bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Simulation of traffic flow in unsignalization intersection using computer software SIDRA in Baghdad city
Authors: Mohammed Ali , Jony Hassan , Shakir Alaa , Ambak Kamarudin Bin
Published: May 2018

Computer simulation is a vital means for the examination of expressways and urban lanes and streets. Transportation experts concentrate on the arrangement and dissemination of traffic jams on roadways. The objective of this study is to calculate and analyses the travel time, delay time, degree of saturation, and level of service and travel speed in Jordan intersection in Baghdad, Iraq using Sidra software. The number of vehicles passing Jordan intersection was recorded by the author of this work from 7am to 3pm for four days. A simulation model has been used to assess the performance of the current intersection. Results demonstrated that the level of service (LOS) for Jordan intersection is D with (35 sec/veh) average delay and degree of saturation (0.996 v/c). It was concluded that Jordan intersection needs further developments like using intelligent transportation system application (ITS) to regulate traffic signals, whereby reducing traffic jam, using closed circuit TV (CCTV) might assist traffic office in identifying jam point to reduce traffic jam.
Assessment at Al-Ameer signalized intersection in Samawa city
Authors: Joni Hasan , Hikmatt Mafaz
Published: May 2018

The aim of this paper is to evaluate traffic performance of Al-Ameer signalized intersection in Samawa city, which fits with the prevailing conditions and geometric properties of the intersection. The technique of video recording has used for collection the traffic volume data for all approaches. These data are abstracted from video films. SYNCHRO 8 software was used to evaluate and analyze the intersection and choose the best suggestion. The evaluation process result showed that the intersection is operated with level of service (LOS F). By suggestion of several strategies which vary from signal optimization to geometric improvements. The best solution has been found by suggestion an overpass at the east-west direction, and the level of service has improved from (LOS F) to (LOS C), this result is considered an acceptable and economical solution for the existing problems at intersection.
Impact of the Superpave hot mix asphalt properties on its permanent deformation behavior
Authors: Qasim Zahra , Abed Alaa , Qasim Zaynab
Published: May 2018

In Iraq, the severity of rutting has increased in asphalt pavements possibly due to the increase in truck axle loads, tyre pressure, and high pavement temperature in summer. As of late, Superpave has been accounted as an enhanced system for performance based design, analysis of asphalt pavement performance prediction for asphalt concrete mixes. In this research the development of permanent deformation in asphalt concrete under repeated loadings was investigated, Wheel-Tracking apparatus has been used in a factorial testing program during which 44 slab samples were tested to simulate actual pavement. The objectives of the present research include; investigating the main factors affecting rutting in asphalt concrete mixture, quantifying the effect of SBS polymer and steel reinforcement on asphalt concrete mixtures in addition to studying the effect of variables on the asphalt concrete mixes against moisture sensitivity. It has been determined that that increasing of compaction temperature from 110 to 150°C will decrease the permanent deformation by 20.5 and 15.6 percent for coarse and fine gradation control asphalt mixtures, respectively. While the permanent deformation decreases by 21.3 percent when the compaction temperature is increased from 110 to 150°C for coarse gradation SBS modified asphalt mixtures.
Chemical recycling of polyethylene terephthalate (waste water bottles) for improving the properties of asphalt mixture
Authors: Alzuhairi Mohammed , Al-Ghaban Ahmed , Almutalabi Shams
Published: May 2018

One of the most prevalent of waste materials is Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) which is used mainly to produce the drinking water bottles. In this research, the waste plastic bottles, which are normally made from PET was used to investigate the possibility of using this material as an additive in asphalt concrete mixtures. Six different proportions (w/w %) of Degradated Polyethylene Terephthalate (DPET) (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12%) have been added to bitumen to prepare the specimens. The tests include Marshall Method of mix design and coating with asphalt. The results indicated that the mixture property modification increased as the content of (DPET) increases. This additive gives maximum flexibility and rigidity of the asphalt, according to ductility and penetration tests. Marshall Method gives better resistance against permanent deformations and better engineering properties in terms of stability, flow value, air voids and water absorption comparing with non-modified mixtures.
Evaluation of using crushed brick as coarse aggregate in concrete layer within rigid highway pavement
Authors: Alwash Ali , Al-Khafaji Fatimah
Published: May 2018

Most of the present studies related to the field of highway pavement construction technique tend to make use of the local available materials as substitutes for the imported and necessary materials for some of the practical application. For this reason this research aims at looking for the prospect of used locally available aggregate such as crushed clay bricks for the aim of producing proper concrete with suitable thermal and mechanical properties. Experimental investigations have been carried out to asses the effect of partial replacement of coarse aggregate by free manually crushed Brick with percentages (10, 20, 30 and 40)% of virgin coarse aggregate in concrete mix for highway rigid pavement. While the percentage (0)% replacement represent reference mix. Mix proportion based on the target of compressive strength for all replacement percentage of (33) MPa at (28) days to achieve AASHTO requirement for highway concrete rigid pavement .The results of flexural strength, modulus of elasticity, density and thermal conductivity refers to better performance (less thickness of concrete layer with large spacing between contraction or expansion joints and less stresses due to warping induced concrete layer) for concrete mix with 20% crushed brick as replacement of coarse aggregate.
XRD analysis for hydration products of different lime-pozzolan systems
Authors: Kadum Nahida , Al-Azzawi Zeyad , al-Attar Tareq
Published: May 2018

This study represents a part of an extensive experimental program devoted to study the properties of different Lime-Pozzolan systems as a sustainable binder to replace Portland cement in concrete. These systems were Lime-Silica fume, Lime-Silica fume-Fly ash and Lime-Metakaolin. Four powder samples for X-ray diffraction, XRD, analysis was prepared from the studied systems. These samples were chosen to monitor the effect of curing age on the hydration process and to study the difference in hydration products when using different binder systems. According to the defined minerals by XRD analysis, the hydration products of all investigated Lime-Pozzolan mixtures are closely similar to those of Portland cements. The current XRD analyses have been employed to build recommendations for the forecast performance for each system.
Performance of self-compacting concrete containing hybrid fibers in aggressive environment
Authors: Salman Mohammed , Frayyeh Qais , Zghair Luma
Published: May 2018

Self-compacting concrete can be used in many concrete applications some of it susceptible to acid attacks. The aims of this study are to investigate the resistance of different SCC mixture designs to sulphuric acid attacks. The test variables included the type of hybrid fibers (steel, plastic and polypropylene fibers). The powder content of the mixes was kept constant. (500)Kg/m3. The slump flow, L-box, and V-funnel were performed for mixes in their fresh state. In the present work, the specimens were immersion in sulphuric acid solution at concentration of (0.5%) up to 289 days after normal curing for 28 days. After concrete has hardened, two types of test are performed before and after immersion in sulphuric acid solution. Firstly destructive tests are conducted including (compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and modulus of rupture). Secondly non-destructive tests are performed including (mass loss). The result obtained from this work, shows that the use of hybrid fiber was significant in improving the resistance to sulphuric acid solution in the case of splitting tensile strength, mass loss and modulus of rupture on the other hand, the use of hybrid fibers was insignificant in reducing the concrete compressive strength loss.
Effect of different curing conditions on the mechanical properties of reactive powder concrete
Authors: Abdulrahman Mazin , Al-Attar Alyaa , Ahmad Marwa
Published: May 2018

Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) is an ultra-high performance concrete which has superior mechanical and physical properties, and composed of cement and very fine powders such as quartz sand and silica fume with very low water/ binder ratio and Superplasticizer. Heat treatment is a well-known method that can further improve the performance of (RPC). The current research including an experimental study of the effect of different curing conditions on mechanical properties of reactive powder concrete (compressive strength, modulus of rupture and splitting tensile strength), the curing conditions includes three type of curing; immersion in water at temperature of 35 OC (which is considered as the reference-curing situation), immersion in water at temperature of 90 OC for 5 hours daily and curing with hot steam for 5 hours daily) until 28 days according to ASTM C684-99 [8]. This research includes also the study of effect of adding silica fume as percentage of cement weight on mechanical properties of reactive powder concrete for different percentage ratios (5%,10% and 15%). Super plasticizer is also used with ratio of (1.8%) by weight of cementitious material; constant water cement ratio (0.24) was used for all mixes. For each reactive concrete mix, it has been cast into a cubes of (150*150*150) (to conduct the compression test), a cylinders of 150mm diameter with 300mm height (to conduct split test) and prisms of (500*100*100)mm to conduct the modulus of rupture test. The results showed that the best method of curing (according to its enhancing the RPC mechanical properties) is the method of immersion in hot water at temperature 90 OC for the all silica fume percentages, and the best used silica fume percentage was (10%) for the all used curing methods.
Performance of super-absorbent polymer as an internal curing agent for self-compacting concrete
Authors: Al-Hubboubi Suhair , al-Attar Tareq , Al-Badry Haider , Abood Samir , Mohammed Rawaa , Haddhood Buthaina
Published: May 2018

Internal curing agent by using super-absorbent polymer was present in this study, its effect on the properties of self-compacting concrete was evaluated .The SAP content in the concrete mix was 0.5 % by weight of cement. Three procedures for curing were adopted; curing in water, curing in water and air and curing in polyethylene sealed bags. Fresh concrete tests conducted to assess the self-compactability of the produced concrete. Moreover, compressive and splitting strength tests were carried out. The testing program had been extended to the age of 90 days.The use of super-absorbent polymer did not affect the fresh state characteristics of the studied SCC and achieved an increase in both compressive and tensile strengths as compared to the reference concrete mix.
Effect of discontinuous curing and ambient temperature on the compressive strength development of fly ash based Geopolymer concrete
Authors: Almuhsin Bayrak , al-Attar Tareq , Hasan Qais
Published: May 2018

In the current study, 6 mixtures of Geopolymer concrete have been studied. The effect of discontinuous curing in oven and in atmosphere ambient temperature has been inspected by exposing the Geopolymer concrete specimens to temperature in the oven for few hours then stopping the oven to let it cool down to the ambient temperature. The compressive strength test of 100x200 mm cylindrical specimens for each mixture has been performed at different ages. It was found that the ambient temperature has vast effect on the compressive strength of the Geopolymer concrete in discontinuous curing. Discontinuous curing saves energy and can be a good replacement to the continuous curing when the ambient temperature is 40°C or more. Specimens that were cured continuously in ambient temperature of 43°C has resulted in compressive strength of 23 MPa at age of 40 days; to enhance the compressive strength, it is advised to impose few hours of discontinuous oven curing. It was also found that the rest period (starts when pouring concrete in forms and ends when imposing oven curing to the Geopolymer) has a positive influence on the compressive strength of Geopolymer concrete, but when no rest period is allowed, the later ages compressive strength is remarkably higher.
Mechanical properties of fly ash geopolymer mortar reinforced with carbon fibers
Authors: Frayyeh Qais , Swaif Ahmed
Published: May 2018

Portland cement industry releases high amounts of CO2, so efforts have been made for alternative binders. Geopolymers are one of the highlighted elective binders. The aims of this study are to produce fly ash Geopolymer boards reinforced with carbon fibers and investigate the mechanical properties of several blends of fly ash Geopolymer mortar reinforced with carbon fibers (FGC). Carbon fibers (CF) were added at different percentages (WF) of 0.2%, 0.5%, 1%, and 1.5% by weight. The sodium hydroxide condensation of 8 molars, sodium silicate to sodium hydroxide weight ratio of 2.0, the alkaline liquid/binder proportion of 0.47 and the dry heat curing of 70°C for 24 hours were utilized as a piece of blends. Fresh and hardening state properties such as Flow capacity, flexural strength and compressive strength, and physical properties such as bulk density were determined from the 3-day FGC samples after the curing process. The results obtained from this study, show that the uses of CF were significant in improving the compressive and flexural strength due to the bonding characteristics of fibers with Geopolymer pastes. Then again, the used of CF results in slightly decrease of the bulk density. The optimal compressive and flexural strength outcomes were at weight percentage 1% of CF.
Some properties of sustainable concrete containing two environmental wastes
Authors: Khalil Wasan , Obeidy Nazar Al
Published: May 2018

This investigation includes the use of 15% of glass wastes as a partial substitution to cement in combination with plastic wastes as volumetric replacement to natural coarse aggregate to produce sustainable concrete. Different volumetric replacements of plastic waste to natural coarse aggregate (25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%) were used in concrete containing 15% glass powder as a replacement by weight of cement. Generally, the results show that the inclusion of 15% glass powder improves the compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and flexural strength by about 13.3%, 36.3%, and 34.7%respectively at 60 day age in comparison with reference concrete without wastes, also the results show a decrease in water absorption and an increase in dry density. The inclusion of plastic waste aggregate in the presence of 15% glass powder leads to a decrease in the compressive strength, flexural strength, splitting tensile strength, dry density, ultrasonic pulse velocity, and thermal conductivity. The percentage reductions are 59.8%, 46.3%, 43.6%, 20.5%, 28.6%, and 54.4% respectively for concrete specimens that including 100% plastic waste coarse aggregate in comparison with concrete specimens without plastic waste aggregate.
Lightweight self-compacting concrete with light expanded clay aggregate (LECA)
Authors: Heiza Khaled , Eid Fatma , Masoud Taha
Published: May 2018

Lightweight concretes have been successfully applied in building constructions for many years due to their favorable material properties, particularly their low specific weight in connection with a high strength, a high capability of thermal insulation and a high durability. The development leading to lightweight self-compacting concrete (LWSCC) represents an important advanced step within the recent years. This concrete combines the favorable properties of a lightweight concrete with those of a self-compacting concrete. Research work is aimed on development of (LWSCC) with the use of light aggregates “Light expanded clay aggregate (LECA)”. In this research, first by specific gravity factor method, twenty different mix designs of (LWSCC) were cast and tested to find out the values of slump flow, J-ring , V-funnel and 28 day compressive strength. Based on the results obtained, the best mix design was selected for further investigation. This paper also focuses on studying the effect of changing the reinforcement ratio on reinforced two way slabs when the dimensions were kept constant.
Major factors contributing to the construction waste generation in building projects of Iraq
Authors: Khaleel Tareq , Al-Zubaidy Ahmed
Published: May 2018

Due to the economic growth and improvement of the construction industry witnessed by most countries, there has become a crucial need for employing modern possibilities in the construction sector to build taller, longer and deeper structures. However, one aspect that heads forward with the same intensity is the generation of 100 million tons of construction waste every year. This generation has occurred due to several factors with different levels of importance. Hence, this study reveals 15 factors influencing construction waste generation and categorizes them into 3 groups, (materials management on site), (materials handling, transportation and storage) and (site management and practices). A questionnaire survey of 100 respondents was distributed among different engineers to assess the construction waste factors. Results showed that damage of materials on site, double handling of materials and incompetent contractor’s technical staff were the most significant factors of each category with Relative Importance Indexes (RII) of 0.866, 0.844 and 0.83, respectively. These findings will help the practitioners to reduce construction waste quantities in sites and improve waste management performance factors to control the construction waste problems.
An investigation into factors causing delays in highway construction projects in iraq
Authors: Al Hadithi Bevian I.
Published: May 2018

The highways sector is a prominent sector in any country’s economy because of its impact on the well-being and safety of its citizens. The transport sector has an impact on social improvement and investment in the nation on the illustration that allows access to markets, production, jobs, health and other social services.This study investigates the causes of delay of highway construction projects in Iraq, which is frequent occurrence. Data was collected using questionnaires which were distributed to the key project participants; contractors, owners and consultants. The data were analyzed using the Frequency index and Spearman‟s rank correlation. The top seven causes of project delays were observed to be political decisions and political realities, the economic crisis of the country, delays in materials test of and obtaining the results, delay in monthly payments of contractor, failure treatment of the delays when implementing the project, the effects of weather, rain and high temperatures, delay in activities during implementation. It is recommended to establish an appropriate number of laboratories and adopt the field laboratory mechanism for the external and remote screens. Owners should give special attention to pay progress payment to contractors on time. The competent contractor who has prior experience in implementing the high projects should be selected. The contractor must take into consideration the weather conditions when preparing the time plan necessary to implement the project. The project management should identify these reasons and deal with them quickly in order to reduce the total delay of the project.
The effects of stakeholder’s engagement and communication management on projects success
Authors: Alqaisi Israa Fadhil
Published: May 2018

Managing stakeholders’ expectations and interests is key to a project’s success. So, identifying stakeholders at the beginning of the projects, recognizing and managing their needs and expectations will contribute to the creation of a suitable environment and be catalyst for success. This can be achieved through the establishment of appropriate and timely communication that meets the requirements of stakeholders. This includes providing the decision makers with the required data and receiving feedback to ensure alignment among project objectives and stakeholders expectations. This paper mentions one of the projects which neglected the proactive planning and management of stakeholder’s requirements that causes waste in time and resources and many issues that appear as a result of poor planning, and the lessons learned from it.
Sediment predictions in Wadi Al-Naft using soil water assessment tool
Authors: Alwan Imzahim Abdulkareem , Karim Ibtisam , Mohamed Mahmood
Published: May 2018

Sediment production is the amount of sediment in the unit area that is transported through the basin by water transfer over a specified period of time. The main aim of present study is to predict sediment yield of Wadi, Al-Naft watershed with 8820 Km2area, that is located in the North-East of Diyala Governorate in Iraq, using Soil-Water Assessment Tool, (SWAT) and to predict the impact of land management and the input data including the land use, soil type, and soil texture maps which are obtained from Landsat-8 satellite image. Digital Elevation Model,(DEM) with resolution (14 14) meter is used to delineate the watershed with the aid of model. Three Land-sat images were used to cover the study area which were mosaic processed and the study area masked- up from the mosaic, image. The area of study has been registries by Arc-GIS 10.2 and digitized the soil hydrologic group through assistant of Soil Plant Assistant Water Model, (SPAW) which was progressed by USDA, Agricultural, Research Service, using the data of soil textural and organic matter from Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the available water content, saturated hydraulic conductivity, and bulk density. The results of average, sediment depth and the maximum upland sediment for simulation period (2010-2020) were predicted to be (1.7 mm), and (12.57 Mg/ha), respectively.
Selecting optimum railway track using GIS techniques
Authors: Al-Hameedawi Amjed , Salih Mohammed , Mohammed Haidar , Hassan Maher
Published: May 2018

This paper mainly aims at analysing and selecting the best railway route within the Karbala City. The significance of having suitable locations for railway route is recognized as a crucial element in the pursuit to improve the quality of public transport in general. This paper uses technique based on bridging the gap between all the criteria to determine suitable location for the railway. It was also intended to organize non-spatial data for describing the process. The site selection of railway is the process of finding locations that meet the desired conditions set by the selection criteria. For this issue a professional know-how to deal with data depending on multi criteria is necessary to achieve of the task of decision making. Due to the tangle of the issue, a special effort must be done, to have a good usefulness of site selection. The results of spatial model in this paper shows the best railway track is (Karbala-ALhindya).
Sentinel-2 imageries with meteorological data utilize remote sensing and GIS for wheat crop prove production
Authors: Sbahi Muslim , Ziboon Abdul-Razzak , Hassoon Khalid
Published: May 2018

Agricultural statistics are considered one of the most important topics in the developed countries now. In addition to the irrigation systems used, they relate to the quality and quantity of production and the consequent export and import of agricultural crops in order to achieve food security for the country. Therefore, the present traditional methods used in the collection of statistical data are not sufficient to cover the vast areas of cultivated strategic crops and to determine the effects therein. This is due to many factors, the most important of which is climatic changes. Hence the importance of the application of remote sensing techniques for image and data in the survey, agricultural statistics and monitoring of the quality and quantity of production using the latest satellite images available free from the owner of artificial satellite Sentinel2 which has spatial resolution of 10m instead of 30m available in artificial satellite Landsat8. Research results showed that the temperature can be controlled using modern techniques used in irrigation, which improves the atmosphere and thus contribute to providing a suitable environment for the wheat crop, which helps to increase the amount of production these have been clearly monitored using applicable indicators derived from satellite imageries data.
Change detection and building spatial geodatabase for Iraqi marshes
Authors: Jasim Oday , Hamed Noor , Abdulgabar Tamarra
Published: May 2018

The Iraqi Marshlands has natural and economic potential through its environment rich in various forms of lives. This region has suffered numerous setbacks due to human and natural factors, especially in the last two decades of the last century, which led to significant environmental degradation. The purpose of this paper is to prepare spatial data for the area of the marshes in Iraq as a base (Hour-al Hoveizah and central marshes and Hammar). Also, the other aim is to produce a digital geodatabase for the marshes for the years 1973, 1986, 1999, 2006 and 2016 by using ArcGIS. The process of building geodatabase has been through done in three stages: the first stage is including data collection. The second stage will be by merging the satellite images covering the Iraqi marshes and add to images in order to get the image mosaic process. Also, a georeferencing of satellite images is to be done with all the traditional maps of the same area of the marsh. Finally, complete the full geodatabase for the area of interest by using ArcGIS as the in Cartography Design. The results of this research would be a geodatabase for the Iraqi marshes.
Assessing the performance of commercial Agisoft PhotoScan software to deliver reliable data for accurate3D modelling
Authors: Jebur Ahmed , Abed Fanar , Mohammed Mamoun
Published: May 2018

3D models delivered from digital photogrammetric techniques have massively increased and developed to meet the requirements of many applications. The reliability of these models is basically dependent on the data processing cycle and the adopted tool solution in addition to data quality. Agisoft PhotoScan is a professional image-based 3D modelling software, which seeks to create orderly, precise n 3D content from fixed images. It works with arbitrary images those qualified in both controlled and uncontrolled conditions. Following the recommendations of many users all around the globe, Agisoft PhotoScan, has become an important source to generate precise 3D data for different applications. How reliable is this data for accurate 3D modelling applications is the current question that needs an answer. Therefore; in this paper, the performance of the Agisoft PhotoScan software was assessed and analyzed to show the potential of the software for accurate 3D modelling applications. To investigate this, a study was carried out in the University of Baghdad / Al-Jaderia campus using data collected from airborne metric camera with 457m flying height. The Agisoft results show potential according to the research objective and the dataset quality following statistical and validation shape analysis.
Building archaeology geodatabase in Iraq using GIS
Authors: Kalaf Abbas , Al Sharaa Hisham , Hatem Israa , Mohammed Hussein
Published: May 2018

Geomatics has been an important tool in archaeology. The combination of Geomatics and archaeology adopters have been considered a perfect match, since archaeology often involves the study of the spatial dimension of human behavior over time, and all archaeology carries a spatial component. Since Iraqi archaeology becomes one of the main victims of destruction by negligence and terror attacks, makes our great heritages forgotten. Hence, it is necessary to build a secure database for all Iraqi archeological sites with their two main types (investigated and uninvestigated) and rely on digital system by creating digital maps for each Governorate with their archeological database system. Results of archaeological studies are rich in spatial information. GIS is adept at processing these large volumes of data especially those that are geographically referenced. It is effective, accurate and a fast tool. The tools made available through GIS help in data collection, its storage and retrieval, its ability for customization and, finally, the display of the data so that it is visually comprehensible by the user. The most important aspect of GIS in archaeology lies, however, not in its use as a pure map-making tool, but in its capability to merge and analyze
Proposal of building a standard geodatabase for urban land use
Authors: Husein Haifaa , Jasim Oday , Mahmood Saja
Published: May 2018

The digital technologies represented by digital processing programs, local data bases and satellite receivers system is a set of technologies made to organize the process of building descriptive field database, and conveying them to computers, in order to store, analyze and manifest data as well as upgrade and extract it in the form of digital maps, which represent an asset in any engineering and planning study. For a variety of types of mixed land uses and others land uses in the urban city, which cause great difficulty in how to build spatial Geodatabase in terms of frequency of the land use and overlap between land uses, the paper will find the proposed standard Geomatics techniques to get rid of these difficulties. The paper will tackle the engineering and survey methods which could reinforce manifestation of uses of logical database in urban areas. Lastly, the research concludes that relying on important field survey and digital references in preparing suggested criteria for field uses, in addition to the recommendations provided in this field for the post graduate and undergraduate students as well governmental specialized departments.
TransCad analysis and GIS techniques to evaluate transportation network in Nasiriyah city
Authors: Qasim Zaynab , Ziboon Abdul-Razzak , Falih Khaldoon
Published: May 2018

Transportation is an essential element for the development of countries economically, socially, and culturally. AL-Nasiriyah is one of the highly congested urban centers within Dhi-Qar province. Network in the city center suffers congestion, particularly during peak hours simply because of the existence of vitality centers (educational, commercial and government). The network is used to assess the flow of the current traffic network patterns through several programs such as the (TransCad, GPS, GIS) so collecting different types of data, such as (Traffic volumes and free flow speed) using a device (MSSS), field surveys is done for the work of large-scale map road network.The results of the evaluation showed that most of the roads in the city have a level of service type (B), as the network showed service-level type (F) at which the vehicle relative to the road capacity (v/c) is greater than one in the city center, such as (Habboubi Street, Nasir bridge, Sumer Street, etc.) as illustrated in analysis map. On the basis of that proposed to add new roads to change path of external - external trips and also add new bridges to get rid of the congestion that appeared in the city center.
FEM performance of concrete beams reinforced by carbon fiber bars
Authors: Hasan Hashim
Published: May 2018

Concrete structures may be vulnerable to harsh environment, reinforcement with Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) bars have an increasing acceptance than normal steel. The nature of (FRP) bar is (non-corrosive) which is very beneficial for increased durability as well as the reinforcement of FRP bar has higher strength than steel bar. FRP usage are being specified more and more by public structural engineers and individual companies as main reinforcement and as strengthening of structures. Steel reinforcement as compared to (FRP) reinforcement are decreasingly acceptable for structural concrete reinforcement including precast concrete, cast in place concrete, columns, beams and other components. Carbon Fiber Reinforcement Polymer (CFRP) have a very high modulus of elasticity “high modulus” and very high tensile strength. In aerospace industry, CFRP with high modulus are popular among all FRPs because it has a high strength to weight ratio. In this research, a finite element models will be used to represent beams with Carbon Fiber Reinforcement and beams with steel reinforcement. The primary objective of the research is the evaluation of the effect of (CFR) on beam reinforcement.
Torsional strength evaluation of reinforced SCC box beams strengthened internally by opened and closed transverse concrete diaphragms
Authors: Aziz Ali , Hashim Oday
Published: May 2018

There are a few researches about box (hollow core) RC beams under the effect of torque moment; therefore, a torsional failure mechanism is not understood well. In the present paper, the concept (technique) of adding internal concrete diaphragms, in transverse direction, is adopted. Six self-compacting concrete beam specimens having a dimension of (2200x220x350mm) for length, width and height, respectively were poured and tested. Three variables are adopted in the present study, section type, number and type of the internal diaphragms. Experimental results show that the ultimate torque moment increases about (43%-61%) and (89%-94%) for beam specimens strengthened internally by two and four diaphragms respectively. Also, increasing internal diaphragms from two to four, led to increase the ultimate torque moment about (33%-46%). Furthermore, the change of section from box section with four internal diaphragms to solid section, led to increase in ultimate torque moment about (28%-33%). The paper concludes that the increase in torsional capacity is attainable for box (hollow core) beams by using the technique of strengthening by internal diaphragms; Also, the box sections can be made with internal opened diaphragms and possess same capacity or contribution of the closed ones.
Effect of replacing the main reinforcement by steel fibers on flexural behavior of one-way concrete slabs
Authors: Jomaa’h Muyasser , Khazaal Ammar , Ahmed Sinan
Published: May 2018

The main objective of the research is to study the preparation of one way slabs of ordinary concrete, and then to prepare concrete slabs by replacing the main reinforcing steel with two kinds of steel fibers (ordinary steel fibers and recycled steel fibers) by fraction volumes of 0.125, 0.250, and 0.375%. Also, study the mechanical properties of the mixtures as a ompressive strength, indirect tensile strength, and flexural strength. Concrete slabs of these mixtures have been prepared with specific geometrical dimensions700 * 300 * 70 mm, exposed to line load, to study the bending moment and maximum failure load of these slabs. A concrete mixture was produced after proportionment based on the ACI and casting six cubes tested at the ages of 7 and 28 days where the strength requirements for design were achieved. The main mixtures of research were produced, three cubes for compressive strength testing, twenty one cylinders for indirect tensile strength testing, and twenty one prisms for modulus of rupture testing. Also sixteen concrete slabs were prepared, two of them were reference slabs without reinforcing steel, the other two with main reinforcing steel only, six of them replaced by the main reinforcing steel with ordinary steel fibers, and the last six replacing the main reinforcing steel with recycled steel fibers. The results showed that both the failure load and the resultant deflection in concrete slabs decreased by (20.09%, 51.91%) for maximum load and by (35.18%, 81.48%) compared to the reference slabs when replacing the main reinforcing steel with steel fiber, also by (25.72%, 38.29%) to failure load and (38.88%, 79.63%) for the deflection compared to the reference slabs when replacing the main reinforcing steel with recycled steel fibers. The best value for maximum load and deflection could be obtained from this study was at 0.125% replacement ratio of the main reinforcing steel with recycled steel fibers, the highest value of ductility was 3.77 at the replacement ratio of 0.250% of the main reinforcing steel with the ordinary steel fibers, also the highest hardness value was 11.67 kN / mm with the replacement ratio of 0.125% of the main reinforcing steel with recycled steel fibers and increased by 61.85% than the hardness of the reference slabs.
Strengthening of self-compacting reinforced concrete deep beams containing circular openings with CFRP
Authors: Al-Bayati Nabeel , Muhammad Bassman , Faek Murooj
Published: May 2018

This paper shows the behavior of reinforced self-compacting concrete deep beams with circular openings strengthened in shear with various arrangements of externally bonded Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP). Six simply supported deep beams were constructed and tested under two points load up to the failure for this purpose. All tested beams had same geometry, compressive strength, shear span to depth ratio, main flexural and web reinforcement. The variables considered in this study include the influence of fiber orientation, utilizing longitudinal CFRP strips with vertical strips and area of CFRP. The test results indicated that the presence of the circular openings in center of load path reduce stiffness and ultimate strength by about 50% when compared with solid one, also it was found that the externally bonded CFRP can significantly increase the ultimate load and enhance the stiffness of deep beam with openings.
The role of cover and rebar characteristics on load-slip behavior of reinforced concrete members in compression
Authors: al-Attar Tareq , Hassan Qais , Mejbel Sura , Dawood Hussein
Published: May 2018

This paper describes a part of an extensive research work devoted to evaluate the bond strength between rebars and concrete through different testing procedures. Main parameters in this part are the concrete cover and rebar diameter. The tested specimen consisted of a single bar embedded in a concrete block with square cross-sectional area and is being tested under compressive load. Three concrete block sizes were cast to offer three different cover for the embedded rebars. The dimensions of these blocks were; 150×150×135, 100×100×135 and 200×200×185 mm. Three bar diameters, 12, 16 and 20 mm, were investigated. The specimens were water-cured and tested at the ages of 7 and 28 days. A new proposed test set-up was used to monitor the load-slip behavior of the specimens. The test results showed that there is no significant difference in bond energy between the two curing ages, 7 and 28 days. The concrete cover has a significant effect on the bond strength between rebar and concrete. By increasing the cover, the confinement offered by concrete increases, bond strength increases, and slip increases. Based on the present results, a concept of effective cover was developed. This concept showed a high correlation with the mode of failure for the tested specimens.
Evaluation of p-delta effect in structural seismic response
Authors: Sardar Sardasht , Hama Ako
Published: May 2018

Numerous recent studies have assessed the effect of P-Delta on the structures. This paper investigates the effect of P-Delta in seismic response of structures with different heights. For indicating the effect of P-Delta, nonlinear static analysis (pushover analysis) and nonlinear dynamic analysis (Time history analysis) were conducted by using finite element software. The results showing that the P-Delta has a significant impact on the structural behavior mainly on the peak amplitude of building when the height of the structures increased. In addition, comparison has been made between concrete and steel structure.
Resisting punching shear stress in reinforced concrete slabs
Authors: Ahmed Ebada , Eltaly Boshra , El-Zhraa Fatma , Tayel Magdy
Published: May 2018

Punching shear failure is a major problem encountered in the design of reinforced concrete flat slabs. The utilization of shear reinforcement via shear studs or other means has become a choice for improving the punching shear capacity. In this study, a new alternative of reinforcement modalities were tested and demonstrated the effect of self-compact concrete on the punching shear capacity, beside that compared between the difference codes to identify the suitable one for determining the position of critical section of punching shear. Nevertheless, in this investigation, the proposed reinforcement system is examined for interior columns only. An experimental work consisting of six specimens: five of them were cast with normal reinforced concrete and one was cast with self-compact strength concrete. The obtained results indicate that the proposed shear reinforcement system has a positive effect in the enhancement of the punching shear capacity of interior slab–column connection of self-compact strength concrete.
Removing chromium and lead metals using phytoremediation technique
Authors: Al-Anbari Riyad , Al-Obaidy Abdul-Hameed , Al-Khafaji Mahmoud , Al-Imari Tiba
Published: May 2018

Phytoremediation technique uses plants parts to remove, extract, and absorb heavy or toxic matter from soil and water. In the present study, Catharanthusroseus (Periwinkle) and Nerium Oleander (Oleander) were used for removing Chromium (Cr) and Lead (Pb) metals. These plant species were seeded in polyethylene pots containing 8kg of soil. Each pot was irrigated with wastewater for four months (May, June, July and August) and accumulation of the considered metals was analyzed after every month for leaf, stem and root by using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). This experimental work was carried out in the laboratories of Water Desalination Researches Unit - Building and Construction Engineering Department and Environmental Research Centre at the University of Technology in Baghdad City, Iraq. The concentration of Cr was found to be increased with time. High Cr concentration, 20.34 mg/kg, was recorded at August in leaf of Periwinkle and 19.61 mg/kg in root of Oleander in case of using 100% wastewater (WW). While, for Pb, the maximum concentration, 22 mg/kg, was recorded in June in leaf of Periwinkle and 19.5 mg/kg in steam of Oleander. Accordingly, Oleander has the maximum removal efficiency.
Synthesis and photocatalytic activity for TiO2nanoparticles as air purification
Authors: Haider Adawiya , Al-Anbari Riyad , Kadhim Ghadah , Jameel Zainab
Published: May 2018

In the present work, titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (NP’s) were prepared using sol-gel process from Titanium Tetrachloride (TiCl4) as a precursor with calcinations at two temperatures (500 and 900) °C. The effect of calcinations temperatures on the structural, optical, morphological and Root Mean Square (roughness) properties were investigated by means of Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Bacterial inactivation was evaluated using TiO2-coated Petri dishes. A thin layer of photocatalytic TiO2 powder was deposited on glass substrate in order to investigate the self-cleaning effect of TiO2 nanoparticles in indoor and outdoor applications. Ultra-hydrophilicity was assessed by measuring the contact angle and it evaluated photolysis properties through the degradation of potassium permanganate (KMnO4) under direct sunlight. XRD analysis indicated that the structure of TiO2 was anatase at 500 °C and rutile at 900 °C calcination temperatures. As the calcination temperature increases, the crystallinity is improved and the crystallite size becomes larger. Coated films of TiO2 made the has permeability, low water contact angle and good optical activity. These are properties essential for the application of the surface of the self-cleaning. The final results illustrate that titanium dioxide can be used in the build materials to produce coated surfaces in order to minimize air pollutants that are placed in microbiologically sensitive circumference like hospitals and the food factory.
Experimental investigation and thermodynamic study of heavy metal removal from industrial wastewater using pomegranate peel
Authors: Mohammed Thamer , Ibrahim Raheek , Naji Alia
Published: May 2018

The objective of the study is to treat industrial wastewater and perform a thermodynamic experimental study for more economical and efficient adsorption process. This has been done by biosorption and chemisorption of chromium ions from synthetic wastewater into already prepared pomegranate peel as a natural adsorbent. Pomegranate peel proved to be an economic solution since it is available locally and it has an elevated adsorption capacity. Adsorption has been done in a fixed bed column (10 cm inside diameter, and 30 cm height) with continuous flow rate of 1 ml/min. The characteristic properties of adsorption for the pomegranate peel, analyzed by FTIR and SEM, proved that pomegranate peel is a good adsorbent because of its effective combinations and holes on its exterior. Also, comparing between adsorption ability of pomegranate peel together with Langmuir and Freundlich models indicates that Langmuir is preferable in fitting the experimental data. However, the elimination efficiency of the pomegranate peel was 90%, and the greatest adsorption capability was 9.45 mg/g. While, thermodynamic study results showed that endothermic adsorption was approved from positive values of ΔH°, also the negative values of ΔG° proved that the adsorption is unprompted and convenient.
Biodegradation of phenolic components in wastewater by micro algae: a review
Authors: Al-Dahhan Muthanna , Al-Ani Faris , Al-Saned Afaf
Published: May 2018

The biodegradation of phenolic contaminant present in wastewater by micro algae has been investigated in the current research. The study focused on algae growth requirements and factors affecting algae growth in contaminated water leading to the best treatment. Different techniques used to functionalize microalgae in the treatment such as batch and continuous operation modes have been further investigated. Mechanisms for microalgae pollutants degradation and microalgae growth kinetics were also highlighted to present the required knowledge in phenol contaminant biodegradation field by microorganisms