Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Analyzing Resource Allocation And Levelling In Construction Projects, Mohamed Eizeldin, Mohamed Hussein Hegazy, Ahmed Alhady, Shahir Ashraf

Civil Engineering

Project scheduling has been crucial in any construction project since applying poor scheduling may lead to cost overruns and delays. The most commonly used technique for scheduling is the critical path method (CPM). As CPM neglects the availability of resources and assumes only time as a constrain; therefore, the resource allocation problem (RAP) technique is introduced. RAP appears when the number of resources required exceeds the number of resources available. Moreover, as a result of solving the RAP, another problem will occur known as the resource leveling problem (RLP). RLP lead to lots of hiring and firing of laborers. Researchers …

Subdivision Site Design In Antwerp Township, Alec Denbraber

Honors Theses

Design and development of a subdivision on an empty plot of land off Red Arrow Highway in Antwerp Township, MI.

Subdivision Site Design In Antwerp Township, Peyton Smith

Honors Theses

Design and development of a subdivision on an empty plot of land off Red Arrow Highway in Antwerp Township, MI.

Roundabout Design At Clare Ave And Us 127, Clare, Mi, Elise Olson

Honors Theses

For our senior design project, we conducted an intersection improvement in Clare Michigan. On the north end of Clare at the interchange of US-127 and Clare Avenue, the Michigan Department of Transportation has been working with the Clare County Road Commission in an effort to redo this interchange. The ideal interchange will be a roundabout that includes the entrance and exit ramps of NB US-127, NB and SB Clare Ave, and Colonville Road. With the assistance of AutoCAD, PTV Vistro, and Microsoft Project, our team conducted a full roundabout design and park & ride redesign. Our team then developed an …

Optimizing The Self-Healing Efficiency Of Hydrogel Encapsulated Bacteria In Concrete, Ricardo Hungria

LSU Master's Theses

Calcium carbonate precipitation through microbial means is a promising pathway for concrete self-healing technologies, mainly for its microcrack sealing attributes. The main goal of this project was to study and optimize the crack healing efficiency of hydrogel encapsulated bacteria in concrete. To achieve this purpose, Bacillus pseudiformus was implemented as the bacteria strain at a concentration of 10⁸ cells/ml. This bacterium strain along with yeast extract was combined along with three different mineral precursors corresponding to magnesium acetate, calcium lactate, and sodium lactate. All these three precursors were evaluated at two concentrations (67.76 mM/l and 75 mM/l). For each …

A Smart Illicit Discharge Monitoring System, Alexander Campbell, Henry S. Armstrong, Tien Yee

Symposium of Student Scholars

In the present study, we attempt to use a variety of sensors to monitor illicit discharges that are present near the Kennesaw State University Marietta Campus. The US Environmental Protection Agency defines an illicit discharge as “any discharge into a storm drain system that is not composed entirely of stormwater”. Each year, approximately 860 billion gallons of sewage spills are reported throughout the country. In Georgia, sewer spills data shows that spills may range from hundreds of gallons to millions of gallons depending on the severity of the leak. The undetected sewer leaks may degrade the water quality in nearby …

Cost-Efficient Bridge Scour Health Monitoring Using Commercial Sensors, Connor Embleau, Tien Yee, Metin Oguzmert, Mahyar Amirgholy, Alan Akazemi, Dale Goff

Symposium of Student Scholars

Bridge scouring has been a major international issue regarding bridge health and the overall longevity of a bridge. A common bridge health concern such as scouring accounts for close to 60% of bridge failures in the United States and is a leading cause to a bridge being in critical condition. Traditional methods to combat this failure is to measure the scour depth to assess a bridge health. Due to safety concerns of the traditional method, this study proposes to monitor a bridge’s health using a vibration-based technique. At present, vibration-based techniques have yet to be utilized reliably in the field. …

A New Generation Of Open-Graded Friction Course For Enhanced Durability And Functionality, Hossam Abohamer

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study aims at (1) enhancing Open Graded Friction Course (OGFC) mixes durability using additives and other by-products; (2) investigating the impacts of selected factors on OGFC pavements seepage characteristics; (3) developing a quantitative tool to model the deterioration in OGFC pavements functional performance; and (4) developing new guidelines of Air Void (AV) content for OGFC for optimum functionality and durability. For the durability objective, eight mixes were prepared with a PG 76-22 binder and two sources of aggregate (i.e., # 78 limestone and # 67 sandstone). Three Warm Mix Additives (WMA), one by-product (i.e., crumb rubber [CR]), and two …

Investigation Of Groundwater Depletion And Leveel Underseepage With Unstructured-Grid Modeling Approach, Ye-Hong Chen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Unstructured grid is a tessellation of geometric shapes in irregular patterns that provides flexibility in grid design for groundwater modeling. However, groundwater modeling is mostly developed with uniform grid tessellation and layer, which could simplify model structure or cause expensive computational costs in high-resolution simulations. Unstructured grid incorporates non-uniform horizontal and non-uniform vertical discretizations providing the capability to replicate complex hydrostratigraphy, capture geologic features that are crucial for groundwater flow simulation, and reduce computational costs while maintaining a high resolution for areas of interest. This study contains three parts to investigate unstructured-grid approach on constructing high-fidelity groundwater models, comparisons with …

Reducing Early-Age Shrinkage Cracks Of Bridge Decks And Rails, Soumitra Das, George Morcous, Jiong Hu

UNL Student Research Days Posters, Graduate

Early-age shrinkage cracking of concrete bridge decks and rails accelerates the penetration of water and chemicals which leads to reinforcement corrosion, delamination, and eventually spalling. All this results in shorter service life, road closure, and costly repair. Development of Low-cement concrete(LCC) mix to reduce early age shrinkage crack through aggregate grading optimization was done in this research work. This approach also reduces concrete cost ($15-$20/cyd) (15–25%) and its carbon footprint (≈15%).

Arthur Cotton And The Development Of Public Works, Justin Patty

The Larrie and Bobbi Weil Undergraduate Research Award

In the long history of violence and cruelty that defined the period of British rule in India, Arthur Cotton is one of the few men remembered today not for his crimes, but for the good he did for the people of India. Cotton’s irrigation projects protected millions of Indians from the threat of famine, but the true legacy of his work is global in scope. As a major figure in the development of India’s infrastructure for most of the nineteenth century, Cotton witnessed the British Empire struggle with questions about its role in facilitating public works projects. Despite the Empire’s …

Policy Strategies To Solve The U.S. Recycling Crisis, Flavia M. Scotto D'Antuono

Student Publications

Following China’s Operation National Sword in 2018, the politics and economics of recycling have increasingly come under scrutiny as many examine whether it remains a worthwhile endeavor. Differences across municipalities, changing prices of goods, contamination, mislabeling, and involvement by the plastics industry has further confused the issue. This paper examines to what extent a national recycling policy would be effective and what form it may take using several case studies - whether it be mandatory recycled content minimums, extended producer responsibility, or allowing the industry to phase out completely,

Effects Of Emergency Vehicle Warning Lighting System Characteristics On Driver Perception And Behavior, Emily Hiebner

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Secondary crashes, including struck-by incidents are a leading cause of line-of-duty deaths among emergency responders, such as firefighters, law enforcement officers, and emergency medical service providers. The introduction of light emitting diode (LED) sources and advanced lighting control systems, provides a wide range of options for emergency lighting configurations. This study investigated the impact of lighting color, intensity, modulation, and flash rate on driver behavior while traversing a traffic incident scene at night. The impact of retroreflective chevron markings in combination with lighting configurations, as well as the measurement of “moth-to-flame” effects of emergency lighting on drivers was also investigated. …

Evaluating Climatic Influences On The Technical Performance Of Built Infrastructure Assets, Sarah L. Brown, Steven J. Schuldt, Michael N. Grussing, Michael A. Johnson, Justin D. Delorit

Faculty Publications

Asset performance evaluations serve as a benchmark that can be used to make asset manufacturer selection decisions, i.e., choosing the brand of manufacturer that provides the highest performance among all brand competitors. Understanding the environmental conditions to which assets are subjected provides facility managers another data point to understand asset performance. This research builds upon a previously published performance-based manufacturer selection metric by investigating the linkage between asset performance and exposure to local climate, using chiller and air handler data from 20 United States Air Force installations. The link between environmental factors such as Heating Degree Days (HDD); Cooling Degree …

Fast-Pgmed: Fast And Dense Elevation Determination For Earthwork Using Drone And Deep Learning, Sisi Han, Yuhan Jiang, Yong Bai

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This paper presents a time- and cost-effective elevation determination method for earthwork operations using ready-to-fly imaging drones and deep learning technologies. The proposed method is named the fast pixel grid/group matching and elevation determination (Fast-PGMED) algorithm. The input data are a pair of approximate 2:1-scale top-view images, and the output is the determined elevation map for the scanned station. Feature matching of the two multiscale images is conducted by calculating correlations between target patch predictions (via DeepMatchNet, a fully convolutional network) and potential target patches (via virtual elevation model). The overall processing time is about 21 s …

Building Services Engineering March/April 2022

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Novel Damage Index-Based Rapid Evaluation Of Civil Infrastructure Subsurface Defects Using Thermography Analytics, Tianjie Zhang, Md Asif Rahman, Alex Peterson, Yang Lu

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The qualitative measurement is a common practice in infrastructure condition inspection when using Infrared Thermography (IRT), as it can effectively locate the defected area non-destructively and non-contact. However, a quantitative evaluation becomes more significant because it can help decision makers figure out specific compensation plans to deal with defects. In this work, an IRT-based novel damage index, damage density, was proposed to quantify the significance of subsurface defects. This index is extracted from IR images using our thermography analytics framework. The proposed framework includes thermal image processing, defect edge detection, and thermal gradient map calculations. A modified root mean square …

Behavior Of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete Made With Recycled Concrete Aggregates: Material Characterization And Deep Beam Shear Response, Nancy Kachouh

Dissertations

This research aims to examine the performance of concrete made with recycled concrete aggregates (RCAs) and steel fibers. It comprises material characterization tests, large-scale reinforced concrete (RC) deep beam tests, and numerical modeling. Material characterization test parameters included the RCA replacement percentage (30, 70, and 100%) and the steel fiber volume fraction (vf = 1, 2, and 3%). Fourteen large-scale deep beam numerical models with and without web openings made with 100% RCAs and steel fibers were developed and validated through a comparative analysis with test results. A numerical parametric study was conducted to investigate the effect of varying …

Post Aerobic Digestion (Pad) Is A Solids Sidestream Nutrient Removal Process That Utilizes Native Carbon: Performance And Key Operational Parameters From Two Full-Scale Pad Reactors, Patrick J. Mcnamara, Fabrizio Sabba, Eric Redmond, Patrick Dunlap, Thomas Worley-Morse, Christopher Marks, Leon Downing

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Nutrient management is a critical issue for Water Resource Recovery Facilities, and sidestream treatment technologies to reduce nutrient loads often focus on liquid sidestreams and require external carbon sources. Post aerobic digestion (PAD), whereby an aerobic digester follows an anaerobic digester, treats a solids stream (i.e., anaerobic digester effluent) to reduce nitrogen loads. Volatile solids reduction occurs in this process with residual organic compounds serving as a native carbon source for denitrification. While this process has been evaluated at the lab-scale, information on operational parameters that affect full-scale performance is limited. We evaluated two separate full-scale PAD reactors …

The Effect Of Concrete Material Properties On Rigid Pavement Design In South Carolina, Nicolet Anne Devine

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the effect of concrete material inputs on rigid pavement design in the state of South Carolina. The impact of concrete strength input parameters in the historical AASHTO pavement design method and MEPDG method is investigated using three newly constructed concrete sections, I-85 in Cherokee County, I-20 in Lexington County, and I-85 in Spartanburg County. Strength data obtained from the sections were the result of QA/QC testing provided by the SCDOT during construction, as well as from UofSC laboratory testing. The compressive strength data from these tests was correlated to the elastic modulus and modulus of rupture (which …

Coalitional Game Theory For Stormwater Management And Green Infrastructure Practices, Carly Lawyer

Theses and Dissertations

As global warming and climate Variability bring about more frequent and intense rainstorms and accelerate sea level rise, our social and built environments are at heightened risk of flood induced damages and consequent costs. This is particularly true for coastal areas, facing the coupled effects of these threats while serving as home to people, businesses, unique landscapes, and historic landmarks. Complex decisions at all levels of government and community planning stand to benefit from increased understanding of possible outcomes and pathways resulting from decentralized human behavior and decision making in the realm of water resources engineering and management. Game theory …

Classification Of Acoustic Emission Data Into Load Steps Using An Artificial Neural Network, Allen Ross

Theses and Dissertations

The average age of bridges in South Carolina is approaching 40 years, very close to the 50-year service life. Almost 11% of the bridges in South Carolina are rated as structurally deficient, greater than the national average of 7.5% (South 2021). Health monitoring is the concept that in-situ sensors can continuously monitor civil structures and send real time signals of damage. This process allows for automation and could save time and money on the inspection and load rating of bridges. Health monitoring requires sensors that provide uninterrupted data without sacrificing the functionality of the bridge. A prime candidate for this …

High-Risk Traffic Crash Pattern Recognition And Identification Using Econometric Models And Machine Learning Models, Runan Yang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Roadway crashes have become a major cause of human deaths and injuries and caused much economic damage. According to World Health Organization (WHO), about 1.35 million people died in traffic crashes and over 50 million people injured from traffic crashes in the year of 2016 (World Health Organization, 2020). Nationally, in the U.S., the latest decade witnessed an increase of over 10% in traffic fatalities (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 2019). Similarly, in state of Florida, the fatal crashes increased by 4.62% from 2019 to 2020 (Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, 2021). To prevent injuries and …

Design And Evaluation Of A Prototype Low-Damage Beam-Column Connection For Mass Timber Moment Frames, Samuel D. Richmann

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

A moment-resisting, beam-column connection for mass timber moment frames was developed, designed and tested. The design was intended to limit damage to the timber members by creation of a ductile failure mechanism in steel U-shaped flexural plates (UFPs). Using design equations developed by previous research on UFPs by Baird, et al. (2014) as well as accepted design practices from the NDS and AISC, the components were sized to eliminate failure in the timber. The connection was tested using a quasi-static lateral displacement method following the procedure outlined in section K2.4b of AISC 341-16. A vertical load was placed on the …

Assessment Of Scoured Bridges Subjected To Vessel Impact Using Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis, Amir S. Irhayyim

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Scour has been the number one cause of bridge failure in the United States with an average of 22 bridges collapsing or being closed owing to severe deformation each year [1]. This work attempts to deal with two important issues: (1) Potential bridge failures during the co-occurrence of scour and ship impact; (2) Incorporating IDA analysis to predict bridge responses based on barge and collision parameters, and to generate fragility curves to predict the probability of exceedance damage states.

For bridges, flooding is considered the most threatening hazard. According to the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) [2], 500,000 out of 615,000 …

Estimating The As-Placed Grout Volume Of Auger Cast Piles, Tristen Mee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Augered Cast-in-Place (ACIP) piles are a geotechnical foundation element increasingly used to support large publicly funded structures as an alternative to drilled shafts or driven piles. ACIP piles are constructed by drilling an excavation to the full length of the designed pile with a continuous flight auger. Grout (cement, sand, and water mixture) is then pumped through the hollow auger stem to begin grouting the excavation. After establishing an initial head pressure, the auger is slowly extracted while the remainder of the pile is grouted. Once the auger is completely removed, the steel reinforcement cage is lowered into the grouted …

Using Machine Learning In Estimating Changing Bed Shear Over A Flume Test Box, Ghada S. Ellithy, Siddharth S. Parida

Publications

A dam or levee breach caused by overflow erosion is difficult to evaluate during an overtopping event due to difficulty in accessibility and quickly changing conditions. However, for assessment of risk associated with breach time and ensuing downstream consequences, the erosion rate of embankment soils during this process needs to be evaluated. Soil erosion and water depth measurements were taken during flume tests using a Shallow Water Lidar (SWL) system scans. The tests were conducted in a 1-m-wide tilting flume on three cleans and gravel soil mixes with a median grain size D50of 2, 5,and 20 mm. The box measured …

Effects Of Downdrag On Pile Performance, Malaak Omelia Araujo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

All soils settle under the weight of newly constructed embankments. In the case of MSE wall-type embankments, piles are driven prior to embankment construction. Under the weight of the newly constructed embankment, the soil surrounding the piles may settle more than the piles themselves. This downward movement potentially drags the piles down and induces a force within the pile known as downdrag. The research on the downdrag phenomenon involving cohesionless granular soils is sparse, thus the focus of this study is to investigate the effects of downdrag on pile performance driven in Florida sandy soils. A site consisting of soil …

The Impact Of Land Use Change On Hydrology Using Hydrologic Modelling And Geographical Information System (Gis), Nattachan Luesaksiriwattana

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Surface and groundwater conditions in west-central Florida are highly interactive, with shallow water table and sandy soil. Land use types including forests, agricultural areas, and urbanization affect water resources differently. Change in land use, associated with expanding the urban environment to support human needs, significantly impacts surface water infiltration and runoff characteristics. Construction of infrastructures such as buildings and housing can result less water to infiltrate through the soil, with increased surface water runoff and decline in evapotranspiration. A computerized hydrologic model, Hydrological Simulation Program-FORTRAN (HSPF), couple to a spreadsheet groundwater model and a Geographical Information System (GIS) were applied …

Investigating Lateral Displacement Of Pile Groups Under Construction Loads And Excavation—A Case Study, Thang Pham, Andres Palma, Thuyet Nguyen, Thuy Vu

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Piles in weak soils are sensitive to adjacent excavation and construction loads. Excessive lateral displacement of piles during construction adds shear and bending moment to the piles. This is of great concern because these additional lateral loads are sometimes not accounted for when designing piles, and the horizontal bearing capacity as well as shear strength of the piles is low. This paper presents a case study of a recent project with severe pile damage and large soil displacement during construction due to the installation of adjacent piles and excavating foundation pits. With improper construction procedures, the piles were severely damaged …