Concrete pavements are essential to modern infrastructure, but their low tensile and flexural strengths can cause cracking and shrinkage. This study evaluates fiber reinforcement with steel and carbon fibers in various combinations to improve rigid pavement performance. Six concrete mixes were tested: a control mix with no fiber, a mix with 1% steel fiber (SF1%), a mix with 1% carbon fiber (CF1%), and three hybrid mixes with 1% fiber content: 0.75% steel /0.25% carbon fiber (SF0.75CF0.25), 0.25% steel /0.75% carbon fiber (SF0.25CF0.75), and 0.5% steel /0.5% carbon fiber ((SF0.5CF0.5). Laboratory experiments including compressive, flexural, and splitting tensile strength tests were conducted at 7, 28, and 90 days, while Finite Element Analysis (FEA) using ABAQUS software was developed to examine pavement behavior under repeated loading. The results revealed that at 90 days, the SF1% mix exhibited a 9.1% improved compressive strength and CF1% mix a 7.3% improved strength over the control mix. The SF1% mix increased flexural strength by 72.5% and the CF1% mix by 48.6%. Additionally, splitting tensile strength increased by 70% for the SF1% and 45.5% for the CF1%. The hybrid mixes improved compressive strength by 7.6%-8.5%, flexural strength by 59.7%-70.2%, and splitting tensile strength by 56%-67.8%. The finite element modeling showed that the control mix was displaced 15 mm under repeated loading, while the SF1% reduced displacement by 35% and the hybrid mixes by 30%. These findings indicated that SF1% exhibited the best mechanical properties. However, fiber reinforcement, whether used single or in hybrid combinations, improves concrete pavement mechanical performance and loading behavior, offering a promising way to infrastructure durability and service life.
In this paper, the effects of subsurface water retention technology (SWRT) on crop coefficient (kc) and crop evapotranspiration (ETc) of eggplant were investigated in sandy loam soil. For this purpose, two treatments plot (with SWRT and without using SWRT) were adopted during 93 days of cultivation. The study was conducted in open field within Al-Fahamah Township, Baghdad, Iraq during summer growing season 2017. The accumulated ETc of eggplant was 403.3 and 515.2 mm for SWRT treatment and control plot, respectively by reduction percentage 21.7 %. The average values of ETc during the growing season were 4.3 and 5.5 mm/day, respectively. The crop coefficients value during the gro
... Show MoreHighway embankments stability during its service period represents an important factor for the safety of highway users and vehicles. Consequently, the cost of construction of these embankments should be adequate to maintain the safety and durability during this period through proper estimation of the loading on asphalt pavement, slope stability, horizontal and vertical deformation, etc. Slope stability of the embankment mainly depends on the shear strength of the soil layers materials; this shear strength is affected by the water table level through the contribution of the capillary water. Negative pore water pressure above the water table level evolves matric suction in the unsaturated zone above water table; this matric suction increases
... Show MoreIn this work, the effect of ceramic coating on performance, exhaust gas temperature and gases emissions of diesel engine operated on diesel fuel and biodiesel blends was investigated. A conventional four stroke, direct injected, single cylinder, diesel engine was tested at constant speed and at different load conditions using diesel fuel and biodiesel blends. The inlet and exhaust valves, the head of piston and cylinder head of the engine were coated by ceramic materials. Ceramic layers were made of (210-240) μm of Al2O3 and (30-60) μm of 4NiCr5Al as a bond coat for inlet and exhaust valves and (350-400) μm of YSZ and (50-100) μm of 4NiCr5Al as a bond coat for head of piston and (280-320) μm of Sic and (40-80) μm of 4NiCr5Al as a b
... Show MoreBackground: Chronic cigarette smoking is one of the major risk factors for coronary artery disease. However, it has additional cardiac adverse effects independent of coronary atherosclerosis. Patient and Methods: After informed consent and perm- ission from the review board of the hospital, 80 healthy subjects who were classified as smokers or non-smokers were included in the study. They were examined by standard echocardiography protocol which was followed by two-dimensional speckle tracking to assess the functions of the right ventricle. Results: The tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) was significantly reduced in smokers as compared to non-smokers (P < 0.05). The tricuspid flow peak late diastolic velocity (A wave) was sig
... Show MoreThis study aims to enhance the RC5 algorithm to improve encryption and decryption speeds in devices with limited power and memory resources. These resource-constrained applications, which range in size from wearables and smart cards to microscopic sensors, frequently function in settings where traditional cryptographic techniques because of their high computational overhead and memory requirements are impracticable. The Enhanced RC5 (ERC5) algorithm integrates the PKCS#7 padding method to effectively adapt to various data sizes. Empirical investigation reveals significant improvements in encryption speed with ERC5, ranging from 50.90% to 64.18% for audio files and 46.97% to 56.84% for image files, depending on file size. A substanti
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In past years, structural pavement solution has been combined with destructive testing; these destructive methods are being replaced by non-destructive testing methods (NDT). Because the destructive test causes damage due to coring conducted for testing and also the difficulty of adequately repairing the core position in the field. Ultrasonic pulse velocity was used to evaluate the strength and volumetric properties of asphalt concrete, of binder course. The impact of moisture damage and testing temperature on pulse velocity has also been studied. Data were analyzed and modeled. It was found that using non-destructive testing represented by pulse velocity could be useful to predict the quality of asphalt c
... Show MoreThe present study develops the sorption model for simulating the effects of pH and temperature on the uptake of cadmium from contaminated water using waste foundry sand (WFS) by allowing the variation of the maximum adsorption capacity and affinity constant. The presence of two acidic functional groups with the same or different affinity is the basis in the derivation of the two models; Model 1 and Model 2 respectively. The developed Bi-Langmuir model with different affinity (Model 2) has a remarkable ability in the description of process under consideration with coefficient of determination > 0.9838 and sum of squared error < 0.08514. This result is proved by FTIR test where the weak acids responsible of cadmium ions removal
... Show MoreKamil, S.H. 2024. Effects of Aqueous and Alcoholic Extracts of Lemongrass, Cymbopogon citratus on Some Biological Aspects of the Fig Moth, Ephestia cautella. Arab Journal of Plant Protection, 42(3): 377-381. https://doi.org/10.22268/AJPP-001245 This study evaluated the effects of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of lemongrass on the third instar larvae of the date moth Ephestia cautella Walker (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae). The results obtained showed that there were toxic effects of aqueous extract, which produced the highest mortality rate of 43.35% at 5% concentration72 hours after treatment, whereas the lowest mortality rate of 17% was obtained at 0.5% concentration, 72 hours after treatment. The LC50 was 0.082%. The results indicated
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