Civil Engineering Commons^™

Truck Activity Pattern Classification Using Anonymous Mobile Sensor Data, Taslima Akter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

To construct, operate, and maintain a transportation system that supports the efficient movement of freight, transportation agencies must understand economic drivers of freight flow. This is a challenge since freight movement data available to transportation agencies is typically void of commodity and industry information, factors that tie freight movements to underlying economic conditions. With recent advances in the resolution and availability of big data from Global Positioning Systems (GPS), it may be possible to fill this critical freight data gap. However, there is a need for methodological approaches to enable usage of this data for freight planning and operations.

To …

Study Of Internal Strains Developed In Concrete Decks At Early Ages In Steel Continuous Bridges, Fernando R. Benitez Ortiz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) has identified bridge deck cracking shortly after concrete decks are placed and prior to applying traffic loads. Previous researchers have confirmed improper construction practices and design methods can lead to deck cracking. Currently, many contractors throughout Arkansas are using continuous deck pours. This construction approach may restrict the concrete slab from movement during early age shrinkage, causing tensile stresses to develop. The final stresses at the end of construction must be lower than the concrete tensile strength, if not cracking issues will develop. Eventually, these cracks may enlarge due to service load stresses and …

Safety Assessment Of Road Vehicle In Crosswind Considering Driver Behavior, Jiexuan Hu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

With expansion of the economy, more and more highway networks extend to coastal areas and mountain valley areas. Vehicles will be exposed to strong crosswinds when driven on these highway roads, especially in hurricane season and in winter in these two different topographic areas. Strong crosswinds threaten the safety of transportation infrastructure and passing vehicles in forms of vehicle accidents that usually result in traffic blockage and driver injury, posing negative effects on economic growth. This dissertation aimed to evaluate the vehicle safety when running through crosswinds in consideration of driver behaviors.

Firstly, the aerodynamic characteristics of road vehicles were …

Cfd Analysis Of Bridge Pier Geometry On Local Scour Potential, Erin M. Dougherty

LSU Master's Theses

Scour at bridge piers is one of the highest contributing failure factors of bridges. One way to minimize local scour is to alter the flow around a bridge pier and thereby reduce the strength of the downflow and horseshoe vortices. There are many flow-altering scour countermeasures including altering the geometry of the pier itself or by adding a plate or sheath to the base of the pier. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a useful method to model and analyze the effects of pier configuration on flow velocity distribution profiles and bed shear stress. The hydrodynamic component of local scour at …

Pore Characteristics And Computed Permeability Of Pastes Subject To Freeze-Thaw Cycles At Very Early Ages By X-Ray Ct, Ya Wei, Zehong Wu, Xiang Gao

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

Freeze-thaw cycling can damage microstructure of concrete and reduce the service life of concrete structures. This is especially detrimental for concrete subject to freeze-thaw cycles at very early-ages, such as within the first few days after constructions. Typical low and high water-to-cement (w/c) ratio pastes are investigated experimentally and numerically in this study. The pastes are subject to freeze-thaw cycles at the age of 1, and 7 days and then sealed-cured to the age of 45 days. The pore size distribution is measured and quantified by X-ray computer tomography (CT) with high resolution. The permeability of the corresponding pastes is …

Development Of Engineered Cementitious Composites With Conductive Inclusions For Use In Self-Sensing Applications, Benny Suryanto Dr, Danah Saraireh Ms, Steven Walls Mr, Jaehwan Kim Dr, W John Mccarter Prof

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

The mechanical and a.c. electrical properties of a new varietal of engineered cementitious composite (ECC) incorporating conductive inclusions are presented. Electrical measurements were undertaken over a wide frequency range while curing and when under uniaxial tensile loading to study the influence of ongoing hydration and multiple microcrack formation on the composite electrical impedance. When presented in Nyquist format, the work shows that conductive inclusions reduce the bulk resistance of the composite while enhancing its polarizability, transforming the classic, single-arc bulk response of typical cement-based materials to a two-arc response. The bulk resistance was shown to increase with time and damage, …

Rehabilitation Of Low Rise Rcc Structure Along 9m High Retaining Wall, Aniruddha Nakhawa Er, Vivek Deshmukh Dr

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

Mumbai is the financial, commercial and entertainment capital of India, facing bigger challenges in accommodating its over growing population day by day. The Mumbai City has population of 18.4 million over its 634 km2 area, ie. Almost 350 ft2/person. This enormous rise in population density has restricted the development to expand vertically. This also, results in growth of major slums, which is almost 62% of the population dwelling in slums. Subsequently, the authorities is in need of a large scaled Slum Sanitation Program, which utilize the scarcely available land for construction of Community Toilet Blocks with involvement of NGO’s and …

Residual Service Life Estimation And Its Importance For Pretensioned Concrete (Ptc) Bridges In Coastal Cities, Dyana Joseline, Deepak K. Kamde, Sripriya Rengaraju, Radhakrishna G. Pillai

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

Many pre-tensioned concrete (PTC) bridges are experiencing premature chloride-induced corrosion. Hence, it is crucial to estimate their residual service life and update it with newer data on a periodic basis - to plan for corrosionpreventionorcontrolmeasuresandensuresafetyofexistingbridges.Criticalchloridethreshold(Cl th) is one of the parameters necessary to estimate the corrosion initiation period. However, quantitative estimates on Clth for prestressing (PS) steel are not well-reported in literature. This paper presents experimental data on the Clth of PS steel, the chloride diffusion coefficient (Dcl), and surface chloride concentration (Cs) of concrete samples obtained from a PTC bridge girder in a coastal city in India. For estimation …

Study On Accelerated Microbial Corrosion Of Concrete By Artificially Intensified Sewage, L. J. Kong, M. F. Cao, Xiangming Zhou Prof, H. R. Lu, H. Lu, G. Kastiukas

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

In this study, the artificially intensified sewage with different levels of chemical oxygen demand (COD) were prepared, and the changes in weight and strength, as well as the micro morphology, mineral compositions and pore structure of concrete specimens immersed in the artificially intensified sewage and water were investigated in comparison. In parallel, the COD, pH, H₂S and O₂ values, as well as the microbial species and contents of sewage were monitored in the corrosion process. Furthermore, the microbial structure and activities within biofilm developed on concrete surface were also analyzed. The results indicated that the increase of …

Service Life And Life-Cycle Assessment Of Reinforced Concrete With Fly Ash And Limestone Calcined Clay Cement, Ravindra Gettu, Radhakrishna G. Pillai, Manu Santhanam, Sundar Rathnarajan, Anusha Basavaraj, Sripriya Raju, Yuvaraj Dhandapani

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

Environmental impact due to the emission of carbon dioxide during concrete production can be taken care by reducing the clinker content in the cement. The clinker content can be reduced by replacing it with fly ash and limestone calcined clay. Such systems can have a potential to exhibit enhanced durability/service life when exposed to chloride and carbon dioxide. However, estimating probabilistic service life of concretes with such alternative binder systems is difficult due to the lack of quantitative estimates of the input parameters such as chloride diffusion coefficient (D_Cl), ageing coefficient (m), carbonation coefficient (K_CO2), and …

Effect Of Mix Parameters On Strength Of Geopolymer Mortars - Experimental Study, Abdolhossein Naghizadeh, Stephen O. Ekolu

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

In this article, an investigation is reported on development of strength in South African fly ash (FA) – based geopolymer mixtures. Locally available Class F, FA from one of the coal power stations was used in the investigation. The alkali-activator used consisted of sodium silicate (SS) and sodium hydroxide (SH) mixed in varied ratios of 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 SS to SH. The SS of silicate modulus = 2.5 was used but the SH concentration in the activator was varied to 10, 12, 14M NaOH. Mortars of 2.25 aggregate/binder ratio were used to prepare 50 mm cubes. In …

New Model For Natural Carbonation Prediction In Reinforced Concrete – Concept And Validation On Chemical Admixtures, Stephen O. Ekolu, M Raats

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

A new model for prediction of natural carbonation in reinforced concrete structures has recently been developed and presented in (Ekolu, 2018). For brevity, the model is referred to as ESS model. It employs concrete strength as the primary property depicting core carbonation behaviour of any given concrete while other factors induce secondary influence. Chemical admixtures in concrete significantly influence concrete behaviour. Using experimental data from the literature (Dan-Herrera et al., 2015), the model behaviour is verified under use of various types of chemical admixtures of concrete including internal curing, shrinkage reducing, viscosity modifying, and high range water reducing admixtures. Class …

Strength And Durability Performance Of Ultra-High-Performance Cementitious Composite Enhanced With Carbon Nanofibres, Jlg Nim, Sudharshan Naidu Raman, Mfm Zain, R Hamid, Fc Lai

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

Ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) is known for exhibiting excellent strength and a more durable matrix compared to conventional concrete. Typically UHPC consists of carefully selected constituent materials of: ultrafine graded sand, silica fume (or other alternative binders), steel micro-fibres, and ordinary (or special blends) Portland cement. This study was initiated to synthesize a new blend of Ultra-high-performance cementitious composite (UHPCC) with compressive strength higher than 150 MPa under normal curing conditions, and to investigate the influence of two different sources of carbon nanofibres (CNF) on its strength, durability and microstructure properties. Several mix designs with different CNF percentages were designed, optimised …

Soil-Recycled Aggregate-Geopolymer Road Base/Subbase Mixtures: Steps Towards Sustainability, Mohammad Khattak, Daniel Odion

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18GTLSU10. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"This study deals with the development of Soil-Geopolymer mixtures using flyash, alkali activator and recycled aggregates (RAG) including recycled concrete (RCA) and reclaimed asphalt (RAP) as an alternative to soil-cement for pavement base and subbase layers. Several mix constituents were varied such as flyash type and content, RCA and RAP content and ratio of sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide. Experiment design was established and mechanical and durability characteristics of Soil-RAG-Geopolymer mixtures were evaluated and then compared to the conventional soil-cement mixtures. The …

In-Plane Cyclic Shear Performance Of Pipe Stem Reinforced Cob Wall, Dezire Q'Anna Perez-Barbante

Master's Theses

This thesis investigates full-scale pipe stem reinforced cob walls under in-plane cyclic shear loads. Cob is the combination of clay subsoils, sand, straw and water that is built in lifts to produce monolithic walls. There is insufficient amount of information on cob as a building material in today’s age. The prior research that exists has examined varying straw content and type, water content, and mixture ratios to determine their effect on strength. There is currently one report that analyzes full-scale cob walls under in-plane loading. This thesis looks to iterate the full-scale tests and specifically studies the effect of reinforcement …

Improving The Sustainability Of The Built Environment By Training Its Workforce In More Efficient And Greener Ways Of Designing And Constructing Through The Horizon2020 Bimcert Project, Barry Mcauley, Avril Behan

Conference papers

The construction industry consumes up to 50% of mineral resources excavated from nature, generates about 33% of CO2 present in the atmosphere and is responsible for 40% of total global energy through both construction and operation of buildings. The realisation that current pervasive construction practices now face globalization, sustainability, and environmental concerns, as well as ever-changing legislation requirements and new skills needed for the information age has resulted in technologies such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) becoming a key enabler in navigating these barriers. To assist in overcoming these barriers, a number of funding initiatives have been put in place …

From Roadmap To Implementation: Lessons For Ireland’S Digital Construction Programme, Barry Mcauley, Alan Hore, Roger West

Conference papers

As part of their Future of Construction initiative in 2018 the World Economic Forum published an action plan to accelerate Building Information Modelling adoption. The WEF report highlighted actions that companies, industry organisations and governments are advised to implement to accelerate BIM adoption and better capitalise on delivering better project outcomes. According the authors of the report BIM is seen as the centrepiece of the construction industry’s digital transformation, however they acknowledged that BIM adoption globally remain slow. Anecdotal experience would suggest that BIM usage in Ireland is also very low and that a similar initiative or an adaptation of …

Centres Of Excellence And Roadmaps For Digital Transition: Lessons For Ireland’S Construction Industry, Barry Mcauley, Alan Hore, Roger West

Conference papers

Like most sectors in today’s working world, construction businesses are challenged to work in an increasingly digitised world with sophisticated demands from intelligent clients. So much has been written about the inefficiencies of the construction industry, its fragmentation, lack of collaboration, low margins, adversarial pricing, poor productivity, financial fragility, lack of research and development, poor industry image and relatively weak use of digital solutions. The Irish government recognises the importance of digital innovation to address many of the challenges the construction industry faces. With recent high profile reports of escalating spend on signature public sector projects and weak productivity performance …

Toward Non-Corrosion And Highly Sustainable Structural Members By Using Ultra-High-Performance Materials For Transportation Infrastructure, Shih-Ho Chao, Ashish Karmacharya

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18STUTA01. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"This research focused on investigating a highly sustainable and efficient reinforced concrete structural member for future infrastructure by utilizing emerging high-performance materials. These materials include ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHP-FRC) and corrosion-resistant high-strength fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars. Four reduced scale UHP-FRC specimens were tested under large displacement reversals to prove the proposed new ductile-concrete strong-reinforcement (DCSR) design concept by fully utilizing these ultra-high-performance materials. Micro steel fibers were incorporated into three specimens and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fibers were blended into the fourth …

Performance Of Drilled Shaft Under Combination Of Complicated Loads Under Hurricane Event, Jie Huang, Sazzad Bin-Shafique

Publications

This project includes experimental and numerical studies to investigate and assess the impact of vertical loads on a laterally loaded drilled shaft under various conditions. The experimental study includes lab testing and lab-scale load test to examine a drilled shaft subjected to vertical and lateral loads at a reduced scale. With the data obtained from the lab-scale testing, a numerical model was calibrated, which was used to perform a parametric study to scrutinize the effect of many possible factors such as soil stiffness, soil friction angle, and drilled shaft geometry. With all the factors considered in this study, the vertical …

Toward Non-Corrosion And Highly Sustainable Structural Members By Using Ultra-High-Performance Materials For Transportation Infrastructure, Shih-Ho Chao, Ashish Karmacharya

Publications

This research focused on investigating a highly sustainable and efficient reinforced concrete structural member for future infrastructure by utilizing emerging high-performance materials. These materials include ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHP-FRC) and corrosion-resistant high-strength fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars. Four reduced scale UHP-FRC specimens were tested under large displacement reversals to prove the proposed new ductile-concrete strong-reinforcement (DCSR) design concept by fully utilizing these ultra-high-performance materials. Micro steel fibers were incorporated into three specimens and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fibers were blended into the fourth specimen. One specimen with ASTM A1035 MMFX high-strength steel rebars, one with high-strength glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) …

A Study Of The Electron Regeneration Efficiency Of Solar Cells Fabricated Using Cmc/Pva-, Alginate-, And Xanthan-Based Electrolytes, Nur Farha Shaafi, Saifful Kamaluddin Muzakir, Bouchta Sahraoui

Makara Journal of Technology

A photovoltaic (PV) mechanism consists of three important steps, i.e., (i) electron excitation upon absorption of photon with energy higher than the bandgap of fluorophore, (ii) excited-state electron injection from the fluorophore to the pho-toelectrode, and (iii) electron regeneration from the electrolyte to the fluorophore. An efficient electron regeneration could be achieved upon fulfillment of the requirements of energy alignment, i.e., lowest unoccupied molecular orbital of fluorophore (LUMOfluorophore) > redox potential of electrolyte > highest occupied molecular orbital of fluorophore (HOMOfluorophore). This study investigated the electron regeneration efficiency of excitonic solar cells fabricated using three polymer-based electrolytes, i.e., (i) 60% carboxymethyl cellulose …

Study Of Ecological Design Of Residential Complexes Using Spss To Elevate Resident Satisfaction, Soheil Malekpour Kolbadinejad, V. Malekpour Ravasjan, A. Darvish

Makara Journal of Technology

This article reports the general residential satisfaction, affecting ecological factors, and their importance in area in Tehran. The collected field data was analyzed using SPSS. Cronbach's alpha variable was used to determine the reliability of the questionnaire and the Friedman test was used to assess priorities that influence residential satisfaction. The results show that the quality of residential environments and general satisfaction of their residents may be enhanced by identifying these criteria and making appropriate plans for their improvement.

Adsorption Of Heavy Metal Ions By Oil Palm Decanter Cake Activated Carbon, Mohd. Ezreeza Mohamed Yusoff, Juferi Idris, Nahrul Hayawin Zainal, Mohamad Faizal Ibrahim, Suraini Abd-Aziz

Makara Journal of Technology

Adsorption processes are widely used for the removal of heavy metals from waste streams. Oil palm decanter cake (OPDC) is used as a bioadsorbent because of its compositional properties for activated carbon production; moreover, it is a readily available raw material produced in palm oil mills and is thus abundant and cheap. In this study, the OPDC was carbonized at 700 °C and activated using steam at 700 °C to produce oil palm decanter cake activated carbon (AC-OPDC). Batch adsorption experiments were carried out to compare the adsorption capacities of the raw OPDC and the AC-OPDC for heavy metals removal. …

Use Of The “Dnachecker” Algorithm For Improving Bioinformatics Research, Nausheen Bhat, Ezra Bernadus Wijaya, Arli Aditya Parikesit

Makara Journal of Technology

Basic Local Alignment Sequencing Tool (BLAST) is a bioinformatics tool used for analyzing nucleotide sequences with regards to their similarity. BLAST can be found online on biological databases such as the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and other such repositories. The mechanism of BLAST allows the target sequence to be compared with other sequences to find regions of local similarity, and thus, a comparability quotient that determines the resemblance between the sequences is created. Due to the open-platform nature of the online databanks, several sequences can be accepted with little to no interjections regarding the quality of sequence submitted. …

Component Analysis And Antiangiogenic Activity Of Thailand Stingless Bee Propolis, Eriko Ishizu, Sari Honda, Tosihro Ohta, Boonyadist Vongsak, Shigenori Kumazawa

Makara Journal of Technology

Propolis is a natural resin produced by honey bees from certain plants, has gained popularity as a food and alternative medicine. However, to the best of our knowledge, few studies on native Thailand stingless bee propolis are available. Information on the chemical composition and biological activities of propolis is needed to investigate its potential utility. Recently we have reported the possible plant origin of Thailand stingless bee propolis, Garcinia mangostana. In this study, further component analysis, functional evaluation, and identification of the plant origin of Thailand stingless bee propolis are conducted. Nine xanthones, including α-mangostin, garcinone C, γ-mangostin, cochinchinone T, …

3d Fdtd Method For Modeling Of Seismo-Electromagnetics Disturbance On Crustal Earth, Nabila Husna Shabrina, Yasuhide Hobara, Achmad Munir

Makara Journal of Technology

The paper deals with the modelling of seismo-electromagnetics disturbance on the crustal earth by use of threedimensional (3D) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The model is built up by discretizing the frontier geographical region between Java Island and Sumatra Island in a cylindrical coordinate system-based 3D object. The proposed method is applied to compute and analyze electromagnetics (EM) fields of the observed very low frequency (VLF) wave used for the investigation. Boundary condition of uniaxial perfectly matched layer (UPML) are applied surrounding the area of computation for truncating the object of simulation. The investigation are focused on the propagation time of …

Experimental Evaluation Of Three Different Humidity Conditions To Physical And Mechanical Properties Of Three Different Mixtures Of Unfired Soil Bricks, Heru Purnomo, Srikandi Wahyu Arini

Makara Journal of Technology

Unfired brick is considered as a more environmentally friendly material than fired brick. It has lower mechanical properties than that of fired brick where humidity influences both bricks. Physical and mechanical properties of unfired bricks made of three kinds of mixtures were studied experimentally under three humidity conditions. The first kind of unfired brick was made only with soil and water while the second type was made of a mixture of soil, water and lime, and the third type was a mixture of soil, water, lime and uniform treated coir where 4% of lime mass was substituted with coir mass. …

Design And Predicting Performance Of Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Cementitious Materials : Mechanical Properties And Dispersion Characteristics., Mahyar Ramezani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recently, Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) are drawing considerable attention of researchers for reinforcing cementitious materials due to their excellent mechanical properties and high aspect ratio (length-to-diameter ratio). However, CNTs might not disperse well within the cement matrix, resulting in little improvement or even degradation of concrete properties. The uncertainty in producing the consistent results in different studies might be attributed to multiple interactions between the experimental variables affecting the nanotube dispersion and the final properties of CNT-cement nanocomposites. Therefore, this research mainly focused on proposing equations that can reliably capture these interactions in order to correlate CNT dispersion with the mechanical …

A Comprehensive Framework For Life-Cycle Cost Assessment Of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Decks, Mohamed Soliman, Samir Ahmed, Ligang Shen

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18STOKS02. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"Various environmental and mechanical stressors cause deterioration of concrete bridge decks. Normal wear and tear, freeze and thaw cycles, and chloride penetration due to deicing salts can cause aggressive deterioration that usually require frequent interventions during the life-cycle of the bridge. These interventions include deck maintenance and repairs (e.g., application of sealers or overlay placement) as well as bridge deck replacement. The quantification of the life-cycle cost of bridge decks considering maintenance and repair activities represents a significant challenge facing local and …