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...
Red Signal Countdown Timers (RSCTs) are devices placed at intersections to inform drivers of the time remaining on a red indication before it turns green, typically to improve intersection efficiency. This study examines the visual attention of Oregon drivers to circular red (CR) indications with RSCTs as compared to standard...
This research effort considers bicyclist’s left-turn behavior at roadway intersections with varying levels of traffic control; specifically, seeking to address the question where do bicyclists look to acquire information. A demographic comparison was made to determine if factors such as gender or experience influence the nature of how a bicyclist...
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...
Many nondestructive techniques for structural health monitoring are subjective and based on visual observations of degradation. In addition, dynamic properties of structures are already used to obtain quantitative structural health data. However, most current data collection is limited to localized damage on the structure, rather than global response. Recent research...
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...
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...
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...
Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a product development process that
assures the needs and desires of the customer are heard and heeded during the
design, development and production of a product. Though it has been used
successfully in other industries, only a few companies in the U. S. Engineering
and...
Timber engineering is currently in the midst of a significant evolution due to the rise of mass timber products, like cross-laminated timber (CLT). Increasing numbers of structural engineers are facing the challenge of designing lateral-force-resisting systems (LFRS) for multistory CLT structures. LFRS solutions such as steel frames, concrete cores, or...