Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Development Of A Socketed Foundation For The Midwest Weak Post V1, Ronald K. Faller, Dean L. Sicking, Scott Rosenbaugh, John D. Reid, Tyler L. Schmidt

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

A socketed foundation was designed and evaluated for use with the Midwest Weak Post (MWP), Version 1. Dynamic component testing was conducted on five different design configurations with varying embedment depths, steel reinforcement, and soil conditions. The low strength of the MWPs limited the force transferred into the foundations and prevented damage in the form of concrete cracking or fracture. Additionally, the lateral movements of the socketed foundations were all within the 1-in. (25-mm) limit established to ensure reuse of the foundations without resetting. The selected design consisted of a 12-in. (305-mm) diameter concrete shaft reinforced with four vertical bars …

Seismic Response Of A Tall Building To Recorded And Simulated Ground Motions, Nenad Bijelic, Ting Lin, Gregory Deierlein

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Seismological modeling technologies are advancing to the stage of enabling fundamental simulation of earthquake fault ruptures, which offer new opportunities to simulate extreme ground motions for collapse safety assessment and earthquake scenarios for community resilience studies. With the goal toward establishing the reliability of simulated ground motions for performance-based engineering, this paper examines the response of a 20-story concrete moment frame building analyzed by nonlinear dynamic analysis under corresponding sets of recorded and simulated ground motions. The simulated ground motions were obtained through a larger validation study via the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) Broadband Platform (BBP) that simulates magnitude …

2013 Summary Of Highway Revenues, Distributions & Expenses, Indiana Ltap

Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Publications

This report provides information on revenues, distributions, and expenses of state and local governments for highway, road, and street work. Since the Motor Vehicle Highway (MVH) and Local Road and Street (LRS) Accounts are the principal source of funds for local road or street construction and maintenance operations, this summary may be used to see the trends in income sources and in the expenses charged to the funds prior to their being distributed to the highway, road, and street agencies.

Experimental Investigation On The Shear Characteristics Of Gfrp Reinforcement Systems Embedded In Concrete., Austin Beau Connor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To mitigate the deterioration of steel-reinforced concrete members, a fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) system has been introduced and has increasingly been used to replace the conventional steel reinforcing bar. However, questions remain about the performance of the Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) reinforcing bar in concrete with varied stress orientation and shape. The GFRP reinforcement is an anisotropic material that possesses low strength for the transverse direction. This paper presents the results of the shear performance of GFRP reinforcement crossing varied crack angles. Fifteen push-off specimens were tested to investigate the shear characteristics of the GFRP and steel reinforcement. Tests were …

Bs News July/August

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

The Applicability Of Vri For Managing Variability In Infiltration Capacity And Plant-Available Water: A Preliminary Discussion And Gis Study, Tsz Him Lo, Luciano Mateos, Derek M. Heeren, Joe D. Luck

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Although variable rate irrigation (VRI) has been researched and marketed for a number of years, research that quantifies the magnitude of VRI’s potential benefits and that are translatable to unmonitored fields is lacking. The potential reduction in seasonal irrigation is proposed as the criterion for beginning to evaluate the use of VRI to improve agricultural water management when infiltration capacity and plant-available water are spatially variable inside a field. An initial geographic information system study using publicly available geospatial data was conducted to examine soil and topographic properties associated with such variability within 1100 center pivots across 11 counties. The …

Finite Element Modeling Of Long-Term Phosphorus Leaching Through Macropores In The Ozark Ecoregion, Ryan P. Freiberger, Derek M. Heeren, Garey A. Fox, Chad J. Penn, Dean E. Eisenhauer

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Phosphorus (P) is a critical nutrient for plant growth in agriculture, but is also responsible for surface water enrichment that leads to toxic algal growth. While P loading to surface waters has traditionally been thought to occur from surface runoff, contributions from subsurface transport can also be significant. While P transport through many soil types is well-documented, the presence of highly conductive gravel outcrops and macropore networks can have a significant, yet poorly-documented effect on P movement to the aquifer. Floodplain soils in the Ozark ecoregion generally contain coarse chert gravel layers that exhibit macropore behavior. Previous research has evaluated …

An Analysis Of Secular Change In Tides At Open-Ocean Sites In The Pacific, Edward D. Zaron, David A. Jay

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Hourly sea level is examined at 25 open-ocean stations in the Pacific Ocean with records longer than 30 yr. A search for trends finds that the amplitude of the dominant semidiurnal tide M₂ is increasing at 12 of the 13 sites where a statistically significant trend can be identified. It is also found that nontidal variance in the neighborhood of M₂ is decreasing at all 12 of the sites where a significant increase in M₂ tide is occurring. The trend in amplitude of the dominant diurnal tide K₁ is significant at six stations, and it is …

Analysis Of Data Center Network Convergence Technologies, Robert-Lee Daniel Leblanc

Theses and Dissertations

The networks in traditional data centers have remained unchanged for decades and have grown large, complex and costly. Many data centers have a general purpose Ethernet network and one or more additional specialized networks for storage or high performance low latency applications. Network convergence promises to lower the cost and complexity of the data center network by virtualizing the different networks onto a single wire. There is little evidence, aside from vendors' claims, that validate network convergence actually achieves these goals. This work defines a framework for creating a series of unbiased tests to validate converged technologies and compare them …

Links Between Plant And Fungal Communities Across A Deforestation Chronosequence In The Amazon Rainforest, Babur S. Mirza, R. C. Mueller, F. S. Paula, J. L.M. Rodrigues, K. Nusslein, B. J.M. Bohannan

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Understanding the interactions among microbial communities, plant communities and soil properties following deforestation could provide insights into the long-term effects of land-use change on ecosystem functions, and may help identify approaches that promote the recovery of degraded sites. We combined high-throughput sequencing of fungal rDNA and molecular barcoding of plant roots to estimate fungal and plant community composition in soil sampled across a chronosequence of deforestation. We found significant effects of land-use change on fungal community composition, which was more closely correlated to plant community composition than to changes in soil properties or geographic distance, providing evidence for strong links …

The Effect Of Learning And Cost Optimization On Line Of Balance Scheduling, Kareem Essam Zahran

Theses and Dissertations

The increase in populations throughout the past years introduced the need for improving and increasing countries’ infrastructure. Moreover, there has been an increasing demand for dwelling units ranging from small economic housing blocks to high-rise buildings and residential villa compounds. These projects are known by their repetitive nature, where a constant unit is repeated several times. Scheduling techniques that consider the learning effect as an influencing parameter in calculating productivity rates can improve the effectiveness of the scheduling process. This achieves more realistic forecasts resulting in optimum utilization of resources and better control during implementation phases. Linear scheduling techniques are …

Passive Force On Skewed Bridge Abutments With Reinforced Concrete Wingwalls Based On Large-Scale Tests, Kyle Mark Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Skewed bridges have exhibited poorer performance during lateral earthquake loading when compared to non-skewed bridges (Apirakvorapinit et al. 2012; Elnashai et al. 2010). Results from small-scale laboratory tests by Rollins and Jessee (2012) and numerical modeling by Shamsabadi et al. (2006) suggest that skewed bridge abutments may provide only 35% of the non-skewed peak passive resistance when a bridge is skewed 45°. This reduction in peak passive force is of particular importance as 40% of the 600,000 bridges in the United States are skewed (Nichols 2012). Passive force-deflection results based on large-scale testing for this study largely confirm the significant …

Application Of Remotely Sensed Rainfall Data In Rainfall-Runoff Modelling. A Case Of Pangani River Basin, Tanzania, Joel Nobert

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Rainfall runoff modelling in a river basin is vital for number of hydrologic application including water resources assessment. However, rainfall data from sparse gauging stations are usually inadequate for modelling which is a major concern in Tanzania. This study presents the results of comparison of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite rainfall products at daily and monthly time-steps with ground stations rainfall data; and explores the possibility of using satellite rainfall data for rainfall runoff modelling in Pangani River Basin, Tanzania. Statistical analysis was carried out to find the correlation between the ground stations data and TRMM estimates. It was …

Analysis Of Different Techniques For Improving Performance Of Flat Plate Solar Collectors For Fruits Drying, Godfrey Mbabaye

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Fruits drying had become a broader technology in fruits and vegetables value addition. The technology is reported to be a promising way of drying without incurring higher cost but its adaptation has not been feasible in rural areas. Solar dryers have been developed but its poor performance limits its applicability. In this study, several techniques for modifications of traditional solar collector were addressed. It was observed that, varying collector designs in different techniques, a range of collector performances can be archived. The research shows that, collector efficiency can be improved by 9.6% when employing double duct counter flow compared to …

Noise Pollution In Maize Milling Smes, Erasto Elias

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Maize milling SMEs emit high levels of noise which can have adverse effects on human beings and therefore require controlling. This paper reports on a study that involved assessment and measurement of noise level in maize milling SMEs in DSM and Morogoro urban, gathering opinions of workers and the neighbouring population on noise problems, and suggesting solutions for noise control. Noise measurements in 41 SMEs were recorded from 89-103 dBA in DSM and 92-103 dBA in Morogoro near the milling machines. These values were higher than the safe level of 85 dBA for 8 hours working shift. Measurement also indicated …

Lemongrass And Cinnamon Essential Oils As Vitamin C Preservatives And Flavour Enhancers In Jam, Denice Byarushengo

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Lemongrass and cinnamon essential oils (LEO and CEO) are natural oils with high anti oxidation capacity, pleasant flavour, and various health benefits. Their ability to preserve vitamin C and flavour in jam have not been tested. In this study the performance of two essential oils (EOs) in preserving vitamin C and improving jam flavour were investigated. The EOs were produced by hydro-steam distillation of fresh lemongrasses and cinnamon leaves using a Clevenger apparatus. Jam samples were dosed with various concentrations of either single or mixed EOs and then stored at either room or refrigeration temperature. Samples were analysed for changes …

Accuracy Of Dem-Based Topographic Data In Flood Inundation Modelling: A Case Of Wami River, Tanzania, Preksedis Ndomba

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Ihe objective of this Biper is to evaluate and further convnent on the accuracy of the DEW- based topographic data us input in flood mchdelling. Recent studies have indicated that hydraulic of the modified sections based on high resolution are geometrically and hydraulically similar to the measured ones, In the study hydraulic modelling intended to guide a developnent project whereby a protection embankment is contemplated. Therefore, accuracy in terns of positioning/alignment of natural features such as river banks and heights/elevarions was imperative m arrain. In order m achieve these, accuracy of various topographic data sources were qualitatively and/or quantitatively before …

Study Of Process Control Strategies For Biological Nutrient Removal In An Oxidation Ditch, Leslie Ann Knapp

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Advanced wastewater treatment plants must meet permit requirements for organics, solids, nutrients and indicator bacteria, while striving to do so in a cost effective manner. This requires meeting day-to-day fluctuations in climate, influent flows and pollutant loads as well as equipment availability with appropriate and effective process control measures. A study was carried out to assess performance and process control strategies at the Falkenburg Road Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant in Hillsborough County, Florida.

Three main areas for control of the wastewater treatment process are aeration, return and waste sludge flows, and addition of chemicals. The Falkenburg AWWTP uses oxidation ditches …

A Multi-Period Mixed Integer Linear Programming Model For Desalination And Electricity Co-Generation In Kuwait, Nael Abdulhameed Alqattan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water is the root of life and the engine that drives agriculture, industry, economy and services. The demand for water often necessitates desalination, particularly in arid coastal environments where there are several desalination technologies in use today such as Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) and Reverse Osmosis (RO). The key utility requirement for technologies such as desalination and population in general include energy in one form or another. Therefore, desalination and co-generation are often integrated. Another key utility is electricity which is generated from either renewable or non-renewable sources. The demands for water and electricity change over time and are subject to …

Effect Of Composting On The Fate Of Steroids In Beef Cattle Manure, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt, Shannon Devivo, Leslie J. Johnson, Daniel D. Snow, William Kranz, Terry L. Mader, Charles Shapiro, Simon Van Donk, David P. Shelton, David Tarkalson, Tian C. Zhang

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

In this study, the fate of steroid hormones in beef cattle manure composting is evaluated. The fate of 16 steroids and metabolites was evaluated in composted manure from beef cattle administered growth promotants and from beef cattle with no steroid hormone implants. The fate of estrogens (primary detected as estrone), androgens, progesterone, and the fusarium metabolite and implant a-zearalanol was monitored in manure compost piles. First-order decay rates were calculated for steroid half-lives in compost and ranged from 8 d for androsterone to 69 d for 4-androstenedione. Other steroid concentration data could not be fit to first-order decay models, which …

Characterizing The Pore Structure Of Carbonated Natural Wollastonite, Chiara Villani, Robert Spragg, Raikhan Tokpatayeva, Jan Olek, W. Jason Weiss

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

This paper focuses on examining the pore structure of a cementitious paste made with a calcium silicate (wollastonite) that reacts with carbon dioxide and water to form a hardened solid. The pore structure of the hardened solid has been characterized using vapor sorption and desorption, low-temperature differential scanning calorimetry (LT-DSC), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The total porosity was also measured using mass measurement in oven-dry and vacuum-saturated conditions. Evidence exists that support the hypothesis that the solid has two main pore sizes: large macropores (>10 nm) appear to form between the initial calcium silicate particles and small micropores …

Low-Cost Household Groundwater Supply Systems For Developing Communities, Michael Maccarthy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Self-supply is widely reported across various contexts, filling gaps left by other forms of water supply provision. This research assesses low-cost household groundwater supply technologies in markets in developing country contexts of sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, with a focus on the potential for improving Self-supply technology implementation and markets in sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically, a mature and unsubsidized Self-supply market for Pitcher Pump systems (suction pumps fitted onto hand-driven boreholes) is studied in an urban context in Madagascar, EMAS low-cost water supply technologies are assessed in Bolivia, and a technical comparison is completed with manual EMAS Pumps and family …

Aligning Bim And Lean Methodologies Within Capital Works Management Framework In Ireland, Barry Mcauley, Alan Hore, Muiris O'Loingsigh, John Deeney

Conference papers

In 2007, following continued dissatisfaction with the lack of cost certainty on publicly funded projects, the Irish Government introduced the Capital Works Management Framework (CWMF). This framework had stated strategic objectives of achieving greater cost certainty at contract award stage; better value for money at all stages during project delivery and, more efficient end-user delivery. The framework, in particular, sought to rebalance risk, so that there was an optimal transfer of risk to the contracting authority and the contractor through the implementation of fixed price contracts. Coinciding with the introduction of the CWMF, there was significant debate around the introduction …

Integration Of Models For Low Carbon Economy, Getachew F. Belete, Alexey Voinov

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Designing the transition to low carbon economy is a very complex task that touches upon a wide variety of climate-energy-economic systems. We need to explore the various possible climate mitigation scenarios at different temporal and spatial scales. However, due to the diversity of the involved disciplines it is difficult to find one complete and unified modeling approach that works equally well in all those different domains. As a result we have to select 'appropriate' models, which represent only specific aspects of the scenarios and assemble them 'coherently'. In this research we have identified some challenges in integrating multidisciplinary models; and …

A Decision Support System Approach For Identifying Poliutant Source For Optimization Of Beneficial Management Practices Scenario Modelling In Lake Winnipeg Watersheds, Isaac Wong, Luis Leon, Jason Vanrobaeys, Craig Mccrimmon, Phil Fong

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) results can be used to source trace loading "hotspots• for optimally locating beneficial management practices (BMP). It is possible to trace upstream and compute the relative contribution of each sub-basin to a point of interest, accounting for in-stream processes, reservoirs and point sources. A decision support system (DSS) framework was developed to run SWAT, perform the otherwise tedious process of source tracing "hotspots" and to optimize BMP locations. The "Crop to Hay- land use change BMP scenario was applied in an attempt to reduce annual loadings of total phosphorus (TP) for three Lake …

Agroecosystem-Watershed (Ages-W) Model Delineation And Scaling, Timothy R. Green, Robert H. Erskine, James C. Ascough Ii, Bruce Vandenberg, Björn Pfennig, Holm Kipka, Olaf David, Micheal L. Coleman

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Water movement and storage within an agricultural watershed can be simulated at different spatial resolutions of land areas or hydrological response units (HRUs). Interactions between HRUs in space and time vary with the HRU sizes, such that natural scaling relationships are confounded with the simulation scales. Scaling concepts can be tested using the AgroEcoSystem­ Watershed (AgES-W) model with different resolutions of HRUs. Here, we delineated a 56-ha agricultural watershed in northern Colorado, USA farmed primarily under a wheat-fallow rotation. Factors used to distinguish HRUs included topography (surface flow paths), land use (crop strips and native grass), and mapped soil units …

Global Sensitivity Analysis Of Key Parameters In A Process-Based Sugarcane Growth Model - A Bayesian Approach, Justin Sexton, Yvette Everingham

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

While several statistical methods are available to analyse model sensitivity, their application to complex process-based models is often impractical due to the large number of simulation runs required. A Bayesian approach to global sensitivity analysis can greatly reduce the number of simulation runs required by building an emulator of the model which is less computationally demanding. A Gaussian Emulation Machine (GEM) was used to efficiently assess the sensitivity of key agronomic outputs from the APSIM-Sugar crop model to influential input parameters. The sensitivity of simulated biomass and sucrose at harvest was assessed on 14 parameters representing varietal differences and growth …

Dynamic Feedback Between Land Use And Hydrology For Ecosystem Services Assessment, Seleshi Getahun Yalew, Tobias Pilz, Christian Schweitzer, Stefan Liersch, Johannes Van Der Kwast, Marloes L. Mul, Ann Van Griensven, Pieter Van Der Zaag

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Ecosystem services assessment requires an integrated approach, as it is influenced by elements such as climate, hydrology and socio-economics, which in turn influence each other. However, there are few studies that integrate these elements in order to assess ecosystem services. Absence of integrated approach to modelling hydrological and land-use changes, for instance, often oversights the dynamic feedback between the two processes. Dynamic changes in land-use should be fed into hydrological models and vice-versa at each time-step for a more realistic representation. In this study, this approach is demonstrated with a case study of the uThukela catchment, South Africa. There is …

Ontology Mapping In Semantic Time Series Processing In Climate Change Prediction, Bojan Božić, Jan Peters-Anders, Gerald Schimak

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In today's time series processing there is more and more a need for addressing diverse user groups interested in a specific domain with appropriate user tailored time series data. The complexity of time series (e.g. involved data from different data sources and/or domains, visualization and representation, etc.) is growing rapidly. As a consequence, it means that users need to find a path through the jungle of time series data. After we have presented our concepts for semantic time series filtering and enrichment of time series with meta-information and annotations (Božić et al., 2012), we are now going to present a …

Metadata Extraction Using Semantic And Natural Language Processing Techniques, Rob Knapen, Thomas Hüsing, Klaus Jacob, Yke Van Randen, Stefan Reis, Onno Roosenschoon, Sander Janssen

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The World Wide Web and related technologies are playing an increasing role in the field of Integrated Environmental Modelling (IEM). Model integration software frameworks are more and more becoming web-enabled. The technologies and standards of the Web are used to access and run simulation models remotely (known as the Web of models) and are considered for enabling interoperability across model integration frameworks. Furthermore there is a growing number of local and global initiatives to provide open access to environmental data (Web of data) that can potentially be used as input for the scientific models. The availability of descriptive information of …