Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Development Of An Ultraviolet Absorbance Assay To Estimate Air Entrainer Dosing For Concrete Containing Fly Ash, James Spencer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fly ash is a coal combustion byproduct that can be used as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in concrete, offering benefits such as increased workability, durability, and strength. Fly ash can be used as a partial replacement to cement, reducing concrete productions costs and decreasing disposal in landfills. However, variability of fly ash properties (e.g., carbon content, adsorption site density) confounds estimates of the air entraining admixture (AEA) dose needed to achieve a specified air content in concrete. Air entrainment is needed to improve freeze-thaw resistance and limit concrete cracking. The foam index (FI) test is currently used to estimate …

Vistas: Vocational Immersive Storytelling Training And Support Framework For Augmenting Work Performance, Sanika Doolani

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Training and assessment of novice workers are the most vital part of any vocational industry. Innovations in science and technology have led to the creation of new industries and occupations, enhanced productivity and quality of work-life, and increased the potential for more people to participate in the workforce. However, these come at the risk and disadvantage of an increased cost of training and lack of proper training in industries, such as manufacturing. Recently, the use of Extended Reality (XR) systems has been on the rise to tackle various domains such as training, education, safety, etc. With the recent advances in …

Numerical Simulation Of Anchor Group Effects On Concrete Breakout Strength Within Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete, Harjasdeep Singh Chauhan

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

This study aims to investigate numerically, the effect of anchor groups on concrete breakout strength using nonlinear finite element analysis. Steel headed studs were cast in place within concrete of different amounts of steel fibers. Different proportions of steel fibers (0%, 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%) were utilized within steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) for the numerical simulation. The physical properties of SFRC were modelled with respect to its composite compressive and tensile strength obtained from the experiments. The analysis was conducted on the concrete breakout strength of anchor bolts within SFRC. A good agreement was achieved between the numerical and the …

Effect Of Modified Moisture Barrier In Mitigating Pavement Distresses Due To Expansive Subgrade, Pratibha Pandey

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Surficial distresses in roadways of Texas are very common due to presence of high plastic clayey soil in the subgrade. Increased sensitivity of high plastic clay towards seasonal moisture change results in repeated swelling and shrinkage, and ultimately the development of pavement cracks. Annual expenses of such distresses impose huge financial liability to maintenance authorities. Studies have indicated rainwater intrusion into underlying expansive subgrade soil coupled with inadequate drainage as the main cause of pavement damage in semi-arid regions. The inability of drainage layer to laterally drain the excess moisture may lead to moisture accumulation within the base layer which …

Evaluation And Retrofitting Of Prestressed Concrete Girder Bridge With Excessive Vibration, Ikram Hasan Efaz

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Vibration of a highway bridges is a serviceability issue according to American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). Though vibration is one of the primary reasons of bridge deck cracking, AASHTO only has a deflection limit to counterpart vibration which is not adequate according to many researchers. For instance, SH-75 SB Bridge over Wilson Creek in McKinney, Texas was observed to have excessive vibration and cracking on the concrete deck. To evaluate the condition of the bridge, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Impact Echo (IE) were used on the deck as Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) methods. A diagnostic load …

Effect Of Sludge Content On Different Types Of Food Waste Degradation In Anaerobic Digester, Mumtahina Binte Latif

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Food waste (FW) is the second-largest component in landfills which impacts environments adversely by generating excessive leachate and greenhouse gas. Generally, conventional anaerobic digester and composting can be used for FW disposal. However, the former is highly expensive while the latter is energy inefficient. In contrast, household or community level underground anaerobic digester offers a cost-efficient solution as well as retrieves valuable energy from FW. The addition of nutrients such as sludge to organic waste especially FW accelerates the production of energy by limiting volatile fatty acid (VFA) accumulation. The objective of the current study is to find out the …

An Analytical, Numerical, And Experimental Study Of Automated Damage Assessment For Concrete Structures, Sanggoo Kang

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation presents the automated damage assessment studies for concrete structure. Three major studies are performed to: 1) understand the theoretical wave scattering model to evaluate the internal vertical crack, 2) to validate the theoretical wave scattering model through FE simulations with experimental measurements, and 3) to advance practical automated crack evaluation (ACE) system for vertical crack and delamination detection. Firstly, singular integral solutions are studied to investigate scattering of Rayleigh waves by subsurface cracks. Defining a wave scattering model by objects, such as cracks, still can be quite a challenge. The model’s analytical solution uses five different numerical integration …

Understanding Process Controls On Flow Duration Curves Through A Novel Framework, Saba Ghotbi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Flow duration curve (FDC) is a hydrologically representation of the statistical distribution of daily streamflows. For a long time, hydrologists have sought deeper understanding of the process controls on the shape of FDC, which has been a challenge due to contrasting processes controlling the fast flow and slow flow components of streamflow and their interactions. This dissertation addresses the challenge by outlining a novel framework to explore the physical controls on FDC. The framework involves separating streamflow into fast flow and slow flow and studying their duration curves separately then combining them statistically to obtain FDC. Initially, the potential of …

Characterization Of Msw And Plastic Waste Volume Estimation During Covid-19 Pandemic, Sehneela Sara Aurpa

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

COVID-19 has appeared and shook all aspects of our life. Starting from panic buying prior lockdown to the availability of vaccine, the whole world has gone through a pandemic situation which bounded people to live a life that never seemed normal before. Lockdown and risk of spreading disease forced people to stay at home and generate more waste, especially plastic waste. The effect on municipal solid waste characteristics due to this shift in the way of living is assessed in this study. In this study, municipal solid waste was collected from the working face of Irving Hunter Ferrell landfill. Waste …

Feasibility Assessment Of Production Of Liquid Organic Fertilizer (Lof) From Food Waste For Sustainable Waste Management, Shadman Sakib

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The increasing volume of food waste is responsible for the generation of potent greenhouse gases and is resulting in the wastage of valuable resources. In all regions of the world, the percentage of food waste in municipal solid waste is greater. Due to the lack of waste segregation at collection points and modern waste disposal methods in developing countries, organic waste is piling up in the dumpsites and landfills. Besides due to poor harvest and post-harvest procedures and inefficient supply chain, almost 55% of the cultivated crops do not even reach the consumers and get wasted. On the other hand, …

A Comprehensive Framework To Mitigate Surficial Slope Failures, Burak Boluk

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Each year, numerous highway and dam slopes that are built with high plasticity clays experience shallow slope failures. Besides the high maintenance and repair costs, these failures negatively impact the public life by interrupting the traffic flow and causing serious safety hazards. The development of desiccation cracks due to weathering cycles deteriorates hydro-mechanical properties of soil, increases water infiltration, and ultimately results in surficial slope failure. Several slope rehabilitation methods have been developed to stabilize clayey soil slope sections affected by surficial failures. Lime stabilization is an effective treatment method that generally reduces the swell-shrink potential of expansive soil and …

Pavement Temperature Response To Cold Fronts: A Model Column Study In A Freezer Box, Taryn Dilorenzo

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The correlation of meteorological data and pavement conditions is crucial for winter pavement maintenance, this is the main reason that it is so important to understand in what ways pavement responds to cold fronts as well as when the formation of ice on a pavement surface can be expected. The pavement surface and its underlying subsurface layers combine to create a system with the behavior of the surface being influenced by both the air temperature above it, as well as the temperature and thermodynamic processes occurring in the sublayers below it. Both the pavement surface as well as the sublayers …

Flexural Strengthening Of Two-Way Slabs Using Cfrp External Laminates, Shams Abbas Naqvi

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Deterioration of reinforced concrete structures with time is a common phenomenon, which often leads to reduction in the load carrying capacity. To meet the coding requirements, strengthening of these structures is of utmost importance. Composite materials, such as Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP), have shown effective results in external strengthening of these structures. However, premature delamination of CFRPs can decrease their efficiency. Recently, pre-saturated CFRP (PS-CFRP), a new type of CFRP pre-impregnated with epoxy resin, was introduced. Previous research has shown that PS-CFRP has shown improved results as compared to regular CFRP (R-CFRP) for strengthening beams and columns. However, no …

Investigating Topologic And Geometric Properties Of Synthetic And Natural River Networks Under Changing Climate, Shiblu Sarker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

River networks are important landscape features that collect and transport water, sediment and nutrients from regions of higher elevation to lower elevations. These networks have been studied for several decades from a range of geomorphological and hydrological perspectives. Investigating the geometric and topological properties of river networks is important for developing predictive models describing the network dynamics under changing climate as well as for quantifying the physical processes operating upon them. Although these networks have been characterized for a wide range of geomorphic properties, topological properties, and in particular, spectral properties of river networks received limited attention. In this dissertation, …

Valorization Of Secondary Agriculture Residues, Narendra Kumar

Doctoral Dissertations

Secondary agriculture residues have the potential to be major contributors as resources for energy and sustainably sourced materials production. Separating secondary agricultural residues, which have already been transported to processing centers, into individual biomass components could convert these wastes into bioproducts. Many types of pretreatments to achieve this separation involve chemicals that are hazardous for the environment. Several deep eutectic solvents (DES) that are biocompatible have been investigated for their ability to deconstruct rice hulls and sugarcane bagasse. Mass yield, enzymatic hydrolysis of the pretreated biomass, fiber analysis, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy have confirmed that the DES formic acid:choline …

Evaluation Of Recycled Plastic Pins As Shear Keys In Mse Wall Base, Prabesh Bhandari

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) walls have been widely used as retaining structures due to their flexible nature, a better tolerance against differential settlement, and many other factors. However, external stability problems of MSE walls have been an issue in North Texas over decades. Lateral displacement of the wall occurs, giving rise to sliding failure, when there is insufficient shear strength at the wall base to produce adequate frictional resistance. Such failures can cause significant maintenance, repair, and cost implications for the state department of transportation. Furthermore, MSE walls also undergo global failure due to weak soil conditions along with high …

Meta-Network Analysis Of Complex Construction Systems: Improving Project Efficiency Using Novel Computer-Based Analytic Methodology, Ethan Cummiskey

Honors Scholar Theses

The objective of this study is to build upon the framework of a meta-network approach to assessing vulnerabilities in construction projects. By viewing these complex environments as configurations of various nodes and links, it is possible to show the relationship between each entity in the project and the overall completion that is achieved from these connections. To expand upon previous studies, the vulnerabilities measured from this approach will be used to optimize the current network to eliminate any shortcoming in the project model. By investigating the congruence of different agents on the project, resources and informational nodes can be supplied …

On The Computational Efficiency Of Les And Hybrid Rans-Les Models In Building Aerodynamics, Aly Mousaad Aly, Faiaz Khaled

Faculty Publications

Large-eddy simulation (LES) has proven to offer superior accuracy in regards to predicting surface pressures compared to the Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) models. However, the primary impediment is the high computational cost associated with LES. The authors attempt to investigate the computational cost and accuracy by employing different sub-grid scale (SGS) models in LES and hybrid RANS-LES models. One of the prerequisites of accurate pressure estimations is to ensure a horizontally homogeneous empty computational domain. This study aims to compare the computational competence qualitatively and quantitatively using an empty domain in regards to the ability to maintain horizontal homogeneity. The …

Risk And Safety Associated With Hazardous Materials Transport In Rural And Native American Communities: A Case Study Of Thurston County, Nebraska, Sydney James

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Rural counties and Native American Reservations often lack the resources and planning to respond to a hazardous material release which can cause catastrophic results. Many rural counties and Native American Reservations do not have close access to a fire department or medical facility, which would increase response times during a time of crisis. Jurisdiction issues further complicate the matter since Native American Reservations are sovereign nations,.

Thurston County, home to two Native American Reservations, served as a case study to perform a safety analysis for vehicles transporting hazardous material. Stakeholders within the county from tribal, county, and state levels were …

Analysis Of Shear-Strength In Weathered Shale Strata Along A Highway Slope Failure Site In Northwest Arkansas, Olivia Overton

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Slope failures cost millions of dollars per year to repair and can be deadly. Accurate modeling of slope conditions, including soil parameters, water table locations, and depth to bedrock, are essential to determining the overall stability of a slope. This project is a continuation of the work completed in 2019 by a former University of Arkansas researcher, Vanessa LeBow. LeBow RocScience used Slide2 modeling software to model two highway embankment slopes in Northwest Arkansas that experienced slope movement to determine whether increased use of geophysical data could increase the accuracy of slope stability models. A parametric study of shear strengths …

Effects Of Flow Path Factors In The Permeability Of Natural And Man-Made Granular Soils Using The Kozeny-Carman Equation, Robert Davies

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The research presented in this paper serves to observe how the flow path factors relate to the void ratio, the effective diameter of a soil particle, and the permeability of a given sample assuming the behavior is consistent across natural and artificial soils. The basis of the comparison is the derived Kozeny-Carman Equation for permeability with focus on the factors C_s and C_l where C_s represents the shape of the flow path and C_l represents the length of the flow path that a single water molecule must travel through a soil sample. Permeameter tests were conducted …

Evaluation Of Conventional Energy Conservation Strategies And Active Thermal Insulation Wall System And Economic Analyses., Li Liu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For the past few decades, the importance and the technology of building energy conservation is increasing. In support of this research into energy efficiency, the Department of Energy has developed simulation models of sixteen buildings representing most commercial buildings in the US. In this research, four of these sixteen prototype models were used in energy conservation analyses variety of energy conservation strategies in the seven US Climate Zones. To estimate the effectiveness of several common energy conservation measures on yearly building energy use, holistic analyses were conducted using software that accounts for the interactions of the building systems, occupants and …

Bridge Prioritization And Preservation Along Route 66, Sarah Ballard

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Eligible bridges around the United States receive federal funding every year for replacement or rehabilitation. The main criterion for allocation of this funding is based on engineering aspects (e.g., life safety, condition, functionality), often leaving the historical value of the bridge at the bottom of the importance level. One of the main historical roads known in America is Route 66, also known as the â??Mother Road.â?? This route was the road to opportunity in the 1930s. Many bridges with historical significance carry the route and represent an integral part of the history of the Mother Road. This research analyzes bridges …

Digital Twin Technology Applications For Transportation Infrastructure - A Survey-Based Study, Hector Cruz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In the past couple of decades, various industries have taken advantage of emerging advanced technologies, such as digital twin (DT), to find more effective solutions in their respective areas. In the transportation infrastructure sector, the concept and implementation of DT technologies are slowly gaining traction but lagging behind other major industries. To better understand the limitations, opportunities and challenges for the adoption of DT in this sector, a survey questionnaire was distributed to collect information from industry professionals involved in transportation infrastructure projects. The purpose of this study is to understand how DT technology is being perceived by the industry. …

New Generation Of Performance-Engineered Asphalt Mixtures Based On Balanced Mix Design Concept, Victor Manuel Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Asphalt mixtures must ideally exhibit long-lasting durability and stability to perform wellin the field. However, improving the stability and durability of asphalt mixtures has become a major concern. Given that available design approaches rely mainly on stringent volumetric criteria for asphalt mixtures, design approaches and specifications that incorporate performance tests are needed to follow a performance-engineered mix design (PEMD) process, especially with the introduction of the balanced mix design (BMD) concept

This Dissertation study presents a comprehensive investigation of a feasible designapproach that can be implemented to develop PEMD specifications and produce BMD mixtures. An experimental evaluation of different mix …

Implementation Of Hma Design Tool To Develop Balanced Mix Design Based On Gradation Parameters, Prathmesh Deepak Jichkar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

With the rapid paradigm shift of pavement design methodology from an empirical-based approach toward a more mechanistic-based approach, the existing mix design processes also need a radical shift from the conventional volumetric-based methods to performance-based methods. The use of a volumetric-based design methodology has become more challenging due to the increasing use of recycled materials, modified binders, warm mix asphalt additives, compaction aids, and rejuvenators. A shift toward the more fundamentally sound â??balanced mix designâ?? (BMD) concept is envisaged to produce asphalt concrete mixtures with acceptable performance in terms of durability and stability. Aggregate gradation plays a crucial role in …

Low Impact Development: Low-Maintenance Design To Encourage Residential Adoption Of Sustainable Systems, Haley Ellis

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Residential adoption of low-impact development (LID) technology can positively impact downstream watershed hydrology by reducing total volumetric discharge from the residential site. This reduction can provide economic, environmental, and social benefits for the residents as well as the community at large. Additionally, homeowners are often affected by stormwater related issues, like flooding or washout, that could be easily mitigated with a sustainably engineered LID structure or network. Engineering for sustainability often includes the blending of several objectives to provide greater overall benefit. This thesis compares the outflow characteristics of three low-maintenance residential LID design scenarios differing in rain garden soil …

Developing Lrfd Side Shear And End Bearing Resistance Factors For Design Of Axially Loaded Drilled Shafts In Soil Containing Caliche Layers Using The Monte Carlo Approach, Visar Farhangi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Conventional design and construction procedures of the drilled shafts (bored piles) are mainly developed for homogenous soils in the absence of highly cemented layers. However, the presence of competent and cementitious layers such as caliche deposits in soil profile can affect the resistance and settlement of pile foundations. This study concerns with the uncertainties on the resistance estimation of axially loaded drilled shafts in interaction with caliche layers The prime objective is to calibrate the side shear and end bearing resistance factors of axially loaded drilled shafts based on the soil characteristics of Nevada. The load-settlement responses of axially loaded …

Behavior Of Aged Reinforced Concrete Columns Under High Sustained Concentric And Eccentric Loads, Wenchen Ma

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Columns are critical components resisting the collapse of a reinforced concrete (RC) frame structure subjected to high sustained loads. Research on columns under sustained high stresses is very limited. At material level, past creep tests were focused either on concrete with ages less than 90 days or under a sustained stress less than 70% of short-time strength. At structural component scale, virtually no experimental data can be found for the response of axially loaded RC columns subjected to high sustained loads exceeding 75% of column short-time strength with loading age greater than 200 days. Even if a few experiments were …

On The Computational Efficiency Of Les And Hybrid Rans-Les Models In Building Aerodynamics, Faiaz Khaled, Aly Mousaad Aly

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.