Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Streamflow Prediction In Ungauged Basins Located Within Data-Scarce Regions, Mohammadhossein Alipour

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Preservation and or restoration of riverine ecosystem requires quantification of alterations inflicted by water resources development projects. Long records of streamflow data are the first piece of information required in order to enable this analysis. Ungauged catchments located within data-scarce regions lack long records of streamflow data. In this dissertation, a multi-objective framework named Streamflow Prediction under Extreme Data-scarcity (SPED) is proposed for streamflow prediction in ungauged catchments located within large-scale regions of minimal hydrometeorologic observation. Multi-objective nature of SPED allows for balancing runoff efficiency with selection of parameter values that resemble catchment physical characteristics. Uncertain and low-resolution information are …

Characterization Of Florida Landfills With Elevated Temperatures, Ryan Joslyn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The occurrence of elevated temperatures within landfills is a very challenging issue for landfill operators to detect and correct. Little is known regarding the causes of elevated temperatures (ETs) and the number of landfills currently operating under such conditions. Therefore, the goal of this research was to determine which landfills within Florida have been impacted by ETs, and to develop a more complete understanding of the factors that may lead to these landfills becoming elevated temperature landfills (ETLFs). Historical landfill gas wellhead data, waste deposition reports, and landfill site geometry were collected for 27 landfill cells through the FDEP OCULUS …

Treatment Of Electric Utility Wastewaters By Sol-Gel Solidification And Stabilization, Alex Kearns

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To meet the demands of new regulations on coal-fired power plants, many treatment scenarios require a zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) approach. Two revisions to regulations in 2015, the Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELG) and Coal Combustion Residuals (CCRs) rule, drastically changed the treatment approach for managing effluents at coal-fired plants. In some scenarios, coal-fired plants retired early deeming the capital cost for maintaining compliance too expensive. Traditionally, stabilization/solidification (S/S) ZLD technologies have fallen in two categories: cementitious and vitrification. However, neither approach offers the ideal solution for coal-fired power plants needing ZLD by S/S methods. In what follows, a novel sol-gel encapsulation …

Investigation Of Flexural Behavior Of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete And Steel Fiber Orientation Control During Construction, Maria Kolisnichenko

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Concrete is the most widely used construction material in the world, and its consumption has been increasing. The main benefits of concrete include its durability, availability of the components, and great strength in compression. Despite all these advantages, however, concrete is a brittle material with a relatively low tensile strength and deformation capacity. It is, therefore, vulnerable to cracking under tension, which can lead to sudden catastrophic failures of concrete structures. In order to control and reduce cracking, reinforcement of concrete is necessary.

The most commonly used reinforcement technique in structural application is the use of deformed steel bars. However, …

Improving Traffic Safety At School Zones By Engineering And Operational Countermeasures, Md Hasibur Rahman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Safety issues at school zone areas have been one of the most important topics in the traffic safety field. Although many studies have evaluated the effectiveness of various traffic control devices (e.g., sign, flashing beacon, speed monitoring display), there is a lack of studies exploring different roadway countermeasures and the relationship between school-related factors and crashes. In this study, the most crash-prone school zone was identified in Orange and Seminole Counties, Florida, based on crash rate. Afterward, a microsimulation network was built in VISSIM environment to test different roadway countermeasures in the school zones. Three different countermeasures: two-step speed reduction …

Biomass Density Based Adjustment Of Lidar-Derived Digital Elevation Models: A Machine Learning Approach, Khalid Abdelwahab

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Salt marshes are valued for providing protective and non-protective ecosystem services. Accurate digital elevation models (DEMs) in salt marshes are crucial for modeling storm surges and determining the initial DEM elevations for modelling marsh evolution. Due to high biomass density, lidar DEMs in coastal wetlands are seldom reliable. In an aim to reduce lidar-derived DEM error, several multilinear regression and random forest models were developed and tested to estimate biomass density in the salt marshes near Saint Marks Lighthouse in Crawfordville, Florida. Between summer of 2017 and spring of 2018, two field trips were conducted to acquire true elevation and …

Arterial-Level Real-Time Safety Evaluation In The Context Of Proactive Traffic Management, Jinghui Yuan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the context of pro-active traffic management, real-time safety evaluation is one of the most important components. Previous studies on real-time safety analysis mainly focused on freeways, seldom on arterials. With the advancement of sensing technologies and smart city initiative, more and more real-time traffic data sources are available on arterials, which enables us to evaluate the real-time crash risk on arterials. However, there exist substantial differences between arterials and freeways in terms of traffic flow characteristics, data availability, and even crash mechanism. Therefore, this study aims to deeply evaluate the real-time crash risk on arterials from multiple aspects by …

Assessing Pedestrian Safety Conditions On Campus, Morgan Morris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pedestrian-related crashes are a significant safety issue in the United States and cause considerable amounts of deaths and economic cost. Pedestrian safety is an issue that must be uniquely evaluated in a college campus, where pedestrian volumes are dense. The objective of this research is to identify issues at specific locations around UCF and suggest solutions for improvement. To address this problem, a survey that identifies pedestrian safety issues and locations is distributed to UCF students and staff, and an evaluation of drivers reactions to pedestrian to vehicle (P2V) warning systems is studied through the use of a NADS MiniSim …

An Assessment Of Biosorption Activated Media For The Removal Of Pollutants In Up-Flow Stormwater Treatment Systems, Andrew Hood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nitrogen and phosphorus are often the limiting nutrients for marine and freshwater systems respectively. Additionally, stormwater often contains elevated levels of pathogens which can pollute the receiving water body and impact reuse applications [1-4]. The reduction of limiting nutrients and pathogens is a common primary target for stormwater best management practices (BMPs) [5]. Traditional BMPs, such as retention/detention treatment ponds require large footprints and may not be practical in ultra-urban environments where above ground space is limited. Upflow filters utilizing biosorption activated media (BAM) that can be placed underground offer a small footprint alternative. Additionally, BAM upflow filters can be …

Probabilistic Spatio-Magnitude Sinkhole Hazard Analysis For East Central Flrodia, Yong Je Kim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In Karst areas, sinkholes are a major geohazard that creates damage and economic loss to building and civil infrastructure. The main goal of the proposed study is to develop a probabilistic spatio-magnitude sinkhole susceptibility model that predicts the potential of sinkhole occurrence on a regional scale. The dissertation presents statistical techniques such as frequency ratio (FR) and logistic regression (LR), and a machine learning technique such as artificial neural network (ANN) to develop the sinkhole hazard models. The study area was limited to the East Central Floria (ECF) region. Seven hydrogeological factors were identified as key contributing factors to sinkhole …

Assessing The Safety And Operational Benefits Of Connected And Automated Vehicles: Application On Different Roadways, Weather, And Traffic Conditions, Md Sharikur Rahman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technologies have recently drawn an increasing attention from governments, vehicle manufacturers, and researchers. Connected vehicle (CV) technologies provide real-time information about the surrounding traffic condition (i.e., position, speed, acceleration) and the traffic management center's decisions. The CV technologies improve the safety by increasing driver situational awareness and reducing crashes through vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I). Vehicle platooning with CV technologies is another key element of the future transportation systems which helps to simultaneously enhance traffic operations and safety. CV technologies can also further increase the efficiency and reliability of automated vehicles (AV) by collecting real-time …

Mechanical Study On Edge-Oxidized Graphene Oxide (Eogo) Reinforced Concrete, Mohammad Khawaji

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is known that graphene oxide (GO) has superior mechanical properties and can enhance mechanical properties of cement composites. However, Hummer produced conventional GOs have been limited to small-scale specimens (e.g., cement paste and mortar) and applications to concrete have not been implemented due to their high cost and large volume of concrete. Edge-oxidized graphene oxide (EOGO) is a low-cost, carbon-based nanomaterial produced by a mechanochemical process with ball milling and a non-toxic oxidizing agent. The low cost (less than $50/kg) of EOGO enables its use in bulk-scale concrete materials/structures, which is a prerequisite for the field implementation. In this …

Enhanced Concrete Bridge Assessment Using Artificial Intelligence And Mixed Reality, Enes Karaaslan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Conventional methods for visual assessment of civil infrastructures have certain limitations, such as subjectivity of the collected data, long inspection time, and high cost of labor. Although some new technologies (i.e. robotic techniques) that are currently in practice can collect objective, quantified data, the inspector's own expertise is still critical in many instances since these technologies are not designed to work interactively with human inspector. This study aims to create a smart, human-centered method that offers significant contributions to infrastructure inspection, maintenance, management practice, and safety for the bridge owners. By developing a smart Mixed Reality (MR) framework, which can …

Investigation Of Coastal Vegetation Dynamics And Persistence In Response To Hydrologic And Climatic Events Using Remote Sensing, Subrina Tahsin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Coastal Wetlands (CW) provide numerous imperative functions and provide an economic base for human societies. Therefore, it is imperative to track and quantify both short and long-term changes in these systems. In this dissertation, CW dynamics related to hydro-meteorological signals were investigated using a series of LANDSAT-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data and hydro-meteorological time-series data in Apalachicola Bay, Florida, from 1984 to 2015. NDVI in forested wetlands exhibited more persistence compared to that for scrub and emergent wetlands. NDVI fluctuations generally lagged temperature by approximately three months, and water level by approximately two months. This analysis provided insight …

Disinfection By-Product Formation Potential Assessment For Central Florida Groundwater Supplies, Tulsi Shukla

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Disinfection of potable water supplies is a primary requirement of the United States' Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA's) Safe Drinking Water Act. The use of chlorine as a disinfectant is widely accepted by water purveyors due to its effectiveness and low cost. However, chlorine reacts with natural organic matter present in water supplies to form suspected carcinogenic disinfection by-products (DBPs). In this work, the formation of the regulated chlorinated by-products total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) and haloacetic acids (HAA5) for eleven Central Florida wells has been investigated. Fluorescence, UV-254, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), specific UV absorbance (SUVA), chlorine decay, and TTHM and HAA5 …

Basic Turbo Roundabouts As An Alternative To Conventional Double-Lane Roundabouts: Operational Performance Evaluation, Zuhair Elhassy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Conventional roundabouts have been prevalent worldwide since the emergence of modern roundabouts in 1966. An innovative design of multilane roundabouts known as turbo roundabouts, however, has been recently introduced as an alternative to conventional multilane roundabouts. Due to several reasons, there has been no general consensus on the operational performance of turbo roundabouts throughout the world. Nationwide, turbo roundabouts have yet to be part of roadway systems, but there is an ongoing project expected to be finished in early 2020. Therefore, this dissertation aims to evaluate the operational performance of a widespread variant of turbo roundabouts, namely basic turbo roundabouts, …

A Study Of The Effect Of Heat Treatment On 3d Printed Pla Impact Strength, Suresh Thota

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Environmental conditions have a significant effect on the mechanical properties of various materials. Environmental parameters such as temperature and humidity have a major impact on mechanical properties of materials such as compressive strength, tensile strength, bending strength and impact strength. The purpose of this research is to study how temperature and humidity affect the impact strength of 3D printed PLA plastic. Impact strength is the ability of a material to absorb energy subjected to an impact load by a pendulum. In this research, 3D printing was employed to produce PLA specimens which were later used for different experimental testings. For …

An Initial Exploration Of The 2005 Iowa Rural Interstate Speed Limit Increase Using Linear Regression, Thomas Ryan Cook

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Speed limit increases, particularly on interstates have been studied and researched many times over the course of the last 50 years in the United States. These research efforts began after the implementation of the National Maximum Speed Law (NMSL), which reduced all speed limits to a maximum of 55-mph. In the years that followed, this restriction was relaxed to 65-mph with the Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act (STURAA) and ultimately repealed later by the National Highway System Designation Act (NHSDA). Since the repeal, states reacted in myriad of ways and many studies documented the changes of those reactions. …

Escherichia Coli Removal From Stormwater Using Steel Chips Filter, Peng Dai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Media filtration has received increasing attention as an effective technology that can facilitate the removal of particles and dissolved pollutions in the stormwater. However, most traditional media filtration systems are generally ineffective in removing bacteria, causing pollution of groundwater and receiving surface water. In this study, recycled steel chips were evaluated as low-cost filter materials for bacterial removal from stormwater. Laboratory column experiments were conducted to evaluate the impact of steel chips particle size, flow rate, initial E.coli concentration, pH, natural organic matter (NOM), steady and intermittent flow on E.coli removal. The results showed that E.coli removal decreased from 99.4% …

Pilot Scale Evaluation Of E. Coli Filtration Removal From Stormwater Using Recycled Steel, Jason Neville

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Microbial pathogens are considered one of the most important pollutants in regards to surface waters such as coastal waters, rivers and urban estuaries. Escherichia Coli (E. coli) is a bacterial microorganism found in the guts of humans and some animals that if ingested can cause diarrhea, severe stomach cramps, and vomiting. E. coli carried by stormwater runoff can deteriorate water quality of receiving bodies of water. It is necessary to develop technologies to remove E. coli from stormwater runoff to protect surface waters and public health. The use of steel byproducts as an adsorption technology is an emerging stormwater treatment …

Natural Sunlight Photodegradation Of Halogenated Disinfection Byproducts In Water, Ibrahim Abusallout

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Disinfection byproducts (DBPs) presence in wastewater effluents and receiving waters may impact the quality of drinking water during water reuse practices. Natural solar photolysis is one of the biogeochemical processes that may lead to decreased DBPs concentrations in water. The purpose of this dissertation is to determine the fate of chlorinated, brominated and iodinated DBPs in surface water by natural sunlight photolysis and investigate the use of solar-based advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for removal of DBPs in water. Total organic halogen (TOX) was used to measure total chlorinated- (TOCl), brominated- (TOBr) and iodinated-DBPs (TOI) in water. The first objective was …

Repairable Moment-Resisting Steel Buildings, Heath William Pederson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Current seismic design codes ensure life safety for buildings, but structural members may significantly yield or even fail under strong earthquakes. A new design approach is to implement connections that localize the yielding and failure to fuses. A more sophisticated approach is to be able to replace the fuses after the event. The present study was carried out to develop repairable moment-resisting (MR) connections for steel buildings and to investigate their seismic performance through nonlinear finite element analyses (FEA). Two details were proposed using buckling restrained fuses (BRFs) and buckling restrained reinforcement (BRR). Test data was collected from the literature …

Stream Flow Analysis Of The Big Sioux River Just South Of Brookings, South Dakota, Samuel Ruppert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Floods are the most common type of natural disaster in the world and one of the most damaging. Changes in climate conditions such as precipitation and temperature are causing changes in stream flow. This means that in order to better understand flooding and possibly develop a system for making flood predictions, stream flow needs to be analyzed more closely. The primary objective of this thesis is to analyze the Big Sioux River just south of Brookings, South Dakota, both annually and seasonally. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has stream gauges placed in rivers and streams all over the United …

Field And Numerical Study For Deteriorating Precast Double-Tee Girder Bridges, Brian Kidd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Two deteriorating DT bridges in South Dakota, both over 30-years old, were field tested with a static and dynamic load. From the recorded strain values, the liveload distribution factors (LLDFs) and dynamic load allowance (IM) factors were calculated. The AASHTO LRFD and AASHTO Standard Specifications were compared with the field LLDFs and IMs. It was determined that the AASHTO LRFD Specifications were conservative for deteriorating DT girder bridges, with two exceptions. The AASHTO Standard codified LLDFs were significantly higher than the field LLDFs in all cases. The AASHTO LRFD and AASHTO Standard specifications were conservative when calculating the IM factors …

The Effect Of Edge-Of-Field Nutrient Management Practices On Microbial Concentrations In Subsurface Drainage Water And The Associated Risk Of Antibiotic Resistance Dissemination, Sara Mardani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many in-field and edge-of-field management practices have been used to reduce nutrient loads from agricultural fields. The denitrification woodchip bioreactor (WB) is one edgeof- field management practice that has proven to be effective in removing nitrate from subsurface drainage water. The success in nitrate removal achieved with WBs has raised interest in expanding their capabilities for removing other agricultural pollutants, including phosphorus, by using other types of media like phosphorus-sorbing filters or combining these filters with woodchips to remove both nitrate and phosphorus as dual-nutrient removal systems. Despite the extensive research done on WBs and nutrient filter materials, little consideration …

Warrants For Right-Turn Flashing Yellow Arrow Signal Phases, Mohammed Alfawzan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The right-turn flashing yellow arrow (FYA) signal phasing is a new signal practice in the United States. The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices MUTCD (2009) allocates a signal phasing section for the right-turn FYA, which requires a four-section head FYA signal. It supports multiple phases' indications that guide the motorist through permissive, protected, and/or permissive/protected phases. For this dissertation, I investigated three permissive right-turn FYA signal phases in various traffic conditions and signal timing circumstances. The first permissive right-turn FYA signal phase is the tight-turn on impeding through (RTOIT) taking place during the cross-street through traffic movement. The second …

Safety, Operational, And Design Analyses Of Managed Toll And Connected Vehicles' Lanes, Moatz Saad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Managed lanes (MLs) have been implemented as a vital strategy for traffic management and traffic safety improvement. The majority of previous studies involving MLs have explored a limited scope of the impact of the MLs segments as a whole, without considering the safety and operational effects of the access design. Also, there are limited studies that investigated the effect of connected vehicles (CVs) on managed lanes. Hence, this study has two main objectives: (1) the first objective is achieved by determining the optimal managed lanes access design, including accessibility level and weaving distance for an at-grade access design. (2) the …

Assessment Of A Surface Water Supply For Source And Treated Distribution System Quality, Angela Rodriguez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study focused on providing a source to tap assessment of surface water systems with respect to (i) the use of alternative biomonitoring tools, (ii) disinfection byproduct (DBP) formation and control, and (iii) corrosion control. In the first study component, two water systems were microbiologically evaluated using adenosine triphosphate (ATP) bioluminescence technology. It was determined that microbial ATP was useful as a surrogate for biomonitoring within a surface water system when paired with traditional methods. Although microbial activity differed between distribution systems that used either chloramine or chlorine disinfectant, in both cases flowrate and season affected microbial ATP values. In …

Design, Synthesis And Characterization Of Biomimetic, Bioinspired And Bio-Related Functional Polymers For Atmospheric Water Recovery, Abdullah Alqassar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Atmospheric water recovery in changing environments has received wide attention in environmental science and engineering communities due to rapid population growth and frequent droughts. This study is focused on the design, synthesis, and characterization of biomimetic, bioinspired, and bio-related functional polymers (b3p) to help resolve the water supply issue especially in arid or semi-arid regions. It is aimed to develop unique synthetic methods to access well-defined polymers with the aid of nanomaterials and metal to produce next generation polymer materials for better atmospheric water recovery. The design of such new b3p is bioinspired by some skin materials of biological species …

Implications Of Groundwater Plume Transport And Analysis Of Karst Aquifer Characteristics In Central Florida, Daljit Sandhu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Groundwater aquifers make up the primary source of drinking water in Florida. It is imperative to protect and maintain water quality to ensure optimal drinking water conditions. Florida is known for being prone to sinkholes due to karst features. One sinkhole event occurred beneath a phosphogypsum stack, and leaked a large amount of radioactive waste in the Floridan aquifer, raising water quality concerns. To study the behavior of contaminant transport, the radioactive waste plume was modeled by coupling hydraulic and chemistry concepts. Adsorption was studied to see if it can serve as a potential remediation solution to the contaminant waste, …