Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Benchmarking Product Service System Of Generator Set Distributors, Venny Violetta Tiurindah, Tanika Dewi Sofianti

Makara Journal of Technology

Power generation is an industry that is essential to sustain daily life and competes with generator set distributors. The product service system of distributors must be improved to survive the competition. This research aims to develop tools for benchmarking the product service system of generator set distributors. Benchmarking identifies gaps between a product and other competitors’ products. In this work, a product service system board is used to visualize the current product service system of a generator set distributor. A PPIAF framework and a SERVQUAL framework are adapted to assess product performance and service quality, respectively. AHP is used as …

Respirometry Test Manual: Weerc Laboratory, Sepideh Sadeghi, Suzette Burckhard, Christopher Schmit

Civil and Environmental Engineering Reports and Manuals

Biological treatment methods are the basis for waste water treatment worldwide. Among biological treatment systems, activated sludge processes are most widely used to remove the oxygen demand and nutrients from wastewater. The activated sludge process uses naturally occurring bacteria at high concentrations in tanks. The bacteria in the activated sludge process remove small molecules of organic carbon, nitrogen, and phosphate as a consequence of bacterial growth and the waste water is purified. The effluent can then be safely released to the environment. Respirometry techniques are an effective tool to measure the respiration of living organisms. These techniques are associated with …

Irrigania Game Activity - Ii, Kaveh Madani

All ECSTATIC Materials

Directed class activity for students to play the Irrigania Game by Seibert and Vis (2012). Students choose to irrigate fields each year (round) with rainwater, surface water, or groundwater to maximize profit. Six different games are described.

Game 1

• Objective: Maximize your individual rank (profit) in class

• Rules: 1) No communication between you and any other farmer, 2) Precipitation = Normal (P=1), 3) Number of years (rounds) = 15.

Game 2

• Objective: Maximize your individual rank (profit) in class
• Rules: 1) No communication constraints, 2) Precipitation = Normal (P=1), 3), Number of years (rounds) = 15.

Game 3

• Objective: Maximize …

Climate-Informed Environmental Inflows To Revive A Drying Lake Facing Meteorological And Anthropogenic Droughts, Mojtaba Sadegh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The rapid shrinkage of Lake Urmia, one of the world’s largest saline lakes located in northwestern Iran, is a tragic wake-up call to revisit the principles of water resources management based on the socio-economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. The overarching goal of this paper is to set a framework for deriving dynamic, climate-informed environmental inflows for drying lakes considering both meteorological/climatic and anthropogenic conditions. We report on the compounding effects of meteorological drought and unsustainable water resource management that contributed to Lake Urmia’s contemporary environmental catastrophe. Using rich datasets of hydrologic attributes, water demands and withdrawals, as well …

Evaluation Of Seismic Performance Of Mid-Rise Reinforced Concrete Frames Subjected To Far-Field And Near-Field Ground Motions, Mokhtar Ansari, Masoud Ansari, Amir Safiey

Publications

Damages to buildings affected by a near-fault strong ground motion are largely attributed to the vertical component of the earthquake resulting in column failures, which could lead to disproportionate building catastrophic collapse in a progressive fashion. Recently, considerable interests are awakening to study effects of earthquake vertical components on structural responses. In this study, detailed modeling and time-history analyses of a 12-story code-conforming reinforced concrete moment frame building carrying the gravity loads, and exposed to once only the horizontal component of, and second time simultaneously the horizontal and vertical components of an ensemble of far-field and near-field earthquakes are conducted. …

High-Resolution Qpf Uncertainty And Its Implications For Flood Prediction: A Case Study For The Eastern Iowa Flood Of 2016, Bong Chul Seo, Felipe Quintero, Witold F. Krajewski

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study addresses the uncertainty of High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPFs), which were recently appended to the operational hydrologic forecasting framework. In this study, we examine the uncertainty features of HRRR QPFs for an Iowa flooding event that occurred in September 2016. Our evaluation of HRRR QPFs is based on the conventional approach of QPF verification and the analysis of mean areal precipitation (MAP) with respect to forecast lead time. The QPF verification results show that the precipitation forecast skill of HRRR significantly drops during short lead times and then gradually decreases for further lead times. The …

Geophysical Assessment Of Subsurface Soil Conditions Using Capacitively Coupled Resistivity, Folaseye Coker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to explore the applicability of Capacitively-Coupled Resistivity (CCR) as an improvement on traditional drilling and sampling methods for subsurface soil investigations. The CCR method could be used to identify critical locations for drilling and sampling such as expansive clay layers and anomalies (sinkholes, unknown landfills, etc.) rather than uniformly sampling across a site. CCR surveys were performed at Alpena, Arkansas along a highway expansion project changing US 62 from a two lane to four lane highway, and at Alton, Illinois along the Mel Price Levee, a 5.2 mile levee along a portion of the …

Computer Modeling Of Close-To-Ground Tornado Wind-Fields For Different Tornado Widths, Mohammadhossein Kashefizadeh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tornadoes induce different wind forces on buildings than straight-line (SL) winds. The tangential velocity (Vθ) of tornados is the main parameter that causes damage to the buildings. In-field tornado measurements cannot evaluate the tornado’s Vθ at less than 20m above ground level (AGL). The laboratory tornado simulators suggest that the Swirl ratio (S) and the radius (ro) are the most influential factors affecting Vθ. However, due to scaling problems, laboratory simulators cannot report the Vθ for elevations less than 10m AGL. Well refined computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models can evaluate the Vθ at less than 10m AGL. However, the CFD …

Proposed Astm Standard For The Stokoe-Type Resonant Column Torsional Shear Device, Anh Tuan Tran

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Resonant Column Torsional Shear (RCTS) testing has become one of the most commonly used methods for determining laboratory soil stiffness and soil damping. The RCTS test has been accepted and is commonly utilized during the permitting of new nuclear facilities. However, there is still no available public standard for performing RCTS tests using the Stokoe-type device. Therefore, an ASTM standard for calibration and performance of RCTS tests using the Stokoe-type RCTS device is presented herein. Data collected using the Stokoe-type RCTS devices at the University of Arkansas (UofA) and at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) also aided in the development …

Testing And Development Of Pre-Stressed Cfrp Retrofit Strategies For Controlling Fatigue Cracking In Steel Waterway Lock Gate Structures, Maggie Langston

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Steel waterway lock gates across the national inland waterway transportation network are reaching and exceeding their intended service life, often experiencing component failures that lead to service interruptions. Unscheduled maintenance and repair of lock gates can be expensive and cause economic ripples throughout the entire inland waterway network. These lock gate component failures are often caused by fatigue cracking from repeated loading during operation. This thesis develops and tests a prestressed carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) fatigue retrofit for controlling fatigue demands within lock gate components. The study expands upon a recent analytical work by Lozano (2017) by experimentally investigating …

Development Of Iowa Dot Combination Bridge Separation Barrier With Bicycle Railing, Chaz M. Ginger

Department of Engineering Mechanics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Iowa Department of Transportation typically builds separation barriers between vehicle and pedestrian/bicycle facilities when sidewalks or trails are present on vehicular bridges. Currently, Iowa DOT employs a combination bridge rail that utilizes a concrete parapet that previously had been successfully evaluated to National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 350 Test Level 4 (TL-4) criteria for these situations. While the parapet had been successfully evaluated, the combination bridge rail system as a whole had not been evaluated to any crash test standards. Iowa DOT desired that researchers at Midwest Roadside Safety Facility (MwRSF) design and test a combination bridge …

Evaluation And Strengthening Of Elevated Slab On Grade With Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (Frp) Laminates, Natawut Chaiwino

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Elevating a residential house appears to be one of the most effective techniques to eliminate or alleviate flood losses. In general, the elevation procedures involve raising a house as well as its typical slab-on-grade (SOG) foundation and supporting it with an additional support system. The unconcerned effects of the drastic changes in support condition could lead to severe structural damages and failure of houses. After elevated, thus, such slabs must be properly supported and retrofitted, for which the available methodology and know-how is almost nonexistent. The fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) application, considered as a promising technique in the rehabilitation of …

Experimental And Numerical Investigation Of The Concrete Shear Strength Of Reinforced Concrete Box Culverts Under Uniformly Distributed Load, Masoud Ghahremannejad

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

This research resulted in the development of a new method for performing displacement control analysis of distributed loads to obtain the ultimate shear strength of structural components. A framework, consisting of several sub-frames, was designed to convert the single displacement applied at the top of the framework to equivalent uniformly-distributed forces applied to the beam. To validate the loading mechanism, using the proposed framework, the load was applied on the top of a reinforced concrete beam in the laboratory, and numerical studies were conducted. The shear capacity of the beam under a concentrated load at mid-span was compared with the …

In-Service Performance Evaluation Of Fire And Impact Damaged Bridges With Cfrp Laminate Strengthening, Santosh Timilsina

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Fire events and impact damage on bridges are few of the least understood of common extreme events. Bridge infrastructures that are subjected to hazards such as fire or impact from over height vehicle can catastrophically collapse or be heavily damaged. External wrapping of damaged concrete bridge components with Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) laminates has been used as a strengthening technique for these bridges. Two such in-service bridges, one of which was fire damaged and the other impact damaged, both aged more than 50 years old in Irving, Texas, were selected for this study. The damaged beams of the concrete bridges …

Electrochemical Microsensors For In Situ Monitoring Of Chemical Compounds In Engineered And Natural Aquatic Systems, Jared Church

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The adaption of needle-type electrochemical microsensor (or microelectrode) techniques to environmental science and engineering systems has transformed how we understand mass transport in biotic and abiotic processes. Their small tip diameter (5-20μm) makes them a unique experimental tool for direct measurements of analytes with high spatial and temporal resolutions, providing a quantitative analysis of flux, diffusion, and reaction rate at a microscale that cannot be obtained using conventional analytical tools. However, their applications have been primarily limited to understanding mass transport dynamics and kinetics in biofilms. With the advancement of sensor fabrication and utilization techniques, their potential applications can surpass …

Developing A Framework To Optimize The Operations Of An Intermodal Underground Freight Transportation Terminal Using Simulation, Fatemeh Rezaeifar

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), by 2040, nearly 30,000 miles of our busiest highways will be clogged daily and it is important to increase the capacity of our transportation system. Construction of intermodal underground freight transportation (UFT) systems for freight movement through underground pipelines or tunnels, can increase the capacity of the existing shipping network. The intermodal terminal is a major component of the UFT’s innovative infrastructure project. Increasing demand for container transportation systems in terminals will raise the risk of terminal congestion and delivery delay due to the increase in freight transportation system bottlenecks (traffic jams …

A Calibration Chamber For Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Studies Of Soil Behavior Via Resonant Column Testing, Daniel R. C. Green

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Abstract A Calibration Chamber for Thermo-hydro-mechanical Studies of Soil Behavior via Resonant Column Testing Daniel R. C. Green The University of Texas at Arlington, 2018 Supervising Professor: Dr. Laureano Hoyos A considerable portion of the emerging geothermal infrastructure in the country is located in earthquake prone areas while being supported and/or surrounded by soil deposits located well above the groundwater table. Geotechnical earthquake research in the country, however, continues to be mostly focused on soil response under saturated conditions, especially soil liquefaction phenomena, while most of the work on dynamic response of compacted soils has not taken suction or thermal …

A Framework For Estimating Immediate Interdependent Functionality Reduction Of A Steel Hospital Following A Seismic Event, Emad M. Hassan, Hussam Mahmoud

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Functionality of an infrastructure is its ability to provide its intended services. Maintaining an acceptable level of infrastructure functionality, particularly for critical infrastructure, following an extreme event is vital for effective community recovery. Estimating functionality depends on proper quantification of losses, which requires accurate assessment of infrastructure damage. The damage is presented in the form of fragility functions that are generally developed using nonlinear finite element analysis. To date, no study has been conducted to assess the effect of modeling approach on seismic fragilities of an infrastructure, the associated losses, and functionality reduction. In addition, existing frameworks for estimating functionality …

A New Approach To Measure Soil Shrinkage Curve, Lin Li, Xiong Zhang

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The shrinkage curve is widely used to characterize soil deformation during drying. Over the years, several methods have been developed to measure soil shrinkage curves. However, these methods suffered from several limitations and were rarely used because of difficulties in accurate soil volume measurement during drying. In this study, a simple method is proposed to measure soil shrinkage curves. The soil volume is measured using a photogrammetric technique from which a three-dimensional (3D) model of the soil specimen during drying can be accurately reconstructed. The soil volume is calculated based on the reconstructed 3D model. Meanwhile, a digital balance is …

Development Of A Framework To Estimate Social And Environmental Costs Of Truck, Railroad, And Underground Freight Transportation, Amir Tabesh

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Increasing freight transportation capacity is the most important factor to keep US economy viable. Trucks moved 11.5 billion tons of goods, or 63.8 percent of total freight shipments in 2015, which is projected to grow to 16.6 billion tons by 2045. It is predicted truck travel may increase from 282 million miles per day in 2012 to 488 million miles per day by 2045. The U.S. railroad system includes 138,000 rail miles, which 93,500 miles owned and operated by Class I railroad and the rest of them owned and operated by regional and local railroads. While the miles of railroad …

Planning, Design, And Operational Analysis Of Underground Freight Transportation Systems With Individual Autonomous Vehicles, Sirwan Shahooei

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Given the increases in freight transportation demand, the current infrastructure for freight transportation appears insufficient. Moreover, the future development of capacity for freight transportation infrastructure seems to be limited. Based on a U.S. DOT report, most of the U.S. freight transportation infrastructure’s construction dates back to the 1960s. This puts a heavy burden on the national highway and railroad systems. The growing demand for freight will increase truck traffic on both urban and rural highways. The increase in truck traffic on highways will result in multiple challenges, including traffic congestion, security concerns, infrastructure deterioration, environmental pollution, energy consumption, increase in …

Evaluation Of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (Frp) Strengthening For Deteriorated Bridge Bent Caps, Yazan Almomani

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Deterioration of aging highway bridges has been a serious concern in the U. S. A. Almost 39% percent of all bridges in the country have passed their 50-year design life, and approximately 9% of these bridges are structurally deficient due to concrete deterioration and truck weight increases on highways. Compared to superstructures, the deterioration of bridge substructures and associated repair/strengthening/evaluation has received much less attention in previous studies. A reinforced concrete bridge built in 1940 and located in Dallas, Texas, exhibited moderate to severe corrosion related concrete deterioration in the bent caps. Eight such bent caps were selected herein for …

A New Approach For Performance Evaluation Of Bridge Infrastructure Using Terrestrial Lidar And Advanced Mathematical Modeling, Ali Shafikhani

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

High plastic expansive clays when subjected to different climatic conditions undergo large ground movements causing distress to infrastructures including bridges, pavements, buildings, retaining structures, and others. Performance assessment of these structures built on problematic soils such as expansive clays is important to reduce maintenance and extending the design life of infrastructure. Rapid developments in remote sensing technologies with precise evaluation have influenced the monitoring techniques for assessing the health condition of civil infrastructure projects. While these technologies have considerably aided in performance evaluation, cogent procedures for evaluating the ground movements are still required that integrates technologies, climatic factors, soil behavior …

Highway Cross Slope Measurement Using Airborne And Mobile Lidar, Alireza Shams Esfandabadi

All Dissertations

Ensuring adequate pavement cross slope on highways can improve driver safety by reducing the potential for water sheeting and ponding. Collecting cross slope data is typically only based on small sample because efficient technology and means to collect accurate cross slope data has been evasive. The advent of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scanning technology has proven to be a valuable tool in the creation of 3D terrain models. Combined with other technologies such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Inertial Measurement Unit devices (IMU) it is now possible to collect accurate 3D coordinate data in the form of a …

Advancing Methods To Quantify Actual Evapotranspiration In Stony Soil Ecosystems, Kshitij Parajuli

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Water is undeniably among the most important natural resources and the most critical in semi-arid regions like the Intermountain West of the United States. Such regions are characterized by low precipitation, the majority of which is transferred to the atmosphere from the soil and vegetation as evapotranspiration (ET). Quantification of ET is thus crucial for understanding the balance of water within the region, which is important for efficiently planning the available water resources. This study was motivated towards advancing the estimation of actual ET (ET_A) in mountain ecosystems, where the variation in different types of vegetation and non-uniformity …

Design And Analysis Of A Parabolic Trough Solar Concentrator, George N. Skouras

Master's Theses

A prototype solar desalination system (SODESAL) with a parabolic-trough solar concentrator (PTSC) and evacuated tube was designed and analyzed to determine the solar thermal capabilities for small-scale distillation and energy generation. A proof-of-concept study verified that distillation is possible with the system as designed, however a rupture occurred in the copper heat-pipe heat exchanger due to overheating. The internal temperatures of an aluminum heat transfer fin were measured inside an evacuated tube typically used in solar water heater systems to understand the lateral heat distribution and identify possible causes of the rupture. Solar radiation was measured for both the summer …

Evaluation Of Roadway Lighting Practices, Brian K. Howell, William Nicholas Staats, Austin William Obenauf, Jerry G. Pigman

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Adequate roadway lighting allows better driver visibility during nighttime conditions. Research studies show that lighted roadways on average experience 28 percent fewer vehicles crashes on all roadway types. Most state DOTs have historically used High-Pressure Sodium (HPS) lights for their roadside lighting programs due to their wide availability and relatively low purchase costs. However, the short lifespan of HPS results in frequent replacement, leading to high life cycle costs. Light-Emitting Diode (LED) lights consume less energy, demonstrate improved performance, and require less overall maintenance due to their longer lifespans. Over time, this translates into maintenance cost savings for stateDOTs. In …

Cover Crops Have Negligible Impact On Soil Water In Nebraska Maize–Soybean Rotation, J. Burdette Barker, Derek M. Heeren, Katja Koehler-Cole, Charles Shapiro, Humberto Blanco-Canqui, Roger W. Elmore, Christopher A. Proctor, Suat Irmak, Charles A. Francis, Tim M. Shaver, Ali T. Mohammed

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

One perceived cost of integrating winter cover cropping in maize (Zea mays L.) and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] rotation systems is the potential negative impact on soil water storage available for primary crop production. The objective of this 3-year study was to evaluate the effects of winter cover crops on soil water storage and cover crop biomass production following no-till maize and soybean rotations. Locations were near Brule (west-central), Clay Center (south-central), Concord (northeast), and Mead (east-central), Nebraska, United States. Treatments included crop residue only (no cover crop) and a multi-species cover crop mix, both broadcast-seeded before …

Maintaining Deck Profile In Steel I-Girder Bridges During Deck Placement, Ali Naif Inceefe

Masters Theses

Conventional steel I-girder highway bridges utilize cast-in-place concrete deck. Maintaining the deck profile as per project specifications might be a challenging task. Deformation of girders and formwork used for deck placement need to be controlled during deck placement. Differential deflection between girders, exterior girder web out-of-plane deformation, exterior girder warping, or a combination thereof could impact the deck profile. These deformations challenge maintaining deck profile and need to be considered as a part of constructability evaluation. Determining deck profile due to potential girder deformations is necessary before deck placement so that the remedial actions can be implemented when deck finish …

Comparison Of A Modified And Traditional Rapid Infiltration Basin For Treatment And Control Of Nutrients In Wastewater Effluent, Jessica Cormier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rapid infiltration basins (RIB) have been historically used in Florida for groundwater recharge, effluent disposal, or a combination of both. However, this technique has proven ineffective in providing nitrogen control unless the RIB is modified in some manner. In this study, a traditional RIB was compared to a modified RIB constructed with manufactured biosorption activated media (BAM) to evaluate nitrate removal from reclaimed water. The RIBs are used for reclaimed and excess storm water disposal. Few, if any, studies have been published where BAM-modified RIBs have been used for this purpose. In this work, a mixture of clay, tire crumb, …