Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Navigating The Academic Job Search For Environmental Engineers: Guidance For Job Seekers And Mentors, David A. Ladner, Stephanie C. Bolyard, Defne Apul, Andrew J. Whelton

Publications

Students and postdoctoral associates interested in tenure-track environmental engineering positions have limited resources to aid them. The Student Services Committee (SSC) of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) organized a workshop to fill some of the need. Newly hired faculty and experienced search committee and department chairs shared information on how to create competitive applications. Students and postdoctoral associates were also provided with individualized feedback on their faculty application packages. Survey data were collected for all participants, and these data are presented in this paper along with tips shared during the workshop and information collected from the …

Noise-Insensitive Prognostic Evaluation Of Historic Masonry Structures, Ashley Haydock

All Theses

In recent years, a significant amount of research has been directed towards the development of prognostic methodologies to forecast the future health state of an engineering system assisting condition based maintenance. These prognostic methods, having furthered the maintenance practices for mechanical systems, have yet to be applied to historic masonry structures, many of which stand in an aged and degraded state. Implementation of prognostic methodologies to historic masonry structures can advance the planning of successful conservation and restoration efforts, ultimately prolonging the life of these heritage structures. This thesis presents a review of prognostic concepts and techniques available in the …

Aerosol Delivery As A Method For Enhancing Remedial Application In Contaminated Vadose Zones, Richard Hall

All Dissertations

Remediation of contaminated vadose zones is often hindered by an inability to effectively distribute liquid- or solid-phase amendments. Many amendment-based approaches, such as bioremediation, chemical oxidation, and reactive barriers have been successful in saturated formations. However, these remedial approaches have seen limited application in unsaturated materials, largely because of difficulties delivering amendments.
Aerosol delivery is a promising approach for distributing amendments in contaminated vadose zones. The amendments are aerosolized, creating a cloud of micron to sub-micron-scale liquid droplets held suspended in a gas by Brownian motion. During injection into porous media, the aerosol particles are transported along with the gas …

Quantifying Annual Bridge Cost By Overweight Trucks In South Carolina, Linbo Chen

All Theses

With the economic development in recent decades, more trucks including overweight trucks are operating on the highways. As a result, many bridges are expected to carry more loads than they did in previous years. The impact of overweight trucks on existing bridges has been an urgent concern for the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT). There is a pressing need to quantify the annual bridge cost in South Carolina caused by trucks and, in particular, overweight trucks so that the SCDOT and the state legislators can determine the appropriate fee structure for operating overweight trucks. This research focused on quantifying …

Influence Of Pcb-Contaminated Water Bodies On The Pcb Content Of Riparian Vegetation Through Foliar Deposition, Timothy Matthew Sattler

All Theses

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a class of persistent organic pollutants that are generally considered semi-volatile. Volatilization and transport of PCBs from contaminated water bodies can result in PCB accumulation on terrestrial plant surfaces, acting as an entry point for contaminants into terrestrial food webs. Evergreen plants can serve as biomonitors of this PCB accumulation, as they often retain foliage for several years, allowing for greater concentrations to accumulate and subsequently be measured. Rhododendron maximum plants often grow in the riparian zone adjacent to water bodies in the Appalachian region, such as near Town Creek, Pickens, South Carolina. This research aimed …

The Hydraulic Performance Of Perforated Pipe Under-Drains Surrounded By Loose Aggregate, Patrick Murphy

All Theses

Perforated pipes are commonly used in the construction industry for subsurface drains. These subsurface drains are installed to intercept and convey infiltrated runoff or groundwater. One common application of perforated pipe is to provide an under-drain for an infiltration trench or porous pavement best management practice (BMP). Perforated pipe is installed into a trench on a bed of aggregate ranging from 0 to 28 cm thick and, depending on the design objective, is laid flat or on a slope. However, the actual hydraulic performance of these pipes, i.e. the stage storage relationship, is poorly understood. The resulting flow is quite …

A Methodology For Designing Pervious Bicycle Lanes For Stormwater Management, Donald West Iii

All Theses

Bicycles have proven to be an efficient and reliable form of transportation in urban settings. Therefore, the addition of bicycle lanes into the transportation network could significantly impact and improve the sustainability of our infrastructure by reducing greenhouse emissions and improving the health of individuals who cycle on a regular basis. Pervious pavements are an approved (LID) strategy that could potentially be used to construct these new facilities thereby reducing the quantity of stormwater runoff and improving the water quality. Practicing engineers need both a design aid and research supported methods for designing these improvements before they can be fully …

Numerical Study Of The Structural Performance Of Large Panelized All-Wood Roof Diaphragms, Sami Pant

All Theses

The use of flexible roof diaphragms is very common in the United States, both for multi-family residential buildings and large-scale commercial buildings. Due to its simplicity, the traditional diaphragm design method is commonly used in diaphragm design, in particular for the design of diaphragms with relatively small dimensions. The traditional diaphragm design method assumes the axial forces developed in framing members under in-plane loading carried only by the perimeter chords. The traditional diaphragm design method has always been thought to be a conservative design method, especially when applied to large diaphragms. In recent years, the engineering community began to question …

College Level Residential Building Code Education: Current Status And Best Practice, Earl Shealy

All Theses

Community destruction and loss of life due to residential building code (RBC) violations still occur too frequently. Increasing RBC enforcement is often not possible due to lack of funds and resources. Teaching RBC to college-level construction students is another way to encourage greater code compliance and enhanced community resilience. This research assesses the current status of RBC education in accredited construction programs, identifies academic and industry perspectives of RBC education, and constructs 'best practice' RBC teaching strategies.
A mix method, exploratory approach including three distinct phases explains the current phenomenon - RBC education emphasis within university curriculums. My research found …

Vehicle-Infrastructure Integration Enabled Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles For Energy Management, Yiming He

All Dissertations

The U.S. federal government is seeking useful applications of Vehicle-Infrastructure Integration (VII) to encourage a greener and more efficient transportation system; Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) are considered as one of the most promising automotive technologies for such an application. In this study, the author demonstrates a strategy to improve PHEV energy efficiency via the use of VII. This dissertation, which is composed of three published peer-reviewed journal articles, demonstrates the efficacies of the PHEV-VII system as regards to both the energy use and environmental impact under different scenarios.
The first article demonstrates the capabilities of and benefits achievable for …

Incorporating Natural Hazard Resistance Into The Life Cycle Assessment Framework, Jeffery Plumblee

All Dissertations

Hazard resistant building materials are not adequately represented by current LCA approaches, which do not account for environmental benefits of the avoided losses (e.g. avoided waste, avoided materials for repairs) promised by hazard resistant materials. The goal of this study was to encourage a more complete understanding of materials' environmental impacts by developing a framework to include hazard related damages in LCA.
Catastrophe modeling is a well-developed tool used by the insurance industry to assess the probability of hazard and quantify related impacts. These models were studied to identify required input data as well as the format of output results. …

The Sustainability Generation: Why Young People Hold The Key To A Better Future, Leidy Klotz

Publications

In a standard test of reasoning, you are given a candle, a box of thumbtacks, and a book of matches. Your task is to attach the candle to the wall so that it does not drip onto the table below.

I thought about how to melt the wax and use it to stick the candle to the wall. What would you do?

This challenge is designed to reveal functional fixedness, mental blocks against using objects in a new way. The experience that comes with age is a disadvantage here because it leads to thinking of the normal use of the …

Detecting Copper Residues In Sediments From Aquatic Copper-Based Pesticide Applications, Ben Willis

All Theses

Copper-based algaecides and herbicides are commonly used to mitigate risks of problematic algae and weeds, however there are concerns regarding copper accumulation from treatments. Modeling and laboratory experiments can be used to predict copper accumulation and measurement in sediments, as well as benthic invertebrate responses following treatments. Modeling was used to estimate copper residual concentrations in sediments from algaecide and herbicide treatments. Reported and measured method detection limits (MDLs; minimum concentration of an analyte of interest that can be measured with 99 percent confidence in a specific matrix using an analytical method) were compared to model estimated copper residual concentrations …

Evaluation Of Rubber Modified Porous Asphalt Mixtures, Kimberly Lyons

All Theses

A porous pavement is a type of sustainable pavement that allows stormwater to infiltrate through the pavement into the natural soil bed. Rubber modified binder is the combination of regular asphalt binder mixed with ground crumb rubber, which is derived from used rubber tires by shredding or grinding the tires into small fragments. This research investigated the effects of rubber modified binder on the performance properties of porous asphalt mixtures, which include draindown, porosity, permeability, abrasion resistance, moisture susceptibility, and rutting resistance.
The addition of cellulose fibers has been used to increase the optimum binder content of porous asphalt mix …

3d Reconstruction For Post-Disaster Analysis Of Civil Infrastructure, Joshua Caron

All Theses

Following a natural disaster, there is a need to rapidly assess the safety of civil infrastructure. This job is typically undertaken by local governments with the help of volunteer civil engineers with structural expertise, as well as organizations such as Cal EMA and ASCE. However, the inspection process is labor-intensive and a bit tedious, and results are prone to error as they tend to rely on the individual expertise of the inspectors. 3D reconstruction stands to become a useful tool in the safety evaluation process, as well as providing valuable opportunities for forensic engineering. This research explores the application of …

An Error Quantification Methodology For Hurricane Storm Surge Simulations, Bin Pei

All Theses

This thesis describes the development of a procedure to quantify errors in hurricane storm surge simulations using a decoupled wind-surge model. The state-of-the-art storm surge simulation program, ADCIRC (Advanced Circulation), and the Georgiou's wind field model were used to simulate the storm surge heights associated with 169 historical hurricanes from 1922 to 2011 along the coast of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The storm surge modeling errors were quantified by comparing the measured to the simulated annual maximum surge heights at nine water level observation stations maintained by the Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS). The simulated …

Novel Electron Shuttling Compounds, Ramasubramanian Neeraja

All Theses

Electron mediator's usage in remediation technologies might be an excellent alternative to increase the rate of transformation of various contaminants such as nitroamine, polyhalogenated compounds and many others. Employing electron shuttles open up different pathways for the contaminant transformation and the reaction goes to completion at a much faster rate. Anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonate (AQDS) has been known to be a model electron shuttle with good shuttling capacity followed by humic acids. But the necessity for identifying electron shuttles suitable for field applications is important. As remediation technologies will command application of the shuttles on a large scale, tracing shuttles which are cheap, …

Durability Of Reinforced Concrete Incorporating Crushed Waste Brick As Coarse Aggregate, Matthew Adamson

All Theses

Using crushed bricks as aggregates in concrete is of particular interest to preserve natural aggregate sources as well as to reduce waste, as it has been estimated that 10% to 30% of all waste in landfills in the united States comes from construction and demolition wastes. By recycling some of these wastes, the sustainability of a project can be improved. However, it is important concrete incorporating these wastes is as durable or more durable then conventional concrete, or will it have a shorter service life. Durability of concrete is its ability to resist deterioration from its external environment such as …

Analysis And Evaluation Of Existing And Novel Turbulent Dynamic Pressure Based Methods For Measuring Bridge Pier And Abutment Scour, Murray Fisher

All Dissertations

Scour is one of the most significant threats to bridge infrastructure and is the leading cause of failure within the United States. Given this risk to the nation’s transportation infrastructure, it is necessary to understand the development of scour holes around bridge piers and abutments. This can be achieved with scour monitoring, a Federal Highway Administration approved scour countermeasure. As the monitoring techniques available range from simple devices that rest on or in the channel bed to advanced scanning systems that provide a bed contour profile, a concise study of the state of the art in real time scour measurement …

Examination Of The Effectiveness Of Bioretention Cells And Porous Paving Practices In Aiken, Sc, Casey Johnson

All Theses

This work seeks to quantify the impact and effectiveness of green infrastructure practices, specifically bioretention cells and porous asphalts, for the reduction of peak flow and volume of stormwater that discharges into the headwaters of the Sand River watershed in Aiken, SC. Stormwater runoff flows and volumes were monitored in the upper Sand River watershed that includes the urban Aiken area, along with two nested subwatersheds, prior to, during, and after the construction of the bioretention cells and porous asphalt sites. Flow data from these monitoring stations were analyzed and the data suggested that there was no significant reduction in …

An Examination Of The Influence Of Cement Paste On Pervious Concrete Mixtures, Donald Singer

All Theses

Pervious concrete has many environmental benefits, but with these benefits come additional hurdles unseen in conventional concrete. The main focus of pervious concrete is the maintenance of the interconnected pore structure, leading to porosity values between 15 and 25%, while still developing adequate strength. Due to these inherent properties of pervious concrete, development of a systematic optimum mix design method is challenging. Currently, there is a need to develop a systematic optimum mix design for pervious concrete, but it has yet come to fruition. This research focuses on the influence of cement paste on the performance of pervious concrete, and …

In Situ Ground Freezing And Sampling Of A Pleistocene Sand Deposit In The South Carolina Coastal Plain, Michael Esposito Iii

All Theses

The procedures used to freeze and sample a Pleistocene sand deposit at the Coastal Research and Education Center near Charleston, South Carolina to preserve and study the effects of diagenesis are presented in this thesis. An initial feasibility study was conducted to target a layer of clean sand at the CREC site with little to no frost heave potential. To freeze the sand deposit, a ground freezing system with a central freezing pipe was installed to target a column of sand 1-m in radius and 2.3-m long. Liquid nitrogen was continuously supplied to the large steel freezing pipe, which was …

Analysis Of Energy Savings Through The Use Of Displacement Ventilation In Domestic Buildings, Patrick Daffin

All Theses

This study investigates the conditions under which it might be possible to implement a displacement ventilation system in a residential building. An experimental study of the impact on a mechanical air conditioning system of the vertical location of the inlet and outlet vents was performed. The four ventilation configurations of low inlet high outlet, low inlet low outlet, high inlet high outlet, and high inlet low outlet were compared. These four configurations were compared under 13 different heat load scenarios in a full scale instrumented model room. It was found that, for higher heat loads, the low inlet high outlet …

Reverse Osmosis Desalination With Integrated Compressed Air Energy Storage: Conceptual Design And Modeling, Pooja Mahajan

All Theses

Growing fresh water needs have led to an interest in water desalination using reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. Energy consumption has a large share in the expenses incurred to drive a reverse osmosis desalination system. With depleting fossil fuel reserves, tapping renewable sources of energy is a promising alternative to meet the energy requirements. Wind power coupled to an RO desalination system is a potential means of delivering clean water using sustainable energy. This work investigates modeling of a conceptual wind-energy-driven RO desalination system that is made possible because of an air-pressure energy storage mechanism. Bench-scale experiments were performed on an …

Assessment Of Fidelity To Data And Robustness To Uncertainty To Assure Credible Predictions In The Modeling Of Wind Turbine Blades, Kendra Van Buren

All Dissertations

In the field of wind energy, modeling and simulation techniques provide an efficient and economical alternative to experimentation for studying the behavior of wind turbines. Numerical models however are approximations of reality, thusly making it crucial to evaluate various sources of uncertainties that influence the model predictions. Credibility of a numerical model rests on the model's ability to replicate existing experimental data, widely known as fidelity-to-data. This dissertation advocates that fidelity-to-data, while necessary, is insufficient to claim credibility of a numerical model. Herein, the objective is to develop numerical models that not only provide agreement to experimental data, but also …

Integrated Traffic And Communication Performance Evaluation Of An Intelligent Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (Vii) System For Online Travel Time Prediction, Yongchang Ma, Mashrur Chowdhury, Adel Sadek, Mansoureh Jeihani

Publications

This paper presents a framework for online highway travel time prediction using traffic measurements that are likely to be available from Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) systems, in which vehicle and infrastructure devices communicate to improve mobility and safety. In the proposed intelligent VII system, two artificial intelligence (AI) paradigms, namely Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Support Vector Regression (SVR), are used to determine future travel time based on such information as current travel time, VII-enabled vehicles’ flow and density. The development and performance evaluation of the VII-ANN and VII-SVR frameworks, in both of the traffic and communications domains, were conducted, …

A Laboratory Study Of Levee Scour From Overtopping Storm Waves And Protection For Robust Desgins, Earnest Johnson

All Theses

Levee failure due to scouring has been a prominent occurrence among intense storm surges and waves, giving rise to the implementation of various scour protection measures over the years. Several experiments were performed on a model levee on either bare levee soil or with a scour protection measure covering the soil. The purpose of this study is to breakdown the dynamics of levee scour due to overtopping waves and suggest efficient methods in reducing the amount of scour. The levee soil was made up of a sand-clay mixture and placed in a laboratory wave tank that created a constant wave …

Assessing Anaerobic Bio-Oxidation Of Vinyl Chloride And Ethene, Ademola Bakenne

All Theses

Perchloroethene (PCE) and trichloroethene (TCE) are two of the most commonly used chlorinated solvents around the world. These compounds and their dechlorination daughter products have become the most prevalent organic contaminants found in a majority of hazardous waste sites in the United States. Since implementation of traditional remediation methods would cost hundreds of billions of dollars, there has been tremendous interest in bioremediation as a low cost alternative to achieving remedial goals. Anaerobic reductive dechlorination is the most prevalent form of bioremediation in most locations. The ultimate daughter products from reductive dechlorination of PCE and TCE are ethene and ethane, …

The Effect Of Granular Activated Carbon Pretreatment And Sand Pretreatment On Microfiltration Of Greywater, David Christopher

All Theses

Around the world, water scarcity is driving people to practice water reuse. One form of water reuse is the recycling of greywater, which is household wastewater excluding toilet waste. With adequate treatment, greywater may be recycled onsite for applications that do not require potable water, such as irrigation or toilet flushing. Membrane filtration (including microfiltration (MF)) is one option for greywater treatment. The small footprint, modular nature, and predictable performance of MF make it an attractive option. However, direct MF of greywater can lead to rapid membrane fouling. This thesis investigated two possible pretreatments for reducing membrane fouling and improving …

Numerical And Reliability Analysis Of Gravity Cantilever Retaining Walls Backfilled With Shredded Tires Subjected To Seismic Loads, Eleanor Huggins

All Theses

Shredded tires have been considered as a suitable alternative to conventional sand and gravel backfill materials as they offer benefits from their significantly lower unit weight, reductions in the cost of materials and construction, and because they utilize a common and potentially hazardous waste material. This research addresses some gaps in previous research in the implementation of shredded tires in this capacity by examining variation in material properties through a reliability analysis, developing an improved design technique for retaining walls tailored to shredded tire fills, and simulating how shredded tire backfill behaves in conjunction with retaining walls when subject to …