Moisture-induced damage is a serious problem that severely impairs asphaltic pavement and affects road serviceability. This study examined numerous variables in asphalt concrete mixtures to assess their impact on moisture damage resistance. Mix design parameters such as the asphalt content (AC) and aggregate passing sieve No. 4 (PNo. 4) were considered as variables during this study. Additionally, hydrated lime (HL) was utilized as a partial substitute for limestone dust (LS) filler at 1.5% by weight of the aggregate in asphalt concrete mixtures for the surface layer. This study also investigated the potential enhancement of traditional asphalt binders and mixtures by adding nano-additives, specifically nano-silica oxide (NS) and nano-titanium dioxide (NT), at rates ranging from 0% to 6% by weight of the asphalt binder. To quantify the moisture damage resistance of the asphalt concrete mixes, two types of laboratory tests were employed: the tensile strength ratio (TSR) and the index of retained strength (IRS). The former characterizes moisture damage using tensile strength, whereas the latter uses compression strength. The physical properties of the asphalt binder, such as its penetration, softening point, and ductility, were also evaluated to identify the effects of the nanomaterials. The results indicated that variations in the mix design variables significantly affected the moisture damage resistance of the asphalt concrete mixtures. The maximum improvement values were obtained at the optimum asphalt content (OAC) and PNo. 4 (mid-range + 6%) with TSR values of 80.45 and 82.46 and IRS values of 74.39 and 77.14, respectively. Modifying asphalt concrete mixtures with 1.5% HL resulted in improved moisture resistance compared with mixtures without HL (0% HL) at each PNo. 4 level, reaching superior performance at PNo. 4 (mid-range + 6%) by 4.58% and 3.96% in the TSR and IRS tests, respectively. Additionally, both NS and NT enhanced the physical properties of the asphalt binder, leading to substantial enhancements in asphalt concrete mixture performance against moisture damage. A 6% dosage of NS and NT showed the best performance, with NS performing slightly better than NT. TSR was increased by 14.72 and 11.55 and IRS by 15.60 and 12.75, respectively, with 6% NS and NT compared with mixtures without nanomaterials (0% NM).
Assessing water quality provides a scientific foundation for the development and management of water resources. The objective of the research is to evaluate the impact treated effluent from North Rustumiyia wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) on the quality of Diyala river. The model of the artificial neural network (ANN) and factor analysis (FA) based on Nemerow pollution index (NPI). To define important water quality parameters for North Al-Rustumiyia for the line(F2), the Nemerow Pollution Index was introduced. The most important parameters of assessment of water variation quality of wastewater were the parameter used in the model: biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen dem
Abstract: Background: Staphylococcus aureus is Gram-positive bacteria that lives as a normal flora in living organisms but can be pathogenic to humans. Although a relatively unspectacular, nonmotile coccoid bacterium, S. aureus is a dangerous human pathogen in both community-acquired and nosocomial infections. Due to the increasing emergence of new strains of this antibiotic-resistant bacteria, it has become essential to approach different methods to control this pathogen. One of these methods is the antimicrobial photodynamic inactivation process using a low-level laser, in this paper, the Photodynamic effects of Rose Bengal and LLLL on the virulence factors of S.aureus were evaluated.
The aim of this article is to solve the Volterra-Fredholm integro-differential equations of fractional order numerically by using the shifted Jacobi polynomial collocation method. The Jacobi polynomial and collocation method properties are presented. This technique is used to convert the problem into the solution of linear algebraic equations. The fractional derivatives are considered in the Caputo sense. Numerical examples are given to show the accuracy and reliability of the proposed technique.
The efficiency of solar energy absorption in solar heaters is increased by the use of selective absorption coating that possesses high absorption of solar radiation in the UV-visible spectrum as well as low emission at the operating temperature in the infrared region. In this work, novel selective coatings were synthesized by improving the selectivity of chromium oxide (Cr2O3) nanoparticles by doping with carbon nanoparticles using the exploding wire technique for carbon rods by high current in suspended Cr2O3 particles. The structural properties and surface topography were studied by XRD and FE-SEM, which illustrate the carbon-coated Cr2O3 nanoparticles. The prepar
... Show MoreGreywater is a possible water source that can be improved for meeting the quality required for irrigation. Treatment of greywater can range from uncomplicated coarse filtration to advanced biological treatment. This article presents a simple design of a small scale greywater treatment plant, which is a series of physical and natural processes including screening, aeration, sedimentation, and filtration using granular activated carbon filter and differentiates its performance with sand filter. The performance of these units with the dual filter media of (activated carbon with sand) in treatment of greywater from Iraqi house in Baghdad city during 2019 and that collected from several points including washbasins, kitchen si
... Show MoreMost companies use social media data for business. Sentiment analysis automatically gathers analyses and summarizes this type of data. Managing unstructured social media data is difficult. Noisy data is a challenge to sentiment analysis. Since over 50% of the sentiment analysis process is data pre-processing, processing big social media data is challenging too. If pre-processing is carried out correctly, data accuracy may improve. Also, sentiment analysis workflow is highly dependent. Because no pre-processing technique works well in all situations or with all data sources, choosing the most important ones is crucial. Prioritization is an excellent technique for choosing the most important ones. As one of many Multi-Criteria Decision Mak
... Show MoreThe effects of nutrients and physical conditions on phytase production were investigated with a recently isolated strain of Aspergillus tubingensis SKA under solid state fermentation on wheat bran. The nutrient factors investigated included carbon source, nitrogen source, phosphate source and concentration, metal ions (salts) and the physical parameters investigated included inoculum size, pH, temperature and fermentation duration. Our investigations revealed that optimal productivity of phytase was achieved using wheat bran supplemented with: 1.5% glucose. 0.5% (NH4)2SO4, 0.1% sodium phytate. Additionally, optimal physical conditions were 1 × 105 spore/g substrate, initial pH of 5.0, temperature of fermentation 30˚C and fermentation dura
... Show MoreActivated carbon prepared from date stones by chemical activation with ferric chloride (FAC) was used an adsorbent to remove phenolic compounds such as phenol (Ph) and p-nitro phenol (PNPh) from aqueous solutions. The influence of process variables represented by solution pH value (2-12), adsorbent to adsorbate weight ratio (0.2-1.8), and contact time (30-150 min) on removal percentage and adsorbed amount of Ph and PNPh onto FAC was studied. For PNPh adsorption,( 97.43 %) maximum removal percentage and (48.71 mg/g) adsorbed amount was achieved at (5) solution pH,( 1) adsorbent to adsorbate weight ratio, and (90 min) contact time. While for Ph adsorption, at (4) solution pH, (1.4) absorbent to adsorbate weight ratio, and (120 min) contact
... Show MoreThis study reports on natural convection heat transfer in a square enclosure of length (L=20 cm) with a saturated porous medium (solid glass beads) having same fluid (air) at lower horizontal layer and free air fill in the rest of the cavity's space. The experimental work has been performed under the effects of heating from bottom by constant heat flux q=150,300,450,600 W/m2 for four porous layers thickness Hp (2.5,5,7.5,1) cm and three heaters length δ(20,14,7) cm. The top enclosure wall was good insulated and the two side walls were symmetrically cooled at constant temperature. Four layers of porous media with small porosity, Rayleigh number range (60.354 - 241.41) and (Da) 3.025x10-8 has been investigated. The obtained data of temperatu
... Show More