Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

User Friendly Computer Software For Construction Projects Delay Analysis, Kamel Ahmed Salem El Sayed

Archived Theses and Dissertations

Construction industry around the world is facing a huge revolution in terms of number of executed projects. Projects are no longer simple ones managed by few persons. Commercial buildings, high rise towers and bridges are being built everywhere. The majority of these projects are complex ones that face a lot of obstacles. Delays are one of the major obstacles that construction projects face and are very likely to occur. Generally, claims are the result of any delay in the construction progress. To be able to analyze the claim and assign the responsibility, the analyst has to perform a delay analysis. …

Cement Stabilization Of Aggregate Base Materials Blended With Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement, Ashley Vannoy Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) content and cement content on the strength and durability of recycled aggregate base materials. Specifically, the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and final dielectric value in the Tube Suction Test (TST) were measured in a full-factorial experimental design including five RAP contents, five cement contents, and three replicate specimens of each possible treatment. Specimen mixtures consisted of 0, 25, 50, 75, or 100 percent RAP and 0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0 percent Type I/II Portland cement. Both the RAP and base materials were sampled from …

A Study Of Model Integration In Conjunction With The Extensible Model Definition Format, Melanie A. Fife

Theses and Dissertations

A considerable amount of research has been done to connect or integrate separate numerical models. The Environmental Modeling Research Laboratory (EMRL) has developed a generic file format, the eXtensible Model Data Format (XMDF). One of the objectives of the XMDF project is to facilitate the spatial interpolation and data-sharing necessary when linking models. The objective of this research is to investigate how model linking capabilities can be added to the XMDF by defining a Model Linkage Object (MLO) that is compatible with current model linking frameworks. A potential design for an MLO is defined in this thesis after a detailed …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Spring 2006, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge.

The senior design competition helps to focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects …

Biotreatment Of Synthetic Drill-Cutting Waste In Soil, Laleh Rastegarzadeh, Yarrow Nelson, Todd G. Ririe

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Oil and gas drilling operations create drill cutting wastes around the world. Drill cutting waste includes synthetic drilling fluids typically consisting of petroleum-based compounds mixed with clay-type materials and water. Biological treatment is an effective means of disposing of drill cutting wastes, but proper biodegradation conditions are critical. In this study biological treatment of drill cutting wastes containing Saraline® (synthetic paraffin mineral oil) was examined using a variety of amendments to study the effect of different conditions on the biodegradability of synthetic drill cutting wastes. Soil was collected from a drilling site in Southeast Asia and soil microcosms were incubated …

Biodegradation Of Hydrocarbons Assisted By Arroyo Willows In Controlled Mesocosms Conducted At The Former Guadalupe Oil Field, Kevin Crossley, Yarrow M. Nelson

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Abstract of paper presented at conference.

Biodegradation And Toxicity Of Hydrocarbons Along Vertical Transects In A Groundwater Plume, Yarrow M. Nelson, Andrew Lassen, Christopher L. Kitts, Paul Lundegrad, Gonzalo Garcia

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Abstract of paper presented at conference.

Regional Prioritization Of Corridors For Traffic Signal Retiming, Sasanka Bhushan Pulipati

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Every three to four years, the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) funds signal retiming projects to improve air quality in the Dallas-Fort Worth region. As sufficient funds are not available to retime all signals in the region at the same time, the retiming must be completed in phases. To optimize the impact of the retiming projects, the candidate corridors must be rank ordered or prioritized. NCTCOG applies a ranking model, which uses variables like delay, number of stops and system type, a dummy variable based on centralized control. The weighting for each factor is based on expert input …

A Comparison Of Four-Step Model And Path Flow Estimator For Forecasting Network Flow: A Case Study Of Cache County In Utah, Siddareddy B. Pedaballi

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Development of alternative methodologies for travel demand modeling has become important in recent years due to the lack of resources for small and medium communities to adopt conventional four step travel models. Many researchers have proposed alternative tools of travel demand modeling for these communities. But majority of them still require large amount of data and technical sophistication.

In this study, the Path Flow Estimator (PFE) is used to estimate the network traffic of Cache County. PFE estimations are based on the collected traffic counts, vehicle production and attractions of zones estimated using Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) trip generation …

Privatizing Transportation Through Public-Private Partnerships: Definitions, Models, And Issues, Juita-Elena Wie Yusuf, Candice Y. Wallace, Merl Hackbart

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

There has been greater emphasis in recent times on using public-private partnerships (PPPs or P3s) to provide and deliver transportation infrastructure and services. These public-private partnerships differ from contracting out, being applicable to a broader range of projects and requiring different contract management and accountability. In the transportation arena the focus on public-private partnerships has resulted from both the need for greater reliance on private capital to fund critical infrastructure and services and the need to tap private sector expertise to ensure delivery of high quality infrastructure and services on time and on budget. This report serves as a primer …

A Sedimentation Study Of The Green River Irrigation Canal, Green River, Utah, Jan Michael Miller

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This sedimentation study of the Green River irrigation canal provides the Green River Canal Company (GRCC) with a detailed aerial map of the Green River irrigation canal system to allow operators to quickly and accurately locate canal structures. Also, an Excel spreadsheet accounting model was created which provides the GRCC with the ability to determine where sedimentation likely occurs throughout the canal under given conditions. This model must be operated within set guidelines to provide reliable results and should be calibrated for increased accuracy. It was determined that with no irrigation (i.e., with no canal structures open except for the …

History Of The Logan Bluff Landslide Zone, Seth P. Olsen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

On September 10, 2005, a landslide occurred to the south of Utah State University Campus and Highway 89. This landslide did considerable damage to the Logan and Northern canal, which is cut into the slope, and to a residence at the toe of the slope. This event brought many parties together to collaborate on possible solutions to the immediate fix of the slide as well slides that could occur in the future. The purpose of this report is to compile information useful to the study of the area and the possible solutions and/or risk assessment of the Logan Bluff Landslide …

Rapid Bridge Replacement Under Emergency Situation: Case Study, Yong Bai, William R. Burkett, Phillip T. Nash

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, and subsequent potential threats to the United States transportation systems have presented an urgent need to elevate the security of the transportation infrastructure and to develop emergency response plans to quickly react to the possible consequences of an extreme event. Highway bridges, as critical components of the nation’s transportation network, have been brought to closer attention by government agencies. A research project was conducted to identify strategies and technologies to restore the use of a damaged bridge quickly. One of the tasks associated with the research was to perform several case studies of …

Bs News

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Soil Type Identification Using Time Domain Relectometry, Carlos Eduardo Zambrano Narvaez

Lyles School of Civil Engineering Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Multiobjective Plan Selection Optimization For Traffic Responsive Control, Montasir M. Abbas, Anuj Sharma

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Optimal coordination of traffic signals requires proper activation of timing plans to match current traffic conditions. One of the greatest challenges in configuring a traffic responsive plan selection control mode is how to select only n number of timing plans (restricted by traffic controller memory limitations) to address possibly all traffic conditions/states that can be encountered in the field, for a specific site, but most importantly, how to associate each of these traffic conditions to one of the n timing plans stored in the traffic controller. This paper uses a multiobjective non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm to (1) select the best …

Evaluation Of The Eastern Kentucky Rural Highway Information Project 511 Tourism Service, Juita-Elena Wie Yusuf, Candice Y. Wallace, Steven D. Kreis

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The purpose of this study is to provide an evaluation of the Eastern Kentucky Rural Highway Information Project, involving the establishment of a 511 Premium Tourism Service Package. Kentucky is only the second state to offer tourism related services through its 511 Travel System, placing the state in a position to offer insights gained from the project to other states considering the implementation of a similar program. Lessons learned from Kentucky’s experience with launching and managing a multi-county tourism information system will be invaluable. To that end, this study (1) reviewed the activities undertaken during launch and early operations of …

Evaluation And Modeling Of Repeated Load Test Data Of Asphalt Concrete For Mechanistic-Empirical Flexible Pavement Design, Stephen Price

Theses and Dissertations

The Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) uses a power model that incorporates Dynamic Modulus (DM) as a factor in predicting rutting performance of asphalt concrete. The rutting model is empirical and the rutting profiles obtained from the model are largely based on the adjustment of calibration constants not the DM. Various DM values would be capable of producing similar rutting profiles based on the current model. This study evaluated using accumulated strain data obtained from the Repeated Load Test (RLT) as an alternative to using DM. In addition, a model to represent the accumulated strain data obtained from the RLT …

Tsunamigenic Probabilistic Fault Displacement Hazard Analysis For Subduction Zones, Robb E.S. Moss, Thaleia Travasarou

Civil and Environmental Engineering

The recent Sumatra earthquake and subsequent tsunami has provoked greater awareness of the hazard posed by coseismic fault displacement associated with sea-floor subduction zones. This catastrophic event has focused renewed efforts on tsunami forecasting, modeling, and detection. Yet the mechanism that causes this type of tsunami, coseismic fault displacement of a sea-floor subduction zone, is still treated deterministically. This paper describes a methodology for probabilistic fault displacement hazard analysis (PFDHA) for a sea-floor subduction zone, and presents example displacement hazard curves for the Cascadia Subduction Zone. The goal of this probabilistic methodology is to quantify the uncertainty and associated hazard …

Incorporating Parameter Uncertainty Into Attenuation Relationships, Robb E.S. Moss, Armen Der Kiureghian

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Strong ground motion attenuation relationships estimate the mean and variance of ground shaking as it decreases with distance from an earthquake source. Current relationships use “classical” regression techniques that treat the input variables or parameters as exact, neglecting the uncertainties associated with the measurement of ground acceleration, moment magnitude, site-to-source distance, shear wave velocity, etc. This leads to a poorly constrained estimate of the uncertainty of strong ground motions. This paper discusses the work in progress on; a) estimating the statistics of parameter uncertainty, and b) incorporating the parameter uncertainty into the regression of strong motion attenuation data using a …

Off Campus Furniture Retail Development, Dan E. White, Richard D. Mccarthy, Christopher T. Cowgill

Honors Theses

The development of a 3.3 acre parcel of land at 5110 S. Westnedge, City of Portage, Kalamazoo County, Michigan is being proposed by Cowgill and Associates Inc. This will be a commercial development project with Off Campus Furniture taking occupancy after construction is complete. The building will be two stories with 57,500 square feet of usable floor space. All design was completed in accordance to the City of Portage, and the Michigan building code with design being done in accordance to ACI Code 318-05. The development includes but is not limited to site work, including storm water runoff and design, …

In-Situ Testing Of A Carbon/Epoxy Isotruss Reinforced Concrete Foundation Pile, Sarah Richardson

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on the field performance of IsoTruss®-reinforced concrete beam columns for use in driven piles. Experimental investigation included one instrumented carbon/epoxy IsoTruss®-reinforced concrete pile (IRC pile) and one instrumented steel-reinforced concrete pile (SRC pile) which were driven into a clay profile at a test site. These two piles, each 30 ft (9 m) in length and 14 in (36 cm) in diameter, were quasi-statically loaded laterally until failure. Behavior was predicted using three different methods: 1) a commercial finite difference-based computer program called Lpile; 2) a Winkler foundation model; and, 3) a simple analysis based on fundamental mechanics …

2nd Annual Undergraduate Research Conference Abstract Book, University Of Missouri--Rolla

Undergraduate Research Conference at Missouri S&T

No abstract provided.

Control Of Hydrogen Sulfide From Groundwater Using Packed-Bed Anion Exchange And Other Technologies, Camilo Romero Cotrino

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hydrogen sulfide imparts odors and taste to drinking water and can be corrosive to distribution systems. Groundwater sources used to produce drinking water tend to have sulfide concentrations ranging from below 0.1 to over 3 mg/L. Under anaerobic conditions, hydrogen sulfide can be formed from reduction of sulfate and elemental sulfur through chemical or biological reactions. Therefore, to decrease the potential for hydrogen sulfide in water systems, control of all forms of sulfur should be consistent.

Hydrogen sulfide in groundwater can be controlled through conversion or removal mechanisms. Conversion reactions result from chemical or biological reactions that oxidize hydrogen sulfide …

Increasing Speed Limit Compliance In Reduced-Speed School Zones, Kelly Grant Ash

Theses and Dissertations

Reduced-speed school zones greatly improve the safety of young children commuting to and from school and provide larger gaps in traffic for children to cross the street. The main focus of this study was to determine effective methods for increasing speed compliance in reduced-speed school zones. This objective was accomplished through an in-depth literature review, a public opinion survey of Utah drivers, and an evaluation of the effects of speed monitoring displays (SMDs) in school zones. The main focus of the literature review was to determine how to increase and maintain speed limit compliance within school zones. Information about the …

A Spatially Distributed Model For The Dynamic Prediction Of Sediment Erosion And Transport In Mountainous Forested Watersheds, Colleen O. Doten, Laura C. Bowling, Jordan S. Lanini, Edwin P. Maurer, Dennis P. Lettenmaier

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering

Erosion and sediment transport in a temperate forested watershed are predicted with a new sediment model that represents the main sources of sediment generation in forested environments (mass wasting, hillslope erosion, and road surface erosion) within the distributed hydrology-soil-vegetation model (DHSVM) environment. The model produces slope failures on the basis of a factor-of-safety analysis with the infinite slope model through use of stochastically generated soil and vegetation parameters. Failed material is routed downslope with a rule-based scheme that determines sediment delivery to streams. Sediment from hillslopes and road surfaces is also transported to the channel network. A simple channel routing …

Ole Miss Engineer 2006

Ole Miss Engineer

No abstract provided.

Cpt-Based Probabilistic Assessment Of Seismic Soil Liquefaction Initiation, Robb E.S. Moss, R. B. Seed, R. E. Kayen, J. P. Stewart, Armen Der Kiureghian

Civil and Environmental Engineering

The correlation of seismic field performance with in situ index test results has been proven to be a reliable method for defining the threshold between liquefaction and non-liquefaction. The objective of this research was to define, in the most accurate and unbiased manner possible, the initiation of seismic soil liquefaction using the cone penetration test (CPT). Contained in this report are the results of this research.

Case histories of occurrence and non-occurrence of soil liquefaction were collected from seismic events that occurred over the past three decades. These were carefully processed to develop improved CPT-based correlations for prediction of the …

Soils Magic: Bringing Civil Engineering To The K–12 Classroom, David J. Elton, James Hanson, David M. Shannon

Civil and Environmental Engineering

An investigation was conducted to assess the effectiveness of a series of kindergarten through 12th grade (K–12) educational outreach activities related to civil engineering. In particular, a program called Soils Magic that contains a series of simple geotechnical engineering experiments was delivered in various formats to K–12 students. This paper provides an overview of the Soils Magic program and provides further details of selected experiments from the program. This paper highlights the experiences of various civil engineering professors bringing the program to school children to promote the excitement and accessibility of the engineering profession. Suggestions are provided for conducting successful …

A Decision Support System For Integrated Risk Management, Ibrahim El-Baroudy, Slobodan P. Simonovic

Water Resources Research Report

This report provides a detailed description of the Risk Assessment Support System (RASS) for use in municipal water supply. The report explores the utility of the developed support system for evaluating the performance of a complex water supply system. A regional water supply system for the city of London is used as the case study. The theoretical foundations and computational requirements for the implementation of the RASS are provided in the report.