Other Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Movable Bed Physical Model Investigation Of Bed Level Changes Caused By River Sediment Diversions, Hayden Cole Franklin

LSU Master's Theses

Since 1932, due to human and natural processes, over 2,000 square miles of Louisiana’s coast have been lost. River sediment diversions have been proposed as sustainable options to combat land loss. These projects, like the proposed Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, are designed to deliver sediment-rich Mississippi River water into nearby bays and estuaries, helping build and maintain land. However, river sediment diversions may alter river hydraulics and sediment transport, potentially inducing upstream degradation and downstream aggradation. Using the Lower Mississippi River Physical Model (LMRPM), this study quantitatively analyzed bed level changes as well as hydraulic conditions associated with the proposed Mid-Barataria …

Bayesian Network-Based Framework To Uncover Social Inequities In Flood Risk: Application To East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, Fuad Hasan

LSU Master's Theses

Regional flood risk assessment requires understanding the complex interplay of sociodemographic, socioeconomic, hydrogeologic, built environment, and climatic variables that impact flood vulnerability. Traditional studies often focus on large-scale units, overlooking localized variations and disproportionate exposure within populations. To address these gaps, a methodological framework of flood risk assessment using the Bayesian network was proposed and applied to East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, for the August 2016 flood event to identify relationships between flood risk variables at the housing unit level. Flood exposure representativeness (FER) was determined using the Bayesian network's inference capabilities to identify over- or under-represented groups. This study …

Sources And Transport Of Dissolved Organic Carbon In Barataria Basin, Louisiana, Mukseet Mahmood

LSU Master's Theses

The fate of soil organic carbon loss from eroding coastal wetlands is of great importance, given its potential impact on atmospheric CO2 concentration. A large fraction of this soil organic carbon upon coastal erosion is released as dissolved organic and inorganic carbon (DOC and DIC) to adjacent water bodies.

In this study, we investigate the seasonal distribution and transport of DOC and DIC in Barataria basin in Louisiana, USA, bordering northern Gulf of Mexico. This region is currently undergoing one of the highest land-loss in the USA. Seasonal measurements of DOC, DIC and colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) were carried …

Development Of Satellite-Assisted Forecasting System For Vibrio Vulnificus Prevalence In Coastal Waters, Saber Aradpour

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Vibrio vulnificus is a halophilic gamma proteobacterium that is autochthonous to coastal waters and is responsible for 50% of seafood-related deaths in the United States. This study presents a series of nowcasting and forecasting models for predicting vibrio vulnificus abundance in oysters by identifying the long-range dependence of vibrio vulnificus abundance on antecedent environmental conditions and detecting the environmental conditions using satellite remote sensing technology. It was discovered that vibrio vulnificus abundance exhibits a long-range dependence on antecedent environmental conditions which can be characterized by seven independent environmental predictors (stressors) including sea surface temperature (SST), water level (WL), sea surface …

Development And Calibration Of The Lmrpm Mid-Breton River Sediment Diversion Gate Operations, Emily E. Fertitta

LSU Master's Theses

With the rate of coastal land loss in Louisiana, the state is looking for innovative ways to help restore and maintain its coastal wetlands. Sediment diversions are going to be constructed along the Lower Mississippi River to mitigate the issues by diverting river water, sediment and nutrients into adjacent wetlands. Since there are currently no real-world applications of sediment diversions, the Lower Mississippi River Physical Model is a beneficial modeling tool to study the impact sediment diversions and relative sea level rise have on the hydraulics and sediment transport processes in the river. The two river sediment diversions on the …

Remote Sensing And Artificial Intelligence-Based Modeling And Prediction Of Harmful Algal Blooms In Lake Pontchartrain, Ian Smith

LSU Master's Theses

Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and particularly toxic cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CyanoHABs) have become a growing threat to the environment, economy, communities, and human and animal health. This is particularly true for Lake Pontchartrain. Forecasting the occurrence of cyanobacterial HABs in Lake Pontchartrain is a process that currently does not exist, as nowcasting by the NCCOS Algal Bloom Monitoring System or the similar system implemented by the U.S. EPA is currently the only method to monitor HAB production in the Lake. This thesis made this process possible by identifying antecedent environmental conditions controlling CyanoHABs, describing the conditions using NASA satellite …

Behavioral Comparison Of Fluorescent Tracer Sediment To Lightweight Polystyrene Sediment Of The Lower Mississippi River Physical Model (Lmrpm), Julia C. Mudd

LSU Master's Theses

A lightweight, unexpanded polystyrene sediment with a specific gravity of 1.05 and a D10, D50 and D90 of 0.250 mm, 0.425mm, and 0.800 mm, respectively, is utilized in the Lower Mississippi River Physical Model (LMRPM) at Louisiana State University to mimic the sand transport of the Lower Mississippi River. While the black model sediment is easily visible against the stark white of the LMRPM, the relative homogeneity of the sediment particles and the opaqueness of the model channel make it difficult to closely study sediment dynamics during an experiment. For this reason, a tracer sediment that is marked with fluorescence …

Numerical Flume For Wave Dissipation By Mangrove Prop Roots, Rebecca L. Schurr

LSU Master's Theses

Mangroves provide shorelines with many beneficial engineering services, including shoreline stabilization, wave attenuation, and damage mitigation during tsunami or tropical cyclone events. This research focuses on wave attenuation rates and drag coefficients, and how they are affected by mangrove prop roots. Previous lab research using a physical wave flume has quantified wave height decay and drag coefficients for synthetic mangrove forests and confirmed that attenuation does indeed increase as mangrove forest density increases. This research will use a 3D numerical flume model developed in Proteus, a Python package, to simulate prior physical model experiments. This work will attempt to validate …

Using 2d Hec-Ras Modeling With Vertical Feature Extraction To Inform Ecological Design In The Lower Atchafalaya River Basin, Louisiana, Colin Anderson

LSU Master's Theses

A 2D HEC-RAS model was created to demonstrate applications of hydraulic modeling for informing ecological design. This was done by comparing the hydrologic conditions of a baseline year (2010) to that of the environmental flow prescription from Kozak et al. (2016). The inundation results are relevant to hydraulic connectivity and cypress regeneration.

The hydraulic model was created by assimilating numerous data sources, refining the model with vertical feature (VF) extraction, and calibrating/validating the model. Several topo-bathymetric sources were combined to create the digital elevation model (DEM). Most importantly, this included bathymetry of the backswamp. Polylines of significant VFs in the …

Wetland Soil Development Along Salinity And Hydrogeomorphic Gradients In Active And Inactive Deltaic Basins Of Coastal Louisiana, Amanda Fontenot

LSU Master's Theses

Coastal wetlands provide an abundance of ecosystem services that benefit society, such as essential habitat for commercial species, storm protection, nutrient cycling, and carbon storage. Louisiana faces rapid rates of relative sea level rise (natural subsidence and eustatic sea levels) that threaten wetland survival, which are amplified by a reduction of riverine sediment input. An important determining factor of marsh survival is the formation of wetland platform elevation, known as vertical accretion, which is determined by several processes including sediment deposition & erosion, below ground biomass (BGB) productivity, decomposition of organic matter, shallow & deep subsidence, and soil compaction. Feldspar …

Optimizing The Self-Healing Efficiency Of Hydrogel Encapsulated Bacteria In Concrete, Ricardo Hungria

LSU Master's Theses

Calcium carbonate precipitation through microbial means is a promising pathway for concrete self-healing technologies, mainly for its microcrack sealing attributes. The main goal of this project was to study and optimize the crack healing efficiency of hydrogel encapsulated bacteria in concrete. To achieve this purpose, Bacillus pseudiformus was implemented as the bacteria strain at a concentration of 10⁸ cells/ml. This bacterium strain along with yeast extract was combined along with three different mineral precursors corresponding to magnesium acetate, calcium lactate, and sodium lactate. All these three precursors were evaluated at two concentrations (67.76 mM/l and 75 mM/l). For each …

Engineered Cementitious Composite For Pavement Applications: Materials Development And Design Framework, Hassan Noorvand

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECCs) are a novel class of high-performance fiber-reinforced cementitious composites characterized by their high tensile strain capacity. While ECCs have been presented as a promising material alternative for the construction of durable pavements and overlays, the cost of these materials is a major drawback, which limits their widespread implementation. More importantly, performance prediction models for ECC pavements existing in the literature are incomplete as the effect of ECC plasticity has not been considered in the integration of finite element (FE) analysis and beam flexural fatigue experimental test results. Moreover, the existing ECC pavements performance prediction models are …

An Improved Earned Value Management Method Integrating Quality And Safety, Brian Briggs

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The construction industry invests significant time and money to improve quality and safety while reducing cost and schedule impacts. The industry has a sincere desire to improve construction project management methods to improve efficiency. Historically, quality and safety underperformances result from undermanaged quality control and safety activities. The cost and schedule impacts associated with poor quality work have always had an impact on construction operations. The unprecedented challenges and uncertainties of COVID-19 highlighted the need to improve the Earned Value Management (EVM) method within construction to reflect these quality and safety activities. The central goal of this dissertation is to …

Atomistic Thermo-Mechanical Description Of The Deformation Behavior, Scaling Laws, And Constitutive Modeling Of Nanoporous Gold, Mohammed Hassan Yousef Saffarini

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Metallic foams, or nanoporous (NP) metals as it is widely referred to in literature, with ligament sizes up to a few tens of nm show exceptional mechanical properties such as high strength and stiffness per weight ratio under different loading scenarios due to their high surface area to solid volume ratio. Therefore, they can be utilized in a wide range of applications making them of great interest to researchers. While their elasticity and yield strength have been the subject of several studies, very limited attention was given to the effect of size, strain rate, and temperature on the material plastic …

Quantifying Discharge On The Lower Mississippi River Physical Model, Taylor S. Cagle

LSU Master's Theses

The Lower Mississippi River Physical Model (LMRPM) is a distorted, movable-bed physical model that replicates the hydraulics and bedload (sand) transport of the lower 195 miles of the Mississippi River. One year of flow and sediment transport on the prototype can be modeled in approximately one hour. With the ability to simulate long periods of time on the Lower Mississippi River in such a short time frame, the model can provide unique insight into subjects such as the potential effects from relative sea level rise on the lower river’s hydraulics and sediment transport. Quantifying discharge on the LMRPM is an …

Variability In The Hamburg Wheel-Tracking Device (Hwtd) Data And Results, Ilerioluwa S. Giwa

LSU Master's Theses

Over the years, the Hamburg Wheel-Tracking Test (HWTT) has become one of the most popular devices used for characterizing asphalt mixtures for rutting potential and moisture susceptibility. However, although the HWTT is a reliable standard test for evaluating asphalt mixtures, it is not exempt from variability in the test data and result. Variability in the HWTT test data and results have been majorly attributed to imprecision in the test practice and due to some limitations in the HWT device setup.

The primary goal of this study is to evaluate the variability in the HWTT data and result by investigating a …

On The Computational Efficiency Of Les And Hybrid Rans-Les Models In Building Aerodynamics, Aly Mousaad Aly, Faiaz Khaled

Faculty Publications

Large-eddy simulation (LES) has proven to offer superior accuracy in regards to predicting surface pressures compared to the Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) models. However, the primary impediment is the high computational cost associated with LES. The authors attempt to investigate the computational cost and accuracy by employing different sub-grid scale (SGS) models in LES and hybrid RANS-LES models. One of the prerequisites of accurate pressure estimations is to ensure a horizontally homogeneous empty computational domain. This study aims to compare the computational competence qualitatively and quantitatively using an empty domain in regards to the ability to maintain horizontal homogeneity. The …

On The Computational Efficiency Of Les And Hybrid Rans-Les Models In Building Aerodynamics, Faiaz Khaled, Aly Mousaad Aly

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Historical Land-Use Change On Surface Runoff And Flooding In The Amite River Basin, Louisiana, Usa Using Coupled 1d/2d Hec-Ras–Hec-Hms Hydrological Modeling, Alexandre G. H. Cowles

LSU Master's Theses

The Amite River Basin is a largely rural watershed spanning parts of four counties in southern Mississippi and seven parishes in southeast Louisiana, with basinwide imperviousness increasing from 0.82% in 1938 to 3.85% in 2016. The Basin has been the subject of significant research interest since catastrophic flooding in 2016 caused 13 deaths and widespread damages. Rapid development in recent decades has led to an expansion of impervious surfaces in Baton Rouge and surrounding areas, encroaching on floodplains and wetlands. At the basin scale, differences in flooding due to impervious cover changes were found to be somewhat limited, particularly along …

Stream Power Analysis Of The Mid-Barataria Conveyance Channel Model, Jack Graham

LSU Master's Theses

Louisiana’s coast is disappearing at an alarming rate. Erosion, subsidence, sea level rise, and the devastating impacts from hurricanes have contributed to the loss of thousands of square miles of land that was once a thriving ecosystem. The Louisiana government is taking action to help protect and restore these coastal habitats, which are a home to some two million people and numerous species of animals, birds, and fish. The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion is a new type of project to help create land in Barataria Basin. Conceptually, the diversion is designed to use the available sediment and stream power provided by …

Modeling Distributed Source Control Infrastructure At Neighborhood Scale For Mitigating Flood Risk In Amite River Watershed, Ahmad Amin Shefai

LSU Master's Theses

Flooding has always been a major threat to mankind. This is particularly true in urban areas due to urbanization-induced increasing impervious areas and subsequent increasing urban surface runoff, causing an increasing flooding risk to urban areas in spite of the fact that extensive flood control infrastructure has been constructed. The overall goal of this thesis is to present a distributed source control infrastructure-based approach for mitigating the flood risk. The new flood mitigation approach is demonstrated through the model implementation of a series of distributed source control infrastructure systems in the city of Denham Springs at a neighborhood scale. The …

An Approach To Counting Vehicles From Pre-Recorded Video Using Computer Algorithms, Mishuk Majumder

LSU Master's Theses

One of the fundamental sources of data for traffic analysis is vehicle counts, which can be conducted either by the traditional manual method or by automated means. Different agencies have guidelines for manual counting, but they are typically prepared for particular conditions. In the case of automated counting, different methods have been applied, but You Only Look Once (YOLO), a recently developed object detection model, presents new potential in automated vehicle counting. The first objective of this study was to formulate general guidelines for manual counting based on experience gained in the field. Another goal of this study was to …

Historical Changes In Planform Geometry Of The Amite And Comite Rivers And Implications On Flood Routing, Kathleen E. Harris

LSU Master's Theses

The Amite River Basin is a 2,220 square-mile basin spanning from southwest Mississippi through southeast Louisiana, encompassing Baton Rouge and its suburbs. In response to historic flooding in August 2016 and other major flood events in the past several decades, the basin has been the subject of a number of studies to quantify the impacts of changes in land-use and reduction in river length and sinuosity. However, there have yet to be relationships defined between the changes in the historical river planform and the resulting flow, stages, and subsequent flood depths. River lengths and sinuosity were measured from the 1930s …

Numerical Modeling Of Wave- And Current-Supported Turbidity Currents Over Erodible Bed, Sahar Haddadian

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The physical processes that route sediments from nearshore to the continental margin provide vital information to the global assessment of the geochemically important matter and the life in the ocean. Therefore, understanding these processes at the fundamental level will help develop accurate models that can be integrated into operational ocean models. Wave- and current-supported turbidity currents (WCSTCs) are one of the mechanisms that deliver sediments to the continental margin. WCSTCs are slow-moving turbidity currents where near-bed turbulence driven by strong surface waves and/or currents, tide- and/or wind-driven, maintain the turbidity current in motion. This study investigates the along-shelf current-supported turbidity …

The Impact Of Hurricane Harvey On Pavement Structures In The South East Texas And South West Louisiana, Stefan Romanoschi

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18PUTA02. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"This study developed a methodology to estimate the damage caused by flooding, such that caused by Hurricane Harvey, on a road or street network. The flooded street or pavement sections are identified using GIS flood maps with street GIS maps used for pavement management systems (PMS) by cities or state authorities. Then the damage caused by flooding directly through the increase moisture in foundation layers or indirectly due to the increase heavy traffic during the relief effort is estimated. An example Excel …

The Impact Of Hurricane Harvey On Pavement Structures In The South East Texas And South West Louisiana, Stefan Romanoschi

Publications

This study developed a methodology to estimate the damage caused by flooding, such that caused by Hurricane Harvey, on a road or street network. The flooded street or pavement sections are identified using GIS flood maps with street GIS maps used for pavement management systems (PMS) by cities or state authorities. Then the damage caused by flooding directly through the increase moisture in foundation layers or indirectly due to the increase heavy traffic during the relief effort is estimated. An example Excel macro was created to illustrate the estimation process. The methodology estimates the increase in rehabilitation costs since the …

Integrated Full-Scale Physical Experiments And Numerical Modeling Of The Performance And Rehabilitation Of Highway Embankments, Navid Jafari, Anand Puppala, Sayantan Chakroborty, Burak Boluk

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18GTLSU06. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"The study aimed to fundamentally understand how soil strength and hydraulic properties are impacted by recurring cycles of wetting and drying induced by climate variability, with the practical implication of forecasting the stability of highway embankment slopes. The review of literature on the effects of long-term cyclic wetting-drying phases on hydro-mechanical properties of clayey soils suggests that only a few cycles of wetting and drying can impact the strength and hydraulic conductivity, where the latter can increase several orders of magnitude. Laboratory …

Evaluating How The Quality Of Pedestrian Infrastructure Affects The Choice To Walk, Gregory Rowangould, Alexis Corning-Padilla

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18PPUNM02. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"While the benefits of walking are well understood, the physical design of sidewalks and their maintenance needs generally receive much less attention in both research and practice than the infrastructure used by other modes of transportation. As a result, we know comparatively little about how the design of sidewalks and quality of the overall pedestrian environment affect the decision to walk. In our study we conducted a household travel survey to collect data on walking frequency and attributes related to sidewalk quality …

Integrated Full-Scale Physical Experiments And Numerical Modeling Of The Performance And Rehabilitation Of Highway Embankments, Navid Jafari, Anand Puppala, Sayantan Chakraborty, Burak Boluk

Publications

The study aimed to fundamentally understand how soil strength and hydraulic properties are impacted by recurring cycles of wetting and drying induced by climate variability, with the practical implication of forecasting the stability of highway embankment slopes. The review of literature on the effects of long-term cyclic wetting-drying phases on hydro-mechanical properties of clayey soils suggests that only a few cycles of wetting and drying can impact the strength and hydraulic conductivity, where the latter can increase several orders of magnitude. Laboratory model-scale experiments of Louisiana and Texas soils are still ongoing and will relate the laboratory test results to …

Developing Implementable Climatic Input Data And Moisture Boundary Conditions For Pavement Analysis And Design, Rifat Bulut, Amir Hossein Javid

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18POKS03. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"The main objective of this study is to develop a practical and implementable numerical model for predicting the moisture (suction) regime within the pavement subgrade system. The research quality and uniformly-dispersed climate data over short distances from Oklahoma Mesonet and the Mitchell based moisture (suction) prediction methods establish the main background of the research study. The study involved numerical modeling and statistical analysis of climatic weather data. The proposed moisture variation model predicts the suction distribution throughout the soil subgrade by solving …