Engineering Commons^™

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

Modelling The Thermal Behaviour Of A Precast Pcm Enhanced Concrete Cladding Panel, Dervilla Niall, Roger P. West, Oliver Kinnane, Richard Hegarty

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development there is currently a stock of more than 80 million buildings in Europe built between 1950 and 1975, a period during which energy performance was not considered in building design. To enable governments to comply with the European Directive 2010/31/EU on the energy performance of buildings, strategies are required to improve the energy efficiency of these buildings. Using the mass of a building to store or dissipate heat can reduce the demand on the auxiliary heating and/or cooling systems and hence reduce the overall energy demand of the building.

Previous research …

Analysis And Design Of A Novel Heavy-Duty Precast Element, Daniel Naughton, Michael Naughton, Michael O'Sullivan, Suhaib Salawdeh

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Window sills are common to most buildings. In Ireland, concrete is the most popular material used for external sills. A standard one-metre concrete window sill weighs about 70kg. While external window sills are required to have sufficient capacity to resist damage during transportation and loading, they are non-structural elements. Therefore, there is no need for their high selfweight. This project looks to redesign concrete window sills to make them lighter. Decreasing the amount of concrete used in each sill would significantly reduce their self-weight. This would make concrete window sills more manageable in terms of transportation and installation. Two design …

Development And Localisation Of Ultra High Performance Concrete Using A Particle Packing Model, William Wilson, Tomas O'Flaherty

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Ultra-high performance fibre reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) is used worldwide to improve the structural performance of infrastructure such as bridges, extend their working life and reduce environmental impact. As a result thinner structures are constructed leading to reductions in the structure’s self-weight and the volume of concrete and natural raw aggregates used in their construction. A drawback to UHPFRC is that it results in a significant rise in initial costs over normal and even high performance concretes, and it has very high binder contents, which in some cases is greater than 1100kg/m³. Therefore, the cost-efficiency and sustainability of this …

Composite Behaviour Of Wide Sandwich Panels With High Performance Concrete Thin Wythes With And Without Thermomass Shear Connectors, Jagoda Lipczynska, Roger P. West, Michael Grimes, Dervilla Niall, Oliver Kinnane, Richard Hegarty

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

To partly address the future sustainability of energy use in buildings, there is a program in Europe to retrofit domestic and commercial buildings with non-load bearing insulated re-cladding and over-cladding panels. Recent research work has shown that limited composite action is possible depending on the type of non-conductive shear connector and the stiffness of the insulation between the inner and outer wythes. This paper reports on the mix design development to develop high strength 20mm thick wythes and the manufacture of sandwich panels with five silicone-bonded layers of XPS insulation, making up a panel which is 220mm thick. These model …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

College Of Engineering News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Engineering Programs Receive ABET Accreditation

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 …

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 …

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 …

Improvements In Optical Trap Displays, R. Wesley Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis improves on the design of the Optical Trap Display (OTD), presented in 2018 [1]. Contributions include: real time animation; single beam, multiparticle suspension, point primitive anisotropic scattering, and virtual image approximation. First, real time animation was demonstrated on the OTD for the first time in full color at up to 30Hz refresh. Second, multi-particle systems allow for scaling of the display by a multiplicative factor, potentially up to orders of magnitude greater than the first OTD. Third, anisotropic scattering of point primitives was shown for individual suspended particles and multiple simultaneously suspended particles. Fourth, virtual images have been …

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 …

Fault-Tolerant Capability Of Star Connected Symmetrical Six-Phase Induction Machine With Single And Two Isolated Neutrals, Wan Noraishah Wan Abdul Munim

Student Works (2020-2029)

Traditionally, electrical machines have been designed to operate with single- or three phase power supplies. In the early stage of power electronics development, three-phase machine suffers problems such as high torque ripple due to low order harmonics during six-step switching and limited current handling capacity of the power switches. This has motivated the use of multiphase machines which is capable of mitigating the aforementioned issues. The revival of multiphase machine research is mainly motivated by the need for more reliable drive systems. The vector space decomposition (VSD) model is used for a healthy multiphase machine as the basis for control …

Table Of Contents, The Editors

Coal Geology & Exploration

No abstract provided.

Water Cutoff Curtain Technology Of Open-Pit Coal Mine Based On Low Strength Impermeable Concrete, Cao Haidong, Miao Hechao, Chi Zan, Gao Sihua

Coal Geology & Exploration

The concrete underground continuous wall has the advantages of convenient construction, reliable quality, good impermeability and so on. It is widely used in water conservancy, hydropower, foundation pit support, subway and other impermeability projects. The materials used are both plastic concrete and rigid concrete. In the water-cutting curtain project of an open-pit coal mine in Inner Mongolia, according to its engineering geological and hydrogeological characteristics, a kind of low-strength(8-10 MPa) impermeable(P6 grade) concrete was developed as the wall casting material, which water/cementitious materials ratio is 0.68, sand ratio is 45%, For 1 m³ of concrete, the content of each …

Inspection Method And Analysis Of The Effect Of Water Cutoff Curtain In Open-Pit Coal Mine, Wang Hai, Peng Wei, Cao Haidong, Wang Li

Coal Geology & Exploration

In order to reduce the water drainage of the studied open-pit mine, a curtain wall was constructed to cut off the river supply on the north side. According to the site construction conditions, four technologies were applied to construct the water cutoff curtain, such as the low-strength impermeable concrete underground continuous wall, HDPE impermeable film, ultra-high pressure angular variable speed jet grouting, and occluding pile. To test the effect of water cutoff curtain in the open-pit coal mine during construction, four surrounding well tests were carried out for three kinds of water cutoff curtain technologies, including low-strength impermeable concrete underground …

Relationship Between Ndvi And Hydromet Factors In Grassland Area Of Open-Pit Coal Mine, Zhang Yan, Huang Xuanming, Chen Shi, Shi Bingxing

Coal Geology & Exploration

The groundwater level of an open-pit coal mine in the grassland area of the east Inner Mongolia has been decreasing continuously under the condition of long-term drainage. In order to study whether the growth of vegetation around the mining area was affected by the decline of groundwater level, the NDVI method was used to analyze the change trend of vegetation index in the study area from 2013 to 2019. Based on the joint entropy theory, the mutual information between NDVI and different meteorological and hydrological elements(temperature, rainfall and groundwater depth)were calculated, and the main influencing factors of vegetation growth were …