Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Variability In The Hamburg Wheel-Tracking Device (Hwtd) Data And Results, Ilerioluwa S. Giwa

LSU Master's Theses

Over the years, the Hamburg Wheel-Tracking Test (HWTT) has become one of the most popular devices used for characterizing asphalt mixtures for rutting potential and moisture susceptibility. However, although the HWTT is a reliable standard test for evaluating asphalt mixtures, it is not exempt from variability in the test data and result. Variability in the HWTT test data and results have been majorly attributed to imprecision in the test practice and due to some limitations in the HWT device setup.

The primary goal of this study is to evaluate the variability in the HWTT data and result by investigating a …

Fatigue Monitoring Through Wearable Sensors For Construction Workers, Srikanth Sagar Bangaru

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

About 40% of the US construction workforce experiences high-level fatigue, which leads to poor judgment, increased risk of injuries, a decrease in productivity, and a lower quality of work. Excessive fatigue from working in unpleasant working conditions, long working hours, or heavy workloads can aggravate fatigue's adverse effects, leading to work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) and productivity loss. Therefore, it is essential to monitor fatigue to reduce the adverse effects and preventing long-term health problems. However, since fatigue demonstrates itself in several complex processes, there is no single standard measurement method for fatigue detection. This research aims to develop a system …

Bio-Mediated Ground Improvement For Fine-Grained Soil, Guantao Cheng

LSU Master's Theses

The research explored the use of microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) to improve the mechanical properties of fine-grained soil and rapidly repair soil cracks on embankment slopes. Slope failures are often induced by surface cracks on the embankment slopes. To date, most rapid repair methods for slope failures (e.g., geosynthetics, soil nails, plastic pins, and lime treatment, etc.) involve large earthwork, special installation equipment, and unique construction processes, which may require extended construction time, disturb traffic, or increase the total construction cost. This research explored the feasibility of using bio-cement (MICP) to improve soil mechanical properties, seal the soil cracks, …

Error Prevention In Sensors And Sensor Systems, Pedro J. Chacon Dominguez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Achievements in all fields of engineering and fabrication methods have led towards optimization and integration of multiple sensing devices into a concise system. These advances have caused significant innovation in various commercial, industrial, and research efforts. Integrations of subsystems have important applications for sensor systems in particular. The need for reporting and real time awareness of a device’s condition and surroundings have led to sensor systems being implemented in a wide variety of fields. From environmental sensors for agriculture, to object characterization and biomedical sensing, the application for sensor systems has impacted all modern facets of innovation. With these innovations, …

Modeling Hydraulic Fracturing Initiation And Propagation In Porous Rock Formationsl, Chang Huang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Hydraulic fracturing has long been introduced to the oil and gas industry since the early nineteenth century for both reservoir characterization and reservoir stimulation. Despite the progress made in the last two decades, many challenges still have not been tackled regarding not only the propagation problem but also the initiation problem due to its complexity. The dissertation is divided into two stages, i.e., before and after fracture initiation. The first stage of the research aimed at improving the accuracy in solving the poro-mechanical response of wellbore during fluid injection before a tensile fracture occurs, which is crucial to determine the …

On The Computational Efficiency Of Les And Hybrid Rans-Les Models In Building Aerodynamics, Aly Mousaad Aly, Faiaz Khaled

Faculty Publications

Large-eddy simulation (LES) has proven to offer superior accuracy in regards to predicting surface pressures compared to the Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) models. However, the primary impediment is the high computational cost associated with LES. The authors attempt to investigate the computational cost and accuracy by employing different sub-grid scale (SGS) models in LES and hybrid RANS-LES models. One of the prerequisites of accurate pressure estimations is to ensure a horizontally homogeneous empty computational domain. This study aims to compare the computational competence qualitatively and quantitatively using an empty domain in regards to the ability to maintain horizontal homogeneity. The …

Analysis, Modeling, And Simulation (Ams) Case Studies Of Connected And Automated Vehicle (Cav) Implementations Specific To The South Central Region, Christopher Melson, Jiaqi Ma

Data

Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) offer potentially transformative and far-reaching impacts to the transportation system. However, realized benefits will be directly tied to how well agencies prepare for these technologies. This report documents efforts that support CAV preparatory actions in Louisiana and includes: (1) conducting a stakeholder survey to inform engagement activities to develop strategic partnerships in CAV deployment and (2) conducting crash analyses for deployment scenarios of CAV-based queue warning systems (QWSs).

An electronic survey was developed and disseminated to 273 Louisiana organizations. The purpose of the survey was to engage these organizations under the context of CAV planning …

On The Computational Efficiency Of Les And Hybrid Rans-Les Models In Building Aerodynamics, Faiaz Khaled, Aly Mousaad Aly

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Analysis, Modeling, And Simulation (Ams) Case Studies Of Connected And Automated Vehicle (Cav) Implementations Specific To The South Central Region, Christopher Melson, Jiaqi Ma

Publications

Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) offer potentially transformative and far-reaching impacts to the transportation system. However, realized benefits will be directly tied to how well agencies prepare for these technologies. This report documents efforts that support CAV preparatory actions in Louisiana and includes: (1) conducting a stakeholder survey to inform engagement activities to develop strategic partnerships in CAV deployment and (2) conducting crash analyses for deployment scenarios of CAV-based queue warning systems (QWSs).

An electronic survey was developed and disseminated to 273 Louisiana organizations. The purpose of the survey was to engage these organizations under the context of CAV planning …

Effects Of Historical Land-Use Change On Surface Runoff And Flooding In The Amite River Basin, Louisiana, Usa Using Coupled 1d/2d Hec-Ras–Hec-Hms Hydrological Modeling, Alexandre G. H. Cowles

LSU Master's Theses

The Amite River Basin is a largely rural watershed spanning parts of four counties in southern Mississippi and seven parishes in southeast Louisiana, with basinwide imperviousness increasing from 0.82% in 1938 to 3.85% in 2016. The Basin has been the subject of significant research interest since catastrophic flooding in 2016 caused 13 deaths and widespread damages. Rapid development in recent decades has led to an expansion of impervious surfaces in Baton Rouge and surrounding areas, encroaching on floodplains and wetlands. At the basin scale, differences in flooding due to impervious cover changes were found to be somewhat limited, particularly along …

Development Of Cracking Resistance Prediction Model Of Long-Term Aged Asphalt Mixtures, Peyman Barghabany

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

With the increasing complexity of asphalt mixture composition, the current volumetric-based Superpave mixture design would not be sufficient to address durability concerns. To address this limitation, performance-based testing is introduced to supplement conventional volumetric mixture design in assessing the cracking resistance of asphalt mixtures. To perform cracking tests, samples need to be aged to represent the most embrittlement case. The current AASHTO standard for asphalt mixture long-term aging (LTA) is a 5-day oven-aging at 85°C. Quality control/assurance practices require samples to be long-term aged prior to a cracking test which is a time-consuming process. Therefore, it would be beneficial to …

Stream Power Analysis Of The Mid-Barataria Conveyance Channel Model, Jack Graham

LSU Master's Theses

Louisiana’s coast is disappearing at an alarming rate. Erosion, subsidence, sea level rise, and the devastating impacts from hurricanes have contributed to the loss of thousands of square miles of land that was once a thriving ecosystem. The Louisiana government is taking action to help protect and restore these coastal habitats, which are a home to some two million people and numerous species of animals, birds, and fish. The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion is a new type of project to help create land in Barataria Basin. Conceptually, the diversion is designed to use the available sediment and stream power provided by …

Non-Newtonian Model Development For Post-Wildfire Flood Risk Management, Ian Eli Floyd

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Wildfire effected regions of the western U.S. frequently produce non-Newtonian floods (or floods that have a non-linear relationship between stress and deformation) in response to moderate to severe precipitation events. This research presents the development, evaluation, and demonstration of a post-wildfire hydrodynamic one-dimensional and two-dimensional diffusive wave and shallow-water numerical modeling approach that can be used to predict post-wildfire downstream runout of debris flows and floodplain inundation conditions. While researchers have developed a variety of Non-Newtonian approaches to simulate debris flows and mudflows, there has been very limited application to post-wildfire flooding. This can make it difficult to understand the …

Operation Procedures Of Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion Model To Reproduce Hydraulics And Sediment Transport, Chase Holston

LSU Master's Theses

The Lower Mississippi River Physical Model (LMRPM) is a distorted, movable bed model that simulates the hydraulics and sediment transport in the lower 195 miles of the Mississippi River. Carved into the model are both existing hydraulic structures, such as the Bonnet Carré Spillway, and proposed structures, such as the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion (MBSD). The MBSD will be the first sediment diversion built as part of Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan, so incorporating the diversion in the LMRPM will be a useful tool to understanding how the diversion can impact the river hydraulics and bedload transport. The objective of this thesis …

Changes In Wetland Soil Processes And Ecosystem Functions Six Years After Marsh Creation In Barataria Bay, Louisiana, Erol R. Knaus

LSU Master's Theses

Louisiana contains about 40% of the conterminous United States coastal and estuarine wetlands but also has the highest rates of wetland loss at around 80% of the total. Approximately 4,900 km² of coastal land in Louisiana has been lost since 1930. Our study location, Barataria Bay, has one of the highest coastal wetland erosion rates in the nation, at ∼41 km² per year; and therefore, is a high priority for wetland restoration activities. In 2014, sandy sediment dredged from the bed of the Mississippi River was placed in Barataria Bay as part of a restoration effort. Samples were …

Temperature Gradient Effects On Behavior And Design Of Prestressed Concrete Girder Bridges, Ahmed Saad Elsayed Mohamed Elshoura

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Temperature variation is an inevitable environmental loading type that affects bridges. Considering temperature effects during structural design is deemed essential for short, medium, and long span bridges. Temperature loading can be categorized into three components; uniform temperature, vertical temperature gradient, and transverse temperature gradient. Temperature variation causes additional movements, stresses, and internal forces that should be considered in the design of bridges. In this study, the temperature effects of vertical and transverse temperature gradients are investigated for continuous prestressed concrete bridges.

Thermal restraint moments induced by vertical temperature gradients on prestrssed concrete bridges are investigated by performing three-dimensional (3D) finite …

Resource And Energy Recovery From Wastewater Using Advanced Bioelectrochemical Systems, Sidan Lu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Water pollution and energy depletion are two critical issues in the world that limit the sustainable development of human society. In this study, several advanced (photo) bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) were proposed for effective energy (electricity and H₂) and nutrients (N and P) recovery from wastewater, solar energy, seawater, and river water. The first study demonstrated high effectiveness of a novel resource-recovery microbial fuel cell (RRMFC) for wastewater treatment and nutrient recovery from synthetic urine-containing wastewater. Over one cycle (∼3 days), 99% of urea, 97% of COD, 99% of histidine, 91% of creatinine, 99% of sodium acetate, 98% of …

Educational Theory-Embedded Training For Construction Industry Professionals, Hazem Jadallah

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Workforce training is needed throughout the construction industry to create and maintain competent workers; unfortunately, most construction training and education research focuses on university student education. The focus of this dissertation research is the current state of educational-theory embedded construction workforce training, how such trainings are effective, and how they may be further optimized based on established educational theory. This is accomplished through a review of construction training for current industry professionals, an evaluation of the assessment criteria used to measure effectiveness, followed by the creation of a framework for construction training.

There is a lack of recommendations for improvement …

Accelerated Controller Tuning For Wind Turbines Under Multiple Hazards, Aly Mousaad Aly, Milad Rezaee

Faculty Publications

During their lifecycle, wind turbines can be subjected to multiple hazard loads, such as high-intensity wind, earthquake, wave, and mechanical unbalance. Excessive vibrations, due to these loads, can have detrimental effects on energy production, structural lifecycle, and the initial cost of wind turbines. Vibration control by various means, such as passive, active, and semi-active control systems provide crucial solutions to these issues. We developed a novel control theory that enables semi-active controller tuning under the complex structural behavior and inherent system nonlinearity. The proposed theory enables the evaluation of semi-active controllers’ performance of multi-degrees-of-freedom systems, without the need for time-consuming …

Quality Assessment Of Flexible Pavement Automated Cracking Data In Louisiana, Mostafiz Emtiaz

LSU Master's Theses

Pavement distress survey is the most critical and integral part of pavement management system. Transportation agencies all over the world depends on the accurate pavement distress survey to take major decisions like pavement rehabilitation or reconstruction. Pavement management at the network level requires accurate pavement distress survey to decide the allocation of budget for pavement maintenance, rehabilitation and reconstruction. This study started collected network-level cracking distress data through manual measurements on high-resolution pavement images and the results were used as the ground truth measurements to evaluate the corresponding automated distress data from the Pavement Management System database. Results showed that …

Development Of A Self-Powered Weigh-In-Motion System, Athanassios Papagiannakis, Athanassios Papagiannakis, Samer Dessouky, Sara Ahmed, Reza Khalili, Gopal Vishwakarma

Data

This report describes the development of a novel weigh-in-motion (WIM) system that utilizes piezoelectric elements for sensing load and powering an ultra-low power microcontroller unit (MCU) that serves as its data acquisition system. A system of 4 piezoelectric (PZT) stacks serves as the energy harvester, while load sensing is done via a set of 4 PZT elements connected in parallel. Two alternative MCUs were considered, with various data handling capabilities and power consumption requirements. These MCUs have very short “wake-up” times allowing vehicle sensing without the need for inductive loops commonly used in conventional WIM systems. Special electric circuits were …

Development Of A Self-Powered Weigh-In-Motion System, Athanassios Papagiannakis, Sarah Ahmed, Samer Dessouky, Reza Khalili, Gopal Vishwakarma

Publications

This report describes the development of a novel weigh-in-motion (WIM) system that utilizes piezoelectric elements for sensing load and powering an ultra-low power microcontroller unit (MCU) that serves as its data acquisition system. A system of 4 piezoelectric (PZT) stacks serves as the energy harvester, while load sensing is done via a set of 4 PZT elements connected in parallel. Two alternative MCUs were considered, with various data handling capabilities and power consumption requirements. These MCUs have very short “wake-up” times allowing vehicle sensing without the need for inductive loops commonly used in conventional WIM systems. Special electric circuits were …

Effectiveness Of Mechanical Test In Ascertaining Moisture Damage Of Asphalt Mixtures., Sanchit Sachdeva

LSU Master's Theses

Infiltrated moisture combined with repeated action of traffic and environmental loading generates distresses which adversely affect the durability of asphalt pavements. Almost 94% of states' highway agencies use either the Loaded Wheel Tracking (LWT) test or the Modified Lottman test to capture asphalt mixtures' moisture susceptibility. However, the current LWT and the modified Lottman test practice lack accuracy in relating laboratory performance to observed field performance.

The study's primary objective was to evaluate the capability of different laboratory mechanical test methods to predict moisture susceptibility of asphalt mixtures. Asphalt binder and mixture experiments were conducted to achieve the objective of …

Modeling Distributed Source Control Infrastructure At Neighborhood Scale For Mitigating Flood Risk In Amite River Watershed, Ahmad Amin Shefai

LSU Master's Theses

Flooding has always been a major threat to mankind. This is particularly true in urban areas due to urbanization-induced increasing impervious areas and subsequent increasing urban surface runoff, causing an increasing flooding risk to urban areas in spite of the fact that extensive flood control infrastructure has been constructed. The overall goal of this thesis is to present a distributed source control infrastructure-based approach for mitigating the flood risk. The new flood mitigation approach is demonstrated through the model implementation of a series of distributed source control infrastructure systems in the city of Denham Springs at a neighborhood scale. The …

An Approach To Counting Vehicles From Pre-Recorded Video Using Computer Algorithms, Mishuk Majumder

LSU Master's Theses

One of the fundamental sources of data for traffic analysis is vehicle counts, which can be conducted either by the traditional manual method or by automated means. Different agencies have guidelines for manual counting, but they are typically prepared for particular conditions. In the case of automated counting, different methods have been applied, but You Only Look Once (YOLO), a recently developed object detection model, presents new potential in automated vehicle counting. The first objective of this study was to formulate general guidelines for manual counting based on experience gained in the field. Another goal of this study was to …

Engineering Characteristics Of Nest Building Geomaterials Used By Mud Dauber Species, Noura Saleh

LSU Master's Theses

Mud dauber wasps construct their nests using soil from adjacent areas. Mud dauber nests have been studied from an entomological perspective. However; the properties of the nest material remain unexplored from a soil engineering perspective. This study investigated the physical and mechanical properties of the nest soil for use in future bio-inspired design to improve soil behavior as a construction material. To achieve this goal, nests from three mud dauber species (black and yellow, organ pipe, and steel blue) were collected from locations near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The shape, weight, moisture content, organic content, and specific gravity of the nests …

Water-Energy Nexus: Studies On Salinity Gradient Energy Harvest And Desalination, Guangcai Tan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Water and energy are fundamentally linked, and both are important for the development of human society. The demand for renewable energy and freshwater are two global challenges in the 21^st century. Herein, a novel chloride-ion (Cl⁻) concentration flow cell (CFC) based on two symmetrical electrodes (BiCl₃, CoCl₂, VCl₃, or BiOCl) separately by a cation-exchange membrane was used as an efficient method to recover salinity gradient (SG) energy. The CFC with metal chloride electrodes (BiCl₃, CoCl₂, and VCl₃) was based on Cl⁻ extraction/insertion, and that …

P-Cresol Biogenesis During Bioremediation Aimed At Stimulating Chlorinated Solvent Dehalogenation, Alexis Gathings

LSU Master's Theses

The broad goal of the research described in this thesis was to better understand the potential for biologically mediated production of p-cresol in groundwater at a Superfund site located in south Louisiana. Previous literature reports that microorganisms known to carry out the transformation from L-tyrosine to p-cresol occur in diverse environments.

In the research described in this thesis, studies were conducted utilizing groundwater from the Superfund site during the course of enhanced in situ bioremediation practices aimed at stimulating reductive dehalogenation of chlorinated solvent contamination. Microbial communities established with groundwater sampled from the Superfund site were observed to …

A Modelling Study For Smart Pigging Technique For Pipeline Leak Detection, Caitlyn Judith Thiberville

LSU Master's Theses

Although leak incidents continue, a pipeline remains the most reliable mode of transportation within the oil and gas industry. It becomes even more important today because the projection for new pipelines is expected to increase by 1 billion BOE through 2035. In addition, increasing number and length of subsea tiebacks face new challenges in term of data acquisition, monitoring, analysis, and remedial actions. Passive leak-detection methods commonly used in the industry have been successful with some limitations in that they often cannot detect small leaks and seeps. In addition to a thorough review of related topics, this study investigates how …

Evaluation Of Asphalt Mixtures’ Resistance To Cement-Treated Base (Ctb) Reflective Cracking In The Laboratory, Husam Sadek, Marwa Hassan, Charles Berryman, Mohammad Hossain, Ipshit Idris

Data

The primary objective of this project is to propose a laboratory setup to test and evaluate an asphalt mixture layer on top of a simulated Cement-Treated Base (CTB) layer against reflective cracking. An in-depth literature review on the experimental studies that were conducted throughout the world to investigate the resistance of asphalt mixtures to reflective cracking was conducted. Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) Overlay Tester (OT) was found to be the most appropriate equipment to study thermally-induced reflective cracking in the laboratory, and thereby was selected to be modified and used to assess the performance of asphalt mixtures on top of …