Gypseous soil, which covers vast area in west, middle, east and south west regions of Iraq exhibit acceptable strength properties when dry, but it is weak and collapsible when it comes in touch with moisture from rain or other sources. When such weak soil is adopted for earth reinforced embankment construction, it may exhibit hazardous situation. Gypseous soil was investigated for the optimum liquid asphalt requirements of both cutback and emulsion using the one-dimensional unconfined compression strength test. The optimum fluid content was 13% (7% of cutback with 6% water content), and 17% (9% of emulsion with 8% water content). A laboratory model box of 50x50x25 cm was used as a representative of embankment; soil or asphalt stabilized soil have been compacted in five layers at maximum dry density (modified compaction) and an aluminum reinforcement strips were introduced between layers and connected to the facing strips. The model was subjected to cyclic loading and the lateral deformation of facing strips and the vertical deformation were detected at different stages of loading cycles and different height of the facing strips using LVDT. The reference embankment model was that of reinforced pure soil under absorbed condition. For asphalt-stabilized soil, the cutback asphalt stabilized- soil model exhibit improvement in load carrying capacity by nine folds. It shows a reduction of 23% in vertical displacement under sustained load of 436 repetitions. For emulsion-stabilized soil, the reduction in vertical displacement was 38.5% under a sustained load of 950 cycles. The load carrying capacity was improved by twenty folds. The lateral displacement at the upper first and third layers were lower by 0.55% and 1.9% respectively when compared to cutback asphalt stabilized model
Gypseous soils are distributed in many regions in the world including Iraq, which cover more than (31%) of the surface area of the country. Existence of these soils, always with high gypsum content, caused difficult problems to the buildings and strategic projects due to dissolution and leaching of the gypsum caused by the action of water flow through soil mass. For the study, the gypseous soil was brought from Bahr Al-Najaf, Al-Najaf Governorate which is located in the middle of Iraq. The model pile was embedded in gypseous soil with 42% gypsum content. Compression axial model pile load tests have been carried out for model pile embedded in gypseous soil at initial degree of saturation of (7%) before and after soil satu
... Show MoreThis paper presents a novel idea as it investigates the rescue effect of the prey with fluctuation effect for the first time to propose a modified predator-prey model that forms a non-autonomous model. However, the approximation method is utilized to convert the non-autonomous model to an autonomous one by simplifying the mathematical analysis and following the dynamical behaviors. Some theoretical properties of the proposed autonomous model like the boundedness, stability, and Kolmogorov conditions are studied. This paper's analytical results demonstrate that the dynamic behaviors are globally stable and that the rescue effect improves the likelihood of coexistence compared to when there is no rescue impact. Furthermore, numerical simul
... Show MoreThis research aimed to predict the permanent deformation (rutting) in conventional and rubberized asphalt mixes under repeated load conditions using the Finite Element Method (FEM). A three-dimensional (3D) model was developed to simulate the Wheel Track Testing (WTT) loading. The study was conducted using the Abaqus/Standard finite element software. The pavement slab was simulated using a nonlinear creep (time-hardening) model at 40°C. The responses of the viscoplastic model under the influence of the trapezoidal amplitude of moving wheel loadings were determined for different speeds and numbers of cycles. The results indicated that a wheel speed increase from 0.5Km/h to 1.0Km/h decreased the rut depth by about 22% and 24% in conv
... Show MoreFor more than a decade, externally bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites successfully utilized in retrofitting reinforced concrete structural elements. The function of CFRP reinforcement in increasing the ductility of reinforced concrete (RC) beam is essential in such members. Flexural and shear behaviors, ductility, and confinement were the main studied properties that used the CFRP as a strengthening material. However, limited attention has been paid to investigate the energy absorption of torsion strengthening of concrete members, especially two-span concrete beams. Hence, the target of this work is to investigate the effectiveness of CFRP-strengthening technique with regard to energy absorption of two-span RC
... Show MoreIncreasing material prices coupled with the emission of hazardous gases through the production and construction of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) has driven a strong movement toward the adoption of sustainable construction technology. Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) is considered relatively a new technology, which enables the production and compaction of asphalt concrete mixtures at temperatures 15-40 °C lower than that of traditional hot mix asphalt. The Resilient modulus (Mr) which can be defined as the ratio of axial pulsating stress to the corresponding recoverable strain, is used to evaluate the relative quality of materials as well as to generate input for pavement design or pavement evaluation and analysis. Based on the aforementioned preface, it is
... Show MoreAn experiment was carried out in a field in Husayniyah sub-district of the Holy Karbala Governorate. The research included studying the impact of the plowing depth and soil moisture on some technical indicators when using the disc plow. The 80 hp New Holland tractor was used in this experiment. Two factors were studied, the first factor is the soil moisture (12- 9%), (16-13%) and (20-17%) and the second factor was the depth of tillage (10-13) cm, (15-18) cm and (20-23) cm, which represented the secondary blocks. Bulk density, percentage of slippage and drawing force were studied. The field trials was conducted according to Split blocks in a randomized complete block design in three replicate. Consequences showed (according to the conditions
... Show MoreIn this study, the behavior of screw piles models with continuous helix was studied by conducting laboratory experimental tests on a single screw pile that has several aspect ratios (L/D) under the influence of static axial compression loads. The screw piles were inserted in a soft soil that has a unit weight of 18.72 kN/m3 and moisture content of 30.19%. Also, the soil has a liquid limit of 55% and a plasticity index of 32%. A physical laboratory model was designed to investigate the ultimate compression capacity of the screw pile and measure the generated porewater pressure during the loading process. The bedding soil was prepared according to the field unit weight and moisture content and the failure load was assumed correspondin
... Show MoreThis study investigated the impact of lime stabilization on the fate and transformation of AgNPs. It also evaluated the changes in the population and diversity of the five most relevant bacterial phyla in soil after applying lime-stabilized sludge containing AgNPs. The study was performed by spiking an environmentally relevant concentration of AgNPs (2 mg AgNPs/g TS) in sludge, applying lime stabilization to increase pH to above 12 for two hours, and applying lime-treated sludge to soil samples. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were used to investigate the morphological and compositional changes of AgNPs during lime stabilization. After the application of lime stabilized sludge to
... Show MoreIn recent years, various methods have been developed to enhance the characteristics of asphalt pavement in order to face the continuous challenges of increasing traffic loads and changing climate conditions. One of the most popular and successful methods is modifying the asphalt mixtures or asphalt binder with the addition of polymers. Therefore, two types of Polyethylene (PE) polymer, High-Density PE (HDPE) and Low-Density PE (LDPE), are used in this research. Two methods were applied to prepare PE-modified asphalt mixtures: Semi-Wet Method (S-WM) and Dry Method (DM). The findings of the investigation indicated that the addition of PE polymer can reduce the wear loss of aggregate. In general, the experimental results revealed that asphalt
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