This article presents the results of an experimental investigation of using carbon fiber–reinforced polymer sheets to enhance the behavior of reinforced concrete deep beams with large web openings in shear spans. A set of 18 specimens were fabricated and tested up to a failure to evaluate the structural performance in terms of cracking, deformation, and load-carrying capacity. All tested specimens were with 1500-mm length, 500-mm cross-sectional deep, and 150-mm wide. Parameters that studied were opening size, opening location, and the strengthening factor. Two deep beams were implemented as control specimens without opening and without strengthening. Eight deep beams were fabricated with openings but without strengthening, while

The preparation and characterization of innovative nanocomposites based on zinc oxide nanorods (ZNR) encapsulated by graphene (Gr) nanosheets and decorated with silver (Ag), and cupper (Cu) nanoparticles (NP) were studied. The prepared nanocomposites (ZNR@Gr/Cu-Ag) were examined by different techniques including Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Atomic force microscopy (AFM), UV-Vis spectrophotometer and fluorescence spectroscopy. The results showed that the ZNR has been good cover by five layers of graphene and decorated with Ag and Cu NPs with particles size of about 10-15 nm. The ZNR@Gr/Cu-Ag nanocomposites exhibit high absorption behavior in ultraviolet (UV) region of sp

Morphologies of ceramic hollow fiber membranes prepared by a combined phase-inversion and sintering method were studied. The organic binder spinning solution containing suspended Al₂O₃ powders was spun to a hollow fiber precursor, which was then sintered at elevated temperatures( 300 ˚C, 1400 ˚C, 25 ˚C) in order to obtain the Al₂O₃ hollow fiber membranes. The spinning solution consisted of polyether sulfone (PES), N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), which were used as polymer binder, solvent, respectively. The prepared Al₂O₃ hollow fiber membranes were characterized by a scanning electron microscope (SEM). It is believed that finger-like void formation in asymmetric ceramic membranes is initiated by hydrodynamically unstable vis

Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) were widely used in strengthening reinforced concrete members
in the last few years, these fibers consist mainly of high strength fibers which increase the member capacity in addition to changing the mode of failure of the reinforced concrete beams. Experimental and theoretical investigations were carried to find the behavior of reinforced concrete beams strengthened by CFRP in shear and bending. The experimental work included testing of 12 beams divided into 4 groups; each group contains 3 beams. The following parameters were taken into consideration: - Concrete crushing strength. - CFRP strengthening location (shear strengthening and both shear and flexure strengthening). Reinforced beams were

This study reveals the results of a numerical simulation performed using the ABAQUS/CAE finite element program. The study aimed to provide a simulation model that can forecast the shear behavior of reinforced concrete beams confined with reinforcing meshes. Limited numerical studies have been conducted using geogrid or FRP mesh as shear reinforcement, with limited representation accuracy and limited material quality. The results were compared to published experimental findings in the literature. The finding of the finite element model and the experimental results were highly comparable; consequently, the model was determined to be valid. Following this, the domain of numerical analyses was broadened to include the investigation of m

High cost of qualifying library standard cells on silicon wafer limits the number of test circuits on the test chip. This paper proposes a technique to share common load circuits among test circuits to reduce the silicon area. By enabling the load sharing, number of transistors for the common load can be reduced significantly. Results show up to 80% reduction in silicon area due to load area reduction.

A 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

Two different polyvinyl alcohol/polyvinyl chloride (PVA/PVC) hollow fiber composite nanofiltration membranes were prepared after PVC hollow fiber membranes were coated using dip-coating method with PVA aqueous solution, which was composed of PVA, fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether (AEO9), and water [PVA/AEO9/water (4:0.5:95.5) wt%]. Effect of two different PVC hollow fiber immersion times in coating solution were studied. Cross-section, internal and external surfaces of the PVC hollow fibers and PVA/PVC composite nanofiltration membranes structures were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), pure water permeation flux and solutes rejection. It was found that, the coating layer thickness on the outer surface of the 19 wt% P