Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Evaluating Climatic Influences On The Technical Performance Of Built Infrastructure Assets, Sarah L. Brown, Steven J. Schuldt, Michael N. Grussing, Michael A. Johnson, Justin D. Delorit

Faculty Publications

Asset performance evaluations serve as a benchmark that can be used to make asset manufacturer selection decisions, i.e., choosing the brand of manufacturer that provides the highest performance among all brand competitors. Understanding the environmental conditions to which assets are subjected provides facility managers another data point to understand asset performance. This research builds upon a previously published performance-based manufacturer selection metric by investigating the linkage between asset performance and exposure to local climate, using chiller and air handler data from 20 United States Air Force installations. The link between environmental factors such as Heating Degree Days (HDD); Cooling Degree …

Home Ranch - A Single Family Residential Development In Gilroy, Ca, Patrick Hagerty, Luke Lazzarini

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

Project Overview

The purpose of this project was to provide a housing development plan for an undeveloped plot in the South Gilroy area.

Project Statement

The City of Gilroy needs additional housing to support the growth of their community. This project seeks to determine the best use of the undeveloped McCutchin Creek subplot and design its site layout. This plot of land is constrained by the City development codes, the 2023 City of Gilroy housing element, and the site specific development code.

The deliverables presented to the client are a grading plan, site layout plan, stormwater and sewage plan, potable …

Emergency Relief Structure For Natural Disaster Evacuees And The Homeless Population, Madeline Yee, Margaret Tolan, Rodrigo Mendez

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

In California, many communities lack the resources to provide support for natural disaster evacuees and those devastated by economic loss (our growing homeless community). An improved interim housing solution needs to be developed - a solution that provides comfort, privacy, and community - in the hopes of maintaining the dignity of those experiencing these hardships. In order to address this problem, the team designed a modular, panelized structure to provide shelter to those who are subject to emergency situations. A structural design and analysis was completed for both a cold-formed steel and a timber structure. A parcel of land in …

Water Storage Analysis And Design Portfolio For Nocaima, Colombia, Philip Bortz, Lola Martin Uribe, Claudia Newell, Gisselle Paz-Ortiz

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

In partnership with Santa Clara University Frugal Innovation Hub and the Institución Universitaria of Politécnico Grancolombiano, the project aims to provide a single household, self-managed, water storage solution for residents of rural Nocaima, Colombia. Currently, the impacts of climate change and the lack of a sufficient community water system threaten the water security of rural Nocaima and the livelihoods of its residents. Proposed are two rainwater collection and storage systems, one including slow sand filtration and tank storage system, and the other a retention pond that will not be filtered. Components of the solutions include collection, storage, and filtration systems, …

Supetai Well Water Purification, Claire Russon, Geovanni Usher, Nicole Valdivia

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

The rural Kenyan community of Oldonya Rasha had depended on water from a distant spring of unknown quality from which there have been reports of typhoid. A non-governmental organization, Sabore’s Well, built the centrally-located Supetai Well with the intention of solving the lack of accessible potable water, but due to high fluoride levels in the groundwater, this water source is unsafe. The team designed a water treatment system to be integrated into the existing well infrastructure that removes fluoride and pathogens to meet Kenyan and World Health Organization (WHO) water quality standards. The design includes dosage of alum and soda …

Behavior Of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete Made With Recycled Concrete Aggregates: Material Characterization And Deep Beam Shear Response, Nancy Kachouh

Dissertations

This research aims to examine the performance of concrete made with recycled concrete aggregates (RCAs) and steel fibers. It comprises material characterization tests, large-scale reinforced concrete (RC) deep beam tests, and numerical modeling. Material characterization test parameters included the RCA replacement percentage (30, 70, and 100%) and the steel fiber volume fraction (vf = 1, 2, and 3%). Fourteen large-scale deep beam numerical models with and without web openings made with 100% RCAs and steel fibers were developed and validated through a comparative analysis with test results. A numerical parametric study was conducted to investigate the effect of varying …

Application Of Machine Learning To Predict The Performance Of An Emipg Reactor Using Data From Numerical Simulations, Owen Sedej, Eric G. Mbonimpa, Trevor Sleight, Jeremy Slagley

Faculty Publications

Microwave-driven plasma gasification technology has the potential to produce clean energy from municipal and industrial solid wastes. It can generate temperatures above 2000 K (as high as 30,000 K) in a reactor, leading to complete combustion and reduction of toxic byproducts. Characterizing complex processes inside such a system is however challenging. In previous studies, simulations using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) produced reproducible results, but the simulations are tedious and involve assumptions. In this study, we propose machine-learning models that can be used in tandem with CFD, to accelerate high-fidelity fluid simulation, improve turbulence modeling, and enhance reduced-order models. A two-dimensional …

High-Risk Traffic Crash Pattern Recognition And Identification Using Econometric Models And Machine Learning Models, Runan Yang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Roadway crashes have become a major cause of human deaths and injuries and caused much economic damage. According to World Health Organization (WHO), about 1.35 million people died in traffic crashes and over 50 million people injured from traffic crashes in the year of 2016 (World Health Organization, 2020). Nationally, in the U.S., the latest decade witnessed an increase of over 10% in traffic fatalities (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 2019). Similarly, in state of Florida, the fatal crashes increased by 4.62% from 2019 to 2020 (Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, 2021). To prevent injuries and …

Evaluating The Low-Temperature Properties Of Asphalt Binders Extracted From Mixtures Containing Recycled Materials, Eslam Deef-Allah, Magdy Abdelrahman

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The use of recycled materials − such as reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) and recycled asphalt shingles (RAS) − in asphalt mixtures reduces natural resources demands and decreases materials dumped in landfills. The aged binders included in the recycled materials alter binders' low-temperature properties included in asphalt mixtures. Therefore, asphalt binders were extracted from asphalt mixtures collected from the field as cores. Due to the limited amount of extracted asphalt binders (EABs), a dynamic shear rheometer was used to examine the low-temperature properties [e.g., true temperature (Tt), continuous temperature (Tc), and delta continuous temperature (ΔTc)]. Using recycled materials in asphalt mixtures …

Mass Capacity Analysis Of Stormwater Control Measures Using Synthetic Stormwater With Silica, Organic And Hydrocarbon Constituents, Craig Michael Fairbaugh

Dissertations and Theses

Stormwater control measure (SCM) performance is well studied regarding solids removal; however, analysis of mass loading capacity, long-term performance, and maintenance demands are challenging due to the variability and multiple constituents inherent in urban stormwater. This research examines the long-term water quality performance and sediment mass capacity of two common SCMs: high rate biofiltration (HRBF) and conventional bioretention (BRT). Pollutant removal trials were conducted in a laboratory setting per the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) filtration protocol in two phases: the first using inorganic sediment per the NJDEP protocol, the second phase with the addition of organic sediment …

Developing An Optimized Policy Tree-Based Reservoir Operation Model For High Aswan Dam Reservoir, Nile River, Erfan Goharian, Mohamed Shaltout, Mahdi Erfani, Ahmed Eladawy

Faculty Publications

The impacts of climate change on the Nile River and Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) along with the increased water demand downstream suggest an urgent need for more efficient management of the reservoir system that is well-informed by accurate modeling and optimization of the reservoir operation. This study provides an updated water balance model for Aswan High Dam Reservoir, which was validated using combined heterogeneous sources of information, including in situ gauge data, bias-corrected reanalyzed data, and remote sensing information. To investigate the future challenges, the spatial distribution of the annual/seasonal Aswan High Dam Reservoir surface air temperature trends over …

Developing An Optimized Policy Tree-Based Reservoir Operation Model For High Aswan Dam Reservoir, Nile River, Erfan Goharian, Mohamed Shaltout, Mahdi Erfani, Ahmed Eladawy

Faculty Publications

The impacts of climate change on the Nile River and Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) along with the increased water demand downstream suggest an urgent need for more efficient management of the reservoir system that is well-informed by accurate modeling and optimization of the reservoir operation. This study provides an updated water balance model for Aswan High Dam Reservoir, which was validated using combined heterogeneous sources of information, including in situ gauge data, bias-corrected reanalyzed data, and remote sensing information. To investigate the future challenges, the spatial distribution of the annual/seasonal Aswan High Dam Reservoir surface air temperature trends over …

Activated Carbon As Superadsorbent And Sustainable Material For Diverse Applications, Gaurav Sharma, Shweta Sharma, Amit Kumar, Chin Wei Lai, Mu. Naushad, Shehnaz (Panjab University Shehnaz (Panjab University, Jibran Iqbal, Florian J. Stadler

All Works

Activated carbon is a carbonaceous material with highly porous structure. Different functionalities can be introduced to its surface by various physical and chemical treatments. Various precursors can be used for the synthesis of activated carbon such as fossil fuels, agricultural wastes, and lignocellulosic wastes, etc. Number of papers have been reported in literature devoted to the synthesis, characterization, and various applications of activated carbon. Herein, in this review, special attention has been paid to the basic properties of activated carbon and its surface chemistry originated due to physical and chemical treatment. In addition, a general introduction to adsorption process, various …

Design And Evaluation Of A Prototype Low-Damage Beam-Column Connection For Mass Timber Moment Frames, Samuel D. Richmann

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

A moment-resisting, beam-column connection for mass timber moment frames was developed, designed and tested. The design was intended to limit damage to the timber members by creation of a ductile failure mechanism in steel U-shaped flexural plates (UFPs). Using design equations developed by previous research on UFPs by Baird, et al. (2014) as well as accepted design practices from the NDS and AISC, the components were sized to eliminate failure in the timber. The connection was tested using a quasi-static lateral displacement method following the procedure outlined in section K2.4b of AISC 341-16. A vertical load was placed on the …

Assessment Of Scoured Bridges Subjected To Vessel Impact Using Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis, Amir S. Irhayyim

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Scour has been the number one cause of bridge failure in the United States with an average of 22 bridges collapsing or being closed owing to severe deformation each year [1]. This work attempts to deal with two important issues: (1) Potential bridge failures during the co-occurrence of scour and ship impact; (2) Incorporating IDA analysis to predict bridge responses based on barge and collision parameters, and to generate fragility curves to predict the probability of exceedance damage states.

For bridges, flooding is considered the most threatening hazard. According to the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) [2], 500,000 out of 615,000 …

Formation Of Trihalomethanes During Chlorination At South Cross Bayou Advanced Water Reclamation Facility, Pinellas County, Florida, Ian Grabo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

South Cross Bayou Advanced Water Reclamation Facility (SCB) in Pinellas County, Florida, recently had a spike in effluent concentrations of bromodichloromethane (BDCM) and dibromochloromethane (DBCM) above the regulated limits, due to relying fully on chlorination instead of a combination of chlorination and ultraviolet light. The objective of this study was to determine the operating parameters most strongly affecting the formation of THMs. This was completed by analysis of long-term data sets obtained from SCB by multiple linear regression to create models describing THM formation. In addition, sampling of the chlorine contact chamber (CCC) was done to determine the effects of …

Managing Aquifer Recharge To Overcome Overdraft In The Lower American River, California, Usa, Mahesh L. Maskey, Mustafa S. Dogan, Angel Santiago Fernandez-Bou, Liying Li, Alexander Guzman, Wyatt Arnold, Erfan Goharian, Jay R. Lund, Josue Medellin-Azuara

Faculty Publications

Frequent and prolonged droughts challenge groundwater sustainability in California but managing aquifer recharge can help to partially offset groundwater overdraft. Here, we use managed aquifer recharge (MAR) to examine potential benefits of adding an artificial recharge facility downstream from California’s Lower American River Basin, in part to prepare for drought. We use a statewide hydroeconomic model, CALVIN, which integrates hydrology, the economics of water scarcity cost and operations, environmental flow requirements, and other operational constraints, and allocates water monthly to minimize total scarcity and operating costs. This study considers a recharge facility with unconstrained and constrained flows. The results show …

Monitoring Of Structural Quality Under Construction Using 3d Point Cloud Data, Xinxing Yuan

Civil Engineering ETDs

Inspection of infrastructure under construction has become an active research topic in the past few decades. Due to rising costs and safety concerns of current inspection methods, automated inspection methods are proposed. In this context, this dissertation has developed a framework that uses 3D point cloud data from the bridge under construction and evaluates the design specifications and the strength capacity of the structure while is being built. This study presents a slicing algorithm for automatically evaluating rebar placement using 3D point cloud data. The outcomes of this research provide structural engineering with (i) automatic inspection of reinforcement during construction; …

Carbon Diversion, Partial Nitritation/Anammox Enrichment, And Ammonium Capture As Initial Stages For Mainstream Ion Exchange-Deammonification Process, Sheyla Chero-Osorio

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Eutrophication is a concerning environmental problem worldwide that results in algae blooms, oxygen depletion, damages to aquatic life and public health, water quality issues, and loss of aesthetics in water reservoirs. Nutrient (e.g., nitrogen and phosphorus) discharges from wastewater, agricultural, urban, and residential runoff promote eutrophication in receiving water bodies. In terms of nitrogen removal, conventional biological nitrogen removal (BNR) is a common technique used in many wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). However, BNR requires aeration for nitrification and organic carbon input for denitrification. In WWTP, the aeration represents a considerable investment in terms of energy costs. Recent technologies involve applying …

Estimating The As-Placed Grout Volume Of Auger Cast Piles, Tristen Mee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Augered Cast-in-Place (ACIP) piles are a geotechnical foundation element increasingly used to support large publicly funded structures as an alternative to drilled shafts or driven piles. ACIP piles are constructed by drilling an excavation to the full length of the designed pile with a continuous flight auger. Grout (cement, sand, and water mixture) is then pumped through the hollow auger stem to begin grouting the excavation. After establishing an initial head pressure, the auger is slowly extracted while the remainder of the pile is grouted. Once the auger is completely removed, the steel reinforcement cage is lowered into the grouted …

Using Machine Learning In Estimating Changing Bed Shear Over A Flume Test Box, Ghada S. Ellithy, Siddharth S. Parida

Publications

A dam or levee breach caused by overflow erosion is difficult to evaluate during an overtopping event due to difficulty in accessibility and quickly changing conditions. However, for assessment of risk associated with breach time and ensuing downstream consequences, the erosion rate of embankment soils during this process needs to be evaluated. Soil erosion and water depth measurements were taken during flume tests using a Shallow Water Lidar (SWL) system scans. The tests were conducted in a 1-m-wide tilting flume on three cleans and gravel soil mixes with a median grain size D50of 2, 5,and 20 mm. The box measured …

Effects Of Downdrag On Pile Performance, Malaak Omelia Araujo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

All soils settle under the weight of newly constructed embankments. In the case of MSE wall-type embankments, piles are driven prior to embankment construction. Under the weight of the newly constructed embankment, the soil surrounding the piles may settle more than the piles themselves. This downward movement potentially drags the piles down and induces a force within the pile known as downdrag. The research on the downdrag phenomenon involving cohesionless granular soils is sparse, thus the focus of this study is to investigate the effects of downdrag on pile performance driven in Florida sandy soils. A site consisting of soil …

The Impact Of Land Use Change On Hydrology Using Hydrologic Modelling And Geographical Information System (Gis), Nattachan Luesaksiriwattana

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Surface and groundwater conditions in west-central Florida are highly interactive, with shallow water table and sandy soil. Land use types including forests, agricultural areas, and urbanization affect water resources differently. Change in land use, associated with expanding the urban environment to support human needs, significantly impacts surface water infiltration and runoff characteristics. Construction of infrastructures such as buildings and housing can result less water to infiltrate through the soil, with increased surface water runoff and decline in evapotranspiration. A computerized hydrologic model, Hydrological Simulation Program-FORTRAN (HSPF), couple to a spreadsheet groundwater model and a Geographical Information System (GIS) were applied …

Development Of Membrane Assisted Recovery Of Solids (Mars) Technology For Nutrient Management In Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Systems, Itzé Alejandra Kenney

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasing global populations will result in a rise of eutrophic wastewater and an increased need in food supply. Both problems share a commonality: nutrients. Not all communities are equipped to handle one or both of those challenges, considering that typical solutions require large and energy intensive technologies. Wastewater treatment in most major cities is done through centralized treatment plants, which is not feasible for places with limited resources. Decentralized wastewater treatment systems (DWTS) have been developed as an alternative solution for those communities, but they still struggle to sustainably treat nutrients such as ammonium (NH4) and phosphate (PO4^(3-)). Zeolite has …

Investigating Lateral Displacement Of Pile Groups Under Construction Loads And Excavation—A Case Study, Thang Pham, Andres Palma, Thuyet Nguyen, Thuy Vu

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Piles in weak soils are sensitive to adjacent excavation and construction loads. Excessive lateral displacement of piles during construction adds shear and bending moment to the piles. This is of great concern because these additional lateral loads are sometimes not accounted for when designing piles, and the horizontal bearing capacity as well as shear strength of the piles is low. This paper presents a case study of a recent project with severe pile damage and large soil displacement during construction due to the installation of adjacent piles and excavating foundation pits. With improper construction procedures, the piles were severely damaged …

Using Rwis Data For Winter Maintenance Decision Support, Tony Coventry

Purdue Road School

Road weather information systems (RWIS) data is the key component to winter maintenance decision support systems (MDSS) and solutions. In this session we will learn about the FHWA’s Weather Data Environment (WxDE), a national road weather data sharing program; how the data is integrated into decision support solutions, network monitoring, and research projects. Discussion will also include strategic application of road weather data in winter maintenance decision making.

Improving Document Retention Through Data Management Dashboards, Beau M. Gentry, Brett Lackey, Karen Hadley

Purdue Road School

Transportation projects continue to get more complex, requiring multi-layer collaboration, documentation, compliance, and more. Through specific use cases, we will demonstrate how project teams can use innovative platforms to build data management dashboards for project management and document retention for mid-West and Indiana mobility projects. This specialized visual tool brings important documents and data together, incorporates customized information, and evolves it to meet client needs in modern and easy to understand metrics.

Streamlining Project Development Through Planning & Environmental Linkages, Karen Hadley, Brett Lackey

Purdue Road School

As transportation agencies continue to explore ways to be more efficient in the project development process, they are embracing integrated methodologies like planning and environmental linkages. This tool is practical, yet highly effective and inclusive, and teams across the country are experiencing its value. This presentation will highlight a variety of use cases, discuss lessons learned and best practices, and specifically address how planning and environmental linkages can be applied in Indiana and the Midwest.

Importance Of Proactive Safety Analysis For Corridor Planning, Martin Guttenplan, Houssam Ghandour

Purdue Road School

A proactive safety analysis approach assists decision makers in addressing high-risk crash elements, particularly on low-volume roadways. Using corridor planning best practices and lessons learned, this presentation will explore creative and proactive approaches for holistic planning solutions. It will also validate 2020 pandemic crash data accuracy and highlight prioritization methodologies and AASHTO and FHWA guided countermeasures applied to at-risk locations.

Perspectives On Past And Present Mutcds, David Boruff

Purdue Road School

This session will describe the history of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Prime focus will be on the Indiana version, including the procedures that have been and those that are currently used to adopt Indiana’s manual. Pending it’s adoption prior to Road School, a summary of the significant changes in next edition of the MUTCD will also be presented.