Concrete structures are exposed to aggressive environmental conditions that lead to corrosion of the embedded reinforcement and pre-stressing steel. Consequently, the safety of concrete structures may be compromised, and this requires a significant budgets to repair and maintain critical infrastructure. Prediction of structural safety can lead to significant reductions in maintenance costs by maximizing the impact of investments. The aim of this paper is to establish a framework to assess the reliability of existing post-tensioned concrete bridges. A time-dependent reliability analysis of an existing post-tensioned involving the assessment of Ynys-y-Gwas bridge has been presented in this study. The main cause of failure of this bridge was corrosion of tendons, making it a relevant case study to evaluate the effect of corrosion on bridge safety. Uncertainties associated with material properties, geometry, loads and corrosion parameters are taken into account. The probabilistic models of the uncertainties are combined with a non-linear finite element analysis to study the effect of tendons pitting corrosion on the post-tensioned concrete bridge. The limit state function considered is flexural strength. The Monte-Carlo simulation (MCS) method is used to compute the statistical parameters of the resisting bending moment through a MATLAB code running ABAQUS. It was found that the reliability index for the first year of bridge service life is below the minimum value acceptable for structures. The study confirmed that this bridge was a high risk structure due to its design and location. The proposed framework can be used by engineers and researchers as a tool to support decision for segmental post-tensioned (PT) bridges maintenance since they need for a regular inspection due to their risk to corrosion.
Background: The skull base and the hard palate contain many anatomical features that make them rich in information which are useful in sex differentiation; in addition to that they have the ability to resist the hardest environmental conditions that support them in making sex differentiation. Three dimensional computed tomographic techniques has important role in differentiation between sex since it offers images with very accurate data and details of all anatomical structures with high resolution. This study was made to study sex variations among Iraqi sample by craniometric linear measurements of the hard palate and the skull base using 3D reconstructed Computed Tomographic scan. Materials and methods: This study composed of 100 Iraqi su
... Show MoreThe current study used extracts from the aloe vera (AV) plant and the hibiscus sabdariffa flower to make Ag-ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) and Ag-ZnO nanocomposites (NCs). Ag/ZnO NCs were compared to Ag NPs and ZnO NPs. They exhibited unique properties against bacteria and fungi that aren't present in either of the individual parts. The Ag-ZnO NCs from AV showed the best performance against E. coli, with an inhibition zone of up to 27 mm, compared to the other samples. The maximum absorbance peaks were observed at 431 nm and 410 nm for Ag NPs, at 374 nm and 377 nm for ZnO NPs and at 384 nm and 391 nm for Ag-ZnO NCs using AV leaf extract and hibiscus sabdariffa flower extract, respectively. Using field emission-scanning electron microscopes (FE-
... Show MoreThe two-neutron halo-nuclei (17B, 11Li, 8He) was investigated using a two-body nucleon density distribution (2BNDD) with two frequency shell model (TFSM). The structure of valence two-neutron of 17B nucleus in a pure (1d5/2) state and in a pure (1p1/2) state for 11L and 8He nuclei. For our tested nucleus, an efficient (2BNDD's) operator for point nucleon system folded with two-body correlation operator's functions was used to investigate nuclear matter density distributions, root-mean square (rms) radii, and elastic electron scattering form factors. In the nucleon-nucleon forces the correlation took account of
... Show MoreThe study evaluated endophytic communities associated with five oil-bearing plants, including sesame, corn, sunflower, olives and castor, which were collected from Baghdad and Diyala (Iraq), evaluated their oil production capacity and identified metabolites from the lipid fraction. Out of 151 isolates were collected from 21 taxa. Aspergillus niger showed the highest frequency (6.62 %), while the genera Aspergillus and Fusarium were the most dominant endophytes. The highest oil yield was identified and recorded in Aspergillus terreus (24.12 %). While the lowest oil yield was observed in Sclerotinia spp. (3.96 %). Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of A. terreus revealed a profile dominated by pentadecyl acrylate (2
... Show MoreHybrid architecture of ZnO nanorods/graphene oxide ZnO-NRs@GO synthesized by electrostatic self-assembly methods. The morphological, optical and luminescence characteristics of ZnO-NRs@GO and ZnO-NRs thin films have been described by FESEM, TEM, HRTEM, and AFM, which refers to graphene oxide have been coated ZnO-NRs with five layers. Here we synthesis ZnO-NRs@GO by simple, cheap and environmentally friendly method, which made it favorable for huge -scale preparation in many applications such as photocatalyst. ZnO-NRs@GO was applied as a photocatalyst Rodamin 6 G (R6G) dye from water using 532 nm diode laser-induced photocatalytic process. Overall degradation of R6G/ ZnO-NRs@GO was achieved after 90 minutes of laser irradiation while it ne
... Show MoreThis work investigates the impacts of eccentric-inclined load on ring footing performance resting on treated and untreated weak sandy soil, and due to the reduction in the footing carrying capacity due to the combinations of eccentrically-inclined load, the geogrid was used as reinforcement material. Ring radius ratio and reinforcement depth ratio parameters were investigated. Test outcomes showed that the carrying capacity of the footing decreases with the increment in the eccentric-inclined load and footing radius ratio. Furthermore, footing tilt and horizontal displacement increase with increasing the eccentricity and inclination angle, respectively. At the same time, the increment in the horizontal displacement due t
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