Sustainable pavements are pavements that meet the requirements of present generation without influencing the capability of the future generation to meet their needs. One of the problems of the warm mix asphalt is that it has low resistance to moisture damage; therefore, the aim of this research paper is to study the possibility of producing more durable warm mixes against the moisture damage with the use of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) which has not been studied before. Six replacement rates (0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100%) for the coarse version aggregate (VA) with RCA were studied. The Marshall mix design method was used to determine the optimum asphalt cement content for each replacement rate. Thereafter, specimens with the optimum asphalt cement content were prepared and tested in the indirect tension test to evaluate their moisture susceptibility. The results revealed that the mixes with higher percentage of RCA possess higher optimum asphalt content. Moreover, an improvement of 13 and 28% in Marshall stability and tensile strength ratio (TSR), respectively, was obtained in case that the VA was entirely replaced by the RCA.
Preserving the Past and Building the Future: A Sustainable Urban Plan for Mosul, Iraq
A sense of safety is the first requirement for human stability in a place such as a home. Many local studies investigated Baghdadi houses and their architectural changes, but the relationship between safety and sustainability in Baghdadi houses has not been studied, so the research problem was: What are the architectural elements that relate to the concept of a safe house as a home in Baghdad as a case study? How is it related to the sustainability?
The research aims to identify the architectural elements of the safe house in Baghdad, to work on these elements by architects to enhance the sustainability of the residential environment, and create homes t
In recent years, the steady stream of artificial intelligence into economic systems has become a torrent. It is changing how we generate wealth and grow anew. Manufacturing, finance, health care energy, agriculture and education are just a few of the areas where AI may result in dramatic increases in productivity as well as innovation and sustainability. Predictive analytics, AI, robotics and natural language processing have significantly contributed in the improvement of resource allocation mechanisms and decision making as well as reaching SDGs. The concept of Artificial Humanity is also introduced in the paper. It shows how AI could become a global cognitive network to foster knowledge. By comparison and references of the literature, thi
... Show MoreThe public budget is on the same time an art and a science .As an accountable science it seeks balance between public income and public expenditure for an accountable year. And as an accountable art it seeks to achieve economic balance by distributing equitable income in order to reach sustainable development .This is the optimal use of all natural and human resources to address scarcity of natural resources facing the increase need of human resources by spending on education, health, environment, housing, agriculture and industry to achieve social justice for the current generation and future generations. Since the first budget in Iraq on 1921 an accounting budget, is balancing the sections and items has been adopted and since the publi
... Show MoreIraq faces persistent challenges in achieving sustainable development due to decades of conflict, political instability, and infrastructural degradation. These challenges are particularly evident in critical sectors such as energy, water, healthcare, education, and governance, which significantly influence human well-being, social equity, and quality of life. This study proposes an AI-driven, ethically guided, and human-centric sustainability framework to support resilient urban transformation in Iraq.
The Combined Economic Emission Dispatch (CEED) problem is crucial for optimizing power system operation by minimizing costs and emissions while ensuring grid stability and meeting demand. This paper addresses the complex, nonlinear, and nonconvex nature of CEED, arising from factors like valve-point effects and transmission losses, which necessitates efficient metaheuristic algorithms. We introduce an Improved Zebra Optimization Algorithm (IMZOA), an enhanced bio-inspired technique integrating advanced adaptive foraging and dynamic defense mechanisms, along with a cubic function for CEED modeling, to improve search efficiency and convergence. IMZOA demonstrates significant numerical improvements, achieving up to a 0.80 % cost reduction for
... Show MoreMany cities suffer from the large spread of slums, especially the cities of the Middle East. The purpose of the paper is to study the reality of informal housing in Al-Barrakia and the most important problems that it suffers from. The paper also seeks to study the presence or absence of a correlation between urban safety indicators and urban containment indicators as one of the methods of developing and planning cities. This can be achieved through sustainable urban management. The slums are a source of many urban problems that threaten the security and safety of the residents and represent a focus for the concentration of crimes and drugs. The paper seeks to answer the following question: How can urban safety be improved through urban cont
... Show MorePulsed liquid laser ablation is considered a green method for the synthesis of nanostructures because there are no byproducts formed after the ablation. In this paper, a fiber laser of wavelength 1.064 µm, peak power of 1 mJ, pulse duration of 120 ns, and repetition rate of 20 kHz, was used to produce carbon nanostructures including carbon nanospheres and carbon nanorods from the ablation of asphalt in ethanol at ablation speeds of (100, 75, 50, 10 mm/s). The morphology, composition and optical properties of the synthesized samples were studied experimentally using FESEM, HRTEM, EDS, and UV-vis spectrophotometer. Results showed that the band gap energy decreased with decreasing the ablation speed (increasing the ablation time), the mi
... Show MoreHard-grade asphalt binders like AC20-30 typically exhibit excessive stiffness, reduced penetration, and compromised workability, necessitating modification before use in paving applications. This study evaluates the efficacy of regular polyalphaolefin (PAO), a synthetic olefin-based lubricant, as a performance-enhancing modifying agent for such binders. AC20-30 was blended with PAO at dosages ranging from 2 wt.% to 10 wt.%, and the modified binders were characterized via penetration, ductility, softening point, and rotational viscosity measurements, alongside advanced rheological and chemical-morphological analyses. Incorporating PAO in AC20-30 asphalt progressively reduced the binder stiffness and enhanced its flexibility, with all modifie
... Show MoreDuring the last two decades, nanomaterial application has gained a significant attraction into asphalt technology due to their effect in enhancing asphalt binder improving the asphaltic mixture. This study will modify the asphalt binder with two different nano types, nano SiO2 and CaCO3, at levels ranging from 1% to 7%. The resulting optimum nano-modified Asphalt will be subject to a series of rheological tests, including dynamic shear rheometer (DSR), Viscosity, and bending beam rheometer (BBR) to determine asphalt binder sensitivity towards low-medium-high temperature range. Results indicate that both nano types improved the physical characteristics of Asphalt, and 5% by weight of Asphalt was suggested as a reasonable dosage of nano-SiO2
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