2018 Spring Newsletter

Clean Fossil Energy via Subsurface Carbon Sequestration

Fall 2018 Newsletter

Department News

In an effort to make systems more efficient and resilient to hazards, civil infrastructure has evolved into complex integrated cyber-physical systems incorporating sensors, informatics, computer simulation, and artificial intelligence driven decision support. Spurred by the changing profession, recent feedback from the University of Utah’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CvEE) Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) indicated a need to revisit degree programs and modernize the curriculum to incorporate more cutting-edge tools and techniques emphasizing data acquisition, management, and analysis. Responding to the recommendation and aligning with the CvEE’s interest in advancing cybertechnology research, the

department embarked on an exciting strategic initiative to hire new professors in the cyberinfrastructure area. Stimulated by the recent hires, CvEE will be looking to modernize undergraduate and graduate curriculum, promote online teaching approaches, and advance sensors, data analytics, and smart systems research applications related to civil infrastructure systems.

“Incorporating cyberinfrastructure into civil and environmental engineering is a critically important step in ensuring our graduates are prepared for tomorrow’s workforce,” said department chair Michael Barber.

New Faculty Bring Exciting New Research in Cyberinfrastructure

Department NewsAdding to the existing strength in CvEE and at the U, seven hires in the past two years (including four new hires in August 2018) provide CvEE the potential to be a national leader in cybertechnology advances for civil infrastructure.

In smart sensors, Dr. Carlos Oroza, comes to CvEE from the University of California at Berkeley with a doctorate in civil systems engineering. Oroza brings expertise in design and deployment of environmental sensors to monitor water quantity and quality. He will bring his experience designing autonomous robotic sensors for adaptive sampling in rivers and estuaries as well as wireless-sensor networks for measuring snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains to address key needs for Wasatch Front water management. His near-term research interests include developing automated networks for mitigating flash-flooding in neighborhoods around Salt Lake City and developing a new real-time sensor network for distributed water-quality and flow measurements in Utah Lake and the Great Salt Lake. Carlos is also excited to help modernize CvEE education by introducing cyberinfrastructure concepts across the curriculum and studying how new cyber-enabled tools can be used to improve student understanding and engagement.

In the area of intelligent infrastructure, Dr. Xuan ‘Peter’ Zhu, comes to the department after his postdoctoral training at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Zhu brings his expertise in design, optimization and development of smart sensors and novel testing/diagnostics technologies,

along with their applications in the fields of structural health monitoring, intelligent infrastructure, and geological storage of CO2. He will bring his experience working on the development of robust sensing technologies for structural integrity assessment capable of operating at extreme climates. His possible research interests include: (1) non-invasive data-driven stress measurement for thermal buckling prevention, with potential applications in railroad and power plant pipeline systems; (2) passive structural health monitoring framework reinforced by machine learning, with potential applications for ultra-fast pavement quality evaluation and composite structure

characterization; and (3) flexible and stretchable ultrasonic imaging device development and its engineering applications.

In the emerging area of nuclear security, Dr. Edward Cazalas, a postdoctoral researcher from the Air force Institute of Technology, bolsters the unique capacity of CvEE by bringing expertise in nuclear science and engineering, especially for detection applications. Here, cyber-related applications include the development of networked detection systems, autonomous search algorithms and vehicles, and effects of radiation on various infrastructure, including electronics and communication systems. An important area of future interest and work is securing the physical infrastructure of power plants (nuclear) by ensuring that they are resistant and resilient to cyber-based attacks from adversaries with a range of technical sophistication.

In the area of transportation, Dr. Nikola Markovic comes to CvEE from the Center for Advanced Transportation Technology (CATT) at the University of Maryland, which is one of the largest transportation data centers in the U.S. Markovic brings his expertise in applying operations research, machine learning, and data visualization techniques in analyzing and optimizing transportation systems. His future research lies at the interface of optimization and data science, with a particular focus on data acquisition strategies in decision making.

Recent hires, Drs. Terry Yang and Gaby Ou, have built the initial foundation for cybertechnology research with their work

in transportation and building systems, respectively. Yang’s research areas include evacuation planning and operation, traffic operations with connected automated vehicles, intelligent transportation systems, traffic safety, and network flow modeling. He is currently working on developing cyber-infrastructure system foundations to support the operations of connected vehicle corridors. His research will contribute to understanding the data needs of different types of connected vehicles and designing optimal computational resource allocation plans.

“Incorporating cyberinfrastructure into civil and environmental engineering is a critically important step in ensuring our graduates are prepared for tomorrow’s workforce.” Dr. Michael Barber

Ou is experienced in advanced numerical-experimental hybrid simulation in evaluating structural performance under extreme dynamic loadings, such as heavy winds and earthquakes. She is currently working in a multidisciplinary group to build a cyberinfrastructure tool that integrates meteorological information, power component structural model, and power network models to investigate power system performance under extreme winds. This cyberinfrastructure tool will help study reliable power systems using a preventive operation strategies for the physical damages in transmission lines during hurricanes.

Last year, Dr. Abbas Rashidi joined the department to launch the Construction Engineering Program and bring his research expertise in computer vision and audio pattern detection. Rashidi has dual backgrounds in electrical and civil engineering areas. His broader research expertise includes applications of information and sensing technologies for automating construction operations. In particular, he is interested in implementing innovative image/video/audio processing techniques for solving problems in construction engineering and management domain. Currently, he is involved in two research projects: one in which he tries to automatically recognize various activities taking place at construction jobsites by recording and processing generated sounds and audio patterns, and the other about using Unmanned Arial Systems (UAS) for automatically detecting safety issues at construction jobsites.

The intellectual depth, innovation and promise of the new hires, as well as their ability to participate in multidisciplinary

research collaborations, generates great enthusiasm for the direction of CvEE and the enhanced collaborations throughout the College of Engineering and the University of Utah. We will see this in areas that include:

� Low-cost and low-power sensors and wireless communication networks. � Next-generation diagnostic and control systems supporting autonomous

infrastructure systems. � Reliability of cyber-technologies in civil and environmental infrastructure

systems. � Extreme observations, data management, analytics, and visualization. � Internet of Things innovations in civil and environmental infrastructure

systems. � Cyber-physical security implications of technologies in civil and

environmental infrastructure.

Together, this group of new faculty joins existing CvEE strengths in computer modeling and simulation, optimization, and big data science. CvEE is now prepared to accelerate the modernization of curriculum programs to cover sensor technologies, deep learning, resilience, and other topics. In coordination with the IAB and other practitioners, a cybertechnology curriculum spine and research thrusts will be developed to prepare undergraduate and graduate students for professional practice in emerging applications of smart sensors, data science, and decision support in civil infrastructure across the life cycle, including planning and design, mitigating disturbances, monitoring infrastructure conditions, performing self-diagnosis, optimizing operations, and conducting self-repairs.

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Dr. Tara Mastren is a new assistant professor in the Nuclear Engineering Program in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Utah. She received her Ph.D. in nuclear and radiochemistry from Washington University in St. Louis where her research focused on the harvesting of medically relevant radionuclides from an aqueous beam dump at a heavy-ion fragmentation facility. She completed two postdoctoral appointments; the first at UT Southwestern developing the production of 64Cu and 89Zr for nuclear imaging applications, and the second at Los Alamos National Laboratory where she worked on the production and purification of actinides for the treatment of cancer and various diseases.

Mastren has extensive experience in radiochemical separations and plans to build on that expertise at the University of Utah. She will design custom resins for the separation of lanthanides and actinides to provide high purity radionuclides for medical purposes. The separation of lanthanides is non-trivial due to their chemical similarity and is a major challenge in supplying these radionuclides in high purity. She plans to produce several radionuclides of interest for targeted radiotherapy (including 177Lu, 161Tb, and 153Sm) using the University of Utah TRIGA reactor.

Targeted radiotherapy is an emerging field in nuclear medicine that exploits the therapeutic effect of different radioactive decay modes. Radionuclides of interest for targeted radiotherapy decay via alpha, beta, or Auger electron emission as the emitted particle travels a small distance in tissue effectively delivering the dose to the cancerous or diseased cells while sparing the surrounding healthy tissue. Targeting these diseased cells requires attaching the radionuclide to a biological construct, such as a small molecule, peptide or antibody, which is highly specific to cellular receptors over-expressed on the cell surface. Mastren plans to collaborate with faculty in the Department of Radiology and the School of Medicine to research novel biological constructs to provide selective delivery of theses radionuclides for cancer treatment.

Nuclear Program Hires Tara Mastren

Starting fall 2019 the department will be offering a new lab associated with the Environmental Engineering I course (CVEEN 3610). The lab will aid in modernizing the environmental engineering curriculum with the inclusion of active learning techniques, enhanced undergraduate research experiences, and improved understanding of water quality analyses.

Over the last year, a research lab has been extensively refurbished and retrofitted into a collaborative learning lab. The laboratory space and associated lessons are designed to provide students with an understanding of common issues related to all sub-disciplines in CVEEN. As a result, one of the primary objectives of this upcoming modern curriculum is to promote interdisciplinary learning among undergraduate students. For example, transportation engineers will benefit from an understanding of how total dissolved and suspended solids are measured which are used in professional practice when estimating road salt runoff concentrations or understanding the impacts of construction stormwater runoff. Nuclear engineers will expand their basic chemical laboratory skills into an ability to measure parameters and understand how they impact

public health and environmental quality. Engineers of the built environment will benefit from an improved appreciation of water quality parameters that lead to sustainable practices that protect and preserve public health and environmental quality.

Modernizing EnvironmentalTeaching

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Using Precipitation Measured from Space to Develop Water Management Solutions Drought, flood, and other extreme events are increasingly threatening water infrastructure systems that provide the means to supply water for growing food, producing energy, and supporting economic development, environmental quality, and prosperity. Balancing the tradeoffs at the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) nexus is a particular challenge for water management. Developing policies, planning water infrastructure, and operating water systems need to consider the interconnected benefits of water systems to the FEW nexus and be responsive to the intensifying effects of urbanization, population growth, and climate change that further exacerbate the challenges.

Dr. Steve Burian is collaborating on a NASA-funded project to develop insight and tools for improving water management system benefits across the FEW nexus. The research team is led by Dr. Marshall Shepherd at the University of Georgia and includes Burian and Dr. Menglin Jin at the University of Maryland. The unique aspect of this team is the multi-disciplinary approach (atmospheric science, geoscience and engineering) to bring satellite precipitation data produced by NASA and other agencies to address policy and water management at the FEW nexus. The team has a long-standing collaboration, having worked for nearly two decades to apply satellite precipitation data to support policy development and urban water management in cities.

Burian’s research team at the University of Utah includes two Ph.D. students, Ryan Johnson and Daniyal Hassan. The current phase of the research is taking a global perspective with studies in the Four Corners region of the United States and the rainfed agricultural areas of Pakistan as well as the Wasatch Front area in Northern Utah. Satellite precipitation is an essential data source to provide the regional precipitation coverage and especially important in those regions where ground-based precipitation data is sparse or non-existent.

The project team seeks to identify patterns in precipitation and relate those to trends in population change, agriculture productivity, vegetation change, power production, and other variables to derive measures and indicators of FEW nexus vulnerabilities. These precipitation metrics have been pioneered by the University of Georgia’s Shepherd. Burian’s team is seeking to operationalize them for urban water management in the context of the FEW nexus.

Through the U.S. Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water, a project led by Burian and facilitated by the University of Utah Water Center (water.utah.edu), the NASA project team has established a strong connection with researchers in Pakistan. Two master’s students from Pakistan were hosted in 2018 on one semester exchanges at the University of Utah to work on the project. Currently, Burian’s team is analyzing the relationships of meteorological parameters (precipitation, root zone soil moisture, and surface and air temperature etc.) and agricultural production (tons/ha) on spatial (district wise) and temporal scales (weekly, ten days, monthly, and seasonally) for the years from 1999-2009. Establishing the relationships between regional conditions and crop productivity via NASA TRMM/GPM data products will assist in forecasts. In addition, these metrics are being used to develop sustainable development policies by the Agency for Barani Area Development in Pakistan. The initial results revealed that in some years there are strong correlations between the precipitation and crop production.

The next step in the project is to link these metrics to a system dynamics model of urban water systems to improve planning and operations of infrastructure to maximize benefits in food, energy, and water supply. The team is building upon the knowledge obtained from the Jordan River, Utah, model to apply and tailor the methodology to Pakistan. The group plans to link the precipitation metrics to the computer models by 2019.

Dr. Luis Ibarra, an associate professor in the CvEEN department, returned this fall from a year-long sabbatical. Ibarra held a visiting professorship at the Technical University of Vienna (Technische Universität Wien, or TU Wien) in Austria. At TU Wien, he collaborated with Dr. Dietmar Adam, the Head of the Institute in geotechnical engineering, who is in charge of the laboratory where Profs. Karl Terzaghi and Arthur Casagrande reside. Tezaghi and Casgrande are world renowned geotechnical engineers.

During fall 2017, Ibarra collaborated with Adam’s group, which is working in several research areas, including dynamic compaction of rollers, vibration of railways, use of foundations to generate heat, and behavior of foundations on frozen soils. One of the overlapping research areas of collaboration is soil-structure interaction of buildings, as well as soil consolidation on the response of structural systems, which are topics that Adam’s group has research and practical experience.

In January 2018, Ibarra was the main instructor of a recently expanded Soil Dynamics course at TU Wien, where he presented some classical topics and recent advances in structural and geotechnical engineering. The course material included basic concepts of dynamics and earthquake engineering, substructure damage due to liquefaction, vibration of foundations, introduction to soil-structure interaction, and European and Austrian seismic hazard.

During his time at TU Wien, Ibarra’s research group of graduate students completed five journal papers that are at different stages of publication. Ibarra also had several conferences on research topics. In April 2018, he presented the topic “Soil Effects on the Seismic Response of Free-Standing Dry Storage Casks” at TU Wien as part of the seminar lectures on Ground Engineering and Soil Mechanics. In May 2018, he was the

speaker of the General Assembly of the Austrian Association for Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics (OGE) in Vienna, Austria, where he talked about “Seismic Performance of Reinforced Concrete (RC) Skewed Bridges Retrofitted with Buckling Restrained Braces (BRBs)”. He also attended several international conferences, such as the European Conference on Earthquake Engineering in Thessaloniki, Greece, where he presented the topic “Soil Effects on the Response of Free-Standing Dry Storage Casks”, and was coauthor of four papers. In June 2018, Ibarra attended the International Conference on Nuclear Power Plants, Structures, Risk and Decommissioning (NUPP), in London, where he presented the topics “Probabilistic Evaluation of SNF Rod Pinching Failure after Long-term Storage” and “Ring Compression Tests on un-Irradiated Zircaloy-4 Cladding Considering Fuel Pellets.” In November 2017, he attended the U.S.-Japan workshop in Tokyo, which was organized by NSF NEHRI.

There were several site visits during the academic year. In November 2017, his group visited a construction in downtown Vienna that included a challenging foundation system due to the presence of existing old building on the periphery of the new construction. In October 2017, they had a geotechnical engineering site visit in one of Vienna suburbs, where a series of piles with different characteristics are being tested. One of the main objectives of this research is to convert foundation buildings into energy batteries. Also, in January 2018, they had a tour on the seismic rehabilitation of the Technical University of Vienna main building.

According to Ibarra, his sabbatical offered excellent opportunities to gain insight into new topics and methods for his research and teaching activities in Europe and Japan, and for lasting academic collaborations in the future.

Sabbatical in Vienna

Dr. Steven Bartlett in collaboration with Dr. Kevin Franke of Brigham Young University have been recently fund-ed through the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program to develop liquefaction ground displacement hazard maps for Davis County.

For earthquake prone areas, such as the Wasatch Front, liquefaction hazard earthquake maps are often developed to aid engineers, developers, and city planners in identifying areas that may require additional geotechnical evaluations and potential liquefaction mitigation. To the right is an example map that was created for Salt Lake Count. Similar maps will be forthcoming for Davis County in 2019. These liquefaction hazard maps have been previously developed for Salt Lake, Weber and Utah Counties using an extensive geotechnical subsurface database correlated to surficial geological mapping. The corresponding liquefaction-induced ground de-formation hazard calculations were performed using state-of-practice methodologies where estimates of lateral spread horizontal ground displacement were calculated from multiple liner regression models devel-oped by Dr. Bartlett and his research team. The ground displacement estimates from these methods have been plotted within the corresponding surficial geologic units (see map), and the units were in turn assigned horizon-tal displacement values based on statistical analyses of the displacement distribution within each unit. Other work products developed by Dr. Bartlett and his gradu-ate students can be found at: http://www.civil.utah.edu/~bartlett/ULAG/.

Faculty Spotlight

Department Develops liquefaction grounD Displacement hazarD maps for Davis county

Department Develops liquefaction grounD Displacement hazarD maps for Davis county

In 2010, the 3.0-mile section of roadway on Utah State Route 30 between Emery, Utah, and Muddy Creek (Mile Post 13.0 to 15.8) was reconstructed using a geogrid-reinforced pavement system. This project was the first use of geogrid to reinforce the base and subbase courses of a pavement system by the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) and was intended to demonstrate the effectiveness of geogrid in reducing the base, subbase, and asphalt thicknesses (and thereby reducing the cost), providing longer service life, and reducing the required long-term maintenance of the pavement system. With three coal-fired power plants located nearby, this section of roadway carries between 200 to 300 coal trucks per day in each direction. An 800-ft long test section of this roadway was constructed first consisting of four 200-foot sections in which a different biaxial geogrid was used in each section. The purpose of this test section was to evaluate the effectiveness of each type of geogrid and compare the performance of the four types. While this test section has performed well to date, with no maintenance required, the pavement system for most of the rest of the roadway section has required significant multiple maintenance processes to keep it functional. A recent site visit by Professor Evert Lawton and Henrik Burns, a graduate student working on this project, identified 18 sections of the roadway, varying in length from about 50 to 150 feet, that have required significant maintenance over the eight years since it was built. Interestingly, most of the significant damage has occurred on the southbound lane of the roadway, whereas most of the coal trucks travelling southbound have already dumped their coal and are empty.

The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) and the Mountain Plains Consortium are co-sponsoring research to determine the cause of the failure of the pavement system. Lawton and Professor Pedro Romero are co-principal investigators on this research project. The primary objectives of this research are to evaluate forensically the test section and the rest of the roadway to determine why the test section has performed well but the rest has not; evaluate the performance of each of the four geogrids; determine the benefit, if any, provided by the geogrid to the pavement system; and develop methods to evaluate the use of geogrid on other pavement systems. These objectives will be accomplished by:

• Obtaining and evaluating distress data and field construction records from UDOT.

• Analyzing Falling Weight Deflectometer data that has been collected annually

CvEEN Research

Forensic Investigation of Geogrid Pavement Systems

since the roadway was built it 2010.

• Performing other field tests to evaluate the engineering properties of the pavement system and the subgrade soils (e.g. Ground Penetrating Radar, Dynamic Cone Penetrometer, Cone Penetration Test, and Plate Bearing Tests) at selected locations.

• Obtaining samples of the asphaltic wearing surface and the supporting soils (base, subbase, and subgrade).

• Conducting various laboratory tests on the collected samples to determine their engineering properties.

• Performing large-scale tests in the University of Utah’s geotechnical trench box to compare the performance of the different geogrids under controlled testing conditions.

The research officially began July 2, 2018, and most of the field testing was conducted on July 25, 2018, to finish it before the pavement was scheduled to be chip-sealed starting on August 13, 2018. The local UDOT shed foreman, who is in charge of this section of roadway, limited the field testing to one day because of the severe disruption to traffic in the area, particularly the coal trucks. Lawton and five graduate students from the CVEEN department worked from dusk to dawn on July 25 to complete the field investigation. The research project is scheduled to be completed by December 31, 2019.

This past summer, Dani Zebelean completed research at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona through the International Research Experiences for Students (IRES), funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The goal of this program is to expose science and engineering students to the international research community to aid in professional development and enhance the research leadership of the United States. She worked on the Handprint and Footprint of Growing Food in Cities project which is a collaboration of three universities: the University of Utah, University of Toledo, and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Each year, a cohort of students from the University of Utah, (mentored by professor Steve Burian) and the University of Toledo, (mentored by professor Defne Apul), go to Spain to work on their research projects over the summer under the guidance of professors Xavier Gabarrell Durany and Joan Rieradevall i Pons, and graduate students at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Since each student is only on the project for a year, all the work culminates into one deliverable.

Zebelean’s project focused on analyzing the feasibility and sustainability of using rainwater harvesting systems to supply water for urban agricultural operations. Water is a limiting factor in agriculture which greatly impacts the quantity and quality of the produce grown. However, rainwater, and consequently runoff, in cities can cause major issues with flooding since there is nowhere for the water to go except over the pavement and concrete into nearby stormwater infrastructure. Most of the rainwater from Salt Lake City will make its way to the Great Salt Lake, and in Barcelona, the rainwater is put into a combined sewer system. Neither of these really have any benefit when the water could be diverted and used for urban agriculture or landscape watering. Zebelean worked with the EPA’s Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) to build models of the University of Utah and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona campuses. Utilizing these models, she simulated past rainfall events to calculate the total volume of water that could have been captured off the buildings and was used to estimate the amount of produce that could be produced using the water. This was done by using Mickey Navidomski’s project that developed the calculations from his participation in the program last summer.

CvEEN Research Student Research Aboard While most of her time at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona was spent working on the models and analyzing the data, everyone at UAB took it upon themselves to make sure the students had a unforgettable experience.

Collaboration was encouraged by having similar researchers sit together in an open office environment. This was useful when you needed help and run ideas by the group members. The collaboration didn’t end when you left your desk as it was prevalent in meetings as you would have a group meetings and not one-on-one contact. When meetings occurred, you would provide an update on the work and what you needed help with.

Overall, Zebelean reported that this was an invaluable experience to be able to learn and work alongside the professors and students at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, as well as being able to expand her network to include international experts in their fields. Not to mention that she had a great time doing it.

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING110 Central Campus Drive, Ste. 2000Salt Lake City, Utah 84112

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BS Civil and Environmental Engineering: Utah Asia Campus

@UofUCvEEN @UofUCvEENwww.linkedin.com/in/uofucveen

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is pleased to announce that it will be extending its undergraduate program to the Utah Asia Campus for Spring Semester 2019.

All students at The University of Utah Asia Campus will receive a University of Utah degree, while being taught and mentored by qualified faculty appointed at the University of Utah in South Korea.

The undergraduate students studying in South Korea will spend three years at the University of Utah Asia Campus in South Korea, and one year studying in Utah.