Engineering Commons^™

Real-Time Work Zone Traffic Management Via Unmanned Air Vehicles, Charles Malveaux Ph.D, Marcio De Queiroz Ph.D, Xin Li Ph.D, Hanny Hassan Ph.D, Zewei He Ph.D

Data

Highway work zones are prone to traffic accidents when congestion and queues develop. Vehicle queues expand at a rate of 1 mile every 2 minutes. Back-of-queue, rear-end crashes are the most common work zone crash, endangering the safety of motorists, passengers, and construction workers. The dynamic nature of queuing in the proximity of highway work zones necessitates traffic management solutions that can monitor and intervene in real time. Fortunately, recent progress in sensor technology, embedded systems, and wireless communication coupled to lower costs are now enabling the development of real-time, automated, “intelligent” traffic management systems that address this problem. The …

Life Cycle Environmental Impact Of Houston Metro System – Evaluation Of Electric Alternatives, Raghava R. Kommalapati Ph.D, Hongbo Du Ph.D, Doeun Choe Ph.D

Publications

In the Greater Houston Area, mobile sources (on-and off-road vehicles) contribute the largest share of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions and second-highest share of volatile organic (VOC) emissions. The Houston METRO system is a key element in Houston's infrastructure that can be expanded to lower emissions of criteria air pollutants (CAPs) and greenhouse gases (GHGs) and improve regional air quality. Currently, there is no comparative study for relative emissions and environmental impacts between passenger automobiles and METRO routes in Houston. Our research addressed this critical gap and developed environmental life cycle assessment for conventional diesel buses, diesel hybrid buses, and alternative …

Life Cycle Environmental Impact Of Houston Metro System – Evaluation Of Electric Alternatives, Raghava R. Kommalapati Ph.D, Hongbo Du Ph.D, Doeun Choe Ph.D

Data

In the Greater Houston Area, mobile sources (on- and off-road vehicles) contribute the highest share of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions and second-highest share of volatile organic (VOC) emissions. The Houston METRO system is a key element in Houston's infrastructure that can be expanded to lower emissions of criteria air pollutants (CAPs) and greenhouse gases (GHGs) and improve regional air quality. Currently, there is no comparative study for relative emissions and environmental impacts between passenger automobiles and METRO routes in Houston. Our research addressed this critical gap and developed environmental life cycle assessment for conventional diesel buses, diesel hybrid buses, and …

Hydrologic Impacts And Trade-Offs Associated With Developing Oil Palm For Bioenergy In Tabasco, Mexico, Azad Heidari, Alex Mayer, David Watkins, María Mercedes Castillo

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Study region: Oil palm cultivation has rapidly expanded worldwide due to demands for food oils and the potential for liquid fuel production. However, there is a scarcity of research on the hydrologic impacts of oil palm plantations at a watershed scale, especially in Latin America. We focus on a watershed typical of intensive palm oil production in Tabasco, Mexico. Study focus: A Soil and Water Assessment Tool model was calibrated to simulate long-term streamflow in the study watershed. The plant growth module was calibrated for leaf area index (LAI) and fruit yield simulations. Oil palm development scenarios were simulated to …

Analysis Of The Causes Of Workforce Shortages: Create Guidelines For Education And Workforce Development In Transportation To Generate Future Careers For The Navajo Nation, Gholam Ehteshami

Publications

Activities were dedicated to the collections, summarizations and categorizing more research articles related to the analysis of the sources of workforce deficiencies. The focus was on the technical and educational solution methods and strategies, guideline relevant to the workforce development. The times also were committed to the development of educational modules related to carrier’s opportunities in the transport industry into a couple of courses. Several NTU STEM students were interviewed, selected and introduced for the summer research internships in transportation areas to LSU Tran SET center. Outreach activities conducted with the community and some of the high school professionals related …

On The Recovery And Fatigue Life Extension Of Stainless Steel 316 Metals By Means Of Recovery Heat Treatment, Ali Haghshenas, M. M. Khonsari

Faculty Publications

In this paper, we propose a methodology for enhancing the fatigue life of SS316 by performing intermittent recovery heat-treatment (RHT) in the Argon environment at different temperatures. To this end, fully-reversed fatigue bending tests are conducted on the heat-treated SS316 specimens. Damping values are obtained using the impact excitation technique to assess the damage remaining in the material after each RHT and the corresponding fatigue life. Damping is also used to distinguish the three stages of the fatigue phenomenon and the onset of crack initiation. The results show that by performing intermittent RHTs, the density of dislocation is decreased substantially …

Abq Streets: Creating Alternative Residential Street Designs, Nick N. Ferenchak Ph.D, Gregory Rowangould Ph.D

Data

This research evaluates opportunities for retrofitting residential streets with alterative designs with the overall goal of improving their function, reducing their negative impacts and reducing maintenance costs. This is accomplished through three main research tasks. First, we conduct a comprehensive review of the street design literature with a focus on studies that report how alterative or unique designs that are relevant to the residential street context affect travel behavior, traffic flow, safety, crime and environmental impacts. We then survey residential streets in several study neighborhoods to measure typical design features and cross sections. With this information we then evaluate which …

Detection And Estimation Of Inundation And Associated Risks Using Traffic And Monitoring Cameras And Image Processing Under Extreme Flooding Conditions, Suyun Ham Ph.D, Seongjin Noh Ph.D, Dong-Jun Seo Ph.D, Yin Chao Yu, Sangoo Kang

Data

The main objective of this project is to develop an inundation detection and evaluation framework using images from traffic monitoring cameras and reliable flood monitoring under extreme precipitation conditions. This study presents a comparative assessment of image enhancement and segmentation techniques to automatically identify the flash flooding from the low-resolution images taken by traffic-monitoring cameras. Due to inaccurate equipment in severe weather conditions (e.g., raindrops or light refraction on camera lenses), low-resolution images are subject to noises that degrade the quality of information. De-noising procedures are carried out for the enhancement of images by removing different types of noises. After …

Real-Time Early Detection And Monitoring Of Flooding Using Low-Cost Highly Sensitive Ultrasound Sensing Of Water Level, Suyun Ham Ph.D, Seongjin Noh Ph.D, Dong-Jun Seo Ph.D, Sanggoo Kang, Dafnik Saril Kumar David

Data

Flooding poses safety hazards to motorists, emergency and maintenance crews and may cause costly damage to transportation infrastructure and its operation. Flash flooding, in particular, causes the most flood-related deaths According to NOAA, in 2017 alone, flash flooding also caused $60.7 billion worth of economic damage. Low-water crossings are among the first places where deaths and significant damages to vehicles occur during flooding. With flash flooding, when a critical corridor is blocked by a high level of water, it affects the safety of the general public. To keep the critical corridors open as long as possible, and to minimize losses …

Enhancing Evaluation Of Wildlife Detection Systems, Nick N. Ferenchak Ph.D

Data

Every year in the United States, wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) cause 200 human fatalities, 26,000 human injuries, and substantial harm to wildlife populations, resulting in approximately $8.4 billion in total costs. The research team examined two US 64 bridges located near Lumberton, New Mexico that were designed to allow wildlife to cross underneath. Monitoring stations were positioned at each of the crossings so that both wildlife approaches and passages were observed. Special mounting brackets were designed and fabricated to allow for the installation of monitoring equipment. Wildlife observations were supplemented with WVC counts. Over seven months of study, nearly 100,000 wildlife …

Development, Education, And Implementation Of A Low-Cost Audio Sensor-Based Autonomous Surveillance System For Smart And Connected Transportation Infrastructure Construction And Maintenance, Yong-Cheol Lee, Jin-Woo Choi Ph.D

Publications

Each DOT has to govern and oversee an enormous number of transportation construction and maintenance projects. However, since a transportation construction project entails several miles of a job site including numerous work tasks and equipment operations, it has been increasingly challenging for each DOT to consistently monitor progress of all projects in each State as well as efficiently evaluate work performance. In particular, with limited human resources and time, DOTs in Region 6 States have managed large-scale transportation construction and maintenance projects by a human inspection and recovered direct and indirect damages of transportation infrastructure systems caused from the recent …

Optimizing The Geometric Configuration And Manufacturing Process Of High Mast Illumination Poles, Arturo Montoya Ph.D, Adolfo Matamoros Ph.D, Reza Nasouri, Echizeni Ikpah, Arsalan Majlesi

Data

This work presents the development of a high-fidelity model that accounts for the cumulative effect of welding and hot- dip galvanizing on the determining the resulting residual stresses and deformations induced during the manufacturing process of high mast illumination poles (HMIPs). This model is meant to elucidate the root causes of weld toe cracks in HMIPs. A TxDOT pole-to-base plate connection detail was used as the reference model in the analysis. Welding was modeled using the plug-in Abaqus Welding Interface (AWI), which automatically implements a series of sequential thermal and mechanical analyses. Then, the welding stress results were used as …

The Impacts Of Increased Adverse Weather Events On Freight Movement, Kyung "Kate" Hyun Ph.D, Stephen P. Mattingly Ph.D, Mehrdad Arabi

Data

Freight transportation is a major economic backbone of the United States and is vital to sustaining the nation’s economic growth. Ports, as one of the primary components of freight transportation and important means of integrating into the global economic system, have experienced significant growth and increased capacity during the past two decades. The study addresses an important national freight mobility goal to enhance the resilience of the port transportation operations in the event of extreme weather events. This study develops an adaptable resilience assessment framework that evaluates the impact of a disruptive event on transportation operations. The framework identifies dynamic …

Development Of Corrosion Inhibiting Geopolymers Based Cement For Transportation Infrastructure, Homero Castaneda, Miladin Radovic, Changkyu Kim, Oscar Huang

Data

Geopolymers are gaining attention as affordable, sustainable, and eco-friendly replacement for Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) in concrete civil structures. More importantly, Geopolymer-based Cement (GPC) provide sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to OPCs as GPC can be processed at room temperatures from aqueous solutions of waste materials (e.g., fly ash) or abounded natural sources (e.g., clay) and thus reduce significant CO₂ production associated with processing of OPC. Although, a lot of work has been done on improving mechanical properties of GPC over the last two decades, there are only a few studies on effects of GPC concrete on steel rebar …

Influence Of Powder Activated Carbon (Pac) In Fly Ash On The Properties Of Concrete, Zahid Hossain, Sumon Roy

Data

Class C Fly Ash (CFA) is commonly used as supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in producing concrete by ready-mix concrete contractors in Arkansas. However, CFA can be used as a partial replacement of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) if it meets certain ASTM requirements. It is believed that the presence of powder activated carbon (PAC) in CFA increases the demand of the air-entraining agent (AEA) to achieve specified air content, and this is a concern to transportation agencies such as the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) and concrete producers in recent years. Thus, the main goal of this research is to assess …

Influence Of Powder Activated Carbon (Pac) In Fly Ash On The Properties Of Concrete, Zahid Hossain, Sumon Roy

Publications

Class C Fly Ash (CFA) is commonly used as supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in producing concrete by ready-mix concrete contractors in Arkansas. However, CFA can be used as a partial replacement of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) if it meets certain ASTM requirements. It is believed that the presence of powder activated carbon (PAC) in CFA increases the demand of the air-entraining agent (AEA) to achieve specified air content, and this is a concern to transportation agencies such as the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) and concrete producers in recent years. Thus, the main goal of this research is to assess …

Holistic Network-Level Assessment Of Pavement Flood Damages, Yong-Cheol Lee, Kunhee Choi Ph.D, Moeid Shariatfar

Publications

After recent catastrophic flood disasters in Louisiana in 2016 and Texas in 2017, roadways in Region 6 areas suffer not only from the flood-inundation, but also from the long-term recovery processes that incur enormous maintenance costs. To assess the impacts of flooding disasters on roadways, various studies have investigated sampled roadway damages with pavement engineering techniques such as a direct damage analysis using cores/bores. However, current methods are time-consuming and labor-intensive. In addition, even though existing methods provide a detailed damage analysis of pavement in a particular location for a particular time period, there is still a large practical knowledge …

Investigating The Impacts Of Truck Platooning On Transportation Infrastructure In The South-Central Region, Hany Hassan Ph.D, Samer Dessouky, Alireza Talebpour, Md Adilur Rahim

Data

Truck platooning is an essential application of connected and autonomous vehicles, where several trucks are connected to each other forming a platoon. It is envisioned that truck platooning can assist in minimizing transportation challenges related to freight movements in the US by improving traffic operation, safety and reducing fuel consumption and emission. One of the most valuable truck corridors in the US is in the South-central region. This study investigates the impacts of truck platooning on US highways in that region using both corridor and network-level simulation analysis. Also, the impact of truck platooning on the pavement was quantified using …

Advanced Modeling And Design Methodology For Pavements Using Plasticity-Based Shakedown Theory, Shengli Chen, Chao Sun, Xu Wang, Zhiming Zhang

Data

Pavement design is a process intended to find the most economical combination of layer thickness and material type for the pavement, taking into account the properties of the subgrade soil and the traffic to be carried during the service life of the road. The currently prevalent methods of pavement analysis and design, however, are more or less empirical in U.S., which possess the shortcoming that the important type of pavement distress of rutting related to the accumulation of plastic or permanent deformations cannot be effectively considered. This project proposes an exploratory study on the application of the plasticity theory-based shakedown …

Eco-Friendly Stabilization Of Sulfate-Rich Expansive Soils Using Geopolymers For Transportation Infrastructure, Xinbao Yu, Anand Puppala, Miladin Radovic, Sayantan Chakraborty, Jungyeon Jang, Oscar Huang

Data

Traditional calcium-based stabilizers, such as lime, to stabilize sulfate-rich expansive soils, are lasting-challenges in geotechnical engineering. The biggest problem with using calcium-based stabilizers is that when calcium and water are exposed to sulfate-rich expansive soils, they form ettringite as an expansive mineral, which causes sulfate-induced heaving. The study aimed to investigate the feasibility of stabilizing sulfate-rich expansive soils using geopolymers for transportation infrastructure. Literature review on sulfate-induced heaving and sulfate-rich soils stabilized with geopolymers suggests a direction for how to stabilize sulfate soils using geopolymers. The engineering tests were conducted to determine the swell, shrinkage, and strength behavior of natural, …

Holistic Network-Level Assessment Of Pavement Flood Damages, Yong-Cheol Lee, Kunhee Choi Ph.D, Moeid Shariatfar

Data

After recent catastrophic flood disasters in Louisiana in 2016 and Texas in 2017, roadways in Region 6 areas suffer not only from the flood-inundation, but also from the long-term recovery processes that incur enormous maintenance costs. To assess the impacts of flooding disasters on roadways, various studies have investigated sampled roadway damages with pavement engineering techniques such as a direct damage analysis using cores/bores. However, current methods are time-consuming and labor-intensive. In addition, even though existing methods provide a detailed damage analysis of pavement in a particular location for a particular time period, there is still a large practical knowledge …

Investigating The Impacts Of Truck Platooning On Transportation Infrastructure In The South-Central Region, Hany Hassan Ph.D, Samer Dessouky, Alireza Talebpour, Md Adilur Rahim

Publications

Truck platooning is an essential application of connected and autonomous vehicles, where several trucks are connected to each other forming a platoon. It is envisioned that truck platooning can assist in minimizing transportation challenges related to freight movements in the US by improving traffic operation, safety and reducing fuel consumption and emission. One of the most valuable truck corridors in the US is in the South-central region. This study investigates the impacts of truck platooning on US highways in that region using both corridor and network-level simulation analysis. Also, the impact of truck platooning on the pavement was quantified using …

Analysis Of Traffic Crash Data In Kentucky 2015-2019, Eric R. Green, Paul A. Ross, Christopher L. Blackden, Michael A. Fields, William Nicholas Staats

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Executive Summary and Introduction

This report documents an analysis of traffic crash data in Kentucky. A primary objective of this study was to determine average crash statistics for Kentucky highways. Where used, rates were calculated for various types of highways and for counties and cities. Difference criteria were used for exposure.

Average and critical numbers, SPFs, and rates of crashes were calculated for various types of highways in rural and urban areas. These use crashes identified on highways where Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) volumes were available. The data in this report may be used to help identify problem areas. …

Determination Of Steels In Kentucky Bridges, Theodore Hopwood Ii, Christopher Goff, Sudhir Palle

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) maintains over two hundred steel bridges constructed with types of steel which are unknown. Kentucky Transportation Center (KTC) researchers have developed a procedure for determining steel tensile properties (0.2% yield strength and ultimate tensile strength) which can be used to help identify unknown steels. The procedure involves extracting small coupons from the lower flanges of steel deck girder bridges. Coupons are then machined into sub-sized tensile testing specimens and suitable shapes for chemical analyses. Sub-sized tensile tests returned values generally comparable to those provided in mill certifications of steels purchased for laboratory trials. Several analytical …

Local Eigenvalue Modification Procedure For Real-Time Model Updating Of Structures Experiencing High-Rate Dynamic Events, Claire Rae Drnek

Theses and Dissertations

Estimating the state of structures that experience high-rate dynamics requires real-time model updating capabilities. In this work, high-rate dynamic events are characterized by 1) large uncertainties in the external loads, 2) high levels of non-stationarities and heavy disturbances, and 3) unmodeled dynamics generated from changes in system configurations. To achieve real-time model updating, an algorithm must circumvent any pre-calculations and be able to update the structure’s state on the timescale of 2 ms or less. This can be accomplished in one of two ways: either by creating a simplified model of a complex structure or by simplifying the calculations needed …

Enginews, Fall 2020, School Of Computer Science & Engineering

News, Magazines and Reports

In this issue:

COVID Adjustments • Summer Internship + COVID study with Gabriel Bitencourt • IDEA Lab News with Chelsea Coelho • Recent Publications and Press Releases • Student Quotes.

Environmental Engineering Senior Design Ii, Pamela Jb Clenance

Open Educational Resources

This is a syllabus for Engineering Class 59870: Environmental Engineering Senior Design II, Grove School of Engineering, The City College of CUNY - Spring Semester 2020.

Robust Learning Via Ensemble Density Propagation In Deep Neural Networks, Giuseppina Carannante, Dimah Dera, Ghulam Rasool, Nidhal Carla Bouaynaya, Lyudmila Mihaylova

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Learning in uncertain, noisy, or adversarial environments is a challenging task for deep neural networks (DNNs). We propose a new theoretically grounded and efficient approach for robust learning that builds upon Bayesian estimation and Variational Inference. We formulate the problem of density propagation through layers of a DNN and solve it using an Ensemble Density Propagation (EnDP) scheme. The EnDP approach allows us to propagate moments of the variational probability distribution across the layers of a Bayesian DNN, enabling the estimation of the mean and covariance of the predictive distribution at the output of the model. Our experiments using MNIST …

Poland’S Challenge To Eu Directive 2019/790: Standing Up To The Destruction Of European Freedom Of Expression, Michaela Cloutier

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

In 2019, the European Parliament and Council passed Directive 2019/790. The Directive’s passage marked the end of a fouryear- long legislative attempt to impose more liability for copyright violations on Online Service Providers, an effort which was controversial from the start. Online Service Providers fear that the 2019 Directive, especially its Article 17, will completely change the structure of liability on the Internet, forcing providers to adopt expensive content filtering systems. Free speech advocates fear that ineffective filtering technology will infringe upon Internet users’ rights to express themselves, and legal scholars have pointed out the Directive’s inconsistency with prior European …

A Two-Dimensional Spherical-Polar Multigroup Discrete Ordinates Code For Atmospheric Particle Transport, Daniel T. Wakeford

Nuclear Engineering ETDs

A natural coordinate system for calculating neutral particle propagation in the atmosphere due to point sources is two-dimensional spherical-polar coordinates. Deterministic methods for solving the transport equation in this coordinate system require some interesting implementation details stemming from the two angular derivatives present in this form of the equation. In this dissertation, we present a bilinear discontinuous spatial discretization of the transport equation in this coordinate system. The weighted diamond difference discretization is applied to the angular derivative term in two angular dimensions, using zero-weighted starting directions to start the differencing. To our knowledge, the only previous deterministic code that …