This paper reports test results and describes a numerical investigation of the effectiveness of using carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) fabrics for strengthening concrete cylinders that have been undamaged and damaged due to heating under preload. The purpose of this research was to investigate whether there is any difference in the performance of CFRP-wrapped cylinders if the wrapping is done under preload, and those for which neither heating, cooling nor wrapping was done under preload. The cylinders were exposed to 30% of maximum load at ambient temperature during heating and cooling before being wrapped under preload. Of 18 Ø 100 × 200 mm identical cylinders, 6 were left as control samples without heating, 12 were exposed t

Mosquitoes like Culex quinquefasciatus are the primary vector that transmits many causes of diseases such as filariasis, Japanese encephalitis, and West Nile virus, in many countries around the world. The development in the scientific fields, such as nanotechnology, leads to use this technique in control programs of insects including mosquitoes through the use of green synthesis of nanoemulsions based on plant products such as castor oil.  Castor oil nanoemulsion was formulated in various ratios comprising of castor oil, ethanol, tween 80, and deionized water by ultrasonication. Thermodynamic assay improved that the formula of (10 ml) of castor oil, ethanol (5ml), tween 80 (14 ml) and deionized water (71ml)   was mor

A simple all optical fiber sensor based on multimode interference (MMI) for chemical liquids sensing was designed and fabricated. A segment of coreless fiber (CF) was spliced between two single mode fibers to buildup single mode-coreless-single mode (SCS) structure. Broadband source and optical signal analyzer were connected to the ends of SCS structure. De-ionized water, acetone, and n-hexane were used to test the performance of the sensor. Two influence factors on the sensitivity namely the length and the diameter of the CF were investigated. The obtained maximum sensitivity was at n-hexane at 340.89 nm/RIU (at a wavelength resolution of the optical spectrum analyzer of 0.02 nm) when the diameter of the CF reduced from 125 μm to 60 μ

Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is one of the developed techniques for relief representation.  The definition of a DEM construction is the modeling technique of earth surface from existing data. DEM plays a role as one of the fundamental information requirement that has been generally utilized in GIS data structures. The main aim of this research is to present a methodology for assessing DEMs generation methods. The DEMs data will be extracted from open source data e.g. Google Earth. The tested data will be compared with data produced from formal institutions such as General Directorate of Surveying. The study area has been chosen in south of Iraq (Al-Gharraf / Dhi Qar governorate. The methods of DEMs creation are kri

Polymer electrolytes were prepared using the solution cast technology. Under some conditions, the electrolyte content of polymers was analyzed in constant percent of PVA/PVP (50:50), ethylene carbonate (EC), and propylene carbonate (PC) (1:1) with different proportions of potassium iodide (KI) (10, 20, 30, 40, 50 wt%) and iodine (I₂) = 10 wt% of salt. Fourier Transmission Infrared (FTIR) studies confirmed the complex formation of polymer blends. Electrical conductivity was calculated with an impedance analyzer in the frequency range 50 Hz–1MHz and in the temperature range 293–343 K. The highest electrical conductivity value of 5.3 × 10^-3 (S/cm) was observed for electrolytes with 50 wt% KI concentration at room

An intelligent software defined network (ISDN) based on an intelligent controller can manage and control the network in a remarkable way. In this article, a methodology is proposed to estimate the packet flow at the sensing plane in the software defined network-Internet of Things based on a partial recurrent spike neural network (PRSNN) congestion controller, to predict the next step ahead of packet flow and thus, reduce the congestion that may occur. That is, the proposed model (spike ISDN-IoT) is enhanced with a congestion controller. This controller works as a proactive controller in the proposed model. In addition, we propose another intelligent clustering controller based on an artificial neural network, which operates as a reactive co

A novel robust finite time disturbance observer (RFTDO) based on an independent output-finite time composite control (FTCC) scheme is proposed for an air conditioning-system temperature and humidity regulation. The variable air volume (VAV) of the system is represented by two first-order mathematical models for the temperature and humidity dynamics. In the temperature loop dynamics, a RFTDO temperature (RFTDO-T) and an FTCC temperature (FTCC-T) are designed to estimate and reject the lumped disturbances of the temperature subsystem. In the humidity loop, a robust output of the FTCC humidity (FTCC-H) and RFTDO humidity (RFTDO-H) are also designed to estimate and reject the lumped disturbances of the humidity subsystem. Based on Lyapunov theo