The damaging impact of continuous utility cuts on flexible pavement performance has been shown to be a major problem for urban roads and pavement mangers due to high reconstruction and maintenance costs. Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) is a trenchless construction method that does not require continuous trenching. HDD pipe installation techniques can reduce reinstatement costs, shorten construction periods, and lower social costs due to reduced user traffic delays. In this thesis, a detailed field study and numerical investigations was completed to quantify pavement deterioration and polyethylene (PE) pipe performance when pipelines are installed under flexible pavements using both traditional open-cut and HDD construction methods. Two 200mm SDR-17 DIPS HDPE pipes were installed 1.5m below a flexible pavement using open-cut and HDD construction technique. A state-of-the-art instrumentation and data acquisition systems were developed to measure HDD drill rig, PE pipes and pavement responses during pipe installations and for a period of about three years afterwards. Field data from (GPR) surveys, falling weight deflectometer (FWD) tests, surface distress surveys, and ground surface elevation survey were used to evaluate pavement deterioration due to the pipeline installations. The mechanisms of ground deformations during HDD and open-cut pipe installation were numerically investigated with FLAC3D, a commercial finite difference program. A hybrid constitutive model consisting of the traditional Duncan-Chang hyperbolic model and Mohr-Coulomb perfectly plastic model was developed and implemented in FLAC3D to simulate the non-linear stress-strain and stress dependent behavior of granular materials. Field test results show that the HDD installed pipe have significantly lower construction induced strains and ring deflections when compared to the open cut-and-cover installation and the mechanism of pipe deformation differs for the two construction techniques. The two pipes performed satisfactory over the long-term monitoring period as deflections and strain levels were below acceptable limits and there was no apparent deterioration of the pipe. Pipe deflections resulting from environmental effects (freeze and thaw) were found to be more significant than those due to material creep. Furthermore, the modified Iowa’s and Plastic Pipe Institute’s (PPI) ring deflection equations were found to over estimate pipe deflection for the open-cut and HDD installed pipes by about 114 and 50 percent, respectively. Results from field tests found that the HDD installation did not results in any observable change in the condition of the pavement structure performance, while the structure and integrity of pavement section in the vicinity of the open-cut was adversely impacted by utility cut excavation. It was determined numerically that when an unsupported excavation is created within a typical flexible pavement structure, distress zones that extend laterally from the face of the excavation to a distance of approximately 80% of the depth of excavation is developed. The results of the analyses suggests that better restoration techniques are required to eliminate the adverse effect caused by the stress relief within the pavement structure during a utility cut. Furthermore, the area of potential pavement deterioration should be extended beyond the edge of the utility cut to encompass the ‘distress zones’ when determining fees to cover pavement damage and restoration costs. Results obtained from numerical simulations advanced the understanding of the mechanism, magnitude, and extent of deformation within the pavement structure during HDD pipe installation in frictional and cohesive subgrade soils. Relationship between HDD annular bore pressures and displacements have been incorporated into design Charts and Tables for use in estimating maximum allowable bore pressures for HDD installation beneath flexible pavements. Critical bore pressures that would limit ground deformations and prevent excessive pavement deformations are presented. Critical bore pressures were compared to estimated allowable bore pressures obtained from the widely used Delft Geotechnics equation. The Delft Geotechnics equation was found to over estimate allowable bore pressure for HDD installation beneath flexible pavement. HDD pipeline installations under flexible pavement were found to have significantly lower restoration costs, social costs and maintenance cost than open-cut pipeline installations.

Cantilevered reinforced concrete columns with a lap splice of the longitudinal reinforcement near the base can induce high moment demands on the splice region when lateral loads are present on the structure. Code design specifications typically require a conservative splice length to account for these high moment demands and their consequences of bond failure. The required splice length is calculated as a function of required development length, which is a function of the bond between the reinforcement and the surrounding concrete, and a factor depending on the section detailing. However, the effects of concrete deterioration due to alkali silica reaction (ASR) and/or delayed ettringite formation (DEF) may weaken the bond of the splice region enough to overcome the conservative splice length, potentially resulting in brittle failure of the column during lateral loading. This thesis presents the following results obtained from an experimental and analytical program. * Fabrication of large-scale specimens of typical column splice regions with concrete that is susceptible to ASR/DEF deterioration * Measurement of the large-scale specimen deterioration due to ASR/DEF accelerated deterioration * Analytical model of the column splice region based on flexure theory as a function of the development length of the reinforcement and a factor to account for deterioration of the bond due to ASR/DEF * Experimental behavior of two large-scale specimens that are not influenced by premature concrete deterioration due to ASR/DEF (control specimens). This experimental data is also used to calibrate the analytical model. The conclusions of the research are that the analytical model correlates well with the experimental behavior of the large-scale control specimens not influenced by ASR/DEF. The lap splice region behaved as expected and an over-strength in the splice region is evident. To account for ASR/DEF damage, the analytical model proposes a reduction factor to decrease the bond strength of the splice region to predict ultimate performance of the region with different levels of premature concrete deterioration.

Reinforced concrete bridge columns can deteriorate prematurely due to the alkali-silica reaction (ASR) and/or delayed ettringite formation (DEF), causing internal expansion and cracking on the surface of the concrete. The performance of the longitudinal reinforcement lap splice in deteriorated concrete columns is the focus in this research. This thesis presents the results from the deterioration of large-scale specimens constructed and placed in an environment susceptible to ASR/DEF deterioration, the experimental results from four-point and three-point structural load tests, and an analytical model based on bending theory characterizing the specimen behavior during the structural load tests. Fourteen large-scale specimens were constructed, placed in an environment to accelerate the ASR/DEF deterioration mechanisms, and instrumented both internally and externally to measure the internal concrete expansions, and surface expansions and crack widths. In addition, two control specimens were constructed and kept in a laboratory, preventing ASR/DEF deterioration. Post-tensioning was used to simulate axial load on a bridge column. Structural load tests were performed on eight specimens with no ASR/DEF damage to late stage ASR and minimal DEF damage. Comparing the specimen behaviors during the loading testing, it was found that the yield strength increased about 5-15%, and post-cracking stiffness up to first yielding of the deteriorated specimens was about 25-35% stiffer than the control specimens. The increased specimen strength and stiffness likely occurred from volumetric expansion due to ASR/DEF damage which engaged the reinforcement, further confining the concrete and causing a beneficial increase in the axial post-tensioning load. The analytical model matched the control specimens well and matched the non-control specimens when the axial load was increased.

This research focuses on the characterization of damage accumulation in concrete specimens. Specifically, a nonlinear vibration technique is used to characterize the damage introduced by ongoing alkali-silica reactions (ASR). The nonlinear resonance testing consists of an analysis of the frequency response of concrete specimens subjected to impact loading. ASR introduces a third gel like phase, which can be expansive in the presence of moisture. The result of ASR is the formation of microcracks and debonding between aggregate and cement phases. Collectively, these changes act to increase the specimens' nonlinearity. As a result, it is found that the concrete samples exhibit nonlinear behavior; mainly a decrease in resonance frequency with an increasing level of excitation strain. The relationship between the amplitude of the response and the amount of frequency shift is used as a parameter to describe the nonlinearity of the specimen. The specimens used in this research are of varying reactivity with respect to ASR, which is induced in accordance with ASTM C 1293. The level of nonlinearity is used as a measure of damage caused by the progress of ASR throughout the one year test duration. These nonlinear resonance results are compared to the traditional measures of expansion described in the standard. The robustness and repeatability of the proposed technique is also investigated by repeated testing of samples assumed to be at a specific damage state. Finally, a petrographic staining technique is used to complement nonlinearity measurements and to further gain understanding of ASR. The results of this study show that the proposed nonlinear resonance methods are very sensitive to microstructural changes and have great potential for quantitative damage assessment in concrete.

As the cost of designing and building new highway pavements increases and the number of new construction and major rehabilitation projects decreases, the importance of ensuring that a given pavement design performs as expected in the field becomes vital. To address this issue in other fields of civil engineering, reliability analysis has been used extensively. However, in the case of pavement structural design, the reliability component is usually neglected or overly simplified. To address this need, the current dissertation proposes a framework for estimating the reliability of a given pavement structure regardless of the pavement design or analysis procedure that is being used. As part of the dissertation, the framework is applied with the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) and failure is considered as a function of rutting of the hot-mix asphalt (HMA) layer. The proposed methodology consists of fitting a response surface, in place of the time-demanding implicit limit state functions used within the MEPDG, in combination with an analytical approach to estimating reliability using second moment techniques: First-Order and Second-Order Reliability Methods (FORM and SORM) and simulation techniques: Monte Carlo and Latin Hypercube Simulation. In order to demonstrate the methodology, a three-layered pavement structure is selected consisting of a hot-mix asphalt (HMA) surface, a base layer, and subgrade. Several pavement design variables are treated as random; these include HMA and base layer thicknesses, base and subgrade modulus, and HMA layer binder and air void content. Information on the variability and correlation between these variables are obtained from the Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) program, and likely distributions, coefficients of variation, and correlation between the variables are estimated. Additionally, several scenarios are defined to account for climatic differences (cool, warm, and hot climatic regions), truck traffic distributions (mostly consisting of single unit trucks versus mostly consisting of single trailer trucks), and the thickness of the HMA layer (thick versus thin). First and second order polynomial HMA rutting failure response surfaces with interaction terms are fit by running the MEPDG under a full factorial experimental design consisting of 3 levels of the aforementioned design variables. These response surfaces are then used to analyze the reliability of the given pavement structures under the different scenarios. Additionally, in order to check for the accuracy of the proposed framework, direct simulation using the MEPDG was performed for the different scenarios. Very small differences were found between the estimates based on response surfaces and direct simulation using the MEPDG, confirming the accurateness of the proposed procedure. Finally, sensitivity analysis on the number of MEPDG runs required to fit the response surfaces was performed and it was identified that reducing the experimental design by one level still results in response surfaces that properly fit the MEPDG, ensuring the applicability of the method for practical applications. / text

Planning road maintenance and development activities, prioritizing road construction, reconstruction and rehabilitation works, performing project economic evaluations, forecasting road operation expenditures and road user effect always requires prediction of pavement behaviour. For this purpose models of pavement deterioration are used. Commonly they are integrated in more sophisticated computational systems, known as Pavement Management systems (PMS) and Highway Development and Management systems (HDM). The implementation of these systems started in Lithuania shortly after the Re-establishment of the Independence. This was triggered by the violent drop in financing of the road sector, forcing to change obsolete road management strategy and planning approach. The need for project economic evaluations, transport modelling and long term pavement performance forecasts grew up after Lithuania joined the European Union and this brought the opportunity for financing road infrastructure projects from the EU funds. At present only on the Lithuanian state road network the total value of implemented projects, justified by evaluations and modelling with PMS, amounts to about 500 million Litas annually. Any Pavement Management System is just as good as the models within it, used for pavement deterioration prediction. The performed test calculations show that prediction models, currently used for this purpose in PMS we have in Lithuania, are of doubtful accuracy and have to be improved... [to full text]

Tvenkinių šlaitų tvirtinimo plokščių būklę, ilgaamžiškumą lemia jas veikiantys poveikiai ir apkrovos, susidarantys veikiant klimato sąlygoms, agresyviai aplinkai bei kitiems įvairiems veiksniams. Darbo tikslas – įvertinti Lietuvos tvenkiniuose susidarančias ledo apkrovas ir jų įtaką šlaitų tvirtinimo gelžbetoninėms plokštėms. Šiam tikslui pasiekti buvo atlikta literatūros analizė, siekiant nustatyti ledo apkrovų tipus. 2008 – 2009 m. mokslinių ekspedicijų metu natūriniais tyrimais įvertinta 14 tvenkinių šlaitų tvirtinimo gelžbetoninių plokščių būklė pagal STR.1.12.03:2006. Remiantis literatūros ir natūrinių tyrimų rezultatų analize, nustatyta, kad tvenkinių šlaitų tvirtinimo gelžbetoninės plokštės labiausiai ardomos dėl ledo poveikio. Detalesniam tyrinėjimui parinktos 4 tvenkinių plokštės, kurių suardymo pobūdis leidžia teigti, kad šlaitų tvirtinimo plokštės buvo suardytos veikiant ledo apkrovoms. Darbe ledo poveikis analizuotas vertinant prie tvenkinių šlaitų tvirtinimo plokščių prišalusio ledo vertikaliąją apkrovą Fd ir susidarantį lenkimo momentą M dėl pažemėjusio vandens lygio. Atlikus ledo apkrovos kintant vandens lygiui analitinius skaičiavimus, sudaryta šlaitų tvirtinimo gelžbetonines plokštes veikiančios apkrovos dydžio priklausomybė nuo ledo storio. Nustatyta, kad tvenkinių ledo apkrovos labiausiai priklauso nuo ledo storio – didėjant ledo storiui bendruoju atveju ir ledo apkrovos didėja. / The state and durability of the slabs strengthening slopes of the ponds are influenced by the impacts and loads occurring because of the climatic conditions, aggressive environment and other various factors. The aim of the work is to assess the ice loads that occur on the Lithuanian ponds and their influence on the concrete slabs strengthening slopes. To achieve this objective, analysis of the literature was performed to determine the types of ice loads. The state of 14 concrete slabs was evaluated by field investigations in accordance with STR. 1.12.03:2006 during the scientific expeditions in 2008-2009. In accordance with the literary and field investigation analysis, it was found out that the concrete slabs strengthening the slopes of the ponds are mostly damaged by the influence of the ice. 4 slabs of the ponds were chosen for the more detailed research. The character of the damage allows proposing that the strengthening slabs were influenced by the ice loads. In the research the effect of the ice was analyzed estimating the vertical load of the ice frozen on to the slabs strengthening slopes of the ponds Fd and bending moment M emerging because of the dropped level of the water. After analytical calculations of the ice load, when the water level is changing, were performed, the dependence of the load size on the thickness of ice was made. It was determined that ice loads of the ponds mostly depend on the thickness of the ice –in general case, when the ice is getting... [to full text]

Presently, there exists a large number of historic houses that have had their walls insulated with loose-fill cellulose and can now be studied 10, 20 or 30 years after they were insulated. The wood siding of these houses can be evaluated for types of paint failure and compared to comparable historic houses that have not had their sidewalls insulated. A methodology for defining common paint failure types, their presence and possibly their severity was designed. A methodology for the selecting of historic houses with both insulated and uninsulated walls was also designed. A visual documentation process was carried out, results compiled and analyzed in order to determine if a difference could be observed between the types of paint failures on the insulated versus the uninsulated historic houses. In addition this study looked at the most common sources for moisture intrusion into a wall cavity, how this moisture moves, and how little the role of vapor diffusion plays in the wetting of the wall cavity. / Moisture and paint failure -- Understanding moisture movement in buildings -- How frame walls get wet -- How insulation might affect how frame walls get wet and how they dry -- Strategies for controlling moisture -- Other causes of exterior paint failure unrelated to moisture within the wall -- Field work -- Types of paint failure -- Case study houses -- Summary and conclusion. / Department of Architecture

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Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais / The analysis of the service life of the structures of reinforced concrete should contemplate probabilistic processes due to the random of the parameters that influence in the mechanisms that affect the life of the structure. In these processes, besides the application of structural reliability techniques, it is necessary the characterization of the variables that influence in the deterioration mechanisms. The main objective of this work is to analyze variables related to the forecast of service life of the concrete structures, particularly of residential buildings, in urban areas far from the marine coast, from a point of view of the probabilistic behavior and propose functions of density of probability and representative statistical parameters. To get that, it was carried out a data survey in four residential buildings and in environmental organs. Later it was made the statistical analysis of them and the adjustment of continuous functions of densities of probability, by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness-of-fit test. The studied variables were the temperature, the relative humidity, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the weight of people and the furniture and the area of occupation of the furniture. As results, it was found out that to the temperature and relative humidity variables, for the city of Uberlândia, a function of normal density of probability can be adopted, with an average of 22,8ºC and a standard deviation of 4,4ºC for the temperature and an average of 65,06% and a standard deviation of 17,15% for the relative humidity. For the CO2 concentration in the urban atmosphere of the city of São Paulo, it resulted in a density function of log normal of probability with an average of 1083 ppm and a standard deviation of 168 ppm. For the live loads variable: weigh of the people the found values were 0,74 kN and standard deviation of 0,13 kN, with a function of normal density of probability. For the weight of the furniture the adjusted function was the normal with average of 0,22 kN/m2 and standard deviation of 0,15 kN/m2. The obtained results will be important for the study of the service life of reinforced concrete structures and they are constituted in a first regional base of data. / A análise da vida útil das estruturas de concreto armado deve contemplar processos probabilísticos devido a aleatoriedade dos parâmetros que influenciam nos mecanismos que afetam a vida da estrutura. Nesses processos, além da aplicação de técnicas de confiabilidade estrutural, é necessária a caracterização das variáveis que influenciam nos mecanismos de deterioração. O objetivo geral do trabalho é analisar variáveis relacionadas à previsão de vida útil das estruturas de concreto, particularmente de edifícios residenciais, em regiões urbanas distantes da costa marítima, desde um ponto de vista do comportamento probabilístico, propondo funções de densidade de probabilidade e parâmetros estatísticos representativos. Para tal, foi realizado o levantamento de dados em quatro edifícios residenciais e em órgãos ambientais. Posteriormente foi feita a análise estatística dos mesmos realizando-se o ajuste de funções contínuas de densidades de probabilidade, mediante o teste de aderência Kolmogorov-Smirnov. As variáveis estudadas foram a temperatura, a umidade relativa, as concentrações de dióxido de carbono na atmosfera, o peso dos móveis e de pessoas e a área de ocupação dos móveis no ambiente. Como resultados, foram encontrados que as variáveis temperatura e umidade relativa, para a cidade de Uberlândia, pode ser adotada uma função de densidade normal de probabilidade, com média 22,8ºC e desvio padrão de 4,4ºC para a temperatura e média de 65,06% e desvio padrão de 17,15% para a umidade relativa. Para a concentração de CO2 na atmosfera urbana da cidade de São Paulo, resultou uma função de densidade log - normal de probabilidade com média 1083 ppm e desvio padrão de 168 ppm. Para a variável de sobrecarga: peso do usuário (pessoas) os valores encontrados foram 0,74 kN e desvio padrão de 0,13 kN, com uma função de densidade normal de probabilidade. Para o peso do mobiliário a função ajustada foi a normal com média de 0,22 kN/m2 e desvio padrão de 0,15 kN/m2. Os resultados obtidos serão importantes para o estudo da vida útil de estruturas de concreto armado e se constituem em uma primeira base de dados regional. / Mestre em Engenharia Civil