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.
Screw piles are widely used in supporting structures subjected to pullout forces, such as power towers and offshore structures, and this research investigates their performance in gypseous soil of medium relative density. The bearing capacity and displacement of a single screw pile model inserted in gypseous soil with various diameters (D = 20, 30, and 40) mm are examined in this study. The soil used in the testing had a gypsum content of 40% and the bedding soil had a relative density of 40%. To simulate the pullout testing in the lab, a physical model was manufactured with specific dimensions. Three steel screw piles with helix diameters of 20, 30, and 40 mm are used, with a total length of 500 mm. The helix is continuous over the
... Show MoreTemperature inside the vehicle cabin is very important to provide comfortable conditions to the car passengers. Temperature inside the cabin will be increased, when the car is left or parked directly under the sunlight. Experimental studies were performed in Baghdad, Iraq (33.3 oN, 44.4 oE) to investigate the effects of solar radiation on car cabin components (dashboard, steering wheel, seat, and inside air). The test vehicle was oriented to face south to ensure maximum (thermal) sun load on the front windscreen. Six different parking conditions were investigated. A suggested car cover was examined experimentally. The measurements were recorded for clear sky summer days started at 8 A.M. till 5 P.M.
... Show MoreIn the present work, the effect of size of zinc dust particles on
AC argon discharge characteristics are investigated
experimentally. The plasma characteristics are determined by
using optical emission spectroscopy (OES) techniques. The
results illustrated that the electron temperature (Te) in the present
and absent of Zinc dust particle is reduced with increasing of
pressure. The electron temperature decreases with increasing of
Zinc dust size. Excitation temperature Tex is reduces with
increasing of Ar pressure in present and absent of zinc dust
particles. The present of Zinc dust reduce the Tex of Ar in both
Zinc dust size. The electron density increasing in the present and
absent of both zinc dust siz
In this paper, an experimental study of the thermal performance for hybrid solar air conditioning system was carried out, to investigate system suitability for the hot climate in Iraq. The system consists of vapor compression unit combined with evacuated tube solar collector and liquid storage tank. A three-way valve was installed after the compressor to control the direction flow of the refrigerant, either to the storage tank or directly to the condenser. The performance parameters were collected by data logger to display and record in the computer by using LabVIEW software. The results show that the average coefficient of performance of hybrid solar air conditioning system (R=1) was about 2.42 to 2.77 and the average p
... Show MoreThe study dealt with measuring the impact of the availability of each of the content elements of the interaction, electronic services, and information on the evaluation of the users of the government website for its effectiveness in terms of the site’s functions and for measuring the site’s ability to present the organization’s tasks to customer groups.
Authority is concerned with measuring the confidence of customers in the content of the site, and in the organization as a whole. Validity is related to measuring the effectiveness of employing the site’s content to achieve the goal of its creation and in communicating with customers. Availability It is for measuring the ease of use of the site. The relevance, which means
... Show MoreThe piled raft is a geotechnical composite construction consisting of three elements: piles, raft and soil.
In the design of piled rafts, the load shared between the piles and the raft, and the piles are used up to a
load level that can be of the same order of magnitude as the bearing capacity of a comparable single
pile or even greater. Therefore, the piled raft foundation allows reduction of settlements in a very
economic way as compared to traditional foundation concepts.
This paper presents experimental study to investigate the behavior of piled raft system in sandy
soil. A small scale “prototype” model was tested in a sand box with load applied to the system through
a compression machine. The settlement was
In this study the effect of fiber volume fraction of the glass fiber on the thermal conductivity of the polymer composite material was studied. Different fiber volume fraction of glass fibers were used (3%, 6%, 9%, 12%, and 15%). Specimens were made from polyester which reinforced with glass fibers .The fibers had two arrangements according to the direction of the thermal flow. In the first arrangement the fibers were parallel to the direction of the thermal flow, while the second arrangement was perpendicular; Lee's disk method was used for testing the specimens. The experimental results proved that the values of the thermal conductivity of the specimens was higher when the fibers arranged in parallel direction than that when the fibers
... Show MoreOptical fiber chemical sensor based surface Plasmon resonance for sensing and measuring the refractive index and concentration for Acetic acid is designed and implemented during this work. Optical grade plastic optical fibers with a diameter of 1000μm were used with a diameter core of 980μm and a cladding of 20μm, where the sensor is fabricated by a small part (10mm) of optical fiber in the middle is embedded in a resin block and then the polishing process is done, after that it is deposited with about (40nm) thickness of gold metal and the Acetic acid is placed on the sensing probe.
Desulfurization of a simulated diesel fuel by different adsorbents was studied in a fixed-bed adsorption process operated at ambient temperature and pressure. Three different adsorption beds were used, commercial activated carbon, Cu-Y zeolite, and layered bed of 15wt% activated carbon followed by Cu-Y zeolite.Initially Y-zeolite was prepared from Iraqi rice husk and then impregnated with copper. In general, the adsorbents tested for total sulfur adsorption capacity at break through followed the order Ac/Cu-Y zeolite>Cu-Y zeolite>Ac. The best adsorbent, Ac/Cu-Y zeolite is capable of producing more than 30 cm3 of simulated diesel fuel per gram of adsorbent with a weighted average content of 5 ppm-S, while Cu-Y zeolite producing of
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