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 openings were used: the same size as the column (150 x 150 mm), 67 percent of the column size (100 x 100mm), and 150 percent of the column size (225×225mm). Due to the presence of the openings, the specimens showed a decrease in punching shear capacity ranged between 11.43% and 29.25% with respect to the control solid slab. Also, the stiffness decreased between 0.31% and 83.00%, depending on the size and location of these openings with respect to the column.
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
... Show MoreThe thermal performance of a flat-plate solar collector (FPSC) using novel heat transfer fluids of aqueous colloidal dispersions of covalently functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes with β-Alanine (Ala-MWCNTs) has been studied. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with outside diameters of (< 8 nm) and (20–30 nm) having specific surface areas (SSAs) of (500 m2/g) and (110 m2/g), respectively, were utilized. For each Ala-MWCNTs, waterbased nanofluids were synthesized using weight concentrations of 0.025%, 0.05%, 0.075%, and 0.1%. A MATLAB code was built and a test rig was designed and developed. Heat flux intensities of 600, 800, and 1000 W/m2; mass flow rates of 0.6, 1.0, and 1.4 kg/min; and inlet fluid temperatures of 30, 40, an
... Show MoreBackground: Decalcification of surface enamel adjacent to fixed orthodontic appliances, in the form of white spot lesions, is a wide spread and familiar well-known side effect of orthodontic treatment. The present study was carried out to evaluate the effect of enamel protective agent (Clinpro white varnish) on shear and tensile bond strength of Dentaurum orthodontic stainless steel brackets by using 3M Unitek and Ormco as orthodontic adhesive agents. Materials and methods: Sixty-four extracted human upper first premolar teeth were selected and randomly divided into two groups with 32 teeth each, representing the shear and tensile bond strength testing groups. Then according to the type of bonding adhesive and the addition of Clinpro before
... Show MoreFree vibration behavior was developed under the ratio of critical buckling temperature of laminated composite thin plates with the general elastic boundary condition. The equations of motion were found based on classical laminated plate theory (CLPT) while the solution functions consists of trigonometric function and a continuous function that is added to guarantee the sufficient smoother of the so-named remaining displacement function at the boundaries, in this research, a modified Fourier series were used, a generalized procedure solution was developed using Ritz method combined with the imaginary spring technique. The influences of many design parameters such as angles of layers, aspect ratio, thickness ratio, and ratio of initial in-
... Show MoreContinuous escalation of the cost of generating energy is preceded by the fact of scary depletion of the energy reserve of the fossil fuels and pollution of the environment as developed and developing countries burn these fuels. To meet the challenge of the impending energy crisis, renewable energy has been growing rapidly in the last decade. Among the renewable energy sources, solar energy is the most extensively available energy, has the least effect on the environment, and is very efficient in terms of energy conversion. Thus, solar energy has become one of the preferred sources of renewable energy. Flat-plate solar collectors are one of the extensively-used and well-known types of solar collectors. However, the effectiveness of the coll
... Show MoreSeveral stress-strain models were used to predict the strengths of steel fiber reinforced concrete, which are distinctive of the material. However, insufficient research has been done on the influence of hybrid fiber combinations (comprising two or more distinct fibers) on the characteristics of concrete. For this reason, the researchers conducted an experimental program to determine the stress-strain relationship of 30 concrete samples reinforced with two distinct fibers (a hybrid of polyvinyl alcohol and steel fibers), with compressive strengths ranging from 40 to 120 MPa. A total of 80% of the experimental results were used to develop a new empirical stress-strain model, which was accomplished through the application of the parti
... Show MoreIn this study, simply supported reinforced concrete (RC) beams were analyzed using the Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM). This is a powerful method that is used for the treatment of discontinuities resulting from the fracture process and crack propagation in concrete. The mesoscale is used in modeling concrete as a two-phasic material of coarse aggregate and cement mortar. Air voids in the cement paste will also be modeled. The coarse aggregate used in the casting of these beams is a rounded aggregate consisting of different maximum sizes. The maximum size is 25 mm in the first model, and in the second model, the maximum size is 20 mm. The compressive strength used in these beams is equal to 26 MPa.
The subje
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