Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Engineering
Variational numerical-modelling strategies for the simulation of driven free-surface waves
Published: 2025-10-11
Subjects: Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
A new tool is developed for simulating three-dimensional (3D) water-wave motion using the first fully variational 3D discretisation in space and time of Luke's variational principle (VP), with additional focus on the formation and analysis of extreme waves generated within in-house experimental wavetanks. The resulting ``numerical wavetank'' is able to emulate laboratory sea states in which [...]
Biomineralisation for Sustainable Ecotoxic Metal Immobilisation via Enzyme Induced Carbonate Precipitation
Published: 2025-10-02
Subjects: Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Heavy metal contamination of water presents a critical global challenge driven by the persistence and toxicity of elements such as arsenic, cadmium and lead. Conventional remediation strategies, such as Enzyme-Induced Carbonate Precipitation (EICP), typically rely on commercial urease and a multi-step extraction process, which increases energy demand, generates ammonium byproducts, and requires [...]
The African Transport Systems Database: an open geospatial database of multi-modal connected networks
Published: 2025-09-30
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Transportation Engineering
We present the first comprehensive geolocated multi-modal transport database for the whole continent of Africa, the African Transport Systems Database (AfTS-Db), including road, rail, aviation, maritime and inland waterway networks. To do so, we created and standardized asset and network data across all transport modes, including inter-modal connections, attributes of road and rail corridors and [...]
A Sensitivity Analysis Approach to Identifying Drivers of Streamflow Hysteresis
Published: 2025-09-28
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering
We study the critical interplay between streamflow hysteresis and local hydro-morphologic conditions. Hysteresis strength, which can lead to over 60% errors in discharge estimation with widely accepted monitoring methods, is primarily influenced by local characteristics such as bed slope, roughness, and event wave intensity. Our study used a 1D numerical model to highlight the hysteresis response [...]
A Critical Review of Nature-Based Solutions for Enhancing Climate Resilience and Water Security in Mountain Ecosystems
Published: 2025-09-24
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering
Mountain ecosystems, functioning as indispensable "water towers," face escalating threats from climate change, land degradation, and water insecurity, jeopardizing the livelihoods of downstream populations. This paper presents a comprehensive critical review of integrated strategies designed to enhance the resilience of these vital socio-ecological systems. It synthesizes the theoretical [...]
Minkowski Functionals as Analytical Predictors of Permeability in Porous Microstructures
Published: 2025-09-19
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering
Understanding the relationship between microstructure and macroscopic properties in porous media remains crucial for numerous applications in geoscience and engineering. For example, accurate predictability of permeability is essential for optimizing fluid flow processes in applications such as hydrocarbon recovery, groundwater management, and carbon or energy storage. The Kozeny-Carman equation [...]
The sizes and shapes of plastics in rivers
Published: 2025-09-17
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Limited data exists on physical and geometric properties of river litter. To resolve this, we reveal the physical-structural relationships of river litter, using two of the most comprehensive datasets generated to date. First, we dissect the properties of river litter using a detailed dataset of over 14,000 riverbank items, for which their dimensions (longest L₁, intermediate L₂, shortest L₃) and [...]
Nanoindentation study of ripidolite and illite: Micromechanical controls on the sealing capacity of clay-rich caprocks
Published: 2025-09-11
Subjects: Engineering
Clay-rich caprocks are essential for sealing underground energy storage formations, yet their micromechanical behavior under varying stress conditions is not well constrained. In particular, the influence of loading parameters on hardness, elastic modulus, fracture toughness, and time-dependent deformation of individual clay minerals remains insufficiently explored. This study addresses this gap [...]
A HORIZONTAL VECTOR APPROACH TO 3D ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY TOMOGRAPHY
Published: 2025-09-03
Subjects: Engineering
Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is commonly implemented with collinear electrode arrays that measure only electric field components along the survey line, neglecting horizontal variations in other directions. This limitation is acceptable in two-dimensional (2D) ERT but can be significant in three-dimensional (3D) settings with complex geometry and strong resistivity contrasts. We propose [...]
Trends in Nitrate Levels in Iowa's Community Water Systems (2000-2022): Characteristics of Systems Vulnerable to MCL Exceedances and Future Regulatory Scenarios
Published: 2025-09-01
Subjects: Engineering
This study examines trends in nitrate contamination in Iowa's community water systems (CWS) from 2000 to 2022, focusing on the characteristics of CWS that are most vulnerable to elevated nitrate levels and those likely to be impacted by a lower maximum contaminant level (MCL). Using Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) compliance data for CWSs currently without nitrate removal, we analyzed nitrate [...]
Development of Low-Cost, Open-Source Unmanned Surface Vehicle for Water System Monitoring
Published: 2025-08-28
Subjects: Education, Engineering
Commercially available Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) in the market are expensive, and the software used for automating navigation and bathymetry mapping are typically proprietary. Large scale collection of water quantity and quality data requires dynamic in-situ sensing approaches with open-source software for user flexibility. This manuscript presents an open-source, economic, and efficient [...]
Design and Application of Three-component Force Sensor Principle and Structural Progress
Published: 2025-08-25
Subjects: Engineering
Three-component force sensors are capable of simultaneously detecting force or moment components in three directions in space, and are widely used in robotics, industrial automation, medical equipment, and sports technology. This article focuses on resistive-strain, capacitive, and piezoelectric three-component force sensors. Among them, the resistance strain type three-component force sensor has [...]
Validating and Comparing Energy Estimation Methods at Water Resource Recovery Facilities
Published: 2025-08-23
Subjects: Engineering
Water resource recovery facilities play a crucial role in the water-energy nexus, consuming a substantial amount of energy in the United States. Growing treatment volumes and more stringent water quality standards are expected to increase the amount of energy needed to treat wastewater, but accurately estimating energy consumption and potential remains challenging due to variability in scale, [...]
Development of an Integrated Geological-Engineering Framework for Assessing the Heat Extraction Potential from the Geopressured Wilcox Reservoir on the Gulf Coast of Texas
Published: 2025-08-18
Subjects: Engineering
This study aims to establish a comprehensive framework for evaluating the geothermal potential of High-Pressure and High-Temperature (HPHT) aquifers or geopressured geothermal reservoirs in the Wilcox Formation on the onshore Gulf Coast of Texas, USA. The framework integrates geological and engineering approaches to determine the feasibility and viability of harnessing geothermal energy from [...]
Altitudinal and Seasonal Assessment of Precipitation Chemistry and Wet Deposition in the Vaz Research Forest, Northern Iran
Published: 2025-08-14
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences
This study examines the chemical composition of precipitation across altitudinal gradients in the Vaz Research Forest, northern Iran, from 1999 to 2003. Precipitation samples were collected at 300, 1000, 1600, and 2200 m above sea level. Concentrations of nitrate (NO₃⁻), sulfate (SO₄²⁻), chloride (Cl⁻), ammonium (NH₄⁺), calcium (Ca²⁺), and magnesium (Mg²⁺) and their wet deposition values were [...]