Modernizing Rail Inspections for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Author(s):  
Chad Gartrell ◽  
Judy Reagan ◽  
Caleb Carter

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) executes inspection programs as part of the U.S. Army Transportation Infrastructure Program (ATIP). These inspection, monitoring and assessment programs include airfields, bridges, dams, railroads, waterfront facilities and ranges. To date, the process for these inspection programs has been manually intensive, time consuming and difficult to scale. The US Army Corps is bringing digital business and spatial data collection methods to its inspection program for the military’s railroad infrastructure. By combining GPS and GIS technologies into a mobile data collection solution, added efficiency and data quality has been brought to the field inspection workflow. This modernization effort also results in streamlined data processing and reporting. These improved processes will lead to higher quality data, better analysis of the new richer data content and better decisions made by the end users and stakeholders.

1964 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 215-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
W G Brown

Calculations using the Neumann solution (as modified by Aldrich) and thermal properties of soils (obtained by Kersten) show that the frost penetration depth for the same freezing index for essentially all soils with any moisture content and for dry sand and rock varies by a factor of about 2 to 1. The extremes calculated in this way bracket the experimentally determined design curve of the US Army Corps of Engineers and give it theoretical support. The theoretical calculations and additional experimental data are used as a basis for a small alteration in the slope of the design curve. This modified design curve is recommended for field use because of (1) inherent imperfections in existing theory and (2) practical limitations to precise specification of field conditions.


2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Dean Rosati ◽  
Katherine Flynn Touzinsky ◽  
W. Jeff Lillycrop

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric M Gagnet ◽  
John M Hoemann ◽  
James S Davidson

Over recent decades, three distinct methods have evolved that are currently being used to generate resistance functions for single-degree-of-freedom analyses of unreinforced masonry walls subjected to blast loading. The degree of differences in these resistance definitions depends on whether the wall is assumed to be simply supported or whether compression arching forces result from rotation restraint at the supports. The first method originated in the late 1960s as a result of both experimental and analytical research sponsored by the US Department of Defense. That method, referred to as the Wiehle method, is the basis of Unified Facilities Criteria 3-340-02 and other derived analytical software such as the Wall Analysis Code developed by the US Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center. The second method is based on elastic mechanics and an assumed linear decay function that follows and is the basis of the widely used Single-Degree-of-Freedom Blast Effects Design Spreadsheets software distributed by the US Army Corps of Engineers, Protective Design Center. The third method is largely based on concrete and masonry behavioral theories developed by Paulay and Priestly in the early 1990s. This article systematically compares the resistance methodologies for arching and non-arching scenarios, demonstrates the implications by plugging the disparate resistance functions into blast load single-degree-of-freedom models, compares the analytical results to full-scale blast test results, and offers conclusions about the accuracy and efficacies of each method.


Author(s):  
Jessica H. Podoski ◽  
Thomas D. Smith ◽  
David C. Finnegan ◽  
Adam L. LeWinter ◽  
Peter J. Gadomski

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Honolulu District (POH) is responsible for the operation and maintenance of 26 navigation projects within the State of Hawaii and the U.S. Pacific territories. The majority of these deep-draft and small-boat harbors include breakwaters that are consistently exposed to a substantial and varied Pacific Ocean wave climate, requiring POH to maintain a rigorous structure condition inspection program to ensure safe and efficient operations at all of its navigation projects. As part of its constant efforts to improve the quality and efficiency of this inspection program, POH has joined with the USACE Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) Remote Sensing and GIS Center of Expertise to utilize an Unmanned LiDAR Scanning (ULS) system to collect LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) spatial data and co-registered imagery of breakwaters at Hilo Deep Draft Harbor on the island of Hawaii, and Kaumalapau Deep Draft Harbor on the island of Lanai.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Wilkins ◽  
Andrew McQueen ◽  
Joshua LeMonte ◽  
Burton Suedel

Given the reported extent of microplastics in the aquatic environment, environmentally relevant exposure information for sediments dredged by the US Army Corps of Engineers will lend context to the risks posed by this contaminant during dredging. We measured the occurrence, abundance, and polymer composition of microplastics in sediments collected from nine dredged waterways and two non-dredged reference areas. The number of particles in sediment samples ranged from 162 to 6110 particles/kg dry wt., with a mean of 1636 particles/kg dry wt. Fragments were the most prevalent shape observed among the 11 study sites (100% frequency of occurrence), followed by fibers (81%), spheres (75%), foams (38%) and films (34%). Based on analyses of chemical composition of the particles using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, polyethylene:propylene was the most common polymer type observed. Consistent with results presented by other investigators microplastic concentrations and polymer types in bottom sediments in this study were also aligned with the most widely used plastics worldwide.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer McAlpin ◽  
Jason Lavecchia

The Brunswick area consists of many acres of estuarine and marsh environments. The US Army Corps of Engineers District, Savannah, requested that the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory, develop a validated Adaptive Hydraulics model and assist in using it to perform hydrodynamic modeling of proposed navigation channel modifications. The modeling results are necessary to provide data for ship simulation. The model setup and validation are presented here.


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