Research Publications

This study examines the benefits of optimal spatial diversification of wind capacity as an option to reduce wind curtailment and, therefore, to increase the utilization of wind capacity. Wind generati...

In April 2008 the University of Michigan and the University of Zambia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that approved a cooperative agreement to foster the development of a collaborative rese...

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is pleased to support Accenture in releasing Sustainability and its Impact on the Corporate Agenda. Accenture is one of over 200 global c...

Increased renewable deployment is necessary to reduce environmental impacts, and improve the sustainability of the U.S. electricity sector. This dissertation explores implications of increased photovo...

The sustainability of the built environment is increasingly coming to the forefront of infrastructure design and maintenance decisions. To address this, development of a new class of more sustainab...

This paper examines the impact of battery sizing on the performance and efficiency of power management algorithms in plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Existing studies examine this impact f...

Remanufacturing is a process that restores old products to perform like new, while saving energy, reducing consumption of natural resources, and lowering environmental emissions. By extending the p...

This study evaluates the importance of geologic and geographic factors in constraining the location of limestone mining operations for the production of cement in the Great Lakes region of the Unit...

An integrated life-cycle assessment and life-cycle cost analysis model was developed and applied to enhance the sustainability of concrete bridge infrastructure. The objective of this model is to c...

While Portland cement concrete (PCC) overlay has been increasingly used as a rehabilitation technique for deteriorated PCC pavements in the last decade, reflective cracking places a major limit on its...

Wind and solar resources are, by nature, spatially distributed and temporally variable. The process of siting generators that use these renewable resources and integrating them into the electricity...

A dynamic substance-flow model is developed to characterize the stocks and flows of cement utilized during the 20th century in the United States, using the generic cement life cycle as a systems bo...

Concrete is a material that gives architects and engineers great control over its form and appearance, especially where its visual qualities have been fully considered at the design stage. The appeara...

Evaluating and enhancing construction material sustainability requires a life cycle perspective of the structures in which they are used, since material properties and durability can have a profound e...

The design, processing, and evaluation of engineered cementitious composites (ECC) is investigated at large scales, up to 3 m3 (4 yd3). The design of ECC is undertaken to retain the pseudo-tensile ...

A number of previous studies on China's carbon emissions have mainly focused on two facts: (1) the continuous growth in emissions up till the middle of the 1990s; (2) the recent stability of emiss...

Pavement systems have significant impacts on the environment and economy due to large material consumption, energy input, and capital investment. To evaluate the sustainability of rigid pavement overl...

Life-Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) has become a common practice in road construction at the state level during the past decade in the United States. It enables pavement engineers to conduct a comprehensi...

In this paper, we consider interactions between life cycle emissions and materials flows associated with lightweighting automobiles. The study begins by developing scenarios for lightweighting a sp...

Deregulation and decentralization in the electricity sector have thrived worldwide since the early 1980s. China also started restructuring its electricity industry since the mid-1980s. The reform ...

This project focuses on the development of a set of metrics to measure the environmental performance of Steelcase Wood Products Division (SWD) over time.  These metrics establish the point of ref...

This paper examines the problem of optimally splitting driver power demand among the different actuators (i.e., the engine and electric machines) in a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). Existi...

The construction, repair and rehabilitation of concrete pavements relies on the production and flow of large quantities of concrete and its constituents. Within the US, nearly 43 megatons of cement ar...

Agriculture is responsible for nearly seven percent of the total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions; over half of this is from livestock (USDA, 2004). The U.S. organic food sector has consistently grown...