This paper presents an experimental and numerical study which was carried out to examine the influence of the size and the layout of the web openings on the load carrying capacity and the serviceability of reinforced concrete deep beams. Five full-scale simply supported reinforced concrete deep beams with two large web openings created in shear regions were tested up to failure. The shear span to overall depth ratio was (1.1). Square openings were located symmetrically relative to the midspan section either at the midpoint or at the interior boundaries of the shear span. Two different side dimensions for the square openings were considered, mainly, (200) mm and (230) mm. The strength results proved that the shear capacity of the dee

Well-dispersed Cu2FeSnSe4 (CFTSe) nanoparticles were first synthesized using the hot-injection method. The structure and phase purity of as-synthesized CFTSe nanoparticles were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy. Their morphological properties were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The average particle sizes of the nanoparticles were about 7-10 nm. The band gap of the as-synthesized CFTS nanoparticles was determined to be about 1.15 eV by ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometry. Photoelectrochemical characteristics of CFTSe nanoparticles were also studied, which indicated their potential application in solar energy water splitting.

Artificial roughness applied to a Solar Air Heater (SAH) absorber plate is a popular technique for increasing its total thermal efficiency (ηt−th). In this paper, the influence of geometrical parameters of V-down ribs attached below the corrugated absorbing plate of a SAH on the ηt−th was examined. The impacts of key roughness parameters, including relative pitch p/e (6–12), relative height e/D (0.019–0.043), angles of attack α (30–75°), and Re (1000–20,000), were examined under real weather conditions. The SAH ηt−th roughened by V-down ribs was predicted using an in-house developed conjugate heat-transfer numerical model. The maximum SAH ηt−th was shown to be 78.8% as predicted under the steady-state condition

In this paper, an experimental study of the thermal performance for hybrid solar air conditioning system was carried out, to investigate system suitability for the hot climate in Iraq. The system consists of vapor compression unit combined with evacuated tube solar collector and liquid storage tank. A three-way valve was installed after the compressor to control the direction flow of the refrigerant, either to the storage tank or directly to the condenser. The performance parameters were collected by data logger to display and record in the computer by using LabVIEW software. The results show that the average coefficient of performance of hybrid solar air conditioning system (R=1) was about 2.42 to 2.77 and the average p

Background: Several infectious lung diseases often develop in patients with Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), especially during immunosuppressive medication, including disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). The present study aimed to determine the role of respiratory tract bacterial infection in RA activity. Methods: Blood and sputum samples were collected from 31 patients with RA and 12 healthy subjects as control. The bacterial isolates were isolated and identified in collected sputum by biochemical tests and Vitec 2 system. Results: In the present study, thirty-one patients with RA were compared with 12 healthy subjects. Eight patients with RA were not infected with pathogenic bacteria (RA-NIPB) (25.8%). Twenty-three RA patients wer

Some new complexes of 4-(5-(1,5-dimethyl-3-oxo-2-phenyl pyrazolidin-4- ylimino)-3,3-dimethyl cyclohexylideneamino) -1,5- dimethyl-2- phenyl -1H- pyrazol -3(2H) –one (L) with Mn(II), Fe(III), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Pd(II), Re(V) and Pt(IV) were prepared. The ligand and its metal complexes were characterized by phisco- chemical spectroscopic techniques. The spectral data were suggested that the (L) as a neutral tetradentate ligand is coordinated with the metal ions through two nitrogen and two oxygen atoms. These studies revealed Octahedral geometries for all metal complexes, except square planar for Pd(II) complex. Moreover, the thermodynamic activation parameters, such as ?E*, ?H, ?S, ?G and K are calculated from the TGA curves using Coa

In this work, copper substituted cobalt ferrite nanoparticles with
chemical formula Co1-xCuxFe2O4 (x=0, 0.3, and 0.7), has been
synthesized via hydrothermal preparation method. The structure of
the prepared materials was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD).
The (XRD) patterns showed single phase spinel ferrite structure.
Average crystallite size (D), lattice constant (a), and crystal density
(dx) have been calculated from the most intense peak (311).
Comparative standardization also performed using smaller average
particle size (D) on the XRD patterns of as-prepared ferrite samples
in order to select most convenient hydrothermal synthesis conditions
to get ferrite materials with smallest average particl