In this study, three strengthening techniques, near-surface mounted NSM-CRFP, NSM-CFRP with externally bonding EB-CFRP, and hybrid CFRP with circularization were studied to increase the seismic performance of existing RC slender columns under lateral loads. Experimentally, 1:3 scale RC models were studied and subjected to both lateral static load and seismic excitation. In the dynamic test, a model was subjected to El Centro 1940 NS earthquake excitation by using a shaking table. According to the test results, the strengthening techniques showed a significant increase in load carrying capacity, of about 86.6%, and 46.6%, for circularization and NSM-CFRP respectively, of the reference unstrengthened columns. On the other hand, column

Reinforced concrete (RC) beams containing a longitudinal cavity have become an innovative development and advantage for economic purposes of light-weight members without largely affecting their resistance against the applied loads. This type of openings can also be used for maintenance purposes and usage space of communication lines, pipelines, etc. RC beams are primarily loaded in the plane of the members, which are two-dimensional in a plane stress state and the dominant structural behaviours include bending, shear, or combination of both. In the present study, six numerical models of RC beams with and without openings were simulated by using commercial finite element software ANSYS to evaluate the structural behaviours of those b

Phase change materials are known to be good in use in latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) systems, but one of their drawbacks is the slow melting and solidification processes. So that, in this work, enhancing heat transfer of phase change material is studied experimentally for in charging and discharging processes by the addition of high thermal conductive material such as copper in the form of brushes, which were added in both PCM and air sides. The additions of brushes have been carried out with different void fractions (97%, 94% and 90%) and the effect of four different air velocities was tested. The results indicate that the minimum brush void fraction gave the maximum heat transfer in PCM and reduced the time

This research worked on identifying the effect of increasing the volume of indebtedness by companies listed on the Iraq Stock Exchange on the trading volume of those companies, and this research included some theoretical concepts related to both debt financing and trading volume, and it represents the research community of the joint-stock companies listed in The Iraq Stock Exchange (the banking sector). As for the research sample, it was deliberately chosen represented by companies with continuous trading without stopping, which reached 10 joint-stock companies, and the period of research was extended during the period 2011-2015, and a set of indicators and financial methods were used In measuring research v

This paper studies a novel technique based on the use of two effective methods like modified Laplace- variational method (MLVIM) and a new Variational method (MVIM)to solve PDEs with variable coefficients. The current modification for the (MLVIM) is based on coupling of the Variational method (VIM) and Laplace- method (LT). In our proposal there is no need to calculate Lagrange multiplier. We applied Laplace method to the problem .Furthermore, the nonlinear terms for this problem is solved using homotopy method (HPM). Some examples are taken to compare results between two methods and to verify the reliability of our present methods.

The process of accurate localization of the basic components of human faces (i.e., eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, etc.) from images is an important step in face processing techniques like face tracking, facial expression recognition or face recognition. However, it is a challenging task due to the variations in scale, orientation, pose, facial expressions, partial occlusions and lighting conditions. In the current paper, a scheme includes the method of three-hierarchal stages for facial components extraction is presented; it works regardless of illumination variance. Adaptive linear contrast enhancement methods like gamma correction and contrast stretching are used to simulate the variance in light condition among images. As testing material

Urbanization led to significant changes in the properties of the land surface. That appends additional heat loads at the city, which threaten comfort and health of people. There is unclear understanding represent of the relationship between climate indicators and the features of the early virtual urban design. The research focused on simulation capability, and the affect in urban microclimate. It is assumed that the adoption of certain scenarios and strategies to mitigate the intensity of the UHI leads to the improvement of the local climate and reduce the impact of global warming. The aim is to show on the UHI methods simulation and the programs that supporting simulation and mitigate the effect UHI. UHI reviewed has been conducted the for

In this paper Volterra Runge-Kutta methods which include: method of order two and four will be applied to general nonlinear Volterra integral equations of the second kind. Moreover we study the convergent of the algorithms of Volterra Runge-Kutta methods. Finally, programs for each method are written in MATLAB language and a comparison between the two types has been made depending on the least square errors.