The pozzolanic reactivity test (PRT) is used to quantify the pozzolanic reactivity of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). The PRT computes reactivity by measuring heat release (Q) and calcium hydroxide (CH) consumption, as interpreted using thermodynamic modeling. The robustness of PRT is examined by experimentally varying CH-to-SCM ratio, solution-to-solid ratio, sulfate...
A variety of stakeholders require information about marine systems. In the open ocean, pilots of marine vessels require knowledge about environmental conditions for safe passage and route planning. On the coastline, communities rely on information about nearshore dynamics to increase safety from coastal hazards such as nearshore pollutants, coastal erosion,...
The likelihood of a Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) earthquake is estimated between 37 to 42% in the next 50 years, leading to strong shaking, liquefaction, landsliding, and other seismic ground failure resulting in major impacts to critical lifelines such as the western power grid. Electrical power is essential for continued...
Fluid-structure interaction (FSI) has been of significant research interest worldwide over the past several decades because of its variety of applications in both offshore and coastal engineering. Researchers analyzing FSI systems rely heavily on experimental tests in model scale in laboratories or large-scale sea trials. However, these tests are often...
Wave energy has the potential to power large and small factions of economies around the world alike. Current methods for determining the amount of wave energy resource available to wave energy converter (WEC) devices entail capturing the look of the sea state at large by presenting characteristic wave heights, periods,...
Coastal dunes provide a diverse set of ecosystem services including coastal protection against destructive surge and waves during storm events. Dunes are constantly evolving through various stages of response to storm events and post-storm recovery at rates that vary due to a range of drivers including pre-existing morphology, environmental forcing...
Shallow landslides are destructive natural hazards that result in widespread losses, both of infrastructure and lives, throughout the world. To help mitigate the impact of landslide hazards, they are commonly characterized across a regional scale by (1) their location and likelihood using susceptibility maps, (2) their magnitude and frequency using...
Bicyclist safety at urban intersections is a critical element for encouraging an increase in bicycle commuting. With bicycle injury and fatality rates rising due to collisions with vehicles at signalized intersections, increasing the safety of riders continues to be an important consideration when promoting this mode of transportation. Previous research...
During the Canterbury Earthquake Sequence (CES) in Christchurch, NZ, an estimated $15B in damages occurred due to liquefaction-induced phenomena, illustrating the importance of understanding site-specific responses to seismic ground motions, as well the importance of accurately predicting liquefaction severity. One potential method for improving the understanding of how a site...
The most common test methods to evaluate alkali-silica reaction (ASR), the concrete prism test (CPT) and the accelerated mortar bar tests (AMBT), have limitations and are not entirely reliable in terms of predicting the performance of concrete with prevention measures under field conditions. In this study, the miniature concrete prism...
The resistance of asphalt concrete pavement to distresses such as fatigue cracking and permanent deformation is governed by how well the structure can resist loading under a variety of traffic and climate-related conditions. Asphalt binder type and content are typically the variables that pavement engineers can manipulate to render the...
Social scientists have studied people's responses to disasters for many decades, and behavioral commonalities and variations are summarized in different mental schemes/models in disaster studies. Integrating those findings from social science into evacuation simulation can improve simulation accuracy and eventually better support decision-making and disaster preparedness. However, this kind of...
Civil engineers are aware of the impacts of structures on the global environment but the environmental impacts of a fire within these structures remains unknown. Fires present a unique hazard as it is difficult to predict the probability of the occurrence and the intensity. Traditional methods to identify the environmental...
Fire following earthquake (FFE) events are cascading hazards that have caused great damage in the past and pose a continued threat to our communities. The increased risk for fire after a seismic event stems from potential damage to utilities such as gas or fuel pipelines, which can lead to ignition....
The climate and geologic conditions of the Pacific Northwest leaves its roads highly susceptible to rockfall hazards. Rockfalls often occur on steep slopes that experience heavy rainfall, groundwater seepage, or strong shaking from earthquakes. The unpredictable nature of these events often creates substantial problems for communities, transportation infrastructure, and the...
Preparing successful engineering undergraduate students for the workforce is imperative and requires students to apply their conceptual understanding of engineering fundamentals to engineering design work. Conceptual understanding is assessed through the use of concept inventories. Learning theories may help explain differences in concept inventory performance. Expert novice theory suggests that...
The use of natural and nature-based features for coastal hazard mitigation, particularly emergent vegetation such as mangrove forests, have become increasingly popular. However, the protection that these systems can provide has not been fully quantified for engineering design, and the uncertainties in parameterized equations have not been fully defined. In...
The development of technologies such as Building Information Modeling (BIM), light detection and ranging (lidar), and sensor-based systems poses new opportunities for researchers to rethink how construction safety and health can be approached during the design, planning, and construction phases of a project. Nevertheless, the majority of the technology applications...
Mass timber has been considered as a promising building material because of its structural rigidity, environmental sustainability, and renewability nature. In Europe and Australia, mass timber materials have been used for many different types of construction such as residential, commercial, education, and industrial. However, the construction practitioners in the U.S....
Knowledge of the pore solution composition and pore solution resistivity can be helpful for determining the durability of concrete structures. Most notably, pore solution resistivity can be used in the calculation of the formation factor of concrete, which is a ratio of the electrical resistivities of concrete and its pore...