Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Investigation Of Gas-Solid Fluidized Bed With Non-Spherical Particles, Mario Alberto Ruvalcaba

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The number of experimental and numerical studies of multiphase flows has remarkably increased over the last several years. This research has abundant applications in energy, chemical, and conversion processes. Common use of these technologies includes catalytic cracking for petroleum refineries, fluidized bed reactors (type of chemical reactor), interface modification, and has been an important technology breakthrough in coal gasification. The present work will concentrate on the investigation and validation of gas-solid flows utilizing numerical methods. The gas-solid flows study on this research assumes the solid and gas phases as continua with averaged properties.

The fluid flow computation was achieved using …

Sustainable Water Management In The University Of Texas At El Paso, Cora Martinez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis showed how to improve water and financial savings for UTEP and El Paso by improving water conservation and sustainability of the UTEP campus. The goals of this research were successfully accomplished by focusing in three principal objectives.

1. Analyze historical data of water consumption of the UTEP campus for the past decade.

2. Evaluate water consumption to quantify water consumption by buildings and type of use, as well as provide recommendations for water and cost savings.

3. Synthesize a water management framework within the UTEP Facilities' Geographic Information System (GIS) for long-term monitoring and evaluation

Water Mass Balances For The Rio Grande/Bravo From Fort Quitman, Texas To Foster Ranch Near Langtry, Texas: An Assessment Of Factors, Ramiro Lujan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Water availability is declining in many regions of the planet, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. Water bodies located in these regions, like the Rio Grande/Bravo at the U.S. - Mexico border, are subjected to high water demands. This research project makes an assessment of the spatial and temporal variability of elements intervening in the water mass balance for the section of the Rio Grande/Bravo between Fort Quitman and Langtry, Texas during the time period extending from January 1990 through December 2005. This document mentions the main Rio Grande/Bravo stakeholders from the U.S. and Mexico, and describes issues related …

Evaluation Of A Cash Award Program For Water Conservation, Robert Moss

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This document is the final report of a water conservation study funded by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and The University of Texas at El Paso with cooperation from El Paso Water Utilities. The study period was from September, 1997 through January, 2000.

Use Of Environmental Isotope Tracer And Gis Techniques To Estimate Basin Recharge, Abdulganiu A.A. Odunmbaku

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The extensive use of ground water only began with the advances in pumping technology at the early portion of 20th Century. Groundwater provides the majority of fresh water supply for municipal, agricultural and industrial uses, primarily because of little to no treatment it requires. Estimating the volume of groundwater available in a basin is a daunting task, and no accurate measurements can be made. Usually water budgets and simulation models are primarily used to estimate the volume of water in a basin.

Precipitation, land surface cover and subsurface geology are factors that affect recharge; these factors affect percolation which invariably …

Green Transportation For A Green Earth, Petros J. Katsioloudis, Mildred V. Jones

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Transportation is one of the biggest contributors to the destruction of the environment. Results from environmental research and pursuant governmental regulations are changing the way companies do business and how transportation systems address the future. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been at the forefront in leading environmental research and instituting policies and regulations to fight the issues impacting the environment. The transportation industry and consumers alike are concerned about the environment, energy resources, efficiencies, and economics. In this article, the authors suggest that it is vital that people promote the protection of the environment and strengthen the laws that …

Identification Of The Biogenic Compounds Responsible For Size-Dependent Nanoparticle Growth, Paul M. Winkler, John Ortega, Thomas Karl, Luca Cappellin, Hans R. Friedli, Kelley Barsanti, Peter H. Mcmurry, James N. Smith

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The probability that freshly nucleated nanoparticles can survive to become cloud condensation nuclei is highly sensitive to particle growth rates. Much of the growth of newly formed ambient nanoparticles can be attributed to oxidized organic vapors originating from biogenic precursor gases. In this study we investigated the chemical composition of size-selected biogenic nanoparticles in the size range from 10 to 40 nm. Particles were formed in a flow tube reactor by ozonolysis ofα-pinene and analyzed with a Thermal Desorption Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer. While we found similar composition in 10 and 20 nm particles, the relative amounts of …

Overview Of The 2010 Carbonaceous Aerosols And Radiative Effects Study (Cares), Rahul A. Zaveri, William J. Shaw, Daniel J. Cziczo, Beat Schmid, Richard Ferrare, M. Lizabeth Alexander, Raul Alvarez, W. Patrick Arnott, Dean B. Atkinson, Sunil Baidar, Robert M. Banta, James Barnard, Josef Beranek, Larry K. Berg, Fred Brechtel, W. Alan Brewer, John F. Cahill, Brian Cairns, Christopher D. Cappa, D. Chand, S. China, Jennifer M. Comstock, Manvendra K. Dubey, Robert C. Easter, M. H. Erickson, Jerome Fast, Cody Floerchinger, B. Flowers, Edward C. Fortner, Jeffrey S. Gaffney, Mary K. Gilles, Kyle Gorkowski, William Gustafson, Madhu Gyawali, J. Hair, R. M. Hardesty, Joseph Harworth, Scott C. Herndon, Naruki Hiranuma, Chris Hostetler, John M. Hubbe, John T. Jayne, H. Jeong, B. Tom Jobson, Evgueni Kassianov, Lawrence I. Kleinman, C. Kluzek, W. Berk Knighton, Katheryn R. Kolesar, Chongai Kuang, Alena Kubátová, Andrew O. Langford, Alexander Laskin, N. Laulainen, Richard D. Marchbanks, Claudio Mazzoleni, Fan Mei, Ryan C. Moffet, Dan Nelson, Michael Obland, Hilke Oetjen, Timothy B. Onasch, I. Ortega, Matteo Ottaviani, Mikhail Pekour, Kimberly A. Prather, James Gregory Radney, Raymond R. Rogers, Scott P. Sandberg, Arthur J. Sedlacek, Christoph J. Senff, Gunnar I. Senum, Ari Setyan, John E. Shilling, Manishkumar Shrivastava, C. Song, Stephen R. Springston, R. Subramanian, Kaitlyn Suski, Jason Tomlinson, Rainer M. Volkamer, H. W. Wallace, Jian Wang, A. M. Weickmann, Douglas R. Worsnop, Xiao-Ying Yu, Alla Zelenyuk, Qi Zhang

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Substantial uncertainties still exist in the scientific understanding of the possible interactions between urban and natural (biogenic) emissions in the production and transformation of atmospheric aerosol and the resulting impact on climate change. The US Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program’s Carbonaceous Aerosol and Radiative Effects Study (CARES) carried out in June 2010 in Central Valley, California, was a comprehensive effort designed to improve this understanding. The primary objective of the field study was to investigate the evolution of secondary organic and black carbon aerosols and their climate-related properties in the Sacramento urban plume as it was …

Integrated Assessment Of Anthropogenic, Climate, And Policy Induced Changes Of Phosphorus Export In The United States Laurentian Great Lakes Watersheds, Meredith Ballard Labeau

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Anthropogenic activities have increased phosphorus (P) loading in tributaries to the Laurentian Great Lakes resulting in eutrophication in small bays to most notably, Lake Erie. Changes to surface water quality from P loading have resulted in billions of dollars in damage and threaten the health of the world’s largest freshwater resource. To understand the factors affecting P delivery with projected increasing urban lands and biofuels expansion, two spatially explicit models were coupled. The coupled models predict that the majority of the basin will experience a significant increase in urban area P sources while the agriculture intensity and forest sources of …

The Reduction Of Storm Surge By Vegetation Canopies: Three-Dimensional Simulations, Y. Peter Sheng, Andrew Lapetina, Gangfeng Ma

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Significant buffering of storm surges by vegetation canopies has been suggested by limited observations and simple numerical studies, particularly following recent Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Here we simulate storm surge and inundation over idealized topographies using a three-dimensional vegetation-resolving storm surge model coupled to a shallow water wave model and show that a sufficiently wide and tall vegetation canopy reduces inundation on land by 5 to 40 percent, depending upon various storm and canopy parameters. Effectiveness of the vegetation in dissipating storm surge and inundation depends on the intensity and forward speed of the hurricane, as well as the …

2d And 3d Imaging Of The Metamorphic Carbonates At Omalos Plateau/Polje, Crete, Greece By Employing Independent And Joint Inversion On Resistivity And Seismic Data, Hamdan Ali Hamdan Dr, Nikos Economou, Giorgos Kritikakis, Nikos Andronikidis, Emmanuil Manoutsoglou, Antonis Vafidis, Pangratis Pangratis, Georgina Apostolidou

International Journal of Speleology

A geophysical survey carried out at Omalos plateau in Chania, Western Crete, Greece employed seismic as well as electrical tomography methods in order to image karstic structures and the metamorphic carbonates (Tripali unit and Plattenkalk group) which are covered by post-Mesozoic deposits (terra rossa, clays, sands and gravels). The geoelectrical sections image the metamorphic carbonates which exhibit a highly irregular relief. At the central part of the plateau the thickness of post-Mesozoic deposits (terra rossa, clays, sands and gravels) ranges from 40-130 m. A 3D resistivity image was generated by inverting resistivity data collected on a grid to the south …

Field And Laboratory Comparison Of The Hydraulic Performance Of Two Ceramic Pot Water Filters, Duncan Peabody

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Currently 884 million people worldwide are living without access to an improved source of drinking water (WHO/UNICEF, 2011). Piped-water on premises is the ultimate goal of World Health Organization (WHO) due to the ability to treat all of the water and distribute it safely in pressurized pipes. However, Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage (HWTS) is an option for improving the quality of drinking water where that infrastructure is not yet developed, especially where there is a risk of recontamination between point of collection and point of use (Clasen, 2006).

This study analyzed one such HWTS, the ceramic pot water …

Aggregation Of Sediment And Bacteria With Mucilage From The Opuntia Ficus-Indica Cactus, Audrey Lynn Buttice

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Flocculants are commonly used in industrial settings where solid-liquid separations are desired including industrial and municipal wastewater management and potable water production facilities. Conventional flocculants include inorganic metal salts and synthetic organic polymers. The cost, availability, and harmful effects of the non-biodegradable nature of these flocculants have led to the widespread study of natural flocculants. Current natural flocculants being studied include polysaccharides cultivated from microbial extracellular matrix products and plant based materials. In this study, the mucilage of Opuntia ficus-indica cactus was evaluated as a natural flocculant for sediments and bacteria. The O. ficus-indica cactus is also known as the …

Precipitation Of Phosphate Minerals From Effluent Of Anaerobically Digested Swine Manure, Alex Y. Lin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Swine production represents approximately 40% of the world's meat production, and its wastes contain high concentrations of organic carbon, nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P). Anaerobic digestion is an increasingly popular technology for treating animal wastes while simultaneously generating energy. Its propagation and ability to solubilize organic N and P make adding a struvite recovery process attractive. Recovering struvite (MgNH4PO4) from anaerobically digested swine waste can address global P shortages, meet P discharge guidelines, and produce slow-release fertilizer, which can be sold for revenue.

Anaerobic digesters were operated with at organic loading rates of 3.4-3.9 g volatile solids per liter per …

Water's Dependence On Energy: Analysis Of Embodied Energy In Water And Wastewater Systems, Weiwei Mo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water and wastewater treatment is a critical service provided for protecting human health and the environment. Over the past decade, increasing attention has been placed on energy consumption in water and wastewater systems for the following reasons: (1) Water and energy are two interrelated resources. The nexus between water and energy can intensify the crises of fresh water and fossil fuel shortages; (2) The demand of water/wastewater treatment services is expected to continue to increase with increasing population, economic development and land use change in the foreseeable future; and (3) There is a great potential to mitigate energy use in …

Adapting To Climate Change While Planning For Disaster: Footholds, Rope Lines, And The Iowa Floods, Robert R.M. Verchick, Abby Hall

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

2011 Fall Engr333 Project Final Report, Fall 2011 Engr333

ENGR 333

Analysis of the Bunker Interpretive Center (BIC) began during the spring of 2011 with the Engineering 382 Instrumentation Lab. To determine the energy use at the BIC, sensing equipment was placed on 44 different energy consuming devices, ranging from pumps to lights to heating and ventilation (HVAC) equipment. These data were collected over the spring and summer and then analyzed by the Engineering 333 Thermal Systems Design class during the fall of 2011. The class was tasked with determining whether or not the BIC was eligible for Energy Star certification. While the building was built to be LEED Gold certified, …

2011 Fall Engr333 Student Seminar Presentation, 2011 Fall Engr333

ENGR 333

File for student presentation, given by students in the Fall 2010 class of ENGR333.

Removal Of Disinfection By-Product Precursors Using Magnetic Ion Exchange (Miex(R)): The Effects Of Ph And Source Water Variability, Sarah Cousins

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Disinfection by-products (DBPs) form as an unintended result of drinking water disinfection, from chemical reactions between disinfectants (e.g., free chlorine) and naturally occurring dissolved organic matter (DOM). At present, 11 DBPs are regulated in treated drinking waters due to potential adverse health effects, including four trihalomethanes (THMs). Despite nearly 40 years of DBP research, compliance with DBP regulations remains a challenge for many drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs), including the four DWTPs located on the Beaver Lake Reservoir in Northwest Arkansas. Due to the high net negative surface charge on DOM, anion exchange is one potentially viable method for removing …

Going Green, Dermot Kehily

Articles

No abstract provided.

Water Quality Models For Stormwater Runoff In Two Lincoln, Nebraska Urban Watersheds, Jake Fisher

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

Water quality monitoring was conducted in two urban watersheds (Colonial Hills and Taylor Park) located in southeast Lincoln, NE over a three year period spanning from October 2008 through September 2011. In-line probes continuously measured for turbidity, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, and water temperature while other water quality constituents were analyzed for discrete water samples collected using grab and automatic sampling techniques. The water quality data was used to calculate event mean concentrations (EMCs) for sixteen storm events sampled over the duration of the project period. Three types of stormwater quality multiple linear regression models were developed for the estimation of …

Water Quality Trends For Section 319 Priority Watersheds In Northwest Arkansas, 1997-2010, Bryan William Bailey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Northwest Arkansas contains two Section 319 Priority Watersheds that the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission (ANRC) has identified as being impacted by point and nonpoint sources of pollution (i.e., phosphorus, nitrogen, and sediment), and the Arkansas Water Resources Center (AWRC) has monitored the water quality at several sites within these watersheds. Water-quality data has been collected over the last decade within the Illinois River Watershed (HUC #11110103) and the Upper White River Basin (Beaver Reservoir HUC# 11010001), each watershed containing three sampling sites. The Illinois River Watershed sites are located on the Illinois River, Osage Creek, and Ballard Creek, and the …

Modeling Passive Solar Distillation Production In Las Vegas, Nevada, Noe I. Santos

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A study has been performed to examine the effects of daily weather on the performance of commercial solar distillation basins (solar stills). The objectives of this study were to evaluate the long term performance of solar stills, to instrument two solar stills and record sub-hourly thermal properties, to evaluate existing heat transfer modeling methods for hourly production, and to create new models to predict daily production using experimental distillate production and local weather data by utilizing artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms, and multivariate regression. A system dynamics model was also created to determine the required basin area and storage volume …

Effects Of High-Impedance-Contrast Boundary Upon Multi-Modal Seismic Surface Wave Data, Prajwol Tamrakar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Synthetic studies and analyses of an experimental dataset were conducted to address the use of Rayleigh-type surface waves for estimation of shear wave velocity (VS) profiles of shallow bedrock sites. The shallow bedrock presents a high impedance contrast boundary which causes surface wave energy to be partitioned to higher modes. Idealized studies of hypothetical datasets and root-mean-squared calculations of error surfaces showed that if reliable dispersion data are available over a broad frequency spectrum, the VS profile can be recovered using the fundamental mode alone. However, when dispersion data are limited to a relatively narrow frequency band representing what might …

Hydroclimatic Forecasting In The Western United States Using Paleoclimate Reconstructions And Data-Driven Models, Christopher Allen Carrier

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis investigated climate variability and their associated hydrologic responses in the western United States. The western United States faces the problem of water scarcity, where the management and mitigation of available water supplies are further complicated by climate variability. Climate variability associated with the phases of oceanic-atmospheric oscillations has been shown to influence streamflow and precipitation, where predictive relationships have led to the possibility of producing long-range forecasts. Based on literature review, four oceanic-atmospheric oscillation indices were identified in having the most prominent influence over the western United States including the El Niño - Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Pacific Decadal …

Soil Chemistry And The Recovery Of Sensitive Watersheds From Chronic Acidification, Chris E. Johnson

Civil and Environmental Engineering - All Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Dissemination Of Geological Information In Avoiding Geotechnical Risks Associated With Tunnel Construction: Lessons Learned From Deep Voids In Marble In Lower Manhattan, New York City, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Stanley Schleifer, Masud Ahmed, Leah Scott

Publications and Research

Test boring associated with the recently accomplished City Water Tunnel # 3 in Manhattan, New York City revealed moderately to highly weathered marble with insoluble silicate residues composed mostly of phlogopite, chlorite, and tremolite. Apparent control on the weatherability of the marble was in response to original mineral constituents dominating this lithology. Encountered marble samples ranged between pure calcitic to mixed dolomitic/siliceous types. Fresh marble samples collected from adjacent boring locations revealed characteristic geochemical data: Lime (25-45%), Silica (4-7%), Alumina (1-3%), MgO (5-20%), and LOI (35-42%); compressive strength of unweathered marble varied between 2000-3000 Kg/cm². Relict foliations with …

2011 Fall Engr333 Project Assignment, Matthew K. Heun

ENGR 333

The Fall 2011 ENGR333 project focused on the Bunker Interpretive Center (BIC) at Calvin University.

I asked the students “What would it take for Calvin College to obtain an Energy Star rating for the BIC? Or, if the BIC already qualifies for an Energy Star rating, what would it take to improve the energy efficiency of the BIC (as measured by Energy Star metrics) by 15%, thereby ensuring Energy Star performance of the building into the future?”

Customer

As I recall, the customer for this project was Biology faculty member Randy Van Dragt.

Thirdhand Tobacco Smoke: Emerging Evidence And Arguments For A Multidisciplinary Research Agenda, Georg E. Matt, Penelope J. Quintana, Hugo Destaillats, Lara A. Gundel, Mohamad Sleiman, Brett C. Singer, Peyton Jacob, Jonathan P. Winickoff, Prue Talbot, Suzaynn Schick, Yinsheng Wang, Bo Hang, Manuela Martins-Green, James F. Pankow, Melbourne F. Hovell, Neal L. Benowitz, Virender K. Rehan, Jonathan M. Samet

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

There is broad consensus regarding the health impact of tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure, yet considerable ambiguity exists about the nature and consequences of thirdhand smoke (THS). We introduce definitions of THS and THS exposure and review recent findings about constituents, indoor sorption-desorption dynamics, and transformations of THS; distribution and persistence of THS in residential settings; implications for pathways of exposure; potential clinical significance and health effects; and behavioral and policy issues that affect and are affected by THS. Physical and chemical transformations of tobacco smoke pollutants take place over time scales ranging from seconds to months and include …

Correlation Between Grain Dislocation Density And Orientation For Naturally Deformed Mantle Xenolith From Jagersfontein Mine, Quinton Guerrero, Quinlan Smith

Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

Determining the reaction of poly-crystalline structures to induced stress is an extremely difficult problem in contemporary engineering and geology. The main challenge lies in the inhomogeneity of the grains inside of the poly-crystalline structures. To predict the response of a certain polycrystalline structure to a specific stress, you must resort to one of two views on grain interaction, an orientation or propagation based model. For every material there may be certain correlations between the prediction model used and the actual deformation that occurred. Our work centers around describing the correlation of these prediction models with a sample of naturally deformed …