This research was aimed to study the osmotic efficiency of the draw solutions and the factors affecting the performance of forward osmosis process : The draw solutions used were magnesium sulfate hydrate (MgSO₄.7H₂O) pojtassium chloride (KCL), calcium chloride (CaCl₂) and ammonium bicarbonate (NH₄HCO₃). It was found that water flux increases with increasing draw solution concentration, and feed solution flow rate and decreases with increasing draw solution flow rate and feed solution concentration. And also found that the efficiency of the draw solutions is in the following order:

CaCl₂> KCI > NH₄HCO₃> MgSO₄.7H

In this paper, a shallow foundation (strip footing), 1 m in width is assumed to be constructed on fully saturated and partially saturated Iraqi soils, and analyzed by finite element method. A procedure is proposed to define the H – modulus function from the soil water characteristic curve which is measured by the filter paper method. Fitting methods are applied through the program (SoilVision). Then, the soil water characteristic curve is converted to relation correlating the void ratio and matric suction. The slope of the latter relation can be used to define the H – modulus function. The finite element programs SIGMA/W and SEEP/W are then used in the analysis. Eight nodded isoparametric quadrilateral elements are used for modeling

Hand-lay up method was used to prepare the samples made of epoxy (EP) as a matrix reinforced with chopped carbon fibers (CCF). The fatigue behavior of epoxy resin /chopped carbon fiber composites was studied with different weight percentage of chopped carbon fibers (2.5%,5%,7.5%,10%,12.5%). The fatigue test was carried out under alternate bending method, which was made by applying sinusoidal wave with constant displacement (15mm), stress ratio R=-1,and loading frequency 10Hz, which is believed to give a negligible temperature rise during the test. The results of the maximum stress, fatigue strength, fatigue limit and fatigue life of the tested composites are calculated from stress(S)-number of cycles(N) (S-N) curves.
It was shown that

Features is the description of the image contents which could be corner, blob or edge. Corners are one of the most important feature to describe image, therefore there are many algorithms to detect corners such as Harris, FAST, SUSAN, etc. Harris is a method for corner detection and it is an efficient and accurate feature detection method. Harris corner detection is rotation invariant but it isn’t scale invariant. This paper presents an efficient harris corner detector invariant to scale, this improvement done by using gaussian function with different scales. The experimental results illustrate that it is very useful to use Gaussian linear equation to deal with harris weakness.

ZnO thin films have been prepared by pulse laser deposition technique at room temperatures (RT). These films were deposited on GaAs substrate to form the ZnO/GaAs heterojunction solar cell. The effect of annealing temperatures at ( RT,100, 200)K on structural and optical properties of ZnO thin films has been investigated. The X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that all films have hexagonal polycrystalline structure. AFM shows that the grains uniformly distributed with homogeneous structure. The optical absorption spectra showed that all films have direct energy gap. The band gap energy of these films decreased with increasing annealing temperatures.  From the electrical properties, the carriers have n-type conductivity.  From

The present study deals with the experimental investigation of buried concrete pipes. Concrete pipes are buried in loose and dense conditions of gravelly sand soil and subjected to different surface loadings to study the effects of the backfill compaction on the pipe. The experimental investigation was accomplished using full-scale precast unreinforced concrete pipes with 300 mm internal diameter tested in a laboratory soil box test facility set up for this study. Two loading platforms are used namely, uniform loading platform and patch loading platform. The wheel load was simulated through patch loading platform which have dimensions of 254 mm *508 mm, which is used by AASHTO to model the wheel load of a HS20 truck. The pipe-soil system

Most of the recent works related to the construction industry in Iraq are focused on investigating the validity of local raw materials as alternatives to the imported materials necessary for some practical applications, especially in thermal and sound insulation. This investigation includes the use of limestone dust as partial substitution of cement in combination with foam agent and silica fume to produce sustainable Lightweight Foam Concrete (LWFC). This study consists of two stages. In the first stage, trial mixes were performed to find the optimum dosage of foam agent. Limestone dust was used as a partial replacement for cement. Chemical analysis and fineness showed great similarity with cement. Many concrete mixes were prepared

The world is confronted with the twin crisis of fossil fuel depletion and environmental degradation caused by fossil fuel usage. Biodiesel produced from renewable feedstocks such as Jatropha seed oil or animal fats by transesterification offers a solution. Although biodiesel has been produced from various vegetable oils such as Jatropha seed oil, the reaction kinetics studies are very few in literature, hence the need for this study. Jatropha curcas seed oil was extracted and analyzed to determine its free fatty acid and fatty acid composition. The oil was transesterified with methanol at a molar ratio of methanol to oil 8:1, using 1% sodium hydroxide catalyst, at different temperature

The present work evaluated the differences in mechanical properties of two athletic prosthetic feet samples when subjected to impact while running. Two feet samples designated as design A and B were manufactured using layers of different orientations of woven glass fiber reinforced with unsaturated polyester resin as bonding epoxy. The samples’ layers were fabricated with hand lay-up method. A theoretical study was carried out to calculate the mechanical properties of the composite material used in feet manufacturing, then experimental load-deflection  test was applied at 0 degree position and 25 degree dorsiflexion feet position  and impact test were applied for both feet designs to observe the behavior