Water absorbent polymers (WAP) are new component in producing building materials. They provide internal curing which reduces autogenous cracking, eliminates autogenous shrinkage, mortar strength increased, enhance early age strength to withstand strain, improve the durability, introduce higher early age compressive strength, have higher performance and reduce the effect of insufficient external curing. This research used different percent of polymer balls to choose the percent that provides good development in compressive strength with time for both water and air curing. The water absorption polymer balls in this research have the ability to absorb water and after usage in concrete they spill out the water (internal curing) and shri

In this paper, an analytical solution describing the deflection of a cracked beam repaired with piezoelectric patch is introduced. The solution is derived using perturbation method. A novel analytical model to calculate the proper dimensions of piezoelectric patches used to repair cracked beams is also introduced. This model shows that the thickness of the piezoelectric patch depends mainly on the thickness of the cracked beam, the electro-mechanical properties of the patch material, the applied load and the crack location. Furthermore, the model shows that the length of the piezoelectric patches depends on the thickness of the patch as well as it depends on the length of the cracked beam and the crack depth. The additional flexibil

The inhibition of 3-Benzyl -2-mercaptoquinoizoline -4 (3H)-one (BMQ) on the corrosion of carbon steel in 0.5 M HCl studied by potentionstat polarization methods at 303–333 K. Results obtained show that BMQ act as inhibitor for carbon steel in HCl solution. The inhibition efficiency increase with increase in BMQ concentration. Activation parameters and Gibbs free energy for the adsorption process using Statistical Physics calculated and discussed. Quantum chemical calculations using DFT at the B3LYP/6-31G level of theory were used to calculate some electronic properties of the molecule to verify any correlation between the inhibitive effect and molecular structure of BMQ. The quantum calculations were proceeded to get data around correlati

Moisture damage is a primary mode of distress occurring in hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavements in Iraq. Because of the loss of bond, or stripping, caused by the presence of moisture between the asphalt and aggregate, which is a problem in some areas and can be severe in some cases, it is requires to evaluate the design asphalt mixture to moisture susceptibility. Many factors such as aggregate characteristics, asphalt characteristics, environment, traffic, construction practices and drainage can contribute to stripping. Asphalt concrete mixes were prepared at their optimum asphalt content by superpave system and then tested to evaluate their engineering properties, which include tensile strength, resilient modulus, and perman

To decrease the impact on the environment of building waste, the recycled aggregate may be used in various sustainable engineering applications, such as roller compacted concrete pavement (RCCP). This research examined how using recycled aggregate as a partial replacement for natural aggregate as coarse or fine affected the mechanical properties of roller-compacted concrete pavement. The recycled aggregate was crushed and sieved to coarse and fine aggregate before being used in the roller-compacted concrete pavement. Compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and flexural strength were all evaluated after the samples were prepared at 28 and 90 days of curing. According to the study's findings, the partial replacem

Rutting has a significant impact on the pavements' performance. Rutting depth is often used as a parameter to assess the quality of pavements. The Asphalt Institute (AI) design method prescribes a maximum allowable rutting depth of 13mm, whereas the AASHTO design method stipulates a critical serviceability index of 2.5 which is equivalent to an average rutting depth of 15mm. In this research, static and repeated compression tests were performed to evaluate the permanent strain based on (1) the relationship between mix properties (asphalt content and type), and (2) testing temperature. The results indicated that the accumulated plastic strain was higher during the repeated load test than that during the static load tests. Notably, temperatur

Introduction and Aim: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a nosocomial infection with an ability to develop high levels of antibiotic resistance. The efflux pump system is one of the mechanisms that is linked to multidrug resistance in P. aeruginosa. In this study, we employed siRNA loaded on gold nanoparticles against the MexA efflux pump gene to decrease the MexA gene expression in P. aeruginosa and estimated antibiotic resistance after gene silencing.   Materials and Methods: This study examined four strains of P. aeruginosa isolated from patients in various hospitals in Baghdad. Bacteria isolated were identified by biochemical tests and Vitek compact 2 system.  Single-stranded siRNA (33bp) designed in this study was loaded onto gold