Civil Engineering Commons^™

Role Of The Dewetting Mechanism On Moisture Damage In Asphalt Pavements, Nibert Elijah Saltibus

Doctoral Dissertations

Moisture damage is a major form of pavement distress that causes state and federal highways to undergo high maintenance cost (Bhasin, 2006). According to Hicks et al., (2003), in a survey conducted by the Colorado Department of Transportation, mainly including US agencies (1 Canadian Province), 82% of these agencies required the use of anti-strip treatment (additives) to avert moisture damage. Additionally, 87% of these agencies test for moisture susceptibility. Despite extensive research performed on the moisture damage mechanisms in flexible pavements, it has been a challenge to obtain one single test that can comprehensively quantify the damage and to also …

An Evaluation Of The Neighborhood Traffic Management Program Of Centennial, Colorado, Rolando Gabriel Melgoza

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

Residential neighborhoods throughout the United States seek to maintain a quality of life where residents can live free of traffic factors adversely affecting their safety. Many communities have adopted a Neighborhood Traffic Management Program (NTMP) to address concerns over cut-through traffic, speeding, and safety. The City of Centennial, Colorado, incorporated in 2001, is a young city and has its own NTMP. Four traffic mitigation projects have been implemented. The objective of this research is to conduct a before and after comparison study of each Centennial NTMP project, to review the NTMP policies of American cities with similar suburban characteristics to …

Interdisciplinary Modeling For Water-Related Issues Graduate Course, Laurel Saito, Alexander Fernald, Timothy Link

All ECSTATIC Materials

The science and management of aquatic ecosystems is inherently interdisciplinary, with issues associated with hydrology, atmospheric science, water quality, geochemistry, sociology, economics, environmental science, and ecology. Addressing water resources issues in any one discipline invariably involves effects that concern other disciplines, and attempts to address one issue often have consequences that exacerbate existing issues or concerns, or create new ones (Jørgensen et al. 1992; Lackey et al. 1975; Straskraba 1994) due to the strongly interactive nature of key processes (Christensen et al. 1996). Thus, research and management of aquatic ecosystems must be interdisciplinary to be most effective, but such truly …

Alkali Silica Reaction Mitigation Using High Volume Class C Fly Ash, William Joseph Phillips

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alkali-Silica Reaction (ASR) is a neutralization reaction that occurs between an acid (silicic acid) and a basic pH pore solution (Calcium Oxide, Potassium Oxide, and Sodium Oxide). ASR causes deleterious expansion within concrete, which can cause durability issues decreasing the life span of concrete. ASR in concrete has been found in increasing quantities since its discovery in 1940 by Stanton. Several cases of ASR have occurred in Arkansas near Fayetteville, Pine Bluff, and Little Rock. The purpose of this research was to develop preventative measures using Class C fly ash in concrete, which contains the moderately reactive aggregates found in …

Ecohydrological Modeling In Agroecosystems: Examples And Challenges, Amilcare Porporato, X. Feng, S. Manzoni, Y. Mau, Anthony J. Parolari, G. Vico

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Human societies are increasingly altering the water and biogeochemical cycles to both improve ecosystem productivity and reduce risks associated with the unpredictable variability of climatic drivers. These alterations, however, often cause large negative environmental consequences, raising the question as to how societies can ensure a sustainable use of natural resources for the future. Here we discuss how ecohydrological modeling may address these broad questions with special attention to agroecosystems. The challenges related to modeling the two‐way interaction between society and environment are illustrated by means of a dynamical model in which soil and water quality supports the growth of human …

The Doomsday Equation And 50 Years Beyond: New Perspectives On The Human-Water System, Anthony J. Parolari, Gabriel Katul, Amilcare Porporato

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

In 1960, von Foerster et al. humorously predicted an abrupt transition in human population growth to occur in the mid‐21st century. Their so‐called ‘Doomsday’ emerged from either progressive degradation of a finite resource or faster‐than‐exponential growth of an increasingly resource‐use efficient population, though what constitutes this resource was not made explicit. At present, few dispute the claim that water is the most fundamental resource to sustainable human population growth. Multiple lines of evidence demonstrate that the global water system exhibits nontrivial dynamics linked to similar patterns in population growth. Projections of the global water system range from a finite carrying …

Inelastic Behavior And Strength Of Steel Beam-Columns With Applied Torsion, Mamadou Konate

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation presents the outcome of an experimental and theoretical study of the inelastic behavior and strength of steel beam-columns with applied torsion. Although the international steel design specifications contain interaction relations for biaxially loaded beam-columns, the influence of applied torsion on such members has been completely ignored in the past. A series of hollow square section steel members are tested using an apparatus specially designed to apply torsion in the presence of an axial load and biaxial bending. The theoretical analysis involves formulation of a system of materially nonlinear differential equations and their solution based on a finite integral …

Characterizing Queue Dynamics At Signalized Intersections From Probe Vehicle Data, Semuel Yacob Recky Rompis

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Probe vehicles instrumented with location-tracking technologies have become increasingly popular for collecting traffic flow data. While probe vehicle data have been used for estimating speeds and travel times, there has been limited research on predicting queuing dynamics from such data. In this research, a methodology is developed for identifying the travel lanes of the GPS-instrumented vehicles when they are standing in a queue at signalized intersections with multilane approaches. In particular, the proposed methodology exploits the unequal queue lengths across the lanes to infer the specific lanes the probe vehicles occupy. Various supervised and unsupervised clustering methods were developed and …

Accuracy Comparison Of Numerical Integration Algorithms For Real-Time Hybrid Simulations, Ganesh Anant Reddy

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The use of accurate numerical integration algorithms is one of the key factors for a successful real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS). In RTHSs, explicit integration algorithms are preferred more than implicit methods since all calculations need to be completed within a given time step during simulation. Explicit methods require the use of effective stiffness and damping for experimental substructures, which are incorporated into the calculation of the integration parameters. In general, those values that are greater than the expected stiffness and damping of the experimental substructure are used to ensure the stability of simulation. If a rate-dependent and nonlinear experimental substructure …

Municipal Wastewater Anaerobic Treatment With Enhanced Clarification, Kevin Berg

Master's Theses (2009 -)

As energy costs rise, water reclamation facilities (WRFs) desire lower cost, easily operated systems to remove BOD5 and suspended solids. WRFs typically utilize an aerobic process called activated sludge to remove biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). BOD, specifically 5 day BOD (BOD5), is used as an indicator of the organic strength of a solution. Anaerobic treatment provides an alternative to activated sludge by removing BOD5, generating biogas containing methane for energy and producing less biomass that requires disposal. Anaerobic treatment functions as an exceptional alternative to activated sludge when packaged as a system with a small footprint that operates at ambient …

A Modified Rank Ordered Logit Model To Analyze Injury Severity Of Occupants In Multi-Vehicle Crashes, Shelley Bogue

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Research on methodological approaches to model injury severity has become important in order to prevent crash fatalities. Roadways have always been dangerous, with significant congestion and uncontrollable variables, such as weather, coupled with road users' decisions including seat belt and alcohol/drug use. These decisions can influence the severity of injuries sustained by vehicle occupants in the event of a crash. Few studies have examined the potential impacts of comprehensive roadway user injury severity profiles of all occupants ( drivers as well as passengers) in all vehicles involved in a crash. The focus of past studies has been on examining the …

Bs News July/August

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Toward A Spatial-Temporal Measure Of Land-Use Mix, Steven R. Gehrke, Kelly Clifton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Urban planning and public-health research has long been interested in the connection between land-use mix and travel. Interest from urban planners stems from the potential of transportation efficiency gains achieved by an increased land-use mix and subsequent shortening of trip lengths; whereas, public-health research advocates an increased land-use mix as an effective policy for facilitating greater physical activity. Yet, despite the transportation, land-use, and health benefits related to improving land-use mix and the extent of topical attention given by researchers, no consensus has been reached regarding the magnitude of its effect on travel. This absence of agreement may largely be …

Bridge Seismic Retrofit Measures Considering Subduction Zone Earthquakes, Peter Dusicka, Ramiro Bazaez, Sarah Knoles

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Over the years, earthquakes have exposed the vulnerability of reinforced concrete structures under seismic loads. The recent occurrence of highly devastating earthquakes near instrumented regions, e.g. 2010 Maule, Chile and 2011 Tohoku, Japan, has demonstrated the catastrophic impact of such natural force upon reinforced concrete structures. Research was conducted to investigate the effect of subduction zone earthquakes on structural damage. The study suggests that large magnitude ground motions of long duration have the potential of significantly increasing the number of inelastic excursions and consequently incur more extensive structural damage as compared to ground motions with similar elastic spectral demands but …

Value Focused Inland Waterway Infrastructure Investment Decisions, Othman Boudhoum

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Maritime transportation functions as the backbone of world trade. The U.S. inland waterway transportation system is comprised of 12,000 miles of navigable waterways that connect and move freight between the global supply chain and thirty eight States. When investing in inland waterway infrastructure, we should aim to maximize all benefits associated with the investment including flood protection, water supply, hydropower generation, recreation, and environmental impact benefits. We formulate an initial qualitative value model for the inland waterway infrastructure investment decision based on a value-focused thinking approach which allows us to holistically evaluate project investment alternatives. Given limited resources, a portfolio …

Exploring The Effects Of Atmospheric Forcings On Evaporation: Experimental Integration Of The Atmospheric Boundary Layer And Shallow Subsurface, Kathleen Smits, Victoria Eagen, Andrew Trautz

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications - Archive

Evaporation is directly influenced by the interactions between the atmosphere, land surface and soil subsurface. This work aims to experimentally study evaporation under various surface boundary conditions to improve our current understanding and characterization of this multiphase phenomenon as well as to validate numerical heat and mass transfer theories that couple Navier-Stokes flow in the atmosphere and Darcian flow in the porous media. Experimental data were collected using a unique soil tank apparatus interfaced with a small climate controlled wind tunnel. The experimental apparatus was instrumented with a suite of state of the art sensor technologies for the continuous and …

Locating Optimal Water Quality Monitoring Locations Using Demand Coverage Index Method, Jeffrey Scott Brake

Master's Theses

Water quality regulations are always expanding especially in the field of water quality monitoring; however, threats to our water distribution systems still remain. Components of water distribution systems are susceptible to intentional and accidental contamination; therefore, they represent highly vulnerable aspects of our vital infrastructure.

An analysis was performed on a city in California with a population of 30,000 to 40,000 residents. The analysis is performed to determine the optimal locations of monitoring stations throughout the water distribution system. The method presented by Liu and colleagues (Liu et al, 2012) selects the optimal monitoring locations for the virtual California city …

Criticality And Risk Assessment For Pipe Rehabilitation In The City Of Santa Barbara Sewer System, Rossi Carmelo Rossi Ii

Master's Theses

Aging sewer infrastructure is posing greater and greater risk to the health and well-being of City residents. Issues can range from pipe blockages in sewer laterals to Sanitary Sewer Overflows. This thesis develops a risk analysis method that can be used by municipalities to maintain and rehabilitate sewer assets. Risk combines the effect of Likelihood of Failure (LOF) and Consequence of Failure (COF) to perform a complete two-dimensional analysis that allows for relative comparison between different pipes in the system. The LOF rating has been equated to pipe integrity while the COF rating was related to the environmental, economic, and …

A Microscopic Simulation Approach To Performance Evaluation Of Intelligent Transportation System Corridors: A Case In Michigan, Matthew Levi Clark

Masters Theses

A cost and benefit evaluation of the Michigan Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) is performed through integration of analytical techniques and microscopic traffic microsimulation. Observed freeway corridor incident logs and characteristics are studied to determine representative incident management patterns on choice study corridors. The Quadstone Paramics microsimulation traffic package is used to model the selected corridors during various analysis scenarios and investigate the effects of ITS on freeway incident management performance.

On The Assessment Of Reliability In Probabilistic Hydrometeorological Event Forecasting, Caleb Matthew Dechant, Hamid Moradkhani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Probabilistic forecasts are commonly used to communicate uncertainty in the occurrence of hydrometeorological events. Although probabilistic forecasting is common, conventional methods for assessing the reliability of these forecasts are approximate. Among the most common methods for assessing reliability, the decomposed Brier Score and Reliability Diagram treat an observed string of events as samples from multiple Binomial distributions, but this is an approximation of the forecast reliability, leading to unnecessary loss of information. This article suggests testing the hypothesis of reliability via the Poisson-Binomial distribution, which is a generalized solution to the Binomial distribution, providing a more accurate model of the …

Seismic Retrofit Benefit Considering Statewide Transportation Assessment, Selamawit Tesfayesus Mehary, Peter Dusicka

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this study was to identify and demonstrate a methodology to prioritize bridges for retrofit in the State of Oregon. Given the limited resources available, retrofitting all vulnerable bridges in the foreseeable future would not be practical. Instead, a retrofit strategy needs to be developed to prioritize the inventory and enumerate the retrofit cost. In this study, a prioritization methodology used a holistic assessment of overall roadway system to consider highway route segments, rather than individual bridges. The overall assessment was based on a cost-benefit analysis including retrofit cost, expected economic loss (with or without retrofit) and social …

Structural Health Monitoring Of Bridges Using Wireless Sensor Networks, Seyed Behrad Ghazi Sharyatpanahi

Theses

Structural Health Monitoring, damage detection and localization of bridges using Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are studied in this thesis. The continuous monitoring of bridges to detect damage is a very useful tools for preventing unnecessary costly and emergent maintenance. The optimal design aims to maximize the lifetime of the system, the accuracy of the sensed data, and the system reliability, and to minimize the system cost and complexity

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is carried out using LUSAS Bridge Plus software to determine sensor locations and measurement types and effectively minimize the number of sensors, data for transmission, and volume of …

Power Maximization Of A Three-Phase Hydrokinetic Turbine, Matthew Carleson

Senior Theses

As Earth`s expendable resources dwindle, the need for alternative, renewable energy sources grows. Out of this need, an old favorite source is rising in popularity: small water turbines. Water-driven turbines first began as a means for turning mills and eventually evolved into massive dams that can power whole regions. This project focused on the construction of, and testing the properties of, a small pico-hydro power turbine. By using compressed air to drive the turbine, a representation of the peak power output was measured, serving as a basis for determining the value of pico-power systems in regards to the world`s current …

Practitioner Interview, David Ford, Chris Dunn, Leon Basdekas

All ECSTATIC Materials

Phone interview with David Ford from Ford Consulting Engineers; Chris Dunn from US Army Corps of Engineers, Hydrologic Engineering Center; and Leon Basdekas from Colorado Spring Water Utility by David Rosenberg and David Watkins, Jr. Interview questions asked inquired about (i) practitioner’s professional background, (ii) practitioner’s personal experience with systems analysis techniques and software in their job, (iii) role, benefits, and challenges in using systems analysis concepts in the water resources engineering profession, and (iv) recommendations for improving education of environmental and water resources systems analysis in universities.

Practitioner Interview, Guillermo Martinez Baquero

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Phone interview with Guillermo Martinez Baquero from Interra by David Watkins, Jr. Interview questions asked inquired about (i) practitioner’s professional background, (ii) practitioner’s personal experience with systems analysis techniques and software in their job, (iii) role, benefits, and challenges in using systems analysis concepts in the water resources engineering profession, and (iv) recommendations for improving education of environmental and water resources systems analysis in universities.

Practitioner Interview, Abhishek Singh

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Phone interview with Abhishek Singh from Interra by David Watkins, Jr. Interview questions asked inquired about (i) practitioner’s professional background, (ii) practitioner’s personal experience with systems analysis techniques and software in their job, (iii) role, benefits, and challenges in using systems analysis concepts in the water resources engineering profession, and (iv) recommendations for improving education of environmental and water resources systems analysis in universities.

Evaluating The Effects Of A Congestion And Weather Responsive Advisory Variable Speed Limit System In Portland, Oregon, Matthew Blake Downey

Dissertations and Theses

Safety and congestion are ever present and increasingly severe transportation problems in urban areas throughout the nation and world. These phenomena can have wide-ranging consequences relating to safety, the economy, and the environment. Adverse weather conditions represent another significant challenge to safety and mobility on highways. Oregon is not immune from either of these global issues. Oregon Route (OR) 217, to the southwest of the downtown Portland, is one of the worst freeways for congestion in the state and is also subject to the Pacific Northwest's frequently inclement and unpredictable climate. High crash rates, severe recurrent bottlenecks and highly unreliable …

Development Of A Pedestrian Demand Estimation Tool: A Destination Choice Model, Christopher D. Muhs, Kelly Clifton, Patrick Allen Singleton, Robert J. Schneider

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

There is growing support for improvements to the quality of the walking environment, including more investments to promote pedestrian travel. Planners, engineers, and others seek improved tools to estimate pedestrian demand that are sensitive to environmental and demographic factors at the appropriate scale in order to aid policy-relevant issues like air quality, public health, and smart allocation of infrastructure and other resources. Further, in the travel demand forecasting realm, tools of this kind are difficult to implement due to the use of spatial scales of analysis that are oriented towards motorized modes, vast data requirements, and computer processing limitations.

To …

Analysis Of Sedimentation Characteristics Of Dredge Sediment Used In Coastal Restoration And Marsh Creation Projects, Christine M. Mebust

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

There is a demand to reestablish a healthy coastal ecosystem by rebuilding wetlands with river diversion or dredged sediments in coastal Louisiana. Land building projects using dredged sediments from adjacent canals and river beds, can be used to protect the coastal properties and infrastructure systems from flood and storm surges. To predict the sediment’s long term behavior, math models require input parameters based on sediment engineering properties and material characteristics. Proper characterization is critical for accurate design of coastal restoration projects. The dredge material sedimentation characteristics and their effects on the settlement rate of suspended solid particles and underlying foundation …

Feasibility Study: The Evaluation Of Polymer Coatings To Prevent Weathering Of Weak Rocks, Lauren Distler

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The weathering and erosion of weak rocks along roadways can cause dangerous and potentially fatal rockfalls.   Various slope stabilization methods exist, but each presents a set of challenges and trade-offs.   The focus of the project is to understand the feasibility of utilizing of a polymerbased slope stabilization technique. Rock samples were collected along US Route 33 in Virginia and West Virginia, and preliminary tests were conducted to evaluate the absorption of water (% mass) and durability. The study evaluates three polymer options in regard to the following criteria: adhesion to rock, layer thickness, semi-permeability, insolubility, and non-toxicity. The polymer selection …