Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Analysis Of Container Throughput: Demand Forecast And Seaport Competitiveness Assessment, Hussain Talat Sulaimani

Dissertations

Seaports play a crucial role in the container industry, where they act as important nodes in the transport chain to facilitate international trade. In a competitive market, port capacity plays a significant role in defining its competitive position to attract demand and avoid congestion. Failing to provide suitable capacity results in the loss of market share. Therefore, port decision-makers face the challenge of maintaining and developing suitable port facilities to provide efficient services to port users. One of the aspects that decision-makers consider in the planning and development process is analyzing container demand. The analysis of container demand can be …

2021 Fall Engr333 Project Assignment, Matthew K. Heun

ENGR 333

The Fall 2021 ENGR333 project focused on the sustainable housing and featured a partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Kent County.

I asked the students “What is the expected carbon emissions savings of the [Habitat for Humanity] carbon footprint build house?” And “If the carbon footprint build house is not carbon-neutral, you must answer a second question: How can carbon emissions be reduced by a further 20%?”

Calvin’s PR office followed the students’ work throughout the semester. At the end of the semester, the project was featured on Calvin’s News and Stories site with an article by Matt Kucinski …

Validation Of The Mathematics Motivation Questionnaire (Mmq) For Secondary School Students, Logan Fiorella, So Yoon Yoon, Kinnari Atit, Jason R. Power, Grace Panther, Sheryl Sorby, David H. Uttal, Norma Veurink

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Background: Motivation is critical for supporting persistence and achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. In this study, we focus on the assessment of mathematics motivation among secondary school students. We provide validity and reliability evidence for the Mathematics Motivation Questionnaire (MMQ)—adapted from the Science Motivation Questionnaire designed for college students—using data from 2551 secondary students from seven states across the United States. Results: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed five latent factors of the MMQ indicated by 19 items: intrinsic value, self-regulation, self-efficacy, utility value, and test anxiety. The nonlinear SEM reliability coefficients of the five constructs …

Unintended Consequences Of Air Cleaning Chemistry, Douglas B. Collins, Delphine K. Farmer

Faculty Journal Articles

Amplified interest in maintaining clean indoor air associated with the airborne transmission risks of SARS-CoV-2 have led to an expansion in the market for commercially available air cleaning systems. While the optimal way to mitigate indoor air pollutants or contaminants is to control (remove) the source, air cleaners are a tool for use when absolute source control is not possible. Interventions for indoor air quality management include physical removal of pollutants through ventilation or collection on filters and sorbent materials, along with chemically reactive processes that transform pollutants or seek to deactivate biological entities. This perspective intends to highlight the …

Bright And Blind Spots Of Water Research In Latin America And The Caribbean, Alyssa J. Devincentis, Hervé Guillon, Romina Díaz Gómez, Noelle K. Patterson, Francine Van Den Brandeler, Srthur Koehl, Pablo Ortiz-Partida, Laura E. Garza-Díaz, Jennifer Gamez-Rodríguez, Erfan Goharian, Samuel Sandoval Solis

Faculty Publications

Water resources management in Latin America and the Caribbean is particularly threatened by climatic, economic, and political pressures. To assess the region's ability to manage water resources, we conducted an unprecedented literature review of over 20 000 multilingual research articles using machine learning and an understanding of the socio-hydrologic landscape. Results reveal that the region's vulnerability to water-related stresses, and drivers such as climate change, is compounded by research blind spots in niche topics (reservoirs and risk assessment) and subregions (Caribbean nations), as well as by its reliance on an individual country (Brazil). A regional bright spot, Brazil, produces well-rounded …

Assessment Of Key Imperatives For Enhancing Precast Adoptability In Egypt, Mostafa Sameh

Theses and Dissertations

Precast Concrete’s modular application concept is a major construction method that has been used historically seen in various shapes, forms, and with a wide range of constituents. Examples include Ancient Egypt and China among several impressive structures in old civilizations. The major advantages of precast concrete lie in its adaptability, resilience, and versatility which makes precast concrete one of the most agile building materials. Precast concrete as we know it today has been introduced to our markets over the past several decades. Having similar advantages to that of old precast building methods, the road has been paved for wider use …

A Review Of Characteristics Of Bio-Oils And Their Utilization As Additives Of Asphalts, Ran Zhang, Zhanping You, Jie Ji, Qingwen Shi, Zhi Suo

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Transforming waste biomass materials into bio-oils in order to partially substitute petroleum asphalt can reduce environmental pollution and fossil energy consumption and has economic benefits. The characteristics of bio-oils and their utilization as additives of asphalts are the focus of this review. First, physicochemical properties of various bio-oils are characterized. Then, conventional, rheological, and chemical properties of bio-oil modified asphalt binders are synthetically reviewed, as well as road performance of bio-oil modified asphalt mixtures. Finally, performance optimization is discussed for bio-asphalt binders and mixtures. This review indicates that bio-oils are highly complex materials that contain various compounds. Moreover, bio-oils are …

Flow Behavior Of Granular Soil And Impounded Fly Ash Slurries, Nuzhath Fatema

Dissertations - ALL

Failure of an embankment dam around mine tailings and coal ash slurry impoundments typically results in a fast-moving flow of toxic waste that can carry for several miles with disastrous consequence. The most recent catastrophic tailing-dam failure took place on 25 January 2019, at Brumadinho, Brazil, where the resultant tailings flow killed at least 232 people. A similar impoundment failure also occurred in 2008 at the TVA Kingston fossil power plant in Tennessee, USA, where coal combustion residuals such as fly ash and bottom ash were stored in the impoundments. The catastrophic failure at Kingston released 4.2 million m3 of …

Trihalomethanes In Water Supply System And Water Distribution Networks, Sornsiri Sriboonnak, Phacharapol Induvesa, Suraphong Wattanachira, Pharkphum Rakruam, Adisak Siyasukh, Chayakorn Pumas, Aunnop Wongrueng, Eakalak Khan

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

The formation of trihalomethanes (THMs) in natural and treated water from water supply systems is an urgent research area due to the carcinogenic risk they pose. Seasonal effects and pH have captured interest as potential factors affecting THM formation in the water supply and distribution systems. We investigated THM occurrence in the water supply chain, including raw and treated water from water treatment plants (coagulation, sedimentation, sand filtration, ClO2-disinfection processes, and distribution pipelines) in the Chiang Mai municipality, particularly the educational institute area. The effects of two seasons, rainy (September–November 2019) and dry (December 2019–February 2020), acted as surrogates for …

Digital Construction And Bim Research In Ireland 2016-2020, Barry Mcauley, Roger P. West, Alan V. Hore

Conference papers

As the construction industry opens up post pandemic, new and significant challenges will demand considerable expertise, not least in financial viability, solving the housing crisis and facing the very significant climate change pressures to make the industry less wasteful and less carbon intensive. This presents an excellent opportunity to further inculcate aspects of lean construction, particularly BIM into many aspects of construction not traditionally associated with digital construction, provided the necessary expertise is available and known to exist. Following a well-received recent conference paper summarising BIM-related research published by academics in Ireland’s higher education institutions in 2020, this paper will …

Travel Demand Forecasting To Predict Parking Behavior At University Campuses: A Case Study At The University Of Texas At Tyler, Sohil Paudel

Civil Engineering Theses

With limited capacity, space, and funds to expand parking facilities, there is a dire need to better understand parking behavior at university campuses so that universities can better utilize the limited resources available. One methodology, travel demand forecasting, could be used to predict parking demand at a university campus. For this study, the University of Texas at Tyler campus was used as a case study. Each parking lot on campus was assigned to one parking zone based on the nearest classroom building. Next, pneumatic tube counters were used to collect the number of originating and departing vehicles from each zone. …

Exploring How Antecedent Precipitation Amount And The Effects Of Covid-19 Affect Stormwater Runoff Quality Along Urban Gradients, Daniel Ramirez, Katherine Gelsey

REU Final Reports

Stormwater runoff quality is affected by a multitude of factors including surrounding land characteristics, human activities, and antecedent precipitation amounts. We explore how seasonal and variable precipitation affect E. Coli, total suspended solids, nitrogen-nitrate, orthophosphate, lead, and zinc concentrations in Portland, OR, USA. Correlation analysis was conducted between the pollutant concentrations and antecedent rainfall each sample site received for the previous 1, 3, 5, 7, and 30 days from when the sample was taken. We ran Mann-Whitney tests to determine if the levels of the pollutants were statistically different between the wet season and the dry season. We found that …

Disturbance Triggers Non-Linear Microbe–Environment Feedbacks, Aditi Sengupta, Sarah J. Fansler, Rosalie K. Chu, Robert E. Danczak, Vanessa A. Garayburu-Caruso, Lupita Renteria, Hyun-Seob Song, Jason Toyoda, Jacqueline Wells, James C. Stegen

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Conceptual frameworks linking microbial community membership, properties, and processes with the environment and emergent function have been proposed but remain untested. Here we refine and test a recent conceptual framework using hyporheic zone sediments exposed to wetting–drying transitions. Our refined framework includes relationships between cumulative properties of a microbial community (e.g., microbial membership, community assembly properties, and biogeochemical rates), environmental features (e.g., organic matter thermodynamics), and emergent ecosystem function. Our primary aim was to evaluate the hypothesized relationships that comprise the conceptual framework and contrast outcomes from the whole and putatively active bacterial and archaeal communities. Throughout the system we …

Chiziqlashtirish (Liniyalashtirish) Nazariyasining Ba’Zi Bir Muammolari, T.N. Gayubov, X.X. Jumanov

The Scientific Journal of Vehicles and Roads

Ushbu maqolada, chiziqli bо‘lmagan transformatsiyani olish usulini topishdan iborat bо‘lgan statik chiziqli chizish muammosi muhokama qilinadi. Ushbu ishda biz natijalarni boshqa usullar bilan taqqoslab, birgalikda statik va garmonik linearizatsiya bilan chiziqli bо‘lmagan ob’ektlarga dispersiya funksiyasini qо‘llashni kо‘rib chiqamiz. Chiziqli bо‘lmagan modellar turli xil chiziqli dinamik aloqalar va chiziqli bо‘lmagan inersial elementlarning kombinatsiyasi shaklida modellashtiriladi.

Analysis Of Modern And Resource-Efficient Technologies Used In The Assessment Of Transport And Operational Indicators Of Automobile Roads, A.X. Urokov, R.R. Soataliyev

The Scientific Journal of Vehicles and Roads

V dannoy statye izucheni vozmojnosti razlichnix prilojeniy, ispolzuemix dlya izmereniya rovnosti dorojnogo pokritiya s pomoshyu smartfonov, a takje proanalizirovani vozmojnosti, preimushestva i nedostatki dlya sozdaniya dorojnoy bazi dannix v usloviyax Uzbekistane.

Bus Rapid Transport System In Samarkand City, M. Malikov

The Scientific Journal of Vehicles and Roads

High-speed bus transportation is a system of high-speed public transport with a bus rolling stock, which allows achieving high passenger capacity, speed and quality of services provided at relatively low costs due to a set of characteristics: dedicated bus corridors, as a rule, axial placement (in the center of the street); off-board (before boarding the bus) fare collection system; landing at the platform level (the platform is at the same level with the bus floor); priority of bus transport at intersections and other elements of service quality assurance (in particular, information technology and building a strong brand).

О‘Zbekiston Respublikasi Iqlim Sharoitida Sementbeton Qoplamalarini Ekspluatatsiya Qilishning О‘Ziga Xos Xususiyatlari, A.X. Urokov, X.D. Urolova

The Scientific Journal of Vehicles and Roads

Ushbu maqolada sementbeton qoplamalarining respublika iqlim sharoitida ishlash xususiyatlari о‘rganiladi. Sementbeton qoplamalarini ekspluatatsiya qilish bо‘yicha ishlarni tо‘g‘ri tashkil etishning qoplamaning xizmat qilish muddatiga ta’siri tahlil qilindi. Beton qoplamalarni ekspluatatsiya qilish bо‘yicha Amerika tajribalari о‘rganildi. Havo harorati ta’sirida turli xil havo haroratidagi о‘zgarishlar va qoplamalarda yuzaga keladigan zо‘riqishlar tahlil qilindi. Respublikada mavjud operativ ishlarni tashkil etish muammolari tahlil qilindi. Quruq issiq iqlimning xususiyatlari о‘rganildi. Qoplamalarda nuqsonlar paydo bо‘lish sabablari tahlil qilinib, ularning paydo bо‘lishining oldini olish bо‘yicha tavsiyalar berildi. Rivojlangan mamlakatlarning texnologik jarayonlarni takomillashtirish tajribasi kо‘rib chiqilib, ushbu texnologiyalarni Respublikamiz sharoitida qо‘llash bо‘yicha takliflar berildi.

Application Of Epoxy-Asphalt Composite In Asphalt Paving Industry: A Review With Emphasis On Physicochemical Properties And Pavement Performances, Yu Chen, Nabil Hossiney, Xu Yang, Hainian Wang, Zhanping You

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

One of the failure mechanisms associated with asphalt paving layers, especially on steel deck bridges, is large permanent deformation, which adversely affects its long-term performance in service. Thus, epoxy resin was introduced in asphalt paving industry to tackle permanent deformation of asphalt mixtures due to its thermosetting nature. In this review, epoxy resin as a dominant component of the epoxy-asphalt composite system was first considered, followed by a discussion on its curing methods and curing mechanism. Furthermore, the physicochemical property and mechanical performance of epoxy asphalt and epoxy asphalt mixture were thoroughly examined. Crosslink density of epoxy asphalt dictates its …

E-Scooter Safety And How To Improve It, Eric Valentino

altREU Projects

In the last few years, electronic scooters have taken over cities as a means of personal transportation. Between 2017 and 2019 alone, over 30 million trips were recorded across over 100 cities in the US. These scooters pose a safety risk, as 20 in 100,000 trips will result in injury of the rider. On top of this, scooters can cause damage to property, injury pedestrians and motor vehicle drivers, as well as obstruct important infrastructure such as wheelchair ramps. For these reasons, it is important to develop an understanding of the factors that contribute to e-scooter related injuries in order …

Construction Disputes And Associated Contractual Knowledge Discovery Using Unstructured Text-Heavy Data: Legal Cases In The United Kingdom, Jeehee Lee, Youngjib Ham, June-Seong Yi

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Construction disputes are one of the main challenges to successful construction projects. Most construction parties experience claims—and even worse, disputes—which are costly and time-consuming to resolve. Lessons learned from past failure cases can help reduce potential future risk factors that likely lead to disputes. In particular, case law, which has been accumulated from the past, is valuable information, providing useful insights to prepare for future disputes. However, few efforts have been made to discover legal knowledge using a large scale of case laws in the construction field. The aim of this paper is to enhance understanding of the multifaceted legal …

Assessing The Impact Of Changing Drought Conditions On Wildfire Emissions In Washington And Oregon, Maggie Liu

altREU Projects

Wildfires impact public health, and threaten life, livelihood, and property across the United States, particularly on the West Coast. This project seeks to find correlations between drought and wildfire emissions by comparing the Modified Palmer Drought Index (PMDI) with smoke particulate (PM2.5) emissions from fires in Oregon and Washington. PM2.5 emissions were taken from 2002 – 2020 from the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s FINN model, which uses satellite observations of active fires to assign burned area, and compares against observed vegetation to model emissions. This project found the strongest positive correlation between fire activity for a summer season (July …

Occupational Health And Job Satisfaction Assessment Of Bus Rapid Transit (Brt) Drivers, Alireza Samerei, Kayvan Aghabayk, Alireza Soltani

Journal of Public Transportation

Several studies have focused on ergonomics of commercial and urban bus drivers; however, there exists a dearth of research on BRT drivers. This study was conducted to investigate the factors affecting the BRT drivers' mental health and satisfaction. The study was carried out on 171 BRT drivers in Tehran, Iran. The required data were collected through two questionnaires. The Classification and Regression Tree (CART) and Hierarchical clustering (HC) was used to extract factors affecting mental health and satisfaction of BRT drivers. The important factors affecting BRT drivers' mental health were: dispute with passengers, depression, BMI, criminal behaviours of passengers, driver's …

Evaluation Of Guayule Resin As An Innovative Bio-Based Asphalt Alternative In Mix Performance -- Preprint, Ahmed Hemida, Magdy Abdelrahman

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Literature revealed the potential of using guayule resin for asphalt cement replacement from the binder’s perspective. However, monitoring guayule resin through binder-aggregate mixture could disclose its performance through field. In this study, designated binders were employed to investigate the applicability of such an innovative replacer through mixture, which were neat asphalt and guayule-based binders (neat guayule, asphalt-rubber-guayule, guayule-rubber binders). Consecutively, field-simulated lab mixtures were prepared to investigate the major distresses. Moisture damage, rutting, fatigue cracking, and thermal cracking resistances were investigated using the modified Lottman (TSR) test, rut test by asphalt pavement analyzer (APA), semi-circular bending (SCB) test, and disk-shaped …

Finding Lonely Routes For Runners And Bikers, Ethan T. Spicher

REU Final Reports

With COVID-19 raging around the world, personal health is even more important to a lot of people. One way to maintain good physical and mental health is to exercise according to Deslandes [2]. When exercising it may be important to make sure that you are running/biking on trails that are less populated than others, as well as taking into account the distance. This can be solved by creating an algorithm that allows the user to choose the starting and end point, and the algorithm will then find the optimal path between the two points with the distance and popularity of …

Rapid Measurement Of Rh-Dependent Aerosol Hygroscopic Growth Using A Humidity-Controlled Fast Integrated Mobility Spectrometer (Hfims), Jiaoshi Zhang, Steven Spielman, Yang Wang, Guangjie Zheng, Xianda Gong, Susanne Hering, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The ability of aerosol particles to uptake water (hygroscopic growth) is an important determinant of aerosol optical properties and radiative effects. Aerosol hygroscopic growth is traditionally measured by humidified tandem differential mobility analyzers (HTDMA), in which size-selected dry particles are exposed to elevated relative humidity (RH), and the size distribution of humidified particles is subsequently measured using a scanning mobility particle sizer. As a scanning mobility particle sizer can measure only one particle size at a time, HTDMA measurements are time consuming, and ambient measurements are often limited to a single RH level. Pinterich et al. (2017b) showed that fast …

Making Space For Social And Emotional Learning In Science Education, Erin Ingram, Kristie Reddick, Jessica M. Honaker, Gwen A. Pearson

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is known to improve student outcomes but is rarely combined with STEM. In this paper we present an action research study to examine the impact of a STEM + SEL curriculum intervention to address a real-world school conflict. One hundred sixth–eighth graders and four teachers participated in an in-person facilitation of a SEL Arthropod curriculum, DIFFERENT. After the intervention, students completed open-ended couplet statements about arthropod behavior, tarantulas, and humans designed to measure sentiment change. Answers were manually coded using inductive coding on a scale of negative (1) to positive (5). Statement sentiments significantly shifted from negative …

Extension Of A Gaseous Dry Deposition Algorithm To Oxidized Volatile Organic Compounds And Hydrogen Cyanide For Application In Chemistry Transport Models, Zhiyong Wu, Leiming Zhang, John T. Walker, Paul A. Makar, Judith Perlinger, Xuemei Wang

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

The dry deposition process refers to flux loss of an atmospheric pollutant due to uptake of the pollutant by the Earth's surfaces, including vegetation, underlying soil, and any other surface types. In chemistry transport models (CTMs), the dry deposition flux of a chemical species is typically calculated as the product of its surface layer concentration and its dry deposition velocity (Vd); the latter is a variable that needs to be highly empirically parameterized due to too many meteorological, biological, and chemical factors affecting this process. The gaseous dry deposition scheme of Zhang et al. (2003) parameterizes Vd for 31 inorganic …

Droplet And Particle Dynamics In Aerosol Reactors And Environmental System, Sukrant Dhawan

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Aerosol science and engineering is an enabler for continual advances in nanomaterial synthesis. The spray-based techniques have been used extensively for the large-scale production of nanoparticles. Synthesis of particles with a desired the size and morphology is of key importance for exploiting their properties for their use in several emerging technologies. In contrast to useful nanomaterials, the aerosols from industrial flue gas, dust, indoor cooking, pathogens, and wildfire etc. are harmful to human health. It is important to understand how these harmful aerosols travel through the environment and potentially impact the health. It is also very critical to improve the …

Towards Creating Smart Cities In Nepal, Ambika P. Adhikari, Keshav Bhattarai

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Many urban centers in the world are seeking to become smart cities. Nepali city leaders are also aspiring to make their cities smart. A smart city basically has clever improvements made in three sectors of its operations: technological, human, and institutional. Globally, many cities have recently made impressive enhancements in at least one or more of these areas. Nepal’s National Planning Commission (NPC) in 2016 had released a concept paper on smart cities for Nepal, defining smart cities as sustainable, information and technology-based, with high quality services and replicable (NPC 2016). As most Nepali cities still operate with limited infrastructure, …

Effects Of Sodium Sulfate Attack On Concrete Incorporated With Drying-Wetting Cycles, Fang Liu, Zhanping You, Rui Xiong, Xu Yang

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

It has been widely observed that sulfate attack can damage the durability of concrete. This research investigated the mass loss and damage degree of concrete under sodium sulfate attack incorporated with drying-wetting cycles. The impact factors, including water-binder ratio, solution concentration of sodium sulfate, fly ash content, curing time, and drying-wetting cycle system, were observed to influence the sodium sulfate attack by the mass loss rate and damage degree at regular time intervals. Also, the hydrates of sulfate-attacked samples were analyzed using X-ray diffraction. Results indicated that a high water-binder and high-concentration sodium sulfate solution could accelerate the transportation of …