The experiments were conducted in laboratory conditions of a temperature of 25± 2C and relative moisture of 40± 5 % to evaluate the effectiveness of the cinnamon, lavender and clove essential oils on some biological life aspects of cowpea beetle, C. maculates. Results of the obligative experiment for the effect of the oils on insect adult killing showed that the concentration of 5% caused a mortality percentage averaged 13.33% of the insect males. The mortality percentage of the insect females was 11.3% for the cinnamon and lavender oils. The lavender oil had the lowest effect on adult killing, not exceeding 0. For the effect of the oils on egg laying, clove oil affected the number of eggs highly at the concentration of 5%, resulting in 2.00 eggs on average. The lowest oil effect on egg number was for the lavender oil at the concentration of 1%, leading to an average of 14.73 eggs. The clove oil at the concentration of 5% showed effectiveness in adult emergence prevention as it was not observed that any insect emerged. In contrast, the same oil at the concentration of 1% had less effect, resulting in the highest emergence percentage reaching 13.33%. The same applies to the effect of the plant oils on insect productivity as the clove oil at the concentration of 5% was the most effective; no insect productivity was recorded, unlike the concentration of 1%, recorded productivity of 110.2 %. In the facultative experiment, the highest mortality percentage was recorded using clove oil against females, as the mortality percentage reached 4.00%. In contrast, the lowest mortality percentage was recorded using lavender oil against males, where no killing occurred, as the mortality percentage did not exceed 0.00%. For the effect of the oils on egg laying, the highest affected oil was cinnamon at a concentration of 5% as the number of eggs reached 5.60, while lavender oil at 3% was the least effective; the average number of eggs was 25. Clove oil at a concentration of 5% had the highest effect in reducing the emergence of the insect, so the emergence percentage did not exceed 0.33%. In comparison, its influence was low at 1%, recording the highest emergence percentage (18.67%). The lowest recorded insect productivity average was from the treatment of the clove oil at a concentration of 5%, which did not exceed 5.20%, while the highest productivity average was from the treatment of the lavender oil at 1%, which reached 89.6%. Keywords: essential oils, Cowpea beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus
Eco-friendly concrete is produced using the waste of many industries. It reduces the fears concerning energy utilization, raw materials, and mass-produced cost of common concrete. Several stress-strain models documented in the literature can be utilized to estimate the ultimate strength of concrete components reinforced with fibers. Unfortunately, there is a lack of data on how non-metallic fibers, such as polypropylene (PP), affect the properties of concrete, especially eco-friendly concrete. This study presents a novel approach to modeling the stress-strain behavior of eco-friendly polypropylene fiber-reinforced concrete (PFRC) using meta-heuristic particle swarm optimization (PSO) employing 26 PFRC various mixtures. The cement was partia
... Show MorePultruded materials made of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) come in a broad range of shapes, such as bars, I-sections, C-sections, etc. FRP materials are starting to compete with steel as structural materials owing to their great resistance, low self-weight, and cheap maintenance costs, especially in corrosive conditions. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a novel concrete Composite Column (CC) using Encased I-Section (EIS) as a reinforcement in contrast to traditional steel bars by using Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) as I-section (CC-EIS) to evaluate the effectiveness of the hybrid columns which have been built by combining GFRP profiles with concrete columns. To achieve the aims of this study, nine circular co
... Show MoreThis study investigates the characterization and mechanical performance of Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA) mixtures modified with two types of polymers: styrene–butadiene–styrene (SBS) and high-molecular-weight polyethylene (PE). Neat asphalt cement PG 64-16 was modified using a higher content of SBS and PE at concentrations of 6%, 7%, and 8% by weight of asphalt through the dry blending method to produce Highly Modified Asphalts (HiMA). The physical and rheological properties of the modified binders were evaluated using penetration, softening point, rotational viscosity, and dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) tests. Also, their phase compatibility and morphological changes were evaluated using the storage stability testing and scanning electron
... Show MoreThe aim of present work is to improve mechanical and fatigue properties for Aluminum alloy7049 by using Nano composites technique. The ZrO2 with an average grain diameter of 30-40 nm, was selected as Nano particles, to reinforce Aluminum alloy7049 with different percentage as, 2, 4, 6 and 7 %. The Stir casting method was used to fabricate the Nano composites materials due to economical route for improvement and processing of metal matrix composites. The experimental results were shown that the adding of zirconium oxide (ZrO2) as reinforced material leads to improve mechanical properties. The best percentage of improvement of mechanical properties of 7049 AA was with 4% wt. of ZrO2 about (7.76% ) for ultim
... Show MoreA low speed open circuit wind tunnel has been designed, manufactured and constructed at the Mechanical Engineering Department at Baghdad University - College of Engineering. The work is one of the pioneer projects adapted by the R & D Office at the Iraqi MOHESR. The present paper describes the first part of the work; that is the design calculations, simulation and construction. It will be followed by a second part that describes testing and calibration of the tunnel. The proposed wind tunnel has a test section with cross sectional area of (0.7 x 0.7 m2) and length of (1.5 m). The maximum speed is about (70 m/s) with empty test section. The contraction ratio is (8.16). Three screens are used to minimize flow disturbances in the test section.
... Show MoreSewer systems are used to convey sewage and/or storm water to sewage treatment plants for disposal by a network of buried sewer pipes, gutters, manholes and pits. Unfortunately, the sewer pipe deteriorates with time leading to the collapsing of the pipe with traffic disruption or clogging of the pipe causing flooding and environmental pollution. Thus, the management and maintenance of the buried pipes are important tasks that require information about the changes of the current and future sewer pipes conditions. In this research, the study was carried on in Baghdad, Iraq and two deteriorations model's multinomial logistic regression and neural network deterioration model NNDM are used to predict sewers future conditions. The results of the
... Show MoreIn this work, enhancement to the fluorescence characteristics of laser dye solutions hosting highly-pure titanium dioxide nanoparticles as random gain media. This was achieved by coating two opposite sides of the cells containing these media with nanostructured thin films of highly-pure titanium dioxide. Two laser dyes; Rhodamine B and Coumarin 102, were used to prepare solutions in hexanol and methanol, respectively, as hosts for the nanoparticles. The nanoparticles and thin films were prepared by dc reactive magnetron sputtering technique. The enhancement was observed by the narrowing of fluorescence linewidth as well as by increasing the fluorescence intensity. These parameters were compared to those of the dye only and the dye solution
... Show MoreIn this paper, variable gain nonlinear PD and PI fuzzy logic controllers are designed and the effect of the variable gain characteristic of these controllers is analyzed to show its contribution in enhancing the performance of the closed loop system over a conventional linear PID controller. Simulation results and time domain performance characteristics show how these fuzzy controllers outperform the conventional PID controller when used to control a nonlinear plant and a plant that has time delay.
Linear motor offers several features in many applications that require linear motion. Nevertheless, the presence of cogging force can deteriorate the thrust of a permanent magnet linear motor. Using several methodologies, a design of synchronous single sided linear iron-core motor was proposed. According to exact formulas with surface-mounted magnets and concentrated winding specification, which are relying on geometrical parameters. Two-dimensional performance analysis of the designed model and its multi-objective optimization were accomplished as a method to reduce the motor cogging force using MAXWELL ANSYS. The optimum model design results showed that the maximum force ripple was approximatrly reduced by 81.24%compared to the origina
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