Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Sediment Transport Investigation In A Karst Basin Defines Governing Transport Processes And Explains Hysteresis Patterns, Leonie Bettel

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Water resources researchers have advanced our understanding of sediment transport in karst aquifers and cave systems in recent years. However, we find knowledge gaps for sediment transport in karst including knowledge of processes controlling sediment hysteresis patterns from sensor datasets, and knowledge of dominant sediment transport processes that lead to sediment transport formulas for prediction. To address these gaps, we analyze a new suspended sediment, electrical conductivity and water flowrate datasets from sinking streams and a phreatic cave system for an epigenetic karst basin in the inner bluegrass region of Kentucky USA.

Three sediment patterns are common including: pulses of …

An Approach To Mapping The Development Of Professional Skills In A Structural Engineering Programme, Patrick Crean, Dervilla Niall, Una Beagon, Aimee Byrne, Darren Carthy, Caitríona De Paor, Louise Lynch

Conference Papers

Engineers of the future will be presented with complicated, complex problems and their role in the development of sustainable solutions to global problems will become even more critical. Recent literature highlights the need for the development of a set of professional skills in order to address these challenges. These skills include technical, non-technical and attitudinal skills. This paper describes a case study of a whole-of-programme review of teaching and assessment of professional skills in a structural engineering programme. In a systematic process, lecturing staff mapped the modules they teach against a set of professional skills, which were distilled from literature …

Smart And Emerging Technologies: Shaping The Future Of The Industry And Offsite Construction, Rayan H. Assaad, Islam H. El-Adaway, Makarand Hastak, Kim La Scola Needy

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The interest in smart, emerging technologies and offsite construction methods continues to grow. While previous studies investigated different offsite construction aspects, there is still lack of research work that explored the current and future use of smart and emerging technologies, especially those used in offsite construction. This study addresses this knowledge gap through a multi-step research methodology. First, a list of 24 technologies was identified. Second, a survey was distributed to study the current use and the experts' future perceptions of the identified technologies in offsite construction. Third, descriptive statistics and computational clustering analysis were used to quantify and classify …

A Simulation Model For Optimal Bidding Decisions, Rayan H. Assaad, Muaz O. Ahmed, Islam H. El-Adaway, Amr Elsayegh

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The lowest bid approach is the most used technique in the US construction procurement environment since competitive bidding is a legal requirement in the public sector. Despite that many research studies were directed to help contractors in taking different bidding decisions, there is still insufficient research efforts that equipped contractors with decision-support tools to decide on optimal bid values. Hence, this paper takes previous research works a step further by developing a simulation model that can be adopted to determine the bid decision that would result in winning more projects. To this end, a methodology composed of multiple steps was …

Combined Coagulation-Microfiltration Process For Dye Wastewater Treatment, Alexander Ekenatanse Eguagie, Yung-Tse Hung, Howard Hao-Che Paul

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The performance of combined coagulation-microfiltration process for the removal of dyes in a binary mixture of dye wastewater of varied concentrations and fruit drink wastewater at three different strengths; low (10ppm), medium (50ppm) and high (100ppm) was investigated. Synthetic dye wastewater was prepared in the laboratory while fruit drink wastewater was purchased from the grocery store. Color removal efficiency was also investigated for the three coagulants; Ferric Chloride, Aluminum Sulfate and Ferrous Sulfate. Transmittance and Absorbance values were used as indices to measure the efficacy of the combined coagulation- microfiltration process.

Transmittance and absorbance values of 99.8% and 0.001 respectively …

The Roles Of Groundwater Table In Catchment Hydrology, Lili Yao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The main goal of this dissertation research is to investigate catchment hydrological processes including infiltration and saturation excess runoff generation with consideration of groundwater table. For the infiltration process, an infiltration Péclet number was proposed to quantify the relative effects of gravity and capillary force on the evolution of infiltration capacity in the special case of the presence of a shallow water table, and a power law functional form of Time Compression Approximation was developed whose exponent was found to vary with the Péclet number. For the saturation excess runoff process, a new probability distribution model based on the SCS …

High-Temperature Performance Of Ambient-Cured Alkali- Activated Binder Concrete, Kruthi Kiran Ramagiri, Darshan Chauhan, Shashank Gupta, Arkamitra Kar, Dibyendu Adak, Abhijit Mukherjee

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Owing to their lower carbon footprint and efficient performance compared to portland cement (PC), alkali-activated binders (AAB) show promising potential as an alternative to PC. The present paper investigates the high-temperature performance of AAB concrete through compressive and bond strength tests. Four different AAB concrete mixes with varying proportions of fly ash: slag (100:0, 70:30, 60:40, and 50:50) cured under ambient conditions are exposed to elevated temperatures. The mechanical performance of AAB concrete is corroborated with microstructural changes. The results show that AAB concrete with fly ash: slag ratio of 70:30 exhibits the best mechanical performance after exposure to elevated …

'Menthol-Plus’: A Major Category Of Cigarette Found Among ‘Concept’ Descriptor Cigarettes From Mexico, James F. Pankow, Wentai Luo, Kevin J. Mcwhirter, Samantha M. Gillette, Joanna E. Cohen

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background Tobacco companies are offering cigarettes with ‘concept’ descriptor names that suggest sensation and/or flavour properties (eg, Marlboro ‘Velvet Fusion’). Little has been known about the identities and levels of flavour chemicals in such cigarettes.

Methods Thirty-three filter cigarette variants from 27 packs (including two sampler packs with four variations each) from Canada and Mexico were analysed (rod + filter) for 177 flavour chemicals plus triacetin, a filter plasticiser and possible flavourant. Five brands of US mentholated filter cigarettes were also analysed.

Results Twenty-seven of the 33 cigarettes (all were Mexican variants) were categorised as ‘menthol-plus’: significant menthol (3.0–11.9 mg/cigarette), …

Exploring The Impact Of Socio-Demographic Characteristics, Health Concerns, And Product Type On Home Delivery Rates And Expenditures During A Strict Covid-19 Lockdown Period: A Case Study From Portland, Or, Miguel Figliozzi, Avinash Unnikrishnan

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

E-commerce volumes and home deliveries have experienced steady growth in the last two decades. Strict COVID-19 lockdowns made home delivery an essential service and a lifeline for many households that, for travel restrictions or health concerns, were not able to utilize traditional shopping methods. This research studies the impact of socio-demographic variables and e-commerce attitudes on household deliveries for seven product categories (groceries, meals, electronics, household and office goods, recreational items, and fashion, beauty and personal care products, and medicine/health-related products) during the lockdown period in the greater Portland metropolitan region. To understand these impacts, exploratory factor analysis and …

Chaos Game Optimization Method For Weight Minimization Of Steel Truss Structure, Eain Kyi Thar

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

The research proposes the so-called chaos game optimization (CGO) method to perform the optimal sizing design of steel truss structures under applied loading regimes. The optimization problem aims at the minimization of the total weight (directly related to the cost function) of the designed structure subjected to the constraints describing the intrinsic structural responses complying with limit-state specifications. The CGO approach is based on the underlying chaos theory that establishes the primary patterns as fractals in responses to the systems representing them as self-organized dynamical systems. The fractal is generated as an initial Sierpinski triangle (i.e., search space of solution …

Nitrate And Phosphate Removal From Denitrification Bioreactors Using Woodchips, Steel Chips And Agricultural Residue Media, Abdoul Aziz Kouanda

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nitrate and phosphate present in agricultural subsurface drainage water can impact surface water quality thus impacting the environment and human health by causing eutrophication and Methemoglobinemia in young infant. Biological denitrification and phosphate adsorption filters are treatments options that can help reduce nitrate and phosphate concentration from agricultural subsurface drainage before it can be discharged in surface water. The first objective of this dissertation was to determine the Michaelis-Menten kinetics model parameters for nitrate removal in bioreactors using the fresh, aged, and composted woodchips. The composted woodchips achieved a denitrification rate 2.4 times higher than the fresh woodchips which was …

A Study Of Geographic Information System-Based Watershed Processing For Hydrologic Analysis Of Ungauged Watersheds, Philip Adanbe Adalikwu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The increasing application of geographic information system (GIS) technology in watershed modeling makes is necessary to further evaluate its impacts on runoff characteristics as a basis for improved hydrologic analysis in ungauged watersheds. Experts in the field of water resources and hydrology have recommended the practice of subdivision when modeling a watershed, and the use of observed data from hydrologically similar watershed to calibrate and validate an ungauged watershed’s model. However, previous studies have failed to adequately address the issues of watershed heterogeneity, spatial and temporal variability in physical parameters, GIS data resolution issues, including artifacts in automated extraction of …

Laboratory Measurements Of Bed Shear Stress In Open Channel Flow And Soil Erosion Rate In Cohesive Soils, Gunnar Schurmann Kern

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between soil erosion rate and bed shear stress is an important problem in sediment transport and scour. However, reliable measurements of the soil erosion function are challenging, both in the field and in the laboratory. The objective of this study is to investigate an experimental setup for conducting bed shear stress and soil erosion rate measurements using an open channel flume with a rough bed. These experiments were performed in an A-8 Hydraulic Channel with a fixed gravel bed. The flow discharge was kept constant at 0.158 ft.3/s, and bed shear stress was varied by changing the channel …

An Exploration Of The Application Of Spatial Network Screening Methods On Iowa Rural Road Crashes, Rosanna Maria Novellino Suarez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Safety on the roadway system is important due to its usage on mobility and accessibility, especially on rural roads in the state of Iowa. Single vehicle run off road crashes have been increasing in the United States and studies and research has increased due to the concern with those. For this effort, a spatial-temporal method of traffic safety network screening is utilized in order to evaluate the concerning type of crashes in particular locations. The study of single vehicle run off road crashes using the proposed method is important since distributions and clusters of crashes along roadways can be observed …

Unsteady-State Contact Angle Hysteresis During Droplet Oscillation In Capillary Pores: Theoretical Model And Vof Simulation -- Supporting Information, Chao Zeng, Wen Deng, Lichun Wang

Research Data

Contact angle hysteresis (CAH) is a critical phenomenon that could significantly affect the fate of immiscible bubbles/droplets in vadose zones, nonaqueous phase liquid contaminated aquifers, and saline aquifers for CO₂ sequestration in terms of infiltration patterns and residual trapping mechanisms. When external physical impacts such as oscillatory excitation or pulse forcing are applied, it could result in pinned oscillation of droplets due to this CAH. Conventional steady-state analysis of contact angle could underestimate CAH. As the first time to take unsteady-state effect into consideration, a hydrodynamic analysis is developed in this study to address the unsteady-state CAH theoretically, and …

A Hydrologic Climate Study For An Arid Region, Ali Alsubeai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Water is the most precious natural resource in arid regions due to the limitation of water resources, expanding population, and increasing volumes of industrial and domestic waste. The purpose of this research was to evaluate methods to estimate water quantity in an arid region. The research consisted of three separate studies. In the first study, hydrologic models used to estimate water quantity were evaluated for suitability of use in arid regions. Most hydrologic models that have been used in arid regions were originally developed for humid regions. Rainfall events in arid regions can be characterized as short-term, high intense rainstorms …

Dynamic Pricing In Electric Power Markets Affected By Distributed Energy Generation Using Agent-Based Modeling, Gasser G. Ali, Islam H. El-Adaway

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The power infrastructure in the US is facing many challenges concerning capacity, reliability, and sustainability. Some of those challenges are associated with the integration of distributed energy resources (DER) into the conventional grid system. DER may offer reliable and cost-effective distributed small-scale generation near or at end-consumers. However, it also creates new challenges for utilities and generating companies due to the uncertainties in estimating demands. Accordingly, the goal of this research is to investigate dynamic pricing in electric power markets considering the effect of the increasing penetration of DER. To achieve that goal, a complex system-of-systems model that combines agent-based …

Ground Movements And Vibrations Caused By Impact Pile Driving Of Prestressed Concrete Piles In Central Florida, Jorge Enrique Orozco Herrera

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The process of pile driving has been a commonly used method for the installation of deep foundations in Central Florida due to the soil conditions that consist mainly of medium-dense silty sands. Pile driving can generate large vibration levels that might potentially trigger ground deformations in the surrounding soils and cause damage on nearby structures. Currently, design and construction standards provide guidance in terms of ground vibration levels expected during pile driving and establish vibration thresholds to avoid damage on important infrastructure. However, little insight has been given into the amount of ground deformations that soils experience due to pile …

The Effects Of Critical Micelle Concentration And Environmental Factors On Oil Separation In Simulated Bilgewater Emulsions, Kelsey Rodriguez Doran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Improved bilgewater treatment is necessary because of technological challenges often faced when meeting existing ocean discharge criteria regulations. Since bilgewater is a waste mixture including hydraulic oils, cleaning agents, and seawater, the success of its management is largely attributed to understanding oil-in-water emulsion characterizations. However, the study of bilgewater emulsions is complex due to the multivariate nature of real-shipboard samples. The objective of this study is to develop the relationship between parameters commonly found in bilgewater and emulsion stability. This work is a continuation of a 3-year research project supported by the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP). Previous …

Modeling Of Crash Risk For Realistic Artificial Data Generation: Application To Naturalistic Driving Study Data, Lauren Hoover

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Most safety performance analysis employs cross-sectional and time-series datasets, posing an important challenge to safety performance and crash modification analysis. The traditional safety model analysis paradigm relying on observed data only allows relative comparisons between analysis methods and is unable to establish how well the methods mimic the true underlying crash generation process. Assumptions are made about the data, but whether the assumptions truly characterize the safety data generation in the real world remains unknown. To address this issue, this thesis proposes the generation of realistic artificial data (RAD). In developing a prototype RAD generator for crash data, we mimic …

Combining Multivariate Statistical And Numerical Modeling For Coastal Hazards Analysis, Victor Malagon Santos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Increased population density along the world's coastlines is driven by the wide range of services provided by costal systems, such as transportation, fisheries, trade, and tourism. Despite offering fundamental services, coastal systems are exposed to a range of natural hazards such as riverine and/or coastal flooding, and erosion, thus robust risk analyses are needed to protect coastal ecosystems, infrastructure, and people dwelling in proximity to the shoreline. Numerical and multivariate statistical models have become crucial tools in coastal risk management to support robust risk analyses, and their combined use provides many benefits in the analysis of coastal hazards. This dissertation …

Investigating The Removal Of Total Trihalomethanes In Tray And Spray Aeration Processes At Two Central Florida Groundwater Treatment Facilities, Zachary Protas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

An investigation has been completed that assessed the efficiency of tray and spray aeration processes on the removal of regulated total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) at two publicly owned potable groundwater treatment facilities located in Polk County, Florida: the Providence and Van Fleet water treatment plants (WTPs). Finished water from each of these facilities was fed to a pilot-plant that could be operated as either a tray, spray, or combined configuration. A series of four pilot aerator configurations were tested at each WTP. Test 1 evaluated the tray aerator operated in a recirculated multiple-pass mode. It was shown that three passes across …

Real-Time Traffic Safety Evaluation In The Context Of Connected Vehicles And Mobile Sensing, Pei Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Recently, with the development of connected vehicles and mobile sensing technologies, vehicle-based data become much easier to obtain. However, only few studies have investigated the application of this kind of novel data to real-time traffic safety evaluation. This dissertation aims to conduct a series of real-time traffic safety studies by integrating all kinds of available vehicle-based data sources. First, this dissertation developed a deep learning model for identifying vehicle maneuvers using data from smartphone sensors (i.e., accelerometer and gyroscope). The proposed model was robust and suitable for real-time application as it required less processing of smartphone sensor data compared with …

Ground Movements And Nonlinear-Inelastic Response Of Buildings Induced By Excavations In Glacial Clay Deposits, A. Felipe Uribe-Henao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The analysis of ground movements and nonlinear response of buildings induced by excavations in glacial clay deposits is conducted using finite element models built in PLAXIS2D and OpenSees. PLAXIS2D was used to simulate the performance of an urban cofferdam excavation braced with a concrete bracing system. Measured ground movements were compared with the computed response, and the influence of the temperature, installation, and curing effects on the concrete bracing is evaluated. Concrete time-dependent effects contributed to 32% of the maximum lateral wall movements. The numerical studies are expanded in a second finite element analysis to characterize the coupled fluid-solid response …

Safety And Operations Of Urban Arterials Incorporating The Context Classification System, Nada Mahmoud

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Urban arterials connect multiple areas in the city and encourage non-motorist activities. Hence, the safety and operations on urban arterials is vital as they improve the mobility of daily commuters and road users. This research aims to facilitate traffic operations on urban arterials by proposing multiple mythological approaches to estimate and predict turning movement counts at signalized intersections using traffic data from adjacent intersections. Further, it aims to improve the safety by developing crash prediction models, identifying the hotspots for multiple crash types, and indicating the factors contributing to operating speed as well as non-motorist crashes. The analyses included tuning, …

การเพิ่มประสิทธิภาพการจัดการพลาสติกรีไซเคิลโดยใช้ระบบ Gis กรณีศึกษา: ชุมชนในจังหวัดระยอง, ชยานนท์ เทียนธนานุรักษ์

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

งานวิจัยนี้มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อศึกษาการจัดการขยะบรรจุภัณฑ์พลาสติกระดับชุมชนในพื้นที่จังหวัดระยองและสร้างแบบจำลองการแลกเปลี่ยนข้อมูลการรับซื้อขายขยะพลาสติกโดยใช้ระบบสารสนเทศทางภูมิศาสตร์ (Geographic information system; GIS) เพื่อช่วยในการจัดการขยะพลาสติกอย่างมีประสิทธิภาพและหมุนเวียนกลับมาใช้ประโยชน์สูงสุดตามหลักเศรษฐกิจหมุนเวียน ด้วยวิธีการสำรวจและรวบรวมข้อมูลชนิด ปริมาณขยะพลาสติกและที่ตั้งร้านรับซื้อในพื้นที่กรณีศึกษา 3 แห่ง ได้แก่ เทศบาลนครระยอง หมู่4 เทศบาลทับมา และชุมชนบ้านเอื้ออาทรวังหว้า ผลการวิจัยพบว่าการจัดการขยะพลาสติกในชุมชนกรณีศึกษาทั้ง 3 แห่งยังขาดความเชื่อมโยงในการจัดการขยะพลาสติกของผู้มีส่วนได้เสียตลอดห่วงโซ่คุณค่า และยังไม่ทราบช่องทางติดต่อการซื้อขายหรือตำแหน่งที่ตั้งของร้านรับซื้อหรือโรงงาน ดังนั้นงานวิจัยนี้ช่วยให้ทราบถึงพิกัดร้านรับซื้อขยะพลาสติกประเภทต่าง ๆ ในชุมชนกรณีศึกษาโดยใช้ระบบ GIS และเสนอแบบจำลองการแลกเปลี่ยนข้อมูลการรับซื้อขายขยะพลาสติกในจังหวัดระยอง ซึ่งพบว่าปัจจุบันเส้นทางการขนส่งขยะพลาสติกของชุมชนกรณีศึกษาทั้ง 3 แห่ง ของเทศบาลนครระยอง ชุมชนหมู่4 เทศบาลทับมาและชุมชนบ้านเอื้ออาทรวังหว้าจากธนาคารขยะไปยังร้านรับซื้อขวด/ถุงพลาสติก และส่งต่อไปโรงงานรีไซเคิลมีระยะทางขนส่งเท่ากับ 430.55 , 286.91 และ 458.51 กิโลเมตร ตามลำดับ จึงนำเสนอทางเลือกการเปลี่ยนร้านรับซื้อขวด/ถุงพลาสติก และโรงงานรีไซเคิล พบว่าสามารถลดระยะทางขนส่งลงเท่ากับ 165.58, 149.65 และ 348.81 กิโลเมตร ตามลำดับ คิดเป็นร้อยละ 61.54, 47.84 และ 23.93 ตามลำดับ สามารถลดการปล่อยก๊าซเรือนกระจกลงร้อยละ 92.94 , 83.85 และ 77.35 ตามลำดับ ดังนั้นหากสามารถเปลี่ยนมาใช้เส้นทางการขนส่งที่เสนอแนะได้จะสามารถช่วยลดการใช้เชื้อเพลิงและการปล่อยก๊าซเรือนกระจกสู่ชั้นบรรยากาศได้

New York State Materials Recycling Facilities Report 2019, Firman Firmansyah, Yiyi Wang, Sameena Manzur, Sayidana Brannan-Douglas, Justin Lee, Andersson Lora, John O'Halloran, Elizabeth Hewitt, Krista L. Thyberg, David J. Tonjes

Technology & Society Faculty Publications

The composition of collected recyclables reported on here has some consistency across the three systems in terms of the general kinds of recyclables collected (but that is true for most US waste management systems). The grab samples analyzed here varied considerably in terms of overall composition. Clearly some of that has to do with the nature of the collection programs (single stream and dual stream, residential alone versus residential plus commercial) but it may also relate to the service areas for the systems, indicating that waste is highly context-driven and location-specific. Islip is an affluent suburban setting; Delaware County collects …

Mapping Michigan's Historic Coastlines, Ryan A. Williams

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This five-year project, sponsored by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, is working to map how Michigan’s Great Lakes shorelines have changed over the past 80+ years. Products of this project include publicly available digital, georeferenced, historic aerial photography datasets, as well as map layers depicting the locations of historic shorelines and bluff lines from 1938, 1980, 2009, 2016, 2018, and 2020. Additional products include bluff retreat risk areas, shoreline rate of change map layers, and tools to assist in the development of future Coastal Vulnerability Index projects for the Great Lakes. All products are available as …

Bim-Ar-Based System For Supporting Decision-Making Process Of Change Orders In Construction Projects, Vi Nguyen Nguyen

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Recently, the integration of building information modeling (BIM) with augmented reality (AR) has been introduced to support decision-making on change orders in construction sites. However, traditional BIM-AR-based systems have some limitations on the interaction with the changes of construction work and cost information. Therefore, this research aims to develop a BIM-AR-based system to support the decision-making process of change orders during the construction phase. It includes four main functions: (1) visualization of change models and interaction with them in real-world environments, (2) cost assessment for calculating the direct cost of changes automatically and showing the information of cost comparison, (3) …

Classification Des Sols Et Sélection Des Systèmes D’Étançonnement Pour L’Excavation Des Tranchées : Résultats Des Essais Réalisés Au Laboratoire De Géotechnique De L’Université Laval – Annexe, Bertrand Galy, Denis Lebœuf, Omar Chaallal, André Lan

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Dans le cadre du projet « Classification des sols et sélection des systèmes d’étançonnement pour l’excavation des tranchées », des tranchées et des excavations de pleine grandeur ont été réalisées dans une argile sensible typique du Québec, à Louiseville. Ces aménagements ont permis d’évaluer et de valider la résistance et le comportement de systèmes d’étançonnement, grâce aux essais suivants :

• Une excavation non soutenue de 5 m de profondeur à paroi verticale;
• Une excavation non soutenue de 4,2 m de profondeur, à paroi talutée (pente de 1,6:1);
• Une tranchée de 6 m de profondeur soutenue avec une boîte de tranchée …