A ‘locking-bolt’ demountable shear connector (LBDSC) is proposed to facilitate the deconstruction and reuse of steel-concrete composite structures, in line with achieving a more sustainable construction design paradigm. The LBDSC is comprised of a grout-filled steel tube and a geometrically compatible partially threaded bolt. The latter has a geometry that ‘locks’ the bolt in compatible holes predrilled on the steel flange and eliminates initial slip and construction tolerance issues. The structural behaviour of the LBDSC is evaluated through nine pushout tests using a horizontal test setup. The effects of the tube thickness, strength of concrete slab, and strength of infilled grout on the shear resistance, initial stiffness, and ductility of the LBDSC are assessed. The experimental results show that the LBDSC can achieve higher shear resistance and similar initial stiffness as compared to traditional welded studs. In addition, all tested LBDSCs exhibited slip capacities ranging from 14 to 32 mm and can be classified as ductile shear connectors according to Eurocode 4. A detailed finite element model was also created and found to be reliable to reproduce the experimental behaviour. Parametric studies were subsequently conducted using the validated model to study further parameters and generalise the experimental results. Due to the specific test setup, non-negligible uplift forces were generated in the connector and the potential implications are discussed.
Wind energy is one of the most common and natural resources that play a huge role in energy sector, and due to the increasing demand to improve the efficiency of wind turbines and the development of the energy field, improvements have been made to design a suitable wind turbine and obtain the most energy efficiency possible from wind. In this paper, a horizontal wind turbine blade operating under low wind speed was designed using the (BEM) theory, where the design of the turbine rotor blade is a difficult task due to the calculations involved in the design process. To understand the behavior of the turbine blade, the QBlade program was used to design and simulate the turbine rotor blade during working conditions. The design variables suc
... Show MoreIn this study, we made a comparison between LASSO & SCAD methods, which are two special methods for dealing with models in partial quantile regression. (Nadaraya & Watson Kernel) was used to estimate the non-parametric part ;in addition, the rule of thumb method was used to estimate the smoothing bandwidth (h). Penalty methods proved to be efficient in estimating the regression coefficients, but the SCAD method according to the mean squared error criterion (MSE) was the best after estimating the missing data using the mean imputation method
The study presents the test results of Completely Decomposed Granite (CDG) soil tested under drained triaxial compression, direct shear and simple shear tests. Special attention was focused on the modification of the upper halve of conventional Direct Shear Test (DST) to behave as free
head in movement along with vertical strain control during shear stage by using Geotechnical Digital System (GDS). The results show that Free Direct Shear Test (FDST) has clear effect on the measured shear stress and vertical strain during the test. It has been found that shear strength
parameters measured from FDST were closer to those measured from simple shear and drained triaxial compression test. This study also provides an independent check on
Permanent deformation, fatigue and thermal cracking are the three typical distresses of flexible pavement. Using hydrated lime (HL) into the conventional limestone mineral additive has been widely practiced, including in Europe, to improve the mechanical properties of hot mix asphalt (HMA) concrete and as the result the durability of the constructed pavement. Large number of experimental studies have been reported to find the optimum addition of HL for the improvement on HMA concrete mechanical properties, moisture susceptibility and fatigue resistance. Pavement in service is under complex thermomechanical stress-strain conditions due to coupled atmospheric and surrounding environment temperature variation and the traffic loading. To predic
... Show MoreThe main purpose of this work is the construction of an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) to generate a 629 nm pulsed laser. KTP nonlinear crystals were used for both parametric oscillation and amplification. A singly resonant parametric oscillator (OPO) is constructed to generate a signal of 1.54 μm and idler of 3.4 μm when the OPO system is pumped by 1.064 μm Q – switched Nd: YAG laser. The signal was then mixed with the pumping beam in OPA system to form the wanted wavelength. The obtained optical conversion efficiency was 60%.
The Khor Mor gas-condensate processing plant in Iraq is currently facing operational challenges due to foaming issues in the sweetening tower caused by high-soluble hydrocarbon liquids entering the tower. The root cause of the problem could be liquid carry-over as the separation vessels within the plant fail to remove liquid droplets from the gas phase. This study employs Aspen HYSYS v.11 software to investigate the performance of the industrial three-phase horizontal separator, Bravo #2, located upstream of the Khor Mor sweetening tower, under both current and future operational conditions. The simulation results, regarding the size distribution of liquid droplets in the gas product and the efficiency gas/liquid separation, r
... Show Moreلقد كان حرص المؤلف على إصدار هذا الكتاب نابعا ً من قناعة تامة بأن مجال التقويم والقياس بحاجة إلى كتاب علمي حديث يتناول عرض أدوات الاختبار والقياس والمتمثلة بالصدق والثبات ويتسم بالوضوح في التعبير عن المفاهيم والمصطلحات والأنواع لكل منها ليكون وسيلة مبسطة بأيدي الأساتذة والباحثين وطلبتي الدراسات العليا الماجستير والدكتوراه لإستخراج صدق وثبات الاختبارات والمقاييس بطرق إحصائية متقدمة من خلال إستخدام البرنا
... Show MoreKidney damage in workers within environments of highly expected exposure to toxin, including heavy metals, could be a primary marker to expect hazards in population exposed to low levels of many environmental pollutants. The present study was designed to evaluate the possible effect of environmental exposure to cadmium and zinc on renal function among painters in Sulaimani city. Cross sectional study was performed on 37 male painting workers in Sulaimani city. Each worker was interviewed using structured questionnaire. Twenty five non-exposed healthy subjects were included as control group. Venous blood samples (10 ml) were obtained by vein puncture from both subjects and utilized for estimation of serum urea, creatinine levels, serum le
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