Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Evaluation Of The Mechanisms And Effectiveness Of Nano-Hydroxides, Wood And Dairy Manure-Derived Biochars To Remove Fluoride And Heavy Metals From Water, Anna Rose Wallace, Wenjie Sun Dr, Chunming Su Dr

Civil and Environmental Engineering Theses and Dissertations

The development of effective treatment processes for the removal contaminants, such as fluoride and heavy metals, from polluted water have been urgently needed due to serious environmental health and safety concerns. In this dissertation, a variety of materials including various (hydro)oxide nanomaterials, biochars and surface modified biochar were studied to evaluate their effectiveness and mechanism on removing fluoride or mixed heavy metals from water.

In the Chapter 2, this study investigated the adsorptive removal of fluoride from water using various (hydro)oxide nanomaterials, focusing on ferrihydrite, hydroxyapatite (HAP) and brucite, which have the potential to be used as sorbents for surface …

Flood Dynamics In The Portland Metropolitan Area, Past, Present, And Future, Lumas Terence Helaire

Dissertations and Theses

The Portland area has an extensive flood history since it was founded in 1845. In the late 19th century, the Portland area was prone to flooding from snowmelt freshets (3-6 months duration) and brief winter rain or rain-on-snow events. Since that time the magnitude of spring freshets has been curtailed by 45% due to climate change, flow diversions, and reservoir management. Along with changes in hydrology, the bathymetry of the Lower Columbia River has been altered by the dredging of the navigation channel, diking, and land reclamation. To understand how these changes in hydrology and bathymetry have affected tidal and …

Utility Of Bench Scale Sand Tank Experiments At Assessing Permeable Reactive Barrier Design, Brandon Meier

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The objective of this work was to evaluate the utility of bench scale sand tank experiments at assessing permeable reactive barrier (PRB) design. Our criteria for meeting this goal was that differences between PRB designs could be identified solely by measuring concentration in outflow from the sand tank models. For our PRB designs (funnel-and-gate, staggered wells, and parallel bars), numerical simulations clearly showed that PRB design had a quantifiable effect on outflow concentration, provided that the solute reacted with the PRB materials. Conversely, use of a conservative (non-reactive) solute did not allow us to discern between PRB design alternatives. Employing …

Contemporary Problems In Aerosol Aggregation And Gelation, Pai Liu

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Aggregation of nanoparticles in aerosols is a fundamental phenomenon with important implications to diverse fields ranging from material synthesis to pollutant control. The past few decades have witnessed extensive research on investigating the structure and growth mechanism of aerosol aggregates with sizes spanning across several orders of magnitude. This dissertation focuses on some contemporary problems that remain unaddressed in this topical area. Aerosol aggregates in sub-micron regimes, which are formed via the irreversible collision and aggregation of solid nanoparticle monomers, are fractal-like in their morphology. A mathematical description of this seemingly random structure dates to the seminal works by Forest …

Application Of Data-Driven And Process-Based Modeling Approaches For Water Quality Simulation In Lakes And Freshwater Reservoirs, Ali Saber Sichani

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Lakes and freshwater reservoirs often serve as the primary drinking and irrigation water sources for surrounding communities. They provide recreational and tourism opportunities, thereby promoting the prosperity of neighboring communities. Reliable estimates of water quality in lakes and reservoirs can improve management practices to protect water resources.

Seasonal water temperature and solar shortwave radiation variations, and their subsequent interactions with water column aquatic life, combined with seasonal variations of mixing intensity throughout the water column, result in variations of water quality constituents with depth during the annual cycle. The complexity of these variations entails the use of advanced water quality …

Carbon Management And Volatile Fatty Acid Production In Primary Clarifiers At A Wastewater Treatment Plant, Brittany Nicole Radke

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

An increasing number of treatment plants are required to remove nutrients from domestic wastewater to lessen the impact of nutrient loading to water bodies. Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal (EBPR) is one of the processes commonly used to remove phosphorus from domestic wastewater. The presence of an adequate quantity of volatile fatty acids (VFA) in the wastewater influent to EBPR is important for process efficiency and stability. The objective of this research was to investigate the production of VFAs through fermentation of sludge in primary clarifiers as it related to improving nutrient removal, primarily targeting phosphorus.

The research tested, in full-scale, …

Numerical And Semi-Analytical Estimation Of Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient For Buildings In An Urban-Like Setting, Anwar Demsis Awol

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Urban building arrangements such as packing density, orientation and size are known to influence the microclimate surrounding each building. Studies on the impact of urban microclimatic changes on convective heat transfer coefficient (CHTC) from a stock of buildings, however, have been rare in surveyed literature. The present study focuses on numerical and analytical investigation of CHTC from building-like models with homogeneous set of equal and unequal planar and frontal densities. Consequently, the study discusses the CHTC response in relation to broader changes in the urban surface form. Part of the process involves the development of a simplified one-dimensional semi-analytical CHTC …

High Strain Dynamic Test On Helical Piles: Analytical And Numerical Investigations, Mohammed Fahad Alwalan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Helical piles are currently considered a preferred foundation option in a wide range of engineering projects to provide high compressive and uplift resistance to static and dynamic loads. In view of the large capacity of large diameter helical piles, there is a need to determine their capacity using accurate and economically feasible testing techniques. The capacity of piles is usually determined by conducting a Static Load Test (SLT). However, the SLT can be costly and time consuming, especially for large capacity piles. The High Strain Dynamic Load Test (HSDT) evaluates the pile capacity using dynamic measurements generated through subjecting the …

Cytotoxicity And Mutagenicity Of Disinfection Byproduct Mixtures Formulated Using Free Chlorine And Monochloramine, Yonas Ghebremedhin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bioassays have been used extensively to assess various toxicity endpoints of drinking water disinfection byproducts (DBPs), but an emphasis on single compounds prevails. In this research, DBP mixtures were assessed using a cytotoxicity test with Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells and an Ames fluctuation test with Salmonella typhimurium TA-98 and TA-100 with and without S9 rat liver homogenate. Seven whole mixture DBP concentrates were formulated using reconstituted natural organic matter (NOM) extracts from the Upper Mississippi River using scaled disinfectant dosing protocols with free chlorine and monochloramine in the presence and absence of added bromide. DBPs were identified by gas …

Incorporating Geophysical Data In Slope Stability Modeling For Two Slopes In Arkansas, Vanessa Lebow

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Slope failures in the United States alone cause millions of dollars in damage to infrastructure, threaten national monuments, create environmental hazards, and take an average of 25-50 lives a year. With the inevitable construction that occurs on slopes, it is imperative that the slopes be properly designed which requires a thorough understanding of slope grade, subsurface soil conditions, soil strength parameters, water table locations, and depth to bedrock across the entire site. The preferred method of data collection would be to use borings and other in-situ methods; however, sometimes due to cost constraints or site accessibility only a very limited …

Surface Modification Of Pvdf Membranes For Treating Produced Waters By Direct Contact Membrane Distillation, Zahra Anari

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Direct contact membrane distillation is a promising unit operation for treating hydraulic fracturing flow back and produced water. However, while a hydrophobic membrane is essential to prevent the passage of water from the feed to the permeate side, fouling by dissolved organic species can compromise membrane performance and result in wetting of the membrane pores. Here four monomers, hydroxyethylmethacrylate, acrylic acid, 1-vinyl-3-allylimidazolium bromide, and 1-vinyl-3-hexylimidazolium bromide have been grafted from the surface of a PVDF membrane. The modified and base membranes were tested in a direct contact membrane distillation system. All membranes were challenged with real produced water. In addition, …

Optimizing Hydrogen Sulfide Removal And Biogas Production Using The Water Wash Method, Brian Leightner

Theses and Dissertations

Biogas forms from decomposing organic material in agricultural digesters, landfills, and wastewater treatment plant digesters. Biogas is mostly composed of methane, and can be used as a carbon-based fuel. Microorganisms that consume organics in these waste streams also produce hydrogen sulfide (H2S) as part of the biogas, in varying trace amounts. H2S is corrosive to engines and pipes for machinery, a human health hazard when inhaled, and an aquatic hazard when dissolved in water. Water washing is an absorption process that dissolves hydrogen sulfide and other water soluble compounds in this process and carries it away from the gas, thereby …

Suitability Assessment For Integrated Urban Development In Makkah City Of Saudi Arabia, Mislat Alotaibi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Makkah – the third most populated city in Saudi Arabia with a population of 1,684,408 according to the 2010 demographic survey conducted by the Saudi General Authority for Statistics – is experiencing urban sprawl, which can be defined as an unplanned urban expansion that might degrade the environment and diminish the aesthetic view. This is a persisting problem in Makkah driven by multitude of processes involving the random expansion in its undeveloped land and the removal of its historic mountains surrounding Al-Masjid Al-Haram (the Holy Mosque) in an attempt to push the city limit of urban capacity within its administrative …

Modeling Response Of Water Quality To Land-Use And Climate Change In Lake Auburn, Me, Nicholas Messina

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lake Auburn, Maine, USA, is a historically unproductive lake that has experienced multiple algal blooms since 2011. The lake is the water supply source for a population of ~60,000. We modeled past temperature, and concentrations of dissolved oxygen (DO) and phosphorus (P) in Lake Auburn by considering the watershed and internal contributions of P as well as atmospheric factors, and predicted the change in lake water quality in response to future climate and land-use changes. A stream hydrology and P-loading model (SimplyP) was used to generate input from two major tributaries into a lake model (MyLake) to simulate physical mixing, …

Comparative Assessment Of Downscaling Methods And Application Towards Analysis Of Climate Change Impact On Urban Regions, Markus Eichenbaum

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Global climate models (GCM) are sophisticated numerical models used to make long term climate projections. However, the resolution of their output is too coarse for climate change related local impact studies on urban regional scales. Downscaling efforts are taken to address this and increase GCM projection resolution. Physical Scaling (SP) downscaling methodology attempts to incorporate the physical basis of dynamical downscaling efforts with the computational efficiency of statistical methods. In this study, North American Regional Reanalysis surface skin temperature and precipitation data for a 1°x1° region centered on Houston, TX are downscaled to a resolution of 500m via SP and …

Effects Of Reservoir Conditions And Trace Co-Contaminant Gases On Geological Carbon Sequestration, Ram Kumar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Geological carbon sequestration in a saline formation is a promising technology for large-scale carbon dioxide (CO2) mitigation. Several factors such as temperature, pressure, salinity, hydraulic conductivity, and mineralogy of a formation affect the CO2 sequestration in saline formations. These factors can vary widely depending upon the type of formation or the degree of heterogeneity within a formation. In addition to these properties of the repositories, the CO2-rich flue gas streams captured from point sources often contains small amounts of impurities such as sulfur oxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), which may have serious implications on the chemistry of the repositories …

Thermo-Oxidative Degradation Of Hdpe Geomembranes: Effect Of Phenolic Antioxidant And Hindered Amine Light Stabilizer Concentrations, Yasin Kocak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

High density polyethylene (HDPE) geomembrane is most common geomembrane which is mainly used for civil engineering applications. However, HDPE geomembrane loses its properties under oxidative degradation progress. This study aims to assess geomembranes which have different percentage of phenolic antioxidant and hindered amine light stabilizer (HALS) with under the six months of the thermal-oxidative degradation. The interactions between phenolic antioxidant, HALS and carbon black can affect the mechanical, physical and chemical properties. To monitor these properties, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Fourier-transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled with Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX), Melt Index tests, …

Investigation Of Subsurface Stratigraphy And Groundwater Dynamics In The Mississippi River Delta, An Li

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Mississippi River Delta (MRD) is socioeconomically important to the state of Louisiana and the United States. Various types of land-water system data have been collected in the MRD. However, very few efforts have been made to utilize these datasets in modeling regional stratigraphy and groundwater dynamics in the MRD, especially for the upper 50 m of the depth. In this interval of depth, the Mississippi River and surrounding interdistributary bays intensively interact with the groundwater system. The lack of knowledge in regional stratigraphy and groundwater dynamics hinder an understanding of how hydrogeological setting affects processes such as surface-groundwater interaction, …

Impact Of Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles On Nutrient And Contaminant Reduction In Wastewater Treatment Wetlands, Madeline Hubbard

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

Metallic nanoparticles are found in a variety of commercial products and industrial processes, and have become more common in the last few decades. As nanoparticles are toxic to biota and have the potential to spread other types of contamination, their increased use has become a concern. Research into the transport of nanoparticles in subsurface and surface waters shows a wide range in mobility, but that they are most likely to collect in systems with low linear velocities and high organic content. As a result, wetlands are the most vulnerable to nanoparticle contamination. Wetlands receiving and treating wastewater effluent have an …

Spatiotemporal Downscaling Rainfall Predictions Of North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program For Entire Virginia, Zhaoyi Cai

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This thesis developed a statistical downscaling approach, which consists of a series of linear regression equations, to spatiotemporally downscale the rainfall predictions from North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP) in accordance with the 15-min observed rainfall data at the rain gauges across the state of Virginia. NARCCAP has generated twelve different region-global climate models (RCM-GCMs) with a temporal resolution of 3 hr and a spatial resolution of 50 km over the entire America. Although it has been downscaled already, such resolutions are still too coarse to represent the rain gauges. This means that the RCM-GCMs’ predictions need to …

Catalytic Transfer Hydrogenation Reactions Of Lipids, Alexander Asiedu

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) of lipids was investigated using 2-propanol as hydrogen donor for producing liquid hydrocarbons, e.g. jet fuels. The main sources of lipids selected in this study were waste cooking oil (WCO) and oil-laden algae-derived biofuel intermediate (BI). Two different catalysts were employed in this study, namely activated carbon and trimetallic-doped zeolite.

The CTH reaction was between WCO and 2-propanol in a continuous flow reactor over a packed-bed activated carbon at near atmospheric pressure. Results revealed a high level of alkenes and aromatics compounds, which are not stable and are not environmentally unfriendly. To reduce these compounds in …

The Effect Of Stiffness Anisotropy Of A Glacial Clay On The Behaviour Of A Shallow Wind Turbine Foundation, Jesús A. González-Hurtado

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Shallow wind turbine foundations are designed based on investigations of the ultimate, serviceability and fatigue limit states. The serviceability limit state design approaches in particular are based on simple isotropic elastic half-space analyses that ignore coupling between loading directions, and soil non-linearity and elastic anisotropy. Many of the wind farms in Ontario are constructed around the Great Lakes basin and a number of these areas are characterized as stiff clayey glacial tills. It is recognized that many of these glacial materials exhibit some degree of strength, stiffness and fabric anisotropy. This research aimed to characterize the anisotropic geotechnical properties of …

The Water/Energy Nexus: Climate, Consumption And Ecosystem Services, Hildegaard D. Link

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Water and energy are drivers of living systems. This work provides an assessment of the Water Energy Nexus in the United States, comparing the well-watered north-east and the arid west. Electric grid systems are most stressed on hot summer afternoons. Grid stress can lead to cascading failures of electricity, water and wastewater treatment systems. (Zimmerman, 2017) Water for power generation and/or water supply depend on ecosystem services. The ecosystem services and resource trade-offs embedded in provision of a watt of power and an ounce of potable water, however, have yet to be comprehensively enumerated nor have the cost relationships been …

Effects Of Electro-Osmotic Consolidation Of Clays And Its Improvement Using Ion Exchange Membranes, Lucas Martin

Dissertations

Electro-osmosis is an established method of expediting consolidation of soft, saturated clayey soils compared to commonly used methods, such as preloading with wick drains. In electro-osmotic consolidation a direct current (DC) is applied via inserted electrodes. This causes hydrated ions in the interstitial fluid to migrate to oppositely charged electrodes. Because the clay particles have a negative surface charge, the majority of ions in the interstitial fluid are positively charged. Therefore, the net flow will be towards the negatively charged electrode (cathode), where the water can be removed and thus consolidation is achieved. Certain problems, such as pH changes in …

Organic/Inorganic Interfacial Interactions Affecting Metal Reactivity: Water Treatment And Sensor Applications, Mohamed Nabil Shaikh

Civil Engineering ETDs

The aim of this dissertation was to investigate the interactions occurring at the organic – inorganic interface between solid media and aqueous contaminants for water treatment and sensor applications. The gaps in current literature on these interfacial organic-inorganic interactions must be bridged in order to develop advanced water treatment and monitoring technologies for improving water quality and thus, restore and protect the contaminated water resources. As a part of this dissertation, manganese oxides-based composites and electrospun polymer mats were developed and investigated for gaining mechanistic insights of organic (bisphenol A and acetaminophen) and inorganic (uranium) contaminants removal, respectively. These reactions …

Visualizing The Fate And Distribution Of Pahs In Spartina And Avicennia Tissues From Barataria Basin, La, Kristina Jeannette Sebastian

LSU Master's Theses

During crude oil spill events, vegetation in marsh environments sequester polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from the crude oil by partitioning from the air phase through the waxy cuticle on the leaf surface. Recent studies from Macondo oil-impacted marshes have demonstrated that cycling of low molecular weight petrogenic PAHs occurs through the cuticle and other leaf tissue. At present, our understanding of how PAHs travel through the cuticle is coarse and limited by grab samples across the entire leaf, which preventing a full understanding the dynamics of PAH cycling in this environment. Multiphoton (MP) confocal microscopy visualizes the distribution of PAHs …

Water Quality Analysis Of Ecoroof Runoff In Portland, Pranoti P. Deshmukh

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

Portland, Oregon is internationally recognized for its implementation of sustainable stormwater management technologies. Ecoroof is one of the sustainable solutions to reduce stormwater runoff which also provides multiple environmental benefits. However, very little is known about the impact of ecoroofs on water quality of roof runoff. Stormwater runoff carries a significant amount of pollutants, which, if it directly enters a stream or river, degrades water quality and severely harms aquatic life.

This study evaluates the trends in the long-term water quality data from ecoroofs and conventional roofs in the Portland area. Mann Kendall trend test was used to detect the …

General Nonlinear-Material Elasticity In Classical One-Dimensional Solid Mechanics, Ronald Joseph Giardina Jr

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

We will create a class of generalized ellipses and explore their ability to define a distance on a space and generate continuous, periodic functions. Connections between these continuous, periodic functions and the generalizations of trigonometric functions known in the literature shall be established along with connections between these generalized ellipses and some spectrahedral projections onto the plane, more specifically the well-known multifocal ellipses. The superellipse, or Lam\'{e} curve, will be a special case of the generalized ellipse. Applications of these generalized ellipses shall be explored with regards to some one-dimensional systems of classical mechanics. We will adopt the Ramberg-Osgood relation …

Development Of A Multimode Instrument For Remote Measurements Of Unsaturated Soil Properties, Sean Elliott Salazar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The hydromechanical behavior of soil is governed by parameters that include the moisture content, soil matric potential, texture, and the mineralogical composition of the soil. Remote characterization of these and other key properties of the soil offers advantages over conventional in situ or laboratory-based measurements: information may be acquired rapidly over large, or inaccessible areas; samples do not need to be collected; and the measurements are non-destructive. A field-deployable, ground-based remote sensor, designated the Soil Observation Laser Absorption Spectrometer (SOLAS), was developed to infer parameters of bare soils and other natural surfaces over intermediate (100 m) and long (1,000 m) …

Northeastern Species In Hybrid Cross Laminated Timber, Hamid Kaboli

Doctoral Dissertations

Known in the building industry throughout the world, Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) is a massive timber building material with outstanding structural, fire, and seismic properties. CLT is a cost-competitive, sustainable construction material is a good candidate as a substitute material for concrete, masonry, and steel, in mid-rise and high-rise buildings. CLT is perpendicular layers of dimensional lumbers usually laminated together and forming a massive structural panel. This dissertation explores the viability of utilizing Massachusetts grown Eastern Hemlock and Eastern White Pine in CLT panels as pure or in conjunction with other high-value wood products. 59% of Massachusetts’ lands are covered …