Structural Engineering Commons^™

Using Weigh-In-Motion Data To Determine Aggressiveness Of Traffic For Bridge Loading, Eugene J. Obrien, Bernard Enright

Articles

This paper presents results based on the analysis of an extensive database of weigh-in-motion (WIM) data collected at five European highway sites in recent years. The data are used as the basis for a Monte Carlo simulation of bridge loading by two lane traffic, both bidirectional and same-direction. Long runs of the simulation model are used to calculate characteristic bridge load effects (bending moments and shear forces), and these characteristic values are compared with design values for bridges of different length as specified by the Eurocode for bridge traffic loading. Various indicators are tested as possible bases for a “Bridge …

Reliability-Based Fatigue Assessment Of Mast-Arm Sign Support Structures, Joseph A. Diekfuss

Dissertations (1934 -)

Over the past few decades, there have been issues of poor fatigue performance (the main failure mechanism) of the welded, tube-to-transverse plate connections within sign support structures. Review of the literature has indicated that a considerable amount of research has been devoted to identifying the structural response characteristics of these signs. Others have tried to identify how these connections may be repaired, retrofitted or simply better designed to sustain longer fatigue lives. However, little attention has been given to using a systematic reliability-based approach to assess the risk of fatigue-induced fracture in these structures.

Using a reliability-based approach to solve …

The Effect Of Sensor Mass, Sensor Location, And Delamination Location Of Different Composite Structures Under Dynamic Loading, Albert Darien Liu

Master's Theses

This study investigated the effect of sensor mass, sensor location, and delamination location of different composite structures under dynamic loading. The study pertains to research of the use of accelerometers and dynamic response as a cost-effective and reliable method of structural health monitoring in composite structures. The composite structures in this research included carbon fiber plates, carbon fiber-foam sandwich panels, and carbon-fiber honeycomb sandwich panels. The composite structures were manufactured with the use of a Tetrahedron MTP-8 heat press. All work was conducted in the Cal Poly Aerospace Structures/Composites Laboratory. Initial delaminations were placed at several locations along the specimen, …

Experimental Comparison Study Of The Response Of Polycarbonate And Laminated Glass Blast Resistant Glazing Systems To Blast Loading, Joshua Calnan

Theses and Dissertations--Mining Engineering

This thesis recounts the experimental study of the dynamic response of polycarbonate blast resistant glazing systems to explosive loading through the use of triaxial load cells, pressure sensors, and a laser displacement gauge. This instrumentation captured the response of the glazing systems to blast loading over three phases of testing. The first phase of testing characterizes the load distribution around the perimeter and the second phase examines the repeatability of the results. The final phase of testing pushes the samples to failure. The results are then compared to HazL, a commonly used blast resistant glazing system analysis software tool. The …

Proceedings Of The First International Conference On Smarandache Multispace & Multistructures, Florentin Smarandache, Linfan Mao

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

In recent decades, Smarandache’s notions of multispace and multistructure were widely spread and have shown much importance in sciences around the world. Organizedby Prof.Linfan Mao, a professional conference on multispaces and multistructures, named the First International Conference on Smarandache Multispace and Multistructure was held in Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture of P. R. China on June 28-30, 2013, which was announced by American Mathematical Society in advance.

Development Of The Strategy To Select Optimum Reflective Cracking Mitigation Methods For The Hot-Mix Asphalt Overlays In Florida, Hamid Maherinia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) overlay is a major rehabilitation treatment for the existing deteriorated pavements (both flexible and rigid pavements). Reflective cracking (RC) is the most common distress type appearing in the HMA overlays which structurally and functionally degrades the whole pavement structure, especially under high traffic volume. Although many studies have been conducted to identify the best performing RC mitigation technique, the level of success varies from premature failure to good performance in the field. In Florida, Asphalt Rubber Membrane Interlayers (ARMIs) have been used as a RC mitigation technique but its field performance has not been successful. In …

Analytical And Experimental Study Of Monitoring For Chain-Like Nonlinear Dynamic Systems, Bryan Paul

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Inverse analysis of nonlinear dynamic systems is an important area of research in the eld of structural health monitoring for civil engineering structures. Structural damage usually involves localized nonlinear behaviors of dynamic systems that evolve into different classes of nonlinearity as well as change system parameter values. Numerous parametric modal analysis techniques (e.g., eigensystem realization algorithm and subspace identification method) have been developed for system identification of multi-degree-of-freedom dynamic systems. However, those methods are usually limited to linear systems and known for poor sensitivity to localized damage. On the other hand, non-parametric identification methods (e.g., artificial neural networks) are advantageous …

Anchored Sheet Pile Wall Design In Expansive Soils, Ömer Bilgin, Eman Mansour

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Faculty Publications

Expansive soils cause damage to civil engineering structures in various parts of the world, because they swell when absorb water and shrink when dry out. Due to swelling pressures, retaining walls can be subjected to additional lateral pressures causing increased wall deformations and bending moments. Anchor forces can also increase, if the walls are anchored. When expansive soils are present behind retaining walls, swell pressures should also be considered during design in addition to the traditional lateral earth pressures. This study proposes a method to predict potential swell pressures acting on retaining walls for use in design of these walls. …

The Effects Of Assumption On Subspace Identification Using Simulation And Experiment Data, Yoonhwak Kim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the modern dynamic engineering field, experimental dynamics is an important area of study. This area includes structural dynamics, structural control, and structural health monitoring. In experimental dynamics, methods to obtain measured data have seen a great influx of research efforts to develop an accurate and reliable experimental analysis result. A technical challenge is the procurement of informative data that exhibits the desired system information. In many cases, the number of sensors is limited by cost and difficulty of data archive. Furthermore, some informative data has technical difficulty when measuring input force and, even if obtaining the desired data were …

Multi-Physics Modeling Of Geomechanical Systems With Coupled Hydromechanical Behaviors, Ahmad Mohamed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Geotechnical structures under realistic field conditions are usually influenced with complex interactions of coupled hydromechanical behavior of porous materials. In many geotechnical applications, however, these important coupled interactions are ignored in their constitutive models. Under coupled hydromechanical behavior, stress in porous materials causes volumetric change in strain, which causes fluid diffusion; consequently, pore pressure dissipates through the pores that results in the consolidation of porous material. The objective of this research wasto demonstrate the advantages of using hydromechanical models to estimate deformation and pore water pressure of porous materials by comparing with mechanical-only models. Firstly, extensive literature survey was conducted …

Evaluating The Use Of Recycled Concrete Aggregate In French Drain Applications, Zachary Behring

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) is often used as a replacement of virgin aggregate in road foundations (base course), embankments, hot-mix asphalt, and Portland cement concrete. However, the use of RCA in exfiltration drainage systems, such as French drains, is currently prohibited in many states of the U.S. The French drain system collects water runoff from the road pavement and transfers to slotted pipes underground and then filters through coarse aggregate and geotextile. The primary concerns with using RCA as a drainage media are the fines content and the precipitation of calcium carbonate to cause a reducing in filter fabric permittivity. …

Non-Destructive Evaluation Of Concrete Structures Using High Resolution Digital Image And Infrared Thermography Technology, Azusa Watase

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As existing bridge structures age, they are susceptible to the effects of deterioration, damage and other deleterious processes. These effects hamper the capacity and efficiency of transportation networks and adversely impact local, regional and national economic growth. As a result, bridge authorities and other professionals have become more sensitive to maintenance issues related to this aging infrastructure. While highway bridge condition have been monitored by visual inspection, non-destructive evaluation (NDE) technologies have also been developing and they are expected to be utilized for effective management of highway bridges or other civil infrastructure systems. Efficient use of these technologies saves time …

Wind Loading On Trees Integrated With A Building Envelope, Aly Mousaad Aly, Alberto Zasso, Girma Bitsuamlak, Alberto Nicola Longarini, Arindam Gam Chowdhury

Faculty Publications

With the sustainability movement, vegetated building envelopes are gaining more popularity. This requires special wind effect investigations, both from sustainability and resiliency perspectives. The current paper focuses on wind load estimation on small- and full-scale trees used as part of green roofs and balconies. Small-scale wind load assessment was carried out using wind tunnel testing in a global-effect study to understand the interference effects from surrounding structures. Full-scale trees were investigated at a large open-jet facility in a local-effect study to investigate the wind-tree interaction. The effect of Reynolds number combined with shape change on the overall loads measured at …

Effect Of Support Compliance On The Resonant Behavior Of Microcantilever-Based Sensors In Viscous Fluids, Rabin Maharjan

Dissertations (1934 -)

Resonant microcantilevers are often considered for use in chemical sensing and biosensing applications. However, when excited in the conventional transverse flexural mode, their performance in liquids is severely compromised. Theoretical and experimental studies have shown that the detrimental effects of the liquid may be mitigated by operating the microcantilever in lateral flexure, especially for microbeams having smaller length-to-width (L/b) ratios. However, for these most promising geometries the predictions of existing models tend to diverge from experimental data for resonant frequency (f_res) and quality factor (Q). A likely reason for these discrepancies is support compliance, which has been neglected …

Episodic Adaptations And Trade-Offs: Examples From The Victorian Construction Industry, Manikam Pillay, David Borys

Research outputs 2013

A central facet of resilience engineering involves adaptation which involves making temporal adjustments by responding, monitoring, anticipation and learning from disturbances continuous stressors. This ability to adapt is inherent in the actions which manifest as behaviors in individuals and teams. In the main, the response is generally in response is to regular and irregular threats such that work continues to operate as normal. Invariably, these adaptations also require trade-offs and sacrifices being made at a number of levels. However, there is little published research that seeks to explain how such adaptations actually occur in construction works. It has been suggested …

Effects Of Openings On The Analysis And Design Of Precast Prestressed Hollow Core Slabs, Eoghan Lodge

Theses

Precast prestressed hollow core floors are a widely used structural element which offers increased speed of construction, reduced self-weight and many other advantages. Due to the relatively low span-to-depth ratio and the speed of construction hollow core slabs are utilised in a large number of commercial buildings. In order to carry the services to the upper floors an opening must be made within the prestressed slab. Cutting an opening in a prestressed slab has significant effects on the structural behaviour of the slab and can considerably reduce the ultimate capacity of the slab.

This paper outlines the limited available guidance …

Reinforced Concrete Deterioration Of A 100 Year Old Structure In A Marine Environment, Ross O'Donovan

Theses

The current study investigates the deterioration of a 100 year old bridge located in a harsh marine environment. Constructed in 1908 - 1909 the Mizen Head Footbridge was one of the oldest reinforced concrete bridges in Ireland. The demolition of the bridge in 2009 provided a unique opportunity to examine its service life and to extract samples for analysis and investigation. A review of the construction of the bridge, and its maintenance history are presented, with a view to analysing their influence on the behaviour of the concrete.

Reinforcement corrosion due to chloride attack was identified. A focused study indicates …

Application Of Multi-Hazard Seismic-Blast Detailing For Highway Bridges, Dominique Morton Torres

Dissertations and Theses

The increase of worldwide terrorist attacks on public transportation has heightened our concerns of protecting the nation’s transportation infrastructure. Highway bridges are an attractive target for terrorist attacks due to ease of accessibility and their overall importance to society. The primary objective of this research is to investigate multi-hazard seismic-blast correlations of blast-induced bridge components through numerical simulations of a high-precision finite element model of a typical highway bridge in New York. Seismic-detailing for blast loading on bridges has been investigated to study the correlations between seismic design for blast load effects. High-precision 3D Finite Element models of bridges detailed …

Design, Construction And Load Testing Of The Pat Daly Road Bridge In Washington County, Mo, With Internal Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymers Reinforcement, Zhibin Lin, Mostafa Fakharifar, Chenglin Wu, Genda Chen, Wesley James Bevans, Arun Vijay Kumar Gunasekaran, Sahra Sedigh

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The overarching goal of this project is to deploy and assess an innovative corrosion-free bridge construction technology for long-term performance of new and existing bridges. The research objective of this project is to conduct a comprehensive study (instrumentation, construction, both laboratory and field evaluation) of a rapidly constructed and durable, three-span bridge with cast-in-place cladding steel reinforced concrete substructure and precast concrete decks/girders reinforced with glass fiber reinforced polymers (GFRP). The bridge has one conventional concrete-girder span, one conventional steel-girder span, and one innovative concrete box-girder span. The conventional concrete and steel girders were used to demonstrate the effective use …

Effect Of High-Volume Fly Ash On Shear Strength Of Concrete Beams, Mahdi Arezoumandi, Jeffery Volz, John Myers

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Every year concrete production exceeds 6.5 billion tons worldwide, nearly 1 ton for every man, woman, and child on the planet. In fact, concrete is used 10 times more than any other building material in the world, primarily because of its incredible versatility, availability, and relatively low cost. Unfortunately, the production of Portland cement - the key ingredient in concrete - generates approximately a pound of carbon dioxide for every pound of cement produced. One method of reducing concrete's carbon footprint is to replace a significant amount of the cement with fly ash, a by-product of coal-burning thermal power stations. …

Microsimulation Evaluation Of Eurocode Load Model For American Long-Span Bridges, Bernard Enright, Colm Carey, Colin Caprani

Articles

The ability to accurately predict traffic loading is essential for cost-effective bridge maintenance and repair programs. The traffic load model currently used in the United States for the design of long-span bridges was developed over three decades ago. In the meantime vehicle characteristics and traffic patterns have changed. The Eurocode for traffic loading is more recent, but was calibrated only for bridges up to 200 m long. In this work, Weigh-In-Motion traffic records from 11 different sites across Alabama are used to establish congested traffic loading. Traffic microsimulation is used to generate the congestion, based on the real traffic data. …

Multi Geophysical Parameters For Earthquake Forecasting, Ramesh P. Singh

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

This article focuses on the importance of keeping the public aware of earthquake forecasting. This article also encourages proper seismic codes to design buildings in the seismic-prone regions because such practice can save lives and property associated with an earthquake.

Elastic–Plastic Analysis And Strength Evaluation Of Adhesive Joints In Wind Turbine Blades, Yi Hua, Ananth Ram Mahanth Kasavajhala, Linxia Gu

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

The objective of this paper is to investigate the performance of adhesive joints of carbon/epoxy wind turbine blade subjected to combined bending and tension loadings through finite element method. The influence of adhesive material properties and geometrical details including fillet and imperfections was examined in terms of interlaminar stresses in the adhesive layer. The variation of stress intensity with change in adhesive shear modulus has also been investigated, while contour integral method was used for evaluating the stress intensity factors (SIF) at the imperfection tip. Furthermore, the strength of the joint was assessed through the crack initiation and propagation analysis. …

Aggregate Shape Characterization Using Digital Image Processing, Norbert H. Maerz, David Newton Richardson

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Aggregates must meet certain specifications to be acceptable in asphalt and concrete applications. Among these are specifications that deal with the various aspects of aggregate shape, including flatness and elongation and aggregate angularity. The current practice for ensuring those specifications is the use of manual-mechanical tests. These tests are time consuming, labor intensive and subjective. In addition, tests such as the compacted or uncompacted voids tests (Figure 1), are taken to be a shape (angularity) indicator, even thought the measured quantify is the void ratio. This report describes a prototype of an automated digital video image analysis system that measures …