Gypseous soils are common in several regions in the world including Iraq, where more than 28.6% of its surface is covered with this type of soil. This soil, with high gypsum content, causes different problems for construction and strategic projects. As a result of water flow through the soil mass, the permeability and chemical arrangement of these soils varies with time due to the solubility and leaching of gypsum. In this study, the soil of 36% gypsum content, was taken from one location about 100 km southwest of Baghdad, where the samples were taken from depths (0.5 - 1) m below the natural ground and mixed with (3%, 6%, 9%) of Copolymer and Novolac polymer to improve the engineering properties that include: collapsibility, perm

Keys for 22 species representing ten genera Thripidae collection carried out during 1999-2001 in different localities in the middle of Iraq. Of them four species are described as new to science, Frankliniella megacephala sp. nov; Retithrips bagdadensis sp. nov; Chirothrips imperatus sp. nov; Taeniothrips tigridis sp. nov; Another thirteen species are recorded for the first time in Iraq; Thrips meridionalis (Pri.); Microcephalothrips abdominils (Crawford); Scolothrips pallidus (Beach); Scritothrips mangiferae Pri.; Frankliniella tritici Bagnall; Frankliniella schultzie Trybom; Frankliniella unicolor Morgan; Retithrips aegypticus Mar

A high settlement may take place in shallow footing when resting on liquefiable soil if subjected to earthquake loading. In this study, a series of shaking table tests were carried out for shallow footing resting on sand soil. The input motion is three earthquake loadings (0.05g, 0.1g, and 0.2g). The study includes a reviewing of theoretical equations (available in literatures), which estimating settlement of footings due to earthquake loading, calibration, and verification of these equations with data from the shaking table test for improved soil by grouting and unimproved soil. It is worthy to note that the grouting materials considered in this study are the Bentonite and CKD slurries. A modification to the seismic set

Expansive soils are recognized by their swelling potential upon wetting due to the existence of some clay minerals such as  montmorillonite. An effective solution was found to avoid the danger of such soils by using piles. A single pile embedded in an elasto-plastic expansive soil has been analyzed by using one of the available software which is ABAQUS to investigate the effect of applied loads on pile’s top and investigate the effect of swelling soils on load carrying capacity of the pile. The result shows that as the pile is axially loaded at its top, the axial force along the pile gradually changes from (tension) to (compression) and the pile tends to move downward. The applied load needed to initiate pile’s settlement depend

The shear strength of soil is one of the most important soil properties that should be identified before any foundation design. The presence of gypseous soil exacerbates foundation problems. In this research, an approach to forecasting shear strength parameters of gypseous soils based on basic soil properties was created using Artificial Neural Networks. Two models were built to forecast the cohesion and the angle of internal friction. Nine basic soil properties were used as inputs to both models for they were considered to have the most significant impact on soil shear strength, namely: depth, gypsum content, passing sieve no.200, liquid limit, plastic limit, plasticity index, water content, dry unit weight, and initial

For design purposes, it`s necessary to know the compression rate of soil layers which might be happened when it`s subjected to effective stresses. Also, it`s essential to know the rate of flow through soil mass specially for the design of marine structures or earth embankment. These two important behavior could be predicted from the coefficient of consolidation (Cv) and the coefficient of permeability (k). This study shows the effect of cutback asphalt stabilization on Cv and k and other compressibility factors, the investigation was done for silty clay samples, specimens were prepared by mixing the soil with different percentage of asphalt from (0-10)% and subjected to one-dimensional consolidation test of 50mm diameter and 20mm height wer

Soil fertility is a crucial factor in measuring soil quality, it indicates the extent to which soil can support plant life. Soil fertility is measured by the amount of macro and micronutrients, pH, etc. Soil nutrients are depleted after each harvest and therefore must be added. To maintain soil nutrient levels, fertilizer is added to the soil. Adding fertilizer in the precise amount is a matter of great importance because excess or insufficient application can harm plant life and reduce productivity. The use of modern technology is a solution to this problem. Although automated techniques for sowing, weeding, crop harvesting, etc. have been proposed and implemented, none of the techniques are aimed to maintaining soil fertility. The study a

Recently, a great rise in the population and fast manufacturing processes were noticed. These processes release significant magnitudes of waste. These wastes occupied a notable ground region, generating big issues for the earth and the environment. To enhance the geotechnical properties of fine-grained soil, a sequence of research projects in the lab were conducted to analyze the impacts of adding sludge waste (SW). The tests were done on both natural and mixed soil with SW at various proportions (2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, and 10%) based on the dry mass of the soil used. The experiments conducted focused on consistency, compaction, and shear strength. With the addition of 10% of SW, the values of LL and PI decreased by 29.7% and 3