Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Photocatalytic Mineralization Of Phenol On Fluidized Titanium Oxide-Coated Silica Gel, Guillermo J. Rincon

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

A bench-scale tubular reactor with recirculation was built in order to study the efficiency of the photocatalytic oxidation of phenol on fluidized titanium oxide-coated silica gel beads. A UV-C lamp placed along the central vertical axes of the reactor was used as source of photons. A bed of silica gel beads was fluidized by means of fluid recirculation and forced to follow upward helical flow around the lamp. Anatase was successfully synthetized on silica gel particles of average diameters 224, 357 and 461 µm, as confirmed by scanning electron micrographs, through a sol-gel technique using a titanium (iv)isopropoxide / hydrochloric …

Understanding The Potential Impacts Of Climate Change On Water Resources In Southern California, Brianna Rita Pagan

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Southern California is located in a semi-arid climate with finite natural supplies of water. Precipitation in the area generally occurs in the fall and winter months. Consequently, the region relies on imported water originating primarily from snowpack in northern areas of California and surrounding states including 1) the San-Joaquin River and Tulare Lake basins, 2) the Sacramento River basin, 3) Owens Valley and Mono Lake basins and 4) the Colorado River basin. This study provides an integrated approach to understanding and assessing climate change impacts on the hydrologic cycle for all water supplies to Southern California. A 10-member ensemble of …

Feasibility Study: The Evaluation Of Polymer Coatings To Prevent Weathering Of Weak Rocks, Lauren Distler

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The weathering and erosion of weak rocks along roadways can cause dangerous and potentially fatal rockfalls.   Various slope stabilization methods exist, but each presents a set of challenges and trade-offs.   The focus of the project is to understand the feasibility of utilizing of a polymerbased slope stabilization technique. Rock samples were collected along US Route 33 in Virginia and West Virginia, and preliminary tests were conducted to evaluate the absorption of water (% mass) and durability. The study evaluates three polymer options in regard to the following criteria: adhesion to rock, layer thickness, semi-permeability, insolubility, and non-toxicity. The polymer selection …

Waste Heat Generation: A Comprehensive Review, Nazli Yeşiller, James L. Hanson, Emma H. Yee

Civil and Environmental Engineering

A comprehensive review of heat generation in various types of wastes and of the thermal regime of waste containment facilities is provided in this paper. Municipal solid waste (MSW), MSW incineration ash, and mining wastes were included in the analysis. Spatial and temporal variations of waste temperatures, thermal gradients, thermal properties of wastes, average temperature differentials, and heat generation values are provided. Heat generation was influenced by climatic conditions, mean annual earth temperatures, waste temperatures at the time of placement, cover conditions, and inherent heat generation potential of the specific wastes. Time to onset of heat generation varied between months …

Inter-Laboratory Variation In The Chemical Analysis Of Acidic Forest Soil Reference Samples From Eastern North America, D. S. Ross, S. W. Bailey, R. D. Briggs, J. Curry, I. J. Fernandez, G. Fredriksen, C. L. Goodale, P. W. Hazlett, P. R. Heine, C. E. Johnson, J. T. Larson, G. B. Lawrence, R. K. Kolka, R. Ouimet, D. Paré, D. De B. Richter, C. D. Schirmer, R. A. Warby

Civil and Environmental Engineering - All Scholarship

Long-term forest soil monitoring and research often requires a comparison of laboratory data generated at different times and in different laboratories. Quantifying the uncertainty associated with these analyses is necessary to assess temporal changes in soil properties. Forest soil chemical properties, and methods to measure these properties, often differ from agronomic and horticultural soils. Soil proficiency programs do not generally include forest soil samples that are highly acidic, high in extractable Al, low in extractable Ca and often high in carbon. To determine the uncertainty associated with specific analytical methods for forest soils, we collected and distributed samples from two …

Lighten Everyone's Load: Lidar Applications To Support Engineers, Planners, Scientists And More, Michael J. Olsen

PSU Transportation Seminars

Light detection and ranging (LIDAR) technology is reshaping the civil engineering profession and offers many unique advantages. National efforts such as the 3D Elevation Plan (3DEP) are helping increase the availability of LIDAR data. LIDAR is one of the crucial technologies that is transitioning the world of civil and construction engineering from 2D paper-based design to 3D digital design. The high spatial resolution and accuracy capabilities of LIDAR have led to increased efficiencies, improved analyses, and more informed decision making.

A further advantage of this dataset is that multiple people can use the same dataset for a variety …

Measuring Reliability In Dynamic And Stochastic Transportation Networks, Zifeng Wu

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

As the traffic demand levels continue to grow in cities, more and more transportation systems experience instability during recurrent and non-recurrent congestion periods. Therefore, reliability has taken on increasing emphases in performance evaluation for transportation agencies, and in performance communication between agencies and the public. Existing reliability-related studies in transportation engineering focus on the long-term reliability of day-to-day travel time variations. This dissertation expands the reliability research literature with studies on the short-term reliability which is valuable for both real-time management and real-time traffic information systems.

This dissertation proposes a level of service reliability metric for system evaluation. Instead of …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Spring 2015, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge. The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on …

Biostimulation And Bioaugmentation To Enhance Reductive Dechlorination Of Tce In A Long-Term Flow Through Column Study, Joan E. Mclean, Jared Ervin, Jing Zhou, Darwin L. Sorensen, Ryan Dupont

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Large laboratory columns (15.2 cm diameter, 183 cm long) were fed with groundwater containing trichloroethylene (TCE), were biostimulated and bioaugmented, and were monitored for over 7.5 years. The objective of the study was to observe how the selection of the carbon and energy source, i.e., whey, Newman Zone® standard surfactant emulsified oil and Newman Zone nonionic surfactant emulsified oil, affected the rate and extent of dechlorination. Column effluent was monitored for TCE and its degradation products, redox indicators (nitrate-N, Fe(II), sulfate), and changes in iron mineralogy. Total bacteria and Dehalococcoides mccartyi strains were quantified using q-PCR. Complete dechlorination was only …

A Guide For Planning A Bike Share System At The University Of Nebraska–Lincoln, Wade M. Schuldt

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

The purpose of this document is to serve as a framework for planning a bicycle share system at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, with the possible inclusion of the City of Lincoln, Nebraska, in the system. This document provides a background review of the evolution of bike share systems and the recent rapid growth of these systems around the world. The document describes planning methodologies used in other locations and the lessons learned from the bike share systems around the world, as to what processes should be pursued to implement a successful bike share system. With the University of Nebraska-Lincoln move …

Laboratory Comparison Of Full Depth Reclamation Stabilization Techniques Using Arkansas Field Materials, Chase Aaron Henrichs

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Full depth reclamation (FDR) is a flexible pavement recycling technique that has not been explored in the state of Arkansas. FDR is unique in that it incorporates the entire flexible pavement section as well as a predetermined portion of the underlying base and sub-base materials with a stabilizer to create a new, stronger stabilized base course. Common stabilization techniques include the addition of asphalt emulsion, asphalt foam, or cement. Using the North Carolina emulsion FDR mix design, the Wirtgen foam FDR mix design, and the Portland Cement Association cement FDR mix design, field materials from four Arkansas highways in the …

Biofilm-Related Materials As Total N-Nitrosamine (Tono) Precursors And Hydroxylamine-Based Interferences In Tono And N-Nitrosodimethylamine (Ndma) Measurements, David Allen Meints

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study, a chemiluminescence-based total N-nitrosamine (TONO) assay was adapted to include a solid-phase extraction (SPE) step to assess the role of biologically derived materials as N-nitrosamine precursors. Methanol was determined to be a suitable solvent for the SPE-TONO assay, with N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) losses estimated to be 30% by SPE alone and an additional 15% from concentration of the methanol extracts by N2-gas blowdown. Three biofilm-derived materials - poly-N-acetylglucosamine (PNAG), Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and tryptophan - were individually chloraminated and dose-response relationships were observed with the SPE-TONO assay, indicating biofilm are potential N-nitrosamine precursors. The role of hydroxylamine - a …

Comparing Layer Types For The Use Of Mepdg For Fdr Design, Sadie Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While Full Depth Reclamation (FDR) has many potential cost and environmental benefits, especially over the lifetime of the pavement, it is necessary to be able to ensure that the recycled pavement will perform adequately. One way in which this can be accomplished is understanding how to best complete the structural design of FDR pavements. Because FDR is a combination of several different layers of material pulverized, mixed, stabilized and re-compacted, it does not fit neatly into any of these predetermined types of materials considered by the Mechanistic Empirical Design Guide (MEPDG). Current practice is to treat FDR as an unbound …

Three Dimensional Simulations Of Tornado Sheltering Effect Of Man-Made Structures, Piotr Gorecki

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A three dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was utilized to investigate tornado-like vortex interactions with wide man-made structures. The tornado-like wind profile was approximated using Rankine vortex model. By utilizing the CFD model, it was explained why tornadoes exhibit less damage on leeward side of large structures. During the preliminary stage of this study, a perpendicular vortex-prism interaction was analyzed. The prism height and the length were equal to the vortex core radius. The prism was also 12 times wider than the vortex core radius. During the vortex-prism interaction, the near-ground portion of the vortex was blocked by the …

Amount Of Uncertainty In The Methods Utilized To Design Drilled Shaft Foundations, Morgan Race

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2001, load and resistance factor design (LRFD) for deep foundations was required by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). Following implementation of LRFD, localized calibration of resistance factors using data from the states of Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana/Mississippi, Missouri allowed these states to utilize higher resistance factors during design. However, characterizing the uncertainty in the design of DSF, regarding the geotechnical investigation methods and the utilized software programs, higher values of resistance factors may be calibrated to more efficiently design DSF with the same level of reliability.

Three test sites within the state of Arkansas, …

Development Of Best Management Practices For Turbidity Control During Rainfall Events At Highway Construction Sites Using Polyacrylamide, Joanne Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2009, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated a national turbidity standard for runoff water leaving highway construction sites at 280 nephelometric turbidity units (NTU). Meeting this standard can be challenging as turbidities of runoff waters can exceed 15,000 NTU. The objective of this research was to assess polyacrylamide (PAM), a coagulant aid used in water treatment, to help meet the EPA turbidity regulation. Twelve commercially available PAM types were studied, selected on the basis of charge type (cationic, nonionic, anionic), charge density (0-100%), and molecular weight (0.1-28 Mg mol-1). Jar tests were conducted with runoff waters from …

Measurement Of Transfer And Development Lengths Of 0.7 In. Strands On Pretensioned Concrete Elements, Canh Ngoc Dang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The implementation of 0.7 in. (17.8 mm), Grade 270 (1860), low-relaxation prestressing strands in construction is slow regardless of its advantages over the use of 0.6 in. (15.2 mm) and 0.5 in. (12.7 mm) strands. The limited research data and unavailable design guidelines partially account for the slow utilization. This study measured transfer and development length, and evaluated applicable strand spacing of 0.7 in. (17.8 mm) prestressing strands for 24 pretensioned concrete beams. Each beam contained one prestressing strand or two prestressing strands placed at spacing of 2.0 in. (51 mm). The beams were fabricated with high strength, conventional concrete …

Achieving Enhanced Treatment Of Produced Fluids Using Ozone, Hydrogen Peroxide And Electrochemical Oxidation: Full Scale Evaluations, Jamar Willis Blackmon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The main focus of the present work was to expand the existing knowledge in using an advanced oxidation process for produced water treatment. Produced water is a phrase used in the oil and gas industry to describe water that is produced as a waste byproduct together with oil and gas. Historically produced water was pumped down disposal wells as a waste product. Due to increasing demand, limited supply and stricter regulation on fresh water sources, exploration and production companies have been compelled to recycle produced waters in many parts of their operations around the world.

Produced water quality varies dramatically …

Ensc 300 (Energy Seminar) Annotated Bibliography, Supplementary Reading, Adam Liska

Adam Liska Papers

Innovation
Sociology of Innovation, Business, & Work
Sustainable Business Strategy
Leadership
Science, Engineering, & Business History
Economics
Energy, Business, & Environmental Policy
Climate Change & Insurance
Education
Ethics

62 monographic resources

Weak Magnetic Field Accelerates Chromate Removal By Zero-Valent Iron, Pian Feng, Xiaohong Guan, Yuankui Sun, Wonyong Choi, Hejie Qin, Jianmin Wang, Junlian Qiao, Lina Li

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Weak magnetic field (WMF) was employed to improve the removal of Cr(VI) by zero-valent iron (ZVI) for the first time. The removal rate of Cr(VI) was elevated by a factor of 1.12-5.89 due to the application of a WMF, and the WMF-induced improvement was more remarkable at higher Cr(VI) concentration and higher pH. Fe2+ was not detected until Cr(VI) was exhausted, and there was a positive correlation between the WMF-induced promotion factor of Cr(VI) removal rate and that of Fe²⁺ release rate in the absence of Cr(VI) at pH 4.0-5.5. These phenomena imply that ZVI corrosion with Fe^{2+ …}

Hiding Private Locations By Anonymizing Data, Kelly J. Clifton, Steven R. Gehrke

TREC Project Briefs

Researchers explore ways of masking private locations in the interest of making useful data publicly available.

Community Engagement, Environmental Education, And Public Outreach In Sustainable Engineering : A Collaborative Demonstration Project For Water Treatment Using Natural Processes And Sustainable Materials., Venkata Durga Prasad Gullapalli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Community engagement through environmental education for the public is an important component in the link between individual citizens, their community, and local government agencies responsible for maintaining urban recreation and park areas. Streams and waterways passing through urban areas are often misunderstood by the public in terms of whether the waterway is natural, constructed, or a combination of both. Additionally, aspects of water quality or water pollution are often obscure to the community and there are limited means to provide direct information to the public. In any case, the public are often drawn to interact with urban streams through recreation …

Alkali-Silica Reaction Mitigation Using High Volume Class C Fly Ash, Sydney Marie Dickson

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Fly ash is the residue produced from coal combustion in electric generating plants. There are two types of fly ash, Class C and Class F. Approximately 40 percent of fly ash generated from coal combustion can be used as a partial replacement of cement in concrete. Incorporating fly ash improves concrete properties and extends its service life. Alkali-silica reaction (ASR) is an expansive reaction between reactive silica typically found in aggregates (rock and sand) and alkalis in cement. This reaction results in the formation of a gel that absorbs water and swells, which exerts an internal pressure in concrete. This …

Analyzing Stochastically Generated Material Properties For The Use In Mumerical Simulations Of Advanced Laboratory Tests Of Asphalt Concrete, Ken K. Rutabana

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

For such a large country as the US, adequate road transportation is a vital necessity that ensures the safety, prosperity, and development of the people. Covering 94% of the two million miles of paved roads and highways, asphalt concrete is essential to this country. This is one reason why it is crucial to understand the potential and limitations of asphalt concrete. Unfortunately, material testing is a costly and time consuming ordeal. Consequently, numerical modeling of asphalt testing using computer software has been successfully developed in the last decades. These models corroborate those obtained in the lab but are intended as …

Development Of Optimal Experimental Design Parameters For Pseudo Ambient Vibration Testing Of Bridges, David Samudio Castillo

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The United States of America is facing an infrastructure crisis that is characterized by aging and deteriorating structures, a significant backlog of maintenance and upgrades for existing infrastructure, limited funding and lack of practical and effective tools for identifying and prioritizing the most pressing infrastructure needs. The American Association of Civil Engineers (ASCE) qualifies America’s infrastructure with a D+(ASCE Report Card). This rating reflects the general state of infrastructure that is unlikely to improve dramatically in the short-term, yet the situation costs the nation billions of dollars annually due to losses in economic efficiency and productivity, and in some cases …

Methodologies For Simplified Lifeline System Risk Assessments, Michael Germeraad

Master's Theses

Natural hazards are a growing risk across the globe. As regions have urbanized, single events impact greater proportions of the population, and the populations within those regions have become more dependent on infrastructure systems. Regional resilience has become closely tied to the performance of infrastructure. For a comprehensive risk assessment losses caused by lifeline outage must be considered alongside structural and nonstructural risks. Many well developed techniques quantify structural and nonstructural risk; however, there are insufficient procedures to determine the likelihood of lifeline outages. Including lifelines in seismic assessments will provide a comprehensive risk, improving a decision maker’s capacity to …

Measuring Multidimensional Poverty In A Complex Environment; Identifying The Sensitive Links, L. E. Voth-Gaeddert, Daniel B. Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The central hypothesis of this study is that a holistic, systems-based approach employing multiple analytical tools is useful for identifying the most sensitive links within complex communities to down-scale global development priorities such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Results of latent factor regression, canonical correlation analysis, and structural equation modeling were compared for multiple, publically-available data sets for two rural regions in Brazil and Guatemala. The results of this study confirm previously reported findings, and collectively support the central hypothesis demonstrating a pathway for linking global priorities with the complex realities of 'on-the-ground' development conditions in specific communities.

Development Of Awwa Recommendations For Ccl4 Prioritization And Process, Ryan Worth Bench

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Every 5 years the USEPA is responsible to publish a list of unregulated contaminants that are known or expected to occur in public water systems in the United States that may pose a risk on public health. This list is known as a contaminant candidate list (CCL). This year it is expected that the USEPA is to publish the 4th such list of the CCL or CCL4. Candidacy to be on the CCL4 is based on a compound’s occurrence in the environment, public health toxicity and recommendation from expert opinion. Methods to qualitatively determine occurrence and toxicity for compounds were …

Quantum Mechanical Modeling Of Organic-Oxide Surface Complexation Reactions, Brianna Datti

Honors Scholar Theses

Recent advancements in agriculture, industry, and pharmaceutical formulations have increased the presence of organic contaminants in the environment. It is important and necessary to study and understand the processes which control the environmental fate and transformation of contaminants and improve removal and remediation techniques. The use of advanced quantum mechanical modeling is a promising technique to better understand the mechanisms of adsorption within the environment. Relative Gibbs free energy values of adsorption have been calculated using such modeling for selected organic acids sorption to iron oxides, revealing the thermodynamic favorability of each of the reactions, except one involving bidentate mononuclear …

A Laboratory Scale Assessment Of The Effect Of Chlorine Dioxide Pre-Oxidation On Disinfection By-Product Formation For Two Surface Water Supplies, Angela Rodriguez

HIM 1990-2015

Chemical disinfection is the cornerstone of safe drinking water. However, the use of chemical disinfection results in the unintentional formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs), an outcome of reactions between the disinfectant and natural organic matter (NOM) present in the native (raw) water. DBPs are suspected carcinogens, and as such, have been regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). This document reports the results of a study that investigated the use of chlorine dioxide pre-oxidation for the reduction of DBP precursors, and subsequently, DBP formation potential (FP). To determine the effectiveness of the …