Studies on the flexural behavior of post-tensioned beams subjected to strand damage and strengthened with near-surface mounted (NSM) technique using carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) are limited and fail to examine the effect of CFRP laminates on strand strain and strengthening efficiency systematically. Furthermore, a design approach for UPC structures in existing design guidelines for FRP strengthening techniques is lacking. Hence, the behavior of post-tensioned beams strengthened with NSM-CFRP laminates after partial strand damage is investigated in this study. The testing program consists of seven post-tensioned beams strengthened by NSM-CFRP laminates with three partial strand damage ratios (14.3% symmetrical damage, 14.3% asymmetric damage, and 28.6% symmetrical damage). The experimental results showed that the use of CFRP laminates significantly increases the flexural capacity by up to 17.4 to 20.4%, corresponding to a strand damage ratio of 14.3 and 28.6%, respectively, enhances the stiffness, and reduces strand strain by up to 15.8 to 22.2%. However, the flexural stiffness of strengthened beams during serviceability phases is critical as strand damage ratios increase. Additionally, semi-empirical equations were proposed to predict the actual strain of unbonded strands whilst considering the effects of CFRP laminates. The suggested equations provide accurate predictions with little variance. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2022-08-07-013 Full Text: PDF
The esterification of oleic acid with 2-ethylhexanol in presence of sulfuric acid as homogeneous catalyst was investigated in this work to produce 2-ethylhexyl oleate (biodiesel) by using semi batch reactive distillation. The effect of reaction temperature (100 to 130°C), 2-ethylhexanol:oleic acid molar ratio (1:1 to 1:3) and catalysts concentration (0.2 to 1wt%) were studied. Higher conversion of 97% was achieved with operating conditions of reaction temperature of 130°C, molar ratio of free fatty acid to alcohol of 1:2 and catalyst concentration of 1wt%. A simulation was adopted from basic principles of the reactive distillation using MATLAB to describe the process. Good agreement was achieved.
The current study aimed to determine the morphometric and meristic characteristics of the North African catfish Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822). Six specimens of C. gariepinus were collected from the Tigris River, in central Iraq. This study is considered the confirmation first record of this species in Iraq, and the second documentation of this exotic fish. The present species is characterized by a very long dorsal fin, a rounded caudal fin and four pairs of barbels.
Detecting protein complexes in protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks is a challenging problem in computational biology. To uncover a PPI network into a complex structure, different meta-heuristic algorithms have been proposed in the literature. Unfortunately, many of such methods, including evolutionary algorithms (EAs), are based solely on the topological information of the network rather than on biological information. Despite the effectiveness of EAs over heuristic methods, more inherent biological properties of proteins are rarely investigated and exploited in these approaches. In this paper, we proposed an EA with a new mutation operator for complex detection problems. The proposed mutation operator is formulate
... Show More: The terrestrial snail Eobania vermiculata (O. F. Müller, 1774) were collected from three station in Baghdad Al- Karkh, Iraq between the period from June 2016 to July 2017. Then we studied the life cycle from the egg to maturity. We studied and photographed the external morphology of it’s shell to identified the species. This species was recorded for the first time in Baghdad.
Sheet piles are necessary with hydraulic structures as seepage cut-off to reduce the seepage. In this research, the computational work methodology was followed by building a numerical model using Geo-Studio program to check the efficiency of using concrete sheet piles as a cut-off or reducer for seepage with time if the sheet piles facing the drawdown technique. Al-Kifil regulator was chosen as a case study, an accurate model was built with a help of observed reading of the measuring devices, which was satisfactory and helped in checking the sheet piles efficiency. Through the study, three scenarios were adopted (with and without) drawdown technique, it was found that at the short time there's no effect of the drawdown technique on
... Show MoreThe ciliate species isolated from midgut and hindgut of Rough-tailed gecko Cyrtopodion scabrum (Heyden, 1827), identified as Nyctotherus hardwickii was collected from many regions of Baghdad, Iraq. The current study deals with a description and comparison of the morphology and morphometric characters of this species for the first time in Iraq.
Codes of red, green, and blue data (RGB) extracted from a lab-fabricated colorimeter device were used to build a proposed classifier with the objective of classifying colors of objects based on defined categories of fundamental colors. Primary, secondary, and tertiary colors namely red, green, orange, yellow, pink, purple, blue, brown, grey, white, and black, were employed in machine learning (ML) by applying an artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm using Python. The classifier, which was based on the ANN algorithm, required a definition of the mentioned eleven colors in the form of RGB codes in order to acquire the capability of classification. The software's capacity to forecast the color of the code that belongs to an object under de
... Show MoreSurface water samples from different locations within Tigris River's boundaries in Baghdad city have been analyzed for drinking purposes. Correlation coefficients among different parameters were determined. An attempt has been made to develop linear regression equations to predict the concentration of water quality constituents having significant correlation coefficients with electrical conductivity (EC). This study aims to find five regression models produced and validated using electrical conductivity as a predictor to predict total hardness (TH), calcium (Ca), chloride (Cl), sulfate (SO4), and total dissolved solids (TDS). The five models showed good/excellent prediction ability of the parameters mentioned
... Show MoreNaidid worms were sorted from 27 samples of aquatic macrophyta including ceratophyllum demersum , Potamogeton crispus and, Hydrilla verticellat with associated filamentous algae were collected from Euphrates River at Al-Mussayab city, 60 Km southwest Baghdad. The result of sorted worms revealed the presence of eight species of subfamily Naidinae, which are consider as new records for Iraq, including Stephensoniana trivandrana; Paranais frici, Ophidonais serpentine, Specaria josinae, Dero (Dero) evelinae , Dero (Aulophorus) indicus , Nais pseudobtusa and finally N. stolci. This investigation includes morphological descriptions for each species illustrated by identification criteria photos.