Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Hybrid: The Future Of Construction Meetings In The Digital Age, Nicholas G. Orozco

Construction Management

Over the last few years, many construction companies have had to upheave traditional methods of construction meetings to adapt to rapidly changing COVID-19 safety and regulation protocols. For many, this has meant taking common in-person meetings (OAC, pre-construction, and design) and shifting them virtual. As companies continue to move forward in a post-pandemic climate, the question of whether they will continue with virtual meetings or revert to in-person meetings still lingers in the air. To get a better read on the future of construction meetings post-pandemic, a survey was sent to determine what most people prefer. A total of 21 …

Protecting The Caed Shop Equipment Yard, Chloe K. Stevens

Construction Management

Anytime a construction project is considered, there is a lengthy process that happens before breaking ground. It is important to consider the environment around the project, the intended purpose and use of the space, and the materials, time, and budget needed to develop it. If you do not take these things into consideration correctly, it will negatively impact the functionality and the efficiency of both the use and the construction process. This project consists of creating a pre-construction plan for building out a weather protective and space efficient enclosure at the College of Architectural and Environmental Design Shop Yard. The …

A Design Build Company’S Pain Points For Field Staff Working Outside Of A Company’S Home Area, Mason Barber

Construction Management

Design-Build is the project-delivery system of the future but is not without pain points. The Design-Build system is an efficient form of project delivery that has a strong focus on relationships and can begin the construction phase while the design phase is still active. This study aims to identify and analyze the additional challenges or pain points that arise when Design-Build construction is taking place in an unfamiliar location and distant from the company office. The pain points are identified with field staff feedback through the form of survey responses. This study uses The Neenan Company as an example because …

Analyzing The Gender Gap In Field Positions On Commercial Construction Projects, Adriana L. Frazier

Construction Management

The percentage of women working in the construction industry is on the rise. However, most women working in the construction industry often fill administrative roles, office positions, and project management roles rather than field positions such as tradeswomen, foremen, or superintendents. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of 2020, women constitute 10.9 percent of the entire construction industry. Specifically, 86.7 percent of those women are in office positions with only 3.5 percent of women in trade positions. Those numbers signify that the construction industry is not benefitting from women in field positions. That is due to …

The Causes Of Electrical Labor Shortages Within Central California, Madeline S. Brogno

Construction Management

Labor shortages within various trades in the construction industry have become a prominent issue throughout the world for decades. The negative effects due to lack of manpower affect construction personnel ranging from general contractors to manufacturers who are finding themselves struggling as many subcontractors are having to turn down work, which in turn affects general contractors timelines in projects- extending durations, and increasing costs. There has been general research done that has provided some insight, suggesting the root cause be attributed to the baby-boomer generation retiring, or a general lack of interest in the industry. This research paper on labor …

Feasibility Study: Demolition Of Cal Poly’S “Powerhouse”, Evan W. Tookey

Construction Management

The “Powerhouse” is currently an abandoned building located next to the Construction Innovations Center on the campus of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The building was constructed in 1908 and is currently the oldest standing building located on campus. Students at Cal Poly have always been aware of the building, as it takes up a significant portion of campus and is located in an area that receives a lot of foot traffic. Unfortunately, many Cal Poly students and faculty are uninformed as to the building’s history since it has been boarded-up and abandoned since 1990. This paper examines the Powerhouse …

Effects Of Cal Poly Construction Management Software Curriculum On Graduate Employment Choices, Andrew Holland

Construction Management

As technology continues to advance at an accelerated pace, the construction industry struggles to keep up with these rapid changes. Understanding and adopting new technologies, specifically software, are key to the future of the construction industry. Studies have shown that the slow adoption of software in the industry has more to do with a lack of training than the limitations of the software. New hires out of universities with experience and training in these software are the linchpin to adapting this industry to new technology. The Construction Management Department at Cal Poly is renowned for putting out new hires with …

City Of Guadalupe Cultural Arts & Education Center Veterans Memorial Wall, Alejandra Arroyo Perez

Construction Management

As a student in Construction Management, the importance of firsthand experience in the construction industry should not be taken lightly. The responsibility of every construction manager is to learn how to take a project from concept to reality. The primary five elements of construction management entail project programming, design development, material specifications, estimating, and scheduling. This paper documents the construction management process related to a Veterans Memorial Wall. Through coordination with the project stakeholders (i.e. property owners, engineer consultants, material fabricators, and vendors) a fully immersive construction management experience is gained. One of the stakeholder requirements was to establish a …

To A More Sustainable Construction Method For Electrically Conductive Heated Pavement Systems, Mohammad Anis

Theses and Dissertations

Snow and ice damage to the pavement in the United States, particularly in colder regions, costs the US economy millions of dollars each year. Conventional methods for keeping snow off roads after heavy snowfall are judged prohibitively expensive. As a result, an alternative solution is required to reduce costs while also improving pavement resiliency. An electrically heated pavement system (EHPS) has been regarded as a viable alternative to older approaches in recent years. The majority of earlier research concentrated on improving the conductivity characteristics of paving materials. On the other hand, this study takes a different approach by focusing on …

The Skeletal Structure Of Hot Mix Asphalt And The Effects Of Fiber Additives, Samantha A. Avila

Theses and Dissertations

Hot mix asphalt (HMA) has proven to be successful in providing a proper paving surface for transportation services throughout the world. Asphalt pavement could be altered as the gradation of the mixture is adjusted. For instance, mixtures could vary from Dense Graded (DG) that contain a fairly even percentage of all aggregate size allowing for a more compact fit to Stone Matrix Asphalt (SMA) where the coarse aggregate compromise the main skeleton while fine aggregate fills the voids. This study investigates the effects of fibers and skeletal structures on mechanical properties of HMA. Two types of fiber additives are tested …

Life-Cycle Cost Analysis Of The Efficient Water Fixtures And Electric Appliances Used To Minimize Water And Energy Consumption In Homes In The U.S, Miranda N. Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

Consumer interest in incorporating sustainability and efficient appliances into daily life has been growing in the past several years. While reducing their environmental impact may be a draw to some, by making the switch to water- and energy-efficient appliances many homeowners are enticed by the promise of long-term savings on utility bills. Programs such as WaterSense and Energy Star not only offer certified efficient appliances and fixtures, but they may also certify water- and energy-efficient homes. Additionally, the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) offers the LEED program (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) which certifies homes in a similar …

A Gis-Based Model To Assess On-Site Sewage Facility (Ossf) Contamination Risk To Local Water Resources, Alvaro Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

In a collaborative effort between Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI), Cameron County Public Health (CCPH), Texas A&M AgriLife Extension (TAMAE), and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), a GIS database that includes relevant OSSF information, such as location, system age, lot size, and other important parameters was created.

This OSSF database, along with publicly available GIS data, was used to create an integrative GIS-based risk assessment model where OSSF risk parameters were assigned a risk factor and combined into a spatial contamination risk for surrounding areas and their receiving waterbodies. Parameters were broken down into two categories: environmental …

Effect Of Long And Short Chain Fatty Acids On Methane Yield And Microbial Community Composition In Anaerobic Co-Digestion, Emmaline Spier Camposano

All Theses

Fats, oils and greases are produced from a variety of industries, including animal rendering operations, vegetable oil processing plants and the hospitality industry. These hydrophobic, COD-rich compounds are known to cause issues in municipal wastewater collection and treatment systems. Anaerobic co-digestion has been shown to be an effective way to treat FOG and presents an opportunity to produce greater quantities of biogas. However, many microorganisms are sensitive to the degradation products of FOG, including long and short chain fatty acids. Two studies were performed to address potential inhibitory effects of both.

The first study co-digested various percentages of FOG with …

Development And Promotion Of Mass Timber Noise Barrier For Highways, Harsh Bothra

All Theses

Highways are some of the biggest causes of noise pollution in the United States of America. To deal with the traffic noise coming from these highways, noise barriers have been erected across major highways. The goal is to reduce as much noise as possible through a sustainable solution. Unfortunately, the use of steel and concrete, commonly used materials, have undesired environmental impacts. A suggested sustainable alternative material would be mass timber. Mass timber products such as cross-laminated timber (CLT) and mass plywood panels (MPP) has attracted the attention of the construction industry in the U.S, as they are sustainable, light, …

Development Of Lambda Factors For Masonry Design With Lightweight Grout, Rumi Shrestha

All Theses

Reduction in structural mass, improvement in thermal performance, and reduction in shrinkage cracking through internal curing are some of the reasons that lightweight (LW) aggregates have been used in structures and pavements for decades. However, lightweight grout is still not permitted for use in reinforced masonry construction by the TMS 402/602-16 code. In order to realize the benefits of lightweight grout in U.S. reinforced masonry construction, a codified procedure for its use is required which must be informed by experimental testing.

This research is a pilot project directed to characterize the performance of LW grout in comparison to normal weight …

The Effect Of Using Palm Oil As An Electron Donor For The Reductive Dechlorination Of Trichloroethylene (Tce), Shivani Swamy

All Theses

TCE is currently remediated using physical methods like air stripping and granular activated carbon adsorption. While physical and chemical processes work on a site-specific basis, biological strategies have been favored as they are economical and reliable. The objective of this work was to determine the feasibility of using palm oil as an electron donor in the reductive dechlorination of TCE to ethene. Palm oil was considered for the study because it is locally grown in many parts of the world. The palm oil that does not meet the industry standards is discarded. Despite the environmental impacts caused by the palm …

Theoretical Development And Numerical Validation Of An Asymmetric Linear Bilateral Control Model For An Automated Truck Platoon, M Sabbir Salek

All Theses

In this study, the author theoretically develops and numerically validates an asymmetric linear bilateral control model (LBCM) for an automated truck platoon, in which the motion information (i.e., position and speed) from the immediate leading truck and the immediate following truck are weighted differently. The novelty of the asymmetric LBCM is that using this model, all the follower trucks in a platoon can adjust their acceleration and deceleration to closely follow a constant desired time headway at all times to improve platoon operational efficiency while maintaining local and string stability. The author theoretically proves the local stability of the asymmetric …

Deriving Generalized Temperature-Dependent Material Models For Masonry Through Fire Tests And Machine Learning, Aditya Avinash Daware

All Theses

Masonry is one of the oldest and commonly used building materials in the construction industry. Among a variety of benefits, masonry provides low-cost construction, fire, and weather protection as well as thermal and sound insulation. In addition, masonry has superior material properties at elevated temperatures which is reflected by its slow degradation of its mechanical and thermal properties. Literature shows that we do not have a uniform material model that describes the mechanical degradation of masonry under fire conditions. As such, this limits the use of masonry in fire-based performance design of masonry structures. To bridge this knowledge gap, this …

Preferential Flow In Riparian Buffers: Current Research And Future Needs., Derek M. Heeren, Lucie Guertault, Kyle Mankin

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Preferential flow in riparian buffers can substantially compromise their effectiveness in reducing contaminants from overland runoff. The objective of this article is to introduce a collection of five articles on current research into subsurface preferential flow measurement, visualization, modeling, and impacts on contaminant fate and transport at scales ranging from the subsurface pore scale to the plot scale to the watershed scale. This collection presents selected works from a broader invited session on “Preferential flow and piping in riparian buffers” at the 2020 ASABE Annual International Meeting. Major findings include: new methodologies, such as light transmission and geophysics, to characterize …

Corn Fiber As A Biomass Feedstock For Production Of Succinic Acid, Lisbeth Vallecilla-Yepez, Divya Ramchandran, Dianna Long, Rajib Saha, Mark R. Wilkins

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The selection of an economical carbon source is a fundamental parameter to establish a successful industrial succinic acid (SA) bioprocess. In this work, corn fiber (CF), a renewable and an inexpensive source of carbohydrates, was successfully used for bioproduction of SA. Optimized liquid hot water (LHW) pretreatment followed by enzymatic hydrolysis were used to obtain corn fiber hydrolysate (CFH). Results in batch fermentation with Actinobacillus succinogenes showed that a control solution mimicking CFH produced 28.7 g/L of SA with a yield of 0.67 g SA/g sugars, while fermentation of CFH produced 27.8 g/L of SA with a yield of 0.61 …

Seismic Performance Assessment Of Building Contents: Monetary Losses And Injuries, Sereen Majdalaweyh

All Dissertations

Building contents include all the components that are not attached to the building which the owners place after the construction phase, such as furniture, electrical equipment, glassware, and other personal items. Loss and damage assessment of building contents proved to be challenging in performance-based earthquake engineering frameworks because of the data sparsity. Damages to building contents during an earthquake not only cause monetary losses; tumbling and over-toppling of heavy building contents could result in injuries and even deaths of occupants. While major advancements have been made in performance-based earthquake engineering; however, the focus is mainly on damages and collapse risk …

Resiliency Of Utah's Road Network: A Logit-Based Approach, Max Evan Barnes

Theses and Dissertations

The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) manages and maintains a complex state-wide network of highways. Recent incidents such as the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Min- neapolis, Minnesota, and the I-85/Piedmont Road fire and subsequent bridge collapse in Atlanta, Georgia, have brought identification of transportation network vulnerabilities to the forefront of UDOT’s planning efforts. Traditional estimates of transportation network impacts have focused on increases to user travel time or the volume of affected traffic, but studies of these disasters have revealed that when facing a degraded transportation network, people adjust their trip making in terms of destination, mode, and …

Bridge Load Posting Prediction, Sabarethinam Kameshwar, Md. Manik Mia, Sai Bandaru

Publications

There are approximately 13,000 bridges in Louisiana facilitating movement of people, goods, and services. At present, about 12% of the bridges are load posted, i.e., they are deemed to lack the strength to safely carry all legal loads. With time bridges will age and deteriorate; at the same time, legal loads might increase. Load posted bridges disrupt the movement of goods and commerce. Therefore, objective of this research was to estimate the number of load posted bridges in Louisiana over the next 50 years. For this purpose, herein, a data based approach was used. For a given bridge type, the …

Smart Battery Management System For Electric Vehicles: Selflearning Algorithms For Simultaneous State And Parameter Estimation, And Stress Detection, Avimanyu Sahoo, Samir Ahmed

Publications

The project proposes to develop parameter-varying SOH-coupled models for lithium-ion battery and self-learning algorithms to learn the model for simultaneous state and parameter estimation and fault detection. The traditional battery models use constant parameters, limiting their accuracy for predicting the state of the charge and health over the complete life-cycle. In practice, the battery parameters vary with the change in the state of charge and state of health. SOH-coupled models can be used to estimate the state of charge and health accurately. Further, obtaining the model parameters is also a challenging task for designing filters or observers for state estimation. …

Expanding The Concept Of Comprehensive Area Ratio Parameter To The South-Central States: Towards Simplifying The Structural Evaluation Of Flexible Pavements At The Network Level, Mena Souliman, Samer Dessouky, Nitish R. Bastola

Publications

The surface deflection bowl data collected through falling weight deflectometer (FWD) test is utilized by highway agencies in assessing the performance of the flexible pavement. However, a robust method to evaluate pavement sections utilizing FWD data from all the sensors is seldom developed. There is always a need for DOTs and highway agencies to have a simplified procedure, which can be directly implemented in agencies' databases. This study focuses on expanding and validating the concept of previously developed area ratio parameters towards the pavement section of South-Central States (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas) in effectively analyzing the pavement …

Assessment Of The Hydrograv® Adapt Variable Height Secondary Clarifier Inlet At Hrsd Nansemond Treatment Plant, Matthew Poe

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) recently completed the first North American and center driven installation of the Hydrograv® Adapt Variable Height Secondary Clarifier Inlet (Adapt) at HRSD’s Nansemond Treatment Plant. This is a variable height inlet structure designed to decrease clarifier effluent turbidity and maintain low turbidity during high flow events. Low turbidity is achieved by feeding the secondary clarifier influent within the solids blanket during dry weather conditions and lifting the inlet structure during wet weather conditions to avoid disrupting the blanket. The Adapt clarifier was monitored alongside an identical fixed inlet clarifier to assess performance. Both clarifiers …

Identification Of Phosphorous Loading Point Source Facilities To 303(D) Listed Nutrient Impaired Waters Through Watershed Delineation Using Arcgis For Life Cycle Assessment Applications, John Zimmerman

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The work done for this project is part of a larger “life cycle assessment (LCA) of novel electrochemical phosphorus recovery technology at the wastewater treatment plant and U.S. watershed scales” (Morrissey 2019). The goal of that LCA is to determine “environmental impacts of implementing electrochemical struvite recovery at the wastewater treatment plant, U.S watershed, and global scales” (Morrissey 2019). This project’s goal is to identify locations deemed more sensitive to eutrophication impacts. The results will be used as part of the life cycle inventory (LCI) accounting for geographically explicit phosphorus flows. The waters identified as impaired were sourced from the …

Application Of Biochar As Beneficial Additive In Concrete, Temirlan Barissov

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

Biochar is a high-carbon solid material produced via thermal decomposition of organic biomass in a low-oxygen environment. Characterized with high water retention properties and high alkalinity, biochar is generally used for soil amendment and fertilization purposes. This study is intended to explore the feasibility of using biochar as a beneficial additive of the most used manmade material, concrete. Literature review revealed several studies where biochar was successfully implemented as an additive in concrete. The beneficial influence of biochar on the mechanical characteristics of concrete is based on nucleation and densification effects. However, the internal microstructure, porosity and chemical composition of …

Modeling Watershed Sensitivity To Climate Change In Systems Affected By Discharge Of Mine Tailings, Johnette C. Shockley

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

For more than a century, a large volume of gold-mining tailings was deposited in Whitewood Creek and the Belle Fourche River, tributaries to the Cheyenne River in western South Dakota. Much of it still remains, and field and historical evidence indicates continued remobilization of tailings-containing alluvium in these bedrock-dominated channels. Both long-term, natural fluctuations in climate and anthropogenically driven changes can impact regional precipitation, temperature, hydrologic patterns, and ecosystem functions. Such changes have the potential to affect both the transport and distribution of arsenic-laden sediments and mechanical erosion that can undermine the stability of channel-bed and overbank material.

This study …

Improving Pedestrian Safety With The Implementation Of The Demand-Responsive Transverse Rumble Strip As A New Traffic Safety Countermeasure, Md Shakhawat Hossen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The traditional TRS has been extensively used as a traffic calming device to provide cognitive alerts in the form of sound and vibration to drivers. However, TRS always remains fixed on the road and thus exerts cognitive alerts, irrespective of any potential downstream hazards. Moreover, the continuous exposure to rumble strips has been identified as a source of discomfort and annoyance for drivers, which limits its application to potentially useful scenarios. This study explores a rumble strip design with dynamic behavior named as Demand-Responsive Transverse Rumble Strip (DRTRS) in order to address the limitations of static TRS. The study incorporates …