Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Influence Of Strand Debonding On The Shear Strength Of Prestressed Concrete, Michael David Wesson

Open Access Dissertations

Strand debonding is a common method used to reduce flexural stresses caused by prestress transfer in the end regions of pretensioned concrete beams. Debonding is especially useful when section geometries prohibit draping such as U-beams. Based on concerns regarding shear strength, the AASHTO bridge design specification currently limits the percentage of strands that can be debonded. These limits have been found in practice to limit both the efficiency and economy of bridge girders. For this reason, a number of states chose to ignore these limits. The objective of this research is to improve the understanding of the influence of debonding …

The Application And Analysis Of Automated Triangulation Of Video Imagery By Successive Relative Orientation, Jae Sung Kim

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is the analysis and evaluation of methods to orient a strip of images using an automated approach. Automatic orientation of strips of video frame imagery would facilitate the construction of three dimensional models with less demand on a human operator for tedious measurement. Often one has no control points, so only relative orientation is possible. The relative orientation process gives camera parameters such as attitudes and selected baseline components and it can be implemented by using either collinearity or coplanarity equations. To automate the point selection, the pass and/or tie points were detected by the …

Cloud To Cloud Registration For 3d Point Data, Darion Shawn Grant

Open Access Dissertations

The vast potential of digital representation of objects by large collections of 3D points is being recognized on a global scale and has given rise to the popularity of point cloud data (PCD). 3D imaging sensors provide a means for quickly capturing dense and accurate geospatial information that represent the 3D geometry of objects in a digital environment. Due to spatial and temporal constraints, it is quite common that two or more sets of PCD are obtained to provide full 3D analysis. It is therefore quite essential that all the PCD are referenced to a homogeneous coordinate frame of reference. …

Detecting And Quantifying Damage In Buildings Using Earthquake Response Data And Capacity Curves, Jeffrey David Dowgala

Open Access Dissertations

In the process of designing a building for seismic resistance, structural engineers design with the intent of preventing collapse while expecting inelastic behavior to occur in extreme strong ground motion events. Structural engineers rely on idealized mathematical models of the structural systems and nonlinear analysis methods to estimate the capacity of a building to resist the demand of strong earthquake ground motions. Compared to estimates and approximations based on numerical nonlinear analyses, a capacity curve constructed from actual building response data would be a more realistic representation of the behavior for the building. A method is presented on how capacity …

Manifold Learning Based Spectral Unmixing Of Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Data, Jun-Hwa Chi

Open Access Dissertations

Nonlinear mixing effects inherent in hyperspectral data are not properly represented in linear spectral unmixing models. Although direct nonlinear unmixing models provide capability to capture nonlinear phenomena, they are difficult to formulate and the results are not always generalizable. Manifold learning based spectral unmixing accommodates nonlinearity in the data in the feature extraction stage followed by linear mixing, thereby incorporating some characteristics of nonlinearity while retaining advantages of linear unmixing approaches. Since endmember selection is critical to successful spectral unmixing, it is important to select proper endmembers from the manifold space. However, excessive computational burden hinders development of manifolds for …

Denitrification And Biological Phosphorus Removal Using Focused, Pulse-Treated, Thickened Waste Activated Sludge As An Internal Carbon Source, Holly Anne Hillard

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Recent research shows that an internal carbon source, derived from the treatment of waste activated sludge (WAS), could be used as an alternative to external carbon sources for denitrification in biological wastewater treatment processes. In this study, a thickened waste activated sludge (TWAS) treatment technology, developed by the company OpenCEL, was used to treat TWAS with pulsed electric fields (PEF) to transform it into an organic substrate for heterotrophic denitrification in a biological nutrient removal (BNR) system. If effective, this technique could significantly reduce the external carbon source demand.

To determine the utility of OpenCEL-treated TWAS as an internal carbon …

Operation And Modification Of A B-Stage For Efficient Nitrogen Removal In An A/B Process Pilot Study, Ryder Bunce

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Hampton Roads Sanitation District's Chesapeake-Elizabeth Wastewater Treatment Plant is a High-Rate Activated Sludge (HRAS) plant with no primary clarifiers. The plant operates at an SRT of 1.5 - 2 days and does not perform biological nitrogen removal (BNR). By 2021 HRSD anticipates the plant will be included in a bubble permit, resulting in a total nitrogen (TN) effluent target of approximately 5-8 mg/L. Converting the plant to a conventional BNR process would require a significant increase in reactor volume. Capital costs for the upgrade are estimated at 125 -150 million dollars, with a dramatic increase in operating costs as well. …

Dimensionless Criteria For Selecting Tidally-Influenced Advective-Dispersive Desalination Brine Mixing Plume Characterization Models, Alireza Shahvari

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The very nature of requirements for implementing a desalination process is highly spatial due to the need to secure both a source for the operation and sink for brine dilution. Thus, the applicable coastal location is bound to natural tidal mixing characteristics and subjected to a near- or a far-field availability for source and sink. Mixing characteristics of coastal waters are very different from one point to another due to the spatiotemporal tidal characteristic in loco in a manner that it can vary from being highly advective to completely dispersive dominant. Once a location is identified, estimation of corresponding water …

Optimization Of Demon® Sidestream Treatment And Potential For Anammox Mainstream Bioaugmentation, Andrea Lauren Nifong

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Anaerobically digested sludge dewatering liquors (e.g. centrate) can represent 15-25% of the total kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) load on a typical municipal waste water treatment plant (WWTP). Sidestream nitrogen removal has been demonstrated to be an effective tool for improving nitrogen removal performance and reliability with a savings in aeration energy, chemicals (supplemental alkalinity and carbon), and sludge production.

Deammonification, partial nitritation by ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) combined with anaerobic ammonium oxidation (AMX or anammox), provides near complete nitrogen removal with a 65% reduction in energy and 100% reduction in supplemental carbon and alkalinity requirements as compared to traditional nitrification-denitrification. The …

The Effect Of The Bicycle Detector Symbol And R10-22 Sign On Cyclist Queuing Position At Signalized Intersections, Stefan W. Bussey

Civil and Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Manual of Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) includes a roadway marking and accompanying explanatory sign which may be installed on public roads to help guide cyclists position themselves over detection at actuated traffic signals. While adopted into the MUTCD in 2003, little research is available on the effectiveness of the marking and sign. This study evaluates the influence that the roadway marking, roadway marking installed in conjunction with the explanatory sign, and an alternative detector marking comprised of the MUTCD marking installed over a one foot by two feet green rectangle, have on cyclist queuing position at actuated, signalized intersections. …

Bayesian Approach For Uncertainty Analysis Of An Urban Storm Water Model And Its Applications To A Heavily Urbanized Watershed, Misgana K. Muleta, Jonathan Mcmillan, Geremew G. Amenu, Steven J. Burian

Civil and Environmental Engineering

The significance of uncertainty analysis (UA) to quantify reliability of model simulations is being recognized. Consequently, literature on parameter and predictive uncertainty assessment of water resources models has been rising. Applications dealing with urban drainage systems are, however, very limited. This study applies formal Bayesian approach for uncertainty analysis of a widely used storm water management model and illustrates the methodology using a highly urbanized watershed in the Los Angeles Basin, California. A flexible likelihood function that accommodates heteroscedasticity, non-normality, and temporal correlation of model residuals has been used for the study along with a Markov-chain Monte Carlo-based sampling scheme. …

Evidence Supporting Treatment Practice Based Delineation Of Stormwater Runoff Zones, Jacob J. Gorski

Dissertations and Theses

Particles mobilized by stormwater negatively affect receiving surface waters. Stormwater best management practices (BMPs) can reduce solids along with associated pollutants in runoff but engineers and environmental managers have been long vexed by the problem of choosing the optimal BMP for a given situation. A common BMP process for solids removal is sedimentation. This thesis addresses the question of whether the effectiveness (and thus choice) of a sedimentation device can be estimated (and thus optimized) from the particle size properties of runoff, which, in turn, could be associated with specific runoff zones or land uses. Presented here is a series …

Implementation Of 0.7 In. Diameter Strands In Prestressed Concrete Girders, George Morcous

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

The Bridge Newsletter Winter 2013, Missouri University Of Science And Technology

The Bridge Newsletter

-Roof turned into teaching tool
-Prakash recognized
-Alumna of the Year
-Super Miners

Ion Exchange Nutrient Recovery From Municipal Wastewater, Allen Williams

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Nitrogen and phosphorus discharge is regulated due to eutrophication. Typically ammonium-nitrogen is removed through nitrification which requires energy and phosphorus (P) is removed by metal salt addition to precipitate P. A more sustainable approach may be to implement nutrient recovery to form fertilizers. Most nitrogen fertilizer is formed through the energy intensive Haber-Bosch process. Phosphate rock, a limited resource, is mined for P fertilizer. Discharge regulations and the fertilizer production costs provide an economic driver for recovery. The current project used anionic and cationic ion exchange (IX) to concentrate the nutrients with recovery by struvite precipitation. Previous work lacks direct …

Anaerobic Co-Digestion Planning And Research For Green Bay, Wi, Jonathan Kusowski

Master's Theses (2009 -)

The aspiration to find an alternative sustainable fuel source is an ever growing concern. Anaerobic digestion might hold the answer to finding an alternative sustainable energy source. Anaerobic digestion does not only provide a renewable resource in the form of biogas, but also stabilizes wastes, preventing large amounts from being landfilled or incinerated. Anaerobic digestion of municipal wastewater sludges can often be improved by the addition of high strength industrial wastes, in a process called co-digestion. High strength industrial wastes provide an additional carbon source for the microbes to utilize and convert into usable biogas. Co-digestion also offers the opportunity …

Industrial Symbiosis: Corn Ethanol Fermentation, Hydrothermal Carbonization, And Anaerobic Digestion, Patrick J. Mcnamara, Lindsey R. Jader, Frederick J. Schendel, Nicholas J. Hahn, Brandon M. Wood, Kenneth J. Valentas, Paige M. Novak, Steven J. Heilmann

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The production of dry-grind corn ethanol results in the generation of intermediate products, thin and whole stillage, which require energy-intensive downstream processing for conversion into commercial animal feed products. Hydrothermal carbonization of thin and whole stillage coupled with anaerobic digestion was investigated as alternative processing methods that could benefit the industry. By substantially eliminating evaporation of water, reductions in downstream energy consumption from 65% to 73% were achieved while generating hydrochar, fatty acids, treated process water, and biogas co-products providing new opportunities for the industry. Processing whole stillage in this manner produced the four co-products, eliminated centrifugation and evaporation, and …

Impacts Of Climate Change On The Seasonality Of Low Flows In 134 Catchments In The River Rhine Basin Using An Ensemble Of Bias-Corrected Regional Climate Simulations, Mehmet C. Demirel, Martijn Booij, Arjen Hoekstra

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The impacts of climate change on the seasonality of low flows were analysed for 134 sub-catchments covering the River Rhine basin upstream of the Dutch-German border. Three seasonality indices for low flows were estimated, namely the seasonality ratio (SR), weighted mean occurrence day (WMOD) and weighted persistence (WP). These indices are related to the discharge regime, timing and variability in timing of low flow events respectively. The three indices were estimated from: (1) observed low flows; (2) simulated low flows by the semi-distributed HBV model using observed climate as input; (3) simulated low flows using simulated inputs from seven combinations …

2012 Portland Metropolitan Region Transportation System Performance Report, Robert L. Bertini, Dean George, Matthew Downey

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Our transportation system is a key ingredient in the economy, quality of life and urban fabric of the Portland metropolitan area. It has been stated in the past that it is not possible to manage our transportation system tomorrow unless we understand how it is performing today. In this spirit, Portland State University has been working with regional and statewide partners to develop new capabilities to measure, monitor and track the performance of the transportation system in real time and using archived data sources. We believe that it is possible to leverage these disparate data sources toward providing better transportation …

Parallel Implementations Of The Frank-Wolfe Algorithms For The Traffic Assignment Problem, Shawn Eugene Allen

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Transportation planners seek to understand how to best invest limited resources for future transportation network development. The traffic assignment problem is one algorithm of great importance to planners because it provides insight into how traffic will flow within the network. The Frank-Wolfe algorithm is a traditional solution method for this optimization problem, but it has been characterized by its slow rate of convergence and poor computational performance. This thesis examines and implements several modern advancements in this algorithm which are designed to improve the rate of convergence.

In addition to algorithm changes, another method to improve the performance of an …

Civil Engineering And Construction News, Georgia Southern University

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

• GS Alum Serves as Georgia DOT Chief Engineer

Development Of Long Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Concrete For Dynamic Strengthening, Zahra S. Tabatabaei, Jeffery S. Volz, Benjamin P. Gliha, Darwin I. Keener

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper discusses the development and testing of long carbon fibers-fibers 75 mm long or longer-to improve the resistance of reinforced concrete to dynamic loading, such as blasts and impact. In the past, attempts to use long fibers in concrete have failed as a result of both balling (agglomeration) and poor dispersion of the fibers. In the present study, two types of long carbon fibers were developed and optimized for their use in reinforced concrete. The resulting long carbon fiber-reinforced concrete (LCFRC) was subsequently evaluated through impact and blast testing. Full-scale blast testing revealed that these fibers significantly increased the …

Civil Engineering And Construction News, Georgia Southern University

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

• GS Asphalt Research on Display in Atlanta at Georgia Transportation Institute (GTI)

Dynamic Nonlinearity And Nonlinear Single-Degree-Of-Freedom Model For Cable Net Glazing, Ruo Qiang Feng, Jihong Ye, Guirong Yan, Jin Ming Ge

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Nonlinear Vibration Differential Equation and Vibration Frequency of Cable Net Glazing Subject to Earthquake Loading Was Determined, and a Geometrically Nonlinear Single-Degree-Of-Freedom Model for Cable Net Glazing Was Developed. the Nonlinear Response Spectra Were Established, and Nonlinear Time History Analysis with Finite Element (FE) Models Was Conducted to Verify Them. the Nonlinear Vibration Differential Equation and Frequency Obtained as Described in This Paper Provide a Basis for the Nonlinear Single-Degree-Of-Freedom Model for Cable Net Glazing. the Analytical Formula for the Nonlinear Frequency with a Simplified Expression is Highly Precise and Convenient for Use in Engineering Practice. for Larger-Amplitude Seismic …

Bradford Singley, Bradfor Singley

Journal of Undergraduate Research

I am writing to thank you for the generous scholarship. I cannot express my gratitude for this endowment. My wife is having a baby in three weeks, so this truly is a blessing in our lives. This scholarship will help us to make ends meet while allowing me to finish my bachelor’s degree.

Civil Engineering And Construction News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Announcement – CEIT Undergraduate Research awards (CEIT-UR) Program

Swell And Shrinkage Characterizations Of Unsaturated Expansive Clays From Texas, Anand J. Puppala, Thammanoon Manosuthikij, Bhaskar C. S. Chittoori

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Expansive soils have long been recognized as problematic because they cause failure to civil structures constructed above them. The main problem of these soils can be attributed to poor understanding of the volume changes caused by moisture fluctuations. Current swell and shrinkage characterization models are limited by both the lack of standardized tests and tests that employ volume changes in uniaxial direction. In the present research, a comprehensive laboratory investigation was undertaken to study the volume change related swell–shrinkage behaviors of five different types of expansive clayey soils sampled from various regions in Texas, USA. Extensive experimental programs consisting of …

Design And Performance Of A Skid-Mounted Portable Compartment Fire Gas Furnace And Monitoring System, K. Mueller, Y. Kurama, M. Mcginnis, M. Lisk

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A custom, portable natural gas fire furnace was designed and constructed for use at the University of Notre Dame to experimentally investigate the out-of-plane behavior of full-scale reinforced concrete (RC) bearing walls under fire. The unique aspects of this furnace allowed the application of large mechanical loads and non-contact optical response monitoring to be done while subjecting the wall to elevated temperatures. The performance of the experimental furnace, mechanical loading, and response monitoring system is reported using the results from the first two RC wall test specimens.

Xmdf To Gis, Eric Jones, Dr. Jim Nelson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My project is to convert the file system of the program WMS (Watershed Modeling System) from an ASCII text file format to an updated HDF5, or XMDF file format.

Using Computer Simulation To Overcome Shortcomings In Laboratory Relative Density Tests For Soils, Amy L. Cook, Dr. Travis Gerber

Journal of Undergraduate Research

An important soil parameter in geotechnical engineering is relative density. Relative density is a measure of the compactness of a cohesionless soil when compared to the loosest and densest state of the soil.