Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Bridge Load Posting Prediction, Sabarethinam Kameshwar, Md. Manik Mia, Sai Bandaru

Publications

There are approximately 13,000 bridges in Louisiana facilitating movement of people, goods, and services. At present, about 12% of the bridges are load posted, i.e., they are deemed to lack the strength to safely carry all legal loads. With time bridges will age and deteriorate; at the same time, legal loads might increase. Load posted bridges disrupt the movement of goods and commerce. Therefore, objective of this research was to estimate the number of load posted bridges in Louisiana over the next 50 years. For this purpose, herein, a data based approach was used. For a given bridge type, the …

Smart Battery Management System For Electric Vehicles: Selflearning Algorithms For Simultaneous State And Parameter Estimation, And Stress Detection, Avimanyu Sahoo, Samir Ahmed

Publications

The project proposes to develop parameter-varying SOH-coupled models for lithium-ion battery and self-learning algorithms to learn the model for simultaneous state and parameter estimation and fault detection. The traditional battery models use constant parameters, limiting their accuracy for predicting the state of the charge and health over the complete life-cycle. In practice, the battery parameters vary with the change in the state of charge and state of health. SOH-coupled models can be used to estimate the state of charge and health accurately. Further, obtaining the model parameters is also a challenging task for designing filters or observers for state estimation. …

Expanding The Concept Of Comprehensive Area Ratio Parameter To The South-Central States: Towards Simplifying The Structural Evaluation Of Flexible Pavements At The Network Level, Mena Souliman, Samer Dessouky, Nitish R. Bastola

Publications

The surface deflection bowl data collected through falling weight deflectometer (FWD) test is utilized by highway agencies in assessing the performance of the flexible pavement. However, a robust method to evaluate pavement sections utilizing FWD data from all the sensors is seldom developed. There is always a need for DOTs and highway agencies to have a simplified procedure, which can be directly implemented in agencies' databases. This study focuses on expanding and validating the concept of previously developed area ratio parameters towards the pavement section of South-Central States (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas) in effectively analyzing the pavement …

Assessment Of The Hydrograv® Adapt Variable Height Secondary Clarifier Inlet At Hrsd Nansemond Treatment Plant, Matthew Poe

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) recently completed the first North American and center driven installation of the Hydrograv® Adapt Variable Height Secondary Clarifier Inlet (Adapt) at HRSD’s Nansemond Treatment Plant. This is a variable height inlet structure designed to decrease clarifier effluent turbidity and maintain low turbidity during high flow events. Low turbidity is achieved by feeding the secondary clarifier influent within the solids blanket during dry weather conditions and lifting the inlet structure during wet weather conditions to avoid disrupting the blanket. The Adapt clarifier was monitored alongside an identical fixed inlet clarifier to assess performance. Both clarifiers …

Identification Of Phosphorous Loading Point Source Facilities To 303(D) Listed Nutrient Impaired Waters Through Watershed Delineation Using Arcgis For Life Cycle Assessment Applications, John Zimmerman

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The work done for this project is part of a larger “life cycle assessment (LCA) of novel electrochemical phosphorus recovery technology at the wastewater treatment plant and U.S. watershed scales” (Morrissey 2019). The goal of that LCA is to determine “environmental impacts of implementing electrochemical struvite recovery at the wastewater treatment plant, U.S watershed, and global scales” (Morrissey 2019). This project’s goal is to identify locations deemed more sensitive to eutrophication impacts. The results will be used as part of the life cycle inventory (LCI) accounting for geographically explicit phosphorus flows. The waters identified as impaired were sourced from the …

Application Of Biochar As Beneficial Additive In Concrete, Temirlan Barissov

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

Biochar is a high-carbon solid material produced via thermal decomposition of organic biomass in a low-oxygen environment. Characterized with high water retention properties and high alkalinity, biochar is generally used for soil amendment and fertilization purposes. This study is intended to explore the feasibility of using biochar as a beneficial additive of the most used manmade material, concrete. Literature review revealed several studies where biochar was successfully implemented as an additive in concrete. The beneficial influence of biochar on the mechanical characteristics of concrete is based on nucleation and densification effects. However, the internal microstructure, porosity and chemical composition of …

Modeling Watershed Sensitivity To Climate Change In Systems Affected By Discharge Of Mine Tailings, Johnette C. Shockley

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

For more than a century, a large volume of gold-mining tailings was deposited in Whitewood Creek and the Belle Fourche River, tributaries to the Cheyenne River in western South Dakota. Much of it still remains, and field and historical evidence indicates continued remobilization of tailings-containing alluvium in these bedrock-dominated channels. Both long-term, natural fluctuations in climate and anthropogenically driven changes can impact regional precipitation, temperature, hydrologic patterns, and ecosystem functions. Such changes have the potential to affect both the transport and distribution of arsenic-laden sediments and mechanical erosion that can undermine the stability of channel-bed and overbank material.

This study …

Using Differential Shear Strain Measurements To Monitor Crosstie Support Conditions In Railroad Tracks, D. Kody Johnson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This thesis details a comprehensive numerical analysis of load determination, and crosstie support assessment and monitoring using strain gauges to measure differential rail shear strain in ballasted railroad tracks due to applied railcar wheel loads. These differential shear strain measurements can be related to applied wheel loading and crosstie support reactions through the geometric and constitutive properties of a given rail section. The basic theory behind the measurement technique was reviewed and investigated using finite element models of varying complexity. The impact of field conditions such as differential ballast and subgrade support, track stiffness, crosstie spacing, gauge installation location, and …

Ammonia Emission Assessment From Gasoline And Diesel Engines Under Utah Specific Conditions, Motasem Suleiman Abualqumboz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study aims to quantify ammonia (NH₃) emission rates from the on-road gasoline and diesel motor vehicles fleet of the Wasatch Front, Utah. For this purpose, a portable Pollution Emissions Monitoring System (PEMS) was used to estimate NH₃ emission rates from a representative fleet of 53 in-use light-duty (LD) gasoline and diesel vehicles over a total of 166 on-road Real Driving Emissions (RDE) tests. The post-catalyst concentrations of NH₃ precursors, nitrogen oxides (NO_x) and carbon monoxide (CO) were also measured. The outcomes of this study showed that a motor vehicle in the Wasatch Front …

Active Transportation Routes Using Canal Corridors: Decision Tools In Creating Successful Canal Trail Projects, Matthew Scott Crump

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The state of Utah has many canal corridors that offer potential opportunities for establishing public trails.In the past, concerns such as public safety and canal companies’ abilities to perform maintenance have inhibited the construction of canal trails. Recently, local governments and canal companies have worked to overcome these challenges which has led to the establishment of some canal trails. The purpose of this study is to provide valuable insights and tools that can be used in developing future canal trails. In order to accomplish this, the study documents various case studies of completed canal trail projects, interviews stakeholders for future …

Classical Venturi Meter Performance Downstream Of The Through Leg Of A Tee Junction, Matthew P. Day

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this research was to analyze the accuracy of a Classical Venturi meter installed downstream of the through leg of a tee junction. A flowmeter that functions inaccurately due to improper installation may cause revenue loss for any company or organization involved in extraction, transportation, production, or purchasing of fluid resources and products. This research used physical data coupled with data produced by numerical models to determine how to correct the Classical Venturi meter’s inaccuracies created by this particular installation.

Results show the capability of measuring the flow rate accurately was greatly affected when most of the flow …

Estimation Of High-Resolution Evapotranspiration In Heterogeneous Environments Using Drone-Based Remote Sensing, Ayman M. M. Nassar

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Evapotranspiration (ET) is a key element of hydrological cycle analysis, irrigation demand, and for better allocation of water resources in the ecosystem. For successful water resources management activities, precise estimate of ET is necessary. Although several attempts have been made to achieve that, variation in temporal and spatial scales constitutes a major challenge, particularly in heterogeneous canopy environments such as vineyards, orchards, and natural areas. The advent of remote sensing information from different platforms, particularly the small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) technology with lightweight sensors allows users to capture high-resolution data faster than traditional methods, described …

Temperature Effect On The Mechanical Properties Of Steel Fiber Reinforced Ultra-High-Performance Concrete, Jenny Bernadette Gomes

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The contemporary innovation in concrete technology is ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC). In this work, mechanical properties of UHPC are studied at ambient terrestrial temperature conditions. Specimens are prepared under laboratory environments maintaining the temperature of -25°C, -5°C, 15°C, 35°C, and 55°C. A freeze thaw chamber is utilized to condition the specimens at specified temperatures. Compressive strength, flexural strength, toughness, and modulus of elasticity are determined under varying temperature and steel fiber volume content. The results indicate that both temperature and steel fibers have effect on the mechanical properties of UHPC. The flexural and compressive strength show an opposite trend of strength …

Improvement Opportunities In The Two-Source Energy Balance Model For Et Using Uav Imagery And Point Cloud Information, Mahyar Aboutalebi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In recent years, satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provide enormous amounts of spatially-distributed information for monitoring crop conditions by measuring crop’s reflected and emitted radiation at a distance. However, applications of high-resolution UAV imagery and its intermediate products for improving crop water use estimates are not well studied. In other words, the available approaches, methods and algorithms for determining how much water to apply for irrigation using remotely sensed data have been mostly developed at satellite spatial resolutions. High-resolution imageries that have been achieved by small UAVs open new opportunities for revisiting, re-evaluating, and revising available crop water use …

The Impact Of Increasing Flood Frequency On Flood Inundation: A Case Study Of The Little River In Florida, Maj Amanda Catharina Allen

Theses and Dissertations

Floods are considered one of the most devastating natural hazards and are projected to increase in frequency and magnitude in many places around the world, one of them being Florida. Understanding the potential changes of flood hazards due to climate change is of paramount importance for developing effective flood mitigation procedures and resilient infrastructures. In this work, changes in flood inundation characteristics (flood depth and extent) in response to changes in future flood magnitudes are estimated and analyzed for the Little River basin in northwest Florida. HEC-RAS hydraulic model is set up and validated against observations for the flood event …

What Is An Effective Way To Measure Arterial Demand When It Exceeds Capacity?, Mecit Cetin, Hong Yang, Kun Xie, Giridhar Kattepogu, Behrouz Salahshour

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

This project focused on developing and evaluating methods for estimating demand volume for oversaturated corridors. Measuring demand directly with vehicle sensors is not possible when demand is larger than capacity for an extended period, as the queue grows beyond the sensor, and the flow measurements at a given point cannot exceed the capacity of the section. The main objective of the study was to identify and develop methods that could be implemented in practice based on readily available data. To this end, two methods were proposed: an innovative method based on shockwave theory; and the volume delay function adapted from …

New Innovations In Pavement Materials And Engineering: A Review On Pavement Engineering Research 2021, Jtte Editorial Office Chang’An Univeristy, Jiaqi Chen, Hancheng Dan, Yongjie Ding, Yangming Gao, Meng Guo, Zhanping You, Et. Al.

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Sustainable and resilient pavement infrastructure is critical for current economic and environmental challenges. In the past 10 years, the pavement infrastructure strongly supports the rapid development of the global social economy. New theories, new methods, new technologies and new materials related to pavement engineering are emerging. Deterioration of pavement infrastructure is a typical multi-physics problem. Because of actual coupled behaviors of traffic and environmental conditions, predictions of pavement service life become more and more complicated and require a deep knowledge of pavement material analysis. In order to summarize the current and determine the future research of pavement engineering, Journal of …

The Impact Of Wastewater Chemistry And Flow Characteristics On Hydrogen Sulfide Concentration, Mohsina Muhammed Sherief

Theses

Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) is a naturally occurring, highly toxic gas that is formed from the decomposition of sulfur compounds. At low concentrations, H₂S is an irritant for the eyes, respiratory and gastrointestinal tract. At higher H₂S concentrations, it produces neurological impairment with dizziness, headache, and loss of consciousness. Mortality was reported to reach 6 percent following exposure to elevated concentrations. H₂S is generated in different industrial processes. In wastewater collection and treatment plants, H₂S is a common source of concrete and metal corrosion that has resulted in huge economic loss. …

Microplastics Fouling And Interaction With Polymeric Membranes: A Review, Mitra Golgoli, Mehdi H. Khiadani, Abdellah Shafieian, Tushar K. Sen, Y. Hartanto, M. L. Johns, Masoumeh Zargar

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The emergence and accumulation of microplastics (MPs) in various aquatic environments have recently raised significant concerns. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have been identified as one of the major sources of MPs discharge to the environment, implying a substantial need to improve advanced techniques for more efficient removal of MPs. Polymeric membranes have been proven effective in MPs removal. However, fouling is the main drawback of membrane processes and MPs can foul the membranes due to their small size and specific surface properties. Hence, it is important to investigate the impacts of MPs on membrane fouling to develop efficient membrane-based techniques …

Naturally Occurring Van Der Waals Heterostructure Lengenbachite With Strong In-Plane Structural And Optical Anisotropy, Arindam Dasgupta, Xiaodong Yang, Jie Gao

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Lengenbachite is a naturally occurring layered mineral formed with alternating stacks of two constituent PbS-like and M₂S₃-like two-dimensional (2D) material layers due to the phase segregation process during the formation. Here, we demonstrate to achieve van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures of lengenbachite down to a few layer-pair thickness by mechanical exfoliation of bulk lengenbachite mineral. The incommensurability between the constituent isotropic 2D material layers makes the formed vdW heterostructure exhibit strong in-plane structural anisotropy, which leads to highly anisotropic optical responses in lengenbachite thin flakes, including anisotropic Raman scattering, linear dichroism, and anisotropic third-harmonic generation. Moreover, …

Atlantis: A Benchmark For Semantic Segmentation Of Waterbody Images, Mohammad H. Erfani, Zhenyao Wu, Xinyi Wu, Song Wang, Erfan Goharian

Faculty Publications

Vision-based semantic segmentation of waterbodies and nearby related objects provides important information for managing water resources and handling flooding emergency. However, the lack of large-scale labeled training and testing datasets for water-related categories prevents researchers from studying water-related issues in the computer vision field. To tackle this problem, we present ATLANTIS, a new benchmark for semantic segmentation of waterbodies and related objects. ATLANTIS consists of 5,195 images of waterbodies, as well as high quality pixel-level manual annotations of 56 classes of objects, including 17 classes of man-made objects, 18 classes of natural objects and 21 general classes. We analyze ATLANTIS …

Investigation Of Control Parameters, Strategies, And Transport Modeling For Effective Electrokinetic Nanoparticle Treatment Of Cementitious Materials, Huayuan Zhong

Doctoral Dissertations

Various deleterious chemical species (including sulfates, chlorides, and others) contaminate concrete structures which are inherently porous and thus suffer from compromised durability. Several technologies have been developed for repairing concrete or enhancing the service life. Nevertheless, their efficiency, practicability, and cost can vary widely. Compared with chemical grout, fiber wrap, and traditional repair technology, electrokinetic nanoparticle treatment (EN) has been found to provide remarkable benefits for strength restoration and mitigation of durability problems via porosity reduction. Nanoparticle instability and over dosage issues can arise and lead to problems during treatments. In many cases, these treatment processes have been accompanied by …

Classification Des Sols Et Sélection Des Systèmes D’Étançonnement Pour L’Excavation Des Tranchées, Bertrand Galy, Denis Lebœuf, Omar Chaallal, André Lan

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Les travaux de fouilles en tranchée exposent les travailleurs à de nombreux risques. L’éboulement est le risque le plus grave et le plus fréquent présent pendant ces travaux, mais hélas, il est très souvent sous-estimé, alors qu’un éboulement mineur de moins d’un mètre cube de terre peut blesser mortellement un travailleur. Une analyse de 50 rapports d’accidents graves et mortels de la Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST), survenus entre mai 1974 et juin 2017 lors de travaux d’excavation et de fouilles en tranchées, montre qu’il y a eu 48 décès …

Integrating Construction 4.0 Technologies: A Four-Layer Implementation Plan, Mahmoud El Jazzar, Christian Schranz, Harald Urban, Hala Nassereddine

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

This research explores the current state of Construction 4.0 and discusses a four-layer implementation of Construction 4.0 in the industry. The research methodology consists of an extensive literature review to gain insights about Construction 4.0 and frame the four-layer implementation plan. A case study is also presented to showcase the proposed implementation plan. Nine Construction 4.0 technologies were discussed, their integration throughout the project lifecycle was presented in a roadmap, their integration and connectivity with one another were outlined in an interaction roadmap, and the requirements necessary for achieving the 4.0 transformation were articulated. However, the proposed implementation plan is …

Gender And Equality In Transport. Proceedings Of The 2021 Travel Demand Management Symposium, Maria Chiara Leva, Augustus Ababio-Donkor, Ajeni Thimnu, Wafaa Saleh

Books/Book Chapters/ Proceedings

Proceedings of the 10^TH INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL DEMAND MANAGEMENT (TDM) SYMPOSIUM IN CONJUNCTION WITH TINNGO AND DIAMOND FINAL CONFERENCE titled: Gender and Equality in Transport

Cyber Physical Systems For Non-Contact Infrastructure Monitoring, Roya Nasimi

Civil Engineering ETDs

In recent decades, the decay of infrastructure has become a relevant challenge of both developed and under developing countries. Prioritization of maintenance and repairs of transportation infrastructure is a new worldwide priority since it is important to quantify the rate of decay of assets to increase both safety and cost-efficient operations. Infrastructure owners need frequent inspections on their assets to predict and to avoid unsafe conditions prone to cause disasters. Frequent infrastructure inspections call for cost-effective methods. Traditional measurement methods require human access to the infrastructure, are subjective, expensive, and unsafe. Therefore, infrastructure managers are interested in exploring new non-contact …

Cognizant Composites: Seamless Integration Of Circuitry And Sensors Into Structural Composites, Reuben Fresquez

Computer Science ETDs

This thesis describes a set of novel techniques for embedding sensors, circuitry, and electronics into structural composites. I leverage recent developments in human computer interaction to create sensors and circuitry that are seamlessly incorporated into structural composites. I fabricate bend and compression sensors, along with circuitry, from textiles, which enables me to add electronic capabilities without impacting the composite’s structural integrity. I describe the construction of these “cognizant composites” and demonstrate their functionality. I also explore techniques for embedding standard electronic components, including microcontrollers, into structural composites. Potential applications of this technology include buildings that can warn occupants if load-bearing …

Civil Engineering And Construction News, Georgia Southern University

Civil Engineering & Construction: News & Publications (2011-2022)

• Dr. Marcel Maghiar Earning the Highest Level of Certification in Infrared (IR) Imaging and Analysis

Measurement Of Resilience Performance For Infrastructure Construction Project Delivery, Fei Han

Civil Engineering ETDs

In the past decade, infrastructure resilience in the U.S. has become critical due to increasing disruptions to the built environment and the resultant consequences on economic, social, and environmental goals. This attention to resilience research is drawn to investigating the ability of existing structures and facilities to resist and recover from natural and human-caused hazards. From a broader view, resilience also applies to processes, such as infrastructure project delivery processes. During these processes, a project often suffers inevitable threats and disruptions, which can significantly delay or derail the project if the process is not resilient.

This research aimed to conceptualize …

Application Of Using Fault Detection Techniques In Different Components In Power Systems, Mohamed Yahia Abd-Alkader, Ahmed M. Ebid Dr., Ibrahim Mahdi, Ibrahim Abdelrashed Nosseir

Future Engineering Journal

Throughout the years, Fault detection has been one of the most frequently discussed topics in the scientific community at present. Consequently, it has been extensively studied and focused on in recent years. This scientific paper presents some of this research, what they have reached, and the methods used for their studies. The literature review provides that these problems are not covered yet. It needs more works to develop fault detection techniques for better performance.