This research supports the UN’s 2030 Agenda and its goals of ending poverty and hunger. Fruit and vegetable (FandV) lose their freshness and weight when stored at unsuitable temperatures and relative humidity. This study was conducted in Baghdad governorate, located at latitude 33.3128057 and longitude 44.3614875, in the Karrada region from February 27 to April 17, 2024. It compared the effectiveness of different storage technologies, including evaporative cooling, various air velocities, and diverse packaging methods, against sustainable and nonpackaging approaches. The study employed an air cooler with a volume of 2000 ft3/s and insulated packaging. Temperature and relative humidity were recorded in the storage environment every five seconds using an Arduino system equipped with a DHT-22 temperature and humidity sensor. Analysis of the data revealed that evaporative cooling significantly extended eggplant shelf life and reduced weight loss when combined with effective packaging methods. The average SLD of CPS1 was 11 days and the lowest average WL was 3.86% at an average temperature and relative humidity of 16.02° C and 92.9%, respectively. The average SLD of CPS2 was 8 days while that for WL was 7.23% at an average temperature and relative humidity of 21.76° C and 94.08%, respectively. The multiple regression model explained 63% of the data, and the temperature coefficient was lower than for relative humidity, meaning that it is more significant than RH under the conditions of this experiment.
This study investigates the implementation of Taguchi design in the estimation of minimum corrosion rate of mild-steel in cooling tower that uses saline solution of different concentration. The experiments were set on the basis of Taguchi’s L16 orthogonal array. The runs were carried out under different condition such as inlet concentration of saline solution, temperature, and flowrate. The Signal-to- Noise ratio and ANOVA analysis were used to define the impact of cooling tower working conditions on the corrosion rate. A regression had been modelled and optimized to identify the optimum level for the working parameters that had been founded to be 13%NaCl, 35ᴼC, and 1 l/min. Also a confirmation run to establish the p
... Show MoreIn this work, effects of using different evaporative cooling pads (ECPs) on the energetic and exergetic efficiency of a direct evaporative air cooler (DEAC) have been theoretically and experimentally investigated. Three types of ECPs were used, i.e., honeycomb cellulose cooler pad (HCCP), shading-cloth cooler pad (SCCP), and aspen wood wool cooler pad (AWWCP). For SCCP and AWWCP, a 3-cm pad thickness was used, while for the HCCP, three different values of pad thickness were used, i.e., 3, 5, and 7 cm. Tests were carried out using air velocities of 8, 14, and 19 m/s, measured at the DEAC outlet. Engineering equation solver (EES) used for performing the required calculations of the various parameters affecting the thermal performance of the D
... Show MoreThe construction of highly safe and durable buildings that can bear accident damage risks including fire, earthquake, impact, and more, can be considered to be the most important goal in civil engineering technology. An experimental investigation was prepared to study the influence of adding various percentages 0%, 1.0%, and 1.5% of micro steel fiber volume fraction (Vf) to reactive powder concrete (RPC)—whose properties are compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, and absorbed energy—after the exposure to fire flame of various burning temperatures 300, 400, and 500 °C using gradual-, foam-, and sudden-cooling methods. The outcomes of this research proved that the maximum reduction in mechanical prop
... Show MoreIdentification of pathogens and locating their inocul¬um source (S) are the first strategies toward successful disease management program the pretransplating seedl¬ing damping - off problem on vegetable crops was found to be caused by Pythium aphanidermatum and Rhizocto¬nia solani. Both fungi were isolated from peat (moss) for the first time in Iraq. In addition, considerable num¬ber of pathogenic fungi was found as contaminants in soil samples from Alrashidiah vegetable covered farming station. Among the isolated fungi were: Pythium apha¬nidermatum, Rhizoctonia solani, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Fusarium oxysporum, Fusarium solani phialophora spp., Cephalisporium spp Rizopus stolonfier and Botrytis cine¬rea, in addition to several
... Show MoreA study of some mite species of alfalfa. wheat, and barley was conducted in central Iraq.
The mites were extracted using a tullgren funnel method. Twelve species were recorded. 10 of
them belong to suborder Trombidiformes and 2 belong to suborder Sarcoptiforms. Three
mites, Irnpar(pes hystricinus, Scutacarus longitarsus, and Rhizoglyphus echin opus are new
records for Iraqi mite fauna, and 11 are new host records in alfalfa soil.
This work describes the weathering effects (UV-Irradiation, and Rain) on the thermal conductivity of PS, PMMA, PS/PMMA blend for packaging application. The samples were prepared by cast method at different ratios (10, 30, 50, 70, and 90 %wt). It was seen that the thermal conductivity of PMMA (0.145 W/m.K), and for PS(0.095 W/m.K), which increases by PS ratio increase up to 50% PS/PMMA blend then decreased that was attributed to increase in miscibility of the blend involved. By UV-weathering, it was seen that thermal conductivity for PMMA increased with UV-weathering up to (30hr) then decreased, that was attributed to rigidity and defect formation, respectively. For 30%PS/PMMA, there results showed unsystematic decrease in thermal conduct
... Show MoreThis research foxed on the effect of fire flame of different burning temperatures (300, 400 and 500)oC on the compressive strength of reactive powder concrete (RPC).The steady state duration of the burning test was (60)min. Local consuming material were used to mixed a RPC of compressive strength around (100) MPa. The tested specimens were reinforced by (3.0) cm hooked end steel fiber of (1100) MPa yield strength. Three steel fiber volume fraction were adopted in this study (0, 1.0and 1.5)% and two cooling process were included, gradual and sudden. It was concluding that increasing burning temperature decreases the residual compressive strength for RPC specimens of(0%) steel fiber volume fraction by (12.16, 19.46&24.49) and (18.20, 27.77 &3
... Show MorePVA, Starch/PVA, and Starch/PVA/sugar samples of different
concentrations (10, 20, 30 and 40 % wt/wt) were prepared by casting
method. DSC analysis was carried; the results showed only one glass
transition temperature (Tg) for the samples involved, which suggest
that starch/PVA and starch/PVA/sugar blends are miscible. The
miscibility is attributed to the hydrogen bonds between PVA and
starch. This is in a good agreement with (FTIR) results. Tg and Tm
decrease with starch and sugar content compared with that for
(PVA). Systematic decrease in ultimate strength, due to starch and
sugar ratio increase, is attributed to (PVA), which has more hydroxyl
groups that made its ultimate strength higher than that for
