Due to its availability, versatility, structural capability, and economic advantages, concrete is the most widely used material in building sewer networks and other wastewater structures such as treatment stations, wastewater digesters, septic tanks, pumping stations, hydraulic risers, utility risers and covers, etc. Concrete structures exposed to sewer environments can experience...
The two primary considerations for construction project management are budget and time management. Modular construction has the potential to improve construction productivity by minimizing time and costs while improving safety and quality. Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) panels are beneficial for modular construction due to the high level of prefabrication, adequate dimensional...
Cob, similar to adobe, is an earthen building material made of soil, sand, and straw. Although cob was used to build homes in England centuries ago, it has reemerged as a sustainable and relatively inexpensive, alternative building material. A possible solution for housing in impoverished nations, cob needs to be...
Wildfires are a recurring disaster that threatens communities living close to forests and result in significant financial losses along with negative environmental effects, especially with the increase of wildfire season length and intensity due to climate change and increasing urbanization. Wildfire events can also have a significant impact on the...
The overall goal of this study was to evaluate an alternative to
traditional wood framed shear wall construction. This study introduced the
innovative idea of using a water and seismic damage resistant, wood-concrete-
composite (WCC) construction instead of an all-wood design. The
WCC design consisted of a thin shell of...
Highway work zones are extremely dangerous environments due to the presence of workers near high-speed traveling vehicles. This dynamic environment results in a disproportionate number of accidents that cause injury and casualty to both drivers and workers due primarily to vehicular intrusions into work zones. Several emerging work zone intrusion...
In the construction industry, people seek to deliver a successful project. The major success performance measurements in the construction industry are cost, time, and quality. Several researchers have determined critical success factors for construction projects, and one of these critical success factors was management actions. Furthermore, there is an inadequacy...
Unlike other industries, overall efficiency of construction projects has been growing minimally which directly causes cost overruns of projects. Though reducing idle time and increasing operational efficiency of construction equipment could result in significant cost saving, there is lack of practical knowledge of adjusting operational efficiency and integrating cost and...
The two primary considerations for highway work-zones are its effect on commuter mobility and worker safety which are often spoken of together. However, it must be noted that they often conflict with each other. For example, traffic control plans that reduce travel speed in work-zones improve both commuter and worker...
Building Information Modeling (BIM) offers a variety of tools to help a wide range of stakeholders in the construction industry. There has been substantial research on the advantages and challenges of implementing BIM for large and medium-sized construction companies; however, there is a dearth of research on the benefits and...
Bridge inspection is a critical task needed to monitor bridge quality and serviceability. In the U.S., 40% of bridges are more than 50 years old while most bridges are typically designed for a lifespan of 50 years. 9.1% of the 614,387 bridges across the U.S are considered structurally deficient. These...
The construction industry is infamously recognized for having jobsites identified as hazardous working environments due to workers-on-foot commonly functioning at dangerous heights and in close proximity to other construction entities, among other reasons. These hazardous operations result in an increased risk of worker injuries and fatalities caused by fall hazards...
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,...
The Construction industry is one of the most hazardous industries in the US.Construction workers, on a daily basis, are exposed to numerous risks while performing arange of activities involving construction, alteration, and or repair. Dust and diesel exhaustemissions from construction equipment are considered harmful to the workers in the longrun....
State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are the primary owners of roadway infrastructure in the United States. Many of the employees of state DOTs work on roadway work sites, putting them at disproportionately higher risks of injury or fatality. A review of the literature determined that a combination of policies, standards,...
Open grid steel bridge decks have been in use for nearly a century. These open grid decks provide an economical and lightweight alternative to traditional reinforced concrete decks. As the transportation infrastructure continues to deteriorate, open grid decks can be used as a cost effective way to rehabilitate structurally deficient...
The life cycle assessment (LCA) process is a systematic approach to determining the environmental impacts of different products and processes. LCA is a relative approach that requires functional equivalence for the results to be compared. A method is presented that achieves functional equivalence by equating the reliability indexes being compared....
Capacity of transverse 1950's vintage reinforced concrete deck girder bridge bent caps with large straight bar anchorages were investigated and evaluated. Eleven subassemblage column specimens were examined with different anchorage lengths, bar groupings, amount of transverse steel, and externally applied axial force. Test results showed an increase in anchorage capacity...
Vulnerable road users, anyone interacting with the roadway facility without the protection of an automobile, experience greater risk for more severe crash outcomes. Multimodal roadway facilities often times provide less separation and more points of conflict between different types of road users. To promote vulnerable road user safety, transportation agencies...
Engineers, in practice, are often faced with the challenge of evaluating a fire-damaged structure and developing a rehabilitation and retrofit plan. In order to decide on a rehabilitation and retrofit plan, information on thermal degradation of building materials and connections are vital. A critical knowledge gap exists in terms of...
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...
The continuous improvement of construction operations requires a systematic approach of monitoring and making appropriate control actions. However, the lack of real-time information hinders this workflow and eventually compromises timely and effective decision-making. Project managers spend a great deal of time and effort to solve problems emerging from lack of...
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....
Planning and management methods in construction need to constantly evolve to keep pace with the growing demand and complexity of work in increasingly competitive environments. This need for innovation and process improvement has attracted lean construction philosophy in industry management practice. Lean has been used in the construction industry to...
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...
CPM-M4 tool steel is a commonly used knife blade material due to its high strength and wear resistance. The goal of this thesis is to understand how heat treatment parameters affect blade performance and microstructure.Five heat treatments were applied to CPM-M4 steel by varying austenitizing and tempering temperatures. The microstructures...
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...
The Asphalt Pavement Analyzer (APA) device was used to characterize the impact of various mix factors on the development of permanent deformation in dense-graded mixes given a standard compactive effort. Factors included two aggregate sizes, three VMA levels, two fines contents, three binder contents and four binder types. All specimens...
This thesis documents the evaluation of the initial performance of pavement
containing recycled asphalt shingles (RAS) in Oregon. The research was funded
by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the Federal Highway
Administration and was conducted at Oregon State University. The key
objectives of this thesis are to document...
Wildfire prevention operations like forest thinning and forest fuel removal result in large volumes of woody biomass available for utilization. In 2007 alone, the US federal government spent nearly $2 billion to fight forest fires on federal lands. Annually, the USDA Forest Service spends $1 billion to thin young trees...
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...
The objective of this project was to develop an analytical model of a light-framed wood structure using a prevalent structural analysis computer program in order to evaluate system effects and define load paths within the structure, especially under extreme wind events. Simplified modeling techniques and material definitions were developed and...
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...
The overall goal of this study was to gain an insight into the load sharing aspect between oriented strand board (OSB) and gypsum wall board (GWB) in shear wall assembly during racking load. More specifically the objectives of the study were to: (1) evaluate qualitatively the load sharing between OSB...
Much recent research has focused on the development lead-free perovskite piezoelectrics as environmentally compatible alternatives to lead zirconate titanate (PZT). Two main categories of lead free perovskite piezoelectric ceramic systems were investigated as potential replacements to lead zirconate titanate (PZT) for actuator devices. First, solid solutions based on Li, Ta,...
The Horsetail Creek (HC) bridge is an example of an Oregon bridge that was classified as structurally deficient and was not designed to withstand earthquake (EQ) excitations. A fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) rehabilitation was performed on the HC bridge to increase flexural and shear capacities for traffic loads. However, a seismic...
Many conventionally reinforced concrete deck girder (RCDG) bridges were built in the US during the 1950s, throughout the expansion of the Interstate System. Designs followed the AASHO standard of the time, which permitted higher shear stress in concrete and reduced detailing requirements than permitted by current specifications. Many of these...