Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Mat-754: Internal Curing Of High Performance Concrete Using Lightweight And Recycled Concrete Aggregates, Mohamed S. Afifi, Mohamed N. Abou-Zeid

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Concrete curing is of paramount importance in order for concrete to meet performance requirements. Conventionally, curing has been conducted by means of water sparkling, wet burlap or a curing compound. For performance and environmental reasons, internal curing has been gaining increased attention. However, more data is needed for the effectiveness of this curing technique when used in various concrete mixtures.

This investigation addresses potential utilization of internal curing in high performance concrete (HPC). Internal curing was introduced by means of three aggregates: perlite, pumice and recycled aggregates; all of which were incorporated into HPC mixtures. Conventional mixtures were prepared and …

Mat-755: Sustainable Road Construction For Heavy Traffic Using High Strength Polymeric Geocells, Sanat K. Pokharel, Meisam Norouzi, Ian Martin, Marc Breault

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Construction Sustainability has been the focus of debate ever since the Brundtland commission report ‘Our Common Future’ defined Sustainable Development. Kyoto Protocol and subsequent climate change conferences leading up to the Paris submit this year has put still more emphasis on this agenda. Construction of heavy traffic unpaved access roads require huge amount of aggregate mining and long haulage in the areas of scarce virgin aggregate. Conventional practices in these road constructions seek structural adequacy but never specifically address the sustainability issue. Innovative technology that can reduce the volume of aggregate material while maintaining the structural integrity is required to …

Mat-756: Investigation Of The Impact Of Rap Gradation On The Effective Binder Content In Hot Mix Asphalt, Saeed S. Saliani, Alan Carter, Hassan Baaj

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Nowadays, it is common to add a little amount of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) in asphalt mixes without changing too much properties such as modulus and low temperature cracking resistance. Not only will those mixes be able to make roads last longer, but they will be a greener alternative to usual mixes. In order to make a flexible pavement design, the mixture behavior is usually characterized with the complex modulus. To have a high modulus mix, you need to control the gradation precisely even when RAP is added. When performing a mix design to incorporate RAP, it is desirable to …

Mat-758: Constructability Benefits Of The Use Of Lightweight Foamed Concrete Fill (Lfcf) In Pavement Applications, Michael L. J. Maher, John B. Hagan

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Lightweight Foamed Concrete Fill (LFCF), also known as cellular concrete, has been growing in use in transportation infrastructure projects over recent years. LFCF is a versatile construction material that has now been in use for over 30 years. A number of recent road rehabilitation projects have demonstrated some of the benefits of use. With a greater emphasis on sustainability on all provincial and municipal road projects, new solutions are being sought to minimize the generation of waste and deliver better performing pavements that require less maintenance interventions. Roads over peat and organic deposits pose challenges for road agencies. They are …

Mat-759: Particle Size Analysis As A Means To Better Understand The Influence Of Fly Ash Variability In Concrete, Yasar Abualrous, Daman K. Panesar, R. Doug Hooton, Bhupinder Singh

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Fly ash is generated from thermal power stations as an industrial by-product of coal combustion materials. Its particles are generally glassy, spherical in shape, and typically range in size from 0.5-300 µm. Coal fly ash is widely used as a partial cementitious material in concrete, which not only offers economic and environmental benefits but also improves concrete performance. However, variability of the physical description and chemical composition of fly ash has been considered to be a major barrier to its increased use in cement and concrete. In this study the variability and properties of fly ash are characterized with an …

Mat-760: Comparison Of Laboratory Performance Tests Used To Assess Alkali-Silica Reactivity, Farideh Golmakani, R. Douglas Hooton

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Alkali-silica reaction of certain concrete aggregates can lead to premature deterioration and maintenance problems in concrete structures. The CSA A23.1-14A/ASTM C1293 concrete prism test (CPT) and the CSA A23.2-25A/ASTM C1260/ASTM C1567 accelerated mortar bar test (AMBT) are the two main procedures used in CSA and ASTM standards for examining the potential alkali-silica reactivity (ASR) of aggregates and also for assessing the effectiveness of supplementary cementing materials (SCMs) in suppressing ASR. The long testing duration of the CPT and the unreliability of the rapid AMBT have led to development and evaluation of a third method, the accelerated concrete prism test (ACPT). …

Mat-761: The Effect Of Temperature On The Lateral Response Of Unbonded Fiber-Reinforced Elastomeric Isolators, Alexander N. Sciascetti, Yasser M. Al-Anany, Michael J. Tait

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Base isolation is a method that can be employed to significantly reduce the demands on a structure during a seismic event. This method has shown considerable success in reducing the adverse effects of earthquakes, including damage and loss of life. The main concept of base isolation is to reduce the seismic demand on a structure by placing isolators beneath the superstructure at points where load is transferred to the foundation. One of the most commonly used types of isolator is the elastomeric isolator. These isolators are traditionally comprised of layers of elastomer and steel. More recently, research has been completed …

Mat-762: Building Sustainable Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement Using Gfrp Bars: Case Study-Highway 40 West-Montreal, Canada, Abdoulaye Sanni B., Hamdy M. Mohamed, Denis Thébeau, Brahim Benmokrane

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Continuously reinforced concrete pavement designs (CRCP) are premium pavement designs that are often used on heavily-trafficked roadways and urban corridors. Although CRCP typically is an effective, long-lasting pavement design, it can develop performance problems when the aggregate-interlock load transfer at the transverse cracks is degraded. The prevalence of wide cracks in CRCP has frequently been associated with ruptured steel and significant levels of corrosion. Because of that, there has been recent interest in identifying new reinforcing materials that can prevent or minimize corrosion-related issues in CRCP. Glass fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars are one product being investigated for use in CRCP …

Mat-763: Assessment Of Ultra-High Performance Fibre Reinforced Concrete- Normal Strength Concrete Or High Strength Concrete Composite Members In Chloride Environment, Luaay Hussein, Lamya Amleh

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

The purpose of this study was to investigate the performance of composite members of ultra-high performance fibre-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) and normal strength or high strength concrete (NSC/HSC) in chloride environments. Experimental studies were carried out on UHPFRC-NSC/HSC prisms in order to investigate the effect of dry and wet cycles on the flexural capacity of those composite members. Each prism specimen was designed with the UHPFRC layer in tension and the NSC/HSC layer in compression. Three fibre volume contents (1%, 1.5%, and 2%) were investigated. The test results revealed that the degradation in the flexural capacity of UHPFRC-NSC/HSC specimens after exposure …

Ndm-500: Optical Tracking Of Debris In Extreme Hydrodynamic Conditions, Jacob Stolle, Ioan Nistor, Nils Goseberg

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Debris impact on structures have been reported and shown to be a major reason for structural failure in many post-mortem site assessments of tsunami devastated communities. However, due to the random nature of the debris motion, determining areas at-risk for debris impact is difficult. This paper presents a novel camera-based object tracking algorithm which allows for the quick and accurate tracking of debris trajectory in highly turbulent flows. The algorithm was used to determine debris motion observed during an experimental program on the displacement of scaled-down shipping containers (debris), carried out by the authors in the Tsunami Wave Basin at …

Ndm-501: Wind Pressure Coefficient Provisions For Large Flat Roofs, Hatem Alrawashde, Ted Stathopoulos

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

The existing literature on wind-induced pressures on roofs of low-rise buildings is generally limited to regular-shaped, mostly rectangular roofs with relatively small dimensions, say less than 60 m. Large roofs for industrial and institutional buildings have not been considered in the formulation of wind code and standard provisions. Therefore, it is important to assess the efficiency of the current national building code/standard provisions as to their applicability for very large roofs. This paper presents experimental results of wind loads on flat roofs of low-rise buildings with large dimensions carried out in an atmospheric boundary-layer wind tunnel for different wind directions. …

Ndm-502: Integration Of Site Conditions Information Using Geographic Information System For The Seismic Evaluation Of Bridges, Azarm Farzam, Marie-José Nollet, Amar Khaled

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

While seismic hazard is generally moderate in eastern Canada, the seismic risk in urban area is increased by the density of the population, the value and the age of the infrastructure and the relative importance of the economic activities. Among the consequences of a seismic event, damages to infrastructures, such as bridges and overpasses, may compromise the safety of users and the free movement of people and goods. According to modern seismic codes and regulations, structures designed for seismic loading should sustain moderate to severe earthquakes with minimal and reparable damages and without collapse. However, older structures build prior to …

Ndm-504: Multi-Platform Tornado Damage Scene Preservation, J. Arn Womble, Richard L. Wood, Elizabeth I. Louden, Mohammad Ebrahim Mohammadi, Douglas A. Smith, Kenneth R. Leitch

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

A severe tornado system produced damage to engineered metal buildings at an industrial facility outside Pampa, TX and toppled several nearby center-pivot irrigation structures. Rapid remote-sensing preservation of this overall damage scene was of particular necessity: access to the industrial facility was prohibited, and the overall size of the center-pivot irrigation system disallowed rapid direct measurement of member displacements. Engineers and architects from West Texas A&M University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Texas Tech University collaborated to acquire and preserve the damage scene for future study, using a suite of existing and emerging platforms: including 3D point clouds derived from aerial …

Ndm-505: Development Of The Asce/Sei Standard For The Estimation Of Tornado Wind Speeds, J. Arn Womble, James G. Ladue, Marc L. Levitan, Tanya Brown-Giammanco, Bill Coulbourne, Franklin T. Lombardo, Gregory A. Kopp

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Development of the new ASCE/SEI consensus standard for wind speed estimation in tornadoes began in 2014 and is currently underway. The intent of the new standard is to standardize the methods used to estimate the wind speeds in tornadoes including improvements and expansions for the damaged-based Enhanced Fujita Scale (EF Scale), with potential to extend the scope of the standard to include other windstorms. The standard will include sections on the EF Scale, radar measurements, tree fall pattern analysis, data archives, forensic engineering analysis, in-situ measurements (anemometry), and remote-sensing applications. Users of the standard will include wind, structural and forensic …

Ndm-506: Current Methods And Future Advances For Rapid, Remote-Sensing-Based Wind Damage Assessment, J. Arn Womble, Richard L. Wood, Ronald T. Eguchi, Shubharoop Ghosh, Mohammad Ebrahim Mohammadi

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Remote-sensing information provides an effective basis for the rapid assessment of wind damage. The development of remote-sensing based assessments has received notable attention over the past decade, although automated algorithms have not yet achieved the speed, objectivity, and reliability desired for practical implementation in time-critical damage assessments. The current standard practice for making swift, objective, and widespread assessments of wind damage currently consists of rapid visual interpretation of first-available imagery. Techniques for rapidly accomplishing widespread damage assessments by visual inspection have been implemented in recent major tornado outbreaks in Birmingham-Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Joplin, Missouri (2011). Quickly emerging technologies, such as …

Ndm-510: Analysis Of Spatially-Varying Wind Characteristics For Distributed Systems, Thomas G. Mara

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Design wind speeds for various return periods are provided in most national design codes throughout the world (e.g., NBCC 2010, ASCE 7-10). The design wind speeds are often based on an extreme value analysis of historical data obtained from a number of meteorological stations distributed over the region of interest. However, only the extreme wind speed magnitude is typically available to the designer, which does not provide information on the directional characteristics or underlying probability distribution of the wind. These parameters of the local wind characteristics may be useful for designers of directionally-sensitive structures or for higher-order reliability-based design. This …

Ndm-509: Full-Scale Test Methods For Multi-Layer Cladding Systems: Wind Tunnel Vs. Multi-Chamber Airbox, Connell S. Miller, Gregory A. Kopp

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Wind loads on multi-layer wall systems are complicated because the loads on each particular layer are poorly understood and difficult to quantify. This is because of pressure equalization, which is the mechanism whereby the pressures on the external building surface are transmitted through the air-permeable outer layer to interior layers. Recent testing at IBHS in a full-scale wind tunnel has shown that the extent of pressure equalization is more limited than is assumed in the test standard, ASTM D3679-13. Multi-chamber pressure testing performed by the authors at the Insurance Research Lab for Better Homes was able to capture these features …

Ndm-511: Pressure Fluctuations On The Roofs Of Low-Rise Buildings In Turbulent Boundary Layers, Abul Fahad Akon, Gregory A. Kopp

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Buildings are often exposed to the highly turbulent atmospheric boundary layer flows near the earth’s surface. Roofs of low-rise buildings in particular are vulnerable to the resulting aerodynamic loads, especially during the extreme wind storms. For flat-roofed, low-rise buildings with relatively large plan dimensions, the approach flow separates at the leading edge of the roof and then reattaches creating a separation bubble. This separation bubble is a turbulent recirculating flow region that is responsible for causing large-magnitude uplift on the roof surface. Such large, uplifting forces can cause damage to the roofs and roof-mounted structures. There are a limited number …

Ndm-514: Large Eddy Simulation Of Wind Induced Loads On A Low Rise Building With Complex Roof Geometry, Bodhisatta Hajra, Girma T. Bitsuamlak, Haitham Aboshosha, Ahmed Elshaer

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Wind induced damage on low-rise buildings with complex roof geometry is common in coastal areas of USA, such as Florida and Louisiana. Available design codes provide information about the design of regular roof geometries (e.g. hip/gable roofs), but refer to wind tunnel modelling for complex roof geometries. Due to time and financial constraints physical modelling may not always be possible to carry out. Computational modelling through Large Eddy Simulation (LES) has been used successfully for several wind engineering applications. This paper presents comparisons between LES and previously obtained wind tunnel data of mean and peak pressure coefficients on a low …

Ndm-515: An Original Model Of Infrastructure System Resilience, Jingjing Kong, Slobodan P. Simonovic

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Infrastructure systems of transportation, water supply, telecommunications, power supply, etc. are not isolated but highly interconnected and mutually coupled. Infrastructure interdependences can increase system vulnerability and produce cascading failures at the regional or national scales. Taking the advantage of network theory structure analysis, this paper models street, water supply network, power grid and information infrastructure as network layers that are integrated into a multilayer network. The infrastructure interdependences are detailed using five basic dependence patterns of network fundamental elements. Definitions of dynamic cascading failures and recovery mechanisms of infrastructure systems are also established. The main focus of the paper is …

Ndm-516: Tsunami Vulnerability Assessment Of Canadian West Coast Communities Based On Evacuation Capability, Isabelle M. Cheff, Ioan Nistor, Dan Palermo

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

The Canadian Pacific coast is located in a highly seismic region with active convergent plates with the potential to generate large tsunamis. The tsunami vulnerability of communities in British Columbia is assessed using geographical information system (GIS) model for potential run up heights between 3-25 m and the difference between the necessary pedestrian time to safety and the tsunami arrival time, defined as the available time (AT). Using these metrics, 8 communities were identified to be highly vulnerable to tsunami due to run ups of 25 m: Ucluelet, Gordon River 2 IRI, Tofino, Esowista 3 IRI, Hesquiat 1 IRI, Hope …

Ndm-518: Effects Of Non-Traditional Isolator Placement For Seismic Retrofit, Adrian P. Crowder, Tracy C. Becker

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Seismic isolation delivers improved performance by means of a flexible layer at which lateral deformation is concentrated. However, for seismic retrofit applications base isolation systems can be of considerable expense, in significant part because of major alterations required at the base of the structure. The cost of introducing an additional diaphragm, constructing a seismic gap, and modifying the foundation causes the initial cost of isolation to be significantly higher than traditional non-isolation retrofit methods. To minimize initial costs, isolators may be placed directly at the top of the column level, without an additional diaphragm, instead of at the base of …

Ndm-522: Decentralized Semi-Active Control For Multi-Performance-Based Design, Young-Jin Cha

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Traditional performance-based design (PBD) that has a single performance level has been widely researched by changing section sizes of structural members or material properties to resist single hazard levels. However, this approach has limitations in terms of achieving performance and alternative design options for the owner. To overcome these limitations of the traditional PBD method, a multi-performance-based control design (MPBCD) methodology is newly proposed. The MPBCD integrates a decentralized semi-active control algorithm with semi-active smart damping devices and an advanced multi-objective optimization method. The multi-objective optimization is used to achieve various sets of performance-based control designs. The control designs satisfy …

Ndm-519: Wind Testing Of Span-Wire Traffic Signal Systems, Peter A. Irwin, Ioannis Zisis, Benito Berlanga, Bodhisatta Hajra, Arindam Chowdhury

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Traffic signals are a critical part of the transportation infrastructure and it is important that they be robust enough to resist extreme wind storms lasting several hours. Failure of the signal systems results in unsafe traffic conditions during and after a storm, and the time taken for repairs delays recovery. A significant fraction of existing signals use span-wire supporting systems. The wire spans can range from 15 m to 60 m, depending on the width of the highway intersection, and exhibit nonlinear characteristics. The typical signal system used in Florida consists of the signal units, a catenary wire, hangers, a …

Ndm-523: Use Of An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Uav) To Assess Transportation Infrastructure, Immediately After A Catastrophic Storm Event, Laird D. Ferguson, Lindon Miller, Mike Wolfe, Jared Mcginn, Lloyd Waugh

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

From September 29 to October 1, 2015 over 200 mm of rain deluged parts of southern New Brunswick. The catastrophic rain event washed away bridge size culverts and conventional bridges, including the surrounding soil and asphaltic concrete pavement. Also erosion encroached on the driving lane of road and highway embankments at over 100 locations. Several homes and businesses were left stranded. A fast and efficient means was required to assess the impact on infrastructure after the storm. This paper presents the procedure and outcomes of using digital imagery captured with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for post-disaster assessment. The use of …

Ndm-524: Case Study To Assess The Sensitivity Of Prestressed Concrete Poles To Tornadoes, Ahmed M. Ibrahim, Ashraf A. El Damatty

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Transmission line structures play a vital role in transmitting electricity from the source of production to the distribution system. The main components of a transmission line are the conductors, the insulator strings, the ground wires and the supporting towers. Among the different types of supporting towers, prestressed concrete transmission poles have the advantages of low installation and maintenance costs, appropriate delivery time, and corrosion resistivity. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper represents the first investigation conducted to assess the response of cantilever prestressed concrete poles to tornadoes. The localized nature of the tornadoes and the extended length …

Ndm-525: Effects Of Tornado Wind Speeds On Concrete Road Barriers, Aaron L. Jaffe, Eric R. Lalonde, Gregory A. Kopp

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Wind speeds can be difficult to measure during tornadoes due to their destructive nature. They pose a significant threat to lives and infrastructure in many parts of Canada and the U.S. The Enhanced-Fujita scale focuses on estimating these wind speeds by observing damage to different types of buildings, but significantly less research has been performed on the damage of other structures. Learning more about the effects of high wind speeds on these structures will help improve the ease and accuracy of future tornado classification. A wind tunnel study was performed at the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory of Western University. …

Ndm-526: Investigation Of Stable And Unstable Fiber-Reinforced Elastomeric Isolators, Niel C. Van Engelen, Michael J. Tait, Dimitrios Konstantinidis

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Fiber-reinforced elastomeric isolators (FREIs) are a potentially low-cost alternative to conventional steel-reinforced elastomeric isolators. FREIs can exhibit a non-linear horizontal force-displacement relationship characterized by a softening and stiffening phase, similar to other adaptive isolation devices such as the triple friction pendulum. This non-linear relationship is a consequence of unique deformations that occur during horizontal displacement denoted as rollover, which causes softening, and full rollover, which causes stiffening. The magnitude of the softening due to rollover is primarily governed by the width-to-total height aspect ratio of the FREI. If the aspect ratio is low, below about 2.5, the isolator may be …

Ndm-528: An Approach To Classification Of Natural Disasters By Severity, H. Jithamala Caldera, S. C. Wirasinghe, L. Zanzotto

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Existing scales for natural disasters describe severity in terms of intensity. Intensity scales are not highly correlated with impact factors such as fatalities, injuries, homelessness, affected population, and cost of damage. The descriptive words for disasters are also not sufficient to clearly comprehend the real magnitude of severity as there is no consistent method to distinguish one terminology from another. Further, data collection standards vary among countries and, therefore, comparisons across space and time are difficult to make. Several discrepancies between various sources of information complicate the interpretation of trends in disaster data. Furthermore, comparing different events and obtaining a …

Ndm-529: Numerical Evaluation Of Wind Loads On A Tall Building Located In A City Centre, Ahmed Elshaer, Haitham Aboshosha, Girma T. Bitsuamlak, Ashraf A. El Damatty

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Estimation of wind-induced loads and responses is an essential step in tall building design process. Wind load for super tall buildings is commonly evaluated using boundary layer wind tunnel (BLWT) tests. However, the recent development in computational power and techniques is encouraging designers to explore numerical wind load evaluations using a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approaches. CFD can provide a faster estimation for building loads and responses with lower cost and satisfactory accuracy for preliminary design stages. The current study investigates the accuracy of evaluating wind pressure and building responses of a typical tall building (CAARC building). Two configurations are …