Building Green
Some scientists say polystyrene insulation may be responsible for up to 40% of the ozone depletion caused by CFCs. That's only one reason why construction and design professionals...
Future Fill-Up
The car rental agencies at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport have combined their service/filling facilities in the new terminal's parking garage. This permits customers to pick up...
Designing Better Hollow Fibre Contactors
In this paper we calculate optimum hollow fibre module designs for gas absorption by maximizing the mass transferred per unit cost. Two costs are considered; the membrane cost and the...
Update: Bridge Scour
Nearly 500 bridges have failed because of hydraulic conditions�primarily scour�since 1950, but the collapse of the Route 90 bridge over Schoharie Creek in April 1987 focused national attention...
The Soil-Rock Boundary: What is it and Where is it?
A major issue in many areas of Civil Engineering practice is the boundary between earth materials that are defined as soil and those that are defined as rock. Designers, contractors, and...
Problems with Rock Excavation Specification in Alberta
As a result of contract overruns and claims from classification, measurement, and payment for 'solid rock' excavation, Alberta Transportation and Utilities embarked...
Where Does Rock Begin Beneath Philadelphia?
Philadelphia provides an excellent example of the engineering problems associated with the interpretation of saprolite/weathered rock/sound rock profiles. The bedrock beneath the city...
The U.S. Office of Surface Mining (OSM) Proposed Strength-Durability Classification System
Federal regulations for the surface mining of coal stress proper design and construction of stable waste rock disposal areas. A key to the long-term stability of these excess spoil fills...
Flawed Assumptions: Why Bridge Deck Joints Fail
Engineers should continually examine, evaluate and improve their representations of reality to avoid basing their beliefs, decisions, practices and policies on flawed assumptions. Such...
Mechanics Computing in 1990's and Beyond
This proceedings,
Anatomy of Asphalt
Two main factors will combine over the next several years to alter the composition of asphalt pavements, which make up more than 90% of the paved roads in the U.S. First, a major research...
Out of the Lab...and into the Field?
Materials experts know very little about concrete's basic structure. Now, though, engineers at a research center sponsored by the National Science Foundation are working on...
Every Penny's Worth
Value engineering has been used in the construction industry since the 1960s, but highway projects have sometimes been thought of as too simple for VE studies. Now, with the increasing...
Caring for a Covered Bridge
Today the quaint Cornish-Windsor covered bridge (winner of this year's Outstanding Civil Engineering Merit Award) doesn't look much different than it did when...
Bridge Seismic Retrofit Prioritization
This paper describes a mathematical model developed to produce an index by which bridges in a network can be prioritized systematically for seismic retrofitting. The model incorporates...
Response of Ductile Iron Pipelines at Parkfield, CA to Loma Prieta Earthquake
A field experiment designed to investigate the performance of buried pipelines at a fault crossing has been constructed at Owens' Pasture near Parkfield, CA. The site was...
Tension Bending Behavior of Buried Pipelines Under Large Ground Deformations in Active Faults
This paper deals with the tensile failure of buried pipelines subject to abrupt fault movements. The pipe is modeled as a thin cylindrical shell which is essentially semi-infinite. The...
Seismic Risk Assessments of Small Earth Dams
A procedure has been developed which attempts to assess the risk of damage or failure of small earth dams and embankments when subjected to seismic input motions. The procedure is based...
Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Bridges on Earthquake Priority Routes in Western Kentucky
This paper discusses the current conditions of 203 bridges on the priority routes in Western Kentucky and their vulnerabilities to earthquakes. A span-loss type of bridge collapse due...
Evaluation of Automatic Earthquake Shutoff Valve Performance and Recommendations for Future U.S. Standards
Increasing interest of local and state government has developed in recent years regarding legislation requiring automatic shutoff valves for natural gas lines as well as lines containing...
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