Research Projects

The aim of this project was to tackle electricity issues during times of extreme heat and drought. The project links climate modeling consumption and production, and contributes to three major scientific advancements; generating refined future extreme heat and drought scenarios, development of a flexible electricity consumption model, and development of a data-driven stochastic optimization method for robust power-generation decision strategies.

(Summary; ASME News; CCEE News; Ames Tribune)

The goal of this project is to prepare engineering students in college for problems that may not be covered in higher education. The students are presented with problems that may not be covered in a curriculum, in hopes of analyzing their responses to better prepare them for issues post-graduation. The current phase includes three parts, (1) problem formulation; (2) protocol development; and (3) pilot study.

(Summary; National Science Foundation)

Pavement is directly effected by the roughness, or smoothness, of the road. However, data collection revolving pavement is typically expensive. The goal in this project is to create a low cost smartphone collection based system to gather information on pavement distress levels annually. The project has five objects: (1)develop a smartphone-based pavement roughness measurement system, (2)identify and evaluate the potential capacities of a smartphone-based tool for detecting and measuring other road surface distress types, (3)develop a standardized nonproprietary data collection tool that can be used to collect roughness data required for pavement management, (4)test and calibrate the standardized nonproprietary collection tool for the various selected brands, (5)evaluate effective options to provide wireless communication links to deliver data.

(Summary)

The project has two main objectives; (1) Extensively instrument and monitor four granular-surfaced roadway sites around Iowa to obtain soil moisture, temperature, matric potential, frost-depth, and thawing period data for a range of Iowa soil types, moisture conditions, and climate conditions, (2)Begin developing computational and theoretical models for predicting the depths and durations of freezing and thawing in soils beneath granular-surfaced roadways, and evaluate their forecasting accuracy using NWS data for eventual statewide use without the need for subgrade soil sensors.

(Summary)

Many transportation agencies allocate significant time and resources each year to remove ice and snow from their paved surfaces to achieve a safe, accessible, and operational transportation network. An electrically conductive concrete (ECON) heated pavement system (HPS) has been shown to be a promising alternative to conventional snow removal operations using snowplows and deicing chemicals, which is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and environmentally unfriendly. An ECON HPS utilizes the inherent electrical resistance of concrete to maintain the pavement surface at above-freezing temperatures and thus prevent snow and ice accumulation on the surface. Such a sustainable concrete pavement system improves its infrastructure resiliency by allowing it to be safe, open, and accessible during even harsh winter storms.

(Summary)

Winter conditions such as snow and slush negatively impact airport success, as occupancy declines and likelihood for incidents increases due to conditions. Although traditional strategies of mechanical removal like shoveling and plowing, and chemical treatments such as salt to remove ice can be effective, the goal is to find an alternative to these methods through heated pavements. The benefits of this include improving winter operation capacity, reduction in environmental impacts of chemical methods previously used, and improvement of time effiency.

(Summary)

The goal in this project is to assess the investment behaviors of homeowners regarding energy efficient technologies within their homes. The three keys to this project aim to look at; (1) Why homeowners have not made energy efficient investments, (2)Why HVAC is the first energy efficient investment, (3) How willing homeowners are to make efficient investments, (4) Characterizing homes/homeowners who have made investments, (5) Portraying cost/ benefit analysis.

(Poster)

This project aims to look at the effect of energy efficient rental properties in three ways; (1) What are the adoption rates of energy efficient features in rental properties? (2) Does having energy efficient features in rental properties increase rental asking prices? (3) Is there a relationship between energy efficient premiums and location-specific environmental conditions?

Rental property owners need additional motivation and tangible benefits to invest in energy efficiency to reduce the energy efficiency gap.

(Poster)

Electrically conductive asphalt being proposed in hopes of preventing the possibility of long delays at airports. The key in this project is to determine the accuracy for measuring heat sensitivity of heated pavement in comparison to parameters of ECON. Next steps for this project include modeling the melting process of snow and ice, calculation energy consumption, and studying the technical performance of the model.

(Poster)

This project looks into the use of residential HVAC systems, particularly in warmer climate zones, the electric grid in these locations experiences large fluctuations in the electricity demand (MW) during the summer months, while balancing occupant comfort. The five-step evaluation methodology includes: (1) design variable definition, (2) building energy modeling (BEM), (3) response surface development, (4) probabilistic evaluation using the response surface, and (5) result interpretation.

(Summary)

The aim of this project is to test pavement based on three classifications- low, medium, or high strength. Test items are used until failure and then reconstructed. By doing so, it allows for a variety of compounds to be tested to see which results are most beneficial. This construction cycle includes test pavement construction, traffic tests to failure, post traffic testing, and pavement removal. Static and dynamic sensors are used to track and collect data.

(Summary)

The project serves to improve energy effiency in residential and commercial building sectors. The hope in this project is to educate students to be able to provide students with the knowledge they need in order to effectively apply energy efficient strategies to not only existing buildings, but also a new generation of buildings to come.

(Summary)

The objective of this project was to capture industry knowledge in regards to transportation assets, develop business process maps and data sharing maps for various types, and offer guidance in ways to better store, collect, and analyze data.

(Summary)

The objective in this research is to find the effectiveness and energy savings potential of a variety of types of dynamic shading devices and electric lighting control in office spaces. The importance of these office buildings is finding the energy efficiency potential, while also considering the human element of comfort with light and temperature in the building.

(Summary)

This study provides daily energy use profiles of four major household appliances: refrigerator, clothes washer, clothes dryer, and dishwasher, through analyzing disaggregated energy use data collected for 40 single family homes in Austin, TX. The study aims to look at three questions; (1) When and how much energy do appliances use throughout the day? (2) How much do these usages vary between homes and why does this vary? (3) What is the least amount of time needed to conduct a load profile?

(Summary)

This project aims to look at the balance between funding for paving and upkeep of roads, while considering the cost, time, and energy effiency of paving roads. The research team will conduct a sustainability assessment of the new unpaved road construction and maintenance methods using the BE2ST-in-Highways assessment method. This assessment includes both Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) to assess the cost savings, and Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) to assess environmental impacts and several other factors.

(Summary)

This project aims to provide more informed insights to customers about their energy use, peer comparisons, and recommendations to reduce energy use. This methodology uses a simplified thermodynamic model of the building that determines the type of HVAC system in use, and predicts future energy use based on the future month’s weather forecast. The results are used in a monthly scorecard provided to residential customers, which also includes targeted energy savings recommendations driven off peer comparisons.

(Summary)