In this study, the physical, and mechanical properties of low-cost and biocomposites were evaluated. The walnut shell and date palm frond fibers were thermally treated in an oven at a temperature of 70°C and then chemically treated with NaOH and distilled water solution, after these treatments, the biocomposite materials will be thermally treated again at 50°C. This procedure was performed for three types of biocomposite; Walnut shell Fiber Reinforced Polymer (WFRP), Date palm Fiber Reinforced Polymer (DFRP), and Hybrid Fiber Reinforced Polymer (HFRP), whereas the biocomposite sheets consisting of 30% biofibers and 70% unsaturated polyester, the mechanical test specimens were cut by a CNC machine according to ASTM standards. The effect of fiber type was analyzed in terms of the mechanical properties (tensile, compression, and density). The tensile test results showed that the DFRP composite had the best results comparable with WFRP and HFRP, the ultimate tensile strength, was increased by 28.6%, and 12.5% respectively, furthermore, the compression strength of the WFRP composite was increased by 21.5%, and 10.3% compared with DFRP and HFRP composites respectively. The WFRP composite revealed the lowest value of density 4.60 g/cm3 rather than DFRP and HFRP composites.
The main objective of this study is to introduce a systematic design procedure for short-span segmental beams following a sophisticated ACI 440.2R-17 design procedure. The general aspects of innovative short-span segmental beams are easy to fabricate, economical and rapidly placed in pre-specified positions. Short-span segmental beams fabricated from individual precast plain-concrete blocks and CFRP plates. Recently, experimental tests performed on short-span segmental beams, by the authors, investigated CFRP plate-bonding, CFRP plate cross-sectional area, the thickness of plate-bonding epoxy resin, surface-to-surface condition of concrete blocks, as well as, interface condition of the bonding surface. The experimental program comprises tes
... Show MoreThis paper presents theoretical parametric study of the curvature ductility capacity for reinforced concrete column sections. The study considers the behavior of concrete and reinforcing steel under different strain rates. A computer program has been written to compute the curvature ductility taking into account the spalling in concrete cover. Strain rate sensitive constitutive models of steel and concrete were used for predicting the moment-curvature relationship of reinforced concrete columns at different rate of straining. The study parameters are the yield strength of main reinforcement, yield strength of transverse reinforcement, compressive strength of concrete, spacing of ties and the axial load. The results indicated that hi
... Show MoreThe placement of buildings and structures on/or adjacent to slopes is possible, but this poses a danger to the structure due to failures that occur in slopes. Therefore, a solution or improvement should be determined for these issues of the collapse of the structure as a result of the failure of the slopes. A laboratory model has been built to test the impact of some variables on the bearing capacity factor. The variables include the magnitude of static axial load applied at the center of footing, the depth of embedment, the spacing between geogrid reinforcement layer and the numbering of the geogrid sheet under the footing, the inclination angle of slope clayey soil (β), the spacing between the footing's edge and the slope's end (b/H). Th
... Show MoreExperimental research was carried out to investigate the performance of CFRP wrapping jackets used for retrofitting twelve square reinforced concrete (CR) column specimens damaged by exposure to fire flame, at different temperatures of 300, 500 and 700ºC, except for two specimens that were not burned. The specimens were then loaded axially till failure after gradual or sudden cooling. The specimens were divided into two groups containing two main reinforcement ratios, ρ= 0.0314 and ρ= 0.0542. This was followed by the retrofitting procedure that included wrapping all the specimens with two layers of CFRP fabric sheets. The test results of the retrofitted specimens showed that the fire damaged RC
... Show MoreThis experimental study demonstrates the gable-reinforced concrete beams’ behavior with several number of openings (six and eight) and posts’ inclination, aimed to find the strength reduction in this type of beam. The major results found are: for the openings extending over similar beam length it is better to increase the number of posts (openings),
This paper presents a study (experimentally) for strengthening reinforced concrete (RC) beams with Near-Surface-Mounted (NSM) technique. The use of this technique with CFRP strips or rebars is an efficient technology for increasing the strength for flexure and shear or for repairing damaged reinforced concrete (RC) members. The objective of this research is to study, experimentally, RC beams either repaired or strengthened with NSM CFRP strips and follow their flexural behavior and failure modes. NSM-CFRP strips were used to strengthen three RC beam specimens, one of them was initially strengthened and tested up to failure. Four beam specimens have been initially subjected to preloading to 50% and 80% of ultimate load. Two of the sp
... Show MoreIn this study, nanocomposites have been prepared by adding
multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with weight ratios (0, 2, 3,
4, 5) wt% to epoxy resin. The samples were prepared by hand lay-up
method. Influence of an applied load before and after immersion in
sodium hydroxide (NaOH) of normality (0.3N) for (15 days) at
laboratory temperature on wear rate of Ep/MWCNTs
nanocomposites was studied. The results showed that wear rate
increases with increasing the applied load for the as prepared and
immersed samples and after immersion. It was also found that epoxy
resin reinforced with MWCNTs has wear rate less than neat epoxy.
The sample (Ep + 5wt% of MWCNTs) has lower wear rate. The
immersion effect in base so
This paper is devoted to investigate the effect of burning by fire flame on the behavior and load carrying capacity of rectangular reinforced concrete rigid beams. Reduced scale beam models (which are believed to resemble as much as possible field conditions) were suggested. Five end restrained beam specimens were cast and tested. The specimens were subjected to fire flame temperatures ranging from (25-750) ºC at age of 60 days, two temperature levels of 400ºC and 750ºC were chosen with exposure duration of 1.5 hour. The cast rectangular reinforced concretebeam (2250×375×375 mm) (length× width× height respectively) were subjected to fire. Results indicate remarkable reduction in the ultrasonic pulse velocity and rebound number of
... Show MoreIn this research, the effect of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on the alumina/chromia (Al2O3/Cr2O3) nanocomposites has been investigated. Al2O3/Cr2O3-MWCNTs nanocomposites with variable contents of Cr2O3 and MWCNTs were fabricated using coprecipitation process and followed by spark plasma sintering. XRD analysis revealed a good crystallinity of sintered nanocomposites samples and there was only one phase presence of Al2O3-Cr2O3 solid solution. Density, Vickers microhardness, fracture toughness and fracture strength have been measured in the sintered samples. The results show tha
... Show More