The dual nature of asphalt binder necessitates improvements to mitigate rutting and fatigue since it performs as an elastic material under the regime of rapid loading or cold temperatures and as a viscous fluid at elevated temperatures. The present investigation assesses the effectiveness of Nano Alumina (NA), Nano Silica (NS), and Nano Titanium Dioxide (NT) at weight percentages of 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8% in asphalt cement to enhance both asphalt binder and mixture performance. Binder evaluations include tests for consistency, thermal susceptibility, aging, and workability, while mixture assessments focus on Marshall properties, moisture susceptibility, resilient modulus, permanent deformation, and fatigue characteristics. NS notably improves binder viscosity by about 138% and reduces penetration by approximately 40.8% at 8% nanomaterial (NM) content, significantly boosting hardness and consistency. NS also enhances Marshall stability and decreases air voids, increasing the mix’s durability. For moisture resistance, NS at 8% NM content elevates the Tensile Strength Ratio (TSR) to 91.0%, substantially surpassing the 80% standard. Similarly, NA and NT also show improved TSR values at 8% NM content, with 88.0% and 84.1%, respectively. Additionally, NS, NA, and NT reduce permanent deformation by 82%, 69%, and 64% at 10,000 cycles at 8% NM content, illustrating their effectiveness in mitigating pavement distress. Notably, while higher NM content generally results in better performance across most tests, the optimal NM content for fatigue resistance is 4% for NS and 6% for both NA and NT, reflecting their peak performance against various types of pavement distresses. These results highlight the significant advantages of nanoparticles in improving asphalt’s mechanical properties, workability, stability, and durability. The study recommends further field validation to confirm these laboratory findings and ensure that enhancements translate into tangible improvements in real-world pavement performance and longevity.
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
... Show MoreA long-span Prestressed Concrete Hunched Beam with Multi-Quadrilateral Opening has been developed as an alternative to steel structural elements. An experimental program was created and evaluated utilizing a single mid-span monotonic static load on simply supported beams, which included six beams with openings and the solid control beam without openings, to investigate the performance of such beams. The number and height of the quadrilateral openings are the variables to consider. According to test results, the presence of openings in the prestressed concrete hunched beam with multi-quadrilateral opening did not considerably affect their ultimate load capacity with respect to a contro
Barhi dates fruit are one of the most important date palm cultivars which are some of their properties they are mostly eaten and sold at the khalal stage when it has become yellow compared with rutab stage. At this stage the fruit loses its astringency and becomes sweet and best texture, therefore. High moisture content and rapid ripening of Barhi dates shorten their shelf life, as well the Khalal stage lasts for about 4 weeks until the ripening of the fruits begins and transfer to rutab stage. In the present study, Barhi dates packaging in the first by common air - packaging and
second by Modified atmosphere packaging, MAP A (5% O2 + 20% CO2) and MAP B (40%O2+20%CO2) and stored for 30 days at different temperatures 5 and 20 °C, re
The aim of this study is to identify the effect of particle size and to increase the concentration of Iraqi bentonite on rheological properties in order to evaluate its performance and to know if it can be used as drilling fluid without additives or not. In this study, Iraqi bentonite was carried out by mineral composition (XRD), chemical composition (XRF) and Particle size distribution (PSD), and its rheological properties were measured at different particle size and concentration. The results showed that when the particle size of Iraqi bentonite decreased, and the rheological properties were increased with increased concentration of Iraqi bentonite. Also, Iraqi bentonite was unable to use as drilling fluid without certain additives.
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In this study, modified organic solvent (organosolv) method was applied to remove high lignin content in the date palm fronds (type Al-Zahdi) which was taken from the Iraqi gardens. In modified organosolv, lignocellulosic material is fractionated into its constituents (lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose). In this process, solvent (organic)-water is brought into contact with the lignocellulosic biomass at high temperature, using stainless steel reactor (digester). Therefor; most of hemicellulose will remove from the biomass, while the solid residue (mainly cellulose) can be used in various industrial fields. Three variables were studied in this process: temperature, ratio of ethano
... Show MoreCritical buckling temperature of laminated plate under thermal load varied linearly along the thickness, is developed using a higher-order shape function which depends on a parameter ‘‘m’’, which is improved to obtain results for thin and thick plates. Laminated plates’ equations of motion are obtained using virtual work principle and solved for simply supported boundary conditions. Angle and cross laminates thermal buckled mode shapes with different E1/E2 proportion, number of plies, (α2/α1) proportion, aspect ratios, are investigated. It is observed that this shape function gives thermal buckling for thin and thick plates but with m = 0.05 that agree well with other theories and linear distribution of temperature giv
... Show MoreThermal conductivity measurement was done for specimens of Polystyrene/ titanium dioxide, Polycarbonate/ titanium dioxide and Polymethylmetha acrylate/ titanium dioxide composites for weight ratio of 1.9/ 0.1 and 1.8/ 0.2 wt% for different thickness of the samples. The experimental results show that the thermal conductivity is increased with the increasing of thickness of layers and with the weight ratio of TiO2
Date palm fiber is one of the common wastes available in the M. E. countries essentially Iraq. The aim of search to investigate the performance and effects of fiber date palm on the mechanical properties of high strength concrete, this fiber was used in three ratio 2, 4 and 6 % by vol. of concrete at ages of (7, 28, 90) days. Results demonstrated improvement in the compressive strength increased 19.2 %, 23.6%, 24.9 % for 2%, 4%, 6% of fiber respectively at age 28 days. Flexural strength increases 47.6%, 66.2%, 93.8% form (2,4,6) % of fiber respectively at age 28 days. Density increase about 0.41%, 0, 61 % 0.69 % for (2,4,6) % of fiber respectively at age 28. Absorption water decrease
Every year, millions of tons of waste glass are created across the globe. It is disposed of in landfills, which is unsustainable since it does not disintegrate into the environment. This study aims to produce reactive powder concrete by using recycled glass powder and determine the influence on the mechanical properties. This study investigated the effect of partial replacement of cement with recycled glass powder at two percentages (0, 20) % by weight of cement on some mechanical properties (Fresh density, Splitting tensile strength, Impact Strength, and voids%) of reactive powder concrete containing 1 % micro steel (MSRPC). Furthermore, using steam curing for (5 hours) at 90 degrees celsius after hardening the sample directly, RPC was
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