Frequently, load associated mode of failure, rutting and fatigue, are the main failure types found in some newly constructed roads within Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, and some suburban areas. The use of excessive amount of natural sand in asphalt concrete mixes which is attractive to local contractors could be one of the possible causes to the lack of strength properties of the mixes resulting in frustration in the pavement performance. In this study, the performance properties of asphalt concrete mixes with two natural sand types, desert and river sands, were evaluated. Moreover, five replacement rates of 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% by weight of the fine aggregate finer than 4.75 were used. The performance properties including moisture susceptibility, resilient modulus, permanent deformation, and fatigue characteristics were evaluated using indirect tensile strength, uniaxial repeated loading and repeated flexural beam tests. Also, as a part of the research objective, the laboratory tests result were used to predict the performance using VESYS computer software. Results showed that mixes with high natural sand content (NSC) are more susceptible to moisture damage and rutting, lower resilient modulus and some improvement in fatigue resistance. Based on the obtained results, the necessity has rise to revise the current local specification for asphalt concrete which specifies the limits of natural sand content in the mixes of wearing and binder courses with 25% whereas for base course mixes no limit exist yet.
Nanomaterials enhance the performance of both asphalt binders and asphalt mixtures. They also improve asphalt durability, which reduces resource consumption and environmental impact in the long term associated with the production and transportation of asphalt materials. Thus, this paper studies the effectiveness of Nano Calcium Carbonate (Nano CaCO3) and Nano Hydrated Lime (NHL) as modifiers and examines their impact on ranges from 0% to 10% through comprehensive laboratory tests. Softening point, penetration, storage stability, viscosity, and mass loss due to short-term aging using the Rolling Thin Film Oven Test (RTFO) were performed on asphalt binders. Results indicated a significant improvement in binder stiffness, particularly
... Show MoreThis study offers numerical simulation results using the ABAQUS/CAE version 2019 finite element computer application to examine the performance, and residual strength of eight recycle aggregate RC one-way slabs. Six strengthened by NSM CFRP plates were presented to study the impact of several parameters on their structural behavior. The experimental results of four selected slabs under monotonic load, plus one slab under repeated load, were validated numerically. Then the numerical analysis was extended to different parameters investigation, such as the impact of added CFRP length on ultimate load capacity and load-deflection response and the impact of concrete compressive strength value on the structural performance of
... Show MorePushover analysis is an efficient method for the seismic evaluation of buildings under severe earthquakes. This paper aims to develop and verify the pushover analysis methodology for reinforced concrete frames. This technique depends on a nonlinear representation of the structure by using SAP2000 software. The properties of plastic hinges will be defined by generating the moment-curvature analysis for all the frame sections (beams and columns). The verification of the technique above was compared with the previous study for two-dimensional frames (4-and 7-story frames). The former study leaned on automatic identification of positive and negative moments, where the concrete sections and steel reinforcement quantities the
... Show MoreMost reinforced concrete (RC) structures are constructed with square/rectangular columns. The cross-section size of these types of columns is much larger than the thickness of their partitions. Therefore, parts of these columns are protruded out of the partitions. The emergence of columns edges out of the walls has some disadvantages. This limitation is difficult to be overcome with square or rectangular columns. To solve this problem, new types of RC columns called specially shaped reinforced concrete (SSRC) columns have been used as hidden columns. Besides, the use of SSRC columns provides many structural and architectural advantages as compared with rectangular columns. Therefore, this study was conducted to explain the structura
... Show MoreHigh-rise structures are a significant indication in contemporary urban improvement, mainly in areas characterized by accelerated urban growth and dense population. This type of building should be designed to withstand severe load conditions. Therefore, using composite structural elements in such structures is required for stronger and durable elements. This paper introduces a finite element analysis model for Concrete Filled Stainless Steel Tubular Columns (CFSST) of (100x100) mm cross-section and (1250) mm length to inspect the impact of concrete compressive strength on the response of (CFSST). The generated model was first evaluated through a comprehensive comparison with experimental research. Then, after the model was used to s
... Show MoreAbstract:
The research aims to achieve defining the concept of environmental quality and associated costs. Studying the impact of environmental quality costs on the performance of economic units. Measuring the relationship between environmental quality and environmental performance of the units. Where the research problem is represented in the weak awareness of some economic units of the importance of environmental quality costs and their impact on evaluating environmental performance, and this leads to neglecting environmental considerations and not improving environmental performance effectively, which negatively affects the en
... Show MoreThe thermal performance of indirect expansion solar assisted heat pump, IX-SAHP, was investigated experimentally under Iraqi climate. An Indirect-Solar Assisted Heat Pump system was designed, built, instrumented and tested. Experimental tests were conducted by varying the controlling parameters to investigate their effects on the thermal performance of the IX-SAHP such as cooling water flow rate, heating water flow rate, ambient temperature and solar radiation intensity. The investigation covered values of cooling water flow rate of (2, 3, 4, 5 l/min) and heating water flow rate of (2, 3, 4, 5 l/min) under meteorological condition of Baghdad from November 2014 to January 2015.
The results indicated that the performance of the IX-
... Show MoreIn recent decades, there has been increasing interest in wastewater treatment because of its direct impact on the environment and public health. Over time, other forms of treatment have been developed and modified, including extended aeration. This process is included in the suspended growth system. In this paper, a comparative study was conducted between the efficiency of the extended aeration plant and that of the trickling filter plant in removal of BOD and COD. The method of comparison was done by knowing the value of the pollutant before and after the treatment and then extract the removal ratio of each pollutant within each plant. The results showed that the percentage of removal of BOD in the trickling filte
... Show MoreGlobal Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is considered to be one of the most crucial tools for different applications, i.e. transportation, geographic information systems, mobile satellite communications, and others. Without a doubt, the GNSS has been widely employed for different scientific applications, such as land surveying, mapping, and precise monitoring for huge structures, etc. Thus, an intense competitive has appeared between companies which produce geodetic GNSS hardware devices to meet all the requirements of GNSS communities. This study aims to assess the performance of different GNSS receivers to provide reliable positions. In this study, three different receivers, which are produced by different manufacturers, were fi
... Show MoreIn this modern Internet era and the transition to IPv6, routing protocols must adjust to assist this transformation. RIPng, EIGRPv6 and OSPFv3 are the dominant IPv6 IGRP (Interior Gateway Routing Protocols). Selecting the best routing protocol among the available is a critical task, which depends upon the network requirement and performance parameters of different real time applications. The primary motivation of this paper is to estimate the performance of these protocols in real time applications. The evaluation is based on a number of criteria including: network convergence duration, Http Page Response Time, DB Query Response Time, IPv6 traffic dropped, video packet delay variation and video packet end to end de
... Show More