Civil Engineering Commons^™

Signalized Corridor Assessment, William Benjamin Smith

Open Access Theses

Traffic engineers are often required to investigate the operation of a corridor and determine if there are any areas for improvement. Typical performance measures used to aid in the analysis are volume-to-capacity ratio and average delays based on the Highway Capacity Manual method. Signal timing software might also be used to adjust the split timings in effort to improve the corridor. This thesis discusses procedure to implement split timing optimization and delay analysis to enhance the current process of corridor assessment.

This study examined the newly opened US-231 bypass corridor outside of West Lafayette, IN. Initially, all intersections were operating …

Guidelines For Construction Companies To Decide Between Outsourcing And Self-Performing For Prefabricated Components, Sebastian Soto Ortiz

Open Access Theses

Prefabrication and modularization has been used in the construction industry for decades. It has recently made a resurgence worldwide providing increased productivity, safety, quality and construction schedule. This research has focused on the situation where a construction company has decided to use prefabrication and faces two possibilities, they either will self-perform or they will outsource the construction of the prefabricated components. The decision making process used by a construction company to determine whether to outsource or self-perform prefabricated components is examined and analyzed.

Prefabrication is an industrial process in which certain components are manufactured in a specialized facility. These items …

Attached-Growth System For Nitrification At Low Temperature, Zhe Sun

Open Access Theses

Attached-growth biological treatment systems have potential to conduct nitrification in cold-temperature climates. In this research, in order to simulate the attached-growth nitrification process (using BOBBER biological reactor) at a real wastewater treatment facility, two laboratory-scale mini-BOBBER systems were installed in a temperature-controlled room and were operated for 101 days with pure ammonium chloride feed solution. Steady-state conditions were approached at 20°C, 15°C, 10°C, and 5°C. In addition, a series of batch experiments were conducted at temperatures of 20°C and 5°C to investigate the relationship between nitrification rate and ammonia-N concentration. Results from these experiments were analyzed and compared with the …

Retrofiting Lid Practices Into Existing Neighborhoods: Is It Worth It?, Timothy Wright

Open Access Theses

Low impact development (LID) practices are gaining popularity as a way to manage stormwater close to the source. This reduces infrastructure requirements and helps to maintain hydrologic processes close to predevelopment conditions. Studies have shown LID practices to be effective in reducing runoff and improving water quality. However, little has been done to aid decision makers in selecting the most effective practices for their needs and budgets.

To this end, the L-THIA LID model has been applied. Using readily available data sources, multiple scenarios can quickly be examined, and then analyzed to determine the cost of implementation and the approximate …

An Analysis On Causes Of Late Final Payment And Release Of Retainage: Electrical Subcontractors’ View, Xuejing Zhang

Open Access Theses

Using the survey approach, this study identified the underlying causes of late payments and release of retainage for electrical subcontractors, attempting to answer the questions, "What were the minimum, maximum and average delay days of final payment and release of retainage?", "What were the rank of factors in terms of significance on delaying final payment and release of retainage?", and "What were the rank of factors in terms of frequency on delaying final payment and release of retainage?" A survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to about 150 professionals in electrical subcontractors. 29 reports were collected. Based upon the analysis …

Small Strain Stiffness Of A Carbonatic Fine Grained Soil, Sulaiman Dawood

Open Access Theses

The work presented in this thesis is part of a broad effort aimed at the characterization of the engineering properties, microstructure and mineralogy of soft fine-grained carbonatic soil deposit in Southwestern Indiana (Daviess Co.). The specific focus of this thesis is the characterization, through both field and laboratory measurements, of the small strain behavior of this soil, commonly referred to as a "marl."

Index tests indicate that the 3.5 m marl layer present at the site is characterized by two soil types alternating in small sublayers: a high plasticity silt (soil M) with wn ∼60% and CaCO3 ∼60%, mostly in …

Detailed Finite Element Analysis And Preliminary Study Of The Effects Of Friction And Fastener Pre-Tension On The Mechanical Behavior Of Fastened Built-Up Members, Francisco Javier Bonachera Martin

Open Access Theses

The characterization of fatigue resistance is one of the main concerns in structural engineering, a concern that is particularly important in the evaluation of existing bridge members designed or erected before the development of fatigue design provisions. The ability of a structural member to develop alternate load paths after the failure of a component is known as member-level or internal redundancy. In fastened built-up members, these alternate load paths are affected by the combination of fastener pre-tension and friction between the structural member components in contact. In this study, a finite element methodology to model and analyze riveted and bolted …

Graphical Performance Measures For Practitioners To Identify Split Failures, Richard Scott Freije

Open Access Theses

Detector occupancy is commonly used to measure traffic signal performance. Despite improvements in controller computational power, there have been relatively few innovations in occupancy-based performance measures or integration with other data. This thesis introduces and demonstrates the use of graphical performance measures based on detector occupancy ratios to verify potential split failures and other signal timing shortcomings reported to practitioners by the public. The proposed performance measures combine detector occupancy during the green interval, detector occupancy during the first five seconds of the red interval, and phase termination cause (gap out or force off). These are summarized by time of …

Road Safety Audits, Henry Brown

Purdue Road School

A Road Safety Audit (RSA) is a formal review of an existing or proposed road segment or intersection by an independent, multi-disciplinary team. The purpose of an RSA is to identify safety concerns and suggest possible countermeasures to the project owner. There are several benefits to conducting RSAs, including increased awareness of safety and a reduction in the number of crashes. The RSA process includes 8 steps during which the RSA team develops a list of findings and presents them to the project owner for consideration. The RSA process for an existing facility includes a field review during which the …

2014 Road School, Kevin M. Hetrick

Purdue Road School

At the 2014 Road School, this presentation focused on the proposed sliding of the Milton-Madison Bridge, a 15000 ton truss superstructure intended to move laterally 55 feet from a temporary location onto permanent piers. The project was a joint procurement between INDOT and KYTC, with a Design/Build team consisting of Walsh Construction, Buckland and Taylor, and Burgess and Niple performing the slide. The presentation was in early March, with the slide scheduled for later in the month. The slide will be the largest of its kind.

Ada Prowag Status And Common Issues/Solutions, Stephen G. Metzer Aicp, Pws

Purdue Road School

The Proposed Accessibility Guidelines for Pedestrian facilities in the Public Right-of-Way (aka PROWAG), dated July 26, 2011, went through an extensive public comment period that ended in early 2012. The Access Board anticipates issuing final guidance that will be the enforceable standard for facilities in the public ROW. This presentation will provide the latest status of the guidelines and present common problems and creative solutions.

Most Common Errors For Ada Ramp Construction, Stephen G. Metzer Aicp, Pws

Purdue Road School

Curb ramps are essential for persons with disabilities to traverse pedestrian facilities, allowing them to get from street level to the sidewalk. Errors that occur during the construction of curb ramps can result in ramps that are non-compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines. This presentation will include examples of common sidewalk construction errors and offer ways that project engineers can assess existing ramps to identify cases where additional design assistance may be required.

I-65 South Split Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement, Tommy E. Nantung

Purdue Road School

Continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) is constructed with reinforcing steel placed in along the entire length of the pavement. CRCP forms tight transverse cracks to evenly transfer loads without the need of contraction joints. The result is a continuous, smooth-riding pavement surface capable of accommodating heavy traffic loads in a severe environmental condition. First constructed in Indiana more than 75 years ago on US-50, CRCP became popular with the construction of the Interstate Highway system in the 1960s and 1970s. Many sections of interstate and non-interstate highways constructed at that time are still in service today, having outperformed their original …

Ada Focused Construction Inspection, Erik Seef, Eryn Fletcher

Purdue Road School

This presentation will introduce inspection guidelines for field staff to implement in inspecting projects with pedestrian facilities, including curb ramps and pedestrian signals. Review of new INDOT curb standards and requirements for accessible pedestrian signals will be included. These recent changes in standards will impact projects and thus it is imperative to advise field staff of what they should be looking for with regard to width and slopes on pedestrian access routes and pedestrian push buttons. Several issues have been noted in the field, including excessive cross slope and running slope, installation of fingertip-actuated push buttons, and substandard level landings …

Tools For Improving Your Workplace, Ray W. Wilson

Purdue Road School

In this fast-paced session, learn eight practical tools that will help you conduct better meetings, gather, analyze and present data about your organization, and experience how a group can use these tools to quickly learn the causes of problems and to decide where to focus effort.

Kitchen Table Meetings: Applying The Golden Rule To Property Owner Outreach, David N. Goffinet, David Pluckebaum

Purdue Road School

Property impacts are unavoidable with most road construction. Rather than the owner’s first experience being a drilling rig pull up in their drive-way, the kitchen table meeting process takes a proactive approach to sitting down in the “safety and comfort” of their home, upfront to discuss the type and timing of activities that will occur during design, property acquisition and construction— reducing the “unknown” in this multi-year process that happens too fast for some and too slowly for others. Learn how this approach has not only resulted in increased project acceptance and perception, but also in valuable knowledge that can …

Analytical System For Planning Of Infrastructure Rehabilitation (Aspire), Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets Archive

ASPIRE stands for Analytical System for Planning of Infrastructure REhabilitation, a decision support system that can be used for all kinds of infrastructure facilities. It is based on a rehabilitation modeling theory developed by Professor Makarand Hastak at Purdue University.

Concession Analysis For Highway Infrastructure Projects Financed As Public-Private Partnerships, Tanaphat Jeerangsuwan

Open Access Dissertations

Public funds allocated to the improvement and maintenance of highway infrastructure have reached the limits due to a rapid rate of socioeconomic growth and deterioration in infrastructure system performance. A public-private partnership (PPP) concessions a contractual and project financing mechanism that helps public authorities lessen the impact of their limited financial resources. In this project financing scheme, a public authority enters into a partnership with a private concessionaire for the purpose of developing a specific infrastructure facility. In return, the concessionaire receives the right to operate for a specified period of time. This creates strong potential for the delivery of …

Evaluation Of Structural Properties Of The Freeze–Thaw-Damaged Rc Beam Members By Nonlinear Finite-Element Analysis, Hiroshi Hayashida, Yasuhiko Sato, Tamon Ueda

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

On RC beam members damaged by freeze–thaw cycles, the authors performed nonlinear finite-element analysis using distributed reinforcement and smeared cracking models, toward evaluating the structural properties of such RC beams. We then compared the analysis results to test results. The comparison found that the accuracy of analysis depends on the severity of concrete deterioration. It was clarified that the test values do not agree with the analysis values for RC beams that experience shear rigidity reduction from freezing damage to the compressive area or for RC beams that experience decreased rebar–concrete bonding strength from freezing damage to the tensile area. …

Research On Microscopic Pore Structure And Permeability Of Air-Entrained Fly–Ash Concrete Subjected To Freezing And Thawing Action, Zhuo Zhao, Dawang Li, Feng Xing, Ningxu Han, Dongwei Wang

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

In this paper, rapid freezing and thawing test of air-entrained fly–ash concrete was carried out. Gas adsorption of concrete pores, mass loss, dynamic elastic modulus, and chloride diffusion coefficient of concrete after different freezing and thawing cycles was tested; scanning electron image was used to study the microscopic pore structure of the specimens. Results show that after certain freezing and thawing cycles, microscopic pores of the sample had a brittle failure, which results in sudden changes of cumulative desorption pore volume and cumulative desorption surface area obtained by Barrett, Joyner, and Halenda method. It was found that the variation of …

Using Acoustic Emission To Quantify Freeze–Thaw Damage Of Mortar Saturated With Nacl Solutions, Ye Qian, Yaghoob Farnam, Jason Weiss

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

Mortar samples were saturated with NaCl solutions of various concentrations and subjected to freeze– thaw cycles. Passive and active acoustic emission (AE) testing was conducted. The freezing temperature of the NaCl solutions in mortar corresponded with the sudden observation of passive AE events. The acoustic energy and damage parameter were calculated to evaluate the extent of freeze–thaw damage. The influence of the NaCl solution concentration and whether the solution freezes on freeze–thaw damage are discussed.

Physical Model And Mesoscale Simulation Of Mortar And Concrete Deformations Under Freeze–Thaw Cycles, Fuyuan Gong, Evdon Sicat, Yi Wang, Tamon Ueda, Dawei Zhang

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

The degradation of concrete material under multiple freeze–thaw cycles is an important issue for structures in cold and wet regions. This paper proposed a physical and mechanical model to explain the deformation behavior observed in previous experiments, from internal pressure calculation to mesoscale simulation, and for both closed and open freeze–thaw tests. Three kinds of internal pressures are considered in this study: hydraulic pressure due to ice volume expansion, crystallization pressure, and cryosuction pressure due to liquid–ice interface. The hydraulic pressure model combines Power’s model with poromechanical theories, which can well explain the reverse phenomenon (from expansion to contraction) observed …

A Multi-Criteria Methodology For Measuring The Resilience Of Transportation Assets And Prioritizing Security Investments, Michelle S. Dojutrek, Samuel Labi, J Eric Dietz

International Institute for Infrastructure Resilience and Reconstruction (I3R2) Conference

Transportation project prioritization uses performance measures that are related to the transportation asset, its operations, and its environment. However, in the state of practice, evaluation does not consider directly the likelihood of natural or man-made threats, the infrastructure resilience, or the consequences of the infrastructure damage in the event that the threat occurs. Thus, during the prioritization of investments, assets of low security do not receive the due attention they deserve. In defining security as the lack of risk of damage from threats due to inherent structure or functional resilience, this paper is based on the premise that the inclusion …

Motive And Conflict In The Disaster Recovery Process Of Housing Reconstruction In Sri Lanka After The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Chang Yeol Choi, Riki Honda

International Institute for Infrastructure Resilience and Reconstruction (I3R2) Conference

Normative solutions for the successful recovery from large-scale disasters have been presented by various researches, but implementation requires a long process, and mechanism for the process to continue is necessary. We consider the consistency among strategies of stakeholders such as government and NGOs. These players make a decision based on not only direct motive but various complex motives and interaction with other players. This paper considers interactive decision-making as a game among stakeholders. As a case to study, we analyze housing reconstruction project in Sri Lanka after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. There was relatively abundant financial support, but the …

Concrete Carbonation And Chloride Resistance Under Initial Hot Water Curing, Guo Li, Xiaoling L. Li, Rongrong R. Wei, Jianmin M. Du, Xiaosuo S. Wu

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

Three concrete mix proportions were designed and prepared, respectively, such as fly ash concrete (abbreviated as “FAC”) with 30% fly ash replacement ratio of cement, fly ash, and slag concrete (abbreviated as “FSC”) with each of 20% fly ash and slag replacement ratio and ordinary Portland cement concrete (abbreviated as “OPC”) for the research of carbonation and chloride resistance of concrete under different initial hot water curing. Specimens with precuring were put into 20°C water tank for curing firstly until a certain compressive strength of 14 MPa reached after demolding, while specimens without precuring were put into 40, 60, and …

Freeze Thaw Durability Of Internally Cured Concrete Made Using Superabsorbent Polymers, Wesley A. Jones, W. Jason Weiss

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

The use of superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) to produce internally cured concrete has been shown to be effective in reducing the potential for restrained shrinkage cracking of high performance concrete mixtures. However, not much is known regarding the freeze–thaw durability of concrete mixtures that incorporate SAPs for internal curing (IC). When SAP particles desorb (or partially desorb) the “water” (pore fluid) they contain for the purposes of IC, some believe that the void space created by these particles can provide enough empty voids to accommodate the additional volume caused by water expansion upon freezing. This paper investigates the freeze–thaw durability of …

Painted Rumble Stripes: Alternatives To Raised Pavement Markers (Rpms), Thomas M. Brennan Jr, Stuart R. Mikey, Darcy M. Bullock

JTRP Posters

This poster highlights research completed by the Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP) led by Darcy Bullock, Lyles School of Civil Engineering, Purdue University, for JTRP Project SPR-3528, "Alternatives to Raised Pavement Markers (RPMs)." The poster includes photos taken at a construction site on State Road 25 located near Shadeland, Indiana. The top photo demonstrates how the center line corrected a driver when snow covered to avoid oncoming traffic. Photo was taken on US 231 near Country Road 800 in Tippecanoe County.

2013-14 Indiana Interstate Mobility Summary, Steve M. Remias, Howell Li, Darcy M. Bullock

JTRP Posters

These posters highlight the speed and mobility metrics on four of Indiana’s interstates (I-94, I-65, I-465, and I-70). The posters are part of the effort by the Indiana Department of Transportation to characterize mobility concerns on the statewide interstate system.

Co2 Sequestration In Cement-Based Materials During Mixing Process Using Carbonated Water And Gaseous Co2, Jacek Kwasny, P. A. Muhammed Basheer, Mark I. Russell, William Doherty, Kieran Owens, Neil Ward

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

This paper presents selected findings from a recently completed research project, aimed at the investigation of CO₂ sequestration in cement-based materials during the early stages of hydration when the cement paste is being mixed. Portland cement pastes were carbonated during the mixing process, using both carbonated water and gaseous CO₂, and their properties were compared to the control non-carbonated mix. All mixes were prepared in a purpose-designed chamber that permitted carbonated water and gaseous CO₂ to be mixed with the cementbased materials during the mixing process, without losses of CO₂ to the external environment. Temperature …

Striping Truck Utilization Project, Jon R. Padfield, James Handy

JTRP Posters

This poster highlights research completed by the Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP) led by Jon Padfield and James Handy, Purdue University for JTRP project SPR-3722, “Striping Truck Utilization for Crawfordsville and Greenfield District.” This poster highlights the transformation of striping trucks at both districts using Value Stream Mapping (VSM) through the Technical Assistance Program.