Transportation Engineering Commons^™

A Case Study Of Protecting Bridges Against Overheight Vehicles, Aly Mousaad Aly, Marc Hoffmann

Faculty Publications

Most transportation departments have recognized and developed procedures to address the ever-increasing weights of trucks traveling on bridges in service today. Transportation agencies also recognize the issues with overheight vehicles’ collisions with bridges, but few stakeholders have definitive countermeasures. Bridges are becoming more vulnerable to collisions from overheight vehicles. The exact response under lateral impact force is difficult to predict. In this paper, nonlinear impact analysis shows that the degree of deformation recorded through the modeling of the unprotected vehicle-girder model provides realistic results compared to the observation from the US-61 bridge overheight vehicle impact. The predicted displacements are 0.229 …

Resilient Modulus Of Siliciclastic Unbound Granular Materials Under Repeated Wheel Loading, Siya Rimoyi

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

The Resilient Modulus (Mr) is a fundamental material property input in modern Mechanistic-Empirical (M-E) pavements structural design. Empirical pavement design methods have been in use over a long period during which large databases of four- days-soaked California Bearing Ratio (CBR) values at or near the Maximum Dry Density have been generated in the strength assessments for Unbound Granular Materials (UGMs). In the adoption of the M-E design approach researchers have so far attempted with various degrees of success to develop models to derive resilient modulus from the conventional CBR-based databases. This study provides an extensive laboratory experimental study to investigate …

North 14th Street Corridor Improvements Project, Ashley Nguyen, Samantha Corey, Maricela Paramo Reyes, Pooja Rajeev

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The following project report was a study of the North 14^th Street corridor ranging from Adams Street to Virginia Street conducted by University of Nebraska-Lincoln students for a senior design capstone project. Main focuses of the project were the intersection of Adams and 14^th Street and the 14^th Street bridges over Cornhusker Highway and Oak Creek. Study of this area included work in transportation, traffic, structural, geotechnical, water resources, and environmental engineering. However, this report done by students should not take the place of work done by licensed professional engineers.

This project was done in collaboration with …

Comparative Analysis Of Bridge Abutment Types, David Fell

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project was developed to serve as a brief overview of design practices and considerations in the selection of highway bridge abutment types. This involved a review of literature in the form of reviewing national design guides and department of transportation (DOT) requirements from both US DOTs and international DOTs. The abutment types covered in this research included conventional reinforced concrete abutments with bearings, integral abutments, and semi-integral abutments. This research focused solely on highway bridge abutments, particularly on Ohio Department of Transportation design requirements due to their extensive use of semi-integral abutments. Superstructure elements and geometric requirements are primary …

Sustainability And Environmentally Friendly Methods To Travel Over Waterways, Kendall Kubus

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Throughout daily traveling, the main structures used are bridges and tunnels. Bridges are used as overpasses over valleys, canyons, and areas that require a large amount of dirt fill to bring the roadway up to the proper grade. Tunnels are underpasses through mountains, under city limits and waterways. The benefits of building a bridge structure is little preparation goes into earth-work and the transportation of aggregate materials. There is some time spent testing surrounding soil to determine the process that will need to occur for foundation preparations in bridge columns. Options for foundation include different types of drilled shafts, caissons, …

Truss Bridge Damage Localization And Severity Estimation Using Influence Lines, Hamoud Alshallaqi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Theses and Dissertations

The safety of bridges is one of the primary concerns of researchers, engineers, and bridge owners and managers, especially when bridges are approaching the end of their intended service lives. The estimation of bridge condition and remaining service life is critical to prioritize the allocation of available funding for repairs and rehabilitation. Various methods, including both dynamic and static approaches, have been developed to detect and localize bridge damage and estimate its severity. This research presents a methodology for detecting a single damaged member in a truss bridge and estimating the severity of the damage using static vertical deflection influence …

Improve The Prediction Of Camber, Deflection, And Prestress Losses In Precast, Prestressed Concrete Bridge Girders, Ahmed Ali Hussein Al Mohammedi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many precast, prestressed concrete girders have camber less or higher than the design values. This discrepancy between the design and the actual camber creates construction problems when installing the cast-in-place concrete deck. The objective of this research was to improve the accuracy of estimating long-term camber, deflection, and prestress losses of precast, prestressed concrete girders.

The experimental program consisted of measuring concrete properties and performing field measurements of camber, deflection, and prestress losses for girders in Arkansas. The investigation involved testing nine full-scale girders from two prestressed concrete plants that regularly supply concrete girders to bridge projects in Arkansas. The …

Relating The Dongre Workability Test To Cold In-Place Recycled Asphalt Pavements, Gus Williams

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Dongre Workability Test (DWT) is a test for determining an asphalt pavement’s relative workability from the stress-strain curve of a sample. While the DWT has seen favorable results with warm mix and hot mix asphalt, Casillas and Braham (2020) attempted to apply this test to cold in-place recycled (CIR) asphalt pavements with limited results. This paper looked at the process of reexamining the DWT method to more favorable results with CIR samples. Phase 1 consisted of defining ten possible metrics from the stress-strain curve and applying them to samples with three different curing conditions. From these preliminary results, the …

Connected And Automated Vehicles: Their Implication On Capacity Of A Basic Freeway Section And Impacts On Walkway Safety, Sia Macmillan Lyimo

Dissertations

Autonomous vehicles have recently gained the attention of researchers due to their expected potential benefits on highway traffic streams, such as improving roadway capacity, among others. It is imperative to investigate how these expected benefits can be leveraged in the transportation sector. Understanding the safety and operational benefits helps the concerned transportation agencies and other key stakeholders to make necessary infrastructural and policy adjustments to accommodate such future traffic operation changes. The main goal of this dissertation is to study the impact of connected and automated vehicles on freeway capacity. The simulated environment was created to emulate autonomous vehicle behaviors, …

Assessment Of Key Imperatives For Enhancing Precast Adoptability In Egypt, Mostafa Sameh

Theses and Dissertations

Precast Concrete’s modular application concept is a major construction method that has been used historically seen in various shapes, forms, and with a wide range of constituents. Examples include Ancient Egypt and China among several impressive structures in old civilizations. The major advantages of precast concrete lie in its adaptability, resilience, and versatility which makes precast concrete one of the most agile building materials. Precast concrete as we know it today has been introduced to our markets over the past several decades. Having similar advantages to that of old precast building methods, the road has been paved for wider use …

Prediction Of Four-Days Soaked California Bearing Ratio (Cbr) Values From Soil Index Properties, Pascal Ambrose, Siya P. Rimoy Dr

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

California Bearing Ratio (CBR) laboratory testing is the conventional method for determining soaked strengths of pavement subgrades. The test requires careful preparation of soil samples followed by four days of water soaking before penetrating the samples using a standard plunger at prescribed rates to set depths. When the number of samples becomes large the determination of soaked CBR values becomes cumbersome as the test is laborious and time consuming. This study aimed at establishing an alternative way of determining soaked CBR by developing a model that would be used for estimating soaked CBR of fine- and coarse- grained soils without …

Data-Driven Methods To Address Truck Parking Shortages For Long-Haul Commercial Truck Drivers, Sharif Mahmud

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Truck parking is a critical concern for both the trucking industry and the truck drivers. Long-haul commercial truck drivers rely on safe and adequate parking to support interstate commerce, which has become a challenge due to parking shortages. The recent electronic logging device (ELD) mandate, forcing a strict compliance to hours of service (HOS) regulations, are leading to higher demand for parking. A number of federal, regional, and local studies reveal that truck activity will increase and truck parking demand will outpace parking supply in the coming years. Such parking shortages likely disrupt freight flows and pose risks to truck …

Mitigating Calcium Oxychloride Damage In Cementitious Paste And Concrete Utilizing Supplementary Cementitious Materials, Casey Jones

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It is understood among engineers in the United States (U.S.) that improvement is needed throughout the transportation infrastructure. In the 2021 Infrastructure Report Card produced by the American Society of Civil Engineers, the roadways of this nation merit a D. This leaves room for improvement in order to provide durable pavements throughout this nation. Areas with significant winter weather may have exacerbated effects in decreased roadway longevity due to freezing/thawing cycles and the use of chemical deicers to mitigate gelid roadway conditions. Much research focuses on surface scaling and reinforcement corrosion using these materials; however, joint deterioration, due to chemical …

Context-Aware Sensing And Fusion For Structural Health Monitoring And Night Time Traffic Surveillance, Xinxiang Zhang

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Rapid developments in computer vision technologies have been transforming many traditional fields in engineering and science in the last few decades, especially in terms of diagnosing problems from visual images. Leveraging computer vision technologies to inspect, monitor, assess infrastructure conditions, and analyze traffic dynamics, has gained significant increase in both effectiveness and efficiency, compared to the cost of traditional instrumentation arrays to monitor, and manually inspect civil infrastructures and traffic conditions. Therefore, to construct the next-generation intelligent civil and transportation infrastructures, this dissertation develops a comprehensive computer-vision based sensing and fusion framework for structural health monitoring and intelligent transportation systems. …

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.

Comparison Of The Resistance Of Belitic Calcium Sulfoaluminate Cement And Portland Cement To Sulfate Attack And Sulfuric Acid, Rilye Dillard

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Microbially induced corrosion (MIC) is a fairly common concrete deterioration mechanism with many negative effects. MIC is a complex chemical and biological process that occurs in sewage systems and is nearly impossible to replicate in a laboratory setting. For this study, sulfate and sulfuric acid attack on concrete were studied to mimic two stages of the MIC process. The ASTM C1012, Standard Test Method for Length Change of Hydraulic-Cement Mortars Exposed to a Sulfate Solution and a modified ASTM C1012 accelerated method were used to compare the sulfate resistance of belitic calcium sulfoaluminate (BCSA) cement, portland cement (PC), and PC-fly …

Development Of An Ultraviolet Absorbance Assay To Estimate Air Entrainer Dosing For Concrete Containing Fly Ash, James Spencer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fly ash is a coal combustion byproduct that can be used as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in concrete, offering benefits such as increased workability, durability, and strength. Fly ash can be used as a partial replacement to cement, reducing concrete productions costs and decreasing disposal in landfills. However, variability of fly ash properties (e.g., carbon content, adsorption site density) confounds estimates of the air entraining admixture (AEA) dose needed to achieve a specified air content in concrete. Air entrainment is needed to improve freeze-thaw resistance and limit concrete cracking. The foam index (FI) test is currently used to estimate …

Improving Logistics Efficiency Through Collaborative Truck Routing, Patrick Dougherty

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The logistics industry is among the world’s largest and most essential. Specifically, trucking is a massive component of the modern logistics system. In 2012, truck transportation carried 68% of all freight tonnage in the U.S. However, trucking currently faces significant problems with efficiency and sustainability. Of all miles driven by trucks yearly in the U.S., 25% are driven with empty loads and 36% are driven with underutilized loads. In addition to this economic inefficiency, the industry faces social and environmental challenges. Driver turnover rates are near 100%, and trucking accounts for a significant level of greenhouse gas emissions. One potential …

Analysis Of Shear-Strength In Weathered Shale Strata Along A Highway Slope Failure Site In Northwest Arkansas, Olivia Overton

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Slope failures cost millions of dollars per year to repair and can be deadly. Accurate modeling of slope conditions, including soil parameters, water table locations, and depth to bedrock, are essential to determining the overall stability of a slope. This project is a continuation of the work completed in 2019 by a former University of Arkansas researcher, Vanessa LeBow. LeBow RocScience used Slide2 modeling software to model two highway embankment slopes in Northwest Arkansas that experienced slope movement to determine whether increased use of geophysical data could increase the accuracy of slope stability models. A parametric study of shear strengths …

Abrasion Resistance Of Ultra-High-Performance Concrete For Railway Sleepers, Ariful Hasnat, Nader Ghafoori

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

This study aimed to determine the abrasion resistance of ultra-high-performance concretes (UHPCs) for railway sleepers. Test samples were made with different cementitious material combinations and varying steel fiber contents and shapes, using conventional fine aggregate. A total of 25 UHPCs and two high-strength concretes (HSCs) were selected to evaluate their depth of wear and bulk properties. The results of the coefficient of variation (CV), relative gain in abrasion, and abrasion index of the studied UHPCs were also obtained and discussed. Furthermore, a comparison was made on the resistance to wear of the selected UHPCs with those of the HSCs typically …

Evaluation Of Permanent Concrete Barriers To Mash 2016, Samuel Elias Hovde

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

The objective of this research project was to develop evaluation criteria for permanent concrete barriers to MASH 2016 TL-3 and TL-4 without crash testing and then to evaluate permanent concrete barrier standards provided by the sponsoring agencies of the Midwest Pooled Fund Program. A literature review was conducted to determine evaluation criteria for stability, shape, strength, and anchorage, and a database of permanent concrete barrier crash tests was compiled. A survey was conducted to collect barrier standards from the members of the Midwest Pooled Fund Program, and barriers were selected and evaluated according to the determined methodology. A total of …

Low-Cost Modal Identification Sensors For Bridge Field Testing, Daniel Linzell, Saaed Eftekhar Azam, Samira Ardani, Ahmed E Rageh

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

This report provides a framework for experimental load rating of bridges via inclusion of low-cost dynamic sensors and dynamic tests. Currently 25% of the bridges in Nebraska are posted for live load. According to the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) in 2012, 93% of all postings in the US were based analytical load ratings, 7% were posted using field evaluation and engineering judgement, and 1% were posted using experimental load rating methods.

Instrumentation costs and traffic interruptions can be problematic when load testing is necessary to accurately assess in-situ bridge live load capacity. Recent advances in (i) sensing technology and (ii) …

Mechanically Spliced Precast Bridge Columns, Ted Sjurseth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mechanical bar splices provide an alternative to the traditional method of lap splicing to achieve reinforcement bar continuity in reinforced concrete. Even though mechanical bar splices can be used as new precast column connections to accelerate the bridge construction (ABC), The use of bar couplers in the plastic hinge region of bridge columns is prohibited by the current US codes since the effects of bar couplers on the seismic behavior of columns is not fully investigated. A bridge column including precast columns with couplers located in a high seismic region must be designed to handle large inelastic lateral deformations. The …

Seismic Performance Of Mechanically Spliced Precast Bridge Columns With New Couplers, Evan Greeneway

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lap splicing is not always the most economical or practical approach to achieve reinforcement bar continuity. Mechanical bar splices, or bar couplers, are one alternative that may be far more practical. Currently, the US codes do not allow for the use of bar couplers in the plastic hinge region for RC members in areas of high seismic activity. There has not been enough research into the couplers behavior when subjected to significant inelastic lateral deformations. The Lohr Structures Laboratory was used to conduct an experimental study on campus of South Dakota State University to evaluate the seismic performance of mechanically …

Workshop Outcomes Report: 1st International Workshop On Seismic Resilience Of Arctic Infrastructure And Social Systems, Majid Ghayoomi, Katharine Duderstadt, Alexander Kholodov, Alexander Shiklomanov, Matthew Turner, Elham Ajorlou

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Laboratory Testing And Mechanistic Analysis Of Treated Subgrade Soils, Hari Kumar Reddy Yarrapureddi

Civil Engineering Theses

Calcium-based stabilizing agents such as cement and lime have been extensively used to improve the engineering properties of base and subgrade layers of pavement systems. Recently, polymers and chemical stabilizers have become popular due to cost efficiency, ease of application, and fast curing times. In this study, California Bearing Ratio (CBR) values of polymer and chemical treated soils were compared with the CBR values of soils treated with conventional stabilizers. Parametric sensitivity analyses was carried out on key parameters including the type of subgrade soil, stabilizing agent, stabilizing agent treatment levels, and moisture conditioning. Additionally, numerical analyses was performed to …

Expanding The Concept Of Comprehensive Area Ratio Parameter To The South-Central States Towards Simplifying The Structural Evaluation Of Flexible Pavements At The Network Level, Nitish R. Bastola

Civil Engineering Theses

The surface deflection bowl data collected through Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) has been widely utilized by various Department of Transportation (DOTs) in the South-Central States and other places. The primary purpose of using deflection-based NDTs in network-level assessment is to identify a weak pavement section that requires further analysis at the project level. The falling weight deflectometer (FWD) test is one of the common NDT based tests utilized by highway agencies in assessing the performance of the flexible pavement. However, a robust method to evaluate pavement sections utilizing FWD data from all the sensors are seldom developed. There is always a …

Bio-Binder—Innovative Asphalt Technology, Amir Tabakovic

Articles

The global road network spans 16.3 million km [1], of which 5 million km is in the EU. These road networks fulfil major economic and social goals by facilitating the movement of goods and people throughout the EU, and are therefore of the utmost importance to the economic and social life of the EU [2]. National governments invest heavily in their road networks, e.g., in 2014, EUR 53.33 billion was invested in the development and maintenance of the EU road network [3]. Each year, the world produces 1.6 trillion tonnes of asphalt [4], of which 218 million tonnes is produced …

Using Bcsa Cement To Repair Waterway Transportation Structures, Anazaria Johanis Ortega Gonzalez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many maritime structures (e.g., locks, dams, ports) in the US are either reaching or are past their design lives, and there are limited funds for the necessary maintenance activities which can lead to repairs that requires closures. These structures are not easy to detour and often require dewatering before repairs can be made, closures can cause delays and business-related losses which can have a large effect on the nation’s economy. Thus, it is advantageous to reduce the repair time for maritime structures. BCSA (belitic calcium sulfoaluminate) cement is a promising material to perform this type of repair due to its …

Exploring The Variability In The Gray Scale Imaging Process Of Asphalt Samples, David Oluwawade Olatunji

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Gray scale image analysis is a powerful tool for testing asphalt concrete materials. From material composition to surface properties, gray scale analysis has shown evidence as a non-invasive way to obtain information from asphalt samples. Casillas et al. used a gray scale analysis to measure the Representative Volume Element of three asphalt sample geometries to understand the minimum size at which an asphalt sample is representative of a larger homogeneous mixture [1]. While the gray scale analysis used in this experiment yielded results, there were unknown factors in the image capturing process. Particularly, not much was known about the effect …