Concrete is the main construction material of many structures. Exposing to loads creates cracks in concrete, which reduce the performance and durability. The decrease of concrete cracks becomes a necessity demand to ensure more durability and structural integrity of the concrete structure. Autogenous healing concrete is a kind of new smart concretes, which has the ability to reclose its cracks by means of itself. Concrete self-healing is a type of free repairs processes, which is reduce direct and indirect cost of maintenance and repairing. This work targets to inspect the mechanical properties of concrete after using two combinations of two materials (20 kg/m3 calcium hydroxide Ca(OH)2 and 2 kg/m3 sodium carbonate Na2CO3 and 30 kg/m3 calcium hydroxide and 3 kg/m3 sodium carbonate) as a partial replacement of cement to work as self-healing agents. The paper reports and study the compressive, flexural and splitting tensile strengths and ultrasonic pulse velocity tests’ results at 7, 28 and 90 days of concrete age. Use of two combinations of calcium hydroxide and sodium carbonate, as healing agents, enhanced the mechanical properties of concrete and reduced the width of concrete cracks with time. The concrete compressive strength was increased after curing for 90 days by 9.3 and 11.1 %, respectively. The flexural strength was improved by 14.3 and 15.9 %, respectively. Also, the splitting tensile strength was enhanced by 6.9 and 9.3 %, respectively.
This paper demonstrates an experimental and numerical study aimed to compare the influence of openings of different configurations on the flexural behavior of prestressed concrete rafters. The experimental program consisted of testing six simply supported prestressed concrete rafters; 5 rafters are perforated, and the other one is solid as a reference. All rafters were tested under monotonic midpoint load. The variable which has been investigated in this work was the opening’s configuration (quadrilateral or circular) with the same upper and lower chords depths. The results indicate improvement in the beam flexural behavior using the circular openings compared to the quadrilateral o
Reflection cracking in asphalt concrete (AC) overlays is a common form of pavement deterioration that occurs when underlying cracks and joints in the pavement structure propagate through an overlay due to thermal and traffic-induced movement, ultimately degrading the pavement’s lifespan and performance. This study aims to determine how alterations in overlay thickness and temperature conditions, the incorporation of chopped fibers, and the use of geotextiles influence the overlay’s capacity to postpone the occurrence of reflection cracking. To achieve the above objective, a total of 36 prism specimens were prepared and tested using an overlay testing machine (OTM). The variables considered in this study were the thickness of the
... Show MoreReflection cracking in asphalt concrete (AC) overlays is a common form of pavement deterioration that occurs when underlying cracks and joints in the pavement structure propagate through an overlay due to thermal and traffic-induced movement, ultimately degrading the pavement’s lifespan and performance. This study aims to determine how alterations in overlay thickness and temperature conditions, the incorporation of chopped fibers, and the use of geotextiles influence the overlay’s capacity to postpone the occurrence of reflection cracking. To achieve the above objective, a total of 36 prism specimens were prepared and tested using an overlay testing machine (OTM). The variables considered in this study were the thickness of the
... Show MoreA new concrete rheometer is introduced including its innovation, actual design, working rules,
calibration, and reliability. A modified design of Tattersall two-point device is created. Some of
components are purchased from local and foreign markets, while other components and the
manufacturing process are locally fabricated. The matching viscosity method of determining the mixer
viscometer constants is demonstrated and followed to relate torque and rotational speed to yield stress
and viscosity (Bingham parameters). The calibration procedures and its calculation are explained.
Water is used as a Newtonian fluid, while; cement paste (cement + water) with w/c ratio equal to
(0.442) is used as a non-Newtonian fluid. Th
Origanum majorana (Majorana hortensis), an evergreen herbaceous plant belonging to the Lamiaceae family, has been well known for being used for gastrointestinal, cardiac, respiratory, rheumatologic and many other illnesses, but in wounds management hasn’t been qualified scientifically yet. The goal of the study was to evaluate the wound healing properties of sterols in n-hexane and phenols in ethyl acetate extract fractions of the Iraqi Origanum majorana L aerial parts by contrasting their wound healing abilities with those of commercially available MEBO ointment in a rat excised wound repair model. At various periods, the size of the wounds was measured and skin tissue samples were taken for histopathology. When compared to positive and
... Show MoreThe density functional B3LYP is used to investigate the effect of decorating the silver (Ag) atom on the sensing capability of an AlN nanotube (AlN-NT) in detecting thiophosgene (TP). There is a weak interaction between the pristine AlN-NT and TP with the sensing response (SR) of approximately 9.4. Decoration of the Ag atom into the structure of AlN-NT causes the adsorption energy of TP to decrease from − 6.2 to − 22.5 kcal/mol. Also, the corresponding SR increases significantly to 100.5. Moreover, the recovery time when TP is desorbed from the surface of the Ag-decorated AlN-NT (Ag@AlN-NT) is short, i.e., 24.9 s. The results show that Ag@AlN-NT can selectively detect TP among other gases, such as N2, O2, CO2, CO, and H2O.
The results of previous scientific studies showed that knowledge is something and application is something else, that's why teachers' preparation programs focused, in the present time, on special standards for knowledge and performance, i.e., who has knowledge is not necessary able to apply it in his life or in his field of work, which led to the existence of a gap between knowledge and application. Based on that, those interested in (teachers' preparation) reconsidered their work evaluation, thus the concept of competency appeared at the end of the sixties of the past century to address the negative in teachers' preparation.
The following contains a number of competency features in teachers' preparation programs:
Teachers' effec
Photonic Crystal Fiber Interferometers (PCFIs) are widely used for sensing applications. This work presents the fabrication and the characterization of a relative humidity sensor based on a polymer-coated photonic crystal fiber that operates in a Mach- Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) transmission mode. The fabrication of the sensor involved splicing a short (1 cm) length of Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) between two single-mode fibers (SMF). It was then coated with a layer of agarose solution. Experimental results showed that a high humidity sensitivity of 29.37 pm/%RH was achieved within a measurement range of 27–95%RH. The sensor also showed good repeatability, small size, measurement accuracy and wide humidity range. The RH sensitivity o
... Show MoreNumerical study has been conducted to investigate the thermal performance enhancement of flat plate solar water collector by integrating the solar collector with metal foam blocks.The flow is assumed to be steady, incompressible and two dimensional in an inclined channel. The channel is provided with eight foam blocks manufactured form copper. The Brinkman-Forchheimer extended Darcy model is utilized to simulate the flow in the porous medium and the Navier-Stokes equation in the fluid region. The energy equation is used with local thermal equilibrium (LTE) assumption to simulate the thermofield inside the porous medium. The current investigation covers a range of solar radiation intensity at 09:00 AM, 12:00 PM, and 04:00
... Show More