Civil Engineering Commons^™

Sensors To Monitor Cfrp/Concrete Bond In Beams Using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy, Sangdo Hong, Ronald S. Harichandran

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

The use of inexpensive electrochemical impedance spectroscopy based sensor technology for nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of bond degradation between external carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) reinforcement and concrete is examined. Copper tape on the surface of the CFRP sheet, stainless steel wire embedded in the concrete, and reinforcing bars were used as the sensing elements. Laboratory experiments were designed to test the capability of the sensors to detect the debonding of the CFRP from the concrete and to study the effect of short-term (humidity and temperature fluctuations) and long-term (freeze-thaw and wet-dry exposure and rebar corrosion) environmental conditions on the measurements. The …

Determination Of Safe Buffer Width Of Roadway To Protect Human Health Form Harmful Nox Exposure, Hetal H. Bhatt

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

According to the 2004 EPA Trends Report, US on-road transportation sources emit 36% of nitrogen oxides (NOx), 63% of carbon monoxide (CO), and 29% of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). This research determines a safe roadway buffer width to protect human health from air pollutant (NOx) exposure. The method was used to determine a buffer width for NOx along Great Southwest Parkway in Grand Prairie, Texas. NOx health effects include eye, nose, throat, and lung irritation; cough; shortness of breath; tiredness and nausea. In the Dallas Fort Worth region, where Grand Prairie is located, on-road vehicles contribute over 50 % of …

Discharge Headway At Signalized Intersections In Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, Luis F. Chapa

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Driver behavior has been the subject of study for almost 100 years. As a result, driver characteristics have been determined and used in the design of highway elements, both for interrupted and for free flow facilities. Signalized intersections represent the most typical interrupted flow facility, with driver reaction time and aggressiveness playing a key role in signal timing design and also in the assessing of intersection performance. These driver characteristics were first determined in the United States in the late 1940's, identifying an average headway (in seconds) between consecutive vehicles as they react to light change from red to green …

Comparison Of Clinoptilolite With Gravel In A Recirculating Course Media Biofilter Treating Simulated Septic Tank Effluent, Adnan Sadikot

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The main objective of the pilot scale study was to compare the performance of recirulating clinoptilolite biofilter with course gravel biofilter used to treat simulated septic tank effluent by simultaneous nitrification and denitrification. For better comparison of performance of total inorganic nitrogen removal and COD removal both the biofilter were chosen of identical size and identical operating conditions were maintained in the laboratory setup. Both the biofilters were operated at recycle ratio of 6 and surface hydraulic loading rate of 7.5 gal/ft2/day without recycle and 52.5 gal/ft2/day with recycle through out the duration of the duration of the research. Results …

Effects Of Water-Cement Ratio On Deep Mixing Treated Expansive Clay Characteristics, Siva Prasad Pathivada

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The structures built on the unstabilized expansive soils are subjected to distress due to swell shrink behavior due to seasonal fluctuations. Medium stiff expansive clays with moderate and high PI were collected from two sites located at IH 820 N bound in Fort Worth, Texas. Deep soil mixing technique was proposed as a potential solution to counter the shrink swell movements of the expansive soil. These soils were stabilized using lime and cement as a whole and in combinations at different proportions in laboratory conditions simulating field deep soil mixing. Similar studies performed on soft soils revealed several factors mainly …

Numerical Modeling And Analysis Of Pile Supported Embankments, Krishna Nag Rao

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Very soft clays are often avoided in construction due to their low shear strength and high compressibility. Special construction methods are adopted when embankments are constructed on very soft clay or peat. Design of structures on soft ground, where the structure impose large loads onto the ground raises several concerns on factors like bearing capacity failure, differential settlements, lateral pressures and structural instability. Shallow and deep stabilization of soft ground are most frequently used special construction techniques adopted in geotechnical engineering. Chemical (lime and cement) stabilization has been extensively used in both shallow and deep stabilization in order to improve …

Laboratory And Field Investigations To Address Erosion, Volume Change And Desiccation Cracking Of Compost Amended Expansive Subsoils, Napat Intharasombat

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Desiccations cracks are formed during drying process of fine grained cohesive soils in summer and these cracks often appear on unpaved subgrades due to direct exposure to sun. These cracks allow surface runoff infiltration into subsoils and eventually weaken adjacent base and subgrade layers. The loss of support from these underlying layers results in both longitudinal and transverse cracks in paved shoulders and pavements. Composting is a successful method of recycling organic waste material into stabilized materials that could be used for erosion control and landscaping applications. Since compost is rich in fibrous material and exhibits moisture affinity characteristics, it …

Removal Of Carbonyl Sulfide Using Compost Biofilter: Measurement Of Removal Rates And Elimination Capacity In Conjunction With Hydrogen Sulfide, Divya R. Garrepalli

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

A lab study using biofiltration was conducted using three PVC columns as biofilters, with hardwood chips and compost as the media. Previous research determined the removal efficiency of carbonyl sulfide alone. (Nawal, 2004) Typically, however H2S is present with COS in the air streams from wastewater treatment plant units. In the current study, different combinations of hydrogen sulfide and carbonyl sulfide gases were tested using H2S/COS ratios typical of the concentrations from wastewater treatment plants. Various runs were conducted using compost and hardwood chips individually and also with an 80:20 ratio by volume of wood chips to compost. The specific …

Bs News

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Synthesis Of Fuel Cell Membrane: Copolymerization Of Styrene On Etfe Film By Grafted Pre-Irradiation, Yohan Yohan, Rifai M. Nur, Lilik Hendrajaya, E. S. Siradj

Makara Journal of Technology

Synthesis of Fuel Cell Membrane: Copolymerization of Styrene on ETFE Film by Grafted pre-Irradiation. Preirradiation Grafting styrene monomer on ETFE film has been prepared. Research has been performed by γ-ray radiation at various total dose from 2.5 – 12.5 kGy and various dose rate from 1.3 – 1.9 kGy/hour. Irradiated copolymer is then grafted by styrene monomer in various solvent: ethanol, 2-propanol, and toluene, various concentration from 20 – 70% volume, various temperature from 50 – 90oC, and various grafting time from 2 – 12 hours. The results showed that percent of grafting is increase with increase of total dose …

Design Of Product Placement Layout In Retail Shop Using Market Basket Analysis, Isti Surjandari, Annury Citra Seruni

Makara Journal of Technology

Retailing is an industry with high level of competition. It is a customer-based industry which depends on how it could be aware of what the customers’ needs and requirements are. One technique most used in supermarkets is the mix merchandise. The purpose of this paper is to identify associated products, which then grouped in mix merchandise with the use of market basket analysis. This association between products then will be applied in the design layout of the product in the supermarket. The process of identifying the related products bought together in one transaction is done by using data mining technique. …

Production Hydrogen And Nanocarbon Via Methane Decomposition Using Ni-Based Catalysts. Effect Of Acidity And Catalyst Diameter, Widodo W. Purwanto, M. Nasikin, E. Saputra, L. Song

Makara Journal of Technology

Objectives of this research are mainly to study impacts of acidity strength (by varying amount of precipitant and loading Al-Si) and the effect of nickel particle size (by varying calcinations temperature) on decomposition reaction performances. In this research, high-nickel-loaded catalyst is prepared with two methods. Ni-Cu/Al catalysts were prepared with co-precipitation method. While the Ni-Cu/Al-Si catalyst were prepared by combined co-precipitation and sol-gel method. The direct cracking of methane was performed in 8mm quartz fixed bed reactor at atmospheric pressure and 500-700°C. The main results showed that the Al content of catalyst increases with the increasing amount of precipitant. The …

Design And Implementation Of 1-2 Ghz Stepped Frequency Gpr For Buried Metal Detection, Joko Suryana, Andriyan B. Suksmono, Tati R. Mengko

Makara Journal of Technology

Design and Implementation of 1-2 GHz Stepped Frequency GPR for Buried Metal Detection. In this paper, we describe the design and realization steps of 1 – 2 GHz SFGPR (Stepped Frequency Ground Penetrating Radar) transceiver for metal detection under the ground. Before using prototyped GPR for detecting the metal under the ground, several of calibration processes must be performed, namely phase calibration and monocycle pulse waveform calibration. After completing the calibrations, this prototyped GPR would be ready for detecting a hidden object such as a metal plate 5 cm under the ground in our small test range size 25 cm …

Simultaneous Treatment Of Organic (Phenol) And Heavy Metal (Cr6+ Or Pt4+) Wastes Over Tio2, Zno-Tio2 And Cds-Tio2 Photocatalysts, Slamet Slamet, R. Arbianti, Daryanto Daryanto

Makara Journal of Technology

Simultaneous Treatment of Organic (Phenol) and Heavy Metal (Cr6+ or Pt4+) Wastes over TiO2, ZnO-TiO2 and CdS-TiO2 Photocatalysts. Treatment of heavy metal (Cr6+ and Pt4+) and organic (phenol) wastes has been studied using the relatively new method, i.e. simultaneous photocatalytic process over TiO2 photocatalysts in the batch photoreactor. Following the photocatalytic reduction of the heavy metal wastes, recovery of Cr and Pt was carried out by precipitation and leaching method, respectively. The experimental results show that in the simultaneous photocatalytic system, there is a synergism effect between the photocatalytic reduction of heavy metal waste (Cr6+ or Pt4+) and the oxidation …

Design Of Generating Dual Frequency Operation For Triangular Microstrip Antenna Using Electromagnetic Coupling, Indra Surjati, Eko Tjipto Rahardjo, Djoko Hartanto

Makara Journal of Technology

Design of Generating Dual Frequency Operation for Triangular Microstrip Antenna Using Electromagnetic Coupling. A new design is proposed in this paper by applying a pair of slits using a microstrip feed line. Therefore the microstrip line feeding system is electromagnetically coupled to the patch. The antenna works at two different frequencies in the range from 2 GHz to 4 GHz (S band frequency). The results of the simulation shows that the dual frequency operation can be created when the slit width is 1 mm and the height of the slits ranges from 10 mm to 14 mm with inter slit …

Development Of Low Frequency Vibration Method Of Direct-Write Deposition Relevant To Layer Manufacturing Application, Susilo Adi Widyanto, Alva Edy Tontowi, Jamasri Jamasri, Heru Santosa Budi Rochardjo

Makara Journal of Technology

The research of deposition process is the first step in development process of multi materials selective laser sintering. The deposition process enables to settle multi materials powder in horizontal formation on one layer. In this research we use low frequency (70 - 200Hz) to vibrate a hopper nozzle in which powder is settled. The research method consists of two steps, the first step is to determine flow-ability parameters and the second is to join flow ability parameter with other parameters such that the line width can be controlled. The results show that the line width depends on uniformity of particle …

Bs News

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Least-Squares Finite-Element Scheme For The Lattice Boltzmann Method On An Unstructured Mesh, Yusong Li, Eugene J. Leboeuf, P. K. Basu

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

A numerical model of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) utilizing least-squares finite-element method in space and the Crank–Nicolson method in time is developed. This method is able to solve fluid flow in domains that contain complex or irregular geometric boundaries by using the flexibility and numerical stability of a finite-element method, while employing accurate least-squares optimization. Fourth-order accuracy in space and second-order accuracy in time are derived for a pure advection equation on a uniform mesh; while high stability is implied from a von Neumann linearized stability analysis. Implemented on unstructured mesh through an innovative element-by-element approach, the proposed method …

Bs News

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

2005 Fall Engr333 Project Assignment, Matthew K. Heun

ENGR 333

In the Fall 2005 semester, I challenged the ENGR333 students to “develop realistic designs for the wellness center HVAC system and upgraded physical plant infrastructure.”

Customer

The customer for this project was Calvin’s VP for finance Henry DeVries.

Modified Log–Wake Law For Zero-Pressure-Gradient Turbulent Boundary Layers, Junke Guo, Pierre Y. Julien, Meroney N. Meroney

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

This paper shows that the turbulent velocity profile for zero-pressure-gradient boundary layers is affected by the wall shear stress and convective inertia. The effect of the wall shear stress is dominant in the so-called overlap region and can be described by a logarithmic law in which the von Karman constant is about 0.4 while the additive constant depends on a Reynolds number. The effect of the convective inertia can be described by the Coles wake law with a constant wake strength about 0.76.A cubic correction term is introduced to satisfy the zero velocity gradient requirement at the boundary layer edge. …

Analysis Of Per Capita Expenditures Of Suburbanizing Communities In Maine, New England Environmental Finance Center

Economics and Finance

This study analyzes per capita expenditure trends among selected fast-growing Maine towns from 1970-2004. The ten communities studied are termed as “suburbanizing” towns. This term is used to describe towns that over the past 30-40 years have been in the process of transition from rural to suburban – in terms of their population and housing densities, their forms of government, and the services they provide, as well as other characteristics.1 Such towns are of particular interest because they have been absorbing a healthy percentage of the state’s population growth during this time period, often at the expense of Maine’s service …

Bs News

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Stabilization And Improvement Of Organic Soils, Joonho Hwang, Aaron Humphrey, Antonio Bobet, Maria Caterina Santagata

JTRP Technical Reports

Peats and organic soils in general pose significant problems to geotechnical engineers due to their low strength, high compressibility and elevated creep. The research performed addressed one soil improving technique, deep soil mixing, that has been widely used for treating soft clays, but that especially in the US has found limited use in presence of organic soils. The work performed made use primarily of one soil sampled on Lindberg Road (LR) in West Lafayette, IN characterized by LOI= 45-52%, LL= 327%, PL= 162%, LLoven dried/LLnon-dried = 0.31, Gs = 2.05-2.12, fiber content ~2.29%, clay fraction = 40.6%. In addition, a …

Effects Of Long-Term Wastewater Application On Chemical Properties And Phosphorus Adsorption Capacity In Soils Of A Wastewater Land Treatment System, Cong Hu, Tian Zhang, Yong Huang, Mohamed F. Dahab, Rao Surampalli

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

The buildup of phosphorus (P) in the soil is a major factor limiting the operating life of a wastewater land treatment system. In this study, we evaluated changes of chemical properties, P profiles, and adsorption isotherms in the soils of a Muskegon wastewater land treatment system, which has received wastewater for ~30 years. It was found that the pH in the 15-cm topsoil increased from ~5-6 in 1973 to ~7.4-7.8 in 2003; a large amount of salt (e.g., Ca, Mg) in wastewater was adsorbed by the soil; the soil Al content (either exchangeable or oxalate extractable) decreased, while the oxalate-extractable …

High-Impact, Energy-Absorbing Vehicle Barrier System: U.S. Patent No. Us 6,926,461 B1, Ronald K. Faller, Dean L. Sicking, John R. Rohde, A. Keller, Robert W. Bielenberg, James C. Holloway, Kenneth H. Addink, Karla A. Polivka

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

A high-impact, energy-absorbing vehicle barrier system generally includes a substantially rigid outer containment wall coupled via cable restraint assemblies with an energy-absorbing inner impact wall, and energy-absorbing cartridges strategically positioned between the impact wall and containment-wall: The impact wall is constructed of a number of rectangular tubes coupled with one another to presents a substantially smooth, uniform surface to passing vehicles. The energy-absorbing cartridges generally consist of a number of foam sheets which compress and crush between the containment wall and impact wall to absorb energy from an errant vehicle striking the face of the impact wall, while the deflection …

Novel Distributed Cable Sensors For Detection Of Cracks In Rc Structures, Genda Chen, David Pommerenke

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, the development of a fundamentally new, topology-based cable sensor design concept is summarized for crack detection in reinforced concrete (RC) structures. The sensitivity, spatial resolution, and signal loss of sensors are investigated both numerically and experimentally. Two sensors were fabricated and validated with small- and large-scale laboratory tests under different loads. Both were proven sensitive to crack of various sizes from visually undetectable to excessive, giving the location and severity of damage simultaneously. One sensor has been installed on a three-span bridge for its long-term monitoring. It is capable of recording damage that has occurred during a …

Comparison Of Adsorption Capacities Of Nanoadsorbents With Conventional Activated Carbon For Volatile Organic Compounds, Namrata Baburao Deshmukh

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

This research explores the potential for using single wall carbon nanohorns (SWNHs) for adsorption of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) categorized as hazardous air pollutants and which contribute to ground level ozone smog formation. It also compares the adsorption capacity of conventional activated carbon and carbon nanohorns. Carbon nanoadsorbents, with at least one dimension on the nanometer scale, can possess advantages over traditional activated carbon adsorbents in terms of binding energies or interaction potentials for physisorption. Nanotubes and nanohorns both have excellent adsorption properties due to high-energy adsorption sites in their interior (internal pores) and in the region between adjacent nanotubes/nanohorns …

Field And Experimental Studies To Assess The Performance Of Stabilized Expansive Clay, Gautham S. Pillappa

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

A vast majority of the expansive soils are montmorillonite-rich clays, over consolidated clays and shales. The swell and shrinkage movements of expansive soil cause considerable damage to structures such as buildings and pavements. This damage can be attributed to moisture fluctuations caused by seasonal variations. Volumetric changes typically appear in the form of cracks which will lead to the softening and vertical heaving in subsoils. Both softening and vertical expansion induce damage to overlying structures. Certain soils rich with sulfates exhibit swell and heaving even after treatment with stabilizers. The present research project was conducted at the University of Texas …

Evaluation Of Texas Cone Penetrometer Test To Predict Undrained Shear Strength Of Clays, Hariharan Vasudevan

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The cone penetration test used in Texas is termed as Texas cone penetrometer (TCP), which works on dynamic principles similar to those of SPT, i.e. a hammer is used to drive the cone device for a preset depth of penetration of 12 inches. Results are typically reported in the form of N12 values. Correlations between N12 and soil strength properties are currently used by the TxDOT to determine in situ strength properties of soils prior to any infrastructure design. A research study was initiated to evaluate the existing shear strength predicting correlations used by TxDOT and its applicability for soils …