Civil and Environmental Engineering
Recent Submissions
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Resilience-informed infrastructure network dismantling
(2022-09-13)Large-scale networked infrastructure systems contribute significantly to modern society. Highly intra- and interconnnected systems enable communities to be more productive, at the expense of becoming more vulnerable to extreme events, cascading failures, and operational demands, including random failures and even targeted attacks. The resilience of ... -
Application of a fully polynomial randomized approximation scheme (FPRAS) to infrastructure system reliability assessments
(2017-08-06)Networked systems make the reliability assessment of critical infrastructure computationally challenging given the combinatorial nature of system-level states. Several methods from numerical schemes to analytical approaches, such as Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) and recursive decomposition algorithms (RDA), respectively, have been applied to this ... -
Physics-Guided Real-Time Full-Field Vibration Response Estimation from Sparse Measurements Using Compressive Sensing
(2023)In civil, mechanical, and aerospace structures, full-field measurement has become necessary to estimate the precise location of precise damage and controlling purposes. Conventional full-field sensing requires dense installation of contact-based sensors, which is uneconomical and mostly impractical in a real-life scenario. Recent developments in ... -
Gypsum scale formation and inhibition kinetics with implications in membrane system
(2022)Water desalination using membrane technology is one of the main technologies to resolve water pollution and scarcity issues. In the membrane treatment process, mineral scale deposition and fouling is a severe challenge that can lead to filtration efficiency decrease, permeate quality compromise, and even membrane damage. Multiple methods have been ... -
A New Kinetic Assay Method for Effective Scale Inhibitor Concentration Determination with Low Detection Limit
(2022)Scale inhibitors are widely used for mineral scale control in various industries, including oil and gas productions, geothermal energy acquisitions, and heat exchanger scale control to mention a few. In most applications, these scale inhibitors are effective at substoichiometric concentrations (e.g., 1 mg/L or lower), and the optimization of these ... -
Observations of CO2 Corrosion-Induced Carbonate Scale Formation and Inhibition on Mild Steel
(2022)Aqueous CO2-containing environment is ubiquitous in oil and gas production. Carbonate scales (e.g., calcite) tend to form in such an environment. Meanwhile, the CO2 corrosion of mild steel infrastructure may result in corrosion-induced scales including siderite (FeCO3). Previously, siderite was generally treated as a corrosion problem rather than a ... -
Non-equilibrium BaxSr1-xSO4 solid solution compositions at elevated Sr2+ concentration, ionic strength, and temperature
(2022)The BaxSr1-xSO4 solid solution is ubiquitously present in both geological and industrial processes, where they mostly form under non-equilibrium conditions. Compared with those formed under equilibrium conditions, the BaxSr1-xSO4 solid solution formed at non-equilibrium condition has significantly higher Sr incorporation at the same aqueous phase ... -
Inhibition of biofouling on reverse osmosis membrane surfaces by germicidal ultraviolet light side-emitting optical fibers
(2022)Biofouling of membrane surfaces poses significant operational challenges and costs for desalination and wastewater reuse applications. Ultraviolet (UV) light can control biofilms while reducing chemical usage and disinfection by-products, but light deliveries to membrane surfaces in spiral wound geometries has been a daunting challenge. Thin and ... -
Evolutionary power spectral density estimation using energy spectrum equation
(2021)In this paper a novel approach is developed for the determination of evolutionary power spectra (EPS) of non-stationary random processes that can be used as models of earthquake accelerograms. Specifically, the spectra are estimated by considering the statistical moments of the energy of lightly damped linear systems (filters) excited by the stochastic ... -
Seismic fragility assessment of typical bridges in Northeastern Brazil
(2022)This paper presents a seismic fragility assessment of bridges commonly found in Northeastern Brazil. A generic three-dimensional nonlinear finite-element model is generated in OpenSees to enable variation of geometric features and component modeling. A parametric analysis is performed to evaluate the impact of the geometric and physical variations ... -
Geometric nonlinear analysis of large rotation behavior of a curved SWCNT
(2022)Nanotubes form clusters and are found in curved bundles in nanotube films and nanocomposites. Separation phenomenon is suspected to occur in these curved bundles. In this study, the deformation of a single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) interacting with curved bundle nanotubes is analyzed. It is assumed that the bundle is rigid and only van der Waals ... -
Ultrahigh resistance of hexagonal boron nitride to mineral scale formation
(2022)Formation of mineral scale on a material surface has profound impact on a wide range of natural processes as well as industrial applications. However, how specific material surface characteristics affect the mineral-surface interactions and subsequent mineral scale formation is not well understood. Here we report the superior resistance of hexagonal ... -
Mechanism for selective binding of aromatic compounds on oxygen-rich graphene nanosheets based on molecule size/polarity matching
(2022)Selective binding of organic compounds is the cornerstone of many important industrial and pharmaceutical applications. Here, we achieved highly selective binding of aromatic compounds in aqueous solution and gas phase by oxygen-enriched graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets via a previously unknown mechanism based on size matching and polarity matching. ... -
Titanium oxide improves boron nitride photocatalytic degradation of perfluorooctanoic acid
(2022)Boron nitride (BN) has the newly-found property of degrading recalcitrant polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) under ultraviolet C (UV-C, 254 nm) irradiation. It is ineffective at longer wavelengths, though. In this study, we report the simple calcination of BN and UV-A active titanium oxide (TiO2) creates a BN/TiO2 composite that is more photocatalytically ... -
Next-generation 2D optical strain mapping with strain-sensing smart skin compared to digital image correlation
(2022)This study reports next generation optical strain measurement with “strain-sensing smart skin” (S4) and a comparison of its performance against the established digital image correlation (DIC) method. S4 measures strain-induced shifts in the emission wavelengths of single-wall carbon nanotubes embedded in a thin film on the specimen. The new S4 film ... -
Integrated Modeling of U.S. Agricultural Soil Emissions of Reactive Nitrogen and Associated Impacts on Air Pollution, Health, and Climate
(2022)Agricultural soils are leading sources of reactive nitrogen (Nr) species including nitrogen oxides (NOx), ammonia (NH3), and nitrous oxide (N2O). The propensity of NOx and NH3 to generate ozone and fine particulate matter and associated impacts on health are highly variable, whereas the climate impacts of long-lived N2O are independent of emission ... -
Disparities in air quality downscaler model uncertainty across socioeconomic and demographic indicators in North Carolina
(2022)Studies increasingly use output from the Environmental Protection Agency's Fused Air Quality Surface Downscaler (“downscaler”) model, which provides spatial predictions of daily concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone (O3) at the census tract level, to study the health and societal impacts of exposure to air pollution. Downscaler ... -
Thermal annealing effects on palladium-decorated gold nanoparticle catalysts
(2022)Palladium metal supported on gold in the form of surface ensembles have enhanced catalytic properties compared to monometallic Pd, as exemplified by Pd-decorated Au nanoparticles (Pd-on-Au NPs) for various room-temperature reactions. Whereas the catalytic properties and nanostructure of Pd-on-Au NPs are not known at higher temperatures, this work ... -
Seismic Performance Assessment of a Retrofitted Bridge with Natural Rubber Isolators in Cold Weather Environments Using Fragility Surfaces
(2022)Rubber-based seismic isolation has been demonstrated to be one of the most effective measures to protect structural elements from damage during earthquakes and a viable option to retrofit existing structures with poor seismic detailing. The main constituent of these isolation units is rubber, a material that is subject to stiffening when exposed to ... -
Path-Dependent Reliability and Resiliency of Critical Infrastructure via Particle Integration Methods
(2022)Critical infrastructure is the backbone of modern societies. To meet increasing demand under resource-constrained and multihazard conditions, policy-makers are tapping into infrastructure resiliency: its capacity to withstand and recover from disruptions. Thus, resiliency-aware uncertainty quantification is key to identify tipping points, yet it ...
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