Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

A Framework For Assessing The Economic Feasibility Of Leed For Homes Guidelines For Water Efficiency, Mohamed Abdel-Raheem, Jennifer Lima

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Sustainable practices have been on the rise during the last decade. From recycling to alternative energy sources, many studies have been conducted to incorporate green practices into people’s daily lives. However, cost efficiency can be a significant deterrent to begin or continue these practices. Homes are responsible for the consumption of a large portion of water in the United States. As such there is a need for more studies directed toward the assessment of the practical implementation of water efficiency. This study follows LEED v4 for homes guidelines to examine the feasibility of adopting green practices for water reduction. The …

Fatigue Life Of Pitch- And Stall-Regulated Composite Tidal Turbine Blades, Ciaran R. Kennedy, Vesna Jaksic, Sean B. Leen, Conchúr M. Ó Brádaigh

Publications

Tidal turbine blades are subject to harsh loading and environmental conditions, including large thrust and torsional loadings, relative to wind turbine blades, due to the high density of seawater, among other factors. The complex combination of these loadings, as well as water ingress and associated composite laminate saturation, have significant implications for blade design, affecting overall device design, stability, scalability, energy production and cost-effectiveness. This study investigates the effect of seawater ingress on composite material properties, and the associated design and life expectancy of tidal turbine blades in operating conditions. The fatigue properties of dry and water-saturated glass fibre reinforced …

Combinations Of Plant Water-Stress And Neonicotinoids Can Lead To Secondary Outbreaks Of Banks Grass Mite (Oligonychus Pratensis Banks), Alice Ruckert, L. Niel Allen, Ricardo A. Ramirez

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Spider mites, a cosmopolitan pest of agricultural and landscape plants, thrive under hot and dry conditions, which could become more frequent and extreme due to climate change. Recent work has shown that neonicotinoids, a widely used class of systemic insecticides that have come under scrutiny for non-target effects, can elevate spider mite populations. Both water-stress and neonicotinoids independently alter plant resistance against herbivores. Yet, the interaction between these two factors on spider mites is unclear, particularly for Banks grass mite (Oligonychus pratensis; BGM). We conducted a field study to examine the effects of water-stress (optimal irrigation = 100% …

Advancing Distributed Data Management For The Hydroshare Hydrologic Information System, Hong Yi, Ray Idaszak, Michael Stealey, Chris Calloway, Alva L. Couch, David G. Tarboton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

HydroShare (https://www.hydroshare.org) is an online collaborative system to support the open sharing of hydrologic data, analytical tools, and computer models. Hydrologic data and models are often large, extending to multi-gigabyte or terabyte scale, and as a result, the scalability of centralized data management poses challenges for a system such as HydroShare. A distributed data management framework that enables distributed physical data storage and management in multiple locations thus becomes a necessity. We use the iRODS (Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System) data grid middleware as the distributed data storage and management back end in HydroShare. iRODS provides a unified virtual file system …

Walking (And Cycling) To Well-Being: Modal And Other Determinants Of Subjective Well-Being During The Commute, Patrick A. Singleton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Although transportation’s impacts on physical health are relatively well-established, the relationship between transportation and subjective well-being (SWB) has been the subject of recent focus. Policymakers attempt to improve the health and well-being of populations through interventions to improve transportation experiences and promote sustainable transport modes, while researchers studying these connections seek valid and reliable measures of SWB in the travel domain. Studies consistently find travel by walking and bicycling to be rated more positively than automobile travel, yet many use single measures of travel SWB, obscuring nuanced variations between modes.

Using the results of a Portland, Oregon, survey of nearly …

Review Of The Utah Snow Load Study, Marc Maguire, Brennan Bean, Yan Sun

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Proper consideration of snow loads in building design can be a delicate balancing act:

• Underestimates lead to structure failure
• Overestimates lead to increased construction costs

A Detailed Hydrodynamic Study To Help Community Based Resiliency Planning Under Extreme Climatic And Weather Events, Md Golam Rabbani Fahad

Theses and Dissertations

The State of New Jersey is particularly vulnerable to extreme weather and climatic events. This study concentrates on spatial and temporal vulnerability of these events using climate and hydrodynamic modelling. The first chapter focuses on historical climatic trend of temperature and precipitation as well as the future scenarios using 10 bias corrected climate model output considering high end emission scenario derived from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). In the second chapter a coastal hydrodynamic model called ADCIRC-2DDI was implemented to assess the impact of hurricanes in the Western North Atlantic (WNAT) model domain. The efficiency of the model …

Road Diet V2.0 - Road Diet With Roundabouts, Michael Williams

PSU Transportation Seminars

How can we go one step, or one lane, further than the standard road diet? Roundabouts allow a road diet to reduce the final number of lanes from three to two.

Questions arise when roundabouts are used with a road diet. What traffic volumes are supportable? Will the roundabouts fit within existing intersections? What does current guidance tell us about this approach?

Michael Williams will present his work on creating a sequel to FHWA’s Road Diet Informational Guide. This work is intended to provide a feasibility determination tool for the application of this approach to existing corridors. Data from Bird …

Two-Stage Concrete As A Sustainable Production, Hakim Salem Abdelgader, Ali Said Ahmed El-Baden, H. A. Abdurrahman, A. S.M. Abdul Awal

Mechanical and Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Two-stage concrete (TSC) is a sustainable concrete which is produced by forcing a flowable cement grout mixture through the voids of a skeletal mass made of compacted preplaced aggregates. From the technical and economic aspects, TSC is particularly useful for construction and repair of concrete structures especially foundations, underwater construction, nuclear reactors, concrete dams, heritage structures and in constructions with closely spaced reinforcement. TSC differs from ordinary concrete in that it contains a higher proportion of stone aggregate and the aggregate stays in point-to-point contact as placed. Thus, the mechanical characteristics of the TSC in failure conditions are distinctly different …

Bathymetry Data For Lakes Azuei And Enriquillo, Michael Piasecki, Mahrokh Moknatian

Publications and Research

This data set supports and forms the basis for the development of Digital Bathymetry Models (DBM) for Lakes Azuei (Haiti) and Enriquillo (Dominican Republic). Bathymetric Data is typically acquired using Sonar devices that measure the depth at specific points along a boat track and for which the longitude and latitude is recorded. From the resulting point cloud one develop a seamless representation of the floor of the lake on either a raster set (which is what we have done) or try to use a contour (vector representation) model in which the depth contours appear as polygons or -lines. The raw …

Advanced Pavement Materials For Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure, Zhanping You, Meor O. Hamzah, Hainian Wang, Aboelkasim Diab, Qingli Dai

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Many road managers and stakeholders are looking for more and better options for the construction and maintenance of flexible and rigid pavements. Well-designed strategies for pavement construction and maintenance have attracted the interests of researchers since a large number of existing pavements are facing deterioration all over the world. The selection and engineering properties of paving materials are crucial factors affecting the durability and therefore demanding standards of sustainability of the constructed pavement. Researchers worldwide are putting extensive efforts to develop and promote advanced pavement materials and structures for constructing and maintaining sustainable pavements. Pavement materials that can improve durability, …

Analysis Of Cross-Cultural Training Provided To United States Air Force Civil Engineer Officers, And How Engineering Efforts Are Affected On Overseas Air Force Installations: A Delphi Study, Bianca E. Boney

Theses and Dissertations

U.S. military personnel perform a wide array of roles and missions at locations all over the world. As such, this research investigates and describes the current process of cultural training, its adequacy, and examines how cultural differences and collaboration efforts may impede or enhance project management and engineering efforts. This qualitative analysis is conducted through a Delphi study of U.S. Air Force officers consisting of 15 subject matter experts (SMEs) with experiences from 13 different countries. All reported to have daily to weekly interactions with locals and foreign partners due to job requirements; however, no set standard of cultural training …

Prevalence Of Infection-Competent Serogroup 6 Legionella Pneumophila Within Premise Plumbing In Southeast Michigan, Brenda G. Byrne, Sarah Mccolm, Shawn P. Mcelmurry, Paul E. Kilgore, Joanne Sobeck, Rick Sadler, Nancy G. Love, Michele S. Swanson

Department of Pharmacy Practice

Coinciding with major changes to its municipal water system, Flint, MI, endured Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks in 2014 and 2015. By sampling premise plumbing in Flint in the fall of 2016, we found that 12% of homes harbored legionellae, a frequency similar to that in residences in neighboring areas. To evaluate the genetic diversity of Legionella pneumophila in Southeast Michigan, we determined the sequence type (ST) and serogroup (SG) of the 18 residential isolates from Flint and Detroit, MI, and the 33 clinical isolates submitted by hospitals in three area counties in 2013 to 2016. Common to one environmental and four …

Characterization Of Wellbore Microannuli, Serafin Garcia Fernandez

Civil Engineering ETDs

Wellbore integrity is a principal concern for the safe and efficient underground storage of hydrocarbons, disposal of various wastes and in oil and gas production. Poor wellbore integrity can lead to leakage and loss of extracted or stored material, and the potential for contamination of groundwater. The microannuli, which is the space between the steel casing and the cement sheath has been identified as a common and critical leakage pathway. There are no data of the actual size or character of microannuli; however, it is possible to estimate the hydraulic aperture of the microannulus from flow measurements at the wellhead. …

Stabilization Of Lead (Pb) And Zinc (Zn) In Contaminated Rice Paddy Soil Using Starfish: A Preliminary Study, Deok Hyun Moon, Inseong Hwang, Agamemnon Koutsospyros, Kyung Hoon Cheong, Yong Sik Ok, Won Hyun Ji, Jeong Hun Park

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) contaminated rice paddy soil was stabilized using natural (NSF) and calcined starfish (CSF). Contaminated soil was treated with NSF in the range of 0-10 wt.% and CSF in the range of 0-5 wt.% and cured for 28 days. Toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) test was used to evaluate effectiveness of starfish treatment. Scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) analyses were conducted to investigate the mechanism responsible for effective immobilization of Pb and Zn. Experimental results suggest that NSF and CSF treatments effectively immobilize Pb and Zn in treated rice paddy soil. TCLP levels for …

Evaluation Of Route Changes Utilizing High-Resolution Gps Bus Transit Data, Travis Bradley Glick

PSU Transportation Seminars

Congestion and travel delay on urban roadways can influence operating costs and service attractiveness. This research uses high resolution bus data to examine sources of delay on urban arterials. A set of tools was created to help visualize trends in bus behavior and movement; this allowed larger traffic trends to be visualized along urban corridors and urban streets. By using buses as probes and examining aggregated bus behavior, contoured speed plots can be used to understand the behavior of roadways outside the zone of influence of bus stops. Speed plots can be utilized to discover trends and travel patterns with …

Piezocone Penetration Testing Device, Chung R. Song, Benyam M. Bekele, Brian Sawyer

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Hydraulic characteristics of soils can be estimated from piezocone penetration test (called PCPT

hereinafter) by performing dissipation test or on-the-fly using advanced analytical techniques. This

research report presents a method for fast estimation of hydraulic conductivity of overconsolidated soils

based on the piezocone penetration test. The method relies on an existing relationship developed for the

determination of hydraulic conductivity of normally consolidated soils on-the-fly. The present research

revises this relationship so that it can be applied for overconsolidated soils by incorporating a proper

correction equation. The revised relationship provides a pore pressure representing the hydraulic

conductivity of a hypothetical “equivalent …

Thermal Analysis Of Cold-Formed Steel Wall Assemblies, American Iron And Steel Institute

American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) Specifications, Standards, Manuals and Research Reports (1946 - present)

For building envelope assemblies, thermal bridging through conductive components can greatly reduce the overall thermal resistance of that assembly. Steel stud assemblies are particularly susceptible to thermal bridging due to the high thermal conductivity of the steel components. Being able to accurately capture these impacts can provide designers with more realistic information to drive better design decisions in regards to building thermal performance and building energy use.

The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) is developing a simplified calculation methodology for determining the thermal performance of generic steel stud assemblies that includes the impacts of thermal bridging. While hot-box testing …

Electro-Kinetic Remediation Processes -- A Brief Overview And Selected Applications, Chandra Mouli Tummala, Sanjay Tewari

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this growing world the need for in-situ remediation has grown importance for various reasons. In-situ remediation is the application of remediation in the subsurface – as compared to ex-situ remediation, which applies to media readily accessible above ground and many times involves excavation and disruption of the soil. In-situ remediation may be applied in the unsaturated/vadoze zone or in saturated soils and groundwater. Anthropogenic activities (municipal and industrial) have resulted in contamination in subsurface soil/water environment. There are several in-situ remediation methods for example bio-remediation, thermal desorption, soil vapor extraction, and soil flushing just to name a few.

The …

Future Hydrological Alterations In The Mekong Delta Under The Impact Of Water Resources Development, Land Subsidence And Sea Level Rise, Thanh Duc Dang, Thomas A. Cochrane, Mauricio E. Arias, Van Pham Dang Tri

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Study Region: The Mekong floodplains and delta are among the most agriculturally productive and biologically diverse waterscapes of the world, but sea level rise, land subsidence, and the proposed upstream development of over 126 hydropower dams and extensive delta-based water infrastructure have raised concern due to potential impacts on the hydrology of the region.

Study Focus: This study aims to quantify the effects of water infrastructure development, land subsidence and sea level rise on hydrological regimes of the Mekong floodplains and delta through the development and application of a hydrodynamic model.

New Hydrological Insights for the Region: Depending on hydrological …

Overseas Chinese Environmental Engineers And Scientists Association (Oceesa) Report, Special Issue, February 2018, Jim Ho, Jacqueline Huang, Jolynn Huang, Yung-Tse Hung, Nancy Riley, Alina Waring

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

This Overseas Chinese Environmental Engineers and Scientists Association (OCEESA) report is Overseas Chinese Environmental Engineers and Scientists Association (OCEESA) Journal, Volume 35, Number S1, February 2018. This special issue of OCEESA Journal (Overseas Chinese Environmental Engineers and Scientists Association Journal) is dedicated to the memory of Professor Ju-Chang Howard Huang 黄汝常教授. This issue includes OCEESA Profile, 2018 OCEESA Officers and Board of Directors. This issue also includes: (1) Forewords of Special Issue, Dedicated to Memory of Prof. Ju-Chang Howard Huang, by Yung-Tse Hung; (2) Obituary of Professor Ju-Chang Howard Huang; (3) Biography of Professor Ju-Chang …

Climate-Driven Crop Yield And Yield Variability And Climate Change Impacts On The U.S. Great Plains Agricultural Production, Meetpal Singh Kukal, Suat Irmak

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Climate variability and trends affect global crop yields and are characterized as highly dependent on location, crop type, and irrigation. U.S. Great Plains, due to its significance in national food production, evident climate variability, and extensive irrigation is an ideal region of investigation for climate impacts on food production. This paper evaluates climate impacts on maize, sorghum, and soybean yields and effect of irrigation for individual counties in this region by employing extensive crop yield and climate datasets from 1968–2013. Variability in crop yields was a quarter of the regional average yields, with a quarter of this variability explained by …

On The Soil Water Characteristic Curves Of Poorly Graded Granular Materials In Aqueous Polymer Solutions, Junnan Cao, Jongwon Jung, Xiaoyu Song, Bate Bate

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Tempe cell with a self-developed horizontal hanging column attachment was used to measure the soil water characteristic curves (SWCCs) of granular materials initially saturated with either water or polymer solutions. For SWCCs of six poorly graded granular materials with d50 ranging from 0.04 to 0.7 mm in water, it was found that (1) as grain size decreases, air entry value increases, and matric suction (ψ) for the funicular and pendular regimes increases and that (2) steep desaturation curves over narrow ψ range in the funicular regime were observed. Air entry values obtained from the fitting parameter 1/α in van Genuchten …

Phytoforensics: Trees As Bioindicators Of Potential Indoor Exposure Via Vapor Intrusion, Jordan L. Wilson, V. A. Samaranayake, Matt A. Limmer, Joel Gerard Burken

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Human exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) via vapor intrusion (VI) is an emerging public health concern with notable detrimental impacts on public health. Phytoforensics, plant sampling to semi-quantitatively delineate subsurface contamination, provides a potential non-invasive screening approach to detect VI potential, and plant sampling is effective and also time- and cost-efficient. Existing VI assessment methods are time- and resource-intensive, invasive, and require access into residential and commercial buildings to drill holes through basement slabs to install sampling ports or require substantial equipment to install groundwater or soil vapor sampling outside the home. Tree-core samples collected in 2 days at …

Utilization Of Light Detection And Ranging For Quality Control And Quality Assurance Of Pavement Grades, Brad W. Rister, Levi Mcintosh, Gabriel B. Dadi, Ruigang Yang, Eileen Grady

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) technology is a useful tool that can assist transportation agencies during the design, construction, and maintenance phases of transportation projects. To demonstrate the utility of Lidar, this report discusses how Lidar data can be used while performing quality control and quality assurance (QC/QA) of pavement grades along road segments where safety concerns have been identified (e.g., increased crash rates due to water ponding on the roadway). Researchers modeled surface runoff using Lidar data for several roadways that had experienced significant crash increases during wet-weather events. Based on this modeling, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) undertook …

Research Design - Phenomenography, Una Beagon, Brian Bowe

Other resources

This presentation proposes the ontological and epistemological assumptions for research design of a phenomenographical study.

Hot Applied Sealant Bond Test For Joints With Penetrating Sealers, Lieska Halsey

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Recently a concern has been raised for hot applied sealant bond for joints with penetrating sealers. The objective of this study will be to determine if the bond between the sealant and the concrete is compromised by the sealer currently approved to be used in Nebraska. The expected results will be that the bond is not compromised and is serving for the expected joint service life.

Systematic Approach To Identifying Deeply Buried Archeological Deposits, Anthony L. Layzell, Rolfe D. Mandel, Courtney L. Ziska, John R. Bozell

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

This project is designed to assist cultural resource specialists involved in Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) project planning and development. The goal was to develop Geographic Information System (GIS) data layers that spatially delineate different landform-sediment assemblages (LSAs) and depict the associated geologic potential for buried cultural deposits in select watersheds in Nebraska. The Nebraska Buried Sites GIS resource will allow planners and cultural resource specialists to determine whether future project areas are likely to be free of deeply buried sites or whether subsurface exploration is necessary.

Compressive Strength Of Concrete Cylinders By Different Preparation Methods: Sulphur, Neoprene Pads And Grinding, Wally Heyen, Lieska Halsey

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The purpose of this evaluation is to compare the effects of four types of cylinder preparation methods prior to compressive strength testing in accordance to ASTM C 39.

Corrosive Strength Of Concrete Cylinders By Different Preparation Methods: Sulphur, Neoprene Pads And Grinding, Wally Heyen, Lieska Halsey, Tim Krason

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The purpose of this evaluation is to compare the effects of four types of cylinder preparation methods prior to compressive strength testing in accordance to ASTM C 39.