Green buildings are considered more efficient than traditional buildings due to the incorporated techniques and the multidisciplinary specializations required to comply with their specifications, in addition to the advanced commissioning, which undergoes before handing over the buildings to the owners to ensure requirements conformance. As a result, the appropriate selection of a project delivery system acts as the essential factor that affects the performance of the project. This research aims at building a system that helps to select the best method to implement green buildings. Through studying the recent research approaches in project delivery systems, the factors that affect the selection of the optimal implementation method for green buildings have been identified; expert interviews have been done to study and analyze the main influential factors that affect the selection of the best method for implementing green buildings. The results of interviews indicate that the main influential factors are as follows: The occurrence of economic crises in the country, availability of financial capacity for the contractor and the owner, the lack of previous experience in similar projects, hiring an incompetent contractor, differences between design drawings among all disciplines, and providing qualified contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and craftsmen with sufficient qualifications early in the project. Depending on these main factors, a software system is built to choose the best delivery system for green building projects. This research encourages future works to focus on the quality and performance of green buildings and lays out the foundation for academic researchers to explore new techniques for evaluating the project delivery systems as well as supporting the decision-makers to choose the best.
Nuclear emission rates for nucleon-induced reactions are theoretically calculated based on the one-component exciton model that uses state density with non-Equidistance Spacing Model (non-ESM). Fair comparison is made from different state density values that assumed various degrees of approximation formulae, beside the zeroth-order formula corresponding to the ESM. Calculations were made for 96Mo nucleus subjected to (N,N) reaction at Emax=50 MeV. The results showed that the non-ESM treatment for the state density will significantly improve the emission rates calculated for various exciton configurations. Three terms might suffice a proper calculation, but the results kept changing even for ten terms. However, five terms is found to give
... Show MoreIn the present work, Uranium (238U), Thorium (232Th) and Potassium (40K) specific activity concentration in (Bq/kg) was measured in five different types for wheat flours that are available in the Iraqi markets. The gamma spectrometry method with an NaI (Tl) detector has been used for radiometric measurements. Calculations of radium equivalent activity, annual effective dose equivalent, external hazard index (Hex), internal hazard index (Hin), representing gamma index and gamma dose rate in all flour samples were 17.98132 Bq/kg, 0.0100334, 0.04502, 0.04857, 0.06872, 0.125883 and 8.181244 respectively. It is found that the average of specific activity concentration of wheat flour sam
... Show MoreThe consumption of fossil fuels has caused many challenges, including environmental and climate damage, global warming, and rising energy costs, which has prompted seeking to substitute other alternative sources. The current study explored the microwave pyrolysis of Albizia branches to assess its potential to produce all forms of fuel (solid, liquid, gas), time savings, and effective thermal heat transfer. The impact of the critical parameters on the quantity and quality of the biofuel generation, including time, power levels, biomass weight, and particle size, were investigated. The results revealed that the best bio-oil production was 76% at a power level of 450 W and 20 g of biomass. Additionally, low power levels led to enhanced
... Show MoreRock engineers widely use the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) of rocks in designing
surface and underground structures. The procedure for measuring this rock strength has been
standardized by both the International Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM) and American Society
for Testing and Materials (ASTM), Akram and Bakar(2007).
In this paper, an experimental study was performed to correlate of Point Load Index ( Is(50))
and Pulse Wave Velocity (Vp) to the Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) of Rocks. The effect
of several parameters was studied. Point load test, Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) and
Pulse Wave Velocity (Vp) were used for testing several rock samples with different diameters.
The predicted e