Reports

This grant supported coursework and laboratory development and expanded research capacity, promoting (a) innovative learning activities that expose students to cutting-edge methods of bridge structural health and behavior monitoring and (b) research by our growing group of graduate students using developing technologies (specifically, shake tables and iPods with on-board accelerometers). As transportation infrastructure reaches and exceeds its design life, engineering efforts are turning to evaluation, rehabilitation and repair. Accurately assessing structures to determine their future performance and remaining life is becoming a primary job function for many civil engineers.

As part of this project, graduate students worked with the PI …

In-Service Evaluation Of High Tension Cable Barrier Systems, Brian K. Howell, Kenneth R. Agent, Jeff Jasper, William Nicholas Staats

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has installed hundreds of miles of high-tension cable median barrier (CMB) as a safety innovation. The usage of CMB aids in the prevention of crossover crashes, where a vehicle departs the roadway on the left shoulder, crosses the median, and enters the opposing lane(s) of traffic. KYTC officials have questioned whether all three barrier products perform similarly. Some installed cable barrier systems have lost tension across the entire cable length after a single vehicle impact. If a second vehicle were to strike the cable barrier system in a location other than the damaged area of the …

In-Vehicle Evaluation Of Rumble Strips In Pre-And Post-Chip Sealed Maintenance Periods, Ernest Tufuor, Laurence Rilett

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

Chip sealing will reduce the depth of rumble strips (RS) by approximately 1/8".  Will this depth reduction affect RS functional characteristics (audible and tactile warnings)?

There is no detailed study on the effectiveness of RS that have been chip sealed. USEFULNESS The results will be useful to the Nebraska Department of Roads to determine:

Operations: Whether RS will need to be re-milled after chip sealing. Cost & safety implications.

Design: New RS guidelines for highways expected to be chip sealed in the future.

It can be shown that a 1/8" reduction in the current milled RS design depth, as …

Evaluation Of Tack Coating Practices For Asphalt Overlays In Nebraska, Soroosh Amelian, Yong-Rak Kim

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The strength of the bond between asphalt layers affects the lifespan of pavement structures. It is also a key factor in preventing major pavement distresses, such as slippage cracking and delamination. This research project evaluates and compares the effectiveness and performance of different tack coating approaches to ensure the proper bond strength is achieved in asphalt concrete (AC) interlayers through an experimental study. Various tack coat materials, including different types of emulsified asphalt and asphalt binders, at multiple application rates and dilution ratios were investigated. In the first part of this study, laboratory-prepared samples were used to evaluate the sensitivity …

Evaluation Of Protection Of Frp Wrap On Bridge Piers From Corrosive Effects Of Snow And Ice Chemicals, Lizzie Miller

Honors Theses

Highway bridge components, such as decks and piers, are structures that are often exposed to chlorine-heavy chemicals. Corrosion of rebar, one of the main contributors to structural deficiencies in highway bridges, is largely caused by chloride contamination from exposure to deicing salts and chemicals. Current forms of external protection to highway bridge piers include paint coatings, shells, and wraps. This thesis will focus on the protective capabilities that Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) wraps could provide to bridge piers. ASTM C666 was utilized to recreate environmental conditions, during which concrete samples were exposed to calcium chloride. ASTM C1760-12 was utilized to …

Optimizing Steel Railway Truss Bridge Health Monitoring, Ahmed Rageh, Daniel Linzell

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

Problems - Steel Railway Trusses • Aging • Large system – bridge AND railway • Labor intensive condition eval • Reported conditions: Stringer-to-floor beam connections [Haghani 2012] Stringer flange clip angle cracks [Haghani 2012] Unequal eyebars stress distribution [DelGrego 2008] Displaced eyebar pins [DelGrego 2008

Problems – Condition Evaluation • Visual inspection: Prescribed frequency Costly Subjected to human interpretation • Sensors: Focused on a single bridge Extensive array Costly

Influence Of Skew And Nonlinear Deck On Elastic Versus Inelastic Distribution Behavior And Ultimate Capacity Of Steel Girder Bridges, Fayaz Sofi, Joshua Steelman

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

Research Objectives

• Assessment of alternative load distribution methodologies for potential discrepancies that arise when evaluating distribution behavior of skewed steel girder bridges.

• Investigate the influence of skew and material nonlinearities (concrete cracking and steel yielding) on

• Load distribution behavior (elastic versus inelastic).

• System capacities (yielding and ultimate).

Summary and Conclusions • Influence of skew was examined on load distribution behavior, and nonlinear system-based capacities (yielding and ultimate) of composite steel girder bridges in presence of full material nonlinearities. In addition, assessment of two general definitions (beam-line and response fraction approaches) for quantifying load distribution behavior was …

Design For An Aging Population, Trygve Faste, Kiersten Muenchinger

TREC Final Reports

Older Americans are increasing in numbers and addressing their needs through better public transportation design will improve their quality of life. This study sought to increase understanding of the obstacles faced by people with impairments in vision, hearing and/or mobility, which are common issues for older people, and generate physical product solutions. The research was conducted to conceptualize products, structures and services to reduce or eliminate these obstacles.

With a focus on the Eugene, OR, public bus system, elderly riders were surveyed and interviewed. Designers rode on buses noting what worked well and where problems arose. Five ride-along observations of …

A Household Daily Non-Mandatory Activity Participation And Duration Modeling Accounting For Person Level Budget Constraints, Ivana Vukovic

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A key methodological and behavioral innovative component in recent Activity-Based Models (ABMs) used for transportation planning is the household-level non-mandatory activity participation component. While traditional ABMs use a series of simple models to predict non-mandatory activity participation decisions in a sequential manner (which is often not correct), the Multiple Discrete Continuous Extreme Value (MDCEV) model can model both individual and joint non-mandatory activity participation and time allocation decisions in different out-of-home activities of all household members simultaneously. A key advantage of the MDCEV framework is that it accounts for complex intra-household interactions among different household members by allocating the total …

15-09 Impact Of Access Management Practices To Pedestrian Safety, Deo Chimba, Henry Ajieh

Transportation Research Center Reports

This study focused on the impact of access management practices to the safety of pedestrians. Some of the access management practices considered to impact pedestrian safety included limiting direct access to and from major streets, locating signals, limiting the number of conflict points and separating conflict areas, removing turning vehicles from through traffic lanes, using nontraversable medians to manage left-turn movements and providing a supporting street and circulation system. The study evaluated through statistical modeling the correlation between access management practices to pedestrian crashes. Focused on the impacts of access management on pedestrian crashes, eight (8) major roadway corridors were …

Purdue Ect Report - Fourth Quarter 2016, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets Archive

Fourth Quarter 2016

This is a quarterly report from the Purdue ECT.

Addressing Data Challenges For Bicycle Crash Analysis, Eleni Christofa

PSU Transportation Seminars

Although an increasing number of separated bicycle facilities have been appearing across the US over the last few years, the majority of bicyclists are still traveling on roadways shared with motorized vehicles.

As a result, bicycles are essentially double exposed to safety risk, due to their interactions with both motorized vehicles and other bicycles. In addition to this double exposure, data challenges–such as a lack of continuous counts and bicycle crash data—complicate the assessment of bicycle safety further.

This research presents a bicycle crash analysis framework for estimating bicycle crash rates accounting for both bicycle and motorized vehicle exposure as …

Future Of The Mutcd, Steven G. Jewell P.E., Ptoe

Purdue Road School

The current edition of the national MUTCD was published in the Federal Register as a final rule in December 2009, effective on January 10, 2010. Most people probably don’t realize that this major tool of our trade is a living document that is under constant review and revision. The MUTCD is legally produced and maintained by FHWA. It usually gets officially revised and republished about every 6-10 years. There are a lot of legal issues and hoops that FHWA must progress through, including public review and documentation, to republish the Manual. Because of the constant changing and improving technology, FHWA …

Deployment And Evaluation Of Sinusoidal Rumble Strips, Jijo K. Mathew, Andrew Balmos, Dana Plattner

Purdue Road School

Centerline and edge line rumble strips are effective tools for reducing crashes, but the resulting noise of rumble strip incursions can be disruptive to nearby residents. Sinusoidal rumble strips are emerging as quieter rumble strip construction technology. In this session we will discuss the design, construction, and evaluation of sinusoidal rumble strips on IN 1 in Fort Wayne.

Building A Better Pedestrian And Bicycling Infrastructure, Joyce E. Newland

Purdue Road School

The Federal Highway Administration has a long history of supporting pedestrian and bicycle transportation through funding, policy guidance, program management, and resource development. This Strategic Agenda for Pedestrian and Bicycle Transportation builds on this support and sets the stage for our activities in the coming years.

Practical Considerations In Determining Timber Pile Depth Using The Sonic Echo Method, Ali F. Jwary

Civil Engineering ETDs

The Federal Highway Administration indicates that about 85,000 bridges in the United States have no original contract documents with information about the type, depth, geometry and material of their foundations (FHWA, 2010). Furthermore, the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) provides information about 86,133 bridges nationwide that are rated as scour critical because of unknown foundation condition. In New Mexico, there are more than 281 bridges with unknown foundations, which are owned by the New Mexico Department of Transportation; 71 of these are timber bridges. These data indicate a serious problem that needs decisive action to assess the unknown bridge foundation characteristics …

Portable Signals: Indot Design Guidance And Specifications, Joseph Bruno

Purdue Road School

Until recently portable traffic signals, which are mounted on towable trailer supports, were not allowed in Indiana. However, portable signals have many advantages over fixed temporary signals, so the Indiana Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices was revised to allow them, and specifications for their use are now in place. This presentation provides an overview of portable signals, including INDOT’s current design and specification requirements for these devices.

Testing And Evaluation Of Modern Lighting Technologies, David Boruff

Purdue Road School

This presentation provides an overview of one of the steps INDOT has taken in order to make the change to solid state lighting technology: the adoption of a testing procedure and approved materials list for luminaires.

Big Data And The Future Of Travel Modeling, Greg Macfarlane

PSU Transportation Seminars

New technologies such as smart phones and web applications constantly collect data on individuals' trip-making and travel patterns. Efforts at using these "Big data" products, to date, have focused on using them to expand or inform traditional travel demand modeling frameworks; however, it is worth considering if a new framework built to maximize the strengths of big data would be more useful to policy makers and planners.

In this presentation Greg Macfarlane will present a discussion on elements of travel models that could quickly benefit from big data and concurrent machine learning techniques, and results from a preliminary application of …

A Framework For Measuring The Spatial Equity In The Distribution Of Public Transportation Benefits, Seyyed Amir Hosein Mortazavi, Meisam Akbarzadeh

Journal of Public Transportation

This paper proposes that an equitable transit system requires that the geographical distribution of transit service benefits conform to the geographical distribution of the citizens with the greatest need for public transportation. This is the essence of vertical equity. This study calculated “connectivity power,” which reflects public transit service quality in each traffic analysis zone (TAZ) in a city to indicate the amount of benefit that TAZ is receiving from the transit system. The number of carless citizens in each TAZ was also calculated as an index of need to the public transit services in that area. Conformity of need …

Identifying Key Factors Of Rail Transit Service Quality: An Empirical Analysis For Istanbul, Erkan Isikli, Nezir Aydin, Erkan Celik, Alev Taskin Gumus

Journal of Public Transportation

Providing a high quality of service in public transportation is essential to reduce dissatisfactions stemming from traffic congestion and noise. Public transport providers need to find ways to dilute the effects of immoderate use of private cars in big cities while maintaining a sufficient level of customer satisfaction. This study aimed to identify the key service quality (SQ) factors that drive passenger satisfaction in Istanbul’s rail transit (RT) system using data obtained from an extensive survey conducted by the Istanbul Public Transportation Co. A total of 11,116 passengers who used rail transport from May 15–June 3, 2012, and June 17–July …