In this study, a fully immersive Virtual Reality (VR) based driving simulator was developed to serve as a “proof-of-concept” that VR can be utilized to assess the level of fatigue (or drowsiness) truck drivers typically experience during real-life driving conditions. This study also involved examining the impact of varying driving conditions (i.e., weather conditions and driving time (day or night)) on drivers’ fatigue measure.
Skew of the supports in steel I-girder bridges cause undesirable torsional effects, increase cross-frame forces, and generally increase the difficulty of designing and constructing a bridge. The girders experience differential deflections due to the skewed supports, and undesirable effects arise when the girders are linked transversely. Before the placement of the deck, the main method of linking the girders transversely is through the use of cross-frames.
The major objective of this project is to obtain traffic information from existing wireless infrastructure. In this project freeway traffic is identified and modeled using data obtained from existing wireless cellular networks. Most of the previous research on freeway traffic control assumes the availability of traffic parameters like vehicle velocity and density. Such data is available only at a few locations on major highways where sensor nodes have been pre-deployed.
Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) is the common non-destructive testing method for in-situ evaluation of pavement condition. This study aims to develop finite element (FE) models that can simulate FWD loading on pavement system and capture the complexity in material properties, layer interface, and boundary conditions. Parametric analysis was conducted considering the effects of dynamic analysis, temperature gradient, bedrock depth, asphalt layer delamination, viscoelasticity, and unbound material nonlinearity on pavement surface deflections and critical strain responses.
Box girder bridges are becoming more common because of their ease of construction, pleasing aesthetics, and serviceability. Projects with curved configuration and long spans can especially benefit from these advantages. However, the industry lacks a wide range of research on multi-span steel box girder cross-sections and their response to fire events. In addition, steel box girders are commonly constructed from weathering steel, which has little available research into their performance in fire.
In the coastal zone, seaports and their intermodal connectors are key types of infrastructure that support the global supply chain, provide regional economic activity, local transportation system services, and community jobs. The protection of coastal communities and their ports has been taken for granted during a prolonged period of climate stability. Recently there are growing concerns that a new period of climate change and severe weather events is emerging. Communities and their waterfront facilities are vulnerable to disruptions.
Transportation agencies are required to treat roads for dust and ice control to ensure adequate safety for travelers. This is commonly achieved through application of solid and liquid chemicals. These materials can be conventional rock salt, brine from rock salt, natural brine, or oil and gas brine. Due to the high cost of treating roads for the removal of snow and ice, in states with active oil and gas wells such as New York, the potential for using this brine to control dust or ice on roads is currently being explored.
Recent studies show that the dynamic forces because of truck impacts may be significantly higher than the 600kips force recommended by the AASHTO. Hence, there is a need to carry out detailed investigations on vehicular-bridge collision for a reliable evaluation of an existing bridge subject to impact by trucks and design of new bridges with more redundancy for vehicular impacts.
Our initial UTRC research project identified routes and road segments with predicted high volumes of truck traffic related to natural gas extraction in the Marcellus Shale region. Results also generated annual estimates of pollution emissions per route and road segment related to these transportation activities. The road segment results identified areas of potentially elevated pollution emissions due to incremental truck traffic resulting from natural gas development.
Achieving environmental sustainability of the US transportation infrastructure via more environmentally sound construction is not a trivial task. Our proposal, which addresses this critical area, is aiming at transforming concrete, the material of choice for many transportation projects, into less environmentally harmful and better performing component of the US infrastructure. This will be extremely relevant to construction of pavements, bridges, tunnels, airports, marine installations and other transportation projects.
