A novel demountable shear connector for precast steel-concrete composite bridges is presented. The connector uses high-strength steel bolts, which are fastened to the top flange of the steel beam with the aid of a special locking nut configuration that prevents bolts from slipping within their holes. Moreover, the connector promotes accelerated construction and overcomes the typical construction tolerance issues of precast structures. Most importantly, the connector allows bridge disassembly. Therefore, it can address different bridge deterioration scenarios with minimum disturbance to traffic flow including the following: (1) precast deck panels can be rapidly uplifted and replaced; (2) connectors can be rapidly removed and replaced; and (

Strengthening of composite beams is highly needed to upgrade the capacities of existing beams. The strengthening methods can be classified as active or passive techniques. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to provide detailed FE simulations for strengthened and unstrengthened steel–concrete composite beams at the sagging and hogging moment regions with and without profiled steel sheeting. The developed models were verified against experimental results from the literature. The verified models were used to present comparisons between the effect of using external post-tensioning and CFRP laminates as strengthening techniques. Applying external post-tensioning at the sagging moment regions is more effective because of the e

The objective of the current research is to find an optimum design of hybrid laminated moderate thick composite plates with static constraint. The stacking sequence and ply angle is required for optimization to achieve minimum deflection for hybrid laminated composite plates consist of glass and carbon long fibers reinforcements that impeded in epoxy matrix with known plates dimension and loading. The analysis of plate is by adopting the first-order shear deformation theory and using Navier's solution with Genetic Algorithm to approach the current objective. A program written with MATLAB to find best stacking sequence and ply angles that give minimum deflection, and the results comparing with ANSYS.

A hierarchically porous structured zeolite composite was synthesized from NaX zeolite supported on carbonaceous porous material produced by thermal treatment for plum stones which is an agro-waste. This kind of inorganic-organic composite has an improved performance because bulky molecules can easily access the micropores due to the short diffusion path to the active sites which means a higher diffusion rate. The composite was prepared using a green synthesis method, including an eco-friendly polymer to attach NaX zeolite on the carbon surface by phase inversion. The synthesized composite was characterized using X-ray diffraction spectrometry, Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy d

In multivariate survival analysis, estimating the multivariate distribution functions and then measuring the association between survival times are of great interest. Copula functions, such as Archimedean Copulas, are commonly used to estimate the unknown bivariate distributions based on known marginal functions. In this paper the feasibility of using the idea of local dependence to identify the most efficient copula model, which is used to construct a bivariate Weibull distribution for bivariate Survival times, among some Archimedean copulas is explored. Furthermore, to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed procedure, a simulation study is implemented. It is shown that this approach is useful for practical situations and applicable fo

Abstract:

The six Arab Gulf states (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE) play a vital role, especially with its geographical location and natural  resources (oil and gas) as well as other cultural and civilizational elements, in achieving  global economic balance and more specifically global energy security, naturally  because of  these countries have a comparative advantage in the field of fossil energy (oil and gas), thus this sector becomes more attractive for local and international investments alike. Being  the energy sector a leader sector in the economic development process, and the basic factor to achieve savings and financial surpluses in thes