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%.
Recently, increasing material prices coupled with more acute environmental awareness and the implementation of regulation has driven a strong movement toward the adoption of sustainable construction technology. In the pavement industry, using low temperature asphalt mixes and recycled concrete aggregate are viewed as effective engineering solutions to address the challenges posed by climate change and sustainable development. However, to date, no research has investigated these two factors simultaneously for pavement material. This paper reports on initial work which attempts to address this shortcoming. At first, a novel treatment method is used to improve the quality of recycled concrete coarse aggregates. Thereafter, the treated recycled
... Show MoreA new Schiff bases ligand 4- ((2-hyolroxy phenylimino) methyl) -2, 6-dimethoxyphenol derived from condensation of 2- amino phenol with 4-hydroxy -3, 5-dimethoxy benzaldehyde have been synthesized and characterized by spectroscopy, spectra, Mass spectrum and elemental microanalysis (C.H.N). Metal Complexes with ions have been also synthesized and characterized spectroscopic methods spectroscopy, flame atomic absorption, molar conductivity measurements and magnetic susceptibility. These studies indicate that the moler ratio for the complexes. The complexes showed characteristics octahedral geometry with the (O,N) ligand coordinated in bidentate mode while with showed square planer. The enzyme activity of the ligand and i
... Show More. The concepts of structural flexibility became one of the important goals in the design phases to reach high performance in architecture. The pioneering projects and ideas that linked architecture with technologies and scientific innovations appeared, with the aim of reaching projects that mix the concepts of flexibility with the development of machine thought and modern technology to meet the functional, environmental, and aesthetic requirements for human wellbeing. The aim of this paper is to identify the mechanisms used in order to reach flexible structural systems capable of accommodating technological changes and developments. The research hypothesizes that the structural design according to the concepts of flexibility achieves high s
... Show MoreConstructal theory plays a major role in the conceptual design stage of the structural system in architecture. It provides a conceptual framework for predicting the form depending on natural systems to model those systems geometrically according to the constructal law that works in two directions: the first is towards predicting the general form of the structural system, and the second is the physical application of the law in the process of detailed design of the parts of the system. The aim of this paper is to determine the mechanism adopted in the structural design according to the constructal theory, assuming that the structural design according to the constructal theory achieves
A New developed technique to estimate the necessary six elastic constants of homogeneous laminate of special orthotropic properties are presented in this paper for the first time. The new approach utilizes the elasto-static deflection behavior of composite cantilever beam employing the famous theory of Timoshenko. Three extracted strips of the composite plate are tested for measuring the bending deflection at two locations. Each strip is associated to a preferred principal axis and the deflection is measured in two orthogonal planes of the beam domain. A total of five trails of testing is accomplished and the numerical results of the stiffness coefficients are evaluated correctly under the contribution of the macromechanic
... Show MoreSoil stabilization with liquid asphalt is considered as a sustainable step towards roadway construction on problematic subgrade soil, there are no requirements to import good quality materials or to implement energy consumption, but to mix the readily available soil with liquid asphalt through the cold mix technique. In this work, collapsible soil obtained from Nasiriya was mixed with asphalt emulsion, lime, and combinations of lime and asphalt emulsion (combined stabilization) and tested in the laboratory for California bearing ratio in dry and soaked conditions. Field trial sections have been prepared with the same combinations and subjected to plate bearing test. The influence of combined stabilization on the structural properties in ter
... Show MoreThe structural properties of ternary chalcopyrite AgAlSe2 compound alloys and thin films that prepared by the thermal evaporation method at room temperature on glass substrate with a deposition rate (5±0.1) nm s-1 for different values of thickness (250,500 and 750±20) nm, have been studied, using X-ray diffraction technology. As well as, the optical properties of the prepared films have been investigated. The structural investigated shows that the alloy has polycrystalline structure of tetragonal type with preferential orientation (112), while the films have amorphous structure. Optical measurement shows that AgAlSe2 films have high absorption in the range of wavelength (350-700 nm). The optical energy gap for allowed direct transition we
... Show MoreBixSb2-xTe3 alloys with different ratios of Bi (x=0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, and 2) have been prepared, Thin films of these alloys were prepared using thermal evaporation method under vacuum of 10-5 Torr on glass substrates at room temperature with different deposition rate (0.16, 0.5, 0.83) nm/sec for thickness (100, 300, 500) respectively. The X–ray diffraction measurements for BixSb2-xTe3 bulk and thin films indicate the polycrystalline structure with a strong intensity of peak of plane (015) preferred orientation with additional peaks, (0015) and (1010 ) reflections planes, which is meaning that all films present a very good texture along the (015) plane axis at different intensities for each thin film for different thickness. AFM measureme
... Show MoreThe paper reports the influence of annealing temperature under vacuum for one hour on the some structural and electrical properties of p-type CdTe thin films were grown at room temperature under high vacuum by using thermal evaporation technique with a mean thickness about 600nm. X-ray diffraction analysis confirms the formation of CdTe cubic phase at all annealing temperature. From investigated the electrical properties of CdTe thin films, the electrical conductivity, the majority carrier concentration, and the Hall mobility were found increase with increasing annealing temperatures.