Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Evaluation Of Continuous Monitoring As A Tool For Municipal Stormwater Management Programs, Walter M. Mcdonald, Randel L. Dymond, Vinod K. Lohani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the uncertainty attributable to inadequate temporal sampling of stormwater discharge and water quality, and understand its implications for meeting monitoring objectives relevant to municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s). A methodology is presented to evaluate uncertainty attributable to inadequate temporal sampling of continuous stormflow and water quality, and a case study demonstrates the application of the methodology to six small urban watersheds (0.8-6.8 km²) and six large rural watersheds (30-16,192 km²) in Virginia. Results indicate the necessity of high-frequency continuous monitoring for accurately capturing multiple monitoring objectives, including …

Apprehensive Drought Characteristics Over Iraq: Results Of A Multidecadal Spatiotemporal Assessment, Maysoun Ayad Hameed, Ali Ahmadalipour, Hamid Moradkhani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Drought is an extreme climate phenomenon that happens slowly and periodically threatens the environmental and socio-economic sectors. Iraq is one of the countries in the Middle East that has been dealing with serious drought-related issues in the 21st century. Here, we investigate meteorological drought across Iraq from 1948 to 2009 at 0.25° spatial resolution. The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) has been utilized as a multi-scalar drought index accounting for the effects of temperature variability on drought. Four of the main characteristics of drought including extent, intensity, frequency and duration are studied and the associated spatiotemporal patterns are investigated for …

Decision Support System For The Design And Planning Of Low-Impact Development Practices: The Case Of Seoul, Jae-Yeol Song, Eun-Sung Chung, Soo Hyun Kim

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study presented the conceptual framework of the water-management analysis module (WMAM) to derive effective physical specifications for the design and planning of low-impact development (LID) practices using the storm-water management model (SWMM). This decision-support system can be used for six LID types and has the following key capabilities: determining relevant LID design parameters within the SWMM that critically influence the hydrological cycle components using a simple sensitivity analysis and determining the best hydrological values for LID planning specification. This study analyzed a highly urbanized university campus as a case study to determine the design and planning specifications for an …

Flavour Chemicals In A Sample Of Non-Cigarette Tobacco Products Without Explicit Flavour Names Sold In New York City In 2015, Shannon M. Farley, Kevin R.J. Schroth, Victoria Grimshaw, Wentai Luo, Julia Lynn Degagne, Peyton A. Tierney, Kilsun Kim, James F. Pankow

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background Youth who experiment with tobacco often start with flavoured products. In New York City (NYC), local law restricts sales of all tobacco products with ‘characterising flavours’ except for ‘tobacco, menthol, mint and wintergreen’. Enforcement is based on packaging: explicit use of a flavour name (eg, ‘strawberry’) or image depicting a flavour (eg, a fruit) is presumptive evidence that a product is flavoured and therefore prohibited. However, a tobacco product may contain significant levels of added flavour chemicals even when the label does not explicitly use a flavour name.

Methods Sixteen tobacco products were purchased within NYC in 2015 that …

Spot-R By Triax, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets Archive

Triax’s Spot-r system was developed to tackle the construction industry’s unique safety and productivity challenges, stemming from a demonstrated lack of total jobsite visibility and automatically collected, easily accessible field data. Spot-r by Triax combines a proprietary mesh network with sensor technology to record and transmit previously unattainable workforce and equipment location, activity and safety data within a defined area – all in real-time.

The Spot-r network is installed around the site and operates in a 900 MHz network, with a subset using a cellular connection to forward Spot-r sensor data to Triax’s custom, cloud dashboard. In the hazardous construction …

The Effects Of Isoprene And Nox On Secondary Organic Aerosols Formed Through Reversible And Irreversible Uptake To Aerosol Water, Marwa M. El-Sayed, Diana L. Ortiz-Montalvo, Christopher J. Hennigan

Publications

Isoprene oxidation produces water-soluble organic gases capable of partitioning to aerosol liquid water. The formation of secondary organic aerosols through such aqueous pathways (aqSOA) can take place either reversibly or irreversibly; however, the split between these fractions in the atmosphere is highly uncertain. The aim of this study was to characterize the reversibility of aqSOA formed from isoprene at a location in the eastern United States under substantial influence from both anthropogenic and biogenic emissions. The reversible and irreversible uptake of water-soluble organic gases to aerosol water was characterized in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, using measurements of particulate water-soluble organic carbon …

Effects Of Short-Term Aging On Asphalt Binders And Hot Mix Asphalt At Elevated Temperatures And Extended Aging Time, Rubben Lolly, Waleed Zeiada, Mena Souliman, Kamil Kaloush

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The production process of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) causes a short term aging (STA) to asphalt binder due to the heating of both asphalt binder and aggregates before mixing together. Laboratory protocols are followed to simulate the STA conditions for both asphalt binders and asphalt mixtures. STA protocols expose asphalt binders or asphalt mixtures to specific aging temperature for a specific period of time to produce stiffening that is similar to that of actual production conditions. Successful construction of HMA in cold season/regions may require elevating the production temperature of HAM to achieve proper compaction of HMA layers. Producing HMA …

Investigation Of Morphological Changes In Small Coastal Rivers During Flood, Tanzina Afrin

LSU Master's Theses

The delivery of fluvial sediment to coastal margins is one of the major concerns for river and coastal morphodynamics. Relevant research has primarily focused on large rivers that transport substantial sediment load and thus are responsible for building deltaic landscapes. However, less research is concentrated on small coastal rivers. A need exists to better understand the sediment dynamics in small coastal rivers that have different backwater regimes than their larger counterparts. The main objective of this research was to examine the influence of backwater on the morphodynamics of a small coastal meandering river during a large flood event. The investigation …

Global Anthropogenic Phosphorus Loads To Freshwater And Associated Grey Water Footprints And Water Pollution Levels: A High-Resolution Global Study, Mesfin Mekonnen, Arjen Y. Hoekstra

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

We estimate the global anthropogenic phosphorus (P) loads to freshwater and the associated grey water footprints (GWFs) for the period 2002–2010, at a spatial resolution of 5 3 5 arc min, and com- pare the GWF per river basin to runoff to assess the P-related water pollution level (WPL). The global anthro- pogenic P load to freshwater systems from both diffuse and point sources is estimated at 1.5 Tg/yr. More than half of this total load was in Asia, followed by Europe (19%) and Latin America and the Caribbean (13%). The domestic sector contributed 54% to the total, agriculture 38%, …

Comparing Machine Learning And Decision Making Approaches To Forecast Long Lead Monthly Rainfall: The City Of Vancouver, Canada, Zahra Zahmatkesh, Erfan Goharian

Faculty Publications

Estimating maximum possible rainfall is of great value for flood prediction and protection, particularly for regions, such as Canada, where urban and fluvial floods from extreme rainfalls have been known to be a major concern. In this study, a methodology is proposed to forecast real-time rainfall (with one month lead time) using different number of spatial inputs with different orders of lags. For this purpose, two types of models are used. The first one is a machine learning data driven-based model, which uses a set of hydrologic variables as inputs, and the second one is an empirical-statistical model that employs …

Exploring The Determinants Of Vulnerable Road Users’ Crash Severity In State Roads, Álvaro Caviedes

PSU Transportation Seminars

Part of the Student Presentations from TRB

Pedestrians and bicyclists are the most vulnerable road users and suffer the most severe consequences when crashes take place. An extensive literature is available for crash severity in terms of driver safety, but fewer studies have explored non-motorized users’ crash severity. Furthermore, most research efforts have examined pedestrian and bicyclist crash severity in urban areas. This study focuses on state roads (mostly outside major urban areas) and aims to identify contributing risk factors of fatal and severe crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists in state roads. The results seem to suggest that besides improvements …

Instructors Learn From Homework, Too: Streamlining Data Collection To Facilitate Reteaching Before The Test, Erica J. Marti

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

Whether it’s for accreditation or simply as a good teaching practice to inform future instruction, gathering and analyzing data can be time consuming. This is especially true for large classes. How can you streamline the process for quick evaluation?

Water Supply In Developing Countries, Jason K. Hawes, Ernest R. Blatchley Iii, Audrey Caprio, Andrew T. Kanach

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

No abstract provided.

Epics Global Service Learning Pedagogy Explored For Construction Engineering Education, Brandon Fulk, Seyedali Ghahari, Makrand Hastak

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

EPICS is a service-learning design program in which teams of students partner with local and global community organizations to address human, community, and environmental needs. EPICS is an academic program in which teams of Purdue students partner with local not-for-profit community organizations to provide technology solutions. Team Ecuador is a division of the non-profit EPICS program at Purdue University. Since 2012 Team Ecuador has been partnered with FEVI, a non-governmental organization, to develop education infrastructure in Lumbisi. The current focus of Team Ecuador is to design, fundraise, and construct and Education Center for the community of Lumbisi. We are working …

Nandi Clean Kitchen Study, Oliver S. Schroeder, Mina Mohsenian

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

No abstract provided.

System Nonlinear Performance Of Low-Rise Buildings Under Database-Assisted Hurricane Loads, Jing He

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Light-frame wood buildings account for over 95% of all residential structures in the U.S, of which the majority are designed as low-rise buildings. These low-rise residential buildings in the U.S. have performed unsatisfactorily and are the largest source of the damage and fatality during the past extreme wind events. To deepen the understanding and reduce the vulnerability of the infrastructures, the accurate prediction of the hurricane loss has been an urgent need, and the hurricane catastrophe models are developed in response. However, the current hurricane catastrophe models are focused on the economy loss estimation rather than investigating the root causes …

Modeling Air Traffic Situation Complexity With A Dynamic Weighted Network Approach, Hongyong Wang, Ziqi Song, Ruiying Wen

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

In order to address the flight delays and risks associated with the forecasted increase in air traffic, there is a need to increase the capacity of air traffic management systems. This should be based on objective measurements of traffic situation complexity. In current air traffic complexity research, no simple means is available to integrate airspace and traffic flow characteristics. In this paper, we propose a new approach for the measurement of air traffic situation complexity. This approach considers the effects of both airspace and traffic flow and objectively quantifies air traffic situation complexity. Considering the aircraft, waypoints, and airways as …

Time-Dependent Transportation Network Design Considering Construction Impact, Yi He, Ziqi Song, Lihui Zhang

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

A traditional discrete network design problem (DNDP) always assumes transportation infrastructure projects to be one-time events and ignores travelers’ delays caused by construction work. In fact, infrastructure construction usually lasts for a long time, and the impact on traffic can be substantial. In this paper, we introduce time dimension into the traditional DNDP to explicitly consider the impact of road construction and adopt an overtime policy to add flexibility to construction duration. We address the problem of selecting road-widening projects in an urban network, determining the optimal link capacity, and designing the schedule of the selected projects simultaneously. A time-dependent …

Spatial Delineation Of Corrosion Zones For Metal Culverts Based On Coastal Louisiana Soil Characteristics, Sanjay Tewari, Francis Manning

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Corrosion of metal pipes used as culverts is a problem that affect many agencies directly involved in designing and maintaining these culverts. The corrosive environment of soil types found in a region could vary in a significant way (mildly corrosive to extremely corrosive) based on soil characteristics. Environmental conditions such as high water table, acidity and presence of various salts could make a soil corrosive to metal pipes. In this article, authors have applied a methodology of processing readily available soil data such as spatial distribution of soil types and soil characteristics (e.g. pH and conductivity) in delineating spatial corrosion …

Development Of A Design Guideline For Bridge Pile Foundations Subjected To Liquefaction Induced Lateral Spreading, Jonathan A. Nasr

Dissertations and Theses

Effective-stress nonlinear dynamic analyses (NDA) were performed for piles in liquefiable sloped ground to assess how inertia and liquefaction-induced lateral spreading combine in long-duration vs. short-duration earthquakes. A parametric study was performed using input motions from subduction and crustal earthquakes covering a wide range of earthquake durations. The NDA results were used to evaluate the accuracy of the equivalent static analysis (ESA) recommended by Caltrans/ODOT for estimating pile demands. Finally, the NDA results were used to develop new ESA methods to combine inertial and lateral spreading loads for estimating elastic and inelastic pile demands.

The NDA results showed that pile …

Seismic Performance Of Hollow-Core Hc-Fcs Columns Having Inner Steel Tube With High Diameter To Thickness Ratio, Mohanad M. Abdulazeez, Mohamed Elgawady

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper experimentally investigates the seismic behavior of a large-scale hollow-core fiber-reinforced polymer-concrete-steel HC-FCS column under seismic cyclic loading. The HC-FCS column consisted of a concrete shell sandwiched between an outer fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) tube and an inner steel tube. The FRP tube provides continuous confinement for the concrete shell along the height of the column while the steel tube provides the required flexural strength. The tested column has an inner steel tube that had a diameter-to-thickness ratio (D_i/t) (of 254. The seismic performance of the precast HC-FCS column was compared to that of HC-FCS column having(D_{i …}

Purdue’S Biowall, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets Archive

Mechanical ventilation, energy recovery ventilation, and infiltration (air that leaks into a building) are commonly used to introduce fresh air. These are all valid approaches, but a living plant-based filter is an innovative complement to these traditional technologies. A Biowall has the potential to improve indoor air quality while reducing the quantity of air needed for ventilation, creating the potential for energy savings. Figure 1 shows a Biowall prototype being evaluated in the ReNEWW House, a research home located near the Purdue University campus (http://www.renewwhouse.com/).

Mdp (Machine Drive Power) Intelligent Compaction Technology, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets Archive

Caterpillar developed MDP (Machine Drive Power) technology to fill this gap. Rather than an accelerometer and vibratory drum, it uses the principle of rolling resistance to provide indications of soil stiffness. This allows it to perform more reliably on cohesive and granular soils with less variability than accelerometer systems. It also means that the technology can be used on both vibratory and static drum compactors, which are often used on larger sites. While the technology is quite useful on its own, it is even better as a complementary technology to the existing accelerometer-based systems. Contractors who use vibratory soil compactors …

Assessing The Impacts Of Climate Change On Streamflow And Reservoir Operation In Central Florida, Toni Panaou

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is a global concern as it may affect many aspects of life, including water supply. A tool used to model climate change’s impacts is called a General Circulation Model (GCM). GCMs project future scenarios including temperature and precipitation, but these are designed at a coarse resolution and require downscaling for employment for regional hydrologic modeling. There is a vast amount of research on downscaling and bias-correcting GCMs data, but it is unknown whether these techniques alter precipitation signals embedded in these models or reproduce climate states that are viable for water resource planning and management. Using the Tampa, …

Pretreatment And Anaerobic Co-Digestion Of Selected Phb And Pla Bioplastics, Nicholas John Norio Benn, Daniel Zitomer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Conventional petroleum-derived plastics are recalcitrant to biodegradation and can be problematic as they accumulate in the environment. In contrast, it may be possible to add novel, biodegradable bioplastics to anaerobic digesters at municipal water resource recovery facilities along with primary sludge to produce more biomethane. In this study, thermal and chemical bioplastic pretreatments were first investigated to increase the rate and extent of anaerobic digestion. Subsequently, replicate, bench-scale anaerobic co-digesters fed synthetic primary sludge with and without PHB bioplastic were maintained for over 170 days. Two polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), one poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate) and one polylactic acid (PLA) bioplastic were investigated. Biochemical methane …

Comparative Analysis Of Road Roughness Specifications, Abduvokhid Yunusov, Narikawa Kazuo

Acta of Turin Polytechnic University in Tashkent

In this paper, it is given that comparative analysis of road pavement roughness specifications between Uzbekistan and Japan. Road roughness measurement methods and acceptance values in construction and maintenance were analyzed. Based on comparative analysis, we developed recommendations about pavement roughness measurement methods for road authority of Uzbekistan.

Iri Roughness Index Requirements For Highway Functional Classification, Abduvokhid Yunusov, Jamshid Sodikov

Acta of Turin Polytechnic University in Tashkent

The paper reviews the role of highway functional classification in pavement management. Predominantly, technical classification is used in pavement management in CIS countries. The paper raises importance of highway functional classification in pavement maintenance in order to efficiently manage road network. IRI roughness index is widely used to monitor, assess road condition, analyze life cycle of the pavement. Authors proposed IRI values according to highway functional classification.

An Evaluation Of The Groundwater Microbial Community's Toluene Biogenesis Potential At A Site In Southeast Louisiana, Michael A. Griffin Jr.

LSU Master's Theses

The broad goal of the research described in this thesis was to better understand the potential for biological toluene production to occur in groundwater at a Superfund Site located in southeast Louisiana. Previous literature reported that bacterial isolates under laboratory test conditions and undefined microbial communities in anaerobic sludge digesters and seasonally stratified lakes can produce toluene biogenically. Most of the research reported on this subject previously, however, has been on systems in Europe and little research has been reported previously on such phenomena in North America.

In the research described here, studies were conducted utilizing groundwater from a Superfund …

Evaluation Of Well Designs To Improve Access To Safe And Clean Water In Rural Tanzania, Aminata Kilungo, Linda Powers, Nathan B. Arnold, Kelli Marie Whelan, Kurt Paterson, Dale Young

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

The objective of this study was to examine three well designs: drilled wells (20–30 m deep), closed dug wells (>5 m deep), and hand-dug open wells (<5 m deep), to determine the water quality for improving access to safe and clean water in rural communities. Heterotrophic plate count (HPC), total coliforms (TC), Escherichia coli (E. coli) and turbidity, were used to assess the water quality of 97 wells. Additionally, the study looked at the microflora diversity of the water, focusing on potential pathogens using outgrowth, PCR, and genome sequencing for 10 wells. Concentrations of TC for the open dug wells (4 × 10⁴ CFU/100 mL) were higher than the drilled (2 × 10³ CFU/100 mL) and closed dug wells (3 × 10³ CFU/100 mL). E. coli concentration for drilled and closed dug wells was <22 MPN (most probable number)/100 mL, but higher for open wells (>154 MPN/100 mL). The drilled well turbidity (11 NTU) was within the standard deviation of the closed well (28 NTU) compared to open dug wells (49 NTU). Drilled and closed wells had similar microbial diversity. There were no …

Diversionary Behavior During Congestion, Venkata Vamsikrishna Peddisetty

LSU Master's Theses

Most people in the US prefer to travel on freeways, but when there is congestion they divert onto local routes to avoid travel delay. This study measures the traffic diversion induced by an increase in congestion on I-10 freeway in Baton Rouge during congestion, using a Bluetooth Detection System. The main objective of the study was to identify the difference in the level of congestion on the I-10 between the Mississippi River Bridge and the I-10/I-12 split and the level of congestion on local roads that triggers traffic to divert from the freeway to parallel arterials. Other objectives include measuring …