Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for September
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Application on Biopolymers on Mercury Waste Treatment:....
Fri, Sep 07, 2007 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Adsorption of Chitosan Hydrogel Granule with Heavy MetalsSpeaker:
Prof. Chang-Chin Kwan
Providence University, TaiwanAbstract:
Heavy metal pollution in aquatic systems is a pervasive and extremely serious problem. The high cost for cleanup tends to increase. A selective, high-capacity adsorbent process is developed to recover the heavy metals, thus minimizing fouling. Biopolymers such as chitosan and sodium polyglucosamine can be used separately or together for the adsorption studies. A practical example is that at pH 5, the maximum capacity for mercury is 0.4% to 7mg of sodium polyglucosamine per gram of beach sand. Furthermore, a capsule delivering system using chitosan and tripolyphosphate was made. The microcapsules were prepared by emulsification/internal gelification method. The release behavior of Vitamin E from these microcapsules was investigated in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and hydrophobic medium. Results indicated that the release of Vitamin E is slow but with higher concentrations of chitosan and TPP solutions, a convenient method to encapsulate active ingredients in microcapsules for 10 hours in aqueous PBS solution or 7 hours in the lipo-system can be developed.Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 156
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Geotechnical Program to Database the Collection of Sewer Information in ...
Fri, Sep 14, 2007 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Got SMART©TM ?
Geotechnical Program to Database the Collection of Sewer Information in City of Los Angeles, in Terms of Sewer Renewal Program Speaker:
Derek Kim, Ph.D.,
Civil Engineer (consultant)
City of Los Angeles,Department of Public Works
Bureau of Engineering, Wastewater Conveyance Engineering DivisionAbstractThe City of Los Angeles has a mission to rehabilitate the old sewer system where leaking and non-functioning pipes are widespread. Can't these sewers deserve being repaired for the next generations? City engineers are finding the best option to shoot the trouble that occurred in this underground system. The conventional way of collecting the subsurface information was somewhat laborious, inconvenient, and time-consuming. In order to overcome this difficult task, city engineers developed a new way of data system, SMART©TM (Sewer Management Automated Renewal Tracking System). With this innovative and streamlined design approach, the tremendous amount of subsurface information including maps and drawings, and new design input can be collected and organized. Now, SMART program is the key component of tools to meet the goal of City's SSRP (Secondary Sewer Renewal Program), where 60 miles of sewer pipes should have to be rehabilitated with methods of lining or R&R (Remove & Replace).
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Sharing Lesson Learnt
Fri, Sep 21, 2007 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker:
Pei-Chin Low, P.E.
MWH Americas, Inc.Abstract:Every project, be it an equipment replacement design project or pilot testing of a cutting-edge technology, has its own lessons to be learnt. Every project has its own challenges, warranting different technical and management approaches. There is no one-size-fits-all solution and there is so much to learn and experiment, which is probably why it is actually fun to work! This presentation will discuss the lessons learnt from various projects, including design and study of water and wastewater treatment plants, pump stations, and pilot-testing of ozone feasibility study, with different clients including but not limited to the City of Los Angeles, County Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, and Orange County Sanitation District and Antelope Valley-East Kern Water District. With so much experience and lessons to learn and also to avoid re-inventing the wheels, it is important to build a network of fellow professionals for knowledge and experience sharing. The presenter will also share her personal experience on network building.Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - rielian Hall 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Deterministic and Probabilistic Tsunami Studies in ....
Fri, Sep 21, 2007 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Deterministic and Probabilistic Tsunami Studies in California from near and Farfield SourcesBy: Burak Uslu
Ph. D. Candidate
Oral DefenseAbstract:The state California is vulnerable to tsunamis from both local and distant sources. While there is awareness of the threat, tsunamis are infrequent and few communities have a good understanding of vulnerability. To evaluate the tsunami threat, deterministic and probabilistic methods are used to compute inundation and runup heights. For the numerical modeling of tsunamis, a two dimensional finite difference propagation and runup model is used. All known near and farfield sources of relevance to California are considered. For the farfield, the Pacific Rim is subdivided into small segments where unit ruptures are assumed. The historical records from the 1952 Kamchatka, 1960 Great Chile, 1964 Great Alaska, and 1994 and 2006 Kuril Islands Earthquakes are compared to the modeled results. A sensitivity analysis is performed on each subduction zone segment to determine the effect of the source location on wave heights off the California Coast.Earlier studies employed a time-dependent method based on a Richter and Gutenberg type relationship, and assigned probabilities on each subduction zone depending on previous surveys. Time-dependent and time-independent methods are used in this study. In the latter, the slip rates are obtained from GPS measurements of the tectonic plates and used as a basis to get the return period of each possible earthquake. The return periods of the tsunamis resulting from these events are combined with the wave height exceedance from the numerical results to provide a total probability of exceedance, for ports and harbors in California. The Cascadia Subduction Zone, a portion of which is located in the boundaries of California and is capable of producing mega-thrust earthquake rupture between Gorda and North American plate, may cause large damage north of Cape Mendocino. Northern California is likely to have the biggest damage from a Cascadia rupture. The sensitivity analysis suggests that San Francisco Bay and Central California exhibits the largest impact from the Alaska and Aleutians Subduction Zone (AASZ). An earthquake with a magnitude comparable to the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake on central AASZ could result in twice the damage as experienced by SF Bay in the 1964 event.The probabilistic approach shows that Central California and San Francisco Bay have more frequent tsunamis, as they are oriented towards the AASZ; while Southern California can be impacted from tsunamis generated on Chile and Central American Subduction Zone as well as the AASZ.Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - rielian Hall 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Superfund/CERCLA Cleanup Process Review and Project Experience
Fri, Sep 28, 2007 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker:Hsien W. Chen, Ph.D., P.E.
Senior Project Director,
Earth Tech, Inc.
Lake Forest, CaliforniaAbstractThe Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) a.k.a. Superfund program as it relates to site investigation, feasibility study, cleanup and site closure is introduced. Application of the CERCLA process to different sites including those listed as National Priority List (NPL), Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) and the State Superfund sites is discussed. The current status of conducting human health and ecological risk assessments as the scientific basis for defining the risks and cleanup goals as well as regulatory agency oversight and public involvements are discussed. Specific project experience of the presenter is also used to augment the Superfund process evaluation.Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - rielian Hall 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes