The conception and experimental assessment of a removable friction-based shear connector (FBSC) for precast steel-concrete composite bridges is presented. The FBSC uses pre-tensioned high-strength steel bolts that pass through countersunk holes drilled on the top flange of the steel beam. Pre-tensioning of the bolts provides the FBSC with significant frictional resistance that essentially prevents relative slip displacement of the concrete slab with respect to the steel beam under service loading. The countersunk holes are grouted to prevent sudden slip of the FBSC when friction resistance is exceeded. Moreover, the FBSC promotes accelerated bridge construction by fully exploiting prefabrication, does not raise issues relevant to precast co

A study of taxonomic quality of algae attaching Three concert bridges built on the Tigris River within city of Baghdad including Al-Jadriyah Bridge in Al-Jadriyah area and the Bab Al-Mu'adam Bridge in Al-Shalajiya area, while the third site included Al-Muthanna Bridge in north of Baghdad city, for the period from Autumn 2021 and Winter 2022. The study identified 114 species of 32 Genus in which the predominance of Bacillariophceae (74 species, 14 Genus) Followed by Cyanophyceae (30species, 12 Genus) and 10 species (6 Genus) of Chlorophyceae. The study showed an increase in species of Bacillariophceae, Cyanophyceae which has the ability to secretion gelatinous substances that enable it to stick to solid stand, the number of the larges

This paper presents the non-linear finite element method to study the behavior of four reinforced rectangular concrete MD beams with web circular openings tested under two-point load. The numerical finite elements methods have been used in a much more practical way to achieve approximate solutions for more complex problems.  The ABAQUS /CAE is chosen to explore the behavior of MD beams. This paper also studies, the effect of both size and shape of the circular apertures of MD beams. The strengthening technique that used in this paper is externally strengthening using CFRP around the opening in the MD beams. The numerical results were compared to the experimental results in terms of ultimate load failure and displace

Highly plastic soils exhibit unfavorited properties upon saturation, which produce different defects in engineering structures. Attempts were made by researchers to proffer solutions to these defects by experimenting in practical ways. This included various materials that could possibly improve the soil engineering properties and reduce environmental hazards. This paper investigates the strength behavior of highly plastic clay stabilized with brick dust. The brick dust contents were 10%, 20%, and 30% by dry weight of soil. A series of linear shrinkage and unconfined compression tests were carried out to study the effect of brick dust on the quantitative amount of shrinkage experienced by highly plastic clay and the undra

This paper reflects the evidence of the Islamic Development Bank's role in building human and institutional capacities in Member States and assisting governments in achieving economic development. The Bank's activities in the area of ​​capacity development are an important part in following up the economic developments, And help governments to build and formulate effective policies and institutions to implement more effective macro policies leading to better economic outcomes. It is therefore helpful to help Member States increase their resources, modernize their banking systems, establish effective legal frameworks and improve Reports on macroeconomic and financial statistics. The Bank has faced many challenges and risks tha

Background/Objectives: The purpose of current research aims to a modified image representation framework for Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) through gray scale input image, Zernike Moments (ZMs) properties, Local Binary Pattern (LBP), Y Color Space, Slantlet Transform (SLT), and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). Methods/Statistical analysis: This study surveyed and analysed three standard datasets WANG V1.0, WANG V2.0, and Caltech 101. The features an image of objects in this sets that belong to 101 classes-with approximately 40-800 images for every category. The suggested infrastructure within the study seeks to present a description and operationalization of the CBIR system through automated attribute extraction system premised on CN

The present study devoted to determine the ultimate lateral carrying capacity of piles foundation in contaminated clayey soils and subjected to lateral cyclical loading. Two methods have been used to calculate the lateral carrying capacity of piles foundation; the first one is two-line slopes intersection method (TLSI) and the second method is a modified model of soil degradation. The model proposed by Heerama and then developed by Smith has been modified to take into consideration the effects of heavy loads and soil contamination. The ultimate lateral carrying capacity of single pile and piles group (2×2) driven into samples of contaminated clayey soils have been calculated by using the two methods. Clayey soil samples are contami

Seepage through earth dams is one of the most popular causes for earth dam collapse due to internal granule movement and seepage transfer. In earthen dams, the core plays a vital function in decreasing seepage through the dam body and lowering the phreatic line. In this research, an alternative soil to the clay soil used in the dam core has been proposed by conducting multiple experiments to test the permeability of silty and sandy soil with different additives materials. Then the selected sandy soil model was used to represent the dam experimentally, employing a permeability device to measure the amount of water that seeps through the dam's body and to represent the seepage line. A numerical model was adopted using Geo-Studio software i