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, and both enhanced the load-carrying capacities of the encased beams by 100.6%, 97.3%, and 130.8%, respectively. Comparisons between the burned and unburned peer beams were presented with losses in the load-carrying capacity of the burned beams. These losses were the highest in the cases of shear connectors and web stiffeners due to the obtained severe damage, which led to more reductions in the residual behavior of the burned beams. Numerical analyses were performed using the general-purpose finite element (FE) ABAQUS package to conduct a parametric study. The investigated parameters included the effect of the exposure duration and the temperature level. The results of the FE analysis showed good agreement with the experimental results. Additional reductions in the residual capacities of the fire-damaged beams were observed due to exposure to longer fire durations. The improvements in the beam capacities due to using shear connectors and web stiffeners relative to the reference beams under the same exposure time decreased as the exposure duration increased. Furthermore, increasing the temperature to 700 °C, 800 °C, 900 °C, and 950 °C caused reductions in the residual capacities by about 25%, 45%, 70%, and 80%, respectively, for the encased beams in comparison to their peers at ambient temperature.
The main objective of this paper is to study the behavior of Non-Prismatic Reinforced Concrete (NPRC) beams with and without rectangular openings either when exposed to fire or not. The experimental program involves casting and testing 9 NPRC beams divided into 3 main groups. These groups were categorized according to heating temperature (ambient temperature, 400°C, and 700°C), with each group containing 3 NPRC beams (solid beams and beams with 6 and 8 trapezoidal openings). For beams with similar geometry, increasing the burning temperature results in their deterioration as reflected in their increasing mid-span deflection throughout the fire exposure period and their residual deflection after cooling. Meanwhile, the existing ope
... Show MoreThis research is concerned to investigate the behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) deep beams strengthened with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips. The experimental part of this research is carried out by testing seven RC deep beams having the same dimensions and steel reinforcement which have been divided into two groups according to the strengthening schemes. Group one was consisted of three deep beams strengthened with vertical U-wrapped CFRP strips. While, Group two was consisted of three deep beams strengthened with inclined CFRP strips oriented by 45o with the longitudinal axis of the beam. The remaining beam is kept unstrengthening as a reference beam. For each group, the variable considered
... Show MoreThe piled raft is a geotechnical composite construction consisting of three elements: piles, raft and soil.
In the design of piled rafts, the load shared between the piles and the raft, and the piles are used up to a
load level that can be of the same order of magnitude as the bearing capacity of a comparable single
pile or even greater. Therefore, the piled raft foundation allows reduction of settlements in a very
economic way as compared to traditional foundation concepts.
This paper presents experimental study to investigate the behavior of piled raft system in sandy
soil. A small scale “prototype” model was tested in a sand box with load applied to the system through
a compression machine. The settlement was
A time series analysis can help to observe the behavior of the system and specify the system faults. In addition, it also helps to explain the various energy flows in the system and further aid in reducing the thermodynamic losses. The intelligent supervisory LabVIEW software can monitor the incoming data from the system by using Arduino microcontroller and calculates the important parameters. Energy, exergy, and anergy analysis present in this paper to investigate the system performance as well as its components. To accomplish this, a 4-ton vertical split air conditioner based on vapor compression refrigeration cycle charged with refrigerant R-22 was modified for experimental analysis. The results showed that during 540
... Show MoreThe determination of aerodynamic coefficients by shell designers is a critical step in the development of any projectile design. Of particular interest is the determination of the aerodynamic coefficients at transonic speeds. It is in this speed regime that the critical aerodynamic behavior occurs and a rapid change in the aerodynamic coefficients is observed. Two-dimensional, transonic, flow field computations over projectiles have been made using Euler equations which were used for solution with no special treatment required. In this work a solution algorithm is based on finite difference MacCormack’s technique for solving mixed subsonic-supersonic flow problem. Details of the asymmetrically located shock waves on the projectiles hav
... Show MoreIn most Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings, the cross-section size of rectangular columns that conventionally used in these structures is larger than the thickness of their partitions. Consequently, a part of the column is protruded out of the wall which has some architectural disadvantages. Reducing the column size by using high strength concrete will result in slender column, thus the stability problem may be occurred. The stability problem is difficult to be overcome with rectangular columns. This paper study the effectiveness of using new types of columns called Specially Shaped Reinforced Concrete (SSRC) columns. Besides, the use of SSRC columns provides many structural advantage
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
... Show MoreIn the present work, experimental tests was done to explain the effect of insulation and water level on the yield output. Linear basin, single slope solar still used to do this purpose. The test was done from May to August 2017 in Mosul City-Iraq (Latitude: Longitude: Elevation: 200 m, and South-East face). Experimental results showed that the yield output of the still increased by 20.785% and 19.864% in case of using thermal insulation at 4cm and 5cm respectively, also the yield output decrease by 15.134% as the water level increase from 4 to 5cm, with the presence of insulation and 14.147% without it. It has been conclude that the insulation and water level play important role in the process of passive
... Show MoreExperiments were conducted to study the behavior of the solid particles (proppant) inside the hydraulic fracture during the formation stimulation, and study the effect of the proppant concentration on the hydraulic fracturing process, which lead to bridge and screen-out conditions inside the fractures across the fracture width that restricts fracturing fluid to flow into the hydraulic fracture. The research also studies the effect of the ratio between the fracture size and the average particles diameter “proppant", on fracture bridging. In this study two ratios were considered β= 2 and 3 ,where β=Dt / Dp where: Dt= hydraulic fracture size (width) and Dp=Average particles diameter.
This work pr
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