Structural Engineering Commons^™

Hyperspectral Imaging And Data Analytics For Civil Infrastructure Inspection, Genda Chen

INSPIRE Archived Webinars

In this 50-minute lecture, the fundamental concept of hyperspectral imaging is reviewed. Each hyperspectral image represents a narrow, contiguous wavelength range of an electromagnetic spectrum, which could be indicative of a chemical substance. All the images in the spectral range of a hyperspectral camera are combined to form a three-dimensional hyperspectral data cube with two spatial dimensions and one spectral dimension. A hyperspectral cube can be sampled in four ways: spatial scanning, spectral scanning, snapshot imaging, and spatio-spectral scanning. This presentation will be focused on spatial scanning from a line-scan camera. The feasibility of horizontal imaging from a synchronized hyperspectral …

Naturally Occurring Van Der Waals Heterostructure Lengenbachite With Strong In-Plane Structural And Optical Anisotropy, Arindam Dasgupta, Xiaodong Yang, Jie Gao

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Lengenbachite is a naturally occurring layered mineral formed with alternating stacks of two constituent PbS-like and M₂S₃-like two-dimensional (2D) material layers due to the phase segregation process during the formation. Here, we demonstrate to achieve van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures of lengenbachite down to a few layer-pair thickness by mechanical exfoliation of bulk lengenbachite mineral. The incommensurability between the constituent isotropic 2D material layers makes the formed vdW heterostructure exhibit strong in-plane structural anisotropy, which leads to highly anisotropic optical responses in lengenbachite thin flakes, including anisotropic Raman scattering, linear dichroism, and anisotropic third-harmonic generation. Moreover, …

Evaluation And Damage Detection Of Highway Bridges With Distinct Vulnerabilities, Mohammad Abedin

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bridge failures over the past few decades have shown conventional bridge monitoring is insufficient to effectively evaluate the safety of this important piece of infrastructure. Therefore, new methods for bridge monitoring and special considerations in bridge design are needed to ensure the health of these structures as they continue to age and prevent the possibility of catastrophic collapses. The objective of this research is to explore new means for detecting damage in bridge members during normal operations that are both accurate and affordable at the same time. However, to make any damage detection method effective and efficient, the behavior of …

Epoxy Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic Dowel Splice For Prestressed Precast Concrete Pile, Saman Farhangdoust

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to limitations in operation, shipping difficulties, and unforeseen soil conditions, it often happens that splicing of precast-prestressed concrete pile (PPCP) segments has to be performed at the construction site to achieve longer lengths. In order to splice PPCPs, Glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP), Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP), and Stainless Steel (SS) dowels can be used as corrosion-resistant bars. In addition to their durability and superb mechanical performance, GFRP bars show cost advantage when compared to other corrosion-resistant materials. The objective of this study is to investigate the flexural behavior and effectiveness of the GFRP dowel and compare its …

Full-Scale Experimental Modeling To Study Wind-Induced Vibrations, Wind Driven Rain And Their Effects On Curtainwall Window Systems, Krishna Sai Vutukuru

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lewis Fry Richardson famously summarized turbulence as big whirls have little whirls, that feed on their velocity and little whirls have lesser whirls, and so on to viscosity. Big whirls/eddies typically affect the whole building structure whereas small eddies cause local area pressures causing damage to building components. Oncoming wind may carry high energy content due to these small eddies in the high-frequency range and sometimes these frequencies fall in the range of natural frequency of building components. These small eddies may cause response amplification due to this resonance, which is currently not considered in design codes such as ASCE …

Effect Of Non-Uniform Temperature Exposure On The Out-Of-Plane Bending Performance Of Ordinary Laminated Glass Panels, Maged A. Youssef, Ajitanshu Vedrtnam, Chiara Bedon, Shashikant Chaturvedia

Civil and Environmental Engineering Publications

Among the open design issues for structural laminated glass (LG) elements, their mechanical performance during fire exposure stands as a safety concern. This issue is the focus of this paper. An experimental investigation is conducted to evaluate the effect of non-uniform thermal gradients on the out-of-plane bending capacity of standard LG specimens. The pre-fracture, cracking, and post-fracture performances of LG panels were examined using a three-point bending setup. The bending tests were carried out on un-heated LG samples and heated samples, which were either hot or cooled down. The reliability of available analytical and numerical methods to predict the out-of-plane …

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 …

Development Of An Ultra-High Performance Concrete Joint Detail For Short-Span Bridges, Francisco De Jesus Chitty Gozalo

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Slab beam superstructures have been used for short-span bridges since prestressed concrete began to be used in the US. Poor joint performance of these superstructures led to recent revisions to design standards; one example being the Florida Slab Beam (FSB). The FSB and other similar slab beam systems include a composite cast-in-place (CIP) reinforced concrete deck and joint between adjacent beams. An optimized joint design has been developed to accelerate the construction times and eliminate the need for a CIP deck by using ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) in the longitudinal closure pour to connect the precast members.

The optimized joint …

Faster Post-Earthquake Damage Assessment Based On 1d Convolutional Neural Networks, Xinzhe Yuan, Dustin Tanksley, Liujun Li, Haibin Zhang, Genda Chen, Donald C. Wunsch

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Contemporary deep learning approaches for post-earthquake damage assessments based on 2D convolutional neural networks (CNNs) require encoding of ground motion records to transform their inherent 1D time series to 2D images, thus requiring high computing time and resources. This study develops a 1D CNN model to avoid the costly 2D image encoding. The 1D CNN model is compared with a 2D CNN model with wavelet transform encoding and a feedforward neural network (FNN) model to evaluate prediction performance and computational efficiency. A case study of a benchmark reinforced concrete (r/c) building indicated that the 1D CNN model achieved a prediction …

Improving The Long-Term Performance Of Full-Depth Precast Concrete (Fdpc) Deck Panels Using Non-Proprietary Uhpc, Esmail Shahrokhinasab

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Full-depth precast concrete (FDPC) deck panels are a type of prefabricated bridge element used in accelerated bridge construction (ABC) that have been used in bridge construction since the 1960’s as an alternative to conventional CIP decks. The main purpose of using the prefabricated elements is to accelerate the construction and increase the long-term performance. FDPC deck panels itself offers superior durability and performance, but the connection between these elements still have shown some long-term issues like cracking. Ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) is an innovative and commercially available material that has been used to address concerns related to connection between precast elements. …

Machine Learning For High-Fidelity Prediction Of Cement Hydration Kinetics In Blended Systems, Rachel Cook, Taihao Han, Alaina Childers, Cambria Ryckman, Kamal Khayat, Hongyan Ma, Jie Huang, Aditya Kumar

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The production of ordinary Portland cement (OPC), the most broadly utilized man-made material, has been scrutinized due to its contributions to global anthropogenic CO₂ emissions. Thus -- to mitigate CO₂ emissions -- mineral additives have been promulgated as partial replacements for OPC. However, additives -- depending on their physiochemical characteristics -- can exert varying effects on OPC's hydration kinetics. Therefore -- in regards to more complex systems -- it is infeasible for semi-empirical kinetic models to reveal the underlying nonlinear composition-property (i.e., reactivity) relationships. In the past decade or so, machine learning (ML) has arisen as a promising, …

Semi-Annual Progress Report #9, Missouri University Of Science And Technology. Inspire - University Transportation Center

Semi-Annual Progress Reports

No abstract provided.

Three-Dimensional Printing Of Reinforced Concrete And Nozzle Therefor, Chenglin Wu, Genda Chen, Dimitri Feys, Guirong Grace Yan, Bryce Tyler Tafolla

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A three-dimensional printing system for reinforced concrete and a nozzle therefor. The system employs an extruder for extruding unreinforced concrete and a concrete reinforcement feeder is for feeding one or more elongate reinforcement members. The nozzle has an outlet and is operatively connected to the extruder and the concrete reinforcement feeder to receive the unreinforced concrete from the extruder and to receive the one or more elongate reinforcement members from the concrete reinforcement feeder. The nozzle combines the unreinforced concrete from the extruder and the one or more elongate reinforcement members from the concrete reinforcement feeder into a reinforced concrete …

Image-Based Bridge Defect Detection And Monitoring Technologies, Jian Zhang

INSPIRE Archived Webinars

Computer-vision is an emerging technology which has been widely used in the field of structural health monitoring. This seminar will cover the latest achievements of our research group in defect detection, health monitoring, and construction control using image-based technologies. For defect detection, advanced unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been developed to automatically detect surface cracks and other types of structural damages based on digital image processing techniques. An integrated navigation system combining binocular camera and inertial sensor enables automated route planning for the developed UAVs in case of GPS failure. Specifically, a wall-climbing UAV is designed to acquire detailed surface …

Evaluation Of Guayule Resin As An Innovative Bio-Based Asphalt Alternative In Mix Performance -- Preprint, Ahmed Hemida, Magdy Abdelrahman

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Literature revealed the potential of using guayule resin for asphalt cement replacement from the binder’s perspective. However, monitoring guayule resin through binder-aggregate mixture could disclose its performance through field. In this study, designated binders were employed to investigate the applicability of such an innovative replacer through mixture, which were neat asphalt and guayule-based binders (neat guayule, asphalt-rubber-guayule, guayule-rubber binders). Consecutively, field-simulated lab mixtures were prepared to investigate the major distresses. Moisture damage, rutting, fatigue cracking, and thermal cracking resistances were investigated using the modified Lottman (TSR) test, rut test by asphalt pavement analyzer (APA), semi-circular bending (SCB) test, and disk-shaped …

Mrda-Mgfsnet: Network Based On A Multi-Rate Dilated Attention Mechanism And Multi-Granularity Feature Sharer For Image-Based Butterflies Fine-Grained Classification, Maopeng Li, Guoxiong Zhou, Weiwei Cai, Jiayong Li, Mingxuan Li, Mingfang He, Yahui Hu, Liujun Li

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Aiming at solving the problems of high background complexity of some butterfly images and the difficulty in identifying them caused by their small inter-class variance, we propose a new fine-grained butterfly classification architecture, called Network based on Multi-rate Dilated Attention Mechanism and Multi-granularity Feature Sharer (MRDA-MGFSNet). First, in this network, in order to effectively identify similar patterns between butterflies and suppress the information that is similar to the butterfly's features in the background but is invalid, a Multi-rate Dilated Attention Mechanism (MRDA) with a symmetrical structure which assigns different weights to channel and spatial features is designed. Second, fusing the …

Probabilistic Seismic Vulnerability Assessment Of Freestanding Historic Monuments, Marie E. Wagner

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Seismic events can cause significant damage to structures, especially to freestanding structures which are not fixed to the ground and are free to rock independently. This thesis will study the response of freestanding statues and monuments to ground motions and develop probabilistic models for overturning, in order to assist in retrofitting and repair efforts. To do this, single and dual block system models were created with a variety of sizes, aspect ratios, and asymmetries, then subjected to several historic ground motions to determine whether they overturn using three-dimensional distinct element analysis as a result of rocking, sliding or twisting in …

Prioritization Of Research On Bridge Railings For Use On Timber Deck Bridges And Development Of Two Glulam Bridge Railing Systems, Jared Duren

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In the past, many timber bridge railings, bridge railings for use on timber deck bridges, and approach guardrail transition systems to accompany these railings, have been developed to meet different impact safety criteria. Through an extensive literature review, the design details of these systems were identified and organized. A survey was then developed and distributed to multiple government agencies and timber industry members to identify their desire for these bridge railing and approach guardrail transition systems to be developed to meet current American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) impact safety criteria. …

Ductility And Overstrength Of Shape-Memory-Alloy Reinforced-Concrete Shear Walls, Emad A. Abraik, Maged A. Youssef

Civil and Environmental Engineering Publications

The unique properties of superelastic shape-memory-alloy (SMA) bars have motivated researchers to investigate their use as reinforcing bars for concrete elements. They were found to decrease seismic residual deformations, while increasing seismic inelastic deformations. This characteristic deformation behaviour requires an assessment of the seismic design parameters of SMA reinforced concrete walls. This paper addresses this requirement by evaluating their ductility and overstrength factors. A total of 972 walls were analyzed under a quasi-static lateral load. Suitable values for the overstrength and ductility factors were estimated for two proposed locations of SMA bars. FEMA P695 was then utilized to evaluate the …

Fragility Functions Of Manufactured Houses Under Earthquake Loads, Shuyah Tani Aurore Ouoba

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Manufactured homes are factory-built homes made of wooden structural members, then transported and installed on a given site. Manufactured housing is used in many countries, such as in Australia, and in New Zealand but remain mostly popular in the United States. In 2020, nearly 22 million people were estimated to live in manufactured homes in the United States, with an increase of more than fifty percent in the shipment over the past seven years. However, performance observations from the last decades have shown the vulnerability of manufactured homes to extreme events, like windstorms and earthquakes. Damage assessments and post-event evaluations …

Analysis Of Laminated Beams: A Bibliometric Review, Arati Waghmare, Sanjay Kulkarni

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

In this paper statistical analysis of literature on “Analysis of Laminated Beams” using Scopus and Web of Science database is done. Reason behind bibliometric study of literature is to understand the extent of research in this particular area. Since Scopus and Web of Science indexing are known as the most reliable sources amongst all the peer reviewed journals, literature from Scopus and Web of Science database only is taken into consideration. Benchmarks used for the analysis are publications in a year, published articles of different authors, citations of authors etc. Considered period is from 2000 to 2020. It is found …

Fiber Optic Sensor Based Corrosion Assessment In Reinforced Concrete Members, Genda Chen

INSPIRE Archived Webinars

In this 50-minute lecture, the fundamental concepts of fiber optic sensors for both distributed and point corrosion measurements are reviewed. For the distributed monitoring of a line bridge component such as steel reinforced girders, Brillouin scattering and fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) can be coupled to measure both temperature and radial strain as an indirect indicator of corrosion process. For the point monitoring of steel structures, long period fiber gratings (LPFG) are specially designed for a direct measurement of mass loss or the loss in cross sectional area of the component. In particular, a Fe-C coated LPFG sensor is introduced for …

Case Studies Of Problematic Expansive Soils: Characterization Challenges, Innovative Stabilization Designs, And Novel Monitoring Methods, Anand J. Puppala

Abbett Distinguished Seminar Series

This presentation describes key research works on expansive soils, the methods employed to characterize them, and fallacies in the current characterization of expansive soils. Novel swell characterization models that account for hydro, chemical, and mechanical behaviors of soils are introduced and used in various case studies to improve expansive soil stabilization practices. An innovative design method for successful stabilization of expansive soil is introduced in one case study which incorporated both basic clay mineralogy and unsaturated soil behaviors, as well as performance-based durability studies. Sulfate soil stabilization works on medium-to-high sulfate soils are presented in another case study. The last …

Engineering Students' Perceptions Of Their Development Of Professional Skills, Caitriona Depaor, Una Beagon, Aimee Byrne, Darren Carthy, Patrick Crean, Louise Lynch, Dervilla Niall

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Simplified Structural Analysis Of Framed Ordinary Non-Tempered Glass Panels During Fire Exposure, Amer Sabsabi, Maged A. Youssef, Salah El-Din F. El-Fitiany, Ajitanshu Vedrtnam

Civil and Environmental Engineering Publications

Ordinary non-tempered glass is one of the most widely used materials in the construction industry. Knowing its fire resistance is essential to ensure the safety of emergency personnel as its failure increases the oxygen supply and causes a rapid spread of the fire (flashover phenomenon). Existing approaches for evaluating the structural fire safety of glass façades require expensive experimental tests and/or extensive knowledge of Finite Element modeling. This paper provides a simplified, rational, and reliable approach to assess the structural capacity of ordinary glass panels during fire exposure. A simplified method is developed to predict the temperature difference between …

Investigating The Relationship Between The Fatigue Cracking Resistance And Thermal Characteristics Of Asphalt Binders Extracted From Field Mixes Containing Recycled Materials, Eslam Deef-Allah, Magdy Abdelrahman

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Asphalt components have a significant contribution to the fatigue cracking resistance of asphalt mixes. Softer asphalt binders, characterized through the Superpave grading system, resist fatigue cracking more than stiffer binders. During the long-term aging, the binders’ components changed from lower- to higher-molecular-weight constituents that increased binders’ stiffnesses. Using recycled materials in the mixes increases the stiffnesses of the binders inside these mixes by altering the binders’ components. The binders were extracted and recovered (E & R) from field mixes containing different percentages of recycled materials [reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) and recycled asphalt shingles] and binders’ performance grades. The fatigue resistance …

Reliability Of Sfrp-Strengthened Rc Bridge Columns Subjected To Blast Loads, Ahmad Alsendi, Christopher D. Eamon

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research Publications

The reliability of reinforced concrete bridge columns strengthened with externally bonded, steel-fiber reinforced polymer fabric subjected to blast loads was investigated. Columns were modeled with a nonlinear finite element approach that considers material damage, fracture, and separation. Different concrete strengths, longitudinal reinforcement ratios, and gravity and blast load levels were considered, while uncertainties in material strength and stiffness parameters, as well as load characteristics, were incorporated in the probabilistic analysis. It was found that the use of SFRP can allow significant increases in blast load while maintaining the same level of column reliability.

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.

Semi-Annual Progress Report #8, Missouri University Of Science And Technology. Inspire - University Transportation Center

Semi-Annual Progress Reports

No abstract provided.