A cantilevered piezoelectric beam with a tip mass at its free end is a common energy harvester configuration. This paper introduces a new principle of designing such a harvester which increases the generated voltage without changing the natural frequency of the harvester: The attraction force between two permanent magnets is used to add stiffness to the system. This magnetic stiffening counters the effect of the tip mass on the natural frequency. Three setups incorporating piezoelectric bimorph cantilevers of the same type in different mechanical configurations are compared theoretically and experimentally to investigate the feasibility of this principle. Theoretical and experimental results show that magnetically stiffe

The inverse kinematics of redundant manipulators has infinite solutions by using conventional methods, so that, this work presents applicability of intelligent tool (artificial neural network ANN) for finding one desired solution from these solutions. The inverse analysis and trajectory planning of a three link redundant planar robot have been studied in this work using a proposed dual neural networks model (DNNM), which shows a predictable time decreasing in the training session. The effect of the number of the training sets on the DNNM output and the number of NN layers have been studied. Several trajectories have been implemented using point to point trajectory planning algorithm with DNNM and the result shows good accuracy of the end

The primary objective of this study is to manage price market items in the construction of walls for affordable structures with load-bearing hollow masonry units using the ACI 211.1 blend design with a slump range of 25-50 mm that follows the specification limits of IQS 1077. It was difficult to reach a suitable cement weight to minimum content (economic and environmental goal), so many trail mixtures were cast. A portion (10-20%) of the coarse aggregates was replaced with concrete, tile, and clay-brick waste. Finally, two curing methods were used: immersion under water as normal curing, and water spraying as it is closer to the field conditions. The recommendation in IQS 1077 to increase the curing period from 14 to 28 days was tak

This 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

Five rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivars (N22, Amber, Moroberekan, Kinandang Patong, and Azucena) underwent path coefficient analysis across three plant spacings (15 cm × 15 cm, 20 cm × 20 cm, and 25 cm× 25 cm) in the summer of 2017 at the College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, University of Baghdad, Al-Jadriya, Iraq. The experiment proceeded in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with a split-plot arrangement and three replications. The main plots included three planting distances, and the subplot comprised five varieties. The traits studied were plant height, flag leaf area, number of tillers, panicle number, length and branches, grains per panicle, 1000-grain weight, and the percentage of unfilled grains. The results

Seeds of five cultivars of oats (Avena sativa) were introduced from Italy in 2009. Seeds were propagated on the farm of the Dept. of Field Crops Sci. / Coll. of Agric. / Univ. of Baghdad in the season 2009 – 2010. The cultivars Anatolia, Alguda, Hamel, Pimula and Genzania were planted under 3 irrigation intervals; 3, 4 and 5 weeks to give water depth of 480, 400 and 320 mm, respectively . The depth of water was 80 mm each irrigation. A factorial experiment with RCBD of 4 replicates was conducted in 2 consecutive seasons in 2010 – 2011 and 2011 – 2012. The cultivar Alguda gave highest grain yield (8.07 t/ ha) under 480 mm, and 7.02 t / ha average of 3 water depths. This cultivar was characterized by high growth rate (13.2 g/m2/ d) that