Transportation Engineering Commons^™

Optimization Of The Self-Healing Efficiency Of Bacterial Concrete Using Impregnation Of Three Different Precursors Into Lightweight Aggregate, Omar Omar

LSU Master's Theses

Concrete is the most broadly used construction material; thus, developing sustainable concrete is essential to decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from concrete production. Implementation of self-healing concrete technologies is a promising approach to enhance the durability and sustainability of the transportation infrastructure. Among these technologies, bacterial concrete has the potential to seal microcracks through microbial induced calcite precipitation (MICP). Bacterial protection is essential to ensure the viability of this technology due to concrete’s harsh environment. Additionally, the success of this technology depends on the presence of an adequate mineral precursor compound and nutrient for the bacteria. As such, the main …

The Effects Of Inaccurate And Missing Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Inventory Data On Crash And Severity Model Estimation And Prediction, Muhammad Umer Farooq

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

Highway-Rail Grade Crossings (HRGCs) present a significant safety risk to motorists, pedestrians, and train passengers as they are intersections where roads and railways intersect. Every year, HRGCs in the US experience a high number of crashes leading to injuries and fatalities. Estimations of crash and severity models for HRGCs provide insights into safety and mitigation of the risk posed by such incidents. The accuracy of these models plays a vital role in predicting future crashes at these crossings, enabling necessary safety measures to be taken proactively.

In the United States, most of these models rely on the Federal Railroad Administration's …

Safety And Operational Assessment Of Rural Free Right-Turn Ramp Intersections, Jonathon Camenzind

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

Free right-turn (FRT) ramps are alternative right-turn lane designs for intersecting highways. As of 2023, 79 FRT ramps exist at 68 rural highway intersections in Nebraska. FRT ramps may be located on three-legged or four-legged intersections and may be on the minor, the major, or both minor and major approaches of the same intersection.

This research compared the 68 rural FRT intersections to 24 similar non-FRT rural intersections to identify differences in crash frequency and crash rate and tested for statistical significance using a two-sample t-test. Crash data were obtained for the ten- year period of 2010-2019, with a focus …

Feasibility Study: Application Of Steel Sheet-Piles For The Abutment Of Water-Crossing Bridges In Nebraska, Seunghee Kim, Jongwan Eun, Chung R. Song, Chungwook Sim, Hung Phi Van, Basil Abualshar, Ramin Ziaei Tabari

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The overall goal of this study is to investigate the anticipated performance of steel sheet-pile bridge abutments to encourage its wider application to not only new construction but also repair and replacement of existing water-crossing bridges in Nebraska. For this purpose, this study first reviewed several bridge cases with axially loaded sheet pile abutments, as well as previous in-depth studies related to the bearing capacity of sheet piles. Then, this study conducted the large-scale direct shear tests to better understand the interaction between sheet pile and soil. As a result, about four-fifths of the internal friction angle of fill sand …

Development And Evaluation Of Machine Learning Models For Fugitive Methane Detection And Intensity Prediction, Jacquan Pollard

All Theses

The environmental impacts of global warming driven by fugitive methane (CH4) emissions have catalyzed significant research initiatives in developing novel technologies that enable proactive and rapid detection of CH4 emissions. This study evaluated the performance of data-driven machine learning (ML) models using support vector machines (SVM) to detect the presence of trace CH4 emissions and the corresponding intensity amongst various meteorological conditions. The author used simulation data comprising various meteorological parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, water vapor, pressure, precipitation rate, and a parameter possessing trace concentrations of CH4 emissions. The novelty of the SVM models developed in …

Fiscal Year 2021 Fhwa-536 Report For The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Doug Kreis, Candice Wallace, Bryan Gibson, Sarah Mccormack

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of Bridge Pier Response To Fire, Vehicle Impact, And Air Blast, Chen Fang, Qusai Alomari, Daniel G. Linzell

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

Highway bridges exposed to intentional or unintentional fire followed by combined vehicle impact and air blast are at risk of significant damage and, possibly, collapse. Limited studies examining the complex effects of these extreme demands on bridge support elements and parametrizing their response and damage are found in the open literature. Research that is presented is part of an ongoing numerical investigation examining round, multi-column, reinforced concrete (RC), bridge pier behavior subject to multi-hazard scenarios involving fire, vehicle impact, and air blast. Detailed nonlinear finite element analysis models of single columns and multi-column piers supported by a pile foundation system …

Experimental Investigation Of The Self-Healing Potential Of Bacteria For Sustainable Concrete Structures, Pitiporn Asvapathanagul, Simone Galano, Andrea Calabrese, Mehran Rahmani, Maggie Ly, Daniela Flores, Michael Hernandez, Nicholas Banuelos

Mineta Transportation Institute

Although concrete is the most widely used building material in the world, its limited tensile strength makes cracking a common phenomenon in concrete elements. This study investigates the potential of autonomous self-healing as an eco-friendly and lowcost method to increase the durability of concrete. The crack-healing potential of different types of high-alkaline-tolerant bacteria or calcite-precipitation microorganisms is investigated. High-alkaline-tolerant bacteria and calcite-precipitation microorganisms were used to retrofit lab-fractured concrete samples. The samples healed with each of these bacteria groups were cast and tested under compressive load up to failure to measure the compressive strength of the concrete samples. The outcomes …

Preconstruction Support Cost Hours Estimating On Caltrans Pavement Rehabilitation Projects, Nigel Blampied, Tariq Shehab, Elhami Nasr, Laxmi Sindhu Samudrala

Mineta Transportation Institute

Because the construction phase accounts for the majority of project costs for pavement rehabilitation projects, most research on infrastructure project cost estimating focuses on that phase, rather than on the preconstruction phases. Nevertheless, costs incurred prior to construction, referred to in this report as "preconstruction costs" are significant and worthy of consideration (See Section 2.1 of the report for a more detailed and precise definition of preconstruction). In the 20202021 fiscal year, for instance, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) spent more than $169 million on preconstruction work for pavement rehabilitation projects. This report presents the results of a study …

Historic Downtown Streetscape Plan Price City, Utah, Patricia Beckert

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The idea of a small-town Main Street has profound meaning within the American culture that has prevailed for the past two centuries. Historically, Main Street serves as the beating heart of a community, a place where economic, social, cultural, and civic activities are centered (Francaviglia, 1996; Main Street America, n.d.). Since the beginning of the 19th century, many factors have led to the decline of Main Streets, and despite a variety of efforts from different stakeholders, that decline has only intensified in recent decades (Isenberg, 2008; Orvell, 2014 Howard, 2015). In 1980, after a three-year project conducted by the National …

Smart Transportation In Small- And Medium-Sized Cities In Central California, Hongwei Dong

Mineta Transportation Institute

The research on smart transportation in the United States has centered on large metropolitan areas. The adoption of smart transportation technologies in small-and medium-sized cities outside of large metropolitan areas is less studied and understood. This study examined the adoption of smart transportation technologies in small-and medium-sized cities in Central California. The analysis was based on the online survey responses from 29 transportation officials and professionals who worked for 18 municipal government departments and six metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) in Central California as well as in depth semi-structured interviews with seven of them. The study showed that smart transportation in …

Electric Vehicle Routing Problem – Models And Algorithms, Hesamoddin Tahami

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The transportation sector is a major greenhouse gas emitter that is heavily regulated to reduce its dependence on oil. These regulations along with the growing customer awareness of global warming have led to the investigation of new transportation problems that consider using eco-friendly vehicle fleets. Promising alternatives to traditional fleets include alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) and electric vehicles (EVs). These twenty-first-century vehicles offer an appealing advantage of consistently reducing their environmental impact, but due to the current technology, they exhibit bothersome limitations. The short driving range along with limited charging infrastructure may consequently cause issues related to range anxiety, i.e., …

Quantum Artificial Intelligence Supported Autonomous Truck Platooning, Pronab Kumar Biswas

All Theses

Truck platooning can potentially increase the operational efficiency of freight movement on U.S. corridors, improving commercial productivity and economic vibrancy. Predicting each leader vehicle trajectory in the autonomous truck platoon using Artificial Intelligence (AI) can enhance platoon efficiency and safety. Reliance on classical AI may not be efficient for this purpose as it will increase the computational burden for each truck in the platoon. However, Quantum Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used in this scenario to enhance learning efficiency, learning capacity, and run-time improvements. This study developed and evaluated a Long Short-Term Memory Networks (LSTM) model and a hybrid quantum-classical …

Impacts Of Diagonal Crosswalk Misuse, Elizabeth Francis

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

A diagonal crosswalk paired with an all-red phase traffic signal is an effective approach to manage intersections with high pedestrian volume. This allows pedestrians to cross both north-south and east-west bound roads at the same time. However, ineffective diagonal crosswalk marking, and lack of signs reduces the use of diagonal crosswalks which in turn results in jaywalking, often in unsafe capacities. The objective of this study is to determine the impacts of pedestrian-caused delay and safety impacts due to the misuse of a diagonal crosswalk. To better understand the impacts, a camera-based data collection was conducted during a four-hour period …

Piezoresistivity Of Electrically Conductive Asphalt Concrete, Mateo Schmit Mendoza

Theses and Dissertations

Electrically conductive asphalt concrete is considered as a multifunctional construction material due to its structural and non-structural functions. This study aims to investigate piezoresistivity of conductive asphalt concrete. Piezoresistivity is an electrical property of some materials which electrical resistivity changes with induced strain and subsequently, it has the potential for self-sensing smart technology. Graphite Powder F-516 with various contents was added into the asphalt mixtures to impart the electrical conductivity. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was selected to measure the electrical properties of the specimens in dry and wet conditions, and low and high temperatures. The impedance measurement shows that the …

Studying Pedestrian’S Unmarked Midblock Crossing Behavior On A Multilane Road When Interacting With Autonomous Vehicles Using Virtual Reality, Fengjiao Zou

All Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the challenge of pedestrian interaction with autonomous vehicles (AVs) at unmarked midblock locations where the right-of-way is unspecified. A virtual reality (VR) simulation was developed to replicate an urban unmarked midblock environment where pedestrians cross a four-lane arterial roadway and interact with AVs. One research goal is to investigate the impact of roadway centerline features (undivided, two-way left-turn lane, and median) and AV operational schemes portrayed through on-vehicle signals (no signal, yellow negotiating indication, and yellow/blue negotiating/no-yield indications) on pedestrian crossing behavior. Results demonstrate that both roadway centerline design features and AV operations and signaling show …

Investigating The Severity And Rate Of Occurrence Of Motorcycle Crashes Across Different Land Uses In Georgia, Robert Edwards

Symposium of Student Scholars

In 2020, motorcycle crashes reached their highest number of fatalities nationally since 1975, when 5,579 motorcyclists were killed. Georgia, in recent years, has seen an increase in the number of fatal multi-vehicle crashes involving motorcycles. This would be indicative of the general trend and nothing more if the number of motorcycle crashes reported outside of urban populations did not increase—despite lockdown measures—by 1.7% in 2020. In this investigation, employing a thorough examination of the Georgia Department of Transportation’s Crash Data (GDOT) compiled from the last ten years and the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) compiled from the last five years, …

Behavior Analysis Of Cement Concrete With Combination Of Waste Rubber And Glass, Abdulaziz Alebra

Symposium of Student Scholars

Glass and Rubber waste materials are valuable materials to use rather than throw which we have more than enough to use and recycle. Recycled glass and rubber materials can reduce and help major climate issues in our times based on the statistics reducing glass can bring down air pollution by 20% and also reduce water pollution by 50% as well as can reduce the use of landfill space. A laboratory study will be launched, and tests will be conducted following the ASTM standards, ASTM C143 for a concrete slump, and ASTM C31 for making and curing concrete specimens. Samples of …

The Effect Of Airflow Guiding Components On Effective Ventilation Rates In Single-Sided Ventilation Applications, Nima Najafi Ziarani, Malcolm Cook, Paul D. O’Sullivan

Publications

Wind-driven single-sided ventilation (SSV) is present in many existing buildings across Europe, and with new near-zero energy building (NZEB) regulations for the refurbishment of the existing building stock, its attractiveness as a noninvasive, low-energy solution is set to continue. As a strategy, however, in addition to its air change rate capacity, the distribution of fresh air is an important evaluation criterion for its performance. Airflow guiding components located in the external opening that enhance the effectiveness of the wind-driven flow in ventilating the occupied zone could improve the quality of indoor environments. To our knowledge, the literature is sparse on …

Evaluation Of The Effect Of Mls Density Level Data On Dem, Essam Ghanem, Mostafa Rabah, Fekry Ashraf

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Mobile laser scanning (MLS) systems are quickly establishing themselves as the primary source of high-quality digital elevation models (DEM). Data density is the key element that determine the quality of DEMs. Moreover, point density acts a vital role in MLS operation planning and MLS project's cost. This study's goal was to evaluate the impact of point density from MLS on creating DEMs and the accuracy of computed volume in different interpolation methods. The finding demonstrated that the DEM's quality and the volume are more impacted by density level and interpolation method. Interpolation methods are affected by point density. There is …

Feasibility Study For A Continuous Mansfield Hollow State Park Multi-Use Path, Owen P. Spangler

Honors Scholar Theses

This report aims to design a pedestrian river crossing that connects the north and south ends of Mansfield Hollow State Park, utilizing both a new paved pathway and bridge construction. This report first uses GIS data to complete a feasibility study on pathway routing and cost. A preliminary route was selected based on grading and cost analysis. The requirements for constructing a multi-use pathway in the State of Connecticut were then explored, attempting to find a best-fit pathway alignment to accomplish that goal. Through a lengthy literature review, it was found that the pathway design would have to deviate from …

Improving Intersection Safety With Geographically-Targeted Crash Prediction Models In Utah, Atul Subedi

Student Research Symposium

This project aims to improve intersection safety in Utah by developing geographically-targeted crash prediction models. The lack of research investigating active mode crashes at signalized intersections in different geographical regions calls for this study. The objective of this research is to understand the factors associated with the frequency of active mode crashes at signalized intersections. Exposure variables such as AADT, pedestrian and bicycle volumes, and intersection-level variables such as crossing distance, speed limit, and presence of street lights were analyzed using a negative binomial regression model.

Examining The Impact Of Different Street Lighting Schemes On Traffic Safety And Drivers’ Behaviors At Unsignalized Intersections, Hisham Mohamed Abdu Kunnah

LSU Master's Theses

Lack of visibility is one of the main challenges that significantly impact drivers’ ability to safely perform driving tasks at night especially at unsignalized intersections. Several prior studies indicated that lighting enhances nighttime traffic safety. Nevertheless, lighting is not mandatory at unsignalized intersections in many states including Louisiana. This study aimed to investigate if lack of lighting is a contributing factor that affects traffic safety at unsignalized intersections in Louisiana. In addition, this study strived to identify current lighting policies adopted by other states, examine if there are any low-cost countermeasures implemented by other states to improve nighttime visibility, and …

A Comprehensive Study On Non-Proprietary Ultra-High-Performance Concrete Containing Supplementary Cementitious Materials, Seyedsaleh Mousavinezhad, Gregory J. Gonzales, William K. Toledo, Judith M. Garcia, Craig M. Newston, Srinivas Allena

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) is a novel cement-based material with exceptional mechanical and durability properties. Silica fume, the primary supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in UHPC, is expensive in North America, so it is often substituted with inexpensive class F fly ash. However, future availability of fly ash is uncertain as the energy industry moves toward renewable energy, which creates an urgent need to find cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternatives to fly ash. This study investigated replacing cement, fly ash, and silica fume in UHPC mixtures with ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS), metakaolin, and a natural pozzolan (pumicite). To identify acceptable …

Paved With Good Intentions? A Geopolitical Analysis Of The Belt And Road Initiative In Central And Eastern Europe, Vincent Zhang

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The objective of this analysis is to reveal the geopolitical and geoeconomic significance of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to the region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Launched in 2013 as a proposal for increased economic interconnectivity between China and Kazakhstan, the BRI has since grown to encompass hundreds of countries across Asia, Africa, and Europe. The region of CEE is of note as it is coterminous with important regional groupings like the 14 + 1 Cooperative Framework between China & CEE and a point of overlapping interests from actors like the European Union (EU), North Atlantic Treaty …

Incorporating Variability In Kytc Planning And Project Development, Reginald Souleyrette, Teng Wang, Riana Tanzen, Arnold Stromberg

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Transportation planning and design decisions are typically made using point estimates of traffic and safety measures. This report addresses the uncertainty of data used to make these decisions. It focuses on two data elements — project safety ratings and volume estimates from traffic counts. For safety ratings, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Strategic Highway Investment Formula for Tomorrow (SHIFT) crash history score is used as a case study. Confidence intervals are developed for the Cabinet’s new safety metric, which incorporates estimates of future crashes by severity as well as excess expected crashes above safety goals. For traffic counts, the report develops …

Incorporating Crash Severity And Continuous Improvement Of Shift, Reginald Souleyrette, Riana Tanzen, Teng Wang

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The Strategic Highway Investment Formula for Tomorrow (SHIFT) is the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's data-informed approach for comparing capital improvement projects and prioritizing limited transportation funds. SHIFT 2022 incorporates advancements in methods and flexibility. This project revises the SHIFT crash data safety metric. The crash data safety metric from the previous version of SHIFT was excess expected crashes (EECs). It is computed using the total number of crashes of all severities. Locations with a higher proportion of severe (fatal and injury) crashes received the same weight as locations with an equal number of property damage only crashes. This project redefines the …

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

Mineta Transportation Institute

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 …

Modeling And Evaluating Alternatives To Enhance Access To An Airport And Meet Future Expansion Needs, Srinivas S. Pulugurtha, Abimbola Ogungbire, Chirag Akbari

Mineta Transportation Institute

The continued growth of air travel calls for the incessant construction effort at many airports and their surroundings. Thus, there is a need to determine how airports can better manage existing infrastructure to accommodate this growth. This study, therefore, focuses on (1) investigating how changes in transportation infrastructure have affected travel time reliability (TTR) of the surrounding road network within the airport vicinity over time, and, (2) exploring selected unconventional intersection designs and proposing new inbound/outbound access routes from the nearby major roads to the airport. The efficiency of road networks that surrounds large airports is discussed using Charlotte Douglas …

Utilizing The System Engineering Trade Study Analysis Method To Analyze Patient Aeromedical Evacuation, Sara Shaghaghi, Jeremy M. Slagley, Michael E. Miller, Gaiven Varshney

Faculty Publications

The US Air Force has gone through many aeromedical patient isolation transport system designs. The first designs were developed in response to the Ebola outbreak in 2014 and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. The trade study analysis part of the system engineering design method was used to analyze the historic and current aeromedical patient contamination control transport systems. A trade study is a process that evaluates alternatives based upon various “-ilities”, such as reconfigurability, flexibility, durability, cost, and more, and performs a systematic analysis to aid designers in producing a ‘good’ design alternative given the large set of possible solutions. …