Engineering Commons^™

Anthropogenic Effects On Tidal Distortion In A Tidal River, Matthew D. Fischer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tidal rivers are landward portions of estuarine systems constituting the union between coastal, tidally controlled settings and rivers, where fluvial processes dominate. In these reaches, river discharge (mean flow) and tides are the two most important mechanisms in controlling geophysical flows. The processes governing water levels and current amplitudes in tidal rivers are highly nonlinear and modulated by external forcings- thus requiring sophisticated techniques for accurate prediction and forecasting. Physical oceanographers and estuarine physicists tend to limit their study area to the maximum extent of the horizontal tide (salinity intrusion), not the most landward point influenced by tidal water levels. …

Optimization Of A Lightweight Floating Offshore Wind Turbine With Water-Ballast Motion Mitigation Technology, William Ramsay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Floating offshore wind turbines are a promising technology to address energy needs utilizing wind resources offshore. The current state of the art is based on heavy, expensive platforms to survive the ocean environment. Typical design techniques do not involve optimization because of the computationally expensive time-domain solvers used to model motions and loads in the ocean environment. However, this project uses an efficient frequency domain solver with a genetic algorithm to rapidly optimize the design of a novel floating wind turbine concept. The concept utilizes liquid ballast mass to mitigate motions on a lightweight post-tensioned concrete platform, with a target …

Development Of Ultra High Performance Composite Impact Panels Using Emaa, Jeffrey Hollstein

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

UHPC with the addition of fibers is recognized for its increased impact resistance compared to typical strength concrete. To further increase the resilience, recent studies have been conducted to reinforce the UHPC with CFRTP on the front and rear face to create sandwich panels. These studies used PETg/E-glass CFRTP bonded to the UHPC using EMAA (Surlyn) in a stamp thermoforming process. Impact tests conducted on these panels have shown that delamination has been the initial and detrimental failure to the sandwich composite. Increasing the composites resistance to debonding will increase the impact energy required to debond the composite. In this …

On The Application Of Dynamical Measures Of Hydrologic Response To Prediction And Similarity Assessment In Watersheds, Prashanta Bajracharya

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Prediction in Ungauged Basins (PUB) initiative set out to improve the understanding of hydrological processes with an aim of improving hydrologic models for application in ungauged basins. With a majority of basins around the world essentially ungauged, this suggests the need to shift from calibration-based models that rely on observed streamflow data to models based on process understanding. This is especially important in natural infrastructure planning projects such as investments in the conservation of wetlands across the watershed, where the lack of streamflow data hinders the quantification of their benefits (such as flood attenuation), resulting in a difficulty in …

Road Salt Use Analysis In The Context Of Changing Winter Weather Conditions, Dikshya Parajuli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The research is inspired by the past and current patterns of road salt use, changing weather patterns, and management strategies in Maine. The historical road salt application has led to long-term impacts on the environment pressing the need for strategic use of road salt. Winter Severity Indices (WSIs) find their application in the field by aiding in interpreting weather forecasts and planning for strategic salt application. This study uses existing indices: Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index (AWSSI), Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) index, Illinois Salt days index, and Accumulated Freezing Degree Days to quantify long-term changes in winter weather conditions. …

Statistical Analysis Of Frequency And Severity Of Lane Departure Crashes In Maine, Alainie A. Sawtelle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lane departure crashes account for approximately 34% of all roadway crashes, and over 70% of all roadway fatalities in Maine. Despite an 18% decrease in average daily traffic volume during the half of the year with colder weather, the months of November to April comprise over 64% of the yearly lane departure crashes. The majority of roadways and roadway crashes in Maine are in rural regions. Moreover, Maine has aging infrastructure, houses the oldest population in the United States, has diverse terrain and land use, and experiences several extreme weather events. The combination of these factors impacts the frequency and …

Non-Destructive Evaluation Of Concrete Using Electrical Resistivity And Ultrasonic Wave Propagation, Justin Harris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the intent to investigate the relationship between concrete physical properties and non-destructive evaluation techniques (NDE), several experiments were performed. Specimens were made at varying geometries using a range of different concrete mixes under several different curing conditions. These specimens were subjected to a combination of electrical resistivity and ultrasonic wave propagation measurements. One part of this study investigated determining the orientation of steel fibers using electrical resistivity. This resulted in the fabrication of a four-probe square device with the potential capabilities of determining fiber orientation. The other part of this research applied ultrasonic wave propagation via through-transmission along with …

Development Of Thermoplastic Composite External Reinforcing Of Concrete Decking System, Jackman A. Mickiewicz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The use of reinforced concrete is very common in the construction of a wide variety of structures. In buildings it is used for floors, beams, columns, and walls. It can also be used in infrastructure as parts of bridges, dams, pavements, etc. Typically, concrete is reinforced with steel, primarily rebar, to carry tensile stresses.

Like every other industry, construction is always looking at ways to advance its technology. The work outlined in this thesis looks to assist in that goal, primarily by looking at options for using a different material than the traditional steel reinforcements to create a reinforced concrete …

Developing Takeover Request Warning System To Improve Takeover Time And Post-Takeover Performance In Level 3 Automated Drivin, Niloy Talukder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The automotive industry is shifting towards partial (level 3) or fully automated vehicles. An important research question in level 3 automated driving is how quickly drivers can take over the vehicle control in response to a critical event. In this regard, this study develops an integrated takeover request (TOR) system which provides visual and auditorial TOR warning in both vehicle interface and personal portable device (e.g., tablet). The study also evaluated the effectiveness of the integrated TOR system in reducing the takeover time and improving post-takeover performance. For these purposes, 44 drivers participated in the driving simulator experiment where they …

The Role Of Pier Shape And Aspect Ratio On Local Scour With And Without Sacrificial Piles, Mohamed Kharbeche

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The complexity of the scour process around bridge piers leads to uneconomical pier design and unnecessary costs. This is due to the current scour estimation methods, which over-predict scour depth. Several aspects of scour have not been fully considered in pier design and require further investigation, such as the pier shape and aspect ratio. Further, scour countermeasures are used to protect the pier and reduce the scour depth. The first objective of the present investigation is to study the combined effects of pier nose shape and aspect ratio on scour geometry. The second objective is to better understand the effect …

A New Car-Following Model With Incorporation Of Markkula’S Framework Of Sensorimotor Control In Sustained Motion Tasks, Umair Durrani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The main aim of this research is to develop a new car-following model that realistically predicts the trajectories of speed, acceleration, jerk and spacing in congested and uncongested freeway conditions. The research has three objectives. First, the start time of driver reaction was investigated in various car-following conditions. Specifically, the assumption of a constant reaction time of the existing car-following models was investigated using the observed driver behaviour data collected from a driving simulator. Moreover, the perception limits and the process that drivers use to start reaction were also studied. Second, a new car-following model was developed to reproduce the …

Application Of Artificial Neural Networks To Predict Local Bridge Pier Scour, Mia Marrocco

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Accurate equilibrium scour depth and width estimations are essential to both safe and economic designs of bridge foundations. Review of current scour estimation methods demonstrate that the empirical equations produce scour values that are overestimated, resulting in uneconomical designs. In the current investigation, artificial neural networks (ANNs) were optimized and applied to scour data under laboratory conditions, field conditions, and a combination of the two conditions. Additionally, physics-based parameters – in place of empirical parameters (e.g., shape factors) – and parameters incorporating blockage effects were introduced as input parameters to the ANNs in an attempt to improve scour predictions. Finally, …

Analysis Of Aggressive Driving Using A Driving Simulator, Ahmad Hassan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As aggressive driving mainly caused speed-related crashes, aggressive driving must be prevented to improve road safety by identifying aggressive drivers and understand their characteristics and external factors associated with their behaviours. Thus, it is important to investigate relationships among aggressive driving, driver characteristics, and driving performance measures. The factors affecting aggressive driving are driving experience, self-estimation of driving skill, and willingness of taking risk while driving, and interactions with different drivers, not only driver’s own intention. To establish a framework for the analysis of aggressive driving, previous literature indicated driving performance measures and/or self-reported measures to be effective measures of …

Sustainability And Performance Improvement Of Engineered Cementitious Composites, Adeyemi Adesina

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Engineered cementitious composites (ECCs) are special types of fibre-reinforced cementitious composites (FRCC) with higher strain capacity which can be achieved with low fibre volume as low as 2% and total elimination of coarse aggregates. Due to the outstanding performance of ECCs, they are suitable for various construction and repair applications. However, in order for ECCs to achieve their properties; a high amount of binder which is primarily composed of Portland cement (PC) is used alongside a special type of ultrafine silica sand (USS) which is different from the conventional natural fine aggregates. The production of PC is known to be …

Modeling Freight Network Robustness And Criticality In Ontario, Canada, Georgiana Vani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores criticalities that arise in a freight transportation network for the multi-regional economically active province of Ontario, Canada. A significant economic contributor and generator of freight trips, Ontario relies on its transportation system for the movement of goods. A combination of network performance and economically driven measures are used to evaluate the impacts of link disruptions, identify criticalities in the network, and produce a more holistic view of freight transportation activities. The Network Robustness Index (NRI) is applied to capture the impacts of travel conditions on the network due to link disruptions. A methodology is introduced for estimating …

Modelling Cross-Border Rail Intermodality In The Windsor-Essex Context, Christopher Aspila

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Shipment by truck dominates the cross-border flow of commodities in both directions between Canada and the United States (Anderson and Coates, 2010; Anderson, 2012; Anderson and Brown, 2012; and Aspila and Maoh, 2014). An individual truck typically pulling one or two trailers is an inefficient way to move goods over long distances (Eom et al., 2012) when freight trains with three or more 4400 horsepower diesel-electric locomotives pull over two-hundred intermodal containers loaded on rail cars throughout North America every day.

Windsor, Ontario is an example of a border community in Canada and hosts the busiest border crossing between Canada …

Analysis Of Spatial Discrepancies Between 76-Foot Close Range Photogrammetric And Terrestrial-Lidar Models, Abdoul K. Ouangre

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study presents an analysis of the accuracy of a 3D model generated by two different methods. In the first method, the 3D model is generated via Laser Scanning. In the second method, the 3D model is generated via Close-range Photogrammetry from a drone flying at 76 feet above the ground. Photogrammetry is a photo-based technique that uses images to generate 3D models of objects where distances could be extracted from. Close-range photogrammetry is the approach of generating a 3D model from a camera placed anywhere between 1 foot and 1000 feet relative to the object. Terrestrial LiDAR is the …