Test results of six half-scale reinforced concrete flat plates connections with an opening in the vicinity of the column are reported. The test specimens represent a portion of a slab bounded by the lines of contraflexure around the column. The tests were designed to study the effect of openings on the punching shear behavior of the slab-column connections. The test parameters were the location and the size of the openings. One specimen had no opening and the remaining five had various arrangements of openings around the column. All specimens were cast with normal density concrete of approximately 30 MPa compressive strength. The openings in the specimens were square, with the sides parallel to the sides of the column. Three sizes of ope

Impact strength of self-compacted concrete is a field of interest, mostly when the concrete is produced from sustainable materials. This research's main objective is to clarify the ability to use two types of Portland limestone cement (Karasta and Tasluja) in self compacted concrete under impact loading, further to the economic and environmental benefits of the limestone cement. The impact loading was applied by a low-speed test, using the drop ball on concrete. Moreover, the study reveals the resistance of the grids reinforced concrete to impact loading by using polymer grid, and steel grid reinforced concrete slabs. Mixes reinforced by steel mesh had the highest results, indicating that the steel mesh was more robust because it had

Conventional concretes are nearly unbendable, and just 0.1 percent of strain potential makes them incredibly brittle and stiff. This absence of bendability is a significant cause of strain failure and has been a guiding force in the production of an elegant substance, bendable concrete, also known as engineered cement composites, abbreviated as ECC. This type of concrete is capable of displaying dramatically increased flexibility. ECC is reinforced with micromechanical polymer fibers. ECC usually uses a 2 percent volume of small, disconnected fibers. Thus, bendable concrete deforms but without breaking any further than conventional concrete. This research aims to involve this type of concrete, bendable concrete, that will give solut

Petroleum is one of the most important substances consumed by man at present times, a major energy source in this century, petroleum oils can cause environmental pollution during various stages of production, transportation, refining and use, petroleum hydrocarbons pollutions ranging from soil, ground water to marine environment, become an inevitable problem in the modern life, current study focused on bioremediation process of hydrocarbons contaminants that remaining in the bottom of gas cylinders and discharged to the soil. Twenty-four bacterial isolates were isolated from contaminated soils all of them gram negative bacteria, bacterial isolates screening to investigate the ability of biodegradation of hydrocarbons, these isolates inocula

The study aimed to evaluate educational programs efficiency in applying the best educational practices to educate students from the dangers of indecent behaviors, in line with higher education policy and the appropriateness of educational program dimensions to spread awareness among students to not fall into the indecent behaviors clutches. The study adopted the inductive exploratory approach through structural equation modeling and the descriptive analysis of the collected data from randomly selected sample (n=385) from educational academics at Northern Border University in the Saudi Arabia using a specially designed survey tool to meet study purposes to evaluate dimensions of teaching methods, evaluation tools, training courses, course

The optical transmission and absorption spectra in UV-VIS were recorded in the wavelength range 350-800 nm for different glass compositions in the system: (CuO)x (PbO)50-x (Bi2O3)50 (x=2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10.0, 12.5, 15.0, 20.0). Absorption coefficient {α (λ)}, optical energy gap (Eopt), refractive index (n), optical dielectric constant (ε`), Urbach energy (Ee), constant B and ratio of carrier concentration to the effective mass (N/m) have been reported. The effects of compositions of glasses on these parameters have been discussed. It has been indicated that a small compositional modification of the glasses lead to an important change in all the optical properties including non-linear behavior. The optical parameters were found to b

The conception and experimental assessment of a removable friction-based shear connector (FBSC) for precast steel-concrete composite bridges is presented. The FBSC uses pre-tensioned high-strength steel bolts that pass through countersunk holes drilled on the top flange of the steel beam. Pre-tensioning of the bolts provides the FBSC with significant frictional resistance that essentially prevents relative slip displacement of the concrete slab with respect to the steel beam under service loading. The countersunk holes are grouted to prevent sudden slip of the FBSC when friction resistance is exceeded. Moreover, the FBSC promotes accelerated bridge construction by fully exploiting prefabrication, does not raise issues relevant to precast co

The complexity and partially defined nature of jet grouting make it hard to predict the performance of grouted piles. So the trials of cement injection at a location with similar soil properties as the erecting site are necessary to assess the performance of the grouted piles. Nevertheless, instead of executing trial-injected piles at the pilot site, which wastes money, time, and effort, the laboratory cement injection devices are essential alternatives for evaluating soil injection ability. This study assesses the performance of a low-pressure laboratory grouting device by improving loose sandy soil injected using binders formed of Silica Fume (SF) as a chemical admixture (10% of Ordinary Portland Cement OPC mass) to di

In the present work, lead silicate glasses have been prepared with
different amount of lead oxide content. Structure properties such as
X-ray diffraction, AFM, and FTIR analyses have been done. The
exceeding of PbO content more than 25wt% revealed a decreasing in
density. The X- ray revealed that the strongest peak related to
Hexagonal silica dioxide and the other crystal phases formed were
related to silica oxide (SiO2) and lead oxide (PbO). Growth and
decayed phases in X-ray have been observed with changing lead
oxide content. Homogeneous surface was obtained using AFM
analyzer with an average diameter around 100 nm. Infrared spectrum
is characterized by the presence of large absorption band between
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