Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Liquefaction Triggering In Low-Plasticity Silts And Effects Of Liquefaction-Induced Lateral Spreading On A Reinforced-Concrete Pile, Jared A. Martinez

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

Liquefaction triggering and post-liquefaction effects on lateral loading of deep foundations is an emerging area of study. This project presents: the results of cyclic direct simple shear (CDSS) testing on a low-plasticity alluvial silt collected in Portland, Oregon; and analysis of the combined effects of liquefaction-induced lateral spreading on a reinforced-concrete pile using data collected from a shake table test. The former research determines the liquefaction susceptibility and post-liquefaction characteristics of a local transitional soil using stress-controlled CDSS testing, the latter explores the complex lateral loading a reinforced-concrete pile undergoes during seismic loading with liquefaction-induced lateral spreading of the ground …

Ce-Qual-W2 Performance Assessment Modeling 1979 Grh Flume Study, Logan Negherbon

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

In an early review of numerical reservoir hydrodynamic models, the US Army Corps of Engineers developed a physical model at the US Army Waterways Experiment Station to assess the performance of modeling cold water underflow with numerous 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional numerical hydrodynamic models. Within this effort, the precursor for CE-QUAL-W2, the Laterally Averaged Reservoir Model, was defined and applied with limited success in representing the vertical velocity profile and outflow temperatures series collected from the physical model in the General Reservoir Hydrodynamics flume. CE-QUAL-W2 has since been modified from this early form in numerous ways including incorporation of higher order …

Data From: Warming Of The Columbia River, 1853 To 2018, Malia Hanae Scott, Stefan Talke, David Jay, Heida Diefenderfer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Datasets

Water temperature is a critical ecological indicator; however, few studies have statistically modeled century-scale trends in riverine or estuarine water temperature, or their cause. Here, we recover, digitize, and analyze archival temperature measurements from the 1850s onward to investigate how and why water temperatures in the lower Columbia River are changing. To infill data gaps and explore changes, we develop regression models of daily historical Columbia River water temperature using time-lagged river flow and air temperature as the independent variables. Models were developed for 3 time periods (mid-19 th , mid-20 th , and early 21 st century), using archival …

Warming Of The Columbia River, 1853 To 2018, Malia Hanae Scott, Stefan Talke, David Jay, Heida Diefenderfer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Water temperature is a critical ecological indicator; however, few studies have statistically modeled century-scale trends in riverine or estuarine water temperature, or their cause. Here, we recover, digitize, and analyze archival temperature measurements from the 1850s onward to investigate how and why water temperatures in the lower Columbia River are changing. To infill data gaps and explore changes, we develop regression models of daily historical Columbia River water temperature using time-lagged river flow and air temperature as the independent variables. Models were developed for 3 time periods (mid-19 th , mid-20 th , and early 21 st century), using archival …

Uncertainty Quantification And Fragility Development Of Deteriorating Rc Bridge Piers, Ayush Bhandari

Dissertations and Theses

Corrosion can reduce structural capacity and increase the risk of bridge damage/failure under extreme events. The impact of corrosion on seismic fragility of bridges has been well studied. However, the methodology used in most existing studies requires detailed information on the structural design and condition of a bridge, which is a major hindrance in conducting seismic risk assessment for a large population of bridges. Furthermore, existing studies do not adequately address the time-dependency of uncertainties associated with fragility curve development. This study presents a methodology to generate time-dependent seismic fragility curves for deteriorating highway bridges based only on the limited …

Numerical Modeling Of A Pile-Supported Wharf Subjected To Liquefaction-Induced Lateral Ground Deformations, Milad Souri, Arash Khosravifar, Stephen Dickenson, Nason Mccullough, Scott Schlechter

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Fully-coupled nonlinear dynamic analysis is increasingly used for assessing the seismic performance of pile-supported wharf structures subjected to liquefaction-induced lateral ground deformations. Several numerical challenges exist for analysis of this highly nonlinear soil-structure interaction, which require robust, yet practical, solutions that are validated with experimental data. This study presents a numerical model of a pile-supported wharf and evaluates the applicability of a soil constitutive model, and modeling assumptions and methods by using recorded data from a well-instrumented, large-scale centrifuge test. The objectives of this study include: (a) evaluating the performance of a recently developed pressure-dependent multi-yield surface constitutive soil model …

Driver And Bicyclist Comprehension Of Blue Light Detection Confirmation Systems, Douglas P. Cobb, Hisham Jashami, Christopher Monsere, Sirisha Kothuri, David S. Hurwitz

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study analyzed motorist and bicyclist understanding and preference of positive confirmation of detection of a bicycle by the traffic signal infrastructure using a blue light detection confirmation (BLDC). The research analyzed results of an online survey of 1,123 respondents and intercept survey of 337 respondents. The study initially found that participants of the survey did not understand the meaning of the blue light itself, but comprehension of the system rose from 40% to 50% when supplemental signs were used. Respondents overwhelmingly indicated that they preferred the sign option that included symbols, text, and a representation of the blue light, …

Dissecting Succulence: Crassulacean Acid Metabolism And Hydraulic Capacitance Are Independent Adaptations In Clusia Leaves, Alistair Leverett, Samantha Hartzell, Klaus Winter, Milton Garcia, Multiple Additional Authors

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Succulence is found across the world as an adaptation to water-limited niches. The fleshy organs of succulent plants develop via enlarged photosynthetic chlorenchyma and/or achlorophyllous water storage hydrenchyma cells. The precise mechanism by which anatomical traits contribute to drought tolerance is unclear, as the effect of succulence is multifaceted. Large cells are believed to provide space for nocturnal storage of malic acid fixed by crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), whilst also buffering water potentials by elevating hydraulic capacitance (CFT). The effect of CAM and elevated CFT on growth and water conservation have not been compared, despite the assumption that these adaptations …

Damage Detection In Reinforced Concrete Member Using Local Time-Frequency Transform Applied To Vibration Measurements, Ning Liu, Thomas Schumacher, Yan Li, Lina Xu, Bo Wang

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Signal processing and analysis of structural vibration measurements are key components of structural damage detection (SDD) in structural health monitoring (SHM). The goal of signal processing is to extract subtle changes in the measured signals, which can be used to infer changes in structural parameters and damage. Time-frequency analysis is one of the most popular characterization methods for studying non-stationary vibration signals. In this article, the local time-frequency transform (LTFT) is applied and evaluated to calculate the time-domain signals because of its excellent time-frequency energy distribution properties. The LTFT matches the input data by the Fourier basis in an inverse …

Eugenol, Menthol And Other Flavour Chemicals In Kreteks And ‘White’ Cigarettes Purchased In Indonesia, Joanna Cohen, Beladenta Amalia, Wentai Luo, Kevin J. Mcwhirter, James F. Pankow

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background Flavoured tobacco products are not restricted in Indonesia, a country with about 68 million adults who smoke. Most use clove-mixed tobacco cigarettes (‘kreteks’); non-clove (‘white’) cigarettes are also available. Although the use of flavour chemicals has been identified by WHO as promoting tobacco use, little has been reported for Indonesia about the levels of flavourants in either kreteks or ‘white cigarettes’.

Methods 22 kretek brand variants and nine ‘white’ cigarette brand variants were purchased in Indonesia during 2021/2022; one of the kretek packs contained three colour-coded variants, giving a total sample number of 24 for the kreteks. Chemical analyses …

Implementing Super-Resolution Of Non-Stationary Tides With Wavelets: An Introduction To Cwt_Multi, Matthew Lobo, David A. Jay, Silvia Innocenti, Stefan A. Talke, Steven Dykstra, Pascal Matte

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Tides are often non-stationary due to non-astronomical influences. Investigating variable tidal properties implies a tradeoff between separating adjacent frequencies (using long analysis windows) and resolving their time variations (short windows). Previous continuous wavelet transform (CWT) tidal methods resolved tidal species. Here, we present CWT_Multi, a Matlab code that: a) uses CWT linearity (via the “Response Coefficient Method”) to implement super-resolution (Munk and Hasselman 1964); b) provides a Munk-Hasselman constituent-selection criterion; and c) introduces an objective, time-variable form of inference (“dynamic inference”) based on time-varying data properties. CWT_Multi resolves tidal species on time-scales of days and multiple constituents per species with …

Exploratory Analysis Of Factors Affecting Home Delivery Returns, Michael Bronson, Miguel Figliozzi, Ali Riahi Samani, Sabya Mishra

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

E-commerce and house deliveries have experienced a rapid growth in the last two decades. The return of online shopping products is an undesirable side effect of online shopping that has not been properly studied in the transportation literature. Utilizing binary logit models, this research answers two novel research questions focusing on the online shopping channel: (i) What household characteristics are associated with a higher or lower propensity to return online purchases? and (ii) What type of products contribute to positive return delivery rates? To answer these questions models are developed using data collected from a household online survey of e-commerce …

Hydraulic Redistribution Under Saline Conditions, Josh Gottlieb

Civil and Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Water scarcity and soil salinity are dual stressors for plants in arid, salt-affected ecosystems. Hydraulic redistribution, a hydraulic adaptation which moves water through plant roots into dry or saline soil regions along potential gradients, aids plant survival in stressful environments. Recent theory regarding hydraulic redistribution proposes limitations on the process within saline soils. This study applies a minimalist resistor-capacitor model of the soil-plant-atmosphere system to the experimental conditions of a 2010 study investigating hydraulic redistribution in a salt affected area. The effectiveness of the model is evaluated, and a sensitivity analysis is conducted to identify key dynamics affecting the moisture …

Sensor Formed From Conductive Nanoparticles And A Porous Non-Conductive Substrate, Erik T. Thostenson, Thomas Schumacher

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In various aspects, the sensors include a substrate that is porous and non-conductive with nanoparticles deposited onto the substrate within pores of the substrate by an electrophoretic process to form a sensor element. The nanoparticles are electrically conductive. The sensor includes a detector in communication with the sensor element to measure a change in an electrical property of the sensor element. The change in the electrical property may result from alterations in quantum tunneling between nanoparticles within the sensor element, in various aspects.

Cyclic Porewater Pressure Generation In Intact Silty Soils, Arash Khosravifar, Stephen Dickenson, Diane Moug

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The results of cyclic strain-controlled, constant volume direct simple shear (CDSS) tests and field shaking tests have been evaluated for intact, natural, low-plastic silts from six different fine-grained soils with 54%–100% fines content, 47%–83% silt content, and plasticity indices (PI) ranging from nonplastic to 16. These tests constitute a subset of a larger archive of CDSS tests performed on silt deposits from the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, and Alaska collected and analyzed by the co-authors. The cyclic data are presented in this paper for two objectives: (a) to characterize cyclically-induced excess pore pressure generation in intermediate soils with various soil …

Pile-Supported Wharves Subjected To Inertial Loads And Lateral Ground Deformations. Ii: Guidelines For Equivalent Static Analysis, Milad Souri, Arash Khosravifar, Stephen E. Dickenson, Scott Schlechter, Nason Mccullough

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

An equivalent static analysis (ESA) procedure is proposed for the design of pile-supported wharves subjected to combined inertial and kinematic loads during earthquakes. The accuracy of the ESA procedure was evaluated against measurements from five large-scale centrifuge tests. The wharf structures in these tests were subjected to a suite of recorded ground motions and the associated superstructure inertia, as well as earthquake-induced slope deformations of varying magnitudes. It is shown that large bending moments at depths greater than 10 pile diameters were primarily induced by kinematic demands and can be estimated by applying soil displacements only (i.e., 100% kinematic). In …

Pile-Supported Wharves Subjected To Inertial Loads And Lateral Ground Deformations. I: Experimental Results From Centrifuge Tests, Milad Souri, Arash Khosravifar, Stephen E. Dickenson, Scott Schlechter, Nason Mccullough

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Five dynamic, large-scale centrifuge tests on pile-supported wharves were used to investigate the time- and depth-dependent nature of kinematic and inertial demands on the deep foundations during earthquake loading. The wharf structures in the physical experiments were subjected to a suite of recorded ground motions and imposed superstructure inertial demands on the piles. Partial to full liquefaction in loose sand resulted in slope deformations of varying magnitudes that imposed kinematic demands on the piles. It was found that the wharf inertia and soil displacements were always in phase during the critical cycle when bending moments were at their maximum values. …

Ethyl Maltol, Vanillin, Corylone And Other Conventional Confectionery-Related Flavour Chemicals Dominate In Some E-Cigarette Liquids Labelled ‘Tobacco’ Flavoured, Esther E. Omaiye, Wentai Luo, Kevin J. Mcwhirter, James F. Pankow, Prue Talbot

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background The increased popularity of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) has been linked to the abundance of flavoured products that are attractive to adolescents and young adults. In the last decade, e-cigarette designs have evolved through four generations that include modifications in battery power, e-cigarette liquid (e-liquid) reservoirs and atomiser units. E-liquids have likewise evolved in terms of solvent use/ratios, concentration and number of flavour chemicals, use of nicotine salts and acids, the recent increased use of synthetic cooling agents and the introduction of synthetic nicotine. Our current objective was to evaluate and compare the evolving composition of tobacco-flavoured e-liquids over the …

Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquake Vertical Ground Acceleration Investigation And Potential Impact On Bridges In The Pacific Northwest, Rachel Caroline Bassil

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

The effects of vertical ground accelerations during subduction zone earthquakes currently are not sufficiently understood. There are numerous case studies and evidence that effects of vertical ground accelerations can significantly impact the performance of bridges during a seismic event, but most previous research has been focused on shallow crustal earthquakes. Current bridge design codes provide little guidance for accounting for vertical ground accelerations in seismic design, in part because additional information is needed about the characteristics of vertical ground motions during Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest.

For this study, recorded seismic data from recent subduction zone …

Warming Of The Willamette River, 1850–Present: The Effects Of Climate Change And Direct Human Interventions, Stefan Talke, David Jay, Heida Diefenderfer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using archival research methods, we found and combined data from multiple sources to produce a unique, 140 year record of daily water temperature (Tw) in the lower Willamette River, Oregon (1881–1890, 1941–present). Additional daily weather and river flow records from the 1850s onwards are used to develop and validate a statistical regression model of Tw for 1850–2020. The model simulates the time-lagged response of Tw to air temperature and river flow, and is calibrated for three distinct time periods: the late 19th, mid 20th, and early 21st centuries. Results show that Tw has trended upwards at ~1.1 °C …

Multimodal Imaging Of Structural Concrete Using Image Fusion And Deep Learning, Sina Mehdinia

Dissertations and Theses

Concrete structures may be exposed to a variety of loads and environments during their service life. Non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques can be helpful in evaluating the condition of a structure. Imaging provides a visual representation of the interior of concrete and its condition non-destructively. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) and ultrasonic echo array (UEA) using electromagnetic and stress waves, respectively, provide the data that can be used to reconstruct an image. In this PhD dissertation, image reconstruction and fusion algorithms, simulation, and a deep learning model were investigated with the goal to lay the foundation for enhanced imaging applications for concrete. …

Disposable Puff Bar Electronic Cigarettes: Chemical Composition And Toxicity Of E-Liquids And A Synthetic Coolant, Esther E. Omaiye, Wentai Luo, Kevin J. Mcwhirter, James F. Pankow, Prue Talbot

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The popularity of disposable fourth-generation electronic cigarettes (ECs) among young adults and adolescents has been increasing since the ban on flavored cartridge EC products such as JUUL. Although the constituents and toxicity of some cartridge-based fourth-generation ECs, such as JUUL, have been studied, limited data exist for other disposable ECs such as Puff. The purpose of this study was to determine flavor chemicals, synthetic coolants, and nicotine concentrations in 16 disposable Puff devices, evaluate the cytotoxicity of the different flavors from the Puff brand using in vitro assays, and investigate the health risks of synthetic coolants in EC products. Gas …

Measurement Of Enantiomer Percentages For Five Monoterpenes From Six Conifer Species By Cartridge-Tube-Based Passive Sampling Adsorption–Thermal Desorption (Ps-Atd), Ying Wang, Wentai Luo, Todd Rosenstiel, James F. Pankow

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Many monoterpenes have at least two different stereochemical forms, and many biosynthetic pathways are known to favor one product over the other(s). A rapid method was developed and used in the determination of the (-/+" role="presentation" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-radius: 0px; display: inline; line-height: normal; word-spacing: normal; overflow-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; border: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; position: relative;">)-enantiomeric distributions for α-pinene, β-pinene, camphene, limonene, and β-phellandrene as emitted by plant material from six conifer species. The six species included the two pine species Pseudotsuga …

Combining Passive And Active Ultrasonic Stress Wave Monitoring Techniques: Opportunities For Condition Evaluation Of Concrete Structures, Thomas Schumacher, Ernst Niederleithinger

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Concrete structures are invaluable assets to a society and managing them efficiently and effectively can be supported by information gathered through structural health monitoring (SHM). In this paper, a combined approach based on passive, i.e., acoustic emission (AE), and active, i.e., ultrasonic stress wave (USW) monitoring techniques for application to concrete structures is proposed and evaluated. While AE and USW are based on the same underlying physics, i.e., wave motion in solids, they differ fundamentally with respect to the nature of the source. For the former, external stimuli such as mechanical loads or temperature cause the rapid release of energy …

A Heuristic For The Two-Echelon Multi-Period Multi-Product Location–Inventory Problem With Partial Facility Closing And Reopening, Puntipa Punyim, Ampol Karoonsoontawong, Avinash Unnikrishnan, Vatanavongs Ratanavaraha

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, the two-echelon multi-period multi-product location–inventory problem with partial facility closing and reopening is studied. For each product and period, plants serve warehouses, which serve consolidation hubs, which service customers with independent, normally distributed demands. The schedule of construction, temporary partial closing, and reopening of modular capacities of facilities, the continuous-review inventory control policies at warehouses, the allocation of customer demands to hubs, and the allocation of hubs to warehouses are determined. The service levels for stockout at warehouses during lead time and the violation of warehouse and hub capacities are explicitly considered. The proposed mixed-integer non-linear program …

Learning From Machines: Insights In Forest Transpiration Using Machine Learning Methods, Morgan Thornwell

Dissertations and Theses

Machine learning has been used as a tool to model transpiration for individual sites, but few models are capable of generalizing to new locations without calibration to site data. Using the global SAPFLUXNET database, 95 tree sap flow data sites were grouped using three clustering strategies: by biome, by tree functional type, and through use of a k-means unsupervised clustering algorithm. Two supervised machine learning algorithms, a random forest algorithm and a neural network algorithm, were used to build machine learning models that predicted transpiration for each cluster. The performance and feature importance in each model were analyzed and compared …

Assessing The Impact Of Three Intersection Treatments In A Bicycling Simulator, Logan Scott-Deeter, David Hurwitz, Brendan Russo, Edward Smaglik, Sirisha Kothuri

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Bicyclist safety at urban intersections is a critical element for encouraging an increase in bicycle commuting. With cyclist injury and fatality rates rising due to collisions with vehicles at signalized intersections, increasing the safety of riders continues to be an important consideration when promoting this mode of transportation. Previous research has addressed crash causality and helped to develop several roadway treatments to improve bicyclist safety, but little has been done to compare and contrast the benefits of the various treatment types. This bicycling simulator study examined the impacts of three different intersection treatments (i.e., bike box, mixing zone, and bicycle …

Experimental Investigation On Short Concrete Columns Laterally Strengthened With Ferrocement And Cfrp, Wisam Amer Aules, Yasir Saeed, Hosam Abdullah Al-Azzawi, Franz Rad

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The use of ferrocement in strengthening reinforced concrete (RC) structures has increased recently. Ferrocement has mostly been used to provide extra confinement for RC columns. However, its performance, especially in combination with CFRP confinement has not yet been fully understood. In this study, a total of fifteen columns were experimentally tested to investigate the effects of using ferrocement confinement in strengthening square RC columns. The combination between CFRP and ferrocement in strengthening RC columns has also been investigated. In addition to providing extra confinement, ferrocement is used to modify the shape of square columns to curvilinear shape, which is more …

Understanding Ch4 Emissions From Compostables: An Exploration Of Local Ch4 Emissions From Landfilled Compostables And The Efficacy Of Emission Mitigation Via Anaerobic Biogas Digestion, Jordan-Yoosuf Aljbour

University Honors Theses

Methane (CH₄) is the second most abundant anthropogenic greenhouse gas within the atmosphere, comprising ~16% of the total anthropogenic greenhouse gas composition on Earth. It has an ~12-year lifetime relative to its eventual oxidation via reaction with tropospheric hydroxyl radicals (OH), and has a 100-year indirect global warming potential (GWP) approximately ranging between 28-36 [Environmental Protection Agency, 2021]. In recent years, the observed average global concentration of atmospheric CH₄ has increased by ~11.0% from 2020 (~15.3 ppb) to 2021 (~17.0 ppb) [Dlugokencky et al., 1994; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2022]. With …

Systemic Opportunities To Improve Older Pedestrian Safety: Merging Crash Data Analysis And A Stakeholder Workshop, Jason C. Anderson, Sirisha Kothuri, Christopher M. Monsere, David S. Hurwitz

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper presents a framework for improving older pedestrian safety in regard to serious (fatal and incapacitating) crashes, using Oregon as a case study. On review of state and federal practices pertaining to older pedestrian safety, 4 years of crash data identified 112 older (≥ 65 years) pedestrian serious injury crashes. These data were explored for factors that might be addressed systemically using two methods. First, raw frequencies in the crash data were assessed to determine trends and crash-related factors that are overrepresented. Second, a random forest analysis was conducted to determine important variables for predicting older pedestrian serious injury …