Civil Engineering Commons^™

Mobile Tools For Ltap Centers, Indiana Ltap

Purdue Road School

No abstract provided.

I-65/I-70 South Split Pavement Reconstruction: Documentation & Quantitative Analysis Using Time Lapse Photography, Steven Lavrenz, Teresa Morris, Darcy M. Bullock

Purdue Road School

No abstract provided.

Graphical Performance Measures For Practitioners To Triage Split Failure Trouble Calls, Richard S. Freije, Alexander M. Hainen, Amanda L. Stevens, Howell Li, W Benjamin Smith, Hayley Summers, Christopher M. Day, James R. Sturdevant, Darcy M. Bullock

Purdue Road School

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 paper 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 phase, detector occupancy during the first five seconds of the red phase, and phase termination cause (gap out or force off). These are summarized by time of …

"Elemental Decomposition And Multi-Criteria Method For Valuing Transportation Infrastructure Elemental Decomposition And Multi-Criteria Method For Valuing Transportation Infrastructure ", Michelle S. Dojutrek, Samuel Labi

Purdue Road School

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Multivalent Ions On The Swelling And Mechanical Behavior Of Superabsorbent Polymers (Saps) For Mitigation Of Mortar Autogenous Shrinkage, Qian Zhu

Open Access Theses

The chemical and physical structure-property relationships of model superabsorbent polymer (SAP) hydrogels were characterized with respect to swelling behavior and mechanical properties in different ionic solutions (Na+ , Ca2+ , and Al3+ ). The model hydrogels were composed of poly(sodium acrylate-acrylamide) (PANa-PAM) copolymer with varying concentrations of PANa (0, 17, 33, 67, and 83 wt.%) and covalent crosslinking densities of 1, 1.5, and 2 wt.%. By synthesizing the hydrogels in-house, systems with independently tunable amounts of covalent crosslinking and anionic functional groups were created, allowing for the relative effects of covalent and ionic crosslinking on the properties of the hydrogels …

A Gpr-Gps-Gis-Integrated, Information-Rich And Error-Aware System For Detecting, Locating And Characterizing Underground Utilities, Shaui Li

Open Access Theses

Underground utilities have proliferated throughout the years. The location and dimension of many underground utilities have not always been properly collected and documented, leading to utility conflicts and utility strikes, and thus resulting in property damages, project delays, cost overruns, environment pollutions, injuries and deaths. The underlying reasons are twofold. First, the reliable data regarding the location and dimension of underground utility are missing or incomplete. Existing methods to collect data are not efficient and effective. Second, positional uncertainties are inherent in the measured utility locations. An effective means is not yet available to visualize and communicate the inherent positional …

Water Resources Systems Engineering - University Of California, Los Angeles, William Yeh

All ECSTATIC Materials

Graduate course in water resources systems engineering offered at University of California, Los Angeles in Spring 2014.

Infrastructure Modeling - George Mason University, Mark Houck

All ECSTATIC Materials

To introduce the range of problems encountered in civil, environmental and infrastructure systems engineering. To introduce the concepts of systems analysis and systems engineering. To develop the ability to construct appropriate models of complex systems, including multiple objectives. To use these models to analyze and solve real problems in the field of infrastructure systems engineering. Course taught at George Mason University.

Water Resource Systems Analysis - Colorado State University, John Labadie

All ECSTATIC Materials

The goal of this course is to introduce participants to general concepts of systems analysis and systems engineering as they apply to the planning, design and operation of water resources systems. The course focuses on the use of computer-based mathematical models for analyzing water resources systems. Students are exposed to a variety of example applications of systems analysis to water resources problems. Course taught at Colorado State University.

Water At The Centre Of Environmental Issues – Research At The Ucd Dooge Centre For Water Resources Research, Zeinab Bedri, Eva M. Mockler, Michael Bruen, Yaqian Zhao, Pj Purcell, John O'Sullivan, M. Alsaji, Aisling Corkery, Liam Doherty, M. Dzakpasu, M. Martins, A. Rymszewicz, L. Willuwet

Conference papers

Since 1988, the UCD Dooge Centre for Water Resources Research has been conducting research in a wide range of water topics including hydraulics, hydrology, coastal dynamics and wastewater with an emphasis on multi-disciplinary collaboration. This paper presents an overview of this research, both past and present, and provides an outlook to the future research directions of the Centre.

Hydro-Environmental Modeling Of Sewage And Riverine Discharges Into A Coastal Area: Comparison Of Depth-Averaged And Three-Dimensional Models, Zeinab Bedri, John O'Sullivan, Aisling Corkery, Louise Deering, Katalin Demeter, Wim Meijer, Gregory O'Hare, Bartholomew Masterson

Conference papers

This study applies and compares two hydrodynamic and water quality models; a depth-averaged (TELEMAC-2D) and a three-dimensional model (TELEMAC-3D) on their performance in simulating the transport and fate of Escherichia coli (a main microbial bathing water quality indicator) in the coastal waters of Bray, Ireland subjected to sewage discharges and freshwater inflows from the River Dargle. The models first calibrated and validated against hydrodynamic and water quality data, were used to simulate Escherichia coli distribution patterns based on mean spring and mean neap tides for dry and wet weather scenarios. The hydrodynamic calibration yielded a good match between both models …

Optimization Methods And Applications - Michigan Technological University, Houghton, David Watkins

All ECSTATIC Materials

Undergraduate course in optimization methods and applications offered at Michigan Technological University, Houghton in Spring 2014.

Water Resources Planning And Management - University Of Florida, Jim Heaney

All ECSTATIC Materials

This course is designed to (1) acquaint students with the role of analytical methods in water resources planning processes; (2) differentiate the roles of professionals and decision makers; and (3) present methods for evaluating multi-purpose water resource systems. Course taught at University of Florida.

Water Resources Systems Engineering - Technion, Avi Ostfeld

All ECSTATIC Materials

Course taught at Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.

Water Resources Systems Engineering - Cornell University, Patrick Reed

All ECSTATIC Materials

Growing concerns about how “change” (climate, land-use, population, etc.) will strain our water resources is motivating the need for the next generation of professionals that can innovate the planning and management of these systems. Course topics build on the legacy of research in the water resources systems area and seek to provide a new generation of planners with an enhanced ability to discover and negotiate the highly uncertain tradeoffs we face in balancing the water resources demands of the future. Students will be encouraged to explore what sustainable water management means given conflicting demands from renewable energy systems, ecosystem services, …

Selected Durability Studies Of Geopolymer Concrete With Respect To Carbonation, Elevated Temperature, And Microbial Induced Corrosion, Mohammad Sufian Badar

Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis reports a comprehensive study related to the experimental evaluation of carbonation in reinforced geopolymer concrete, the evaluation of geopolymer concretes at elevated temperature, and the resistance of geopolymer concrete to microbial induced corrosion (MIC).

Carbonation: Reinforced concretes, made of geopolymer, prepared from two class F fly ashes and one class C fly ash, were subjected to accelerated carbonation treatment for a period of 450 days. Electrochemical, microstructure and pore structure examinations were performed to evaluate the effect of corrosion caused due to carbonation. GPC specimens prepared from class F fly ash exhibited lower corrosion rates by a factor …

Increasing The Supply Of Affordable Housing In Urban India - Mumbai, Upasna Viswanathan

Open Access Theses

The need for housing in today's world is irrefutable. The growing population, accompanied with the fast pace of urbanization, are producing great housing demand, in urban areas in particular. This study focused on one segment of housing - affordable housing, in Mumbai, India, the demand for which has been on a steady rise over the past decade. Though traditionally the State was the provider of affordable housing, private sector has been increasingly involved in the segment, beginning the economic meltdown of 2008-2009. Yet there is a huge demand-supply gap that exists, which needs to be filled. The researcher looks at …

Stormwater Infrastructure Optimization On Conjunctive Improvements, Mohammad Hussin Shar

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The studied drainage system is located in the downtown of the City of Newport News, in a basin known as Anderson Park. The drainage system collects and conveys rainfall runoffs to the system outfall located at the shoreline of the Hampton Roads body of water, which is located south of the study area. The aim of this study is to analyze the area's drainage system, determine maximum capacities, identify system deficiencies and generate the most possible, practical and economical solution for fixing the system deficiencies.

After collecting all of required data, the drainage system was modeled and calibrated using the …

Examining The Freezing And Thawing Behavior Of Concretes With Improved Performance Through Internal Curing And Other Methods, Wesley A. Jones

Open Access Theses

Internally cured (IC) concrete has been emerging over the last decade as an effective way to improve the performance of concrete. IC holds promise for producing concretes with an increased resistance to early-age cracking and ultimately enhancing the durability of structures. It is a simple and effective way to ensure proper hydration of cementitious material in high performance concrete mixtures; mixtures in which traditional, external, curing can be ineffective. IC supplies water that is necessary to relieve stress buildup from chemical shrinkage and in turn helping to prevent early age shrinkage cracking.^ The first part of this thesis presents and …

Excessive Delays In Closeouts Can Be Removed With The Adaptation Of Better Practices, Vasudha Kaul

Open Access Theses

Until recent times, closeout was not given its due diligence simply because the damage it created was not appreciated. Literature, thought-provoking discussions and thoughtful deliberations have punctuated the absolute need for a project closeout planning at the very beginning of a project. Many experienced project managers fail to plan the closeout of a job and concentrate solely on completing the contractual scope of work without paying much heed to the final percent of construction projects, the one percent that is an extremely time-consuming and expensive process if not catered for well in advance. The closeout stage is given its due …

The Hong Kong-Zhu Hai-Macau Bridge: Impacts On The Greater Pearl River Delta, Jun He

Open Access Theses

This research looks at the impacts of megaprojects on their host regions through a case study of the Hong Kong-Zhu Hai-Macau Bridge (HZMB). The purpose of this study is to analyze the potential economic impact of the HZMB on the region through existing data and stakeholder interviews. The research will specifically focus on megaprojects' impacts on tourism industry and economic development in general. The research results are aimed to address the four research objectives of the study, which are similarities and differences between the HZBM and other megaprojects, common issues involved in developing megaprojects, the future impacts of the HZMB …

Risk-Based Bridge Inspection Practices, Rebecca Reising

Open Access Theses

Improving bridge safety, reliability, and the allocation of bridge inspection resources are the goals of the proposed risk based bridge inspection practices. Currently, most bridges in the United States are inspected at a fixed calendar interval of 24 months, without regard to the condition of the bridge. Newer bridges with little or no damage are inspected with the same frequency as older, more deteriorated bridges thus creating inefficiency in the allocation of inspection resources. Because of limited resources, it is not possible to spend the necessary time examining bridges that are in poor condition and require extra attention since equal …

Investigating The Role Of Dem Resolution And Accuracy On Flood Inundation Mapping, Siddharth Saksena

Open Access Theses

Saksena, Siddharth. M.S.C.E., Purdue University, May 2014. Investigating the Role of DEM Resolution and Accuracy on Flood Inundation Mapping. Major Professor: Venkatesh Merwade. Topography plays an important role in determining the accuracy of flood inundation maps. A lot of the current flood inundation maps are created using topographic information derived from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data. Although LiDAR data is very accurate, it is expensive, computationally time consuming and not available in several areas across the United States and around the world. As a result, coarser resolution DEMs which are easily available but less accurate are used for flood …

Floodplain Mapping Using Soil Survey Geographic (Ssurgo) Database, Nikhil Sangwan

Open Access Theses

Floods are the most damaging of all natural disasters, adversely affecting millions of lives and causing financial losses worth billions of dollars every year across the globe. Flood inundation maps play a key role in assessment and mitigation of the potential flood hazards. However, there are several communities in the United States for which the flood risk maps have not been published yet, as the current flood inundation mapping methods are typically very expensive and time consuming. The objective of this study is to develop and examine an economical alternative approach to floodplain mapping using widely available soil survey data. …

Rheological Properties Of Laponite And Chemically Modified Laponite Suspensions, Meng Shen

Open Access Theses

This research investigates the rheological properties of concentrated laponite RD suspensions modified through the addition of laponite RDS and sodium pyrophosphate (SPP). The work is aimed at establishing the possible suitability of these materials for treating liquefaction susceptible sands. This application requires that a laponite suspension initially exhibits liquid like behavior and low viscosity that allow its delivery into the pore space of a sand, but that over time the suspension develop a gel structure with solid like behavior that can serve to restrict sand particle mobility during earthquake shaking.

The experimental program made use of a Physica MCR 301 …

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 …