Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Grain Yield, Crop And Basal Evapotranspiration, Production Functions And Water Productivity Response Of Drought-Tolerant And Non-Drought-Tolerant Maize Hybrids Under Different Irrigation Levels, And Population Densities: Part I. In Western Nebraska's Semi-Arid Environments, Ali T. Mohammed, Suat Irmak, William Kranz, Simon Van Donk, C. Dean Yonts

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Grain yield, crop evapotranspiration (ETc), basal evapotranspiration (ETb), ETc-yield production functions (ETYPF), and crop water use efficiency (CWUE) response of three drought-tolerant (DT) and one non-drought-tolerant (NDT) maize (Zea mays L.) hybrids to two plant population densities (PPDs) [84,000 plants ha-1 (high PPD) and 59,300 plants ha-1 (low PPD)] and three irrigation levels were researched at two semi-arid locations: North Platte (WCREC) and Scottsbluff (MAL), Nebraska, in 2010, 2011, and 2012. The irrigation levels were fully irrigated (FIT), early cutoff (ECOT), and rainfed (RFT). Precipitation in 2010 was above average, 2011 was a normal year, and 2012 was one of …

Damage Assessment Of A Sixteen Story Building Following The 2017 Central Mexico Earthquake, Yijun Liao, Richard L. Wood, M Ebrahim Mohammadi, Kanchan Devkota, Christine E. Wittich

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

The 2017 M7.1 Central Mexico Earthquake caused significant infrastructural damage in the Mexico City area. The earthquake contained a significant pulse in the long period, resulting in numerous buildings severely damaged or collapsed. This paper discusses a reinforced concrete building which was still partially occupied post-earthquake. The building’s interior walls were examined to have substantial damage, including some extensive cracking. In January 2018, the authors visited the structure and collected detailed assessment data. The data collection included ground-based lidar scans and recorded ambient vibrations of the damaged structure using accelerometers. Eleven scans were collected from the four exterior facades to …

Degradation Of Methylene Blue With Magnetic Co-Doped Fe3O4@Feooh Nanocomposites As Heterogeneous Catalysts Of Peroxymonosulfate, Kai Wang, Yi Yang, Tian C. Zhang, Ying Liang, Qingguo Wang

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Magnetic Co-doped Fe₃O₄@FeOOH nanocomposites were prepared in one step using the hydrothermal synthesis process for catalyzing peroxymonosulfate (PMS) to degrade refractory methylene blue (MB) at a wide pH range (3.0–10.0). The catalysts' physiochemical properties were characterized by different equipment; Fe³⁺/Fe²⁺ and Co³⁺/Co²⁺ were confirmed to coexist in the nanocomposite by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The nanocomposite effectively catalyzed PMS's decoloration (99.2%) and mineralization (64.7%) of MB. The formation of Co/Fe–OH complexes at the surface of nanoparticles was proposed to facilitate heterogeneous PMS activation. Compared with the observation for Fe₃O …

Modeled And Measured Ecosystem Respiration In Maize–Soybean Systems Over 10 Years, Ming Zhan, Adam Liska, Anthony Nguy-Robertson, Andrew E. Suyker, Matthew P. Pelton, Haishun Yang

Adam Liska Papers

Crop residue is an abundant resource for the potential production of biofuels, but a better understanding of its use on net carbon emissions must be developed to mitigate climate change. This analysis combines two established crop growth models (Hybrid-Maize and SoySim) with a simple soil and crop residue respiration model to estimate daily ecosystem respiration (ERe) from maize and soybean; ERe was estimated to be the sum of CO₂ emissions from the oxidation of the growing crop, crop residue, and soil organic carbon (SOC). Model-estimated CO₂ fluxes from irrigated continuous maize and irrigated maize–soybean cropping systems in eastern …

Microcontroller Based Granular Urea Application Attachment For Rice Transplanter, Md Towfiqur Rahman, Md Monjurul Alam, Md Mosharraf Hossain, Muhammad Rashed Al Mamun

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Transplanting and fertilizer application for rice production in Bangladesh are tedious, time consuming and laborious task, and mostly done manually. Mechanical transplanting of rice becoming popular in the country in recent years and few machines have been developed for granular urea deep placement, however, having some limitations. Placing granular urea precisely along with rice transplanting, an attempt was under taken to design and fabricate an electronic control granular urea applicator to be attach with a 4-row walk behind type rice transplanter. Fabrication of the electronic granular urea applicator was done in the workshop of the Department of Farm Power and …

Analysis Of Demand On Shared Mobility Packages In University Campus, Sandar Win

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Shared mobility is the emerging service and comes in various forms. In Chulalongkorn University, innovative shared mobility services such as shared bicycle (CU Bike), small electric vehicle sharing (Ha:mo) and ride sharing tricycle (Muvmi) are offered along with conventional free bus (Pop bus) circulation. This study aimed to explore the attributes of the monthly mobility package which have effect on student’s decision while offering the integrated service package for CU students. Two phases of questionnaire surveys were conducted to find out the satisfaction on existing mobility services quality, barriers that discourage students from using shared mobilities, and factors that influence …

Municipal Solid Waste Fly Ash Washing For Cement Application, Suthatta Dontriros

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Waste incineration is general solution to manage of municipal solid waste. However, large amount of municipal solid waste incineration fly ash (MSWI FA) accumulating heavy metals poses problem to the environment. One of the fundamental treatments is called solidification-stabilization of MSWI FA with cement to cap hazardous elements. Elements such as chloride and sulfate are captured in MSWI FA when it is collected in an air pollution control device causing low compressive strength of concrete. Thus, a further treatment of MSWI FA to remove these salts are required. Therefore, this study investigated MSWI FA treatment by deionized water, 0.01M and …

การดูดซับสารกลุ่มไตรฮาโลมีเทนโดยวัสดุโครงข่ายโลหะอินทรีย์ที่ทำการคาร์บอไนซ์, จิรภิญญา โอทอง

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

งานวิจัยนี้มีเป้าหมายเพื่อศึกษาการประยุกต์ใช้วัสดุโครงข่ายโลหะอินทรีย์ที่ทำการคาร์บอไนซ์เพื่อดูดซับสารกลุ่มไตรฮาโลมีเทน โดยทำการสังเคราะห์วัสดุโครงข่ายโลหะอินทรีย์ (MOFs) ชนิด MIL-53(Al), ZIF-8(Zn) และ HKUST-1(Cu) ที่อุณหภูมิห้อง และนำมาผ่านกระบวนการคาร์บอนไนเซชันที่อุณหภูมิ 900 องศาเซลเซียส ภายในก๊าซไนโตรเจน ( carbonized MIL-53(Al), carbonized ZIF-8(Zn) และ Carbonized HKUST-1(Cu)) เพื่อเพิ่มเสถียรภาพในวัฏภาคน้ำ และศึกษาดูดซับสารกลุ่มไตรฮาโลมีเทนทั้ง 4 ชนิด ได้แก่ คลอโรฟอร์ม(TCM), โบรโมฟอร์ม(TBM), โบรโมไดคลอรามีเทน (BDCM) และไดโบรโมคลอรามีเทน (DBCM) แบบทีละเทในน้ำประปา โดยทำการเปรียบเทียบประสิทธิภาพการดูดซับกับถ่านกัมมันต์ชนิดผงเกรดการค้า (PAC) จากผลการทดลองพบว่าตัวดูดซับที่ทำการคาร์บอไนซ์มีประสิทธิภาพในการดูดซับสูงกว่าตัวดูดซับแบบปกติ carbonized MIL-53(Al) มีอัตราเร็วในการดูดซับสารไตรฮาโลมีเทนทั้ง 4 ชนิดสูงกว่า carbonized MOFs อีก 2 ตัวและใกล้เคียงกับ PAC โดยจลนพลศาสตร์การดูดซับของสารไตรฮาโลมีเทนของ carbonized MIL-53(Al) และถ่านกัมมันต์ชนิดผงเกรดการค้า เป็นไปตามจลนพลศาสตร์การดูดซับลำดับที่ 2 เสมือน และเข้าสู่สภาวะสมดุลภายในระยะเวลา 40 นาที และ 60 นาที ตามลำดับ การศึกษาไอโซเทอมการดูดซับพบว่า carbonized MIL-53(Al) สามารถดูดซับสารไตรฮาโลมีเทนได้ดีกว่า PAC โดยสามารถดูดสารโบรโมฟอร์มได้ดีที่สุด (TCM

Global Food Security Under Climate-Water-Energy Nexus, Ehsan Najafi

Dissertations and Theses

During the last few decades, the global agricultural production has risen and technology enhancement is still contributing to yield growth. However, population growth, water and energy crisis, and extreme weather, climate change, etc. threaten the global food security. The focus of this study is to advance the understanding of the associations between crops productivity and large scale and local scale climatic variables, climate change, technology enhancement and assessing food-water-energy nexus to enhance global food security in a sustainable manner considering current available resources. As decision-makers try to improve food security, it is important to identify the impact of technology enhancement …

Literature Survey Of Wet-Waste And Hydrothermal Carbonization System: A Comparative Evaluation, Ramat Olaide Yusuf

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis describes the process of Hydrothermal carbonization and a comparative assessment on recent work done on the process using different feedstocks such as Raw Apple (RA), Apple chip pomace (ACP), apple juice pomace (AJP), grape pomace (GP), macadamia nut-shell (MNS), Sewage Sludge (SS), Poultry Litter (PL) and Grape Marc (GM). The data obtained from the literature survey was compared with the data obtained by the CCL team on the SWPS gasifier (HTC of poultry litter) to obtain how carbon conversion efficiency, syngas composition, thermal efficiency, char production rate, gas production rate and energy utilization vary with carbonization process conditions, …

Heavy Truck Collision With Bridge Piers, Ran Cao

Dissertations and Theses

Based on bridge failure data compiled by the New York State Department of Transportation, collision, both caused by vessels and vehicles, is the second leading cause of bridge failures after hydraulic. The current AASHTO-LRFD (2017) specification recommends designing a bridge pier vulnerable to vehicular impacts for an equivalent static force of 2,670-kN (600 kips) applied in a horizontal plane at a distance of 1.5 m (5.0 feet) above the ground level. The vast majority of research studies on vehicular collision with bridge piers have been carried out with single-unit trucks, which are typically classified as medium-duty vehicles weighing about 89 …

Understanding And Modeling Taxi Demand Using Time Series Models, Sabiheh Faghih

Dissertations and Theses

The spatio-temporal variations in demand for transportation, particularly taxis, are impacted by various factors such as commuting, weather, road work and closures, disruption in transit services, etc. Identifying the factors that influence taxi demand and understanding its dynamic provide planners with the information necessary to improve the transportation systems and also help drivers to reduce their vacant time.

This dissertation focuses on important factors affecting the demand. In the beginning, the impact of price changes on the demand is studied. Chapter One discusses how the seasonal effects and trends are removed from the demand, and then price elasticity for demand …

Improving Retrievals Of Crop Vegetation Parameters From Remote Sensing Data, Nathaniel Levitan

Dissertations and Theses

Agricultural systems are difficult to model because crop growth is driven by the strongly nonlinear interaction of Genotype x Environment x Management (G x E x M) factors. Due to the nonlinearity in the interaction of these factors, the amount of data necessary to develop and utilize models to accurately predict the performance of agricultural systems at an operational scale is large. Satellite remote sensing provides the potential to vastly increase the amount of data available for modelling agricultural systems as a result of its high revisit time and spatial coverage. Unfortunately, there have been significant difficulties in deploying remote …

Hydroclimate Drivers And Atmospheric Dynamics Of Floods, Nasser Najibi

Dissertations and Theses

Our preliminary survey showed that most of the recent flood-related studies did not formally explain the physical mechanisms of long-duration and large-peak flood events that can evoke substantial damages to properties and infrastructure systems. These studies also fell short of fully assessing the interactions of coupled ocean-atmosphere and land dynamics which are capable of forcing substantial changes to the flood attributes by governing the exceeding surface flow regimes and moisture source-sink relationships at the spatiotemporal scales important for risk management. This dissertation advances the understanding of the variability in flood duration, peak, volume, and timing at the regional to the …

Designing An On-Demand Dynamic Crowdshipping Model And Evaluating Its Ability To Serve Local Retail Delivery In New York City, Shirin Najaf Abadi

Dissertations and Theses

Nowadays city mobility is challenging, mainly in populated metropolitan areas. Growing commute demands, increase in the number of for-hire vehicles, enormous escalation in several intra-city deliveries and limited infrastructure (road capacities), all contribute to mobility challenges. These challenges typically have significant impacts on residents’ quality-of-life particularly from an economic and environmental perspective. Decision-makers have to optimize transportation resources to minimize the system externalities (especially in large-scale metropolitan areas). This thesis focus on the intra-city mobility problems experienced by travelers (in the form of congestion and imbalance taxi resources) and businesses (in the form of last-mile delivery), while taking into consideration …

A Dynamic Risk Management Framework For Water And Environmental Sustainability, Arun Ravindranath

Dissertations and Theses

The risks and vulnerabilities facing reservoir systems in river basins shift dynamically over time and space. These risks involve regime changes and shifts, throughout which one observes the transition of water availability from prolonged dry periods to prolonged wet periods. Ensuring reliability of water supply under these hydrological regime shifts involves understanding how these regime shifts can be identified, characterized, and quantified. This dissertation describes a dynamic risk management (DRM) framework for water management at the basin level whose main features are (1) a system of updating risk assessments and policy recommendations on a yearly basis, where the risk assessments …

Development Of Electromagnetic Friction Dampers For Improving Seismic Performance Of Civil Structures, Mohsen Amjadian

Dissertations and Theses

Energy dissipation is critical to limiting damage to civil structures subjected to extreme natural events such as earthquakes. Friction is one of the most reliable mechanisms of energy dissipation that has been utilized extensively in friction dampers to improve seismic performance of civil structures. Friction dampers are well-known for having a highly nonlinear hysteretic behavior caused by stick-slip motion at low velocities, a phenomenon that is inherent in friction and increases the acceleration response of the structure under control unfavorably, in spite of the fact that the displacement is generally reduced because of the energy dissipation. This increase in acceleration …

Variability Of E. Coli In Streambed Sediments And Its Implication For Water Quality, Sadia Salam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), including E. coli, are the number one cause of water quality impairments in the United States according to the USEPA. FIB are used as a predictor to identify the possible presence of pathogens in waterbodies. E. coli is a useful indicator of gastrointestinal (GI) related illnesses from contact with fresh water. While surface water is routinely monitored for water quality, streambed sediments are rarely considered as a source of FIB to the overlying water column. This study focuses on understanding the variation of E. coli concentrations in streambed sediments and the potential impact of sediment sources …

Long-Term Impact On Environmental Attitudes And Knowledge Assessed Over Three Semesters Of An Environmental Engineering Sequence, Benjamin Michael Wallen, Nathaniel Sheehan, Luke Plante, Erick Martinez, Jeffrey A. Starke

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The pedagogy employed in a three-course environmental engineering sequence is investigated to determine the efficacy of enabling long-term improvement of knowledge and attitudes toward the environment. These three courses incorporate concepts of the five grand challenges released by the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Sciences and increase the breadth of knowledge for T-professionals. Previous studies of lengths from a few weeks to semester long courses evaluated the potential causality among various demographics and environmental knowledge and attitudes. The research presented herein contrasts and compares changes in environmental knowledge based upon a 12-question survey and changes in environmental …

A Preliminary Sustainability Analysis Of Producing Class A Biosolids With Conventional And Low-Cost, Low-Tech Processes, Janna Brown

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Producing Class A biosolids is a beneficial way to reuse wastewater sludge. Low-cost, low-tech (LCLT) processes are attractive to small water resource recovery facilities (WRRF) because of their low capital costs and simple designs. This study examined the sustainability of conventional and LCLT processes at small WRRFs. The environmental impacts were determined by conducting life cycle assessments. Cost analyses determined the economic impacts. The social impacts were analyzed by investigating case studies and surveys of social response to biosolids. The environmental, economic, and social impacts were normalized, and each technology received an overall score. The technologies studied were direct heat …

Technology For Integrated Groyne-Vetiver Erosion Reduction (Tiger): Case Study In A West African River, Chase M. West

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

River erosion is a problem all over the world. The effects of river erosion are especially hard for farmers in developing countries, where the river is an important part of their farming practices and daily lives. A case study was done in the small village of Fode Binea in Senegal, West Africa to reduce this stream erosion. A new hybrid approach, Technology for Integrated Groyne-Vetiver Erosion Reduction (TIGER) method, was developed. The method includes combining groynes at the toe of the riverbank to reduce toe erosion in the channel and planting a buffer strip with vetiver grass to reduce erosion …

The Treatment Of Contaminated Water Using Electrocoagulation, Adebayo Edward Adejinle

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Wastewater treatment is a process that is used to remove significant amount of contaminant concentration from wastewater, which prevents harm to the environment. Chemical coagulation (CC) is one of the most influential processes used to remove contaminants, and it is the addition of chemicals called coagulants, which causes particles to stick together forming bigger flocs. However, as effective as CC is, it requires bench scale testing for determining the appropriate dosing rate for specific raw water properties, which makes the process time consuming. To eliminate these issues, the introduction of the Electrocoagulation (EC) process is considered. The EC process is …

The Short-Term Effects Of Interstate Highways On Small Rural Communities: A Case Study Of I-39, I-49 And I-72, 1990 To 2000, John Paul Metelko

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The presence of interstate highways in rural areas improves access to nearby rural

communities and changes those communities’ spheres of influence. Research into

understanding how improved access from interstate highways affects rural communities

is needed. This case study was designed to investigate how rural communities changed

on the basis of population, vacancy, median home value, and median contract rent in the

short term after an interstate highway was completed nearby in the early 1990s.

The communities included in this study are incorporated cities, towns, villages

and census-designated places in non-metropolitan counties with at least one incorporated

city, town, village and …

Synthesis, Characterization And Applications Of Reduced Graphene Oxide And Composite Membranes For Selective Separations And Removal Of Organic Contaminants, Ashish Aher

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Among the next generation materials being investigated for membrane development, partially reduced Graphene Oxide (rGO) has received increasing attention from the membrane community. rGO-based nanofiltration membranes have shown promising results in applications such as partial desalination, organic contaminant removal, gas-phase separations, and separations from solvent media. rGO offers a unique platform compared to common polymeric membranes since it can be used for separation applications in both aqueous and organic solvent media. An rGO-based platform could also be utilized to synthesize reactive membranes, giving rGO membranes the additional capability of reactively removing organic contaminants. This research focuses on the synthesis of …

Synthesis Of Fault Traces In Se Louisiana Relative To Infrastructure, David Culpepper, Elizabeth Chinn Mcdade, Nancye Dawers, Mark Kulp, Rui Zhang

Publications

Geological faulting has been implicated as a contributor to subsidence, coastal land-loss and submergence of marshlands in southern Louisiana. This report reviews whether fault motion, either by slow creep or more sudden slip, can cause deformation of engineered structures resulting in increased infrastructure maintenance and repair costs. The impact of surface, or near-surface, geologic faulting on critical infrastructure is insufficiently documented in southeastern Louisiana, but the state has a vast amount of energy-sector subsurface data that to date has been under-utilized for transportation and other near-surface engineering applications. Recent and on-going work by research groups at Tulane University, University of …

Techno- Economic Feasibility Study Of Solar Water Pumping For Public Facilities In Nigeria, Anamika Singh

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This thesis presents a techno-economic feasibility analysis of solar water pumping systems in public facilities located in rural parts of Nigeria. Three different public facilities namely, a primary health care center in Ibwa (PHC, Ibwa), a comprehensive health care center in Kwali (CHC, Kwali), and the LEA Primary School in Mapa (LEA School, Mapa), all located in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Nigeria, were analyzed. The facilities considered in the study have varying levels of water demand (micro, small, and medium), and they are used as cases to establish the techno-economic suitability of solar water pumping systems to deliver water …

Operational Effectiveness Of Connected Vehicle Smartphone Technology On A Signalized Corridor, Festo Mjogolo

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the last decade, extensive research efforts have been placed on performance evaluation and the benefits of innovative CV applications. Findings indicate that CV technology can effectively mitigate the safety, mobility, and environmental challenges experienced on transportation networks. Most of research evaluated CV technology through simulation studies. However, a field study provides a more ideal method of assessing CV technology effectiveness. Therefore, a field study to obtain the actual effectiveness of CV technology was warranted, to validate previous findings, and to add to the body of knowledge surrounding this topic. This thesis presents both a field study and simulation evaluation …

A Study On Erosion Resistance For Microbially Induced Calcite Treated Beach Sand, Abigail Chek

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Microbial induced calcite precipitation (MICP) was used to treat several sandboxes filled with naturally occurring beach sand collected from Atlantic Beach, FL. Unlike most previous MICP studies, a surface-spray technique was used to treat these sandboxes where relatively high-concentration bacteria solution and high concentration calcium chloride/urea solutions were applied directly to the boxes’ surfaces. Several different treatment combinations were tested whereby bacterial optical density, bacteria/urea/calcium chloride volume relative to void space, and bacteria/urea/calcium chloride ratio were manipulated. Treated sandboxes were tested for erodibility using a pocket erodometer and for calcification using a wash method. In addition, sandboxes were dissected after …

Evaluating The Performance Of Cooperative Merging Assistance System For Aging Drivers, Flavius Matata

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Freeway merging maneuvers demand considerable attention by drivers and are among the more complex operations drivers must perform on freeways. Aging drivers, a growing population in the United States, face added challenges when merging. This study utilized Vissim models created in a previous study that modeled the behavior of aging drivers during freeway merging. An algorithm for Cooperative Merging Assistance System (CMAS) that utilizes Connected Vehicle (CV) technology was developed in this study. The Vissim models were created for two interchanges on I-75 in Fort Myers, Florida, each with different geometric characteristics. Acceleration lane lengths of 1000ft and 1500ft were …

Simulation Exploration Of The Potential Of Connected Vehicles In Mitigating Secondary Crashes, Mike Alvin Soloka

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Secondary crashes (SCs) on freeways are a major concern for traffic incident management systems. Studies have shown that their occurrence is significant and can lead to deterioration of traffic flow conditions on freeways in addition to injury and fatalities, albeit their magnitudes are relatively low when compared to primary crashes. Due to the limited nature of crash data in analyzing freeway SCs, surrogate measures provide an alternative for safety analysis for freeway analysis using conflict analysis. Connected Vehicles (CVs) have seen compelling technological advancements since the concept was introduced in the 1990s. In recent years, CVs have emerged as a …