Civil Engineering Commons^™

Energy Dissipation Of Highly Convergent Chutes In Stilling Basins Of Concrete Dams, Rafael Morán, Miguel Ángel Toledo, Jaime I. Masides

Protections Conference

This article presents the results of a combination of experimental and numerical research on the performance of stilling basins of spillways with highly convergent chutes (HCC). The comparison between the energy dissipation of the stilling basins with flat slab and baffle blocks shows that the latest are more efficient. Because of that, the cost savings of using such blocks can be significant. The results obtained could be applied in different cases such as increasing the capacity of existing spillways and protecting dams against overtopping. The application of HCC spillways in new dams could lead to a reduction in the cost …

A Novel Computational Method To Compute Rock Scour Due To Dam Overtopping, Erik F. R. Bollaert

Protections Conference

Flood events generating potential risk for dam overtopping may become more frequently in the future, especially because of increasing climate change. Crest overflows at arch dams generally impact the downstream rock mass very close to the dam foundation. As such, any scour of the rock mass generated by this phenomenon may potentially endanger the stability of the dam and its appurtenant structures. Hence, pertinent assessment of this scour formation through space and time is becoming increasingly relevant to dam safety. This paper presents a novel computational method for detachment of prismatic rock blocks from their mass when impacted by high-velocity …

Bedrock Erosion In Swedish Spillways - A Methodology For Assessing Design Pore Pressures Aimed For Design Of Erosion Mitigation Via Reinforcement Of The Rock Mass, Per Eriksson, Jonas Persson, Carol-Oscar Nilsson

Protections Conference

This article presents a collection of literature and data that enables calculations of hydraulic pressures inside a structurally simplified rock mass. The causation between the pressure in the rock mass and the near plane-parallel turbulently flowing waters on natural surfaces of igneous rock is expressed. The article is mainly aimed at rock reinforcement calculations given magmatic rock types with high durability and large block size.

Erodibility Evaluation Of An Unlined Rock Spillway: Comparison Between The Erodibility Index Method And A New Method Based On Block Theory, Michael George, Cole Christiansen, Ariel Rickel, Benjamin Israel, George W. Annandale

Protections Conference

Following the 2017 events at the Oroville Dam spillways that prompted evacuation of nearly 200,000 downstream residents and resulted in over $1B USD repair costs, there is highlighted focus on evaluation of spillways (both lined and unlined) at dams across the USA. In the case of unlined channels, flow conditions are often complex which presents several challenges for erodibility evaluation given methods are often based on idealized circumstances. High-resolution data available for the site (both in terms of 3D point cloud geometry data for the rock mass and 3D CFD model simulations of flow conditions) permitted a more detailed analysis …

Hydro-Geotechnical Rock Scour Assessment At Petit-Saut Dam, Seven E. Pells, Fanar Al-Qassab, Felicia Weir, Anaïs Faivre, Thierry Leturcq, Benoit Blancher

Protections Conference

This paper presents a recommended design procedure for assessment of rock scour which is illustrated for the case study of Petit-Saut Dam in French Guiana. The methodology, referred to as a “hydro-geotechnical scour assessment”, promotes a multi-discipline approach, applying expertise in both rock mechanics and hydraulics, and guides the diagnosis of scour and response to risk by application of currently available scour assessment techniques.

Failure Thresholds For Rcc Crest Caps, Tony L. Wahl, Bryan J. Heiner, Jacob F. Kepler

Protections Conference

Overtopping protection using roller-compacted concrete (RCC) overlays is a common improvement made to address hydrologic deficiencies at existing small- to medium-height embankment dams. Overlays allow floods to pass over the dam while preventing erosion of the original embankment. The United States has many examples of such projects on both private and public dams, including many associated with federal agencies of the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture. For one project modified with an overlay in 1993, deterioration of the RCC and poor bonding between lifts has caused concern for stability of the 0.3-m (1-ft) thick RCC lifts that cap the …

First Application Of Articulated Concrete Block Armoring With A Stabilized Stone Drainage Layer, Jeremy R. Young, Jim Nadeau

Protections Conference

Results from recent hydraulic testing of Articulated Concrete Block (ACB) systems have shown variations in the level of the ACB surface is attributed to the movement of an unconfined stone drainage layer. This movement appears to be exacerbated by thicker drainage layers, higher overtopping depths, and longer test flumes. While the apparent movement did not constitute “threshold of performance” as currently defined by ASTM D7276 and D7277, there was a desire to mitigate movement of the stone drainage layer and maintain conservatism in ACB design and construction. This paper will review the findings of Nadeau and Wedin’s paper from Protections …

Applying The Submerged Jet Erosion Test To Embankment Dam Breach Modeling, Tony L. Wahl, Blake Armstrong

Protections Conference

The submerged jet erosion test (JET) is one of several methods available for quantifying erodibility of cohesive soils, a crucial input for modeling erosion and breach of embankment dams with models such as WinDAM, EMBREA (Morris 2011), and DL BREACH (Wu 2013; 2016a; 2016b). The JET was initially developed in the late 1980s as a relatively large-scale device with a 13-mm diameter nozzle creating an impinging jet that erodes a soil sample submerged in a 61-cm diameter tank. This first device was documented in an ASTM standard (D5852-1995), but the standard was withdrawn in 2016. In the last 15 to …

Overtopping Erodibility Analysis For A Steep-Sloped Rockfill Embankment Dam, Ariel Rickel, Michael F. George, Rob Millar

Protections Conference

Erosion of embankment material during an overtopping event is one of the major mechanisms of failure for earthfill dams. The ability to analyze the progression of overtopping failure can prove useful in assessing the breakthrough risk of the dam, which involves understanding the behavior of the material that the dam is comprised of. While there have been studies on the behavior of smaller-grained materials such as clays and sands (e.g. Hahn et al 2000; Coleman et al. 2002; Hanson et al. 2005; Hanson et al. 2011), few have focused on erosion of larger-grained rockfill embankments.

This paper presents the erosion …

Data-Driven Analysis For Facility Management In Higher Education Institution, Ashish Kumar Pampana, Jungho Jeon, Soojin Yoon, Theodore J. Weidner, Makarand Hastak

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Faculty Publications

Planned Preventive Maintenance (PPM) and Unplanned Maintenance (UPM) are the most common types of facility maintenance. This paper analyzes current trends and status of Facility Management (FM) practice at higher education institutions by proposing a systematic data-driven methodology using Natural Language Process (NLP) approaches, statistical analysis, risk-profile analysis, and outlier analysis. This study utilizes a descriptive database entitled "Facility Management Unified Classification Database (FMUCD)" to conduct the systematic data-driven analyses. The 5-year data from 2015 to 2019 was collected from eight universities in North America. A preprocessing step included but was not limited to identifying common data attributes, cleaning noisy …

Load And Resistance Factor Design (Lrfd) Resistance Factors For Tip Grouted Drilled Shafts, Anhar Sarsour

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pressure grouting beneath the tip of drilled shafts, also known as postgrouting, has been used for more than fifty years throughout the world and has shown to be an effective means to enhance both the usable and ultimate end bearing resistance. In short, postgrouting is a form of compaction grouting beneath the shaft tip (performed after concrete has cured) that can improve the soil strength and increase the axial shaft stiffness. Until 2006, there was no published design methodology and hence the anticipated performance was speculated to be a function of injected grout volume, shaft uplift and/or the achieved grout …

Investigation Of Mechanical Properties Of Recycled Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites Reinforcing Cement, Caleb Mull, Fnu Archie, Harry Lee, Guyuan Zhang

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

The usage of fiber-reinforced polymer composites in various fields has increased significantly due to their advantageous physical and mechanical properties. However, the sustainability of composite parts has not been fully solved for a long time. Most end-of-life (EOL) composite parts have been landfilled without recycling due to the recycling cost and lack of application of recycled composites. Mechanical composite recycling that shred the EOL composite part and reuse it for downgraded applications is one of the most commonly used recycling processes for the EOL composite part. In this research, mechanical composite recycling process was demonstrated for the construction application. The …

Structural Health Assessment Of Pavement Sections In The Southern Central United States Using Fwd Parameters, Nitish R. Bastola, Mena Souliman, Samer Dessouky, Raja Daoud

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Various Departments of Transportation in the South-Central States and elsewhere have made extensive use of the Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) surface deflection bowl data. The falling weight deflectometer (FWD) test is a popular NDT-based test used by transportation authorities to evaluate the performance of flexible pavement. Nevertheless, it is rare to develop a method for evaluating pavement sections using FWD data from all sensors. There is a constant demand for DOTs and highway agencies to have a streamlined approach that can be applied directly to their databases. This research focuses on extending and verifying the concept of previously published area ratio …

Quantifying A 21-Year Surface Water And Groundwater Interaction In A Ridge And Valley Lake Environment Using A Highly Constrained Modeling Approach, Richard T. Bowers Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Karst lakes are ubiquitous in ridge terrain settings in limestone aquifer coastal plain environments. In west-central Florida, these lakes are frequently connected to the Upper Floridan aquifer and have unique aquifer recharge characteristics. They have been selectively studied because they commonly have no or very limited surface water discharge and limited drainage areas, have appreciable surface water and groundwater interaction and leak to the deep aquifer. An innovative modeling approach was developed to collectively understand and more precisely quantify this vertical leakage, both from a lake-specific and regional water budget standpoint, for a 21-year study period (2000-2020). A unique, calibrated …

Numerical Investigation Of Heat Generation And Accumulation Contributing To Elevated Temperature In Msw Landfills, Alborz Fathinezhad

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Landfills are complex geostructures which contains organic and inorganic municipal, and in some cases industrial, wastes and are expected to remain operational for long times. Due to the complex nature of physical, chemical, biological, and thermal reactions that carry on within the depths of a landfill, unexpected incidents such as elevated temperatures could become inevitable. While uncommon to happen, elevated temperatures cause health and environmental issues such as odors, rapid settlements, slope instabilities. In addition, elevated temperatures can negatively impact engineered components in composite bottom liners, cover systems, leachate collection, and gas extraction and recovery systems.

Air intrusion into municipal …

Optimizing Lake Okeechobee Watershed Management And Reservoir Operations For Water Quality Improvement, Osama Mahrous Mossad Tarabih

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rivers around the globe have been altered as people have constructed water resources infrastructure to store water for different human needs, causing negative impacts on ecosystem processes and functions. Environmental flows have been introduced to restore deteriorated riverine ecosystems; however, environmental flows have not always been practical or adequate to restore environment conditions in rivers globally. Lake Okeechobee is a large subtropical lake that plays a pivotal role in South Florida water system providing various water demands for the surrounding communities as well as providing crucial services to the ecosystem of South Florida. However, hydrologic alterations and nutrient (phosphorus and …

Behavior Of Concrete Reinforced With Date Palm Fibers, Elias Ali

Faculty Scholarship

In recent decades, researchers have begun to investigate innovative sustainable construction materials for the development of greener and more environmentally friendly infrastructures. The main purpose of this article is to investigate the possibility of employing date palm tree waste as a natural fiber alternative for conventional steel and polypropylene fibers (PPFs) in concrete. Date palm fibers are a common agricultural waste in Middle Eastern nations, particularly Saudi Arabia. As a result, this research examined the engineering properties of high‐strength concrete using date palm fibers, as well as the performance of traditional steel and PPF concrete. The concrete samples were made …

Statistical Models Of Traffic Injury Severities: The Effects Of Driver Nationality And The Time-Of-Day On Pedestrian Injuries, Asim Alogaili

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Roadway accidents have long been a major cause of casualties among all roadway users including drivers and pedestrians. Researchers have used various advanced methodologies to precisely identify affecting factors to help policy makers implement safety measures that effectively mitigate such losses. For a variety of reasons such factors, especially those related to roadway users, are subject to constant changes over time. This work investigates, in depth, the effect of multiple variables on the injury severity levels of both drivers and pedestrians using the most recent and advanced methodological approaches.

First, the dissertation starts by investigating factors that significantly contribute to …

Comparison Study Of Consumer’S Perception Toward Urban Air Mobility In The United States And Rest Of The World Using Social Media Information, S M Toki Tahmid

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is a wide concept that will enable access to on-demand air mobility, cargo delivery, medical applications, and emergency services that is run through a connected and integrated transportation system. This study aims to investigate social media data to compare the major topics discussed in the United States and rest of the world and perform a sentiment analysis to see if the comments are positive, negative, or neutral. Twitter was the primary source of information that was used in this thesis, as it is a place where people interact, create, and share information and ideas online. In …

Geospatial Analysis Of Impact On Evacuation Routes And Urban Areas In South Texas Due To Flood Events, Layda B. Spor Leal, Jungseok Ho, Sara E. Davila

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

The Lower Rio Grande Valley has historically faced a variety of hurricanes and tropical storms that have led to sever flooding. As a consequence, waves of mass evacuation of the local population with the means of transportation occur frequently. While evacuation is encouraged in some cases of disaster, the routing is not always available as water takes to roads and drainage capacities are overwhelmed. In order to dissert the most appropriate evacuation routes, it is necessary to analyze the areas that will be affected in the future based on urban locations, elevation, and historical information. This project utilizes a semi-coupled …

Investigation On Enhancement Of Seismic Performance Of Unreinforced Masonry Structures, Susanta Banerjee Dr.

Technical Collection

Earthquake causes a huge loss of life and property compared to other natural disasters. Almost 75% of the casualties due to earthquake were caused due to the collapse of the building and the substantial portion was from the collapse of the unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings. However, masonry is still more popular than other construction materials due to its lower cost and availability of material, and construction of URM does not need any technical rigor. The extent of vulnerability in masonry structures is high due to its brittle nature of the failure. Primarily, URM building is designed to withstand vertical loads, …

The Impact Of Biofilms And Dissolved Organic Matter On The Transport Of Nanoparticles In Field-Scale Streams, Junyeol Kim, Kevin R. Roche, Diogo Bolster, Kyle Doudrick

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The fate and transport of nanoparticles (NPs) in streams is critical for understanding their overall environmental impact. Using a unique field-scale stream at the Notre Dame-Linked Experimental Ecosystem Facility, we investigated the impact of biofilms and the presence of dissolved organic matter (DOM) on the transport of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) NPs. Experimental breakthrough curves were analyzed using temporal moments and fit using a mobile-immobile model. The presence of biofilms in the stream severely reduced the transport of the TiO₂ NPs, but this was mitigated by the presence of DOM. Under minimal biofilm conditions, the presence of DOM …

Pile-Supported Wharves Subjected To Inertial Loads And Lateral Ground Deformations. Ii: Guidelines For Equivalent Static Analysis, Milad Souri, Arash Khosravifar, Stephen E. Dickenson, Scott Schlechter, Nason Mccullough

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

An equivalent static analysis (ESA) procedure is proposed for the design of pile-supported wharves subjected to combined inertial and kinematic loads during earthquakes. The accuracy of the ESA procedure was evaluated against measurements from five large-scale centrifuge tests. The wharf structures in these tests were subjected to a suite of recorded ground motions and the associated superstructure inertia, as well as earthquake-induced slope deformations of varying magnitudes. It is shown that large bending moments at depths greater than 10 pile diameters were primarily induced by kinematic demands and can be estimated by applying soil displacements only (i.e., 100% kinematic). In …

Automatic Concrete Sidewalk Deficiency Detection And Mapping With Deep Learning, Yuhan Jiang, Sisi Han, Dapeng Li, Yong Bai, Mingzhu Wang

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Vertical displacement is a common concrete slab sidewalk deficiency, which may cause trip hazards and reduce wheelchair accessibility. This paper presents an automatic approach for trip hazard detection and mapping based on deep learning. A low-cost mobile LiDAR scanner was used to obtain full-width as-is conditions of sidewalks, after which a method was developed to convert the scanned 3D point clouds into 2D RGB orthoimages and elevation images. Then, a deep learning-based model was developed for pixelwise segmentation of concrete slab joints. Algorithms were developed to extract different types of joints of straight and curved sidewalks from the segmented images. …

Building Services Engineering November/December 2022

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Performance Of Cement-Free Geopolymer Composites Made With Locally Available Industrial Solid Waste Materials, Omar Fawwaz Abbas

Dissertations

This dissertation is concerned with developing sustainable cement-free mortars made with local industrial by-product materials. Ladle slag is generated in mass quantities from secondary steel treatment in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is typically disposed of in stockpiles and landfills. Ladle slag is an excellent candidate for geopolymer composites because of its aluminosilicate composition. Such composites are developed by activating industrial by-products in alkaline solutions. This project aims to utilize locally produced ladle slag from the secondary steel treatment in the UAE to produce geopolymer mortars. The effect of various mixture proportions on the developed composites was assessed using …

Development Of A Smartphone Application As An Asset To Pavement Management Engineers, Smartp3m, Damien Stephens

Electrical Engineering Theses

An application specific multi-platform smartphone application can utilize on-board accelerometer, gyroscope, and GPS sensors, along with software derived signals from the same sensors, to sample vibrational and geolocation datasets to capture pavement distresses such as potholes when mounted in a standardized configuration in a vehicle. Several observations were made with regard to the signals obtained from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and GPS sensors, and it was determined that the raw sensor outputs are capable of sampling statistically significant datasets which can be used to distinguish pavement distress from normal driving conditions. Furthermore, an approximate sensor noise margin is established, and a …

Assessment And Prevention Of Bacterial Regrowth In Stored Household Water In Eastern Coastal Madagascar, Lauren Judah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As of 2020, diarrheal diseases were the leading cause of death in Madagascar. A major cause of diarrheal illness is contaminated water, and one crucial aspect of preventing contaminated water is safe household storage. Bacterial regrowth between point-of-collection and household storage has been well established in literature. A frequently implicated source of regrowth is the storage container’s biofilm, which is a community of varying bacteria enclosed in a “slimy” extracellular polymeric substance that forms on surfaces in wet environments and anchors bacteria to those surfaces. The overall goal of this thesis was to quantify and control bacterial regrowth in household …

Feasibility Assessment Of Warm Mix Asphalt In Arkansas, Mohammad Najmush Sakib Oyan

Student Theses and Dissertations

The future of Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) technologies is promising in the U.S. However, the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) does not have any specific guidelines to implement them in the field. This research aims to provide necessary baseline data for WMA as a proof of concept. In this study, three ARDOT approved Performance Grade (PG) binders namely PG 64-22, PG 70-22, and PG 76-22 were investigated. Each of these binders was obtained from two different sources. They were modified by varying doses of four selected additives: Sasobit®, Advera®, Evotherm®, and Rediset®. Additionally, four different types of aggregates (sandstone, limestone, …

Forecasting The Demand For Asphalt Concrete In Karbala Governorate, Ghayath Ali, Sawsan R Mohammad, Shakir Al-Busaltan

Al-Bahir

The challenge of forecasting asphalt concrete demand in the Karbala governorate is the subject of this study. Population and number of vehicles in Karbala are considered among the independent (explanatory) variables taken into consideration. These explanatory variables ' historical data have been gathered and examined. The historical data of each explanatory variable has been linked to the historical demand for asphalt concrete in the governorate using regression techniques in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program version 26.

A model to forecast the governorate's demand for asphalt concrete has been developed based on these factors. The forecasts have …