Non-prismatic reinforced concrete (RC) beams are widely used for various practical purposes, including enhancing architectural aesthetics and increasing the overall thickness in the support area above the column, which gives high assurance to services that this will not result in the distortion of construction features and can reduce heights. The hollow sections (recess) can also be used for the maintenance of large structural sections and the safe passage of utility lines of water, gas, telecommunications, electricity, etc. They are generally used in large and complex civil engineering works like bridges. This study conducted a numerical study using the commercial finite element software ANSYS version 15 for analysing RC beams, hollow longitudinally sectioned and retrofitted with carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRPs), which were subjected to concentrated vertical loads. The numerical analysis results on the simulated beam models were in excellent agreements with the previous experimental test results. This convergence was confirmed by a statistical analysis, which considered the correlation coefficients, individual arithmetic means and standard deviations for all the calculated deflections of the simulated beam models. A proposed numerical simulation model with the hypotheses can be considered suitable for modelling the behaviours of simple supported non-prismatic RC beams under vertical concentrated loads. The numerical results showed that altering the cross-section from solid to hollow could reduce the load carrying capacities of the beams by up to 53% and increase the corresponding deflections by up to 40%, respectively. Using steel pipes for making recesses could enhance the loading capacity by up to 56%, increase the ductility, and reduce the corresponding deflections by up to 30%, respectively. Finally, it was found that bonding the CFRP sheets in the lower middle tensile areas of the hollow beams could improve the resistance and reduce the deformations by up to 27%. The failure patterns for all the numerical models were shear failure. The cylinder compressive strength could be used as a mechanical parameter for modelling and assessing the structural behaviours of the beam models, as its increase could improve the load carrying capacities and reduce the deflections by 30–50%.
This research aims to create lightweight concrete mixtures containing waste from local sources, such as expanded polystyrene (EPS) beads and waste plastic fibers (WPFs), all are cheap or free in the Republic of Iraq and without charge. The modern, rigid, and mechanical properties of LWC were investigated, and the results were evaluated. Three mixtures were made, each with different proportions of plastic fibers (0.4%, 0.8%, 1.2%), in addition to a lightweight concrete mixture containing steak fibers (0.4%, 0.8%, 1.2%), in addition to a lightweight concrete mixture. It contains 20% EPS. The study found that the LWC caused by the addition of WPFs reduced the density (lightweight) of the concrete mixtures because EPS tends
... Show MoreWater samples were collected from output of water for Al-Wahda plant where located in al-karrada area in Baghdad city to study water contamination with bacteria, fungi and Algae. The study lasted one year started on August, 2016 to July,2017.Results were acquired according to two tests performed, the first is biological test included total coliform,E.coli, pseudomonas aeruginosa, total fungi, Diatom and non Diatom Algae and the second is physiochemical test included temperature, turbidity and residual chlorine. The results of bacteria were within the permitted specification in the Iraqi standards no. 14/2270 for the year 2015 except August was exceeded the permitted standard for total coliform, it was 1.1< cell/100 ml.Total Fungi, Dia
... Show MoreSince its invention by the Ancient Romans and later developed during the mid-18th century, the concrete structure and finish, has been considered as the most powerful, practical, economic and constructional material that meets the building’s architectural and aesthetical requirements. By creating unique architectural forms, the pioneer architects used concrete widely to shape up their innovative designs and buildings.
The pre-mixed ultra-high performance concrete which manufactured by Lafarge.
The transparent concrete and cement that allow the light beams to pass through them, introduces remarkable well-lit architectural spaces within the same structural criteria. This product is a recyclable, sustainab
... Show MoreThese days, the world is facing a global environmental and sustainability problem due to the increasing generation of large amounts of waste through construction and demolition work, which causes a serious problem for the environment. Therefore, this research was conducted to get rid of the waste disposal problems, including old glass and concrete, which were used as recycled fine aggregates. Seven different mixtures were prepared. The first mixture was with the used sand, which is glass sand, and it was adopted as a reference mixture (ORPC), and three mixtures were prepared for each of the recycled materials (waste concrete and glass) and partially replaced by glass sand in different proportions (25, 50, and 75) %. Some
... Show MoreA numerical study of the two-dimensional steady free convection flow in an inclined annulus between two concentric square cavities filled with a porous medium is presented in this paper for the case when the side outer walls are kept with differentially heated temperature while the horizontal outer walls and the inner walls are insulated. The heated wall is assumed to have spatial sinusoidal temperature variation about a constant mean value. The Darcy model is used and the fluid is assumed to be a standard Boussinesq fluid. For the Cartesian coordinate system, the governing equations which were used in stream function form are discretized by using the finite difference method with successive under – relaxation method (SUR) and are solv
... Show MoreThe construction of embankment for roadway interchange system at urban area is restricted due to the large geometry requirements, since the value of land required for such construction is high, and the area available is limited as compared to rural area. One of the optimum solutions to such problem is the earth reinforcement technique which requires a limited area for embankment construction. Gypseous soil from Al-Anbar governorate area was obtained and subjected to various physical and chemical analysis to determine it is properties. A laboratory model box of 50x50x25 cm was used as a representative embankment; soil has been compacted in five layers at maximum dry density (modified compaction) and an aluminum reinforcement strips we
... Show MoreIn this work, a CW CO2 laser was used for cutting samples of the fiber-reinforced
plastics (FRP) of three different types of reinforcing material; aramide, glass and carbon.
Cutting process was investigated throughout the variation of some parameters of cutting
process and their effects on cutting quality as well as the effect of an inert gas exist in the
interaction region and finally using a mechanical chopper in order to enhance the cutting
quality. Results obtained explained the possibility to perform laser cutting with high
quality in these materials by good control of the parameters and conditions of the process.