The present work deals with an experimental investigation of charging and discharging processes in thermal storage system using a phase change material PCM. Paraffin wax was used as the PCM which is formed in spherical capsules and packed in a cylindrical packed column which acted as an energy storage system. Air was used as the heat transfer fluid HTF in thermal storage unit. The effect of flow rate and inlet temperature of HTF on the time of charging and discharging process were studied. The results showed that the faster storage of thermal energy can be made by high flow rate of heat transfer fluid HTF and high inlet temperature of heat transfer fluid. It was found that at 65°C HTF inlet temperature, the melting and solidification pr

Our aim was to investigate the changes in the myocardium stiffness index for patients suffering from systemic hypertension, and to assess their left ventricular performance. We studied 263 hypertensive patients and 166 healthy subjects as a control group. By using conventional Doppler echocardiography, the following parameters were measured—Left ventricular end diastolic diameter, left ventricular end systolic diameter, transmitral early velocity, isovolumic relaxation time, and isovolumic contraction time. Tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) was used in the measurements of the early mitral annular velocity (Ea) and the diastolic stiffness was obtained by calculating the ratio E\Ea\LVIDd. Index myocardial performance (IMP) was calculated

The aim of this study is to identify the effect of particle size and to increase the concentration of Iraqi bentonite on rheological properties in order to evaluate its performance and to know if it can be used as drilling fluid without additives or not. In this study, Iraqi bentonite was carried out by mineral composition (XRD), chemical composition (XRF) and Particle size distribution (PSD), and its rheological properties were measured at different particle size and concentration. The results showed that when the particle size of Iraqi bentonite decreased, and the rheological properties were increased with increased concentration of Iraqi bentonite. Also, Iraqi bentonite was unable to use as drilling fluid without certain additives.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures were synthesized through the hydrothermal method at various conditions growth times (6,7 and 8 hrs.) and a growth temperature (70, 90, and 100 ºC). The prepared ZnO nanostructure samples were described using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffractometer to distinguish their surface morphologies and crystal structures. The ZnO samples were confirmed to have the same crystal type, with different densities and dimensions (diameter and length). The obtained ZnO nanostructures were used to manufacture gas sensors for NO2 gas detection. Sensing characteristics for the fabricated sensor to NO2 gas were examined at different operating temperatures (180, 200, 220, and 240) ºC with a low gas concentrati

Prediction of the structural response of reinforced concrete to the time-dependent, creep and shrinkage, volume changes is complex. Creep is usually determined by measuring the change, with time, in the strain of specimens subjected to a constant stress and stored under appropriate conditions. This paper brings into view the development of creep strain for four self-compacting concrete mixes: A40, AL40, B60 and BL60 (where 40 and 60 represent the compressive strength level at 28 days and L indicates to Portlandlimestone cement). Specimens were put under sustained load and exposed to controlled conditions in a creep chamber (ASTM C512). The test results showed that normal strength Portland-limestone mixes have yielded lower ultimate c

Solid waste is a major issue in today's world. Which can be a contributing factor to pollution and the spread of vector-borne diseases. Because of its complicated nonlinear processes, this problem is difficult to model and optimize using traditional methods. In this study, a mathematical model was developed to optimize the cost of solid waste recycling and management. In the optimization phase, the salp swarm algorithm (SSA) is utilized to determine the level of discarded solid waste and reclaimed solid waste. An optimization technique SSA is a new method of finding the ideal solution for a mathematical relationship based on leaders and followers. It takes a lot of random solutions, as well as their outward or inward fluctuations, t

The minimization, treatment and disposal of drilling wastes especially oily wastes are important environmental issues.

In this research two fungal isolates named Pleurotus ostreatus and Trichoderma harzianum were chosen carefully f or the purpose of biotreatment of oily drilled cuttings which resulting from  drilling oil wells using oil based muds (OBMs).

A relationship of total petroleum hydrocarbon degradation in oily drilled cuttings with time has been obtained. The results showed that Pleurotus ostreatus and Trichoderma harzianum can be considered hydrocarbon degrading microorganisms and the used biotreatment is cost effective process since most of the materials used in the cultivation and growth of the present f

Compressing an image and reconstructing it without degrading its original quality is one of the challenges that still exist now a day. A coding system that considers both quality and compression rate is implemented in this work. The implemented system applies a high synthetic entropy coding schema to store the compressed image at the smallest size as possible without affecting its original quality. This coding schema is applied with two transform-based techniques, one with Discrete Cosine Transform and the other with Discrete Wavelet Transform. The implemented system was tested with different standard color images and the obtained results with different evaluation metrics have been shown. A comparison was made with some previous rel

 In this work, a reactive DC magnetron sputtering technique was used to prepare TiO₂ thin films. The variation in argon and oxygen gases mixing ratios (4:1, 2:1, 1:1, 1:2, 1:4) was used to achieve optimal properties for gas sensing. In addition, an analysis of the optical XRD properties of TiO₂ thin films is presented. High-quality and uniform nanocrystalline films were obtained at a working gas pressure of 0.25 mbar and  1:4 (Ar/O₂) gas mixture. The optical properties showed a transparent thin film with uniform adherence to the substrate. The average transmission of the TiO₂ films deposited on the glass substrates was higher than 95% over the range of 400 to 800 nm.