The provision of openings in serviceable reinforced concrete beams may result in a substantial decline in the beam's capacity and integrity, indicating the necessity of opening strengthening. The present study investigates the experimental response of reinforced concrete T-beams with multiple web-strengthened openings disposed in shear span to static and impact loads. Fourteen RC T-beams were tested in two groups, each of seven beams. The first group was tested under static loading up to failure, while the second group was tested under repeated impact loading until the width of shear cracks reached 0.3 mm. The residual static strengths of the beams subjected to impact loading were then determined. The test variables considered were: number of web openings, the method used to strengthen the member at openings and the height of drop during impact tests. All beams were simply supported with load applied at mid – span. Static results indicated that T-beams with four and six un-strengthened web circular openings whose diameter is 48% of the web depth have strength capacities less than those without openings by 30% and 41%, respectively. However, strengthening of webs results in an increase in the strength capacities ranging between 27% and 92%, depending on the type of strengthening. Impact results indicated that the beam with four openings did not show a remarkable increase in the maximum mid-span deflection compared with the solid beam, while that with six openings showed an increase in the maximum mid-span deflections by about 75% greater than the maximum mid-span deflection of the solid beam. Strengthening of specimens could overcome the increase in deflections.
The development of new building materials, able of absorbing more energy is an active research area. Engineering Cementitious Composite (ECC) is a class of super-elastic fiberreinforced cement composites characterized by high ductility and tight crack width control. The use of bendable concrete produced from Portland Limestone Cement (PLC) may lead to an interest in new concrete mixes. Impact results of bendable concrete reinforced with steel mesh and polymer fibers will provide data for the use of this concrete in areas subject to impact loading. The experimental part consisted of compressive strength and impact resistance tests along with a result comparison with unreinforced concrete. Concrete samples, with dimensions of 100×
... Show MoreThis paper presents a numerical analysis of the piled-raft foundation (PRF) based on the actual behavior of supporting piles. The raft was modeled as a thin plate, while the piles were modeled as springs in different ways. This research also aims to propose an analytical model of piles based on actual behavior at fieldwork. The results proved that the structural behavior of raft member can be improved through utilizing the actual behavior of supporting piles. When the piles were modeled as non-linear stiffness springs, settlements and bending stresses of raft foundation were reduce marginally as compared with those obtained from piles with linear stiffness springs.
This paper reports test results and describes a numerical investigation of the effectiveness of using carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) fabrics for strengthening concrete cylinders that have been undamaged and damaged due to heating under preload. The purpose of this research was to investigate whether there is any difference in the performance of CFRP-wrapped cylinders if the wrapping is done under preload, and those for which neither heating, cooling nor wrapping was done under preload. The cylinders were exposed to 30% of maximum load at ambient temperature during heating and cooling before being wrapped under preload. Of 18 Ø 100 × 200 mm identical cylinders, 6 were left as control samples without heating, 12 were exposed t
... Show MoreThis study aimed at evaluating the torsional capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) beams externally wrapped with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) materials. An analytical model was described and used as a new computational procedure based on the softened truss model (STM) to predict the torsional behavior of RC beams strengthened with FRP. The proposed analytical model was validated with the existing experimental data for rectangular sections strengthened with FRP materials and considering torque-twist relationship and crack pattern at failure. The confined concrete behavior, in the case of FRP wrapping, was considered in the constitutive laws of concrete in the model. Then, an efficient algorithm was developed in MATLAB environment t
... Show MoreIn this work, the possibility of utilizing osmosis phenomenon to produce energy as a type of the renewable energy using Thin Film Composite Ultra Low Pressure membrane TFC-ULP was studied. Where by forward osmosis water passes through the membrane toward the concentrated brine solution, this will lead to raise the head of the high brine solution. This developed static head may be used to produce energy. The aim of the present work is to study the static head developed and the flux on the high brine water solution side when using forward and reverse osmosis membranes for an initial concentration range from 35-300 g/l for each type of membrane used at room temperature and pressure conditions, and finally calculating the maximum possible po
... Show MoreBackground: Sprite coding is a very effective technique for clarifying the background video object. The sprite generation is an open issue because of the foreground objects which prevent the precision of camera motion estimation and blurs the created sprite. Objective: In this paper, a quick and basic static method for sprite area detection in video data is presented. Two statistical methods are applied; the mean and standard deviation of every pixel (over all group of video frame) to determine whether the pixel is a piece of the selected static sprite range or not. A binary map array is built for demonstrating the allocated sprite (as 1) while the non-sprite (as 0) pixels valued. Likewise, holes and gaps filling strategy was utilized to re
... Show MoreIt is well-known that the existence of outliers in the data will adversely affect the efficiency of estimation and results of the current study. In this paper four methods will be studied to detect outliers for the multiple linear regression model in two cases : first, in real data; and secondly, after adding the outliers to data and the attempt to detect it. The study is conducted for samples with different sizes, and uses three measures for comparing between these methods . These three measures are : the mask, dumping and standard error of the estimate.
Multiple myeloma (MM) is a heterogenous plasma cell malignancy with various complications. Sclerostin is a Wingless-type (Wnt) inhibitor specifically expressed by osteocytes; it acts as a negative regulator of bone formation.
To assess plasma sclerostin level in MM patients and find its correlations with clinical and laboratory data, including osteolytic bone disease and international staging system (ISS).
This cr