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

Most studies on deep beams have been made with reinforced concrete deep beams, only a few studies investigate the response of prestressed deep beams, while, to the best of our knowledge, there is not a study that investigates the response of full scale (T-section) prestressed deep beams with large web openings. An experimental and numerical study was conducted in order to investigate the shear strength of ordinary reinforced and partially prestressed full scale (T-section) deep beams that contain large web openings in order to investigate the prestressing existence effects on the deep beam responses and to better understand the effects of prestressing locations and opening depth to beam depth ratio on the deep beam performance and b

The rheological and fusion behavior of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) compounds plays a dominant role in
the processing operations and in the development of physical properties in the processed material. A
comprehensive study was made in this work to evaluate the effect of shear and thermal history on stability, mechanical and rheological properties of rigid PVC compounds. Different samples of Rigid Poly vinyl chloride including dry blend powder, granules, and bottles molded from both were examined. A study was also made on recycled RPVC where 25% of reclaimed material was continuously blended with fresh dry blend and processed for 15 cycles. Results showed that compaction of the PVC material took place in the brabender plastograph at co

Near surface mounted (NSM) carbon fibers reinforced polymer (CFRP) reinforcement is one of the techniques for reinforcing masonry structures and is considered to provide significant advantages. This paper is composed of two parts. The first part presents the experimental study of brick masonry walls reinforced with NSM CFRP strips under combined shear-compression loads. Masonry walls have been tested under vertical compression, with different bed joint orientations 90° and 45° relative to the loading direction. Different reinforcement orientations were used including vertical, horizontal, and a combination of both sides of the wall. The second part of this paper comprises a numerical analysis of unreinforced brick masonry (URM) wa

In this research, an experimental study was conducted to high light the impact of the exterior shape of a cylindrical body on the forced and free convection heat transfer coefficients when the body is hold in the entrance of an air duct. The impact of changing the body location within the air duct and the air speed are also demonstrated. The cylinders were manufactured with circular, triangular and square sections of copper for its high thermal conductivity with appropriate dimensions, while maintaining the surface area of all shapes to be the same. Each cylinder was heated to a certain temperature and put inside the duct at certain locations. The temperature of the cylinder was then monitored. The heat transfer coefficient were then cal

Among all the common mechanical transmission elements, gears still playing the most dominant role especially in the heavy duty works offering extraordinary performance under extreme conditions and that the cause behind the extensive researches concentrating on the enhancement of its durability to do its job as well as possible. Contact stress distribution within the teeth domain is considered as one of the most effective parameters characterizing gear life, performance, efficiency, and application so that it has been well sought for formal gear profiles and paid a lot of attention for moderate tooth shapes. The aim of this work is to investigate the effect of pressure angle, speed ratio, and correction factor on the maxi

This paper studied the behaviour of reinforced reactive powder concrete (RPC) two-way slabs under static load. The experimental program included testing three simply supported slabs of 1000 mm length, 1000 mm width, and 70 mm thickness. Tested specimens were of identical properties except their steel fibers volume ratio (0.5 %, 1 %, and 1.5 %). Static test results revealed that, increasing steel fibers volume ratio from 0.5% to 1% and from 1% to 1.5%, led to an increase in: first crack load by (32.2 % and 52.3 %), ultimate load by (36.1 % and 17.0 %), ultimate deflection by (33.6 % and 3.4 %), absorbed energy by (128 % and 20.2 %), and the ultimate strain by (1.1 % and 6.73 %). The stiffness and ductility of the specimens also increased. A

The Halabja earthquake occurred on 12/11/2017 in Iraq, with a magnitude of 7.3 Mw, which happened in the Iraqi-Iranian borders. This earthquake killed and injured many people in the Kurdish region in the north of the country. There is no natural disaster more dangerous than earthquake, especially it occurs without warning, great attention must be paid to the impact of earthquakes on the soil and preparing for a wave of earthquakes. Numerical modeling using specific elements is considered a powerful tool to investigate the required behavior of structures in Geotechnical engineering, and the main objective of this is to assess the response of the Al-Wand dam to the Halabja earthquake, as this dam is located in an area that has been su