Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Role Of River Bathymetry In Hydraulic Modeling Of River Channels, Sayan Dey

Open Access Theses

Accurate geometric representation of the river channel is required for accurate hydraulic modeling of rivers. These are generally obtained through remote sensing techniques such as Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR). However, these techniques lack the ability to model the submerged channel bed effectively and need to be complemented with surveyed bathymetric data for complete representation of the channel bathymetry, which can be time and cost prohibitive. An alternative to address this issue is to develop conceptual models that can estimate bathymetry.

This study aims to evaluate the potential of a conceptual model, the River Channel Morphology Model (RCMM) which estimates …

Downward Model Development Of The Soil Moisture Accounting Loss Method In Hec-Hms: Revelations Concerning The Soil Profile, Jessica Holberg

Open Access Theses

Despite the fact that the soil profile is known to impact streamflow, most Curve Number (CN)-based models ignore subsurface processes. This study explores the influence of soil storage on peak flows. Two watersheds in flat, humid west-central Indiana were modeled using both the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Curve Number and four versions of the Soil Moisture Accounting (SMA) loss methods in the United States Army Core of Engineers-developed (USACE) Hydrologic Engineering Center Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS). One watershed encompasses the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers' confluence; the other contains an ephemeral stream, Plum Creek. The CN-based model was developed using …

High Voltage Rear Electric Drivetrain Design For A Parallelthrough-The-Road Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle, Adam Garrett Fogarty

Open Access Theses

Purdue University was selected as one of 15 universities to participate in a three year Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC) called EcoCar2: Plugging Into the Future. The vehicle built by the Purdue team was a Parallel-Through-The-Road Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PTTR PHEV). The vehicle utilized a B20 diesel powertrain to power the front wheels, as well as a custom electric drivetrain to power the rear wheels. Using this vehicle during the final year of the competition, the team was successful in placing 4th overall as well as 2nd in the category of Well-To-Wheel (WTW) Greenhouse Gas Emissions. A stock 2013 …

Evaluation Of Collapse Indicators For Seismically Vulnerable Reinforced Concrete Buildings, Nicholas R. Skok

Open Access Theses

Older reinforced concrete buildings can be prone to column shear and compression failures during earthquakes because of inadequate transverse reinforcement. Cities in seismic areas still have large inventories of older and potentially deficient buildings. To analyze every building and estimate its vulnerability in detail is costly. A simple method to rank quickly older buildings according to their seismic vulnerability is needed to help engineers prioritize the use of resources for rehabilitating the most vulnerable buildings.

Four indicators of building damage or collapse were evaluated using numerical analysis and prior data from building surveys: column index (Hassan & Sozen, 1997), R …

A Fesability Analysis Of A Novel Constructed Wetland Design Tool For Arusha, Tanzania, Michael R. Sheehan

Open Access Theses

While water is a resource necessary for all life, in Tanzania alone over 20 million people who live in rural areas have no access to improved water sources. Water stress is a major concern in rural Tanzania, where annual potential evaporation can outpace precipitation by hundreds of mm per year. There is a significant need for improved access to water sources for Tanzanians living in rural regions of Arusha. To improve access to water, both water quantity and quality need to be addressed in a treatment system. Various water collection and treatment systems were compared and contrasted through the lens …

Tracking Dynamic Construction Objects ---A Key Node Modeling Approach Using Color-Depth Cameras, Chenxi Yuan

Open Access Theses

A construction site presents a dynamic scenario. Locations of multiple objects are continuously changing and a lot of objects enter and exit the site in high frequencies. Meanwhile a construction activity consists of a large amount of stochastic operations, many uncertainties occur when making decisions. Believing that detecting, locating and tracking dynamic construction objects in real time improve construction productivity and enhance construction safety, a large number of studies have applied a variety of sensing technologies to construction sites. Hybrid image-point cloud sensing technologies, such as color-depth cameras, have a great potential in achieving real time object recognition and tracking …

Systematic Analysis Of Drainage Events In Free Draining And Managed Subsurface Drainage Systems, Guy Bou Lahdou

Open Access Theses

Understanding the hydrologic controls that regulate outflow from free and managed subsurface drainage systems during drainage events can offer improved insight on the overall functioning and effectiveness of the systems so that they can be better managed or retrofitted to increase their environmental benefits. This study used drainage, precipitation, water table, and soil moisture data from a monitoring site located in east central Indiana to investigate the event hydrology of 22 drainage events in free and managed subsurface drainage systems. Relationships between event drainage volume, drain flow hydrograph metrics, column soil moisture, water table depth, and precipitation characteristics were explored …

Floodplain Mapping Using Soil Survey Geographic (Ssurgo) Database, Nikhil Sangwan

Open Access Theses

Floods are the most damaging of all natural disasters, adversely affecting millions of lives and causing financial losses worth billions of dollars every year across the globe. Flood inundation maps play a key role in assessment and mitigation of the potential flood hazards. However, there are several communities in the United States for which the flood risk maps have not been published yet, as the current flood inundation mapping methods are typically very expensive and time consuming. The objective of this study is to develop and examine an economical alternative approach to floodplain mapping using widely available soil survey data. …

Retrofiting Lid Practices Into Existing Neighborhoods: Is It Worth It?, Timothy Wright

Open Access Theses

Low impact development (LID) practices are gaining popularity as a way to manage stormwater close to the source. This reduces infrastructure requirements and helps to maintain hydrologic processes close to predevelopment conditions. Studies have shown LID practices to be effective in reducing runoff and improving water quality. However, little has been done to aid decision makers in selecting the most effective practices for their needs and budgets.

To this end, the L-THIA LID model has been applied. Using readily available data sources, multiple scenarios can quickly be examined, and then analyzed to determine the cost of implementation and the approximate …

Effect Of Multivalent Ions On The Swelling And Mechanical Behavior Of Superabsorbent Polymers (Saps) For Mitigation Of Mortar Autogenous Shrinkage, Qian Zhu

Open Access Theses

The chemical and physical structure-property relationships of model superabsorbent polymer (SAP) hydrogels were characterized with respect to swelling behavior and mechanical properties in different ionic solutions (Na+ , Ca2+ , and Al3+ ). The model hydrogels were composed of poly(sodium acrylate-acrylamide) (PANa-PAM) copolymer with varying concentrations of PANa (0, 17, 33, 67, and 83 wt.%) and covalent crosslinking densities of 1, 1.5, and 2 wt.%. By synthesizing the hydrogels in-house, systems with independently tunable amounts of covalent crosslinking and anionic functional groups were created, allowing for the relative effects of covalent and ionic crosslinking on the properties of the hydrogels …

Effectiveness Of Air Sealing Measures And Other Energy Retrofit Measures In Lafayette Energy Improvement Program, Jia Ye

Open Access Theses

From September 2011 to March 2013, the City of Lafayette, IN implemented Lafayette Improvement Program. The goal of this project was to "increase energy efficiency of existing homes through retrofitting, thereby lowering the costs of home ownership within the Vinton and Glen Acres Neighborhood Target Area (The City of Lafayette, 2011)." Energy audit companies carried out before blower door test and after blower door test to identify air tightness of subjects. This paper finds out there was an improvement in air tightness in the population of 85 houses and the degree of improvement was between 16.85% and 17.85%.

Change point …

An Evaluation Of Spatial Variability Of Water Stress Index Across The United States: Implications Of Supply And Demand In The East Vs The West, Jennifer Ann Roath

Open Access Theses

In order to support both human and environmental needs, high quality fresh water must be available when and where it is required. As a metric for indicating unsustainable water usage, WSI is only useful when the values reflect accurate interactions between supply and demand; however, the complexity of temporal and spatial variability of available fresh water complicates the analysis of water stress.

The overall goal of this project was to investigate the spatial variability of water stress across the United States and the appropriate spatial scale for management decisions. To accomplish this, a national dataset describing spatial distribution and breakdown …