Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Evolution Of Tidal Amplitudes In The Eastern Pacific Ocean, David A. Jay

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Global sea level (GSL) rise is well documented. However, changes in high waters, including the tidal contribution, are sometimes more relevant than GSL rise. Analysis of 34 long tidal records from the Eastern Pacific Ocean shows that K1 and M2 amplitudes (∣K₁∣ and ∣M₂∣) are increasing, except for ∣M2∣ in the Gulf of Panama. North of 18°N, ∣K1∣ and ∣M2∣ are both growing at 2.2% century⁻¹. The mean increase in total tidal amplitude (0.59 mmyr⁻¹) is less than the present GSL rise (1.7 mmyr⁻¹). However, mean sea level is nearly constant in the NE Pacific, so tidal evolution plays a …

Temperature Influence And Heat Management Requirements Of Microalgae Cultivation In Photobioreactors, Thomas Hagen Mehlitz

Master's Theses

Microalgae are considered one of the most promising feedstocks for biofuel production for the future. The most efficient way to produce vast amounts of algal biomass is the use of closed tubular photobioreactors (PBR). The heat requirement for a given system is a major concern since the best algae growth rates are obtained between 25-30 °C, depending on the specific strain. A procedure to determine temperature influence on algal growth rates was developed for a lab-scale PBR system using the species Chlorella. A maximum growth rate of 1.44 doublings per day at 29 °C (optimal temperature) was determined. In addition, …

Optimizing Container Retrieval Operation At A Port Container Terminal, Dejan Besenski

Dissertations

In the presence of major challenges, where ports are striving to improve their operation and stay competitive in the global market, the issue of port efficiency, particularly the intelligent management of straddle carriers is investigated in this study. A new approach is presented that optimizes container handling equipment operation and is beneficial for the terminal operator in terms of improving productivity, providing faster service and reducing operating cost, Also, the solution provides acceptable service for truckers, The operational strategies presented are able to assess the operation from the truckers' and terminal operators' perspective.

The research is structured into four different …

Phosphate And Thermal Stabilization Of Heavy Metals In Dredged Sediments, Peter Kuria Ndiba

Dissertations

Treatment and reuse of dredged harbor sediments in construction as an alternative to disposal reduces costs and conserves resources. This research focused on leachability of metal contaminants subsequent to phosphate addition and thermal treatment at 700 °C. X- ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) in combination with principal component analysis, target transformation, and linear combination revealed that in the untreated sediments Zn precipitated as the relatively soluble smithsonite (ZnCO₃) (67%) and adsorbed to hydrous iron oxides (15%) and hydrous manganese oxides (18%). Phosphate addition and calcination resulted in sparingly soluble phases, hopeite (Zn₃₍PO₄)₂.4H_{2 …}

Characterization Of Natural Organic Matter And Precursors To Trihalomethanes Using Spectral Flourescence Signatures, Krit Punburananon

Dissertations

Disinfection is an essential process to kill pathogens (i.e., disease causing organisms) in source water during the production of drinking water. Chlorine is most widely used disinfectant because it is effective, affordable, and also provides chlorine residual to ensure that the water is safe through the distribution system. Nonetheless, chlorine reacts with Natural Organic Matter (NOM) and forms potentially carcinogenic Disinfection By-products (DBPs). The major chlorination DBPs are dominantly Trihalomethanes (THMs). However, not all organic compounds are equally reactive to THMs formation.

NOM in water samples collected from the Delaware & Raritan Canal and its tributaries (Central New Jersey) was …

Optimizing Fare Structure And Service Frequency For An Intercity Transit System, Feng-Ming Tsai

Dissertations

This study presents an approach to jointly optimize service headway and differentiated fare for an intercity transit system with an objective of total profit maximization and with consideration given to the economic and social sustainability of the system. Service capacity and fleet size constraints are considered. The optimization problem is structured into four scenarios which are comprised of the combinations of whether the Ranges of Travel Distance (RTD) is fixed or variable and if the time period is for a single period or for multiple periods. A successive substitution method (specifically, a modified Gauss Southwell method) is applied to solve …

Two Simplified Dynamic Lane Merging System (Sdlms) For Short Term Work Zones, Rami Harb, Essam Radwan, Shankar Ramasamy, Mohamed Abdel-Aty, Anurag Pande, Khaled Shaaban, Sastry Putcha

Civil and Environmental Engineering

ITS-based lane management technologies were introduced to work zones in an attempt to reduce congestions and diminish queue lengths. Two forms of lane merging namely the early merge and the late merge were designed to advise drivers on definite merging locations. This study suggests two Simplified Dynamic Lane Merging Systems (SDLMS) (early merge and late merge) to supplement the current Florida maintenance of traffic (MOT) plans. Data was collected in work zones on I-95, Florida for three different maintenance of traffic plan treatments. The first maintenance of traffic plan treatment was the standard MOT plan employed by FDOT. The second …

Relationship Of Two-Fluid Model Parameters With Safety On Arterials, Vinayak V. Dixit, Anurag Pande, Mohamed A. Abdel-Aty, Essam Radwan, Abhishek Das

Civil and Environmental Engineering

The two-fluid model for vehicular traffic flow explains the traffic on arterials as a mix of stopped and running vehicles. It describes the relationship between the vehicles’ running speed and the fraction of running vehicles. Two parameters of the model essentially represent ‘free flow’ travel time and level of interaction among vehicles, respectively, and may be used to evaluate urban roadway networks and urban corridors with partially limited access. These parameters are supposed to be related not only with the characteristics of the roadway but also with behavioral aspects of driver population, e.g., aggressiveness. In this study two-fluid models were …

An Investigation Of Students’ Conceptual Understanding In Related Sophomore To Graduate-Level Engineering And Mechanics Courses, Devlin Montfort, Shane Brown, David Pollock

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

Interviews were conducted with students from a sophomore-level mechanics of materials class, a sophomore/junior-level structures class, a senior-level steel design class and a graduate-level advanced steel design class to investigate students’ conceptual understanding of bending and normal stress. The graduate students generally demonstrated higher computational skill and confidence but they were not significantly different from the sophomores in terms of conceptual understanding. Interestingly, the seniors showed markedly lower confidence in their ability to solve the problems posed in the interviews. Common difficulties include a conceptual definition of stress and reasoning involving the normal stresses developed under bending.

2009 Civil And Environmental Engineering Department News, Department Of Civil And Environmental Engineering, Michigan Technological University

Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering Newsletters

Table of Contents

• New Faculty
• Strategic Hiring Initiative
• Ahlhorn Named Co-chair
• Civil 3D Then and Now
• Alumni Profiles
• MiSTI: University Transportation Center
• D80 Conference
• Student Scholarships
• Academy of Civil and Environmental Engineers
• CEE Donor Recognition
• Department Information

Capacity Optimization Of A Prestressed Concrete Railroad Tie, Russell H. Lutch

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Today the use of concrete ties is on the rise in North America as they become an economically competitive alternative to the historical industry standard wood ties, while providing performance which exceeds its competition in terms of durability and capacity. Similarly, in response to rising energy costs, there is increased demand for efficient and sustainable transportation of people and goods. One source of such transportation is the railroad. To accommodate the increased demand, railroads are constructing new track and upgrading existing track. This update to the track system will increase its capacity while making it a more reliable means of …

Computer Aided Modeling Of Soil Mix Designs To Predict Characteristics And Properties Of Stabilized Road Bases, Charles W. Berryman Ph.D., Cpc, Wayne Jensen Ph.D., Tim Hensley P.E.

Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs

Considerable data exists for soils that were tested and documented, both for native properties and properties with pozzolan stabilization. While the data exists there was no database for the Nebraska Department of Roads to retrieve this data for predicting soil properties. The conventional methods used to determine soil properties, such as maximum laboratory density and optimum moisture content, were tedious, labor intensive and time consuming. When soil stabilization is involved, more time and efforts are needed to determine maximum laboratory density, optimum moisture content and optimum pozzolan content. The objective of this project was to develop a computerized model to …

Inspector’S Manual For Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls, Wayne Jensen Ph.D.

Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs

The scope of the project is to develop a condition rating system, creation of an inspector's manual to reference during inspection or address any training for inspectors at the district level. The research project will develop a MSE wall condition rating system and incorporate this system into the database being developed and create training and reference manuals

Investigation And Mitigation Of Driver Confusion At Modern Roundabouts, Aemal Khattak, Ram Bishu, Karen Schurr, Gregory Mcknight

Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs

This research deals with two related issues: investigation and mitigation of roundabout elements that lead to driver confusion, and development of a flexible criteria matrix by which the Nebraska Department of Roads (NDOR) can evaluate arterial intersections to identify good candidates for conversion to roundabouts. The use of modern roundabouts along arterial roadways is relatively new in Nebraska. The first urban arterial roundabout was opened to traffic in June of 2002 at the intersection of 33rd and Sheridan Blvd in the City of Lincoln. Citizens and some professionals were somewhat skeptical of the capability of this roundabout to improve traffic …

Biodegradation Of The High Explosive Hexanitrohexaazaiso-Wurtzitane (Cl-20), Pelin Karakaya, Christos Christodoulatos, Agamemnon Koutsospyros, Wendy Balas, Steve Nicolich Nicolich, Mohammed Sidhoum

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

The aerobic biodegradability of the high explosive CL-20 by activated sludge and the white rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium has been investigated. Although activated sludge is not effective in degrading CL-20 directly, it can mineralize the alkaline hydrolysis products. Phanerochaete chrysosporium degrades CL-20 in the presence of supplementary carbon and nitrogen sources. Biodegradation studies were conducted using various nutrient media under diverse conditions. Variables included the CL-20 concentration; levels of carbon (as glycerol) and ammonium sulfate and yeast extract as sources of nitrogen. Cultures that received CL-20 at the time of inoculation transformed CL-20 completely under all nutrient conditions studied. When …

Increasing Pile Capacity And Set-Up In Clay By Electrokinetics, Susheel R. Kolwalkar

ETD Archive

A significant increase in the load capacity over a period of time is often observed in driven piles. This time dependent strength gain is termed as 'set-up'. Different mechanisms have been proposed to explain the set-up phenomenon in cohesive soils. A research was initiated to investigate this mechanism in clay soils in terms of electrokinetic theory and explore the possibility of accelerating the process. The system chosen for the study consisted of laboratory scale steel piles driven in kaolinite clay under controlled conditions. The piles were subjected to DC voltage gradients with surrounding electrodes at different time intervals and their …

Dynamic Evaluation Of New York State’S Aluminum Pedestrian Signal Pole System, Scott K. Rosenbaugh, Ronald K. Faller, Karla A. Lechtenberg, Robert W. Bielenberg, Dean L. Sicking, John D. Reid

Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs

The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) mounts pedestrian “hand/man” signals to aluminum

poles and uses frangible transformer bases to allow the system to break away. However, engineers at NYSDOT believed that the material properties of the aluminum poles themselves would allow the pedestrian signal poles to break away without the use of transformer bases. Elimination of the frangible transformer base would result in significant savings.

An aluminum pedestrian signal pole system was erected at the Valmont testing facility and tested with the Valmont- MwRSF/UNL pendulum with crushable nose in accordance with NCHRP Report No. 350 test designation no. …

Preserving Assets In At-Risk Municipalities: Financial Strategies For Climate Change Adaptation, New England Environmental Finance Center

Climate Change

A large share of America's population, businesses and economic activity now occurs in coastal areas. At the same time, during this century many coastal communities are likely to be severely impacted by sea level rise and increased storm surge and tidal flooding.

“What to do” about this vulnerability is the subject of this brief. It is intended to help municipalities identify courses of action and steps they might take toward increasing their resilience, especially regarding financial resources that will need to be allocated toward the various strategies identified.

Market Basket Analysis Of Crash Data From Large Jurisdictions And Its Potential As A Decision Support Tool, Anurag Pande, Mohamed Abdel-Aty

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Data mining applications are becoming increasingly popular for many applications across a set of very divergent fields. Analysis of crash data is no exception. There are many data mining methodologies that have been applied to crash data in the recent past. However, one particular application conspicuously missing from the traffic safety literature until recently is association analysis or market basket analysis. The methodology is used by retailers all over the world to determine which items are purchased together. In this study, crashes are analyzed as supermarket transactions to detect interdependence among crash characteristics. The results from the analysis include simple …

Demonstrating Sustainable Farm Management Systems. Final Report For Rcg05-Ord13, Tara Slaven, Francis Bright, Jodie Hawley, Joe Sherrard

Natural resources research reports

The Ord River Irrigation Area (ORIA) has a 'flow through' irrigation system. That is, irrigation water is diverted from Lake Kununurra and any waste water from the irrigation system and farms flows directly back into the river downstream. This means that any sediment, nutrient or chemicals in tailwater from farms flows straight into the river.

The Ord Land and Water Management Plan 2000 specifies goals to improve surface water quality. The goals are to reduce the load of chemical and nutrient contamination and sediment in tailwater by 40 per cent.

The aim of this project was to develop and demonstrate …

Resilient Moduli Of Granular Base Materials Using A Modified Type 5 Gradation, David Newton Richardson, S. M. Lusher

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) in collaboration with the Missouri Limestone Producers Association (MLPA) was interested in determining what effect a change in the Type 5 aggregate base gradation specification would have on the resilient modulus (Mr) of said aggregate. The proposed change would lower the minimum allowable total percentage of material passing the #4 (4.75 mm mesh) sieve from 35% to 25%, and the #30 (0.600 mm mesh) sieve from 10% to 5%. The remainder of the gradation specification would remain unchanged. The rationale for this proposed change is that some aggregate producers believe the change could help …

Heat Transfer Correlations For Low Approach Evaporative Cooling Systems In Buildings, Ben Costelloe, Donal Finn

Articles

The experimental performance of an open industrial scale cooling tower, utilising small approach temperature differences (1–3 K), for rejection of heat at the low water temperatures (11–20 °C) typical of chilled ceilings and other sensible air–water heat dissipation systems in buildings, is examined. The study was carried out under temperate maritime climatic conditions (3–18 °C wet-bulb temperature range). Initially a theoretical analysis of the process at typical conditions for this climate was conducted, which indicated that a water to air (L/G) mass flow rate ratio of less than 1.0 was required for effective operation. Consequently for these low L/G ratios, …

Flood Attenuation Studies, Michael Bruen, John O'Sullivan, Sangaralingam Ahilan, Zeinab Bedri

Reports

No abstract provided.

Catchment Modelling Tools And Pathways Review, Zeinab Bedri, Michael Bruen

Reports

No abstract provided.

Mechanistic-Empirical Modeling In Network-Level Pavement Management, Scott Schram, Magdy Abdelrahman

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Researchers and practitioners have long recognized the advantages of mechanistic modeling. As agencies implement the Guide for Mechanistic-Empirical Design of New and Rehabilitated Pavement Structures [referred to as the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG)] in the local project-level pavement management system (PMS), its potential as a planning tool in network-level analyses remains unrecognized. A unique, large-scale application of MEPDG is presented. The Nebraska Department of Roads uses a decision tree that systematically screens and identifies candidates for entry into a multiyear optimization program. The process uses linear deterioration rates that have been shown to provide an R² value as …

Biological Opinion On The Operation Of The Missouri River Main Stem System, Operation And Maintenance Of The Missouri River Bank Stabilization And Navigation Project, And Operation Of The Kansas River Reservoir System

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) prepared this Annual Report for interested parties in accordance with reporting recommendations of the Biological Opinion on the Operation of the Missouri River Main Stem System (System), Operation and Maintenance of the Missouri River Bank Stabilization and Navigation Project and Operation of the Kansas River Reservoir System, prepared by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), dated November 30, 2000, and the Amendment thereto, dated December 16, 2003 (BiOp). This annual report also documents the Corps’ activities implemented under the Missouri River Bank Stabilization and Navigation Fish and Wildlife Mitigation Project, Iowa, Nebraska, …

Missouri River Recovery Program: Flood Risk Management

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

One of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ main responsibilities in managing the Missouri River is protecting property from flood damage. Historically, the dynamic river changed course during the spring and summer months, flooding some areas and eroding banks in other areas. Today, approximately 1.4 million acres of farmland and nearly $18 billion dollars of residential and other property are subject to flooding along the Missouri River. Agricultural lands, residential areas, business districts and navigation benefit from flood risk management measures provided by the Corps through the system of reservoirs on the Missouri River.

Missouri River Recovery Program: Water Supply And Water Quality

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

The Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) operates a system of six dams and reservoirs on the Missouri River to serve the multiple purposes authorized by Congress in the Flood Control Act of 1944. In addition to operating the system for flood control, navigation, hydropower, recreation, and fish and wildlife, the Corps is also authorized to use the system for irrigation, water supply and water quality. This fact sheet will discuss the Corps efforts regarding these three authorized project purposes.

Missouri River Recovery - Integrated Science Program

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

Book List

System-wide Status Reports, Guidance Documents & Standard Operating Plans

Pallid Sturgeon

Least Tern and Piping Plover

Flow Modifications

Adaptive Management

Cottonwoods

Application Of Lrfd Geotechnical Principles For Pile Supported Bridges In Oregon: Phase 1, Trevor D. Smith, Peter Dusicka

TREC Final Reports

Bridge foundations must be designed based on acceptable risks of failure. To secure rapid implementation of Load Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) principles for foundation design, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) are requiring their use through AASHTO code. The Bridge Section of the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has responsibility for satisfactory design of all the bridge structures across the state’s highway system. The widespread geotechnical adoption of the LRFD code throughout state DOTs has been difficult in the case of deep foundations due to regional differences and in some …