Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Legacy And Current Pesticide Residues In Syr Darya, Kazakhstan: Contamination Status, Seasonal Variation And Preliminary Ecological Risk Assessment, Daniel D. Snow, P. Chakraborty, B. Uralbekov, B. Satybaldiev, J. Brett Sallach, L. M. Thornton Hampton, M. Jeffries, A. S. Kolok, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

The Syr Darya is one of two major rivers in Central Asia supplying critical fresh water to the Aral Sea. In spite of the river’s importance and agriculturally-intensive history, few studies have provided a modern evaluation of and the occurrence of pesticide residues potential effects to aquatic life. The primary goal of this investigation was to determine seasonal variations in ambient concentrations of modern and legacy pesticides in bottom sediment and water of the Syr Darya in Kazakhstan (KZ) downstream from an agriculturally-intensive watershed in Uzbekistan. Grab samples and passive samplers were used at five remote sampling stations during June …

Comparison Of Object Detection And Patch-Based Classification Deep Learning Models On Mid- To Late-Seasonweed Detection In Uav Imagery, Arun Narenthiran Veeranampalayam Sivakumar, Jiating Li, Stephen Scott, Eric T. Psota, Amit J. Jhala, Joe D. Luck, Jiating Li

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Mid- to late-season weeds that escape from the routine early-season weed management threaten agricultural production by creating a large number of seeds for several future growing seasons. Rapid and accurate detection of weed patches in field is the first step of site-specific weed management. In this study, object detection-based convolutional neural network models were trained and evaluated over low-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery for mid- to late-season weed detection in soybean fields. The performance of two object detection models, Faster RCNN and the Single Shot Detector (SSD), were evaluated and compared in terms of weed detection performance using mean …

Asymmetrical Response Of California Electricity Demand To Summer-Time Temperature Variation, Rohini Kumar, Benjamin A. Rachunok, Debora Maia-Silva, Roshanak Nateghi

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Current projections of the climate-sensitive portion of residential electricity demand are based on estimating the temperature response of the mean of the demand distribution. In this work, we show that there is significant asymmetry in the summer-time temperature response of electricity demand in the state of California, with high-intensity demand demonstrating a greater sensitivity to temperature increases. The greater climate sensitivity of high-intensity demand is found not only in the observed data, but also in the projections in the near future (2021–2040) and far future periods (2081–2099), and across all (three) utility service regions in California. We illustrate that disregarding …

Development Of An Integrated Direct Membrane Filtration (Dmf) And Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor (Anmbr) System For Dilute Municipal Wastewater Treatment, Ahmet Erkan Uman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The total electricity consumption due to municipal wastewater treatment in the US accounts for 1.3% of total demand. Also, a significant portion of biodegradable constituents in wastewater is converted into biomass, which needs further processing. On the one hand, an excessive amount of energy and chemicals are being used to treat wastewater, but on the other hand, resources (such as nitrogen and phosphorus, energy, and water) in wastewater are being discharged or removed rather than recovered. From this perspective, new wastewater treatment technologies are sorely needed to facilitate resource recovery from wastewater for a better, more sustainable future.

Anaerobic membrane …

Analysis Of Sewer Network For Vijayanagar Layout Of Mysore City, Sankalp Mehta

Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of the study is to design an underground drainage system for the residential layout of the Vijayanagar layout of the Mysore city. Sanitary Sewer Network is an essential part of society. The primary purpose of setting up a sewer system is to transport wastewater (from residential/ industrial area) and stormwater to the treatment plants so that it does not cause any problem to the public health. It was concluded that the Conventional Gravity Sewer System should not be adopted; instead, other technologies like Vacuum Sewer System or Pressure Sewer System should be adopted. A separate treatment plant …

Field Investigation And Pile Design For Pier 28 Of Bhopal Metro Rail Project, Chetan Nema

Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Theses and Dissertations

Before the start of the construction there are a lot of field investigations and tests that have to be performed on the surface for proper safety and stability of the elementary structure for the Urban Public Transport. The primary goal of any construction process is that the construction should be safe and technically optimized for everyone at every stage since all civil engineering project are done on the surface of the earth, Geotechnical Engineering has to play a very important role in maintaining the safety and security of the structure and hence the people using and constructing the structures. The …

"Study On The Influence Of Vertical Geometrical Irregularities On The Time Period Of Rc Buildings", Sindhu V. N

Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Theses and Dissertations

Design and build of earthquake resistant building or a structure requires us to understand the building’s response to an earthquake by performing either static or dynamic analysis. Static analysis is preferred for a regular building with more or less equal distribution of mass and stiffness among different floors of a building. The Indian standard code discourages the construction of irregular buildings but when unavoidable the code suggests to use dynamic analysis to understand the seismic response of the building. The construction of buildings with irregularity have become common and inevitable in the present urban scenario owing to space constraints and …

Barriers To Implementation Of Lean Construction Practices In India, Krishna K. G

Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Theses and Dissertations

Construction Industry is searching for newer and innovative methods to improve its functioning and be more viable in this highly competitive business world. One such technique which has proved its mettle is LEAN CONSTRUCTION. Lean Construction is a hybrid system which has been effectively used in manufacturing fields tweaked to the requirements of construction industry. With the focus of Waste Elimination, Effective utilization of Resources, Controlled activity and monitoring, Collaborative management methodology, implementation of Planning, monitoring and forecasting protocols the implantation has been proved to highly cost effective for the contractor thereby increasing the overall Margin , preventing Cost overruns …

Construction Of Geopolymer Concrete Road, Ashutosh Rungta

Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Theses and Dissertations

Geopolymer concrete is fly ash based alkali-activated concrete. Cement is eliminated by using fly ash and ground granulated blast-furnace slag. Water is used only to initiate the polymerization process and has no use after the initiation. The water gets expelled out once the concrete sets. There are no Indian standard codes for the mix design of geopolymer concrete. Hence, NTPC-NETRA and CSIR-Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee, have developed high strength fly ash based geopolymer concrete for the construction of the road as per IRC specifications. A Geopolymer concrete road stretch of 50 m length and 3 m width with 40 …

Study On Stabilization Of Soil For Wind Turbine Foundation, Bhavana Suresh

Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Theses and Dissertations

Geotechnical investigation is carried out to provide necessary information required for designing structures on the soil. In this case, it involves designing foundations for Wind Turbine Generators. Wind Turbines are power generating machines of specified tower heights which consist of Nacelle (encasing gearbox, generators & transformers) and Hub holding the blades which rotate upon experiencing the wind action at the designated height to convert kinetic energy (wind) to electrical energy. This project is aimed at analyzing the soil conditions and check for the suitability of foundations designed for the designated WTG model. Previously, when the soil properties are identified to …

Selective Inventory Management For A High Rise Residential Project, Mridul Nijhawan

Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Theses and Dissertations

The primary goal of any construction project is to ensure that good quality work is done at an optimized price. The cost of construction materials accounts for the majority of the expenses; therefore we need to have strict and viable control at these material expenses. To accomplish these objectives, we need to have strict screening and controlling of the material costs, quality and quantity requirements as per prerequisites of the task in the project. These instruments help in controlling material expenses and the quality and quantity of the material and guaranteeing the sufficient amount of material required at the site. …

"Analysis And Design Of Multi-Storeyed Building Using Staad Pro", Sidharth .

Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Theses and Dissertations

High Rise Building have to be designed with more flexibility. There is more chance of external excitation as these Structures are Vulnerable to Earthquake and wind. To protect these structures from such structural damages, seismic response factor is analyzed and the building is designed according to the results obtained. STAAD-Pro analysis is used. Limit State Design conforming to IS Code of Practice is adopted for design. The Primary Objective of this work is to create a structure that is earthquake resistant, using STAAD-PRO analysis.Also designing the components of the structure manually & Using excel program for the results obtained from …

Planning, Analysis & Design Of A G+2 Residential Rcc Building, Path Sharma

Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Theses and Dissertations

Concrete is the second most used material by man after water. It is used in nearly every type of construction. The most common use of concrete is in construction of a residential building. This project involves the planning, analysis & design of a RCC building. In earlier days, building design was done by hand, using manual calculations and hand drafting. It would take several days and even months for an architect to design, for an engineer to analyze & for a drafter to detail the various components. But today most of the work is done with the help of software …

Understanding And Analyzing Major Activities Involved In The Construction Of Skyscraper, Rachit Pamecha

Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Theses and Dissertations

As the population of world increases at an unprecedented rate so does their basic need of a shelter. This would lead to an acute shortage of land for everyone to fit in and skyscrapers help us overcome this problem very efficiently. The main reason that people build skyscrapers is because they are very convenient. They serve to fit a lot of floor space in a comparatively small amount of ground surface because of their immense height. This project deals with the construction techniques and methodology required to overcome the difficulties faced during the construction of skyscrapers. It also provides data …

Analysis And Prediction Of Peak Surface Runoff Of Bda Planning District-215 Mathikere, Bengaluru North, Sridarshan H. S

Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Theses and Dissertations

Runoff plays a very important role in modern urban planning. When authorities consider various developmental infrastructure and services, runoff is one important factor to be considered in the planning phase to do away with the ill effects of runoff in a future time period. Runoff can be defined as the amount of water due to rainfall that makes its way through rooftops, pavements, roads and open ground finally to form streams. These streams due to excess runoff may result in catastrophic disasters like landslides, collapse of infrastructure, etc. The determination of amount of runoff was calculated using the combine efforts …

Interdisciplinary Education Outreach With Traffic Sensor Build Kits, Sarah V. Hernandez, Mariah B. Crews

Civil Engineering Teaching and Learning

The goal of this project was to attract K-12 students to transportation engineering careers through STEM outreach programs. To accomplish this goal, the object of the project was to design and implement maritime freight oriented educational outreach activities centered on traffic sensing technologies for middle, high school, and first-year college students. In MarTREC Project 5011 (Evaluating the Performance of Intermodal Connectors), the research team designed a low-cost, easily implementable LiDAR and Bluetooth sensor bundle that was capable of detecting, characterizing, and tracking freight trucks as they traveled to and from inland waterway port areas. The sensor provided data necessary to …

Western Kentucky University Stormwater Utility Survey 2020, Warren Campbell

SEAS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Data-Driven Approach For Winter Precipitation Classification Using Weather Radar And Nwp Data, Bong Chul Seo

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study describes a framework that provides qualitative weather information on winter precipitation types using a data-driven approach. The framework incorporates the data retrieved from weather radars and the numerical weather prediction (NWP) model to account for relevant precipitation microphysics. To enable multimodel-based ensemble classification, we selected six supervised machine learning models: k-nearest neighbors, logistic regression, support vector machine, decision tree, random forest, and multi-layer perceptron. Our model training and cross-validation results based on Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) showed that all the models performed better than our baseline method, which applies two thresholds (surface temperature and atmospheric layer thickness) for …

Ultrasonic Coda Wave Comparison For Quality Control Of Manufactured Parts: Proof Of Feasibility, Alexei Marin-Cortes

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

Manufactured parts are a staple of modern urban life, visible in homes (e.g., kitchen appliances), offices (e.g., printers), the automobile and aerospace industries (e.g., body parts), and more. This M.S. project intended to determine whether ultrasonic testing could be used in a simple and rapid manner to perform quality control of manufactured parts. Ultrasonic testing is employed for this purpose using two surface-coupled transducers, one being a transmitter and the other one a receiver. An ultrasonic pulse, which is generated by the transmitting transducer, propagates through the part, collecting information about material and geometry, as well as potential unwanted features. …

Examining The Effects Of Reducing The Cement Content Of Portland Cement Concrete Pavement, Bryan Casillas

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Portland cement is a significant component in a concrete mixture. For concrete used in portland cement concrete pavement (PCCP), the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) specifies a minimum cementitious material content of 564 lb/yd3 and a maximum water-cementitious material ratio of 0.45. Prior research conducted at the University of Arkansas, TRC 0603, indicated concrete mixtures used in five bridge decks throughout Arkansas achieved the required 28-day strength at seven days, and the measured compressive strength at 28 days was 30% greater than required. The use of high strength concrete in pavements throughout the state can increase cracking and consequently reduce …

Quantifying Workability, Compactability, And Cohesion Gain Of Asphalt Emulsion Cold In-Place Recycling, Sadie Casillas

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

To maximize the life and quality of a pavement, proper maintenance and rehabilitation are essential. Strategies for pavement rehabilitation with many sustainable benefits are pavement recycling. This dissertation focuses on two types of in-situ pavement recycling: Cold in-place recycling (CIR) stabilized with asphalt emulsion and full depth reclamation (FDR) stabilized with asphalt emulsion or foamed asphalt. One white paper (Chapter 2), two accepted peer reviewed journal articles (Chapters 3 and 4), and one submitted peer reviewed journal article (Chapter 5) are presented in this document to create better understanding of the unique material characterization of asphalt emulsion cold recycled materials, …

Verifying The Calcium Oxychloride Threshold In Cementitious Pastes, Fatoumata Traore

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Calcium oxychloride (CAOXY) formation is a serious deterioration mechanism known to cause joint damage in concrete pavements. CAOXY is the product of a chemical reaction between calcium chloride (CaCl2) or magnesium chloride (MgCl) deicing salts and calcium hydroxide in the cementitious matrix. Currently, the accepted CAOXY threshold at which deterioration is mitigated in cementitious paste is 15 g/100 g paste (15 oz/100 oz paste); however, this limit was developed using flexural strength testing. For this investigation, the current threshold was evaluated using compressive strength and mass change over time in paste specimens exposed to CaCl2. Fly ash is used to …

Commodity-Based Freight Activity On Inland Waterways Through The Fusion Of Public Datasets For Multimodal Transportation Planning, Magdalena I. Asborno

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Within the U.S., the 18.6 billion tons of goods currently moved along the multimodal transportation system are expected to grow 51% by 2045. Most of those goods are transported by roadways. However, several benefits can be realized by shippers and consumers by shifting freight to more efficient modes, such as inland waterways, or adopting a multimodal scheme. To support such freight growth sustainably and efficiently, federal legislation calls for the development of plans, methods, and tools to identify and prioritize future multimodal transportation infrastructure needs. However, given the historical mode-specific approach to freight data collection, analysis, and modeling, challenges remain …

New Models For Truck Appointment Problem And Extensions, Mohammad Torkjazi

Theses and Dissertations

The problematic issues surrounding gate congestion at marine container terminals have been well documented. Random truck arrivals at maritime container terminals are one of the primary reasons for gate congestion. Gate congestion negatively affects the terminal’s and drayage firms’ productivity and the surrounding communities in terms of air pollution and noise. To alleviate gate congestion, more and more terminals in the U.S. are utilizing a truck appointment system (TAS).

The first study proposes a novel approach for designing a Truck Appointment System (TAS) intended to serve both the marine container terminal operator and drayage operators. The aim of the proposed …

Random Packing Material In Disinfection Contactors: Effects On Final Drinking Water Quality, Jessica L. Baker, Susan K. De Long, Subhas K. Venayagamoorthy

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study investigates the concern about biofilm growth on random packing material (RPM) used to enhance the hydraulic disinfection efficiency of a chlorine contactor. The inflow, outflow, and RPM were monitored for heterotrophic bacteria (via heterotrophic plate counts) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa as indicators of bacteriological water quality and the presence of biofilm. The results of this study show that there was no substantial biofilm growth in a lab-scale chlorine contactor and no substantial increase in bacterial counts for the bulk outflow over a 10-week period. Thus, the potential for excessive biofilm growth should not be considered a barrier concerning the …

Online Survey Of Driver Comprehension Of The Flashing Yellow Arrow For Right-Turn Signal Indications, Sirisha Kothuri, Christopher Monsere, Hisham Jashami, David Hurwitz

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper presents the results of an online survey of licensed driver comprehension of the right-turn signal displays with a focus on the flashing yellow arrow (FYA) and also including the circular green and red and red arrow. Recruitment postcards were mailed to a random sample of 9,872 residents in Oregon. The online survey yielded 399 responses. The open-ended responses were coded for comprehension and analyzed. The results suggest that FYA for right turns is well understood by Oregon drivers despite its current novelty (only two locations at the time of the research). Importantly, survey respondents were more likely to …

A Comparison Of Half And Quarter Space Penetration Into Granular Media, Ivan L. Guzman, Magued Iskander, Stephan Bless

Publications and Research

In this study, two experimental techniques are compared for the purpose of visualizing projectile penetration at speeds ranging between 60 and 150 m/s into granular media. The two techniques are half space penetration into a transparent synthetic soil surrogate and quarter space penetration of an opaque natural sand and transparent soil surrogate against an observation window. In both techniques a pneumatic projectile accelerator was employed to launch the projectiles, and high-speed imagery was employed to visualize the penetration events unintrusively. Transparency in transparent targets was achieved by saturating angular fused quartz with a refractive index matched pore fluid made of …

Development Of An Improved Arterial Roadway Performance Reliability Methodology, Ernest Tufuor

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

The need for reliable performance measures of urban arterial roadways is increasing because of the rise in traffic congestion and the high value of travel time. Consequently, travel time reliability (TTR), which combines components of measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion of travel times, has recently received considerable research interest.

The basis of all TTR metrics is the travel time distribution (TTD). Estimating and forecasting arterial TTDs for TTR analysis is the focus of this dissertation. This dissertation proposes a new TTR methodology that is a marked improvement on recent TTR estimation and forecasting methodologies including the current …

Remediation Of Desiccation Cracking In Clayey Soils Through Bio-Cementation And Bottom Ash, Mark Vail

Theses and Dissertations

Desiccation cracking considerably impairs the hydraulic and mechanical properties of clayey soils and is critical to the long-term performance of infrastructure foundations and earth structures. Classical crack remediation methods are associated with high labor and maintenance costs or the usage of environment-unfriendly chemicals. Recycling waste materials and developing bio-mediated techniques have emerged as green and sustainable soil stabilization solutions. The objective of this study is to investigate the feasibility of soil crack remediation through the usage of microbial-induced calcite precipitation (MICP) and bottom ash admixtures. We carry out monotonic drying and cyclic drying-wetting tests to characterize the effects of bottom …

Ce-Qual-W2 Hydrodynamic And Water Quality Model Of The Cedar River Municipal Watershed, Amory Spencer Cervarich

Dissertations and Theses

The laterally averaged, two-dimensional model CE-QUAL-W2 was used to develop a water quality model of the Cedar River Municipal Watershed as a reservoir management and climate change scenario tool. The 90,638-acre watershed, located 56 kilometers southeast of Seattle, WA, provides drinking water to over 1.4 million people. The watershed relies on two waterbodies for storage, Chester Morse Lake and the Masonry Pool. The Masonry Dam is the main storage structure in the watershed. The Cedar River flows downstream from the Masonry Dam for 57 kilometers to Lake Washington. The reservoir model simulated Chester Morse Lake and the Masonry Pool. The …