The use of external posttensioning technique for strengthening reinforced concrete girders has been considerably studied by many researchers worldwide. However, no available data are seen regarding strengthening full-scale composite prestressed concrete girders with external posttensioned technique under static and repeated loading. In this research, four full-scale composite prestressed I-shape girders of 16 m span were fabricated and tested under static and repeated loading up to failure. Accordingly, two girders were externally strengthened with posttensioned strands, while the other two girders were left without strengthening. The experimental tests include deflection, cracking load, ultimate strength and strains at midspan, a

The synthesis of conducting polyaniline (PANI) nanocomposites containing various concentrations of functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes (f-SWCNT) were synthesized by in situ polymerization of aniline monomer. The morphological and electrical properties of pure PANI and PANI/SWCNT nanocomposites were examined by using Fourier transform- infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) respectively. The FTIR shows the aniline monomers were polymerized on the surface of SWCNTs, depending on the -* electron interaction between aniline monomers and SWCNTs. AFM analysis showed increasing in the roughness with increasing SWCNT content. The AC, DC electrical conductivities of pure PANI and PANI/SWCNT nanocomposite h

Mortar of ordinary Portland cement was blended with cockles shell
powder at different weight ratios to investigate the effect of powder
admixture on their strength and thermal conductivity. Results showed
that addition of cockles shell powder at 50% of mortar weight
improves hardness and compressive strength notably and reduces the
thermal conductivity of the end product. Results suggest the
possibility to incorporate cockles shell powders as constituents in
cement mortars for construction and plastering applications.

Thin films of GexS1-x were fabricated by thermal evaporating under vacuum of 10-5Toor on glass substrate. The effect of increasing of germanium content (x) in sulfide films on the electrical properties like d.c conductivity (σDC), concentration of charge carriers (nH) and the activation energy (Ea) and Hall effect were investigated. The measurements show that (Ea) increases with the increasing of germanium content from 0.1to0.2 while it get to reduces with further addition, while charge carrier density (nH) is found to decrease and increase respectively with germanium content. The results were explained in terms of creating and eliminating of states in the band gap

Zinc Oxide thin film of 2 μm thickness has been grown on glass substrate by pulsed laser deposition technique at substrate temperature of 500 oC under the vacuum pressure of 8×10-2 mbar. The optical properties concerning the absorption, and transmission spectra were studied for the prepared thin film. From the transmission spectra, the optical gap and linear refractive index of the ZnO thin film was determined. The structure of the ZnO thin film was tested with X-Ray diffraction and it was formed to be a polycrystalline with many peaks.

Electrical properties were studied for Pectin/PVA graphene composites films and the effect of aqueous interaction on their properties. The conductivity and the dielectric constant of this composite are important because Polysaccharide like pectin is increasingly being used in biomedical applications and as nanoparticles coating materials. The Dielectric and conductivity of composite films were compared in dry and wet condition the differences in the results were attributed to the water molecules and the hydrogen bond which connect the three composite compounds (Pectin, PVA and Graphene) together. These connections were allowed the hydrogen and hydroxyl group’s migrations in the composite super molecules. On the other hand, graphene was pr

A huge potential from researchers was presented for enhancing the nonlinear optical response for materials that interacts by light. In this work, we study the nonlinear optical response for chemically prepared nano- fluid of silver nanoparticles in de-ionized water with TSC (Tri-sodium citrate) protecting agent. By the means of self-defocusing technique and under CW 473 nm blue laser, the reflected diffraction pattern were observed and recorded by CCD camera. The results demonstrate that, the Ag nano-fluid shows a good third order nonlinear response and the magnitude of the nonlinear refractive index was in the order of 10−7 cm2/W. We determine the maximum change of the nonlinear refractive index and the related phase shift for the mat

This contribution investigates structural, electronic, and optical properties of cubic barium titanate (BaTiO3) perovskites using first-principles calculations of density functional theory (DFT). Generalized gradient approximations (GGA) alongside with PW91 functional have been implemented for the exchange–correlation potential. The obtained results display that BaTiO3 exhibits a band gap of 3.21 eV which agrees well with the previously experimental and theoretical literature. Interestingly, our results explore that when replacing Pd atom with Ba and Ti atoms at 0.125 content a clear decrease in the electronic band gap of 1.052 and 1.090 eV located within the visible range of electromagnetic wavelengths (EMW). Optical parameters such as a