Four simply supported reinforced concrete (RC) beams were test experimentaly and analyzed using the extended finite element method (XFEM). This method is used to treat the discontinuities resulting from the fracture process and crack propagation in that occur in concrete. The Meso-Scale Approach (MSA) used to model concrete as a heterogenous material consists of a three-phasic material (coarse aggregate, mortar, and air voids in the cement paste). The coarse aggregate that was used in the casting of these beams rounded and crashed aggregate shape with maximum size of 20 mm. The compressive strength used in these beams is equal to 17 MPa and 34 MPa, respectively. These RC beams are designed to fail due to flexure when subjected to load as a two-point loading. To model the coarse aggregate realistically, the aggregate must distributed randomly according to the gradient and amount actually used in the mix design. This property is not found in the ABAQUS program that resulted in the use of an alternate program to represent the aggregate randomly. Next, the random representation of the aggregate were transfered to the ABAQUS program by using commands and instructions that the program can understand, to draw as a sketch. The comparison between experimental and numerical results showed that the XFEM is a good method used to simulate the non-smooth behavior in RC beams such as discontinuitiy and singularity. While a mesoscale model can be simulated the non-homogeneity in the concrete.
This study involves the design of 24 mixtures of fiber reinforced magnetic reactive powder concrete containing nano Silica. Tap water has been used in mixing 12 of these mixtures, while the other 12 have been mixed using magnetic water. Nano Silica (NS) with ratios (1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3) % were used. The results showed that the mixture containing 2.5%NS gives the highest compressive strength at age 7 days. Many different other tests were carried out, the results showed that the fiber reinforced magnetic reactive powder concrete containing 2.5% NS (FRMRPCCNS) has the higher bulk density, dynamic modulus of elasticity, ultrasonic pulse velocity electrical resistivity and lesser absorption than fiber reinforced
... Show MoreThis paper studies the behavior of reinforced Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) two-way slabs under static and repeated load. The experimental program included testing six simply supported RPC two-way slabs of 1000 mm length, 1000 mm width, and 70 mm thickness. All the tested specimens were identical in their material properties, and reinforcement details except their steel fibers content. They were cast in three pairs, each one had a different steel fibers ratio (0.5 %, 1 %, and 1.5 %) respectively. In each pair, one specimen was tested under static load and the other under five cycles of repeated load (loading-unloading). Static test results revealed that increasing steel fibres volume fraction from 0.5 % to 1 % and from 1% to 1.5%,
... Show MoreA reduced-order extended state observer (RESO) based a continuous sliding mode control (SMC) is proposed in this paper for the tracking problem of high order Brunovsky systems with the existence of external perturbations and system uncertainties. For this purpose, a composite control is constituted by two consecutive steps. First, the reduced-order ESO (RESO) technique is designed to estimate unknown system states and total disturbance without estimating an available state. Second, the continuous SMC law is designed based on the estimations supplied by the RESO estimator in order to govern the nominal system part. More importantly, the robustness performance is well achieved by compensating not only the lumped disturbance, but also its esti
... Show MoreCarbamazepine is an anticonvulsant agent which acts on the central nervous system and used for the treatment of epilepsy. Carbamazepine was formulated as an oral extended release tablets using ethyl cellulose as retardant substance. Different types of tablets additives such as cellulose materials (sodium carboxymethyl cellulose and microcrystalline cellulose ), lactose, calcium phosphate and solubilizing agents ( sodium lauryl sulphate and polyethylene glycol 6000) were utilized to study their effect on the release profile of drug from ethyl cellulose matrices. It was found that sodium carboxymethyl cellulose increased the carbamazepine release and the same effect was obtained when the same amount of microcrystalline cellulose used
... Show MoreNowadays, the use of recycled waste construction materials instead of aggregates is becoming popular in construction owing to its environmental benefits. This paper presents an experimental and analytical campaign to study the behavior of axially loaded columns constructed from recycled aggregates. The latter was used instead of natural aggregates, and they were collected from the waste of previous concrete constructions. Different concrete mixtures made from varying amounts of recycled aggregates ranged from 0 to 50% of the total coarse aggregate were conducted to achieve 28 MPa. The effect of steel fibers is another investigated variable with volumes ranged from 0 to 2% concerning concrete’s mixture. The experimental
... Show MoreThe optimal design of any structural elements requires examining all environmental risks, emergency accidents, and standard load cases. Exposure to fire is one of the most common safety threats. Nowadays wide developments are achieved in the field of concrete technology, therefore, experimental and theoretical investigations should be performed on the characteristics of such developed materials under different loading conditions. This study investigates the impact of fire exposure on the mechanical characteristics of self-compacting concrete, specifically compressive and tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and stress-strain relation. The adopted fire exposure consisted of six steady-state temperatures (300, 400, 500, 600, 700,
... Show MoreThe ring modulator described in part I of this paper is designed here for two operating wavelengths 1550nm and 1310nm. For each wavelength, three structures are designed corresponding to three values of polymer slot widths (40, 50 and 60nm). The performance of these modulators are simulated using COMSOL software (version 4.3b) and the results are discussed and compared with theoretical predictions. The performance of intensity modulation/direct detection short range and long rang optical communication systems incorporating the designed modulators is simulated for 40 and 100Gb/s data rates using Optisystem software (version 12). The results reveal that an average energy per bit as low as 0.05fJ can be obtained when the 1550nm modulator is d
... Show MoreThis paper presents comprehensive analysis and investigation for 1550nm and 1310nm ring optical modulators employing an electro-optic polymer infiltrated silicon-plasmonic hybrid phase shifter. The paper falls into two parts which introduce a theoretical modeling framework and performance assessment of these advanced modulators, respectively. In this part, analytical expressions are derived to characterize the coupling effect in the hybrid phase shifter, transmission function of the modulator, and modulator performance parameters. The results can be used as a guideline to design compact and wideband optical modulators using plasmonic technology
This study aimed to investigate the incorporation of recycled waste compact discs (WCDs) powder in concrete mixes to replace the fine aggregate by 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%. Compared to the reference concrete mix, results revealed that using WCDs powder in concrete mixes improved the workability and the dry density. The results demonstrated that the compressive, flexural, and split tensile strengths values for the WCDs-modified concrete mixes showed tendency to increase above the reference mix. However, at 28 days curing age, the strengths values for WCDs-modified concrete mixes were comparable to those for the reference mix. The leaching test revealed that none of the WCDs constituents was detected in the leachant after 180 days. The
... Show MoreUntreated municipal solid waste (MSW) release onto land is prevalent in developing countries. To reduce the high levels of harmful components in polluted soils, a proper evaluation of heavy metal concentrations in Erbil's Kani Qrzhala dump between August 2021 and February 2022 is required. The purpose of this research was to examine the impact of improper solid waste disposal on soil properties within a landfill by assessing the risks of contamination for eight heavy elements in two separate layers of the soil by using geoaccumulation index (I-geo) and pollution load index (PLI) supported. The ArcGIS software was employed to map the spatial distribution of heavy element pollution and potential ecological risks. The I-geo values in summe
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