A long-span Prestressed Concrete Hunched Beam with Multi-Opening has been developed as an alternative to steel structural elements. The commercial finite element package ABAQUS/CAE version 2019 has been utilized. This article has presented the results of three-dimensional numerical simulations investigating the flexural behaviour of existing experimental work of supported Prestressed Concrete Hunched Beams with multiple openings of varying shapes under static monotonic loads. Insertion openings in such a beam lead to concentrate stresses at the corners of these openings; as a result, extensive cracking would appear. Correlation between numerical models and empirical work has also been discussed regarding load displacemen

Oilwell cementing operations are crucial for drilling and completion, preserving the well's productive life. However, weak and permeable formations pose a high risk of cement slurry loss, leading to failure. Lightweight cement, like foamed cement, is used to avoid these difficulties. This study is focused on creating a range of foamed slurry densities and examining the effect of gas concentration on their rheological properties. The foaming agent and foam stabilizer are tested, and the optimal concentration is determined to be 2% and 0.12%, respectively, by the weight of the cement.

Furthermore, the construction of samples of foam cement with different densities (0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.4, and 1.6) g/cc is performed to f

The OpenStreetMap (OSM) project aims to establish a free geospatial database for the entire world which is editable by international volunteers. The OSM database contains a wide range of different types of geographical data and characteristics, including highways, buildings, and land use regions. The varying scientific backgrounds of the volunteers can affect the quality of the spatial data that is produced and shared on the internet as an OSM dataset. This study aims to compare the completeness and attribute accuracy of the OSM road networks with the data supplied by a digitizing process for areas in the Baghdad and Thi-Qar governorates. The analyses are primarily based on calculating the portion of the commission (extr

An extensive program of laboratory testing was conducted on ring footing rested on gypseous soil brought from the north of Iraq (Salah El-Deen governorate) with a gypsum content of 59%. There are limited researches available, and even fewer have been done experimentally to understand how to ring footings behave; almost all the previous works only concern the behavior of ring footing under vertical loads, Moreover, relatively few studies have examined the impact of eccentric load and inclined load on such footing. In this study, a series of tests, including dry and wet tests, were carried out using a steel container (600×600×600) mm, metal ring footing (100 mm outer diameter and 40 mm inner diameter) was placed in the m

This work investigates the impacts of eccentric-inclined load on ring footing performance resting on treated and untreated weak sandy soil, and due to the reduction in the footing carrying capacity due to the combinations of eccentrically-inclined load, the geogrid was used as reinforcement material. Ring radius ratio and reinforcement depth ratio parameters were investigated. Test outcomes showed that the carrying capacity of the footing decreases with the increment in the eccentric-inclined load and footing radius ratio. Furthermore, footing tilt and horizontal displacement increase with increasing the eccentricity and inclination angle, respectively. At the same time, the increment in the horizontal displacement due t

In this study, the effect of the thermal conductivity of phase change material (PCM) on the performance of thermal energy storage has been analyzed numerically. A horizontal concentric shell-and-tube latent heat thermal energy storage system (LHTESS) has been performed during the solidification process. Two types of paraffin wax with different melting temperatures and thermal conductivity were used as a PCM on the shell side, case1=0.265W/m.K and case2=0.311 W/m.K. Water has been used as heat transfer fluid (HTF) flow through in tube side. Ansys fluent has been used to analyze the model by taking into account phase change by the enthalpy method used to deal with phase transition. The numerical simulatio

This study examines the vibrations produced by hydropower operations to improve embankment dam safety. This study consists of two parts: In the first part, ANSYS-CFX was used to generate a three-dimensional (3-D) finite volume (FV) model to simulate a vertical Francis turbine unit in the Mosul hydropower plant. The pressure pattern result of the turbine model was transformed into the dam body to show how the turbine unit's operation affects the dam's stability. The upstream reservoir conditions, various flow rates, and fully open inlet gates were considered. In the second part of this study, a 3-D FE Mosul dam model was simulated using an ANSYS program. The operational turbine model's water pressure pattern is conveyed t

The government of Iraq states that despite the massive amounts invested in the power generating sector, the country has been plagued by power outages for more than three decades; One of the most common sources of the problem and significant impact on the waste of public funds in contractual processes. The Ministry of Planning issued the sectorial
specialized standard bidding documents (SSBD) of Design, Supply, and Installation of the Electromechanical Works (DSIoEW), which is primarily designed to support the Ministry of Electricity (MoE) by developing economic projects to improve the contractual process that led to raisings Iraqi electricity generation field. The research evaluates the impact of
applying the SSBD-DSIoEW for

Interface bonding between asphalt layers has been a topic of international investigation over the last thirty years. In this condition, a number of researchers have made their own techniques and used them to examine the characteristics of pavement interfaces. It is obvious that test findings won't always be comparable to the lack of a globally standard methodology for interface bonding. Also, several kinds of research have shown that factors like temperature, loading conditions, materials, and others have an impact on surface qualities. This study aims to solve this problem by thoroughly investigating interface bond testing that might serve as a basis for a uniform strategy. First, a general explanation of how

This manuscript investigated the effect of anchorage CFRP wrapping sheets, bolts, and laminate interlock on increasing the efficiency of flexural strengthening for the post-tension girder using CFRP composites techniques longitudinal laminates at the soffit for partially damaged loss of about 14.3% from its area of prestressed concrete beams, and the impact on restoring the original flexural capacity of PC girder. Mitigating delamination of the soffit of horizontal laminates (CFRP). The texture of the laminate and anchorages influenced the stress of the laminate carbon fiber, the mode of crack propagation and failure, and consequently, the beam's attitude has been investigated in this manuscript. The experimental findi

Today, urban Stormwater management is one of the main concerns of municipalities and stakeholders. Drought and water scarcity made rainwater harvesting one of the main steps toward climate change adaptation. Due to the deterioration of the quality of urban runoff and the increase of impermeable urban land use, the treatment of urban runoff is essential. Best Management Practice (BMP) and Low Impact Development (LID) approaches are necessary to combat climate change consequences by improving the quantity and quality of water resources. The application of Bioswales along urban streets and roadways can reduce the stress on water resources, recharge groundwater and prevent groundwater pollution. While Sulaymaniyah City has a

The improvement in Direction of Arrival (DOA) estimation when the received signals impinge on Active-Parasitic Antenna (APA) arrays will be studied in this work. An APA array consists of several active antennas; others are parasitic antennas. The responses to the received signals are measured at the loaded terminals of the active element. The terminals of the parasitic element are shorted. The effect of the received signals on the parasites, i.e., the induced short-circuit current, is mutually coupled to the active elements. Eigen decomposition of the covariance matrix of the measurements of the APA array generates a third subspace in addition to the traditional signal and noise subspaces generated by the all-active ante

This paper aims to make a historical review of jet grouting techniques and encountered problems at different sites in several countries.  This review is a good guide to understanding the performance and limitations of improved soils or lands. The basic concept of jet grouting technology is to use cement as a binder to accelerate the hardening process of an admixture of material grout and soil. The different case history was conducted in both sand soil and clay soil in the horizontal and vertical direction. Other papers on field construction showed that the grout can be gelled within 5-10 minutes. Due to different cases and studies, these will help improve soil by supporting the foundation load with a minimal settlement.

Several previous investigations and studies utilized silica fume (SF) or (micro silica) particles as supplementary cementitious material added as a substitute to cement-based mortars and their effect on the overall properties, especially on physical properties, strength properties, and mechanical properties. This study investigated the impact of the inclusion of silica fume (SF) particles on the residual compressive strengths and microstructure properties of cement-based mortars exposed to severe conditions of elevated temperatures. The prepared specimens were tested and subjected to 25, 250, 450, 600, and 900 °C. Their residual compressive strengths and microstructure were evaluated and compared with control samples (C

The complexity and partially defined nature of jet grouting make it hard to predict the performance of grouted piles. So the trials of cement injection at a location with similar soil properties as the erecting site are necessary to assess the performance of the grouted piles. Nevertheless, instead of executing trial-injected piles at the pilot site, which wastes money, time, and effort, the laboratory cement injection devices are essential alternatives for evaluating soil injection ability. This study assesses the performance of a low-pressure laboratory grouting device by improving loose sandy soil injected using binders formed of Silica Fume (SF) as a chemical admixture (10% of Ordinary Portland Cement OPC mass) to di

This work investigates experimentally the effect of using a skirt with a square foundation of 100 mm width resting on dry gypseous soil (i.e., loose soil with 33% relative density), and subjected to an inclined load. Previous works did not study the use square skirted foundation rested on gypseous soil and subjected to inclined load. The investigated soil was brought from Tikrit city with 59% gypsum content. Standard physical and chemical tests on selected soil were carried out. Model laboratory tests were carried out to determine the effect of using a skirt with a square foundation on the load-settlement behavior of gypseous soil and subjected to inclined load with various Skirt depth (Ds) to foundation width (B) ratio

This paper investigates the experimental response of composite reinforced concrete with GFRP and steel I-sections under limited cycles of repeated load. The practical work included testing four beams. A reference beam, two composite beams with pultruded GFRP I-sections, and a composite beam with a steel I-beam were subjected to repeated loading. The repeated loading test started by loading gradually up to a maximum of 75% of the ultimate static failure load for five loading and unloading cycles. After that, the specimens were reloaded gradually until failure. All test specimens were tested under a three-point load. Experimental results showed that the ductility index increased for the composite beams relative to the refe

Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems are used as an efficient and effective method of exchanging patients’ health information with doctors and other key stakeholders in the health sector to obtain improved patient treatment decisions and diagnoses. As a result, questions regarding the security of sensitive user data are highlighted. To encourage people to move their sensitive health records to cloud networks, a secure authentication and access control mechanism that protects users’ data should be established. Furthermore, authentication and access control schemes are essential in the protection of health data, as numerous responsibilities exist to ensure security and privacy in a network. So, the main goal of our s

Due to severe scouring, many bridges failed worldwide. Therefore, the safety of the existing bridge (after contrition) mainly depends on the continuous monitoring of local scour at the substructure. However, the bridge's safety before construction mainly depends on the consideration of local scour estimation at the bridge substructure. Estimating the local scour at the bridge piers is usually done using the available formulae. Almost all the formulae used in estimating local scour at the bridge piers were derived from laboratory data. It is essential to test the performance of proposed local scour formulae using field data. In this study, the performance of selected bridge scours estimation formulae was validated and sta

Water quality planning relies on Biochemical Oxygen Demand BOD. BOD testing takes five days. The Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is increasingly used for water resource forecasting. This work designed a PSO technique for estimating everyday BOD at Al-Rustumiya wastewater treatment facility inlet. Al-Rustumiya wastewater treatment plant provided 702 plant-scale data sets during 2012-2022. The PSO model uses the daily data of the water quality parameters, including chemical oxygen demand (COD), chloride (Cl^-), suspended solid (SS), total dissolved solids (TDS), and pH, to determine how each variable affects the daily incoming BOD. PSO and multiple linear regression (MLR) findings are compared, and their perfor

Skull image separation is one of the initial procedures used to detect brain abnormalities. In an MRI image of the brain, this process involves distinguishing the tissue that makes up the brain from the tissue that does not make up the brain. Even for experienced radiologists, separating the brain from the skull is a difficult task, and the accuracy of the results can vary quite a little from one individual to the next. Therefore, skull stripping in brain magnetic resonance volume has become increasingly popular due to the requirement for a dependable, accurate, and thorough method for processing brain datasets. Furthermore, skull stripping must be performed accurately for neuroimaging diagnostic systems since neither no

This paper proposes a novel method for generating True Random Numbers (TRNs) using electromechanical switches. The proposed generator is implemented using an FPGA board. The system utilizes the phenomenon of electromechanical switch bounce to produce a randomly fluctuated signal that is used to trigger a counter to generate a binary random number. Compared to other true random number generation methods, the proposed approach features a high degree of randomness using a simple circuit that can be easily built using off-the-shelf components. The proposed system is implemented using a commercial relay circuit connected to an FPGA board that is used to process and record the generated random sequences. Applying statistical testing on the exp

Non-orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) is a multiple-access technique allowing multiusers to share the same communication resources, increasing spectral efficiency and throughput. NOMA has been shown to provide significant performance gains over orthogonal multiple access (OMA) regarding spectral efficiency and throughput. In this paper, two scenarios of NOMA are analyzed and simulated, involving two users and multiple users (four users) to evaluate NOMA's performance. The simulated results indicate that the achievable sum rate for the two users’ scenarios is 16.7 (bps/Hz), while for the multi-users scenario is 20.69 (bps/Hz) at transmitted power of 25 dBm. The BER for two users’ scenarios is 0.004202 and 0.001564 for

In the construction of buildings usually, problems occur because of the causes of change orders. The main causer of change orders is the owners, consultants, and contractors. These changes lead to conflicts among them which result in influencing building projects. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the causes of change orders to reduce them and facilitate management. This paper determines the most critical factors that cause change orders from a different point of view, a consulting owner and a contractor, and a study of the reality of the management of change orders when constructing public buildings. The method employed in this research is a field survey using interviews with experts working in the construction of p

Microbial fuel cell is a device that uses the microorganism metabolism for the production of electricity under specific operating conditions. Double chamber microbial fuel cell was tested for the use of two cheap electrode materials copper and aluminum for the production of electricity under different operating conditions. The investigated conditions were concentration of microorganism (yeast) (0.5- 2 g/l), solutions temperature (33-45 ^oC) and concentration of glucose as a substrate (1.5- 6 g/l). The results demonstrated that copper electrode exhibit good performance while the performance of aluminum is poor. The electricity is generated with and without the addition of substrate. Addition of glucose substrate

Kurdistan power system is expanded along years ago. The electrical power is transmitted through long transmission lines. The main problem of transmission lines is active and reactive power losses. It is important to solve this issue, unless, the most of electrical energy will lost over transmission system. In this study, High Voltage Direct Current links/bipolar connection were connected in a power system to reduce the power losses. The 132kV, 50 Hz, 36 buses Kurdistan power system is used as a study case. The load flow analysis was implemented by using ETAP.16 program in which Newton-Raphson method for three cases. The results show that the losses are reduced after inserted HVDC links.

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) have high performance in the fields of object recognition and classification. The strength of CNNs comes from the fact that they are able to extract information from raw-pixel content and learn features automatically. Feature extraction and classification algorithms can be either hand-crafted or Deep Learning (DL) based. DL detection approaches can be either two stages (region proposal approaches) detector or a single stage (non-region proposal approach) detector. Region proposal-based techniques include R-CNN, Fast RCNN, and Faster RCNN. Non-region proposal-based techniques include Single Shot Detector (SSD) and You Only Look Once (YOLO). We are going to compare the speed and accuracy of Faster RCNN,

This research was designed to investigate the factors affecting the frequency of use of ride-hailing in a fast-growing metropolitan region in Southeast Asia, Kuala Lumpur. An intercept survey was used to conduct this study in three potential locations that were acknowledged by one of the most famous ride-hailing companies in Kuala Lumpur. This study used non-parametric and machine learning techniques to analyze the data, including the Pearson chi-square test and Bayesian Network. From 38 statements (input variables), the Pearson chi-square test identified 14 variables as the most important. These variables were used as predictors in developing a BN model that predicts the probability of weekly usage frequency of ride-hai

The present study investigates the effect of the de-sanding (recycling system) on the bearing capacity of the bored piles. Full-scale models were conducted on two groups of piles, the first group was implemented without using this system, and the second group was implemented using the recycling system. All piles were tested by static load test, considering the time factor for which the piles were implemented. The test results indicated a significant and clear difference in the bearing capacity of the piles when using this system. The use of the recycling system led to a significant increase in the bearing capacity of the piles by 50% or more. Thus it was possible to reduce the pile length by (15 % or more) thus, and implementation costs

The paper presents an investigation to the flutter speed of composite wing for different ply orientation. Structurally the composite wing was idealized as a composite beam load carrying structure. Theodorsen’s expression was used to get the 2- dimension unsteady lifting force and pitching moment in the limit of incompressible flow and subsonic speed which were integrated over the wing span. A free vibration analysis was first carried out to get the natural frequencies and mode shapes .The velocity-damping (V-g) method was used to calculate the flutter speed and the flutter frequency. A wing of unmanned aerial vehicle was manufactured from woven glass and polyester resin where the flutter speed was calculated experimentally by the wind