Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Tackling Change: Future-Proofing Water, Agriculture, And Food Security In An Era Of Climate Uncertainty, Peter G. Mccornick, Vladimir Smakhtin, Luna Bharati, Robyn Johnston, Matthew Mccartney, Fraser Sugden, Floriane Clement, Beverly Mcintyre

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

In 1950 the global population was just over 2.5 billion. Now, in 2013, it is around 7 billion. Although population growth is slowing, the world is projected to have around 9.6 billion inhabitants by 2050. Most of the population increase will be in developing countries where food is often scarce, and land and water are under pressure. To feed the global population in 2050 the world will have to produce more food without significantly expanding the area of cultivated land and, because of competition between a greater number of water users, with less freshwater. On top of land and water …

Social/Physical Impacts And Water Consumption Characteristics Of South Dakota’S Rural Water Systems, Matt Pajl, Delvin E. Deboer

Water and Environmental Engineering Research Reports

This study investigates the social and physical impacts that rural water systems have on South Dakota’s population and the water consumption characteristics of city, country dwelling, and farm customer classifications. The physical characteristics of South Dakota’s rural water systems along with the 2006 water production and sales information were used to determine and relate the unique distribution characteristics and water consumption demands of the rural water systems. The impact of improved water quality to the customers of the rural water systems was shown in improved livestock production and health, customer softening salt savings, and reduction of total dissolved solids entering …

Material Specific Load Combination Factors For Option 2 Fad Curves, Matt Saxon Schaser

ETD Archive

No abstract provided.

Calibration Of The Highway Safety Manual For Missouri, Carlos Sun Ph.D., P.E., Jd, Henry Brown Msce, P.E., Praveen Edara Ph.D., P.E., Boris Carlos, Kyuongmin Andrew Nam

Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs

The new Highway Safety Manual (HSM) contains predictive models that need to be calibrated to local conditions. This calibration process requires detailed data types, such as crash frequencies, traffic volumes, geometrics, and land-use. The HSM does not document in detail techniques for gathering such data, since data systems vary significantly across states. The calibration process also requires certain decisions, such as the correct sampling approach, determination of the minimum segment length, the treatment of left-turn phasing, and the inclusion or exclusion of speed-change lane crashes. This report describes the challenges, practical solutions, and results from a statewide HSM calibration in …

Gis And Introductory Environmental Engineering: A Way To Fold Gis Into An Already-Existing Course, Mary P. Cardenas, David Wayne Kelley, Warren Roberts

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

The use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) was implemented in the upper-division undergraduate technical elective Introduction to Environmental Engineering at Harvey Mudd College. Students integrated technical engineering skills, newly-learned geographical information system (GIS) skills, and the engineering design process, all in the context of the design of a debris flow barrier for a wilderness land parcel acquired by a local conservancy group.

Junior and senior general engineering students, the majority of whom had no experience with GIS, were taught ArcGIS (a GIS mapping program) in the context of an Introductory Environmental Engineering course. Students learned how to map locations, find …

Transient And Quasi-Steady Thermal Behaviour Of A Building Envelope Due To Retrofitted Cavity Wall And Ceiling Insulation, Aimee Byrne, Gerard Byrne, Anna Davies, Anthony Robinson

Articles

Accurate understanding of the thermal behaviour of building components is essential for predicting heat-ing or cooling needs and facilitates the implementation of more successful energy saving strategies and retrofits. This paper focuses on a specific measure commonly introduced through the residential energy efficiency retrofit programmes in Ireland–insulation. Traditionally, assessments of the performance of building envelopes have been based on assumed thermal resistances of the materials involved, labora-tory tests and computer modelling. The aim of the present work is to investigate the in situ thermal behaviour of a case study building and its components under transient and quasi-steady environmental conditions, comparing …

Extension Of The Reiner-Riwlin Equation To Determine Modified Bingham Parameters Measured In Coaxial Cylinders Rheometers, Dimitri Feys, Jon E. Wallevik, Ammar Yahia, Kamal H. Khayat, Olafur H. Wallevik

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Determination of the Exact Rheological Properties, in Fundamental Units, of Cementitious Materials Has Become Gradually a Necessary Step in the Domain of Concrete Science. Several Types of Rheometers and their Corresponding Transformation Equations Are Described in the Literature. in This Paper, the Reiner-Riwlin Transformation Equation, Valid for Coaxial Cylinders Rheometers, is Developed for the Modified Bingham Model, which is an Extension of the Bingham Model with a Second Order Term in the Shear Rate. the Established Transformation is Shown to Be Compatible with the Reiner-Riwlin Equation for the Bingham and Herschel-Bulkley Models. its Validation is Further Proven by Means …

Effect Of High-Volume Fly Ash On Shear Strength Of Concrete Beams, Mahdi Arezoumandi, Jeffery Volz, John Myers

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Every year concrete production exceeds 6.5 billion tons worldwide, nearly 1 ton for every man, woman, and child on the planet. In fact, concrete is used 10 times more than any other building material in the world, primarily because of its incredible versatility, availability, and relatively low cost. Unfortunately, the production of Portland cement - the key ingredient in concrete - generates approximately a pound of carbon dioxide for every pound of cement produced. One method of reducing concrete's carbon footprint is to replace a significant amount of the cement with fly ash, a by-product of coal-burning thermal power stations. …

Effect Of Moist Curing And Use Of Lightweight Sand On Characteristics Of High-Performance Concrete, Soo Duck Hwang, Kamal H. Khayat, Dalia Youssef

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Factorial design approach was undertaken to determine the effect of initial moist-curing duration (0 and 6 days) on properties of high-performance concrete (HPC) made with different water-to-cementitious materials ratios (w/cm) of 0.30 and 0.40 and sand substitution rates with lightweight sand (LWS) of 0 and 30 %, by volume. Mechanical properties of HPC are shown to be mainly affected by w/cm and total shrinkage of concrete by the LWS replacement rate and initial moist-curing period. It should be noted that concrete made with 30 % LWS replacement that did not receive any moist-curing exhibited lower shrinkage than moist-cured concrete prepared …

Aggregate Shape Characterization Using Digital Image Processing, Norbert H. Maerz, David Newton Richardson

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Aggregates must meet certain specifications to be acceptable in asphalt and concrete applications. Among these are specifications that deal with the various aspects of aggregate shape, including flatness and elongation and aggregate angularity. The current practice for ensuring those specifications is the use of manual-mechanical tests. These tests are time consuming, labor intensive and subjective. In addition, tests such as the compacted or uncompacted voids tests (Figure 1), are taken to be a shape (angularity) indicator, even thought the measured quantify is the void ratio. This report describes a prototype of an automated digital video image analysis system that measures …

Effect Of Crumb Rubber Modifier Dissolution On Storage Stability Of Crumb Rubber-Modified Asphalt, Amir Ghavibazoo, Magdy Abdelrahman, Mohyeldin Ragab

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Crumb rubber-modified asphalt (CRMA) extensively suffers from high-temperature storage instability. Because of the higher density of the crumb rubber modifier (CRM) particles, they settle down to the bottom of storage tanks and cause variation between physical properties of the top and bottom samples. The storage stability of the CRMA changes under different interaction parameters and consequently different mechanisms of interaction. In this research the mechanism of separation under different levels of CRM dissolution was investigated by using Stokes' law. The extent and mechanism of CRM dissolution in asphalt was controlled through regulating interaction temperature and interaction mixing speed. A standard …

Probabilistic Design And Optimization - University Of California, Davis, Jay R. Lund

All ECSTATIC Materials

Graduate course in probabilistic design and optimization offered at University of California, Davis in Winter 2013.

Effects Of Storage Tank Mixing On Water Quality, Andy Lemke, Delvin E. Deboer

Water and Environmental Engineering Research Reports

Storage tanks are used by water systems to maintain pressure in the distribution system and to meet the varying water demands of the system. The design and operation of the storage tanks affect their mixing characteristics which affect the water quality. Poor mixing can lead to stratification in the tanks, which can lead to low chlorine residual causing microbial growth and nitrification. This thesis presents the results of the study of seven storage tanks used in South Dakota’s rural water systems. The tanks were chosen to represent varying height to diameter ratios, varying types of disinfectant, and to study passive …

Use Of Vacuum For The Stabilization Of Dry Sand Slopes, B. Bate, Limin Zhang

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Vacuum is proposed as a means for rescuing soil slopes showing signs of impending failure. Two aspects associated with the proposed method were studied: namely, the theory of airflow through dry soils and the effectiveness of vacuum for enhancing the stability of soil slopes. A model test device was developed, and two series of tests were carried out using this device. One was a series of tests on pore-air pressure distributions in dry sand slopes, and the second series involved dry sand slope stability tests. The results revealed that a vacuum (negative pore-air pressure) even as small as 20.4 kPa …

Spacecraft Module Hole Size And Crack Length Prediction Following A Penetrating Debris Particle Impact, Joel E. Williamsen, William P. Schonberg, Hilary J. Evans

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The process used to calculate and reduce the consequences of meteoroid and orbital debris (MOD) penetrations and their link to catastrophic failure has evolved over time. As the threat of the orbital debris population increased in the 1980s and early 1990s, NASA developed a tool to determine the probability of no catastrophic failure, or PNCF, for the space station and to assess possible changes in station design and/or operations to improve that survivability percentage. PNCF is directly related to the PNP, or probability of no penetration, as calculated by Bumper, the code used by NASA to perform MOD risk assessments. …

Cost Effectiveness Of Recycling: A Systems Model, David J. Tonjes, Sreekanth Mallikarjun

Technology & Society Faculty Publications

Financial analytical models of waste management systems have often found that recycling costs exceed direct benefits, and in order to economically justify recycling activities, externalities such as household expenses or environmental impacts must be invoked. Certain more empirically based studies have also found that recycling is more expensive than disposal. Other work, both through models and surveys, have found differently. Here we present an empirical systems model, largely drawn from a suburban Long Island municipality. The model accounts for changes in distribution of effort as recycling tonnages displace disposal tonnages, and the seven different cases examined all show that curbside …

The John Zink Hamworthy Combustion Handbook, 2nd Edition, Volume 1: Fundamentals, Edited By Charles E. Baukal, Jr., Crc Press, Boca Raton, Fl, 2013., Payal A. Chandan

Coal Combustion and Gasification Products Journal Archive

No abstract provided.

Using Model Building In Structural Engineering To Enhance Understanding Of Construction Principles And Methods, Niall Holmes, Henry Mullen

Articles

This paper presents a new model building exercise in a second year module in the Department of Civil & Structural Engineering in the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT). The activity aimed to improve students’ understanding of structural engineering, construction principles and methods. It allowed students to practically apply lecture material and construct a scaled model giving them an opportunity to study and visualise a real structure and generate their own ideas on how it should be assembled within a constructivist active learning environment. As a result, lectures were found to be more interactive and students more engaged in the discussions …

Development And Implementation Of A Simplified Residential Energy Asset Rating Model, Daire Reilly, Aidan Duffy, David Willis, Michael Conlon

Other resources

In accordance with national and European policies, the provision of financial assistance to residential energy consumers has led to a greater awareness of and interest in energy retrofit technologies. However, at present Irish energy consumers have no appropriate advice on the future performance of retrofit options available to them. This is a significant limitation to decision making and technology uptake, since this group need to know whether their investment is likely to be worthwhile.

The asset rating methodology developed for the certification of energy performance of buildings is the current industry standard of prediction of energy demand and post retrofit …

Effect Of Fly Ash On The Shear Strength Of Concrete Beams Without Shear Reinforcement, Mahdi Arezoumandi, Jeffery S. Volz, Carlos A. Ortega

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The following paper presents the results of an experimental investigation of the shear strength of full-scale reinforced concrete beams constructed with both high-volume fly ash concrete (HVFAC)-concrete with at least 50% of the cement replaced with fly ash-and conventional concrete (CC). This study includes two HVFAC mixes and one CC mix. The two HVFAC mixes are identical except for the amount of Class C fly ash replacement of cement, with one mix replacing 50% of the cement with fly ash and the other replacing 70 %. The test matrix included 18 beams-six for each concrete type-with three different longitudinal reinforcement …

Rainwater To Flush Toilets On A Volcano, Robert A. Buchan

STAR Program Research Presentations

Objective: Investigate the feasibility of a rainwater collection system to provide for a sustainable source of non-potable or potable water at a potentially isolated solar observatory site (likely Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii).

Introduction: The National Center for Atmospheric Research/High Altitude Observatory (NCAR/HAO) proposes to build a solar observatory comprising a trio of instruments for studying solar coronal magnetism.

Methods: Each square foot of collection surface will experience approximately 0.62 gallons of runoff from 1 inch of rainfall (12 in x 12 in x 1 in = 0.62 gallons). Some water will be lost to evaporation, splashing, overflows, and other …

Designing A Framework For Exchanging Partial Sets Of Bim Information On A Cloud-Based Service, Alan Redmond

Doctoral

The rationale behind this research study was based on the recognised difficulty of exchanging data at element or object level due to the inefficiencies of compatible hardware and software. Interoperability depicts the need to pass data between applications, allowing multiple types of experts and applications to contribute to the work at hand. The only way that software file exchanges between two applications can produce consistent data and change management results for large projects is through a building model repository. The overall aim of this thesis was to design and develop an integrated process that would advance key decisions at an …

A Community-Engagement-Based Design Project In Introductory Environmental Engineering, Mary P. Cardenas

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

A collaborative, community-based design project was implemented in the upper-division undergraduate technical elective Introduction to Environmental Engineering at Harvey Mudd College. Students worked with multiple stakeholders in order to design a debris flow barrier for a wilderness land parcel acquired by a local conservancy group. The Rosemont Preserve is a wilderness area preserved in 2012 by the Arroyos and Foothills Conservancy.

The Conservancy is working to steward the land and to produce programs for the local community. The ecological resource is co-managed by LA County Public Works. After the 2009 brushfires, the County installed concrete K-Rail barriers to protect residential …

Evapotranspiration And Surface Energy Balance Of A Common Reed-Dominated Riparian System In The Platte River Basin, Central Nebraska, Isa Kabenge, Suat Irmak, John E. Gilley, George E. Meyer, Stevan Z. Knezevic, Timothy J. Arkebauer, Duane Woodward, Milton Moravek

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Quantifying actual evapotranspiration (ET_a) of riparian zones is important for more robust water balance analyses that will enable better planning, managing, and allocating of water resources as well as developing strategies to protect delicate riparian ecosystem functions. The ET_a, sensible heat flux (H), net radiation (R_n), soil heat flux (G), meteorological variables (air temperature, T_a; incoming shortwave radiation, R_s; wind speed, u₃; relative humidity, RH; vapor pressure deficit, VPD; precipitation, etc.), and albedo were measured on an hourly time step, and leaf area index (LAI) and plant height …

Hypervelocity Impact Testing Of Multiwall Targets Using Multiple Simultaneously Launched Projectiles, William P. Schonberg, Steve Evans, Michael D. Bjorkman

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Multiwall shield designs for spacecraft have been studied extensively in the last four decades as a means of reducing the perforation threat of the near-Earth particulate environment over equivalent single-wall structures. The performance of an impact shield is typically characterized by its ballistic limit equation, which is obtained through high-speed impact tests that typically use spherical projectiles fired in light gas guns. Traditional firings employ only one projectile per launch package. However, some facilities have taken to launching multiple projectiles of different sizes in a single launch package. In light of the significant role played by a ballistic limit equation …

Tornadoes In Canada: Improving Our Understanding, David Sills

Goderich August 21 2011 F3 Tornado Associated Files

Environment Canada presentation at ICLR

• What is a tornado?

• How do tornadoes form?

• How are tornadoes rated?

• Where / when do tornadoes occur?

• How does EC provide tornado alerts?

• Are tornadoes in Canada increasing in frequency and/or intensity?

Plants As Bio-Indicators Of Subsurface Conditions: Impact Of Groundwater Level On Btex Concentrations In Trees, Jordan Wilson, Rachel Bartz, Matt Limmer, Joel Gerard Burken

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Numerous Studies Have Demonstrated Trees' Ability to Extract and Translocate Moderately Hydrophobic Contaminants, and Sampling Trees for Compounds Such as BTEX Can Help Delineate Plumes in the Field. However, When BTEX is Detected in the Groundwater, Detection in Nearby Trees is Not as Reliable an Indicator of Subsurface Contamination as Other Compounds Such as Chlorinated Solvents. Aerobic Rhizospheric and Bulk Soil Degradation is a Potential Explanation for the Observed Variability of BTEX in Trees as Compared to Groundwater Concentrations. the Goal of This Study Was to Determine the Effect of Groundwater Level on BTEX Concentrations in Tree Tissue. the Central …

Modeling Of The Resilient Modulus For Recycled Asphalt Pavement Applications In Base Course Layers, Ehab Noureldin, Magdy Abdelrahman

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The resilient modulus (M_R) is an important parameter for the base course layer in the pavement design process. Use of recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) for this layer must take into consideration the effect of various factors that may occur in the field on the M_R. Previous numerical models used for the granular base layer could be used for the RAP. The study reported here examined the suitability of RAP procedures under the effect of different factors (e.g., water content, dry density, freeze-thaw cycles). Various percentages of the RAP (50%, 75%, and 100% by weight) were employed …

Electrochemical/Electroflotation Process For Dye Wastewater Treatment, Erick Benjamin Butler

ETD Archive

The use of dyes has become very significant across various industries such as textiles, paper, and clothing. The organic chemical composition of dyes is a major concern when discharging wastewater not only into the environment, but also within wastewater treatment plants. Dye effluent consists of high chemical oxygen demand (COD) and also color, components that require treatment before discharge. As a result, federal legislation has required industries that discharge high components in wastewater to undergo treatment within the plants. Within literature, authors have considered various biological, physical, and chemical methods of treating dye wastewater. Recently, electrocoagulation/electroflotation (ECF) has been an …

Crest-Snow Field Experiment: Analysis Of Snowpack Properties Using Multi-Frequency Microwave Remote Sensing Data, Tarendra Lakhankar, J. Munoz, A.M. Powell, N.Y. Krakauer, W.B. Rossow, Reza Khanbilvardi

Publications and Research

The CREST-Snow Analysis and Field Experiment (CREST-SAFE) was carried out during January–March 2011 at the research site of the National Weather Service office, Caribou, ME, USA. In this experiment dual-polarized microwave (37 and 89 GHz) observations were accompanied by detailed synchronous observations of meteorology and snowpack physical properties. The objective of this long-term field experiment was to improve understanding of the effect of changing snow characteristics (grain size, density, temperature) under various meteorological conditions on the microwave emission of snow and hence to improve retrievals of snow cover properties from satellite observations. In this paper we present an overview of …