Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Probablistic Assessment Of Roof Uplift Capacities In Low-Rise Residential Construction, Bagyalakshmi Shanmugam

All Dissertations

Post hurricane damage investigations of light frame wood residential structures reveal that roof envelope failure induces considerable damage to the structure and its contents. Roof - to - wall (RTW) connection failures though not as common as roof sheathing failure also cause significant structural and material damage. Considerable changes have been made in the ASCE structural loads standard and International Building code (IBC) after hurricane Andrew in order to prevent RTW connection and sheathing failures. That includes not only a substantial increase in the design wind load in the past two decades but also a strict enforcement of tighter nailing …

Two Dimensional Modeling Of Wind Effects On A Bridge Section Using Finite Difference Method, Jessica Carreiro

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Wind effects on long span bridges are a major concern for bridge design. Wind acts as a dynamic load on the bridge deck causing the bridge to react in ways not accounted for in static load design. Attention to these effects increased tremendously after famous bridge collapses, such as the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940. Due to this collapse and others, engineers were made painfully aware that wind phenomena, such as flutter and vortex shedding, can cause major structural damage if not considered in the design process. The solution for many years since has been to conduct wind tunnel tests …

Effects Of Piston Uplift, Piston Friction, And Machine Deflection In Reduced Triaxial Extension Testing, Morgan Race

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

A series of Reduced Triaxial Extension (RTE) tests were conducted on dummy (brass) and null (water) samples to determine the effects of (corrections required for) piston uplift, piston friction and system compliance associated with RTE tests. During the consolidation stage of RTE tests, the sample may be consolidated in isotropic or anisotropic stress conditions. During the shearing stage of an RTE test, the sample is unloaded in the axial direction by decreasing the deviator stress while the radial stress remains constant. Ten (10) tests were conducted on a brass "dummy" sample. The device was assembled in the same manner as …

Impact Of Design Cost On Project Performance Of Design Bid Build Projects, Nirajan Mani

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The majority of public projects in the United States are procured and constructed by state or local governments using the design-bid-build (DBB) project delivery method. In the DBB method, the detailed design is completed by a design firm, then, a contractor builds the project according to the plans and specifications prepared by the design firm. Some studies show that a project's performance depends upon the quality of the design. If the errors in a design are minimized, the construction cost and schedule growth of the project also will be minimized.

This study analyzed data from Clark County, Nevada public works …

Economic Input–Output Life Cycle Assessment Of Water Reuse Strategies In Residential Buildings And Communities, Derek J. Gardels

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The objective of this study was to determine the environmental sustainability and economic feasibility of five water reuse designs using economic input-output life cycle assessments and benefit/cost analyses. These five water reuse designs were evaluated for four regions of the United States including the Northwest (Seattle), Southwest (Scottsdale), Midwest (Omaha), and Southeast (Tampa). The water reuse designs include a greywater reuse system with no treatment for sub-surface landscape irrigation for a single-family residential house (Model 1), an indoor greywater reuse system with treatment for toilet flushing and laundry washing for a single-family residential house (Model 2), a hybrid untreated greywater …

A Framework For Evaluating Sorbent Usage Rate Of Various Sorption Column Cconfigurations With And Without Bypass Blending, Benjamin A. Stewart

Department of Environmental Engineering: Theses and Other Student Research

Sorption systems are a prevalent technology in the field of environmental engineering for treating waters contaminated with organic and/or inorganic compounds.  Examples of such contaminants include taste and odor, hardness, disinfection byproduct precursors, and arsenic.

The primary operating costs for these sorption systems lie in sorbent replacement.  Different column arrangements and the use of bypass blending have the potential to reduce sorbent usage.  Thus, this research aimed to develop a decision framework to assist engineers and practitioners in considering when to apply single columns, parallel columns, and lead-lag series configurations, with and without bypass, based on sorbent usage rate.  This …

Discharge Coefficient Performance Of Venturi, Standard Concentric Orifice Plate, V-Cone, And Wedge Flow Meters At Small Reynolds Numbers, Colter L. Hollingshead

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The relationship between the Reynolds number (Re) and discharge coefficients (C) was investigated through differential pressure flow meters. The focus of the study was directed toward very small Reynolds numbers commonly associated with pipeline transportation of viscous fluids. There is currently a relatively small amount of research that has been performed in this area for the Venturi, standard orifice plate, V-cone, and wedge flow meters. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) program FLUENT^© was used to perform the research, while GAMBIT^© was used as the preprocessing tool for the flow meter models created. Heavy oil and water were used …

Em Stimulation Of Water For Geotechnical Applications, Harlan Dwight Olson Sangrey

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The task of cleaning soil and/or groundwater contaminated by leakage from aging underground gasoline or petrochemical tanks along with surface spills of gasoline and other hazardous chemicals is of utmost importance for federal and state environmental agencies. Traditional clean up and contaminant removal involves dig-and-treat methods that are costly and impractical for large, contaminated sites. Less disruptive remediation techniques, such as air sparging, have become more attractive in the past decade. Air sparging, bioventing, and other remediation technologies that use air injection into soil can become very effective for non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) removal using volatilization and bioremediation. However, the …

A System Dynamics Approach For Climate Change Impact Analysis In The Snake River Basin, David Jerome Hoekema

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Warming temperatures throughout the Western United States due in part to human-induced climate change caused by the emission of greenhouse gases has been found to be responsible for 60% of the hydrologic change in the Western United States over the last half century. The hypothesis of the research is that climatic change will make planning and management based on historic climate conditions less reliable in the future. Therefore, there is a need for water management planning tools that capture feedback loops within the water-resource system so that management plans are developed that perform optimally under a wide array of inputs. …

Hydrologic Controls On Equilibrium Soil Depths, L. Nicótina, David G. Tarboton, Teklu K. Tesfa, A. Rinaldo

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper deals with modeling the mutual feedbacks between runoff production and geomorphological processes and attributes that lead to patterns of equilibrium soil depth. Our primary goal is an attempt to describe spatial patterns of soil depth resulting from long-term interactions between hydrologic forcings and soil production, erosion, and sediment transport processes under the framework of landscape dynamic equilibrium. Another goal is to set the premises for exploiting the role of soil depths in shaping the hydrologic response of a catchment. The relevance of the study stems from the massive improvement in hydrologic predictions for ungauged basins that would be …

The Missouri River, An Alliance For National Designation

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

"At one time, most people believed that the only consideration in using this extraordinary resource was technological-what could we do the harness and control the river to maximize its productivity while minimizing the danger of its flooding.  Now we all understand much more clearly that there are limits to our tampering with the river's natural state."

Senator James Abourezk of South Dakota made this observation during his remarks in June 1977 at a presentation of the Army Corps of Engineers Missouri River Umbrella study concerning possible designation of the stretch from Gavins Point Dam to Ponca State Park, Nebraska, as …

How Much Do U.S. University Students Know, And Want To Know, About Sustainability And Green Building? The Findings Of A Survey, And Possible Implications For General Elective Curriculum., Jeremy R. Farner

Purdue Polytechnic Masters Theses

Using the survey approach, this investigation examined the attitudes and interest of college students at two universities in different geographic locations within the United States.  Approximately 24,000 students from all disciplines and majors at Weber State University (WSU) in Utah, and 4,000 at Purdue University in Indiana, were invited to participate in a study to determine current knowledge, familiarity, and interest in topics within the sustainability and Green Building educational arena. The goal of this study was to determine what students already know, would like to know, and how much interest there would be in developing …

Economic And Environmental Sustainability Of Using Bio-Fuels For Small Nebraska Greenhouses, David M. Mabie

Department of Environmental Engineering: Theses and Other Student Research

The primary goal of this paper was to increase profitability in Nebraska greenhouses by using biomass fuels for heating instead of propane. Several different fuels were tested, including whole shelled corn, dry distiller’s grains pelletized, wood pellets and blends between each biomass. The main fuel focus was on whole shelled corn. Bomb calorimetry tests were performed on biomass fuels and their respective ashes. Several furnace and heat exchanger efficiency tests were performed, with cost effectiveness analysis for each fuel type. Emissions data was also collected for each fuel on carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides, sulfuric oxides, and particulate matter. …

Design And Modeling Of Infrastructure For Residential And Community Water Reuse, Shannon M. Killion

Department of Environmental Engineering: Theses and Other Student Research

Water scarcity and deteriorating water infrastructure are of growing concern in the United States. The conventional methods of treating and transporting potable water and wastewater are being challenged as new technology creates opportunities for water reuse. Instead of simply replacing the current infrastructure for centralized treatment systems, alternatives such as dual distribution and decentralized treatment systems are being investigated as more sustainable alternatives.

Implementing dual distribution systems leads to benefits such as reducing the amount of water treated to potable standards and reducing freshwater withdrawals. A dual distribution system allows the non-potable demands to be shifted from the potable water …

Impacts Of The Species Elaeagnus Umbellate On The Soil And Water Quality Of The Pierce Cedar Creek Institute Ecosystem, Yacoub Aljobeh, Kristin Engerer

Symposium on Research and Creative Expression (SORCE)

The species Elaeagnus umbellate, more commonly known as autumn olive, is a shrub that is invasive to the United States and indigenous to East Asia. Even though the autumn olive is not native to North America, it was able to thrive and adapt to the new environment by using its ability to fix nitrogen. Nitrogen-fixing is a process where plants intake molecular nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it into other forms of nitrogen that can be used by the plants. One of the nitrogen-fixing by-products is nitrate. Excessive amounts of nitrate can easily leach from the plant’s root …

Civil Engineering And Construction News, Georgia Southern University

Civil Engineering & Construction: News & Publications (2011-2022)

• Georgia Southern University to Host Project Engineer for the Tallest Building in the World

Experimental Investigation Of Steel Pipe Pile To Concrete Cap Connections, Ryan S. Eastman

Theses and Dissertations

Piles are often used to resist vertical and lateral loads when shallow foundations are inadequate or uneconomical. A critical part in designing pile foundations is the pile-to-cap connection. When a moment resisting connection is desired, reinforcement is typically used between the pile and the cap. A pile-to-cap connection with sufficient pile embedment depth, however, may provide similar results. One model that is currently used to determine the capacity of a pile-to-cap connection was developed by Marcakis and Mitchell for steel members embedded in concrete. This model considers an embedment mechanism that resists rotation at the connection. Recent testing has shown, …

Gis Based Pavement Maintenance: A Systematic Approach, Robert J. Kmetz

Purdue Polytechnic Directed Projects

Abstract

According to 2008 Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) statistics, there are 2,734,102 miles of paved public roads in the United Sates, with an additional 1,324,245 miles of unpaved public roads.  Road conditions deteriorate with time as the result of weather effects, deicing salts, and vehicle loads.  The most common pavement distress includes cracking, rutting, and potholes.  These pavement defects must be repaired to restore the pavement to a satisfactory service level for road users. According to the FHWA, in 2006 approximately $54.2 billion dollars was spent on maintenance and expansion, just on U.S. highways alone.

Routine maintenance is a cost …

Factors Affecting The Strength Of Road Base Stabilized With Cement Slurry Or Dry Cement In Conjunction With Full-Depth Reclamation, Paul A. Dixon

Theses and Dissertations

Full-depth reclamation (FDR) in conjunction with cement stabilization is an established practice for rehabilitating deteriorating asphalt roads. Conventionally, FDR uses dry cement powder applied with a pneumatic spreader, creating undesirable fugitive cement dust. The cement dust poses a nuisance and, when inhaled, a health threat. Consequently, FDR in conjunction with conventional cement stabilization cannot generally be used in urban areas. To solve the problem of fugitive cement dust, the use of cement slurry, prepared by combining cement powder and water, has been proposed to allow cement stabilization to be utilized in urban areas. However, using cement slurry introduces several factors …

Field Algae Measurements Using Empirical Correlations At Deer Creek Reservoir, Ryan A. Stephens

Theses and Dissertations

Deer Creek Reservoir in Utah has a history of high algae concentrations. Despite recent nutrient reduction efforts, seasonal algae continue to present problems. Cost effective, accurate, and comprehensive monitoring is important to understand the reservoir processes driving this problem and characterizing the algae spatial and temporal distributions are an important part of this effort. Current laboratory methods for accurately measuring algae are expensive and time consuming and are based on water samples taken in the field and transported to the laboratory. This approach only provides data for relatively few point samples because of the time and expense of sample collection …

Structure Studies On Lanthanide Technetium Pyrochlores As Prospective Host Phases To Immobilize 99- Technetium And Fission Lanthanides From Effluents Of Reprocessed Used Nuclear Fuels, Thomas Hartmann, Ariana Alaniz

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

We performed a systematic investigation of the incorporation of 99Tc into pyrochlore oxide structures, Ln2Tc2O7, where Ln represents trivalent lanthanide Ln3+ cations, while 99Tc is atetravalent, Tc4+, metal cation. Pyrochlore compounds are high-melting temperature oxides and are recognized for their durability. Our goal in this preliminary study is to characterize and quantify the range of stability of the lanthanum technetium pyrochlore oxide phase. Hereby, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Rietveld analysis were used to determine and characterize the crystalline phase content with high accuracy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to characterize the microstructure and homogeneity of the synthesized …

Event Program, Carl Reiber, Nicholle Booker

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

UNLV Undergraduates from all departments, programs and colleges participated in a campus-wide symposium on April 16, 2011. Undergraduate posters from all disciplines and also oral presentations of research activities, readings and other creative endeavors were exhibited throughout the festival.

A Multifaceted Sedimentological Analysis On Hobble Creek, Andrew S. Dutson

Theses and Dissertations

Due to the endangerment of the June sucker (Chasmistes liorus), the lower two miles of Hobble Creek, Utah has been the focus of several restoration efforts. The portion of the creek between Interstate 15 and Utah Lake has been moved into a more "natural" channel and efforts are now being made to expand restoration to the east side of the freeway. This thesis reports on three different parts of a sedimentological analysis performed on Hobble Creek. The first part is a data set that contains information about the particle size distribution on the bed of Hobble Creek between …

Flexural Behavior And Size Effect Of Full Scale Reinforced Lightweight Concrete Beam, Chung-Hao Wu, Yu-Cheng Kan, Chung-Ho Huang, Tsong Yen, Li-Huai Chen

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

This article presents the results of experimental investigations on the size effect and the flexural behavior of full size reinforced concrete beams with lightweight aggregate and normal aggregate. The lightweight aggregate (LWA) was manufactured with fine sediments collected from the Shih-Men Reservoir in Taiwan. A total of 6 flexure beams with various reinforcement ratios (from 0.33% to 1.3%) and 6 size-effect beams with various dimensions were fabricated and tested. The designed compressive strength of concrete was 34 MPa. Test results indicated that the reinforced lightweight aggregate concrete (LWAC) beams had a similar load capacity and failure mode as those of …

Penetration Lag Of Chloride Diffusion Through Concrete Plate Based On Advancing Model, Chih-Hsing Wang, Cho-Liang Tsai, Ching-Chang Lin

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

The solution, based on Neumann's theory, for the content distribution of a diffusion material in a semi-infinite medium is applicable for the case in which a diffusion material diffuses from one side of a plate medium to the other side. After the diffusion material reaches the other side, the penetration rate of the diffusion material is solved using Fick's diffusion law. In this study, concrete plates are manufactured and submerged individually in special containers with saltwater on one side and freshwater on the other side, and no electric charge is applied. The amount of chloride penetrating the plate is monitored. …

Biodeterioration Of Coastal Concrete Structures By Macro Algae - Ulva Fasciata, Stri Hari Babu Jayakumar, Rama Saravanane, Thirumalai Sundararajan

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Puducherry is a coastal region in India where the growth of Ulva fasciata (Delile) is very abundant on all marine structures. Though the detrimental effect of this macro algae U. fasciata is a secondary one, its effect has to be investigated. To know its effect, the basic mechanism by which U. fasciata deteriorates concrete structures has been highlighted. To ascertain its detrimental effect on coastal concrete structures, M20 grade concrete cubes were casted and immersed in the coastal area where there is abundant growth of U. fasciata. In addition laboratory simulation has been carried out. Concrete samples collected from the …

Quantitative And Visualized Interpretation Of Public Works Civil Litigation Scenario Of First Instance Review In Taiwan, Hsien-Sang Wu, John Chien-Chung Li, Jeng-Rong Lee, Wen-Yen Wu

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Existing studies regarding public works disputes and claims have drawn on small-scale cases to the exclusion of other cases and few have met the requirements of statistical tests. This paper performs an investigation of a total of 400 cases of civil litigation in which owners lost their disputes in Taiwan High Courts and branches between 1999 and 2008. Category analysis coding is used to construct a Log-linear model for judgment decisions; this model is augmented by Multiple Correspondence Analysis to reduce judicial opinions of over 4 million words to a two-dimensional figure, allowing for visual interpretation and identifying specific cases …

Comparison Between Characteristics Of Geomorphoclimatic Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph Be Produced By Gciuh Based Clark Model And Clark Iuh Model, Arash Adib, Meysam Salarijazi, Mohammad Mahmoodian Shooshtari, Ali Mohammad Akhondali

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

A great number of developing countries do not have sufficient rainfall-rainoff data of watersheds. For designing a hydraullic structure, considering the basic characteristics of synthetic unit hydrograph is quite indispensable. The geomorphoclimatic approach considers the rainfall and the properties of the watershed. This method can provide a better representation of the runoff estimation. In this study, a geomorphoclimatic instantaneous unit hydrograph (GcIUH) model has been developed. It’s derived from the parameters of the CLARK instantaneous unit hydrograph(IUH) which completes its shape. GcIUH based Clark model was applied from the Kasilian watershed in northern part of Iran. The Direct Surface Run …

Evaluation Of Side Resistance Capacity For Drilled Shafts, Yit-Jin Chen, Shiu-Shin Lin, Hsin-Wen Chang, Maria Cecilia Marcos

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

This paper presents an extensive evaluation of axial side resistance of drilled shaft foundations. A wide variety of load test data are used and these data are divided into drained and undrained databases. Representative analytical models, including alpha (α), beta (β), and lambda (λ) methods, are examined in detail using both measured and predicted results to assess their relative merits for the drilled shaft design. Based on these analyses, the undrained shear strength (α-su) correlations have exhibited better statistics for undrained side resistance prediction, and the undrained strength ratio (α-USR) correlations can be adopted as an alternative analytical method, especially …

Numerical Study On Random Waves And Wave-Induced Long-Shore Currents At Leadbetter Beach, Lei Cui, Jun Tang

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Shallow coastal zone is extremely dynamic region, where the hydrodynamics are complicated as evident in the refraction, diffraction, shoaling and breaking of water waves, as well as the presence of wave-induced near-shore currents. In this paper, the distribution of waves and wave-induced long-shore currents formed by the breaking of obliquely incident random waves at Leadbetter Beach, Santa Barbara, USA are numerically studied. In the present numerical models, the random water waves are simulated based on the parabolic mild slope equation, and so the wave radiation stresses exerted on waveinduced currents are calculated based on variables in the parabolic mild slope …