The design, construction and investigation of experimental study of two compound parabolic concentrators (CPCs) with tubular absorber have been presented. The performance of CPCs have been evaluated by using outdoor experimental measurements including the instantaneous thermal efficiency. The two CPCs are tested instantly by holding them on a common structure. Many tests are conducted in the present work by truncating one of them in three different levels. For each truncation the acceptance half angle (θc) was changed. Geometrically, the acceptance half angle for standard CPC is (26o). For the truncation levels for the other CPC 1, 2 and 3 the acceptance half angle were 20o, 26o and 59o, consequently. A significant difference between the instantaneous thermal efficiency of 3.86× CPC (θc=20o) and 2.32× CPC (θc=26o), and between that for 3.61× CPC (θc=26o) and 2.32× CPC (θc=26o). It's noticed that the difference between the instantaneous thermal efficiency of 2.32× CPC (θc=59o) and 2.32× CPC (θc=26o) is small compared with the difference of the first and second cases, the instantaneous thermal efficiency of 2.32× CPC (26o) was higher than those for other three CPCs. The experimental results show that the maximum thermal efficiency of the full 2.32×CPC (26o) is 0.708, the maximum thermal efficiency of the 3.93×CPC (15o), when it's truncated to 3.84× CPC (20o), 3.61× CPC (26o) and 2.32× CPC (59o) are 0.51, 0.52 and 0.66, respectively. As the concentration ratio decreases from (3.93× to 1×), the thermal efficiency, energy losses and optical efficiency increase from (0.47 to 63), (1.58 to 7.2 K.m2/W) and (0.494 to 0.797), respectively.
Highly Modified Asphalt (HiMA) binders have garnered significant attention due to their superior resistance to rutting, fatigue cracking, and thermal distress under heavy traffic loads and extreme environmental conditions. While elastomeric polymers such as Styrene- Butadiene-Styrene (SBS) have been extensively used in HiMA applications, the potential of plastomeric polymers, including Polyethylene (PE) and Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA), remains largely unexplored. This study aims to evaluate the performance of reference binder (RB) modified with plastomeric HiMA asphalt in comparison to SBS-modified binders and determine the optimal polymer dosage for achieving an optimal balance between rutting resistance and fatigue durability. The experi
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This paper is devoted to investigate the effect of internal curing technique on the properties of self-compacting concrete (SCC). In this study, SCC is produced by using silica fume (SF) as partial replacement by weight of cement with percentage of (5%), sand is partially replaced by volume with saturated fine lightweight aggregate (LWA) which is thermostone chips as internal curing material in three percentages of (5%, 10% and 15%) for SCC, two external curing conditions water and air. The experimental work was divided into three parts: in the first part, the workability tests of fresh SCC were conducted. The second part included conducting compressive strength test and modulus of rupture test at ages of (7, 28 and 90). The third part i
... Show MoreThis work presents an innovative approach to enhancing the performance of concrete with reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) aggregates using titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles. Traditional limestone coarse aggregates were partially replaced with 30% and 50% RAP aggregates; a subset of mixtures containing RAP aggregates was treated with TiO2 nanoparticles. The rheological, mechanical, and long-term properties of concrete, along with changes in its chemical composition following the addition of RAP and TiO2, were evaluated. Results revealed that using 30% and 50% RAP in concrete mixtures reduced their compressive strength by 18% and 27%, respectively. However, using TiO2 in those mixtures enhanced their compressive strength by 8.7% an
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Future wireless communication systems must be able to accommodate a large number of users and simultaneously to provide the high data rates at the required quality of service. In this paper a method is proposed to perform the N-Discrete Hartley Transform (N-DHT) mapper, which are equivalent to 4-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 256-QAM, … etc. in spectral efficiency. The N-DHT mapper is chosen in the Multi Carrier Code Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA) structure to serve as a data mapper instead of the conventional data mapping techniques like QPSK and QAM schemes. The proposed system is simulated using MATLAB and compared with conventional MC-CDMA for Additive White Gaussian Noise, flat, and multi-path selective fa
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This paper introduces experimental results of eighteen simply supported reinforced concrete beams of cross sections ( ) and length 3000 mm to study the effect of lacing reinforcement on the performance of such beams under static and fatigue loads. Twelve reinforced concrete beams (two of them are casted with vertical shear reinforcement used as control beams) are tested under four points bending loading with displacement control technique and six laced reinforced concrete beams were exposed to high frequency (10 Hz) by fixing the fatigue load in each cycle. Three parameters are used in the designed beams, which are: lacing bar diameter (4mm, 6mm, and 8mm), lacing bar inclination angle to horizontal , and lacing steel rat
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The limitations of conventional cement mortar as a widely used construction material include low tensile capacity, high permeability, and susceptibility to chemical degradation. The increasing demand for durable and sustainable construction materials has led to increased attention in modifying cementitious materials through nanotechnology. This study investigates the influence of nano-silica (NS) and nano-alumina (NA) on the physical, strength-related, and durability characteristics of cement mortar to determine the optimum nanomaterial type and dosage for performance enhancement. Six mortar mixes, in addition to a reference mix, were designed and prepared by adding 1%, 1.5%, and 2% of the cement weight with NS and NA separately, an
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Two samples of (Ag NPs-zeolite) nanocomposite thin films have been prepared by easy hydrothermal method for 4 hours and 8 hours inside the hydrothermal autoclave at temperatures of 100°C. The two samples were used in a photoelectrochemical cell as a photocatalyst inside a cell consisting of three electrodes: the working electrode photoanode (AgNPs-zeolite), platinum as a cathode electrode, and Ag/AgCl as a reference electrode, to study the performance of AgNPs-zeolite under dark current and 473 nm laser light for water splitting. The results show the high performance of an eight-hour sample with high crystallinity compared with a four-hour sample as a reliable photocatalyst to generate hydrogen for renewable energies.