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.
The current research illustrates experimentally the effect of series and parallel connection (Z-I Configurations) of flat plate water solar collectors array on the thermal performance of closed loop solar heating system. The study includes the effect of changing the water flow rate on the thermal efficiency. The results show that, the collector's efficiency in series connection is higher than the parallel connection within flow rate level less than (100) ℓ/hr. Moreover, the collector efficiency in parallel connection of (I-Configurations) is more than the (Z- Configurations) with increasing the water flow rate .The maximum daily efficiency for parallel (I-Configurations) and (Z- Configurations) are (55%) and (51%) at w
... Show MoreThe hydrodynamics behavior of gas - solid fluidized beds is complex and it should be analyzed and understood due to its importance in the design and operating of the units. The effect of column inside diameter and static bed height on the minimum fluidization velocity, minimum bubbling velocity, fluidization index, minimum slugging velocity and slug index have been studied experimentally and theoretically for three cylindrical columns of 0.0762, 0.15 and 0.18 m inside diameters and 0.05, 0.07 and 0.09 m static bed heights .The experimental results showed that the minimum fluidization and bubbling velocities had a direct relation with column diameter and static bed height .The minimum slugging velocity had an
... Show MoreFresh water production from saline or waste water utilizing solar stills is the secured future approach in water industry with low cost and no environmental pollution accompanied with low productivity. In this work, the effect of inserting different available materials in a passive Single Slope Solar SSS stills on their productivity is accomplished. Side by side tests are performed on a conventional still, and three SSS stills inserted with carbon filter media, Copper wire mesh, and Cellulose sheets. All these stills are symmetrical in dimensions with 0.5 m2 base area tested for 20mm water level. The stills have been manufactured, instrumented, and tested in July 2021 under DhiQar-Iraq climate conditions (latitude 31.2° N, longitude 46.34
... Show MoreThe aim of this work is to study the effect of diesel fuel percentage on the combustion processes in compression ignition engine using dual – fuel (diesel and LPG).
The brake thermal efficiency increased with the increase of diesel fuel rate at low loads, and decreased when load increased. To get sufficient operation in engine fueled with dual fuel, it required sufficient flow rate of diesel fuel, if the engine fueled with insufficient diesel fuel erratic operation with miss fire cycles presented.
Dual-fuel operation at part load showed higher specific fuel consumption than straight diesl operation. At full loads, brake specific fuel consumption of duel fuel engine approaches that for diesel fuel values.
One hundred isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were obtained from patients admitted to Baghdad hospitals, Iraq during the period between May 2018 until July 2018. These isolates were distributed as 15 isolates from blood, 25 isolates from urinary tract infections, 10 isolates from sputum, 12 isolates from wounds, 15 isolates from ear infections, 15 isolates from bronchial wash of patients suffering from respiratory tract infections in addition to 8 isolates from cystic fibrosis patients. The isolates were initially identified by culturing on MacConkey agar, blood agar and P. aeruginosa agar then diagnosed by performing some morphological and biochemical tests. The second diagnosis was done by API 20E system followed by Vitek 2 compact syste
... Show MoreThe study aimed to identify the effect of the ethical perception of a sample of managers in public organizations on responsible behavior in light of the rapid changes taking place in the external environment. To achieve this, the researcher followed the descriptive analytical approach by applying a questionnaire of two parts. The first part dealt with the ethical perception according to the scale of Johnson (2015), which consisted of (22) items. The second part dealt with measuring responsible behavior, which consisted of (20) items based on the scale of Development of Ethical Behavior (Narvaez, 2006) for a sample of (125) respondents randomly chosen. The results showed that the estimation degree of managers in public governmental o
... Show MoreObjectives: This study aimed to evaluate and compare the effect of plasma treatment versus conventional treatment on the micro shear bond strength (μSBS), surface roughness, and wettability of three different CAD/CAM materials. Materials and methods: Sixty cylindrical specimens (5 mm diameter ×3 mm height) were prepared from three different CAD/CAM materials: Group A: Zirconia, Group B: Lithium disilicate, and Group C: Resin nano-ceramic. Each group was subdivided into two subgroups according to surface treatment used: Subgroup I: Conventional treatment, zirconia was sandblasted with Al2O3, while lithium disilicate and resin nano-ceramic were etched with hydrofluoric acid. Subgroup II: Plasma treatment, the surface of each material was tr
... Show MoreBackground: Diabetes is a metabolic disorder characterized by chronic hyperglycemia due to an inability to produce insulin. Uncontrolled or poorly controlled diabetes is clinically associated with increased susceptibility to delay healing. Many recent researches have shown that stem cell therapy can be the best choice for treatment of this disease. The aims of this research were investigating regeneration of pancreatic beta cells of diabetic induced rabbits after stem cell transplantation. Materials and Methods: 64 rabbits weighting an average of (2.5 - 3 kg) were used in this experimental study, and divided into 4 groups as follows; group A ( contains 16 healthy rabbits regarded as control group ) , Group B ( contains 16 diabetic rabbits
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