Engineering Commons^™

Development Of System-Based Methodology To Support Ramp Metering Deployment Decisions, Homa Fartash

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ramp metering is an effective management strategy, which helps to keep traffic density below the critical value, preventing breakdowns and thus maintaining the full capacity of the freeway. Warrants for ramp metering installation have been developed by a number of states around the nation. These warrants are generally simple and are based on the traffic, geometry, and safety conditions in the immediate vicinity of each ramp (local conditions). However, advanced applications of ramp metering utilize system-based metering algorithms that involve metering a number of on-ramps to address system bottleneck locations. These algorithms have been proven to perform better compared to …

Data Support Of Advanced Traveler Information System Considering Connected Vehicle Technology, Md Shahadat Iqbal

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Traveler information systems play a significant role in most travelers’ daily trips. These systems assist travelers in choosing the best routes to reach their destinations and possibly select suitable departure times and modes for their trips. Connected Vehicle (CV) technologies are now in the pilot program stage. Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications will be an important source of data for traffic agencies. If this data is processed properly, then agencies will be able to better determine traffic conditions, allowing them to take proper countermeasures to remedy transportation system problems under different conditions.

This research focuses on developing methods to assess the potential …

3-D Dynamic Analysis Of High-Speed Railroad Track, Mohammad Fesharaki

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

High-Speed Rail (HSR) as a fast, reliable and environmentally friendly mode of transportation has received a lot of attention in recent decades. The International Union of Railways reported that there are more than 18600 miles of HSR in operation and about 1.6 billion passengers per year are carried by them. Although there are plans for HSR in many states including Florida, the United States, however, is still hesitant to develop its own HSR network. One of the main barriers to developing high-speed rail is excessive vibration propagation to the media which may cause annoyance to people who live in the …

Multi-Criteria Evaluation In Support Of The Decision-Making Process In Highway Construction Projects, Jianmin Jia

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The decision-making process in highway construction projects identifies and selects the optimal alternative based on the user requirements and evaluation criteria. The current practice of the decision-making process does not consider all construction impacts in an integrated decision-making process. This dissertation developed a multi-criteria evaluation framework to support the decision-making process in highway construction projects. In addition to the construction cost and mobility impacts, reliability, safety, and emission impacts are assessed at different evaluation levels and used as inputs to the decision-making process.

Two levels of analysis, referred to as the planning level and operation level, are proposed in this …

Development Of A Lightweight Hurricane-Resistant Roof System, Ehssan Amir Sayyafi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Roofs are the most vulnerable part of the building envelope that often get damaged when subjected to hurricane winds. Damage to the roofs has a devastating impact on the entire structure, including interior losses and service interruptions. This study aimed at the development of a novel light-weight composite flat roof system for industrial, commercial and multi-story residential buildings to withstand Category 5 hurricane wind effects based on the Florida Building Code requirements for hurricane-prone regions, the strictest wind design code in the United States.

The proposed roof system is designed as a combination of two advanced materials: ultra-high performance concrete …

Evaluation Of Durability And Homogeneity Of Rejuvenated Asphalt Binders, Mojtaba Mohammadafzali

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite the widespread recycling of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP), a large portion of it is still wasted. One of the main reasons is the concern with the performance of high RAP mixtures. Asphalt binder aging and subsequent rejuvenation is one source of uncertainty. Rejuvenators are frequently added to high RAP mixes to enhance the properties of the binder. This enhancement is often perceived as simply lowering the viscosity. Two important parameters that are not adequately addressed by existing methods are durability and homogeneity of the recycled binder. This research investigated these two concerns and provided quantitative indicators to measure them. …

Corrosion Degradation Mechanism Of Cbpc Coating System For Highway Bridge Steel Components, Md Ahsan Sabbir

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Coatings are widely used to mitigate corrosion of structural steel in aggressive humid environments. However, the service life is often diminished in aggressive environments. Repair of coatings can be costly due to materials, labor and environmental controls. So, in search for novel coatings, Chemically Bonded Phosphate Ceramic (CBPC) coating was investigated for marine bridge application. The research on CBPC coating considered various exposure environments such as inland, beach, salt-fog, wet and alternate wet and dry exposure to identify the degradation mechanism. To assess the corrosion damage, the coating was evaluated by visual inspection, thickness, adhesion, microscopy and X-ray diffraction.

The …