Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Accelerated Test Method (Atm) For The Evaluation Of External Sulfate And Chloride Attack On Concrete Using Artificial Climate Environment (Ace): An Assessment Of Methodology, Eli Walker

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This study seeks to investigate a testing methodology that utilizes accelerated testing methods (ATM) in conjunction with nondestructive testing methods (NDT) to assess destructive ion attacks on concrete. Through the testing of concrete samples, the impacts of chloride and sulfate ions on concrete will be tested by subjecting concrete to cyclic testing in an artificial climate environment. Electrical resistivity (ER) and ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) testing will evaluate the impact of the accelerated testing on the migration of destructive ions within the pore structure of the tested concrete. Based on this investigation, comparisons between accelerated, non-accelerated, and control samples will …

A Durability Evaluation Of Class B Concrete Bridge Substructures Under West Virginia Freeze–Thaw Conditions, Nathaniel Wayne Dunbar

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study evaluates whether the West Virginia Division of Highways (WVDOH) Class B concrete specification for bridge substructures remains adequate under modern durability and design-life expectations. The current specification, which permits a minimum compressive strength of 3,000 psi, reflects practices established when shorter service lives were generally assumed. Modern AASHTO LRFD provisions are based on a 75-year design life, raising concern that this lower-strength concrete may not provide sufficient durability under West Virginia’s climatic conditions.

To address this issue, bridge inspection data, regional climate mapping, and durability modeling were used to assess the condition and performance of concrete substructures across …

Long-Term Traffic Prediction Using Deep Learning Long Short-Term Memory, Ange-Lionel Toba, Sameer Kulkarni, Wael Khallouli, Timothy Pennington

School of Cybersecurity Faculty Publications

Traffic conditions are a key factor in our society, contributing to quality of life and the economy, as well as access to professional, educational, and health resources. This emphasizes the need for a reliable road network to facilitate traffic fluidity across the nation and improve mobility. Reaching these characteristics demands good traffic volume prediction methods, not only in the short term but also in the long term, which helps design transportation strategies and road planning. However, most of the research has focused on short-term prediction, applied mostly to short-trip distances, while effective long-term forecasting, which has become a challenging issue …

Physics-Informed Deep Learning With Kalman Filter Mixture For Traffic State Prediction, Niharika Deshpande, Hyoshin (John) Park

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Accurate traffic forecasting is crucial for understanding and managing congestion for efficient transportation planning. However, conventional approaches often neglect epistemic uncertainty, which arises from incomplete knowledge across different spatiotemporal scales. This study addresses this challenge by introducing a novel methodology to establish dynamic spatiotemporal correlations that captures the unobserved heterogeneity in travel time through distinct peaks in probability density functions, guided by physics-based principles. We propose an innovative approach to modifying both prediction and correction steps of the Kalman Filter (KF) algorithm by leveraging established spatiotemporal correlations. Central to our approach is the development of a novel deep learning model …

Drone-Based Medication Delivery For Rural, Flood-Prone Coastal Cities, Yin-Hsuen Chen, Amro M. El-Adle, Kevin J. O'Brien, Taylor Wentworth, Heather G. Richter

Center for Geospatial Science, Education & Analytics Faculty Publications

Access to healthcare remains a critical challenge for rural populations, particularly in flood-prone coastal communities where transportation barriers limit access to essential medical services. This study evaluates the effectiveness of drone-based medication delivery in improving healthcare accessibility for vulnerable populations on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Compared to traditional personal vehicle travel, drone delivery reduced trip times from up to 50 minutes to under 10 minutes for more than 80% of the population, including elderly patients. Using publicly available datasets, we developed two transportation vulnerability indices that incorporate age, travel time, and flood risk to prioritize patients for drone-based pharmaceutical delivery. These …

From Equitable Access To Equitable Usage: Moving Towards Data-Driven, Evidence-Based Cycling Assets Management, Kewei Ren, Yunping Liang, Chun-Hsing Ho

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Cycling is increasingly recognized for its wide range economic, environmental, and health benefits as a mobility option. However, disparities in the provision and the quality of bicycle infrastructure persists. Ensuring fair access and usage of these benefits for all presents a significant challenge. As a result, establishing effective methodologies to evaluate cycling equity is critically important. This paper synthesizes research on infrastructure asset management with a focus on equity considerations in bicycle infrastructure. A systematic review of 19 North American studies critically examines how existing research categorizes vulnerable populations and assesses fairness. The results reveal that most existing analyses focus …

Indiana Interstate Speed Profiles 2020-2024, Rahul Suryakant Sakhare, Jairaj Desai, Deborah Horton, Darcy M. Bullock

Indiana Mobility Reports

This report presents a graphical summary of monthly mile-hours of congestion across the 8 Indiana interstates (I-64, I-65, I-69, I-70, I-74, I-94, I-465, and I-469) and the Indiana Toll Road (I-90) analyzed longitudinally over the last five years from January 2020 to December 2024. It is a continuation of speed profile summaries that are published in previous years. Such systemwide interstate performance measures provide important information for decision makers to plan capital projects and assess operations.

Hours of operation by speed bins (0 to 14 mph, 15 mph to 24 mph, 25 mph to 34 mph, 35 mph to 44 …

Crawfordsville District Interstate Speed Profiles: April 2020–March 2025, Rahul Suryakant Sakhare, Jairaj Desai, Deborah Horton, Darcy M. Bullock

Indiana Mobility Reports

This report presents a graphical summary of monthly mile-hours of congestion across the three interstates (I-65, I-70, and I-74) in INDOT’s Crawfordville District analyzed longitudinally over the last five years from April 2020 to March 2025. It is a continuation of speed profile summaries that are published in previous years. Such systemwide interstate performance measures provide important information for decision makers to plan capital projects and assess operations.

Hours of operation by speed bins (0 to 14 mph, 15 mph to 24 mph, 25 mph to 34 mph, 35 mph to 44 mph, 45 mph to 54 mph, 55 mph …

Artificial Intelligence’S Role And Impact On The Engineering Discipline, Andrew Angelini

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this Honors Research project was to explore the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the Engineering Discipline as a whole. Specifically, civil engineering’s discipline of transportation was used to display the effectiveness of AI in engineering. This discipline was used due to its wide use in engineering and overall designs that can be created within this discipline. These designs include maintenance of traffic plans, engineering plan sets, horizontal and vertical curve design, intersection design, traffic signaling, highway material design, and phasing of intersections and traffic accounting for pedestrians. Through similar prompts that were given to a publicly …

Cognitive Map Generation For Vision And Language Navigation, Alexander Sandoval Mesa

Dissertations and Theses

Visual-Language Navigation (VLN) presents significant challenges for autonomous agents, such as robots and virtual assistants, particularly in complex, dynamic environments where the seamless integration of visual perception and natural language understanding is critical. Traditional VLN systems often struggle with effectively aligning language instructions and visual scene understanding, limiting their adaptability and navigation efficiency.

This thesis proposes a novel Cognitive Map-based framework that addresses these challenges by transforming natural language navigation instructions into structured graph representations. The Cognitive Map consists of nodes representing waypoints, landmarks, decision points, and edges encoding spatial relationships and navigational actions. These maps are generated using Large …

Data Driven Bridge Deck Deterioration Modeling And Maintenance Intervention Scheduling, Deepak Kumar

Dissertations and Theses

Majority of over 617,000 bridges across the United States are significantly impacted by environmental factors, aging materials, and heavy traffic loads. According to the 2021 Infrastructure Report, nearly 231,000 bridges require repair or preservation work, with 46,154 (7.5%) being classified as structurally deficient, thereby posing risks for mor than 178 million daily trips across these bridges. Despite recent improvements, 42% of U.S. bridges are at least 50 years old, underscoring an urgent need for increased investment to meet repair demands. The nation’s backlog of bridge repairs is estimated at $125 billion, with a 58% increase in annual spending required to …

Understanding Fare Capping In Public Transit: Socioeconomic Predictors And Ridership Outcomes, Maige Majuto

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fare capping is a transit policy that limits how much a rider pays within a certain period, after which all rides are free for the rest of that period. Fare capping has become a potential strategy to reverse the trend of declining transit ridership, which has been caused by factors like fare increases, service reductions, and shifts in travel behavior. While demographic and socioeconomic characteristics are known to influence ridership, their role in fare capping adoption remains underexplored. This study examines how factors like age, income, race, education, and car ownership affect fare capping adoption at the neighborhood level and …

Assessment And Optimization Of Electric Vehicles Charging Infrastructure: Addressing Accessibility Disparities In Urban And Rural Areas, Dennis B. Bwire

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is essential for advancing sustainable transportation systems; however, disparities in the spatial distribution of electric vehicle charging stations (EVCS) present significant challenges for equitable access. This thesis investigates both the inequities in EVCS accessibility and offers a data driven approach for optimizing the siting of future charging infrastructure.

The first part of the study investigates the accessibility of EVCS in rural and urban areas, focusing on how socio-demographic factors influence accessibility metrics. Using geographic information systems (GIS), network analysis, and binary logistic regression, spatial data on EVCS locations and socio-demographic attributes such as …

Connecting Bicyclists And Transit: A Multimodal Routing Tool With Bicycle Facilities Scoring, Raphael Y. Mrema

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research develops a comprehensive, data-driven framework for assessing multimodal bicycle accessibility using open-source technologies and real-time routing data. Traditional active transportation studies often depend on proprietary GIS tools and static network datasets, which limit scalability, reproducibility, and integration with live mobility systems. In contrast, this study introduces a Python-based approach that leverages GeoPandas, the Google Maps Directions API, and General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data to dynamically evaluate infrastructure quality, operational stress, and multimodal connectivity. The framework was applied to Duval County, Florida, to examine how roadway design, facility type, and transit availability jointly influence bicycle network performance and …

Traffic Safety In Tacoma: A Dual Study On Community Perceptions Of Vision Zero And The Application Of The Safe System Framework, Janeroza W. Matyenyi

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The city of Tacoma adopted Vision Zero in 2020 and is planning to achieve zero traffic deaths and severe injuries by 2035. As part of its outreach plan to engage the local community, the city of Tacoma’s Vision Zero team surveyed the critical issues affecting traffic safety as perceived by road users. One of the Vision Zero strategies is to implement safer speeds across streets by reducing speed limits that are too high. This study aims to analyze the factors influencing the perceptions of speeding and high-speed limits as safety concerns, analyze narratives from respondents on issues affecting traffic safety, …

Analysis Of Port Traffic Growth For Optimization Of Traffic Flow: A Microscopic Traffic Simulation Study Of Jaxport's Blount Island Marine Terminal, Amy A. Aida

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

To accommodate increasing cargo volumes and remain competitive, ports worldwide are facing growing pressure to expand and modernize their facilities. However, these expansions can place additional strain on land transportation networks, leading to congestion, delays and operational inefficiencies. This study used VISSIM, a microscopic traffic simulation tool, to model and analyze the complex traffic dynamics at the Blount Island Marine Terminal in Jacksonville, Florida, which is currently undergoing expansion.

To account for future traffic conditions, time series analysis was employed to project growth in traffic demand, taking into consideration anticipated expansions in tenant yard facilities, as well as increases in …

Psychosocial Determinants Of Public Transportation Use Among Brazilian And American Users: An Integrated Modeling Approach, Ingrid Luiza Neto, Hartmut Günther, Bryan E. Porter, Taciano L. Milfont, Pastor Willy Gonzales Taco, Caroline Cardoso Machado

Psychology Faculty Publications

Overreliance on cars can promote individual, environmental, economic and social problems, requiring the development of measures to reduce car use and encourage the use of more sustainable transport options. Contributing to this call, here we report a cross-cultural study conducted in Brazil (n = 312) and the United States (n = 518) investigating the applicability of the model of Bamberg and Möser in predicting the use of public transport. Results indicated the model is equivalent across samples, regarding both the measures and the relations between the variables of the model. Intention strongly predicted self-reported public transport behaviour, explaining 70% of …

Hydrogen-Enriched Lng As A Mid-Term Solution To Mitigate Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Shipping, Kang-Ki Lee

World Maritime University Ph.D. Dissertations

In light of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) ambitious Initial GHG Strategy, the rise in international shipping’s carbon dioxide emissions by 2 percent in 2022 compared to 2019 poses a formidable challenge. This increase underscores the pressing need to address the limited availability of green hydrogen, prompting the exploration of mid-term solutions to bridge this critical gap. The IMO’s 2023 Strategy on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships attempted to tackle this challenge head-on, recognizing the urgency of reducing the industry’s substantial carbon footprint. While hydrogen offers a simple solution as a zero-carbon fuel, LNG remains the most widespread alternative …

Flux-Weakening Control Methods For Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines In Electric Vehicles At High Speed, Samer Alwaqfi, Mohamad Alzayed, Hicham Chaoui

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) are widely favored by manufacturers for use in electric vehicles (EVs) because of their many benefits, which include high power density at high speeds, ruggedness, potential for high efficiency, and reduced control complexity. However, since the Back Electromotive Force (EMF) increases proportionally with the motor’s rotational speed, it must be carefully controlled at high speeds. Flux-weakening (FW) control is required to avoid excessive electromagnetic flux beyond the power source and inverter’s voltage restrictions. This paper aims to compare various FW control strategies and analyze their effectiveness in maximizing the speed of PMSMs in EV applications …

Influence Of Deck Area And Average Daily Traffic On The Deterioration Of Bridge Superstructures., Faysal Ahamed

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are responsible for maintaining approximately 623,000 bridges across the United States. Effective bridge management requires a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing structural deterioration. Numerous studies have explored the effects of average daily traffic (ADT) and deck area (DA) on bridge deck deterioration. Given the interdependence between bridge decks and superstructures, it is plausible that ADT and DA significantly influence superstructure condition ratings and deterioration trends. However, their impact on superstructures remains insufficiently studied. In addition, existing studies primarily focus on overall bridge deterioration without adequately differentiating between superstructure designs and materials and maintenance authorities. …

Road Safety Assessment For Accident And Non-Accident Cases Supporting Sustainable Development Goals 2030, Brian Nararya Nugraha, Sekar Warangi Nurcahyati, Hizkia Adhikaratma, Martha Leni Siregar

Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development

Halving the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents is one target of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030, which is still a challenging problem in Indonesia. However, the majority of research on this topic uses accident-based methods, which limits the safety analysis. Two road safety assessment methods are used to close the gap, with the addition of non-accident-based methods such as Road Safety Audits (RSA). The Margonda Raya Road, which is categorised as a traffic accident blackspot, was selected for the case study. For this, a field survey of the road segment is carried out. To minimise …

A Statewide Geographic Information System (Gis) As A Predictive Tool For Locating Deeply Buried Archeological Deposits In Nebraska: Phase Iii-The Sandhills Region, Anthony L. Layzell, Rolfe D. Mandel, John Swigart, David T. Williams

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

This project developed a GIS to assist with the identification of deeply buried cultural deposits in alluvial settings across the Sandhills region of Nebraska. Soil survey data, previous geoarchaeological investigations, landform position, and other information was used to rank the potential of any stream valley setting as low, low-moderate, moderate-high, or high potential to contain buried cultural deposits. While the presence of buried soils does not necessarily translate to presence of buried archeological sites, the potential for such sites is far greater in buried soils. The GIS can be used by NDOT and other agencies with statutory historic preservation obligations, …

Data For: Examining The Impacts Of Demographics, Individual Experiences, And Perceptions On Range Anxiety And Electric Vehicle Road Trips, Joshua Ward, Patrick A. Singleton, Antje Graul, Zane Regan

Browse all Datasets

Electric Vehicle Road Trip Study: These data contain anonymized responses to a survey designed to investigate the experiences, perceptions, barriers, and opportunities identified by electric vehicle (EV) drivers regarding road trips to recreational areas (like national parks) and for recreational activities.

Optimization Of Construction Scheme Of Ultra‑Large Special‑Shaped Foundation Pit Adjacent To Existing Station And Temporary Steel Bridge, Chen Dengwei

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

With the intensifying development density of urban underground space in China，the impact of ultra-large foundation pit construction on the normal operation of adjacent structures cannot be ignored.Relying on the Huangmugang Comprehensive Transportation Hub Project in Shenzhen，this paper studied the deformation of the envelope structure and soil caused by the excavation of the ultra-large special-shaped foundation pit，as well as the structural response of the deformation of the adjacent existing station and the temporary steel bridge.The paper optimized the construction scheme of the special-shaped foundation pit excavation.The results show that the deformation trend of the envelope structure on the north and south …

Friction‑ 1d Transformer ： A 1d Vision Transformer Hybrid Model For Skid Resistance Prediction On Asphalt Pavements, Pei Feifei, Nie Zilong, Xu G Uomin, Zhan You, Gong Xianqi, Ai Changfa, Deng Yuan, Ji Zhengyun, Wang Shifa

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

The friction performance of road surfaces is an important indicator of highway safety，which is closely related to road texture.In this paper，a set of three-dimensional denoising methods for road texture data with different noise levels was proposed，which could effectively remove noise while preserving local texture features.In addition，a skid resistance prediction model named Friction- 1D Transformer was developed based on the design concept of Vision Transformer （VIT） for skid resistance evaluation of asphalt pavements.Unlike traditional convolutional neural networks，the Friction- 1D Transformer utilized positional encoding structures and multi-head attention mechanisms to extract global features from one-dimensional （1D） texture signals along the direction of …

Experimental Investigation On Shrinkage Effect Of Ultra‑High Performance Concrete Under Steam Curing, Li Bing, Yang Tengyu, Fang Changle, Luo Zirun, Li Chuanxi, Tan Ke

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

Determining the free shrinkage of U HPC is an important basis for analyzing the shrinkage effect of steel UHPC composite bridge deck.Therefore，based on the UHPC materials to be used in a project，three batches of UHPC free shrinkage specimens were made，and three specimens were made in each batch.By testing the strain and temperature of specimens during curing，the free shrinkage strain-age curve and temperature-age curve of UHPC were obtained.The development and variation law of UHPC shrinkage strain are discussed.Based on the experimental results，the equivalent time is introduced on the basis of Arrhenius empirical formula，and a modified model of free shrinkage is proposed.Finally，based …

Mechanical And Vegetative Performance Of Bamboo Fiber‑Reinforced Eco‑Concrete With Recycled Aggregate, Li Tao, Deng Bofan, He Maolin, Liu Ting, Chen Houde

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

In response to the current common urban construction waste disposal issue，this study utilized processed recycled construction waste aggregate and bamboo waste materials to produce bamboo fiber-reinforced eco-concrete with recycled aggregate.By adjusting the dosage of bamboo fiber，the effects of the dosage of bamboo fiber on the mechanical and vegetative performance of the concrete were systematically analyzed by means of orthogonal tests and verification methods.The test results indicate that bamboo fiber enhances the toughness of eco-concrete significantly.Particularly，when the dosage of bamboo fiber exceeds 3.0 kg/m3，there is a significant enhancement in the tensile performance of the eco-concrete with recycled aggregate.Due to the spatial …

Curing Law And Road Performance Of Polyurethane Mixture, Sun Shengkai, Zheng Mao, Tang Xiong, Liu Li, Zhong Shengran, Si Te

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

Polyurethane mixture is composed of polyurethane binder，rubber particles，and stones.Compared with ordinary asphalt mixture，it has the characteristics of a higher content of rubber particles and large void ratios.This article first tested the viscosity-time curve and viscosity-temperature curve of one-component polyurethane and determined the compaction temperature of the polyurethane mixture.Based on the rutting test，three-point bending test，water immersion Marshall test，freeze-thaw splitting test，and pendulum friction test，the road performance of the polyurethane mixture under different replacement amounts of rubber particles was tested.The research results show that the mixing temperature of PU- 1 polyurethane mixture can be basically controlled between 73 ℃ and 81 ℃，and it …

Elimination Method Of Temperature Lag Effect In Deformation Monitoring Data Of Cable‑Stayed Bridge Structures, Liu Hongshuang, Zhai Wenqiang, Zeng Guoliang

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

There is a temperature lag effect in the deformation monitoring data of the bridge structure.Eliminating the temperature lag effect is of great significance in the health monitoring of the bridge structure.Based on the linear correlation between the deformation of the bridge structure and the temperature，this paper applied the goodness of fit test and proposed a time-domain translation elimination method.On this basis，by taking the long-term synchronous monitoring of the tower inclination，beam end displacement，main girder deflection，and temperature data of a cable-stayed bridge as an example，this method was used to eliminate the temperature lag effect in the deformation monitoring data and compared with …

Sensitivity Analysis Of Parameters Of Cable‑Stayed Bridges With Full Floating Spatial Frame, Liu Anqing, Yan Tengfei, Zheng Pengju, Gu Yanlin, Li Jie, Wang Qiang

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

In order to clarify the influence of design parameters on the mechanical behavior of a cable-stayed bridge of a floating system，a finite element model of the bridge was established by using the finite element analysis software MIDAS/Civil based on a single-tower double-cable plane steel-concrete composite beam cable-stayed bridge with full floating spatial frame.The sensitivity of parameters such as temperature effect，secondary dead load，and support system in the completed bridge state was analyzed and compared with the semi-floating system of the bridge.The results show that temperature and secondary dead load have a significant impact on the deflection and stress of the main …