Civil Engineering Commons^™

Reliability-Based Progressive Collapse And Redundancy Analysis Of Bridge Systems, Feng Miao

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Highway bridges like most structural systems are usually designed on a member by member basis and little consideration is provided to the effect of a local failure on system safety. There are concerns that some systems optimized to meet code-specified member design criteria may not provide sufficient levels of structural redundancy to withstand a possible local failure. In fact, a local failure of one structural element may result in the failure of another element creating a chain reaction that might progress throughout the whole structure or a major portion of it leading to a catastrophic collapse. Several recent catastrophic structural …

Study Of The Effect Of Wind Speed On Evaporation From Soil Through Integrated Modeling Of The Atmospheric Boundary Layer And Shallow Subsurface, Hossein Davarzani, Kathleen Smits, Ryan M. T Tolene, Tissa Illangasekare

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications - Archive

In an effort to develop methods based on integrating the subsurface to the atmospheric boundary layer to estimate evaporation, we developed a model based on the coupling of Navier-Stokes free flow and Darcy flow in porous medium. The model was tested using experimental data to study the effect of wind speed on evaporation. The model consists of the coupled equations of mass conservation for two-phase flow in porous medium with single-phase flow in the free-flow domain under nonisothermal, nonequilibrium phase change conditions. In this model, the evaporation rate and soil surface temperature and relative humidity at the interface come directly …

Swell And Shrinkage Strain Prediction Models For Expansive Clays, Anand J. Puppala, Thammanoon Manosuthikij, Bhaskar C. S. Chittoori

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A comprehensive laboratory investigation was conducted to study volume change behaviors of five different types of expansive clayey soils sampled from various regions in Texas, USA. The laboratory test results, which were presented in an earlier paper, are analyzed here to evaluate existing correlations that can be used to predict swell and shrink-related displacements in these soils. The test database is also used to develop newer and practical models for predicting volume change-related soil properties. Models developed here used soil plasticity and compaction properties as independent variables. Newer models, that rely on seasonal compaction moisture content variations in the subsoils, …

Development And Calibration Of A Multi-Zone Model To Predict The Distribution Of Contaminant In A Residential Building Using Contam Software, Magda Nohella Hernandez Ramirez

Civil Engineering Theses

The use of computer simulations is a powerful alternative in the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) study due to the efficient performance and the amount of it is able to obtain. Multi-zone modeling is one of the most popular computing methods for IAQ study, thus can provide the knowledge of indoor airflow, temperature and contaminant concentration distributions. The study was conducted in TX Air House 1 using CONTAM software developed by U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) which is one of the most widely used airflow and indoor modeling program. The model was developed and calibrated to predict the …

Predicting The Severity Of Highway User Crashes On Public At-Grade Highway-Rail Crossings, Elias Wondwossen Haile

Civil Engineering Theses

Highway user-rail crashes have a significant effect on highway user safety rating. However, very little attention is garnished on the subject. An understanding of the factors contributing to the levels of injury severity is an important step toward making the transportation system safer and more reliable. The main goal of this thesis is to explore the impact of various factors involved in highway user crashes on Highway-Rail at Grade Crossings (HRGCs) and provide appropriate mitigation measures. The logistic regression modeling approach (specifically ordered and unordered logit models) was applied to predict the three levels of highway user crash severity on …

Testing And Analysis Of A Post-Tensioned Coupled Wall System Monitored With Multiple Digital Image Correlation Systems, Michelle Holloman

Civil Engineering Theses

This thesis discusses the design and experimental evaluation of a novel seismic resistant reinforced concrete (RC) coupled shear wall system. In this system, the widely-used unbonded post-tensioned floor slab construction method is adapted to couple (i.e., link) two RC wall piers, providing significant performance and construction benefits over conventional RC coupling beams in high seismic regions. Previous experiments of post-tensioned coupled wall structures are limited to floor-level coupling beam subassemblies. The current study extends the available research to multi-story structures by construction and testing of a 15% scale eight story prototype specimen. This test is monitored by four digital image …

A Study Of A Landslide In Birmingham, Alabama, Caitlin L. Bukovitz

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

In 1988 a landslide occurred at a construction site in Birmingham, Alabama in which a portion of the construction site required excavating a rock slope with a group of apartments that were located at the top of the slope. During construction, two separate landslides occurred causing one and half of the apartment buildings to collapse downslope. The slope failure was investigated by two firms. One firm investigated the site conditions and the second firm investigated the design of the cut slope. The main concerns in the investigation were (1) the lack of consideration for the existing joint system, (2) using …

Soil-Bentonite Slurry Trench Cutoff Wall Proposal, Jeffrey C. Evans, Michael A. Malusis, Robert W. Jacob

NSF Soil-Bentonite Slurry Trench Cutoff Wall Documents

This is the proposal to the National Science Foundation for a soil-bentonite slurry trench cutoff wall. The proposal includes a project summary, description of the project, and the resources implemented on the project.

Enhancing Building Performance And Environmental Learning: A Case Study Of Virginia Beach City Public Schools, Shannon Chance, John Timothy Cole

Books/Book Chapters

School buildings directly affect their natural and socio-cultural environments. They do this through their construction, maintenance, operation, and demolition. Most of the school buildings we have in stock today drain natural resources and inadvertently perpetuate a culture of environmental, social, and long-term economic ignorance and misuse. When approached thoughtfully, however, the design of school buildings can help inform and enrich society. Well-designed buildings can impart environmental knowledge and values. They can foster more effective behaviors among the people who learn in and from them. Effectively designed buildings can also conserve natural resources and—at their best—even help replenish the natural environment. …

Active Confinement Of Weakened Concrete Columns, Niall Holmes, Dervilla Niall, C. O’Shea

Articles

This paper investigates the advantages of using of external active confinement to improve the compression load capacity of concrete cylinders using mild steel band clamps. For this, passive and actively pre-stressed steel bands have been attached to concrete cylinders to mimic real structural columns which may otherwise have to be removed and replaced due to poor strength performance. The experimental programme included compression load testing a number of unreinforced concrete cylindrical specimens to establish the effect the confinement had on the compressive load-carrying capacity and the stress-strain behaviour. A number of parameters were investigated in the study including the effect …

Experimental Design Of Photo-Fenton Reactions For The Treatment Of Car Wash Wastewater Effluents By Response Surface Methodological Analysis, Maha Tony, Zeinab Bedri

Articles

Establishing a treatment process for practical and economic disposal of car wash wastewater has become an urgent environmental concern. Photo-Fenton’s process as one of the advanced oxidation processes is a potentially useful oxidation process in treating such wastewater. Lab-scale experiments with UV source, coupled with Fenton’s reagent, showed that hydrocarbon oil is degradable through such a process. The feasibility of photo-Fenton’s process to treat wastewater from a car wash is investigated in the present study. A factorial design based on the response surface methodology was applied to optimize the photo-Fenton oxidation process conditions using chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction as …

Adaptive Traffic Speed Estimation, Brian Portugais, Mandar Khanal

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Active traffic management aims to dynamically manage congestion based on existing and predicted traffic conditions. A challenge in this is that it is not usually possible to process data in real-time and use the output in control algorithms or in traveler information systems. A solution to this is to predict the traffic state based on assessments of current and past measurements. The work described in this paper develops an adaptive forecasting method to predict traffic speeds using dynamic linear models with Bayesian inference from a priori distributions. This study incorporates speeds collected from radar based sensors and validates the results …

Water Resource Systems Analysis And Management - Amirkabir University Of Technology, Jamshid Mousavi

All ECSTATIC Materials

Course taught at Amirkabir University of Technology.

Phase I Assessment Of Guardrail Length-Of-Need, Francisco Daniel B. Albuquerque, Cody S. Stolle, Dean L. Sicking, Ronald K. Faller, Karla A. Lechtenberg

Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs

Report No. TRP-03-284-14

Roadside Grading Guidance - Phase Ii, Kevin D. Schrum, Francisco D. B. Albuquerque, Dean L. Sicking, Ronald K. Faller, John D. Reid

Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs

Phase I of this project relied on assumptions surrounding crash data from the state of Ohio in 2000. The number of fatal and severe crashes in that year was significantly lower than average. As a result, the conclusions were indefinite. Phase II was carried out using crash data from the state of Ohio over seven years. The increased pool of data removed the need for many of the underlying assumptions used in Phase I and provided a solid foundation of conclusions and recommendations.

The number of fatal and severe crashes that occurred on each slope and height for each functional …

A Refined Approach To Identifying And Quantifying Clay And Non -Clay Minerals In Expansive Soils, Spoorthi Reballi

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Expansive soils exhibit substantial swelling and shrinkage due to moisture fluctuations. Predicting this volume change behavior of expansive soils has been a major challenge to the engineers in the past few years. One of the factors which play a vital role in understanding the behavior of the expansive soils is mineralogy. Chittoori (2008) had developed three models to quantify the clay minerals using Microsoft Excel Solver, Regression Equations and Artificial Neural networks. The major assumption is that the soil has only three mineral Montmorillonite, Kaolinite and Illite. But the amorphous contents like quartz and feldspar were not taken in to …

Comparison Of Prestressed Concrete Girders With Debonded Strands And Harped Strands, Carmen Diaz-Caneja Nieto

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

TxDOT standards follow a design that uses depressed strands for the prestressed concrete I-Girders. A new design criteria using debonded strands for prestressed concrete girders that is widely used in Europe is being introduced in Texas. This new design has been proven to be effective and faster to construct since the strands don't need to be harped. The Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) Express construction project was located on I-35 and I-635 in North Dallas Texas and required placement of approximately 7,000 girders to complete this extensive project. A typical girder utilized in this project is the Tx54 with a span …

The Impact Of Lime Dosage On Odor Reduction Of Biosolids, Arash Abri

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The amount of boisolids production is increasing due to developing cities and the mitigation of biosolids odorants is a key role to have a successful biosolids land application program. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of lime stabilization on odor reduction of bio-solids and determine the optimum percentage of lime for each major odor compound and the overall target lime dose in terms of priority and importance of odorants. the Village Creek Water Reclamation Facility (VCWRF) was chosen to supply limed dewatered solids because of having complaints about the odor of biosolids in neighborhood. 5%, 10%, …

Group Resistance Of Recycled Plastic Pin In Sustainable Slope Stabilization, Mohammad Rezaul Haque Bhuiyan

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Slope failure is a common phenomenon in areas with slope constructed on high plasticity clay and shallow slope failure is predominant in North Texas. The cumulative maintenance cost of minor slides is equal or greater than major landslides. But, cost associated with post failure maintenance can be reduced significantly if an appropriate stabilization method is adopted. Thus, selection of appropriate and economically viable slope stabilization method has got great importance for the geotechnical engineers. Recently, a new approach of shallow slope stabilization technique is introduced using Recycled Plastic Pin (RPP). RPP used in shallow slope stabilization should pass beyond the …

Role Of Coarse Soil Fraction On Resilient Moduli Properties Of Clayey Soil, Chatuphat Savigamin

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

As one of the major methods of soil stabilization used in the present, mechanical stabilization improves a native soil by admixing a coarse and/or fine material. This method of soil stabilization aims to reach a composition in which coarser particles form the skeleton and the surrounding space is filled with fine grains. As a result, higher soil strength can be achieved. To study the soil strength improvement behavior, resilient modulus and unconfined compressive strength are used as evaluation parameters in this research. Since the present research focuses on subgrade soils, Dallas clay was selected as a reference clayey soil representing …

Comparison Of The Installation Of Strand With Steel Bar Tendons In Anchored Drilled Shaft Wall, Inigo Azofra Arrizabalaga

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Anchored drilled shaft walls are common in construction nowadays in the U.S. The use of either strand tendons or steel bar tendons as anchors in construction is approved. However, there is no information from a construction standpoint, of what type of tendon fits better depending on the field conditions or the project requirements. Nor is there any study reflecting the construction process and sequence of this type of retaining wall depending on the type of tendon. This research will evaluate different consequences of the selection of the type of tendon. It will analyze the design aspects, construction scheduling, construction costs, …

Condition Assessment Of Fiber Reinforced Polymer Strengthening Of Bridge Components, Hemachand Pallempati

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRP) is a newly developed composite type of material which have many advantages over conventional materials (concrete and steel) like light weight, non-corrosive nature, design flexibility and quick installation. Due to its superior thermo-mechanical properties, it has emerged as one of the best economical method to strengthen and repair reinforced concrete bridges that were damaged each year due to various reasons like structural deterioration over time, fire accidents, corrosion of steel reinforcement and over height vehicle collision. This research aims to evaluate the long term performance of FRP strengthened bridge components with the help of Pull-Off tests. …

Development Of A Database And Selection Model For Optimum Retaining Wall Construction, Cost And Production, Fernando Pizarro Quintanar

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Retaining walls are earth retention elements that result essential in the majority of the construction projects for the overall project performance, as well as its budget and schedule. These elements constitute a key role in urban development, industrial facilities and civil projects as evidenced by the more than 170 million of square feet being constructed per year in the United States. The current market conditions, as well as the advances in the technology and knowledge associated to these elements, determine the need for accurate decision making processes that lead to optimum retaining walls in terms of applicability, cost and production …

Adsorption Of Metals In Flu-Gas Desulfurization Wastewater By Iron-Impergnated Activated Carbon, Manjira Kudaravalli

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The combustion of coal releases flue gases into the atmosphere. The flue gas has very high concentrations of Sox. Flue gas desulfurization technologies are installed in almost all the coal fired power plants to treat the flue gas and to reduce the sulfur dioxide emissions. Sulfur dioxide emissions cause serious impacts on environment and also the human health. Studies on the FGD technologies reveal that, wet FGD technology is used more extensively to treat the Flue gas, as it cost efficient and also the reduction efficiencies are very high. Despite the treatment process available for treating the FGD wastewater, achieving …

Effects Of Corn Mill Waste On Municipal Solid Waste Degradation In Bioreactor Landfills, Dipta Mitra Joy

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The Enhanced Leachate Recirculation (ELR) landfills is a sustainable disposal system of waste which facilitates faster degradation of waste, more gas generation in a short period of time, rapid waste stabilization along with energy recovery. The decomposition of waste largely depends on heterogeneity of landfilled waste composition, leachate recirculation, rainfall, and several other factors like recirculate leachate composition, ambient temperature etc. Various researches have been conducted on landfill behavior subjected to various waste composition and conditions.Corn Mill Waste, a crop residue and a refuse from corn milling industries, is a major source of crop waste in US. A significant amount …

Settlement Analysis Of Drilled Shaft Foundation On Natural And Lime-Treated Compressible Clayey Soil, Abdusemed Kemal Ali

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Drilled shaft foundations are primarily used to support structures such as bridge piers, buildings, and transmission towers. The main advantage of a drilled shaft foundation is that it transfers loads to the stronger subsoil layers or rock strata lying underneath, giving maximum bearing capacity to the overlying structure.This goal of this research is to load bearing capacity of a drilled shaft on both treated and untreated compressible soil. In this study, both analytical and numerical studies were conducted to investigate the effect of lime treatment on the settlement of the drilled shaft. Extensive literature study was conducted on analysis of …

Variability Of As-Constructed Properties Of Hma And Their Relation To Pay Factors And Rutting Resistance: A Case Study, Rosario Tripiana Martinez

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

During the last decade, Texas has under gone a huge reconstruction of its major and strategic highways in order to improve transportation and prepare for future population and traffic growth. The population is estimated to increase by 50% for 2035 for the North Texas Area.Some of those highway reconstruction projects have asphalt pavements, and they utilize significant quantities of asphalt concrete. This study compiles the test results of As-Constructed properties for asphalt mixes for four different projects built in Texas. This data was statistically analyzed to obtain information on the variability of As-Constructed properties and study the effect of the …

Evaluation Of The Performance Of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete Pipes Produced By Packerhead Method, Abdelaziz Mohsen

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

This research aimed at evaluating the use of Dramix RC 65/35 CN steel fiber as an alternative to the conventional reinforcement in concrete pipes. The performance of steel fiber reinforced concrete pipes produced by Packerhead pipe production machine was evaluated through an experimental testing of steel fiber reinforced concrete pipes with diameters from 18 to 36 in and different steel fiber dosages.Three-edge bearing tests were carried out according to the ASTM C497 to determine the strength class of each case of pipes. For more detailed image of the tested pipes' performance, load-deflection data were acquired and plots were made to …

Rainfall Induced Distress In Low Volume Pavements, Mahsa Hedayati

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Annual expenses of distresses caused by volume change of expansive soils induce significant financial burden on maintenance authorities. The problems occur as the expansive soils within the unsaturated zone of the soil experience variation in moisture content. Swelling and shrinkage of the soils causes structural cracks, malfunction of piping and irrigation systems and loss of support for ground slabs. Due to their low stiffness, light loading and extensive construction, pavements are particularly vulnerable to the effects of expansive soils. Accurate understanding of behavior of expansive subgrade, interaction of subgrade pavement structure and incorporation of the results in design processes can …

Development Of A Simplified Analytical Method To Estimate The Seismic Response Of Reinforced Concrete Frames With Solid Masonry Infills, Austin Reese

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

This thesis discusses the analysis of the lateral force-vs-drift relation of reinforced concrete (RC) frames with masonry infill panels under in-plane lateral loads. Such structures have been the topic of several studies due to their recurring catastrophic failures during seismic events. Due to the large number of variables that can affect their seismic performance and lead to various possible failure mechanisms there is no widely accepted method for the assessment of the structural behavior of infilled frames under seismic loads. A parametric study was performed here using detailed analytical models which provided insight to the influence of the various design …