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.
t-Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) reduces environmental noise and has more workability. This research presents an investigation of the behavior of SCC under mechanical loading (impact loading). Two types of cement have been used to produce SCC mixtures, Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and Portland Limestone Cement (PLC), which reduces the emission of carbon dioxide during the manufacturing process. The mixes were reinforced with Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) which is usually used to improve the seismic performance of masonry walls, to replace lost steel reinforcements, or to increase column strength and ductility. Workability tests were carried out for fresh SCC. Prepared concrete slabs of 500×500×50mm were tested for lo
... Show MoreA simple, environmental friendly and selective sample preparation technique employing porous membrane protected micro-solid phase extraction (μ-SPE) loaded with molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) for the determination of ochratoxin A (OTA) is described. After the extraction, the analyte was desorbed using ultrasonication and was analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography. Under the optimized conditions, the detection limits of OTA for coffee, grape juice and urine were 0.06 ng g−1, 0.02 and 0.02 ng mL−1, respectively while the quantification limits were 0.19 ng g−1, 0.06 and 0.08 ng mL−1, respectively. The recoveries of OTA from coffee spiked at 1, 25 and 50 ng g−1, grape juice and urine samples at 1, 25 and 50 ng mL
... Show MorePrecision irrigation applications are used to optimize the use of water resources, by controlling plant water requirements through using different systems according to soil moisture and plant growth periods. In precision irrigation, different rates of irrigation water are applied to different places of the land in comparison with traditional irrigation methods. Thus the cost of irrigation water is reduced. As a result of the fact that precise irrigation can be used and applied in all irrigation systems, it spreads rapidly in all irrigation systems. The purpose of the Precision Agriculture Technology System (precision irrigation) , is to apply the required level of irrigation according to agricultural inputs to the specified location , by us
... Show MoreThe issues related to the development of permafrost and seasonally frozen soils without their preliminary loosening by various earthmoving machines with active working bodies, magnetostrictive vibrators, that soften dense and frozen soils using acoustic elastic waves, are considered. The analytical studies allowed us to establish the regularities of the process of destruction of frozen soil by active teeth of bucket working bodies, according to which, the formulas for calculating the critical tensile stress and shear resistance were obtained. The research results allow us to determine the main parameters of wave loading for both a single radiation source and a group of "n" in-phase radiation sources. The intensity of the acoustic
... Show MoreThe study was conducted at the fields of the Dept. of Horticulture and Garden Engineering, College of the Agricultural Engineering Sciences, Jadriyah in the fall season of 2020-2021 aiming to culture the coral lettuce with green and red leaves under the hydroponics system using the modified nutrient solution film NFT and study the effect of aqueous extracts of alfalfa and berseem sprouted seeds on the quantitative and qualitative yield of the lettuce crop. The research was conducted as an experiment of split plots within the Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) of three replicates. The seedlings of the green coral lettuce, Locarno RZ, and red coral lettuce, Locarno RZ, symbolized by A and B respectively, were transferred to the c
... Show MorePhosphorus (P) is an element that is potatoes require in large amounts. Soil pH is a crucial factor impacting phosphorus availability in potato production. This study was conducted to evaluate the influence of P application rates on the P efficiency for tuber yield, specific gravity, and P uptake. Additionally, the relationship between soil pH and total potato tuber yield was determined. Six rates of P fertilization (0–280 kg P ha−1) were applied at twelve different sites across Northern Maine. Yield parameters were not responsive to P application rates. However, regression analysis showed that soil pH was significantly correlated with total potato tuber yield(R2 = 0.38). Sites with soil pH values < 6 had total tuber yields,
... Show MoreSoft clays are generally sediments deposited by rivers, seas, or lakes. These soils are fine-grained plastic soils with appreciable clay content and are characterized by high compressibility and low shear strength. To deal with soft soil problems there is more than one method that can be used such as soil replacement, preloading, stone column, sand drains, lime stabilization and Prefabricated Vertical Drains, PVDs. A numerical modeling of PVD with vacuum pressure was analyzed to investigate the effect of this technique on the consolidation behavior of fully and different depths of partially saturated soft soils. Laboratory experiments were also conducted by using a specially-designed large consol
... Show More16 March of every year marked the anniversary of the chemical gas attack on the City of Halabja, Kurdistan, Iraq, and its nearby villages. In the process, 5000 people reportedly died from the attack. Many more were wounded and the event left nearly 60 000 people displaced. A perceived consequence of the chemical bombing of Halabja City was the environmental pollution of the soil and water. A recent questionnaire completed by the population of Halabja City indicated that 35% believed that water pollution was still an issue, and 55% thought that soil pollution posed a high risk.
In 2016, were requested by the Halabja City governor to investigate the situation. And to lay to rest the perception and
This paper deals with load-deflection behavior the jointed plain concrete pavement system using steel dowel bars as a mechanism to transmit load across the expansion joints. Experimentally, four models of the jointed plain concrete pavement system were made, each model consists of two slabs of plain concrete that connected together across expansion by two dowel bars and the concrete slab were supported by the subgrade soil. Two variables were dealt with, the first is diameter of dowel bar (12, 16 and 20 mm) and the second is type of the subgrade soil, two types of soil were used which classified according to the (AASHTO): Type I (A-6) and type II (A-7-6). Experimental results showed that increasing dowel bar diameter from 12 mm to 20 mm
... Show MoreBackground: Early studies have shown that agricultural soil contains various types of microorganisms, especially bacteria, including coliform bacteria (Salmonella, Shigella, Klebsiella, Escherichia coli, and Enterobacter) with fecal Gram-positive bacteria like Enterococcus faecalis. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the contamination of Iraqi agricultural soils with pathogenic fecal bacteria (Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis) and study the antibiotic sensitivity patterns of soil-isolated bacteria because it is a dangerous indicator when transmitted to humans.
Methods: Soil samples were collected from six locations (farms) in the capital
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