Accurate description of thermodynamic, structural, and electronic properties for bulk and surfaces of ceria (CeO₂) necessitates the inclusion of the Hubbard parameter (U) in the density functional theory (DFT) calculations to precisely account for the strongly correlated 4f electrons. Such treatment is a daunting task when attempting to draw a potential energy surface for CeO₂-catalyzed reaction. This is due to the inconsistent change in thermo-kinetics parameters of the reaction in reference to the variation in the U values. As an illustrative example, we investigate herein the discrepancy in activation and reaction energies for steps underlying the partial and full hydrogenation of acetyl

This study aims to find the effect of water-cement ratio on the compressive strength of concrete by using ultrasonic pulse velocity test (UPVT). Over 230 standard cube specimens were used in this study, with dimensions of 150mm, and concrete cubes were cured in water at 20 °C. Also, the specimens used in the study were made of concrete with varied water-cement ratio contents from 0.48 to 0.59. The specimens were taken from Diyarbakir-Turkey concrete centers and tested at the structure and material science lab, civil engineering, faculty of engineering from Dicle University.  The UPV measurement and compressive strength tests were carried out at the concrete age of 28 days. Their UPV and compressive strength ranged

A load-shedding controller suitable for small to medium size loads is designed and implemented based on preprogrammed priorities and power consumption for individual loads. The main controller decides if a particular load can be switched ON or not according to the amount of available power generation, load consumption and loads priorities. When themaximum allowed power consumption is reached and the user want to deliver power to additional load, the controller will decide if this particular load should be denied receiving power if its priority is low. Otherwise, it can be granted to receive power if its priority is high and in this case lower priority loads are automatically switched OFF in order not to overload the power generation. The

High performance self-consolidating concrete HP-SCC is one of the most complex types of concrete which have the capacity to consolidated under its own weight, have excellent homogeneity and high durability. This study aims to focus on the possibility of using industrial by-products like Silica fumes SF in the preparation of HP-SCC enhanced with discrete steel fibers (DSF) and monofilament polypropylene fibers (PPF). From experimental results, it was found that using DSF with volume fraction of 0.50 %; a highly improvements were gained in the mechanical properties of HP-SCC. The compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength and elastic modulus improved about 65.7 %, 70.5 %, 41.7 % and 80.3 % at 28 days age, respectively

The dynamic response of foundation rest on collapsible soil in dry and soaked states is studied through wide experimental programmed. Gypseous soil from Tikrit governorate area was obtained and subjected to various physical and chemical analysis to determine its properties. Steel rectangular footing (400x200x20) mm is manufactured. The machine is fitted to the footing, then the model machine foundation is placed centrally over the prepared soil layer in steel container (1200x 1000x1000)mm with proper care to maintain the center of gravity of whole system lie in the same vertical line with container.Then, the footing is subjected to vertical harmonic loading using a rotating mass type mechanical oscillator to simulate different dynamic lo

A real method of predication brake pad wear ,could lead to substantiol economies of time and money. This paper describes how such a procedure has been used and gives the results to establish is reliability by comparing the predicted wear with that which actually occurs in an existing service. The experimental work was carried out on three different commercial samples ,tested under different operation conditions (speed,load,time...etc)using a test ring especially modified for this purpose. Abrasive wear is mainly studied , since it is the type of wear that takes place in such arrangements. Samples wear tested in presences of sand or mud between the mating surfaces under different operational conditions of speed, load and braking time .Mec

Flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer (FAAS) was used in this study to determine the concentrations of heavy metals such as Ca, Fe, Mn, Cd, Co, Cr, Ni, Cu, Pb and Zn in some food additives of Iraq. The order of metal contents in food additives was found to be Ca ˃ Mn ˃ Fe ˃ Cu ˃ Zn ˃ Pb ˃ Cr ˃ Ni ˃ Co ˃ Cd. The concentration level of each metal was compared with that recommended by food agriculture organisation (FAO) and world health organisation (WHO). Calibration curves were linear for all standard solutions of heavy metals in the range starting from 0.02-0.4 mg/kg for Cd to 11-100 mg/kg for Ca. The correlation coefficients values (R2) of calibrations were investigated and ranged from 0.9971 for Cr to 0.9999 for Ca. Th

Fire is the most sever environmental condition affecting on concrete structures, thus investigating for fire safety in structural concrete is important for building construction. The slow heat transfer and strength loss enables concrete to be effective for fire resistance. Concrete structures withstand when exposed to fire according to: their thermal properties, rate of heating, characteristic properties of concrete mixes and their composition and on the duration of fire, and concerned as thermal property with other factors such as loss of mass which affected by aggregate type, moisture content, and composition of concrete mix. The present research goal is to study the effect of rising temperature on the compressive strength of the rea