Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Recovery Of Valuable Metals From Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries Using Organic Acids: Assessment Of Technoeconomic Feasibility, Leqi Lin

Theses

Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) are used in diverse electronic products with anticipated over 500 thousand tonnes of the waste LIBs globally in 2020. To protect the environment and also recover valuable materials such as lithium (Li) and cobalt (Co), our research employed a hydrometallurgy method and demonstrated that exposure of spent LIBs to Organic Aqua Regia (OAR) could leach Li and Co without the pre-separation of cathode from Al foil using organic solvents such as Dimethylformamide (DMF) and N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP). The leaching efficiency of 99% and 94% for Li and Co were obtained with a leaching rate of 0.021, 0.167 …

Development Of A Composite Sustainability Index For Roadway Intersecttion Design Alternatives In The Uae, Maryam Juma Al-Kaabi

Theses

Many studies had been carried out to evaluate the sustainability of transportation systems, but little attention was given in these studies to the design of roadway intersections. The objective of this study was to define a framework to assess intersection sustainability from a road-user perspective and to develop a visual tool that helps decision-makers to support a more sustainable design of roadway intersections. Suitable sustainability indicators that would serve as elements in the built framework at the strategic and early planning level were extracted from the literature. The extracted indicators were utilized with relative weights to develop basic dimensional indices …

Assessment Of Different Seismic Retrofit Systems Of Rc Buildings For Earthquake Risk Mitigation, Aya Ragab Mohamed Abou Ei-Hamd

Theses

Many existing Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures were designed and constructed at a time when design codes were insufficient according to current standards. This class of structures is at risk of damage when subjected to strong earthquake loading. Therefore, several seismic retrofit techniques have been investigated experimentally to increase the earthquake resistance and damage-control potential of pre-seismic code structures using different methods such as quasi-static and pseudo-dynamic testing. However, a limited number of studies have focused on investigating the overall seismic performance of retrofitted RC structures using shake table testing. The first task of this study assesses analytically and experimentally the …

Control Of Energy Storage Utilisation For A Building Integrated Microgrid Using Multi-Objective Metaheuristic Optimisation Methods, Quang An Phan

Theses

The aim of this thesis was to develop and analyse optimisation strategies for commercial buildings with integrated microgrids, in order to find optimal trade-offs between maximising profitability and facilitating renewable energy from the national power grid. The continued proliferation of microgrids, as well as the increase in electricity produced by renewable energy sources on the Irish national grid has necessitated the requirement for these strategies. Models to simulate the performance of a photovoltaic system, wind turbine and battery bank were developed and validated. The most suitable optimisation algorithm to generate an optimal charge/discharge rate schedule for a battery bank was …

Controlled Release Chemical Oxidation: Sodium Persulfate Encapsulated In Pvac Polymer, Mosarrat Samiha Kabir

Theses

In this study, sodium persulfate was encapsulated in polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) polymer to investigate the potential of activated persulfate to remediate total coliform and E. coli bacteria from contaminated water through a control release system. Controlled release structures were produced with the polymer and persulfate melted to form pellets at two different baking times. CRP structures containing 60 weight % sodium persulfates blended with 40 weight % polyvinyl acetate (PS- PVAc) were baked for 4 minutes and 10 minutes at 120ºC. The kinetics release of sodium persulfate was studied in a water system and in sand columns. Experimental results showed …

Passive Cooling In Non-Residential Nearly Zero Energy Buildings: A Thermal Comfort Analysis Based On Measurement, Modelling And Simulation, Adam O'Donovan

Theses

Overheating in non-residential nearly zero energy buildings (nZEBs) presents a major risk to the well-being, productivity and thermal satisfaction of the people who occupy them. As global temperatures are expected to increase in the future, the overheating risk and cooling demand is also expected to increase. Therefore, low cost and low energy solutions that are able to maintain thermally comfortable conditions without the need for mechanical systems will be vital in decarbonising the building stock and ensuring that buildings are comfortable and remain low carbon now and in the future. Passive cooling has long been championed as a low cost …

Sustaining Dockless Bike-Sharing Based On Business Principles, Neil Horowitz

Theses

Currently in urban areas, the value of money and fuel is increasing because of urban traffic congestion. As an environmentally sustainable and short-distance travel mode, dockless bike-sharing not only assists in resolving the issue of urban traffic congestion, but additionally assists in minimizing pollution, satisfying the demand of the last mile problem, and improving societal health. Despite the positives that this new transportation mode provides, currently there are few effective measures in place to make the development of dockless bike-sharing providers more sustainable.

This study endeavors in establishing a foundation for resolving this problem through developing business models of dockless …

Intense Ultrasonic Waves In Fluids: Nonlinear Behaviour, Jitendra Kewalramani

Theses

High-intensity ultrasonic wave has several engineering, biological, medical and chemical applications. High intensity acoustic waves can lead to a desired change in a medium by initiating one or more diverse mechanisms such as acoustic cavitation, heating, radiation pressure, or chemical reactions. Nonlinear nature of intense acoustic waves opens an entire new spectrum of applications. Hence there is need to understand and model the mechanism of nonlinear wave motion for practical applications of intense acoustic waves.

In this research, one-dimensional motion of shock waves in an ideal fluid is studied to include nonlinearity. In nonlinear acoustics, the propagation velocity of different …

Performance Prediction Of Concrete Deep Beams Containing Cutouts Internally- Reinforced With Composite Bars, Somoud Jebril Arabasi

Theses

The development of code provisions for the use of strut-and-tie model (STM) in structural design has been hindered by great uncertainties due to the lack of experimental evidences. The problem becomes more complex when the conventional steel reinforcing bars around disturbed regions are replaced by non-metallic composite reinforcement. This research aimed to investigate the structural behavior of concrete deep beams with cutouts internally reinforced with glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars around regions of discontinuities. Different STMs were developed for the design of GFRP-reinforced concrete deep beams. The models were analyzed through the use of ACI 318 (2014) and CSA S806 …

Rca: Use And Future Possibilities, Bushra Marium Islam

Theses

Reuse and recycling of concrete is essential for construction purposes. There has been progressive development in construction projects but at the same time it has an inverse effect on the environment. Concrete structures are built and demolished continuously all over the world, generating tons of waste materials which are actually reusable in concrete production itself. This paper emphasis on recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and many characteristics of RCA. This paper studies RCA’s different properties. RCA’s replacement in the place of natural aggregate is discussed. The proper amount and researches done on RCA improvement have also been discussed for further in …

Durability Of Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Bars In Seawater-Contaminated Concrete, Abdelrahman A. E. Alsallamin

Theses

This research aims to investigate the durability performance and microstructure characteristics of two different types of glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars in severe environment. GFRP bars encased in seawater-contaminated concrete were immersed in tap water for 5, 10, and 15 months at temperatures of 20, 40, and 60°C. Half of the specimens were conditioned under a sustained load of 25% of their ultimate strength whereas the other half was conditioned without load. Following conditioning, the GFRP bars were retrieved then tested to failure under uniaxial tension. Microstructure analysis was performed by employing differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) …

Development Of A Novel Kalman Filter Bank Predictor To Optimally Schedule The Renewable Energy Contribution Within A Micro-Grid, Conor Lynch

Theses

This PhD thesis presents a novel Kalman Filter Bank (KFB) methodology. The novel KFB is applied to predict and optimally schedule the operation of micro-grid energy resources with a public fixed-grid connection and an auxiliary battery storage backup facility. This methodology relies on a sliding single time step forecast projection to accurately acquire the anticipated schedule for a range of time dependent parameters, stochastic by nature, that have inherent embedded cyclical patterns. The innovative feature here consists of a novel bank of hourly adjacent Kalman Filter estimators, which operate in synchronism, for accurate parameter prediction over a selected time horizon. …

Behavior Of Double-Sided Concrete Corbels Reinforced With Glass-Fiber Reinforced Polymer Bars, Ayman Farid Abu Obaida

Theses

Steel reinforced concrete members with small shear span-to-effective depth ratios (a/d), such as corbels; have many classical applications, mostly in tall building, precast structures, factory buildings, bridges, and foundations. Despite extended research works on the performance of such members, little information is available on the performance of these members when reinforced totally with internal fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) bars. The use of FRP bars in reinforcing concrete members would eliminate corrosion problems thus increasing the service life of the structure. This thesis aims at investigating the shear strength of double-sided concrete corbels reinforced with glass-fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars. The …

Performance Of Continuous Concrete Slabs Reinforced With Hybrid Steel-Basalt Bars, Mohammad Sohayeb Akiel

Theses

Continuous steel-reinforced concrete structures are vulnerable to corrosion

Damage when exposed to harsh environment. Although replacing conventional steel entirely with basalt fiber-reinforced polymer (BFRP) bars can eliminate corrosion problems, the lower modulus of elasticity of BFRP would reduce serviceability of the structure. The use of hybrid steel-BFRP bars rather than BFRP bars only has a potential to improve the serviceability of continuous concrete

Structures without reducing the deformation capacity. Through experimental testing and numerical simulation, this work aims to examine the structural behavior of two-span concrete specimens internally reinforced with BFRP or hybrid steel-BFRP bars.

A total of 12 two-span …

Effectiveness Of Water Quality Benefits Provided By Stormwater Management Facilities/Infiltration Basin, Vinicius Rodrigues De Mattos Barreto

Theses

Stormwater Best Management Practices (BMP) and devices are systems frequently built under assumed design performances, but rarely verified after construction. Their effectiveness in protecting the environment against pollutants carried by stormwater runoff has been extensively questioned and investigated. This research presents a case study of an infiltration basin in Medford, NJ to verify if the 80% expected Total Suspended Solids (TSS) removal as stated in the New Jersey Stormwater BMP Manual is actually achieved. A sampling pit was installed on the site and infiltrated water samples were collected during three rain events and TSS measurements were compared with the inflow. …

Recycling Ceramic Waste Powder And Its Usage As An Alternative Ingredient In Concrete, Dima Mamoun Kanaan

Theses

Green environment is a challenging concern to accomplish in today’s world. This could be accomplished through an effective and beneficial recycling system through reusing solid waste materials. The study and exploration of alternative ingredients for concrete-making industry started more than five decades ago. Concrete that contains solid waste is referred to as “Green” concrete. Ceramic tiles are widely used in most structures; its production creates waste powder. Using ceramic waste powder (CWP) as an ingredient to partially replace cement in concrete will have a positive and progressive environmental impact in addition will help reserve natural resources. In this study, CWP …

Thermal Envelope Analysis Of Local Authority Low Rise Housing Based On Stock Aggregation Theory Using A Remote Feature Extraction Technique., James Pittam

Theses

Understanding the buildings thermal envelope is paramount to analysing existing problems which facilitate cold bridging and low surface temperatures. As no detailed housing stock database is in existence in Ireland which describes the geometrical configuration of the existing housing stock, and to create one would be a major challenge, this research set out to develop a high speed remote cataloguing and geometrical data extraction methodology to build such a database. Replacing traditional measurement methods with a remote method allows for the rapid extraction of fagade information. A remote surveying process is proposed named, the Virtual Survey Method, for the classification …

Analysis And Modelling Of Sediment Transport On The River Bandon, John Gamble

Theses

Sediment behaviour and transport in river systems has been studied for centuries and potentially impacts on river capacity, navigation, water quality, ecology and flooding. This thesis investigates sediment behaviour and transport on the River Bandon, a river system which has experienced severe flooding on a periodic basis. The River Bandon is located in the South Western River Basin District with a total catchment area of 608km“. The River Bandon offers a positive environment for biodiversity, facilitating habitats for some endangered species. This thesis presents a literature review on the River Bandon and its catchment, on sediment behaviour and transport and …

Beneficial Reuse Of Marine Sediment, Sinead Tangney

Theses

Dredging is essential for ports and harbours to maintain navigational access. In Ireland approximately 1.2 million m^ is dredged annually and the management of this dredged sediment is an ongoing issue. This thesis investigates the management options available for marine dredged sediment and examines the technical, environmental and economic feasibility and social acceptability of a range of specific beneficial uses of marine sediment.

A literature review is presented on the international dredging industry and outlines why dredging is an essential infrastructural activity. Current dredged marine sediment management techniques are presented and discussed.

An overview of the Irish dredging industry is …

Biogas From Slaughterhouse Waste In Ireland: Assessment Of Potential Energy Recovery Pathways, Aidan Ware

Theses

This study was undertaken to investigate the potential energy recovery from the anaerobic digestion (AD) of slaughterhouse wastes in Ireland. The research was approached in two ways; laboratory scale evaluation of methane production of the industrial waste streams from cattle, pig and chicken slaughtering facilities and a life cycle assessment (LCA) and energy balance to assess the potential utilisation pathways. This thesis includes; the evaluation of the potential biogas production from individual and combined slaughterhouse waste streams in Ireland on an equal footing through standardised laboratory testing, the effects of mandatory pre-treatments on the AD of slaughterhouse waste streams and …

Suspended Sediment And Nutrient Concentrations And Loads In Two Irish Rivers, Sean T. Harrington

Theses

This thesis presents the results of new and original research on suspended sediment (SS) and nutrient concentrations and loads on the Rivers Bandon and Owenabue in the south of Ireland. It addresses the knowledge gap in SS and nutrient concentration data and in particular SS load/yield estimation methods. A comprehensive database of SS and nutrient concentrations has been established. An investigation into the relationship between water discharge and sediment and nutrient transport is presented and new original relationships between turbidity and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and nutrients are developed. Turbidity-based suspended sediment loads (SSL) are estimated from the continuous turbidity …

Shear Behavior Of Steel-Fiber Reinforced Ultra-High-Strength Self-Compacted Concrete Beams, Omar Jum’Ah Za’Al Al Rawashdeh

Theses

Ultra-high-strength concrete is a new class of concrete that has been the result of the progress in concrete material science and development. This new type of concrete is characterized with very high compressive strength; about 100 MPa. Ultra-high strength concrete shows very brittle failure behavior compared to normal-strength concrete. Steel fibers will significantly reduce the workability of ultra-high strength concrete. The development and use of self-compacting concrete has provided a solution to the workability issue. The combination of technology and knowledge to produce Ultra-High strength fiber reinforced self-compacting concrete was proved to be feasible. Few studies investigated the effect of …

Shear Strengthening Of Reinforced Concrete Beams Using Textile-Reinforced Mortar, Oluwafunmilayo Morenike Awani

Theses

The effectiveness of using carbon textile-reinforced mortar as an innovative technique to improve the shear response of reinforced concrete beams has been investigated. The research comprised double-shear bond testing on bond behavior of textile-reinforced mortar, large-scale beam testing on shear response of reinforced concrete beams strengthened with textile-reinforced mortar, and nonlinear finite element modeling of the tested beam specimens. Test variables of the double-shear bond testing were the matrix type, and width/length of the bonded area, whereas for the large-scale beam testing, the variables included the number of textile-reinforced mortar layers, matrix type, and amount of internal stirrups. Results of …

A Two-Stage Fuzzy Logic Model For Urban Traffic Signal Control And Management., Nada Bakri Alnaser

Theses

Different traffic signal control systems are applied nowadays. They vary in complexity and approach but mostly aimed at improving the intersection level of service and the efficiency of the traffic network. Fuzzy Logic Models (FLM) have been widely regarded as quite appealing for real-time applications, in addition to their explicit considerations for stochasticities or uncertainties of traffic measures. The majority of the FLMs for signal control were developed to handle isolated intersections in specific. Very few of these FLM systems explicitly account for neighbor intersections’ traffic impact on the decisions to be made at the underlying intersections.

The aim of …

Treatment Of Greywater Using Bio Filtration And Permeable Pavement Systems, Assem Mahn El-Ashkar

Theses

Municipal wastewater can be divided into two categories, greywater and black water. Greywater occupies about 75% of total wastewater and are relatively less polluted than the black water. Reuse of greywater is becoming popular in many arid and semiarid regions in order to reduce the municipal water demand. They can be reused for groundwater recharge, landscape irrigation and for toilet flushing. However, the main challenges are their collection, storage and selection of the appropriate treatment system. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is located in a hyper arid region, having an annual average rainfall of less than 100 mm. Reliable survey …

Structural Health Monitoring Of Bridges Using Wireless Sensor Networks, Seyed Behrad Ghazi Sharyatpanahi

Theses

Structural Health Monitoring, damage detection and localization of bridges using Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are studied in this thesis. The continuous monitoring of bridges to detect damage is a very useful tools for preventing unnecessary costly and emergent maintenance. The optimal design aims to maximize the lifetime of the system, the accuracy of the sensed data, and the system reliability, and to minimize the system cost and complexity

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is carried out using LUSAS Bridge Plus software to determine sensor locations and measurement types and effectively minimize the number of sensors, data for transmission, and volume of …

Potential Of Greywater Reuse And Its Effects On Potable Water Demand Management And Downstream Sewer Network, Muhammad Ashfaque Rajput Abdul Hameed

Theses

The UAE’s water demand is rapidly increasing because of population growth, infrastructure development, expansion of agricultural practices, and desert greening policies. These circumstances force the country to depend on expansive desalinated water and made the country the second-largest desalination water producer in the world. It is essential to reduce the current water consumption rates by using efficient methods and conservation techniques. Greywater reuse is an effective and promising alternative to cope with this challenge. The study aimed to reduce water consumption in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi by investigating the potential of greywater reuse. A field survey was carried out …

Capacity Models For Multilane Roundabouts And Their Evaluation Using Microscopic Simulation Models, Mohamad A. Shrayteh

Theses

Compared to previous versions of the manual, the Highway Capacity Manual 2010 has provided more comprehensive capacity models for single and multilane roundabouts. The Highway Capacity Manual 2010 multilane roundabout capacity models are limited to two-by-two lanes, that is, two entry lanes and two circulating lanes. These capacity models are not valid for the three-by-three–lane roundabouts (three entry lanes and three circulating lanes) due to different traffic flow characteristics and features. This limitation of the Highway Capacity Manual 2010 model is also clearly mentioned in the manual. In this research, capacity models and curves were developed for three-by-three–lane roundabouts. More …

Structural Response Of Flexure-Deficient Reinforced Concrete Continuous Slabs Strengthened With Composites, Jwan Ahmad Al Khalil

Theses

Accidental reduction in the amount of steel in continuous reinforced concrete (RC) floor slabs is a typical problem that might occur due to an error in design, unclear drawings, or overlooked verification of reinforcement prior to concrete casting. Existence of such deficiencies would compromise the load capacity and serviceability of RC floor slabs. This research examines the effectiveness of using fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) to improve the structural response of flexure-deficient continuous RC slab strips. The study comprised experimental testing and finite element (FE) modeling. Sixteen two-span RC slab strips, 400 x 125 x 3800 mm each, were tested. Test parameters …

Potential Of Greywater Reuse And Its Effects On Potable Water Demand Management And Downstream Sewer Network, Muhammad Ashfaque Rajput Abdul Hameed

Theses

The UAE’s water demand is rapidly increasing because of population growth, infrastructure development, expansion of agricultural practices and for the desert greening policies. These circumstances force the country to depend on expansive desalinated water and made the country second largest desalination water producer in the world. It is essential to reduce the current water consumption rates by using efficient methods and conservation techniques. Greywater reuse is an effective and promising alternate to cope with this challenge. The study aimed to reduce the water consumption in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi by investigating the potential of greywater reuse. A field survey …