Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Quantifying Responsiveness In The Vaccine Industry To Evaluate And Improve Pandemic Response, Connor Hill

Theses and Dissertations

In the wake of the pandemic Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) we can look at many aspects of the global response, including social, scientific, and governmental. Current research in the areas of vaccine development and manufacturing find the process of developing a new vaccine takes an especially long time and is unresponsive. Understanding the factors that influence responsiveness can help organizations be better prepared to address the needs of society should another pandemic strike. Responsiveness can be linked to product, process, and volume. The vaccine development and manufacturing process historically takes years to reach distribution for public use. …

Upper Regime Bedform Geometries And Types As A Function Of Sediment Supply And Grain Size, Sydney Sanders

Theses and Dissertations

Most research on fluvial bedforms focuses on the study of dunes (lower regime), and much less is known on upper regime bedforms. Studying upper regime bedforms, the conditions in which they form and how the geometry changes with flow and sediment properties is necessary for interpreting the stratigraphic record, estimate flow resistance and reconstruct flow characteristics from observed geometries. Here I present results of laboratory experiments designed to investigate the role of suspended bed material and sediment grain size on upper regime bedforms. Experiments were performed in open channel flow mode in a sediment-feed flume with a 0.19 m wide, …

The Effect Of Concrete Material Properties On Rigid Pavement Design In South Carolina, Nicolet Anne Devine

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the effect of concrete material inputs on rigid pavement design in the state of South Carolina. The impact of concrete strength input parameters in the historical AASHTO pavement design method and MEPDG method is investigated using three newly constructed concrete sections, I-85 in Cherokee County, I-20 in Lexington County, and I-85 in Spartanburg County. Strength data obtained from the sections were the result of QA/QC testing provided by the SCDOT during construction, as well as from UofSC laboratory testing. The compressive strength data from these tests was correlated to the elastic modulus and modulus of rupture (which …

Coalitional Game Theory For Stormwater Management And Green Infrastructure Practices, Carly Lawyer

Theses and Dissertations

As global warming and climate Variability bring about more frequent and intense rainstorms and accelerate sea level rise, our social and built environments are at heightened risk of flood induced damages and consequent costs. This is particularly true for coastal areas, facing the coupled effects of these threats while serving as home to people, businesses, unique landscapes, and historic landmarks. Complex decisions at all levels of government and community planning stand to benefit from increased understanding of possible outcomes and pathways resulting from decentralized human behavior and decision making in the realm of water resources engineering and management. Game theory …

Classification Of Acoustic Emission Data Into Load Steps Using An Artificial Neural Network, Allen Ross

Theses and Dissertations

The average age of bridges in South Carolina is approaching 40 years, very close to the 50-year service life. Almost 11% of the bridges in South Carolina are rated as structurally deficient, greater than the national average of 7.5% (South 2021). Health monitoring is the concept that in-situ sensors can continuously monitor civil structures and send real time signals of damage. This process allows for automation and could save time and money on the inspection and load rating of bridges. Health monitoring requires sensors that provide uninterrupted data without sacrificing the functionality of the bridge. A prime candidate for this …

Burn Probability And Climate Change: A Quantitative Evaluation Of The Temporal Alterations Of Wildfire, David N. Robinson

Theses and Dissertations

The intensity of extreme weather events, specifically wildfires, along the West Coast has slowly grown overtime due to atmospheric changes caused by climate change. The Air Force, though aware of the threat that is wildfire, does not currently have a quantitative way to assess the hazard to base locations. In this paper, burn probability is quantitatively calculated through the geospatial analysis programs to provide a means of assessing wildfire vulnerability. The FlamMap fire simulator generated burn probabilities for Vandenberg Air Force Base using climate data generated by the remote automated weather station on the base to highlight how the burn …

A United States Air Force Site Selection Methodology In A Contested Agile Combat Employment Environment, Zachary T. Moer

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Air Force’s (USAF) Agile Combat Employment (ACE) strategy relies on host country access and underlying local infrastructure to facilitate airpower. However, numerous factors, including peer-to-peer threats, complex geopolitics, and intricate supply chain management, often complicate site access and thwart site selection decisions. When shaping the battlespace for future conflict, strategists and planners face the difficult task of identifying optimal locations to conduct adaptive basing operations given these complicating factors. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) can help strategists appropriately account for competing objectives and maintain a competitive advantage with theater adversaries. This thesis presents an MCDA model that evaluates …

A Thematic And Reference Analysis Of Touchless Technologies, Eric R. Curia

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to explore the utility and current state of touchless technologies. Five categories of technologies are identified as a result of collecting and reviewing literature: facial/biometric recognition, gesture recognition, touchless sensing, personal devices, and voice recognition. A thematic analysis was conducted to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the five categories. A reference analysis was also conducted to determine the similarities between articles in each category. Touchless sensing showed to have the most advantages and least similar references. Gesture recognition was the opposite. Comparing analyses shows more reliable technology types are more beneficial and diverse.

Prioritizing Water Distribution Network Asset Maintenance Using Graph Theory Methods, Ashton E. Doyal

Theses and Dissertations

Water distribution networks, like any other large infrastructure system, should be designed for reliability and resilience to resist failure. A literature review of graph theory methods pertaining to water distribution networks reveals a wide scope of mathematical and statistical measures that can be used to identify and classify many important features of a network. From this, an analysis using a combination of graph theory metrics and generated condition indices for the pipes is performed on the Tyndall drinking water system as a case study. The goal is to provide understanding to the risk of the current system and propose asset …

Carbon Estimation And Decision Making In Usaf Acquisition, Robert F. Gray

Theses and Dissertations

Recent executive orders and international agreements require the United States to significantly reduce its carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. The DoD is a significant contributor to the carbon emissions of the USA and will be required to reduce the emissions. Therefore, in order to make appropriate programmatic decisions the DoD needs to develop an appropriate method for estimating carbon and making programmatic decisions; trading-off carbon emissions with the traditional cost-schedule-performance metrics. This thesis examines the possibility of developing a model that can be used to estimate the carbon footprint of producing a system before detailed engineering designed have been complete.

Hydrologic Profiles And Geospatial Trend Analysis Evaluating Recurrent Flooding At Coastal U.S. Air Force Installations, Dylan D. Bechen

Theses and Dissertations

Military installations are exposed to numerous threats, including a changing climate and the risk of recurrent flooding. The four components of recurrent flooding are sea-level rise, tidal fluctuations, storm surges, and precipitation. This research analyzed 40 years of historical precipitation and tidal data at 17 coastal U.S. Air Force installations using indicators of both peak and threshold exceedances to identify long-term temporal trends in the hydrologic components that make up recurrent flood risk, establishing an installation’s “hydrologic profile” which can be used to better inform decision makers when evaluating portfolio-wide adaptation strategies and prioritization of long-term infrastructure investments.

Defining Resilience, Robustness, And Vulnerability Metrics To Guide Facilities And Infrastructure Decision Making For The United States Air Force, Kelly W. Minor

Theses and Dissertations

Tyndall AFB was nearly destroyed after a category five hurricane named Michael tore through the Florida panhandle in 2018. A Program Management Office was stood up to coordinate, plan, and carry out the rebuild efforts of Tyndall AFB. The office’s primary responsibility is “building a base capable of supporting a 21st-century mission while also focusing on structural resiliency and efficiency” (Laidlaw 2019). Despite the requirement to build a resilient infrastructure portfolio, the United States Air Force has yet to fully quantify and qualify measures of resilience, including robustness and vulnerability, in the context of their current built infrastructure portfolio. This …

The Application Of Virtual Reality In Firefighting Training, Dylan A. Gagnon

Theses and Dissertations

Immersive simulations such as virtual reality is becoming more prevalent for use in training environments for many professions. United States Air Force firefighters may benefit from incorporating VR technology into their training program to increase organizational commitment, job satisfaction, self-efficacy, and job performance. With implementing a new training platform, it is also important to understand the relationship between these variables and the perceived benefits and efficacy of the VR training, which has not yet been studied in previous research. This study addresses this issue by gathering data from fire departments currently fielding a VR fire training platform.

Critical Evaluation Of Construction Industry-Related Additive Manufacturing Research: A Scientometric Analysis, Tyler J. Brunjes

Theses and Dissertations

Review of construction-related AM literature is used to identify the advantages, challenges, and current trends of the research. Using a scientometric analysis of 522 bibliographic records, this research systematically analyzed construction related AM research to determine the key research areas and trends. Results showed that starting in 2015, the field has been growing at an exponential rate. Recent AM research focused on materials and reinforcement topics, which matched the most notable challenges of AM, which are material rheology, reinforcement, and lacking construction standards. This study provides an insight into AM research and identifies areas requiring more innovation before its commercial …

Investigating The Relationship Of Preventive And Corrective Maintenance In Chiller Assets Using Linear Regression Analysis, Jacob A. Franke

Theses and Dissertations

Asset managers must balance maintenance plans between preventive (PM) and corrective maintenance (CM). While PM plans have been a staple for decades, the benefits achieved have not been thoroughly examined at the asset specific level. This study focuses on the U.S. Air Force chiller portfolio to better understand the relationship between PM and CM, utilizing multiple stages of linear regression modeling and data from 14 US Air Force installations. PM and CM were found to be positively correlated, with PM accounting for relatively small portions of the variance experienced in CM. This study reveals the value of standardized data collection …

A Critical Review Of Climate Change On Coastal Infrastructure Systems, Gregory J. Howland Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a response to climate threats identified by DoD report on Climate Change in 2019. A critical review of climate change literature related to coastal infrastructure was conducted to synthesize past research and to inform future research. This review intends to inform how climate change may impact infrastructure systems, how those impacts are evaluated, can the investigation be improved, and what can stakeholders learn from the outcomes. The end goal is to find climate change mitigation strategies and adaptation measures, or identify the easiest path to get to that end. The compiled information will inform civilian and military …

A Framework For Assessing Facility-Level Vulnerability And Risk To Extreme Weather Events, Blake A. Gawlik

Theses and Dissertations

Intensifying extreme weather events, tied to the rise in the global average temperature, put global built infrastructure at risk. This presents a daunting challenge for organizational leaders who are tasked to determine how best to adapt current infrastructure to uncertain future events. To develop adaptation plans and policies, vulnerability and risk must be downscaled to an actionable scale, such that planners, designers, and engineers can make adaptation recommendations. However, previous research has largely assessed risk at coarser scales, e.g., regional, national, or global. These assessments are informative, but do not help those tasked to lead adaptation to make detailed, actionable …

Quantifying Project Complexity To Resource Project Managers, Jereme R. Henrard

Theses and Dissertations

This research develops a multi-criteria decision analysis model to quantify project complexity and inform decision-makers in resource-constrained organizations with the Tyndall Program Management Office (PMO) as a case study. The complexity score is used as a risk metric to determine the appropriate number of skilled or novice project managers to effectively manage the PMO portfolio to mitigate cost and schedule overruns. The research provides an innovative approach to consider manning levels at the PMO and other project management-focused organizations/sections.

Climate Change Risk To Coastal Airfield Stormwater Systems, Jedidiah R. Langlois

Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is resulting in rising sea levels and increased rainfall, posing new challenges to stormwater management, particularly along coastlines. The airfield stormwater systems of Tyndall Air Force Base discharge directly into an interior bay of the Gulf of Mexico through tidal canals and ditches, creating a risk of system inundation from high tidewater conditions from sea-level rise (SLR). This study explores the performance and consequences of an inundated stormwater system from SLR during rainfall events using the EPA’s Stormwater Management Model (SWMM). One hundred and fifty-three combinations of SLR and return year storms were applied to a model of …

Developing An Adaptable Best Value Contractor Selection Tool For Federal Construction Projects, Robert B. Kitson

Theses and Dissertations

Currently, there is no Air Force-wide best practice or standard for using an other-than lowest price source selection process for construction projects. Installations often award contracts using Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) because of perceived cost and time savings. However, a heavy reliance on LPTA often leads to long-term decreases in quality and value. To allow the Air Force to receive the best value for its construction funding, a simple and adaptable tool was developed that allows installations to pursue contractor selection for construction projects by other-than lowest price methods. This research conducted a systematic literature review to obtain a …

A Scientometric Analysis Of Smart Sensors In Facility Management And Applications In Air Force Operations, Joseph-Thomas H. Lehotsky

Theses and Dissertations

To investigate the areas which smart sensors can be implemented to assist facility managers to optimize limited resources, this research consists of a scientometric analysis to identify the areas of research quantitatively and qualitatively. Existing literature related to smart sensors in facility management operations were compiled and trends were analyzed to determine the ways in which researchers have been applying this technology. The title, abstracts, and keyword were used to perform frequency, networking, and clustering analysis. This research effort serves to provide ways in which Air Force installations can implement smart sensors in a way which fulfills the initiatives posed …

Investigation Into Engineering Change Order Costs And Appropriate Rules-Of-Thumb, Kaiana M. Miller

Theses and Dissertations

Engineering Change Orders (ECO) are technical requirements changes to existing contracts. To account for the potential increase in contract costs stemming from ECOs, current acquisition practice is to estimate a dollar value to hold in management reserve (MR) in case of ECO occurrence. Estimators often rely on rules-of-thumb when developing these estimates. Specifically, estimators use a 10% rule-of-thumb for estimating MR contract costs in the Development life cycle phase and a 5% rule-of-thumb for contracts in the Production or O&S life cycle phase. However, no empirical data supports or validates these 10% and 5% figures. Using a new data source, …

A Post-Disaster Construction Portfolio Optimization Framework For Tyndall Afb Rebuild Post Hurricane Michael, Andre J. May

Theses and Dissertations

Natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and extreme flooding cause severe social and economic disruptions. Restoration of social and revenue-generating services often requires extensive reconstruction, from the facility to the campus scale. For multi-facility portfolios, decision-makers must prioritize post-disaster reconstruction activities appropriately to ensure facilities and infrastructure are restored. In addition, any expansion or new construction initiatives are ideally completed in order of decision-maker and community preference. Most post-disaster optimization and decision framework research consider a single stakeholder as guiding decisions related to a project portfolio. However, these portfolio prioritization frameworks ignore the effect of multiple stakeholders and competing …

Efficiency Mapping And Determination Of Reliability, Resiliency And Vulnerability Of Atmospheric Water Generators In The United States, Erica F. Sadowski

Theses and Dissertations

Atmospheric Water Generators (AWG) extract water from the air using one of three available technologies: refrigeration, sorption, and fog harvesting. A refrigeration device works like a dehumidifier and works best in conditions above 60% relative humidity. A sorption device utilizes a desiccant to extract the water vapor from the air and works in very low humidity levels. A fog harvesting device utilizes a mesh to capture the water vapor from the air and requires 100% relative humidity. In this research, I analyze two refrigeration-based devices and one sorption-based device and their efficacy in providing supplemental water supply. Due to climatological …

Persistence And Mitigation Of Pfas Within Concrete Stormwater Drainage Infrastructure, Jason R. Mcdonald

Theses and Dissertations

The persistence, fate, and transport of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, which have been shown to have adverse effects on human health, have been previously studied in environmental media such as soils and groundwater. This study investigates concrete, a medium that is rarely studied but frequently present in instances where PFAS originating from AFFF releases and spills have occurred. Used heavily throughout aviation firefighting, AFFF poses environmental hazards due to the length of PFAS degradation and toxicological implications, thus its classification as a forever chemical. From the very limited reports to date, studies have suggested very slow release from concrete, potentially …

Application Of Machine Learning Models With Numerical Simulations Of An Experimental Microwave Induced Plasma Gasification Reactor, Owen D. Sedej

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to contribute to the future development of this technology by providing an in-depth literature review of how this technology physically operates and can be numerically modeled. Additionally, this thesis reviews literature of machine learning models that have been applied to gasification to make accurate predictions regarding the system. Finally, this thesis provides a framework of how to numerically model an experimental plasma gasification reactor in order to inform a variety of machine learning models.

Natural Infrastructure Alternatives Mitigate Hurricane-Driven Flood Vulnerability: Application To Tyndall Air Force Base, Kiara L. Vance

Theses and Dissertations

Hurricane frequency and magnitude intensification are expected over the remainder of the twenty-first century. Uncertainty in future projections requires that coastal communities approach adaptation decisions with caution. Traditional approaches are costly and inflexible. Soft policy adaptations are largely unenforceable. Hard, natural adaptations have emerged as an opportunity to partially mitigate the growing risk of extreme flooding, without the large investments required for traditional approaches, where natural infrastructure already exists. Existing literature for natural adaptations has not leveraged intensification expectations for hurricane events. This research uses multihazard damage evaluation software and spatial analysis to investigate placement of dredged sediment as a …

Cobalt Ferrite Nano-Composites For The Oxidation Of Phenols In Oil Refinery Wastewater, Amira Mohamed

Theses and Dissertations

Phenolic compounds have the tendency to persist in the environment over a long period making them a main source of concern because of their toxic characteristics towards humans and animals (Bruce et al., 1987). Therefore, existence of phenolic compounds in aquatic environment is unfavourable and as a result, many treatment techniques have been implemented to treat the wastewater produced from petroleum refineries. Petroleum refineries are among the top industries that produces significant quantities of high phenol concentration wastewater. Photo-catalysis is a promising and effective method to treat phenol present in oil refineries effluent. In this study, the photo-catalyst used is …

Flexural Strengthening Of Rc Slabs Using Near Surface Mounted Gfrp Bars, Sama Taha

Theses and Dissertations

Glass Fiber reinforced polymers (GFRPs) have been recently successfully used to increase reinforced concrete elements' strength. In general, FRPs have many advantages such as resistance to corrosion, and high strength-to-weight ratio. On the other hand, debonding from concrete may constitute a limitation to using GFRP bars; hence the increase in strength of RC elements strengthened using GFRP bars may be limited by this premature debonding failure mechanism.

This study aims to investigate the strengthening effect of GFRP bars on the capacity of RC slabs when subject to flexure loading. The work studies the use of different bonding lengths, diameters and …

Strengthening Of Long Rc Columns Using Near Surface Mounted Gfrp Bars, Ahmed Romaih

Theses and Dissertations

Many of the existing reinforced concrete (RC) columns are deficient because of numerous reasons such as increase in service loads, deterioration due to environmental attacks, errors in the design and/or construction phase or in the worst case, accidents. These elements require strengthening or repair. Different methods have been developed over the years for solving different rehabilitation problems. Recently, advanced composites used for external bonding in the form of fabrics or laminates have become an accepted method. The use of Fibre-Reinforced Polymers (FRPs) in this process is a promising technology, especially that these materials are corrosion-free. One of the new techniques …