Pumpkin waste powder was used as a coloring and strengthening filler in epoxy to prepare a natural gelcoat . The Pumpkin powder was mixed with different weight ratios (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8%) to the epoxy matrix to select the best value of powder addition. The effect of the pumpkin particle size on the mechanical properties (impact, flexural, hardness, and wear loss) using two different sizes (2.5 and 1.25 microns) was studied. The impact strength increased from (10.09 KJ/ m²) for neat epoxy to (14.79 KJ/ m²) for epoxy with  1% of micron pumpkin fibers ( MPF) with particle size 2.5 micrometer and (14.21 KJ/ m²) for epoxy with 4% (1.25 MPF), flexural strength increased from (41.94 MPa) for n

Mechanical degradation hampers the practical usage of polymers for turbulent drag reduction
application. Mechanical degradation refers to the chemical process in which the activation energy of
polymer chain scission is exceeded by mechanical action on the polymer chain, and bond rupture
occurs. When a water-soluble polymer and surfactant are mixed in water solution, the specific structures
(aggregates) are formed, in which polymer film is formed around micelle. In this work, Xanthan gum (XG) –
Sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SELS) complex formation and its effect on percentage viscosity reduction
(%VR) was studied. It was found that SELS surfactant reduced the mechanical degradation of XG much
more efficiently than th

Background: syndrome X or metabolic syndrome is a collection of multiple diseases mainly visceral obesity , hypertriglyceridemia , decrease HDL level, hypertension and elevated fasting blood glucose that lead to accelerated atherosclerosis through multiple mechanisms, one of the most important is increase inflammation of the vessels manifested by elevated high sensitivity C reactive protein (hs-CRP).Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of elevatedhs CRP in people with metabolic syndrome and atherosclerosis complication (IHD, Cerebrovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease) and metabolic syndrome without these complication.Patients and methods:;This is a cross sectional study carried out in Diabetic referral c

This research analyzes the level of the short circuit effect of the Iraqi super network and decides the suitable location for the High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) connections in order to obtain the best short circuit reduction of the total currents of the buses in the network. The proposed method depends on choosing the transmission lines for Alternating current (AC) system that suffers from high Short Circuit Levels (SCLs) in order to reduce its impact on the transmission system and on the lines adjacent to it and this after replacing the alternating current (AC) line by direct current (DC) line. In this paper, Power System Simulator for Engineering (PSS/E) is used to model two types of HVDC lines in an effective regi

Kurdistan power system is expanded along years ago. The electrical power is transmitted through long transmission lines. The main problem of transmission lines is active and reactive power losses. It is important to solve this issue, unless, the most of electrical energy will lost over transmission system. In this study, High Voltage Direct Current links/bipolar connection were connected in a power system to reduce the power losses. The 132kV, 50 Hz, 36 buses Kurdistan power system is used as a study case. The load flow analysis was implemented by using ETAP.16 program in which Newton-Raphson method for three cases. The results show that the losses are reduced after inserted HVDC links.

Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) bars are anisotropic in nature and have high tensile strength in the fiber direction. The use of High-Strength Concrete (HSC) allows for better use of the high-strength properties of FRP bars. The mechanical properties of FRP bars can yield to large crack widths and deflections. As a result, the design of concrete elements reinforced with FRP materials is often governed by the Serviceability Limit States (SLS). This study investigates the short-term serviceability behavior of FRP RC I-beams. Eight RC I-beams reinforced with carbon-FRP (CFRP) and four steel RC I-beams, for comparison purposes, were tested under two-point loading.
Deformations on the concrete and crack widths and spacing are measured and

Experimental work was carried out to investigate the effect of fire flame (high temperature) on specimens of one way slabs using Self Compacted Concrete (SCC). By using furnace manufactured for this purpose, twenty one reinforced concrete slab specimens were exposed to direct fire flame. All of specimens have the same dimensions. The slab specimens were cooled in two types, gradually by left them in the air and suddenly by using water. After that the specimens were tested under two point loads, to study, the effect of
different: temperature levels (300ºC, 500ºC and 700ºC), and cooling rate (gradually and sudden cooling conditions) on the concrete compressive strength, modulus of rupture, flexural strength and the behavior of reinf

There is an interesting potential for the use of GFRP-pultruded profiles in hybrid GFRP-concrete structural elements, either for new constructions or for the rehabilitation of existing structures. This paper provides experimental and numerical investigations on the flexural performance of reinforced concrete (RC) specimens composite with encased pultruded GFRP I-sections. Five simply supported composite beams were tested in this experimental program to investigate the static flexural behavior of encased GFRP beams with high-strength concrete. Besides, the effect of using shear studs to improve the composite interaction between the GFRP beam and concrete as well as the effect of web stiffeners of GFRP were explored. Encasing the GFRP