Worldwide, enormous amounts of waste cause major environmental issues, including scrap tires and plastic, and large waste, a consequence of the demolition of buildings, including crushed concrete, crushed clay bricks, and crushed thermo-stone. From that point, it’s possible to consider that the recycling processes for these materials and using them in the manufacturing field will reduce the adverse effects on the environment of these wastes and the consumption of natural resources. Sustainable concrete blocks can be considered as one of the products produced by using these materials as partial volume replacement of the coarse, fine aggregate, or cement content, considering their dry density, workability, absorption, compressive st

Porous asphalt paving is a modern design method that differs from the usual asphalt pavements' traditional designs. The difference is that the design structure of porous pavements allows the free passage of fluids through their layers, which controls or reduces the amount of runoff or water accumulated in the area by allowing the flow of rain and surface runoff.  The cross-structure of this type of paving works as a suitable method for managing rainwater and representing groundwater recharge. The overall benefits of porous asphalt pavements include environmental services and safety features, including controlling the build-up of contaminated metals on the road surface, rainwater management, resistance to slipping ac

Lignin has emerged as a promising asphalt binder modifier due to its sustainable and renewable nature, with the potential to improve flexible pavement performance. This study investigates the use of Soda Lignin Powder (SLP), derived from Pinus wood sawdust via alkaline treatment, as an asphalt modifier to enhance mixture durability. SLP was characterized using Fourier Transformation Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (SEM/EDX), revealing significant changes in its chemical structure post-extraction. These analyses showed the presence of phenolic units, including hydroxyphenyl propane, syringyl, and guaiacyl units. The morphology of SLP was identified

Undoubtedly, rutting in asphalt concrete pavement is considered a major dilemma in terms of pavement performance and safety faced by road users as well as the road authorities. Rutting is a bowl-shaped depression in the wheel paths that develop gradually with the increasing number of load applications. Heavy axle loadings besides the high pavement summer temperature enhance the problem of rutting. According to the AASHTO design equation for flexible pavements, a 1.1 in rut depth will reduce the present serviceability index of relatively new pavement, having no other distress, from 4.2 to 2.5. With this amount of drop in serviceability, the entire life of the pavement in effect has been lost. Therefore, it is crucial to look at the mechani

This 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

A simple, fast, inexpensive and sensitive method has been proposed to screen and optimize experimental factors that effecting the determination of phenylephrine hydrochloride (PHE.HCl) in pure and pharmaceutical formulations. The method is based on the development of brown-colored charge transfer (CT) complex with p-Bromanil (p-Br) in an alkaline medium (pH=9) with 1.07 min after heating at 80 °C. ‘Design of Experiments’ (DOE) employing ‘Central Composite Face Centered Design’ (CCF) and ‘Response Surface Methodology’ (RSM) were applied as an improvement to traditional ‘One Variable at Time’ (OVAT) approach to evaluate the effects of variations in selected factors (volume of 5×10-3 M p-Br, heating time, and temperature) on

This research deals with the design and simulation of a solar power system consisting of a KC200GT solar panel, a closed loop boost converter and a three phase inverter by using Matlab / Simulink. The mathematical equations of the solar panel design are presented. The electrical characteristics of the panel are tested at the values ​​of 1000  for light radiation and 25 °C for temperature environment. The Proportional Integral (PI) controller is connected   as feedback with the Boost converter to obtain a stable output voltage by reducing the oscillations in the voltage to charge a battery connected to the output of the converter. Two methods (Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Zeigler- Nichols) are used for tuning

Abstract: A novel design of Mach Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) in terms of using special type of optical fiber that has double clad with graded distribution of the refractive index that can be easily implemented practically was suggested and simulated in this work. The suggested design is compact, rapid, and is simple to be modified and tested. The simulated design contains a MZI of 1546.74 nm of central wavelength that is constructed using special type of double clad optical fiber that has two different numerical apertures. The first aperture will supply single mode propagation via its core, while the second numerical aperture supports a zigzag wave propagation (multimode) in the first clad region. The interferometer’s

Electromyography (EMG) is being explored for evaluating muscle activity. For gait analysis, EMG needs to be small, lightweight, portable device, and with low power consumption. The proposed superficial EMG (sEMG) system is aimed to be used in rehabilitation centers and biomechanics laboratories for gait analysis in Iraq.

The system is built using MyoWare, which is controlled by using STM32F100 microcontroller. The sEMG signal is transferred via Bluetooth to the computer (about 30m range) for further processing. MATLAB is used for sEMG signal conditioning. The overall system cost (without computer) is about $80. The proposed system is validated using wired NORAXON EMG using the mean root mean squared metho