This 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 the other eight deep beams were with openings in shear spans and with carbon fiber–reinforced polymer sheet strengthening around opening zones. The opening size was adopted to be 200 × 200 mm dimensions in eight deep beams, while it was considered to be 230 × 230 mm dimensions in the other eight specimens. In eight specimens the opening was located at the center of the shear span, while in the other eight beams the opening was attached to the interior edge of the shear span. Carbon fiber–reinforced polymer sheets were installed around openings to compensate for the cutout area of concrete. Results gained from the experimental test showed that the creation of openings in shear spans affect the load-carrying capacity, where the reduction of the failure load for specimens with the opening but without strengthening may attain 66% compared to deep beams without openings. On the other hand, the strengthening by carbon fiber–reinforced polymer sheets for beams with openings increased the failure load by 20%–47% compared with the identical deep beam without strengthening. A significant contribution of carbon fiber–reinforced polymer sheets in restricting the deformability of deep beams was observed.
A high sensitivity, low power and low cost sensor has been developed for photoplethysmography (PPG) measurement. The PPG principle was applied to follow the dilatation and contraction of skin blood vessels during the cardiac cycle. A standard light emitting diodes (LEDs) has been used as a light emitter and detector, and in order to reduce the space, cost and power, the classical analogue-to-digital converters (ADCs) replaced by the pulse-based signal conversion techniques. A general purpose microcontroller has been used for the implementation of measurement protocol. The proposed approach leads to better spectral sensitivity, increased resolution, reduction in cost, dimensions and power consumption. The basic sensing configuration prese
... Show MoreAbstract: Word sense disambiguation (WSD) is a significant field in computational linguistics as it is indispensable for many language understanding applications. Automatic processing of documents is made difficult because of the fact that many of the terms it contain ambiguous. Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD) systems try to solve these ambiguities and find the correct meaning. Genetic algorithms can be active to resolve this problem since they have been effectively applied for many optimization problems. In this paper, genetic algorithms proposed to solve the word sense disambiguation problem that can automatically select the intended meaning of a word in context without any additional resource. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on a col
... Show MoreIn the field of construction project management, time and cost are the most important factors to be considered in planning every project, and their relationship is complex. The total cost for each project is the sum of the direct and indirect cost. Direct cost commonly represents labor, materials, equipment, etc.
Indirect cost generally represents overhead cost such as supervision, administration, consultants, and interests. Direct cost grows at an increasing rate as the project time is reduced from its original planned time. However, indirect cost continues for the life of the project and any reduction in project time means a reduction in indirect cost. Therefore, there is a trade-off between the time and cost for completing construc
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are promoting the spread of the Internet for devices in all areas of
life, which makes it is a promising technology in the future. In the coming days, as attack technologies become
more improved, security will have an important role in WSN. Currently, quantum computers pose a significant
risk to current encryption technologies that work in tandem with intrusion detection systems because it is
difficult to implement quantum properties on sensors due to the resource limitations. In this paper, quantum
computing is used to develop a future-proof, robust, lightweight and resource-conscious approach to sensor
networks. Great emphasis is placed on the concepts of using the BB8
The integration of decision-making will lead to the robust of its decisions, and then determination optimum inventory level to the required materials to produce and reduce the total cost by the cooperation of purchasing department with inventory department and also with other company,s departments. Two models are suggested to determine Optimum Inventory Level (OIL), the first model (OIL-model 1) assumed that the inventory level for materials quantities equal to the required materials, while the second model (OIL-model 2) assumed that the inventory level for materials quantities more than the required materials for the next period. &nb
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