Braces in straight bridge systems improve the lateral-torsional buckling resistance of the girders by reducing the unbraced length, while in horizontally curved and skew bridges, the braces are primary structural elements for controlling deformations by engaging adjacent girders to act as a system to resist the potentially large forces and torques caused by the curved or skewed geometry of the bridge. The cross-frames are usually designed as torsional braces, which increase the overall strength and stiffness of the individual girders by creating a girder system that translates and rotates as a unit along the bracing lines. However, when they transmit the truck’s live load forces, they can produce fatigue cracks at their connection

Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) bars are anisotropic in nature and have high tensile strength in the fiber direction. The use of High-Strength Concrete (HSC) allows for better use of the high-strength properties of FRP bars. The mechanical properties of FRP bars can yield to large crack widths and deflections. As a result, the design of concrete elements reinforced with FRP materials is often governed by the Serviceability Limit States (SLS). This study investigates the short-term serviceability behavior of FRP RC I-beams. Eight RC I-beams reinforced with carbon-FRP (CFRP) and four steel RC I-beams, for comparison purposes, were tested under two-point loading.
Deformations on the concrete and crack widths and spacing are measured and

There is an interesting potential for the use of GFRP-pultruded profiles in hybrid GFRP-concrete structural elements, either for new constructions or for the rehabilitation of existing structures. This paper provides experimental and numerical investigations on the flexural performance of reinforced concrete (RC) specimens composite with encased pultruded GFRP I-sections. Five simply supported composite beams were tested in this experimental program to investigate the static flexural behavior of encased GFRP beams with high-strength concrete. Besides, the effect of using shear studs to improve the composite interaction between the GFRP beam and concrete as well as the effect of web stiffeners of GFRP were explored. Encasing the GFRP

The Weibull distribution is considered one of the Type-I Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) distribution, and it plays a crucial role in modeling extreme events in various fields, such as hydrology, finance, and environmental sciences. Bayesian methods play a strong, decisive role in estimating the parameters of the GEV distribution due to their ability to incorporate prior knowledge and handle small sample sizes effectively. In this research, we compare several shrinkage Bayesian estimation methods based on the squared error and the linear exponential loss functions. They were adopted and compared by the Monte Carlo simulation method. The performance of these methods is assessed based on their accuracy and computational efficiency in estimati

Pultruded materials made of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) come in a broad range of shapes, such as bars, I-sections, C-sections, etc. FRP materials are starting to compete with steel as structural materials owing to their great resistance, low self-weight, and cheap maintenance costs, especially in corrosive conditions. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a novel concrete Composite Column (CC) using Encased I-Section (EIS) as a reinforcement in contrast to traditional steel bars by using Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) as I-section (CC-EIS) to evaluate the effectiveness of the hybrid columns which have been built by combining GFRP profiles with concrete columns. To achieve the aims of this study, nine circular co

         Recurrent Spontaneous Abortion (RSA) is the most painful experience for couples expecting a child. This study aimed to determine the relevance of IL-2 and IL-6 in recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA).  Serum samples were collected from 90 women attend Al Kadhmiya teaching hospital in Baghdad. 60 women (first group) had recurrent abortion the women were negative for rubella virus, herpes simplex virus and toxplasma gondii. And they were negative from bacterial infection eg. Niesseria gonorrhea and Chlamydia trachomatis. The histopathological tests for fetus abnormalities were negative in this group, and 30 women (second group) with successful pregnancy (normal delivery). All samples we

A field experiment was carried out during the spring season 2019 and 2020 to obtain a fast, uniform, and high field emergence ratio of maize seeds under a wide range of environmental conditions. Randomize complete block design in the split-plot arrangement was used with three replications. The first factor in the main plots was cultivars (5018, Baghdad3 and Sumer). The second factor in the sub-plots was seeds soaking with ascorbic and citric acids (100 mg L−1) each and humic (1 ml L−1) in addition to control treatment (seeds soaking with distilled water only). Results showed the superiority of soaking with humic acid significantly, as means of characteristics of field emergence in both seasons, respectively, were as follows: Last day of

Aims: This study was conducted to assess the effect of the addition of yttrium oxide (Y2O3) nanoparticles on the tensile bond strength, tear strength, shore A hardness, and surface roughness of soft-denture lining material. Materials and Methods: Y2O3 NPs with 1.5 and 2 wt.% were added into acrylic-based heat-cured soft-denture liner. A total of 120 specimens were prepared and divided into four groups according to the test to be performed (tensile bond strength, tear strength, surface hardness, and surface roughness). Results: There was a highly significant increase in tensile bond strength between the soft liner and the acrylic denture base, tear strength, and hardness at both concentrations as compared to the control group, whereas ther