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 openings situation was compounded. The burned NPRC beams were left to gradually cool down under ambient laboratory conditions, and afterward, they were loaded until failure. The influence of temperature on the residual ultimate load-carrying capacity of each beam was studied by comparing these beams with unburned reference beams. Increasing exposure temperature reduces the ultimate strength of solid NPRC beams exposed to temperatures of 400°C and 700°C by about 5.7% and 10.84% respectively. Meanwhile, NPRC beams with trapezoidal openings showed ultimate strength reductions of 21.13% and 32.8% (for beams with 8 openings) and 28% and 34.4% (for beams with 6 openings) under the same burning conditions. The excessive mid-span deflections for these three types of beams were 2%–30.8%, 1.33%–21.8%, and 1.5%–17.4% under the same burning conditions.
In this study, plain concrete simply supported beams subjected to two points loading were analyzed for the flexure. The numerical model of the beam was constructed in the meso-scale representation of concrete as a two phasic material (aggregate, and mortar). The fracture process of the concrete beams under loading was investigated in the laboratory as well as by the numerical models. The Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) was employed for the treatment of the discontinuities that appeared during the fracture process in concrete. Finite element method with the feature standard/explicitlywas utilized for the numerical analysis. Aggregate particles were assumedof elliptic shape. Other properties such as grading and sizes of the aggr
... Show MoreThis paper presents a numerical analysis using ANSYS finite element program to simulate the reinforced concrete slabs with spherical voids. Six full-scale one way bubbled slabs of (3000mm) length with rectangular cross-sectional area of (460mm) width and (150mm) depth are tested as simply supported under two-concentrated load. The results of the finite element model are presented and compared with the experimental data of the tested slabs. Material nonlinearities due to cracking and crushing of concrete and yielding of reinforcement are considered. The general behavior of the finite element models represented by the load-deflection curves at midspan, crack pattern, ultimate load, load-concrete strain curves and failure m
... Show MoreChronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) patients display a highly variable clinical course, with progressive acquisition of drug resistance. We sought to identify aberrant epigenetic traits that are enriched following exposure to treatment that could impact patient response to therapy.
Epigenome-wide analysis of DNA methylation was performed for 20 patients at two timepoints during treatment. The prognostic significance of differentially methylated regions (DMRs) was assessed in independent cohorts of 139 and 1
Concrete structures are exposed to aggressive environmental conditions that lead to corrosion of the embedded reinforcement and pre-stressing steel. Consequently, the safety of concrete structures may be compromised, and this requires a significant budgets to repair and maintain critical infrastructure. Prediction of structural safety can lead to significant reductions in maintenance costs by maximizing the impact of investments. The aim of this paper is to establish a framework to assess the reliability of existing post-tensioned concrete bridges. A time-dependent reliability analysis of an existing post-tensioned involving the assessment of Ynys-y-Gwas bridge has been presented in this study. The main cause of failure of this bridge was c
... Show MoreThe annealing temperature (200–500 °C) effects of optical frequency response on the dielectric functions of sol–gel derived CuCoO
In this paper we use non-polynomial spline functions to develop numerical methods to approximate the solution of 2nd kind Volterra integral equations. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the applications of these method, and to compare the computed results with other known methods.
Background: Masseter muscle is a jaw closing muscle of the mandible involved in Para functional habits; which include lip and cheek chewing, fingernail biting, and teeth clenching or bruxism which can be classified as awake or sleep bruxism. Patients with sleep bruxism are three to four times more likely to experience jaw pain and limitation of movement than people who do not experience sleep bruxism. The aim of this study is to measure the thickness of the masseter muscle in bruxist subjects and compare it with non-bruxist subjects by using sonography. Materials and Method: Forty Iraqi subjects with age ranged (20-40) divided into two groups according to the presence of bruxism. Clinical examination was made and masseter muscle thickness
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