Highly Modified Asphalt (HiMA) binders have garnered significant attention due to their superior resistance to rutting, fatigue cracking, and thermal distress under heavy traffic loads and extreme environmental conditions. While elastomeric polymers such as Styrene- Butadiene-Styrene (SBS) have been extensively used in HiMA applications, the potential of plastomeric polymers, including Polyethylene (PE) and Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA), remains largely unexplored. This study aims to evaluate the performance of reference binder (RB) modified with plastomeric HiMA asphalt in comparison to SBS-modified binders and determine the optimal polymer dosage for achieving an optimal balance between rutting resistance and fatigue durability. The experimental program involved modifying a base asphalt binder with SBS, PE, and EVA at dosages of 6%, 7%, and 8% by weight of binder. A comprehensive evaluation was conducted, including conventional tests (penetration, softening point, viscosity, mass loss, storage stability, and specific gravity) and rheological characterization using the Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR). The Multiple Stress Creep Recovery (MSCR) test was employed to assess high-temperature performance, while the Linear Amplitude Sweep (LAS) test evaluated fatigue behavior. Additionally, an Overall Desirability (OD) analysis was performed to integrate multiple performance criteria and establish a ranking for each modification. The results demonstrated that SBS-modified binders exhibited the most balanced performance, with SBS8 achieving the highest elastic recovery (52.87%) and superior fatigue life, exceeding 1,017,904 cycles at 2.5% strain. PE8 exhibited exceptional rutting resistance, reaching the lowest Jnr 3.2 value (0.0078 kPa−1); however, its limited elasticity (15.7% recovery) indicated reduced flexibility. EVA modifications demonstrated marginal improvements in fatigue resistance but failed to meet the AASHTO M332 criteria for high-traffic applications. The OD analysis ranked SBS8 as the most effective HiMA binder (OD score = 0.715), followed by SBS7 (0.588) and SBS6 (0.509). PE7 (0.354) and PE6 (0.337) demonstrated moderate performance, whereas EVA had the lowest desirability score (0.000). Based on these findings, SBS-modified binders are recommended for applications requiring a balance between fatigue and rutting resistance, whereas PE-based HiMA is more suitable for high-temperature regions where rutting is the primary concern. Further field studies are necessary to validate the long-term durability of plastomeric HiMA binders and optimize their use for specific pavement conditions.
Isobaric Vapor-Liquid-Liquid equilibrium data for the binary systems ethyl acetate + water, toluene + water and the ternary system toluene + ethyl acetate + water were determined by a modified equilibrium still, the still consisted of a boiling and a condensation sections supplied with mixers that helped to correct the composition of the recycled condensed liquid and the boiling temperature readings in the condensation and boiling sections respectively. The VLLE data where predicted and correlated using the Peng-Robinson Equation of State in the vapor phase and one of the activity coefficient models Wilson, NRTL, UNIQUAC and the UNIFAC in the liquid phase and also were correlated using the Peng-Robinson Equation of State in both the vapo
... Show MoreBackground: This study aimed to determine the cephalometric values of tetragon analysis on a sample of Iraqi adults with normal occlusion. Material and methods: Forty digital true lateral cephalometric radiographs belong to 20 males and 20 females having normal dental relation were analyzed using AutoCAD program 2009. Descriptive statistics and sample comparison with Fastlicht norms were obtained. Results: The results showed that maxillary and mandibular incisors were more proclined and the maxillary/mandibular planes angle was lower in Iraqi sample than Caucasian sample. Conclusion: It's recommended to use result from this study when using tetragon analysis for Iraqis to get more accurate result.
The maintenance of the diesel engine parts in any electric power station contains many problems that lead to stopping. Several reasons lead to such problems; these reasons should be analyzed and evaluated in order to eliminate their effects. This paper is based on evaluation of the main causes that lead to diesel engine injector failure as a main part of electric power stations, using fault tree analysis (FTA). The FTA is the most broadly utilized strategies in the industrial area to perform reliability analysis of complex designing frameworks. A fault tree is a logical representation of the relationship of basic events that lead to a given unwanted event (i.e., top event).
Starting with introducing the FTA and how it could be uti
... Show MoreInfrared photoconductive detectors working in the far-infrared region and room temperature were fabricated. The detectors were fabricated using three types of carbon nanotubes (CNTs); MWCNTs, COOH-MWCNTs, and short-MWCNTs. The carbon nontubes suspension is deposited by dip coating and drop–casting techniques to prepare thin films of CNTs. These films were deposited on porous silicon (PSi) substrates of n-type Si. The I-V characteristics and the figures of merit of the fabricated detectors were measured at a forward bias voltage of 3 and 5 volts as well as at dark and under illumination by IR radiation from a CO2 laser of 10.6 μm wavelengths and power of 2.2 W. The responsivity and figures of merit of the photoconductive detector
... Show MoreIn this paper, a Modified Weighted Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (MW-LEACH) protocol is implemented to improve the Quality of Service (QoS) in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) with mobile sink node. The Quality of Service is measured in terms of Throughput Ratio (TR), Packet Loss Ratio (PLR) and Energy Consumption (EC). The protocol is implemented based on Python simulation. Simulation Results showed that the proposed protocol provides better Quality of Service in comparison with Weighted Low Energy Cluster Hierarchy (W-LEACH) protocol by 63%.
Background: The aim of this study was to measure the radiopacity (RO) of modified microhybrid composite resins by adding 2 types of nanofillers (Zinc Oxide and Calcium Carbonate) in two concentrations 3% and 5% and comparing them to unmodified microhybrid composite resins and to nanofilled composite resin. Materials and Methods: Two types of composite resin were used (Microhybrid composite MH Quadrent anterior shine and Nanofilled composite resin Filtek Z350 XT), for each tested group five disk-shaped specimens (1-mm-thick and 15 mm diameter) were fabricated. The material samples were radiographed together with the aluminum step wedge. The density of the specimens was determined with a transmission densitometer and was expressed in term of
... Show MoreNanofluids, liquid suspensions of nanoparticles (Np), are an effective agent to alter the wettability of oil-wet reservoirs to water-wet thus promoting hydrocarbon recovery. It can also have an application to more efficient carbon storage. We present a series of contact angle (θ) investigations on initially oil-wet calcite surfaces to quantify the performance of hydrophilic silica nanoparticles for wettability alteration. These tests are conducted at typical in-situ high pressure (CO2), temperature and salinity conditions. A high pressure–temperature (P/T) optical cell with a regulated tilted surface was used to measure the advancing and receding contact angles at the desired conditions. The results showed that silica nanofluids can alte
... Show MoreThis research studies the effect of adding five different percentages of polymer (2, 4, 6, 8, and 10% of cement weight) on cement mortar's fresh and hardened properties, which was cured at laboratory temperature for 7, 14, and 28 days. Workability increases with increasing polymer. The workability value was lowest (25.6 and 29.4) % in mixtures containing 2% and 4% of (SBR). Increasing polymer ratios significantly decreased mechanical properties (compressive and flexural strength). Therefore, the best results were at 2% SBR and 4% SBR at 28 days of age. An inverse relationship was recorded between the increase in SBR ratios and polymer-modified cement mortar's compressive and flexural strength values. In general, the high
... Show MoreThe direct electron transfer behavior of hemoglobin that is immobilized onto screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) modified with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and chitosan (CS) was studied in this work. Cyclic voltametry and spectrophotometry were used to characterize the hemoglobin (Hb) bioconjunction with AgNPs and CS. Results of the modified electrode showed quasi-reversible redox peaks with a formal potential of (-0.245 V) versus Ag/AgCl in 0.1 M phosphate buffer solution (PBS), pH7, at a scan rate of 0.1 Vs-1. The charge transfer coefficient (α) was 0.48 and the apparent electron transfer rate constant (Ks) was 0.47 s-1. The electrode was used as a hydrogen peroxide biosensor with a linear response over 3 to 240 µM and a detection li
... Show MoreThis paper is interested in certain subclasses of univalent and bi-univalent functions concerning to shell- like curves connected with k-Fibonacci numbers involving modified Sigmoid activation function θ(t)=2/(1+e^(-t) ) ,t ≥0 in unit disk |z|<1 . For estimating of the initial coefficients |c_2 | , |c_3 |, Fekete-Szego ̈ inequality and the second Hankel determinant have been investigated for the functions in our classes.