bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Utilisation of Dune Sand and Clay Brick Waste in the Production of Sustainable Concrete
Authors: Zemam Sajid Kamil , Abed Musab Sabah , Resan Sa’ad Fahad 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
The massive growth of the construction sector has increased demand for sustainable concrete that meets the requirements of modern eco-friendly policies; this in turn has made it necessary to reuse abundant and recycled materials to achieve this end. In this study, crushed clay brick (CCB) as a coarse aggregate and dune sand (DS) as a fine aggregate were used to produce a sustainable concrete. An experimental programme was accomplished by performing partial replacement by DS of conventional sand (CS) at various percentages (25%, 35%, and 50%), with a similar procedure used for crushed clay brick (CCB) and conventional coarse aggregate (CA). The impact of this dual aggregate replacement on workability, density, tensile splitting, and compressive strength was then studied, and the experimental results showed that the density decreased by 12.3% as the dual replacement of aggregates increased to 50%. The workability of the sustainable concrete was within the standard limits, while the results of the slump tests ranged between 120 mm for control concrete and 80 mm as the dual replacement of aggregates increased to 50%. Both the splitting and compressive strengths of the produced concretes were systematically decreased as the dual replacement of aggregates increased under 7- and 28-days curing. The produced concrete was thus deemed to be generally affordable though suitable only for general small works or non-structural uses.
Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Composite Girders with Thin Corrugated Webs
Authors: Dhafer M. H. , Muteb Haitham H. , Kadhim Mustafa Amoori 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
The capacity of composite girders may depend on their web stability; thus, webs could be reinforced with stiffeners or corrugated shapes adopted to increase such stability. Developing on two previous techniques, a corrugated shape was used in a new pattern, similar to a transverse stiffener, to increase the flexural rigidity of the plate, causing the shear stability of the webs to increase. Three composite girders were manufactured using the new pattern of corrugated web and tested under static loading. The results showed that the girders with corrugated shapes had different behaviours to girders with flat webs. The examination of a composite girder with a deck slab of UHPC also revealed that the deck slab worked with the web to resist the shear stress, suggesting that the corrugated technique could be used as an alternative to reinforcing the web, especially in composite girders. This technique increased the shear strength capacity by about 44% over that of flat web composite girders. All composites failed due to the web buckling, without crushing or cracking of the UHPC deck, where the normalised shear reached 0.7 of the yield shear stress for the corrugated web. Finite element analysis using ABAQUS software was performed, which showed reasonable agreement between results and enabled the study of additional parameters without combination factors.
Behaviours of reinforced concrete slabs under static loads and high-mass low velocity impact loads
Authors: Said A I , Mouwainea E M 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
This paper examines a progression of experimental studies designed to investigate the response of reinforced concrete slabs subjected to static and high-mass low-velocity impact loads. A total of ten reinforced concrete slabs were tested: three specimens were tested under static load by loading the specimens at their mid-point, and seven specimens were tested under impact load to research the high-mass, low-velocity impact behaviours of reinforced concrete slabs using a drop-weight facility. Measurements methods included a load cell, acceleration, strain in the reinforcement steel and a laser sensor to measure deflection in the centre and various quarters of the slabs (LVDT). The experimental variables included in this study focused mainly on the thickness of slab under static and impact loads, the mass of the striking object, and the height of the striking object for impact loads.
The results showed that under static loads, the mean of the thickness of the slab increased by 33 to 100%, the maximum deflection at the central point decreased by 45 to 63 %, and the load capacity of the slabs increased by 77 to 265%. With respect to high-mass low-velocity impact loads, as the slab thickness increase by 33to 100%, the maximum deflection at the centre of the slabs decreased by 47.7 to 84 % and the impact force increased by 37.5 to 102%. When the height of the striking object was increased by 33 to 66%, the maximum central deflection of the slabs also increased by 24 to 72.3%, and the impact loads increased by 11 to 23.3%. Increases in the mass of the striking object by 50 to 100% led to the maximum central deflection of the slabs increasing by about 54 to 122% and to the impact loads increasing by 13 to 18.6%.
The effectiveness of ARIMAX model for prediction of summer rainfall in northwest Western Australia
Authors: Islam F , Imteaz M A 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
Inherent climate mechanism plays a large role in Australian rainfall events, while most interestingly, such influence of climate drivers on rainfall generation depends largely on a place’s geographical location and the season it has been passing through. For Northwest Western Australia (NWWA), summer has been the main rainfall season; therefore, it became necessary to develop a seasonal forecast model several months ahead of the event. This study involves the selection of potential climate drivers for NWWA and using them to forecast and model long-term seasonal summer rainfall (Dec to Feb) several months advance. Two rainfall stations (Bidyadanga and Gogo) were selected considering the availability of continuous monthly rainfall data (from 1915 to 2015) with a minimal missing value. Simple multiple linear regression (MLR) and ARIMAX have been performed on acquired rainfall data and lagged climate indices. It has been observed that the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) and the Western Indian Ocean Index (WIO) has a great influence on NWWA rainfall. As such, the WIO-SOI model (4 months advance) shows a significantly higher correlation in the ARIMAX model (0.68 and 0.65 for Bidyadanga and Gogo station, respectively) compared to the MLR model (0.35 and 0.36) and confirms its effectiveness to be used for rainfall prediction in the region. It is believed that the simple but effective nature of the developed models can produce optimum benefit on stakeholder’s decision making to tackle future socio-economic challenges.
Application of wavelet artificial neural networks in forecasting seasonal rainfall time series in Queensland, Australia
Authors: Ghamariadyan M , Imteaz M A 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
Predicting accurate future rainfall plays an essential role in managing the water resources as well as controlling the unforeseen phenomena like flooding or drought. In this study, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) method called wavelet artificial neural network is used to predict one-year ahead seasonal rainfall of Queensland, Australia. The technique used in this study is based on wavelet transform and artificial neural networks (ANN). Over the wavelet transforms analysis, the primary signal is split into some sub-time series called approximation and detail. The outcome of this process is some meticulous and valuable information that cannot be easily captured in the main time series. To assessment the skillfulness of the proposed method, five input sets combined of rainfall and three climate indices are defined. The comparisons showed that the wavelet-ANN (WANN) presented the lower root-mean-square-error (RMSE) with 64.8mm compared to ANN with 88.9mm, and it outperforms the ANN forecast with respect to statistical measures. Since fewer data in predicting seasonal rainfall is available compared to monthly rainfall data, the application of WANN provides promising insights into using this AI method for predicting seasonal rainfall one year in advance in Australia.
Nanotechnology use to preserve the durability of archaeological brick buildings in Al-Najaf city
Authors: Alhilo E A , Kuba S A , Dirweesh A F 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
Archaeological buildings constitute the urban core of historical cities, supporting both private identity and urban life in society. Old Najaf city may be the most important city in Iraq due to its religious and spiritual value in the Islamic world; its archaeologic buildings thus represent the features of both collective memory and the private reality of cultural heritage. This research aims to achieve examine the use of nanomaterials in terms of contributing to the preservation of archaeological buildings built with bricks in Najaf City in particular, and Iraq in general, helping determine how to use these to prolong the life of these buildings based on the assumption that certain nanomaterials can prevent harmful environmental factors from affecting such buildings or causing further damage. This would allow a high level of environmental efficiency and help to perpetuate these historic buildings, as such treatments do not cause any changes in the original physical or chemical properties of heritage buildings. The study results suggest that Nano-treated bricks can effectively be used as a new building material for additive parts used to support archaeological buildings, thus offering access to buildings with high environmental efficiency.
Performance of Lime-Treated Sandy Soils after Sustainable Reinforcement Using Waste Plastic Fibre
Authors: Hameed Amjaad , Shaban Alaa M. , Almuhanna Raid R. 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
Subgrade soil is a natural formation utilised as a foundation for pavement layers, which means that it must be strong enough to support the pavement system. Subgrades such as loose sand, clay and silt soils thus need to be stabilised in order to improve in-situ performance. Several different geotechnical techniques have been utilised for soil stabilisation, and in this research, experimental work was carried out to examine the use of hydrated lime and waste plastic fibre as sustainable additives to enhance the characteristics of loose subgrade sand. The hydrated lime was added at several different percentages (4, 6, 8, and 10% by dry weight of soil), and the laboratory tests results revealed that adding 8% lime to the soil provided the best strength characteristics. The optimum lime-treated sandy soil was then reinforced by the addition of waste plastic fibre with lengths ranging from 5 to 20 cm added at three percentages (1, 2 and 3% by dry weight of soil). The dynamic behaviours of the reinforced stabilised soil in terms of surface deflection and dynamic modulus were evaluated using a light weight deflectometer test (LWD). The results illustrated that adding 10 cm waste plastic fibre at 3 wt.% content led to an increase in the dynamic modulus of 28.12% and a decrease in the surface deflection of 21.35% as compared to natural subgrade soil.
Numerical Study for Steel Arch Beams of Compact Section with Circular Web Openings
Authors: Hemzah Sadjad A , Abdul Rasoul Zainab M R , Naser Zahraa A 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
This study presents a numerical simulation of the behaviours of compact steel arch beams, with and without openings, using the commercial finite element software ABAQUS. Numerical model was firstly validated against under-publishing research to verify the accuracy of FEA results and then used to conduct a parametric study to investigate the effects of several parameters on the load - deflection curve of the arch steel beams with openings such as opening area, opening shape, openings number, yielding stress of steel material, radius of arch beam and effect of adding steel stiffeners. The results from the numerical investigation showed that the FEA results gave a good agreement with the experimental results in terms of ultimate strength, maximum deflection, load-deflection curves, and failure mode. The parametric study further showed that the ultimate failure loads for arch beams with openings decreased with the increase in the opening diameter from nearly 2 to 21% for openings of diameters 50mm and 125 mm, respectively, located at the centre of the web, while the ultimate load capacity of steel arch beams with edge openings decreased by about 26% in comparison with the control beam when the diameter increased to 125 mm. Also, the increase in the radius of the arch beam using radii of (537.3, 797.5, and ∞) mm resulted a decrease in ultimate load capacity about 17% and 40% for radii (797.5 and ∞ mm) respectively, compared with the control beam of radius 537.3 mm.
An experimental study of the load carrying capacity of straight shaft and underreamed piles in expansive soil
Authors: Ziyara H M , Albusoda B S 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
This research aimed to determine and evaluate the load carrying capacity of underreamed piles embedded in expansive soils. Eight models of concrete piles were developed to examine the influence of piles’ bulb number and length on ultimate load carrying capacity. The piles used in this work had 20 mm stem diameters and 40 mm bulb diameters, and multi-layer soils (expansive soil above dense sand) were used. The piles used in the experiments were divided into two groups, each with four piles. The first group with l/d=14 had all piles embedded in the expansive soil layer and the pile’s tip set on dense sand while the other group, with l/d=24, had the pile stems embedded in the expansive soil and all bulbs in the dense sand. Experiments were then done under two conditions: optimum moisture content and soil completely saturated with water, with results that showed that the percentage of ultimate load carrying capacity increased in proportion to the l/d ratio on adding one bulb to a straight shaft pile and then increased slowly for piles with 2 or 3 bulbs in saturation conditions. The percentage of ultimate load carrying capacity increased similarly in optimum moisture content conditions. The results also showed a decrease in ultimate load carrying capacity between the two conditions of tests for piles with the same l/d and the same number of bulbs, however.
Analysis and evaluation of a sewage network during heavy rains using the SSOAP toolbox
Authors: Nile Basim K , Mohammed Hussein Ali , Htif Khawlah A 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
One of the major problems facing urban areas is the recent increase in precipitation intensity over design standards due to global warming. This significantly increased precipitation depth directly influences sewage systems by causing increased flow and infiltration (RDII), which eventually leads to flooding of the systems. The aim of this study was to analyse and evaluate a sewage network during such severe rainfall, to determine the excess amount of rain entering the system. To achieve this, the Hay Al-Hurr region of Karbala was selected as a case study, and the Sanitary Sewer Overflow Analysis and Planning (SSOAP) toolbox was used to estimate the volumes of inflow and infiltration (RDII) entering the sewer network, while the stormwater management software (SWMM5) within the toolbox was used for hydraulic assessment of the sewage system. The sewage network of the main pipeline of the study area was analysed with regard to two rain events in 2016, one of which was a standard event of 25 mm, and the other a torrential event of 105 mm. The RDII was 2.29 mm for the first event and 2.58 mm for the second event; on calibrating these results with SWMM5, a display of flood areas for each event was created showing the percentage overflows for two events were 30% and 65%, respectively. These results were realistic and according to predictions, allowing the study to help improve engineering knowledge and decision-making capabilities with regard to designing sewage networks, as well as facilitating the development of appropriate solutions to rehabilitate those areas most vulnerable to standardised entry by developing specific strategies to reduce or eliminate the surplus runoff.
Experimental investigation into graphene’s effects on the mechanical properties of cement mortar under specific sonication parameters
Authors: Alagawani Besan , Ruan Dong 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
Graphene and its derivatives have been studied as nanomaterials in many different fields owing to their various interesting properties. Many researchers have investigated the mechanical properties of different graphene cementitious composites, and the current study investigates the effect on the mechanical properties of cement mortar of adding graphene with and without the use of an ultrasonic homogeniser. To examine this effect, all other testing conditions and requirements such as mix design content, mixing procedure, curing time, specimen size and sonication parameters were maintained at the same levels across tests. Cement mortar specimens containing different percentages of graphene (0, 0.003, 0.006, 0.009, 0.012 and 0.03% by weight of cement) were experimentally tested after 7 and 28 days to determine the effect of graphene dosage on their quasi-static strengths. The results showed an obvious enhancement in both compressive and flexural strengths after adding each graphene dosage to the mix without sonication; the compressive strength was increased by 12% with a 0.006% dose of graphene and the flexural strength was increased by 27% at a 0.009% dose of graphene. On using the sonicator at the specified parameters, the compressive strength increased by 33% for the 0.006% dose of graphene, offering an increment of 20% in strength due to the sonication effect; however, there was no noticeable effect on the flexural strength.
Impact behaviour of crushed-brick lightweight RC sandwich slabs
Authors: Abdul Sada Yasameen Azeez , Rasheed Laith Sh. , Al-Mahaidi Riadh 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIn recent construction practice, sandwich panels have been increasingly adopted due to the fact that they are lightweight, energy efficient, aesthetically attractive, and easy to handle and erect. This study examines the impact behaviour of lightweight reinforced concrete (RC) sandwich slabs produced from local lightweight coarse aggregate. The experimental program included testing two slabs produced with normal coarse aggregate (solid slab + sandwich slab) and six concrete sandwich slabs (CSSs) produced using crushed clay bricks as lightweight coarse aggregate with various shear connecter configurations and types and steel fibre volume fractions (VF%). The impact load was applied at the midpoint of each slab using an 8 kg drop-weight from a height of 2 m. The test results showed CSS behaviour variation with different VF% and the optimum layout and location of shear connectors.
Climate change risk assessment in Baghdad: examining population vulnerability
Authors: Abdulateef M F , Al-Alwan H A S 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
Studying climate change risks has acquired increased importance and attention around the world in recent years. Every city has its special points of strength and vulnerability that define its specific level of climate change risk. The assessment of this level offers multiple advantages by not just defining potentially impacted areas but also identifying the highest priority areas for the development of sustainable solutions. In Baghdad, surface urban heat island (SUHI) has been noted as one of the main climate change impacts, yet a review of the related literature suggested that few studies have previously assessed the risk level of SUHI, particularly in terms of population impacts in the Baghdad areas. Accordingly, this research aimed to classify the various Baghdad areas according to population exposure to SUHI risks, and to define the risk level as a result of the overlay and the intersection of two main factor layers, intensity of and vulnerability to climate change impact. The research results thus identified areas with the highest level of risk to populations, which thus represent the highest priority areas for any adaptation efforts. Conducting this assessment constitutes a basic step in defining sustainable future adaptation strategies, as well as identifying areas with lower levels of SUHI risk, where measures may be carefully taken to sustain and improve current environmental performance, allowing for a more long-term focus on environmental quality.
Punching shear strength of steel fibre reinforced concrete flat slabs: a literature review and design codes evaluation
Authors: Abbood Israa A. , Al-Bayati Ahmed Faleh 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
The design of reinforced concrete flat slabs is usually governed by their punching shear strength, and various methods have thus been suggested to increase the punching shear strength of flat slabs. Of these methods, the addition of steel fibre has proven to be among the most effective, not only in terms of enhancing punching shear capacity but also with regard to improving the ductility of flat slabs. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review of experimental investigations conducted to study the behaviour of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) flat slabs. In addition, the punching shear calculations of the ACI-318-19, the EC2, and the BS8110 codes were evaluated using the test results for SFRC flat slabs reported in the literature to determine their applicability in practice. These codes do not consider the strength contribution of steel fibres, and thus these comparisons with the test results revealed that the punching shear calculations of the above codes consistently underestimate the shear capacity of SFRC flat slabs.
Quantifying sustainability for two types of pavement based on life cycle cost and environmental impact
Authors: Al-Humeidawi Basim H , Chafat Osamah H 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
Several types of highway pavement have been adopted by various highway agencies, and each type has both advantages and disadvantages. Estimations of the life cycle cost and environmental impacts of pavement types have thus become major components of roadway planning, as the economic and environmental sustainability of pavements depends on both the project characteristics and the maintenance programme applied during the pavement life span. This article focuses on making a comparison of environmental impact in terms of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) of two arterial streets in Al-Diwaniyah city centre. The first street utilises flexible pavement, while the second street is constructed with composite pavement layers, with a Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) wearing layer implemented over a Portland Concrete Cement (PCC) pavement. The comparison between the streets was conducted using Athena Pavement LCA software, and the resulting analysis clarified the impact of pavement type, construction process and maintenance conditions on the environment in each case, taking into in consideration all related parameters such as material, construction processes, and the maintenance and rehabilitation programmes applied to the pavements during their life cycle. The results showed that the environmental impact in terms of gas emissions for the street implemented with flexible pavement was 48% higher than that of street implemented with a composite structure; further, the initial cost for the flexible structure was 17% higher that of pavement constructed with composite PCC and HMA. The LCCA for the street with flexible pavement was also 78% higher than that of composite structure due to the additional maintenance activities required during its service life.