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Full-Text Articles in Structural Engineering

Ai-Based Bridge And Road Inspection Framework Using Drones, Hovannes Kulhandjian Nov 2023

Ai-Based Bridge And Road Inspection Framework Using Drones, Hovannes Kulhandjian

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

There are over 590,000 bridges dispersed across the roadway network that stretches across the United States alone. Each bridge with a length of 20 feet or greater must be inspected at least once every 24 months, according to the Federal Highway Act (FHWA) of 1968. This research developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-based framework for bridge and road inspection using drones with multiple sensors collecting capabilities. It is not sufficient to conduct inspections of bridges and roads using cameras alone, so the research team utilized an infrared (IR) camera along with a high-resolution optical camera. In many instances, the IR camera …


Fiber-Based Seismic Damage And Collapse Assessment Of Reinforced Concrete Single-Column Pier-Supported Bridges Using Damage Indices, Yu-Fu Ko, Jessica Gonzalez Aug 2023

Fiber-Based Seismic Damage And Collapse Assessment Of Reinforced Concrete Single-Column Pier-Supported Bridges Using Damage Indices, Yu-Fu Ko, Jessica Gonzalez

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

Near-fault earthquakes can have major effects on transportation systems due to the structural damage they impose on bridges. Therefore, it is imperative to assess the seismic damage of bridges appropriately, and this research focuses on reinforced concrete (RC) bridges. This research advances the seismic performance assessment of RC single-column pier-supported bridges with flexural failure under near-fault ground motion by use of ductility coefficients and damage indices. The methodology included modeling fiber-based nonlinear beam-column elements to simulate the damage development process of RC bridge piers under earthquake loadings, considering the global buckling of longitudinal steel bars, examining the cracking and spalling …


System-Of-Systems Integration For Civil Infrastructures Resiliency Toward Multihazard Events, Vahid Balali Aug 2023

System-Of-Systems Integration For Civil Infrastructures Resiliency Toward Multihazard Events, Vahid Balali

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

Civil infrastructure systems—facilities that supply principal services, such as electricity, water, transportation, etc., to a community—are the backbone of modern society. These systems are frequently subject to multi-hazard events, such as earthquakes. The poor resiliency of these infrastructures results in many human casualties and significant economic losses every year. An outline of a holistic view that considers how different civil infrastructure systems operate independently and how they interact and communicate with each other is required to have a resilient infrastructure system. More specifically a systems engineering approach is required to enable infrastructure to remain resilient in the case of extreme …


Using Thermal Remote Sensing To Quantify Impact Of Traffic On Urban Heat Islands During Covid, My-Thu Tran, Bo Yang Apr 2023

Using Thermal Remote Sensing To Quantify Impact Of Traffic On Urban Heat Islands During Covid, My-Thu Tran, Bo Yang

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

A three-month lockdown in the U.S. at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 greatly reduced the traffic volume in many cities, especially large metropolitan areas such as the San Francisco Bay Area. This research explores the impact of transportation on climate change by using remote sensing technology and statistical analysis during the COVID-19 lockdown. Using thermal satellite data, this research measures the intensity of the urban heat island, the main driver for climate change during the urbanization process. The research team acquired morning and afternoon MODIS data in the same periods in 2019 before the pandemic and 2020 …


Contracting Strategies: A Different Approach To Address Long-Term Performance, Maria Calahorra-Jimenez Jul 2022

Contracting Strategies: A Different Approach To Address Long-Term Performance, Maria Calahorra-Jimenez

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

For cost-efficiency, public safety, and sustainability, improving long-term performance in highway projects is imperative for public administrations. Project delivery and procurement methods provide an opportunity to align design and construction processes with this goal. While previous studies have explored whether project delivery methods impact the long-term performance of highway projects, these studies did not focus on how core elements within project procurement relate to long-term performance. Thus, to fill this gap, this research explores how and to what extent long-term evaluation criteria are considered in design-build best-value procurement of highway projects. To this end, the team conducted content analysis on …


Stability Of Fiber-Reinforced Bridge Bearings Under Compression And Shear Loads, Andrea Calabrese, Simone Galano, Tran Nghiem Jul 2020

Stability Of Fiber-Reinforced Bridge Bearings Under Compression And Shear Loads, Andrea Calabrese, Simone Galano, Tran Nghiem

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

Fiber-Reinforced Bearings (FRBs) have proven to be a valuable rubber-based base isolation technology in which flexible fiber reinforcements are used to replace the steel layers commonly adopted for the manufacturing of Laminated Rubber Bearings (LRBs). Thanks to the low weight and cost of FRBs, these devices could prove to be instrumental for the promotion of base isolation applications to houses and residential buildings of developing countries in seismic regions. This report presents the results of a large set of Finite Element Analyses (FEAs) aimed at assessing the performance of FRBs under combined axial and shear loads. The effects of different …


Large Research Center Education And Outreach: Lessons From 5 Years Of Distributed Collaborative Design, Development And Implementation, Sean Brophy, Thalia Anagnos Jun 2014

Large Research Center Education And Outreach: Lessons From 5 Years Of Distributed Collaborative Design, Development And Implementation, Sean Brophy, Thalia Anagnos

Faculty Publications

Paper from the 121st ASEE Annual Conference, Indianapolis. The George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Summation (NEES) completes its tenth year of operation in September 2014. The NEES Center consists of a network of 14 large-scale experimental laboratories that collaborate and share resources in support of research to inform civil engineering practice and reduce losses from future earthquakes. Since the development of the center in 2003, the education, outreach and training (EOT) program has grown from a federation of local outreach activities to an integrated network of “specialists” working together to obtain significant impact towards defined education goals. …


Public Works Projects As Vehicles For Engineering Education And Outreach, Shannon Weiss, David Heil, Thalia Anagnos Jun 2013

Public Works Projects As Vehicles For Engineering Education And Outreach, Shannon Weiss, David Heil, Thalia Anagnos

Faculty Publications

America is built on small and large feats of public works engineering that, although often taken for granted, affect almost every aspect of our daily lives. So how can we celebrate these marvels of utilitarian infrastructure and use them to teach public audiences about the engineering principles, materials, and human innovations that make them possible? This case study will share how one project addressed these questions by leveraging informal learning strategies, multi-agency collaborations, and new media technologies to explain the history and engineering of one of the world’s most recognizable public work sites: the Golden Gate Bridge. This paper will …


Motivating Technical Writing Through Study Of The Environment, J. Linsdell, Thalia Anagnos Jan 2011

Motivating Technical Writing Through Study Of The Environment, J. Linsdell, Thalia Anagnos

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.