The purpose of this study is to avoid delays and cost changes that occur in emergency reconstruction projects especially in post disaster circumstances. This study is aimed to identify the factors that affect the real construction period and the real cost of a project against the estimated period of construction and the estimated cost of the project. The case study is related to the construction projects in Iraq. Thirty projects in different areas of construction in Iraq were selected as a sample for this study. Project participants from the projects authorities provided data about the projects through a data collection distributed survey made by the authors. Mathematical data analysis was used to construct a model to predict change in time and cost of the projects before the start of the construction. The artificial neural networks analysis was selected as a mathematical approach. The most important factors identified leading to schedule delays and cost increase were contractor failure, redesigning of designs/plans and change orders, security issues, selection of low-price bids, weather factors, and owner failures. The use of the ANN model for such a problem is expected to be an effective method for modeling this complicated phenomenon.
A study has been performed to compare the beddings in which ductile iron pipes are buried. In water transmission systems, bends are usually used in the pipes. According to the prescribed layout, at these bends, unbalanced thrust forces are generated that must be confronted to prevent the separation of the bend from the pipe. The bed condition is a critical and important factor in providing the opposite force to the thrust forces in the restraint joint system. Due to the interaction between the native soil and the bedding layers in which the pipe is buried and the different characteristics between them. Also, the interaction with the pipe material makes it difficult to calculate the real forces opposite to the thrust forces and the way they
... Show MoreIn this study, stabilization of expansive soils using waste materials namely; Cement Kiln Dust (CKD), and waste plastic bottles (WPB) was experimentally investigated. Using CKD and WPB are exponentially increasing day by day, due to their capability to solve both environmental and geotechnical problems successfully. Expansive soils were collected from locations with a wide range of plasticity index (PI) (15 - 27) and liquid limit (LL) (35% - 64%). Stabilizer percentages were varied from 0% to 20%, and curing durations for CKD cases were 7 and 28 days. Results showed the best percentages of CKD and WPB are 12% of each one respectively. LL, plastic limit (PL), and swelling percent (SP) loss were observed, which are 46%, 55%, and 96% respec
... Show MoreThe increase in obesity and the many accompanying diseases is attributed to the increased production and consumption of foods made of non-nutritive sweeteners without regard to the risks of consuming additional calories, and this in turn leads to hormonal imbalance and metabolic disorders and the resulting imbalance and ill health that have spread to all segments of society. During the research, 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.04 and 0.05 % of stevia sweetener was added to the cream instead of the sugar used. Physical and chemical tests were performed for the stevia extract and the microbial content in the cream, as well as the sensory evaluation. It was noted that fortifying the cream with calorie-free stevia sugar led to the production of
... Show MoreThe railways network is one of the huge infrastructure projects. Therefore, dealing with these projects such as analyzing and developing should be done using appropriate tools, i.e. GIS tools. Because, traditional methods will consume resources, time, money and the results maybe not accurate. In this research, the train stations in all of Iraq’s provinces were studied and analyzed using network analysis, which is one of the most powerful techniques within GIS. A free trial copy of ArcGIS®10.2 software was used in this research in order to achieve the aim of this study. The analysis of current train stations has been done depending on the road network, because people used roads to reach those train stations. The data layers for this st
... Show MoreIn this research, several estimators concerning the estimation are introduced. These estimators are closely related to the hazard function by using one of the nonparametric methods namely the kernel function for censored data type with varying bandwidth and kernel boundary. Two types of bandwidth are used: local bandwidth and global bandwidth. Moreover, four types of boundary kernel are used namely: Rectangle, Epanechnikov, Biquadratic and Triquadratic and the proposed function was employed with all kernel functions. Two different simulation techniques are also used for two experiments to compare these estimators. In most of the cases, the results have proved that the local bandwidth is the best for all the
... Show MoreNatural frequency under initial stresses for simply supported cross-ply composite laminated plates (E glass- fiber) are obtained using Refind theory (RPT). This theory accounts for parabolic distribution of the transverse shear strain through the plate thickness and satisfies the zero traction boundary conditions on the surfaces of the plate without using shear correction factors. The governing equations for Eigen value problem under initial stress are derived using Hamilton’s principle and solved using Navier solution for simply supported cross-ply symmetric and antisymmetric laminated plates. The effect of many design factors such as modulus ratio, thickness ratio and number of laminates on the Natural frequency and buckling stresses
... Show MoreIn this work, the surface of the telescope’s mirror is cleaned using an atmospheric-pressure radio frequency plasma jet (APRFPJ), which is generated by Argon gas between two coaxial metal electrodes. The RF power supply is set to 2 MHz frequencies with three different power levels: 20, 50, and 80 W. Carbon, that has adhered to the surface, can be effectively removed using the plasma cleaning technique, which also modifies any residual bonds. The cleaned surface was clearly distinguished using an optical emission spectroscopy (OES) technique and a water contact angle (WCA) analyzer for the activation property on their surfaces. The sample showed a super hydrophilic surface at an angle of 1° after 2.5 minutes of plasma tre
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