Radioactive elements were identified in samples of imported coffee consumed in the province of Basra using gamma spectrometry SAM940TM. It is a scintillation detector of NaI(Tl) crystal and the dimensions of 2×2 inch. We have identified specific concentration As(Bq/kg) and annual effective dose D(Sv/y) for radioactive elements (_^40)K, (_^131)I, (_^134)Cs and (_^137)Cs. The estimated average effective dose for adults from coffee samples were found to be 0.037mSv/y, 88.434nSv/y, 46.909nSv/y, 27.212nSv/y for ((_^40)K,(_^131)I,(_^134)Cs,(_^137)Cs) respectively. The present results of the study revealed that the radioactivity was relatively low in the coffee and within the permissiblelimit.

The effect of using grinded rocks of (quartzite and porcelanite) as powder of (10 and 20) % replacement by weight of cement for self-compacting concrete slabs was investigated in this study. Five slabs with 15 concrete cubes were tested experimentally at 28 days to study the compressive strength, ultimate load, ultimate deflection, ductility, crack load and steel strain. The test results show that, the compressive strength improvement when replacement of local rock powder reached to (7.3, 4.22) % for (10 and 20) % quartzite powder and (11.3, 16.1) % for (10 and 20) % porcelanite powder, respectively compared to the reference specimen. The ultimate load percentage increase for slabs with (10 and 20) % rep

The efficiency of internal combustion engines (ICE) is usually about thirty percent of the total energy of the fuel. The residual energy is lost in the exhaust gas, the lubrication, and the cooling water in the radiators. Recently much of the researcher’s efforts have focused on taking advantage of wasted energy of the exhaust gas. Using a thermoelectric generator (TEG) is one of the promising ways. However, TEG depends entirely on the temperature difference, which may be offered by the exhaust muffler. An experimental test has been conducted to study the thermal performance of a different muffler internal design. The researchers resort to the use of lost energy in an ICE using TEG, which is one of the ways to take adv

The aim of this research is to study the effect of high concentrations of salts, pressure and temperature on the performance of the RO membrane with time. Four different (Na2CO3) concentrations (5000, 15000, 25000 and 35000) ppm and various pressures such as (1, 3 and 5) bars at different temperatures of the feed solution (i.e., 25, 35 and 45) ◦C were used in this work. It was found that, as the concentration of salt and feed temperatures increase, the rejection of the salt decrease. While the salt rejection of the membranes increases with increase of transmembrane pressure.

A new two-way nesting technique is presented for a multiple nested-grid ocean modelling system. The new technique uses explicit center finite difference and leapfrog schemes to exchange information between the different subcomponents of the nested-grid system. The performance of the different nesting techniques is compared, using two independent nested-grid modelling systems. In this paper, a new nesting algorithm is described and some preliminary results are demonstrated. The validity of the nesting method is shown in some problems for the depth averaged of 2D linear shallow water equation.

        In this study the design and installation of evaporative air cooler was carried out using completely outdoor air (fresh air) according to two stage evaporative cooling principle. The laboratory equipment was installed by designing and manufacturing a cross flow plate heat exchanger, where aluminum plates used for this purpose with dimensions (50 × 30 × 40 cm). The surfaces of heat exchanger were covered by sawdust from wetted channels side, to increase the percentage of wetting these surfaces and hence improve the performance and efficiency of air cooler.

        An experimental study was carried out to estimate the performance of cooling system, where som

Construction projects are complicated in nature and require many considerations in contractor selection. One of the complicated interactions is that between performance with the project size, and contractor financial status, and size of projects contracted. At the prequalification stage, the financial ‎requirements restrict the ‎contractors to meet minimum limits in financial criteria such as net worth, working capital and ‎annual turnover, etc. In construction projects, however, there are cases when contractors meet these requirements but show low performance in practice. The model used in the study predicts the performance by training of a neural network. The data used in the study are 72 of the most recent roadw

Heat is one of the most energy forms emitted to atmosphere by industrial processes. Water is considered to be the best material to reduce heat energy since its available in nature in abundance and has the ability to absorb heat efficiently. Cooling towers are ideal alternatives to re-cool hot water instead of throwing it especially in places that lack natural water resources or when there are environmental precautions because water with high temperature would be harmful to the ecosystem when it recycled to natural resources such as rivers and lakes. Also, cooling towers considered economically feasible when using west water. This paper interests with hydraulic characteristics of a counter flow wet cooling tower which was investigated experi

The present investigation deals with experimental study of three-phase direct-contact heat exchanger, for water-Freon R11 system, where water is the continuous phase (liquid) and Freon R11 (liquid-gas) is the dispersed phase. The test section consisted of a cylindrical Perspex column with inner diameter 8cm and 1.2m long, in which, water was to be confined. Liquid Freon R11 drops were injected into the hot water filled column, through a special design of distributors at the bottom of the column. The liquid Freon R11 drops rose on their way up and evaporated into two-phase bubbles at atmospheric pressure. The study was devoted to express the effect of process variables such as c

Photonic Crystal Fiber Interferometers (PCFIs) are greatly used
for sensing applications. This work presents the fabrication and
characterization of a relative humidity sensor based on Mach-
Zehnder Interferometer (MZI), which operates in reflection mode.
The humidity sensor operation based on the adsorption and
desorption of water vapour at the silica-air interface within the PCF.
The fabrication of this sensor is simple, it only includes splicing and
cleaving the PCF with SMF.PCF (LMA-10) with a certain length
spliced to SMF (Corning-28).
The spectrum of PCFI exhibits good sensitivity to humidity
variations. The PCFI response is observed for a range of humidity
values from (27% RH to 85% RH), the positi