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Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for April
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Organic Pollutant Transformations in the Natural Environment and in Engineered Processes
Thu, Apr 05, 2007 @ 02:15 PM - 03:15 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker:Inez Hua, Ph.D.,
Purdue University,
School of Civil Engineering,AbstractThis seminar will focus on two major themes: the abiotic, environmental transformation
of emerging contaminants, and the accelerated destruction of water pollutants via engineered
photochemical reactors. Photolysis and free-radical reaction mechanisms are the scientific basis
for each theme.The first research topic is part of a multi-disciplinary project focused on an emergingcategory of pollutants, the brominated flame retardants (BFRs). Certain BFRs have been widely detected in the environment, in wildlife, and in people. Photochemical reaction of BFRs provides an abiotic transformation mechanism in the environment, and the process occurs under a variety of conditions. Data will be presented which demonstrates the photolytic debromination of BFRs when the compounds are irradiated with either artificial or natural sunlight. The decomposition kinetics and products, and the quantum yield (for selected wavelengths of natural sunlight) will be discussed. The BFRs were either dissolved or adsorbed to mineral surfaces during irradiation. Complementing the research on environmental fate of BFRs is additional work that quantifies the inventory of BFRs in existing products (including electronics). We also investigate the potential pathways of BFRs to the environment from products and materials during their manufacture, use, recycle or disposal. The second research theme is focused on water pollution control. Critical infrastructure in the United States includes the water sector, and it is necessary to develop and optimize technologies that remove or destroy a range of known and potential water contaminants. The aim of this project is to explore the effectiveness of photochemical oxidation in destroying chemical threat agents. The destruction of nicotine and several organophosphate compounds has been investigated. The reaction kinetics and mechanism for each compound will be discussed. Also, the results of a process optimization study will be reported; a central composite Design of Experiments (DOE) was completed to provide quantitative information for optimizing the destruction of nicotine and phosphamidon.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - rielian Hall, 203
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Mapping of Probabilities (a Theory for the Interpretation of Uncertain Physical Measurements)
Mon, Apr 09, 2007 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Albert Tarantola, University of Paris VI.While the usual way for "assimilating" uncertain observations goes through the use of conditional probabilities, one may try to introduce different concepts, directly borrowed from set theory. It is argued that these new concepts complete the traditional Kolmogorov point of view. The resulting theory seems well adapted for facing real world problems, where observations are only used to "falsify" models (à la Popper), these falsifications defining the transition from a prior distribution of models into a posterior distribution (à la Bayes).
Location: 118 Zumberge Hall
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Masako Okamoto
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Energy and Geotechnology
Wed, Apr 11, 2007 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Dr. Carlos Santamarina,
Georgia TechAbstract:
Energy is critical to growth. There will be a pronounced increase in energy demands in the next decades. This will exacerbate issues related to the spatial distributions of supply and demand, the dependency on fossil fuels, and their consequences. Geotechnology is at the center of the energy challenge, in all its stages, from production, transportation, consumption and conservation, to waste management. The case of hydrate bearing sediments is of particular interest. Their study requires a wide range of disciplines, anchored around geomechanics, and the development of new numerical and experimental tools to understand their intricate formation history and complex behavior.Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - rielian Hall, 203
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Hydrocarbons in Air Pollution: A Chemists View - 2007
Fri, Apr 13, 2007 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Dr. Leo Zafonte Ph.D.Staff Air Pollution Research Specialist
Haagen-Smit Laboratory of the California Air Resources Board((ABSTRACT))A primary focus of the California Air Resources Board is the measurement of those hydrocarbons which either directly or indirectly contributes to air pollution within the State.Hydrocarbons are an all-important focus for all air quality measurements in California because so much impact of its pollution is related to hydrocarbons.This talk will survey those major areas where the activities of the Air Resources Board, and specifically of the Monitoring and Laboratory Division, Southern Laboratory Branch in El Monte, California, measures hydrocarbons in support of California's effort to improve our air quality.The presentation will both focus on the facilities and instrumentation used, while giving a broader overview of the importance of this data.It will present some progress being made at El Monte on the construction of a new laboratory for being used to analyze for particulate matter. Some aspects of the new California legislation, AB32, the Greenhouse Gas Initiative that will be a part of California¹s future, will also be summarized.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - -156
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Masako Okamoto
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Modeling and Simulations of Earthquake Phenomena
Wed, Apr 18, 2007 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
DR. NADIA LAPUSTA, CalTechIn earthquake studies, the most important practical problems are the assessment of earthquake hazard and possibility of earthquake prediction. To address these issues in a satisfactory manner, detailed understanding of physics and mechanics of earthquakes is needed.How do earthquakes nucleate and arrest? What are the appropriate descriptions and parameters of fault friction during both quasi-static and dynamic deformation? How do thermal effects - such as flash heating, pore-fluid pressurization, and melting - influence dynamic rupture propagation? What is the stress state on faults and the surrounding crust? Such fundamental questions still evade understanding or consensus. Our studies are directed towards answering these questions by formulating earthquake models with constitutive laws motivated by experimental observations and physically-based theories of how fault materials respond. The goal is to simulate the response of those models in terms of spontaneous sequences of earthquakes and to find the relevant models by comparing simulated features of individual events and event sequences with observations.While most earthquake modelers consider dynamic rupture propagation in a single earthquake, we have been developing a methodology that allows us to simulate spontaneous sequences of earthquakes while fully resolving all stages of each model earthquake: quasi-static accelerating slip during the nucleation process, the resulting inertially-controlled rupture, post-seismic deformation, and ongoing slippage throughout the loading period in creeping fault regions. The resulting simulations are very challenging because of the wide range of temporal and spatial scales involved.We will present our modeling efforts and results on features of the shear rupture sequences, the process of the instability nucleation, modes of dynamic rupture propagation, and strong but brittle interface behavior.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - -203
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Masako Okamoto
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Real Time Aerosol Measurement Technologies
Fri, Apr 20, 2007 @ 01:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
(( SPEAKER ))Dr. Manisha SinghApplications Engineer
TSI Incorporated(( ABSTRACT ))The seminar will provide short reviews of new aerosol science measurement technologies using TSI Particle Research Instrument. Some of the techniques covered are: Scanning Mobile Particle Sizer (SMPS) Technology
Condensation Particle Counter (CPC) Technology
Time-of-flight Technology for real time aerodynamic particle sizing.In addition, Nano Technology measurements such as Health Exposure and Environmental Monitoring in the research community will be highlighted.Instruments will be available for Hands-on experimentation and will provide an opportunity to learn about many of TSI's new instruments including the Fast Mobility Particle Sizer, Nanoparticle Surface Area Monitor, Water-based CPC, New CPC Technology, and New SMPS Diffusion Loss Algorithm, DataMerge and Nanoparticle Aggregate Mobility Analysis. TSI personnel will be available to discuss specific applications.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 156
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Masako Okamoto
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Optimization of maintenance and replacement policies for a system of heterogeneous infrastructure fa
Wed, Apr 25, 2007 @ 12:00 PM - 01:30 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
(( SPEAKER ))Dr. SAMER MADANAT, Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS), University of California, Berkeley(( ABSTRACT ))This research addresses the determination of optimal maintenance and replacement policies for a system of heterogeneous facilities. The problem of optimizing maintenance and replacement policies at the system level is formulated in a reliability-based framework, based on policies that are optimal at the facility level. The facility-level policies are determined using a finite-state, finite horizon Markov decision process in which the state of the Markov chain contains information on the history of maintenance and deterioration.Optimality conditions for the continuous-case system-level problem are derived and explained intuitively. A numerical study shows that the results obtained in the discrete-case implementation of the solution are valid approximations of the continuous-case results. The computational efficiency of the system-level solution makes the formulation suitable for systems of realistic sizes.Bio: Samer Madanat is the Xenel Distinguished Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, and the Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California at Berkeley.He received a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Jordan in 1986, and a M.S and Ph.D. in Transportation Systems from MIT in 1988 and 1991 respectively.His research and teaching interests are in the area of Transportation Infrastructure Management, with an emphasis on modeling facility performance and the development of optimal management policies under uncertainty. He has published extensively in refereed archival journals and conference proceedings.In 2000, he received the Science and Technology grant from the University of California Office of the President, an award given annually to one faculty member in the UC system. Since 2001, he has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the ASCE Journal of Infrastructure Systems. Several of his former students are faculty members at universities in the US and abroad.
Location: Ralph And Goldy Lewis Hall (RGL) - -215
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Masako Okamoto
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Particulate Matter Emitted By Vehicles in Freeway and Roadway Tunnel Environments:
Wed, Apr 25, 2007 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
(( SPEAKER ))DR. MICHAEL D. GELLER, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, USC(( ABSTRACT ))Individual organic compounds such as hopanes and steranes (originating in lube oil), selected polycyclic aromatic compounds (PAHs) (generated via combustion), and trace metals found in particulate emissions from vehicles have proven useful in source apportionment of ambient particulate matter.Currently, little ambient data exists for a majority of these species. Three sampling campaigns have been carried out in four different environments with similar ambient conditions: a gasoline only freeway, a heavy-duty diesel influenced freeway (~20% diesel), a gasoline only tunnel, and a mixed-vehicle (~4% diesel) tunnel.Trace organic species in the ultrafine (Very good agreement is observed between CA-110 (gasoline freeway) and light duty vehicle tunnel emission factors as well as I-710 (~20% diesel freeway) measurements and corresponding reconstructed emission factors from the tunnel for selected species. This study demonstrates the effective use of CO2-estimated dilution to associate assorted vehicle-emitted PM bound compounds in distinct vehicle-dominated environments.
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - -203
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Masako Okamoto
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Tsunami-Induced Sediment Transport and Scour
Thu, Apr 26, 2007 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
:SPEAKER:Yin Lu (Julie) YoungCivil & Environmental Engineering Department
Princeton University:ABSTRACT:As demonstrated by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, high intensity wave runup and drawdown can mobilize substantial amount of sediment deposits. The resulting erosion and scour damage can undermine building foundations, roadways, sea walls, embankments, and may even lead to eventual collapse of the coastal structure. In this seminar, we will focus on the numerical and experimental analysis of tsunami-induced sediment transport. We will talk about the development and validation of the numerical model, including the effect of wave breaking, dispersion, and interaction with sediments and underlying soil layer. In addition, we will also talk about two sets of experiments to be conducted this year to examine the complex physics and various scaling effects of tsunami-induced sediment transport. The first experimental study focuses on the effect of enhanced transport due to pore pressure gradients, and will be conducted at the 30-ft long flume in the hydraulics lab at the University of Hawaii using multiple grain sizes. The second experimental study focuses on tsunami-induced sediment transport, and will be conducted at the 160-ft long tsunami wave basin at Oregon State University using fine Oregon beach sand. The experimental setups are shown, and scaling issues for the two movable bed physical models are discussed. Comparisons of the differences and similarities in transport mechanisms for tsunami cross-shore environment and river-type environment are presented.:SHORT BIOGRAPHY:Julie Young received her B.S. from University of Southern California in 1996, where she did research on shear-band failure of soil particles under Prof. J.P. Bardet. She then went on to the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) to get her M.S. degree (1998) under Profs. J. Roesset and K. Stokoe II on numerical modeling and SASW testing of stress-induced anisotropy of soil surrounding a borehole. Julie stayed in UT Austin for her PhD degree, where she studied under Prof. S. Kinnas on numerical modeling of the cavitating marine propellers. Since 2002, she is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University. In 2005, Julie received both the ONR Young Investigator Award and the Rheinstein SEAS Junior Faculty Award. Her current active research areas include multiphase modeling (sediment transport, porous flows, and bubbly flows) and fluid-structure interaction modeling (tsunami-sediment-soil interactions and hydroelastic tailoring of composite structures).Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - -203
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Masako Okamoto