Engineering Commons^™

Wind Loads On Residential Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Panels, Amir Naeiji

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Solar energy harvesting using photovoltaic (PV) systems has gained popularity in recent years due to its relative ease of use and its cost efficiency compared to the rest of the clean energy sources. However, to further expand the application of PV systems requires making them more desirable than the other competitive energy sources. The improvement of safety and cost efficiency are requisites for further popularization of PV system application. To satisfy these requisites it is necessary to optimally design the system against the environmental conditions. Wind action is one of the main ambient loads affecting the performance of PV systems. …

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 …

Methods For Utilizing Connected Vehicle Data In Support Of Traffic Bottleneck Management, Samaneh Khazraeian

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The decision to select the best Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies from available options has always been a challenging task. The availability of connected vehicle/automated vehicle (CV/AV) technologies in the near future is expected to add to the complexity of the ITS investment decision-making process. The goal of this research is to develop a multi-criteria decision-making analysis (MCDA) framework to support traffic agencies’ decision-making process with consideration of CV/AV technologies. The decision to select between technology alternatives is based on identified performance measures and criteria, and constraints associated with each technology.

Methods inspired by the literature were developed for incident/bottleneck …

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 …

Multi-Resolution Modeling Of Dynamic Signal Control On Urban Streets, Aidin Massahi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dynamic signal control provides significant benefits in terms of travel time, travel time reliability, and other performance measures of transportation systems. The goal of this research is to develop and evaluate a methodology to support the planning for operations of dynamic signal control utilizing a multi-resolution analysis approach. The multi-resolution analysis modeling combines analysis, modeling, and simulation (AMS) tools to support the assessment of the impacts of dynamic traffic signal control.

Dynamic signal control strategies are effective in relieving congestions during non-typical days, such as those with high demands, incidents with different attributes, and adverse weather conditions. This research recognizes …

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 …

The Stability Of Uranium-Bearing Precipitates Created As A Result Of Ammonia Gas Injections In The Hanford Site Vadose Zone, Alberto Javier Abarca Betancourt

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Uranium (U) is a crucial contaminant in the Hanford Site. Remediation techniques to prevent contaminant migration of U located in the soils to other important water resources such as the Columbia River are of paramount importance. Given the location of the contaminant in the deep vadose zone, sequestration of U caused by ammonia (NH₃) gas injections appears to be a feasible method to decrease U mobility in the contaminated subsurface via pH manipulation, ultimately converting aqueous U mobile phases to lower solubility precipitates that are stable in the natural environment. This study evaluated the stability of those U-bearing …

Exploring Potentials In Mobile Phone Gps Data Collection And Analysis, Eazaz Sadeghvaziri

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In order to support efficient transportation planning decisions, household travel survey data with high levels of accuracy are essential. Due to a number of issues associated with conventional household travel surveys, including high cost, low response rate, trip misreporting, and respondents’ self-reporting bias, government and private agencies are desperately searching for alternative data collection methods. Recent advancements in smart phones and Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies present new opportunities to track travelers’ trips. Considering the high penetration rate of smartphones, it seems reasonable to use smartphone data as a reliable source of individual travel diary. Many studies have applied GPS-Based …

Advanced Characterization Of Hydraulic Structures For Flow Regime Control: Experimental Developement, Amirmasoud Hamedi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A good understanding of flow in a number of hydraulic structures, such as energy dissipators, among others, is needed to effectively control upstream and downstream flow conditions, for instance, high water depth and velocity to ensure, scouring, flow stability and control scouring, which is thus crucial to ensuring safe acceptable operation. Although some previous research exists on minimizing scouring and flow fluctuations after hydraulic structures, none of this research can fully resolve all issues of concern. In this research, three types of structures were studied, as follows: a) a vertical gate; b) a vertical gate with an expansion; and c) …

Uranium Sequestration By Ph Manipulation Using Nh3 Injection In The Vadose Zone Of Hanford Site 200 Area, Claudia Cardona

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Past nuclear weapon production activities have left a significant legacy of uranium (U) contamination in the vadose zone (VZ) of the Department of Energy (DOE) Hanford Site. This U is a source of groundwater (GW) contamination. There is a concern that elevated U concentration would slowly infiltrate through the VZ, reach the GW water table, and then end up in nearby rivers and lakes. Remediation of U-contaminated low moisture content soil is a challenging task considering the VZ depth, where contamination is found between 70 and 100 m below the ground surface, and the formation of highly soluble and stable …

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 …

Capture And Densification Of Floating Hydrophobic Liquids By Natural Granular Materials, Daria Boglaienko

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Densification and submergence of floating crude oil is proposed as a novel oil spills treatment method. Surface application of dry granular materials (e.g., quartz sand, limestone) on top of a floating oil layer increases the density of the floating oil phase/granule mixture and leads to formation of relatively large and stable aggregates with significant amounts of captured oil. The aggregates separate from the floating hydrophobic phase and settle by gravity. Implementation of this method will reduce the impact radius of a spill and its mobility, preventing direct contamination of beaches, coastal flora and fauna.

The major objective of this research …