Structural Engineering Commons^™

Iconic Henry Street Bridge In Indianapolis, Marshall Lachecki, Keith Echternach, Mary Appel

Purdue Road School

The iconic new Henry Street bridge over the White River in Indianapolis is a connection to the west side of downtown Indy.  From the challenging hydraulics requirements to the bridge concepts, design, procurement and through construction and archaeology work, the City has worked with many stakeholders and the public to make this new crossing a success.  This presentation will focus on design elements of the bridge while touching upon other project elements.

Assessment Of Safety Monitoring Indexes Of High Rcc Gravity Dams Considering Hydraulic Fracture, Mohamed Ramdan, Jinsheng Jia Professor, Xu Li Professor

Journal of Engineering Research

High concrete gravity dams, particularly Roller-Compacted Concrete (RCC) types, face long-term safety challenges due to weak interlayer formation and crack propagation. This study presents a comprehensive evaluation of safety monitoring indexes for the Guxian high RCC dam (currently under construction in China) using both numerical and theoretical models. A Finite Element Method (FEM) was applied with two approaches: the strength reduction method, which considers weak layers, and the overloading method, which simulates extreme loading without accounting for material degradation. A comparative analysis between these two methods was conducted to determine which more effectively evaluates dam safety under varying conditions. Additionally, …

Hickory Street Square Revitalization, Spencer Knight, Grace Dungan, Tim Kula, Evan Lauritsen, Lindsey Mennenga

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The Hickory Street Square Revitalization Project seeks to transform a central public space in Sidney, Nebraska into a dynamic, community-oriented area that supports local events, economic activity, and cultural heritage. The project addresses six core objectives: 1) convertible street design, 2) parking lot reconfiguration, 3) public amenities, 4) event flexibility, 5) lighting and signage, and 6) old electric plant renovation. A conceptual design was developed by the design team (S.T.E.E.L. Sentinel Solutions) by synthesizing the most effective features of three preliminary alternatives, shaped further through community feedback and evolving project constraints. The final project design minimizes disruption to existing activity …

Integrating Artificial Intelligence And Augmented Reality For Enhanced Task Performance In The Construction Industry, Aasish Chandrika Bhanu

All Dissertations

The Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) sector, characterized by its complex tasks, often faces challenges in adopting cutting-edge technologies, a trend that can significantly hinder productivity improvements compared to other industries. This dissertation explores the emerging integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Augmented Reality (AR) within the AEC domain, investigating how effectively this can be implemented to potentially revolutionize industry practices. AI could be used in the AEC domain for advanced analytical and decision-making processes, while AR could be used for training, visualization, and remote collaboration.

In scenarios where construction site workers require expert guidance, these technologies could be helpful. …

Demystifying Utility Coordination: Understanding The Basics, Josshe I. Palm

Purdue Road School

This session will explain utility coordination to non-utility coordinators. It will help educate others about the role and responsibilities of a utility coordinator, an OSA, easy UC and design mistakes to avoid, scope and design considerations, items commonly overlooked, when to coordinate SUE, and how to work with your UC to request a letting adjustment. We will also highlight UC submittals and allow time for questions about the UC’s role in a project’s success.

Columbus, Nebraska: Southern Housing Development Design Proposal, Ryan Weyers, Caiden Dynek, Alex Papa, Brexton Robertson, Kaden Perala

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The following paper proposes the design and creation of a new housing development in the city of Columbus, Nebraska in a lot to the south of the city and directly north of the Columbus wastewater treatment plant. The goal of this proposal is to provide readers with confidence that our company is the most qualified to complete the project and will create the safest, most comfortable, most efficient, and most cost-effective final design. This proposal seeks to offer a solution to the lack of affordable housing for the growing workforce in Columbus. In order to arrive at this solution, each …

A Multi-Criteria Ranking System For Prioritizing Maintenance Of Levee Systems In Arkansas, Nguyen Danh Phan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There are 208,009 properties in Arkansas that have more than a 26% chance of being severely affected by flooding over the next 30 years, which represents 13% of all properties in the state. A levee system is designed to reduce the flooding risk for urban and rural communities; however, most of the state's levees have been significantly outdated or built with engineering standards less rigorous than current best practices. The Levee Safety Action Classification (LSAC), as recorded in the National Levee Database (NLD), communicates the risk associated with living behind a particular levee and assists local, state, and federal stakeholders …

Wind Tunnel Modeling Of Jack Rabbit Ii Mock Urban Environment Gas Concentration Measurements, Sami S. Fares

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The 2015 Jack Rabbit (JR) II field trials were conducted to improve understanding of the denser-than-air dispersion of chlorine in an urban environment. The field study involved five large-scale, outdoor release trials of chlorine in a mock urban environment (MUE) at Dugway Proving Ground (DPG). Various instrumentation was deployed, including JazTM Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-Vis) point sensors capable of measuring gas-phase chlorine concentration throughout the mock urban array.

The Chemical Hazards Research Center (CHRC) was tasked by the Chemical Security Analysis Center (CSAC) with the Mock Urban Wind Tunnel (MUWT) program to study the 2015 JR II Trials at wind tunnel scale. …

Cost-Efficient Bridge Scour Health Monitoring Using Commercial Sensors, Connor Embleau, Tien Yee, Metin Oguzmert, Mahyar Amirgholy, Alan Akazemi, Dale Goff

Symposium of Student Scholars

Bridge scouring has been a major international issue regarding bridge health and the overall longevity of a bridge. A common bridge health concern such as scouring accounts for close to 60% of bridge failures in the United States and is a leading cause to a bridge being in critical condition. Traditional methods to combat this failure is to measure the scour depth to assess a bridge health. Due to safety concerns of the traditional method, this study proposes to monitor a bridge’s health using a vibration-based technique. At present, vibration-based techniques have yet to be utilized reliably in the field. …

Assessing The Vertical Displacement Of The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam During Its Filling Using Dinsar Technology And Its Potential Acute Consequences On The Downstream Countries, Hesham El-Askary, Amr Fawzy, Rejoice Thomas, Wenzhao Li, Nicholas Lahaye, Erik Linstead, Thomas Piechota, Daniele Struppa, Mohamed Abdelaty Sayed

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), formerly known as the Millennium Dam, is currently under construction and has been filling at a fast rate without sufficient known analysis on possible impacts on the body of the structure. The filling of GERD not only has an impact on the Blue Nile Basin hydrology, water storage and flow but also poses massive risks in case of collapse. Rosaries Dam located in Sudan at only 116 km downstream of GERD, along with the 20 million Sudanese benefiting from that dam, would be seriously threatened in case of the collapse of GERD. In this …

Enercon Station Vacuum Pump Replacement, Clint Hembree, Jared D'Amico, Connor Moore, Paul Jeffrey Fontenot, Sydnee Castello, J.J. Clements

Senior Design Project For Engineers

This details the progress of the ENERCON pump replacement project as completed by the Kennesaw State University interdisciplinary senior design group. This project is a two-semester capstone effort for the engineering program at Southern Polytechnic School of Engineering, overseen by Dr. McFall during Fall 2020 and Dr. Khalid during Spring 2021 semesters. The 2020-2021 KSU Interdisciplinary Senior Design team was tasked with completing an Engineering Change Package (ECP) for existing vacuum pumps at ENERCON Station. The mechanical, electrical, and civil students worked together, performing evaluations on existing plant systems to ensure the plant could support the new vacuum pumps. By …

Flood Hazard Assessment For The Tori Levee Breach Of The Indus River Basin, Pakistan, Babar Naeem, Muhammad Azmat, Hui Tao, Shakil Ahmad, Muhammad Umar Khattak, Sajjad Haider, Sajjad Ahmad, Zarif Khero, Christopher R. Goodell

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Levee breaches are some of the most common hazards in the world and cause the loss of lives, livelihoods, and property destruction. During the 2010 flood in Pakistan, the most devastating breach occurred at Tori Levee on the right bank of the Indus River, downstream of the Guddu Barrage, which caused residual floods in northern Sindh and the adjoining regions of the Balochistan province. In this study, 2D unsteady flow modeling performed for Tori Levee breach computed residual flood inundation by coupling a HEC-RAS (Hydrological Engineering Centre-River Analysis System) 2D hydraulic model with remote sensing and Geographic Information System techniques. …

Hydraulic Balsa Wood Rising Bridge, Kaitlyn Greenfield

All Undergraduate Projects

What is the solution to allowing tall vessels to navigate past a vehicle bridge that is less than 10 [ft] above the water? To answer this question, a balsa wood bridge was designed, constructed, and tested. The bridge needed to articulate by mechanical means, allow for travel through the bridge, and be able to withstand ample force while the main structure only being constructed of balsa wood and glue. The project was analyzed in sections. These sections include: the bridge structure and its members, the hydraulic lift, and the pins needed for the bridge and hydraulic lift to operate. The …

St. Mary And St. Anne Cathedral, Cork: An Optimum Heating Solution For Heritage Buildings?, Christopher Shiell, Roger P. West

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Cathedrals and most churches are characterised by having large internal, undivided spaces and permeable building envelopes. They are often used little, intermittently, but predictably and, in spite of the fact that they are unique in still being largely used for the purpose for which they were built many centuries ago, they are now often used for additional purposes, for which they were never designed. These uses include concerts, graduation ceremonies, filming and a host of other uses all of which require a level of thermal comfort not envisaged by the original builders. Research was undertaken by the authors into the …

Challenges And Opportunities To Deep Retrofitting Of Traditional Fabric Buildings To Achieve Nearly Zero Energy Building (Nzeb), Maria Lopez Zambrano, Paul Kenny, Jamie Goggins

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Many of our traditional buildings are disappearing or in danger of being under utilised because they are not comfortable for modern day living and do not meet our present day needs. If a building does not have a use, inevitably it deteriorates and eventually becomes a ruin or gets demolished. It is important to retrofit these buildings, which are part of our identity and can be powerful tourist attractions even though most of them are not listed. Some owners want to apply for retrofitting schemes and grants, but they are rejected because there are no standard solutions to achieve low …

Teaching Of Structural Analysis Into The Future, Dermot O'Dwyer

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

The engineering curriculum has always been full. In the past civil and structural engineers studied a wide variety of technical subjects within the broad field of engineering science and spent many hours working on design projects. Modern engineering curricula try to cover these areas while also dedicating more time to structured group-work, report writing and communication skills. Although students spend longer in college the number and range of technical fields that students must master is considerably larger than in the past. As a result the time available to any one topic area has reduced. At the same time the work …

Can Deap Help Us To Predict The Energy Demand And Indoor Temperature Of Homes Before And After Renovation? A Case Study From Dublin, Paul Moran, Jamie Goggins

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Improving the energy efficiency of buildings via retrofitting is seen as one of the key mitigation measures to reducing the energy demand and carbon emissions of the built environment in Ireland. However, while energy efficiency retrofits for buildings are effective in theory, the energy savings estimated by statistical or engineering models can often be inaccurate. The Domestic Energy Assessment Procedure (DEAP) is the standard assessment procedure used for assessing the energy performance standard of residential buildings in Ireland. This paper examines the gas energy demand for space and water heating and the internal temperature profiles in contrast to DEAP estimates …

Operational And Embodied Energy Analysis Of 8 Single-Occupant Dwellings Retrofit To Nzeb Standard, Richard O'Hegarty, Shane Colclough, Oliver Kinnane, Donal Lennon, Etienne Rieux

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

In line with the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, Irish dwellings are being retrofit to near Zero Energy Building (nZEB) standards - with a number of the deep energy retrofits classified as A-rated. As a result of the low operational energy, the embodied energy share of an nZEB's life cycle energy is significantly increased. Therefore, to obtain a holistic picture of the change in energy profile of buildings, the embodied energy of the material added to achieve that low performance should also be taken into account. This paper presents results from a case study of 8 single-occupant terrace bungalows retrofit …

Art In Engineering: Evoking A Creative Response From Engineering Students And More, Jamie Goggins, Marta Fuente, Eamonn Madden

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

The concept of creativity being only associated with writers, painters, and artistic professions is outdated. The future engineer must embrace maths, art and creativity to unlock innovative solutions. Traditional engineering courses with an emphasis predominately on maths and science can produce graduates who are constrained in developing design solutions without creativity to unlock innovative solutions. This paper describes a short course introduced in the School of Engineering at NUIGalway in 2018 to expose students to creative thinking research and principles and engage in various forms of creative expression (photography, painting and essay writing) to articulate their response to a set …

The Broader Development Of The Student Engineer Through Industry Based Experiential Learning, Donogh Coleman, Ted Mckenna, Mary Moloney

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

The global drive for industry-aware and industry-ready engineering graduates, has led to the development and integration of experiential learning through work placements. Industry is looking to recruit graduates with not just the requisite technical engineering skills, but also graduates with inter alia high levels of teamwork and communications skills. This has been recognised by CIT with the integration of work placement in most of its undergraduate programmes. This paper provides an overview of the student placement process in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering at CIT, includes the work placement alternative which was implemented due to the COVID-19 …

Long-Run Traffic Simulations For Multi-Lane Road Bridges, Róisín Donnelly, Lorcan Connolly, Ilaria Bernardini

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

The maintenance and repair of ageing bridges is a concern for road infrastructure managers. This issue is amplified by the increasing weights and frequency of travel of freight vehicles in recent times. In order to accurately assess the risk of damage for road bridges, it is essential to have knowledge of both historical and current bridge loading. When available, site-specific Weigh-in-Motion (WIM) data can be effective in creating representative load models for a structure. However, for cases where WIM data is not available and in cases where future damage must be predicted, it is necessary to simulate appropriate data using …

Repair & Rehabilitation Of Daly's (Shakey) Bridge, Cork City, Michael Minehane, John Gamble

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

This paper describes the rehabilitation of (Shakey) Bridge, an existing single-span suspension bridge crossing the northern channel of the River Lee in Cork City. The bridge was opened in 1927 to replace an earlier ferry crossing at the same location. Daly’s bridge is included on the Record of Protected Structures and the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. It remains the only suspension bridge in Cork City and is the only surviving bridge of its kind in Ireland. It is considered to be a significant contributor to the architectural heritage of the city. This case study describes the project development including …

Reinforcement Of Timber Elements In Compression Perpendicular To The Grain Using Compressed Wood Dowels, Michael Conway, Conan O'Ceallaigh, Sameer Mehra, Annette M. Harte

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

In the past decade, there has been an increased focus on the environmental impacts of construction and a movement towards more sustainable construction products. Timber is one such sustainable product that can achieve these environmental targets but, while timber has a high strength-to-weight ratio parallel to the grain, it demonstrates poor strength perpendicular to the grain. As a result, stress perpendicular to the grain is an important factor in the design of timber structures, especially in areas of concentrated loading, such as supports. This paper describes a study, which examines the use of compressed wood dowels as a sustainable alternative …

Development And Testing Of A Deployable Double Layer Tensegrity Grid, Michael Quilligan, Valentin Gomez-Jauregui, Cristina Manchado, Cesar Otero

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Tensegrity is a structural principle based on the use of isolated or contiguous pin jointed components in compression inside a net of continuous tension. Although the concept has been studied for many decades, relatively few examples of tensegrity structures have been used for civil engineering purposes.

A Review Of The Engineering Constraints And Project Management Challenges Involved In Utilising Scot’S Church As A Heritage Asset Through Responsible Adaptive Reuse And Conservation Strategies, Óisín Smith

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

In the field of structural building, there has been a rising popularity in adaptive reuse of older structures, which stems from a variety of stimuli. Apart from preserving built heritage, providing old buildings with new functions promotes sustainability while preventing and containing urban sprawl. Target 11.4 of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals Agenda 2030 explicitly outlines that “more efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage” are required. In order to valorise and regenerate obsolescent structures, intervention is often required. The dissertation provides a comprehensive overview of conservation engineering and demonstrates the importance of an engineer’s …

An Evaluation Of Design Issues Identified During Reviews Of Structural Designs Of Buildings From 2015 To 2020, Patrick Crean, Richard Osborne

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

A recent study on failures of structures in Ireland indicated that approximately 40% could be apportioned to designer error. A 2019 report into recent structural cracking of a high-rise building in Sydney Australia recommended that Independent third party checking by a Chartered Engineer should be a requirement on all major projects prior to construction. The report also stated that the critical elements of the design on these projects should be identified. It is obvious that a certain percentage of buildings constructed each year contain design flaws and only a small proportion of these ever result in a failure. However there …

Loading On Long Span Bridges In Heavily Trafficked Areas, Michael Quilligan, Eugene O'Brien

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

The critical traffic loading condition for long-span bridges is congestion when vehicles may be closely spaced together. Data on very high traffic flows is limited however, as induction loops which are typically used to collect traffic data, are ineffective when traffic flow breaks down. A number of long span bridges are located in areas of high traffic with periods of recurring congestion occurring daily. While the inter-vehicle gap distances are greater than those occurring during non-recurring full stop accident type events, the high frequency of the recurring congestion events can increase the probability of a critical load case occurring.

A Numerical Study Of The Effect Of Wind Barriers On Traffic And The Bridge Deck, Yuxiang Zhang, Philip Cardiff, Jennifer Keenahan

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Wind actions can have a great impact on both bridges and traffic on bridges. However, structures designed to shelter the traffic from wind can influence the aerodynamic performance of the bridge deck, especially for long-span bridges. This study compares the effect of non-perforated walls and perforated walls used as wind barriers for traffic by conducting Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations on three-dimensional geometries of a four-lane bridge deck. Steady-state simulations employ the Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) method with the k-epsilon turbulence model and all simulations use parallel computing. An open-sourced software OpenFOAM is used.

Simulation Of Traffic Loading On Long Span Bridges, Hang Zhang, Michael Quilligan

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Existing long span load models have typically been developed using a number of conservative assumptions, and as such are more applicable to the design of new bridges rather than the assessment of existing structures. Excessive conservatism in such assumptions can lead to expensive and unnecessary interventions in existing bridges. Furthermore, existing load models do not always allow for correlations in traffic weights and vehicle positions on the bridge.

Thermodynamic Cement Hydration Modelling Using Hydcem, Niall Holmes, Denis Kelliher, Mark Tyrer

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Thermodynamics have been successfully applied to the field of cement hydration science to predict the formation of phase assemblages and pore solution chemistry. For any cement hydration model to be accepted, it must provide accurate forecasts of which solids may form and how the cement will dissolve over time. This is particularly important for the ongoing development of new sustainable cements and understanding their hydration behaviour in service.