A ‘locking-bolt’ demountable shear connector (LBDSC) is proposed to facilitate the deconstruction and reuse of steel-concrete composite structures, in line with achieving a more sustainable construction design paradigm. The LBDSC is comprised of a grout-filled steel tube and a geometrically compatible partially threaded bolt. The latter has a geometry that ‘locks’ the bolt in compatible holes predrilled on the steel flange and eliminates initial slip and construction tolerance issues. The structural behaviour of the LBDSC is evaluated through nine pushout tests using a horizontal test setup. The effects of the tube thickness, strength of concrete slab, and strength of infilled grout on the shear resistance, initial stiffness, and du

This investigation reports application of a mesoporous nanomaterial based on dicationic ionic liquid bonded to amorphous silica, namely nano-N,N,N′,N′-tetramethyl-N-(silican-propyl)-N′-sulfo-ethane-1,2-diaminium chloride (nano-[TSPSED][Cl]2), as an extremely effectual and recoverable catalyst for the generation of bis(pyrazolyl)methanes and pyrazolopyranopyrimidines in solvent-free conditions. In both synthetic protocols, the performance of this catalyst was very useful and general and presented attractive features including short reaction times with high yields, reasonable turnover frequency and turnover number values, easy workup, high performance under mild conditions, recoverability and reusability in 5 consecutive runs without lo

Coaxial (wire-cylinder) electrodes arrangements are widely used for electrostatic deposition of dust particles in flue gases, when a high voltage is applied to electrodes immersed in air and provide a strongly non-uniform electric field. The efficiency of electrostatic filters mainly depends on the value of the applied voltage and the distribution of the electric field. In this work, a two-dimensional computer simulation was constructed to study the effect of different applied voltages (20, 22, 25, 26, 28, 30 kV) on the inner electrode and their effect on the efficiency of the electrostatic precipitator. Finite Element Method (FEM) and COMSOL Multiphysics software were used to simulate the cross section of a wire cylinder. The results sh

In this paper the method of singular value decomposition  is used to estimate the ridge parameter of ridge regression estimator which is an alternative to ordinary least squares estimator when the general linear regression model suffer from near multicollinearity.

     In the present investigation two different types of fiber reinforced polymer composites were prepared by hand lay-up method using three different parameters (curing temperature, pressing load and fiber volume fraction). These composites were prepared from the polyester resin as the matrix material reinforced with glass fibers as first group of samples and mat Kevlar fibers as the second group, both with different volume fractions (4%, 8%, and 12%) of fibers. They were then tested by tensile strength and impact strength. The main objective in this study is to use Taguchi method for predicting the better parameters that give the better tensile and impact strength to the composites, and then preparing composites at

In recent years, observed focus greatly on gold nanoparticles synthesis due to its unique properties and tremendous applicability. In most of these researches, the citrate reduction method has been adopted. The aim of this study was to prepare and optimize monodisperse ultrafine particles by addition of reducing agent to gold salt, as a result of seed mediated growth mechanism. In this research, gold nanoparticles suspension (G) was prepared by traditional standard Turkevich method and optimized by studying different variables such as reactants concentrations, preparation temperature and stirring rate on controlling size and uniformity of nanoparticles through preparing twenty formulas (G1-G20). Subsequently, the selected formula that pr

The dynamic thermomechanical properties, sealing ability, and voids formation of an experimental obturation hydroxyapatite-reinforced polyethylene (HA/PE) composite/carrier system were investigated and compared with those of a commercial system [GuttaCore (GC)]. The HA/PE system was specifically designed using a melt-extrusion process. The viscoelastic properties of HA/PE were determined using a dynamic thermomechanical analyser. Human single-rooted teeth were endodontically instrumented and obturated using HA/PE or GC systems, and then sealing ability was assessed using a fluid filtration system. In addition, micro-computed tomography (μCT) was used to quantify apparent voids within the root-canal space. The data were statistically analys

We present a reliable algorithm for solving, homogeneous or inhomogeneous, nonlinear ordinary delay differential equations with initial conditions. The form of the solution is calculated as a series with easily computable components. Four examples are considered for the numerical illustrations of this method. The results reveal that the semi analytic iterative method (SAIM) is very effective, simple and very close to the exact solution demonstrate reliability and efficiency of this method for such problems.

In this work, two cone-inverted cylindrical and cross-hybrid dielectric resonator antennas are stacked and excited by the coaxial probe method with an operating standard resonant frequency of 5.438 GHz. A drawback of these standard Dielectric Resonator Antennas (DRAs) is their narrow bandwidth. For good antenna performance, a stacked DR geometry and a thick dielectric substrate having a low dielectric constant are desired since this provides large bandwidth, better radiation power, reduces conductor loss and nonappearance of surface waves. Many approaches, such as changing the shape of the dielectric resonator, have been used to enhance bandwidth. Using DRA, having the lowest dielectric constant, increases the bandwidth and the electroma