Frequently, load associated mode of failure, rutting and fatigue, are the main failure types found in some newly constructed roads within Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, and some suburban areas. The use of excessive amount of natural sand in asphalt concrete mixes which is attractive to local contractors could be one of the possible causes to the lack of strength properties of the mixes resulting in frustration in the pavement performance. In this study, the performance properties of asphalt concrete mixes with two natural sand types, desert and river sands, were evaluated. Moreover, five replacement rates of 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% by weight of the fine aggregate finer than 4.75 were used. The performance properties including moisture susceptibility, resilient modulus, permanent deformation, and fatigue characteristics were evaluated using indirect tensile strength, uniaxial repeated loading and repeated flexural beam tests. Also, as a part of the research objective, the laboratory tests result were used to predict the performance using VESYS computer software. Results showed that mixes with high natural sand content (NSC) are more susceptible to moisture damage and rutting, lower resilient modulus and some improvement in fatigue resistance. Based on the obtained results, the necessity has rise to revise the current local specification for asphalt concrete which specifies the limits of natural sand content in the mixes of wearing and binder courses with 25% whereas for base course mixes no limit exist yet.
Recently, interest in the use of projectiles in research on recycling waste materials for construction applications has grown. Using recycled materials for the construction of asphalt concrete pavement, in the meantime, has become a topic of research due to its significant benefits, such as cost savings and reduced environmental impacts. This study reports on comprehensive experimental research conducted using a typical mechanical milling waste, iron filing waste (IFW), as an alternative fine aggregate for warm mix asphalt (WMA) for pavement wearing surface applications. A type of IFW from a local machine workshop was used to replace the conventional fine aggregate, fine natural sand (FNS), at percentages of 25%, 50% 75%, and 100% b
... Show MoreThe performance of composite prestressed concrete beam topped with reinforced concrete flange structures in fire depends upon several factors, including the change in properties of the two different materials due to fire exposure and temperature distribution within the composition of the composite members of the structure. The present experimental work included casting of 12 identical simply supported prestressed concrete beams grouped into 3 categories, depending on the strength of the top reinforced concrete deck slab (20, 30, and 40 MPa). They were connected together by using shear connector reinforcements. To simulate the real practical fire disasters, 3 composite prestressed concrete beams from each group were exposed to high t
... Show MoreThe present investigation focuses on the response of simply supported reinforced concrete rectangular-section beams with multiple openings of different sizes, numbers, and geometrical configurations. The advantages of the reinforcement concrete beams with multiple opening are mainly, practical benefit including decreasing the floor heights due to passage of the utilities through the beam rather than the passage beneath it, and constructional benefit that includes the reduction of the self-weight of structure resulting due to the reduction of the dead load that achieves economic design. To optimize beam self-weight with its ultimate resistance capacity, ten reinforced concrete beams having a length, width, and depth of 2700, 100, and
... Show MoreThis article investigates the development of the following material properties of concrete with time: compressive strength, tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and fracture energy. These properties were determined at seven different hydration ages (18 h, 30 h, 48 h, 72 h, 7 days, 14 days, 28 days) for four pure cement concrete mixes totaling 336 specimens tested throughout the study. Experimental data obtained were used to assess the relationship of the above properties with the concrete compressive strength and how these relationships are affected with age. Further, this study investigates prediction models available in literature and recommendations are made for models that are found suitable for application to early age conc
... Show MoreFree Space Optics (FSO) plays a vital role in modern wireless communications due to its advantages over fiber optics and RF techniques where a transmission of huge bandwidth and access to remote places become possible. The specific aim of this research is to analyze the Bit-Error Rate (BER) for FSO communication system when the signal is sent the over medium of turbulence channel, where the fading channel is described by the Gamma-Gamma model. The signal quality is improved by using Optical Space-Time Block- Code (OSTBC) and then the BER will be reduced. Optical 2×2 Alamouti scheme required 14 dB bit energy to noise ratio (Eb/N0) at 10-5 bit error rate (BER) which gives 3.5 dB gain as compared to no diversity scheme. Th
... Show MoreThe aim of our study is to reveal the effect of steel reinforcement details,tensile steel reinforcement ratio, compressed reinforcing steel ratio,reinforcing steel size, corner joint shape on the strength of reinforcedconcrete Fc' and delve into it for the most accurate details and concreteconnections about the behavior and resistance of the corner joint ofreinforced concrete, Depending on the available studies and sources inaddition to our study, we concluded that each of these effects had a clearrole in the behavior and resistance of the corner joint of reinforced concreteunder the influence of the negative moment and yield stress. A studyof the types of faults that can be reinforced angle joints obtains detailsand conditions of c
... Show MoreTest results of eight reinforced concrete one way slab with lacing reinforcement are reported. The tests were designed to study the effect of the lacing reinforcement on the flexural behavior of one way slabs. The test parameters were the lacing steel ratio, flexural steel ratio and span to the effective depth ratio. One specimen had no lacing reinforcement and the remaining seven had various percentages of lacing and flexural steel ratios. All specimens were cast with normal density concrete of approximately 30 MPa compressive strength. The specimens were tested under two equal line loads applied statically at a thirds part (four point bending test) up to failure. Three percentage of lacing and flexural steel ratios wer
... Show MoreThis paper presents an analytical study on the serviceability of reinforced concrete gable roof beams with openings of different sizes, based on an experimental study which includes 13 concrete gable roof beams with openings under static loading. For deflection and crack widths under static loading at service stage, a developed unified calculation procedure has been submitted, which includes prismatic beams with one opening subjected to flexure concentrated force. The deflection has been calculated with two methods: the first method calculated deflections via relevant equations and the second was Direct Stiffness Method in which the beam is treated as a structural member with several segments constituting the portions with solid sec
... Show MoreThe use of external posttensioning technique for strengthening reinforced concrete girders has been considerably studied by many researchers worldwide. However, no available data are seen regarding strengthening full-scale composite prestressed concrete girders with external posttensioned technique under static and repeated loading. In this research, four full-scale composite prestressed I-shape girders of 16 m span were fabricated and tested under static and repeated loading up to failure. Accordingly, two girders were externally strengthened with posttensioned strands, while the other two girders were left without strengthening. The experimental tests include deflection, cracking load, ultimate strength and strains at midspan, a
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