The safety of coastal infrastructure has been a concern after the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004 and the Great East Japan Tsunami in 2011. The western coast of the United States is also exposed to tsunami hazards due to the Cascadia subduction zone. Therefore, it is critical to design coastal...
Roadway departure crashes accounted for 18,275 fatal crashes in 2017 across the United States (Jones et al. 2017). Rumble strips (RS) provide audible and haptic interior alert when a vehicle is departing the roadway reducing run-off-the road crashes. Although inexpensive to install, and easy to maintain, RS are not installed...
Despite numerous techniques for measuring and estimating water depth, bathymetry in the nearshore zone is notoriously difficult to map. Dangerous sea states, noisy environmental conditions, and expensive survey operations, particularly in remote areas, contribute to the difficulties of obtaining data along the coast. Global datasets, derived mainly from satellite altimetry...
Soil instability from tsunami hazards causes substantial damage to coastal infrastructure (e.g., the damage caused by the 2011 Great East Japan Tsunami, or the Heisei Tsunami). Tsunamis are unpredictable, so it is difficult to obtain field-scale measurements. Simulating tsunamis in a laboratory setting is therefore important to further understanding of...
The modeling and analysis of laboratory-generated nonlinear intermediate- to deep-water wave fields, using existing wavemaker theories and analysis tools, is one of the most challenging tasks in ocean science and engineering. On one hand, harmonics function (sine and cosine) -based wavemaker theories result in an inherent (linear) instability of the...
Student engagement has been the focus of much engineering education research, in large part due to its ties to student learning. Widely considered to be a meta-construct, student engagement is often broken down into behavioral, emotional, and cognitive components. Reasons for ongoing research on student cognitive engagement are twofold: educators...
Situated cognition theory emphasizes the role that social and material contexts have on learning and knowledge application. Several studies of engineering workplace environments have noted differences between the social and material contexts of the workplace and those of undergraduate engineering education. No existing research has studied the social and material...
In 2017, the cost of congestion in the United States was around 305 billion dollars, and city-dwellers, on average, lost 1400 dollars while sitting 42 hours in traffic jams. Aiming for better mobility and more efficient utilization of the transportation network, emerging connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) technologies and their...
Landslides are a natural hazard that have major societal, economic, and
environmental impacts. The understanding of landslides begins with the observation that
they are a spatial problem. Spatial relationships have historically been explored with
maps, and landslides are no different. Such maps range in focus from inventory maps,
which identify...
There are many aging bridges in service in the US and around the world that were not constructed to modern seismic design codes and standards. As a result, they are expected to perform poorly during intense earthquake ground shaking. Older reinforced concrete (RC) bridges, in particular, are often supported on...
With ever-increasing number of vehicles actively using the state and national roadway network, transportation-related fuel consumption and consequent pavement structural damage rises. In this dissertation, the impact of material-induced dissipated energy mechanisms in asphalt and concrete pavements were analyzed using field measurements in California and finite element modeling of pavement...
Numerical results are presented using a higher-order pseudo-spectral method in order to solve the Zakharov-Craig-Sulem formulation of the Euler model. We study the effects of variable bathymetry on weakly-dispersive, weakly-nonlinear, shallow water waves. Improved predictions on wave amplitude and shoaling behavior are developed by analytical means in the context of...
Unmanned aerial systems (UASs), more commonly known as drones, have recently achieved commercial success for many public and private applications. As with all emerging technologies, new safety concerns and conflicts with existing paradigms are likely to arise. Many potential applications of UASs will result in their operation near roadway infrastructure,...
Coastal hazards are the result of numerous physical processes cumulatively causing water levels to flood and erode the land. The waves, storm surges, tides, and run-off contributing to elevated water levels are each the product of chaotic and random weather patterns. These stochastic weather patterns dissipate energy in Earth's climate...
The construction industry is a key contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of many countries around the world and is valued at more than $10 trillion globally. Schedule, cost and quality are the main performance measures of construction projects. The primary goal for project stakeholders in the construction industry...
A challenge for municipal authorities of growing urban areas is to provide larger and faster transportation and utility networks that are safe and resilient to significant disruptions after an earthquake event and other disasters. Urban regions, like the San Francisco Bay or the Los Angeles area, are situated in seismically...
Asphalt concrete fatigue cracking is recognized as a major distress mode in the U.S. The widespread nature of this distress and the data from agency Pavement Management Systems (PMS) suggest that it is an issue with asphalt mixture design and production processes and is not a problem specific to certain...
The concept of construction industrialization, first raised in the 1960s, refers to the transfer of on-site construction work to an off-site factory to improve quality and reduce cost, time, and safety issues. In some countries, industrialization of construction projects is highly recommended and promoted by governments and local construction institutions...
For mid-rise and high rise buildings, slender reinforced concrete (RC) structural walls are commonly used as the main structural elements to resist lateral applied loads in high seismically areas around the globe. These RC structural walls can provide substantial deformation capacity, stiffness, and lateral strength through the contribution of their...
Catastrophic earthquake and tsunami events that resulted in significant loss of life and property over the past two decades have raised the global awareness regarding the need to understand the response of communities and their built environment to multi-hazard extreme events. In recognition to this impending threat to the coastal...
Modern geospatial data are frequently represented in some type of three-dimensional (3D) coordinate system, for example geodetic latitude, longitude, and ellipsoid height (φ, λ, h) derived from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). But for engineering and surveying work, φ, λ, h coordinates are usually converted to a topocentric system consisting...
The constituent materials of concrete often contain chlorides. The presence of chlorides in sufficient amounts can disrupt the passive layer, also known as the passive film, that protects the reinforcing steel in concrete. This disruption can lead to premature corrosion of the reinforcing steel in concrete. To minimize the risk...
The corrosion and passivity of iron (and carbon steel) in media with different alkalinity as well as iron depassivation have been studied extensively using electrochemical methods and nano-scale surface characterization studies. The electrochemical techniques provide valuable information about the average electrochemical behavior of relatively large metal surfaces, typically in centimeter-square...
Coastal communities in the U.S. Pacific Northwest (PNW) are rapidly engaging with the idea that hazards and environmental pressures are changing and may be characteristically different in the near future. This has led to a need for scientific knowledge and tools that can help coastal communities prepare and build resilience...
Bio-cementation is a promising method for the liquefiable mitigation of loose saturated sands. In the improvement process a bacterium that can be found naturally in soil deposits is fed urea. The bacterium consumes and breaks down the urea to form ammonium and carbonate. In the presence of calcium, calcium carbonate...
This dissertation provides a comparison of statistical and econometric frameworks, using a previously unused freight data source, to study crash frequency by crash type and heavy-vehicle hard braking in Oregon. Hard braking can serve as a proxy for several factors, one of which is safety. Therefore, with the hard braking...
Recent statistics regarding large truck crashes reveal that fatality rates of large trucks per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and fatality rates per 1,000 registered vehicles are higher than those for passenger vehicles. These statistics underscore the need for greater efforts by safety professionals to help mitigate the impacts...
An understanding of natural coastal hazards is essential for improving resilience of coastal communities. Effective management of coastal hazards relies on prediction tools and mitigation structures that have been designed to handle the dynamic coastal system. This dissertation is a collection of manuscripts that cover a diverse range of fundamental...
Cementitious materials are often characterized through the use of advanced analytical techniques to understand the macro-, micro-, and nano-scale properties, including phase formation during hydration, and subsequent potential deterioration mechanisms which can affect service life. A major limitation with using such analytical techniques to quantify solid phases in cementitious systems...
While sophisticated plans have been adopted nationally and globally to increase bicycling’s share of daily commutes, safety concerns have negatively impacted targeted bicycling growth. Specifically, truck traffic plays a pivotal role in bicyclists’ perceptions of safety and comfort, because of the severe consequences of bicycle-truck collisions. Several types of engineering...
Recent statistics suggest that the construction industry continues to experience poor project performance. Specifically, construction productivity has witnessed a meager annual growth of 1% over the past 20 years while the industry constantly records both a high number of fatalities and a high fatality rates relative to other industries. The...
The advancement of the cutting-edge technologies of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) hold promises to reshape the future of the transportation system. The concept of connected (CV) and connected automated vehicles (CAV) technologies are live examples of the future transportation. Vehicle communication technology is expected to impact conventional traffic conditions....
Anchoring systems are used to hold floating offshore devices (e.g., energy devices, oil platforms) to keep them on their stations. Anchors are embedded into the seabed soils. In some cases, the interface shear between anchor and seabed soils together with anchor self-weight provide the holding capacity of the anchoring systems....
This research asserts that flood risk perception of individuals living in floodplains influences their preparedness for taking actions to protect themselves from flood hazards. The results of this research are backed up by quantitative analysis of survey responses of individuals living in floodplains of Corvallis, OR in the USA. The...
A sewer geyser is a series of ejecting air-water mixture eruptions through vertical shafts of drainage systems. In field observed geyser incidents, manhole covers were blown into the air and they were followed by ejecting air-water mixture eruptions that lasted for several seconds at a time. Trapped air in sewer...
The U.S. Pacific Northwest is home to one of the most extreme wave climates in the world with waves of 10 m in height arriving to the coast approximately each year. With an average water temperature of 12℃, the beaches in the region are too cold to go on a...
With all of the efforts that have been conducted over the past 100 years since the first accident causation theory was published, the Accident Proneness theory by Vernon (1918), the construction still trails among different industries in terms of fatal and nonfatal work injuries. Theories and models that have been...
A significant number of Unreinforced Masonry (URM) buildings exist in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States of America that is a region of high seismicity, which could be subjected to both crustal and subduction zone earthquakes. The catastrophic and brittle failures associated with URM buildings in the past...
The role of ground motion duration on the seismic performance of civil engineering structures remains unclear. Thus, the role of earthquake strong ground motion duration is assessed in a three manuscript thesis, which includes: (1) assessment of the effects of ground motion duration on the seismic performance of a model...
Transportation systems are facing safety and operational challenges with a cost of billions of dollars annually in lost production time and wasted fuel. Infrastructure expansion, previously held as a panacea to most transportation challenges has lost its appeal due to financial, land-use and environmental constraints. Interest is surging in intelligent...
The capabilities of modern three-dimensional (3D) capture technology such as laser scanning and image-based 3D reconstruction are well suited to enhance the practice and research of civil engineering. However, given the often-overwhelming focus placed on the incredible capabilities of these tools and techniques, it is important to investigate the limitations...
Ground failures, in particular landsliding, liquefaction and lateral spreading can be triggered by seismic sources. The frequency, magnitude, and impact of these ground failures are highly dependent on the topography and geology of the site including its slope, depositional environment, and geotechnical properties as well as the proximity of the...
The blast technique has been used as an effective soil improvement method to compact loose coarse-granular soils since 1930s, and the use of the blast technique is extended as an application of in-situ liquefaction testing to investigate the performance of full scale foundations and countermeasures against liquefaction in recent decades....
The implementation and construction of Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) walls has undergone substantial expansions in recent years, owing to its relatively low cost, ease of construction, and high efficiency compared to conventional retaining methods. As a result, MSE walls are being constructed to greater heights with complex features (e.g. multiple...
Significant amounts of uncertainty owing to both modeling decisions and inherent randomness are present in simulating the material and geometric nonlinear response of structural systems to extreme loading. Computing the sensitivity of structural response with respect to model parameters indicates which parameters have the largest affect on the response, which...
Tsunami loading can cause sediment instability, which can compromise the structural integrity of coastal buildings and infrastructure. To understand the process by which a tsunami can cause sediment instability, it is necessary to understand how the pore water pressure in the soil changes during tsunami loading. Tsunami run-up causes the...
This dissertation studies the coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) of a wave energy converter (WEC) and evaluates the design of a WEC mooring system. The research is conducted in support of conceptual development, field test and performance evaluation of WECs as part of the mission of the Northwest National Marine Renewable...
Optimization of reservoir operation is involves various competing objectives for a scarce resource (water). To find the optimal operation of reservoirs, it is essential to consider multiple objectives simultaneously. There are various sources of uncertainty associated with the reservoir operation problem that should be considered as well.
The overarching goal...
Numerical models are effective tools for simulating complex physical processes such as hydrodynamic and water quality processes in aquatic systems. The accuracy of the model is dependent on multiple model parameters and variables that need to be calibrated and regularly updated to reproduce changing aquatic conditions accurately. Multi-sensor water temperature...
Over the past two decades, the Lean Construction academic and practicing engineering community has used lean practices and tools to help improve the performance of the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. Lean practices have led to improved competitiveness of construction companies that have adopted them, by focusing on ways...
A construction project is considered to be unique due to the process of delivering a customer-designed product, diverse stakeholders involved, the unique location and timeframe of construction, and specific social, economic, and environmental constraints attached to it. The uniqueness of construction projects brought great challenges to the construction industry professionals...
Previous research has shown that using fine lightweight aggregate (FLWA) can be a promising strategy to mitigate alkali-silica reaction (ASR) in mortar and concrete. While several possible theories were proposed by researchers, discrepancies in testing methods, materials, and supporting evidence still exist. Therefore, this study was initiated. There are two...
Damage estimates to the built environment from tsunamis are important for disaster mitigation, including planning emergency response and recovery. This dissertation evaluates the damage states of buildings in a small urban coastal city, Seaside, Oregon, from tsunami hazards generated by a Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) event. This study is separated...
Former industrial or commercial sites that have been left unused are typically referred to as brownfield sites, or simply, brownfields. Many communities have such properties that are abandoned, idle or underused. Despite public efforts to facilitate brownfields revitalization projects, the rate of remediation remains unexpectedly slow. Efforts to resolve this...
Degradation of watersheds is a major concern in areas where adverse climate effects and unsustainable use of the natural resources have caused extensive stresses to watershed systems (e.g., increased floods, increased droughts, worsened in-stream water quality) through the years. While considerable efforts are being made to generate technical solutions that...
This research explores several novel approaches to improve visualization and segmentation
of point clouds acquired with 3D laser scanning. 3D laser scanning is used
in a wide variety of applications including surveying and mapping, transportation asset
management, facilities management, building information modeling, crime scene investigations,
cultural heritage and geologic instigations....
It is expected that information taught in the context of school will ultimately transfer to workplace settings. To support this transition, educators and researchers advocate for organizing foundational ideas, or concepts, in specific domains of knowing. In the domain of transportation engineering, knowing of concepts, which include "big ideas" such...
There is renewed interest in North America for the use of calcium aluminate cement (CAC) in infrastructure repair. The interest is driven by the specialty properties that make CAC the ideal candidate for particular applications. These include rapid strength gain, even at temperatures approaching 0°C, the ability to customize fresh...
The understanding and prediction how coastal wetland vegetation attenuates wave action has received renewed attention with global climate change impacts and increasing populations on coastlines. Conventional attenuation models utilize empirical drag coefficients, but these coefficients exhibit a wide range of values, and there is some uncertainty in the relative importance...
This dissertation focuses on two core aspects of remote sensing: (a) interpretation of the remotely sensed data to identify and characterize sea surface features of interest, and (b) the quantitative analysis of previously characterized features to produce robust estimates of geophysical variables. Specifically, these aspects are addressed in the context...
A Right-hook (RH) crash is a common type of bicycle-motor vehicle crash that occurs between a right-turning vehicle and through-moving bicycle at an intersection. At signalized intersections, RH crashes can occur at the onset of the green or during the latter portion of the green phase. In spite of the...
Fluid-structure interaction (FSI) is a very interesting and challenging multi-disciplinary field involving interaction of a movable or deformable structure with an internal or surrounding fluid flow. FSI has several practical engineering applications such as the determination of the hydrodynamic forces on a structure or the dynamics of motion of bodies...
This dissertation has focused on the charateristics of bubbles generated by breaking waves and the feedback of wave-current interaction on the forcing mechanism of low frequency wave especially basin seiching wave. For the first study, Optical image capture observations of breaking waves in a laboratory surf zone are presented. The...
To facilitate the evaluation and design of structures subjected to fluid loading, a study of fluid-structure interaction (FSI) using the particle finite element method (PFEM) is presented to approximate the responses and sensitivities of structures which interact with fluid. A wide range of structural types are permissible by making no...
Traffic signal countdown timers (TSCT) are innovative, practical and cost effective technologies with the potential to improve efficiency and safety at signalized intersections. The purpose of these devices is to assist motorists in decision making at signalized intersections with real time signal change information. While successful implementation of these devices...
Landslides are a pervasive hazard that can result in substantial damage to properties and loss of life throughout the world. To understand the nature and scope of the hazard, landslide hazard mapping has been an area of intense research by identifying areas most susceptible to landslides in order to mitigate...
Discrete columns, such as stone and soil-cement columns, are often used to improve the liquefaction resistance of loose sandy ground. In particular, stone columns are considered to increase resistance potential by densification, drainage, and reinforcement mechanisms. For silty soil, the shear stress reduction resulting from the reinforcing effect of stiffer...
Deep foundations are necessary for the construction of many structures, such as bridges and buildings, located in areas unsuitable for shallow foundations. Owing to the inherent variability of soil and the complex changes that occur in the soil adjacent to deep foundations as they are installed, the ability to accurately...
The production of cement and concrete results in the production of large amounts of CO₂ emissions which can have significant negative environmental impacts. Using supplementary cementing materials (SCMs) as a cement replacement is an effective solution to reduce these negative environmental impacts, as most SCMs are waste by-products from other...
This dissertation examines tsunami and hurricane wave loads on bridge superstructures. Tsunamis have caused significant damage to coastal communities in recent years. For example, the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and resulting Tohoku Tsunami destroyed infrastructure along the east coast of Japan including bridge superstructures. Recent hurricanes have also caused...
In this study, a coupled potential flow-viscous flow model is used for numerical wave tank simulation. The solver satisfies all the requirements for such a simulation environment. The coupling scheme is based on a non-overlapping heterogeneous domain decomposition method. In this method, the flow domain consists of two subdomains. In...
The construction industry employs about 7% of the total US workforce, and yet it accounts for 15.7% of all occupational fatalities. Specifically in 2011, there were 721 deaths in construction, second only to transportation with 733. The cause of a large number of these construction deaths can be attributed to...
In the field of civil infrastructure, bridge desks are typically constructed using high performance concrete (HPC). Concrete bridge decks demand qualities such as low permeability, high abrasion resistance, superior durability, and long design life. Over decades of field and laboratory experience, many HPC bridge decks have been found to be...
To better understand the extreme local amplification of tsunami, the experimental investigation on counter-propagating solitary wave collisions over a horizontal bottom was conducted using the optical measurement techniques: Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), and Laser Induced Fluoresce (LIF). Head-on collisions and oblique collisions of equal-amplitude as well as unequal-amplitude waves were...
The trenchless technology known as pipe ramming for construction of culverts and buried pipes under roadways or other infrastructure has gained significant popularity due to its cost-effectiveness and ability to alleviate surface disruptions associated with open-cut trenching. Although the experience with pipe ramming is increasing, there has been remarkably little...
Reflection of an obliquely incident solitary wave at a vertical wall is studied experimentally in the laboratory wave tank. Precision measurements of water-surface variations are achieved with the aid of laser-induced fluorescent (LIF) technique and detailed temporal and spatial features of the
Mach reflection are captured. During the development stage...
It has been suggested that projects in the construction industry are subject to risks more than other industries. However, there is often little parity in allocation of risks in the construction industry. Usually, project participants allocate risks by aversion where owners tend to shift risks to the primary contractor, who...
Posting advisory speed signs at sharp horizontal curve sites is a practice well established in the United States. The purpose of these signs is to provide the driving public with a safe speed to negotiate such curves; however, the link between these signs and safety has not yet been clearly...
Halogenated organic compounds have had widespread and massive applications in industry, agriculture, and private households, for example, as degreasing solvents, flame retardants and in polymer production. They are released to the environment through both anthropogenic and natural sources. The most common chlorinated solvents present as contaminants include tetrachloroethene (PCE, perchloroethene)...
In this dissertation the interactions between hydrodynamics, sediment suspension and transport, and morphological evolution in the surf zone was investigated with a large-scale laboratory experiment data, CROss-Shore Sediment Transport Experiment (CROSSTEX). The data set included comprehensive measurements of water surface elevation, fluid velocity, sediment concentration, and morphology for irregular waves...
Pile supported bridges are typically constructed near or in a natural or man-made
slope and are subjected to lateral loading. The current design method for laterally loaded
piles involves the use of Winkler's spring concept with the standard nonlinear p-y curves.
The available p-y curves were developed based on results...
This dissertation presents the results of a research effort conducted to better understand the stress-strain, volume change, shear band formation, and strength characteristics of normally consolidated anisotropic clay under fully three-dimensional stress states. A series of consolidated drained true triaxial tests with a constant mean effective stress and constant Lode...
Different specimen preparation methods such as moist tamping, dry funnel deposition, slurry deposition, dry air pluviation have been reported in the literature to investigate the undrained behavior of silty sands. Similarly, different means have been used to densify the soils prepared with such methods. However, the influence of the densification...