Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering News

Tech People at Michigan County Engineer’s Workshop

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The Center for Technology and Training (CTT), a part of the Michigan Tech Transportation Institute (MTTI), hosted the 46th annual Michigan County Engineer’s Workshop in Mount Pleasant, February 13–16.

More than 130 engineers, managers and engineering technicians from Michigan county road commissions, the Michigan Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration and municipal road agencies across Michigan attended the conference to learn about new technology and issues impacting the design, construction and maintenance of local agency-owned roads.

John Ryynanen, editor and technical writer for the CTT, and Melanie Kueber, research engineer for CTT, planned the event with a committee of engineers from the County Road Association of Michigan, including event cochair and Michigan Tech alumnus Lance Malburg (CEE ’92) from the Dickenson County Road Commission.

Associate Professor Stan Vitton (CEE) and Director Tim Colling (CTT) made presentations at the event. Also presenting were Michigan Tech alumni: Brenda O’Brien ’84, MDOT; Brian Gutowski ’88, Emmett County Road Commission; Gerald Fulcher ’80, DEQ; Doug Needham ’95, MITA; and Bruce Kadzban ’77, MDOT. Receiving an award for 23 years of service on the steering committee for the Michigan Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) was Ronald Young ’73, Alcona County Road Commission.

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Civil Engineering Graduate Seminar: February 23

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Civil Engineering Seminars:
Time: 4-5pm, Thursday (Feb. 23rd)
Location: Dow 642
Public welcome

Title: Increasing the Piezoelectric Effect in Cement Paste.

Presenter: Benjamin Roskoskey, MS Civil Engineering Student Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, (Adviser: Dr. Andrew Swartz).

Abstract: The object of this study is to attempt to increase the piezoelectric effect (and as a result the reverse piezoelectric effect) in cement paste. Piezoelectric sensors and actuators are frequently used nowadays to monitor the health of structures. However they are expensive and when embedded within concrete, can separate from the concrete and cause degradation due to differences between their Young’s modulus and thermal expansion coefficient and those of the concrete. The expectation is that the concrete itself, by utilizing its piezoelectric effect, can be used as the sole means of structural health monitoring for a structure.

Title: Enabling Sustainable and Natural Hazard Resistant Structures

Presenter: Joshua Cardinal , MS Civil Engineering Student Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, (Adviser: Dr. Yue Li)

Abstract: Building construction consumes 40% of the raw stone, gravel, and sand used globally, and 25% of the virgin wood. Current research into sustainable design options for structures has become an increased topic for discussion. Natural hazard resistance is a significant part of the structural design requirements of a building, particularly in geographical locations where seismic hazards are prevalent. Sustainability can be identified in three key areas: economic, social, and environmental impact. The concept of sustainability has started to evolve from focusing on only one of the areas mentioned above to an integrated design method. This presentation will focus on researching the development of a new metric of design that encompasses all three areas to balance the deficiencies of each key area.

Structural design must be understood and approached holistically to generate the most viable option for all three areas of sustainability. This involves the coordination of all disciplines involved in the completion of a structure. By utilizing the metric presented, seismic structural analysis using ANSYS will be used to generate the maximum story drift, which will be used to estimate the damage and repair costs to the structure, as well as estimate a dollar amount associated with casualty losses. Environmental impact analysis will be performed using the program SimaPro through life-cycle analysis. To help validate structural and social losses, the FEMA program HAZUS will provide a comparison and validation for structural and social damage by geographic location.

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Michigan Tech celebrates National Engineers Week 2012 February 19-25

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Michigan Tech celebrates National Engineers Week 2012 February 19-25.

National Engineers Week celebrates the positive contributions engineers make to society and is a catalyst for outreach across the country to kids and adults alike. For the past 60 years, National Engineers Week (E-Week) has been celebrated each February around the time of George Washington’s birthday, February 22, because Washington is considered by many to be the first US engineer. Each year the national celebration grows, and this year Michigan Tech will jump head first into E-Week with 30 different engineering events on campus for all to enjoy.

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Railroad Night 2012

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The Rail Transportation Program (RTP) and the Rail Engineering and Activities Club (REAC) held the 7th Annual Railroad Night, February 21, 2012 at the Shelden Grill in the Magnuson Hotel, Houghton. This year’s keynote speaker was Kevin Kesler, Chief of the Engineer and Operating Practice Division for the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). This was a great opportunirty to meet rail industry people, see photos at the Rail Transportation Program link: Railroad Night 2012 for more information.

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Pavement Resurfacing Policy for Minimization of Life-cycle Costs and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

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SFHI Transportation presents:

Jeffrey Lidicker
Ph.D. Candidate, University of California, Berkeley

Thursday, February 16
10:00 AM
Rekhi G06

In recent decades pavement management optimization has been designed with the objective of minimizing user and agency costs.  However, recent analyses indicate that pavement management decisions also have significant impacts on life-cycle GHG emissions.  This study endeavors to expand beyond minimization of life-cycle costs, to also include GHG emissions.  We extend previous work on the single-facility, continuous-state, continuous-time optimal pavement resurfacing problem, to solve the multi-criteria optimization problem with the two objectives of minimizing costs and GHG emissions. Results indicate that there is a tradeoff between costs and emissions when developing a pavement resurfacing policy, providing a range of GHG emissions reduction cost-effectiveness options.  Case studies for an arterial and a major highway are presented to highlight the contrast between policy decisions for various pavement and vehicle technologies.

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A Short History of Downtown Automated People Movers in U.S. Cities — An example of why technology alone cannot solve urban problems

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Thursday, February 16, 2012
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: DOW 642
Speaker: William Leder, Adjunct Professor and Roland A. Mariucci Distinguished Practitioner in Residence

In the early 1970s many automated guideway transit technologies and concepts were emerging, and numerous applications were proposed. One of the urban transportation initiatives of that era was the Downtown People Mover (DPM) Program, sponsored by the U.S government, in which support in the form of grants was provided to demonstrate automated guideway transit as a circulation system in downtowns. These systems were envisioned as important transportation links that would help to reverse urban decay. This presentation will provide a history of the Downtown People Mover (DPM) Program, a description of and current status of the three DPM systems that were built, and lessons learned.

More information: Civil Engineering Graduate Seminar-Bill Leder

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Green Film Festival: “Addicted to Plastic”

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Are you addicted to plastic? Find out about society’s plastic addiction and what can be done about it at the next film in the Green Film Festival series at 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 16, in Forestry G002.

Called “Addicted to Plastic,” the film focuses on the worldwide production, use and environmental effects of plastic. Associate Professor Judith Perlinger (CEE) will lead a discussion after the showing.

The film is free, but a $3 donation is requested. Sponsors are the Michigan Tech Center for Water and Society, the Keweenaw Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and the Keweenaw Land Trust.

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SFHI Transportation Candidate Visits, All Evaluations are Due

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The Strategic Faculty Hiring Initiative in Transportation presents a seminar by Jeffrey Lidicker, a PhD candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, at 10 a.m., today, in Rekhi G06. Lidicker will speak on “Pavement Resurfacing Policy for Minimization of Life-cycle Costs and Greenhouse Gas Emissions.”

The committee encourages faculty and staff to interact with the SFHI candidates and evaluate them.

The seminars are available for viewing on the SFHI website, where applications, abstracts and itineraries can also be reviewed.

Lidicker’s presentation completes the current set of SFHI Transportation interviews.

The SFHI Transportation Steering Committee requests that evaluations for this group of candidates be completed by Saturday, Feb. 18.

The committee will meet early in the week of Feb. 20 to select its recommendations for faculty hires. Evaluations by the campus community are an integral part of the the committee’s overall evaluation of the candidates.

For more information, contact Carol Asiala at 487-2033 or at
cjasiala@mtu.edu .

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Webinar on Railroad Networks

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The Rail Transportation Program (RTP), a part of the Michigan Tech Transportation Institute (MTTI), will host a webinar from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on “Optimal Fueling Strategies for Locomotive Fleets in Railroad Networks.” The presentation by Seyed Mohammad Nourbakhsh will be from 1 to 2:30 p.m., today, February 17th, in Dillman 315.

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