Internal curing is a method that has been advised to decrease the primary age cracking, mainly of concrete mixes using low (water to cementitious materials - w/cm) ratios corresponding to the self-compacting concrete-(SCC). This research aims to study the effect of the internal curing using saturated lightweight aggregate- (LWA) on the steel reinforcing corrosion in SCC. In this research, crushed bricks or thermostone were partially replaced by (20%) by the weight of sand and volumetrically measured. The results showed that the steel reinforcement of internally cured concrete showed a slight increase in corrosion up to 300 days of exposure to the saline solution (containing 3.5% NaCl). The ability of using the crushed bricks or thermostone as a replacement of natural sand as internal curing has no adverse effect on the corrosion of steel reinforcement.
Excessive intake of fluoride, mainly through drinking water is a serious health hazard affecting humans worldwide. In this study, the defluoridation capacities of locally available raw waste beef bones have been estimated. Several experimental parameters including contact time, pH, bone dose, fluoride initial concentration, bone grains size, agitation rate, and the effect of co-existence of anions in actual samples of wastewater were studied for fluoride removal from aqueous solutions. Results indicated excellent fluoride removal effeciency up to 99.7% at fluoride initial concentration of 10 mg F/L and 120 min contact time. Maximum fluoride uptake was obtained at neutral pH range 6-7. Fluoride removal kinetic was well described by the ps
... Show MoreHard-grade asphalt binders, such as AC 20–30, offer excellent resistance to permanent deformation but are inherently brittle, making them highly susceptible to fatigue and low-temperature cracking. While polymer modification addresses these issues, virgin polymers remain expensive. Despite the growing interest in recycled plastics, the rheological impact of complex waste streams, specifically polyvinyl chloride (PVC) derived from flex banners containing plasticizers, on excessively stiff binders within the complete Superpave Performance Grading (PG) framework remains critically underexplored. This study introduces a novel valorization approach by utilizing solvent-extracted flex banner waste (WPVC) as a dual-action modifier. It leverages
... Show MoreThis work investigates the utilization of waste papers (natural and industrial) i.e (citrus aurantium and papers A4) mortars containing specified contents 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% of waste papers were prepared and cured. Mechanical characteristics such as compressive and bending strengths, hardness and water absorption were determined for the mortars mixed with the waste papers and compared with those obtained from the pure mortars. Results showed that the addition of waste paper leads to increase the hardness to (69 - 68.5) shore D for (natural and industrial) wastes materials respectively comparing with pure specimen 66 shore D. The compressed strength of the mortar cement specimen cured for 28 days from 13 MPa to (17-18) MPa for (natural and in
... Show MoreThis research investigates solid waste management in Al-Kut City. It included the collection of medical and general solid waste generated in five hospitals different in their specialization and capacity through one week, starting from 03/02/2012. Samples were collected and analyzed periodically to find their generation rate, composition, and physical properties. Analysis results indicated that generation rate ranged between (1102 – 212) kg / bed / day, moisture content and density were (19.0 % - 197 kg/ m3) respectively for medical waste and (41%-255 kg/ m3) respectively for general waste. Theoretically, medical solid waste generated in Al-Kut City (like any other city), affected by capacity, number of patients in a day, and hosp
... Show MoreLow-level microbial activity due to the production of organic acids is a recognized problem during the initial phase of food waste composting. Increasing such activity levels by adjusting the pH values during the initial composting phase is the primary objective to be investigated. In this study, sodium acetate (NaoAc) was introduced as an amendment to an in-vessel composting system. NaoAc was added when the pH of the compost mixture reached a low level (pH < 5), the addition increased pH to 5.8. This had a positive effect on the degradation of organic materials i.e. the formation of methane gas compared to the results without NaoAc addition.
The results also proved that anaerobic-aerobic in-vessel composting could reduce the
... Show MorePhoenix dactylifera l. pinnae (the green leaves of dates palm) were used as natural reinforcing (strengthening) fibers to improve the mechanical properties of polyester as a matrix material, the fibers of the green leaves of dates palm were used in two lengths, 10 and 20mm with five rates of 0, 2.5, 5, 10, and 20% , where the reinforcing with the leaves fibers increases the hardness strength from 76.5 to be about 86.55 , the Impact value raised from about 0.313 to 0.461 , in addition to that the flexural strength from 2.66 to be about 55 , and the thermal conductivity increases from 2.54 𝑤∕𝑚.℃ to 5.41 𝑤∕𝑚.℃. The results of the present search explains that the composite samples reinforced at rate 20% and 10mm fiber length
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