Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Modeling The Sustainability Of Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Technologies: Final Report, Miguel A. Figliozzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the past decade, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have become increasingly more popular in the commercial sector. Drones are being used for all kinds of purposes, such as surveillance, inspecting architecture, filming, wildlife research, and more. Freight delivery is a potential application that is getting lots of attention from large companies.

This research presented novel data, relationship, and models for deliveries utilizing small UAVs. Small UAVs were defined as aircrafts with a tare of up to 15 kilograms (kg) and a potential payload of up to 15 kg. Since the weight of the UAVs is capped, only drones with engines …

Modeling The Impact Of Traffic Conditions And Bicycle Facilities On Cyclists' On-Road Stress Levels, Àlvaro Caviedes, Miguel A. Figliozzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Past research efforts have shown that cyclists’ safety, stress, and comfort levels greatly affect the routes chosen by cyclists and cycling frequency. Some researchers have tried to categorize cyclists’ levels of traffic stress utilizing data that can be directly measured in the field, such as the number of motorized travel lanes, motorized vehicle travel speeds, and type of bicycle infrastructure. This research effort presents a novel approach: real-world, on-road measurements of physiological stress as cyclists travel across different types of bicycle facilities at peak and off-peak traffic times. By matching videos with stressful events, it was possible to observe the …

Advancing Bridge Technology, Task 10: Statistical Analysis And Modeling Of Us Concrete Highway Bridge Deck Performance -- Internal Final Report, Omar Ghonima, Thomas Schumacher, Avinash Unnikrishnan, Adam Fleischhacker

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Concrete highway bridge deck repairs represent the highest expense associated with bridge maintenance cost. In order to optimize such activities and use the available monies effectively, a solid understanding of the parameters that affect the performance of concrete bridge decks is critical. The National Bridge Inventory (NBI), perhaps the single-most comprehensive source of bridge information, gathers data on more than 600,000 bridges in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Focusing on concrete highway bridge deck performance, this research developed a nationwide database based on NBI data and other critical parameters that were computed …

Internal Gravity Waves And Meso/Submesoscale Currents In The Ocean Anticipating High-Resolution Observations From The Swot Swath Altimeter Mission, Edward D. Zaron, Cesar B. Rocha

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The article offers information on the meeting “Interactions between Internal Gravity Waves and Meso/Submesoscale Currents in the Ocean," held in Portland, Oregon, on February 10-11, 2018. Topics discussed include the role played by geostationary satellites in atmospheric science, the result of interactions between high-frequency internal gravity waves and low-frequency mesoscale andsubmesoscale currents in the ocean, and kinetic energy spectrum of surface currents.

Development Of A Crash Risk-Scoring Tool For Pedestrian And Bicycle Projects In Oregon, Yi Wang, Christopher M. Monsere, Chen Chen, Haizhong Wang

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Methods for identifying and prioritizing high-crash locations for safety improvements are generally crash-based. There are fewer reported crashes involving non-motorized users and, in most states, reported crashes must involve a motor vehicle. This means that minor, non-injury events are not reported and those crashes that are reported tend to be more severe. Selecting projects based only on crash performance is sometimes limiting for these crash types and predicting where these crashes will occur next is also a challenging task. An alternative to crash-based selection is to develop risk-based criteria and methods. This paper presents the results of a research effort …

A Study Of Bus High-Resolution Gps Speed Data Accuracy, Miguel Figliozzi, Nicholas B. Stoll

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The recent availability of high-frequency transit (HFT) GPS data for buses has allowed the estimation of detailed bus-travel speed profiles between bus stops. HFT data are defined as data comprising GPS vehicle trajectory recorded at or less than 5 s intervals. With HFT data it is now possible to measure changes in bus speed at specific locations of interest, such as intersections, ramps, crosswalks, and so on. Previous research efforts have not compared GPS-based bus speeds with general traffic speeds at specific locations between stops. This research fills this knowledge gap, utilizing accurate stationary radar speed data as a baseline …

Experimental And Numerical Investigation On The Bond Strength Of Self-Sensing Composite Joints, Shafique Ahmed, Thomas Schumacher, Jennifer Mcconnell, Erik T. Thostenson

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Laboratory experiments demonstrate that a novel carbon nanotube (CNT)-based sensing layer embedded in the bondline of an adhesively bonded structural joint can detect and monitor deformation and damage progression of the adhesive layer. In this study, experimental and numerical investigations were performed to identify any effect of an embedded CNT-based sensing layer on the bond strength of that joint. To evaluate the mechanical behavior of such a bondline configuration, two sets of single-lap specimens, with and without sensing layer, were prepared and tested to determine the bond strengths of the respective types. Two-dimensional digital image correlation (2D DIC) was utilized …

A 3d Model For Earthquake-Induced Liquefaction Triggering And Post-Liquefaction Response, Arash Khosravifar, Ahmed Elgamal, Jinchi Lu, John Li

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A constitutive soil model that was originally developed to model liquefaction and cyclic mobility has been updated to comply with the established guidelines on the dependence of liquefaction triggering to the number of loading cycles, effective overburden stress (Kσ), and static shear stress (Kα). The model has been improved with new flow rules to better capture contraction and dilation in sands and has been implemented as PDMY03 in different computational platforms such as OpenSees finite-element, and FLAC and FLAC3D finite-difference frameworks. This paper presents the new modified framework of analysis and describes a guideline to calibrate the input parameters of …

Minimum Required Length For Geotechnical Lateral Stability Of Rocksocketed Pile Shafts, Arash Khosravifar, Zia Zafir

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The original strong-rock (SR) p-y curves for rock-socketed shafts exhibit a brittle response where the post-peak resistance drops to approximately zero. This brittle response could result in a progressive failure of the rock p-y curves which, in turn, results in excessive pile lengths. This paper proposes a modification to the strong-rock (SR) p-y curves where the post-peak residual strength is equal to 20% of the ultimate resistance (0.2*pult). This residual resistance is proposed based on the assumption that the lateral resistance of cracked rock (after the peak point) should not be smaller than the lateral resistance of heavily weathered rock …

Relative Sea Level, Tides, And Extreme Water Levels In Boston Harbor From 1825 To 2018, Stefan Talke, A. C. Kemp, J. Woodruff

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using newly-discovered archival measurements, we construct an instrumental record of water levels and storm tides in Boston (MA) since 1825. After ascertaining the 19th century datum and correcting for a 0–0.03 m bias in the modern tide-gauge record, we show that local, decadally-averaged relative sea level (RSL) rose by 0.2860.05 m since 1826, with an acceleration of 0.02360.009 mm/yr2. Tide range decreased by 5.5% between 1830 and 1910, due in large part to dredging and filling of Boston Harbor, and trended slightly upward thereafter. An evaluation of storm events since 1825 suggests that trends in flood risk are driven by …

Seasonality Of Tides In Southeast Asian Waters, Adam T. Devlin, Edward Zaron, David A. Jay, Stefan Talke

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

An analysis of water level time series from 20 tide gauges in Southeast Asia finds that diurnal and semidiurnal astronomical tides exhibit strong seasonal variability of both amplitude and phase, which is not caused by known modulations of the astronomical tide-generating forces. Instead, it is found that the tidal properties are coherent with the western North Pacific monsoon index (WNPMI), indicating that monsoonal mechanisms are the likely cause. The study domain includes the Malacca Strait, Gulf of Thailand, the southern South China Sea, and Java Sea. The character of the geography and the tidal variability is different in each of …

Ocean And Ice Shelf Tides From Cryosat-2 Altimetry, Edward Zaron

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A new empirical model of ocean tides has been developed for the Weddell Sea, south of 668S, between 908W and 08, using six years of radar altimeter data from the CryoSat-2 satellite mission. Because of its long groundtrack repeat period (368 days) and its diverse measurement modes, low-rate mode (LRM) over the ocean and synthetic aperture radar interferometric mode (SARin) over ice surfaces and parts of the ocean, the CryoSat2 data pose a number of challenges for tidal analysis. The space and time sampling properties of the exact repeat, near-repeat, and crossover ground tracks have been analyzed to discover which …

A Novel Laser And Video-Based Displacement Transducer To Monitor Bridge Deflections, Miguel A. Vicente, Dorys C. Gonzalez, Jesus Minquez, Thomas Schumacher

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The measurement of static vertical deflections on bridges continues to be a first-level technological challenge. These data are of great interest, especially for the case of long-term bridge monitoring; in fact, they are perhaps more valuable than any other measurable parameter. This is because material degradation processes and changes of the mechanical properties of the structure due to aging (for example creep and shrinkage in concrete bridges) have a direct impact on the exhibited static vertical deflections. This paper introduces and evaluates an approach to monitor displacements and rotations of structures using a novel laser and video-based displacement transducer (LVBDT). …

Apprehensive Drought Characteristics Over Iraq: Results Of A Multidecadal Spatiotemporal Assessment, Maysoun Ayad Hameed, Ali Ahmadalipour, Hamid Moradkhani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Drought is an extreme climate phenomenon that happens slowly and periodically threatens the environmental and socio-economic sectors. Iraq is one of the countries in the Middle East that has been dealing with serious drought-related issues in the 21st century. Here, we investigate meteorological drought across Iraq from 1948 to 2009 at 0.25° spatial resolution. The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) has been utilized as a multi-scalar drought index accounting for the effects of temperature variability on drought. Four of the main characteristics of drought including extent, intensity, frequency and duration are studied and the associated spatiotemporal patterns are investigated for …

Decision Support System For The Design And Planning Of Low-Impact Development Practices: The Case Of Seoul, Jae-Yeol Song, Eun-Sung Chung, Soo Hyun Kim

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study presented the conceptual framework of the water-management analysis module (WMAM) to derive effective physical specifications for the design and planning of low-impact development (LID) practices using the storm-water management model (SWMM). This decision-support system can be used for six LID types and has the following key capabilities: determining relevant LID design parameters within the SWMM that critically influence the hydrological cycle components using a simple sensitivity analysis and determining the best hydrological values for LID planning specification. This study analyzed a highly urbanized university campus as a case study to determine the design and planning specifications for an …

Inertial And Liquefaction-Induced Kinematic Demands On A Pile-Supported Wharf: Physical Modeling, Milad Souri, Arash Khosravifar, Stephen E. Dickenson, Scott Schlechter, Nason Mccullough

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Results of a centrifuge test on a pile-supported wharf were used to investigate the time-, depth-, and row-dependent nature of kinematic and inertial loading on wharf piles in sloping rockfill. P-y models were calibrated against recorded bending moments in different piles and different depths. It was found that full kinematic demands and full superstructure inertia should be combined to estimate bending moments at pile head and shallow depths (less than 10 diameters below the ground surface). On the contrary, it was found that applying full kinematic demands alone was adequate to estimate pile bending moments at large depths (greater than …

The Effects Of Long-Duration Subduction Earthquakes On Inelastic Behavior Of Bridge Pile Foundations Subjected To Liquefaction-Induced Lateral Spreading, Jonathan Nasr, Arash Khosravifar

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Effective-stress nonlinear dynamic analyses (NDA) were performed for a large-diameter reinforced concrete (RC) pile in multi-layered liquefiable sloped ground. The objective was to assess the effects of earthquake duration on the combination of inertia and liquefaction-induced lateral spreading. A parametric study was performed using input motions from subduction and crustal earthquakes covering a wide range of motion durations. The NDA results showed that the pile head displacements increased under liquefied conditions, compared to nonliquefied conditions, due to liquefaction-induced lateral spreading. The NDA results were used to develop a displacement-based equivalent static analysis (ESA) method that combines inertial and lateral spreading …

Drone Deliveries Logistics, Efficiency, Safety And Last Mile Trade-Offs, Miguel A. Figliozzi, Chad Tucker, Polina Polikakhina

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or drone last mile deliveries are receiving a lot of attention from startups and big companies like Google, Amazon, and UPS. Around the world there are already examples of successful small scale delivery operations utilizing drones. Despite all the hype and excitement around this topic, there is surprisingly little research done on understanding the capabilities and technical tradeoffs among drones that are currently available in the market. The goal of this paper is to survey currently available multicopter drones and analyze them in terms of their potential for last mile and last yard deliveries. Novel data …

Modified Design Procedures For Bridge Pile Foundations Subjected To Liquefaction-Induced Lateral Spreading, Arash Khosravifar, Jonathan Nasr

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Effective-stress nonlinear dynamic analyses (NDA) were performed for piles in the liquefiable sloped ground to assess how inertia and liquefaction-induced lateral spreading combine in long- and short-duration motions. A parametric study was performed using input motions from subduction and crustal earthquakes covering a wide range of durations and amplitudes. The NDA results showed that the pile demands increased due to (a) longer duration shakings, and (b) liquefaction-induced lateral spreading compared to nonliquefied conditions. The NDA results were used to evaluate the accuracy of the equivalent static analysis (ESA) recommended by Caltrans/ODOT for estimating pile demands. Finally, the NDA results were …

Transportation Impacts Of Affordable Housing: Informing Development Review With Travel Behavior Analysis, Amanda Howell, Kristina Marie Currans, Steven R. Gehrke, Gregory Norton, Kelly J. Clifton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Planning for affordable housing is challenged by development policies that assess transportation impacts based on methodologies that often do not distinguish between the travel patterns of residents of market-rate housing and those living in affordable units. Given the public goals of providing affordable housing in areas with good accessibility and transportation options, there is a need to reduce unnecessary costs imposed by the potential overestimation of automobile travel and its associated impacts. Thus, the primary objective of this paper is to examine and quantify the influences of urban characteristics, residential housing type, and income on metrics commonly used to assess …

Spatial Transferability Assessment Of A Composite Walkability Index: The Pedestrian Index Of The Environment (Pie), Gabriel Lefebvre-Ropars, Catherine Morency, Patrick A. Singleton, Kelly J. Clifton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper analyzes the transferability of a composite walkability index, the Pedestrian Index of the Environment (PIE), to the Greater Montréal Area (GMA). The PIE was developed in Portland, Oregon, and is based on proprietary data. It combines six urban form variables into a score ranging from 20 to 100. The measure introduces several methodological refinements which have not been applied concurrently in previous efforts: a wide coverage of the different dimensions of the urban form, together with the use of a distance-based decay function and modelling-based weighing of the variables.

Tidal Variability Related To Sea Level Variability In The Pacific Ocean, Adam Thomas Devlin, David A. Jay, Edward Zaron, Stefan A. Talke, Jiayi Pan, Hui Lin

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Ocean tides are changing worldwide for reasons unrelated to astronomical forcing. Changes in tidal properties coupled with altered mean sea level (MSL) may yield higher peak water levels and increased occurrence of short-term exceedance events, such as storm surge and nuisance flooding. Here we investigate the hypothesis that changes in relative sea level are correlated with alterations in tidal amplitudes. Our approach focuses on the correlation between short-term (monthly to interannual) fluctuations in sea level with changes in tidal properties of major ocean tides (M₂, and K₁; S₂ and O₁) at 152 gauges. …

Eulerian-Based Virtual Visual Sensors To Measure Dynamic Displacements Of Structures, Ali Shariati, Thomas Schumacher

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Vibration measurements provide useful information about a structural system's dynamic characteristics and are used in many fields of science and engineering. Here, we present an alternative noncontact approach to measure dynamic displacements of structural systems using digital videos. The concept is that intensity measured at a pixel with a fixed (or Eulerian) coordinate in a digital video can be regarded as a virtual visual sensor. The pixels in the vicinity of the boundary of a vibrating structural element contain useful frequency information, which we have been able to demonstrate in earlier studies. Our ultimate goal, however, is to be able …

Drones For Commercial Last-Mile Deliveries: A Discussion Of Logistical, Environmental, And Economic Trade-Offs, Miguel Figliozzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

There are no studies that model the potential effectiveness of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones to reduce CO₂e lifecycle (including both utilization and vehicle phase) emissions when compared to conventional diesel vans, electric trucks, electric vans, and tricycles. This study presents a novel analysis of lifecycle UAV and ground commercial vehicles CO₂e emissions.

Building Intelligence In The Automated Traffic Signal Performance Measures With Advanced Data Analytics, Tingting Huang, Subhadipto Poddar, Chris Aguilar, Anuj Sharma, Edward J. Smaglik, Sirisha Kothuri, Peter Koonce

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Automated traffic signal performance measures (ATSPMs) are an effort to equip traffic signal controllers with high-resolution data-logging capabilities and utilize this data to generate performance measures. These measures allow practitioners to improve operations as well as to maintain and operate their systems in a safe and efficient manner. Although these measures have changed the way that operators manage their systems, several shortcomings of the tool, identified by talking with signal operators, are a lack of data quality control and the extent of resources required to properly use the tool for system-wide management. To address these shortcomings, intelligent traffic signal performance …

Lifetime Reliability-Based Optimization Of Post-Tensioned Box-Girder Bridges, Tatiana García-Segura, Victor Yepes, Dan M. Frangopol, David Y. Yang

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper presents a lifetime reliability-based approach for the optimization of post-tensioned concrete box-girder bridges under corrosion attack. The proposed approach is illustrated by determining the optimal life-cycle cost and CO2 emissions of several initial designs of post-tensioned box-girder bridges with different objectives, i.e. the lowest initial costs, the longest corrosion initiation time, or the maximum safety. The study was conducted in two steps. Firstly, the Pareto set presents initial designs considering the cross-section geometry, the concrete strength, the reinforcing steel and the prestressing steel. Secondly, the maintenance optimization was conducted with the proposed method, aimed at minimizing the economic, …

Archival Water-Level Measurements: Recovering Historical Data To Help Design For The Future, Stefan A. Talke, David A. Jay

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Improving methods of assessing risk and designing structures to withstand extreme events and changing sea levels is a vital component of strategies for reducing risk to coastal resources and assets. An obvious approach to improving the statistical robustness of risk assessments is to increase the number, time span, and quality of available water-level data sets, and to assess trends and non-stationarity. In this report we discuss efforts to recover, digitize, and analyze hundreds of station-years of lost-and-forgotten tide data and other water-level measurements that extend back to the early 19th century. To date, more than 6,500 station-years of previously lost …

A Simulator-Based Analysis Of Engineering Treatments For Right-Hook Bicycle Crashes At Signalized Intersections, Jennifer Warner, David S. Hurwitz, Christopher M. Monsere, Kayla Fleskes

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A right-hook crash is a crash between a right-turning motor vehicle and an adjacent through-moving bicycle. At signalized intersections, these crashes can occur during any portion of the green interval when conflicting bicycles and vehicles are moving concurrently. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of four types of engineering countermeasures – regulatory signage, intersection pavement marking, smaller curb radius, and protected intersection design – at modifying driver behaviors that are known contributing factors in these crashes. This research focused on right-hook crashes that occur during the latter stage of the circular green indication at signalized intersections …

Time Varying Parameter Models For Catchments With Land Use Change: The Importance Of Model Structure, Sahani Pathiraja, Daniela Anghileri, Paolo Burlando, Ashish Sharma, Lucy Marshall, Hamid Moradkhani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Rapid population and economic growth in South-East-Asia has been accompanied by extensive land use change with consequent impacts on catchment hydrology. Modelling methodologies capable of handling changing land use conditions are therefore becoming ever more important, and are receiving increasing attention from hydrologists. A recently developed Data Assimilation based framework that allows model parameters to vary through time in response to signals of change in observations is considered for a medium sized catchment (2880 km²) in Northern Vietnam experiencing substantial but gradual land cover change. We investigate the efficacy of the method as well as the importance of the chosen …

Considering Health In Us Metropolitan Long-Range Transportation Plans: A Review Of Guidance Statements And Performance Measures, Patrick A. Singleton, Kelly J. Clifton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Transportation influences health primarily and most directly through traffic safety, air quality, physical activity, and accessibility. Despite the importance of all four components, only safety and air quality are typically considered during institutionalized transportation planning processes. This paper assesses how health impacts are considered in transportation planning by focusing on the long-range transportation plans that US metropolitan planning organizations develop. We analyzed the content of current plans from 25 large regions, reviewing how policy guidance statements and supporting performance measures addressed health. Goals and objectives exhibited an incomplete perspective of transportation's effects on health, focusing on safety, accessibility, and air …