Incorporating waste byproducts into concrete is an innovative and promising way to minimize the environmental impact of waste material while maintaining and/or improving concrete’s mechanical characteristics and strength. The proper application of sawdust as a pozzolan in the building industry remains a significant challenge. Consequently, this study conducted an experimental evaluation of sawdust as a fill material. In particular, sawdust as a fine aggregate in concrete offers a realistic structural and economical possibility for the construction of lightweight structural systems. Failure under four-point loads was investigated for six concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) specimens. The results indicated that recycled lightweight concrete performed similarly to conventional concrete when used as a filler material in composite steel tube beams. The structural effects of sawdust substitution on ultimate load and initial stiffness were less substantial than the relative changes in the material properties, and the ultimate capacity of the tested samples decreased moderately as the substitution percentage of sawdust increased. Moreover, the maximum load capacity was observed to decrease by 6.43–30.71% for sawdust replacement levels between 5% and 45.1% across all tested samples. Additionally, when using lightweight concrete with 5% sawdust, the moment value of the CFST sample was reduced by 6.4%. Notably, the sawdust CFST samples exhibited a flexural behavior that was relatively comparable to that of the standard CFST samples.
This paper reports a comprehensive study on the behavior of concavely curved soffit reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened in flexure with carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites under static loading. The main objective of this paper is to explore the effect of surface concavity on the bond performance of externally bonded wet layup CFRP sheets and laminates. An experimental program consisting of flexural strengthening of 24 RC beams with concavely curved soffits was carried out. All specimens were simply supported RC beams tested under three-point bending. Of the 24 beams, 6 beams were flat soffit RC beams, and the remainder were fabricated with concavely curved soffits with a degree of curvature that is ranging from 5 mm/m
... Show MoreThis article presents the results of an experimental investigation of using carbon fiber–reinforced polymer sheets to enhance the behavior of reinforced concrete deep beams with large web openings in shear spans. A set of 18 specimens were fabricated and tested up to a failure to evaluate the structural performance in terms of cracking, deformation, and load-carrying capacity. All tested specimens were with 1500-mm length, 500-mm cross-sectional deep, and 150-mm wide. Parameters that studied were opening size, opening location, and the strengthening factor. Two deep beams were implemented as control specimens without opening and without strengthening. Eight deep beams were fabricated with openings but without strengthening, while
... Show MoreThis article presents the results of an experimental investigation of using carbon fiber–reinforced polymer sheets to enhance the behavior of reinforced concrete deep beams with large web openings in shear spans. A set of 18 specimens were fabricated and tested up to a failure to evaluate the structural performance in terms of cracking, deformation, and load-carrying capacity. All tested specimens were with 1500-mm length, 500-mm cross-sectional deep, and 150-mm wide. Parameters that studied were opening size, opening location, and the strengthening factor. Two deep beams were implemented as control specimens without opening and without strengthening. Eight deep beams were fabricated with openings but without strengthening, while
... Show MoreThe pilgrimage takes place in several countries around the world. The pilgrimage includes the simultaneous movement of a huge crowd of pilgrims which leads to many challenges for the pilgrimage authorities to track, monitor, and manage the crowd to minimize the chance of overcrowding’s accidents. Therefore, there is a need for an efficient monitoring and tracking system for pilgrims. This paper proposes powerful pilgrims tracking and monitoring system based on three Internet of Things (IoT) technologies; namely: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), ZigBee, and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). In addition, it requires low-cost, low-power-consumption implementation. The proposed
The aim of this study is to investigate the existence of some heavy metals (lead, cadmium, chromium) in colored plastic table dishes and study the migration of these metals to the food meals and the affecting factors in migration , such as storage period and food temperature. Six kinds of colored plastic table dishes were collected from Baghdad markets. The heavy metals in table dishes and in the prepared food meals put in them were estimated using atomic absorption spectrophotometer (Shimadzu A5000). The results indicated the existence of lead in all samples (1.61_1.00 mg/ kg) and chromium in three samples (0.85_0.97 mg/ kg) while other samples are free of chromium, and cadmium. Investigating the migration of these metals to food at dif
... Show MoreThis study aimed to evaluate the occurrence of microbial contamination in food keeping freezers in some local markets in Baghdad city/ Iraq, as well as the contamination of the hands of workers in markets, and the possibility of contamination caused by the transport of food. 30 samples of snow ice found in food keeping freezers in local markets was randomly collected, and 30 swabs from workers hands were taken from the same markets at the same time. Microbiological examination of ice samples was conducted as well as the hands of workers’swabs, and the bacteria were isolated and diagnosed through microbiological and biochemical tests followed. Microbial test results showed some isolates of bacteria in ice samples obtained from food keep
... Show MoreBackground: Dental erosion is a common oral condition which results due to consumption of high caloric and low pH acidic food such as carbonated drinks and fruit juices. It is expected that these food types can cause irreversible damage to dental hard tissues and early deterioration of the dental restorations. So, this study aimed to evaluate and compare the erosive potential effects of orange fruit juice and Miranda orange drink on the microhardness of an orthodontic composite material. Materials and methods: Thirty discs with a thickness of 2 mm and a diameter of 10 mm were prepared from orthodontic bonding composite. The prepared discs were equally divided into three groups (n=10). Microhardness analysis was carried out both prior to
... Show MorePolymer matrix composites are suitable materials for medical applications, such as denture base resin polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). This includes light weight and high strength. This paper describes the effect of selected weight fractions (1, 2, 3, 4 & 5) % wt of nano(Alumina AL2O3, Zirconia ZrO2, Hydroxyapatite HA and Halloysite nanoClay) reinforcements on the biopolymer matrix (PMMA). Some tribology tests were used to evaluate the prepared system (impact strength, hardness surface, and wear rate) tests. The samples were fabricated by (Hand Lay-Up) with different particle reinforcement percentages. All tests were accomplished at room temperature, and samples were developed according to the ASTM standard. The weight fraction of (4% for AL
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