This paper is devoted to investigate the effect of internal curing technique on the properties of self-compacting concrete (SCC). In this study, SCC is produced by using silica fume (SF) as partial replacement by weight of cement with percentage of (5%), sand is partially replaced by volume with saturated fine lightweight aggregate (LWA) which is thermostone chips as internal curing material in three percentages of (5%, 10% and 15%) for SCC, two external curing conditions water and air. The experimental work was divided into three parts: in the first part, the workability tests of fresh SCC were conducted. The second part included conducting compressive strength test and modulus of rupture test at ages of (7, 28 and 90). The third part i

Bioethanol produced from lignocellulose feedstock is a renewable substitute to declining fossil fuels. Pretreatment using ultrasound assisted alkaline was investigated to enhance the enzyme digestibility of waste paper. The pretreatment was conducted over a wide range of conditions including waste paper concentrations of 1-5%, reaction time of 10-30 min and temperatures of 30-70°C. The optimum conditions were 4 % substrate loading with 25 min treatment time at 60°C where maximum reducing sugar obtained was 1.89 g/L. Hydrolysis process was conducted with a crude cellulolytic enzymes produced by Cellulomonas uda (PTCC 1259).The maximum amount of sugar released and hydrolysis efficiency were 20.92 g/L and 78.4 %, respectively. Sugars

Flexure members such as reinforced concrete (RC) simply supported beams subjected to two-point loading were analyzed numerically. The Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) was employed for the treatment the non-smooth h behaviour such as discontinuities and singularities. This method is a powerful technique used for the analysis of the fracture process and crack propagation in concrete. Concrete is a heterogeneous material that consists of coarse aggregate, cement mortar and air voids distributed in the cement paste. Numerical modeling of concrete comprises a two-scale model, using mesoscale and macroscale numerical models. The effectiveness and validity of the Meso-Scale Approach (MSA) in modeling of the reinforced concrete beams w

In this study, gold nanoparticles were synthesized in a single step biosynthetic method using aqueous leaves extract of thymus vulgaris L. It acts as a reducing and capping agent. The characterizations of nanoparticles were carried out using UV-Visible spectra, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and FTIR. The surface plasmon resonance of the as-prepared gold nanoparticles (GNPs) showed the surface plasmon resonance centered at 550[Formula: see text]nm. The XRD pattern showed that the strong four intense peaks indicated the crystalline nature and the face centered cubic structure of the gold nanoparticles. The average crystallite size of the AuNPs was 14.93[Formula: see text]nm. Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) was used to s

Risk identification and assessment can be analysed using many risk management tools. Fishbone diagram is one of these techniques which can be employed, for the identification of the causes behind the construction failure, which   has become a phenomenon that often gets repeated in several projects. If these failures are not understood and handled scientifically, it may lead to disputes between the project parties. Additionally, the construction failure also leads to an increase in the project budget, which in turn causes a delay in the completion of the projects. Punching shear in reinforcement slab may be one of the reasons for construction failures. However, there are many doubts about other causes that lead to this failure as w

The accurate 3-D coordinate's measurements of the global positioning systems are essential in many fields and applications. The GPS has numerous applications such as: Frequency Counters, Geographic Information Systems, Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems, Car Navigation Systems, Emergency Systems, Aviations, Astronomical Pointing Control, and Atmospheric Sounding using GPS signals, tracking of wild animals, GPS Aid for the Blind, Recorded Position Information, Airborne Gravimetry and other uses. In this paper, the RTK DGPS mode has been used to create precise 3-D coordinates values for four rover stations in Baghdad university camp. The HiPer-II Receiver of global positioning system was used to navigate the coordinate value. The results wil

In this study, mean free path and positron elastic-inelastic scattering are modeled for the elements hydrogen (H), carbon (C), nitrogen (N), oxygen (O), phosphorus (P), sulfur (S), chlorine (Cl), potassium (K) and iodine (I). Despite the enormous amounts of data required, the Monte Carlo (MC) method was applied, allowing for a very accurate simulation of positron interaction collisions in live cells. Here, the MC simulation of the interaction of positrons was reported with breast, liver, and thyroid at normal incidence angles, with energies ranging from 45 eV to 0.2 MeV. The model provides a straightforward analytic formula for the random sampling of positron scattering. ICRU44 was used to compile the elemental composition data. In this