Civil Engineering Commons^™

Data Driven Comprehensive Assessment Of The Performance Of Stormwater Best Management Practices., Shanshan Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In order to evaluate the performance of the stormwater best management practices (BMPs) installed on the Belknap campus at the University of Louisville, a comprehensive assessment on the stormwater BMPs’ the flow volume reduction, peak flow attenuation, and overflow area abatement was made. We used a two-pronged analysis based on 1) predictive modeling using data mining approach; 2) model-based hydraulic simulation. The novelty of study is that it not only assessed the stormwater BMPs’ performances on flow volume reduction, but also assessed their performance on peak flow attenuation which is neglected in previous studies and assessment practices. Flow volume reduction …

Modeling Force Main Systems For Surge Analysis And Studying Dynamic Response Due To Water Hammer, Wissam Al-Taliby

Theses and Dissertations

The major impact of water hammer on force mains integrity include excessive pressure oscillation that is usually accompanied by pipe vibrations. Models for simulating force main water hammer response have been developed. All of these models were based on the method of characteristics (MOC) and most of them were not calibrated for the lack of efficient field data. Although predicting maximum pressure during the first wave cycle is sufficient in most applications, some applications require precise prediction of pressure damping. One-dimensional models usually over predict pressure oscillation beyond the first cycle since they are based on steady friction expressions. It …

Engineering Properties Of Pile Rebound Soils Based On Cone Penetration Testing, Hadeel Dekhn

Theses and Dissertations

High pile rebound (HPR) has been identified by Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to occur during the installation of square prestressed concrete piles at many sites in Florida. Significant pile rebound values of up to 1.5 inch/blow were measured resulting in increased blow counts. Pile refusal is a common occurrence when blow count exceeds 240 blow/ft; leading to pile redesign and economic consequences. The overall objective of this research is to identify the engineering properties of soil deposits which may cause HPR and develop improved correlations that may be used to predict HPR during the design process. Seven sites were …

Potential Of Greywater Reuse And Its Effects On Potable Water Demand Management And Downstream Sewer Network, Muhammad Ashfaque Rajput Abdul Hameed

Theses

The UAE’s water demand is rapidly increasing because of population growth, infrastructure development, expansion of agricultural practices, and desert greening policies. These circumstances force the country to depend on expansive desalinated water and made the country the second-largest desalination water producer in the world. It is essential to reduce the current water consumption rates by using efficient methods and conservation techniques. Greywater reuse is an effective and promising alternative to cope with this challenge. The study aimed to reduce water consumption in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi by investigating the potential of greywater reuse. A field survey was carried out …

Best Practices For Winter Maintenance Roadway Deicer Applications In The State Of Nebraska, Tregan P. D. Albers Ii

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The cost of deicing chemicals is a significant part of the Nebraska Department of Road’s winter maintenance budget. The objectives of this research are to review literature to determine current winter maintenance practices, analyze and present information gathered in a survey of winter maintenance professionals across Nebraska, and correlate this information with data obtained via MDSS (Maintenance Decision Support System) software to determine current practices being used in the state of Nebraska. Best practices for winter maintenance deicer applications for rural city and county officials in Nebraska are recommended. An explanation of the development of the survey that winter maintenance …

Conceptual Development Of An Impact-Attenuation System For Intersecting Roadways, Joseph G. Putjenter

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Longitudinal barriers are commonly used to shield hazards, including stiff bridge rail ends and slopes. In some locations, a secondary roadway intersects the primary roadway within the guardrail’s length-of-need (LON). Some intersections have as little as 15 ft (4.6 m) between the intersection and beginning of the bridge railing, which require short-radius guardrail systems. No short-radius systems have been tested and approved to current impact safety standards for shielding hazards with these conditions.

Site conditions provided by the Nebraska Department of Roads were used to determine the constraints for a new safety treatment for intersecting roadways and include intersection radii, …

Evaluating The Air Emissions From Solid Waste Refuse Trucks, Lauren D. Hauser

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The air emissions from solid waste refuse trucks is an issue that has not been widely studied, but is becoming an ever increasing issue. In the United States alone they have generated around 251 million tons of waste in 2012. This study in particular will collect data on 24 different refuse trucks (front-load, side-load, and roll-off, and diesel and compressed natural gas fuel) while on real-life routes in the Raleigh, North Carolina area. The collected data will then be aggregated and summarized based on the type of trucks. A regression analysis will also be done to determine the relationship between …

State Of Accelerated Bridge Construction (Abc) In The United States, Mike Ofili

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this project is to develop a toolkit for the design and construction of bridges using prefabricated materials primarily to reduce the closure time and on-site construction time of newly constructed bridges or bridges undergoing renovation. The research focuses specifically on short span bridges in Georgia (40,60,80, and 120ft spans).

Areas of primary concern for this project were design, constructability, structural analysis, the use of concrete and steel girders, cost efficiency, and industry surveys. In this particular portion of the study, the surveys proved to be most effective when combined with information obtained existing research as well as …

Learning From Cinara: Exploring The Depths Of Participatory Water Engagement In Cali, Colombia, Zachary T. Strickland

Honors College Theses

Located within the Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia, CINARA is an academic institution, comprised of both engineers and social scientists, that has almost three decades of experience regarding participatory approaches to water supply and environmental sanitation. In this paper, I argue that CINARA’s work is important due to its emphasis on meaningful community participation that significantly involves communities in decisions on technical matters that are usually allocated exclusively to “experts.” Furthermore, the valuation of social considerations and non-technical knowledge found amongst CINARA’s engineers stands in distinct contrast to traditional development practices and engineering mindsets. This paper will go on …

Improving Energy Efficiency And Environmental Sustainability Of Commercial Insulation, Celine F. Manoosingh, James Mihelcic, Manjriker Gunaratne

Civil Engineering & Construction: Faculty Publications

With increasingly stringent energy standards set in place by the Department of Energy, energy efficiency is becoming a paramount concern to manufacturers of appliances. Additionally, the production and disposal of the voluminous amount of polyurethane foam commonly utilized as insulation in refrigeration units poses a significant environmental challenge. In this context, this study investigated an alternative insulation for use in commercial refrigerator/freezer units. A prototype exploring the use of evacuated packets of pyrogenic silica substituting for conventional insulation was assessed. Assessment criteria included experimental comparison of heat transfer characteristics and the energy efficiency of the new insulation as well as …

Container Houses, Tran Joseph, Anissa Rosbaugh, Sydne Scott, Hanan Yassin

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

We have noticed that there is an increasing number of homeless in our community. People who are homeless have a more difficult time getting jobs, making it harder to for them to get back on their feet.

Homeless is defined as a person without a stable place to live, in risk of being homeless. Homeless under Federal status, is defined as fleeing/attempting to escape domestic violence. Examples of homelessness include couch surfing, sleeping in shelters, and living in a car.

Our proposal was to build homeless shelters out of shipping containers.

Vélo-Ck, Anna Blakley, Jonathan Cordisco, Jonathan Huang, Justin Huang, Emma Perlman, Ruhika Prasad, Siddarth Suri, Will Swindell

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

Portland is known as Bike City U.S.A for its promotion of a eco friendly method of transportation and support of biking infrastructure. Although our city has this progressive reputation, there is a negative aspect of a bike-loving city that has not received attention. The Oregon Household Activity survey in 2011 states that “about 29 percent of adults in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties own a bike”. As more people has decided to commute with bikes, theft has increased dramatically. According to the Portland Police Bureau, “Portland thieves last year took more than 2,100 bikes worth well over $1 million combined”. …

Osmosis Alive – Algae Water Filtration System, Adrik Gurganus, Htet Htet Soe, Jonathan Baird, Liam Beckett, Nick Vautravers, Parker Swensen, Tucker Johnson

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

Goals: Our goals of this project was to:

• Obtain an energy efficient, self-sufficient system to help reduce waste and money, and reuse and recycle water. To have a successful, natural, and more self-sufficient filtration system, using algae.
• To use algae and other plants as an efficient way to filter water.
• To create a water filtration system that is organic and would have 0 waste.
• To use the water in the best and most efficient way possible, and to reduce energy and coal/oil consumption (water turbine)
• To make our community cleaner and greener, and reduce carbon footprint, pollution, and environmental impact. …

Smarter Cycling, Cory Koehler, Richard Smith, Sarah St. Clair, Alex Taylor, Aubrey Masten, Konon Phillips

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

With the current trend of urbanization, the populations of major cities such as Portland are steadily increasing. This is causing a variety of problems, both within the city and in rural areas. In regards to the city, the major challenges facing city planners are the need for the expansion of residential neighborhoods and a rise in traffic throughout the city. One way to tackle the issue of an abundance of traffic, is to make alternate means of transportation more appealing to residents. We chose to focus on bicycling because of the bike‐friendly culture already in place in Portland. An increase …

Cleaner Drain, Jonah Paivarinta, Daniel Ortiz‐Rojo, Masson Klepp, Rebekah Likestoskat, Macy Chadney, Jeremy Ferrando

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

Water in streets causes several issues, both to our infrastructure and our emotions. The water can harm property by rotting wooden structures. If the water is high enough, it can even stall cars and flood into buildings.

Being forced to walk through or around a puddle can hurt someone's emotional state, which reduces productivity and this affect people around them.

It costs about 30 dollars to clean a drain, and there are about 15 thousand drains, which totals to to around$450,000 and if you add in other costs such as employees and street sweeping for a cleaning company it costs …

Anthropogenic Impacts To The Sediment Budget Of São Francisco River Navigation Channel Using Swat, Calvin T. Creech, Rafael Brito Siqueira, James P. Selegean, Carol J. Miller

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research Publications

The São Francisco River Basin, located in eastern Brazil, has undergone a significant amount of anthropogenic changes in the last several decades, such as agricultural expansion, irrigation activities, mining, and the construction of large dams. Together, these changes have altered the historic sediment budget and have led to an aggradation of sediments in the navigation channel, impacting the ability to efficiently ship agricultural commodities to regional ports. In an effort to aid decision makers in future waterway navigation planning, an international partnership between the Brazilian government agency CODEVASF and the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) was created. Through this …

Water Resources Management - Singapore University Of Technology And Design, Stefano Galelli

All ECSTATIC Materials

Undergraduate course in Water Resources Management offered at Singapore University of Technology and Design in Spring 2015.

Seismic In-Plane Response Of Reinforced Concrete Frames With Masonry Infill Walls, Rabab Abdel Karim Al Louzi

Open Access Dissertations

Field data gathered after destructive earthquakes indicate that infill walls interact with reinforced concrete (RC) frames in buildings during an earthquake and could cause failure mechanism different than what the frames are originally designed for. A new method to identify the failure modes of RC frames with infill walls is developed. The method requires only the simple geometric and material properties of the elements involved in the frame- wall assembly. The approach checks various possible failure mechanisms, including those that may evolve depending on how the infill wall may fail during strong shaking, for example, the dynamically evolved captive column …

Water Resources Systems Analysis - Colorado State University, Darrell Fontane

All ECSTATIC Materials

Applications of systems analysis, simulation and optimization techniques in water resources planning and management. Course taught at Colorado State University.

Engineering Decision Support And Expert Systems - Colorado State University, John Labadie

All ECSTATIC Materials

The student is introduced to development of decision support systems (DSS) for application to complex engineering management and design problems under conflicting objectives and uncertainty. A number of techniques are introduced for aiding in the analysis of a wide range of complex multiobjective engineering problems. Several stochastic optimization methods are presented for including risk and reliability in engineering design. Basic concepts of expert systems (ES) are discussed to show an essential synergy between DSS and ES for development of decision support structures that allow inclusion of human domain knowledge, heuristics and fuzzy logic. Heuristic methods such as genetic algorithms and …

Senior Design: Proposed Stem Academic Building, Middlesex Community College, Senior Design Class

Civil Engineering Student Work

2015 Civil Engineering Senior Design Project.

A proposal for a new STEM building to be constructed on the Middlesex Community College.

Completed by:

• Abdullah Al Bakri
• Ryan Benoit
• Brittany Brown
• Michael Buraczynski
• Samuel Colangelo
• Joseph Connolly
• Kyle Elmy
• Michael Fischer
• Victor Goitia Jurado
• Michael Hanley
• Andrew Malian
• Michael Mathews
• Dionys Quezada
• Katie Rougeot
• Jacob Santos
• Isadora Sartor
• Vega Yerko

Environmental Systems Engineering - Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Arthur Mcgarity

All ECSTATIC Materials

Course in environmental systems engineering offered at Swarthmore College, Swarthmore in Spring 2015.

Analysis Of Rainfall Time-Series, Stefano Galelli

All ECSTATIC Materials

No abstract provided.

Modelling Rainfall-Runoff Processes (Empirical Models), Stefano Galelli

All ECSTATIC Materials

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Maximum Aggregate Size On The Shear Strength Of Geometrically Scaled Reinforced Concrete Beams, Derek Robert Daluga

Open Access Theses

Shear strength of reinforced concrete beams without web reinforcement has been reported to decrease with increases in depth. This is often referred to as a size effect. This reduction in shear strength has been reported to decrease with the use of web reinforcement and increases in maximum aggregate size. ^ The purpose of this study was to test two hypotheses 1) shear strength increases with increases in maximum aggregate size and 2) aggregate gradation affects this increase in shear strength. Maximum aggregate size is defined here as the size of the smallest sieve opening through which all aggregate particles pass. …

Creep And Shrinkage Behavior Of Fly Ash Based Geopolymer Concrete, Md Rashedul Islam

Doctoral Dissertations

The manuscript presented herein is based on the investigation of the short and long term properties of fly ash based geopolymer concrete (GPC) and their link to fly ash characteristics. Fly ash (FA) exhibits a significantly different particle morphology, which impacts the mechanical properties of the resulting GPC and typically contains impurities that fluctuate from one FA source to another. A key contribution of this research work is the capturing of the variability posed by the FA stockpile with a wide range of physical, chemical, and crystallographic characteristics as a source material to select the GPC mix design. In the …

A Hydrogeologic Evaluation Of The Waterloo Area In The Upper Jefferson River Valley, Montana, Nicole Brancheau

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

The Upper Jefferson River is one of the most dewatered rivers in Montana. The river exists in an intermontane basin filled with sediment transported from the Highland Mountains to the west, the Tobacco Root Mountains to the east, and the Jefferson River from the south. The Upper Jefferson River Valley is highly dependent on the Jefferson River as the main industry in the valley is agriculture. A majority of the valley is irrigated and used to grow crops, and a good portion is also used for cattle grazing. The residents of the Upper Jefferson River Valley use the aquifer as …

Spatial Analysis Of Passenger Vehicle Use And Ownership And Its Impact On The Sustainability Of Highway Infrastructure Funding, Matthew Volovski

Open Access Dissertations

Across the United States, the sustainability of highway funding is at risk due to increasing need and uncertainty in the factors that drive revenue. Past studies on highway funding sustainability have identified that the root cause of changing highway revenue are the shifts in social demographics and economic characteristics. Unfortunately, from the revenue perspective (the focus of this dissertation), the ability of previous research to account for these factors has been rather limited in two ways; first, the inability to accurately assess current regional vehicle use (a typical prerequisite for statistical modeling of highway revenues) due to difficulties associated with …

Phonon-Drag Contribution To Seebeck Coefficient Of Ge-On-Insulator Substrate Fabricated By Wafer Bonding Process, Veerappan Manimuthu, Shoma Yoshida, Yuhei Suzuki, Faiz Salleh, Mukannan Arivanandhan, Yoshinari Kamakura, Yasuhiro Hayakawa, Hiroya Ikeda

Makara Journal of Technology

In order to build high-sensitivity infrared photodetectors using SiGe nanowires, we investigate the thermoelectric characteristics of Ge-on-insulator (GOI) layers as a reference for SiGe. We fabricate p-type GOI substrates with an impurity concentration of 1016-1018cm-3 by a wafer-bonding process using Ge and oxidized Si wafers. Annealing treatment is performed in order to further increase the bonding strength of Ge/SiO2 interface. We measure the Seebeck coefficient in the temperature range of 290-350 K. The Seebeck coefficient of the GOI layers is very close to the theoretical value for Ge, calculated on the basis of carrier transport. Hence, there is a small …

A Probabilistic Model Of Benefit-Cost Analysis For Highway Construction Projects, Yue He

Open Access Theses

Deterministic method occupies the predominant position in economic analysis. However, by using a single value to estimate the project value, deterministic method would hide the risk under it. Analysts may make incorrect judgments by looking at a value without knowing the likelihood of its occurrence and the consequences of its occurrence. A probabilistic model was developed in this study to address this problem. It was found in this study that the traffic flows on Indiana highways follow logistic distributions rather than normal distributions as generally believed. The application of the probabilistic model was illustrated through a case study. The results …