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2008

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Articles 181 - 206 of 206

Full-Text Articles in Civil Engineering

Hazards Assessment Of St. Charles County - Earthquakes And Floods, Amy Lynn Krauch Jan 2008

Hazards Assessment Of St. Charles County - Earthquakes And Floods, Amy Lynn Krauch

Masters Theses

"Located on the northernmost limits of the St. Louis metropolitan area, St. Charles County has been, and continues to be, one of the fastest-growing counties in the country. The county consists of several major cities featuring extensive industry, retail, and agriculture. Bounded by the Missouri River on the south and the Mississippi River on the north and east, St. Charles County is predominantly flat, low-lying terrain at great risk to periodic flooding. The county is also well within the area of influence for several local seismic zones, increasing the susceptibility to earthquake damage. Given the apparent risk to both flood …

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Laboratory Analysis Of Small Strain Moduli In Compacted Silts, David M. Weidinger Jan 2008

Laboratory Analysis Of Small Strain Moduli In Compacted Silts, David M. Weidinger

Masters Theses

"Soil compaction quality control accounts for a significant portion of geotechnical practice. Often the performance of a roadway can be directly linked to the quality of the compacted subgrade. A poor subgrade can result in weak areas in the road causing excessive deflections at the surface, ultimately leading to a pot hole or uneven surface and an unpleasant ride for the travelers. Vehicles passing over a section of highway causes small strains in the founding soil. These strains accumulate over time. A better understanding of how the compacted soil responds at small strains could shed light on improving the quality …

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Experimental Validation Of An Integrated Frp And Visco-Elastic Hardening, Damping, And Wave-Modulating System For Blast Resistance Enhancement Of Rc Columns, Brian Henry Wood Jan 2008

Experimental Validation Of An Integrated Frp And Visco-Elastic Hardening, Damping, And Wave-Modulating System For Blast Resistance Enhancement Of Rc Columns, Brian Henry Wood

Masters Theses

"In today's society, terrorist attacks and accidental explosions pose a major threat to critical infrastructure. Vulnerable to blast loading, structures must be rehabilitated to ensure structural stability and protect human life. The goal of this study is to develop and validate a sandwich composite technology for column retrofitting. The new technology consists of an inner fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) sheet, an outer FRP sheet, and a visco-elastic (VE) layer sandwiched between the two FRP sheets. The inner FRP sheet is wrapped around an existing column for confinement, while the outer FRP sheet is for anchoring of the VE layer into …

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Guidelines For Using Local Material For Roadway Base And Subbase, Biraj Gautam Jan 2008

Guidelines For Using Local Material For Roadway Base And Subbase, Biraj Gautam

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Flexible base materials that meet TxDOT specifications are getting more difficult to purchase in many TxDOT Districts. As a result, higher quality materials have to be hauled long distances, sometimes from other States. This act would significantly increase the costs associated with the construction of roads and subsequent maintenance and rehabilitation of them. Lower quality (i.e., out-of-specification) materials are normally available. If through appropriate modifications of the materials (adjusting the gradation or/and stabilization) or structural design (specifying thicker layers of base and/or hot mix) the use of the local materials can be permitted, the construction can be accelerated and significant …

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Quantifying Anisotropy In Asphalt Concrete Pavements Using An Ultrasonic Method, Monica C. Jurado Jan 2008

Quantifying Anisotropy In Asphalt Concrete Pavements Using An Ultrasonic Method, Monica C. Jurado

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Asphalt concrete is a bonded granular material whose internal structure is anisotropic. Such anisotropy is due to anisotropic particles and void's structure, particle distribution and orientation, and restrain and force pattern used during compaction. Even with this knowledge asphalt concrete design is made considering asphalt concrete as an isotropic material. The biggest difference between an isotropic and anisotropic material is that, an isotropic material is characterized by two independent constants and an anisotropic material could be characterized by up to 81 constants. An extensive research to characterize and quantify anisotropy is only available for some composite materials. Based on the …

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Quality Evaluation Of Portland Cement Concrete At Early Age With Free-Free Resonant Column, Gilberto Wenglas Jan 2008

Quality Evaluation Of Portland Cement Concrete At Early Age With Free-Free Resonant Column, Gilberto Wenglas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

At early age, the behavior and mechanical properties of portland cement concrete changes rapidly with time due to hydration. The hydration process consists of a series of chemical reactions that accelerate nonlinearly with the rise in temperature. The hydration process consists of three stages: the dormant period, the setting time, and the hardening time. Timely opening of roads and resumption of constructions depend of the knowledge of these stages. The initial and final setting times are arbitrarily determined by a standard test (ASTM C 403). Although the setting time has been studied for many decades, the new technologies allow making …

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Expert System Design Guide For Lower Classification Roads Over High Pi Clays, Yaqi Wanyan Jan 2008

Expert System Design Guide For Lower Classification Roads Over High Pi Clays, Yaqi Wanyan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research was focused on low-volume roads over expansive clayey soils in Texas. In spite of the redundant pavement designs recommended and widely used in Texas for roads in high PI clay areas, these pavements often fail prematurely. This failure occurs primarily because of the highly variable properties of the clayey subgrade throughout the year due to moisture fluctuations. The problematic nature of high PI clays, despite the fact that volumetric changes such as heaving are sometime considered in the design, is of concern since they contribute to roughness and longitudinal shrinkage cracking of the road, and as such the …

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Automating Material Delivery Records, Joo Hyoung (Jay) Lee, Bob Mccullouch Jan 2008

Automating Material Delivery Records, Joo Hyoung (Jay) Lee, Bob Mccullouch

JTRP Technical Reports

This project investigated methods on automating field data collection of materials. The method chosen and investigated was bar codes. The automated process requires material suppliers to produce delivery forms that can be recorded and tracked using bar codes. The report describes a system configuration that shows a conceptual process to electronically transfer materials information between the material supplier, trucking company, INDOT personnel and contractor. Other activities reported include survey results from other state transportation agencies, material suppliers, and concrete paving companies. Also, investigated was how to interface with SiteManager software. Recommendations described hardware options for using bar codes and industry …

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Investigating The Effect Of Stress, Wetting, And Compaction On Settlement Potential Of Mine Spoils, Lauren M. Little Jan 2008

Investigating The Effect Of Stress, Wetting, And Compaction On Settlement Potential Of Mine Spoils, Lauren M. Little

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Strip mining in Kentucky has left large areas of land that could potentially be used for business and housing developments. However, the mine spoils underlying these areas are prone to severe differential settlement due to a variety of factors. Mine spoil from the Gateway Business Park in Jenkins, Kentucky was used for a series of laboratory tests to develop relationships between shear wave velocity, confining stress, compaction energy, and dry unit weight to develop a method to assess settlement potential. It was found that a stress-corrected shear wave velocity of greater than 275 ft/s/psi0.25 typically indicated dry mine spoil, …

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Development Of Ballistic Limit Equations For Dual-Wall Spacecraft Shielding: A Concise History And Suggestions For Future Development, William P. Schonberg Jan 2008

Development Of Ballistic Limit Equations For Dual-Wall Spacecraft Shielding: A Concise History And Suggestions For Future Development, William P. Schonberg

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

All earth-orbiting spacecraft are susceptible to impacts by orbital debris particles, which can occur at extremely high speeds and can damage flight- and mission-critical systems. The traditional damage mitigating shield design for this threat consists of a “bumper” that is placed at a relatively small distance away from the main “inner wall” of the spacecraft. The performance of a hypervelocity impact shield is typically characterized by its ballistic limit equation, which is typically drawn as a line of demarcation between regions of rear-wall perforation and no perforation; when graphically represented, it is often referred to as a ballistic limit curve. …

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Coupling The Hydrodynamic And Water Quality Model Ce-Qual-W2 With A Multi-Trophic Fish Bio-Energetics Model For Lake Roosevelt, Washington, Michael Lee Mckillip Jan 2008

Coupling The Hydrodynamic And Water Quality Model Ce-Qual-W2 With A Multi-Trophic Fish Bio-Energetics Model For Lake Roosevelt, Washington, Michael Lee Mckillip

Dissertations and Theses

Grand Coulee Dam created Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake as part of the Columbia Basin Project. Located in northeastern Washington State, the Project provides economically important hydropower (19 billion kilowatt hours per year), irrigation (225,000 ha), flood control, and sport fishing ($5 to 20 million annually). A good system understanding aids in balancing these beneficial uses for the 230 km long reservoir. The reservoir's atypical 45-day mean residence time is much shorter than a typical lake, and much longer than for a riverine dam. The spring freshet requires drawdowns of 15 to 20 m for flood control—the driving characteristic of reservoir …

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Durability And Retro-Reflectivity Of Pavement Markings (Synthesis Study), Yi Jiang Jan 2008

Durability And Retro-Reflectivity Of Pavement Markings (Synthesis Study), Yi Jiang

JTRP Technical Reports

Waterborne paints are used to paint pavement markings (edgelines and centerlines) to provide guidance for motorists. The painted markings need to be repainted periodically as their retro-reflectivity deteriorates. The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) repaints pavement markings at least annually. INDOT engineers would like to determine the feasibility of extending the time intervals of repainting pavement markings on at least some types of roadways. The purpose of this synthesis study is to accomplish the following: (1) to locate and assemble documented information on pavement marking durability; (2) to learn what criteria have been used in other states in measuring retro-reflectivity …

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Deck Replacement - Use Of Extra Coating Thickness Epoxy-Coated Bars, J. A. Ramirez, Rachel Elizabeth Henkhaus Jan 2008

Deck Replacement - Use Of Extra Coating Thickness Epoxy-Coated Bars, J. A. Ramirez, Rachel Elizabeth Henkhaus

JTRP Technical Reports

The results of this study were implemented in the form of design recommendations for bond of epoxy-coated bars with thicker coatings up to 18 mils. The scope of the work included evaluation of AASHTO LRFD (2004) and ACI 318 design recommendedations for the development and splice length of extra epoxy-coating thinkness reinforcing bars in normal-weight concrete bridge decks and a proposed monitoring plan for a generic concrete bridge deck in Indiana where epoxy-coated bars with thicker coatings might be emeployed. The use of the current provisions for development and splice length of epoxy-coated bars in tension in both the AASHTO …

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Post-Construction Evaluation Of Lime-Treated Soils, Chulmin Jung, Antonio Bobet Jan 2008

Post-Construction Evaluation Of Lime-Treated Soils, Chulmin Jung, Antonio Bobet

JTRP Technical Reports

Lime is used to treat weak subgrade soils during construction of highways. A small amount of lime (4 to 7%) is used to rapidly dehydrate and modify fine grained soils. The modification process improves workability and compactability of the soils. Although the lime modification process is primarily aimed at construction expediency, additional effects such as long-term improvement of stiffness and/or strength by pozzolanic and carbonation cementation reactions are expected. Lime treatment has been employed in Indiana over several decades, but the long-term performance of lime-treated soils has not been well quantified and no field tests have been done on roads …

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Alternatives To Fuel Tax: A State Level Perspective, Jungeun (Jen) Oh, Kumares C. Sinha Jan 2008

Alternatives To Fuel Tax: A State Level Perspective, Jungeun (Jen) Oh, Kumares C. Sinha

JTRP Technical Reports

Under the current fuel-tax-based highway financing system, the funding gap between highway needs and revenue available is expected to grow as vehicle fuel economy improves and use of alternative fuels increases. Consequently, the highway financing mechanism needs to be restructured or a different financing strategy undertaken. Previous research provided examples of successful implementation of pricing schemes in terms of design of pricing scheme, technology issues, legal and institutional issues, and public acceptability. Synthesizing this information, a methodological framework was established for evaluation of alternative user charging schemes. Based on the assessment of the current and projected highway revenue and the …

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Implementation Of Station Health Monitoring Procedures For Its Sensors, Volume 2: Implementation Report, Joseph M. Ernst, Darcy M. Bullock Jan 2008

Implementation Of Station Health Monitoring Procedures For Its Sensors, Volume 2: Implementation Report, Joseph M. Ernst, Darcy M. Bullock

JTRP Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

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Risk Assessment Of Various Median Treatments Of Rural Interstates, Natalie M. Villwock, Nicolas Paul Blond, Andrzej P. Tarko Jan 2008

Risk Assessment Of Various Median Treatments Of Rural Interstates, Natalie M. Villwock, Nicolas Paul Blond, Andrzej P. Tarko

JTRP Technical Reports

This report presents results of a comprehensive study that evaluates the safety impacts of alternative median treatments on rural freeways. Extensive data were obtained from Indiana, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin. The studied median treatments include AASHTO-recommended treatments: depressed medians, depressed medians with high and lowtensioned cable barriers, and flush medians with concrete barriers. Other treatments used in the freeway design were also studied: medians with berms, sloped medians, and depressed medians with berms. Negative binomial models were developed to predict the frequency of crashes in three categories: single vehicle (SV), multiple vehicles same …

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Performance Requirements And Evaluation Procedures For Advance Wide Area Detectors, Anuj Sharma, Matthew Harding, Brad Giles, Darcy M. Bullock, James R. Sturdevant, Srinivas Peeta Jan 2008

Performance Requirements And Evaluation Procedures For Advance Wide Area Detectors, Anuj Sharma, Matthew Harding, Brad Giles, Darcy M. Bullock, James R. Sturdevant, Srinivas Peeta

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Dilemma zone protection ideally requires the exact position and speed of all the vehicles approaching the intersection. However, point detectors, typically used to protect vehicle incursion into the dilemma zone, only provide binary information about the presence or absence of a vehicle at a fixed point in space. The information regarding position and speed of the vehicle in subsequent time steps is extrapolated. The extrapolation error increases with the increase in projection time. Wide area detector (WAD) overcomes this drawback by tracking each vehicle at all times until they move out of range. Such a detector has the potential to …

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Field Evaluation Of Alternative Real-Time Methods For Estimating Approach Delay At Signalized Intersections, Anuj Sharma, Darcy M. Bullock Jan 2008

Field Evaluation Of Alternative Real-Time Methods For Estimating Approach Delay At Signalized Intersections, Anuj Sharma, Darcy M. Bullock

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Vehicle delay at a signalized intersection is among the widely used performance measures of efficiency at a signalized intersection. The Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) uses this performance measure to report the level of service at a signalized intersection. This performance measure is also used to estimate travel time along the arterials. With the advent of technological advances in the field of vehicle detection, real-time measurement of delay at a signalized intersection has become economically and computationally feasible. This paper compares three emerging techniques for estimating approach delay: an Input Output technique (IO), a Hybrid technique, and the HCM delay equation. …

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Production Of Low-Energy, 100% By-Product Cement Utilizing Coal Combustion Products, David E. Rust Jan 2008

Production Of Low-Energy, 100% By-Product Cement Utilizing Coal Combustion Products, David E. Rust

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

The ever-increasing quantity of by-products generated from burning coal in the production of electricity has brought about the need for new areas of utilization. This study examined the use of FGD gypsum and fluidized bed combustion ash along with Class F fly ash in the production of low-energy, 100% by-product cement blends. The cement blends used the advantageous properties of the by-product materials to create cementing properties rather than energy intensive clinker used in ordinary portland cement. The FGD gypsum was converted to hemihydrate which rapidly hydrated to provide the cement with early strength gains, whilst the fluidized bed combustion …

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Bs News Jan 2008

Bs News

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

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Estimation Of Earthquake Loss Due To Bridge Damage In The St. Louis Metropolitan Area: Part I - Direct Losses, Ronaldo Luna, David J. Hoffman, William T. Lawrence Jan 2008

Estimation Of Earthquake Loss Due To Bridge Damage In The St. Louis Metropolitan Area: Part I - Direct Losses, Ronaldo Luna, David J. Hoffman, William T. Lawrence

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The risk associated with earthquake hazards on highway systems is dependent on the complexity of a network and its redundancy in providing traffic flow. Earthquake loss estimation studies can provide decision makers with an appreciation of the importance of having a highway network resistant to earthquakes and information to make the network resistant to these events. The direct economic loss was estimated for a major metropolitan area, St. Louis, for a series of earthquake scenarios. The primary component of the study was damage to bridges within the highway system. The study zone covers the St. Louis metropolitan area and its …

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Rational Best-Value Model Based On Expected Performance, Magdy Abdelrahman, Tarek Zayed, Jay Hietpas, Ahmed Elwakil Jan 2008

Rational Best-Value Model Based On Expected Performance, Magdy Abdelrahman, Tarek Zayed, Jay Hietpas, Ahmed Elwakil

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The best-value procurement strategy is gaining the interest of federal and state agencies. The strategy increases the value added to a project for each dollar added. A new concept of best value, that is, a rational and flexible model based on expected performance, is presented. The model's flexibility is obvious in the selection of parameters to be included in the contractor selection process and in the determination of their weights. The model's rationality will be achieved through relating all awarded scores to the agency's expected performance. The establishment of the best-value model relies on the past record of the contractor's …

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Estimation Of Earthquake Loss Due To Bridge Damage In The St. Louis Metropolitan Area. Ii: Indirect Losses, David Lee Enke, Chakkaphan Tirasirichai, Ronaldo Luna Jan 2008

Estimation Of Earthquake Loss Due To Bridge Damage In The St. Louis Metropolitan Area. Ii: Indirect Losses, David Lee Enke, Chakkaphan Tirasirichai, Ronaldo Luna

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An approach to estimate the indirect economic loss due to damaged bridges within the highway system from an earthquake event is presented. The indirect cost considered refers to the increased highway transportation cost only. The study zone covers the St. Louis metropolitan area and its surrounding suburban regions. An earthquake scenario centered in St. Louis, with a magnitude 7.0 is used. The direct earthquake loss was primarily damage to bridges, which causes an increase in travel time and distance within the transportation network. This information is then used as input for the indirect loss model. The indirect loss is examined …

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Formation And Removal Of Pesticides And Pesticide Transformation Products During Water Treatment, Evelyn F. Chamberlain Jan 2008

Formation And Removal Of Pesticides And Pesticide Transformation Products During Water Treatment, Evelyn F. Chamberlain

Doctoral Dissertations

"A comprehensive suite of over 60 pesticides (herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides) representing a variety of classes at environmentally relevant concentrations (low µg/L) were screened for reactivity under typical drinking water conditions and dosages. The most common oxidants/transformation agents in water treatment systems were examined for reactivity including free and combined chlorine, chlorine dioxide, permanganate, ozone, hydrogen peroxide, ultraviolet radiation, and high pH (alkaline hydrolysis). Due to the broad nature of the study, pesticide compounds were analyzed as multiple mixes broken into two groups based on analytical methods, those analyzed by GC/ECD and those by LC/MS. Combinations of reactive disinfectant/oxidant and …

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Physical Modeling Of Railroad Ballast Using The Parallel Gradation Scaling Technique Within The Cyclical Triaxial Framework, Adam F. Sevi Jan 2008

Physical Modeling Of Railroad Ballast Using The Parallel Gradation Scaling Technique Within The Cyclical Triaxial Framework, Adam F. Sevi

Doctoral Dissertations

"Due to the difficulties involved with testing large particle granular materials such as rockfill and railroad ballast, several methods of testing scaled down model specimens have been introduced. Of these techniques, the parallel gradation model has been found to be most useful. The parallel gradation model states that a smaller grainsize distribution model granular material, of the same composition as the prototype material, can be used in triaxial testing at a scaled down grainsize, if the model materials grainsize is exactly parallel to the prototype material. Therefore, a model granular material composed of a smaller, but parallel, grainsize distribution can …

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