Civil Engineering Faculty Projects
Lost Creek restoration project
Professor Jennifer Mueller-Price
The primary scientific goal of this project is to collect baseline monitoring data as necessary to complete a stream restoration design and develop a restoration demonstration project for Lost Creek. Quality of the stream water has also been measured at various test sites throughout RHIT campus to characterize how runoff from the landscape may be affecting water quality along Lost Creek. Results obtained by monitoring channel geometry through cross-section and longitudinal surveys and by determining sediment size distribution and transport will greatly improve the understanding of channel form and process in Lost Creek. By restoring channel stability and in-stream habitat there is the potential to greatly enhance the ecologic integrity of the stream system. Baseline monitoring data will be used to develop a demonstration project design that will reduce accelerated stream channel erosion along stream banks, establish a native riparian vegetated buffer, and restore and enhance the aquatic and terrestrial habitat of the stream corridor as it crosses the Rose-Hulman campus.
Performance monitoring of the new campus residence hall
Professor Matthew Lovell
Professor James Hanson
A monitoring program is being developed to investigate the behavior of the new residence hall being constructed on the Rose-Hulman campus. There are two primary aims of this investigation: (1) collect data focused at improving the understanding of building performance and (2) provide students with data measured from an actual structure so as to compare field measurements to assumptions typically made in a classroom or design office setting. The monitoring program will focus on several different aspects of the structure's behavior. Foundation settlement will be tracked during the structure's construction and will continue for an extended period after the structure is completed. Selected areas of the structure will be instrumented to monitor dead and live load deflections both during and after construction. Pressure sensors will be installed on the exterior of the building to monitor wind effects imposed on the structure. Finally, it is planned to develop a data acquisition infrastructure. The system will allow add on of additional sensors, by any department on the RHIT campus, for expanded areas of investigation of building performance.