This study expands the state of the art in studies that assess torsional retrofit of reinforced concrete (RC) multi-cell box girders with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips. The torsional behavior of non-damaged and pre-damaged RC multi-cell box girder specimens externally retrofitted by CFRP strips was investigated through a series of laboratory experiments. It was found that retrofitting the pre-damaged specimens with CFRP strips increased the ultimate torsional capacity by more than 50% as compared to the un-damaged specimens subjected to equivalent retrofitting. This indicated that the retrofit has been less effective for the girder specimen that did not develop distortion beforehand as a result of pre-loading. From experimental observations, when the girder specimen was cracked and the transverse steel reinforcement bars started straining, the CFRP strips started to work more effectively and contributed together with the transverse steel reinforcement to resist torsion load. Additionally, Finite Element (FE) simulations were developed using Abaqus to model the torsional behavior of the retrofitted girders, the results of which were validated with the experimental data. With the numerical model, the effect of concrete compressive strength, transverse reinforcement spacing, and CFRP strip spacing were examined. The effectiveness of the CFRP strips in enhancing the torsional strength of the girder was found to increase with increasing the spacing between the transverse reinforcement.
This investigation integrates experimental and numerical approaches to study a novel solar air heater aimed at achieving an efficient design for a solar collector suitable for drying applications under the meteorological conditions of Iraq. The importance of this investigation stems from the lack of optimal exploitation of solar energy reaching the solar collector, primarily attributable to elevated thermal losses despite numerous designs employed in such solar systems. Consequently, enhancing the thermal performance of solar collectors, particularly those employed in crop drying applications, stands as a crucial focal point for researchers within this domain. Two identical double-pass solar air heaters were designed and constructed for
... Show MoreAbstract: The international community now places significant emphasis on achieving zero carbon emissions, requiring both new researchers and experienced policymakers to prioritise this goal. This article examines the effects of carbon taxes, carbon cap and trade, renewable energy (RE) production and consumption, and economic growth (EG) on carbon emission reduction in the United States, Japan, Canada, and Australia. The study collected secondary data from the World Development Indicators (WDI) secondary source spanning the years 1991 to 2022. The study examines the relationship between variables using the cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) approach. The findings indicate that carbon taxes, carbon cap and tr
... Show More<p>The directing of a wheeled robot in an unknown moving environment with physical barriers is a difficult proposition. In particular, having an optimal or near-optimal path that avoids obstacles is a major challenge. In this paper, a modified neuro-controller mechanism is proposed for controlling the movement of an indoor mobile robot. The proposed mechanism is based on the design of a modified Elman neural network (MENN) with an effective element aware gate (MEEG) as the neuro-controller. This controller is updated to overcome the rigid and dynamic barriers in the indoor area. The proposed controller is implemented with a mobile robot known as Khepera IV in a practical manner. The practical results demonstrate that the propo
... Show MoreFabrication of solar cell prepared by thermal spray and vacuum thermal evaporation method on silicon wafer(n-type) and studying its efficiency. The film have been deposited on three layers(ZnO then CdS and CdTe) on Si and glass respectively.Direct energy gap was calculated and equal to (4.3,3.4,3)eV and indirect energy gap equal to (3.5,2.5,1.5)eV respectively . Efficiency was calculated for the cell of area 2cm2 it was equal to 0.14%.
Multi-nationalities companies are the main companies in the progressed
countries that improve the current technology and, thus, become the main source of it.
These companies, in the first place, aim to increase the profits of its
investments to satisfy stock holders in the original countries to which these companies
belong.
It is a mean to interfere in the economic of countries especially the growing
ones and exploit their important natural resources. Since this research focus on the
dangers of these companies, mechanism of its work and its dangers on the most
important natural resources of our country which is oil; therefore, the research
confirm that this important natural treasure must be under an Iraqi cont
The thermal method was used to produce silicoaluminophosphate (SAPO-11) with different amounts of carbon nanotubes (CNT). XRD, nitrogen adsorption-desorption, SEM, AFM, and FTIR were used to characterize the prepared catalyst. It was discovered that adding CNT increased the crystallinity of the synthesize SAPO-11 at all the temperatures which studied, wile the maximum surface area was 179.54 m2/g obtained at 190°C with 7.5 percent of CNT with a pore volume of 0.317 cm3/g ,and with nano-particles with average particle diameter of 24.8 nm, while the final molar composition of the prepared SAPO-11 was (Al2O3:0.93P2O5:0.414SiO2).
There are no single materials which can withstand all the extreme operating conditions in modern technology. Protection of the metals from hostile environments has therefore become a technical and economic necessity.
In this work, for enhancing their wear-resistance, boride layers were deposited on the surface of low carbon steel by a pack cementation method at 850 °C for (2, 4, and 6) h using vacuum furnace. The boronizing process was achieved using different concentration of boron source (20, 25, and 30) % wt. into coating mixture to optimize the best conditions which ensure the higher properties with lower time. The coating was characteristic by X ray diffraction (XRD), and it is confirmed t
... Show More