Gentrification - the process in which higher income (and often younger) households displace lower income residents of a city neighborhood - has been occurring in many urban neighborhoods over the last few decades. This process changes the demographics, and often the essential character, of the neighborhood. As a result, we...
This study tested a dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) model as a tool for pre-planning strategies for managing major freeway incidents. Incidents of varying scale and duration were modeled in the northern Chicago highway network, and the impacts of incidents and response actions were measured in terms of both lane-mile-hours of...
The mission of the Infrastructure Technology Institute is to develop strategies and tools
to protect and improve the condition, capacity and performance of the nations highway, railroad,
and mass transit infrastructure systems. The Institute does this through the development
and deployment of (1) advanced technologies for structural health monitoring, (2)...
Few would argue that concrete is an important and useful material: after all, concrete is the backbone of the world’s infrastructure, used in vast amounts to make roads, buildings, bridges, and other structures. But sometimes familiarity breeds contempt. To most people, concrete is simply that boring grey stuff that we...
This final report provides information about TEA-21 [Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century] funded projects designated A433, and A495 "Evaluation of Capacity of Micropiles Embedded in Dolomite". The report was submitted to the Infrastructure Technology Institute at Northwestern University by Richard J. Finno on September 20, 2002.
Performance monitoring of deep excavations typically includes slope inclinometers, optical surveying of soil deformation, tiltmeters and strain gages. Current monitoring data collection and processing requires time consuming site visits and manual data reduction by project engineers. Development of robotic and remote access geotechnical instrumentation conceptually allows processed data to be...
Northwestern University developed copper-precipitation-hardened, high-performance weathering steel (NUCu 70W Steel) that is produced by hot rolling after casting and then air-cooling. Due to simple processing the steel is fabricated at lower cost than competing high-performance steels that require quench and tempering. NUCu 70W steel can be easily welded without pre-...
Experimental Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) data obtained from the field are compared with numerical simulations using a finite-difference solution of the transmission line equations. The model simulates transmission of a voltage pulse along a lossy coaxial cable where deformities on the cable, such as crimps and shears, are represented by...
This paper reviews the new field of geo-measurement with metallic cable time domain reflectometry (TDR) for surveillance of transportation facilities. TDR is radar in a coaxial cable, and is especially advantageous for remote monitoring because of its inherently digital nature. Advances can be separated into those that leverage use of...