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Title: Building science measurements in the Hospital Microbiome Project
Creator: Stephens, Brent
Date: 2014, 2014
Description: Sponsorship: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s program on the Microbiology of the Built Environment (Grant No. 2012-10-04)

Title: STEEL STRUCTURE RESPONSE UNDER FIRE CONDITIONS MODEL BASED SIMULATION (MBS)
Creator: Coughlin, Kevin James
Date: 2019
Description: This paper addresses the issue of structure design and analysis for conditions of fire loading. It includes an introductory section that...
Show moreThis paper addresses the issue of structure design and analysis for conditions of fire loading. It includes an introductory section that presents the historical and current state of practice using prescriptive methods of design, a qualitative and conceptual development (based on actual field observations) of what is expected to occur in a structure when subjected to fire, and a summary of the current state of research on the subject of structure design for fire loading. Next, a thermo-plastic non-linear finite element shell model was developed for a two member steel beam and column, bolted joint structure used in an actual physical fire test, subjected to beam a bending load and column compressive load, held constant, while the structure was heated up in a furnace. The beam / column bolted joint rotation for the test matched the simulation quite well. Next, further extending this modeling approach, a partial moment frame from the center of a 9 story building designed for dead, live, and seismic loading was modeled with non-linear thermo-plastic shell elements in the fire zone, along with linear elastic beam / line elements for structural components surrounding the fire zone. For this model, the gravity loading (no seismic loading included) was fully applied, and then a thermal load corresponding to the ASTM E119 fire test load was applied to the structure in the fire zone. Simulation of lateral torsional buckling, flange local buckling, web local buckling, and finally overall global buckling of the columns was accomplished in this effort, increasing confidence that complex thermo-plastic structural behavior can be modeled with advanced non-linear finite element technology. Boundary conditions on this model from the floor system had a significant impact on the mode of global buckling (strong axis or weak axis), warranting further investigation and possibly a 3-D frame with a floor system included in future work. Also, extending this modeling approach even further, in future work, using the entire 9 story moment frame, with shell elements in the fire zone and non-linear moment-curvature beam / line elements for surrounding members, is contemplated, the objective being to numerically model a progressive collapse event in a planar frame. Finally, an actual 10 story structure, converted to and industrial open floor structure, based on current design codes and standards, was modeled thermally using the industry standard Hydrocarbon (HC) Temperature vs time curve, and structurally using non-linear thermoplastic shell elements in the “fire room” (to better capture local buckling and overall structure collapse behavior), and thermoplastic beam elements for the rest of the structure. The thermal modeling was performed for steel members both without insulation (bare steel) and with minimal insulation (1/4” coated thickness), and these “decoupled” results then applied to the structural model. The use of even a small layer of insulation demonstrated the dramatic effect of such, insofar as the collapse time of the structure is concerned.
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Title: Structural Uncertainty Analysis of Nuclear Reactor Core Load Pads
Creator: Wozniak, Nicholas
Date: 2019
Description: In fast spectrum nuclear reactors, reactivity is directly related to the capability of the reactor to sustain a fission chain reaction for...
Show moreIn fast spectrum nuclear reactors, reactivity is directly related to the capability of the reactor to sustain a fission chain reaction for power production. Historically, mechanical/structural analysis and design have been driven primarily by deterministic methods. However, reactivity is extremely sensitive to the location of the fuel within the reactor; which is subject to uncertainties. This makes deterministic models unstable and can allow manufacturing errors to contribute to uncertainties in analysis, resulting in potential safety concerns and incorrect reactor lifetime prediction. One potential means to address this challenge is the use of stochastic analysis. A framework is presented which introduces uncertainty analysis through the use of Monte Carlo Simulation. Latin Hypercube Sampling is used to reduce the number of sample runs and the computational effort and storage space requirements for the results. Geometric parameters such as the gaps at the load pad contact points, the location of the above core load pad (ACLP), and even temperature gradient profiles, that are important to the design of nuclear reactors are varied, and their effects on the overall performance are studied through sensitivity analysis. The main focus was to quantify the effects of the variation of these parameters directly on the variation of the contact forces and deformations of the fuel assemblies which house and control the movement of the fuel. Based on the results of the sensitivity study, this study found that the ACLP location has the largest effect on contact forces. And as such, any uncertainty in this parameter results in a rather large variation in the intensity of the contact force. Furthermore, specific recommendations are given to help control these variations as well as for further investigations on other parameters that may be significant to the design of fuel assemblies.
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Title: CHARACTERIZATION OF DISPERSION AND ULTRAFINE PARTICLE EMISSION FACTORS USING NEAR ROADWAY FIELD MEASUREMENTS
Creator: Xiang, Sheng
Date: 2019
Description: Recent epidemiology evidence suggests that vehicle emissions are major contributors to poor urban air quality. Human exposure to elevated...
Show moreRecent epidemiology evidence suggests that vehicle emissions are major contributors to poor urban air quality. Human exposure to elevated concentration of traffic emissions has been associated with increased risk factors for a range of negative health outcomes. Evaluation of human exposure to vehicle emissions (e.g. ultrafine particles) mainly relies on dispersion models. Consequently, dispersion models need to comply with constantly increasing requirements to provide predictions of pollutant concentration. The dynamic of near roadway dispersion process needs to be investigated since most of the existing models does not account traffic condition variability (e.g. vehicle type and mode of operation) for dispersion. A five-year long field study was conducted to characterize dispersion near roadway with various vehicle mode of operation and vehicle type. To better understand the dispersion process near roadway, the impact of different ambient background categories (e.g. remote, lake, urban, industrial) on ultrafine particles (UFPs) need to be evaluated. Results demonstrate that each category has a different average ambient background concentration (pt cm–3) as follows: remote, 2,700; lake, 6,000; industrial 12,000 and urban 11,000. The large variations exist in ambient background concentration will result in significant variations in near roadway concentrations. The total near roadway measurements are generally near 20,000 pt cm–3 and reach to 60,000 pt cm–3 depending on the background and traffic emission. The dispersion near the roadway is also investigated in this study. A roadway restricted to light-duty vehicles (LDVs) was selected to conducted near roadway field measurement. Results indicate that the dispersion induced by vehicles is a two-stage process. When under the unsteady-state condition with small number of operating vehicles, the rate of dispersion near roadway increased from 2 m2 s-1 to 6 m2 s-1 as the number of vehicles increased. For steady-state condition, the rate of dispersion was constant near 6 m2 s-1 and not increased with additional vehicles. For a roadway mixed with both LDVs and heavy duty vehicles (HDVs), similar results were found. Dispersion increased from 6 to 18 m2 s-1 as total vehicle flow rate increased to 10,000 veh h-1 and HDV flow rate increased to 1000 veh h-1. Finally, the calculated dispersion near roadway is used to estimate the UFP emission factors. The UFP emission factors were ranged from 0.5 × 1013 to 1.5 × 1013 pt km-1 veh-1 and from 7 × 1014 to 20 × 1014 pt km-1 veh-1 for LDVs and HDVs, respectively. The variations in UFP emission factors are due to change in vehicle mode of operation.The results from this study will be critical for parameterization of dispersion near roadway and provide important emission inventory for interdisciplinary partnership among different fields (e.g. air quality, transportation design and urban planning) in solving transportation air quality problem.
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Title: Structural Condition Assessment for Wind Turbine Towers
Creator: Zahraee, Afshin
Date: 2019
Description: Wind-based energy generation has special priority in efforts related to global sustainability. Based on this priority and the desire for...
Show moreWind-based energy generation has special priority in efforts related to global sustainability. Based on this priority and the desire for increase in electricity generation, the size of wind turbines has been tremendously increased in recent years. Moreover, larger wind turbines have access to more stable wind speeds which assists in electricity generation consistency. However, larger wind turbines are more prone to exhibit structural failure due to the increase of size as well as presence of complexities in the structure and wind load interaction. As such, condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of wind turbines are crucial in their sustainable operation. In this work, a new framework for condition assessment of wind turbine towers is developed. This framework enhances the ability to assess the structural condition of in-service wind turbine towers. Using this framework: 1) the wind data for the wind turbine location is collected, 2) a series of numerical modeling and analysis for the wind turbine tower for various wind velocities are performed to obtain the maximum induced stresses and their corresponding critical fatigue components (hot spots), and 3) fatigue analysis is performed leading to prediction for the remaining life of the wind turbine tower. To illustrate the capability of the present method, a case study is performed on an existing wind turbine. The obtained analytical results are compared and verified by the original design parameters. The results obtained for life prediction of the wind turbine tower correlate with life predictions of other existing wind turbine towers. It is anticipated that application of this framework for existing and future wind turbines will enhance their inspection planning as well as offer a more cost-effective process for repair and rehabilitation of wind turbine towers. This will ultimately increase the overall safety of wind turbine systems and enhance their reliability of performance.Keywords: Wind Turbine Tower, Condition Assessment, Life Prediction.
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Title: DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR THE SELECTION OF BUILDING COMPONENTS USING MAINTAINABILITY PRINCIPLES
Creator: Liu, Xuanchang
Date: 2019
Description: Maintainability of a building component refers to how easy it is to maintain the component with minimum cost and downtime. Unfortunately,...
Show moreMaintainability of a building component refers to how easy it is to maintain the component with minimum cost and downtime. Unfortunately, maintainability issues do not receive enough attention in the design stage and cause serious problems in the post-construction stage such as increasing the life cycle cost of the facility, wasting maintenance materials, and unsatisfactory user experience because of downtime. These problems can be prevented if a tool is available that can help designers make the selection for building components based on maintainability in the design stage. This study aims to develop such a tool that allows designers to evaluate a building’s components relative to maintainability and that helps designers to make a maintainability-based selection in the design stage. To achieve this purpose, this study first identifies a checklist of maintenance actions for components of building systems, in this study condensers. Then, a condenser selector system is developed by coding in Java language. Users can run this selector with any browser with or without a connection to the Internet. This condenser selector system relies on a database that is populated by data about maintenance actions obtained from condensers’ guidebooks or from manufacturers. When using the selector, designers can customize the tool according to their preferences or conditions. At the end, the selector ranks the condensers in the database and allows the designer to make an informed maintainability-based selection. The prototype component selection system is a prototype, but can be expanded by augmenting the system to include other components too. Ideally, a maintainability-based selection tool should include all models of all components in building systems. Such a system could be a significant improvement in the current design practice. Considering the maintainability of components in the design stage could enhance maintenance and facility management.
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Title: SYSTEMWIDE INTERSECTION SIGNAL TIMING OPTIMIZATION SIMULTANEOUSLY MINIMIZING VEHICLE AND PEDESTRIAN DELAYS
Creator: Roshandeh, Arash Moradkhani
Date: 2013, 2013-07
Description: The ever-growing traffic volume especially in urban areas stretches the transportation system to be operated at near or exceeding capacity and...
Show moreThe ever-growing traffic volume especially in urban areas stretches the transportation system to be operated at near or exceeding capacity and causes congestion. Expanding system capacity and effectively utilizing available capacity could help reduce traffic congestion. In most of cases, adding extra travel lanes in dense urban street networks is not feasible any more due to land scarcity. This study introduces a new method for signal timing optimization that is carried out by adjusting green splits of AM peak, PM peak, and rest of the day timing plans for each signalized intersection in the network without changing the existing cycle lengths and signal coordination to minimize total vehicle and pedestrian delays per cycle. The proposed method contains a basic model that handles vehicle delays only and an enhanced model that simultaneously addresses vehicle and pedestrian delays using two different pedestrian delay estimation methods. Both models are incorporated into an agent-based regional travel demand forecasting tool for detailed traffic assignments using data on Chicago regional travel demand, traffic counts, geometric designs, and signal timing plans for major intersections in the Chicago Central Business District (CBD) street network. The computational experiment reveals that vehicle delays in the CBD area could reduce by 10 percent when only considering vehicle delays and 5 percent when simultaneously considering vehicle and pedestrian delays for signal timing optimization. Considering the intersections safety analysis, it has been found that signals timing optimization in all four areas combined without considering pedestrian delays decreased different crash types under various severities for multiple vehicle collisions as well as vehicle-pedestrian ones. Taking care of both vehicles and pedestrians delay xvi vii simultaneously, using HCM method, just a very few situations represent slight increases in crash frequencies and all other cases indicate crash reductions. Compared with the sensitivity analysis results using the HCM method for calculating pedestrian delays in the enhanced model applications, the Levinson method produces different results even though crash frequency reduction trends are almost the same as HCM method results.
PH.D in Civil Engineering, July 2013
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Title: AN INVESTIGATION INTO STABILITY OF TUBE AND COUPLER SCAFFOLDS SUBJECT TO SEISMIC LOADS
Creator: Najafabadi, Aram Zare
Date: 2012-11-23, 2012-12
Description: Temporary structures are structures that are set up for applications in relatively short time periods, most notably category of which are...
Show moreTemporary structures are structures that are set up for applications in relatively short time periods, most notably category of which are scaffolds that are built in two types: supported and suspended. Tube and coupler scaffolding systems are supported types and are commonly used in nuclear industry’s applications. This study evaluates the behavior of this type of scaffolding system due to the effect of dead, live, i.e. weight of workers and equipment, and lateral earthquake loads applied on the structure. Consistent with OSHA dimensional requirements, six different configurations ranging from 1 to 3 stories and 1 to 2 bay scaffoldings have been selected for this study. Using a finite element analysis, the significance of all gravity loads, as well as potential seismic loads on the safety and stability of aforementioned scaffold types was studied. The seismic acceleration level at which the failure occurs was determined for four failure criteria. These criteria are: (1) the structural member yield failure; (2) the structural member buckling failure; (3) the system sliding failure; and (4) the system overturning (tip-over) failure. The analysis results show that the most critical failure mode for all configurations of tube and coupler scaffolds studied in this thesis occurred due to instability and as result of sliding. No overstress or buckling failure was observed to occur prior or concurrent to this failure. This finding reaffirms that this type of scaffolds has considerable sufficient capacity to resist their intended loads yet are vulnerable to instability because of sliding. With regards to the effect of number of bays and stories on the critical earthquake level, it was observed that as the number of scaffold stories increases, the critical earthquake level becomes smaller except for the case of the 1-bay scaffold for the 2- and xii 3-story configurations. Addition of an extra bay to a simple 1-bay scaffold configuration does not considerably improve the earthquake level at which the sliding failure occurs. With regards to time of failure, addition of stories to a scaffold configuration delays the failure occurrence in all cases except for the case of the 2-bay scaffold and addition of a bay does significantly delay the occurrence of failure for 1- and 2-story scaffolds, about 6 second for 1-story scaffolds, and 8 seconds for 2-story scaffolds. However, this improvement is negligible for 3-story scaffolds. In general, addition of a bay postpones the failure time. The evaluation of stress levels in all various scaffolding elements suggests that increasing the number of bays and/or stories does not generally affect the induced stresses in beams. In addition, the study shows that buckling and overturning (uplift) effects have very minimal effect on the failure of tube and coupler scaffolds.
M.S. in Civil Engineering, December 2012
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Title: Arched dams
Creator: Szeszychi, Ignatius Leo., Zack, Raymond R.
Date: 2009, 1911
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/archeddams00szes
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology, 1911 B.S. in Civil Engineering, 1911

Title: PROJECT SCHEDULING USING OPTIMIZED FINANCING
Creator: Alavipour, Seyyed Mohammadreza
Date: 2017, 2017-07
Description: Contractors need financing throughout a project, mainly due to retainage, which is the money that the owner withholds to make sure that the...
Show moreContractors need financing throughout a project, mainly due to retainage, which is the money that the owner withholds to make sure that the project is performed properly by the contractor. Even if an owner does not withhold retainage, financing is still necessary because the periodic payments made by the owner are usually delayed. All pertinent studies conducted so far have considered only one source of financing without any consideration of different sources and types of financing, times of cash provisions, interest rates, and repayment options. Actually, if one assumes a predetermined credit limit and one source of financing, as past researchers have done, the optimal financing cost and the schedule that satisfies all constraints may be different than when several sources of financing and undetermined credit limit are considered. The main objective of this research is to focus on the optimization of financing cost by developing a financing optimization model based on different financing alternatives. Far lower financing cost and higher profit are obtained by using the proposed model compared to all models developed in past research. The research is conducted in four stages of development. In Stage 1, a financing optimization model is developed for a schedule that uses normal (not accelerated) activities, and early activity start and finish times. This model can be used before the contract is signed to offer the lower bid or can be used after the contract is signed to obtain higher profit. In Stage 2, the time-cost tradeoff algorithm is added to the model developed in Stage 1, considering accelerated activities between the crash and normal durations. In Stage 3, the model developed in Stage 2 is augmented by considering variable activity start times. Finally, in Stage 4, the model developed in Stage 3 is further improved by expanding time-cost tradeoff to allow for time extensions beyond the contract duration. All models developed in these four stages provide not only minimum financing cost, but also the ideal work schedule that achieves minimum total cost and maximum profit. Moreover, these models provide specific timings for borrowing and repaying funds.
Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, July 2017
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Title: ADVANCING KNOWLEDGE OF INDOOR AEROSOL SOURCES, FATE, TRANSPORT, AND CONTROL
Creator: Azimi, Parham
Date: 2016, 2016-12
Description: Recent evidence suggests that particulate matter (of both indoor and outdoor origin) is one of the most important airborne pollutants driving...
Show moreRecent evidence suggests that particulate matter (of both indoor and outdoor origin) is one of the most important airborne pollutants driving adverse health effects worldwide. Despite our understanding of major indoor aerosol sources that contribute to adverse health effects across the population, gaps in our knowledge of some aspects of the sources, fate, transport, and control of indoor aerosols still remain. This dissertation focuses on filling three major gaps related to indoor aerosols. The first objective of this dissertation is to improve knowledge of the impacts of particle filtration in central heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems on fine particles smaller than 2.5 μm in diameter (i.e., PM2.5) and ultrafine particles smaller than 100 nm in diameter (i.e., UFPs) of outdoor origin that penetrate into the indoor environment. Results demonstrate that higher-efficiency HVAC filters can significantly reduce indoor proportions of outdoor PM2.5 and UFPs inside residences, but home vintage, climate zone, and ventilation strategy strongly influence the outcomes due to widely varying air exchange rates, HVAC system runtimes, and sources of ventilation air. The second objective of this dissertation is to improve knowledge of emissions and control of particulate matter from a recently established source of indoor pollutants: desktop three-dimensional (3D) printers. Median estimates of time-varying UFP emission rates ranged from ~108 to ~1011 #/min across all tested combinations, varying primarily by filament material and, to a lesser extent, bed temperature. It was also shown that UFP concentrations within close or moderate proximity to some desktop 3D printer and filament combinations can exceed recommended exposure levels. The most effective control strategies for reducing pollutant concentrations emitted from desktop 3D printers wereinstalling a high-flow spot ventilation system and operating the printer in a sealed enclosure with high efficiency gas and particle filtration. Finally, the third objective of this dissertation is to improve knowledge of the fate, transport, and control of infectious diseases in indoor environments through mathematical modeling of bioaerosol transmission and infection risk. Results demonstrate that Recirculating HVAC filtration can achieve risk reductions at lower costs of operation than equivalent levels of outdoor air ventilation, particularly for MERV 13-16 filters. It was also shown that in addition to the biological characteristics of respiratory pathogens, human activities, interzonal airflows, and physical properties of bioaerosols can substantially impact the infection transmission risk. Further, the dominant pathway for influenza transmission indoors under most conditions was airborne transmission. Finally, estimations of the back-calculated quanta generation rate for influenza viruses were directly in line with the existing data gathered from prior epidemiology studies.
Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering, December 2016
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Title: PUBLIC LITERACY ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Creator: Panchal, Avani P.
Date: 2011-07-19, 2011-07
Description: Reports suggest that Chicago is one of the leading US cities with respect to sustainability and, in order to promote sustainability in a city...
Show moreReports suggest that Chicago is one of the leading US cities with respect to sustainability and, in order to promote sustainability in a city like Chicago, it is imperative that the residents are aware of factors associated with sustainable development and contribute towards its advancement. Majority of the research conducted so far, does not examine the non-expert level of sustainability understanding. This thesis investigates the public literacy on sustainable development by conducting a survey and analyzing the generated database. The statements posed in the survey do not demand technical education but assess the non-expert resident literacy of sustainability by asking relevant subjects. The survey consists of four demographic questions (participants‟ gender, age, level of education and annual income), fifteen conceptual statements and five opinion statements, based on sustainability. The aim is to find a relation, if any, between the respondents‟ demographics and their responses to the survey. The database generated from the survey of 353 randomly selected individuals, is analyzed by four different statistical methods, which are arranged in increasing order of complexity – (i) descriptive statistics and z-test for proportions, (ii) contingency tables and Pearson chi-square test, (iii) exploratory factor analysis and (iv) multinomial logistic regression. The outcome of the statistical analyses suggests that approximately 50% of the participants have accurately responded to the survey and the non-expert resident does not know the definitions to pertinent sustainability concepts. Additionally, survey responses have a strong association with the participants‟ age. There is a weak association between answers and the respondents‟ gender and annual income. In spite of higher than average participants with a college degree, the level of education has a negligible relation with survey responses. Thus, it is necessary to increase the awareness and educate non-experts about sustainable development. It is promising to observe that the responses to the opinion statements suggest that individuals are willing to contribute towards sustainability provided they are educated about it. Nonetheless, the willingness to contribute requires action and without societal support, it is not possible to promote sustainability, which requires increased understanding and knowledge and willingness to act appropriately.
M.S. in Environmental Engineering, July 2011
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Title: ASSESSMENT OF STRUCTURAL MATERIALS BY HIGH TEMPERATURE INSTRUMENTED INDENTATION
Creator: Gan, Bin
Date: 2012-12-03, 2012-12
Description: This is an ideal place for me to express my gratefulness to my Ph.D. advisor, Prof. Sammy Tin, who has offered me the financial support and...
Show moreThis is an ideal place for me to express my gratefulness to my Ph.D. advisor, Prof. Sammy Tin, who has offered me the financial support and tremendous freedom in doing research. From working with me through publications and thesis, mentoring me what constitutes a professional and high quality work, nurturing my patience, to giving me advice on how to deliver an insightful presentation, Prof. Tin puts his effort in helping me on every small step that I need to make, as I gradually become more experienced in research and start to make a few achievement along the way. I am deeply indebted to Prof. Tin’s vision, guidance and sustained support. I would like to thank Prof. Philip Nash, Prof. Sheldon Mostovoy and Prof. Sudhakar Nair for being the committee member of my thesis defense, and offering me so many invaluable suggestions. The indispensable help from Russ Janota, the faculty and staff in the MMAE department is acknowledged. The enjoyable interaction with Mengtao, Qizheng, Matt, and other TPTC friends helps me in various aspects. I would like to thank Dr. Hideyuki Murakami and Dr. Takahito Ohmura for hosting me in NIMS. The experience had broadened my horizon and tremendously enhanced my capabilities to conduct independent research. In addition, the research collaboration with Prof. Julia R. Greer and Dr. Robert Maass on freestanding Ni3Al nanoparticles is also fully acknowledged. Furthermore, I am grateful to Prof. Qiang Feng and Prof. Roman Nowak. Their constant support, encouragement, mentoring and nurturing have a profound influence on me. This thesis is dedicated to my beloved parents, Jinlong Gan and Yuxiang Lai, who have built the fortitude into my mind. I also thank my sisters, Liping Gan and Lihong Gan, for their sustained support. Their love and understanding enable me to have a peaceful mind that makes this study possible. I also feel grateful to the deep love and endless patience from Xiaomo Li and the support from her parents.
PH.D in Materials Science and Engineering, December 2012
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Title: Building the Iowa Industrial Reformatory for Females
Creator: Holmboe, J. A.
Date: 2009, 1917
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/buildingiowaindu00holm
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology

Title: NUTRIENT REMOVAL FROM SECONDARY EFFLUENTS USING REACTIVE FILTRATION
Creator: Bhupal, Gurmanpreet Singh
Date: 2015, 2015-07
Description: Simultaneous removal of dominant forms of nitrogen and phosphorous present in secondary effluents was studied with reactive filtration as the...
Show moreSimultaneous removal of dominant forms of nitrogen and phosphorous present in secondary effluents was studied with reactive filtration as the treatment method. The selected media for filter bed included Granular Ferric Hydroxide (GFH), Calcite (C), Silica Sand (S), and Activated Alumina (A). The focus was to evaluate the performances of media blends GFH-C-S and A-C-S for removal of sRP and sNO3-N in lab scale batch and column experiments using secondary effluents provided by Calumet Water Reclamation Plant. The media blends performed better for sRP removal than sNO3-N removal with A-C-S being outperformed by GFH-C-S in batch experiments, and hence was not used for column experiments. The removal kinetic study using GFH-C-S showed 100% sRP removal rate and 45% NO3-N removal rate for an optimal contact time of 2 minutes, with latter showing gradual desorption after initial instant adsorption. The optimal adsorbent dosage for sRP was found to be 15g (1:1:1) whereas for NO3-N, the removal rates increased with an increase in adsorbent dosage. Column experiments with GFH-C-S gave an adsorption capacity of 1.8 mg/g for an equilibrium concentration of 0.1 mg P/L with breakthrough occurring after a throughput of 603 bed volumes.
M.S. in Environmental Engineering, July 2015
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Title: SEISMIC COLLAPSE EVALUATION OF NON-DUCTILE CONCENTRICALLY BRACED FRAMES
Creator: Wen, Rou
Date: 2012-11-21, 2012-12
Description: More attentions have been paid on the Non-Ductile Concentrically Braced Frames (ND-CBFs) in low and moderate seismicity regions recently due...
Show moreMore attentions have been paid on the Non-Ductile Concentrically Braced Frames (ND-CBFs) in low and moderate seismicity regions recently due to their low ductility detailing requirements for design and construction. In this work, seismic collapse performances of two ND-CBFs are studied. One 3-story and one 9-story ND-CBF using small response modification coefficients (R=3) are designed firstly. Nonlinear finite element technologies are used to study the behaviors of local components. Practical analytical models for brace/gusset-plate assemblies and steel gravity frames are developed based on finite element simulations and engineering judgment. Three 2D structural models having increased local modeling complexity are developed for each braced frame. Nonlinear static pushover analyses on 3-story frames are conducted to get basic understandings of the damage evolution patterns and the interactions between main brittle braced frames and the steel gravity frames. Nonlinear dynamic analyses references the concepts of Incremental Dynamic Analysis are followed to investigate the seismic collapse responses of studied frames. The seismic assessments referenced the evaluation methods in FEMA P695 for ductile seismic load resisting frames through incremental dynamic analysis are carried out. Studied results show that Non-Ductile Concentrically Braced Frames would have little chance to prevent building collapse under severe ground motions. However, it seems that such buildings at least with low-to-moderate heights would have high probability of collapse prevention for up to moderate ground motions with conventional gravity framing systems used in modern steel buildings.
PH.D in Civil Engineering, December 2012
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Title: SOLIDS ROLE IN TERTIARY CHEMICAL PHOSPHORUS REMOVAL BY ALUM
Creator: Maher, Chris
Date: 2013, 2013-12
Description: Chemical phosphorus (P) removal is commonly implemented in wastewater treatment to remove P to very low levels (
Show moreChemical phosphorus (P) removal is commonly implemented in wastewater treatment to remove P to very low levels (<0.1 mg P/L). The dose of precipitant (Al or Fe) needed is several times the stoichiometric dose in order to achieve a filtered effluent level of < 30 μg TP/L. The mechanistic basis for P removal using chemical precipitant addition is generally considered to be more than simple precipitation. The role of adsorption and/or complexation in removal of reactive or unreactive phosphorus to the already formed chemical precipitates or complexes has been investigated. Potential operational efficiency gains resulting from age of chemically precipitated solids and the recycle of these solids to the process stream was undertaken at the Iowa Hill Water Reclamation Facility which employs the DensaDeg® process (IDI, Richmond, VA) for tertiary chemical P removal. The effect of solids age was found to be insignificant over the solids retention time of 2 to 8 days, indicating that the solids were unaffected by the aging effects of decreasing porosity and surface acidity, and that the bulk of solids were retained in the clarifier blanket, hence providing no advantage in the removal mechanisms from increased concentration of solids. When solids recycle was redirected from the traditional location of the flocculation reactor to a point just prior to chemical addition in the chemical mixing reactor, lower effluent soluble P concentrations at lower molar doses of aluminum were achieved. At laboratory scale, the “spent” or “waste” chemical sludge showed high capacity and rapid kinetics for P sorption from real wastewater effluents. A number of scenarios were tested and the wide range of parameter values indicate that the sorption reaction is rather specific to the sludge and the process water matrix. x Saturation concentrations were in the range of 8 to 29 mg soluble reactive P/g solids. Higher saturation concentrations were found at higher temperatures. Ambiguous results were obtained for the effect of sludge age on capacity, implying dependence on either aging conditions or sample matrices. In all instances alum sludge produced without a coagulant aid polymer had a much higher capacity for P sorption than polymer based sludge. The reaction reached equilibrium in less than 10 minutes with 50% or greater removal within the first minute. Removal reactions were modeled well by nth order equations with n 3 and by exponential data fitting. Modeled as a sorption process, the pseudo-second order model presented by Ho and McKay in 1999 proved to be an excellent fit. Second order rate constants ranged approximately from 0.1 to 6 (g mg-1 min-1) depending on the P fraction examined, age of sludge, reaction temperature, and presence or absence of coagulant aid polymer in the sludge.
M.S. in in Environmental Engineering, December 2013
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Title: Comparative designs of Gravity and Ambursen dams
Creator: Lyon, William K., Jr, Petersen, George W.
Date: 2009, 1921
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/comparativedesig00lyon
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology;Includes folded leaves in back pocket...
Show morehttp://www.archive.org/details/comparativedesig00lyon
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology;Includes folded leaves in back pocket Bibliography: leaf [4]
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Title: Collective data on the treatment of sewage by the activated sludge process
Creator: Hammerman, M. A.
Date: 2009, 1920
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/collectivedataon00hamm
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology;Bibliography: leaf 3

Title: Improving Methods to Measure the Transport of Outdoor Pollutants into Residential Indoor Environments
Creator: Zhao, Haoran
Date: 2019
Description: Human exposure to ambient pollutants such as particulate matter, ozone, and oxides of nitrogen are associated with a variety of adverse health...
Show moreHuman exposure to ambient pollutants such as particulate matter, ozone, and oxides of nitrogen are associated with a variety of adverse health effects in epidemiology studies. However, much of human exposure to outdoor pollutants occurs inside residential buildings where people spend the majority of their time. One important determinant of indoor exposures to pollutants of outdoor origin is the “penetration factor” of the building envelope, which characterizes the ability of the building enclosure assembly to filter outdoor air as it infiltrates indoors. To date, measurements of envelope penetration factors for various outdoor pollutants in real indoor environments remain extremely limited, in part because current methods suffer from high costs, high uncertainty, and high levels of invasiveness presented to building occupants. Therefore, the research objectives in this dissertation aims to (1) develop and/or refine (as applicable) methods to measure the penetration of outdoor particulate matter, ozone, and nitrogen oxides in buildings and (2) apply them to characterize a diverse sample of residential buildings in Chicago, IL, including single-family homes, multi-family homes, and homes before and after they undergo energy efficiency retrofits. Results from this research will provide refined methods that others can use in field measurements and novel data for modelers to better assess indoor exposures to outdoor pollutants, which can then be used to improve exposure assessments for epidemiology studies.
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