This study conducted an analytical investigation on the behavior of concrete beams with openings reinforced by glass-fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars. In this study, five proposed beams reinforced by GFRP bars as flexural and shear reinforcement with openings were numerically examined. The variables were the opening orientation (vertical and horizontal) and the number of openings. These openings were located within the flexural zone of the proposed beams. The result shows that the vertical openings had a significant effect over the horizontal openings on reducing the ultimate load and increasing the mid-span deflection compared with the control beam. Moreover, the results showed that when replacing two adjacent openings by one equivalent opening, the capacity of the beam is decreased.
Background: Heat-cured poly (methyl methacrylate) the principal material for the fabrication of denture base have a relatively poor mechanical properties. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of glass flakes used as reinforcement on the surface hardness and surface roughness of the heat-processed acrylic resin material. Material and method: Glass flakes (product code: GF002) pretreated with silane coupling agent were added to Triplex® denture base powder using different concentrations. A total of 100 specimens of similar dimensions (65 x 10 x 2.5) mm were prepared, subdivided into 2 main groups of 50 specimens for each of the study tests. Ten specimens for the control group and 40 specimens for each of the experimental gro
... Show MoreIn this research, a sensor for chemical solutions was designed and formed using optical fiber-based on a surface Plasmon resonance technology. A single-mode optical fiber with three different diameters (25, 45 and 65) µm was used, respectively. The second layer of the low refractive fiber was replaced by gold, which was electrically deposited at 40 µm thickness. For each of the three types of optical fiber, different saline concentrations (different index of refraction) were used to evaluate the performance of the refractive index sensor (chemical sensor) by measuring its sensitivity and resolutions. The highest values we could get for these two parameters were 240mm/RIU, and 6*10-5 RIU respectively, when the diameter of a
... Show MoreA simple, environmental friendly and selective sample preparation technique employing porous membrane protected micro-solid phase extraction (μ-SPE) loaded with molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) for the determination of ochratoxin A (OTA) is described. After the extraction, the analyte was desorbed using ultrasonication and was analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography. Under the optimized conditions, the detection limits of OTA for coffee, grape juice and urine were 0.06 ng g−1, 0.02 and 0.02 ng mL−1, respectively while the quantification limits were 0.19 ng g−1, 0.06 and 0.08 ng mL−1, respectively. The recoveries of OTA from coffee spiked at 1, 25 and 50 ng g−1, grape juice and urine samples at 1, 25 and 50 ng mL
... Show MoreThe effect of irradiation and exposure time of laser light on the fluorescence emission of DCM dye in PMMA polymer contained in the composition mold using different metals have been investigated. It was found that the fluorescence intensity decreases as the exposure time increases and then reaches stabilization at long times. The effect of the incident laser power on fluorescence intensity of DCM dye in PMMA polymer at 10-3 M and 20% mixing ratio, using copper disks of composition molds, has been studied too. It was observed that there is an upward knick in the curve at laser intensity of 19.2 W/cm2, which may be associated with the threshold for amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) or laser action. And at intensity higher than about 88.
... Show MoreIn this work, some mechanical properties of the polymer coating were improved by preparing a hybrid system containing Graphene (GR) of different weight percentages (0.25, 0.5, 1, and 2wt%) with 5wt% carbon fibres (CF) and added to a polymer coating by using casting method. The properties were improved as GR was added with further improvement on adding 5wt% of CF. The impact strength of acrylic polymer with GR increases with increasing weight ratio of GR; maximum value was obtained when the polymer coating was incorporated with 1wt% GR and 5wt% CF. The impact strength of acrylic polymer with GR and GR/CF composites incorporated with GR at 1wt% and CF at 5wt%. Hardness increase with increasing weight ratio of Gr and a significant imp
... Show MoreBuilding numerical reservoir simulation model with a view to model actual case requires enormous amount of data and information. Such modeling and simulation processes normally require lengthy time and different sets of field data and experimental tests that are usually very expensive. In addition, the availability, quality and accessibility of all necessary data are very limited, especially for the green field. The degree of complexities of such modelling increases significantly especially in the case of heterogeneous nature typically inherited in unconventional reservoirs. In this perspective, this study focuses on exploring the possibility of simplifying the numerical simulation pr
The Khor Mor gas-condensate processing plant in Iraq is currently facing operational challenges due to foaming issues in the sweetening tower caused by high-soluble hydrocarbon liquids entering the tower. The root cause of the problem could be liquid carry-over as the separation vessels within the plant fail to remove liquid droplets from the gas phase. This study employs Aspen HYSYS v.11 software to investigate the performance of the industrial three-phase horizontal separator, Bravo #2, located upstream of the Khor Mor sweetening tower, under both current and future operational conditions. The simulation results, regarding the size distribution of liquid droplets in the gas product and the efficiency gas/liquid separation, r
... Show MoreIn this study, structures damage identification method based on changes in the dynamic characteristics
(frequencies) of the structure are examined, stiffness as well as mass matrices of the curved
(in and out-of-plane vibration) beam elements is formulated using Hamilton's principle. Each node
of both of them possesses seven degrees of freedom including the warping degree of freedom. The
curved beam element had been derived based on the Kang and Yoo’s thin-walled curved beam theory
in 1994. A computer program was developing to carry out free vibration analyses of the curved
beam as well as straight beam. Comparing with the frequencies for other researchers using the general
purpose program MATLAB. Fuzzy logic syste