A ‘locking-bolt’ demountable shear connector (LBDSC) is proposed to facilitate the deconstruction and reuse of steel-concrete composite structures, in line with achieving a more sustainable construction design paradigm. The LBDSC is comprised of a grout-filled steel tube and a geometrically compatible partially threaded bolt. The latter has a geometry that ‘locks’ the bolt in compatible holes predrilled on the steel flange and eliminates initial slip and construction tolerance issues. The structural behaviour of the LBDSC is evaluated through nine pushout tests using a horizontal test setup. The effects of the tube thickness, strength of concrete slab, and strength of infilled grout on the shear resistance, initial stiffness, and du

This research is devoted to investigating the thermal buckling analysis behaviour of laminated composite plates subjected to uniform and non-uniform temperature fields by applying an analytical model based on a refined plate theory (RPT) with five unknown independent variables. The theory accounts for the parabolic distribution of the transverse shear strains through the plate thickness and satisfies the zero-traction boundary condition on the surface without using shear correction factors; hence a shear correction factor is not required. The governing differential equations and associated boundary conditions are derived by using the virtual work principle and solved via Navier-type analytical procedure to obtain critica

- The sandy soil with high gypsum content (usually referred to as gypseous soil) covers vast area in south, east, middle and west regions of Iraq, such soil possess a type of cohesive forces when attached with optimum amount of water, then compacted and allowed to cure, but losses its strength when flooded with water again. Much work on earth reinforcement was published which concentrate on the gain in bearing capacity in the reinforced layer using different types of cohesive or cohesion less soil and various types of reinforcement such as plastic, metal, grids, and synthetic textile. Little attention was paid to there enforce gypseous soil. The objective of this work is to study the interaction between such soil and reinforcement strips

Bearing capacity of a concrete pile in fine grained cohesive soils is affected by the degree of saturation of the surrounding soil through the contribution of the matric suction. In addition, the embedded depth and the roughness of the concrete pile surface (expressed as British Pendulum Number BPN) also have their contribution to the shear strength of the concrete pile, consequently its bearing capacity. Herein, relationships among degree of saturation, pile depth, and surface roughness, were proposed as a mathematical model expressed as an equation where the shear strength of a pile can be predicted in terms of degree of saturation, depth, and BPN. Rel

Background: The mechanical properties of 3D-printed denture base resins are crucial factors for determining the quality and performance of dentures inside a patient’s mouth. Tensile strength and diametral compressive strength are two properties that could play significant roles in assessing the suitability of a material. Although they measure different aspects of material behavior, a conceptual link exists between them in terms of overall material strength and resilience. Aim: This study aims to investigate the correlation between tensile strength and diametral compressive strength after incorporating 2% ZrO2 nanoparticles (NPs) by weight into 3D-printed denture base resin. Methods: A total of 40 specimens (20 dumbbell-shaped and