Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Comparison Of Phytoremediation And Filtration For Diamond-Mine-Tailings Water Treatment, M. Hafidhuddin Noor, Mijani Rahman, Akhmad Gazali, Nia Kania, Aulia Rahma, Erdina L.A. Rampun, Amalia E. Pratiwi, Muthia Elma

Makara Journal of Technology

The water pollution caused by diamond mine activities can kill aquatic life. In this work, we used phytoremediation and filtration to treat pond water polluted by the tailings of a diamond mine located in South Kalimantan, Indonesia. Einchhornia crassipes (water hyacinth) was utilized as the biomass for the phytoremediation process. Gravel (10–15 mm) and sand (0.1–1 mm) were used as filter media in the simple filtration setup, using an up-flow system (bottom to top). In the experiment, 16 L of diamond tailing water was poured into five phytoremediation reactors (each 60 L in volume), which were then tested over seven …

Extending Water Resources Performance Metrics To River Ecosystems, Belize A. Lane, J. Pablo Ortiz-Partida, Samuel Sandoval-Solis

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

A persistent challenge in integrated water management is the ability to accurately evaluate human and ecological tradeoffs. Two-dimensional (2D) hydraulic models are frequently used to evaluate water management alternatives concerning aquatic species physical habitat needs or preferences. Recent studies have assessed the timing or duration of suitable habitat conditions, but no standardized approach exists to integrate and interpret ecohydraulic model outputs within a water management framework. Such an approach is needed to maximize the information obtained from model outputs and to facilitate communication between river scientists and water managers. This study presents a general framework to aggregate and summarize 2D …

Fatigue Damage Assessment Of Reinforced Concrete Slabs Using Integrated Dynamic Testing And Simulation, Jamadin Adiza

Student Works (2020-2029)

Assessment of existing fatigued structures is an important aspect of civil engineering infrastructure. This is critical in most loaded civil engineering structures such as bridges that are constantly subjected to dynamic loading, causing fatigue in the materials over time. Bridge deck slabs are one of the most structural elements susceptible to different cyclic loads, requiring regular checks for damage to fatigue. In order to understand the deterioration, fatigue carrying capacity and residual strength, the serviceability of the slab under the fatigue loads was not fully explored. Therefore, this research is designed to use vibration-based techniques to investigate the integrity of …

The Professional Constructor, Full Issue, Volume 45, Number 01

The Professional Constructor

No abstract provided.

Structural Design Of Pool House In The City Of Columbia, Nathan F. Gates

Senior Theses

This report presents a structural design for a one-story pool house in the City of Columbia. The most important part of the project was determining critical horizontal and vertical loads, and designing each member in accordance to those governing loads. The loads we analyzed were dynamic, dead, live and seismic. By means of the LRFD method, the greatest possible load combination was calculated, combining the previously mentioned loads. These load combinations were different for each analysis, as the loading pressures will change depending on what structural system is being analyzed. This comprises the large part of the report and of …

Assessing The Impacts Of Greenhouse Gasses On Upwelling And Surface Temperature In The California Current System, Kevin Mcgee

LMU Theses and Dissertations

The California Current system (CCS) is home to a vast and diverse marine coastal ecosystem. Upwelling is an oceanic phenomenon wind-driven displacement of surface water brings cold nutrient-rich water from the ocean bottom to surface waters. Along the coast in the CCS, upwelling occurs via the advection of water perpendicular to the shoreline northerly winds, a phenomenon called “Ekman Transport”. In the open ocean. Wind stress curl causes disruption of normal currents, resulting in small pockets of upwelled or downwelled water (downwelling is the movement of water downward in the ocean, the opposite of upwelling). This process is called “Ekman …

Eliminating Rebar Splicing In Transverse Joints Of Precast Full Depth Bridge Deck Panels, David Gee

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

This study looks at the removal of longitudinal rebar splicing when sufficient longitudinal post-tensioning is provided for full-depth precast deck panels for simply supported bridges. Full-depth precast prestressed concrete deck panels are high quality plant produced pretensioned panels. They are often post-tensioned at the site to provide an average net compression in the joint of at least 250 psi due to effective prestress. This is to ensure adequate transfer of load as truck wheels pass over the joint. This net compression on the transverse joint is not explicitly clear by the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications. Based on this section, …

Occurrence And Persistence Of Antibiotics Administered To Cattle In A Newly Established Feedlot, Brittany Trejo

Department of Environmental Engineering: Theses and Other Student Research

The common practice of using therapeutic antibiotics in livestock farming is a worldwide phenomenon. Over the last decade, there has been a growing concern of antibiotics entering the environment via animal manure. Similar studies have focused on the occurrence and biological effects of antibiotics in land-applied animal feedlots; however, limited research has been conducted on the occurrence and persistence of antibiotics in animal feedlots. A study was conducted to investigate the occurrence and persistence of four injected antibiotics (ceftiofur enrofloxacin, florfenicol, and tulathromycin) and two continuously fed antibiotics (monensin and tylosin) in feedlot sediment, runoff, and sediment runoff. For antibiotics …

Lignin: A Likely Precursor Of A Significant Fraction Of Humic Substances Via Oxidative Transformations, Seyyedhadi Khatami

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses & Dissertations

Lignin is a major component of decaying terrestrial vegetation in soils and has been arguably reported to contribute substantially to the formation of soil carbon humus, and natural dissolved organic matter (DOM). To better understand the process by which this humification occurs, lignin and lignin-derived monomers were subjected to both biotic and abiotic oxidation processes. Two well-known oxidative transformation strategies were employed. The first involved the fungal degradation of brown-rot degraded wood subjected to a white-rot fungus (Phanerochaete chrysosporium) whose enzymes are particularly effective in lignin degradation via enzymatic oxidation. This enzymatic attack was monitored by ultrahigh resolution …

The Impacts Of Surface Gravity Waves On Buoyant Plume Dilution, Bruce William Husselbee

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A common practice in coastal areas is to collect, treat and discharge fluids including treated wastewater, stormwater or power plant effluent to areas of lesser impact. The discharge of these fluids, conveyed through pipelines into coastal areas, continues to be an important human health and environmental concern. The fluid discharged from these pipelines is often buoyant which allows for dilution and dispersion into these ambient waters.

Initial dilution, defined as the maximum concentration of a discharged fluid at the maximum rise in height within a buoyant plume, is critical in the consideration of the environmental impacts of a discharge into …

Truck Trailer Classification Using Side-Fire Light Detection And Ranging (Lidar) Data, Olcay Sahin

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Classification of vehicles into distinct groups is critical for many applications, including freight and commodity flow modeling, pavement management and design, tolling, air quality monitoring, and intelligent transportation systems. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) developed a standardized 13-category vehicle classification ruleset, which meets the needs of many traffic data user applications. However, some applications need high-resolution data for modeling and analysis. For example, the type of commodity being carried must be known in the freight modeling framework. Unfortunately, this information is not available at the state or metropolitan level, or it is expensive to obtain from current resources.

Nevertheless, using …

Lateral-Torsional Instability And Biaxial Flexure Of Continuous Gfrp Beams Including Warping And Shear Deformations, Waverly G. Hampton

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation presents an experimental and theoretical study of the lateral-torsional instability and biaxial flexure of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) beams including warping and shear deformation effects. The theoretical analysis is based on three simultaneous differential equations of equilibrium with new terms added to account for shear deformation effects. To solve these equations, algorithms based upon a central finite-difference approach are then developed. The experimental study is conducted on a series of single- and multi-span beams subjected to concentrated loads. The predicted beam behavior agreed well with that observed experimentally. The investigation revealed that the ASCE-LRFD Prestandard for pultruded …

A Rule Based Control Algorithm For On-Ramp Merge With Connected And Automated Vehicles, Ehsan Beheshtitabar

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

One of the designs for future highways with the flow of Connected Automated Vehicles (CAVs) cars will be a dedicated lane for the CAVs to form platoons and travel with higher speeds and lower headways. The connectivity will enable the formation of platoons of CAVs traveling beside non-platoon lanes. The advent of connectivity between vehicles and the infrastructure will enable advanced control strategies ̶ improving the performance of the traffic ̶ to be incorporated in the traffic system. The merge area in a multilane highway with CAVs is one of the sections which can be enhanced by the operation of …

The Viability And Simplicity Of 3d-Printed Construction: A Military Case Study, Jeneé A. Jagoda, Brandy Diggs-Mcgee, Megan Kreiger, Steven J. Schuldt

Faculty Publications

In November 2019, U.S. Marines, Air Force, and Army Corps of Engineers personnel demonstrated the viability and simplicity of three-dimensionally (3D)-printed construction in a controlled environment at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center—Construction Engineering Research Laboratory in Champaign, Illinois. The tri-service exercise spanned three days and culminated in the construction of three 1 m × 1 m × 1 m (3 ft × 3 ft × 3 ft) concrete dragon’s teeth (square pyramid military fortifications used to defend against tanks and armored vehicles) and several custom-designed objects. The structural components were printed using a custom-built, gantry-style printer called …

Evaluating Crowdsourcing As A Vmt Reduction Tool To Support Smart Cities Initiatives, Shailesh Chandra, Rutviz Vyas, Ravi Mazin

Mineta Transportation Institute

Vehicle miles traveled (VMT) is an indicator of vehicular emissions, which impacts climate change. Various stakeholders aim at reducing VMT to cause reductions in emissions. This research explores the use of crowdsourcing in supporting the efforts of the stakeholders in reducing VMT among college students at California State University Long Beach. Crowdsourcing is emerging as a very promising tool in finding solutions to problems otherwise impossible to solve without a collective human intelligence. A smartphone application is developed to collect travel data and behavior of 55 college students as participants. The behavior is tracked after providing advance information on parking …

Evaluation Of Coordinated Ramp Metering (Crm) Implemented By Caltrans, Amir Molan, Nivedha Murugesan, Alireza Shams, Cristina Tortora, Faridur Rahman, Jacky Loh, Anurag Pande

Mineta Transportation Institute

Coordinated ramp metering (CRM) is a critical component of smart freeway corridors that rely on real-time traffic data from ramps and freeway mainline to improve decision-making by the motorists and Traffic Management Center (TMC) personnel. CRM uses an algorithm that considers real-time traffic volumes on freeway mainline and ramps and then adjusts the metering rates on the ramps accordingly for optimal flow along the entire corridor. Improving capacity through smart corridors is less costly and easier to deploy than freeway widening due to high costs associated with right-of-way acquisition and construction. Nevertheless, conversion to smart corridors still represents a sizable …

Climate Change Analysis And Stream Restoration In The Upper Truckee River Basin, Nicholas Szigeti, Christian Raslowsky

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

The Upper Truckee River (UTR) Basin is the largest watershed that drains into Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. Channelization and degradation of historic floodplains have caused fine sediment particles to erode from river banks and reduce the clarity of Lake Tahoe. In addition, as climate change worsens, it is expected that the hydrology of the region will not adhere to historical trends. To help solve these issues a climate analysis was conducted for a watershed near the UTR using four global climate models (due to lack of data availability and resources), and a scoured reach of the …

Design Of Cultural Preservation Center For The Nez Perce Tribe, Catherine Moore, Carolina Avelar, Rodolfo Leon

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

The Cultural Preservation Program of the Nez Perce tribe centered in Lapwai , Idaho is growing and in need of additional space to house its many programs. Due to this need , the team considered several alternative solutions to provide necessary space for the Cultural Resource Program to continue growing , while maintaining the several programs it currently oversees. Alternative designs considered include the renovation of existing buildings near the current Cultural Resource Program , the use of historical structures within the reservation and the building of a new structure or structures to house the Cultural Resource Program. The final …

Hester Gardens - A Lifemoves Temporary Interim-Housing Facility, Jeffrey Meier, Megan Sauter, Jenna Tran, Taylor Klauser

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

LifeMoves, an organization that provides interim housing and supportive services to families and individuals experiencing homelessness, recently purchased 0.35 acres of land, located at 1759 Hester Avenue, San Jose, CA 95128. LifeMoves has challenged the design team to provide preliminary building layouts, a structural alternative analysis, construction management plans, and general civil plans for a multi-story, family-friendly, interim housing facility, which has been named Hester Gardens. The design team considered both steel, a traditional building material, and shipping containers, a sustainable alternative building material, for this project. Each alternative included a structural design and analysis, as well as a cost …

The Geographic Disparities In Transportation-Related Physical Activity In The United States: An Analysis Of The 2017 Nhts Data, Hongwei Dong

Mineta Transportation Institute

Research on the relationship between urbanicity and physical activity yielded mixed results despite many studies consistently showing that residents tended to undertake more transportation-related physical activity in a more urban environment. This study analyzed the 2017 NHTS data to examine the geographic disparities in physical activity, particularly transportation-related physical activity in the United States. Our analysis suggests the relationship between urbanicity and physical activity demonstrates a flat U-shape in graphed data. Residents are more physically active when they live in the areas from the two ends of the urbanization spectrum: inner cities and inner suburbs of large metropolitan areas and …

Securing The Emerging Technologies Of Autonomous And Connected Vehicles, Shahab Tayeb, Matin Pirouz

Mineta Transportation Institute

The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) aims to establish a network of autonomous and connected vehicles that communicate with one another through facilitation led by road-side units (RSUs) and a central trust authority (TA). Messages must be efficiently and securely disseminated to conserve resources and preserve network security. Currently, research in this area lacks consensus about security schemes and methods of disseminating messages. Furthermore, a current deficiency of information regarding resource optimization prevents further efficient development of this network. This paper takes an interdisciplinary approach to these issues by merging both cybersecurity and data science to optimize and secure the network. …

Assessment Of An Automated Calibration Of The Sebal Algorithm To Estimate Dry-Season Surface-Energy Partitioning In A Forest–Savanna Transition In Brazil, Leonardo Laipelt, Anderson Luis Ruhoff, Ayan Santos Fleischmann, Rafael Henrique Bloedow Kayser, Elisa De Mello Kich, Humberto Ribeiro Da Rocha, Christopher Michael Usher Neale

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Evapotranspiration (ET) provides a strong connection between surface energy and hydrological cycles. Advancements in remote sensing techniques have increased our understanding of energy and terrestrial water balances as well as the interaction between surface and atmosphere over large areas. In this study, we computed surface energy fluxes using the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) algorithm and a simplified adaptation of the CIMEC (Calibration using Inverse Modeling at Extreme Conditions) process for automated endmember selection. Our main purpose was to assess and compare the accuracy of the automated calibration of the SEBAL algorithm using two different sources of meteorological …

Final Report - Mobile-Manipulating Uavs For Sensor Installation, Bridge Inspection And Maintenance, Paul Oh, Blake Hament, Dongbin Kim

Project AS-1

A parallel mechanism and smart gripper were designed and mounted on a rotorcraft drone to act as a robotic arm and hand. This empowers the drone to perform aerial manipulation and execute bridge maintenance. Hosing, drilling, and epoxying serve as case studies to test-and-evaluation and verify-and-validate the design. The approach, tasks, and findings are presented and show that the case studies are realizable. Conclusions and recommendations point to employing haptics-based human-in-the-loop approaches that can increase the scope of repair work involved in bridge maintenance

Final Report - Quantitative Bridge Inspection Ratings Using Autonomous Robotic Systems, Anil K. Agrawal, Jizhong Xiao

Project IM-2

Impact sounding has been recognized as an effective technique to detect delamination in concrete structures, such as concrete decks. An enormous amount of sounding data can be generated/collected by the autonomous inspection systems equipped with impactors and microphones. However, the main challenge in the practical application of this technology is the development of advanced data analysis approaches for identifying defects from impact sounding data. In this study, the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) analysis and power-spectral density (PSD) analysis are combined to extract useful features of sounding data generated by the impact hammer. It has been found that the EMD method …

System Reliability Analysis Of The Scoliosis Disorder., Fatemeh Nouri, Seyed Hooman Ghasemi, Ji Yun Lee

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Departmental Research

BACKGROUND: Scoliosis is a spine abnormal deviation, which is an idiopathic disorder among children and adolescents. As a matter of the fact, distribution of loads on the patient's spine and load-carrying capacity of the vertebral column are both random variables. Therefore, the probabilistic approach may consider as a sophisticated method to deal with this problem.

METHOD: Reliability analysis is a probabilistic-based approach to consider the uncertainties of load and resistance of the vertebral column. The main contribution of this paper is to compare the reliability level of a normal and scoliosis spinal. To do so, the numerical analyses associated with …

Investigation Of Diesel Engine`S Working Process On Light Fuel, J.O. Khakimov, M.G. Shatrov, J.P. Turdiev

Technical science and innovation

The article considers the investigation results of the working process of diesel on light fuel. Consumption of natural resources in the form of hydrocarbon fuels, which is steadily increasing in transport, the number of rolling stock, and combustion products of motor fuels cause environmental pollution. It is shown that the transition to cheaper alternative types of fuel, by its characteristics, not inferior to liquid motor fuels, is one of the options to reduce operating costs and harmful emissions. The scheme of classification of gas systems of fuel transfer is presented: by design of the system of filling and storage of …

A Magnetic Γ-Fe2O3@Pani@Tio2 Core–Shell Nanocomposite For Arsenic Removal Via A Coupled Visible-Light-Induced Photocatalytic Oxidation– Adsorption Process†, Yuan Wang, Ping Zhang, Tian Zhang, Gang Xiang, Xinlong Wang, Simo Pehkonen, Shaojun Yuan

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Arsenic polluted groundwater impairs human health and poses severe threats to drinking water supplies and ecosystems. Hence, an efficient method of simultaneous oxidation of As_(III) to As_(V), and removal of As_(V) from water has triggered increasing attention. In this study, a magnetic γ-Fe₂O₃ core–shell heterojunction nanocomposite was synthesized by means of hydrothermal crystallization of TiO₂ on the surface of the magnetic core–shell loaded with polyaniline (γ-Fe₂O₃@PANI@TiO₂). As an efficient photocatalyst coupled with adsorption, γ-Fe₂O₃@PANI@TiO₂ has a high light utilization and good …

Bond Life Of Structural Epoxy-Concrete Systems Under Accelerated Hygrothermal Aging, Philip W. Hopkins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A laboratory study was conducted to investigate possible quantitative and qualitative methods for determining the bond life of structural epoxies externally bonded to concrete substrates. Three concrete mixtures, two surface preparation methods, and three structural epoxies were used creating eighteen combinations of bonded systems. Direct tension (pull-off) specimens were prepared from which a subset was submerged in heated water per a prescribed accelerated aging protocol for up to 200 days. A novel test fixture was designed to facilitate controlled-rate testing of the pull-off specimens. A total of 324 specimens were intermittently removed from submersion exposure and tested without replacement. An …

Influence Of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer Wraps On Corrosion Progression Of Bridge Piles In Marine Environments, Shayan Yazdani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Friendship Trail Bridge connecting Tampa to St. Petersburg was demolished in 2016. Thirteen 20 inches. by 20 inches. reinforced concrete piles supporting its superstructure were part of research studies conducted between 2004 and 2008 to explore the role of glass fiber reinforced polymers (GFRP) in corrosion repair. During demolition, piles were typically cut at the pile cap and in the splash zone. The resulting segments varied in length between 3 to 4 ft. These remnants were transported to the University of South Florida (USF) campus for postmortem analysis. The overarching goal was to establish the role of GFRP in …

Investigation Of Tracer-Surfactant-Foam Processes In Shallow Subsurface Environmental Remediation: History-Matching And Performance Prediction, Hazem Fleifel

LSU Master's Theses

In-situ subsurface remediation has been widely used as an efficient means of cleaning up non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) from contaminated soils and aquifer. The use of tracer, surfactant, and foam are often considered to keep track of the propagation of injected fluids in the medium, dissolve and mobilize contaminants trapped by capillary forces, and overcome the level of heterogeneity and improve displacement and sweep efficiencies.

This study shows an actual remediation process to reduce NAPL within a military base in South Korea, by injecting tracer and surfactant solutions together for a duration of 10 days. The site consists of 5 …