Eduardo M. Sosa

Testing of Full-Scale Inflatable Plug for Flood Mitigation in Tunnels

The protection of high-risk underwater and underground assets, such as rail and road tunnels, is a high priority. Disasters and extraordinary events can significantly disrupt the functionality of such critical civil infrastructure. Events such as the 2012 flooding of New York City, when Hurricane Sandy caused seven subway tunnels and three vehicular tunnels to flood and remain inoperable for several days, have demonstrated the need for methods to mitigate vulnerabilities to or, at least, minimize the consequences of those events. Conventional emergency sealing systems are not always installed or operational during extraordinary events; this situation has prompted the investigation of alternative solutions, such as inflatable plugs capable of sealing off and protecting an underground system by stopping hazards. The development and testing of confined inflatable structures was performed at West Virginia University to verify the viability of flood containment with an inflatable plug in a tunnel section. The work was performed under the Resilient Tunnel project, which has progressed from the production of a proof of concept, air-inflated prototype to reduced and full-scale prototypes pressurized with water and subjected to back pressure for flooding simulations. This work summarizes the results of tests performed at full scale for the evaluation of the conformity of an inflatable plug to a typical tunnel section as well as the plugs ability to withstand simulated flooding and maintain axial stability. The tests comprised deployment, inflation, pressurization, and flooding simulation. The test results demonstrated that an inflatable plug could be installed and deployed and could seal a tunnel section by holding test pressures, while maintaining axial stability, with manageable levels of water leakage.

Short Carbon Fibre Reinforced Latex Modified Concrete for Crack-resistant Bridge Deck Overlays

The use of latex modified concrete deck overlay systems has become a common practice not only for repairing old bridge overlays but also as a wearing and protective surface of many new bridges in the USA. However, cracks due to diverse reasons have often been observed in old and new bridges, so that reduction or even complete elimination of cracks is the subject of continuous research. One way of reducing or eliminating cracks is by reinforcing the overlay material with short length, randomly oriented carbon fibres. This paper shows the results of the development of latex modified concrete reinforced with short carbon fibres. Two fibre lengths were introduced to typical latex modified concrete mix in order to evaluate different mechanical properties used as indicators of the performance improvement. Results show that the resulting material tends to be less stiff than plain latex modified concrete, so that for the same load level, carbon fibre latex modified concrete is able to support more tensile strain ...