A ‘locking-bolt’ demountable shear connector (LBDSC) is proposed to facilitate the deconstruction and reuse of steel-concrete composite structures, in line with achieving a more sustainable construction design paradigm. The LBDSC is comprised of a grout-filled steel tube and a geometrically compatible partially threaded bolt. The latter has a geometry that ‘locks’ the bolt in compatible holes predrilled on the steel flange and eliminates initial slip and construction tolerance issues. The structural behaviour of the LBDSC is evaluated through nine pushout tests using a horizontal test setup. The effects of the tube thickness, strength of concrete slab, and strength of infilled grout on the shear resistance, initial stiffness, and ductility of the LBDSC are assessed. The experimental results show that the LBDSC can achieve higher shear resistance and similar initial stiffness as compared to traditional welded studs. In addition, all tested LBDSCs exhibited slip capacities ranging from 14 to 32 mm and can be classified as ductile shear connectors according to Eurocode 4. A detailed finite element model was also created and found to be reliable to reproduce the experimental behaviour. Parametric studies were subsequently conducted using the validated model to study further parameters and generalise the experimental results. Due to the specific test setup, non-negligible uplift forces were generated in the connector and the potential implications are discussed.
Trajectory tracking and vibration suppression are essential objectives in a flexible joint manipulator control. The flexible joint manipulator is an under-actuated system, in which the number of control actions is less than the degree of freedom to be controlled. It is very challenging to control the underactuated nonlinear system with two degree of freedom. This paper presents a hierarchical sliding mode control (HSMC) for a rotary flexible joint manipulator (RFJM). Firstly, the rotary flexible joint manipulator is modeled by two subsystems. Secondly, the sliding surfaces for both subsystems are constructed. Finally, the control action is designed based on the Lyapunov function. Computer simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of
... Show MoreShatt Al-Arab River in Al Basrah, Iraq, has recently recorded massive levels of TDS values (Total Dissolved Solids) in the water as a result of reduced fresh water discharge from sources, causing the river to become salinized due to salt wedge intrusion. Therefore, a block dam in the south reach is required to salt intrusion prevention. The main objective of this research is to simulate the hydraulic impact of a suggested barrage in Ras Al Besha on the Shatt Al-Arab River. The HEC-RAS (5.0.7) model was used to develop a one-dimensional unsteady model to gaining an understanding of the proposed barrage's influence on river behaviour. The daily discharges of the Tigris River provided as the upstream boundary conditions, wh
... Show MoreNormal thyroid function is essential for neonatal growth and brain development. In a newborn infant with severe disease, endocrine regulation of hormones can be affected by abnormal metabolism. The assessment of thyroid parameters results in the recognition of a dysfunction and its association with disease severity
An adaptive nonlinear neural controller to reduce the nonlinear flutter in 2-D wing is proposed in the paper. The nonlinearities in the system come from the quasi steady aerodynamic model and torsional spring in pitch direction. Time domain simulations are used to examine the dynamic aero elastic instabilities of the system (e.g. the onset of flutter and limit cycle oscillation, LCO). The structure of the controller consists of two models :the modified Elman neural network (MENN) and the feed forward multi-layer Perceptron (MLP). The MENN model is trained with off-line and on-line stages to guarantee that the outputs of the model accurately represent the plunge and pitch motion of the wing and this neural model acts as the identifier. Th
... Show MoreThe complexity and variety of language included in policy and academic documents make the automatic classification of research papers based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) somewhat difficult. Using both pre-trained and contextual word embeddings to increase semantic understanding, this study presents a complete deep learning pipeline combining Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architectures which aims primarily to improve the comprehensibility and accuracy of SDG text classification, thereby enabling more effective policy monitoring and research evaluation. Successful document representation via Global Vector (GloVe), Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Tra
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In this paper, fatigue damage accumulation were studied using many methods i.e.Corton-Dalon (CD),Corton-Dalon-Marsh(CDM), new non-linear model and experimental method. The prediction of fatigue lifetimes based on the two classical methods, Corton-Dalon (CD)andCorton-Dalon-Marsh (CDM), are uneconomic and non-conservative respectively. However satisfactory predictions were obtained by applying the proposed non-linear model (present model) for medium carbon steel compared with experimental work. Many shortcomings of the two classical methods are related to their inability to take into account the surface treatment effect as shot peening. It is clear that the new model shows that a much better and cons
... Show MoreBackground: Osteoporosis is a skeletal defect manifested by a reduction of bone strength as a result of reduced bone mass to the extent that there is a higher risk of fracture even on minor trauma. Hysterectomy in a premenopausal woman is a well known cause of ovarian failure resulting in an increased risk of osteoporosis.
Objective : To clarify bisphosphonate's preventive effect on osteopenia and osteoporosis in premenopausal women after hysterectomy.
Type of the study: Cross –sectional study.
Method: 84 premenopausal females post hysterectomy aged between 40 – 50 years, were enrolled in this randomized controlled double blinded trail a
... Show MoreThe drying process is considered an effective technique for preserving foods and agricultural products from spoilage. Moreover, the drying process lessens the products' weight, volume, and packaging, which prompts a reduction in the products' transportation costs. The drying technique with solar energy represents an ancient method, still alluring due to solar energy abundance and cost‐effectiveness. In this article, the previous manuscripts concerned with studying and analyzing indirect solar dryer systems that utilize innovative solar air heaters (SAHs) are reviewed. The results and conclusions are discussed intensively to clarify the significance of utilizing this type of drying technique. The ef
The advancements in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), within the previous decades, has significantly changed people’s transmit or store their information over the Internet or networks. So, one of the main challenges is to keep these information safe against attacks. Many researchers and institutions realized the importance and benefits of cryptography in achieving the efficiency and effectiveness of various aspects of secure communication.This work adopts a novel technique for secure data cryptosystem based on chaos theory. The proposed algorithm generate 2-Dimensional key matrix having the same dimensions of the original image that includes random numbers obtained from the 1-Dimensional logistic chaotic map for given con
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