Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Embedment Of Un Sustainable Development Goals (Sdg) Within Engineering Degree Programmes, Thomas Adams, Sriram Kishore Kumar, Jamie Goggins, Richard Manton

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), established by the United Nations in 2015, are having a significant influence on policy development worldwide. However, there is a key question about whether current and future engineering graduates will be equipped to contribute significantly to the achievement of these goals and provide sustainable solutions. One way to consider this is to better understand the level of focus within existing curricula of engineering degrees towards the SDGs.

Examining Large Student Cohorts - A Question Of Questions, Roger P. West, Michael A. Wride

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

With pressure to increase student numbers on academic courses worldwide, the trends in exam marks distribution for subject modules become more acute, with more distinct pattern characteristics reflecting student choices, topic and exam question difficulty, and lecturer marking severity, refinement and consistency. The practice of representing the overall exam results in a module through histograms enables normality, skewness and randomness to be identified, interrogated and understood. However, when dealing with large numbers of exam candidates (of the order of 1000 or more), an investigation of the averages and histograms for individual exam questions can further reveal refined explanations for poor …

Community-Engaged Learning: A Building Engineering Case Study, Jamie Goggins, Magdalena Hajdukiewicz

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Community engaged learning is a form of experiential education with a civic underpinning. Community engaged learning is embedded with the civil engineering curriculum at NUI Galway and is framed by a research orientation, commitments to civic engagement and building university-community partnerships, city-university partnerships and partnerships with other official agencies, so that community users can provide real learning problems and contexts for students and researchers and benefit from the results. This paper presents the positive experience of the authors in facilitating over 300 community engaged learning projects undertaken by undergraduate students in civil engineering at NUI Galway. The paper highlights how …

The Powerful Impact Of Role Models And Workshops On The Future Direction Of Females In Stem – Cit Campus Week Model, Mary Moloney, Norma Welch

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

The Faculty of Engineering and Science (FES) at Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) recognises the overwhelming evidence of a severe shortage in the uptake of female students of STEM courses and ultimately STEM careers. In its attempt to turn this tide, the faculty has pioneered a ‘female only’ campus week showcasing science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) to TY students. This campus week commenced with a one-day event at CIT, in 2015 supporting the launch of the ‘I Wish’ initiative at Cork City Hall. The ‘I Wish’ (Initiative for women in STEM) is a not-for-profit group founded by three visionary …

Teaching Engineering Materials Through Experiential Learning, Roger P. West, David Taylor, Martin Burke, Michael Grimes, Shane Hunt

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

An opportunity was afforded to the authors to design and implement a semester-long laboratory-based project to complement a traditional first year materials engineering lecture module. The examinable lecture component involved the customary description of physical, mechanical, and electrical properties of materials, exemplified by studying real examples of different materials used in solving design problems, such as the challenges of concrete’s weakness in tension, brittleness, creep, shrinkage and vulnerability to corrosion, bamboo’s unique sustainability and tensile strength, or in the electronic properties of semiconductor components. Comprising equal civil, mechanical and electrical elements, the project involved the development of an understanding of …

A Numerical Analysis Of Stone Masonry Arch Bridges And Structural Backing, Thomas Kerr, Tomás O'Flaherty

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Masonry arch bridges are a significant part of the transport network system in Ireland. Therefore, it is essential that we maintain the existing masonry bridge stock as a valuable asset and protect these bridges from a heritage viewpoint. The increased structural demands placed upon these bridges coupled with more sophisticated analysis methods have required and enabled a greater understanding of the response of masonry arch bridges to ever increasing traffic loading. When loaded, the structure acts in compression and the arched configuration enables the transmission of loads through the individual masonry units to the supporting piers or abutments. The stability …

Validation Of Finite Element Light Rail Bridge Model Using Dynamic Bridge Deflection Measurement, Paraic Quirke, António Barrias

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Use of finite element modelling (FEM) to predict structural behaviour under static and dynamic loading conditions is a well-established aspect of the bridge design process. The Cherrywood Luas viaduct carries the Luas light rail system through proposed development lands at Cherrywood, South County Dublin. As part of development plans in the area it is proposed to create a new street adjacent and parallel to the existing viaduct with associated footpaths and landscaping. It is proposed to integrate the new structure supporting the street into the existing light rail bridge structure.

Probabilistic System Analysis – Practical Examples For Railway Bridges, Lorcan Connolly, Marko Duranovic, Róisín Donnelly

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

The issue of maintenance of ageing bridges with insufficient budget allocations is well documented throughout Europe and beyond. To combat the issue of out of date assessment standards, insufficient structural information and deteriorating bridges, probabilistic assessment bridge techniques have evolved significantly over the past number of years. Previously, probabilistic analysis methods have been applied at the element level, where the highest element failure probability is assumed to govern for the structure. This fails to account for inherent redundancy which is often present in bridge structures. For example, the development of a plastic hinge due to elastic failure in a steel …

Case Study: Calculating Bridge Displacement From Accelerations For Load Assessment Calculations, Andrew Bunce, David Hester, Su Taylor, James Brownjohn, Yan Xu

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Recovering displacement from accelerations has been demonstrated on bridges previously, with the main challenges being the presence of low frequency noise and the need for user-calibrated filters to overcome this. Therefor this paper presents a case study of a low-cost load test procedure, using bridge acceleration to calculate displacement. Typical approaches look use filtering or signal collecting methods to mitigate noise, however this study uses an aviation grade accelerometer to minimise noise in the acceleration signals and employs a quality control procedure to alert the user to the quality/reliability of the results. A live/open bridge is tested using a loaded …

A Comparative Study Of Linear And Nonlinear Analysis Of High-Rise Buildings Against Wind Loads, Muhammad Ali, Suhaib Salawdeh

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Tall and slender buildings present design challenges to structure designer to establish maximum sway against the wind loads. In Ireland and UK, most engineers use linear static analysis to determine forces and moments in the RC stability cores due to fact that linear analysis is less sophisticate and is easy to use. Engineers use E & I modification factors to take account of reduced stiffness of walls due to cracked concrete sections to complete the sway assessment. Non-linear analysis is another approach that can be used however it is not popular among many engineers as it requires more realistic material …

Direct Displacement Based Seismic Design Of Irregular Cbfs, Suhaib Salawdeh

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Some types of structures can suffer from vertical irregularities due to aesthetic, functional, or economic reasons. A possible lateral force resisting solution for this type of structures is to use Concentrically Braced Frame (CBF) systems. CBFs are gaining a lot of popularity as their design and fabrication are straight forward with low cost. Moreover, they are overcoming many limitations exist in other lateral force resisting systems. In this paper, a direct displacement-based design (DDBD) procedure is developed for irregular multi-storey CBF structures. In this procedure, design displacements considered are decided upon the code and material drift limits, then the strength …

Performance Validation Of A Self-Centring Steel Structure Using Robust Data Sets From Shake Table Testing, Patrick Mccready, Yadong Jiang, Suhaib Salawdeh, Hatim Alwahsh, Brian Broderick, Jamie Goggins

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

In recent years there has been a shift in seismic design from moment resisting frames to concentrically braced frames (CBF’s). CBFs resist the actions created in seismic events through energy dissipation in the form of plastic deformations in braces. This paper analyses the performance of a novel self-centring CBF (SC-CBF) which aims to reduce interstorey drift and residual deformations in a frame through the uses of post tensioned (PT) strands running parallel to the beam members anchored to the exterior flange of columns. The system works upon the principle of closing gap openings which open at joints between beams and …

Beam-To-Column Minor Axis Moment Connections, Ali Purcell, John J. Murphy, Kieran Ruane

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Steel moment connections are used where continuity is required between beam and columns. Research on moments connections has primarily focussed on major-axis connections. An in-depth investigation of I.S. EN 1993-1-8 was completed to identify the design rules of connections. Simple connections such as cleats, fin plates and splices were investigated briefly in order to gain a greater understanding of how they behave and transfer load before researching two types of minor axis moment connections; one where the end plate is connected directly to the column web and one where the end plate is bolted to another plate which is welded …

Structural Modelling, Analysis And Design Of Composite Steel Frame Building Using An Integrated Design Approach, Muhammad S. Hassan, Graham Williams, Karol Przybylski, Lawrence Budzisz, Frank Maguire

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

With modern computerisation, structural analysis and design practice have changed significantly over the last two decades. Design practice now requires robust design methodologies that can save time, produce cost-effective solutions, reduce human error, and be able to produce fully compatible building information models (BIM). In this context, the paper presents a robust design approach for a composite steel frame building project. In this approach, structural steel elements can be modelled, analysed, design and detailed in a unified computational framework based on the ‘MasterSeries’ software package, which incorporates design variables, material specification, loading combinations, connection details, default set code standard criterion, …

Effective Measures To Improve Road Safety At Toll Plazas In Ireland, David Collery, Grzegorz Gorecki

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Road safety statistics from toll plazas, show that the occurrence of collisions in their vicinity is often disproportionally higher than on other sections of the same roads. Despite the presence of lower speed limits in these locations, various manoeuvres, especially on the approaches to toll plazas, pose higher risk of collisions. A lack of strictly unified design standard for Irish toll plazas is the reason for different road safety approach in various locations. The standards are mainly focused on toll plazas operation (Abuzwidah & Abdel-Aty, 2015). Also Abdel-Aty et al. (2016) mentions a clear lack of design codes or guidelines …

Implementing Sustainable Transport Strategies In Ireland, Kevin Gallagher, Brian Mccann

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) provide a concept and process for the planning, development and implementation of urban transport strategies. EU SUMP guidelines have not been utilised in Ireland. The research question asks if there is any benefit in developing Irish urban transport strategies as SUMPs. The literature review examines the historical development of EU and Irish transport policy and reviews academic reports and journal articles on SUMPs. The EU SUMP process is reviewed in detail before reviewing recently published Irish urban transport strategies and a European SUMP case study. The research methodology involved collecting qualitative data from primary sources, …

Effect Of Motorways On Road Safety In Ireland, Parth B. Shah, Ajinkya S. Mane, Bidisha Ghosh

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

In Ireland, high-speed motorways were built around the year 2008 to 2010. In order to investigate the effect of motorways on road safety, the research paper aims at identifying the shift of contributing factors related to vehicular crashes, before-and-after the construction of motorways/expressways. Typically, several factors are involved for accidents on motorways, but a better understanding is needed to find the relationship between injury severity and its contributing factors. The current study seeks to find the contributing factors for before-and-after the construction of motorways. In this study, the before period is considered from 2003-2007, and 2012 to 2016 have been …

Evaluation Of Sustainability Of Irish Road Transport Sector And Its Comparison With European Union Countries, Megha Jose Kandappasery, Boban Djordjevic, Bidisha Ghosh

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Transport sustainability has been the topic of discussion since the past two decades and its importance has been recognised by most countries. Therefore, strategies and policies incorporating sustainable growth and development have been initiated as a measure to steer transport growth in the right path. This notion has led researchers to develop many ways of measuring transport sustainability, especially the frequently used road transport sector. Measurement of sustainability of the transport sector has been carried out using different methodologies in the past. Considering the complexity and multi-dimensional aspects of sustainability, multi-criteria analysis decision making tools have been considered in this …

Analysis Of Inclement Weather On Traffic Flow – An Irish National Roads Case Study, Beatriz Martinez-Pastor, Páraic Carroll

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Transportation networks and infrastructure are increasingly exposed to and effected by inclement weather. The rise in the frequency and intensity of these events is increasingly affecting the normal operation, performance and functionality of roads and highways, leading to costly losses. Inclement weather creates risky and hazardous situations not only on the main roads, such as motorways, but also, on the smaller roads connecting rural parts of the country that experience lower traffic volumes. The effects of weather events, such as rainfalls or snowfalls, have been primarily addressed in main roads, leaving, smaller roads on hold. This has created a lack …

Identifying Damage In A Bridge By Analysing Rotation Response To A Moving Load, Claire Mcgeown, Farhad Huseynov, David Hester, Patrick Mcgetrick, Eugene O'Brien, Vikram Pakrashi

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

A recent survey of Europe’s highway infrastructure has concluded that almost half of Europe’s bridges are nearing the end of their design live. Work in the wider Structural Health Monitoring sector is aiming to develop reliable and cost-effective methods for verifying condition, remaining service life and safety of ageing structures. Most bridge condition assessment methods are based on deflection, acceleration or strain measurements. This paper looks at the possibility of using rotation measurements as a main parameter to identify damage. This study looks at numerical analyses of a moving point load on a one-dimensional bridge model to provide the theoretical …

Modelling The Thermal Behaviour Of A Precast Pcm Enhanced Concrete Cladding Panel, Dervilla Niall, Roger P. West, Oliver Kinnane, Richard Hegarty

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development there is currently a stock of more than 80 million buildings in Europe built between 1950 and 1975, a period during which energy performance was not considered in building design. To enable governments to comply with the European Directive 2010/31/EU on the energy performance of buildings, strategies are required to improve the energy efficiency of these buildings. Using the mass of a building to store or dissipate heat can reduce the demand on the auxiliary heating and/or cooling systems and hence reduce the overall energy demand of the building.

Previous research …

Analysis And Design Of A Novel Heavy-Duty Precast Element, Daniel Naughton, Michael Naughton, Michael O'Sullivan, Suhaib Salawdeh

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Window sills are common to most buildings. In Ireland, concrete is the most popular material used for external sills. A standard one-metre concrete window sill weighs about 70kg. While external window sills are required to have sufficient capacity to resist damage during transportation and loading, they are non-structural elements. Therefore, there is no need for their high selfweight. This project looks to redesign concrete window sills to make them lighter. Decreasing the amount of concrete used in each sill would significantly reduce their self-weight. This would make concrete window sills more manageable in terms of transportation and installation. Two design …

Composite Behaviour Of Wide Sandwich Panels With High Performance Concrete Thin Wythes With And Without Thermomass Shear Connectors, Jagoda Lipczynska, Roger P. West, Michael Grimes, Dervilla Niall, Oliver Kinnane, Richard Hegarty

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

To partly address the future sustainability of energy use in buildings, there is a program in Europe to retrofit domestic and commercial buildings with non-load bearing insulated re-cladding and over-cladding panels. Recent research work has shown that limited composite action is possible depending on the type of non-conductive shear connector and the stiffness of the insulation between the inner and outer wythes. This paper reports on the mix design development to develop high strength 20mm thick wythes and the manufacture of sandwich panels with five silicone-bonded layers of XPS insulation, making up a panel which is 220mm thick. These model …

Development And Localisation Of Ultra High Performance Concrete Using A Particle Packing Model, William Wilson, Tomas O'Flaherty

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Ultra-high performance fibre reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) is used worldwide to improve the structural performance of infrastructure such as bridges, extend their working life and reduce environmental impact. As a result thinner structures are constructed leading to reductions in the structure’s self-weight and the volume of concrete and natural raw aggregates used in their construction. A drawback to UHPFRC is that it results in a significant rise in initial costs over normal and even high performance concretes, and it has very high binder contents, which in some cases is greater than 1100kg/m³. Therefore, the cost-efficiency and sustainability of this …

Effects Of Accelerated Carbonation Curing On Co2 Sequestration And On The Compressive Strength Of Concrete Masonry Units, Barry Gilroy, Leon Black, David Thompson, Ronan Hogan, Niall Holmes

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

The global consumption of Portland cement has risen to over 4 billion tonnes per annum. Its manufacture is energy and carbon intensive and approximately 900 kg of CO₂ is emitted into the atmosphere for each tonne of Portland cement produced. The International Energy Agency (IEA) roadmap sets out a goal to reduce emissions due to cement production to 18 % below 2006 levels by 2050.

Concrete has the potential to re-absorb CO₂ by the process of carbonation, where it reacts with CaO in the concrete to form calcium carbonate. Accelerated carbonation curing (ACC) is a technique for curing …

Towards Improved Sensor Systems For Bridge Structural Health Monitoring, Alan Ferguson, Roger Woods, David Hester

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Taking long-term measurements on in-service bridges is challenging due to the lack of easy access to power and communications. Whilst all-in-one, portable sensor data loggers act to address these challenges, they still lack the flexibility to meet evolving measurement needs. This paper presents the design and implementation of a highly flexible, modular sensor system for bridge structural health monitoring research, which has an emphasis on customisability and extensibility to allow it to meet evolving challenges. The architecture incorporates interchangeable sensor modules that allows data acquisition to an on-board Secure Digital card, with timing and synchronisation provided by global positioning system …

Towards Automated Uav Assisted Bridge Inspections Using Photogrammetry And Image Processing Techniques, Habeene Habeenzu, Patrick Mcgetrick, David Hester, Su Taylor, Louie Wong

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

At the heart of addressing bridge condition challenges are bridge inspections. The main activity during a bridge inspection is close, arm’s length visual inspection of the entire bridge structure. During this process, all defects such as cracks, spalls and material degradation are manually recorded on the bridge itself and on inspection forms. Where access is difficult such as where a safe working platform cannot be mounted under bridge decks, or on high bridges, expensive underbridge equipment is required which when used results in expensive lane closures. Furthermore, visual inspections have been shown to lack consistency from inspector to inspector and …

Acceleration Based Bridge Weigh In Motion Using Moving Force, Shou Wang, Daniel Mccrum, Eugene O'Brien

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Measuring vehicle axles weights is an important method to control traffic and monitor infrastructure. Traditional methods of measuring the static weight of vehicles at a weigh station is disruptive and time consuming. It is more cost effective and efficient to indirectly measure moving vehicle weights crossing a bridge. The weigh-in-motion concept, first proposed by Moses (1979) is an algorithm that uses measured bridge structural response (deflection, strain, …) due to passing vehicles to and a theoretical response. Moving Force identification (MFI) is a variation of the dynamic WIM algorithm that gives a force time history as a vehicle passes the …

A Two-Stage Direct Integration Approach To Find The Railway Track Profile Using In-Service Trains, Yifei Ren, Jennifer Kennahan, Eugene O'Brien

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

The railway track is an important element in transportation networks. In recent years, drive-by monitoring of railways has become more popular. Using data measured from in-service trains, the railway profile can be found. In previous research, a complex optimiziton method is used to calculate the railway profile. This paper introduces a new two-stage direct integration approach to find the same track profile much more efficiently. The calculated track profile is similar to a ‘true’ profile and can be used to monitor the condition of the track.

Investigating The Contact-Point Response For Drive-By Damage Detection In Bridges, Robert Corbally, Abdollah Malekjafarian

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Bridges are critical elements in any road or rail transport network and ensuring their safety is paramount. Recent years have seen significant research efforts to develop cost-effective techniques for bridge monitoring on a large scale. Drive-by bridge inspection techniques, whereby sensors inside a vehicle are used to monitor bridge condition, are at the focus of much of this work. This paper develops a relationship between the measured response in a vehicle and the contact-point response between the wheel and the surface of a bridge using a quarter-car representation of the vehicle. Numerical simulations are carried out to examine the feasibility …