When embankment is constructed on very soft soil, special construction methods are adopted. One of the techniques is a piled embankment. Piled (stone columns) embankments provide an economic and effective solution to the problem of constructing embankments over soft soils. This method can reduce settlements, construction time and cost. Stone columns provide an effective improvement method for soft soils under light structures such as rail or road embankments. The present work investigates the behavior of the embankment models resting on soft soil reinforced with stone columns. Model tests were performed with different spacing distances between stone columns and two lengths to diameter ratios of the stone columns, in addition to different embankment heights. A total number of 21 model tests were carried out on a soil with undrianed shear strength ≈ 10 kPa. The models consist of stone columns embankment at spacing to diameter ratio equal to 2.5, 3 and 4. Three embankment heights; 200 mm, 250 mm and 300 mm were conducted. Three earth pressure cells were used to measure directly the vertical effective stress on column at the top of the middle stone column under the center line of embankment and on the edge stone column for all models while the third cell was placed at the base of embankment between two columns to measure the vertical effective stress in reinforced soft soil directly. The embankment models constructed on soft clay treated with ordinary stone columns at spacing ratio equal 2.5 revealed maximum bearing improvement ratio equals (1.21, 1.44 and 1.7) for 200 mm, 250 mm and 300 embankment heights, respectively and maximum settlement improvement ratio equals (0.78, 0.67 and 0.56) for 200 mm, 250 mm and 300 embankment heights, respectively.
In this research, experimental and numerical studies were carried out to investigate the performance of encased glass-fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) beams under fire. The test specimens were divided into two peer groups to be tested under the effect of ambient and elevated temperatures. The first group was statically tested to investigate the monotonic behavior of the specimens. The second group was exposed to fire loading first and then statically tested to explore the residual behavior of the burned specimens. Adding shear connectors and web stiffeners to the GFRP beam was the main parameter in this investigation. Moreover, service loads were applied to the tested beams during the fire. Utilizing shear connectors, web stiffeners,
... Show MoreBased on nonlinear self- diffraction technique, the nonlinear optical properties of thin slice of matter can be obtained. Here, nonlinear characterization of nano-fluids consist of hybrid Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes and Silver Nanoparticles (SWCNTs/Ag-NPs) dispersed in acetone at volume fraction of 6x10-6, 9x10-6, 18x10-6 have been investigated experimentally. Therefore, CW DPSS laser at 473 nm focused into a quartz cuvette contains the previous nano-fluid was utilized. The number of diffraction ring patterns (N) has been counted using Charge - Coupled- Device (CCD) camera and Pc with a certain software, in order to find the maximum change of refractive index ( of fluids. Our result show that the fraction volume of 18x10-6 is more nonli
... Show MoreThe aim of this study is to investigate the behavior of composite castellated beam in which the concrete slab and steel beam connected together with headed studs shear connectors. Four simply supported composite beams with various degree of castellation were tested under two point static loads. One of these beams was built up using standard steel beam, i.e. without web openings, to be a reference beam. The other three beams were fabricated from the same steel I-section with various three castellation ratios, (25, 35, and 45) %. In all beams the concrete slab has the same section and properties. Deflection at mid span of all beams was measured at each 10 kN load increment. The test results show that the castellation process leads to
... Show MoreThis paper demonstrates an experimental and numerical study aimed at comparing the influence of openings of different configurations on the flexural behavior of reinforced concrete gable roof beams. The experimental program consisted of testing six simply supported gable beams subjected to mid-point concentrated load. The variable which has been investigated in this work was opening's configuration (quadrilateral or circular) with the same upper and lower chords depth. The results indicate improvement in the beams’ flexural behavior when circular openings were used compared with that of quadrilateral openings, represented by an increase in ultimate load capacity and a decrease in deflection at the service limit. Also, there was an
... Show MoreExperimental measurements of viscosity and thermal conductivity of single layer of graphene . based DI-water nanofluid are performed as a function of concentrations (0.1-1wt%) and temperatures between (5 to 35ºC). The result reveals that the thermal conductivity of GNPs nanofluids was increased with increasing the nanoparticle weight fraction concentration and temperature, while the maximum enhancement was about 22% for concentration of 1 wt.% at
35ºC. These experimental results were compared with some theoretical models and a good agreement between Nan’s model and the experimental results was observed. The viscosity of the graphene nanofluid displays Newtonian and Non-Newtonian behaviors with respect to nanoparticles concen
This study was aimed to develop an optimized Dy determination method using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The Plackett-Burman (PB) experimental design was used to select significant factors that affect the electrical current response, which were further optimized using the response surface method-central composite design (RSM-CCD). The type of electrolyte solution and amplitude modulation were found as two most significant factors, among the nine factors tested, which enhance the current response based on PB design. Further optimization using RSM-CCD shows that the optimum values for the tw
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Experimental investigation of the influence of inserting the metal foam to the solar chimney to induce natural ventilation are described and analyzed in this work. To carry out the experimental test, two identical solar chimneys (without insertion of metal foam and with insertion of metal foam) are designed and placed facing south with dimensions of length× width× air gap (2 m× 1 m× 0.2 m). Four incline angles are tested (20o,30o,45o,60o) for each chimney in Baghdad climate condition (33.3o latitude, 44.4o longitude) on October, November, December 2018. The solar chimney performance is investigated by experimentally recording absorber pl
... Show MoreSocial media is known as detectors platform that are used to measure the activities of the users in the real world. However, the huge and unfiltered feed of messages posted on social media trigger social warnings, particularly when these messages contain hate speech towards specific individual or community. The negative effect of these messages on individuals or the society at large is of great concern to governments and non-governmental organizations. Word clouds provide a simple and efficient means of visually transferring the most common words from text documents. This research aims to develop a word cloud model based on hateful words on online social media environment such as Google News. Several steps are involved including data acq
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