Civil and Environmental Engineering

To year 21 and beyond

In the last five years, the Canadian wind industry has seen exponential growth. More than 6,000 grid-connected turbines pepper the Canadian landscape, but what happens once these towering machines reach end of life?

A University of Windsor researcher has teamed with industry and academia to find out.

“It’s coming and there’s been little planning” said Dr. Rupp Carriveau, a UWindsor associate engineering professor and director of the UWindsor Turbulence and Energy Lab. “They haven’t been building megawatt class machines that long.”

Carriveau has partnered with Kruger Energy, the Wind Energy Institute of Canada (WEICan) and Enbridge to create an investment decision support system for commercial wind energy. Each partnering outlet has committed $42,000 to the project over the next two years in addition to $180,000 in national funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and $120,000 from the Ontario Centres of Excellence.

The project is called YEAR21, referencing the year following the machine’s 20-year life expectancy. Carriveau will collaborate with Western University’s Matt Davison, a Canada Research Chair in Quantitative finance to conduct economic forecasting, as well as engineering reliability specialists also from Western, Han Ping Hong and Tim Newson.

Student projects bridge gap between theory and practice

Sometimes you have to fail to succeed. That’s the case with a project for third-year students in Amr El Ragaby’s class finite element for analysis and design.

The civil engineering professor challenges groups to design and build models of a truss bridge, predicting how they will react when subjected to pressure from a custom-built crusher. They are rewarded for designs that hold up well, and for accuracy in their analysis of the load capacity of their models.

Conference to consider carbon-free transport

truck, train, airplane, shipA mini-conference Friday, Jan. 20, will bring together international experts to discuss the potential for a carbon-free transport corridor from Montreal to Chicago.

Conference to consider carbon-free transport

Are we ready for long-haul electrified trucking?

A mini-conference Friday, Jan. 20, will discuss the potential to create a carbon-free transport corridor from Montreal to Chicago.

Organized by civil and environmental engineering professors Rupp Carriveau and Hanna Maoh, the event will bring together international experts to consider the vehicles, energy, and critical infrastructure needed.

They will share early results from research on the impact transport electrification has had on fleet owners, fueling stations, power grids, and businesses.

Speakers include:

Tolling research completed through Community Benefits Partnership

Gordie Howe International Bridge
Civil engineering student Farnaz Zahedieh explored lane configurations and tolling systems for the Gordie Howe International Bridge.

Tolling research completed through Community Benefits Partnership

A University of Windsor engineering student is one step closer to graduation after completing her thesis on advanced tolling systems related to the Gordie Howe International Bridge project. The research was supported by the Annual Research Partnership, an initiative of the project’s Community Benefits Plan.

As part of her Master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering, Farnaz Zahedieh tested the impacts of a new toll information system and various lane configurations on traffic performance and safety using a computerized simulation model, under the supervision of professor Chris Lee.

Researchers funded to examine microplastic contamination in the Great Lakes system

Tirupati Bolisetti at the Credit River bridge in Mississauga

Besides providing drinking water for more than 30 million people in North America, the Great Lakes play a vital role in the economy’s transportation, power and agriculture sectors.

Plastic pollution in these water bodies has been widely acknowledged for a great deal of time, says Tirupati Bolisetti, an environmental engineering professor at UWindsor. 

However, microplastics — particles that are 5 mm or smaller in size — hidden in the water are posing a much bigger problem for aquatic and human life.

“These ubiquitous microplastics are finding their way into the natural waters due to improper disposal of plastics, which degrade into small pieces,” Dr. Bolisetti says. “They come from plastic packaging, cosmetics, textiles, automotive components and plastic litter thrown on the beaches, to name a few.”

Some of these microplastics in the form of synthetic microfibers are also released from our wastewater systems, he adds.

A team of interdisciplinary researchers from the University of Windsor, including Bolisetti and Dr. Ram Balachandar, are collaborating with Dr. Shooka Karimpour and other researchers from York University to understand how microplastics originate and get transported to the western basin of Lake Ontario, called the Niagara basin. 

Engineering profs team with local greenhouse to reimagine electric grid distribution

A team of UWindsor engineering researchers envisions a future where electric transport trucks can deliver more than goods.

While loading or unloading zero emission trucks, why not transfer electrons too? The road-bound big rigs can deliver electricity to companies in need to extend the limits of the electrical grid at high-peak hours.

It’s a scenario Rupp Carriveau and Hanna Maoh are mapping out in partnership with MitacsIndependent Electricity System Operator360 Energy, and Leamington-based greenhouse grower, Nature Fresh Farms.

“Let’s say a truck is done for the day and still has an 80 per cent charge,” Dr. Carriveau explains. “That truck can deliver electrons to a nearby company that’s going to be hit with some penalties for having a high draw on the grid — maybe for the lights in a greenhouse or an electric press machine in a warehouse.”

Engineering teams take top honours in smart infrastructure competition

Two teams of UWindsor engineering students have triumphed in an industry-led, pitch-off competition for their solutions to cross-border congestion at the future Gordie Howe International Bridge.

The teams impressed a panel of industry judges with their suggestions to implement mobile apps to reduce delays at the border and to facilitate the use of alternate modes of transportation to relieve congestion. The students also recommended using machine learning technologies, sensor-based systems, and even a suicide prevention system in plans for the new bridge, which is one of the largest infrastructure projects underway in North America.

The pitch-off competition hosted by Ontario’s Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network (AVIN) and Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority (WDBA) challenged post-secondary students in engineering, information technology, and business administration to utilize smart mobility technologies, data analytics, and new payment and security technologies to reduce cross-border congestion and wait times.