This study expands the state of the art in studies that assess torsional retrofit of reinforced concrete (RC) multi-cell box girders with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips. The torsional behavior of non-damaged and pre-damaged RC multi-cell box girder specimens externally retrofitted by CFRP strips was investigated through a series of laboratory experiments. It was found that retrofitting the pre-damaged specimens with CFRP strips increased the ultimate torsional capacity by more than 50% as compared to the un-damaged specimens subjected to equivalent retrofitting. This indicated that the retrofit has been less effective for the girder specimen that did not develop distortion beforehand as a result of pre-loading. From experimental observations, when the girder specimen was cracked and the transverse steel reinforcement bars started straining, the CFRP strips started to work more effectively and contributed together with the transverse steel reinforcement to resist torsion load. Additionally, Finite Element (FE) simulations were developed using Abaqus to model the torsional behavior of the retrofitted girders, the results of which were validated with the experimental data. With the numerical model, the effect of concrete compressive strength, transverse reinforcement spacing, and CFRP strip spacing were examined. The effectiveness of the CFRP strips in enhancing the torsional strength of the girder was found to increase with increasing the spacing between the transverse reinforcement.
Proverbs are considered as a major source of ancient events and happenings. Similar to other past events related to life, proverbs have many important and famous values in people's life. This study will shed lights on the use of proverbs as short sentences based on long experiences. The aim of the study is to explicate the roles, and the importance of proverbs in our life and how they are used to convey thoughts to people throughout simple words with denotation. Thus, proverbs explicate the truth and experience of our grandfathers when directed for criticism. Few proverbs were used by writers to criticize, mimic and reprint their personalities. Hence, proverbs will achieve portions of the unique roles of understanding. The model to
... Show MoreThe incorporation of safety characteristics into the traditional pavement structural design or in the functional evaluation of pavement condition has not been established yet. The design has focused on the structural capacity of the roadway so that the pavement can withstand specific level of repetitive loading over the design life. On the other hand, the surface texture condition was neither included in the AASHTO design procedure nor in the present serviceability index measurements.
The pavement surface course should provide adequate levels of friction and ride quality and maintain low levels of noise and roughness. Many transportation departments perform routine skid resistant testing, the type of equipment us
... Show MoreShear lag is the phenomenon that occurs when a supported slender member undergoes deformation from lateral loading, causing in-plane non-uniform distribution of stresses that results in reducing the member’s minimum strength capacity. This paper investigates the behaviour of shear distribution in steel I-section and box girders when subjected to both static and impact loadings. Three-dimensional finite element analysis models were prepared in Strand7 and validated against experimental results providing a basis for further comparison research into shear lagging effects. A parametric study was conducted comparing the effects of impact loading through certain specified velocities at the midspan of restrained ends. It provided new ins
... Show MoreEverywhere carriers incur a measure of liability for the safety of the goods. Carriers are liable for any damage or for the loss of the goods that are in their possession as carriers unless they prove that the damage or loss is attributable to certain excepted causes. Damaged and lost items can unfortunately be a common problem when shipping freight. Legal responsibilities arise due to loss or damage during transit while cargo is in their care. This study intends to investigate the nature of the liability of the maritime carrier when this liability is realized, and the extent to which it can be paid or disposed of given the risks realized from the transportation process, which may result in damage or loss of the goods, and the damag
... Show MoreIn high-dimensional semiparametric regression, balancing accuracy and interpretability often requires combining dimension reduction with variable selection. This study intro- duces two novel methods for dimension reduction in additive partial linear models: (i) minimum average variance estimation (MAVE) combined with the adaptive least abso- lute shrinkage and selection operator (MAVE-ALASSO) and (ii) MAVE with smoothly clipped absolute deviation (MAVE-SCAD). These methods leverage the flexibility of MAVE for sufficient dimension reduction while incorporating adaptive penalties to en- sure sparse and interpretable models. The performance of both methods is evaluated through simulations using the mean squared error and variable selection cri
... Show MoreFuture wireless communication systems must be able to accommodate a large number of users and simultaneously to provide the high data rates at the required quality of service. In this paper a method is proposed to perform the N-Discrete Hartley Transform (N-DHT) mapper, which are equivalent to 4-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 256-QAM, … etc. in spectral efficiency. The N-DHT mapper is chosen in the Multi Carrier Code Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA) structure to serve as a data mapper instead of the conventional data mapping techniques like QPSK and QAM schemes. The proposed system is simulated using MATLAB and compared with conventional MC-CDMA for Additive White Gaussian Noise, flat, and multi-path selective fa
... Show MoreAggregate production planning (APP) is one of the most significant and complicated problems in production planning and aim to set overall production levels for each product category to meet fluctuating or uncertain demand in future. and to set decision concerning hiring, firing, overtime, subcontract, carrying inventory level. In this paper, we present a simulated annealing (SA) for multi-objective linear programming to solve APP. SA is considered to be a good tool for imprecise optimization problems. The proposed model minimizes total production and workforce costs. In this study, the proposed SA is compared with particle swarm optimization (PSO). The results show that the proposed SA is effective in reducing total production costs and req
... Show MoreThe purpose of this study is aimed to lay down an arranged platform suited to Iraqi constructional associations which in charge to carry out multi constructional projects, as it fulfilled management requirements and supervising, so that low - cost projects will be controlled in due term and quality. Based on primary info and observed data collected, the study thesis has been formulated in this way: Iraqi constructional sector bodies which are in charge to implement simultaneously multi constructional projects in need to reformulate its organized structure so that it will be more fitted to management and control of these projects. This thesis includes a
theoretical part contained presenting the most important resources locally and int