Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

A Detailed Assessment Of Groundwater Quality In The Kabul Basin, Afghanistan, And Suitability For Future Development, Hussain Ali Jawadi, Jay Sagin, Daniel D. Snow

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Kabul is one of the most populated cities in Afghanistan and providing resources to support this population in an arid climate presents a serious environmental challenge. The current study evaluated the quality of local Kabul Basin groundwater to determine its suitability water for drinking and irrigation purposes now and into the future. This aim was aided through groundwater parameter assessment as well as determination ofWater Quality Index (WQI) developed from 15 observation points near the city. The results of our physicochemical analysis illustrate that groundwater in the majority of areas of the Kabul Basin is not generally suitable for human …

A Detailed Assessment Of Groundwater Quality In The Kabul Basin, Afghanistan, And Suitability For Future Development, Hussain Ali Jawadi, Jay Sagin, Daniel D. Snow

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Abstract: Kabul is one of the most populated cities in Afghanistan and providing resources to support this population in an arid climate presents a serious environmental challenge. The current study evaluated the quality of local Kabul Basin groundwater to determine its suitability water for drinking and irrigation purposes now and into the future. This aim was aided through groundwater parameter assessment as well as determination ofWater Quality Index (WQI) developed from 15 observation points near the city. The results of our physicochemical analysis illustrate that groundwater in the majority of areas of the Kabul Basin is not generally suitable for …

Engaging Farmers And The Agriculture Industry Through The Testing Agricultural Performance Solutions Program, Charles A. Burr, Daran Rudnick, Matt Stockton, Robert Tigner, Krystle Rhoades

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln Testing Agricultural Performance Solutions (TAPS) program involves use of farm management competitions to increase engagement across producers, industry, and universities.Participants make several management decisions throughout the growing season in a controlled field trial held at the university research station. Results are analyzed, and awards are presented for most profitable farm, most efficient farm, and farm with the greatest grain yield. The TAPS program involves several techniques for facilitating participatory assistance, including two-way communication and transformational learning. It has resulted in participants' questioning their past management decisions and realizing that they need to improve their marketing skills …

Introduction To Special Issue Of Irrigation Science: Improving Irrigation Management Across The Ogallala Aquifer, Usa, Allan A. Andales, Daran Rudnick, José L. Chávez

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Groundwater stored in aquifers is a major source of irrigation water for many agricultural regions that receive insufficient precipitation for crop production. In the U.S.A., the High Plains aquifer (HPA) that underlies parts of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming supplies irrigation water for agricultural production. The HPA underlies around 450,658 km² (174,000 mi²) of which the Ogallala aquifer is the principal geologic formation underlying 347,059 km² (134,000 mi²) (Gutentag et al. 1984). The Ogallala aquifer is primarily a water table (unconfined) aquifer with saturated thickness ranging from 0 …

Feasibility And Implementation Of Balanced Mix Design In Nebraska, Gabriel Nsengiyumva, Yong-Rak Kim, Jiong Hu

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Balanced mixture design is an alternative asphalt concrete design method that incorporates the performance of mixtures during the design. Balanced mixture design consists of performance test methods and performance criteria. Compared to the existing Superpave design method which mostly relies on volumetrics to design mixtures, balanced mixture design is more suited to account for performance improvements originating from reclaimed asphalt pavement and other foreign additives such as rejuvenators, warm- mix asphalt additives, polymers, and anti-stripping agents. This study investigated the feasibility of the implementation of balanced mixture design in Nebraska mixtures by exploring appropriate test methods (i.e., for fracture and …

Development And Testing Of A Bridge Rail For Low-Volume Roads, Scott K. Rosenbaugh, Jacob Delone, Ronald K. Faller, Robert W. Bielenberg

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

A new steel bridge rail was developed for use on low-volume bridges. The railing consisted 31-in. tall, 12-gauge Wbeam guardrail mounted on S3x5.7 posts, which were supported by steel square-tube sockets attached to the side of the bridge deck. The sockets were to be attached to the steel C-channel that is typically placed along the edges of rural bridge decks in the state of Nebraska. The bridge railing was developed for use on both 7-in. thick cast in place decks and 12-in. thick prestressed concrete beam slabs.

Various welded and bolted socket-to-channel attachment designs were evaluated through dynamic bogie testing …

Colloidal Silica: Cement Enhancing Admixture Product Evaluation, Lieska Halsey, David Hansen

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

As Class F- fly ash (F-ash) becomes scarce, PCC engineers will look to other supplemental cementitious materials (SCM) to replace F-ash and its ASR mitigating properties. Colloidal silica (CS), or nano-silica, has been shown to mitigate ASR at certain replacement levels; however, CS cannot be a full replacement of F-ash. Engineers at the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) learned of CS from a presentation given by Intelligent Concrete, Inc. at the 2019 Nebraska Concrete Professionals Association Conference and decided to investigate the potential use of CS in NDOT concrete mix designs.

Evaluation Of Mixtures And Pavement Performance For Rehabilitation Methods, Mohammad Rahmani, Gabriel Nsengiyumva, Yong-Rak Kim, Jiong Hu

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Pavement rehabilitation practice involves milling an asphalt surface and placing a new layer. The incorporation of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) mixtures brings cost savings and preserves the environment and natural resources. However, the use of recycled materials can compromise pavement performance, in particular, RAP can contribute to cracking because the mixtures with recycled materials become more brittle. In Nebraska, pavement rehabilitation has mostly been conducted by milling old 4-in. asphalt surface and placing a new 4-in. layer. Due to the potentially increased use of RAP mixtures for pavement rehabilitation, it is necessary to look into potential applications of RAP-induced overlay …

Supporting Bridge Management With Advanced Analysis And Machine Learning, Joshua Steelman, Francisco Garcia

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

A supplemental Artificial Neural Network (ANN)-based tool was developed to support the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) in optimizing bridge management investments when choosing between refined modeling, field testing, retrofitting, or bridge replacement. Load ratings typically increase by approximately 15% to 20% when using detailed finite element analysis (FEA) instead of AASHTO approximate analysis methods. The ANN tool is implemented in an Excel spreadsheet to accept ten input parameters readily available to NDOT engineers performing typical load ratings, and predicts FEA- equivalent critical girder distribution factors (GDFs), removing unnecessary conservativism from approximate AASHTO GDFs, potentially justifying load posting removal for …

Development And Performance Assessment Of An Integrated Vermifiltration Based Treatment System For The Treatment Of Feedlot Runoff, Rajneesh Singh, Matteo D'Alessio, Yulie Meneses, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt, Brian Woodbury, Chittaranjan Ray

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

The objective of this study was to treat feedlot runoff by developing an ecologically sustainable, affordable, and resilient treatment system having a relatively long life span. Three horizontal flow soil biofilters were utilized in this study: 1) without earthworms and plants (Biofilter (BF)), 2) with earthworms only (Vermifilter (VF)), and 3) with earthworms and plants (Macrophyte Assisted Vermifilter (MAVF)). The experiments were conducted with a hydraulic retention time of four days using Lumbricus terestrris earthworms and Carex frankii wetland plants. The average COD removal from the BF, VF, and MAVF were 23.2–30.4%, 61.4–69.1%, and 68.3–78.1%, respectively. Average TN removal efficiencies …

Differences In Soil Water Changes And Canopy Temperature Under Varying Water × Nitrogen Sufficiency For Maize, Tsz Him Lo, Daran Rudnick, Kendall C. Dejonge, Geng Bai, Hope Njuki Nakabuye, Abia Katimbo, Yufeng Ge, Trenton E. Franz, Xin Qiao, Derek M. Heeren

West Central Research and Extension Center, North Platte

Crop nitrogen (N) status is known to affect crop water status and crop water use. To investigate further the N effects on soil water changes and on canopy temperature, three water levels × four N levels were imposed on two growing seasons of maize in west central Nebraska, USA. Soil water changes were measured using a neutron probe, whereas canopy temperature was measured using infrared thermometers on a ground-based mobile platform. At all water levels, soil water losses over monthlong intervals were generally greater as N levels increased. Given equal water levels, early afternoon canopy temperatures were usually lower with …

Quantitative Assessment Of Alkali-Silica Reaction In Small And Large-Scale Concrete Specimens Utilizing Nonlinear Acoustic Techniques, Clayton Malone

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

Nonlinear resonance techniques have been shown to be sensitive to microcracking in materials, including alkali-silica reaction (ASR) damage in concrete. However, application of nonlinear resonance tests have been limited due to the difficulty of application to large-scale field structures and the inability to quantitatively relate material nonlinearity with damage development. In this study, the development of ASR in concrete prisms and large concrete beam specimens of varying aggregate types and specimen sizes was monitored using linear and nonlinear resonance techniques.

For the concrete prisms, although the linear resonance frequency test could detect initiation and development of ASR damage in specimens …

Life Cycle Assessment Of The Us Beef Processing Through Integrated Hybrid Approach, Shaobin Li, Yuwei Qin, Jeyamkondan Subbiah, Bruce Dvorak

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Hybrid life cycle assessment (LCA) incorporating process-based and economic input-output (EIO)–based inventory data has been applied in various industries (e.g., wind energy, biofuel). Few hybrid LCA studies have been found in the food industry. This work analyzes the life cycle environmental impacts of the US beef processing industry using process-based and integrated hybrid LCA. The process-based inventory includes all resource inputs and waste outputs associated with a beef processing plant. The EIO-based inventory includes key activities missing in the process-based inventory, such as technical and management service, wood and paper, and industrial equipment. Ten environmental impact categories from TRACI v2.1 …

Climate Change And Market-Based Insurance Feedbacks, Eric R. Holley, Adam Liska, Cory Walters, Geoffrey C. Friesen, Michael Hayes, Max J. Rudolph, Donald A. Wilhite

Adam Liska Papers

Climatic events have accounted for 91% of $1.05 trillion in insured costs for global catastrophic events from 1980 to 2016. Costs are driven by socio-economic development and increased frequency and severity of climatic disasters driven by climate change. Government policies to reduce systemic risk (e.g., cap-and-trade, carbon tax) have been a predominant approach for mitigation and adaptation. Alternatively, market-based incentives for climate change adaptation and mitigation already operate via the insurance industry to lessen impacts on society. Insurance feedbacks include changes in 1) premiums and insurance policies, 2) non-coverage, and 3) policy making and litigation. Alongside government policies, insurance feedbacks …

Pesticide Occurrence And Persistence Entering Recreational Lakes Residing In Watersheds Of Various Land Uses, Jessica Satiroff

Department of Environmental Engineering: Theses and Other Student Research

Common Use Pesticides (CUPs) are important for agricultural producers to sustain food production. As a result, regions with high rates of agricultural production, such as the Midwest, often have ubiquitous occurrences of pesticides in surface and groundwater ¹. Once pesticides are introduced into an ecosystem, pesticides have the potential for creating unwanted effects on non-target species and downstream environments ^2,3. However, pesticides do not come strictly from agricultural practices. Therefore, the research presented in this thesis focuses on the neonicotinoid and fungicide concentrations detected in recreational lakes as well as their persistence in these aquatic environments during the …

Biofiltration Of Volatile Organic Compounds Emitted At Ethanol Plants, Mitham Al-Faliti

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

Ethanol is a major biofuel source of energy in the U.S. Ethanol production produces several harmful emissions from both fermentation tanks and dryers. CO₂ scrubbers control the emissions from the fermentation tanks, while the emissions from the dryers are controller by regenerative thermal oxidizers. These methods are expensive to operate. A potential alternative is bio-trickling filters. Bio-trickling filters are an inexpensive and environmentally friendly alternative. For this study, two parallel bio-trickling filters were operated one at 25°C called the mesophilic bio-trickling filter and one at 60°C called the thermophilic bio-trickling filter. The mesophilic bio-trickling filter simulates emissions from fermentation …

Magnetic Water Treamtment For Scale Prevention On Water Heater Elements, Fatma Al-Sharji

Department of Environmental Engineering: Theses and Other Student Research

Calcium carbonates is one of the main components of scale that is commonly found in industrial equipment such as hot water systems. Scale formation on heater elements may lead to reduce heat efficiency and shorten the heat service life. Ion exchange softened water are used to reduce the scale formation, but excess salt during regeneration discharged to the wastewater stream, limits the reuse of wastewater for industrial purposes. As a result, non-salt alternative devices would provide consumers with the ability to reduce the impacts of ion exchange softened water without creating negative salinity impacts on wastewater stream. Magnetic water treatment …

Legacy And Current Pesticide Residues In Syr Darya, Kazakhstan: Contamination Status, Seasonal Variation And Preliminary Ecological Risk Assessment, Daniel D. Snow, P. Chakraborty, B. Uralbekov, B. Satybaldiev, J. Brett Sallach, L. M. Thornton Hampton, M. Jeffries, A. S. Kolok, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

The Syr Darya is one of two major rivers in Central Asia supplying critical fresh water to the Aral Sea. In spite of the river’s importance and agriculturally-intensive history, few studies have provided a modern evaluation of and the occurrence of pesticide residues potential effects to aquatic life. The primary goal of this investigation was to determine seasonal variations in ambient concentrations of modern and legacy pesticides in bottom sediment and water of the Syr Darya in Kazakhstan (KZ) downstream from an agriculturally-intensive watershed in Uzbekistan. Grab samples and passive samplers were used at five remote sampling stations during June …

Comparison Of Object Detection And Patch-Based Classification Deep Learning Models On Mid- To Late-Seasonweed Detection In Uav Imagery, Arun Narenthiran Veeranampalayam Sivakumar, Jiating Li, Stephen Scott, Eric T. Psota, Amit J. Jhala, Joe D. Luck, Jiating Li

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Mid- to late-season weeds that escape from the routine early-season weed management threaten agricultural production by creating a large number of seeds for several future growing seasons. Rapid and accurate detection of weed patches in field is the first step of site-specific weed management. In this study, object detection-based convolutional neural network models were trained and evaluated over low-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery for mid- to late-season weed detection in soybean fields. The performance of two object detection models, Faster RCNN and the Single Shot Detector (SSD), were evaluated and compared in terms of weed detection performance using mean …

Development Of An Improved Arterial Roadway Performance Reliability Methodology, Ernest Tufuor

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

The need for reliable performance measures of urban arterial roadways is increasing because of the rise in traffic congestion and the high value of travel time. Consequently, travel time reliability (TTR), which combines components of measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion of travel times, has recently received considerable research interest.

The basis of all TTR metrics is the travel time distribution (TTD). Estimating and forecasting arterial TTDs for TTR analysis is the focus of this dissertation. This dissertation proposes a new TTR methodology that is a marked improvement on recent TTR estimation and forecasting methodologies including the current …

Past, Present And Future Of Irrigation On The U.S. Great Plains, Steve R. Evett, Paul D. Colaizzi, Freddie R. Lamm, Susan A. O'Shaughnessy, Derek M. Heeren, Thomas J. Trout, William L. Kranz, Xiaomao Lin

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Motivated by the need for sustainable water management and technology for next-generation crop production, the future of irrigation on the U.S. Great Plains was examined through the lenses of past changes in water supply, historical changes in irrigated area, and innovations in irrigation technology, management, and agronomy. We analyzed the history of irrigated agriculture through the 1900s to the present day. We focused particularly on the efficiency and water productivity of irrigation systems (application efficiency, crop water productivity, and irrigation water use productivity) as a connection between water resource management and agricultural production. Technology innovations have greatly increased the efficiency …

Optimum Mixing Design Of Xanthan And Gellan Treated Soils For Slope Stabilization For Weathered Shales And Glacial Tills In Nebraska, Layal Bitar

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

Verdigre located in North Eastern Nebraska experienced slope failures. The geological formations of theses slopes largely consist of several layers of weathered shales and glacial tills. It is believed that the weathering process reduced the shear strength of the soils leading to slope failures.

In this study, strength characteristics of Xanthan and Gellan gums treated soil specimens compacted at the optimum moisture content for field application were investigated so that the biopolymer treated soils may be properly used to stabilize the slopes. The untreated and treated samples were subjected to a wet-freeze(-6^oF)-thaw(167^oF)-dry weathering process up to …

Development Of A Mash Test Level 4 Open Concrete Bridge Rail, Jacob Delone

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

An open concrete bridge rail was designed and developed according to safety performance guidelines in the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) for Test Level 4 (TL-4). Systems designed and developed under previous guidance were studied, and their geometric information and full-scale crash testing performance was studied to establish the geometry of the new bridge rail. Yield-Line Theory and the AASHTO Post and Beam design methods were studied, and a modified version of the AASHTO Post and Beam method was utilized to determine the capacity of the new open concrete bridge rail. …

Automatic Delamination Segmentation For Bridge Deck Based On Encoder-Decoder Deep Learning Through Uav-Based Thermography, Chongsheng Cheng, Zhexiong Shang, Zhigang Shen

Department of Construction Engineering and Management: Faculty Publications

Concrete deck delamination often demonstrates strong variations in size, shape, and temperature distribution under the influences of outdoor weather conditions. The strong variations create challenges for pure analytical solutions in infrared image segmentation of delaminated areas. The recently developed supervised deep learning approach demonstrated the potentials in achieving automatic segmentation of RGB images. However, its effectiveness in segmenting thermal images remains under-explored. The main challenge lies in the development of specific models and the generation of a large range of labeled infrared images for training. To address this challenge, a customized deep learning model based on encoder-decoder architecture is proposed …

Climate Change Impacts The Subsurface Transport Of Atrazine And Estrone Originating From Agricultural Production Activities, Renys Enrique Barrios, Simin Akbariyeh, Chuyang Liu, Khalid Muzamil Gani, Margarita T. Kovalchuk, Xu Li, Yusong Li, Daniel D. Snow, Zhenghong Tang, John Gates, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Climate change will impact soil properties such as soil moisture, organic carbon and temperature and changes in these properties will influence the sorption, biodegradation and leaching of trace organic contaminants to groundwater. In this study, we conducted a modeling case study to evaluate atrazine and estrone transport in the subsurface under current and future climate conditions at a field site in central Nebraska. According to the modeling results, in the future, enhanced evapotranspiration and increased average air temperature may cause drier soil conditions, which consequently reduces the biodegradation of atrazine and estrone in the water phase. On the other hand, …

Retention Of Swine Slurry Constituents In Soil And Crop Residue As Affected By Setback Distance, John E. Gilley, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt, Kent M. Eskridge, Xu Li, Amy M. Schmidt, Daniel D. Snow

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Setbacks are prescribed distances from surface waters within which manure application is not allowed. Little information is available concerning the retention of swine slurry constituents in soil and crop residue materials within setback areas. This study was conducted to measure the retention of selected constituents within a setback area following the upslope application of swine slurry and the introduction of simulated rainfall. The no-till cropland site had a slope gradient of 4.9% and a mean winter wheat residue cover of 7.73 Mg ha−1 . Soil and vegetative samples were collected on 3.7 m wide by 23.2 m long plots with …

Prototype System For Implementing The Ultrasonic Guided Wave Method On The Field, Ece Erdogmus, Eric Garcia, Michael Schuller, Ahmad Shoaib Amiri

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

This report presents the latest improvements in a recently developed nondestructive testing (NDT) technique for early detection of various flaws such as corrosion, delamination, and concrete cracking in reinforced concrete (RC) bridge decks. The method, named Ultrasonic Guided Wave Leakage (UGWL) method by the developing authors, involves use of internal steel reinforcement (rebar) as a wave guide for transmitting ultrasonic waves through the system and the measurement of leaked energy at the surface of the concrete. This report builds upon the progress made in the previously published phases of the project (M029 and M066), and aims to further explore the …

Research On School Zone Safety, Aemal Khattak, Yashu Kang

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

This research investigated different aspects of school zone safety including the effects of speed differentials on drivers’ speeds in active school zones, the effects of school and surrounding characteristics on drivers’ speeds in active school zones, and the safety benefits and costs associated with active school zones. The research team identified 18 schools in Nebraska for data collection that consisted of drivers’ speed data, school and surrounding characteristics, and 2014-2018 reported crash data. The 18 schools were categorized by the school zone speed limit differentials: 35 to 25 mph, 40 to 25 mph, 30 to 25 mph, and 35 to …

Economic Comparisons Of Variable Rate Irrigation And Fertigation With Fixed (Uniform) Rate Irrigation And Fertigation And Pre-Plant Fertilizer Management For Maize In Three Soils, Vasudha Sharma, Suat Irmak

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Extensive field research for data collection to conduct economic comparisons of variable rate irrigation (VRI) with fixed (uniform) rate irrigation (FRI) and no irrigation (NI) in combination with three nitrogen application strategies of fixed (uniform) rate fertigation (FRF), variable rate fertigation (VRF) and pre-plant nitrogen (PP) management for maize (Zea mays L.) were conducted. Research was conducted in three soil types [(i) Crete silt loam (S1); (ii) Hastings silty clay loam (S2); and (iii) Hastings silt loam (S3)] for three growing seasons (2015, 2016 and 2017) in Nebraska, USA. For the economic analyses, the average initial investment of the …

Nonlinear Dynamic Tests Of A Reinforced Concrete Frame Building At Different Damage Levels, Seyedsina Yousefianmoghadam, Mingming Song, Mohammad E. Mohammadi, Brittany Packard, Andreas Stavridis, Babak Moaveni, Richard L. Wood

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

This paper discusses the dynamic tests of a two-story infilled reinforced concrete (RC) frame building using an eccentric-mass shaker. The building, located in El Centro, CA, was substantially damaged prior to the tests due to the seismic activity in the area. During the testing sequence, five infill walls were removed to introduce additional damage states and to investigate the changes in the dynamic properties and the nonlinear response of the building to the induced excitations. The accelerations and displacements of the structure under the forced and ambient vibrations were recorded through an array of sensors, while lidar scans were obtained …