Flexible pavements are subjected to three main distress types: fatigue crack, thermal crack, and permanent deformation. Under severe climate conditions, thermal cracking particularly contributes largely to a considerable scale of premature deterioration of pavement infrastructure worldwide. This challenge is especially relevant for Europe, as weather conditions vary significantly throughout the year. Hydrated lime (HL) has been recognized as an effective additive to improve the mechanical properties of asphalt concrete for pavement applications. Previous research has found that a replacement of conventional limestone dust filler using hydrated lime at 2.5% of the total weight of aggregates generated an optimum improvement in the mechanical properties of the asphalt concrete mixes used for all three purposed layers (i.e., wearing, levelling, and base) at atmospheric temperatures from mild to relatively high. This paper reports on a continuous experimental test for the thermal properties of the optimized hydrated lime-modified mixes. The experiment together with that conducted before provides the required data to characterize the thermomechanical constitutive relations of the optimized hydrated lime-modified mixes. The obtained thermal and mechanical properties thereafter were implemented in a numerical modelling study for a scenario involving pavement exposed to coupled thermal and traffic service conditions. The study has demonstrated that using HL in mineral filler enhances the thermal properties of asphalt concrete, which, however, showed little influence on the local temperature profiles within the pavement structure. The thermal effect is pronounced under the coupled thermomechanical conditions for a pavement exposed to both traffic and climatic impacts. The HL pavement has about 1.5% less deformation, and 39% less stress level under traffic loading only, but the thermal effect increases the maximum total internal tensile stress level by 26% in the HL pavement in winter season. The modelling analysis has shown that the local maximum tensile stress dominates in the surface region of the HL pavement. It will help to reduce the workload of crack repairing and in long term help on saving costs and efforts of maintenance.
Conventional concretes are almost unbending, and even a small amount of strain potential leaves them brittle. This lack of bendability is a major source of strain loss, and it has been the main goal behind the development of bendable concrete, often known with engineered ce ment composites, or ECC. This form of concrete has a lot more flexibility than regular concrete. Micromechanical polymer fibers are used to strengthen ECC. In most cases, ECC uses a 2% amount of thin, separated fibers. As a result, bendable concrete deforms but unlike traditional concrete, it does not crack. This study aims to include this kind of concrete, bendable concrete, which can be used to solve concrete problems. Karasta (CK) and Tasluja (CT) Portland Lime
... Show MoreIn this research TiO2 nano-powder was prepared by a spray pyrolysis technique and then adds to the TiO2 powder with particle size (0.523 μm) in ratio (0, 5, 10, 15 at %) atomic percentage, and then deposition of the mixture on the stainless steel 316 L substrate in order to use in medical and industrial applications.
Structure properties including x-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM0, also some of mechanical properties and the effect of thermal annealing in different temperature have been studied. The results show that the particle size of a prepared nano-powder was 50 up to 75 nm from SEM, and the crystal structure of the powders (original and nano powder) was rutile with tetragonal cell. An improvement in
The Sultanate of Oman is located in the far southwest of the Arabian Peninsula and enjoys a distinctive geographical location as it overlooks the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. The Sultanate has good relations with various countries of the world and enjoys an important regional position. At the beginning of 2020, Sultan Qaboos bin Said died, and Haitham bin Tariq assumed power after him, according to the will of his cousin, the late Sultan. The new Sultan had held some important positions before 2020, including: Minister of Heritage and Culture since February 2002, Chairman of the Supreme Committee for the Future Vision (Oman 2040), Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs f
... Show MoreBackground: Pumpkin seeds are a valuable source of high-quality protein and can be utilized as functional food ingredients due to their properties, such as solubility, foam formation, and stability. This study aims to produce protein isolate and its enzymatic hydrolysates from local pumpkin seeds to study their properties. Methodology: Preparing defatted pumpkin seeds for protein extraction, followed by the enzymes’ hydrolysis using Trypsin and Pepsin enzymes separately and together in two methods. The determination of amino acids and the degree of hydrolysis was conducted; moreover, protein properties were studied, including solubility, emulsifying activity, stability index, foaming capacity, and stability. Results: A protein sample was
... Show MoreIn this research the results of applying Artificial Neural Networks with modified activation function to
perform the online and offline identification of four Degrees of Freedom (4-DOF) Selective Compliance
Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) manipulator robot will be described. The proposed model of
identification strategy consists of a feed-forward neural network with a modified activation function that
operates in parallel with the SCARA robot model. Feed-Forward Neural Networks (FFNN) which have
been trained online and offline have been used, without requiring any previous knowledge about the
system to be identified. The activation function that is used in the hidden layer in FFNN is a modified
version of the wavelet func
In this research the results of applying Artificial Neural Networks with modified activation function to perform the online and offline identification of four Degrees of Freedom (4-DOF) Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) manipulator robot will be described. The proposed model of identification strategy consists of a feed-forward neural network with a modified activation function that operates in parallel with the SCARA robot model. Feed-Forward Neural Networks (FFNN) which have been trained online and offline have been used, without requiring any previous knowledge about the system to be identified. The activation function that is used in the hidden layer in FFNN is a modified version of the wavelet function. This approach ha
... Show MoreDistributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on Web-based services have grown in both number and sophistication with the rise of advanced wireless technology and modern computing paradigms. Detecting these attacks in the sea of communication packets is very important. There were a lot of DDoS attacks that were directed at the network and transport layers at first. During the past few years, attackers have changed their strategies to try to get into the application layer. The application layer attacks could be more harmful and stealthier because the attack traffic and the normal traffic flows cannot be told apart. Distributed attacks are hard to fight because they can affect real computing resources as well as network bandwidth. DDoS attacks
... Show MoreThis study intends to examine the efficiency of student-centered learning (SCL) through Google classroom in enhancing the readiness of fourth stage females’ pre-service teachers. The research employs a quasi-experimental design with a control and experimental group to compare the teaching readiness of participants before and after the intervention. The participants were 30 of fourth stage students at the University of Baghdad - College of Education for Women/the department of English and data were collected through observation checklist to assess their teaching experience and questionnaires to assess their perceptions towards using Google Classroom. Two sections were selected, C as a control group and D as the experimental one each with (
... Show MoreCO2 laser (10.6 μm) is the most often used laser in the oral surgery due to its high absorption by water of the oral tissues. Several benefits of the use of CO2 laser have been reported for oral surgical procedures. This study aims to evaluate the effect of CO2 laser on soft and hard oral tissues (in vitro study). This study was done on fresh tissues from sheep’s head. CO2Surgical Laser with different operation modes was used; 0.2 mm spot size using different laser parameters on the tongue, and bone making holes, incisions and cutting. The depths and widths of holes and incisions were measured using endodontic file under magnification. The speed of incisions was calculated and the required time for cutting was measured using sport clo
... Show MoreThe purpose of present work is to study the relationship of the deformed shape of the nucleus with the radioactivity of nuclei for (Uranium-238 and Thorium-232) series. To achieve our purposes we have been calculated the quadruple deformation parameter (β2) and the eccentricity (e) and compare the radioactive series with the change of the and (e) as indicator for the changing in the nucleus shape with the radioactivity. To obtain the value of quadruple deformation parameter (β2), the adopted value of quadruple transition probability B (E2; 0+ → 2+) was calculated from Global Best fit equation. While the eccentricity (e) was calculated from the values of the minor and major ellipsoid axis’s (a & b). From the results, it is obvi
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