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, and were evaluated for flowability, setting time, density, porosity, sorptivity, compressive and flexural strength, rapid chloride penetration, acid resistance, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis. Both NS and NA slightly reduced flowability but enhanced strength and durability. Incorporation of 1.5% NS yielded the highest 28-day compressive strength (95 MPa), around 12% higher than the control mix, whereas 1% NA resulted in the greatest early-age strength gain. Both nanomaterials enhanced matrix densification, leading to reductions in porosity (up to 22%) and chloride permeability (up to 44%) for NS. In summary, these findings demonstrate that NS outperforms NA in terms of reactivity and durability. Optimal dosages were identified as 1.5% for NS and 1% for NA, providing the best balance of workability, mechanical enhancement, and durability improvements. These results highlight the effectiveness of nanomaterial incorporation as a promising approach to developing high-performance, durable cement mortars suitable for advanced infrastructure applications.
Nanofluids, liquid suspensions of nanoparticles (Np), are an effective agent to alter the wettability of oil-wet reservoirs to water-wet thus promoting hydrocarbon recovery. It can also have an application to more efficient carbon storage. We present a series of contact angle (θ) investigations on initially oil-wet calcite surfaces to quantify the performance of hydrophilic silica nanoparticles for wettability alteration. These tests are conducted at typical in-situ high pressure (CO2), temperature and salinity conditions. A high pressure–temperature (P/T) optical cell with a regulated tilted surface was used to measure the advancing and receding contact angles at the desired conditions. The results showed that silica nanofluids can alte
... Show MoreBackground: The aim of this study was to measure the radiopacity (RO) of modified microhybrid composite resins by adding 2 types of nanofillers (Zinc Oxide and Calcium Carbonate) in two concentrations 3% and 5% and comparing them to unmodified microhybrid composite resins and to nanofilled composite resin. Materials and Methods: Two types of composite resin were used (Microhybrid composite MH Quadrent anterior shine and Nanofilled composite resin Filtek Z350 XT), for each tested group five disk-shaped specimens (1-mm-thick and 15 mm diameter) were fabricated. The material samples were radiographed together with the aluminum step wedge. The density of the specimens was determined with a transmission densitometer and was expressed in term of
... Show MoreAbstract
Metal cutting processes still represent the largest class of manufacturing operations. Turning is the most commonly employed material removal process. This research focuses on analysis of the thermal field of the oblique machining process. Finite element method (FEM) software DEFORM 3D V10.2 was used together with experimental work carried out using infrared image equipment, which include both hardware and software simulations. The thermal experiments are conducted with AA6063-T6, using different tool obliquity, cutting speeds and feed rates. The results show that the temperature relatively decreased when tool obliquity increases at different cutting speeds and feed rates, also it
... Show MoreCongenital adrenal hyperplasia is a group of autosomal recessive disorders. The most frequent one is 21-hydroxylase deficiency. Analyzing
Medical image segmentation is one of the most actively studied fields in the past few decades, as the development of modern imaging modalities such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT), physicians and technicians nowadays have to process the increasing number and size of medical images. Therefore, efficient and accurate computational segmentation algorithms become necessary to extract the desired information from these large data sets. Moreover, sophisticated segmentation algorithms can help the physicians delineate better the anatomical structures presented in the input images, enhance the accuracy of medical diagnosis and facilitate the best treatment planning. Many of the proposed algorithms could perform w
... Show MoreIn this paper, a Modified Weighted Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (MW-LEACH) protocol is implemented to improve the Quality of Service (QoS) in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) with mobile sink node. The Quality of Service is measured in terms of Throughput Ratio (TR), Packet Loss Ratio (PLR) and Energy Consumption (EC). The protocol is implemented based on Python simulation. Simulation Results showed that the proposed protocol provides better Quality of Service in comparison with Weighted Low Energy Cluster Hierarchy (W-LEACH) protocol by 63%.
Objectives: This study aimed to identify and analyse ATP7B variants in Iraqi adults with Wilson disease (WD) by long-read next-generation sequencing. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Poisoning Consultation Center at Ghazy Al-Hariri Hospital for Surgical Specialties and the Gastroenterology Consultation Clinic at Baghdad Teaching Hospital, Medical City in Baghdad, Iraq. Unrelated patients with clinical and biochemical features suggestive of WD were recruited between October 2022 and October 2023. DNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples. Variants in the ATP7B gene were identified using long-read next-generation sequencing and then analysed by in-silico tools. Results: A total of 45 patients were recruited in
... Show MoreReliability analysis methods are used to evaluate the safety of reinforced concrete structures by evaluating the limit state function 𝑔(𝑋𝑖). For implicit limit state function and nonlinear analysis , an advanced reliability analysis methods are needed. Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) can be used in this case however, as the number of input variables increases, the time required for MCS also increases, making it a time consuming method especially for complex problems with implicit performance functions. In such cases, MCS-based FORM (First Order Reliability Method) and Artificial Neural Network-based FORM (ANN FORM) have been proposed as alternatives. However, it is important to note that both MCS-FORM and ANN-FORM can also be time-con
... Show MoreThis research deals with unusual approach for analyzing the Simple Linear Regression via Linear Programming by Two - phase method, which is known in Operations Research: “O.R.”. The estimation here is found by solving optimization problem when adding artificial variables: Ri. Another method to analyze the Simple Linear Regression is introduced in this research, where the conditional Median of (y) was taken under consideration by minimizing the Sum of Absolute Residuals instead of finding the conditional Mean of (y) which depends on minimizing the Sum of Squared Residuals, that is called: “Median Regression”. Also, an Iterative Reweighted Least Squared based on the Absolute Residuals as weights is performed here as another method to
... Show MoreThis paper is interested in certain subclasses of univalent and bi-univalent functions concerning to shell- like curves connected with k-Fibonacci numbers involving modified Sigmoid activation function θ(t)=2/(1+e^(-t) ) ,t ≥0 in unit disk |z|<1 . For estimating of the initial coefficients |c_2 | , |c_3 |, Fekete-Szego ̈ inequality and the second Hankel determinant have been investigated for the functions in our classes.