Engineering Commons^™

Design And Field Layout Of Irrigation Flow Measuring Devices In The River-Lab At Utah State University, Abelardo M. Arriaran

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The purpose of this report was to develop a design and field layout of irrigation flow measuring devices in a design channel in teh River-Laboratory at Utah State University. This study was conducted considering a maximum discharge of 3.5 cfs and the profile of the channel in the selected area. Four kinds of flow measuring devices to be installed in series one after another were considered: a Parshall flume, a broad-creasted weir, a cutthroat flume, and the rectangular sharp-crested weir. The locations given are based on the hydraulic conditions for each device, the available head, the head loss that each …

Slow Rate Sand Filtration With And Without Clinoptilolite: A Comparison Of Water Quality And Filtration Economics, Gordon P. Foreman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Slow rate sand filtration (SSF) amended with a 20 cm surface layer of clinoptilolite, a natural zeolite, was compared to SSF with no amendment in a field scale SSF facility treating 85 m³/d of water. Parameters examined included turbidity, coliforms, and ammonium removal. The control filter with sand and the experimental filter amended with the zeolite were also compared with respect to duration of filter cycle, cold weather operation, and economics.

Amended and unamended filters were approximately equivalent with respect to ammonium and coliform removal at 10° C. The zeolite amended cell was superior to the unamended cell …

Effect Of Rules And Laws On The Sustained Availability Of Groundwater, Richard C. Peralta, Paul Killian, Keyvan Asghari

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Calibration Of A Temperature-Radiation Evapotranspiration Equation For Utah, Payam Foroughi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Two reference crop evapotranspiration (ETr) equations were calibrated to the reference crop of alfalfa using 45 meteorological datafiles from 13 scattered sites in Utah and four sites in the neigboring states of Idaho and Wyoming.

The calibrations were done against the Kimberly version of the Penman ETr formula. The first equation required measured inputs of mean air temperature and solar radiation. It was referred to as the Temperature- Radiation ETr equation (ETr= CT x T x Rs). The second equation required measured inputs of mean minimum and mean maximum air temperatures. It was referred to as the New Hargreaves equation …

Cavitation Limits And The Effect Of Aeration On Cone Valves, Bart "L" Mumford

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Cavitation in cone valves can cause eventual valve failure. However, little data are available on cavitation limits for solid plug cone valves. Flow conditions were identified for a 6 inch cone valve where incipient, critical, incipient damage, and choking cavitation limits occurred at valve openings between 20 and 70 degrees. A description of how these limits are used to predict cavitation intensity is given. Air was used to reduce the damage levels. Aeration increased the allowable pressure drop for damage free operation 6 to 72 percent for valve openings less than 70 degrees. A chart is given for predicting when …

Potential Conjunctive Water Resources Use Plan For The Grand Prairie Region Of Eastern Arkansas, Ahmad Y. Ranjha, Richard C. Peralta, Amin Yazdanian

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The main objective of this study is to develop two conjunctive water use strategies that can satisfy maximum potential irrigation water demand in the Grand Prairie region of Arkansas. for climatically average growing seasons. To accomplish this. the potential irrigation demand in each 3 mile x 3 mile cell of the study area is first determined on a monthly and seasonal basis for average climatic conditions. The potential demand is also calculated for dry climatic conditions. although these latter demand figures are not used in developing the potential conjunctive water use strategies.

A Study Of Trihalomethane Precursors In Deer Creek Reservoir, Megan J. White, V. Dean Adams

Reports

Deer Creek Reservoir and tributaries were monitored from May to December 1983 in a study of the occurrence of trihalomethane (THM) precursors in the reservoir and nutrient dynamics of the reservoir system. Microcosms were used to study the effect of the following parameters on THM precursor production in the reservoir system: phosphorus loading, sediment, algal growth, and application of algicide. Additionally, THM precursor concentrations of interstitial water were analyzed in reservoir and microcosm sediment samples. Microcosms treated with ahigh phosphorus loading (70 ug/1) had THM precursor concentrations significantly higher than those measured in microcosms treated with a low phosphorus loading …

Development Of Design Criteria For Sensitizer Photooxidation Treatment Systems, Richard J. Watts, V. Dean Adams, E. Joe Middlebrooks

Reports

Sensitized photooxidation is a physicochemical process that can degrade many toxic and refractory organic pollutants. A trace quantity of sensitizer added to the waste absorbs visible light; electronically excited intermediates then transfer the energy to decompose the waste. Engeineering design criteria were developed for industrial waste treatment lagoons that would use sensitized photooxidation. Design criteria were developed regarding optimum lagoon pH, optimum sensitizer concentration, depth and sizing of lagoons, dissolved oxygen requirements, and effect of temperature on photooxidation rate. Treatment of the refractory pesticides bromacil, terbacil, and fluometuron was investigated using methylene blue and riboflavin as sensitizers. Methylene blue-sensitized photooxidation …

Preliminary Identification, Analysis, And Classification Of Odor-Causing Mechanisms Influenced By Decreasing Salinity Of The Great Salt Lake, C. Earl Israelsen, Darwin L. Sorensen, Alberta J. Seierstad, Charlotte Brennard

Reports

Introduction: The rising level of the Great Salt Lake has received a great deal of attention because of the resulting physical damage to adjoining properties, threatened distruption of major transportation facilities, and environmental damage to feeding and resting areas for migratory waterfowl. Another problem of growing concern is that some zones of the lake are producing odors that are objectionable to nearby populated areas. These odors are most offensive during the warm summer months and appear to be increasing with the rising levels and decreasing salinity of the lake water. This report presents the approach taken and the findings of …

Water Education Grades K-6, Donald R. Daugs, C. Earl Israelsen

Reports

Preface: Water Activites for Elementary Children is based upon the assumption that children learn best by doing. In education, and especilly in science, talking is not necessarily teaching. The most desireable types of learning involve direct, first hand experience, not just a teacher's interpretation of these experiences. This set of learning experiences has been designed for teachers, teachers-in-training, and children, Each concept includes background information for the teacher and learning activities for the children. Lessons are designed so taht a teacher can successfully teach a unit or lession with a minimum of knowledge, preparation, and equipmnet. Most of the suggested …

Water Well Pump Efficiency Monitor Units, Calvin G. Clyde, Duard S. Woffinden, Graeme Duncan

Reports

Indroduction: As the costs for pumping municipal, industrial and irrigation water rise, owners and the public area giving increased attention to energy conservation. One way to conserve energy is to operate water pumps at or near peak efficiency. The measurement of pump efficiency usually requires a special test equipment, a skilled operator and time to perform the test. Owners may find it more economical to waste power than to monitor for inefficiencies. One way to help change this situation is to develop inexpensive equipment for unskilled people to use to obtain rapid measurements of pump efficiency under typical operating conditions. …

Methodology Report: Updating The Estimation Of Water Surface Elevation Probabilities And Associated Damages For Great Salt Lake , David S. Bowles, L. Douglas James, D. George Chadwick, Ronald V. Canfield, Norman Stauffer

Reports

No abstract provided.

Delineation Of Landslide, Flash Flood, And Debris Flow Hazards In Utah, David S. Bowles

Reports

During 1982, 1983, and 1984, abnormally wet conditions in Utah triggered flash floods, landslides, and debris flows. Pore pressures built in hillside soils below melting snows and during prolonged periods of rainfall until the mass suddenly gave way, sometimes as a landslide and other times as a non-Newtonian debris flow that moved rapidly long distances down mountain slopes until finally stiffened by moisture loss or velocity loss because of flatter gradients. Also, runoff from heavy rainfall bursts picked up weathered and other loose material that accumulated on land surfaces over long dry periods . The sediment laden waters flowed out …

A Methodology For Estimating Instream Flow Values For Recreation, Parvaneh Amirfathi, Rangesan Narayanan, A. Bruce Bishop, Dean Larson

Reports

Water flowing in streams has value for various types of recreationists and is essential for fish and wildlife. Since water demdns for offstream uses in the arid west have been steadily increasing, increasing instream flows to enhance the recreational experience might be in conflict with established withdrawals for uses such as agriculture, industries, and households. Since market prices are not observable for instream flows, the estimation of economic value of instream flow would present well known difficulties. The household production function theory was used to build the theoretical model to measure economic value of instream flow. A representative sample of …

Optimal Configuration Of Regional Water Supply Systems (Wasopt2) , Mohamed L. Al-Eryani, Trevor C. Hughes

Reports

Any water supply system can be conceptualized as consisting of three componenets--source development facilities (including treatment), transmission facilities, and a distribution network. The scope of this report is limited to the first two--the source related facilities upstream from the distribution network. In the mathematical modeling of regional rural systems, the number of variables, and hence the size of the model, increases rapidly as the number of system componenets and their alternative designs increase. Regardless of the method of solution, manual preparation of large models is cumbersome and is vulnerable to human error both in the computations of the matrix coefficients …

Identification And Modeling The Impact Of Marine Shale Bedrock On Groundwater And Stream Salinity: Upper Colorado River Basin, Christopher J. Duffy, Jerome J. Jurinak, Sanjay Sangani, Ali Azimi

Reports

Recent studies have shown that groundwater is a major contributor to stream salinity in the Upper Colorado River Basin. The primary salt sources are the marine shales and shale residuum that underlie the soils of much of the basin. A field site in the Price River Basin, a tributary to the Green and Colorado Rivers, was selected to study the physical and chemical factors that control the interactions between groundwater and these shales. Preliminary data were available at the site as a result of a Bureau of Reclamation study conducted by CH2M Hill. On the basis of the CH2M Hill …

Problems Of Small Privately Operated Water Companies In Utah, Jay M. Bagley, Frank W. Haws

Reports

Although one in seven domestic water supply systems in Utah are privately owned and operated, they are characteristically small with 94 percent serving populations of less than 1,000. Per capita costs of service vary greatly but become relatively high for locations that are remote, where terrain and climate are extreme, where scale economies are absent, and where materials and skills for system repair and replacement are not locally available. Statistics indicate that the incidence of water quality violations relate strongly to system size. Yet corrections are often more difficult to achieve because well trained and full time operators cannot be …

Water Education ... With Emphasis On Deer Creek Reservoir - Provo River Drainage Area (Grades 5-8), Donald R. Daugs, C. Earl Israelsen, Mardell C. Parrish

Reports

Introduction: The major goals of this publication are to: * promote an awareness of the importance of water resources associated with the target watershed; * provide teachers with learning resources which are easily used in the classroom or in the field; and * provide teachers with teaching materials which help satisfy State Core Standards.

Assessment Of Control Alternatives For The Great Salt Lake, L. Douglas James, David S. Bowles

Reports

Introduction: Over the last few years, the rising level of the Great Salt Lake has changed Utah. It has inundated vast waterfowl feeding areas, crippled the salt industry, required raising transcontinental freeways and railroads, threatened metropolitan waste treatment plants, caused a major electrical outage, and damaged many properties. If nothing is done, approximately $3.6 billion of damages in 1985 dollars can be expected by 2050 (James et al, 1985, p.4). This threat led the State Legislature to set aside $100 million (an amount approximating the damages that had then occurred) in January 1985 to identify, select, and implement remedial measures. …

Evaluation Of Miramat Under High Velocity Flows, C. Earl Israelsen, Frank W. Haws

Reports

Introduction: Newly constructed earth channels and steep cut and fill slopes on construction projects need temporary protection from water erosion until a protective cover of vegetation can be grown. In some instances the temporary protective measures can be left in position to serve as part of the permanent system. Various kinds of vegetative and chemical mulches are available for use as temporary control measures, and other materials such as jute, fiberglass roving, and excelsior blanket are also in use. However, for large volumes of flow and for high velocities, more substantial materials are required. One class of such materials is …

Final Design Report Of The Design Of A Climate Controlled Sleeping Chamber For Infants And Toddlers, Jennifer Stenger Stevens

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

A climate controlled sleeping chamber, or air crib, for infants and toddlers is an alternative sleeping medium to the conventional crib. It is a chamber that is ventilated with air that is temperature and humidity controlled to provide an optimum sleeping environment for young children, ages 0 to 2 years. Its purpose is to enhance the psychological and physiological development of young children. Because it is easier to heat a small chamber than larger living quarters, the air crib also has economic advantages.

The design o climate controlled sleeping chamber must meet some minimum requirements. The system must provide an …

Development Of Optimal Sustained Yield Groundwater Withdrawal Strategies For The Boeuf‑Tensas Basin In Arkansas, Richard C. Peralta, Bithin Datta, Jamal Solaimanian, Paul J. Killian, Amin Yazdanian

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Optimal Regional Potentiometric Surface Design: Least Cost Water Supply/Sustained Groundwater Yield, Richard C. Peralta, Paul J. Killian

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

A distributed parameter groundwater management model utilizing quadratic programming to develop an optimal regional steady-state potentiometric surface and its sustained groundwater withdrawal strategy is presented. It minimizes the regional cost of attempting to satisfy the water needs of each finite-difference cell (a) from groundwater and diverted surface water or (b) from groundwater and reduction of water needs achieved by reducing production acreages. Groundwater elevations, withdrawal and recharge are constrained, satisfying legal and hydrologic constraints. The technique is applicable for assuring a regional sustained yield of groundwater in a conjunctive water management setting. It represents the first application of optimization in …

Economic Feasibility Of On‑Farm Reservoirs For Irrigation Water, Robert N. Shulstad, Jayson K. Harper, Richard C. Peralta

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Statistical Comparison Of A Direct Filtration And A Conventional Water Treatment Facility In The Intermountain Region, Susan K. Burns, V. Dean Adams

Reports

Interest in low-cost direct filtration facilities and their effectiveness in treating the potable water sources of the Intermountain Region is increasing as the need for treated water supplies increase. Direct filtration is a water treatment scheme which does not include sedimentation and in some cases flocculation. Compared to conventional treatment, direct filtration has lowered capital costs, reduced space requirement, and decreased sludge quantities. Moreover, the direct filtration process may offer large reductions in coagulant dosages and costs.

Currently information comparing a direct filtration system to a conventional water treatment system in the Intermountain area is not readily available. The specific …

Pullout Resistance Of Welded Wire Mats Embedded In Soil, Mark R. Nielsen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Welded wire mesh has been used in the past as soil reinforcement in the construction of reinforced soil embankments. Involved in the design of these embankments is the external and internal stability. The internal stability has two failure mechanisms; tension failure and pullout failure of the welded wire mesh.

This paper presents the results of laboratory tests on different sizes of welded wire mats embedded in different types of soils. These tests were performed on mats that are much larger than in previous tests. These tests measured the pullout resistance as a function of the number of embedded wires, the …

Improvement Of Deep Tubewell Irrigation Project Performance In Bangladesh, Md. Mirjahan Miah

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A computer model for use in predicting the impact of various improvement options on command area expansion of a deep tubewell irrigation system has been developed. A field study was conducted on 11 selected deep tubewells located at two sites, namely Dhamrai and Thakurgaon, in Bangladesh to collect necessary physical data to provide irrigation engineering insight and a basis for testing and application of the model. The results of the investigation revealed that the actual discharge of most of the deep tubewells was lower than the design or rated capacity. The duration of pump operation in the majority of the …

Review Of In-Place Treatment Techniques For Contaminated Surface Soils - Volume 2: Background Information For In Situ Treatment, Ronald C. Sims, Darwin L. Sorensen, Judith Sims, Joan E. Mclean, Ramzi Mahmood, R. Ryan Dupont

Reports

This second volume of a two volume manual on in-place treatment of hazardous waste contaminated soil supports the treatment methodology described in Volume 1 (EPA- ). The information presented on monitoring to determine treatment effectiveness, characterization and evaluation of the behavior and fate of hazardous constituents in soil/waste systems, and properties (including adsorption, degradation, and volatilization parameters) for various compounds is intended to help the manual user in making more complex decisions and in selecting analyses concerning site, soil, and waste interactions. This report was submitted in partial fulfillment of Contract No. 68-03-3113 by Utah State University under the sponsorship …

Sediment-Phosphorus Relationships In Deer Creek Reservoir, Jay J. Messer, Thomas B. Hardy, Jean M. Ihnat

Reports

Summary and Conclusions: Laboratory analyses of sediment samples recovered from Deer Creek Reservoir showed the sediments to have amoderate potential for serving as a source of phosphorus (P) for the overlying water solumn under anaerobic conditions. This source could account for the occurrence or exacerbation of blue-green algal blooms in the upper end of the reservoir when the sediment surface becomes anaerobic late in the summer. It could also delay the response of the reservoir to programs that decrease external P loading, if the upper end of the reservoir still has large enough algal blooms to render the sediment-water interface …

Soft-Op User Manual For Microcomputer Aided Process Control Of The Oxidation Ditch Facility, Drew D. Mcintyre

Reports

This manual is intended to be used in conjunction with the program SOFT-OP. SOFT-OP was developed at the Division of Environmental Engineering, Utah State University, Logan, Utah. Funding for the program development was supplied by Tremonton City Corporation, Tremonton, Utah. Foreword: SOFT-OP has been developed for use by operators of oxidation ditch wastewater treatment plants (extended aeration activated sludge). The program serves as a useful took in daily plant operation by assisting the operator in various tasks related to process control. These tasks are grouped within the following three classifications: 1. Implementation of control parameters 2. Analysis of process characteristics …