Email: civileng@d.umn.edu Web: d.umn.edu/civileng Phone: 218-726-6444
The Department of Civil Engineering The University of Minnesota Duluth V O L U M E
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2015 Concrete Canoe Team
INSIDE THIS ISSUE: A Message from the 2 Department Head Awards & Advancements
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Department News
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Student Org. News
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Research Updates
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Pictured L-R: Ben Huninghake, Adam Potter, Ryan Butts, Nick Morrison, Bill Brown, Joe Bailey, Kevin Meyer, Mitch Ott, Curt Brezina, Anna Jefferson, Mike Ferrera, Nick Osmundson, April Boehne, Emily Phinney, Brittany Fossell, Mark Roberts
For the third year since starting a concrete canoe team, the ASCE student chapter sent down fifteen members to represent UMD in the 2015 concrete canoe competition on the weekend of April 17th. After submitting a paper, doing a presentation, being judged aesthetically, and racing in five competitions, the team took third overall out of nine teams. This is the same rank they took last year, which shows promise. The team has plans to compete again next year and to make improvements to score higher overall.
OUR MISSION The mission of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Minnesota Duluth is to prepare graduates for professional practice and graduate study through a program firmly based in strong technical skills, fundamentals, hands-on learning, sustainability, and professionalism.
A Message from the Department Head This has been a semester that will change some of us forever. We have had special kind of sadness this semester. Parents and professors invest themselves in the future of the young people placed in their charge. It is a high calling to be a parent and a different but also a high calling to be a professor. Both look forward to the success and achievements of those in their charge. We are training the next generation of engineers and we are very proud of that occupation. Unfortunately, this semester one of our best left us unexpectedly. Chase Hunter DeDominces passed away March 23, 2015 as the result of a snowmobile accident. We will miss his high energy levels, positive attitude, and friendly smile. We are sorry you left us Chase. We are working toward a memorial for Chase. If you are interested let us know. Life continues. Preparation of The Civil Scoop is one of the things that just sneaks up on you. It is interesting to look back over the past 6 months and reflect on accomplishments. The students have had a particularly good year. They were awarded 5 of the 10 scholarships given by ACEC this year. UMD Chemical Engineering was awarded 1, and the Twin Cities Civil Engineering students were awarded the other 4. It was fun to watch all 10 students receive their scholarships. A team of Chemical and Civil Engineering students did well at the 29th Annual Conference on the Environment. Joe Sternberg and Morgan Loth represented Civil Engineering on two separate competition teams. Their teams won 2nd and 3rd place respectively. We had a great career fair in February, with 23 employers coming to talk to the students. It is nice to have the industry and our students talking to each other. The students did well at the ACI conference, they had the most cost efficient beams of all of the student designs. The weekend of April 17th, the University of Minnesota Duluth ASCE went to ASCE conference at Dort College in northwest Iowa. The ASCE concrete canoe team took 3rd place out of 9 teams. University of Wisconsin Platteville took first and University of Minnesota Twin Cities took second. The concrete canoe team has been working hard and the canoe was great, now we just need to work on reporting on our exemplary design work a little better. We have been 3rd two years in a row. Next year we will bring you news of us being higher then 3rd. Dr. Carlos Carranza-Torres is on sabbatical, he has been since September 2014 and tells us he has never worked so hard on so many interesting things. We look forward to having him back full time in the fall of 2015. Congratulations Dr. Nathan Johnson, who was promoted from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor. Congratulations Dr. David Saftner, he participate in the ASCE ExCeed Teaching Workshop in summer 2014, and he has now been invited to mentor at the advanced workshop this summer. Congratulations, Dr. Christiansen (structures) and Dr. Hoxie (Mechanical Engineering) have been awarded a University Wide Sustainability Award. They have been working together and independently on sustainability in engineering. They are currently working with six Duluth businesses, Minnesota Power, and an NGO in West Duluth to improve sustainable practices in energy. We are delighted that both Mary Christiansen and Alison Hoxie are with us. We look for great things from them. Excellent people make work fun.
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Changes continue in the faculty ranks. As many know, in January of 2015, Dr. Eshan Dave has left us to move closer to family, both for himself and his new wife. He is now faculty at University of New Hampshire. Dr. Rania Al-Hammoud, one of two new structures faculty; is leaving us at the end of spring semester. She is returning to the University of Waterloo in Canada. While here, she and Mary Christiansen, working with other faculty, were awarded a NSF MRI grant that has allowed us to install a world class testing system in the structures high bay. We will miss Dr. Al-Hammoud. We will be working to fill this position as quickly as practical. Adrian T. Hanson, Ph.D., PE, BCEE Department Head and Professor Department of Civil Engineering
Aó Ù Ý Ι A ò Ä Ã ÄãÝ ACEC Student Scholarships Five Civil Engineering students were awarded scholarships from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) for the 2015-2016 academic school year. These awards were presented at the 48th annual ACEC/MN Engineering Excellence Awards Banquet, which drew over 250 attendees to the Commons Hotel in Minneapolis on January 30, 2015. The Engineering Excellence Awards competition recognizes engineering achievements that exhibit the highest degree of merit and ingenuity. The group’s award Pictured L-R: Dean Josh Hamilton, Laura Hart, April Boehne, Brittany Fossell, committee seeks students who Corey Schlosser, Brett Hansen, Dr. Adrian Hanson demonstrate great leadership within their schools and community as well as valuable work experience, high academic achievement, and an understanding of the consulting engineering profession. The evening began with Master of Ceremonies Bret Weiss, of WSB & Associates, Inc., welcoming members, clients, and guests to the event, followed by a brief address from current President John Dillingham of Alliant Engineering, Inc. SCSE Dean Josh Hamilton and Dr. Adrian Hanson made the trip down to the cities to support and congratulate the students on receiving this honor.
Sustainability Inspiration Award
Dr. Mary Christiansen CE Professor
This year, Dr. Mary Christiansen of the UMD civil engineering structures faculty, and Dr. Alison Hoxie from mechanical/industrial engineering received the Faculty Sustainability Inspiration Award for their work with the civil engineering class Sustainable Design and Construction. Nominees are chosen based on criteria of being a faculty member who has demonstrated leadership in establishing, promoting, or advancing sustainability in education and operations on campus. Both faculty were honored for their collective work bringing students and the community together to change the way we all think about energy and sustainability by creating/implementing a project or activity that affects the campus or community sustainability climate, awareness, and action; and has great potential to reduce the carbon footprint of a campus unit or population. The awards ceremony was held on April 19th on the UMD campus. Dr. Christiansen became a part of the civil engineering department in the fall of 2013 and is the advisor for the student chapter of the American Concrete Institute (ACI). She has also advised many students on research projects including those on geopolymer concrete, a sustainable concrete made from waste materials.
Faculty Advancement
Dr. Nathan Johnson Associate Professor
This year, the Civil Engineering Department is proud to announce the promotion of Dr. Nathan Johnson from assistant professor to associate professor with tenure. Dr. Johnson began at UMD in 2009 and was heavily involved in the development of curricula related to both environmental and water resources related topics in the department. Over the past two years he helped to design and open the newly renovated environmental engineering lab space to support both teaching and research activities in the CE department. He has fostered a healthy relationship with the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District (WLSSD), incorporating a tour of the facility each semester and water samples into his junior level Environmental Engineering course. Dr. Johnson's research seeks to characterize and mitigate the impacts of environmental contaminants. Dr. Johnson and colleagues were recently awarded a project with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to investigate the cause of high mercury levels in fish tissue in five Northern Minnesota watersheds.
Environmental Challenge In November, UMD Civil Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Earth and Environmental Science students took the second and third place prizes in the 29th Annual Conference on the Environment’s annual Environmental Challenge. The competition, held at the UM Continuing Education Conference Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, is sponsored by two of the leading regional organizations of environmental professionals: Air & Waste Management Association – Upper Midwest Section, and the Central States Water Environment Association – Minnesota Section. This year’s challenge was to develop a Life Cycle Analysis for industrial towels to support an industrial laundry plants’s expansion plans. The teams competed on three elements: 1) written solution submitted prior to the conference, 2) table-top / poster presentation at the conference, and 3) formal presentation at the conference. The second place prize ($800) was awarded to Olivia Dawson-Olson (ChE), Jeremy Hurley (Geol), Carissa Kloncz (ChE), and Joseph Sternberg (CE). The third place prize ($500) was awarded to Katherine Bakken (ChE), Matthew Dankers (ChE), Mitchell Kruse (ESci), and Morgan Loth (CE).
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L-R: Carissa Kloncz, Olivia Dawson-Olson, Joe Sternberg, and Jeremy Hurley
L-R: Morgan Loth, Katie Bakken, Matt Dankers, and Mitchell Kruse
D Ö Ùãà Äã N óÝ Toothpick Bridge Competition This spring, the UMD Civil Engineering Department was proud to host the 21st Annual Toothpick Bridge Competition their high bay laboratory. Organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Duluth Section, high school students were able to see what they can do with toothpicks and architecture on a small scale. Over 250 students from thirteen regional high schools competed for strength and creativity for their bridge structures. The bridges weighed only about a third of a pound, but some were able to hold up to 150 pounds. Students were also judged on their bridge's aesthetics. Some put so much work into their project that they did not want the bridge tested, as this would destroy their creation. An average amount of time spent on each bridge was fifteen to twenty hours.
A handful of the bridges brought to the competition
A toothpick bridge under strength testing
A student during strength testing of her bridge
4th Annual Career Fair The UMD Department of Civil Engineering hosted the 4th annual Civil Engineering Career Fair on Friday, February 6th, 2015 from 9:30am - 12:30 pm in the High Bay Lab. This year, UMD Career and Internship Services formed a partnership with the Civil Department in order to assist with another successful career fair. Approximately one hundred students and twenty five companies participated, resulting in the largest company turnout so far. Companies that attended include ArcelorMittal, Braun Intertec, City of Duluth, Element Materials Technology, Enbridge Energy, Karvakko EngineerOverview of high bay with companies ing, KLJ, Krech Ojard & Associates, Lake Superior Consulting, Larson Engineering, LHB, Meyer Borgman Johnson, MnDOT, MSA Professional Services, Northeast Technical Services, Northland Consulting, Northwoods Paving, St. Louis County, TKDA, Twin Ports Testing, U.S. Steel, VAA, Wells Concrete Products, WisDoT, and Western Lake Superior Sanitary District. The UMD Civil Engineering Department would like to extend another big thank you to the companies that attended.
Grad Research Projects Current graduate projects going on in the CE Department include: “Development of an Optimal Operational Strategy for Closely-Connected T-Intersections with Geometric Constraints” by Joel Hinnenkamp with advisement by Dr. Eil Kwon; “Effect of Water-Solids Ratio on the Compressive Strength and Degree of Reaction of Fly Ash-Waste GlassBased Geopolymers” by Matthew Jansen advised by Dr. Mary Christiansen; “Temperature Dependent Sulfate Transport in Aquatic Sediments” by Will DeRocher advised by Dr. Nathan Johnson; “Time-Dependent Strength Gain in Recently Distrubed Granular Materials” by Benjamin Cammack advised by Dr. David Saftner; “Impact of Asphalt Mixture Design Parameters on Transverse Cracking Performance and Laboratory Testing Results” by Benjamin Helmer advised by Dr. Eshan Dave.
Temporary Faculty
Dr. Gustavo H Merten, PhD
Travis Davidsavor
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Dr. Gustavo Merten grew up on a sheep and cattle ranch on the pampas, in southern Brazil, and often spent weekends helping his father with surveying projects. These early experiences contributed to his life -long love of the outdoors. At 15, he left home to attend military high school in Manaus, in the middle of the Amazon. After a year at the military academy in Rio, he enrolled in the Agronomy program at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. Dr. Merten then continued on to complete a Masters degree in Soil Science, specializing in erosion. Then married and with a young daughter, Janice, he took a job at the Agronomic Institute of Parana, where he did on-farm research adapting no-till farming systems for use with horse and oxen-drawn plows. FAO missions to Paraguay, Bolivia, and Chile broadened his connection to the rest of Latin America. He returned to Porto Alegre to pursue a doctorate in Water Resources Engineering, with a year at Purdue’s National Soil Erosion Lab. His dissertation focused on sediment detachment and transport processes. Dr. Merten joined the faculty at the Federal University, where he directed the Sediment Lab and was responsible for the hydrology technician training program, in addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate students. He remarried, and he and his wife Elena had 2 children, Matias and Gabriela. They moved to Minnesota in 2009, after Elena was accepted into a medical residency program in Minneapolis, where he continued his research as a post-doc and visiting professor until they decided to settle permanently in Duluth.
Travis Davidsavor joined the Civil Engineering faculty for the 2015 spring semester to teach Special Topics in Civil Engineering: Advanced Foundations (CE 5991). Mr. Davidsavor is a registered engineer in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, Utah, and Saskatchewan and has a M.S. degree in Civil Engineering, with focus on Geotechnical Engineering and Blast Engineering, from Michigan Technological University. Currently, Mr. Davidsavor works for Barr Engineering as the lead geotechnical engineer for a new crude oil terminal in southeast Michigan and manages the design of several June 2012 flood repair projects in Douglas County. He will be leading the geotechnical design of the repair of Trunk Highway 210 through Jay Cooke State Park. His professional interests include blast design and rock excavation, blast and construction vibration management, rock foundations, geotechnical engineering with interests in large horizontal directional drills, dynamic foundations, deep foundations, large storage tanks, and slope stability. He also enjoys mentoring young engineers and tells us that he is really enjoying teaching this semester
STUDENT ORG. NEWS ACI This spring, ACI student chapter members attended the 2015 Concrete Convention and Exposition Opening Session and Annual Awards Program in Kansas City, Missouri during the week of April 12th. At the convention, the ACI student members participated in a wide range of events. The main draw to this convention for the UMD student chapter was the fiber reinforce polymer beam competition, where two beams were constructed and loaded. There were L-R: Kyrstyn Haapala, Matt Jansen, Miranda Anderson, Sean Brown, Anthony two parts to the competition, first to accurately predict the failure Johnson, Willy Pelton, Scott Larson, Robert Larson, Bryce Hanson point of the beam, and second to have the highest load to cost ratio. Neither teams placed, but had the lowest cost beams at the competition. A second draw to the competition for the UMD student chapter was to accept the outstanding university award for 2014. The ACI Award for University Student Activities was initiated to recognize universities that have participated in ACI-related activities. Only 12 universities received this award for the 2014 year. Along with the competitions, two undergraduate students gave presentations at a speaker session. Bryce Hansen presented his UROP on pervious concrete and Robby Larson presented his UROP on sustainable concrete.
Geo Institute At the 2015 G-I convention in San Antonio, Texas the UMD Geo Institute team participated in the Geo-Prediction competition. The team's were asked to estimate settlement and ultimate load of a grout injected pile and write a paper outlining the methods used, along with the results to be selected to present at the Convention In San Antonio. The UMD team took 3rd place after presenting there results to a panel of judges. The Students had the opportunity to attend educational Sessions, sit in on committee meetings, along with network with professionals.
L-R: Bryce Hanson and Jacob Erickson pictured with a Soilmec drill rig at the G-I convention
L-R: Jacob Erickson and Peter Demshar with their Geo-Prediction poster
ASCE
L-R above: Brittany Fossell and April Boehne in the endurance race L-R below: Mitch Ott and Kevin Meyer in the men’s sprint
For the third year in a row, the UMD ASCE student chapter attended the concrete canoe competition at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. The competition involved many different elements, including a paper, a presentation, and paddling competitions. The team transported the canoe down on Friday, April 17th and attended a banquet for paddlers and team captains, where they met other teams and discussed their experiences with the canoe building process. The next morning, the team drove to Lake Pahoja to have their display board and canoe aesthetics judged. The canoe then underwent and successfully passed swamp testing. After the canoe was bailed out it was raced in five competitions: women’s sprint, men’s sprint, women’s endurance, men’s endurance, and coed sprint. The team placed well in the races and took 3rd overall out of nine teams with University of Wisconsin Platteville taking first and University of Minnesota Twin Cities taking second. The team plans to complete another canoe for next year, and up their game in order to rank higher overall. The ASCE Canoe Team would like to thank their sponsors for their generous donations: 3M, Arrowhead Concrete Works, Brock White Construction Materials, Cliffs Natural Resources, Krech Ojard & Associates, MSA Professional Services, T & N Auto, and Twin Ports Testing, Inc.
SWE
SWE members at the 2015 Region H Conference
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In early March, six women traveled to Notre Dame for the 2015 Society of Women Engineers Region H Conference. They attended several sessions including some on leadership burnout, graduate school, and new product development. In April, the UMD SWE section held elections and the results are: Carissa Kloncz (President), Thatcher Banh (Vice President), Jessica Schacht (Treasurer), Claire Anderson (Secretary), Carlie Sweet and Karin Larson (Conference Chairs), Kelsey Miller (Fundraising Chair), and Patrick Cauley (Webmaster). In addition, this spring SWE put together three different engineering outreach kits for next year. The kits (creating a catapult, designing a space landing ship, and building an electric circuit) include lesson plans for 4th-8th grade students and are funded by the Swenson College of Science and Engineering Dean’s Office and the UMD Civil Engineering Department. The UMD SWE is excited to start working with the Duluth youth! Upcoming events include a presentation by Cargill and an end of the year celebration. If you are interested in learning more about UMD’s SWE student chapter, contact Carissa Kloncz at klonc004@d.umn.edu.
R Ý Ù « N óÝ Transportation Research Update This year, Dr. Eil Kwon’s research on the traffic systems engineering included development of the active traffic management strategies for the Twin Cities’ metro freeway corridors; estimation of the traffic diversion and capacity at work zones; and determination of the normal condition recovery time with traffic flow data for snow events. Further, new research to develop the travel time reliability estimation/analysis system for the metro freeway network will begin in 2015. All these research projects are supported by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT). The active traffic management (ATM) research is an ongoing project where an adaptive ramp metering algorithm has been developed to improve the efficiency of the traffic flow operations on the mainline as well as and on the ramps by automatically identifying the time-variant bottlenecks and determine the appropriate metering rates in real time. The new algorithm has gone through the field testing and been gradually deployed to the most ramps in the Twin cities’ metro freeway network by January 2014. In addition, the variable advisory speed limit control system was also developed in this research and deployed on I-35W and IDr. Eil Kwon 94 in August of 2010. The ATM research is expected to be completed in 2015. Another ongoing project is to develop a guideline to determine the work zone diversion/capacity values for the metro freeway network. In particular, an estimation procedure for the remaining flow rates and capacities of lane closed work zones, the important parameters in developing the work zone traffic management plans required for large-scale construction sites. Estimation of the normal condition recovery times with the traffic flow data for snow events is another ongoing research, which tries to use the commonly available traffic data in determining the normal traffic condition recovery times. The new measures are being developed to assist MnDOT for effectively managing the snow maintenance operations that are currently based on the visual inspection of the plow truck operators. Finally, new research is planned to start in the early summer of 2015 to develop the travel time reliability estimation/analysis system for the metro freeway network. This research develops a computerized procedure to estimate a set of the travel time reliability indices and also to analyze the effects of the various factors on those measures. The results from the new system will be used as the critical input to the short and long-term planning process at MnDOT.
Urban Groundwater Research Update Dr. Rebecca Teasley has been working with UMD graduate student Tusha Barman along with Dr. Suzanne Pierce and graduate student Natalie Ballew at the University of Texas to develop a method for estimating the uncertainty pipe leakage and that contribution to recharge in the Edwards Aquifer located in Texas. Dr. Teasley and Tusha will be traveling to Austin, Texas in May to present their work at the ASCE EWRI Environmental & Water Resources World Congress. This work, funded by the University of Minnesota Grant in Aid program, is building the foundation for future investigation into the effects of uncertainty in decision-making processes related to groundwater management through the use of a stochastic method. Research has been conducted on the use of stochastic estimates of recharge in groundwater management, but research on the use of stochastic methods to estimate the uncertainty in groundwater recharge from urban sources (i.e. leaking pipe & storage facilities networks) has been limited. This study develops a method to evaluate the implications of scientific uncertainty in modeled recommendations and, further, Dr. Rebecca Teasley demonstrates how uncertainty can affect management decisions related to groundwater. Data and models from the Edwards Aquifer region of Texas serve as a test case that highlights the implications of land use change in relation to key measures of groundwater performance. Results advance the use of stochastic methods for water resource planning and management as well as, generating insights on how policy informed by stochastic methods can have a far-reaching impact on people and the environment.
Pavement Research Update As most of us know by now, Dr. Dave has moved on to continue his teaching and research excellence at the University of New Hampshire, and he will certainly be missed. The work that has been left to complete will be done by research engineers Chelsea Hanson and Jay Dailey. Chelsea has been named the principle investigator for the DCT test implementation project while Jay was named the principle investigator on the evaluation of asphalt patching techniques project. Spring is upon us and the outdoor pavement research operations are beginning to ramp up. The projects that are currently being researched have not changed since the last update, however they are moving into their next set of tasks. A list of ongoing projects include: evaluation of coarse asphalt mixes; DCT test implementation for asphalt pavements that evaluates mixes to determine thermal cracking resistance; field evaluation of bridge deck wear course systems; evaluation of asphalt patching techniques; and computer modeling of thermal cracking in asphalt pavements. The first two are closely related in that they both employ the DCT test in the laboratory. The data collected during this test is then correlated to field observations of the pavements being studied for verification purposes. The computer modeling project is for the development of a model that can predict the amount of thermal cracking in a pavement, the actual specimens from known pavements are being used as baselines for the model. Field testing will continue this year for the bridge deck wear course study. Several field visits are planned for monitoring purposes in the asphalt patching study. Dr. Eshan Dave’s research group has gotten smaller for the spring of 2015. Graduate student Robert Kostick successfully defended his thesis “A Comprehensive Evaluation of High Friction Overlay Systems on Bridge Decks in Cold Climate Regions” on February 20th of this year and will graduate this spring. The group saw another grad student move on this year as well. Ben Helmer defended his thesis “Impact of Asphalt Mixture Design Parameters on Transverse Cracking Performance and Laboratory Testing Results” on March 20th and now works with a local engineering firm in the Duluth area. Chelsea Hoplin remains as a graduate student and will continue her work through the fall of 2015. Undergraduate research assistants Jared Munch and Mitch Ott continue to provide help with the preparation of specimens for laboratory evaluation.
Testing the texture of bridge deck wear courses
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Slurry machine developed for MnDOT, part of the asphalt patching project.
UM15DSECENEW
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Department of Civil Engineering University of Minnesota Duluth 221 Swenson Civil Engineering Building 1405 University Drive Duluth, MN 55812