Geotechnical Engineering Commons^™

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 …

Application Of The Iec Technical Specification For Assessment Of Wave Energy Resource: A Case Study From The West Coast Of Ireland, Iulia Anton, Stephen Nash

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

There is significant interest globally in harnessing our ocean wave energy resource, estimated at approximately 30,000 TWh/year. The key to this is understanding the resource. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has developed a technical specification for the evaluation of wave energy resource, IEC-TS 62600- 101: Wave energy resource assessment and characterization. This research applies the IEC standard for a resource characterization study of the Atlantic Marine Energy Test Site on the west coast of Ireland. A key focus is the comparison of the detailed IEC validation approach using scatter diagrams with the traditional timeseries validation approach. Coarse (0.005°) and fine …

Wind Power Prediction And Early Downtime Detection For Ireland, Vikram Pakrashi, Basuraj Bhowmik, Juan Manuel González-Sopeña, Paul Mucchielli, Bidisha Ghosh

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Wind energy must be commercially competitive to be economically sustainable. Existing wind farms in Ireland must be more efficient to meet the 2009 EU Renewable Energy Directive target of 7% of total energy demand from onshore wind energy farms, which is 45% of the total national renewable energy target of 16%. WindPearl - a Sustainable EnergyAuthority of Ireland (SEAI) funded project is currently looking into improvin operations & maintenance (O&M) of onshore wind turbine farms in Ireland.

An Experimental Investigation Of The Optimum Properties And Conditions For Use Of Anionic Emulsions In Road Maintenance Applications, Simonas Ignatavicius, Alan Kavanagh, David Colleran, Michael J. Brennan, Shane Newell

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Bitumen emulsions are used for a range of road maintenance applications, including surface dressing, gravel seals, slurry seals, tack coating, cold-mix asphalt and in situ pavement recycling. The emulsions used can be classified as being either cationic (i.e. possessing a positive electrostatic surface charge) or anionic (i.e. carrying a negative electrostatic surface charge). The vast majority of emulsions used for such applications in Europe are cationic, while anionic bitumen emulsions are used widely throughout North America and Africa. The aims of the experimental study described in this paper were (a) to investigate why one or the other emulsion type is …

A Review Of Vision Based Methods For Pothole Detection And Road Profile Analysis, Darragh Lydon, Su Taylor, Myra Lydon, Julia Early

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

This paper is an overview of the development and application of Computer Vision for the detection of pothole, pavement distress and road profile analysis and categorisation. A brief explanation of the traditional methods for determining these factors is given, followed by a chronological description of the evolution and the challenges of using Computer Vision (CV) approaches to determine these conditions. The paper is separated into sections aligned to image capture and analysis methodologies. Qualitative evaluations and comparison of these methods have been provided along with the proposal of guidelines for new computer vision-based road analysis systems.

Analysis And Optimisation Of Tii’S Pams Reset Values And Deterioration Models For Irish Pavement Conditions, James Quinn, Raymond Mcgowan, Tomas O'Flaherty

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Ireland has a national road network of approximately 5300km that is managed by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII). TII create yearly pavement maintenance and renewal programs from the operation of a Pavement Asset Management System (PAMS). Accurate pavement deterioration models and reset values are an essential part of PAMS and are required for life cycle cost analysis (LCCA). Pavement maintenance and renewal schemes are prioritised based on the LCCA's largest benefit to cost ratio, and therefore optimise the annual pavement maintenance and renewal budget. Currently, TII implement pavement deterioration models and reset values from Austria's and Belgium's PAMS, and are not …

An Analysis Of The Effectiveness Of Bitumen Additives On The Performance Of Pavement Surface Dressings, Alan Anderson, John Casserly, Alan Kavanagh, Jim Campbell

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Surface dressing is a maintenance technique that uses thin layers of bitumen emulsion and single sized aggregates. The surface dressing process seals and binds the surface of a road to protect its substructure from water ingress. It also provides increased skid resistance, which improves safety for road users. Early life chip-loss can occur if there is an insufficient degree of adhesion between the emulsion and aggregate used. The range of additives used in bitumen can have an effect on their adhesion properties. The focus of this research project was to investigate if the use of these additives in surface dressing …

Winter Maintenance On The Irish Road Network, Hugh Mcconnell, Brian Mccann

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Winter maintenance relates to those activities undertaken where the objective is to minimise the impact of frost, ice or snow on the travelling public. The responsibility for winter maintenance of all roads in Ireland currently rests with local authorities and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) (Formerly the NRA) on behalf of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport (DTTaS), (DTTaS, 2017). The aim of the study was to examine current winter maintenance practices undertaken in Ireland by local authorities and the Motorway Maintenance and Renewals Contracts (MMaRC) contractors and examine the potential financial, operational and environmental benefits if pre-wet and brine …

An Experimental Investigation Of The Optimum Properties And Conditions For Use Of Anionic Emulsions In Road Maintenance Applications, Simonas Ignatavicius, Alan Kavanagh, David Colleran, Michael J. Brennan, Shane Newell

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Bitumen emulsions are used for a range of road maintenance applications, including surface dressing, gravel seals, slurry seals, tack coating, cold-mix asphalt and in situ pavement recycling. The emulsions used can be classified as being either cationic (i.e. possessing a positive electrostatic surface charge) or anionic (i.e. carrying a negative electrostatic surface charge). The vast majority of emulsions used for such applications in Europe are cationic, while anionic bitumen emulsions are used widely throughout North America and Africa. The aims of the experimental study described in this paper were (a) to investigate why one or the other emulsion type is …

A Review Of Vision Based Methods For Pothole Detection And Road Profile Analysis, Darragh Lydon, S. E. Taylor, Myra Lydon, Julia Early

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

This paper is an overview of the development and application of Computer Vision for the detection of pothole, pavement distress and road profile analysis and categorisation. A brief explanation of the traditional methods for determining these factors is given, followed by a chronological description of the evolution and the challenges of using Computer Vision (CV) approaches to determine these conditions. The paper is separated into sections aligned to image capture and analysis methodologies. Qualitative evaluations and comparison of these methods have been provided along with the proposal of guidelines for new computer vision-based road analysis systems.

Analysis And Optimisation Of Tii’S Pams Reset Values And Deterioration Models For Irish Pavement Conditions, James Quinn, Raymond Mcgowan, Tomas O'Flaherty

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Ireland has a national road network of approximately 5300km that is managed by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII). TII create yearly pavement maintenance and renewal programs from the operation of a Pavement Asset Management System (PAMS). Accurate pavement deterioration models and reset values are an essential part of PAMS and are required for life cycle cost analysis (LCCA). Pavement maintenance and renewal schemes are prioritised based on the LCCA's largest benefit to cost ratio, and therefore optimise the annual pavement maintenance and renewal budget. Currently, TII implement pavement deterioration models and reset values from Austria's and Belgium's PAMS, and are not …

An Analysis Of The Effectiveness Of Bitumen Additives On The Performance Of Pavement Surface Dressings, Alan Anderson, John Casserly, Alan Kavanagh, Jim Campbell

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Surface dressing is a maintenance technique that uses thin layers of bitumen emulsion and single sized aggregates. The surface dressing process seals and binds the surface of a road to protect its substructure from water ingress. It also provides increased skid resistance, which improves safety for road users. Early life chip-loss can occur if there is an insufficient degree of adhesion between the emulsion and aggregate used. The range of additives used in bitumen can have an effect on their adhesion properties. The focus of this research project was to investigate if the use of these additives in surface dressing …

Winter Maintenance On The Irish Road Network, Hugh Mcconnell, Brian Mccann

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Winter maintenance relates to those activities undertaken where the objective is to minimise the impact of frost, ice or snow on the travelling public. The responsibility for winter maintenance of all roads in Ireland currently rests with local authorities and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) (Formerly the NRA) on behalf of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport (DTTaS), (DTTaS, 2017). The aim of the study was to examine current winter maintenance practices undertaken in Ireland by local authorities and the Motorway Maintenance and Renewals Contracts (MMaRC) contractors and examine the potential financial, operational and environmental benefits if pre-wet and brine …

2-D Non-Linear Finite Element Analysis Of Folsom Dam: Seismically Induced Separation And Pore Pressure Along The Soil-Concrete Interface, Grace Amoussou

Master of Science in Civil Engineering Theses

The seismic soil-concrete interface stability of composite dams has been an area of interest to many researchers. However, the true interface behavior during a seismic event has not been well understood. During a ground shaking, bonding and de-bonding action along the interface may cause significant separation of soil and concrete surfaces, and such a separation may take place at any depth along the interface creating a stability concern for the overall dam. Moreover, the repetitive nature of bonding/debonding behavior may induce excess pore pressure along the interface, which in turn, may trigger a liquefaction failure or a hydraulic fracture in …

Development Of Multi-Axial Fatigue Retrofits For Lock Gate Components, Logan Verkamp

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lock gates are essential infrastructure components to the United State (US) supply chain. They create large cost savings and environmental benefits when compared with traditional methods of transport (freight and rail). Because of the large quantity of goods and dependence on these shipping chains, the US economy can be drastically affected by an unexpected gate closure. Unfortunately, many lock gates within the US have reached or exceeded their designed life. Due to the intensity of cyclic loads and the environment, fatigue cracks have become a prominent issue. Developed cracks near the pintle region (a joint which the gate rotates and …

Análisis Por Confiabilidad Del Modelo De Diseño Aashto 93 Para Pavimentos Flexibles En El Valle De Aburrá, Mario Santiago Hernández, Juan Pablo Osorio, Juan Camilo Viviescas

Books/Book Chapters

La necesidad de construir pavimentos con mejores especificaciones técnicas y mayores períodos de servicio requiere de una modelación rigurosa de la variabilidad en las propiedades geotécnicas con el fin de garantizar la confiabilidad de estas estructuras. Por lo tanto, se realizó un análisis basado en la confiabilidad del método Aashto-93, considerando la variabilidad geotécnica del suelo, asociada al módulo resiliente de la subrasante. Los diseños por confiabilidad fueron efectuados de acuerdo con las categorías, parámetros y estructuras establecidas por el Manual de diseño de pavimentos asfálticos en vías con medios y altos volúmenes de tránsito, de 1998, del Instituto Nacional …

Civil Engineering Research In Ireland 2020: Conference Proceedings, Kieran Ruane, Vesna Jaksic, Bidisha Ghosh, Magdalena Hajdukiewicz, Ciaran Hanley, Niall Holmes, Jennifer Keenahan, Zili Li, Patrick Mcgetrick, Ted Mckenna, Mary Moloney, Vikram Pakrashi, Niamh Power

Publications

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020: Conference Proceedings.

Micromechanical Prediction Model Of Viscoelastic Properties For Asphalt Mastic Based On Morphologically Representative Pattern Approach, Zhichen Wang, Naisheng Guo, Xu Yang, Shuang Wang

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

This paper is devoted to the introduction of physicochemical, filler size, and distribution effect in micromechanical predictions of the overall viscoelastic properties of asphalt mastic. In order to account for the three effects, the morphologically representative pattern (MRP) approach was employed. The MRP model was improved due to the arduous practical use of equivalent modulus formula solution. Then, a homogeneous morphologically representative model (H-MRP) with the explicit solution was established based on the homogenization theory. Asphalt mastic is regarded as a composite material consisting of filler particles coated structural asphalt and free asphalt considering the physicochemical effect. An additional interphase …

Prediction Of Haul Units’ Requirements For The Open Pit Mines Operating Towards Closure, Bartłomiej Skawina

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

The determination of haul units is one of the important steps in the equipment selection process. The process should aim at minimizing the operational costs and create an optimal match for the haulage system. When open pit mines operating towards closure, reducing the operational costs results in significant gaining, and the savings can be used to implement some of the closure plans. In this paper, the prediction of haul units for an open pit mine which operates towards the final pit limit was analysed using discrete event simulation and multiple linear regressions. The result shows that the changes in production …