Rapid worldwide urbanization and drastic population growth have increased the demand for new road construction, which will cause a substantial amount of natural resources such as aggregates to be consumed. The use of recycled concrete aggregate could be one of the possible ways to offset the aggregate shortage problem and reduce environmental pollution. This paper reports an experimental study of unbound granular material using recycled concrete aggregate for pavement subbase construction. Five percentages of recycled concrete aggregate obtained from two different sources with an originally designed compressive strength of 20–30 MPa as well as 31–40 MPa at three particle size levels, i.e., coarse, fine, and extra fine, were tested for their properties, i.e., the optimum moisture content density, Californian bearing ratio, and resilient modulus. A characterization of the resilient modulus of the mixes under complex stress conditions was performed. The characterized modulus model was used in the nonlinear analysis of the pavement structure under traffic loading using KENALYER software. Consequently, the two critical responses, i.e., the tensile strain at the bottom of the asphalt layer and the vertical compressive strain at the top of the subgrade, were computed and compared for the pavement structures with varying types and percentages of recycled concrete aggregate used in the subbase layer.
An innovative two-step noncatalytic esterifcation technique was proposed to synthesize alkyl esters from free fatty acids simulated in waste cooking oil, as a pretreatment process for biodiesel production, without adding any catalyst under normal conditions of pressure and temperature. The efect of methanol:oil molar ratio, reaction time, mixing rate, and reaction temperature were investigated. The results confrmed that the conversion of the reaction was increased when increasing the methanol molar ratio and decreased in prolonged reaction temperature. High conversion (94.545%) was successfully achieved at optimized conditions of 115:1, 65:1 methanol:oil molar ratio in the frst step and second step, respectively, other conditions i
... Show MoreThe aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of binary solvent for regeneration of spent lubricating oil by extraction-flocculation process. The regeneration was investigated by bench scale experiments by using locally provided solvents (Heavy Naphtha, n-Butanol, and iso-Butanol). Solvents to used oil, mixing time, mixing speed and temperatures were studied as operating parameters. The performance on three estimated depended key parameters, namely the percentage of base oil recovered (Yield), percent of oil loss (POL), and the percent of sludge removal (PSR) were used to evaluate the efficiency of the employed binary solvent on extraction process. The best solvent to solvent ratio for binary system were 30:70 for Heavy Naph
... Show MoreThe aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of binary solvent for regeneration of spent lubricating oil by extraction-flocculation process. The regeneration was investigated by bench scale experiments by using locally provided solvents (Heavy Naphtha, n-Butanol, and iso-Butanol). Solvents to used oil, mixing time, mixing speed and temperatures were studied as operating parameters. The performance on three estimated depended key parameters, namely the percentage of base oil recovered (Yield), percent of oil loss (POL), and the percent of sludge removal (PSR) were used to evaluate the efficiency of the employed binary solvent on extraction process. The best solvent to solvent ratio for binary system were 30:70 for Heavy
... Show MoreBackground Solar irradiance is a nonlinear and intermittent function, which makes accurate forecasting of solar power generation a challenge. The high variability of meteorological conditions is not well represented by conventional atmospheric models, thus hampering forecasting skill and model robustness. In this work, an advanced hybridization of multi-population cuckoo search (HMPCS) algorithm with machine learning (ML) methods is developed to enhance the prediction performance of photovoltaic (PV) power forecasting with more reliability. Methods In this study, a hybrid modeling framework is proposed, called HMPCS–ML framework which captures the global search capacity of HMPCS and predictive power of sophisti
... Show MoreThere are many different methods for analysis of two-way reinforced concrete slabs. The most efficient methods depend on using certain factors given in different codes of reinforced concrete design. The other ways of analysis of two-way slabs are the direct design method and the equivalent frame method. But these methods usually need a long time for analysis of the slabs.
In this paper, a new simple method has been developed to analyze the two-way slabs by using simple empirical formulae, and the results of final analysis of some examples have been compared with other different methods given in different codes of practice.
The comparison proof that this simple proposed method gives good results and it can be used in analy
... Show MoreA comparative study was done on the adsorption of methyl orange dye (MO) using non-activated and activated corn leaves with hydrochloric acid as an adsorbent material. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were utilized to specify the properties of adsorbent material. The effect of several variables (pH, initial dye concentration, temperature, amount of adsorbent and contact time) on the removal efficiency was studied and the results indicated that the adsorption efficiency increases with the increase in the concentration of dye, adsorbent dosage and contact time, while inversely proportional to the increase in pH and temperature for both the treated and untreated corn leav
... Show MoreA comparative study was done on the adsorption of methyl orange dye (MO) using non-activated and activated corn leaves with hydrochloric acid as an adsorbent material. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were utilized to specify the properties of adsorbent material. The effect of several variables (pH, initial dye concentration, temperature, amount of adsorbent and contact time) on the removal efficiency was studied and the results indicated that the adsorption efficiency increases with the increase in the concentration of dye, adsorbent dosage and contact time, while inversely proportional to the increase in pH and temperature for both the treated and untreated corn leaves. The equi
... Show MoreThis study expands the state of the art in studies that assess torsional retrofit of reinforced concrete (RC) multi-cell box girders with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips. The torsional behavior of non-damaged and pre-damaged RC multi-cell box girder specimens externally retrofitted by CFRP strips was investigated through a series of laboratory experiments. It was found that retrofitting the pre-damaged specimens with CFRP strips increased the ultimate torsional capacity by more than 50% as compared to the un-damaged specimens subjected to equivalent retrofitting. This indicated that the retrofit has been less effective for the girder specimen that did not develop distortion beforehand as a result of pre-loading. From
... Show MoreThis study expands the state of the art in studies that assess torsional retrofit of reinforced concrete (RC) multi-cell box girders with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips. The torsional behavior of non-damaged and pre-damaged RC multi-cell box girder specimens externally retrofitted by CFRP strips was investigated through a series of laboratory experiments. It was found that retrofitting the pre-damaged specimens with CFRP strips increased the ultimate torsional capacity by more than 50% as compared to the un-damaged specimens subjected to equivalent retrofitting. This indicated that the retrofit has been less effective for the girder specimen that did not develop distortion beforehand as a result of pre-loading. From
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