This study evaluates the flexural behavior of ultra-thin (50 mm) one‑way reinforced‑concrete (RC) slabs retrofitted with near‑surface mounted (NSM) carbon‑fiber‑reinforced polymer (CFRP) rods under quasi‑static loading. T300‑grade CFRP rods (≈4 mm diameter) were bonded in pre‑cut 7 mm × 7 mm grooves using a two‑part epoxy. As a proof-of-concept experimental baseline, three simply‑supported specimens (1000 mm × 500 mm × 50 mm) were tested in a six‑point bending configuration (four applied loads + two reactions): two conventional controls and one strengthened slab. A load‑control rate of ~15 kN/min was applied; the controls were cycled twice and the strengthened slab four times. Relative to the average of

The natural ventilation in buildings is one of effective strategies for achieving energy efficiency in buildings by employing methods and ways of passive design, as well as its efficiency in providing high ranges of thermal comfort for occupants in buildings and raises their productivity. Because the concept of natural ventilation for many people confined to achieve through the windows and openings only, become necessary to provide this research to demonstrate the various passive design strategies for natural ventilation. Then, research problem: Insufficient knowledge about the importance and mechanism of the application of passive design strategies for natural ventilation in buildings. The research objective is: Analysis of passive desi

Photovoltaic (PV) devices are widely used renewable energy resources and have been increasingly manufactured by many firms and trademarks. This condition makes the selection of right product difficult and requires the development of a fast, accurate and easy setup that can be implemented to test available samples and select the cost effective, efficient, and reliable product for implementation. An automated test setup for PV panels using LabVIEW and several microcontroller-based embedded systems were designed, tested, and implemented. This PV testing system was fully automated, where the only human intervention required was the instalment of PV panel and set up of required testing conditions. The designed and implemented system was

This study involves the design of 24 mixtures of fiber reinforced magnetic reactive powder concrete containing nano Silica. Tap water has been used in mixing 12 of these mixtures, while the other 12 have been mixed using magnetic water. Nano Silica (NS) with ratios (1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3) % were used. The results showed that the mixture containing 2.5%NS gives the highest compressive strength at age 7 days. Many different other tests were carried out, the results showed that the fiber reinforced magnetic reactive powder concrete containing 2.5% NS (FRMRPCCNS)  has the higher bulk density, dynamic modulus of elasticity, ultrasonic pulse velocity  electrical resistivity and lesser absorption than fiber reinforced

‎ Sixteen new complexes with the general formula [M(L)2(H2O)2] were ‎prepared resulting from the reaction of the two new Schiff base ligands, which ‎are‏: -‏ L1= (E)-5-((2-hydroxybenzylidene)amino)-2-phenyl-2,4-dihydro-3H-pyrazol-3-one)‎ L2 = (E)-5-((2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidene)amino)-2-phenylpyrazolidin-3-one) ‎ ‎ With divalent metal ions (manganese, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, cadmium, ‎mercury) and (tetravalent platinum).‎‏ ‏ ‎ Ligands was derived from the reaction of the amine (5-amino-2-phenyl-2,4-‎dihydro-3H-pyrazol-3-one) with Salicylaldehyde and ortho-vanillin, which is ‎linked to the metal ions via the nitrogen atoms are the isomethene group and ‎the oxygen is the hydroxide group of t

We propose a novel strategy to optimize the test suite required for testing both hardware and software in a production line. Here, the strategy is based on two processes: Quality Signing Process and Quality Verification Process, respectively. Unlike earlier work, the proposed strategy is based on integration of black box and white box techniques in order to derive an optimum test suite during the Quality Signing Process. In this case, the generated optimal test suite significantly improves the Quality Verification Process. Considering both processes, the novelty of the proposed strategy is the fact that the optimization and reduction of test suite is performed by selecting only mutant killing test cases from cumulating t-way test ca

A new Differential Evolution (ARDE) algorithm is introduced that automatically adapt a repository of DE strategies and parameters adaptation schemes of the mutation factor and the crossover rate to avoid the problems of stagnation and make DE responds to a wide range of function characteristics at different stages of the evolution. ARDE algorithm makes use of JADE strategy and the MDE_pBX parameters adaptive schemes as frameworks. Then a new adaptive procedure called adaptive repository (AR) has been developed to select the appropriate combinations of the JADE strategies and the parameter control schemes of the MDE_pBX to generate the next population based on their fitness values. Experimental results have been presented to confirm the reli