A gas-permeable-membrane-supported (GPMS) biofilm consisting
of methylotrophic bacteria was effective in degrading chlorinated
methanes, ethanes, and ethenes. The biofilm was developed on a
gas-permeable fabric (Goretex, W.L.Gore & Associates, Elkton,
Maryland) that divided a reactor vessel into a liquid compartment
and a gas compartment. Goretex is a nylon-backed teflon mesh...
Cast-in-drilled-hole (CIDH) piles are often constructed to depths that are inaccessible to internal vibration of the concrete. Internal vibration is necessary to consolidate the concrete and, if not performed, then typically inspection pipes are necessary to detect the presence of voids in CIDH piles. Void detection is critical to assessing...
This thesis presents the procedure adopted to develop the priority rating system for highway safety improvements. Safety hazards are classified into four categories:
(1) Railroad crossings,
(2) Intersections,
(3) Geometric-Related Hazards, and
(4) Roadside Hazards.
For each category of hazards, relationships are developed to obtain a hazard index and expected...
Significant progress has been made over the past 20 years in developing models to estimate the service-life of reinforced concrete systems. The basic understandings of the mechanisms that control the transport of ions and moisture in concrete systems have been well researched and models for determining corrosion initiation, specifically chloride-induced...
The recent increase in awareness of the seismic hazards in Oregon has led to a concern regarding the safety of Oregon State University buildings. While the decision has been made to initiate the seismic rehabilitation of campus facilities, the question of which buildings pose the greatest hazards, and are therefore...
Some basaltic rocks common in Oregon when incorporated into a pavement structure as the base course aggregate or in the surfacing layer degrade and disintegrate owing to the minerals contained within the rock and the environment in which it is placed. To simulate the chemical degradation of basaltic rocks an...
Environmental factors such as temperature, air, and water can have a profound
effect on the durability of asphalt concrete mixtures. In mild climates where good
quality aggregates and asphalt cement are available, the major contribution to
deterioration may be due to traffic loading and the resultant distress is manifested
in...
Augered cast-in-place piles, also known as ACIP piles, have been used for more than
seven decades in the United States and have gained in popularity due to their relatively
quick installation and cost-effectiveness. Owing to the reduced impact on the neighboring
environment as compared to some other deep foundation installation...
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) standard specifications require a minimum density for the construction of dense-graded hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavements. Currently, the standard specifications call for density measurements for quality control (QC) and quality assurance (QA) testing to be made using nuclear density gauges that are calibrated using...
Background: Studies indicate that problems utilized in traditional undergraduate engineering education do not adequately prepare students for the workforce. Calls to implement authentic, ill-structured problems into upper level engineering experiences may address this issue but adopting authentic engineering problems without considering barriers to adoption of faculty has not been fully...
This dissertation studies the development of the design procedures for Steel Slit Panel Frame (SSPF). The (SSPF) system is a seismic force-resisting system (SFRS) with ductile behavior and good energy dissipation up to 5\% to 7\% lateral drift that acting as seismic fuses. The current design guidelines provided valuable information...
In 1987, Congress authorized a 5 year $150 million dollar research program called
the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP). SHRP was divided into four major
areas, including the asphalt research program. The asphalt research program was divided
into six major research contracts, one such contract, SHRP-003A was called Performance
Related...
Sustainable wastewater infrastructure systems are vital for civilizations to protect public health. Most of the structural elements of wastewater infrastructure are constructed using concrete owing to its versatility, low cost, and durability. Concrete structures that are exposed to wastewater can experience Microbially Induced Corrosion of Concrete (MICC), which is a...
During the past several decades, earthquakes have caused extensive damage to
buildings, including wood-frame, single-family dwellings, in the United States. In
order to mitigate future losses, existing buildings in earthquake prone areas should be
evaluated for their seismic safety. This is also an important issue for buildings in
Oregon due...
This paper describes the development of structural layer coefficients
for open graded asphalt emulsion surfacing layers which can be used with
the AASHO pavement design method, as modified by the U. S. Forest Service,
Region 6.
A field survey conducted to document the history, performance and
material characteristics of in-service...
Flexible pavements consist of multilayers, which form the pavement structures. Since the strength of the bond at interface between layers plays a significant role in improving the structural integri-ty and the performance of pavement structures, tack coat materials and methods used for their application during construction are important in providing...
Testing of asphalt binders and asphalt-aggregate mixtures using dynamic mechanical analysis is becoming popular with improvements in high-speed computers, precision equipment, and computer software. Researchers are trying to describe the behavior of asphalt binders and asphalt-aggregate mixtures in terms of their time- and temperature-dependent linear viscoelastic behavior. The objectives of...
Any work of literature is a product of its time revealing truths about its culture. My thesis explores how pre-selected inspiration, personal experiences, and current events play a role in the devising process of a script. The inspiration for this particular devised play is Letters to a Young Poet by...
The diffusion process in a variable density, turbulent
flow is a factor which greatly influences the waste
disposal characteristics of tidal estuaries. Waste disposal
from cities and industries, is posing an increasing
threat to the estuarine environment. Accurate prediction
of the effects of proposed waste outfalls in well-mixed
estuaries (which...
Shallow land burial in vadose zone sediment at the Hanford Site in Washington is being considered for the disposal of Category 3 low-level waste. A series of column experiments were conducted to evaluate and model the performance of the soil surrounding the trench encasement material for iodine-129 and technetium-99 by...
This dissertation introduces a method which
can simulate multi-dimensional Gaussian random
processes by the superposition of sine functions
The fast Fourier transform technique is incorporated into the simulating method to facilitate
saving of computer time.
In view of the fact that the fast Fourier
transform play important roles in digital...
Construction is a strategically important industry and its productivity has a significant impact on a nation’s economy. However, productivity in the US construction industry has been widely reported to be on the decline. Among several causes identified, the lack of innovation in project management practices has been described as having...
Ecoroofs have become more prominent in recent years. However, there is currently no enforceable standard or building code for the design and construction of ecoroofs across the United States (Kraupa, 2014). Further research is needed to determine how ecoroofs respond to roof motion and to develop an appropriate design standard.The...
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...
As part of a roof framing system, light-frame wood trusses often require lateral bracing to reduce the effective length for flexural buckling of compression web members. This observational research investigates the design requirements for discrete compression web bracing intended to provide such lateral support. Four simple brace analysis methods based...
The colicidal efficiency of chlorine in both settled and unsettled
trickling filter effluent samples was determined by means of a series
of tests in which each sample was analyzed, at given time intervals,
for suspended solids, pH, residual chlorine (orthotolidine and
iodometric) and coliform count. A dye-tracer study, using Rhodamine...
The mean square displacement response of a point on a transmission
line conductor that is subjected to wind gust generated lift forces is
computed. The wind gust velocity and wind gust generated lift forces
are treated as random processes in both time and space. A lift force,
that is velocity...
Channel maintenance operations in the rivers and harbors of the
United States annually require the disposal of over 320 million cubic
meters of dredge spoils. As the availability of suitable land sites
diminishes, open water disposal presents an attractive yet controversial
alternative method. For open water disposal to be acceptable,...
In situ bioremediation of pentachlorophenol-contaminated ground water in a sequential anaerobic-aerobic down borehole permeable barrier reactor requires a non-toxic primary substrate for dichlorophenol cometabolism. Serum bottle tests comparing the effectiveness of eight primary substrates for aerobic dichlorophenol degradation showed phenol to be the most effective followed by imitation vanilla flavoring,...
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,...
The educational environment is filled with different types of students, all with diverse learning styles. The Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator and Kolb’s Theory of Experiential Learning are generally accepted methods for determining and assessing a person’s preferred method of information processing. There has been research that suggests learning styles are specific...
Highway construction projects require temporary changes in roadway characteristics, such as the number of operational lanes, lane path, lane width, shoulder width, and posted speed limit. These modifications which are often temporary in nature have the potential to impact driving performance. Many research efforts have focused on developing standards to...
Many older reinforced concrete bridges and buildings in the United States are considered deficient due to past design codes that are not conservative, increased loading, and deterioration of structural components. Deterioration is most commonly caused by corrosion, which reduces the steel cross sectional area and damages the concrete cross section....
High early strength concrete (HESC) allows for faster construction with less impact on traffic, thus reducing the indirect costs associated with a project. There are multiple methods for achieving early strength, such as alternative cements like calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA) or chemically accelerated portland cements. The standard criteria for an HESC...
The response of three-dimensional frames subjected to an arbitrary
dynamic force is studied. The method of mode superposition
is used to obtain the frame response solution. Two different modeling
systems are used to idealize the frame. These are the "discrete
mass system" and the "continuous mass system." For an example...
The objectives of this research were to evaluate the
behavior of actual metal-plate-connected (MPC) tension-splice
and heel wood truss joints under seismic loads from the
Northridge earthquake (tension-splice joints only) and under
loads from a large artificial earthquake (1.0 g's and 0.67
g's maximum horizontal and vertical accelerations,
respectively). A...
The cyclic resistance of predominantly fine-grained soils has received considerable attention following ground and foundation failures at sites underlain by silt-rich soils during recent earthquakes. In several cases substantial ground deformation and reduced bearing capacity of silt soils has been attributed to excess pore pressure generation during cyclic loading. These...
As part of a long term study to evaluate the dynamic properties of naturally frozen soils, resonant frequency and cyclic triaxial
tests were conducted on Fairbanks silt samples from the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory Permafrost Tunnel, Fox, Alaska. The test methods subject right cylindrical test
specimens...
In recognition of the need to determine dynamic properties of naturally frozen materials, a research project was conducted to measure the dynamic properties (dynamic moduli and damping ratio) of naturally frozen wedge ice samples obtained from the Fairbanks, Alaska area. Cyclic triaxial and resonant column test systems were employed to...
The dynamic response of an offshore structure to measured and simulated
stochastic wave forces is investigated. The theoretical nondeterministic
analysis is performed in the frequency domain for a two-dimensional
model. The ocean wave system is assumed to be a zero mean, stationary,
ergodic Gaussian process described by a one-dimensional wave...
Rotating machine play an important role in modern technology. Compressors in
ventilating and cooling systems, pumps in power generation facilities, as well as high
speed computer are all examples of flexible rotating machinery that must remain functional
during and after a sever earthquake. Recent earthquakes have demonstrated that an
aseismically...
The nonlinear response of a ten-story steel structure with semirigid
girder connections is studied under conditions of dynamic loading.
The dynamic loading used in this study is the North-South component
of the May 18, 1940 El Centro, California earthquake. To deal
with the complexity of the problem the structure is...
This thesis presents an examination of the nearshore wave bottom boundary layer
under conditions of significant sediment response. Using both field observations and
simple models, the response of the bottom boundary layer to random waves is shown to
have a complex behavior. First, the linearized wave bottom boundary layer governing...
Environmental factors and physical properties of latex modified concrete (LMC)
are hypothesized to contribute to early age cracking in bridge deck overlays. Cracking
permits the ingress of moisture and aggressive solutions into the substrate and may
contribute to other subsequent distresses. Understanding the material properties and
mechanisms involved is necessary...
This thesis presents an economic analysis for a proposed toll
road which is to separate different types of traffic such as pedestrians,
slow speed vehicles and high speed motor vehicles, and to
divert through traffic from the local roads. The use of a toll road
usually provides significant savings in...
This paper investigates the proposed preliminary designs of
two gymnasiums with respect to gamma radiation shielding due to
radioactive fallout. For each building a determination is made of
the protection offered from radiation fallout. If the degree of protection
is below the minimum value set by the Office of Civil...
This thesis presents an economic comparison of three different
highway networks which serve an area of 64 miles by 83 miles in size.
Each network is designed to carry the same traffic between any two
towns but is different in total length.
Costs of right of way, excavation, pavement and...
As coastal communities face increasing chronic and acute hazards, nature-based coastal engineering solutions have experienced a rapid growth in popularity and interest. Recent works on this topic have shown that “Green Infrastructure” may be effective at mitigating coastal hazards and therefore provide sustainable adaptation alternatives to traditional engineering solutions such...
This thesis is the consequence of a research effort undertaken by the School of Civil and Construction Engineering at Oregon State University and funded by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA). The principal objective of the effort was to reduce the life cycle cost...
Currently, the Port of Portland is developing a 9, 410 acre area
at the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers in Multnomah
County, Oregon. This area will be developed for industrial, commercial,
and recreational use. The recreational development in the
North Portland Peninsula area, including the Rivergate Industrial
District,...
This research focuses on the anaerobic transformation of trichloroethylene (TCE) that is occurring in the subsurface of the Evanite site in Corvallis, OR. Two anaerobic studies were conducted to investigate the effects of microbial communities in the presence of different electron donors during the anaerobic degradation of trichlorofluoroethylene (TCFE), and...
There are over 130 million wood poles supporting electrical transmission and distribution lines in the U.S. The vast majority of these poles are preservative treated to prolong their useful life. In some cases, however, the depth of treatment is relatively shallow, leaving a deep zone of moderately durable, untreated heartwood....
Current bridge design codes do not account for the effects of duration of mega-thrust subduction zone earthquakes. Furthermore, codes and even recent performance-based design methodologies only make use of the peak response quantities (forces, displacements, and ductility demands) and do not account for the increased number of inelastic cycles that...
Development of long-range nuclear weapons in recent years and
the subsequent threat of nuclear war has led to an increased awareness
of the need for civilian protection. Adequate shelter design can
provide substantial protection against delayed radioactive fallout.
Protection can generally be greatly increased by more massive roof
construction to...
Posting advisory speed signs at sharp horizontal curve locations is a common practice in the U.S. These signs recommend drivers safe speeds to negotiate such curves. Literature indicates that adherence to advisory speeds is, in general, poor. Moreover, limited research is available that quantifies safety implications of these signs. This...
On August 31, 1992, Quality Printing Circuits, a circuit board manufacturing plant in Phoenix, Arizona, burned to the ground. The fire lasted approximately eight hours, creating a thick, black smoke that blew into the surrounding community. Emergency evacuation was erratic and since no air samples were taken during the fire,...
Perforated pipes were buried in the gravel bed of a laboratory stream, extending upstream from a simulated riffle in order to study their effect upon mixing and interchange of stream water and intragravel water. In the absence of such pipes the drop of energy gradient of the stream was concentrated...
Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is revolutionizing the use of wood in the construction sector of North America as a solution for walls and diaphragms in mid-rise or even high-rise timber structures on account of its environmental advantages, high strength-to-weight ratio, fire-safety performance, and propensity for prefabrication. However, considering the hygroscopic nature...
The biochemical degradation of domestic sludge deposits exposed to benthic marine conditions was investigated using a laboratory Deep Sea Simulator. The rate and extent of deposit stabilization were determined for select hydrostatic pressures and hydrogen acceptor conditions by monitoring depletion of particulate organic carbon in 2.0 and 3.0 centimeter deposits....
The objectives of this study are: (1) to evaluate the effect of reference
displacement on wall behavior under fully reversed cyclic loading using the
CUREE test protocol and (2) to assess damage accumulation (visible fastener
damage and stiffness degradation) for the imposed drift levels. All tests were
conducted on identical...
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...
Deep foundations, including driven piles, are used to support vertical loads of structures and applied lateral forces. Many pile supported structures, including bridges, are subjected to large lateral loads in the form of wind, wave, seismic, and traffic impact loads. In many practical situations, structures subjected to lateral loading are...
Cometabolic biodegradation processes, important for bioremediation of hazardous waste sites, are not well understood and have not been modeled thoroughly. Toxic effects and bacterial responses to toxicity may change intracellular enzyme levels, rendering traditional enzyme kinetics models inappropriate. This document presents a novel cometabolic enzyme kinetics model that incorporates enzyme...
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...
Because of the increased need for sustainable construction in an ever urbanizing culture, new
sustainable drainage systems are being developed and implemented. Bioswales are becoming
an increasingly popular form of sustainable urban drainage used for parking lots and
subdivisions. But little is known regarding the effectiveness of bioswales in really...
Because of the increased need for sustainable construction in an ever urbanizing culture, new sustainable drainage systems are being developed and implemented. Bioswales are becoming
an increasingly popular form of sustainable urban drainage used for parking lots and
subdivisions. But little is known regarding the effectiveness of bioswales in really...
Frequent 3D spatial mapping of estuaries is critical to understanding and modeling changes that can impact ecological health (e.g., water quality) and ecosystem services (e.g., aquaculture, nutrient cycling, and shoreline stabilization). However, obtaining accurate, repeat topobathymetric data for estuaries is a major challenge. Because shallow estuaries are typically not used...
This research focused on anaerobic transformation of trichloroethene (TCE), a
groundwater contaminant. The mixed anaerobic Evanite culture (EV) was studied to determine community behavior and composition responses to different electron donors and chloroethene electron acceptors. The potential toxicity from high concentrations of TCE and its daughter product cis-1,2-dichloroethene (cDCE) was...
Connections in mass timber structural systems dissipate energy and transfer lateral forces from mass timber elements such as shear walls and diaphragms, providing critical load paths. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is a prominent mass timber material used to manufacture wall and floor assemblies. Fire performance research of CLT walls and floors...
Diatomaceous soils are a geological material whose engineering properties do not readily conform to the widely accepted and used mechanical and behavioral frameworks. This ambiguity results in design difficulties and geotechnical failures which can be costly. Diatomaceous soils have diatoms in their matrix. Diatoms are unicellular algae with an inert...
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...
Landslides are frequent in the steep forested regions of the Oregon
and Washington coastal mountain ranges. The need for forest products
has resulted in increasing logging activity in these marginally stable
areas. The occurrence of landslides has increased, which in turn has
focused greater interest in slope stability management.
Of...
The strength of both undisturbed and compacted soils from 10 sites
in the slide-prone Tongass National Forest in SE Alaska were studied.
Index property tests were also conducted on disturbed samples. The
index tests included natural water content, Atterberg Limits, specific
gravity of solids, grain size distribution, and moisture-density relationship....
Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) species, such as seagrasses, are highly valued in estuaries because of the many economic, ecological, and cultural services that they provide, including shelter for fisheries, minimizing water turbidity, and improving am-bient water quality. SAV can also alter its physical environment by attenuating wave and current velocities,...
Internal stability of Geosynthetic-Reinforced Soil (GRS) walls are conventionally assessed using lateral earth pressure methods. Determination of these pressures is a key component of limit state design as it enables determination of mobilized resisting forces in reinforcements needed to ensure stability and function of the GRS structure. However, conventional methods...
Marine debris is a chronic and increasingly pervasive problem for coastal regions around the world. Debris poses environmental risks, threats to wildlife, and degradation of the natural environment. Recent research has shown the advantages of uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) for detection and recognition of marine debris, including the ability to...
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...
Velocity measurements from drifter GPS records are assimilated and used in an ensemble-based inversion technique to extract the river bathymetry. The method is tested on a deep meandering reach and a shallow braided reach of the Kootenai River in Idaho, USA. The Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) is used to...
The effect of entering streamflow on currents of a density
stratified reservoir has been studied in a laboratory model to
provide insight into the prediction, control, and maintenance of
quality water discharge from a thermally stratified reservoir.
Twenty experiments were performed using various concentrations
of a sodium chloride solution to...
Long-term durability of surface-bonded carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) for shear strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) bridge members remains uncertain due to the limited field experience with these materials. This paper provides experimental results from the testing of full-scale RC bridge girder specimens after exposure to prolonged environmental exposure and combined...
Attention has been drawn to the observation that environmental benefits under the current regulatory approaches are diminishing with respect to increased pollution control costs. Regulators have begun to appreciate that while environmental gains can still be achieved under the current command and control system, the most significant environmental gains have...
Thermodynamic modeling of cementitious material is an established tool for predicting the hydrated phase assemblages, pore solution pH, and pore solution composition of mixtures of various chemical compositions and water-to-binder (w/b) ratios. However, traditional thermodynamic techniques have major limitations for modeling mixtures containing supplementary cementitious materials (SCM), and when modeling...
The goal of this study was to optimize a through-boring pattern that will provide adequate preservative penetration while minimizing the reduction in overall pole bending strength. Hole spacing was developed using longitudinal and transverse chemical penetration data from previous studies. Finite element analysis was used as a preliminary assessment tool...
Total emissions from the US contribute 15% to the global emissions. The construction industry is a major source of the exhaust emissions produced. Use of light-duty vehicles and heavy-duty trucks for various construction activities contributes 83% to the total greenhouse gases produced. Construction equipment comprises of on-road and non-road equipment,...
Ice–ocean interactions have profound consequences for the ocean and climate, influencing the rate of sea level rise. Submarine melt is commonly parameterized using a three-equation formulation for the heat, salt, and momentum conservation equations coupled to a buoyant plume model, together called plume-melt theory. However, recent direct observations of terminus...
The gasoline tax, the main source of highway revenue is no longer a viable source of
funding to maintain the existing highways. Many states in the United States are
already using revenues from other sources such as sales tax and income tax to fund
new highways. Oregon along with many...
This work investigates a methodology for estimating the ocean stratification gradient based on high-resolution, in space and time, remote sensing observations of internal wave propagation speeds. The internal wave speed observations were collected using a shore-based, X-band marine radar and the ocean vertical density profiles were collected simultaneously from an...
Sediments are the major compartment in aquatic environments for many materials of toxic or nutrient concern. The lack of knowledge of the phase associations of toxic metals in sediments is the largest deficiency in our understanding of the environmental hazard posed by metal contamination. This study examined the sedimentary partitioning...
A one-dimensional, implicit, finite-difference model is
developed, calibrated and verified for three estuaries along
the central Oregon coast. The model is used to generate controlled
data for a large number of hypothetical estuaries.
Two non-dimensional coefficients, K[subscript F], and. K[subscript I], are developed
incorporating physical characteristics of the estuary which...
Distracted driving is an adverse driving behavior that is widely known to impair the safety of all roadway users and traffic flow. Despite the extensive research efforts on the prevalence and effects of distracted driving on roadway safety and performance, the number of vehicular crashes and fatalities resulting from distracted...
This study utilizes probabilistic surrogate modeling techniques around San Diego Bay with an emphasis on naval infrastructure and operations to evaluate the impact of five global mean sea level rise scenarios (GMSLR). Spatially continuous total water levels (TWLs) are combined with a digital elevation model (DEM) of the region to...