Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Structural Design Guidelines For Pervious Concrete Pavements, April Smith

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Pervious pavements have gained popularity in recent years as the transportation industry focuses on sustainability and environmental impact. This research investigated the structural design of pervious concrete pavements. There is no standard design method; therefore, the goal was to lessen ambiguity surrounding the use of pervious concrete for pavement structures. By characterization of the rigid pavement design equation from the 1993 AASHTO Structural Design Guide for Design of Pavement Structures through laboratory exploration and review of existing literature, a guide was created to assist engineers in the design of pervious concrete pavements.

Asphalt Concrete As A Flooring Material, Aleinys Villarreal

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The need for having a good quality flooring has become something very important in order to enhance people’s spaces and living lifestyle. Some of the most common tile materials are cork, vinyl, concrete, and ceramic. While these four materials mentioned before are still capable materials, asphalt concrete has a distinct pattern that may be an attractive alternative to the standard tile types. To try and find solutions to these problems and give people another material option, asphalt concrete was evaluated as a flooring material.

The reason why asphalt concrete could have this new application is based on the outstanding properties …

The Influence Of Citric Acid On Setting Time And Temperature Behavior Of Calcium Sulfoaluminate-Belite Cement, Edgar Soriano

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Today the need to opt for alternative cementitious materials is growing due to environmental reasons and construction time frames that portland cement cannot always satisfy. Calcium Sulfoaluminate (CSA) cements are a strong candidate to supplement or replace portland cement in the construction field for certain applications. In the United States, CSA cement has been limited mostly to pavement repairs because of its rapid initial setting time. The chemical compound responsible for this phenomenon is the alumina. This compound and sulfate are present in larger proportions compared to portland cement. The purpose of this research is to study how the use …

Tension Splitting Strength Of Bcsa Concrete Cylinders, Andrew Steven Deschenes

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The focus of this research was to compare the tension splitting strength (TSS) of belitic calcium sufloaluminate (BCSA) cement concrete to tensile strength predicted by the American Concrete Institute (ACI) and to similarly proportioned portland cement (PC) concrete. BCSA is a rapid-setting cement with higher early strength, higher ettringite content, and lower calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) content than PC. PC and BCSA cement concrete cylinders were broken at different ages in both uniaxial compression and TSS. It was found that BCSA had a similar TSS to both the ACI prediction and PC TSS, but the results require further testing for …

Turbulent Effects On Building Pressure Using A Two-Dimensional Finite Element Program, Jonese Woods

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Much of the knowledge about building aerodynamics today was obtained from physical testing like wind tunnel testing. Physical testing is time-consuming and very expensive. As a result, computational methods like the finite element method are being explored for use in building aerodynamics. Despite several years of research, there is still not a clear understanding of the peak pressure on buildings due to turbulence. Many of the research thus far has focused on comparing different computational methods. However, much work is needed in understanding the capability of the individual methods. In this work, a two-dimensional finite element program is used to …

Exploring The Compactability And Workability Of Rap, Elizabeth Poblete

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Despite its economic and environmental benefits, the widespread use of Cold In-Place Recycling (CIR) is currently inhibited, to some degree, by a lack of laboratory testing and evaluation, specifically in the areas of compactability and workability of the reclaimed mixture stabilized with asphalt emulsion. The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of admixtures in CIR using modified Superpave Gyratory Compactor (SGC) compaction metrics. The primary stabilization technique considered in this research was asphalt emulsion, an application in which asphalt binder is suspended in water, allowing it to be stored and applied at ambient temperature, rather than the …

Central Valley Water Reclamation Facility: Food Waste Handling Improvements, Avery Holyoak, Todd Keniry, Benjamin Sandberg, Jade Snyder

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Central Valley Water Reclamation Facility (CVWRF), in Salt Lake City, Utah, utilizes a mesophilic anaerobic digestion system. CVWRF receives on average 52 million gallons per day (MGD) of wastewater and accepts 10,000 to 20,000 gal of liquid food waste daily. CVWRF produces energy from methane gas captured during anaerobic digestion of biosolids and food waste. The focus of this analysis is: 1) to optimize the performance of the anaerobic digestion system, 2) to evaluate the potential to increase the volume of food waste CVWRF accepts.

Flood Conveyance And Restoration Upper Reach Of The Logan River, Dani Delahoz, Briana Kistler, Dallen Webster, D. Willey

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Generations of residents in Logan, Utah have sought riverside property along the Logan River, leading to crowded development within the river’s natural floodplains. This is especially true in the Upper Reach, a 1.3-mile section between First Dam and Crockett Diversion (Figure 1).

Housing and yard development at the edge of the river has confined the water to a narrow, steeply-banked channel, increasing velocity, sediment scour, and degradation of river and riparian habitat. During extreme flow events, like the 100-year 24-hour flood, the river overtops its banks and flows into adjacent properties. Dam-induced sediment deficiencies and high velocities have led to …

Thermal Bowing Testing Of Precast Concrete Sandwich Wall Panels, Fray Pozo-Lora, Marc Maguire

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Thermal bowing is out-of-plane wall deflection, which is a common issue on sandwich panel walls caused by a temperature differential between a building interior temperature and the environmental conditions.

This report aims to better understand thermal load response of concrete sandwich wall panels. Full-scale testing was performed to verify the assumptions regarding thermal gradient, temperature variation at the cross-section level and thermal conductivity of the connectors.

It was found out that carbon fiber reinforced polymer nor glass fiber reinforced polymer connectors transfer a significate amount of heat from one wythe to the other, hence, the temperature in one wythe remained …

Development Of Safety Performance Function For Arterial Intersections In Metro Manila, Philippines Using Random Decision Forest And Negative Binomial Regression Analysis, Karen Chritine Torres Lasola

Undergraduate Theses

This study presents the development of a safety performance function for arterial intersection in Metro Manila, Philippines, using Random Decision Forest which can be used to determine accident rates at an intersection based on its characteristics. A heat map was generated which shows that the intersection along Don Marcos Avenue in Quezon City has the most number of recorded accidents from 2013-2o15. From the Random Decision Forest, the significant variables affecting accident counts are number of lanes in major and minor roads, presence of separate pass, presence of pedestrian lanes, and type of land use. However, upon performing the negative …

Biofiltration Of Volatile Organic Compounds Emitted At Ethanol Plants, Christopher Arthur Duerschner

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

Ethanol manufacturing is an important and growing sector in the biofuels marketplace. At ethanol plants, the control of volatile organic compound containing emissions from fermentation tanks and distillers dried grains with solubles driers is accomplished through the use of air scrubbers and regenerative thermal oxidizers. The operation of these control units imposes substantial operating costs for the ethanol plant. Biotrickling filters have the ability to replace scrubbers and regenerative thermal oxidizers resulting in significant economic and environmental benefits. Two biotrickling filters were operated in parallel under acetaldehyde loadings ranging from 4 to 136 gm^-3hr^-1. To examine …

Theoretical Model For Shields Diagram And Its Application, Jichao Jiang

Department of Environmental Engineering: Theses and Other Student Research

The transition from the condition of “no motion” to initial sediment moment, defined as sediment initiation, has been related to practical engineering (channel degradation, stable channel design), oceanographic (dredging, pipelines, cables), sedimentologic (sediment mobility, transport rates), geologic (the hydraulic interpretation of paleoenvironments), geochemical (pollutant transport), and gained considerable interest since nineteenth century.

Shields diagram for sediment initiation in terms of critical shear stress is a classic problem in sediment transport, but it is still an empirical law without a simple and practical theory despite extensive research since the 1930s. Hence, this research presents a simple theoretical model for critical shear …

Lateral And Torsional Seismic Vibration Control For Torsionally Irregular Buildings, Osman Akyürek

Theses and Dissertations

During strong earthquakes or wind gusts, it is likely that buildings with torsional irregularity in the plan have an can be seriously damaged, partially collapsed or fully collapsed. This is because Torsionally Irregular Buildings (TIBs) may have significant aerodynamic torsion loads that increase the eccentricity between the center of mass and the center of rigidity, especially in dominant torsion modes. For this reason, torsion leads to excessive increase in lateral motions when dynamic loads excite the buildings. Torsional irregularity is one of the main failure causes during strong dynamic excitations due to earthquakes or wind gusts. Ignoring torsional irregularity in …

Damping Coefficient Sensitivity Analysis Of High Rebound Soils In Florida, Aline Franqui

Theses and Dissertations

The dynamic response of soils is related to a damping factor, which represents the energy absorbed by the soil as the pile moves. Certain blends of fine sands, silts and clays are producing pile rebound during driving. For that reason, the objective of this thesis is to conduct a damping coefficient sensitivity analysis of high rebound soils in Florida. Forty cyclic triaxial tests from six sites in Central and Northern Florida were analyzed to evaluate damping. Two approaches were used, one based on the change in stress over time and a second based on the viscous energy absorbed per cycle. …

Effect Of Industry Clusters And Commodity Flow Characteristics On The Selection Of Freight Transportation Modes In The United States With Advanced Econometric Approaches, Taleb Eissa Ali Eissa

Theses and Dissertations

Mode choice is an important strategic decision for shippers to carry commodities efficiently. Freight mode-choice is an important activity to develop a successful freight transportation business in the private sector and to plan for economically consistent freight transportation infrastructures in the public sector. Freight activities result from the complex interactions between different economic agents, but these relationships are commonly relaxed to account for three major agents: shippers, carriers and receivers. Furthermore, the behavior of freight choice is commonly not concentrated in one agent, but rather is divided jointly over multiple individuals and firms in a logistics process, each component of …

Taxonomy And Abstraction Of The On-Demand Mobility Aviation System For Smart Cities, Wancheng Dai

Theses and Dissertations

The on-demand mobility aviation system is a new paradigm providing aircraft-based point-to-point transportation services to travelers in urban and suburban areas. Many consider it as the next revolution in intelligent transportation systems. Since it does not require pre-scheduling and vehicles travel at high speed, travel times are dramatically decreased, which overcomes issues of the current ground transportation system, improves travel times and level of service, increases productivity and creates new business models. Likewise, it is envisioned to generate positive environmental outcomes. Since this is a new and unique mode of intelligent transportation, few is known about its potential success and …

Design And Analysis Of Fiber Reinforced Concrete Structure For Transportation Infrastructures, Salam Adil Mutlag Wtaife

Theses and Dissertations

Concrete is one of the most popular materials in superstructures (buildings), substructures (foundation) and infrastructure facilities (bridges, pavements, and tunnels). However, concrete is a brittle material that cracks easily under tension. Fiber may be used as reinforcement to impede the concrete from cracking as well as to increase the concrete flexural strength. Nevertheless, current design codes do not include this design enhancement. Furthermore, there are discrepancies in the design methodology concerning the inclusion of discrete fibers in concrete structures. Therefore; there is a need to develop new analysis methodology and design methodology for fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) and fiber reinforced …

Modeling Of Hurricane-Induced Interior And Contents Damage And Associated Time-Related Expenses To Residential Buildings, Roberto Vicente Silva De Abreu

Theses and Dissertations

Hurricanes are a main cause of economic losses in many parts of the world, including the state of Florida. They affect the exterior, interior, and the contents of residential buildings. The damage of the interior can be as much as half of the total damage, but the estimation of the interior damage is still somewhat crude. Most damage models estimate interior damage as a percentage of the exterior damage, or through simple relationships, that relate the height of water ingress in the building to the interior damage. The current version of the Commercial Low-Rise Residential vulnerability model (CLR) of the …

Airport Taxiway Traversal And Safety Optimization Using Combinatorics, Thore Groenlund Rasmussen

Theses and Dissertations

The demand for air travel has increased dramatically in the last decade, putting large strain on airports and their limited resources. Expanding the available resources at an airport is not always an option either due to location, budget or time. This forces the administrators of an airport system to use the limited resources as efficiently as possible. This thesis proposes a tool for air traffic controllers and pilots that can be used when planning taxiway systems. Taking inspiration from Dijkstra’s Algorithm, an algorithm is proposed to safely move aircraft from the terminal to the runway. Applying constraints to the algorithm …

Modeling Driver-Pedestrian-Infrastructure Interactions At Signalized Midblock Crosswalks, Boniphace Kutela

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Cities and metropolitan areas are increasingly facilitating pedestrians’ movement by the provision of pedestrian walking facilities. As pedestrian traffic increases, the risk of crash involvement increases, especially at midblock locations, where pedestrians are exposed to unsafe interactions with vehicular traffic. To improve pedestrians’ safety at midblock locations, various countermeasures are provided, which include signalized crosswalks. Several studies have analyzed driver-pedestrian interactions, as well as pedestrian-infrastructure interactions at signalized midblock crosswalks. However, more in-depth studies are necessary, due to shortfalls of study assumptions, which have led to the application of improper statistical models, as seen in the literature. Improved models are …

Opportunities And Challenges Of Modular Construction In A Hospitality Centric Environment, Shreyansh Paliwal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Modular construction techniques can substantially decrease project schedules and costs, effectively maintaining or increasing the quality of an end product by shifting a percentage of site-based work to an off-site fabrication shop. Modular construction can also significantly contribute to sustainability by reducing site disruption, reducing waste generated, creating better relocatability and reusability, causing less dust and noise pollution, and reducing the probability of loss, theft, and damage to equipment. The primary goal of this research is to identify the opportunities and challenges of implementing modular construction techniques in a hospitality-centric environment, by investigating the current situation and characteristics of modular …

Estimation Of Stage-Area-Storage Relationships In Reservoirs And Stage-Discharge Relationships In Rivers Using Remotely Sensed Data, Sailuj Shakya

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis estimates the relationships between the water surface levels and quantities of water in reservoirs and rivers using remotely sensed data without any field measurements. However, the accuracies of the estimates were validated using the field measurements from ground stations. The relationships between the water surface levels and quantities are fundamental for monitoring water quantities for the operation of hydraulic structures, as well as analyzing variability and changes in hydrology. Accessibility and transparency are big issues in establishing a monitoring system that can provide field validation of efforts to model global climate systems. Remote sensing has a capability of …

Assessing Simulated Transmissivity In Numerical Flow Models Of Complex Hydrogeology, Afan Tarar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Accurately extracting a meaningful transmissivity, a target value within one order of magnitude of field estimates, in numerical models poses a significant challenge when modeling complex groundwater systems. Aquifer transmissivity is directly proportional to the aquifer thickness and the estimated aquifer hydraulic conductivity. In complex geologic conditions (especially in fractured systems) with multiple heterogeneous and anisotropic hydrogeologic units, transmissivity can vary over several orders of magnitude.

To extract a meaningful value of transmissivity from a numerical model, a simple five-layer MODFLOW model was constructed. Each layer in the model was assigned a fixed hydraulic conductivity and thickness. The model simulates …

Multi-Resolution Spatio-Temporal Change Analyses Of Hydro-Climatological Variables In Association With Large-Scale Oceanic-Atmospheric Climate Signals, Kazi Ali Tamaddun

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The primary objective of the work presented in this dissertation was to evaluate the change patterns, i.e., a gradual change known as the trend, and an abrupt change known as the shift, of multiple hydro-climatological variables, namely, streamflow, snow water equivalent (SWE), temperature, precipitation, and potential evapotranspiration (PET), in association with the large-scale oceanic-atmospheric climate signals. Moreover, both observed datasets and modeled simulations were used to evaluate such change patterns to assess the efficacy of the modeled datasets in emulating the observed trends and shifts under the influence of uncertainties and inconsistencies. A secondary objective of this study was to …

Internal Design Of A Hydroponics Greenhouse For Tri Cycle Farms, Sarah Gould

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Hydroponics is the agricultural technique of growing plants without soil, using other growing media and added nutrients in a solvent. It is an attractive agricultural method over conventional agriculture because it is more water efficient, is less labor intensive, yields higher quality crops in less time, and is easier to control. According to the Digital Journal, “hydroponics crop value is anticipated to grow to USD 27.29 Billion by 2022 at an estimated CAGR of 6.39% from 2015 to 2020” (Sawant, 2016). Alongside this growing market acceptance for hydroponics, there is also a local demand that requires only a small transportation …

Effectiveness Of Titanium And Iron Nanoparticles In Treating M. Aeruginosa For Harmful Algal Bloom Remediation, Natalie Von Tress

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) are a growing issue worldwide, posing harm to both aquatic ecosystems and drinking water quality. This issue could be potentially mitigated using nanoparticle (NP) treatment, simultaneously removing cyanobacteria and associated cyanotoxins in HABs. This research seeks to discern the effectiveness of using titanium dioxide and iron (III) oxide NP treatment at removing cyanobacteria via flocculation and sedimentation. Each NP at 25 mg/L and 50 mg/L were used to treat suspended culture of Microcystis aeruginosa, the representative cyanobacteria, up to 72 hours. Cell concentration and morphology in the supernatant were measured via a Coulter counter and …

Ecological Co2 Flux Of A Green Roof Ecosystem And A Typical Grassland Ecosystem, Madeline Oxner

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Hillside Auditorium Green Roof is a low impact development feature on the University of Arkansas campus. It retains storm water and allows plants living on the roof to take up and transpire the water. Green roofs work to mimic natural ecosystems in urban environments. A key property is ecosystem respiration, which plays a large role in the global carbon cycle and is an important biologic activity indicator. The ecosystem respiration of Hillside Auditorium Green Roof was compared to a typical grassland ecosystem at the University of Arkansas farm to determine how closely the green roof is able to mimic …

A Unified Risk-Based Framework For Assessing Sustainability And Resiliency Of Civil Infrastructure, Thomas Adam Robbins

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

As of February 2019, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has reported since 1880 the average global temperature has increased 1°C, with the warmest year on record being 2016. As the years continue to pass, it is becoming more evident that climate change is occurring, which is known to be a catalyst for climatic weather events. Statistically speaking, these events are more prevalent, and catastrophic exemplified as hurricanes, earthquakes, flooding, and fires. In addition to the increase of potentially catastrophic events, society as a whole has become more conscientious in the use and preservation of natural resources, waste generation, …

Comparison Of Zero Valent Iron (Zvi) And Zvi+Sludge For The Removal Of High Levels Of Hexavalent Chromium And Chlorate From Waters, Kenneth R. Greenhalgh

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Remediation of contaminated groundwater is becoming increasingly more

important as much of the U.S. population relies on groundwater for their drinking water.

Contaminates such as Chromium, common pollutant at industrial waste sites, and

Hexavalent chromium which is toxic to humans, animals, and plants are major

concerns. Chlorate, another contaminate of concern, has been widely detected in

ground and surface water in the United States and even locally in Henderson Nevada at

the Nevada Environmental Response Trust (NERT) sites. To assist in mitigating this

issue, this research focuses on the removal of high levels of hexavalent chromium (ppm

range) (Cr(VI)) and …

Utilization Of Remote Sensing Data For Estimation Of The Groundwater Storage Variation, Gaurang Mistry

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Groundwater is the most extracted raw material, with an average withdrawal rate of 982 km3 per year, where 70 percent of the total groundwater withdrawn is used for agriculture globally (Margat & van der Gun, 2013). With climate change and increased water demands in recent years, monitoring the changes in the groundwater storage is of the utmost importance. This thesis presents an analysis that determines the rates, trends, and directions where groundwater storage is going in Pakistan. It also correlates fluctuations in groundwater storage with variations in precipitation and agricultural productivity in the country. The overall objectives of this thesis …