Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Effect Of Industry Clusters And Commodity Flow Characteristics On The Selection Of Freight Transportation Modes In The United States With Advanced Econometric Approaches, Taleb Eissa Ali Eissa

Theses and Dissertations

Mode choice is an important strategic decision for shippers to carry commodities efficiently. Freight mode-choice is an important activity to develop a successful freight transportation business in the private sector and to plan for economically consistent freight transportation infrastructures in the public sector. Freight activities result from the complex interactions between different economic agents, but these relationships are commonly relaxed to account for three major agents: shippers, carriers and receivers. Furthermore, the behavior of freight choice is commonly not concentrated in one agent, but rather is divided jointly over multiple individuals and firms in a logistics process, each component of …

Taxonomy And Abstraction Of The On-Demand Mobility Aviation System For Smart Cities, Wancheng Dai

Theses and Dissertations

The on-demand mobility aviation system is a new paradigm providing aircraft-based point-to-point transportation services to travelers in urban and suburban areas. Many consider it as the next revolution in intelligent transportation systems. Since it does not require pre-scheduling and vehicles travel at high speed, travel times are dramatically decreased, which overcomes issues of the current ground transportation system, improves travel times and level of service, increases productivity and creates new business models. Likewise, it is envisioned to generate positive environmental outcomes. Since this is a new and unique mode of intelligent transportation, few is known about its potential success and …

Structural Design Guidelines For Pervious Concrete Pavements, April Smith

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Pervious pavements have gained popularity in recent years as the transportation industry focuses on sustainability and environmental impact. This research investigated the structural design of pervious concrete pavements. There is no standard design method; therefore, the goal was to lessen ambiguity surrounding the use of pervious concrete for pavement structures. By characterization of the rigid pavement design equation from the 1993 AASHTO Structural Design Guide for Design of Pavement Structures through laboratory exploration and review of existing literature, a guide was created to assist engineers in the design of pervious concrete pavements.

Asphalt Concrete As A Flooring Material, Aleinys Villarreal

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The need for having a good quality flooring has become something very important in order to enhance people’s spaces and living lifestyle. Some of the most common tile materials are cork, vinyl, concrete, and ceramic. While these four materials mentioned before are still capable materials, asphalt concrete has a distinct pattern that may be an attractive alternative to the standard tile types. To try and find solutions to these problems and give people another material option, asphalt concrete was evaluated as a flooring material.

The reason why asphalt concrete could have this new application is based on the outstanding properties …

The Influence Of Citric Acid On Setting Time And Temperature Behavior Of Calcium Sulfoaluminate-Belite Cement, Edgar Soriano

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Today the need to opt for alternative cementitious materials is growing due to environmental reasons and construction time frames that portland cement cannot always satisfy. Calcium Sulfoaluminate (CSA) cements are a strong candidate to supplement or replace portland cement in the construction field for certain applications. In the United States, CSA cement has been limited mostly to pavement repairs because of its rapid initial setting time. The chemical compound responsible for this phenomenon is the alumina. This compound and sulfate are present in larger proportions compared to portland cement. The purpose of this research is to study how the use …

Tension Splitting Strength Of Bcsa Concrete Cylinders, Andrew Steven Deschenes

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The focus of this research was to compare the tension splitting strength (TSS) of belitic calcium sufloaluminate (BCSA) cement concrete to tensile strength predicted by the American Concrete Institute (ACI) and to similarly proportioned portland cement (PC) concrete. BCSA is a rapid-setting cement with higher early strength, higher ettringite content, and lower calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) content than PC. PC and BCSA cement concrete cylinders were broken at different ages in both uniaxial compression and TSS. It was found that BCSA had a similar TSS to both the ACI prediction and PC TSS, but the results require further testing for …

Biofiltration Of Volatile Organic Compounds Emitted At Ethanol Plants, Christopher Arthur Duerschner

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

Ethanol manufacturing is an important and growing sector in the biofuels marketplace. At ethanol plants, the control of volatile organic compound containing emissions from fermentation tanks and distillers dried grains with solubles driers is accomplished through the use of air scrubbers and regenerative thermal oxidizers. The operation of these control units imposes substantial operating costs for the ethanol plant. Biotrickling filters have the ability to replace scrubbers and regenerative thermal oxidizers resulting in significant economic and environmental benefits. Two biotrickling filters were operated in parallel under acetaldehyde loadings ranging from 4 to 136 gm^-3hr^-1. To examine …

Development Of Safety Performance Function For Arterial Intersections In Metro Manila, Philippines Using Random Decision Forest And Negative Binomial Regression Analysis, Karen Chritine Torres Lasola

Undergraduate Theses

This study presents the development of a safety performance function for arterial intersection in Metro Manila, Philippines, using Random Decision Forest which can be used to determine accident rates at an intersection based on its characteristics. A heat map was generated which shows that the intersection along Don Marcos Avenue in Quezon City has the most number of recorded accidents from 2013-2o15. From the Random Decision Forest, the significant variables affecting accident counts are number of lanes in major and minor roads, presence of separate pass, presence of pedestrian lanes, and type of land use. However, upon performing the negative …

Urban Underground Infrastructure Monitoring Iot: The Path Loss Analysis, Abdul Salam, Syed Shah

Faculty Publications

The extra quantities of wastewater entering the pipes can cause backups that result in sanitary sewer overflows. Urban underground infrastructure monitoring is important for controlling the flow of extraneous water into the pipelines. By combining the wireless underground communications and sensor solutions, the urban underground IoT applications such as real time wastewater and storm water overflow monitoring can be developed. In this paper, the path loss analysis of wireless underground communications in urban underground IoT for wastewater monitoring has been presented. It has been shown that the communication range of up to 4 kilometers can be achieved from an underground …

Unl-Cc Outdoor Education Center Master Plan, Marie Wagner

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The following report contains the work done by the group Griswold Engineering in completion of the Senior Design requirements for Civil Engineering and the Honors Requirements of the Project Manager. As the project manager, my job was to organize the project as a whole and to work alongside the Structural Engineer on the project. One of the main problems to overcome was the division of labor amongst the group. The project was originally conceived as a group project with one project manager and five other students to serve as the project engineers in each subdiscipline. Since this group only had …

Tree-Ring Reconstructions Of Streamflow For The Tennessee Valley, Sallyrose Anderson, Ross Ogle, Glenn Tootle, Abdoul Oubeidillah

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

This study reports the preliminary results from a statistical screening of tree-ring width records from the International Tree-Ring Data Bank (ITRDB), to evaluate the strength of the hydrological signal, in dendrochronological records from the Tennessee Valley. We used United States Geological Survey (USGS) streamflow data from 11 gages, within the Tennessee Valley, and regional tree-ring chronologies, to analyze the dendroclimatic potential of the region, and create seasonal flow reconstructions. Prescreening methods included correlation, date, and temporal stability analysis of predictors to ensure practical and reliable reconstructions. Seasonal correlation analysis revealed that large numbers of regional tree-ring chronologies were significantly correlated …

Development Of A Mash Tl-4 Steel, Side-Mounted, Beam-And-Post, Bridge Rail, Oscar Pena

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

A new steel, side-mounted, beam-and-post, bridge rail was designed, crash-tested, and evaluated according to safety performance guidelines included in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) for Test Level 4 (TL-4). The new bridge rail system was designed to be compatible to multiple concrete bridge decks utilized by the States of Illinois and Ohio. Bridge rail configurations were designed and optimized based on weight per foot, constructability, and safety. Post-to-rail and rail-to-rail connections were designed for the new bridge rail. Several concepts for these connections were configured, and after discussion with representatives …

Development Of Post-To-Deck Connections For Use In A Mash Tl-4 Steel-Tube Bridge Rail, Pascual Mauricio

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

A new post-to-deck connection was designed for mounting an upcoming Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) Test Level 4 steel-tube bridge rail to the side of the bridge deck to limit impact load transferred to the deck and to minimize the propensity for deck damage during impacts. With preference for the bridge rail system to be compatible for use on all deck configurations, the Illinois and Ohio Departments of Transportation desired the new system to attach to bridge decks comprised of concrete slabs or precasted prestressed, concrete box-beam girders.

A new post-to-deck connection for a new MASH 2016 TL-4 steel-tube …

An Underground Radio Wave Propagation Prediction Model For Digital Agriculture, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

Underground sensing and propagation of Signals in the Soil (SitS) medium is an electromagnetic issue. The path loss prediction with higher accuracy is an open research subject in digital agriculture monitoring applications for sensing and communications. The statistical data are predominantly derived from site-specific empirical measurements, which is considered an impediment to universal application. Nevertheless, in the existing literature, statistical approaches have been applied to the SitS channel modeling, where impulse response analysis and the Friis open space transmission formula are employed as the channel modeling tool in different soil types under varying soil moisture conditions at diverse communication distances …

Adsorption Of Organic Micropollutants To Biosolids-Derived Biochar: Estimation Of Thermodynamic Parameters, Yiran Tong, Brooke K. Mayer, Patrick J. Mcnamara

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This research quantified thermodynamic parameters to better understand the use of wastewater biosolids-derived biochar as an adsorbent to remove micropollutants. The objective of this research was to quantify adsorption capacity; isosteric heat; and change of enthalpy, entropy, and free energy characterizing adsorption reactions between biochar and micropollutants. Adsorption isotherms were developed using a range of temperatures for the micropollutants benzyldimethyldecylammonium chloride (BAC-C10) Carbamazepine (CBZ), 17β-estradiol (E2), 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2), and triclosan (TCS). The thermodynamic parameters derived from the isotherm data were used to assist in characterizing binding affinity, spontaneity, and mechanisms of adsorption. More polar compounds such as BAC-C10 and CBZ …

Seismic Performance Of Earth Slopes Subjected To Earthquake Mainshock – Aftershock Sequences, Alisha Khanal

Civil Engineering Theses

Mainshocks are usually followed by aftershocks. Aftershocks continue over a period of time with a decreasing frequency and there is not sufficient time for repair and retrofit between a mainshock – aftershock sequence. Typically, aftershocks are smaller in magnitude; however, aftershock ground motion characteristics such as the intensity and duration can be greater than the mainshock due to the changes in the earthquake mechanism and location with respect to the site. The seismic performance of slopes is typically evaluated based on the sliding displacement predicted to occur along a critical sliding surface. Various empirical models are available that predict sliding …

Laboratory Evaluation And Neural Network Modeling For Rotational Viscosity Of Reacted And Activated Rubber Modified Binders, Mayzan Isied

Civil Engineering Theses

Crumb rubber surface activation and pretreatment are considered as one of the promising newly introduced methods for asphalt rubber production. Reacted and Activated Rubber (RAR) is an elastomeric asphalt extender produced by the hot blending and activation of crumb rubber with asphalt and Activated Mineral Binder Stabilizer (AMBS). Besides RAR ability in enhancing the performance of asphaltic mixtures, its dry granulate industrial form enabled its addition directly into the mixture utilizing pugmill or the dryer drum with very minimal to no modification required on the plant level.

This study aims to evaluate the rotational viscosity of RAR modified binders and …

The Urban Development Of Bronson Circle, Matthew Moulton

Honors Theses

Many suburban streets, and specifically Bronson Circle, in the city of Kalamazoo are in poor condition and in need of repair. Along with a new pavement design and additional drainage considerations, a complete redesign of the street’s cross-section with the concept of a “Complete Street” was created. A redesign of the site, traffic, pavement, drainage, and lighting were completed to lessen the street’s impact on the environment and make it more user friendly for all modes of transportation. This complete street design can be adjusted for terrain and used for any comparable urban street.

Included in this report is an …

Probability Of Failure In Infrastructure Project Unbalanced Bidding, Yuhan Jiang, Yong Bai, Sisi Han, Ting Lin

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Design-Bid-Build infrastructure projects with Unit-Price Contracts have a high risk of quantity and price deviations. Those deviations might be the result of contractors' unbalanced bidding. At the same time, contractors' performance was unknown under unbalanced bidding situations. The researchers utilized the First Order Reliability Method and Statistical Analysis to evaluate contractors' bidding performances and engineers' estimating performances with bidding and settlement data of 163 NDDOT projects. Results showed that contractors adopted unbalanced bidding strategies as follows: if quantities were overestimated, then they underrated unit price; if quantities were underestimated, then they overrated unit price to maintain projects' Bid Total Amount …

Save Our Sound Obx, Inc. V. North Carolina Department Of Transportation, Mitch L. Werbell V

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled in favor of several governmental agencies seeking to construct a new bridge in the Pamlico Sound adjacent to North Carolina’s Outer Banks. For years, state and federal agencies have put forth a massive coordinated effort to address the constant weather damage and erosion which occurs to a section of North Carolina Highway 12. The court found the agencies properly cleared NEPA’s environmental review requirements for the bridge’s construction. Additionally, the opponent-litigants’ efforts to add claims challenging the project, based on new information about a shipwreck in the bridge’s path, were futile.

Identification And Reduction Of Uncertainties In Watershed-Scale Flow And Water Quality Modeling, Maryam Roostaee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study identified important uncertainties affecting watershed-scale flow and water quality simulations and recommended modeling options for reducing the uncertainties by means of the Hydrological Simulation Program-FORTRAN (HSPF) model. Specifically, parameter-induced uncertainties in HSPF model were estimated along with uncertainties associated with DEM resolutions and sources. National Elevation Dataset (NED) DEMs with original and resampled resolutions of 3.5, 10, 30 and 100m were utilized for manual and automatic delineation of three watersheds with different gradients in HSPF model to identify the effects of DEM resolution, DEM resampling, delineation method and watershed gradient on the simulation of streamflow, nitrate (NO_{3 …}

Use Of Agglomerated Geopolymer Pellets As A Partial Replacement For Reactive Aggregates To Mitigate Alkali Silica Reaction (Asr), Omar Amer, Prasad Rangaraju

Graduate Research and Discovery Symposium (GRADS)

No abstract provided.

Behavior Of Geothermal Energy Piles Embedded In Rock, Ehab Sabi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Geothermal energy piles are categorized as closed systems. Energy piles are a relatively new technology which couples the structural role of traditional pile foundations to that of heat exchangers to fulfill the required energy demand of buildings and infrastructures. These foundations are equipped with pipes embedded in the concrete forming the pile. While connected to a heat pump, the fluid circulating inside these pipes provides the exchange of heat with the ground for heating and cooling purposes. As the undisturbed temperature at the shallower depths of the ground stays comparatively constant the whole year, being warmer than the surrounding temperature …

Impacts Of Freight Consolidation And Truck Sharing On Freight Mobility, Tieming Liu, Chaoyue Zhao

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 17ITSOKS02. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"The trucking industry is an important sector of the U.S. economy. However, it is quite fragmented, hindering the efficiency of cargo transportation and the ability for small carriers to identify demands to fill full truck loads. The focus of this research is to study models and algorithms in order to aid online freight marketplaces to identify efficient consolidation strategies. To accomplish this aim, a new mixed integer programming model for the pickup and delivery problem has been developed. The model is geared …

Daily And Seasonal Variability Of Offshore Wind Power On The Central California Coast And Statewide Demand, Matthew Douglas Kehrli

Physics

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Operational Parameters, Reactor Kinetics, And Floc Characterization For The Removal Of Estrogens Via Electrocoagulation, Emily K. Maher, Kassidy N. O'Malley, Joe Heffron, Jingwan Huo, Brooke K. Mayer, Yin Wang, Patrick J. Mcnamara

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Estrogenic compounds can cause human and ecological health issues and have been detected in surface and drinking water. In this research a reactor analysis determined the impact of operational parameters, the best fit kinetic model for the removal of estrone (E1), 17β-estradiol (E2), estriol (E3), and 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2) using a bench-top iron electrocoagulation reactor, and characterized the floc generated in-situ. The parameters investigated were current density, conductivity, stir rate, and polarity reversal. Estrogen removal correlated well with an increase in current density, while conductivity did not impact removal but did reduce potentials. High stir rates and frequent polarity reversal …

Hydration Of Binary Portland Cement Blends Containing Silica Fume: A Decoupling Method To Estimate Degrees Of Hydration And Pozzolanic Reaction, Wenyu Liao, Xiao Sun, Aditya Kumar, Hongfang Sun, Hongyan Ma

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Determination of degrees of hydration/reaction of components of blended cementitious systems (i. e., cement and SCMs: supplementary cementitious materials) is essential to estimate the systems' properties. Although the best methods for determining degrees of reaction of different SCMs have been recommended by RILEM TC238, they rely on either expensive equipment (e.g., nuclear magnetic resonance) or time-consuming sample preparation and data processing (e.g., backscattered electron image analysis). Furthermore, these methods cannot simultaneously characterize degree of hydration of cement and degree of reaction of SCMs. A novel decoupling method, which can simultaneously estimate the degree of hydration of cement and the degree …

Civil Engineering Design Of Cornhusker Council's Outdoor Education Center, Kelly Weiler

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

A team of geotechnical, structural, hydraulic, environmental, and transportation experts collaborated to provide engineering solutions to the Cornhusker Council in an effort to solve the current problems facing their Outdoor Education Center. This results of this project provided the structural design of three bridges on the property, transportation plans for two parking lots and roadway design, geotechnical recommendations for soil testing and erosion prevention, and an environmental and hydraulic analysis of the property. A major challenge in the design of this project is the consideration of the dangers and regulations that accompany the floodway and floodplain regions on site. Various …

Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Bridge Girders For Extremely Aggressive Environments, Abdellah Emad Azeez

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

In 2012, the federal government estimated that $17.5 billion was spent on inspection, rehabilitation, maintenance, and replacement of the nation’s bridges. While the average lifespan of steel and reinforced concrete bridges is 50 years, certain bridges subjected to extremely aggressive marine environments may not reach this desired target. This research paper investigates using fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials as primary bridge girders in medium span bridges (30 ft. to 75 ft.). The goal of this research is to identify the most efficient and cost-effective alternative for these corrosion-resistant materials and potentially extend the lifespan of these bridges up to 75 years. …

Wavelet Transform On Digital Rainbow Hologram Based On Spectral Compression For Quality Enhancement In 3d Display Media, Ucuk Darusalam, Panca Dewi Pamungkasari

Makara Journal of Technology

A digital rainbow hologram (DRH) is a potential next-generation three-dimensional display media for the development of modern and smart electronics devices. It is one of the methods that can support the characteristic whereby a realistic display media occupies the space that the real object would have occupied. Since a rainbow hologram records a large amount of spatial or temporal frequency component from the object that represents the rainbow spectrum, a large amount of information needs to be decoded digitally. In this paper, to reconstruct a DRH, we propose a novel method based on the modulation of red, green, and blue …