A novel demountable shear connector is proposed to link a concrete slab to steel sections in a way that resulting steel-concrete composite floor is demountable, i.e. it can be easily dismantled at the end of its service life. The proposed connectors consist of two parts: the first part is a hollow steel tube with internal threads at its lower end. The second part is a compatible partially threaded bolted stud. After linking the stud to the steel section, the hollow steel tube can be fastened over the threaded stud, which create a complete demountable shear connector. The connector is suitable for use in both composite bridges and buildings, and using cast in-situ slabs, precast solid slabs, or hollow-core precast slabs. A series of push-off tests with different parameters including wall thickness of steel tube, compressive strength of concrete slab and infilled grout were carried out to study shear strength, shear stiffness, failure modes and relative slip characteristics of demountable shear connectors. Experimental results indicated that the shear connector has a high strength and initial stiffness, also the slip capacity that is higher than the requirements of the current codes of practice. Finally, it is suggested that under applied loading, concrete slabs do not crack or crush, demountable connectors can yield into plastic state, therefore, concrete slabs and steel beams can be easily replaced, repaired or reused.
The incorporation of safety characteristics into the traditional pavement structural design or in the functional evaluation of pavement condition has not been established yet. The design has focused on the structural capacity of the roadway so that the pavement can withstand specific level of repetitive loading over the design life. On the other hand, the surface texture condition was neither included in the AASHTO design procedure nor in the present serviceability index measurements.
The pavement surface course should provide adequate levels of friction and ride quality and maintain low levels of noise and roughness. Many transportation departments perform routine skid resistant testing, the type of equipment us
... Show MoreAbstract-Industrial and urban development has resulted in the spread of plastic waste and the increase in the emissions of carbon dioxide resulting from the cement manufacturing process. The current research aims to produce green (environmentally friendly) concrete by using plastic waste as coarse aggregates in different proportions (10% and 20%) and nano silica sand powder as an alternative to cement in different proportions (5% and 10% by weight). The results showed that compressive strength decreased by 12.10% and 19.23% for 10% and 20% plastic waste replacement and increased by 12.89% and 20.39% for 5% and 10% silica sand replacement respectively at 28 days. Flexural strength decreased by 12.95% and 19.64% for 10% and 20% plastic waste
... Show MoreThere has been a growing interest in the use of chaotic techniques for enabling secure communication in recent years. This need has been motivated by the emergence of a number of wireless services which require the channel to provide very low bit error rates (BER) along with information security. As more and more information is transacted over wireless media, there has been increasing criminal activity directed against such systems. This paper investigates the feasibility of using chaotic communications over Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) channels. We have studied the performance of differential chaos shift keying (DCSK) with 2×2 Alamouti scheme and 2×1 Alamouti scheme for different chaotic maps over additive white Gaussian noise (
... Show MoreNanocomposite films of silver-polyvinyl alcohol (Ag/PVA) with varying silver nanoparticle concentrations (1-5 wt%) were synthesized via a solution casting technique. The films were characterized by understanding the influence of Ag content on their structural, optical, mechanical, and electrical properties. UV-Vis spectroscopy (300-800 nm) revealed a red shift in absorption peaks and a significant decrease in the optical band gap from 5.39 eV to 1.06 eV with increasing Ag concentration, indicating the formation of additional energy states within the PVA matrix. FTIR and SEM analyses confirmed the successful incorporation of nanoparticles and revealed changes in surface functionalities and morpholog
In the petroleum industry, multiphase flow dynamics within the tubing string have gained significant attention due to associated challenges. Accurately predicting pressure drops and wellbore pressures is crucial for the effective modeling of vertical lift performance (VLP). This study focuses on predicting the multiphase flow behavior in four wells located in the Faihaa oil field in southern Iraq, utilizing PIPESIM software. The process of selecting the most appropriate multiphase correlation was performed by utilizing production test data to construct a comprehensive survey data catalog. Subsequently, the results were compared with the correlations available within the PIPESIM software. The outcomes reveal that the Hagedorn and Brown (H
... Show MoreIn the presence of deep submicron noise, providing reliable and energy‐efficient network on‐chip operation is becoming a challenging objective. In this study, the authors propose a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ)‐based coding scheme that simultaneously reduces the crosstalk induced bus delay and provides multi‐bit error protection while achieving high‐energy savings. This is achieved by calculating two‐dimensional parities and duplicating all the bits, which provide single error correction and six errors detection. The error correction reduces the performance degradation caused by retransmissions, which when combined with voltage swing reduction, due to its high error detection, high‐energy savings are achieved. The res
... Show MoreOne of the key challenges is reliable communication for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) since underwater environments are dynamic and challenging for signal transmission. The traditional acoustic communication systems allow long-distance communication but are limited by the low bandwidth, high latency, and doppler effect. Optical wireless, on the other hand, provides high data rates with water absorption and scattering occurring within the transmission distance, but has a short range of communication. To overcome these drawbacks, a smart hybrid optical-acoustic communication system is proposed that is a combination of Wavelength Division Multiplexing and On-Off Keying (WDM-OOK) to transmit a high-speed signal over optical and ac
... Show MorePressure ulcers are one of the most common hospital-acquired major conditions that occur in patients with mobility limitations and result in endangering patient safety, prolonging hospital stay, disability, and death. This study aims to examine the level of nurses’ practices and perceived barriers for preventing pressure ulcers among critically ill patients.
A cross-sectional survey was conducte
This study deals with the corrosion inhibition of metal corrosion process of medium carbon steel using 1M HCl for kinetic studies and rate reaction determination. The weight loss method is applied to pieces of Medium carbon steel divided to Cubans with dimensions (0.4*2*2.4) cm , and use Tafel Extrapolation Method, the samples were polished using carbide silicon paper with dimensions of (180,200,400,600,800,1000). The samples were immersed in the alcoholic medium ethanol at a temperature 293K for 3hr. Natural inhibitor Kujarat Tea (Hibiscus sabdarriffa L.) is used which is extracted in aqueous and alcoholic medium, different concentrations (1000،2000, 3000) ppm have been used ; The best concentration found through the results is a conce
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