Apple slice grading is useful in post-harvest operations for sorting, grading, packaging, labeling, processing, storage, transportation, and meeting market demand and consumer preferences. Proper grading of apple slices can help ensure the quality, safety, and marketability of the final products, contributing to the post-harvest operations of the overall success of the apple industry. The article aims to create a convolutional neural network (CNN) model to classify images of apple slices after immersing them in atmospheric plasma at two different pressures (1 and 5 atm) and two different immersion times (3 and again 6 min) once and in filtered water based on the hardness of the slices usin
An extensive program of laboratory testing was conducted on ring footing rested on gypseous soil brought from the north of Iraq (Salah El-Deen governorate) with a gypsum content of 59%. There are limited researches available, and even fewer have been done experimentally to understand how to ring footings behave; almost all the previous works only concern the behavior of ring footing under vertical loads, Moreover, relatively few studies have examined the impact of eccentric load and inclined load on such footing. In this study, a series of tests, including dry and wet tests, were carried out using a steel container (600×600×600) mm, metal ring footing (100 mm outer diameter and 40 mm inner diameter) was placed in the m
... Show MoreCorrosion of Zn-Ni alloy coatings on stainless steel 316 SS in a chloride-sulfate bath with the addition of either triethanolamine or sucrose was examined. A constant cathode potential was used to deposit zinc-nickel alloys, while cyclic voltammetry and potentio-dynamic polarization were used to measure corrosion. In addition, scanning electron microscopy was utilized to analyse Zn-Ni alloy coating surface layers formed with¬out and with additives. The outcomes discovered that the corrosion resistance of Zn-Ni alloy coat¬ings in 3.5 % NaCl solution was highly influenced by adding triethanolamine or sucrose. Decreasing the Zn:Ni molar ratio led to an increase in corrosion resistance. All Zn-Ni alloy coatings were superior to pure Z
... Show MoreCarbon fibre reinforced polymers are widely used to strengthen steel structural elements. These structural elements are normally subjected to static, dynamic and fatigue loadings during their life-time. A number of studies have focused on the characteristics of CFRP sheets bonded to steel members under static, dynamic and fatigue loadings. However, there is a gap in understanding the bonding behaviour between CFRP laminates and steel members under impact loading. This paper shows the effect of different load rates from quasi-static to 300 × 103 mm/min on this bond. Two types of CFRP laminate, CFK 150/2000 and CFK 200/2000, were used to strengthen steel joints using Araldite 420 epoxy. The results show a significant bond strength enhancemen
... Show MoreThe shear strength of soil is one of the most important soil properties that should be identified before any foundation design. The presence of gypseous soil exacerbates foundation problems. In this research, an approach to forecasting shear strength parameters of gypseous soils based on basic soil properties was created using Artificial Neural Networks. Two models were built to forecast the cohesion and the angle of internal friction. Nine basic soil properties were used as inputs to both models for they were considered to have the most significant impact on soil shear strength, namely: depth, gypsum content, passing sieve no.200, liquid limit, plastic limit, plasticity index, water content, dry unit weight, and initial
... Show MorePolymer additives binder system provides many properties useful in thermal energy storage (TES) then developed the efficient energy storage materials and green strength bodies system.
This paper studies the thermal energy storage property for polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) / paraffin wax (WPw) blends. To enhance paraffin wax thermal conductivity, PVOH as a material which high conductivity was employed. A fixed weight of Paraffin wax was dispersed with PVOH heterogeneously at different additive weights ratios of PVOH/Pw (50/50, 67/33, 75/25, and 80/20) wt. ratio respectively. The composite material was prepared using wetted pressing method.
Both base materials (polyvinyl alcohol and paraffin wax) were scanned using differential
... Show MoreThe present study examines the extraction of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd) and nickel (Ni) from a contaminated soil by washing process. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid disodium salt (Na2EDTA) and hydrochloric acid (HCl) solution were used as extractants. Soil washing is one of the most suitable in-situ/ ex-situ remediation method in removing heavy metals. Soil was artificially contaminated with 500 mg/kg (Pb , Cd and Ni ). A set of batch experiments were carried out at different conditions of extractant concentration , contact time, pH and agitation speed. The results showed that the maximum removal efficiencies of (Cd, Pb and Ni ) were (97, 88 and 24 )&nbs
... Show MoreSoft clays are generally sediments deposited by rivers, seas, or lakes. These soils are fine-grained plastic soils with appreciable clay content and are characterized by high compressibility and low shear strength. To deal with soft soil problems there is more than one method that can be used such as soil replacement, preloading, stone column, sand drains, lime stabilization and Prefabricated Vertical Drains, PVDs. A numerical modeling of PVD with vacuum pressure was analyzed to investigate the effect of this technique on the consolidation behavior of fully and different depths of partially saturated soft soils. Laboratory experiments were also conducted by using a specially-designed large consol
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