Engineering Commons^™

A Two-Stage Direct Integration Approach To Find The Railway Track Profile Using In-Service Trains, Yifei Ren, Jennifer Kennahan, Eugene O'Brien

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

The railway track is an important element in transportation networks. In recent years, drive-by monitoring of railways has become more popular. Using data measured from in-service trains, the railway profile can be found. In previous research, a complex optimiziton method is used to calculate the railway profile. This paper introduces a new two-stage direct integration approach to find the same track profile much more efficiently. The calculated track profile is similar to a ‘true’ profile and can be used to monitor the condition of the track.

Investigating The Contact-Point Response For Drive-By Damage Detection In Bridges, Robert Corbally, Abdollah Malekjafarian

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Bridges are critical elements in any road or rail transport network and ensuring their safety is paramount. Recent years have seen significant research efforts to develop cost-effective techniques for bridge monitoring on a large scale. Drive-by bridge inspection techniques, whereby sensors inside a vehicle are used to monitor bridge condition, are at the focus of much of this work. This paper develops a relationship between the measured response in a vehicle and the contact-point response between the wheel and the surface of a bridge using a quarter-car representation of the vehicle. Numerical simulations are carried out to examine the feasibility …

Application Of The Iec Technical Specification For Assessment Of Wave Energy Resource: A Case Study From The West Coast Of Ireland, Iulia Anton, Stephen Nash

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

There is significant interest globally in harnessing our ocean wave energy resource, estimated at approximately 30,000 TWh/year. The key to this is understanding the resource. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has developed a technical specification for the evaluation of wave energy resource, IEC-TS 62600- 101: Wave energy resource assessment and characterization. This research applies the IEC standard for a resource characterization study of the Atlantic Marine Energy Test Site on the west coast of Ireland. A key focus is the comparison of the detailed IEC validation approach using scatter diagrams with the traditional timeseries validation approach. Coarse (0.005°) and fine …

Wind Power Prediction And Early Downtime Detection For Ireland, Vikram Pakrashi, Basuraj Bhowmik, Juan Manuel González-Sopeña, Paul Mucchielli, Bidisha Ghosh

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Wind energy must be commercially competitive to be economically sustainable. Existing wind farms in Ireland must be more efficient to meet the 2009 EU Renewable Energy Directive target of 7% of total energy demand from onshore wind energy farms, which is 45% of the total national renewable energy target of 16%. WindPearl - a Sustainable EnergyAuthority of Ireland (SEAI) funded project is currently looking into improvin operations & maintenance (O&M) of onshore wind turbine farms in Ireland.

An Experimental Investigation Of The Optimum Properties And Conditions For Use Of Anionic Emulsions In Road Maintenance Applications, Simonas Ignatavicius, Alan Kavanagh, David Colleran, Michael J. Brennan, Shane Newell

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Bitumen emulsions are used for a range of road maintenance applications, including surface dressing, gravel seals, slurry seals, tack coating, cold-mix asphalt and in situ pavement recycling. The emulsions used can be classified as being either cationic (i.e. possessing a positive electrostatic surface charge) or anionic (i.e. carrying a negative electrostatic surface charge). The vast majority of emulsions used for such applications in Europe are cationic, while anionic bitumen emulsions are used widely throughout North America and Africa. The aims of the experimental study described in this paper were (a) to investigate why one or the other emulsion type is …

A Review Of Vision Based Methods For Pothole Detection And Road Profile Analysis, Darragh Lydon, Su Taylor, Myra Lydon, Julia Early

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

This paper is an overview of the development and application of Computer Vision for the detection of pothole, pavement distress and road profile analysis and categorisation. A brief explanation of the traditional methods for determining these factors is given, followed by a chronological description of the evolution and the challenges of using Computer Vision (CV) approaches to determine these conditions. The paper is separated into sections aligned to image capture and analysis methodologies. Qualitative evaluations and comparison of these methods have been provided along with the proposal of guidelines for new computer vision-based road analysis systems.

Analysis And Optimisation Of Tii’S Pams Reset Values And Deterioration Models For Irish Pavement Conditions, James Quinn, Raymond Mcgowan, Tomas O'Flaherty

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Ireland has a national road network of approximately 5300km that is managed by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII). TII create yearly pavement maintenance and renewal programs from the operation of a Pavement Asset Management System (PAMS). Accurate pavement deterioration models and reset values are an essential part of PAMS and are required for life cycle cost analysis (LCCA). Pavement maintenance and renewal schemes are prioritised based on the LCCA's largest benefit to cost ratio, and therefore optimise the annual pavement maintenance and renewal budget. Currently, TII implement pavement deterioration models and reset values from Austria's and Belgium's PAMS, and are not …

An Analysis Of The Effectiveness Of Bitumen Additives On The Performance Of Pavement Surface Dressings, Alan Anderson, John Casserly, Alan Kavanagh, Jim Campbell

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Surface dressing is a maintenance technique that uses thin layers of bitumen emulsion and single sized aggregates. The surface dressing process seals and binds the surface of a road to protect its substructure from water ingress. It also provides increased skid resistance, which improves safety for road users. Early life chip-loss can occur if there is an insufficient degree of adhesion between the emulsion and aggregate used. The range of additives used in bitumen can have an effect on their adhesion properties. The focus of this research project was to investigate if the use of these additives in surface dressing …

Winter Maintenance On The Irish Road Network, Hugh Mcconnell, Brian Mccann

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Winter maintenance relates to those activities undertaken where the objective is to minimise the impact of frost, ice or snow on the travelling public. The responsibility for winter maintenance of all roads in Ireland currently rests with local authorities and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) (Formerly the NRA) on behalf of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport (DTTaS), (DTTaS, 2017). The aim of the study was to examine current winter maintenance practices undertaken in Ireland by local authorities and the Motorway Maintenance and Renewals Contracts (MMaRC) contractors and examine the potential financial, operational and environmental benefits if pre-wet and brine …

An Experimental Investigation Of The Optimum Properties And Conditions For Use Of Anionic Emulsions In Road Maintenance Applications, Simonas Ignatavicius, Alan Kavanagh, David Colleran, Michael J. Brennan, Shane Newell

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Bitumen emulsions are used for a range of road maintenance applications, including surface dressing, gravel seals, slurry seals, tack coating, cold-mix asphalt and in situ pavement recycling. The emulsions used can be classified as being either cationic (i.e. possessing a positive electrostatic surface charge) or anionic (i.e. carrying a negative electrostatic surface charge). The vast majority of emulsions used for such applications in Europe are cationic, while anionic bitumen emulsions are used widely throughout North America and Africa. The aims of the experimental study described in this paper were (a) to investigate why one or the other emulsion type is …

A Review Of Vision Based Methods For Pothole Detection And Road Profile Analysis, Darragh Lydon, S. E. Taylor, Myra Lydon, Julia Early

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

This paper is an overview of the development and application of Computer Vision for the detection of pothole, pavement distress and road profile analysis and categorisation. A brief explanation of the traditional methods for determining these factors is given, followed by a chronological description of the evolution and the challenges of using Computer Vision (CV) approaches to determine these conditions. The paper is separated into sections aligned to image capture and analysis methodologies. Qualitative evaluations and comparison of these methods have been provided along with the proposal of guidelines for new computer vision-based road analysis systems.

Analysis And Optimisation Of Tii’S Pams Reset Values And Deterioration Models For Irish Pavement Conditions, James Quinn, Raymond Mcgowan, Tomas O'Flaherty

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Ireland has a national road network of approximately 5300km that is managed by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII). TII create yearly pavement maintenance and renewal programs from the operation of a Pavement Asset Management System (PAMS). Accurate pavement deterioration models and reset values are an essential part of PAMS and are required for life cycle cost analysis (LCCA). Pavement maintenance and renewal schemes are prioritised based on the LCCA's largest benefit to cost ratio, and therefore optimise the annual pavement maintenance and renewal budget. Currently, TII implement pavement deterioration models and reset values from Austria's and Belgium's PAMS, and are not …

An Analysis Of The Effectiveness Of Bitumen Additives On The Performance Of Pavement Surface Dressings, Alan Anderson, John Casserly, Alan Kavanagh, Jim Campbell

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Surface dressing is a maintenance technique that uses thin layers of bitumen emulsion and single sized aggregates. The surface dressing process seals and binds the surface of a road to protect its substructure from water ingress. It also provides increased skid resistance, which improves safety for road users. Early life chip-loss can occur if there is an insufficient degree of adhesion between the emulsion and aggregate used. The range of additives used in bitumen can have an effect on their adhesion properties. The focus of this research project was to investigate if the use of these additives in surface dressing …

Winter Maintenance On The Irish Road Network, Hugh Mcconnell, Brian Mccann

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Winter maintenance relates to those activities undertaken where the objective is to minimise the impact of frost, ice or snow on the travelling public. The responsibility for winter maintenance of all roads in Ireland currently rests with local authorities and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) (Formerly the NRA) on behalf of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport (DTTaS), (DTTaS, 2017). The aim of the study was to examine current winter maintenance practices undertaken in Ireland by local authorities and the Motorway Maintenance and Renewals Contracts (MMaRC) contractors and examine the potential financial, operational and environmental benefits if pre-wet and brine …

Divergence Of The Dielectric Constant In Ultrathin Granular Metal Films Near The Percolation Threshold, H. Bakkali, E. Blanco, Samuel Lofland, M. Dominguez

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

We report on the electronic and optical properties of ultrathin granular films. We demonstrate that the static dielectric constant increases with thickness in the dielectric regime and diverges at the critical thickness, as predicted by classical percolation theory. However, for thicker samples, the dc conductivity does not obey scaling laws due to the presence of tunneling conduction. In this region the dielectric constant is positive, and the electronic transport is not metallic but can be described by Jonscher's universal power law, even though there is a Drude-like response indicating the presence of free charge carriers. Only for thicker films when …

The Irish Construction Industry’S State Of Readiness For A Bim Mandate In 2020, Barry Mcauley, Alan V. Hore, Roger P. West

Conference papers

It was recently announced that a BIM mandate for the Irish public sector is not imminent, suggesting that the sector is not yet ready for what such a mandate implies. Following on from a forward-looking BIM Roadmap for Ireland in 2017 and the publication by the authors of a detailed BIM in Ireland study in 2017 and 2019, what is the actual state of readiness for a more general BIM mandate in Ireland? This paper will review recent publications, seminars and industry initiatives on this topic of interest supported by an online survey to assess the current state of readiness …

Thermodynamic Cement Hydration Modelling Using Hydcem, Niall Holmes, Denis Kelliher, Mark Tyrer

Conference papers

Thermodynamics have been successfully applied to the field of cement hydration science to predict the formation of phase assemblages and pore solution chemistry. For any cement hydration model to be accepted, it must provide accurate forecasts of which solids may form and how the cement will dissolve over time. This is particularly important for the ongoing development of new sustainable cements and understanding their hydration behaviour in service. HYDCEM is a cement hydration model that simulates volumetric changes of cement and gypsum dissolution and product growth that, up to now, assumed which solids would form. In order to improve its …

Effects Of Accelerated Carbonation Curing On Co2 Sequestration And On The Compressive Strength Of Concrete Masonry Units, Barry Gilroy, Leon Black, David Thompson, Ronan Hogan, Niall Holmes

Conference papers

The global consumption of Portland cement has risen to over 4 billion tonnes per annum. Its manufacture is energy and carbon intensive and approximately 900 kg of CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere for each tonne of Portland cement produced. The International Energy Agency (IEA) roadmap sets out a goal to reduce emissions due to cement production to 18 % below 2006 levels by 2050. Concrete has the potential to re-absorb CO2 by the process of carbonation, where it reacts with CaO in the concrete to form calcium carbonate. Accelerated carbonation curing (ACC) is a technique for curing fresh concrete …

The Use Of Three-Dimensional Conjugate Cfd To Enhance Understanding Of, And To Verify, Multi-Modal Heat Transfer In Dynamic Laboratory Test Walls, Rakshit D. Muddu, Timothy Patrick O'Leary, Ronan Hogan, Anthony James Robinson, Aimee Byrne

Articles

This work describes the use of conjugate computational fluid dynamics (C-CFD) to simulate controlled laboratory based dynamic heat transfer tests on building components. This study proposes that conjugate CFD simulation can be used to evaluate the influence of combined convective and conductive heat transfer in multi-state building components. To this end, a solid wall and cavity wall were tested with a Calibrated Hotbox and subject to variable temperature conditions leading to combined convective and conductive heat transfer. The varying temperature of the heat source was monitored and used as the input boundary condition in the simulation model, which included a …

Predicting Mortar Compressive Strength Using Hydcem, Ewoma Ogoro, Niall Holmes, Denis Kelliher, Mark Tyrer

Conference papers

The compressive strength of mortar is a significant property that will influence its performance in concrete or masonry. Being able to accurately model and predict the mortar compressive strength would be of great benefit to suppliers and end users alike that could possibly reduce the need for multiple physical testing. A section of the original HYDCEM cement hydration model (amoungst others) has been partitioned to focus on predicting the compressive strength of Portland cement and cement-limestone mortars, entitled HYDCEM_CompressiveStrength. The model uses the cement/binder oxide composition along with other inputs to predict the compressive strength development over time. This paper …

Characterization And Performance Of Cement-Based Thermoelectric Materials, Ruchita Jani, Niall Holmes, Roger P. West, Kevin Gaughan, Xiaoli Liu, Esther Orisakwee, Conrad Johnston, Ming Qu, Jorge Kohanoff, Lorenzo Stella, Hongxi Yin

Conference papers

Thermoelectric materials enable direct conversion of thermal energy to electricity. Ambient heat energy harvesting could be an effective route to convert buildings from being energy consumers to energy harvesters, thus making them more sustainable. There exists a relatively stable temperature gradient (storing energy) between the internal and external walls of buildings which can be utilized to generate meaningful energy (that is, electricity) using the thermoelectric principle. This could ultimately help reduce the surface temperatures and energy consumption of buildings, especially in urban areas. In this paper, ongoing work on developing and characterizing a cement-based thermoelectric material is presented. Samples are …

Bioprinted In Vitro Model Of Human Glioblastoma, Rachel Lauren Schwartz

Theses and Dissertations

Glioblastoma multiform (GBM) is one of the most aggressive forms of primary brain tumors. GBM is fast progressing and resistant to treatment, resulting in a low survival rate. Conventional 2-dimensional tissue culture models cannot fully replicate the complexities of cancer lesions that contain multiple cell types and structures (e.g. vessels composed of endothelial cells, cancer cells, normal cells, etc.) as well as an intricate scaffold of proteins comprising the extracellular matrix (ECM). In addition, animal models cannot translate into the clinical disease in patients. Thus, this study has developed a bioprintable organ-on-a-chip (OOAC) model that mimics the important ECM factors …

Artificial Intelligence For Helicopter Safety: Head Pose Estimation In The Cockpit, Eric William Feuerstein

Theses and Dissertations

The recent impact of deep learning algorithms and their major breakthroughs on various aspects of our lives has led to the idea to investigate the application of these algorithms in different problem spaces. One of the novel areas of investigation is the aviation and air traffic control domain; as it offers a prime opportunity to enhance safety within the aviation community. Of particular importance to this community is improving the safety of rotorcraft operations, as this segment of the aviation industry is subject to a higher fatal accident rate than other segments of the industry. The improvement of safety for …

College Of Engineering News, Georgia Southern University

College of Engineering & Computing: News & Publications (2010-2023)

• Engineering Programs Receive ABET Accreditation

Thermal Control Development Of A Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell System, Ola Mohammed Taha Al-Shalash

Mechanical Engineering Theses

A fuel cell is an electrochemical energy conversion device that uses fuel to generate electricity. It basically converts the chemical energy of reactants directly into electricity without combustion. In a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC), the reactants, hydrogen and oxygen, are fed into the two electrodes, anode and cathode, respectively. A reaction takes place at each electrode and produces electricity, as well as water, and heat as the by-products. In order to maximize performance of a fuel cell, many factors can be considered for tuning and control. Temperature management is one of these factors.

A thermal-fluid model of a …

Multidirectional Cylindrical Piezoelectric Force Sensor: Design And Experimental Validation, Ye Rim Lee, Justin Neubauer, Kwang Jin Kim, Youngsu Cha

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research

A common design concept of the piezoelectric force sensor, which is to assemble a bump structure from a flat or fine columnar piezoelectric structure or to use a specific type of electrode, is quite limited. In this paper, we propose a new design of cylindrical piezoelectric sensors that can detect multidirectional forces. The proposed sensor consists of four row and four column sensors. The design of the sensor was investigated by the finite element method. The response of the sensor to various force directions was observed, and it was demonstrated that the direction of the force applied to the sensor …

The Effects Of Relational And Social Behaviors Exhibited By Construction Project Team Members On Relationship Quality And Project Outcomes, James Ogechi Kereri

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Relational and social behaviors of construction project team members explain team relationships. Whereas relational behaviors have often been studied in construction project team relationships, the current literature is deficient on the social behaviors. The literature review revealed seven relational behaviors (i.e., harmonization of conflict, propriety of means, restraint of power, reliance and expectation, contractual solidarity, flexibility, and reciprocity) and three social behaviors (i.e., past experience, benevolence, and integrity) commonly exhibited by construction project team members. Through a binomial logistic regression, research findings revealed that past experience was a significant (p < 0.01) predictor for five of the seven relational behaviors while benevolence and integrity were each significant (p < 0.01) predictors for three of the seven relational behaviors. Overall, out of the seven relational behaviors, only propriety of means is predicted by all the three social behaviors. Through multinomial regression, the results indicated that there is not enough evidence to show a relationship between the dimensions of relationship quality and project outcomes. However, there is a relationship between relationship embeddedness and project outcomes. Through internal and external validation, the prediction models performed well based on both positive predictive values and negative predictive values.

From a relationship management standpoint, this research introduces relational and …

Rectus Femoris Hyperreflexia Contributes To Stiff-Knee Gait After Stroke, Tunc Akbas, Kyoungsoon Kim, Kathleen Doyle, Kathleen Manella, Robert Lee, Patrick Spicer, Maria Knikou, James Sulzer

Publications and Research

Background: Stiff-Knee gait (SKG) after stroke is often accompanied by decreased knee flexion angle during the swing phase. The decreased knee flexion has been hypothesized to originate from excessive quadriceps activation.However, it is unclear whether hyperreflexia plays a role in this activation. The goal of this study was to establish the relationship between quadriceps hyperreflexia and knee flexion angle during walking in post-stroke SKG.

Methods: The rectus femoris (RF) H-reflex was recorded in 10 participants with post-stroke SKG and 10 healthy controls during standing and walking at the pre-swing phase. In order to attribute the pathological neuromodulation to quadriceps muscle …

Evaluation Of Standard And Semantically-Augmented Distance Metrics For Neurology Patients, Daniel B. Hier, Jonathan Kopel, Steven U. Brint, Donald C. Wunsch, Gayla R. Olbricht, Sima Azizi, Blaine Allen

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Background: Patient distances can be calculated based on signs and symptoms derived from an ontological hierarchy. There is controversy as to whether patient distance metrics that consider the semantic similarity between concepts can outperform standard patient distance metrics that are agnostic to concept similarity. The choice of distance metric can dominate the performance of classification or clustering algorithms. Our objective was to determine if semantically augmented distance metrics would outperform standard metrics on machine learning tasks.

Methods: We converted the neurological findings from 382 published neurology cases into sets of concepts with corresponding machine-readable codes. We calculated patient distances by …

Conceptual Study Of A Real-Time Hybrid Simulation Framework For Monopile Offshore Wind Turbines Under Wind And Wave Loads, Wei Song, Chao Sun, Yanhui Zuo, Vahid Jahangiri, Yan Lu, Qinghua Han

Faculty Publications

As an attractive renewable energy source, offshore wind plants are becoming increasingly popular for energy production. However, the performance assessment of offshore wind turbine (OWT) structure is a challenging task due to the combined wind-wave loading and difficulties in reproducing such loading conditions in laboratory. Real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS), combining physical testing and numerical simulation in real-time, offers a new venue to study the structural behavior of OWTs. It overcomes the scaling incompatibilities in OWT scaled model testing by replacing the rotor components with an actuation system, driven by an aerodynamic simulation tool running in real-time. In this study, a …