Civil Engineering Commons^™

Reviewing The Potential And Constraints Of Modified Technology Options For Faecal Sludge Management In Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, Amour Seleman

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Cities in the developing world face the challenge of safe management of faecal sludge because of rapid population growth that overwhelms the sanitation infrastructure and services. In developing countries, only 50% of faecal sludge (FS) generated is safely managed the remaining portion is haphazardly disposed of in the environment risking public health and environment. In response to the urgent need for safely managed sanitation services, technological options for containment, desludging and transportation of FS are being modified. This paper reviewed current desludging practices and the potential of modified technological options for addressing FSM at containment, desludging, and transportation in Dar …

Land Use/Cover Change And Their Impacts On Streamflow In Kikuletwa Catchment Of Pangani River Basin, Tanzania, Upendo Msovu

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Streamflow perturbation is highly prevalent in Kikuletwa catchment. However, little is known concerning land use/cover change (LULCC) with regard to streamflow perturbation in the catchment. This study aims to detect the historical and predict future LULCC and assess their impacts on streamflow amounts using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. Supervised classification of Landsat imagery data for 1985, 2000 and 2015 years was done in ERDAS 14 Imagine software. Future prediction of LULCC was done using Module for Land Use Change Evaluation (MOLUSCE) tool, a QGIS plug-in. An accuracy ranging from 79% to 82% was obtained for all …

Practical Approach For Removal Of Natural Organic Matter And Defluoridation Of Maji Ya Chai River Water: Use Of Acid Pre-Treated Bone Char And Coagulants, Godfrey Mbabaye

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

The removal of natural organic matter (NOM) and fluoride from Maji ya Chai River water (MCRW) using bone char (BC) and coagulants was investigated. Fine BC particles ranging from 0.045 to 0.2 mm were used in a 1 litre half-filled container, stirred at 300 rpm for 60 min followed by addition of a commercial coagulant and allowed to settle for 24 hours to remove NOM. MCRW practicable and affordable defluoridation method for removal of NOM through defluoridation with BC pre-treated with 0.3 N HCl followed by coagulation with Poly-aluminium chloride (PACl) is proposed. Reduction of fluoride from 21 mg/L to …

The Potentials Of Faecal Sludge Treatment Using Local Conditioners In Tanzania: A Review, Doglas Benjamin1

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Worldwide, every day human beings generate millions of tons of Faecal Sludge (FS), which is rich in water, nutrients, energy, and organic compounds. Yet FS is not being managed in a way that permits us to derive value from its reuse, while at the same time, millions of farmers struggle with depleted soils and lack of water. In most of the developing countries, energy for cooking is mainly derived from cutting of trees, either as wood or charcoal. Resource recovery and reuse from FS can create livelihoods, enhance food security, support green economies, reduce waste and contribute to cost recovery …

Effect Of Recycled Concrete Aggregates On The Long-Term, Elastic, Total Deflection And Strength Of Precast Prestressed Hollow Core Concrete Slabs, Lizeth Marisol Gomez Santana

Civil Engineering Theses

Concrete constitutes the largest portion of construction and demolition waste generated each year in the United States. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that the total production of construction and demolition of concrete waste during 2015 was 381.8 million tons. In order to reduce the economic and environmental effects of waste concrete, researchers have begun to incorporate it into concrete mixtures. However, the inherent variability in mechanical properties between RCA sources makes it difficult to quantify the maximum permissible replacement of natural aggregate and the end-result properties of concrete. This project investigates the use of recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) obtained …

Strengthening Of Corroded Steel Structures Using Cfrp – An Experimental Review, Ghada El-Mahdy Ph.D., P.Eng, Abdallah H. Yassin, Abdel El Rahman Khaled

Civil Engineering

Fibre reinforced polymers (FRP) have been widely used to strengthen reinforced concrete structures, however, nowadays their use to strengthen steel structures is under investigation. In particular, the need to strengthen corroded steel structures found in aggressive environments, such as marine environments, which have undergone a reduction in cross-sectional area and hence a reduction in their load-carrying capacity is in need of studying. The main problems that arise when using carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets to strengthen steel structures is the weakness in the interfacial bond between the CFRP and the steel surface, the thinness of CFRP sheet, and the …

In-Plane Vibration Of Hammerhead Resonators For Chemical Sensing Applications, Luke A. Beardslee, Christopher Carron, Kemal S. Demirci, Jonathan Lehman, Steven Schwartz, Isabelle Dufour, Stephen M. Heinrich, Fabien Josse Phd, Oliver Brand

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Thermally excited and piezoresistively detected in-plane cantilever resonators have been previously demonstrated for gas- and liquid-phase chemical and biosensing applications. In this work, the hammerhead resonator geometry, consisting of a cantilever beam supporting a wider semicircular “head”, vibrating in an in-plane vibration mode, is shown to be particularly effective for gas-phase sensing with estimated limits of detection in the sub-ppm range for volatile organic compounds. This paper discusses the hammerhead resonator design and the particular advantages of the hammerhead geometry, while also presenting mechanical characterization, optical characterization, and chemical sensing results. These data highlight the distinct advantages of the hammerhead …

Galena Creek Bridge Structural Health Monitoring Instrumentation And Modeling, Leopold Falkensammer

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Structural health monitoring (SHM) of an instrumented structure provides numerous benefits when assessing the long-term condition of the structure against degradation, or the short-term condition after an extreme event, such as an earthquake. The Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) has an interest in expanding the use of SHM for such assessments. Accordingly, the objective of the current study is to develop and implement a permanent SHM system for the Galena Creek Bridge, the largest concrete cathedral arch bridge in the world, to monitor its response to routine traffic and seismic activity. Completed in 2012, the bridge connects Reno and Carson …

Examining The Effectiveness Of A 4d Schedule And A Virtual Reality Model On A Modular Project: Unlv Solar Decathlon Case, Rajarshi Ghimire

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The use of a 4D schedule as technological advancement has brought significant improvement to the planning and execution of construction projects, through visualizing stepwise construction progress, following a sequence of pre-planned activities, and finalizing a baseline schedule with necessary changes. Moreover, the application of virtual reality (VR) to create interactive 3D models of a planned structure has made it possible to make a detailed planning of any construction project. Because of these benefits, the use of 4D schedules and VR in the construction industry has increased drastically, leading to improved planning and execution. However, past studies have given little attention …

Alkali-Silica Reactivity Of Mortars Containing Natural Pozzolan, Arash Kian

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Alkali-silica reactivity is one of the most recognized deleterious phenomena in Portland cement concrete resulting in cracks, spalling, and other deleterious mechanisms.

The aim of this study was (i) to assess the extent of reactivity of the aggregates, quarried from seven different sources, suspected of being conducive to ASR, and (ii) to compare the effectiveness of industrial (Class F fly ash) and natural pozzolans in mitigation of alkali-silica reactivity of the studied aggregates. To this end, seven aggregate sources, four natural pozzolan sources, and one source of Class F fly ash were used. ASTM Type V Portland cement was replaced …

Development Of Natural Perlite Based Concrete For Sustainable Construction, Seyedmahmoud Motaharikarein

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study aimed to partially replace Portland Cement (PC) with environmentally friendly binders capable of improving the longevity of concrete. The new binders consisted of different proportions of natural pozzolan (perlite) with various fineness and particle size distributions. A step-by-step research program was designed to: (1) discover the optimum fineness of perlite powder and its optimum replacement level with cement; (2) investigate the rheological properties of the perlite-containing mixtures, and examine whether this binder can be used in selfconsolidating concrete; and (3) assess the weaknesses of the new binder, and improve its deficiencies by using nanomaterials such as nano-silica. The …

Sizing A New Bike Sharing System For The University Of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nesley Orochena

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The strategic planning objectives for a novel Bike Sharing Systems (BSS) are to locate the BSS stations, size the stations, and determine the bicycle fleet size, among others. Current guidelines to design BSS programs are tailored to city centers with large coverage areas and high bicycle to population ratios, and thus not directly transferable to a university setting. An ordered probit model was created using data from a university online stated preference survey to determine the key factors that affect the uptake rates for the UNLV BSS program and to estimate the potential demand. The demand analysis was incorporated into …

Impact Of Design Cost Percentage On Cost Growth, Schedule Growth, And Construction Intensity Of Road Construction Projects, Elina Prajapati

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The performance of construction projects is measured in terms of cost and schedule variation. Studies have identified that such variations are mainly due to design changes, which are more frequent on projects executed through the design-bid-build (DBB) delivery method. Thus, the design factor is identified as one of the major parameters affecting the performance of DBB projects. Despite the majority of road projects being constructed following the DBB method, the impact of design cost on the performance of road projects has not been sufficiently studied yet. Therefore, this study focuses on determining the effect of design cost on the performance …

Application Of Data-Driven And Process-Based Modeling Approaches For Water Quality Simulation In Lakes And Freshwater Reservoirs, Ali Saber Sichani

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Lakes and freshwater reservoirs often serve as the primary drinking and irrigation water sources for surrounding communities. They provide recreational and tourism opportunities, thereby promoting the prosperity of neighboring communities. Reliable estimates of water quality in lakes and reservoirs can improve management practices to protect water resources.

Seasonal water temperature and solar shortwave radiation variations, and their subsequent interactions with water column aquatic life, combined with seasonal variations of mixing intensity throughout the water column, result in variations of water quality constituents with depth during the annual cycle. The complexity of these variations entails the use of advanced water quality …

Effect Of Incorporating Pottery And Bottom Ash As Partial Replacement Of Cement, Bassam A. Tayeh, Doha M. Alsaffar, Lawend K. Askar, Asmahan Issa Jubeh

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

This study addressed the environmental constraints in cement produc­tion. Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) was replaced with pottery powder (PP, produced by grinding locally available pottery) and bottom ash (BA) at 10%, 20% and 30% of cement mass. Moreover, 4% calcium chloride solution (CaCl₂.2H₂O) was used as mixing water. Material properties, such as standard consistency, setting time and compressive strength, were measured with different percentages of OPC replacement with PP and BA. Results indicated that the replacement with PP and BA increased the water demand to achieve the standard consistency. These results revealed that the strength evolution …

Lidar Assessment To Monitor Bridge Response Under Live And Dead Loads, Daniel Watson

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

Understanding how a bridge structure responds to various loads in a time and resource-efficient approach is vital in characterizing bridge health. Bridge health monitoring is an evaluation of the structural condition and performance, which optimizes limited transportation budgets by prioritizing the bridges that are in the most need for retrofit or replacement. Identifying and remedying issues will mitigate long-term problems and ensure that the bridge remains open to service for all legal loads. In contrast, health monitoring and load rating will determine if a bridge can only carry traffic up to a certain weight or speed, requiring a bridge load …

Numerical Simulations Of The Hall–Petch Relationship In Aluminium Using Gradient-Enhanced Plasticity Model, Yooseob Song, Jaeheum Yeon, Byoungjoon Na

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

+e Hall-Petch relation in aluminium is discussed based on the strain gradient plasticity framework. +e thermodynamically consistent gradient-enhanced flow rules for bulk and grain boundaries are developed using the concepts of thermal activation energy and dislocation interaction mechanisms. It is assumed that the thermodynamic microstresses for bulk and grain boundaries have dissipative and energetic contributions, and in turn, both dissipative and energetic material length scale parameters are existent. Accordingly, two-dimensional finite element simulations are performed to analyse characteristics of the Hall–Petch strengthening and the Hall–Petch constants. +e proposed flow rules for the grain boundary are validated using the existing experimental …

Static Analysis Of Circular Plates Under Mechanical Loads, Harpreet Lalia

Publications and Research

In this research statics analysis of circular plates is performed using SolidWorks.

Circular plates with different material properties, thickness to radius ratios, and boundary conditions under mechanical loads are modeled and analyzed in SolidWorks.

The results are obtained for deflections of circular plates under uniform and point loads.

A three-dimensional (3D) model of circular plates is first created in SolidWorks. Then the material properties, mechanical loads and boundary conditions are defined for the plate.

It is found deflection of plates is depended on magnitude of mechanical loads, geometrical parameters, boundary conditions and material properties. Responses of SolidWorks for deflections of …

Static Analysis Of Structural Members, Amani Calderon, Alexis Villalona, Farhad Alinaghizadeh

Publications and Research

This research is devoted to statics analysis of structural members under mechanical loads. Static analysis of beams under uniform transverse mechanical loads is presented. The beams are supported by simply supported boundary condition at both sides. The equilibrium equation of the beams is obtained and solved using analytical method and numerical method. The numerical method employed in this work is generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) method. The type of differential quadrature method used for numerical solution is the polynomial-based GDQ method. The differential equation is discretized into algebraic equations based on the GDQ technique. The algebraic equations are then solved to …

Energy & Carbon Neutral Nyc, Evan Banks, Elena Zimareva, Elena Malysheva

Publications and Research

In 2016, the world's leading countries signed the Paris Agreement which focused on reducing anthropogenic climate change on the planet. On May 2019, New York State and New York City declared its own ambitious goals aimed at decarbonizing the city and restricting the state’s energy use to relying completely on renewables.

Some of these goals specifically target infrastructure in the city since estimates cite buildings as accounting for nearly 70% of New York’s energy use. The main law of New York’s Climate Policy, Local Law 97, requires all buildings over 25,000 sq ft to reduce their CO2 footprint by 40% …

A New Synthesized Microalloys Steel Ods Of High Amplitude Ultrasonically Irradiation, Marzuki Silalahi, Hanif Abdurrahman Wicaksana, Ferhat Aziz, Syahfandi Ahda, Mohamad Riza Iskandar

Makara Journal of Technology

Micropowders of oxide-dispersion-strengthened (ODS) steel have been synthesized using the ultrasonic irradiation method with variations in amplitude. The ultrasonic irradiation process is performed for 50 h at a frequency of 20 kHz with 40%, 50%, and 60% amplitudes in toluene solution. The formation of Fe-Cr microalloys in the preparation of Fe- 15Cr-0.5Y2O3 powder was analyzed using SEM-EDS, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and TEM-EDS. The percentage of Fe- Cr phase mass fraction of ODS steel micropowder formed during ultrasonic irradiation with 40%:50%:60% amplitude was 12.2%:34.1%:22.1%, with 25.67:77.02:38.51 nm crystallite size. The crystallite size at 50% amplitude was the largest, and the diffusion …

Comprehensive Inspection On The Experimental Ferritic Stainless Steel By Means Of Transmission Electron Microscopy And Neutron Diffraction Techniques, Parikin Parikin, Mohammad Dani, Riza Iskandar, Aziz Khan Jahja, Andon Insani, Joachim Mayer

Makara Journal of Technology

The field of physical metallurgy is one of the primary beacons that guide alloy developments for multipurpose materials such as the in-core structure materials for pressure vessel components and heat exchangers. The surface microstructure of new ferritic steel with significant local constituent materials was characterized by high resolution powder neutron diffractometer (HRPD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM), combined with the energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The alloy contains73% Fe, 24% Cr, 2% Si, 0.8% Mn, and 0.1% Ni, in %wt. The charge materials were melted by the casting techniques. The neutron diffractograms obtained shows five dominant diffraction peaks at (110), …

Study On Antibacterial Of Chitosan/Hydroxyapatite Doped Magnesium Composite As A Material For Bone Graft Applications, Andromeda Dwi Laksono, Teodoro A. Amatosa, Jr., Hilda Pebrianti Octaviana Sitorus, Wentika Putri Kusuma Asih, Sulistijono Sulistijono

Makara Journal of Technology

Hydroxyapatite (HAp) is one of the constituent minerals of bone and teeth, that has been widely used for synthesizing bone graft. Due to the limitation on properties of the hydroxyapatite, it is doping with Magnesium (HAp-Mg). The addition of Chitosan (Chi) was expected to improve the antibacterial properties of HAp-Mg. The present research aims to study the influence of Chitosan with 0, 5, 15, and 25 wt% addition on biocompatibility properties of Chi/HAp-Mg composite. HAp-Mg was synthesized using the sol-gel method; meanwhile, Chi/HAp-Mg composite was manufactured by mixing Chitosan in acetic acid, and HAp-Mg was added into the mixture. The …

Evaluation Of Primal-Dual Splitting Algorithm For Mri Reconstruction Using Spatio-Temporal Structure Tensor And L1-2 Norm, Mia Rizkinia, Masahiro Okuda

Makara Journal of Technology

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an essential medical imaging technique which is widely used for medical research and diagnosis. Dynamic MRI provides the observed object visualization through time and results in a spatiotemporal signal. The image sequences often contain redundant information in both spatial and temporal domains. To utilize this characteristic, we propose a spatio-temporal reconstruction approach based on compressive sensing theory. We apply spatio-temporal structure tensor using nuclear norm, in addition to the wavelet sparsity regularization. The spatio-temporal structure tensor is a matrix that consists of gradient components of the MRI data w.r.t the spatial and temporal domains. For …

Influence Of Nh4f In Dextran Based Biopolymer Electrolytes: Conductivity And Electrical Analysis, Muhamad Hafiz Hamsan, Mohd Fakhrul Zamani Kadir, Shujahadeen Bakar Aziz, Muhammad Amirul Solihin Azha, Saifful Kamaluddin Muzakir

Makara Journal of Technology

Dextran polymer host was doped with different concentrations of ammonium fluoride (NH4F) via casting technique. In this present work, dextran-NH4F film has been employed to investigate the ionic conductivity using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy from 50 to 5 MHz. The highest room temperature conductivity is achieved at (2.33 ± 0.76) × 10-3 S cm-1 with 40 wt.% NH4F. The electrolyte is found to obey Arrhenius rule at high temperature with activation energy of 0.21 eV. Dielectric analysis has been performed to obtain better understanding on the conductivity pattern. The dielectric parameters e.g. ɛreal, ɛimag, Mreal, and Mimag have been tested as …

Acute Toxicitystudy Of Choline Based Ionic Liquids Towards Danio Rerio Fish And The Aggregation Behavior Of Their Binary Mixtures, Mansoor Ul Hassan Shah, Nasruddin Nasruddin, Suzana Bt Yusup, Muhammad Moniruzzaman

Makara Journal of Technology

Marine oil spills are effectively controlled by chemical dispersants. However, the toxicity associated with it reduce its employment in marine environment. To overcome this limitation, the acute toxicity of choline based ionic liquids was evaluated as a potential low toxic variant for oil spill remediation. Further, the aggregation behavior of the individual as well as their binary mixtures was also evaluated by employing tensiometry technique. The half-lethal concentration, LC50on zebrafish (Danio rerio) of three choline based ionic liquids showed that the studied ionic liquids (ILs) fall in the range of “practically nontoxic” ( 100-1000 mg L-1).Various micellar properties showed that …

Neutron Diffraction Study Of Multiferroic 0.6nife2o4/0.4batio3 Composite, Engkir Sukirman, Yosef Sarwanto, Syahfandi Ahda, Andon Insani

Makara Journal of Technology

Neutron diffraction study on the 0.6NiFe2O4/0.4BaTiO3 multiferroic composite has been carried out. The 0.6NiFe2O4/0.4BaTiO3 multiferroic composites have been synthesized by solid reaction method. In this study, 20 g of BaTiO3 (BTO) and 20 g of NiFe2O4 (NFO) compounds were prepared from the powder raw materials of BaO3 and TiO2 for BTO, and NiO and Fe2O3 for NFO. Furthermore, both BTO and NFO were each crushed for 5 hours using High Energy Milling (HEM). Then the BTO and NFO were calcined in the furnace at 950 °C/5 hours and 900 °C/5 hours, respectively. Both NFO and BTO precursors were manually mixed …

Multiscale Modeling Of Fracture In Quasi-Brittle Materials Using Bifurcation Analysis And Element Elimination Method, Keyvan Zare Rami

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

Analyzing the fracture of heterogeneous materials is a complex problem, due to the fact that the mechanical behavior of a heterogeneous material is strongly dependent on a variety of factors, such as its microstructure, the properties of each constituent, and interactions between them. Therefore, these factors must be effectively taken into account for accurate analysis, for which the multiscale method has been widely used. In this scheme, the computational homogenization method is used to obtain the effective macroscopic properties of a heterogeneous material based on the response of a Representative Volume Element (RVE). The growth of damage in an RVE …

Incorporating Geophysical Data In Slope Stability Modeling For Two Slopes In Arkansas, Vanessa Lebow

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Slope failures in the United States alone cause millions of dollars in damage to infrastructure, threaten national monuments, create environmental hazards, and take an average of 25-50 lives a year. With the inevitable construction that occurs on slopes, it is imperative that the slopes be properly designed which requires a thorough understanding of slope grade, subsurface soil conditions, soil strength parameters, water table locations, and depth to bedrock across the entire site. The preferred method of data collection would be to use borings and other in-situ methods; however, sometimes due to cost constraints or site accessibility only a very limited …

Evaluation Of Concrete Deck Curing Regimens Using Capillary Pressure Sensing System, Samuel Spann

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Early-age plastic shrinkage cracking is a common problem with the construction of concrete bridge decks due to the high surface area-to-volume ratio and exposure to potentially detrimental environmental effects. Curing regimens are utilized to mitigate cracking risk during the plastic stage of the concrete; the curing regimens evaluated for this study were wet burlap-polyethylene sheeting, two acrylic curing compounds, and one lithium compound. Capillary pressure in the water filled pores has been shown to correlate to the plastic shrinkage cracking risk of concrete. A new portable system has been developed to measure the capillary pressure that could potentially be used …