Engineering Commons^™

Effect Of Antioxidant Additives And Recycling Agents On Performance Of Asphalt Binders And Mixtures - Phase I, Nitish R. Bastola, Mahdieh Khedmati, Hamzeh Haghshenas, Jamilla Teixeira

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The use of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) in asphalt mixtures has notably increased in recent times. Nevertheless, the inherent stiff and aged characteristics of RAP materials have consistently raised concerns regarding cracking performance. The use of recycling agents (RAs) has gained popularity in recent years since they can effectively modify the engineering properties of the aged asphalt binder. Besides that, the combination of RA with antioxidant (AO) additives has shown promise in enhancing the long-term performance of RAP mixtures. This research aims to investigate the effect of various RAs and one AO additive on performance of asphalt binders and high-RAP …

Modeling Pedestrian And Bicyclist Crash Exposure With Location-Based Service Data, Yunwoo Nam, Jason Hawkins, Don Butler, Nicholas Aldridge, Mohammad Elayan, Kwant Il (Jason) Yoo

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The rising popularity of non-motorized transportation has brought about safety risks. The inclusion of accurate traffic volume information is one of the key elements to produce robust outcomes when researching safety. The project investigates and enhances transportation safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, emphasizing the integration of Location-Based Services (LBS) data, particularly StreetLight data, to analyze traffic volume and associated risks. The calibration process demonstrates the significance of traffic volume as a key variable influencing prediction accuracy across pedestrian, bicyclist, and vehicle models. The crash analysis reveals a strong correlation between crash counts and traffic activity, with noteworthy findings emerging at …

Investigating Rural Traffic Dynamics: A Traffic Study On E 2nd Street Intersection’S Behavior And Safety, Ma Anjelika Rose T. Pineda

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects

Traffic studies guide engineers in designing road networks to ensure smooth traffic flow and public safety. Such studies assess the need for traffic control devices to manage vehicle flow safely and efficiently. This is crucial at intersections which pose high risks of collision and congestion. A traffic analysis at the intersection of Island Grove and E 2nd Street on the FM-4 roadway in Cleburne, TX was conducted to evaluate the sufficiency of the current traffic control device. TxDOT warrants and standards and a field study were utilized and performed to justify the substitution for a traffic signal at the intersection. …

Reducing Glass Loss During Transportation And Storage, Abdulaziz Muzafarovich Qurbanov, Mirzaabdullayev Jaxongir Baxtiyorovich

Technical science and innovation

The article discusses the processes of transportation and storage of sheet glass in the production of protective glass for cars. The experience of organizing the transportation and storage of glass in developed countries of the world was analyzed in order to study the problems of losses of raw materials during the transportation and storage of laminated glass, as well as to develop and approve a regulatory and technical document. in this field. The supplies of various brands of polished laminated glass used in the production of protective glass for cars to Avtooina LLC from different addresses, from different manufacturers were …

Strengthening The Deployment Of Uncrewed Aerial Systems (Uas) At Kytc, Rachel Catchings, Suzanne Smith, Gayle Marks, Candice Wallace, Christopher Van Dyke

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) and transportation agencies around the United States increasingly depends on uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS — also commonly known as drones) to collect data and accelerate project development and delivery. Drones let transportation practitioners safely and efficiently perform many activities, including bridge and highway inspection, construction monitoring, surveying, emergency response, and measuring stockpiles. KYTC’s implementation of UAS has expanded rapidly over the past 10 years, however, the agency lacks well-coordinated procedures for connecting pilots with end data users, scheduling and conducting flights, developing and documenting best practices, and processing and storing data. Based on a review …

Evaluation Of Ndot’S Sediment Barrier Practices Using Performance Data, Michael A. Perez, Wesley N. Donald, J. Blake Whitman, Brian G. Roche

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

To protect waterways adjacent to construction projects with disturbed land, a 50 ft (15 m) vegetated buffer or equivalent sediment controls are required. However, there is little guidance on the effectiveness of vegetated buffers in removing sediment or how sediment barriers can aid shorter buffers or replace buffers. A modeling methodology was developed and used to determine the performance of 11,664 50 ft (15 m) vegetated buffer configurations with Nebraska conditions; sediment capture averaged 92.6% and ranged from 18.5% to 99.5%. To determine the performance of Nebraska Department of Transportation standard and modified sediment barrier installations, a large-scale testing methodology …

Optimal Algorithm For Managing On-Campus Student Transportation, Youssef Harrath Dr.

Research & Publications

This study analyzed the transportation issues at the University of Bahrain Sakhir campus, where a bus system with an unorganized and fixed number of buses allocated each semester was in place. Data was collected through a survey, on-site observations, and student schedules to estimate the number of buses needed. The study was limited to students who require to move between buildings for academic purposes and not those who choose to ride buses for other reasons. An algorithm was designed to calculate the optimal number of buses for each time slot, and for each day. This solution could improve transportation efficiency, …

Development Of Guideline For The Use Of Geosynthetics In Different Roadway Layered System In Nebraska, Jongwan Eun, Seunghee Kim, Daniel Robertson, Yusuf Alhowaidi, Hung Van, Laith Ibdah

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

This study evaluated the design properties of the geosynthetic reinforced soils for the roadway pavement and compared the reinforcing performance depending on different geosynthetics and soil types, particularly for a subgrade layer in Nebraska. The results obtained from a large direct shear test, pullout test, and soil chamber test with a dynamic cone penetrometer (DCP) showed that geosynthetic improves soil properties associated with the pullout and interface shear resistance, strength related parameters. The Large Scale Tracking Wheel Test also showed how the performance of biaxial geogrid reinforced pavement improved the strength/stiffness and reduced the total permanent deformation and pressure acting …

Segac: Sample Efficient Generalized Actor Critic For The Stochastic On-Time Arrival Problem, Honglian Guo, Zhi He, Wenda Sheng, Zhiguang Cao, Yingjie Zhou, Weinan Gao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper studies the problem in transportation networks and introduces a novel reinforcement learning-based algorithm, namely. Different from almost all canonical sota solutions, which are usually computationally expensive and lack generalizability to unforeseen destination nodes, segac offers the following appealing characteristics. segac updates the ego vehicle’s navigation policy in a sample efficient manner, reduces the variance of both value network and policy network during training, and is automatically adaptive to new destinations. Furthermore, the pre-trained segac policy network enables its real-time decision-making ability within seconds, outperforming state-of-the-art sota algorithms in simulations across various transportation networks. We also successfully deploy segac …

A Charging Strategy For Large Commercial Electric Vehicle Fleets, Bassam Al-Hanahi, Iftekhar Ahmad, Daryoush Habibi, Pravakar Pradhan, Mohammad A. S. Masoum

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The popularity of Commercial Electric Vehicles (CEVs) has experienced a surge in recent years, particularly in urban vocational contexts, as a means of advancing towards the goal of attaining net-zero emissions by 2050. The return-to-base charging strategy, which involves charging CEVs at depots, has become a prevalent practice for smaller CEV fleets. Nevertheless, for larger CEV fleets, the limited charging capacity at depots presents a significant challenge, leading to a reliance on both limited depot charging infrastructure and public charging infrastructure. This reliance can have a substantial impact on both the operational costs and the sustainability of logistics services. To …

Production Of Cast-In-Place Uhpc For Bridge Applications, Jiong Hu, George Morcous, Akbota Aitbayeva

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

This project presents a comprehensive overview of the essential aspects associated with the cast-in-place application of UHPC, including formwork requirements, surface preparation, mixing procedures, placing methods, curing techniques, grinding specifications, and mockup construction. Each section provides in-depth insights into specific guidelines and practices outlined by various regulatory bodies. The research team has developed training materials designed for a full-day workshop tailored to benefit both contractors and NDOT engineers. This workshop comprises key topics such as proportioning, batching, testing, and the placement of both non-proprietary and proprietary UHPC mixes, as well as hands-on experience in batching, testing, and placing UHPC. The …

Low-Cement Concrete Mixture For Bridge Decks And Rails, Soumitra Das, George Morcous Ph.D., Jiong Hu

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Right after construction, drying shrinkage of restrained concrete bridge decks and rails causes early-age cracking, insertion of water and chemicals, and corrosion of reinforcing steel that eventually leads to delamination and spalling of concrete. The main objective of this research is to control early-age shrinkage cracking by reducing cementitious material content in bridge deck and rail concrete mixtures. Several reduced cementitious materials concrete (RCMC) mixtures were developed by optimizing aggregate particle packing and conducting overall performance evaluation. This evaluation was carried out in three phases. The first phase investigated the feasibility of new RCMC mixtures by testing workability, compressive strength, …

Developing A Geospatial Web Application For Transportation Geotechnical Asset Management, Ayoub Mohammadi

Civil Engineering Theses

Spatial data has become an increasingly important tool in geotechnical engineering, allowing for managing and analyzing large amounts of spatial data. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in developing applications that can be accessed by geotechnical engineers from anywhere with an internet connection. This thesis provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of the art in transportation earth structure management. It also highlights the potential benefits of these applications for geotechnical engineers, including open-source applications, database management, and user interface design. It identifies areas for future research and development. The research also discusses the various types …

Erosion Resistant Rock Shoulder, Chung R. Song, Richard L. Wood, Basil Abualshar, Mark O'Brien, Bashar Al-Nimri, Mitra Nasimi

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Highway shoulder rocks are exposed to continuous erosion force due to unexpected floodings caused by climate change. The evaluation methods of the erosion resistance of highway shoulder rocks are not currently well-developed. This study developed a new large-scale testing device, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Erosion Testing Bed (UNLETB), which has the capability of testing the shoulder gravels. Different gradations were tested using UNLETB, and the results distinguished a high-resistant group and a low-resistant group. The low resistant group was treated with different binding agents: Ammonium Lignosulfonate (LIGNO10), Soybean Soap Stock, and DirtGlue. The treated samples showed better erosion resistance based …

Energy Dissipation Optimization For Circular Culverts, David M. Admiraal, Chi Zhang

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Two types of energy dissipation devices at circular culvert outlets were investigated: full-length weirs and staggered weirs. Related literature was reviewed; a model broken-back circular culvert and dissipation basin was built; instrumentation was installed to measure discharge, piezometric head, and velocities; and four sizes of full-length and staggered weirs were tested over a range of discharges and tailwaters. Weir heights ranged from D/8 to 4D/8, in which D was the culvert diameter. The two weir types were subjected to two styles of tests: (1) tests unaffected by tailwater and (2) tailwater-influenced tests. For tall full-length weirs (3D/8 and 4D/8), basin …

Truck Platooning Effects On Girder Bridges: Phase Ii-Service, Joshua Steelman, Jay Puckett, Daniel Linzell, Bowen Yang

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Truck platooning—wirelessly linking two or more trucks to travel in a closely spaced convoy—is federally promoted to save fuel, improve the environment, and improve traffic operations. Platooning places trucks much closer than current design codes anticipate. While this strategy can provide higher fuel efficiency, it also can potentially overload structures. Previous reliabilitybased studies (Steelman et al., 2021; Yang et al., 2021) have focused on the Strength I limit state and have shown that trucks can operate at weights exceeding standard legal load limits even with short headways at operating-level reliability. However, service limit states in the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design …

The Heterogeneous Vehicle Routing Problem With Multiple Time Windows For The E-Waste Collection Problem, Aldy Gunawan, Minh P.K Nguyen, Vincent F. Yu, Dang Viet Anh Nguyen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) or e-waste describes end-of-life electronic products that are discarded. Due to their toxic and negative impacts to humans' health, many publications have been proposed to handle, however, studies related to e-waste collection and transportation to waste disposal sites are not widely studied so far. This study proposes a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model to solve the e-waste collecting problem by formulating it as the heterogeneous vehicle routing problem with multiple time windows (HVRPMTW). The model is validated with newly developed benchmark instances that are solved by commercial software, CPLEX. The model is …

Crashworthy Perforated Square Steel Tube (Psst) Mailbox Support – Phase I, Robert W. Bielenberg, Cody S. Stolle, Ronald K. Faller

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Federal requirements have made it mandatory that safe mailbox support systems be designed to yield or breakaway whenimpacted by a vehicle. The Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) has previously used a non-proprietary, U-channel post mailbox support that was evaluated at the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility (MwRSF) in the 1980's. NDOT desires that the mailbox support be updated to meet MASH 2016 TL-3 safety performance criteria and be redesigned to use perforated square steel tubing (PSST) for the mailbox support post.

The objective of this research project is to develop a non-proprietary mailbox support using PSST support posts that is MASH …

Participation Of Electric Vehicle Aggregators In Wholesale Electricity Markets: Recent Works And Future Directions, Saeed Salimi Amiri, Fazlur Rahman Bin Karim, Pedro Cesar Lopes Gerum

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Electric Vehicles are key to reducing carbon emissions while bringing a revolution to the transportation sector. With the massive increase of EVs in road networks and the growing demand for charging services, the electric power grid faces enormous system reliability and operation stability challenges. Demand and supply disparities create inconsistency in the smooth delivery of electrical power. As a potential solution, EVs and their charging infrastructure can be aggregated to prevent the unwanted effects on power systems and also facilitate ancillary services to the power grid. When not need for transportation purposes, EVs can leverage their batteries for power grid …

Nebraska Balanced Mix Design – Phase I, Farzad Yazdipanah, Mahdieh Khedmati, Hamzeh Haghshenas

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Balanced mix design (BMD) is an alternative concept for designing asphalt mixtures that mainly focuses on performance of mixtures rather than only volumetric analysis. Using this concept, it would be possible to account for the incorporation of recycled asphalt mixtures, warm technology, polymers, rejuvenators, and other foreign additives, as well as external effective factors on the mix design such as environmental effects. This project sought to investigate performance-based methodologies for the asphalt mix design by taking a step to develop a preliminary Nebraska BMD framework. With that, selection of appropriate performance tests, finding a functional laboratory aging protocol, and defining …

Inventory, Operations, And Safety At Free Right-Turn Ramps, Aemal Khattak, Jonathon Camezind, Mm Shakui Haque

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

This research focused on traffic safety and operational performance of rural, minor approach stop-controlled intersections with free right-turn (FRT) ramps. The objectives of the research were to:

• Create a statewide inventory of rural FRT ramp intersections and provide to the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT),
• Using NDOT 10-year crash data, conduct statistical safety analysis of rural FRT intersections extending ¼-mile in each direction from the intersection,
• Study vehicular operations at rural intersections with and without FRT ramps including a comparison of vehicular conflicts, and
• Develop guidelines for operations and safety tradeoffs to assist with NDOT projects on maintaining similar locations, …

Columbus, Nebraska: Southern Housing Development Design Proposal, Ryan Weyers, Caiden Dynek, Alex Papa, Brexton Robertson, Kaden Perala

Honors Theses

The following paper proposes the design and creation of a new housing development in the city of Columbus, Nebraska in a lot to the south of the city and directly north of the Columbus wastewater treatment plant. The goal of this proposal is to provide readers with confidence that our company is the most qualified to complete the project and will create the safest, most comfortable, most efficient, and most cost-effective final design. This proposal seeks to offer a solution to the lack of affordable housing for the growing workforce in Columbus. In order to arrive at this solution, each …

The Effect Of Four Decades Of Deregulation On Competition And Productivity Of The U.S. Freight Transportation Industry, Seungjae Shin

Theses and Dissertations

This study reviews the competition and productivity of the U.S. freight transportation industry for the past 41 years. This study investigated the trends of HHI market concentration index values and labor productivity values of rail and truck sectors and tried to find any relationships between the two values in the separate periods before and after the abolishment of the ICC. This study also investigated how the existence of a regulatory body impacted productivity of the freight transportation industry by using a Cobb Douglas production function on annual financial statement data in the U.S. stock exchange market. This study found that: …

Feasibility Study: Application Of Steel Sheet-Piles For The Abutment Of Water-Crossing Bridges In Nebraska, Seunghee Kim, Jongwan Eun, Chung R. Song, Chungwook Sim, Hung Phi Van, Basil Abualshar, Ramin Ziaei Tabari

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The overall goal of this study is to investigate the anticipated performance of steel sheet-pile bridge abutments to encourage its wider application to not only new construction but also repair and replacement of existing water-crossing bridges in Nebraska. For this purpose, this study first reviewed several bridge cases with axially loaded sheet pile abutments, as well as previous in-depth studies related to the bearing capacity of sheet piles. Then, this study conducted the large-scale direct shear tests to better understand the interaction between sheet pile and soil. As a result, about four-fifths of the internal friction angle of fill sand …

Impacts Of Diagonal Crosswalk Misuse, Elizabeth Francis

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

A diagonal crosswalk paired with an all-red phase traffic signal is an effective approach to manage intersections with high pedestrian volume. This allows pedestrians to cross both north-south and east-west bound roads at the same time. However, ineffective diagonal crosswalk marking, and lack of signs reduces the use of diagonal crosswalks which in turn results in jaywalking, often in unsafe capacities. The objective of this study is to determine the impacts of pedestrian-caused delay and safety impacts due to the misuse of a diagonal crosswalk. To better understand the impacts, a camera-based data collection was conducted during a four-hour period …

Examination Of Hypothetical Transportation Accidents For Transportable Nuclear Power Plants, Richard Louis Calvin

Masters Theses

The reintroduction of Transportable Nuclear Power Plants (TNPPs) opens the doors for potential accidents which have not been previously considered under current licensing standards. TNPPs transported via truck, rail, aircraft, or boat may be involved in various hypothetical transportation accidents. 10 CFR 71, Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Material, regulatorily addresses various accident scenarios. However, when applying logistics and design constraints alternative methods to license and transport these TNPPs will be required. These alternative methods require the use of Probabilistic Risk Assessments, modeling of accident scenarios, and experimental data to demonstrate an equivalent level of safety to 10 CFR 71. …

Establishment Of Wildflower Islands To Enhance Roadside Health, Ecological Value, And Aesthetics Phase Ii, Jackson Ebbers, Heidi L. Hillhouse, John A. Guretsky, Thomas J. Weissling

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Uhpc Decked I-Beam For Accelerated Bridge Construction, George Morcous, Maher K. Tadros

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Ultra-High-Performance Concrete (UHPC) is an excellent material for bridge construction due to its exceptional durability and superior mechanical properties. Several Departments of Transportations (DOTs), including NDOT, have limited the use of UHPC in bridge construction to joints and connections between bridge components due to the relatively high materials cost of commercially UHPC products. Recently, NDOT has sponsored a research project to develop a non-proprietary UHPC using local materials to reduce materials cost and ensure its availability to local contractors and precast producers. The project was completed successfully and an economical UHPC mix that satisfied all workability, durability, and strength requirements …

Performance Of High Early-Strength Materials Used In Concrete Bridge Repair, Zina Ebrahim, Fray F. Pozo-Lora, Zachary Benson, Mohammad Mastali, Marc Maguire, Jiong Hu

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

High early-strength materials are widely used for rapid concrete patching projects to limit road closure time and traffic obstruction. This research investigated the field performance of multiple high early-strength materials used in maintenance projects across Nebraska. Data from high early-strength products included in the state’s approved product list were collected and compared to field performance. In addition, a survey was prepared and distributed to the surrounding states to understand standard practices related to appropriate specifications of these materials that can be later used to develop specifications for the utilization of high early strength materials in Nebraska based on experimental and …

A Multidimensionality Reduction Approach To Rainfall Prediction, Menatallah Abdel Azeem, Prasanjit Dey, Soumyabrata Dev

Articles

The rainfall has an impact on various fields and industries, including transportation, construction, tourism, health, and wildlife preservation. Accurate rainfall prediction is essential for mitigating the negative impact of rainfall on these sectors. However, previous studies on rainfall prediction have been mainly based on datasets from North America, Europe, Australia, and Central Asia, covering different periods. This study proposes using weather datasets covering the past 5 to 10 years to capture recent patterns in weather data. Additionally, the curse of dimensionality can impact model performance and lead to overfitting. Therefore, this study proposes utilizing dimensionality reduction techniques to ensure that …