The main objective of this paper is to study the behavior of Non-Prismatic Reinforced Concrete (NPRC) beams with and without rectangular openings either when exposed to fire or not. The experimental program involves casting and testing 9 NPRC beams divided into 3 main groups. These groups were categorized according to heating temperature (ambient temperature, 400°C, and 700°C), with each group containing 3 NPRC beams (solid beams and beams with 6 and 8 trapezoidal openings). For beams with similar geometry, increasing the burning temperature results in their deterioration as reflected in their increasing mid-span deflection throughout the fire exposure period and their residual deflection after cooling. Meanwhile, the existing ope

Endophytic fungi live inside plants or any part of them without creating any visible pathogenic signs. Endophytic fungi are found within medicinal plants and have shown strong biologic activity, such as anticancer and antioxidant activities, as well as producing extracellular enzymes. In this study, different fungal strains were isolated from the leaves of the medicinal plant Ziziphus spina, including Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger, Cladosporium sp., Rhizopus sp., and Mucor sp. Extracellular enzymes have been quantified using agar plate-based methods in which fungi were grown in specified growth media to detect the enzymes produced. The results showed that A. niger has the highest ability to produce amy

Development and population expansion have the lion's share of driving up the fuel cost. Biodiesel has considerable attention as a renewable, ecologically friendly and alternative fuel source. In this study, CaO nanocatalyst is produced from mango leaves as a catalysis for the transesterification of waste cooking oil (WCO) to biodiesel. The mango tree is a perennial plant, and its fruit holds significant economic worth due to its abundance of vitamins and minerals. This plant has a wide geographical range and its leaves can be utilized without any negative impact on its growth and yield. An analysis was conducted to determine the calcium content in the fallen leaves, revealing a significant quantity of calcium that holds potential fo

Two dimensional meso-scale concrete modeling was used in finite element analysis of plain concrete beam subjected to bending. The plane stress 4-noded quadrilateral elements were utilized to model coarse aggregate, cement mortar. The effect of aggregate fraction distribution, and pores percent of the total area – resulting from air voids entrapped in concrete during placement on the behavior of plain concrete beam in flexural was detected. Aggregate size fractions were randomly distributed across the profile area of the beam. Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) was employed to treat the discontinuities problems result from double phases of concrete and cracking that faced during the finite element analysis of concrete beam. Crac

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of Nd:YAG laser shock processing (LSP) on micro-hardness and surface roughness of 86400Cu-Zn alloy. X-ray fluorescence technique was used to analyze the chemical composition of this alloy. LSP treatment was performed with a Q-switched Nd: YAG laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm. The results show that laser shock processing can significantly increase. The micro-hardness and surface roughness of the LSP-treated sample. Vickers diamond indenter was used to measure the micro-hardness of all samples with different laser pulse energy and the different number of laser pulses. It is found that the metal hardness can be significantly increased to more than 80% by increasing the laser energy and t