In this study, plain concrete simply supported beams subjected to two points loading were analyzed for the flexure. The numerical model of the beam was constructed in the meso-scale representation of concrete as a two phasic material (aggregate, and mortar). The fracture process of the concrete beams under loading was investigated in the laboratory as well as by the numerical models. The Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) was employed for the treatment of the discontinuities that appeared during the fracture process in concrete. Finite element method with the feature standard/explicitlywas utilized for the numerical analysis. Aggregate particles were assumedof elliptic shape. Other properties such as grading and sizes of the aggregate particles were taken from standard laboratory tests that conducted on aggregate samples.Two different concrete beamswere experimentally and numerically investigated. The difference between beams was concentrated in the maximum size of aggregate particles. The comparison between experimental and numerical results showed that themeso-scale model gives a good interface for the representing the concrete models in numerical approach. It was concluded that the XFEM is a powerful technique to use for the analysis of the fracture process and crack propagation in concrete.
Kinematics is the mechanics branch which dealswith the movement of the bodies without taking the force into account. In robots, the forward kinematics and inverse kinematics are important in determining the position and orientation of the end-effector to perform multi-tasks. This paper presented the inverse kinematics analysis for a 5 DOF robotic arm using the robotics toolbox of MATLAB and the Denavit-Hartenberg (D-H) parameters were used to represent the links and joints of the robotic arm. A geometric approach was used in the inverse kinematics solution to determine the joints angles of the robotic arm and the path of the robotic arm was divided into successive lines to accomplish the required tasks of the robotic arm.Therefore, this
... Show MoreThis paper describes the problem of online autonomous mobile robot path planning, which is consisted of finding optimal paths or trajectories for an autonomous mobile robot from a starting point to a destination across a flat map of a terrain, represented by a 2-D workspace. An enhanced algorithm for solving the problem of path planning using Bacterial Foraging Optimization algorithm is presented. This nature-inspired metaheuristic algorithm, which imitates the foraging behavior of E-coli bacteria, was used to find the optimal path from a starting point to a target point. The proposed algorithm was demonstrated by simulations in both static and dynamic different environments. A comparative study was evaluated between the developed algori
... Show MoreThe large number of failure in electrical power plant leads to the sudden stopping of work. In some cases, the necessary reserve materials are not available for maintenance which leads to interrupt of power generation in the electrical power plant unit. The present study, deals with the determination of availability aspects of generator in unit 5 of Al-Dourra electric power plant. In order to evaluate this generator's availability performance, a wide range of studies have been conducted to gather accurate information at the level of detail considered suitable to achieve the availability analysis aim. The Weibull Distribution is used to perform the reliability analysis via Minitab 17, and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) by approaching o
... Show MoreThe current study examined the impact of using PowerPoint presentation on EFL student’s attendance, achievement and engagement. To achieve the aim of this study, three null hypotheses have been posed as follows: There is no statistically significant difference between the mean score of the experimental group attendance and that of the control one; there is no statistically significant difference between the mean score of the experimental group achievement and that of the control one, and there is no statistically significant difference between the mean score of the experimental group engagement and that of the control one. To verify a hypothesis, a sample of sixty students is chosen randomly from the third year, department of English,
... Show MoreThe need for quick airborne transportation is critical, especially in emergencies. Drones with suspended payloads might be used to accomplish quick airborne transportation. Due to the environment or the drone's motion, the slung load may oscillate and lead the drone to fall. The altitude and attitude controls are the backbones of the drone's stability, and they must be adequately designed. Because of their symmetrical and simple structure, quadrotor helicopters are one of the most popular drone classes. In this work, a genetic algorithm with two weighted terms fitness function is used to adjust a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller to compensate for the altitude and attitude controllers in a quadrotor drone with a slun
... Show MoreThis research aims to investigate the color distribution of a huge sample of 613654 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Those galaxies are at a redshift of 0.001 - 0.5 and have magnitudes of g = 17 - 20. Five subsamples of galaxies at redshifts of (0.001 - 0.1), (0.1 - 0.2), (0.2 - 0.3), (0.3 - 0.4) and (0.4 - 0.5) have been extracted from the main sample. The color distributions (u-g), (g-r) and (u-r) have been produced and analysed using a Matlab code for the main sample as well as all five subsamples. Then a bimodal Gaussian fit to color distributions of data that have been carried out using minimum chi-square in Microsoft Office Excel. The results showed that the color distributions of the main sample and
... Show MoreRecently, the internet has made the users able to transmit the digital media in the easiest manner. In spite of this facility of the internet, this may lead to several threats that are concerned with confidentiality of transferred media contents such as media authentication and integrity verification. For these reasons, data hiding methods and cryptography are used to protect the contents of digital media. In this paper, an enhanced method of image steganography combined with visual cryptography has been proposed. A secret logo (binary image) of size (128x128) is encrypted by applying (2 out 2 share) visual cryptography on it to generate two secret share. During the embedding process, a cover red, green, and blue (RGB) image of size (512
... Show MoreAs one type of heating furnaces, the electric heating furnace (EHF) typically suffers from time delay, non-linearity, time-varying parameters, system uncertainties, and harsh en-vironment of the furnace, which significantly deteriorate the temperature control process of the EHF system. In order to achieve accurate and robust temperature tracking performance, an integration of robust state feedback control (RSFC) and a novel sliding mode-based disturbance observer (SMDO) is proposed in this paper, where modeling errors and external disturbances are lumped as a lumped disturbance. To describe the characteristics of the EHF, by using convection laws, an integrated dynamic model is established and identified as an uncertain nonlinear second ord
... Show MoreThis paper presents an experimental study of cooling photovoltaic (PV) panels using evaporative cooling. Underground (geothermal energy) water used to extract heat from it during cooling and cleaning of PV panels. An experimental test rig was constructed and tested under hot and dusty climate conditions in Baghdad. An active cooling system was used with auxiliary an underground water tank to provide cold water as a coolant over both PV surfaces to reduce its temperature. The cellulose pad has been arranged on the back surface and sprays cooling on the front side. Two identical PV panels modules used: without cooling and evaporative water cooling. The experiments are comprised of four cases: Case (I): backside cooling, Ca
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