A novel demountable shear connector for precast steel-concrete composite bridges is presented. The connector uses high-strength steel bolts, which are fastened to the top flange of the steel beam with the aid of a special locking nut configuration that prevents bolts from slipping within their holes. Moreover, the connector promotes accelerated construction and overcomes the typical construction tolerance issues of precast structures. Most importantly, the connector allows bridge disassembly. Therefore, it can address different bridge deterioration scenarios with minimum disturbance to traffic flow including the following: (1) precast deck panels can be rapidly uplifted and replaced; (2) connectors can be rapidly removed and replaced; and (

This paper reports a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) as a biosensor. The FBGs were etched using a chemical agent,namely,hydrofluoric acid (HF). This implies the removal of some part of the cladding layer. Consequently, the evanescent field propagating out of the core will be closer to the environment and become more sensitive to the change in the surrounding. The proposed FBG sensor was utilized to detect toxic heavy metal ions aqueous medium namely, copper ions (Cu2+). Two FBG sensors were etched with 20 and 40 μm diameters and fabricated. The sensors were studied towards Cu2+ with different concentrations using wavelength shift as a result of the interaction between the evanescent field and copper ions. The FBG sensors showed

Abstract: In this work we demonstrate and investigate the optical pulse propagation in a photonic band gap fiber Bragg grating (FBG). The light propagates in opposite direction in FBG is explained and discussed by a Coupled Mode Theory (CMT). The photonic band gap (stop band gap) is created by fabricated, a Bragg grating in optical fiber. The results show the pulse spectrum falls entirely within the stop band gap, the entire pulse is reflected by the grating, while when the pulse spectrum is outside the stop band gap the pulses will transmitted through the grating. The group velocity (VG) becomes zero at the edges of the stop band and group velocity dispersion β2 is anomalous on the shorter side of stop band gap whereas β2 for uniform fi

In this paper, simulation study of the frequency shift of photonic bandgaps due to refractive index scaling using liquids filled hollow-core photonic crystal fibers is presented. Different liquids (distilled water, n-hexane, methanol, ethanol and acetone) are used to fill the cladding of 2 types of hollow core photonic crystal fibers (HC19-1060, HC7-1060). These liquids are used to change the effective index scaling and index contrast of the cladding. The effect of increasing temperature of the liquid (20-100 0C for water and 20-70 0C for other liquids ) infiltrated hollow core fiber on the bandgap width and transmission properties has been computed. The maximum photonic bandgap width at 0.0243 has appeared with filling HC7-1060 PCF with

Abstract The present work aims to study the performance of reinforced compacted clay soil by sand columns stabilized with sodium silicate to obtain more solid columns than the surrounding soil. The experimental work was carried out by using a lab model to evaluate the performance of both the floating and end bearing sand columns. The results showed that the improvement ratio for the soil reinforced with sand columns stabilized with sodium silicate reached 390% for the type of floating columns and 438% for end bearing columns.

Pultruded materials made of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) come in a broad range of shapes, such as bars, I-sections, C-sections, etc. FRP materials are starting to compete with steel as structural materials owing to their great resistance, low self-weight, and cheap maintenance costs, especially in corrosive conditions. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a novel concrete Composite Column (CC) using Encased I-Section (EIS) as a reinforcement in contrast to traditional steel bars by using Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) as I-section (CC-EIS) to evaluate the effectiveness of the hybrid columns which have been built by combining GFRP profiles with concrete columns. To achieve the aims of this study, nine circular co

Abstract: This study aims to investigate the backscattering electron coefficient for SixGe1-x/Si heterostructure sample as a function of primary electron beam energy (0.25-20 keV) and Ge concentration in the alloy. The results obtained have several characteristics that are as follows: the first one is that the intensity of the backscattered signal above the alloy is mainly related to the average atomic number of the SixGe1-x alloy. The second feature is that the backscattering electron coefficient line scan shows a constant value above each layer at low primary electron energies below 5 keV. However, at 5 keV and above, a peak and a dip appeared on the line scan above Si-Ge alloy and Si, respectively, close to the interfacing line

Geotechnical engineers have always been concerned with the stabilization of slopes. For this purpose,
various methods such as retaining walls, piles, and geosynthetics may be used to increase the safety factor of slopes prone to failure. The application of stone columns may also be another potential alternative for slope stabilization. Such columns have normally been used for cohesive soil improvement. Most slope analysis and design is based on deterministic approach i.e a set of single valued design parameter are adopted and a set of single valued factor of safety (FOS) is determined. Usually the FOS is selected in view of the understanding and knowledge of the material parameters, the problem geometry, the method of analysis and the