Fire hazards threaten human life and property safety. Since it is unrealistic to study human behavior during a real fire hazard, computational tools are a better choice to computational tools are a better choice to simulate fire growth and human behavior for predicting evacuation performance in chaotic emergency situations. Although...
Chloride-induced corrosion is one of the primary causes of the degradation of reinforced steel in concrete structures. Currently, the rapid chloride permeability test (RCPT) is the most specified method to determine the concrete’s resistivity to chloride ingress, thus a determining factor in assessing the durability of concrete. While it is...
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...
Liquefaction of saturated granular material due to cyclic loading can result in catastrophic damage to the built environment. The mechanics of liquefaction have been previously studied through field testing, physical modeling, laboratory experiments, and numerical simulations. However, significant questions remain with respect to the particle-scale behavior of granular materials during...
Aggregate piers have been used for centuries, with increasing occurrence in the last few decades. Their usage has been driven by land development demand and enabled through equipment and engineering improvements. Understanding the principles controlling bearing capacities and serviceability performance has been an ongoing area of interest for structures supported...
Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), also known as drones, are an increasingly popular method of collecting surveying and mapping data. Two common drone-based mapping techniques are lidar and structure from motion (SfM) photogrammetry, and a frequently-heard (yet nearly impossible to answer) question is: “which is better?” The most common metric for...
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 thesis presents a novel approach for propagation of uncertainty in river systems. Errors in data observations and predictions (e.g., stream inflows), in model parameters, and resulting from the discretization of continuous systems, all point to the need to accurately quantify the amount of uncertainty carried through the modeling process....
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...
This thesis presents an analytical, experimental and numerical study of the initiation of flows in a siphon for rapid and gradual openings of a downstream valve. Three initial water levels in the upstream tank and four final positions for the downstream valve were investigated. Two opening times of the downstream...