Gypseous soil, which covers vast area in west, middle, east and south west regions of Iraq exhibit acceptable strength properties when dry, but it is weak and collapsible when it comes in touch with moisture from rain or other sources. When such weak soil is adopted for earth reinforced embankment construction, it may exhibit hazardous situation. Gypseous soil was investigated for the optimum liquid asphalt requirements of both cutback and emulsion using the one-dimensional unconfined compression strength test. The optimum fluid content was 13% (7% of cutback with 6% water content), and 17% (9% of emulsion with 8% water content). A laboratory model box of 50x50x25 cm was used as a representative of embankment; soil or asphalt stabilize

Rutting is one of the major distresses in pavement. The objective of this paper is to develop an improved asphalt binder grading system for Iraq based on the principal of Superpave system, and increasing performance grade of product asphalt binder in Iraq using polymers without raising the viscosity of the binder. Two types of polymers are used, Plastomers, Functionalized Polyethylene (PE) which is developed by asphalt research group in Wisconsin University in the USA, and Elastomers, Styrene Butadiene Styrene (SBS) with and without cross linker. Mastercurve are drown for these modified binders, Rolling thin film aged, to show effects on rheological properties at high temperature for complex modulus (G*) and phas

This research aims to investigate the effect of four types of nanomaterial on the Marshall properties and durability of warm mix asphalt (WMA). These types are; nano silica(NS), nano carbonate calcium (NCC), nano clay(NC), and nanoplatelets (NP). For each type of Nanomaterial, three contents are tried as following; NS(1%, 3%, and 5%), NCC(2%, 4%, and 6%), NC(3%, 5%, and 7%), and NP (2%, 4%, and 6%) by weight of asphalt cement. Following Marhsall mix design method, the optimum asphalt cement content is determined, thereafter the optimum dosage for each nanomaterial is obtained based on the highest Marshall stability value. The durability of the control mix (no nanomaterial) and modified mixtures have been compared based on moisture damage, r

This paper presents a modified training method for Recurrent Neural Networks. This method depends on the Non linear Auto Regressive (NARX) model with Modified Wavelet Function as activation function (MSLOG) in the hidden layer. The modified model is known as Modified Recurrent Neural (MRN). It is used for identification Forward dynamics of four Degrees of Freedom (4-DOF) Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) manipulator robot. This model is also used in the design of Direct Inverse Control (DIC). This method is compared with Recurrent Neural Networks that used Sigmoid activation function (RS) in the hidden layer and Recurrent Neural Networks with Wavelet activation function (RW). Simulation results shows that the MRN model is bett

In this study, two types of mixes were adopted by using two grading of coarse aggregate. The practical side of this study was to produce no-fine aggregate concrete by using crushed clay brick aggregates. The durability of the produced concrete and internal sulfate attack was studied.      For durability assessment, it is found that the no-fine concrete made with crushed brick aggregate lost about (15-25) % of its compressive strength after being subjected to 60 cycles of wetting and drying with age 120 days. The curing condition showed that the water curing improved the compressive strength with a rate higher than that when sealed or air dry curing were used. The crushed brick no-fine concrete de

The Iraqi houses flattening the roof by a concrete panel, and because of the panels on the top directly exposed to the solar radiation become unbearably hot and cold during the summer and winter. The traditional concrete panel components are cement, sand, and aggregate, which have a poor thermal property. The usage of materials with low thermal conductivity with no negative reflects on its mechanical properties gives good improvements to the thermal properties of the concrete panel. The practical part of this work was built on a multi-stage mixing plan. In the first stage the mixing ratio based on the ratios of the sand to cement. The second stage mixing ratios based on replacing the coarse aggregate quantities with the

This study focuses on the behavior of simply supported perforated prestressed concrete rafters (PPCRs) under single midspan monotonic static loading. The experimental program consisted of testing seven specimens; one solid (control) rafter, and six perforated with quadrilateral openings. The main investigated variables are the number and height of the openings. The test findings indicate that, in comparison to the solid rafter, the presence of quadrilateral openings in the PPCRs led to reducing the load capacity by (4.3-36%) and increase the midspan deflection at ultimate by (14.8-33%). Also, increasing the number of concrete posts between openings resulted in increasing the failure load and decreasing the deflection at all stages o