Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Development And Application Of Decision-Making Tool For Rural Spring-Sourced Gravity-Fed Community Managed Water Systems, Oswaldo Galicia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

People all over the world still lack access to safe drinking water service. Those with access experience several issues during the first few years of installation that impede on their overall access. In order to improve water services, not only is a proper decision-making tool necessary, taking into account key factors that impact sustainable water service, but proper monitoring and evaluation is also important in ensuring service for the long term. There are several developed assessment tools used for monitoring and evaluation of water systems post-construction, applicable in various scenarios. However, there are only few tools available to facilitate the …

Behavior Of Non-Ductile Slender Reinforced Concrete Columns Retrofit By Cfrp Under Cyclic Loading, Wisam Amer Aules

Dissertations and Theses

In the Middle East region and many countries in the world, older reinforced concrete (RC) columns are deemed to be weak in seismic resistance because of their low amount of reinforcement, low grades of concrete, and large spacing between the transverse reinforcement. The capacity of older RC columns that are also slender is further reduced due to the secondary moments. Appropriate retrofit techniques can improve the capacity and behavior of concrete members. In this study, externally bonded Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) retrofit technique was implemented to improve the behavior of RC columns tested under constant axial load and cyclic …

Evaluation Of Photogrammetry And Inclusion Of Control Points: Significance For Infrastructure Monitoring, Renee Oats, Rudiger Escobar-Wolf, Thomas Oommen

Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering Publications

Structure from Motion (SfM)/Photogrammetry is a powerful mapping tool in extracting three-dimensional (3D) models from photographs. This method has been applied to a range of applications, including monitoring of infrastructure systems. This technique could potentially become a substitute, or at least a complement, for costlier approaches such as laser scanning for infrastructure monitoring. This study expands on previous investigations, which utilize photogrammetry point cloud data to measure failure mode behavior of a retaining wall model, emphasizing further robust spatial testing. In this study, a comparison of two commonly used photogrammetry software packages was implemented to assess the computing performance of …

Seismic Behavior Of Screen Grid Core Insulated Concrete Form Walls, Anwer Sabah Mohammed Mohammed

Dissertations and Theses

The use of the insulated concrete form (ICF) walls in residential buildings has increased over the past few decades. Much research has been conducted to evaluate the lateral strength of these walls by applying monotonic and cyclic loadings. In the current study, full-scale shake table experiments were employed to evaluate the in-plane behavior of four screen grid insulated concrete form (SGICF) walls. The first two wall specimens utilized dry fit insulated form blocks made from recycled expanded polystyrene granules that were bonded together with cement. When stacked, the cavities in the blocks formed a grid of cores that are evenly …

Evaluation Of Strand To Grout Bond In Post-Tensioned Tendons With Corrosion Inhibiting Penetrants, Kurt Kupselaitis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Post tensioning bridges is an efficient way of construction where segments of a bridge are strung together using small diameter high strength strands. The steel strands are passed through internal and/or external ducts within the concrete segments, jacked to high levels of stress, anchored using steel wedges, and then filled with a corrosion inhibiting filler. A cementitious material called grout has been widely used for over 50 years as this filler. The Federal Highway Administration design and construction manual provides recommendations in the properly filling techniques to ensure the tendons are full of grout. Despite the level of detail the …

Civil Engineering And Construction News, Georgia Southern University

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

• Dr. David W. Scott named Chair, Department of Civil Engineering & Construction

Adsorption Of Organic Micropollutants Onto Biochar: A Review Of Relevant Kinetics, Mechanisms And Equilibrium, Yiran Tong, Patrick J. Mcnamara, Brooke K. Mayer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

As an alternative to activated carbon, biochar has been considered for removal of organic micropollutants from water and wastewater via adsorption. This review elaborates on the fundamental basis of adsorption kinetics, mechanisms, and equilibrium with respect to biochar-based adsorption of micropollutants. The objectives include: 1) linking biochar surface properties with adsorption abilities, 2) categorizing the kinetics of adsorption of aqueous-phase organic compounds onto biochar, 3) categorizing the molecular-scale interactions between organic micropollutants and biochar, and 4) reviewing existing quantitative methods for characterizing adsorption equilibrium of organic micropollutants from water onto an adsorbent surface. To fulfill these goals, the relationships among …

Iron Mediated Organic Preservation In A River Influenced Continental Margin, Neha Ajit Ghaisas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Continental margins such as the Mississippi river influenced Louisiana shelf (MIS), are important land-ocean interfaces where excessive water column productivity and rapid burial results in large amounts of organic carbon (OC) being sequestered in the sediments. The preservation of OC in sediments is controlled by a number of processes among which mineral-OC interactions are considered to be more important. Specifically, the interactions between sediment iron (Fe) species and OC have been shown to promote carbon preservation. However, the exact nature of preservation mechanism is not well understood and is based on limited global data, which specifically lacks estimates from large …

High Friction Surface Treatment Initiatives By Indot: Spec Development, Joseph Bruno

Purdue Road School

In-House Project Design, Special Provision Specification, and Initial Test Results—Highfriction surface treatment (HFST) has been proactively utilized as a cost-effective solution to reducing vehicle crashes at curves across the country. As an initiative, INDOT is currently installing HFST at 26 locations statewide, mainly horizontal curves with high crash rates. This session consists of two presentations to share the information on the development, expected benefits, project design, and initial test results based on the HFST at these locations.

Rough Roads Ahead!?, Sarah Reed, Brooke Thomas, Jim Hellmann

Purdue Road School

Have you ever found yourself in the public's cross-hairs when it is time to implement a few roadway improvements? Are you handicapped in your ability to describe the true value of community planning and economic development planning? Come hear from one dynamic trio with the ability to identify issues and opportunities that others might not see and work to uncover even more ways tin which we are better together.

Latex Modified Concrete - Very Early Strength, Bobby Steele

Purdue Road School

INDOT came out with specifications for a very early strength concrete to use on bridge deck overlays. This concrete is fast setting, which allows overlays to be performed over a weekend and benefits the traveling public with a short duration of traffic interference. Cure time to reach the strength requirement is 3 hours. E&B Paving performed the first application with the new spec on August 26, 2018. Many changes were also made to the INDOT Specification Section 722.

Battery-Free Wireless Strain Measurement Using An Antenna Sensor, Yang Wang

INSPIRE Archived Webinars

A battery-free antenna sensor can wirelessly measure strain on a structure. Bonded to the surface of a base structure, the antenna sensor deforms when the structure is under strain, causing the antenna’s electromagnetic resonance frequency to change. This resonance frequency change can be wirelessly interrogated and recorded by a reader through electromagnetic backscattering. A radio frequency identification (RFID) chip on the sensor harnesses a small amount of energy from the interrogation signal and responds to the reader. The resonance frequency change identified by the reader is then used to determine the strain applied on the structure. The latest antenna sensor …

Use Of Penetrating Asphalt Emulsions To Address High-Void Pavement Areas, Andrew Eicher, Curt Higginbotham

Purdue Road School

Longitudinal joints are high in air voids due to compaction limitations. Lowering the void content of these areas improves the durability of the pavement. Project data indicate that rapid penetrating emulsion (RPE) fills the voids beneath the surface of the pavement, reducing air and water intrusion while maintaining surface texture, whereas traditional emulsions seal the surface only. Lab tests have been developed to quantify the penetrating ability of an emulsion and resistance to water exposure. Join us for a discussion.

Safety Improvements At Horizontal Curves, Joseph Bruno

Purdue Road School

This presentation highlights the progress INDOT has made in improving safety at horizontal curves by upgrading the signing and delineation and by applying high friction surface treatments at some locations. We will also discuss the MUTCD (Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices) requirements for signing horizontal curves and the approaching (December 31, 2019) FHWA target date for compliance.

Microwave Self-Healing Technology As Airfield Porous Asphalt Friction Course Repair And Maintenance System, Amir Tabakovic, Declan O'Prey, Drew Mckenna, David Woodward

Research and Innovation - Articles

A problem increasingly faced by airport authorities is the maintenance of runways. Due to their large aircraft loadings associated with take-off and landing operations, runways experience surface deterioration. Poor quality runway surfaces cannot be tolerated in such an environment. Maintenance issues must be carried out to maximise safety and minimise the risk of aircraft damage. A recent development has been the introduction of self-healing technologies such as rejuvenator encapsulation, induction and microwave heating to address these issues. This paper summarises a laboratory investigation to determine the effectiveness of microwave self-healing for crack repair of Porous Friction Course (PFC) used for …

Leveraging Telematics And Weather Data To Study The Productivity Of Roadside Mowers, Jijo K. Mathew, Matt Kraushar

Purdue Road School

Mowing activities are usually reported by daily work orders and it is difficult to obtain quantitative information characterizing the utilization and productivity of the mowing operations. This research uses telematics data from commercial sensors to track the daily activity of seven mowers in the Fort Wayne district. Weather data from NOAA was also captured to estimate the weather related delays. During a one-month period, the mowers collectively covered a total of around 1170 miles and an area of nearly 1800 acres of mowing. Crews worked alternative work schedules with extended hours four days a week. On an average 9.5 hour …

Coupling Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations And Statistical Moments For Designing Healthy Indoor Spaces, Shamia Hoque, Firoza B. Omar

Faculty Publications

Cross-contamination between occupants in an indoor space may occur due to transfer of infectious aerosols. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) provides detailed insight into particle transport in indoor spaces. However, such simulations are site-specific. This study couples CFD with statistical moments and establishes a framework that transitions site-specific results to generating guidelines for designing “healthy” indoor spaces. Eighteen cases were simulated, and three parameters were assessed: inlet/outlet location, air changes per hour, and the presence/absence of desks. Aerosol release due to a simulated “sneeze” in a two-dimensional ventilated space was applied as a test case. Mean, standard deviation, and skewness of …

Improving Access To Clean Water Through Service Learning, Rachel E. Gehr, Tolu Odimayomi, Carolina Tornesi Mackinnon

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

No abstract provided.

Safety Standards Must Be Met For Fire Fighting In Educational Workshops In Industrial Secondary Schools In The Arab Republic Of Egypt, Ibrahim Mahmoud Hassan, Wael Ahmed Rady, Walid Mahmoud El-Nahas

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

The aim of the research is to establish safety standards for fire fighting within educational workshops in industrial secondary schools to determine the structural requirements for designing workshops in educational buildings and meet international standards. To achieve this a questionnaire was made and data collected for analysis and hypothesis testing using the statistical package of social Sciences (SPSS). Through the adoption of a number of different statistical methods and after conducting the analysis of research data and testing its hypotheses find a number of results, most importantly that the standards conform to international and local standards . The results also …

Exploring Boarding Strategies For High-Speed Railway, Tie-Qiao Tang, Yi-Xiao Shao, Liang Chen, Hai-Jun Huang, Ziqi Song

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

In light of the increasing demand for passenger transportation on high-speed railway (HSR), the pedestrian flow at HSR stations has become quite crowded in many countries, which has attracted researchers to study the HSR boarding behavior. In this paper, we propose three boarding strategies based on the features of the boarding behavior at an origin HSR station; we then use a cellular automaton (CA) model to study the impacts of boarding strategies on each passenger’s motion during the boarding process at HSR station. The simulation results indicate that some of the three strategies can optimize some passengers’ boarding time and …

Quantifying The Impact Of Weather Events On Travel Time And Reliability, Xu Zhang, Mei Chen

Kentucky Transportation Center Faculty and Researcher Publications

It is of practical significance to understand the specific impact of weather events on the operating condition of the surface transportation system so that proactive and reactive strategies can be quickly implemented by transportation agencies to minimize the negativity resulted from adverse weather events. Many studies have been conducted on quantifying such effects yet suffer from limitations such as subjectively defining a time window under uncongested conditions and not being able to account for the severe impact from weather events which result in travel time unreliability. To overcome those shortcomings in existing literature, an integrated data mining framework based on …

A Correlation Network Model For Managing Safety And Performance Issues In Bridges And Civil Infrastructures, Prasad Chetti

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Many recent studies have shown that a large percentage of bridges in many parts of the world have low safety rating. National Bridge Inventory (NBI) database contains the information of more than 600,000 bridges, where each bridge has 116 parameters. Current safety inspections require bridge inspectors to manually inspect each bridge every few years. Manpower and budget constraints limit such approach from inspecting the bridges more frequently. Clearly, more efficient approaches need to be developed to improve the process of bridge inspection and increase the overall safety of bridges and civil infrastructures. In this study, we propose a Correlation Network …

Evaluation Of Wind And Solar Energy Investments In Texas, Byungik Chang, Ken Starcher

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

The primary objective of the project is to evaluate the benefits of wind and solar energy and determine economical investment sites for wind and solar energy in Texas with economic parameters including payback periods. A 50 kW wind turbine system and a 42 kW PV system were used to collect field data. Data analysis enabled yearly energy production and payback period of the two systems.

The average payback period of a solar PV system was found to be within a range of 2-20 years because the large range of the payback period for PV systems were heavily influenced by incentives. …

Urea Functionalization Of Ultrasound-Treated Biochar: A Feasible Strategy For Enhancing Heavy Metal Adsorption Capacity, Baharak Sajjadi, James William Broome, Wei Yin Chen, Daniell L. Mattern, Nosa O. Egiebor, Nathan Hammer, Cameron L. Smith

Faculty and Student Publications

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. The main objective of a series of our researches is to develop a novel acoustic-based method for activation of biochar. This study investigates the capability of biochar in adsorbing Ni(II) as a hazardous contaminant and aims at enhancing its adsorption capacity by the addition of extra nitrogen and most probably phosphorous and oxygen containing sites using an ultrasono-chemical modification mechanism. To reach this objective, biochar physically modified by low-frequency ultrasound waves (USB) was chemically treated by phosphoric acid (H3PO4) and then functionalized by urea (CO(NH2)2). Cavitation induced by ultrasound waves exfoliates and breaks apart the regular …

Seismicity Enhances Macrodispersion In Finite Porous And Fractured Domains: A Pore-Scale Perspective, Lizhi Zheng, Lichun Wang, Wen Deng

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Understanding the effects of oscillating flow field induced by seismicity on the transport process is vital for predicting the fate and transport of solute in many dynamic environments. However, there is prominent discrepancy in arguing with the response of dispersion to the oscillating flow field (i.e., the longitudinal dispersion coefficient would decrease, increase, or maintain unchanged). To unravel the underpinning physics about this controversial response, we simulated two-hundred twenty pore-scale numerical experiments for the seismicity-induced oscillating flow field and associated solute transport in the idealized finite porous (i.e., fluidic plate) and fractured (i.e., parallel plates) domains. The numerically obtained breakthrough …

Situation-Aware Left-Turning Connected And Automated Vehicle Operation At Signalized Intersections, Sakib Mahmud Khan, Mashrur Chowdhury

Publications

One challenging aspect of the Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) operation in mixed traffic is the development of a situation-awareness module for CAVs. While operating on public roads, CAVs need to assess their surroundings, especially the intentions of non-CAVs. Generally, CAVs demonstrate a defensive driving behavior, and CAVs expect other non-autonomous entities on the road will follow the traffic rules or common driving behavior. However, the presence of aggressive human drivers in the surrounding environment, who may not follow traffic rules and behave abruptly, can lead to serious safety consequences. In this paper, we have addressed the CAV and non-CAV …

Final Design Review: Mascoma River Greenway Extension, Sebastian Strong, Sarah Atac, Eleanor Dowd, David Ruiz, Isalys Quiñones

ENGS 89/90 Reports

This report outlines current conditions surrounding the extension of the Mascoma River Greenway (MRG) to downtown West Lebanon, NH and recommends a route to completion. Included in the report are maps detailing potential route alignments and recommendations based on outside research and interviews with numerous stakeholders, Lebanon City officials, and community members. The report is intended to provide context and updated insight into the present and future of the MRG, following in the spirit of the 2010 MRG Action Plan, a document that created a vision for redevelopment of the Northern rail corridor and motivated stakeholders to move the project …

Energy Study Of Cover Home Repair Building And Warehouse, Timothy Yoo, Zachary Berzolla, Tyler Farrell, Chidubem Okechi, Conor Rowan, Andrew Yohe

ENGS 89/90 Reports

COVER Home Repair (COVER) is a non-profit organization, based in White River Junction, Vermont. They work with low-income homeowners in the Upper Valley to improve accessibility to their houses, lower their energy bills, and increase comfort levels. COVER’s building serves as office space, storage, and a second-hand home goods store. Their current historic building has several drawbacks, which include some of the same difficulties that they help local homeowners to combat: crippling energy bills and declining thermal comfort. In fact, COVER spent nearly $10,300 on energy in 2017. Given that every dollar COVER saves on energy goes to bettering the …

Developing A Method To Identify Horizontal Curve Segments With High Crash Occurrences Using The Haf Algorithm, Joseph Stuart Browning

Theses and Dissertations

Crashes occur every day on Utah’s roadways. Curves can be particularly dangerous as they require driver focus due to potentially unseen hazards. Often, crashes occur on curves due to poor curve geometry, a lack of warning signs, or poor surface conditions. This can create conditions in which vehicles are more prone to leave the roadway, and possibly roll over. These types of crashes are responsible for many severe injuries and a few fatalities each year, which could be prevented if these areas are identified. This highlights a need for identification of curves with high crash occurrences, particularly on a network-wide …

Development Of A Laboratory Test For Evaluation Of Geogrid Materials, Charlie Sun, R. Clark Graves

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Two test methods have been developed in this project. The first test method is a compression test of a cylinder constructed out of geogrid material and filled with crushed stone. This test is simple and can be easily performed. Only a compression loading machine is needed for this test. The sample preparation is straightforward. However, multiple tests must be run to analyze geogrids with different ultimate tensile strength or different grid aperture size on machine direction and cross machine direction. The second test method is Geogrid Bearing Ratio (GBR) test. This test was developed to measure the effect of geogrids …