A novel demountable shear connector for precast steel‐concrete composite bridges is presented. The connector uses high‐strength steel bolts, which are fastened to the top flange of the steel beam with the aid of a special locking nut configuration that prevents slip of bolts within their holes. Moreover, the connector promotes accelerated construction and overcomes typical construction tolerances issues of precast structures. Most importantly, the connector allows bridge disassembly, and therefore, can address different bridge deterioration scenarios with minimum disturbance to traffic flow, i.e. (i) precast deck panels can be rapidly uplifted and replaced; (ii) connectors can be rapidly removed and replaced; and (iii) steel beams can b

   The chemical additives used to enhance the properties of drilling mud cause damage to humans and the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to search for alternative additives to add them to the drilling mud. Thus, this study investigates the effects of pomegranate peel and grape seed powders as natural waste when added to un-weighted water-based mud. The test includes measurements of the rheological properties and filtration, as well as the alkanity and density of the drilling mud. The results showed a decrease in PH values ​​with an increase in the concentrations of pomegranate peel or grapeseed, and a decrease in mud density with an increase in powders of pomegranate peel and grape seed concentrations that resulted f

Nonlinear diffraction pattern can be induced by focusing CW
laser into a thin quartzes cuvette containing nanofluid. The number
of revealed pattern rings indicates to the nonlinear behavior of fluid.
Here, the nonlinear refractive index of each of functionalized single
wall carbon nanotube (F-SWCNTs) suspention and multi wall carbon
nanotube (F-MWCNTs) suspention have been investigated
experimentally .Each of CNTs suspention was at volume fraction of
13×10−5 and 6×10−5. Moreover the laser source at wavelength of
473 nm was used. The results show that SWCNTs suspention
possesses higher nonlinearty than other at the same volume fraction

Bobbin friction stir welding (BFSW) is a variant of the conventional friction stir welding (CFSW); it can weld the upper and lower surface of the work-piece in the same pass. This technique involves the bonding of materials without melting. In this work, the influence of tool design on the mechanical properties of welding joints of 6061-T6 aluminum alloy with 6.25 mm thickness produced by FSW bobbin tools was investigated and the best bobbin tool design was determined. Five different probe shapes (threaded straight cylindrical, straight cylindrical with 3 flat surfaces, straight cylindrical with 4 flat surfaces, threaded straight cylindrical with 3 flat surface and threaded straight cylindrical with 4 flat surfaces) with various dimensio

Phase change materials are known to be good in use in latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) systems, but one of their drawbacks is the slow melting and solidification processes. So that, in this work, enhancing heat transfer of phase change material is studied experimentally for in charging and discharging processes by the addition of high thermal conductive material such as copper in the form of brushes, which were added in both PCM and air sides. The additions of brushes have been carried out with different void fractions (97%, 94% and 90%) and the effect of four different air velocities was tested. The results indicate that the minimum brush void fraction gave the maximum heat transfer in PCM and reduced the time

The efficient behavior of a low-concentrating photovoltaic-thermal system with a micro-jet channel (LCPV/T-JET) and booster mirror reflector is experimentally evaluated here. Micro-jets promote the thermal management of PV solar cells by implementing jet water as active cooling, which is still in the early stages of development. The booster mirror reflector concentrates solar irradiance into solar cells and improves the thermal, electrical, and combined efficiencies of the LCPV/T-JET system. The LCPV/T-JET system was tested under ambient weather conditions in the city of Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia, and all data was recorded between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Parametric studies were conducted to compare the performance of the LCPV/T-JET system