One of the most severe problems with flexible asphalt pavements is permanent deformation in the form of rutting. Accordingly, the practice of adding fiber elements to asphalt mix to improve performance under dynamic loading has grown significantly in order to prevent rutting distress and ensure a safe and long-lasting road surface. This paper explores the effects of a combination of ceramic fiber (CF), a low-cost, easily available mineral fiber, and thermal insulator fiber reinforced to enhance the Marshall properties and increase the rutting resistance of asphalt mixes at high temperatures. Asphalt mixtures with 0%, 0.75%, 1.5%, and 2.25% CF content were prepared, and Marshall stability and wheel tracking tests were employed to study the effect of added CF on asphalt mixture performance. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) were also used to investigate the morphologies of CF and reinforced asphalt mixtures and to identify the mechanism of improvement .According to the study results, the ideal ceramic fiber content was 1.5%, which yielded an improve in Marshall stability and reduced rut depth by 22.05% and 27.71% at temperatures of 50°C and 60°C, respectively, when compared to asphalt mixtures without CF. Microscopic analyses clearly revealed the surface properties, particle diameter size, and fiber distribution of the reinforced mixture, including the network structure and strength mechanism, which improved the performance of the asphalt mixture by forming a three-dimensional network.
This experimental study demonstrates the gable-reinforced concrete beams’ behavior with several number of openings (six and eight) and posts’ inclination, aimed to find the strength reduction in this type of beam. The major results found are: for the openings extending over similar beam length it is better to increase the number of posts (openings),
This paper presents a study (experimentally) for strengthening reinforced concrete (RC) beams with Near-Surface-Mounted (NSM) technique. The use of this technique with CFRP strips or rebars is an efficient technology for increasing the strength for flexure and shear or for repairing damaged reinforced concrete (RC) members. The objective of this research is to study, experimentally, RC beams either repaired or strengthened with NSM CFRP strips and follow their flexural behavior and failure modes. NSM-CFRP strips were used to strengthen three RC beam specimens, one of them was initially strengthened and tested up to failure. Four beam specimens have been initially subjected to preloading to 50% and 80% of ultimate load. Two of the sp
... Show MoreIn this study, nanocomposites have been prepared by adding
multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with weight ratios (0, 2, 3,
4, 5) wt% to epoxy resin. The samples were prepared by hand lay-up
method. Influence of an applied load before and after immersion in
sodium hydroxide (NaOH) of normality (0.3N) for (15 days) at
laboratory temperature on wear rate of Ep/MWCNTs
nanocomposites was studied. The results showed that wear rate
increases with increasing the applied load for the as prepared and
immersed samples and after immersion. It was also found that epoxy
resin reinforced with MWCNTs has wear rate less than neat epoxy.
The sample (Ep + 5wt% of MWCNTs) has lower wear rate. The
immersion effect in base so
In this study, the mechanical properties of an epoxy and unidirectional woven carbon with fiberglass composite were experimentally investigated. When preparing the composite samples, American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)standard was used. Tensile, impact and flexural test were conducted to investigate the mechanical properties of the new produced epoxy Unidirectional Woven Carbon and Epoxy Fiberglass composites. The outcome showed that the strength of the produced samples increased with the increase in the number of unidirectional woven carbon layers added. Two methods were utilized: (1) woven carbon composite with glass fiber (2) woven carbon composite). The two methods of composite were compared with each other. The resul
... Show MoreThis paper is devoted to investigate the effect of burning by fire flame on the behavior and load carrying capacity of rectangular reinforced concrete rigid beams. Reduced scale beam models (which are believed to resemble as much as possible field conditions) were suggested. Five end restrained beam specimens were cast and tested. The specimens were subjected to fire flame temperatures ranging from (25-750) ºC at age of 60 days, two temperature levels of 400ºC and 750ºC were chosen with exposure duration of 1.5 hour. The cast rectangular reinforced concretebeam (2250×375×375 mm) (length× width× height respectively) were subjected to fire. Results indicate remarkable reduction in the ultrasonic pulse velocity and rebound number of
... Show MoreThe placement of buildings and structures on/or adjacent to slopes is possible, but this poses a danger to the structure due to failures that occur in slopes. Therefore, a solution or improvement should be determined for these issues of the collapse of the structure as a result of the failure of the slopes. A laboratory model has been built to test the impact of some variables on the bearing capacity factor. The variables include the magnitude of static axial load applied at the center of footing, the depth of embedment, the spacing between geogrid reinforcement layer and the numbering of the geogrid sheet under the footing, the inclination angle of slope clayey soil (β), the spacing between the footing's edge and the slope's end (b/H). Th
... Show MoreThis paper demonstrates an experimental and numerical study on the behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) columns with longitudinal steel embedded tubes positioned at the center of the column cross-section. A total of 12 pin-ended square sectional columns of 150 × 150 mm having a total height of 1400 mm were investigated. The considered variables were the steel tube diameters of 29, 58, and 76 mm and the load eccentricity (0, 50, and 150) mm. Accordingly, these columns were divided into three groups (four columns in each group) depending on the load eccentricity (e) to column depth (h) ratio (e/h = 0, 1/3, and 1). For each group, one column was solid (reference), and the other three columns contained steel tubes with hollow rat
... Show MoreCarbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) is widely acknowledged as a leading advanced material structure, offering superior properties compared to traditional materials, and has found diverse applications in several industrial sectors, such as that of automobiles, aircrafts, and power plants. However, the production of CFRP composites is prone to fabrication problems, leading to structural defects arising from cycling and aging processes. Identifying these defects at an early stage is crucial to prevent service issues that could result in catastrophic failures. Hence, routine inspection and maintenance are crucial to prevent system collapse. To achieve this objective, conventional nondestructive testing (NDT) methods are utilized to i
... Show MoreIn this work, excess properties (eg excess molar volume (VE), excess viscosity (ȠE), excess Gibbs free energy of activation of viscos flow (ΔG* E) and molar refraction changes (ΔnD) of binary solvent mixtures of tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol (THFA) with aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene, toluene and p-xylene) have been calculated. This was achieved by determining the physical properties including density ρ, viscosity Ƞ and refraction index nD of liquid mixtures at 298.15 K. Results of the excess parameters and deviation functions for the binary solvent mixtures at 298.15 K have been discussed by molecular interactions that occur in these mixtures. Generally, parameters showed negative values and have been found to fit well to Redlich-Kister
... Show MoreThe performance grading system (superpave) has provided means to incorporate binder characteristics with
pavement failure types. It’s a comprehensive system that relates climate, traffic conditions and aging with
critical pavement distress. The objective of this paper is to develop an improved asphalt binder grading
system for Iraq based on the principal of superpave. The country was divided into different zones according
to the highest and lowest temperature ranges and traffic loading. The Performance graded binder proposed
for each zone was compared with some States of USA that have same hot weather of Iraq by using Long
Term Pavement Performance (LTPP v3.1) software. Iraqi asphalt samples were tested using the Supe