The analysis of rigid pavements is a complex mission for many reasons. First, the loading conditions include the repetition of parts of the applied loads (cyclic loads), which produce fatigue in the pavement materials. Additionally, the climatic conditions reveal an important role in the performance of the pavement since the expansion or contraction induced by temperature differences may significantly change the supporting conditions of the pavement. There is an extra difficulty because the pavement structure is made of completely different materials, such as concrete, steel, and soil, with problems related to their interfaces like contact or friction. Because of the problem's difficulty, the finite element simulation is the best technique incorporated in the analysis of rigid pavements. The ABAQUS software was used to conduct the response of previously tested specimens under different loading conditions. Good agreement between the laboratory and finite element results was observed. The maximum differences between experimental and finite element outcomes in terms of ultimate loads and ultimate deflection for rigid pavements under monotonic loading are 6% and 8%, respectively, and 10% and 18% respectively for the repeated load.
Due to economic reasons or need for environmental conservatism or also preserve the natural resources; there has been an increasing shift towards the use of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) materials in the pavement construction industry. Therefore, use the Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) has been enormously increased in pavement construction and has been become common practice in many countries. Nevertheless, this is a relatively new concept in Iraq, and has to be remarked that is not used RAP in the production of HMA and this valuable material is mostly degraded. For this purpose, the reclaimed materials were collected from deteriorated pavement segments. The components of asphalt mixtures consist of: two asphalt penetration grades (40-5
... Show MoreThe present study aims to study the content and spatial distribution of lead (Pb) contamination in the soils of some Baghdad cities (Middle of Iraq). Twenty soil samples were randomly collected from different land-use in the studied area at a depth between 5 to 30 cm. Ten samples are collected from Al-Rissafa side areas (Adhamiya, Al-Wazeeria (Battery Manufacturer), Shikh Omer, Ziyouna, Karada, Shaab, Sadr city, Al-Za’franiya, Al-Dora expressway, and Alselikh ) and other ten samples are collected from Al-Krakh side areas Al-Dora, Al-Masafi junction, Al-Dora, Sayidia, Al-Salam university college, Al-Bayaa (Industrial District), Jehad, Amirya, Abu Ghraib, Al-hurriya, and Kadhimiya. The soil samples have been analyzed for the lead (P
... Show MoreThe influence of sensing element length of no-core fiber strain sensor has been studied and experimentally demonstrated, four different lengths of 125 μm diameter no-core fiber is fused between two standard single-mode fibers and bi-directionally strained, the highest obtained sensitivity was around 16.37 pm με -1 which was exhibited in the shortest no-core fiber segment, to the best of our knowledge this is the first study of the influence of no-core fiber strain sensors length on sensor sensitivity. The proposed sensor can be used in many opto-mechanical applications such as, structural health monitoring, aerospace vehicles and airplane components monitoring.
Encasing glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) beam with reinforced concrete (RC) improves stability, prevents buckling of the web, and enhances the fire resistance efficiency. This paper provides experimental and numerical investigations on the flexural performance of RC specimens composite with encased pultruded GFRP I-sections. The effect of using shear studs to improve the composite interaction between the GFRP beam and concrete was explored. Three specimens were tested under three-point loading. The deformations, strains in the GFRP beams, and slippages between the GFRP beams and concrete were recorded. The embedded GFRP beam enhanced the peak loads by 65% and 51% for the composite specimens with and without shear connectors,
... Show MoreConcrete structures are exposed to aggressive environmental conditions that lead to corrosion of the embedded reinforcement and pre-stressing steel. Consequently, the safety of concrete structures may be compromised, and this requires a significant budgets to repair and maintain critical infrastructure. Prediction of structural safety can lead to significant reductions in maintenance costs by maximizing the impact of investments. The aim of this paper is to establish a framework to assess the reliability of existing post-tensioned concrete bridges. A time-dependent reliability analysis of an existing post-tensioned involving the assessment of Ynys-y-Gwas bridge has been presented in this study. The main cause of failure of this bridge was c
... Show MoreFlexible pavements are considered an essential element of transportation infrastructure. So, evaluations of flexible pavement performance are necessary for the proper management of transportation infrastructure. Pavement condition index (PCI) and international roughness index (IRI) are common indices applied to evaluate pavement surface conditions. However, the pavement condition surveys to calculate PCI are costly and time-consuming as compared to IRI. This article focuses on developing regression models that predict PCI from IRI. Eighty-three flexible pavement sections, with section length equal to 250 m, were selected in Al-Diwaniyah, Iraq, to develop PCI-IRI relationships. In terms of the quantity and severity of eac
... Show MoreThe reinforced fiberglass in cement slurry reflects the effect on its properties compared to usual additives. Fiberglass is typically used in cement slurry design for one or another of the following goals: (Earth earthquake, bearing storage, and with differential stresses, to enhance cement durability and increase its compressive strength). The main goal is to use glass fiber and ground fiberglass to improve the tensile strength and moderate compressive strength significantly. On the other hand, the use of glass fibers led to a slight increase in the value of thickening time, which is a desirable effect. Eleven glass fiber samples and milled glass fiber were used to show these materials' effect on Iraqi cement with (0.125, 0.25, 0.5
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