Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Impacts Of Climate Changes On The Spatiotemporal Distribution Of Precipitation In The Western United States, Peng Jiang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Precipitation in the Intermountain West is characterized by its great variability in both spatial and temporal distributions. Moreover, the spatiotemporal distribution of the precipitation is changing due to the climate changes. In this dissertation, three studies are conducted to investigate the multi-scale temporal variability of precipitation, the performance of current climate models on this variability, the influence of large-scale ocean oscillations on heavy precipitation, and the impact of human induced global warming on storm properties.

The first study is to examine the performance of current climate models on the simulation of the multi-scale temporal variability determined from the observed station …

A Case Study Of Zero Energy Home Built For Solar Decathlon Competition 2013, Sanjib Mulepati

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Energy consumption in residential homes has been a subject of research related to sustainability. Reduction in the consumption of energy is a goal of sustainable construction. The Department of Energy (DOE) started a Solar Decathlon competition in 2002 in which the students from different universities around the globe build an energy efficient and affordable home suitable for their climate and location. The main goal of this competition is to select the best home that is designed and built in a sustainable way. In this study, the home designed and constructed for participation in the competition by the students at University …

Lipid Production By Microalgae Treating Municipal Wastewater, James Edward Kelley

Master's Theses

Microalgae hold much promise as a feedstock in liquid biofuel production. Lipid content of microalgae cells range from 30-80% dry weight of biomass. It is projected that microalgae can produce between 1,000-6,500 gallons/acre/year of oil. Currently, production of industrial algae operates in open raceway ponds that use minimal capital and energy inputs to culture algae. Raceway ponds can also be used to grow microalgae from municipal waste streams. Although high biomass productivity can be achieved in these systems, there remains a large production gap between large volumes of biomass cultivation and high lipid content from microalgae cells. Low lipid content …

Evaluation Of Alternative Project Delivery Methods In Water And Wastewater Projects, Ruiko Maharjan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The United States (U.S.) is facing significant challenges in addressing aging water infrastructure. Most of the drinking water infrastructure is reaching the end of their useful lives. The American Water Works Association (AWWA) estimated that it will cost about $1 trillion to repair or replace drinking water pipes. Over the next 20 years, it will cost about $298 billion to fix or expand pipes of the nation's wastewater and storm-water systems (AWWA, 2012). Owners, engineers, and contractors are using Alternative Project Delivery (APD) methods - e.g., Design-Build Construction Management-at-Risk Construction Management/General Contractor- to build water and wastewater projects in order …

The Cost Of Green Infrastructure: Worth The Investment?, Martha Sheils

Green Infrastructure

Is GI worth the investment?

• LID techniques often lead to cost savings when we look at WHOLE PROJECT COSTS

• Natural Infrastructure investments for flood control, drinking water protection and wildlife habitat can yield SIGNIFICANT AVOIDED COSTS and additional co-benefits to communitites

Assessing The Performance Of A Northern Gulf Of Mexico Tidal Model Using Satellite Imagery, Stephen C. Medeiros, Scott C. Hagen, Naira Chaouch, Jesse Feyen, Marouane Temimi, John F. Weishampel, Yuji Funakoshi, Reza Khanbilvardi

Publications and Research

Tidal harmonic analysis simulations along with simulations spanning four specific historical time periods in 2003 and 2004 were conducted to test the performance of a northern Gulf of Mexico tidal model. A recently developed method for detecting inundated areas based on integrated remotely sensed data (i.e., Radarsat-1, aerial imagery, LiDAR, Landsat 7 ETM+) was applied to assess the performance of the tidal model. The analysis demonstrates the applicability of the method and its agreement with traditional performance assessment techniques such as harmonic resynthesis and water level time series analysis. Based on the flooded/non-flooded coastal areas estimated by the integrated remotely …

Global Change Factors On Ecosystem Invasibility, Raj Lal, Jeffrey Dukes, Michael J. Schuster, Nick G. Smith

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Current climate and human-induced changes are projected to alter many regimes of ecosystem functioning. It is projected that invasive species, nonnative species that can be of great detriment to an ecosystem, will benefit under these conditions. The Prairie Invasion and Climate Experiment (PRICLE) studies the effects of two global change factors – N addition and altered precipitation – on invasive species success and the traits that are selected for in a mixed-grass prairie ecosystem. PRICLE is a two by two factorial design over three replications in a restored mixed-grass prairie ecosystem. The major findings from the community traits examination of …

Deep-Water Near-Bottom Turbulence In Lake Michigan: An Underwater Investigation, David J. Cannon, Cary Troy

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Motivated by a need to characterize near-bottom deep-water turbulence for an understanding of the filtration capabilities of invasive quagga mussels, an instrument tripod was deployed in Lake Michigan for six months in 60m of water to measure current velocities, with specific interest being paid to near-bottom (0.10 to 0.95 meters above bottom) velocities during the deployment. The deployment period (September 2012-April 2013) was characterized by very little stratification and a median temperature of about throughout the water column. A mean horizontal velocity of 3.6 cm/s with a standard deviation of 2 cm/s was also measured at 1 meter above the …

Quantifying Risks Of Climate Change And Sea Level Rise To Naval Station Norfolk (Serdp Rc-1701), Kelly Burks-Copes

October 2, 2013: Quantifying Risks and Moving Forward

No abstract provided.

Improving The Sweeping Efficiency Of Permanganate Into Low Permeable Zones To Treat Tce: Experimental Results And Model Development, Chanat Chokejaroenrat, Negin Kananizadeh, Chainarong Sakulthaew, Steve D. Comfort, Yusong Li

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

The residual buildup and treatment of dissolved contaminants in low permeable zones (LPZs) is a particularly challenging issue for injection-based remedial treatments. Our objective was to improve the sweeping efficiency of permanganate into LPZs to treat dissolved-phase TCE. This was accomplished by conducting transport experiments that quantified the ability of xanthan-MnO₄⁻ solutions to penetrate and cover (i.e., sweep) an LPZ that was surrounded by transmissive sands. By incorporating the non-Newtonian fluid xanthan with MnO₄⁻, penetration of MnO₄⁻ into the LPZ improved dramatically and sweeping efficiency reached 100% in fewer pore volumes. To quantify …

Sweet (Small Wind Energy Estimation Tool), Thomas Woolmington, Keith Sunderland

Other resources

Description:

Generic Wind Energy Estimation Model incorporating Turbulence Intensity.

Requirements:

Manufacturer specific wind turbine characteristic

Mean wind speed at a specific height

Site conditions in terms of TI and Surface Roughness

Disclaimer:

This model has been designed as an estimation tool for estimating the wind power yield of a custom turbine for an idealised set of site conditions for a given year.

While the assumptions that are made in this estimation tool are mathematically plausible they should not in any way be interpreted as an alternative to a real world site assessment.

A list of assumptions to which the model …

Characterization Of Fractures Subjected To Normal And Shear Stress, Min-Kwang Choi

Open Access Dissertations

Results from a series of laboratory experiments to determine fracture specific stiffness, for a fracture subjected to shear and normal stress, are presented and analyzed. The experimental work focuses on the determination of relations between normal and shear fracture specific stiffness and between spatial distribution of fracture specific stiffness and fluid flow through the fracture

The ratio of shear to normal fracture specific stiffness is experimentally investigated on a fracture subjected to shear as well as normal stress. Synthetic fractures made of gypsum and lucite were prepared with different fracture surface conditions: either well-mated or non-mated. For well-mated fracture surfaces, …

The Spatial Distribution Of Cancer Incidence In Fars Province: A Gis-Based Analysis Of Cancer Registry Data, Ali Goli, Mahbobeh Oroei, Mehdi Jalalpour, Hossein Faramarzi, Mehrdad Askarian

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Background: Cancer is a major health problem in the developing countries. Variations of its incidence rate among geographical areas are due to various contributing factors. This study was performed to assess the spatial patterns of cancer incidence in the Fars Province, based on cancer registry data and to determine geographical clusters.

Methods: In this cross sectional study, the new cases of cancer were recorded from 2001 to 2009. Crude incidence rate was estimated based on age groups and sex in the counties of the Fars Province. Age standardized incidence rates (ASR) per 100,000 was calculated in each year. …

Developing A Framework For Determining The Contribution Of Transportation Project To Sustainable Development, Karim Ahmed Abdel Warith

Open Access Dissertations

In the past few years, stakeholders in the transportation industry have been concerned with sustainability. However, transportation decision makers have had difficulty incorporating sustainability into transportation infrastructure decisions. This is mainly attributed to the vagueness of the term. Incorporating sustainability into transportation decision making has been a desire put forth by engineers for that past 10 years. However, with no apparent method of defining sustainability, designers and decision makers have not been able to fulfill this desire.

This investigation attempts to define sustainability in a comprehensive and quantitative manner. The research proposes a new methodology that relies on the objective …

Cloud To Cloud Registration For 3d Point Data, Darion Shawn Grant

Open Access Dissertations

The vast potential of digital representation of objects by large collections of 3D points is being recognized on a global scale and has given rise to the popularity of point cloud data (PCD). 3D imaging sensors provide a means for quickly capturing dense and accurate geospatial information that represent the 3D geometry of objects in a digital environment. Due to spatial and temporal constraints, it is quite common that two or more sets of PCD are obtained to provide full 3D analysis. It is therefore quite essential that all the PCD are referenced to a homogeneous coordinate frame of reference. …

Parallel Implementations Of The Frank-Wolfe Algorithms For The Traffic Assignment Problem, Shawn Eugene Allen

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Transportation planners seek to understand how to best invest limited resources for future transportation network development. The traffic assignment problem is one algorithm of great importance to planners because it provides insight into how traffic will flow within the network. The Frank-Wolfe algorithm is a traditional solution method for this optimization problem, but it has been characterized by its slow rate of convergence and poor computational performance. This thesis examines and implements several modern advancements in this algorithm which are designed to improve the rate of convergence.

In addition to algorithm changes, another method to improve the performance of an …

2013 Fall Engr333 Project Assignment, Matthew K. Heun

ENGR 333

The Fall 2013 ENGR333 project focused on production and use of biofuels at Calvin University.

I asked the students “What would it take for Calvin College to operate a biofuel vehicle from campus resources?”

Customer

The customer for this project was Calvin’s Physical Plant director Phil Beezhold.

Characterization Of Secondary Organic Aerosol Precursors Using Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography With Time Of Flight Mass Spectrometry (Gc×Gc/Tofms), Melissa Jordan Roskamp

Dissertations and Theses

The oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) plays a role in both regional and global air quality through the formation of secondary organic aerosols (SOA). More than 1000TgC/yr of non-methane VOCs are emitted from biogenic sources (significantly greater than from anthropogenic sources). Despite this magnitude and potential importance for air quality, the body of knowledge around the identities, quantities and oxidation processes of these compounds is still incomplete (e.g., Goldstein & Galbally, 2007; Robinson et al., 2009). Two-dimensional gas chromatography paired with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC/TOFMS) is a powerful analytical technique which is explored here for its role in better …

Issue Brief: Saving By Mitigating, University Of Louisville, New England Environmental Finance Center

Sustainable Communities Capacity Building

Natural disasters can cause loss of life, inflict damage to buildings and infrastructure, and have devastating consequences for a community’s economic, social, and environmental well-being. Hazard mitigation means reducing damages from disasters.

Local governments have the responsibility to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their citizens. Proactive mitigation policies and actions help reduce risk and create safer, more disaster-resilient communities. Mitigation is an investment in your community’s future safety, equity, and sustainability.

Review Of Computer-Aided Numerical Simulation In Wind Energy, Aaron Miller, Byungik Chang, Roy Issa, Gerald Chen

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Many advances have been made during the last decade in the development and application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), finite element analysis (FEA), numerical weather modeling, and other numerical methods as applied to the wind energy industry. The current information about this area of study may help researchers gage research efforts. Specifically, micro-siting, wind modeling and prediction, blade optimization and modeling, high resolution turbine flow modeling, support structure analysis, and noise prediction have been the main focuses of recent research. The advances in this area of research are enabling better designs and greater efficiencies than were possible previously. The trends …

A Study On Appraisal Of Government Performance In Zhuhai Marine Pollution Prevention Management, Dan Jiao

Maritime Safety & Environment Management Dissertations (Dalian)

No abstract provided.

Incorporating Chemical Activity And Relative Humidity Effects In Regional Air Quality Modeling Of Organic Aerosol Formation, Marguerite Colasurdo Marks

Dissertations and Theses

Atmospheric particulate matter is known to have significant effects on human health, visibility, and global climate. The magnitudes of these effects, however, depend in complex ways on chemical composition, relative humidity, temperature, phase state, and other parameters. Current regional air quality models such as CMAQ (Community Multiscale Air Quality model) ignore many of these considerations, and consider that the formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) can be calculated by assuming thermodynamic ideality in the organic particulate matter (OPM) phase as well as negligible uptake of water into the OPM phase. Theoretical predictions and model simulations considering non-ideality and water uptake …

A Novel Approach To Flow Estimation In Tidal Rivers, Hamed Moftakhari Rostamkhani, David A. Jay, Stefan A. Talke, Tobias Kukulka, Peter D. Bromirski

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reliable estimation of river discharge to the ocean from large tidal rivers is vital for water resources management and climate analyses. Due to the difficulties inherent in measuring tidal-river discharge, flow records are often limited in length and/or quality and tidal records often predate discharge records. Tidal theory indicates that tides and river discharge interact through quadratic bed friction, which diminishes and distorts the tidal wave as discharge increases. We use this phenomenon to develop a method of estimating river discharge for time periods with tidal data but no flow record. Employing sequential 32 day harmonic analyses of tidal properties, …

Social Capital And Walkability As Social Aspects Of Sustainability, Shannon Rogers, Kevin Gardner, Cynthia Carlson

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

The concepts of sustainability and sustainable development are frequently described as having three main components, sometimes referred to as the three pillars or the triple bottom line: environmental, economic, and social. Because of an historical focus in the sustainability field on correcting environmental problems, much consideration has been given to environmental issues, especially how they interface with economic ones. Frequently mentioned but rarely examined, the social aspects of sustainability have been considered the weakest and least described pillar. After a brief review of existing concepts and theories, this paper uses a case study approach to examine the third pillar more …

Phosphorus Removal From Ebpr Sludge Dewatering Liquors Using Lanthanum Chloride, Aluminum Sulfate And Ferric Chloride, Michael Strileski

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In wastewater treatment, enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) is becoming an increasingly popular alternative to chemical precipitation (CP) because of its lower costs and reduced sludge production. However, downstream solids handling processes such as digestion, sludge storage and dewatering promote an undesirable release (i.e. secondary release) of polyphosphate that was stored within EBPR sludge. Released phosphate is recycled to the head of the plant with the liquors of sludge dewatering processes. The concentration of phosphate in recycle streams from EBPR systems can be one to two orders of magnitude higher than the influent phosphorus concentration entering the EBPR system. Plants …

Accuracy Analysis Of Parallel Method Based On Non-Overlapping Domain Decomposition Method, Moonho Tak, Yooseob Song, Hye-Kwan Jeon, Taehyo Park

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

In this paper, an accuracy analysis of parallel method based on non-overlapping domain decomposition method is carried out. In this approach, proposed by Tak et al.(2013), the decomposed subdomains do not overlap each other and the connection between adjacent subdomains is determined via simple connective finite element named interfacial element. This approach has two main advantages. The first is that a direct method such as gauss elimination is available even in a singular problem because the singular stiffness matrix from floating domain can be converted to invertible matrix by assembling the interfacial element. The second is that computational time and …

Juxtaposing Nasa’S Aeronet Aod With Carb Pm Data Over The San Joaquin Valley To Facilitate Multi-Angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (Misr) Pm Pollution Research, John Kanemoto

STAR Program Research Presentations

Airborne particulate matter (PM) has been shown to increase the risk for asthma, chronic bronchitis, cardiopulmonary complications, and respiratory cell membrane damage/infection/leakage. PM levels are currently analyzed from two perspectives: stationary land-based monitoring (LBM) sites and total Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) atmospheric column measurements. Both perspectives often leave miles of space between measuring locations and will have a continually increasing cost from introducing/maintaining sites. The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) satellite team hopes to begin investigating/archiving PM levels comprehensively via inputting MISR AOD measurements into a function/model which predicts the amount of ground level PM.

In the future, multivariable spatial correlations …

Evaluation Of Broiler Litter Heat Production During Windrowing & Nitrogen Based Gas Emission Mitigation Using Biofilter, Min Lei

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ammonia emission from animal feeding operations (AFOs) has negative effects on environment and animals' health. Thus measuring and mitigating ammonia emission from AFOs is important for environmental protection. In chapter I, different ammonia measurements were discussed and a mitigation technology- biofilter was represented.

In-house windrowing of built-up litter has been used by broiler producers to reduce pathogen loads and rejuvenate litter for the next flock. When litter is piled up for an extended period during downtime, heat generated by the litter pile can become a substantial heat source due to the metabolism of microorganisms. In chapter II, heat production rates …

Agenda: Changing Regulatory Frameworks For Shale Development And "Social License To Operate", University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment

Changing Regulatory Frameworks for Shale Development and "Social License to Operate" (July 24)

Rapid development of unconventional shale resources in recent years has raised a series of regulatory issues both here and abroad. Because of the "distributed" nature of shale development and the significant increase in wells in key basins, local land-use conflicts have also erupted in certain areas of the country, leading to restrictions and moratoria on drilling by state, county, and municipal governments and raising questions about the industry's continued social license to operate in key jurisdictions. This moderated panel discussion will assess the current regulatory framework governing shale gas development and the changing dynamics among federal, state, and local regulation …

Linear Programming Algorithm With Mixed Real-Integer Variables In Matlab Environments, Gelareh Bakhtyar

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Efficient numerical procedures for solving general Linear Programming (LP) problems with mixed real-integer variables are developed in this work. The proposed algorithms employ the revised dual simplex with Branch and Bound (B&B) algorithms, with special procedures for limited search of subsequent branches. Computational time can be significantly reduced by incorporating the updated inverse formulas into the developed procedures. Both generic LP problems and deterministic pavement maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) problems are used in this study to vaiidate the developed procedures. Medium to large-scale examples ( 11 pavement M&R) presented in this work have demonstrated that the developed numerical procedures consistently …