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 mec

Mechanical and thermal properties of composites, consisted of unsaturated polyester resin, reinforced by different kinds of natural materials (Orange peels and Date seeds) and industrial materials (carbon and silica) with particle size 98 µm were studied. Various weight ratios, 5, 10, and 15 wt. % of natural and industrial materials have been infused into polyester. Tensile, three-point bending and thermal conductivity tests were conducted for the unfilled polyester, natural and industrial composite to identify the weight ratio effect on the properties of materials. The results indicated that when the weight ratio for polyester with date seeds increased from 10% to 15%, the maximum Young’s modulus decreased by 54%. When the weight rat

Permanent deformation, fatigue and thermal cracking are the three typical distresses of flexible pavement. Using hydrated lime (HL) into the conventional limestone mineral additive has been widely practiced, including in Europe, to improve the mechanical properties of hot mix asphalt (HMA) concrete and as the result the durability of the constructed pavement. Large number of experimental studies have been reported to find the optimum addition of HL for the improvement on HMA concrete mechanical properties, moisture susceptibility and fatigue resistance. Pavement in service is under complex thermomechanical stress-strain conditions due to coupled atmospheric and surrounding environment temperature variation and the traffic loading. To predic

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

This study aims to show, the strength of steel beam-concrete slab system without using shear connectors (known as a non-composite action), where the effect of the friction force between the concrete slab and the steel beam has been investigated, by using finite element simulation.

The proposed finite element model has been verified based on comparison with an experimental work. Then, the model was adopted to study the system strength with a different steel beam and concrete slab profile. ABAQUS has been adopted in the preparation of all numerical models for this study.

After validation of the numerical models, a parametric study was conducted, with linear and non-linear Regression analysis. An equation re

The geophysical testing is increasingly being employed in many geotechnical applications. It is preferred in monitoring the mechanical characteristics of the ground because of its economy, not time consuming and non-destructive nature. Seismic wave test is one of the geophysical methods which showed a potential in observing the general behaviour of the reinforced soil with stone columns. Findings in most cases showed that the seismic wave measurements was integrated with or compared to the conventional tests such as standard penetration test or cone penetration test. There was a noticeable success in identifying the enhancement achieved to the ground upon the strengthening with the column, specifically when the associated surveys can produc

This article focuses on the relationship of gender to the effectiveness of both women and men in public relations work. Its aim is to identify the extent to which public relations employees are aware of the concept of gender, and to reveal the role of the institution in determining certain roles for both women and men at work, as well as to find out which employees are most effective in public relations activities within the institution.

The researcher uses public relations employees and officials in Iraqi ministries as a research sample to capture the point of view of both parties on the effectiveness of workers in public relations based on the definition of gender. The sample consists of 396 individuals

Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model's application is widely increased for wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) variables prediction and forecasting which can enable the operators to take appropriate action and maintaining the norms. It is much easier modeling tool for dealing with complex nature WWTP modeling comparing with other traditional mathematical models. ANN technique significance has been considered at present study for the prediction of sequencing batch reactor (SBR) performance based on effluent's (BOD5/COD) ratio after collecting the required historical daily SBR data for two years operation (2015-2016) from Baghdad Mayoralty and Al-Rustamiya WWTP office, Iraq. The prediction was gotten by the application of a feed-forwa