bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Infilling and Architectural Addition and Its Effect on the Integration of the Contemporary City Townscape
Authors: Al-Abide Zainab Munaam , Al-Dabbagh Jassim Aboud , Al-Ani Mohammed Qasim
Published: July 2020

The concept of urban infill has been associated with urban renewal policies and crystallized in many themes. Therefore it is considered part of an inclusive vision. The urban infill has been introduced by several researchers with different attitudes, such as (new substances, Interpolation, Urban Intervention, Urban Addition, and Architectural Addition). As a result of the erosion and tattering to which most of the heritage buildings have been exposed, besides, the need to a re-integration in the relations between additions to contemporary products and the extent of their impact on the old building and the traditional context as a whole, The Research Problem emerged through the separation of the urban Townscape of the traditional entity due to developmental interventions and recent additions to the building and the historical context. Consequently, The Research Objectives emerged in order to find out the appropriate mechanisms for infilling and architectural addition when dealing with a traditional building so that we can achieve integration in the urban context between old and new within the contemporary city Townscape. To conduct the research problem, a theoretical framework has been established for the concept of infilling and architectural addition, in addition to emphasizing the relationship between the old and the new buildings to create a continuous architecture with content that reflects its present and belongs to its past. Accordingly, The Research Hypothesis introduced that the success of the mechanisms in creating urban integration between the old and the new, depends on achieving appropriate infill and architecture addition, and on choosing the integrative element (As Bond) between them; the research sample was tested on choosing the location of the Mutassarifiah Building in Baghdad within the new district of Hassan Pasha (Al-Rusafa) in Baghdad Center Design Competition (Rifa’a Al-Jadrji Award for Architecture, 2018) for the proposed winning design projects. The research adopted the analytical scientific method and concluded that the urban infill and the new addition should take into account the existing original form and context to create a balance between them appropriately, and provide an intellectual displacement that reflects the elements of the new era, but without confusion and disturbance.
Removal of COD from Petroleum refinery Wastewater by Electro-Coagulation Process Using SS/Al electrodes
Authors: Alkurdi Sajjad S. , Abbar Ali H.
Published: July 2020

In the present study, the effectiveness of a procedure of electrocoagulation for removing chemical oxygen demand (COD) from the wastewater of petroleum refinery has been evaluated. Aluminum and stainless steel electrodes were used as a sacrificial anode and cathode respectively. The effect of current density (4-20mAcm−2), pH (3-11), and NaCl concentration (0-4g/l) on efficiency of removal of chemical oxygen demand was investigated. The results have shown that increasing of current density led to increase the efficiency of COD removal while increasing NaCl concentration resulted in decreasing of COD removal efficiency. Effect of pH was found to be lowering COD removal efficiency when pH increased or decreased from pH=7. The best conditions were found to be a current density of 12mA/cm2, pH=7 and NaCl concentration of 2g/l at treatment time of 60 minutes, where a maximum COD removal efficiency of 96.8%, phenol removal efficiency of 64.7%, and total dissolved solid (TDS) removal efficiency of 20.6% were obtained at energy consumption of 29.12 kWh/kg COD. The results of the present work gave COD of 8mg/l which is lower than the standard limit for discharging petroleum refinery effluent. The electrocougulation was proven to be efficient and reliable technique for treatment Al-Dewaniya petroleum refinery effluent to get effluent with features in agreement with the standard limits for discharge to environment at lower cost.
Modeling the photocatalytic degradation of 1,2-Dihydroxybenzene using Multilayer Perceptron Neural Networks
Authors: Alsaffar May Ali , Ayodele Bamidele Victor , Ghany Mohamed A Abdel , Mustapa Siti Indati
Published: July 2020

In this study, the modeling of photocatalytic degradation of 1,2 dihydroxybenzene using a multilayer perceptron neural network has been investigated. The multilayer perceptron neural network which consists of input layer, hidden layer with network configuration of 3, 17, 1 respectively were employed for predictive modeling using 20 datasets consisting the pH of the solution, the amount of the photocatalyst and the volume of the oxidant. The analysis of the network revealed that the volume of the oxidant was the most relevant factor that influences the degradation of the 1,2 dihydroxybenzene while the amount of photocatalyst has the least effect. The multilayer perceptron neural network model successfully predicts the photocatalytic degradation of the 1,2 dihydroxybenzene with coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.974. The predicted and the actual degradation of the 1,2 dihydroxybenzene was in close agreement with minimal error of prediction as indicated by the residual plot. This study has demonstrated the suitability of the multilayer perceptron neural network as a robust tool for modeling the prediction of 1,2 dihydroxybenzene degradation by photocatalytic process.
Effect of Environmental Components On the characteristic of Al-Daura Gasoline
Authors: Saeed Shahad Mahdi , Tameemi Husham Mohammed Al.
Published: July 2020

An evaluation was conducted by adding two chemical blends to gasoline produced form Al Dorra refinery to studyIctane number of octans and Reid gasoline vapor pressure with different volume compositions. The two mixtures are Di-isopropylether/olive oil (DO) and Di-isopropylether/isopropanol (DI). The gasoline had been mixed with volume percentages of 8, 10 and 15. It was discovered that by adding the two blends of Di-isopropyl Ether/Olive Oil and Di-isopropyl Ether/Isopropanol, the octane number of gasoline risen continuously and linearly. The DI-gasoline blends developed greater gasoline octane number. Compared to the plain gasoline, the two additions observed a substantial reduction in Reid vapor pressure and calorific levels. Reid vapor pressure is shown to rise in the two blends.
Improvement the corrosion Behavior of Titanium by Nanotubular Oxide in a simulated saliva solution
Authors: Al-Saady Fouad A.A. , Rushdi Salih A. , Abbar Ali H.
Published: July 2020

The corrosion behavior of Titanium in a simulated saliva solution was improved by Nanotubular Oxide via electrochemical anodizing treatment using three electrodes cell potentiostat at 37°C. The anodization treatment was achieved in a non-aqueous electrolyte with the following composition: 200mL ethylene glycol containing 0.6g NH4F and 10 ml of deionized water and using different applied directed voltage at 10°C and constant time of anodizing (15 min.). The anodized titanium layer was examined using SEM, and AFM technique.

The results showed that increasing applied voltage resulted in formation titanium oxide nanotubes with higher corrosion resistance (more positive value of the corrosion potential). The results revealed that good adhered well-ordered vertically aligned titania nanotubes with inner tube diameter of 82nm an mean length of 3microns could be obtained at 30VDC. Low corrosion current density (579 nA.cm-2) and corrosion potential equal to (-209 mV) were observed for untreated titanium metal while a dramatic fall down of the corrosion current was observed for nanotubes TiO2 (76 nA.cm-2) and more positive value of corrosion potential (-138 mV) was observed revealing good corrosion resistance of the improved titanium in saliva solutions.
Study the impact of railway crossing severity on the traffic characteristics
Authors: Banyhussan Qais Sahib , Abdulhussein Azaldeen Ali , Abdullah Lubna Najim , Al-Haidary Mahmood Ali
Published: July 2020

The surfaces of the road must not be contain undesired condition such as loose aggregates, potholes, cracking, rutting, bad railway crossing which the quality of road service and indeed the quantity of traffic provided would be reduced significantly. The main purpose and objectives of the present study are to measure traffic volume and speed under control condition and then evaluating them under adverse condition of railway crossing with different severity: low, medium, and high. In the present study, traffic and speed were recorded. Greenshields model is adopted to find the relationship between the traffic characteristics. The results show that the traffic characteristics of the control section were 86.86 (Km/h) and 1592 (vph) for speed and traffic flow, respectively. The impact of the railway crossing on the traffic can be summarized, where the speed reduced to 28.8%, 46.27%, and 70.57% for low, medium, and high railway crossing severity, respectively. Finally, the models for traffic capacity; speed with pavement condition index PCI have been found. The predicted models have a good correlation between traffic capacity; speed with PCI where the correlation coefficient (R2) was greater than 0.9..
Evaluating the Effect of Porous Concrete Pavement Characteristics on Beneath Pavement Layers
Authors: Abdulwahid A A , Al-Shafi’i N T , Al-Busaltan Sh F
Published: July 2020

The significance of the porous concrete pavement arises from the fact that it has the dual function of supporting traffic and stormwater management, in addition to many other characteristics such as minimizing noise and minimizing reflected heat. The goal of this study is to reveal more understanding of the stress-strain ratio of the porous concrete pavement and the layers beneath it. This process was done through two stages namely: laboratory stage by characterizing porous concrete mixtures (normal, and others sustainable mixtures comprised Reed Fly Ash and/or Silica Fume), and simulation stage by using a simulation program (ABAQUS) to identify the stress-strain induce an according traffic load within pavement layers. However, within the scope and materials used, the obtained results showed that the stresses within pavement layer are highly related to upper layer thickness, material types, and stiffness. Also, the main conclusion is demonstrated where there is optimum thickness (20 cm) of the porous concrete layer, which induces the minimum stress-strain in various layers of the pavement system.
Quantifying Canadian Water Quality Index in Alhindya Barrage, Euphrates River
Authors: Hommadi A H , Al-Madhhachi A T , Alfawzy A M , Saleh R A
Published: July 2020

Recently, water quantity is decreasing due to high temperatures in summer and reducing the water quotas of Euphrates River in Iraq from the neighboring countries. These factors may increase turbidity and concentration of elements in Euphrates River especially near Alhindya Barrage, Babylon Governorate, Iraq. Thus, Euphrates River may not be valid for drinking and irrigation purposes in upstream of Alhindya Barrage. The aim of this study was to investigate the water quality upstream of Alhindya Barrage, Euphrates River, using Canadian Water Quality Index (CWQI). The comparison of water quality was investigated in the years of 2008 and 2009 according to data availability. Statistical analysis were performed on measured flowrates and indicated that there is a statistically significant difference between measured flowrates for 2008 and 2009. The results showed that the CWQI of 2008 was 94 which is good to excellent water quality, compared to CWQI of 79 for 2009. This was due to reduction in mean water quantity from 370m3/s of 2008 to 213m3/s of 2009. The global warming phenomenon is the main reason for dry seasons and low rainfall intensity and caused bad water quality.
Factors that Influence the Megaprojects in Iraq
Authors: Abdul-kareem Hassan Issa
Published: July 2020

Megaprojects are classified within large investment projects which have a long term impact on the economy, the environment, and the society. Megaprojects are huge development projects such as railways, motorways, dams, power plants, airports and processing projects.

Numbers of megaprojects have been constructed and some of them are in the construction process or in the planning level, therefore, this research focused on these megaprojects to investigate the factors that could influence them in Iraq. Accordingly, the practical study consisted of quality data collections through interviews and quantitative data collections through questionnaire. The interviews have been done with six (6) experts in privet companies. The questionnaire survey has been conducted in government institutes. 85 questionnaire forms have been distributed; only 81 forms are collected.

The results of this research project revealed that less than half of the Megaprojects in Iraq are unsuccessful. However, there are numbers of reasons which may causing the failure in projects, such as insufficient and weaknesses in financial, quality and management abilities. Accordingly, there are some factors that influence the success of the megaproject in Iraq, such as increasing the confidence in local government, clarity of project vision and goal and compatibility with the long-term government plan.
Suggestion models of temperature differentials for the composite box girder bridge
Authors: Numan Hesham A , Salman Heba Kadhm , Abbas Aamer N , Obed Ahmed H , Özakça Mustafa
Published: July 2020

The trend and behavior of Composite Box Girder Bridge (CBGB) are distinctly affected by the surrounding combination environment actions due to these constructions are erected in open environments. From this consideration, this research deals with the effect of the bridge’s longitudinal axis, the geometrical configuration of CBGB and the thickness of the asphalt in addition to the season parameters on the temperature differentials under the combination of the surrounding environment actions; solar radiation, atmospheric temperature, and wind speed. To achieve this aim, the full-scale experimental composite concrete slab-steel box girder segment constructed on a campus of Gaziantep University and Finite Element (FE) program (COMSOL) activated. Two temperature differential models (vertical and horizontal) introduced during the typical summer actions, which considered as the reference thermal inputs when studied all parameters. This research demonstrated that the fashion of temperature differential weather along or across the CBGB was not sensitive under all ranges of the individual parameters generally. Additionally, based on the obtained results from this research, the vertical and horizontal of temperature differential models are proposed that can aid the engineers in design practices of such constructions without restoring to experimental tests that are always costly.
Seismic performance of bridge piers
Authors: Al-Aayedi Hussam K. , Aldefae Asad H. , Shamkhi Mohammed S.
Published: July 2020

The bridges that constructed in earthquake-prone areas perhaps subjected to sudden earthquake through their construction and service period. So, attentions should be pushed during bridge design specially, as they are one of the main civil infrastructures. The bridge piers are the main parts of bridges whether they are built across river or even as an express highway projects. This paper presented an experimental study of seismic performance of concrete bridge piers. Several important parameters have been studied such as acceleration response, seismic displacements, the bridge pier model settlement and the failure mechanism. Principles of physical modeling are used to fabricate two bridge pier models and shaking table (1-g tests) were performed under 0.82g waveform (i) Chamfered bridge pier built on saturated cohessionless soil (test-1) (ii) Oblong bridge pier built on saturated cohessionless soil(test-2). The output results included the acceleration response in term of the time acceleration and acceleration response spectra, failure mechanism during shacking, seismic displacement of the bridge pier model. The results show that the amplification in the acceleration is increases significantly at the top of the bridge pier. The seismic displacement is suddenly increased sharply due to strong motion. Overturning failure mechanism about the heel of the bridge pier has been observed in test-1 and test-2.
Correlation between Stress and Strain of wood used in construction
Authors: salman Mohammed Mosleh , Muttar Ammar , Mohammad Hussein kareem
Published: July 2020

Wood is a biomaterial and its used for different purposes in construction. The testing of any material is very important to decide its suitability, quality and making decision whether it will be used or not so it is necessary to determine the mechanical properties of wood inorder to have an idea about its behavior during loading of structure. The aim of this research is to investigate the mechanical characteristics of wood used as a building material through studying the stress-strain diagram of this constructional material and calculating the modulus of elasticity of wood in various methods which is considered as the main property of wood. The experimental part of this study included testing of many prisms with dimensions of 75 × 5 × 5cm. Under bending and measure the deflection during the stages of loading until occurance of failure and draw the stress-strain graph for each specimen. The conclusion and recommendation will be written especially that concerning the using of wood as a structural material in formworks.
Use environmentally friendly hydraulic power to design a hydraulic rapid mixing basin in the drinking water treatment plant
Authors: Ghawi Ali Hadi , Tisti Habeeb Jafer Mahrath
Published: July 2020

Most cities in Iraq provide drinking water by purifying river water of physical and chemical contaminants. It uses energy from petroleum (electricity). As it seeks to get drinking water from the rivers with clean and renewable technologies and energy, the State of Iraq plans to use one of its most abundant resources to address the shortage of fresh water, namely hydropower. This study is based on the use of hydraulic energy (environmentally friendly) in the purification of water instead of the use of electricity. The use of electrical energy in water purification has a lot of problems, including the continuous interruption of the current and therefore stop the station from work and that it needs periodic maintenance and need to staff specialized for operation and maintenance, so it is expensive while the use of hydraulic energy will help to solve most of these problems. The possibility of replacing the rapid-mechanical mixing basin to the rapid hydraulic mixing, which operates according to the principle of forced forexes, where the study of the performance of the drinking water treatment plant in the eastern district of Al-Hamzah On the ADiwaniyah River in the southern province of ADiwaniyah, where concentrations of pollutants in the river are high in the study area. Where samples were taken from different locations for water in the drinking water treatment plant of Al-Hamzah for different treatment stages. Where the pollutants were examined in the laboratories of the Environment Directorate of ADiwaniyah and the laboratories of the Faculty of Engineering. All concentrations of physical and chemical contaminants were higher than the standards of Iraqi standards and the efficiency of treatment was not as low as 83%. This is due to the continuous interruption of electrical current and the failure of the mechanical equipment of the rapid mechanical mixing basin, which requires periodic maintenance and the continuation of the addition of high coagulant doses which cause high processing costs as well as the high concentration of aluminum used for coagulation. Therefore, a hydraulic mixing basin was used by conducting experiments in the fluid laboratory In the Faculty of Engineering using the Free and Forced Vortex, which has been developed and adjust suit the requirements of the study. There have been various experiments to obtain the best dimension of hydraulic mixer and best amount of coagulant to remove the turbidity and the best mixing speed and the best value of the pH, which achieved processing efficiency of up to 98.0%.
Removal of Cd(ll) from polluted water by filtration using iron oxide coated sand media
Authors: Al Jaaf Hyman Jafar Meerza , Al-Ubaidy Mohammed Ibrahem Basheer , Al-Sharify Zainab T.
Published: July 2020

Cadmium is a poisonous metal that may influence numerous organs in the human body; coated sand with iron oxide (IOCS) was prepared and utilized in this study as a filter media to investigate its removal efficiency of cadmium from Synthetic polluted water. The removal efficiency variation due to pH value, operation time, and the initial concentration were investigated. The results show good capability of the filtration media in removing cadmium ions which could reach about 95 % at a specific operating condition, optimal pH value, and operation time were 4, 30 min respectively while initial concentration higher than 1 mg/l would require longer operation time. In order to provide a practical tool to predict the removal efficiency under specific operating conditions a mathematical model and statistical analysis was applied, statistical analysis showed that the model had good representation capability.
Effect of Adding Sand on Clayey Soil Shear Strength
Authors: Al-Badran Yasir M. , Al-Ameri Abbas F.
Published: July 2020

The effect of adding sand on clayey soil shear strength is investigated in this study. Five different percentage of clay-sand mixtures are used; 100% clay with 0% sand termed 100C, 60% clay with 40% sand termed 60C-40S, 30% clay with 70% sand termed 30C-70S, 15% clay with 85% sand termed 15C-85S, and as well as 100% sand termed 100S. The used clay was obtained from Baghdad city in Iraq and classified as CH soil, while the used sand was taken from Al-Khider area from Iraq and classified as SW soil. The initial dry unit weight for all mixtures is 16 kN/m3. The results show that the variations of the soil shear strength properties with soil components content changes almost as polynomial function. The results show that the soil cohesion (C) decrease as the sand percentage increases, while the angle of internal friction (ϕ) increases as the sand percentage increases. The cohesion (C) decreases with 68%, 99%, 97% and 100% as the sand percentage increases with 40%, 70%, 85% and 100% respectively from pure clay soil 100C. While, the angle of internal friction (ϕ) increases with 148%, 410%, 471% and 676% as the sand percentage increases with 40%, 70%, 85% and 100% respectively from pure clay soil 100C. Finally, a predicted (fitting) equations are achieved for the variation of the clayey soil shear strength properties with sand content with good agreement.
Impact of the Saline Irrigation Water on Crop Production
Authors: Karim Ibtisam Raheem , Jameel Mohammed Abid
Published: July 2020

An experimental study was carried out on the experimental field in Baghdad during the spring season of 2018 to investigate the effects of water quality and irrigation method on yield of maize crop. To this end, two types of water quality were investigated i.e. fresh water, and highly saline water (6.46 dS/m). Besides, the alternating irrigation method were adopted to analyze the possible enhancements of Maize crop production through two irrigate of fresh water followed by one irrigate of highly saline water. These different types of water quality were irrigated by using two irrigation system (drip and furrow). The gross area of the field is 1000 m2 divided into 24 plots, with an area of 9 m2 for each plot and distant of 2 m between each adjacent plots. The fresh water and highly saline water with alternating irrigation method were applied during planting season of 2018. Maize yield measurements were taken for each replicate. Results indicated that, the plots which were irrigated with fresh water gave the highest yield compared with the plots irrigated by the saline water. Statistical analysis and the linear equations showed a significant correlation between yield reduction and increasing water salinity levels. Also, the results show significant differences in yield reduction between the different irrigated water under the two irrigation systems, where furrow irrigation system gave maize yield reduction more than drip irrigation system.
Stabilization of Baiji Sand Dunes by Petroleum Residues
Authors: Al-Soud Madhat S. , Al-Shakarchi Yousif J.
Published: July 2020

This research is concerned with the use of petroleum residues to stabilize Baiji sand dunes. The purpose of this research is to study the stabilizing effect of these residues irrespective of their possible toxicity to plant and environment. Two petroleum mixtures were prepared in different mulching rates to test their efficiency in stabilizing sand dunes. Those mixtures were added to the dune samples with variable mulching rates, mixtures temperatures and initial water contents. Mechanical stability was estimated from percent of dry aggregates greater than 0.84 mm and percent of aggregates less than 0.42 mm. The mixtures of petroleum residues used in this study were found to be effective in forming large amounts of nonerodible aggregates greater than 0.84 mm and reducing the erodible aggregates less than 0.42 mm. treated samples also showed a good stability against breakdown under repeated sieving and the effect of cyclic freezing and thawing on the mean weight diameter factor MWD. The results of repeated sieving test RST showed that petroleum mixtures create a stable crust preventing the bare sand dunes from erosion.
Molecular Characteristics of Cement-Lime Treated contaminated-Lateritic Clay Soil
Authors: Saeed Khitam Abdulhussein , Kassi Khairul Anuar , Nur Hadi , Al-Hashimi Shaymaa Abdul Muttaleb
Published: July 2020

The existence of contaminated land due to industrial and mining activities is an important apprehension in today’s highly industrialized nations. However, the effect of these contaminants on the geotechnical properties of clayey soils can be modified by the chemical stabilization using traditional stabilizers like cement and lime, which result in achieving suitable material for construction purposes. Molecular characteristics of cement and lime stabilized contaminated-Lateritic clay soil presented in this research. This objective was applied by studying the induced alterations in molecular structure of cement-lime, and heavy metals stabilized lateritic soil using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. In current study, FTIR was performed to invistigate the molecular amendments in the structure of treated samples before and after contamination. Based on the results, the major vibrational bands were attributed to the kaolinite minerals. Furthermore, other bands appeared due to the presence of quartz and hematite. A new band was detected at 1462cm−1 with low intensity assigned to the carbonates, which was noticed increasing with time due to the producing of calcite. Also, it was detected a new sharp band at 1384cm−1 related to zinc and copper nitrates due the presence of heavy metals.
Adsorption of Terasil Blue on Prosopis Farcta: Performance and Modelling Study
Authors: Jaeel Ali J
Published: July 2020

Natural materials which are readily available in large amounts in nature may be used as low cost additives. The purpose of this research is to inspect the possibility of the naturally available material; Prosopis Farcta (PF) plant; to improve dyes from textile wastewater. Prosopis Farcta and activated carbon were used as adsorbents in order to make a comparison to remove terasil blue dyes (TB). Batch tests investigated the adsorption isotherm of TB at room temperature and various parameters such as the adsorbent dose, contact time and initial dye concentration. The experimental results showed that the maximum removal efficiency of PF was found to be 85% at a fixed 200 rpm mixing speed, pH value 8, mixing time 90 minutes and the dose of adsorbent 0.5g. The maximum removal efficiency of AC was found to be 96% at a fixed 200 rpm mixing speed, pH value 8, mixing time 90 minutes and the dose of adsorbent 0.5g. The above removal efficiencies were obtained at temperature 24±1 °C and initial TB dye concentration 15 mg/l. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were assigned to analyse the test data. Findings revealed that Langmuir adsorption isotherm was best model for TB adsorption onto AC and PF with energy of adsorption (Qo) 2.495 mg/g and 1.652 mg/g, the maximum adsorption capacity (b) 7.08 l/mg and 0.307 l/mg at coefficient of determination 0.9958 and 0.9718 respectively.
Derivation of Earth Geoid Model for Mosul City in Iraq
Authors: Hussain R Y
Published: July 2020

The quality and efficiency of geoid models have been developed rapidly to provide elevations instead of traditional surveying. The high cost and the long measurement time of surveying instrumentation cause an urgent need for deriving local Earth Geoid Model (EGM). Hundred control points are selected on the study area topographic map. The study area is located in Mosul city in Iraq. Multiple earth geoid models have been derived using different interpolation methods available in ArcGIS environment. The results of statistical analysis determine the best interpolation method. The percentage root mean square errors (RMSEs) for the adapted interpolation methods are 26.54 %, 28.43 %, 30.13 %, 34.79 %, 36.75 %, and 37.28 % in kriging, Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW), Trend, Natural Neighbor, Spline, and Topo To Raster, respectively. Kriging interpolation gives minimum standard deviation (2.226 m) and RMSE (2.654 m) so it is the preferable method. The results indicate that the geoid is departed from GPS Visualizer data by the mean value of minus (1.405 m) in the study area.
Behavior of Sustainable Reinforced Concrete Building Containing Waste Plastic and Fibers
Authors: Noori Abdul_Qader Nihad , Numan Hesham A
Published: July 2020

Plenty of waste plastic is one of the major problems for environmental sustainability as plastic contaminates the mainland, rivers, and seas. Moreover, many-sided behavior of waste plastic (lightweight, flexible, cheap, strong, and moisture-resistant) can make it a replacement for or alternative to coarse aggregate in concrete. This paper investigates the properties and strength of reinforced concrete flat plate slabs using recycled waste plastic as a coarse aggregate instead of the conventional aggregate to produce lightweight concrete. Also studying the effectiveness of adding polypropylene fibers for enhancing both concrete properties and shear strength of the reinforced concrete respectively in a flat slab. All specimens had the same dimensions and main flexural reinforcement ratio and they were subjected to concentrated vertical loads. Four mixes had been tested in this work, the results showed that using waste plastic mixed with polypropylene fibers to produce lightweight concrete was very promising. It was observed that by adding polypropylene fibers the failure pattern was shifted from punching to flexural. Ultimate load, crack pattern, and deflection had been included and discussed for all specimens.
Improvement of traffic control at intersection sites
Authors: Imran Muneeb Salam , Ewadh Hussein Ali
Published: July 2020

There is a frequent need for conducting an evaluation to upgrade mobility and safety at intersections. The study goal is to; examine the suitable type of control, demonstrate a typical scenario for evaluation task, and achieve suitable alternatives that solve problems of congestion and their consequences. The optimized choice with a design of traffic operation as well as the geometric layout, are proposed for each studied site. Five individual intersections were studied within Babylon province in Iraq. Three methods are adopted due to; Institute of Highway Transportation IHT, Department of Transportation DoT and Iraqi Highway Design Manual SORB, to identify the suitable control. SYNCHRO 10 software is used for analyzing operational performance for existing conditions and suggested alternatives. Due to SYNCHRO 10, most intersections operate at an unacceptable level of service. Converting the Station and Al-Irjoan intersections from TWSC type to roundabout type decreased the average delay about 97% and 95% respectively. For the signal intersections, Al-Salam and Awlad-Muslim, the indirect left turn is the best alternative with a decrease in delay by about 91% and 92% respectively. For Al-Sadah intersection, installation of a traffic signal instead of AWSC type decreased the delay about 82%. Thereby level of service raised from F to B in; The Station intersection, Al-Salam intersection and Al-Irjoan intersection. LOS also raised from D to A in Awald-Muslim intersection and from F to C in Al-Sadah intersection.
Finite Element Modelling of Normal and High Strength Reinforced Concrete Square Columns
Authors: Abtan Yaarub Gatia , Mahdi Hayder A. , Hassan Hassan Falah
Published: July 2020

This paper deals with a numerical simulation of reinforced concrete square columns. The behavior of reinforced square columns of normal and high strength concrete was studied, and special attention paid to the concrete strength, ratio of longitudinal steel reinforcement, as well as reinforcement steel grade of this type of columns. In the present study, ABAQUS program was utilized to represent the response of this type of columns. The numerical model of finite element employs the approach of damaged plasticity for concrete. For effectiveness, a column of reinforced concrete was represented that had been comparison with experimental results that presented from the other researchers. In this research the numerical results were done for three types of loading, columns subjected to pure compressive force only (compression failure is done), columns undergo bending moment only (tension failure is done), and finally columns under axial load as well as bending moment such that the tension and compression failure is done at same moment. An interaction equation was derived in this research and can be applicable for any section of columns. The present equation was appeared a very good results when compare its interaction diagram with interaction diagram driven from previous works.
Artificial neural network model for removal of copper ions from pollutant solutions by olives seeds powder
Authors: Madhloom Huda M. , Jassam Salim H , Rushed Salwa Rahman , Rashid Hatim A. , AL-Gburi Majed
Published: July 2020

Artificial Neural Network (ANNs) model was done to develop and to predict the Pollutant Removal Efficiency (PRE) of Copper Cu (II) ions from polluted solution by olives seeds powder. Five model variables as Adsorbent dosage, the initial concentration, initial pH, agitation speed, and contact time was studied to optimize the conditions for maximum removal efficiency of Cu (II) ions. Perceptron Multilayer Networks (PMN), with a back-propagation algorithm where the sigmoid axon transforms function for input and output layers is adopted. The PMN model is systematically trained with 425 data points and is validated with data points from the database. The optimum values of learning parameters that are giving encouraging and satisfactory with a correlation coefficient of about 0.983 at training and 0.987 at verification for variables used in this study. The model results showed that the major important parameter influencing on the removal efficiency is the initial copper concentration 37.3%, olive seeds dosage 23.53%, the agitation speed 21%, the pH 10.38%, and smallest influence has the contact time 7.77%. The results showed a good agreement between the ANN model result and the experimental result.
Multi Land Use Approach towards Sustainable Baghdad City: Bab Al-Muatham Garage as a Case Study
Authors: Mohamedmeki Mohammed Zuhair , Al-Mumaiz Maha
Published: July 2020

Baghdad city suffers from random urbanized expansion and highly congested roads. The city environment has been badly affected by its air pollution and low green coverage. Through this paper, a Multi Land Use (MLU) approach is presented to provide areas for commercial and domestic purposes without needing to consume more green coverage of the city and also transform the neighbour land use to one place and change them to green areas. According to the results of this research, it was found that the bus terminals is the best choice for MLU and there are many places in Baghdad available to be MLU. Towards this, satellite images and CAD software have been used to find these terminal places and areas saving possibility. This is done by transforming neighbour land uses to be MLU in one place. These terminals were classified according to their areas into small (less than 10,000 m2), medium (between 10,000 to 40,000 m2) and big (more than 40,000 m2). For terminals of small and medium areas, shopping centres and hotels can be constructed over them, while for the big terminals, student accommodations and flats for domestic purposes can also be built over these terminals, in addition to shopping centres and hotels. As a case study for this research, the Bab Al-Muatham bus terminal was illustrated. The results showed that this bus terminal can be changed to be MLU and can save an area of more than 50,000 m2 through transforming the surrounding land uses to be MLU and change the transformed lands to be green areas.
Influence of Waste Rubbers Particle Size as Partial Substitution with Coarse Aggregate on Compressive property and water absorption ratio of Concrete
Authors: Muttashar Majid , Alomari Kasim , Al-Umar Mohammad
Published: July 2020

The enormous development on production of vehicles resulted in growing amount of waste tires rubber. Consequently, waste rubber is considered as one of the most waste materials that might cause environmental problems. Incorporating tires rubbers in concrete pavement has been widely studied as one of the promising and sustainable solutions to these current environmental problems. This paper explored the effect of replacing coarse aggregate with waste tires rubber according to their sieve sizes. Three replacement ratios were suggested to substitute the coarse aggregate in concrete of 5 wt. %, 10% and 15%. Two replacement techniques were chosen in order to investigate the rubber particle size. The results illustrated that the compressive strength reduced by 8.5, 51% for 5 to 15 % replacing from all particle sizes. While it shows lower percentage of 0.3 to 11%, 12 to 19% and 7 to 17% for replacing 5 to 15% from sieve #20 to #4.75, respectively. The dry density for all samples decreased slightly with increasing rubber percentage. Furthermore, water absorption ratios of the tested samples were comparable with the reference sample by replacing from each sieve separately. In contrast, it shows higher increase by replacing from all sieves.
Influence of Nanoclay on the Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Slabs
Authors: Naji Hanadi F. , Khalid Nibras N. , Alsaraj Wissam K.
Published: July 2020

the impact of using various percentage of nanoclay on the mechanical properties of concrete and on the flexural capacity of reinforced concrete two-way slabs was achieved in this study. The percentage of nanoclay content are (0%, 2%, 4%, 6%,8%, 10%) weight percent of cement, and in addition to the use of polypropylene content of 1.5%. The investigated mechanical properties of concrete were compressive strength, sp1itting tensi1e strength and f1exural strength. Six specimens of RC two way slabs were cast using those various content of nanocaly, the slabs were simply supported condition and under uniform load. Test indicated revealed significant improvement in the mechanical properties of concrete by using nanoclay due to its high pozzolanic activity which verifies the higher amount formation of C-S-H gel in the due to the presence of nanoparticles. When nanoclay proportion increased from 2% to 8%, the compressive strength increased about 3%, and 12.4%, respectively for samples with polypropylene equals 1.5%. While the splitting tensile strength increased by 4% up to 39.4% when using the same nanoclay proportion about 2% to 8%, respectively. The flexural modulus of rupture increased by 6%, and 36%, respectively for the same nanoclay proportion and polypropylene fiber content. The ultimate load capacity of the RC slabs increased by (12.5%) up to (66%) when the nanoclay content increased from (2% to 8%). However, using 10% nanoclay reduced the strength of the slab. In addition, different failure modes was observed for the slabs when using different percentage of nanoclay content.
Torsion strength enhancement of RC hollow beam web using steel diaphragms as in-plane technique
Authors: Jasem Areej Abbas , Aziz Ali Hameed
Published: July 2020

Sometimes the construction system complexity or beam’s geometry imposes some difficulties in performing an external strengthening for RC hollow beam web. The main challenge is to select a proper strengthening method to overcome its low torsion strength to inplane and out-of-plane stresses. Accordingly, the main goal of this research is to judge the possibility to adopt or (suggest) a certain internal in-plane technique to enhance the torsion strength. Six hollow beam web specimens of dimensions (1600×200×200mm) are tested experimentally under torsion effect. The major adopted variables including, the presence or absence of in-plane diaphragms, number of in-plane diaphragms (one, three and five), and strengthen the in-plane steel diaphragm with CFRP sheet on one or both faces. The experimental results show the ultimate torque increased by about (36%, 73% and 100%) for the tested specimens strengthened by one, three and five in-plane diaphragms respectively. On the other hand, the ultimate torque capacity was increased by about (53-55%) for beam specimens which contain one steel diaphragm strengthened by one and two CFRP sheets at their faces respectively, in comparison with the non-strengthened beam. It can be concluded that the torsional capacity has been enhanced due to the contribution of the adopted method.
Modeling the impact of rainwater harvesting on stormwater runoff
Authors: Azawi H
Published: July 2020

One way to save water is rainwater harvesting (RWH). For highly urbanized areas, the advantages of RWH include not only collecting water but also mitigating the negative impacts of stormwater runoff on receiving water bodies. In this research, the use of RWH is investigated along with Permeable Pavement to reduce runoff volume and peak flow in Al-Huryai city, a small watershed in central Baghdad, Iraq as a case study using a Personalized Computer Storm Water Management Model (PCSWMM). The simulation results showed that RWH has a significant impact on runoff reduction when compiled with Al-Huryai-PP scenario. The peak flow rates for Al-Huryai as-is scenario and Al-Huryai-PP+RWH scenario were 0.004 m3/s and 0.0038 respectively. Thus, the predevelopment conditions were met and flooding was controlled.
Transient Stability Improvement based on Optimal Power Flow using Particle Swarm Optimization
Authors: Al-Bahrani Layth Tawfeeq
Published: July 2020

Optimal Power Flow (OPF) is one of most important aspect in power system operation and control. It is a non linear optimization problem based on minimization an objective function such as the active power losses, fuel cost, voltage deviation, voltage stability, reliability evaluation,…etc. Transient stability analysis is an important concept to determine whether the system is stable or not when a heavy disturbance such as the fault or loss of generation or a sudden large increased in the load,…etc occur in the system. In this article the transient stability according to the fault occurrence are used as a constraint in the optimal power flow, where minimization a three objective function of the active power losses, the fuel cost of thermal generation units and the voltage deviation at the load buses separately for each one can improve the transient stability and keep all the generators in the synchronization system. Particle Swarm Optimization PSO of an artificial intelligence optimization techniques has been used for this purpose. Minimization the objective function can be satisfied by choosing an optimal control variables from their constraints keeping the state variables in their limits. The control variables in this article are the generator voltage magnitude, the transformer tap changer and the generator active power except the slack generator while the state variables are the stability system based on increasing the clearing time of the circuit breaker, the slack generator active power, the generator reactive power and the magnitude of the load voltage. Increasing the clearing time of the circuit breaker leads to increase the maximum value of the generator rotor angle and go towards the instability system. The maximum clearing time that keep the system stable is called the Critical Clearing Time TCC. This article used the Optimal Power Flow with Transient Stability as a constraint to increase the Critical Clearing Time TCC with stable system. The proposed algorithm has been tested on the two systems of IEEE 9 bus and IEEE 30 bus and compare the result with other reference. The implementation of this work are programming by the author using matlab software.
Performance Improvement of a DC/DC Converter Using Neural Network Controller in comparison with Different Controllers
Authors: Almawlawe Muhanad D. Hashim , Al-badri Muhammad , Alsakini Issam Hayder
Published: July 2020

Controlling a system is a complicated job, especially when we talk about the nonlinearity of the system introduced by the external changes. This paper presents the procedure of designing, analysis, and verification of nonlinear autoregressive moving average controller (NARMA L2) as an artificial intelligence technique to track the output voltage of a Buck dc/dc converter in comparison with PID controller, digitalized sliding mode controller so as to reduce the ripples in output voltage and to suppress the transient overshoots, or in other words, enhance the transient response diversity of the plant in the case of load and line changes. In this technique, a back-propagation learning algorithm is derived to increase the effectiveness of the proposed controller. Finally, the proposed method of control using a neural network controller is designed using MATLAB/SIMULINK and the results of the converter for the Neuro controller are compared with different techniques of control.
Step-Down DC-DC Converter Using Coupled-Inductors and Passive Clamped Circuit
Authors: Al-Zubaidi Saif , Alkhafaji Mohammed H , Al-kawaz Wael N
Published: July 2020

A novel step-down DC-DC converter configuration is adopted in this paper. The new converter makes use the closed inversely coupled inductors topology. The proposed technique targeting the suppression of high content of switching noise that commonly accompanies the stepping-down converter circuits. This can be achieved by restraining the induced back electromotive force in the prime inductor. The induced back electromotive force is a result of discontinuous flow of line current in the prime inductor. The proposed technique preserves an uninterrupted stream of line current through-out the prime inductor which results in a considerable depression in the induced back electromotive force and consequently minimises the switching noise and enhancing the power conversion efficiency. A unique design of passive clamped circuit using coupled inductors is also proposed in this converter architecture. The leakage energies of the prime and the coupled-inductors can be recycled using the new passive clamped circuit and the captured energy can be then transferred to the load side alongside with the source or input energy. As a result, an efficiency improvement of the new converter can be achieved and the voltage stress on the power switches and diodes can be reduced. Circuit configuration, principles of operation and the transfer function of the new converter are figured out. The proposed concept of the new conversion technique is verified by the experimental and the simulated results of a range of case studies.