Gypseous soils are common in several regions in the world including Iraq, where more than 28.6% of its surface is covered with this type of soil. This soil, with high gypsum content, causes different problems for construction and strategic projects. As a result of water flow through the soil mass, the permeability and chemical arrangement of these soils varies with time due to the solubility and leaching of gypsum. In this study, the soil of 36% gypsum content, was taken from one location about 100 km southwest of Baghdad, where the samples were taken from depths (0.5 - 1) m below the natural ground and mixed with (3%, 6%, 9%) of Copolymer and Novolac polymer to improve the engineering properties that include: collapsibility, permeability and compaction parameter. Results of experimental work showed noticeable improvement of collapsibility and permeability for the soil treated with polymer materials compared to untreated soil. Adding 3% of polymer (copolymer and novolac polymer) materials gave the best improvement in collapsibility which reached to (44.5 and 46%), respectively, in 3 hours. The improvement in permeability reached to 98.6% copolymer and 86.2% novolac polymer in 1 day.
Shallow foundations have been commonly used to transfer load to soil layer within the permissible limits of settlement based on the bearing capacity of the soil. For most practical cases, the shape of the shallow foundation is of slight significance. Also, friction resistance forces in the first layers of soils are negligible due to non-sufficient surrounding surface area and compaction conditions. However, the bearing capacity of a shallow foundation can be increased by several techniques. Geocell is one of the geosynthetic tool applied mainly to reinforce soil. This study presents a numerical approach of honeycombed geocell steel panels reinforcing the sandy soil under shallow foundation, and several parameters are investigated such as th
... Show MoreConcentrations of P137PCs were measured in 40 samples that have been selected from the surface soil in cities of Ramadi, Fallujah, Heet and surrounding areas. The activity of P137PCs in seven dust storms that hit the area western of city of Ramadi within the period 1/3/2013-1/10/2013 was measured also. The concentration in soil ranges between (below detection level-14.5) Bq.kgP-1P, while it ranges between (7.5-8.8) Bq/kg in the dust storms. The dose due to exposure to the cesium in surface soil was estimated to be ranged between (0.4-7.7) *10P-2P mSv.yP-1P while the effective doses due to inhalation of resuspended P137PCs was about 1.61*10P-8P and the doses caused by inhalation of P137PCs in dust storms is ranging between (8.13-9.54)*10P
... Show MoreNitrogen (N) fertilizer rate is important for high yield and good quality of potato tubers. In this dissertation, I seek to study the response of different potato cultivars under different N fertilizer rates and how that can impact tuber quality, examine the performance of active optical sensors in improving a potato yield prediction algorithm, and evaluate the ability of active optical sensors (GreenSeeker (GS) and Crop Circle (CC)) to optimize a N recommendation algorithm that can be used by potato growers in Maine. This research was conducted at 11 sites over a period of two years (2018–2019) in Aroostook County, Maine; all sites depended on a rainfed system. Three potato cultivars, Russet Burbank, Superior, and Shepody, were planted u
... Show MoreIn this study, the effect of the combination of micro steel fibers and additives (calcium hydroxide and sodium carbonate) on the size of cracks formation and healing them were investigated. This study aims to apply the use of self-healing phenomenon to repair cracks and to enhance the service life of the concrete structures. Micro steel fibers straight type were used in this research with 0.2% and 0.4% by volume of concrete. A weight of 20 and 30 kg/m3 of Ca(OH)2 and 2 and 3 kg/m3 of Na2CO3 were used as a partial cement replacement. The results confirm that the concrete cracks were significantly self-healed up to 30 days re-curing. Cracks width up to 0.2 mm were comp
... Show MoreThis study was conducted to determine the ability of water treatment system (Vortisand) to reduce some chemical and physical properties for tigris river raw water, It consisted of turbidity, electrical conductivity, pH, total hardness, calcium Hardness as well as temperature in order to determine the unit`s efficiency for reducing their concentration as compared to those in the water produced by some classical potable water projects (Dora and Wathba) in Baghdad. Samples were collected during the cold months (December 2016 and January 2017) and during the hot months (May and June 2017). The results showed that this system has the ability to reduce some properties such as turbidity, the values were 215NTU in raw water and decreased to NTU
... Show MoreBackground: Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) is a promising implant material due to its superior biomechanical strength. However, due to its hydrophobic nature and lack of cellular adhesion properties, it has poor integration with bone tissue. Methods: A fractional CO2 laser was used with various parameters for surface texturing of PEEK substrate to enhance its surface properties. An optical microscope and field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) were used to examine the surface morphology of untextured and laser-textured samples. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) was performed to determine the effect of the laser on the microstructure of PEEK. Surface microroughness, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and wettability were invest
... Show MoreAbstract:Porous Silicon (PSi) has been produced in this work by using Photochemical (PC) etching process by using a hydrofluoric acid (HF) solution. The irradiation has been achieved using quartz- tungsten halogen lamp. The influence of various irradiation times on the properties of PSi اmaterial such as layer thickness, etching rate and porosity was investigated in this work too. The XRD has been studied to determine the crystal structure and the crystalline size of PSi material
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) Nano powder has been synthesized by hydrothermal method. The reaction took place between titanium tetrachloride (TiCI4) and mixture solution consisted of deionized water and ethanol, in the ratio (3:7) respectively. Structure and surface morphology of TiO2 Nano powder at different annealing temperatures in the range 200-800°C for 120 min were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), FT-IR and UV/visible spectroscopy measurements. The results show that with an increase in annealing temperature, the value of the intensity of (110) peak for rutile phase increases while the value of the full-width at half maximum (FWHM) decreases, and the band gap de
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