Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

The Fluxnet2015 Dataset And The Oneflux Processing Pipeline For Eddy Covariance Data, Gilberto Pastorello, Timothy Arkebauer, Dave P. Billesbach, Anatoly Gitelson, Adam Liska, Andrew Suyker, Elizabeth Walter-Shea, More Than 200 Other

Adam Liska Papers

The FLUXNET2015 dataset provides ecosystem-scale data on CO2, water, and energy exchange between the biosphere and the atmosphere, and other meteorological and biological measurements, from 212 sites around the globe (over 1500 site-years, up to and including year 2014). These sites, independently managed and operated, voluntarily contributed their data to create global datasets. Data were quality controlled and processed using uniform methods, to improve consistency and intercomparability across sites. The dataset is already being used in a number of applications, including ecophysiology studies, remote sensing studies, and development of ecosystem and Earth system models. FLUXNET2015 includes derived-data products, such as …

Using Statistical Learning Approaches To Understand Trends And Variability Of Tornadoes Across The Continental United States, Niloufar Nouri

Dissertations and Theses

The annual frequency of tornadoes during 1950-2018 across the major tornado-impacted states were examined and modeled using anthropogenic and large-scale climate covariates in a hierarchical Bayesian inference framework. Anthropogenic factors include increases in population density and better detection systems since the mid-1990s. Large-scale climate variables include El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Southern Oscillation Index (SOI), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), Arctic Oscillation (AO), and Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO). The model provides a robust way of estimating the response coefficients by considering pooling of information across groups of states that belong to Tornado Alley, Dixie Alley, and Other …

A Computational Analysis Of Marine Fenders Under Heavy Weather Mooring Conditions, Zachary Eskew

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Dynamic loading of marine fenders is a situation that is unique to the United States Navy (USN), due to the use of Heavy Weather Mooring (HWM) for naval vessels during extreme weather events, such as hurricanes. Traditional analysis has not been concerned with the fender reaction on vessel hulls. However, newer classes of Naval ships, such as the Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), have designs that emphasize speed and agility, resulting in them having thinner hulls more susceptible to damage from fenders. In traditional analysis, fenders are modeled as idealized springs, with static- load derived spring constants from manufacturer charts. This …

Wastewater Treatment Fatty Acids For Biodiesel Production, Zachary Christman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Wastewater scum is the thick oily substance that floats on top of the primary and secondary tanks within a wastewater treatment plant. Scum has a 30% to 60% lipid content making it an excellent resource for the biodiesel industry. Also the use of scum would reduce the cost of current management practices such as landfill disposal or incineration. In this article there is an overview of lipid byproducts currently being produced at wastewater treatment plants today. This is followed by a presentation showing a full length process for turning wastewater scum into biodiesel raw material.

Control Of Energy Storage Utilisation For A Building Integrated Microgrid Using Multi-Objective Metaheuristic Optimisation Methods, Quang An Phan

Theses

The aim of this thesis was to develop and analyse optimisation strategies for commercial buildings with integrated microgrids, in order to find optimal trade-offs between maximising profitability and facilitating renewable energy from the national power grid. The continued proliferation of microgrids, as well as the increase in electricity produced by renewable energy sources on the Irish national grid has necessitated the requirement for these strategies. Models to simulate the performance of a photovoltaic system, wind turbine and battery bank were developed and validated. The most suitable optimisation algorithm to generate an optimal charge/discharge rate schedule for a battery bank was …

Effect Of Fly Ash In Southeast Asia On The Properties Of Concrete, Thwe Thwe Win

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

A wide use of fly ash (FA) as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) can result in an enhancement in its durability performance in our civil engineering applications. Although FA is either agricultural or industrial by-product and is abundant for use in cement and concrete works for many decades now, the utilization of FA still has a practical challenge. The challenge is due to variability and their heterogeneity. In Southeast Asia, fly ash is used in concrete production replacing cement as a pozzolanic material. However, there are few standard guidelines for using fly ash across the region. This study evaluates the …

Carbon-Based Interlayers In Perovskite Solar Cells, Aleksandr P. Litvin, Xiaoyu Zhang, Kevin Berwick, Anatoly V. Fedorov, Weitao Zheng, Alexander V. Baranov

Articles

Perovskites are solution-processed, high-performance semiconductors of interest in low-cost photovoltaics. The interfaces between the perovskite photoactive layers and the top and bottom contacts are crucial for efficient charge transport and minimizing trapping. Control of the collection of charge carriers at these interfaces is decisive to device performance. Here, we review recent progress in the realization of efficient perovskite solar cells using cheap, easily processed, stable, carbon-based interlayers. Interface materials including graphene, carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, graphene quantum dots and carbon dots are introduced and their influence on device performance is discussed.

Large-Scale Modeling And Assessments Of Climate, Land Cover, And Sea Level Change Impacts On Stormwater Runoff In Coastal Urban-Natural Environments, Erfanul Huq

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation investigated the potential impacts of changing climate, land cover, and sea level on the future stormwater budget and extreme runoff in coastal urban-natural environments. Two large-scale basins, namely Florida Southeast Coasts Basin (7117 km2) and Saint Johns River Basin (24928 km2), were selected for this study. The basins represented gradients in climate, land cover, and hydrology across the Atlantic coasts of Florida and the southeast U.S. Two mechanistic hydrologic models were developed for the basins using U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA)’s Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) 5.1. The models were calibrated and validated with observed historical streamflow …

A Framework For Sustainable Procurement Practice In The Irish Construction Industry, Duga Jamus Ewuga

Doctoral

The Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector has been called upon to develop innovative strategies to drive sustainability. Despite the efforts and commitments made, their performance is still observed to be low, this has been linked to the low level of understanding of practitioners. Also noted was the lack of interest by firms due to the uncertainty of the benefits of committing to long term investments. Nevertheless, academic literature and reports have stated that firms nowadays utilise their procurement mechanism to drive their sustainability practice. However, there is a gap in understanding how construction firms adopt and embed sustainability in …

Lidar Assessment To Monitor Bridge Response Under Live And Dead Loads, Daniel Watson

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

Understanding how a bridge structure responds to various loads in a time and resource-efficient approach is vital in characterizing bridge health. Bridge health monitoring is an evaluation of the structural condition and performance, which optimizes limited transportation budgets by prioritizing the bridges that are in the most need for retrofit or replacement. Identifying and remedying issues will mitigate long-term problems and ensure that the bridge remains open to service for all legal loads. In contrast, health monitoring and load rating will determine if a bridge can only carry traffic up to a certain weight or speed, requiring a bridge load …

Static Analysis Of Structural Members, Amani Calderon, Alexis Villalona, Farhad Alinaghizadeh

Publications and Research

This research is devoted to statics analysis of structural members under mechanical loads. Static analysis of beams under uniform transverse mechanical loads is presented. The beams are supported by simply supported boundary condition at both sides. The equilibrium equation of the beams is obtained and solved using analytical method and numerical method. The numerical method employed in this work is generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) method. The type of differential quadrature method used for numerical solution is the polynomial-based GDQ method. The differential equation is discretized into algebraic equations based on the GDQ technique. The algebraic equations are then solved to …

Multiscale Modeling Of Fracture In Quasi-Brittle Materials Using Bifurcation Analysis And Element Elimination Method, Keyvan Zare Rami

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

Analyzing the fracture of heterogeneous materials is a complex problem, due to the fact that the mechanical behavior of a heterogeneous material is strongly dependent on a variety of factors, such as its microstructure, the properties of each constituent, and interactions between them. Therefore, these factors must be effectively taken into account for accurate analysis, for which the multiscale method has been widely used. In this scheme, the computational homogenization method is used to obtain the effective macroscopic properties of a heterogeneous material based on the response of a Representative Volume Element (RVE). The growth of damage in an RVE …

A Comparison Of The Army Corps Of Engineers Hydrologic Modeling System And Autodesk Storm And Sanitary Analysis For Hydraulic And Hydrologic Analysis And Design, Foster Josef Heifetz Campbell

Master's Theses

Hydrological and hydraulic effects of urban development is one of the key issues of study for improved water management. The addition of impervious surfaces to once pervious land and re-routing open channels and flow paths can cause flooding or declining water levels within a watershed. Many studies of these issues have found that there can be multiple factors causing hydrological and hydraulic impacts, and it can be hard to analyze and develop effective solutions without appropriate drainage software packages. However, there are multiple software packages available for use, and determining the correct one to use for a specific challenge can …

Environmental Sustainability Assessment Of Small Nebraska Mechanical Water Resource Recovery Facilities: Impacts Of Construction And Operations, Sussan Moussavi

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

Many small, rural communities struggle with aging or inadequate water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs), and face challenges in constructing and operating such systems. Although existing literature has provided insight into the environmental sustainability of large systems including both the construction and operational phases, these studies have not examined small systems in adequate depth or breadth. The environmental impacts associated with construction may be notable for small WRRFs since the initial construction can be a larger share of the total life cycle environmental impact.

The goal of this work is to provide the environmental sustainability profiles of 12 mechanical WRRFs in …

Development Of A Mix Design Adjustment Method For Fiber Reinforced Concrete And Super High Performance Concrete Based On Excess Paste, Joe Malloy

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

The main objective of this study was to develop a mix design adjustment method for Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC) that would maintain appropriate workability while improving hardened concrete performance. A literature review was conducted to examine existing methods for adjusting mix designs to account for fiber introduction. It was found that while increasing fine aggregate and cement paste content can make up for lost workability with the addition of fibers, no rational mix design adjustment method is available. Reference mix designs from the Nevada Department of Transportation and the Nebraska Department of Transportation were used, and this study focused on …

Participatory Sensing-Based Geospatial Localization Of Distant Objects For Disaster Preparedness In Urban Built Environments, Hongjo Kim, Youngjib Ham

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Faculty Publications

Although the benefit of participatory sensing for collecting local data over large areas has long been recognized, it has not been widely used for various applications such as disaster preparation due to a lack of geospatial localization capability with respect to a distant object. In such applications, objects of interest need to be ro- bustly localized and documented for supporting data-driven decision-making in site inspection and resource mobilization. However, participatory sensing is inappropriate to localize a distant object due to the absence of ranging sensors in citizens' mobile devices; thus, the localization accuracy varies to a large extent. To address …

An Open-Source Tool To Facilitate The Processing Of Grace Observations And Gldas Outputs: An Evaluation In Bangladesh, Adam J. Purdy, Cédric H. David, Md. Safat Sikder, John T. Reager, Hrishikesh A. Chandanpukar, Norman L. Jones, Mir A. Matin

Faculty Publications

Bangladesh lies at the intersection of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers with a combined average discharge of 38,000 m3s−1 ranking fourth globally. Despite the volume of water flowing through and seasonally inundating parts of the landscape, groundwater reliance is necessary to support an intensive agricultural industry. Here we use newly-developed open-source software to combine observations from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites with hydrologic estimates of land water storage from the Global Land Assimilation Data System (GLDAS) to isolate basin-scale groundwater anomalies in Northwest Bangladesh from 2002 to 2016. We place our estimates in the context of …

Hydrologic Modeling As A Service (Hmaas): A New Approach To Address Hydroinformatic Challenges In Developing Countries, Michael A. Souffront Alcantara, E. James Nelson, Kiran Shakya, Christopher Edwards, Wade Roberts, Corey Krewson, Daniel P. Ames, Norman L. Jones, Angelica Gutierrez

Faculty Publications

Hydrologic modeling can be used to aid in decision-making at the local scale. Developed countries usually have their own hydrologic models; however, developing countries often have limited hydrologic modeling capabilities due to factors such as the maintenance, computational costs, and technical capacity needed to run models. A global streamflow prediction system (GSPS) would help decrease vulnerabilities in developing countries and fill gaps in areas where no local models exist by providing extensive results that can be filtered for specific locations. However, large-scale forecasting systems come with their own challenges. These New hydroinformatic challenges can prevent these models from reaching their …

Enabling Stakeholder Decision-Making With Earth Observation And Modeling Data Using Tethys Platform, E. James Nelson, Sarva T. Pulla, Mir A. Matin, Kiran Shakya, Norm Jones, Daniel P. Ames, W. Lee Ellenburg, Kel N. Markert, Cédric H. David, Benjamin F. Zaitchik, Patrick Gatlin, Riley Hales

Faculty Publications

Tethys Platform is an open source framework for developing web-based applications for Earth Observation data. Our experience shows that Tethys significantly lowers the barrier for cloud-based app development, simplifies the process of accessing scalable distributed cloud computing resources and leverages additional software for data and computationally intensive modeling. The Tethys software development kit allows users to create web apps for visualizing, analyzing, and modeling Earth Observation data. Tethys platform provides a collaborative environment for scientists to develop and deploy several Earth Observation web applications across multiple Tethys portals. We work in partnership with leading regional organizations world-wide to help developing …

The Impact Of Hurricane Harvey On Pavement Structures In The South East Texas And South West Louisiana, Stefan Romanoschi

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18PUTA02. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"This study developed a methodology to estimate the damage caused by flooding, such that caused by Hurricane Harvey, on a road or street network. The flooded street or pavement sections are identified using GIS flood maps with street GIS maps used for pavement management systems (PMS) by cities or state authorities. Then the damage caused by flooding directly through the increase moisture in foundation layers or indirectly due to the increase heavy traffic during the relief effort is estimated. An example Excel …

Simulation Of The Impact Of Connected And Automated Vehicles At A Signalized Intersection, Hamad Bader Almobayedh, Deogratias Eustace, Philip Appiah-Kubi

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Faculty Publications

Intersections are locations with higher likelihood of crash occurences and sources of traffic congestion as they act as bottlenecks compared with other parts of the roadway networks. Consequently, connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) can help to improve the efficiency of the roadways by reducing traffic congestion and traffic delays. Since CAVs are expected to take control from drivers (human control) in making many important decisions, thus they are expected to minimize driver (human) errors in driving tasks. Therefore, CAVs potential benefits of eliminating driver error include an increase in safety (crash reduction), smooth vehicle flow to reduce emissions, and reduce …

The Impact Of Hurricane Harvey On Pavement Structures In The South East Texas And South West Louisiana, Stefan Romanoschi

Publications

This study developed a methodology to estimate the damage caused by flooding, such that caused by Hurricane Harvey, on a road or street network. The flooded street or pavement sections are identified using GIS flood maps with street GIS maps used for pavement management systems (PMS) by cities or state authorities. Then the damage caused by flooding directly through the increase moisture in foundation layers or indirectly due to the increase heavy traffic during the relief effort is estimated. An example Excel macro was created to illustrate the estimation process. The methodology estimates the increase in rehabilitation costs since the …

Evaluation Of Internally Cured Bridge Deck Concrete With Standard And Optimized Aggregate Gradation, Arman Abdigaliyev

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

Due to the relatively high cement content and low water-to-cement ratio (w/c) used, bridge deck concrete is prone to premature cracking. Internal curing has been found to greatly reduce the chance of premature cracking as well as concrete deterioration. This research developed internally cured bridge deck concrete based on a local mix design in Nebraska. Four different lightweight fine aggregate (LWFA) as internal curing agents were evaluated and their effects on fresh, mechanical, durability, and shrinkage properties of concrete were studied. The study focused on resolving two issues associated with fine aggregate replacement based on Bentz equation. To identify the …

An Investigation Into Current Procurement Strategies That Promote Collaboration Through Early Contractor Involvement With Regards To Their Suitability For Irish Public Work Projects, Barry Mcauley, Frederic Lefebvre

Conference papers

Previous research has established that multi-disciplinary collaboration will benefit a construction project throughout its lifecycle. While Lean Construction, Building Information Modelling (BIM), and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) can all be viewed as separate processes which add independent value to a project, they are more effective when used in partnership with each other. In order to ensure the high levels of collaboration expected for these processes to work in unison, the early involvement of the Contractor is paramount. Early contractor involvement within the design process can ensure a more focused integrated project team, improvement of both constructability and cost certainty, as …

Centres Of Excellence And Roadmaps For Digital Transition: Lessons For Ireland’S Construction Industry, Barry Mcauley, Alan Hore, Roger West

Conference papers

Like most sectors in today’s working world, construction businesses are challenged to work in an increasingly digitised world with sophisticated demands from intelligent clients. So much has been written about the inefficiencies of the construction industry, its fragmentation, lack of collaboration, low margins, adversarial pricing, poor productivity, financial fragility, lack of research and development, poor industry image and relatively weak use of digital solutions. The Irish government recognises the importance of digital innovation to address many of the challenges the construction industry faces. With recent high profile reports of escalating spend on signature public sector projects and weak productivity performance …

Improving The Sustainability Of The Built Environment By Training Its Workforce In More Efficient And Greener Ways Of Designing And Constructing Through The Horizon2020 Bimcert Project, Barry Mcauley, Avril Behan

Conference papers

The construction industry consumes up to 50% of mineral resources excavated from nature, generates about 33% of CO2 present in the atmosphere and is responsible for 40% of total global energy through both construction and operation of buildings. The realisation that current pervasive construction practices now face globalization, sustainability, and environmental concerns, as well as ever-changing legislation requirements and new skills needed for the information age has resulted in technologies such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) becoming a key enabler in navigating these barriers. To assist in overcoming these barriers, a number of funding initiatives have been put in place …

From Roadmap To Implementation: Lessons For Ireland’S Digital Construction Programme, Barry Mcauley, Alan Hore, Roger West

Conference papers

As part of their Future of Construction initiative in 2018 the World Economic Forum published an action plan to accelerate Building Information Modelling adoption. The WEF report highlighted actions that companies, industry organisations and governments are advised to implement to accelerate BIM adoption and better capitalise on delivering better project outcomes. According the authors of the report BIM is seen as the centrepiece of the construction industry’s digital transformation, however they acknowledged that BIM adoption globally remain slow. Anecdotal experience would suggest that BIM usage in Ireland is also very low and that a similar initiative or an adaptation of …

Bim In Ireland 2019: A Study Of Bim Maturity And Diffusion In Ireland, Barry Mcauley, Alan Hore, Roger West

Conference papers

In 2017, the BIM Innovation Capability Programme team applied five macro BIM maturity conceptual models to capture the capability of the Irish construction industry and assess its BIM maturity. The results found that while Ireland is mature for modelling processes, it is less developed with regards to collaboration processes and policies. Ireland also ranked poorly when it came to regulatory frameworks, measurements and benchmarks compared to a number of countries which also applied the same conceptual models. At the time, the findings highlighted that Ireland’s diffusion dynamic was middle out, meaning that larger organisations or industry associations were pushing the …

Integrated Full-Scale Physical Experiments And Numerical Modeling Of The Performance And Rehabilitation Of Highway Embankments, Navid Jafari, Anand Puppala, Sayantan Chakroborty, Burak Boluk

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18GTLSU06. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"The study aimed to fundamentally understand how soil strength and hydraulic properties are impacted by recurring cycles of wetting and drying induced by climate variability, with the practical implication of forecasting the stability of highway embankment slopes. The review of literature on the effects of long-term cyclic wetting-drying phases on hydro-mechanical properties of clayey soils suggests that only a few cycles of wetting and drying can impact the strength and hydraulic conductivity, where the latter can increase several orders of magnitude. Laboratory …

Evaluating How The Quality Of Pedestrian Infrastructure Affects The Choice To Walk, Gregory Rowangould, Alexis Corning-Padilla

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18PPUNM02. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"While the benefits of walking are well understood, the physical design of sidewalks and their maintenance needs generally receive much less attention in both research and practice than the infrastructure used by other modes of transportation. As a result, we know comparatively little about how the design of sidewalks and quality of the overall pedestrian environment affect the decision to walk. In our study we conducted a household travel survey to collect data on walking frequency and attributes related to sidewalk quality …