×
The submission system is temporarily under maintenance. Please send your manuscripts to
Go to Editorial ManagerThis study establishes a risk aware, multi objective methodology to select diesel plastic fuel α-terpineol blends that deliver robust engine performance across operating loads in a common rail direct injection diesel engine. Heterogeneous responses brake thermal efficiency, brake specific fuel consumption, oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, smoke, and exhaust gas temperature are mapped to a unitless desirability scale and aggregated by load. Conditional Value at Risk across loads then prioritizes worst case behavior. By Conditional Value at Risk at level 0.20, the ranking is: diesel 0.242, diesel plastic fuel with 15% α-terpineol 0.197, 10% α-terpineol is 0.177, 5% α-terpineol is 0.157, diesel plastic fuel is 0.141, waste plastic fuel is 0.081. Relative to neat diesel plastic fuel, worst-case performance improves by 11% at 5% α-terpineol, 26% at 10% α-terpineol, and 40% at 15% α-terpineol, with the 100% load consistently governing the tail. Average brake specific fuel consumption decreases from 0.4553 to 0.4217 kg/kWh at 15% α-terpineol, average exhaust gas temperature falls from 321.4 to 293.0°C. Duty map mean oxides of nitrogen reduce from 512 to 474 ppm, hydrocarbons fall from 42.67 to 35.73 ppm. At full load, carbon monoxide declines from 0.52 to 0.46 %vol., and smoke opacity decreases from 52.28 to 49.71%. Within the tested window, 15% α-terpineol in diesel plastic fuel is the risk aware first choice, with 10% α-terpineol a near optimal alternative. The methodology remains stable under risk aversion and weighting changes at high-load calibration.
In this work, waste glass powder from broken windows and plastic fibers from waste polyethylene terephthalate bottles are utilized to produce an economical self-compact concrete. Fresh properties (slump flow diameter, slump Flow T50, V. Funnel, L–Box), mechanical properties (Compressive strength and Flexural strength) and impact resistance of self-compact concrete are investigated. 15% waste glass powder as a partial replacement of cement with five percentages of polyethylene terephthalate plastic waste were adopted: 0% (reference), 0.5%, 0.75%, 1%, 1.25% and 1.5% by volume. It seems that the flow ability of self-compact concrete decreases with the increasing of the amount of plastic fibers. The compressive strength was increased slightly with plastic fiber content up to (0.75%), about 4.6% For more than (0.75%) plastic fiber. The compressive strength began to decrease about 15.2%. The results showed an improvement in flexural strength and an impact on the resistance in all tested specimens’ content of the plastic fibers, especially at (1.5%) fibers.
The effect of fines content (material finer than 0.075 mm) on the mechanical properties of subbase course aggregate is studied in this paper. a laboratory tests were carried out using percentage of fines material 5%, 10% and 15% by weight adding to the original subbase aggregate class B according to Iraqi specification (SCRB) which the specification limit the range of fines between 5-15%. The repeated load CBR test was done to study the mechanical properties; accumulative permanent, elastic deformation and equivalent elastic modulus.The RL CBR test was useful technique to assess the influence of fines material and stress level on the equivalent elastic modulus, and on the evolution of deformation. The equivalent modulus increase when adding 5% of fines material in case of plastic fines, but in case of non-plastic the increase continues until adding 10% fines material. Adding fines material also led to change in accumulative permanent deformation, where adding 5% fines material increase the permanent deformation by 36%, 5% for material with plastic fines and 20% for material with non-plastic fines for unsoaked samples. In case of soaked samples permanent deformation increase by 28% and 25% at adding fines material for material with plastic fines where decrease by 1% at adding 5% fines to original granular material with non-plastic fines. The theoretical modeling show that the deformation increase by increasing number of loads repetitions.
Plastic pollution represents a significant global environmental challenge, with millions of tons of plastic waste accumulated annually in landfills and natural ecosystems. The COVID-19 pandemic intensified this issue due to the widespread use of single-use personal protective equipment. As a response to this problem, this study examines the use of recycled polyethylene terephthalate and single-use face masks as additives in porous asphalt mixtures to improve the mixtures’ properties and promote sustainability in pavement engineering. The research aimed to evaluate the combined effect of incorporating recycled polymers into a hybrid system, rather than separately modified mixtures of polyethylene terephthalate and single-use face mask fibers. Laboratory tests indicated that the hybrid mixture exhibited optimal performance, achieving a 34% increase in Marshall stability, a 19% decrease in flow, and a 20% reduction in air-void content. Additionally, permeability decreased by 36%, while remaining within the accepted limit, improving moisture susceptibility, and cantabro abrasion losses decreased by up to 11%, suggesting improvements in cohesion, structure, and durability. The findings demonstrate that hybrid polymer modification offers an environmentally sustainable and high-performance approach for future porous asphalt pavements.
This research study the rheological properties ( plastic viscosity, yield point and apparent viscosity) of non-Newtonian fluids under the addition of different chemical additives with different concentrations, such as (xanthan gum (xc-polymer) , carboxy methyl cellulose ( high and low viscosity ) ,polyacrylamide, polyvinyl alcohol, starch, quebracho, chrome lignosulfonate, and sodium chloride (NaCl). Fann viscometer model 800 with 8-speeds was used to measure the rheological properties of these samples, that have already been prepared. All samples were subjected to Bingham plastic model. It was concluded that the plastic viscosity, yield point and apparent viscosity should be increased with increasing the concentrations of (xanthan gum (xc-polymer) , carboxy methyl cellulose ( high and low viscosity ) ,polyacrylamide, polyvinyl alcohol, starch and sodium chloride (NaCl), while the opposite is true for quebracho, chrome lignosulfonate.
In this paper, we suppose a method for reducing the dispersion in the plastic optical fiber (POF) Bragg gratings based on optimizing the grating coupling-strength (?) using genetic algorithms. The effects of average refractive index (?n) and temperature (T) change on the dispersion properties are investigated numerically. It is found that the amplitude of the ?n for low dispersion performance needs to be reduced at the cost of the design complexity of the POF Bragg gratings. Owing to the unusually large and negative thermo-optic coefficient of the POF, the dispersion due to the wavelength shift induced by the temperature variation will be reduced by operating at high ? value. Results showed that by optimizing the ? value a very large dispersion reduction range has been obtained, from 1178 to 11.5 ps/nm at 30 mm grating length.
This research submits theoretical and experimental realization of shear behavior of RC I-beams with polypropylene fiber with different volume fraction of plastic fiber as additive. The enhance of the sustainability of structural elements through the development of its mechanical performance by adding new materials such as plastic raw materials has become more important in the current period , particularly I- beams that was used in the long spans structure to become more environmentally-friendly. Seven specimens were tested in this study and only the amount of fiber volume fraction was varied. Experimental results showed that the ultimate strengths are increased in range (4.4% to 35.27%) that of control IB-1 for the tested beams containing Polypropylene Fiber Reinforced Concrete (PPFRC) with varied amount percentage of fiber material. Crack arrest mechanism of polypropylene fibers, and compressive strength of concrete increased in range (7.42% to 29.3%) that of plain concrete, and improved the tensile response in range (8.36% to 92.7%) that of plain concrete, limited crack propagation. So, improved behavior was obtained._x000D_ ANSYS 11, Finite Element models software are used to emulate two tested I-beams. 3D - nonlinear solid elements was utilized to model the concrete, while, the steel reinforcement was demonstrated by spar element. It was found that the general practices of the FE models demonstrated acceptable concurrence with perceptions and information from the experimental tests.
In this study, an experimental comparison has been made between the traditional plastic materials (Polypropylene and Polyethylene) and selected composite materials (Perlon-Carbon-Perlon and Hybrid Carbon fiber-Glass fiber) to manufacture a long life Partial Foot Prosthesis. To improve the mechanical properties, increase the lifetime of the prosthesis, and reduce the cost to the patient, two types of composite materials were used and compared with plastic materials. Samples were manufactured and tested with different test methods (Tensile, flexural, and fatigue test). All tests were performed at room temperature.The results showed that the composite materials achieve a large increment in mechanical properties such as (?y, ?ult, E, ?b, and Ef) whichwere increased to a percentage of (200% - 261%),(330% - 243%), (295% - 203%), (276% - 270%),and (413% - 301%) in Perlon-Carbon-Perlonlamination as compared with Polypropylene andPolyethylene respectively. However theincreasing percentage in Hybrid Carbon fiber-Glass fiber was (353% - 270%), (470% - 347%),(388% - 267%), (203% - 199%), and (244% -178%) as compared with Polypropylene andPolyethylene. At the same time, the fatigue lifewas sharply increased in both of the Perlon-Carbon-Perlon and Hybrid Carbon fiber-Glassfiber.
Reinforced concrete slab with plastic voids (Bubbled Deck system) is a new type of slabs which has two-dimensional arrangement of voids within the slab that is developed to decrease the slab self-weight while maintaining approximately the same load carrying capacity as compared with the solid slabs. Plastic voided slabs have the ability to reduce concrete amount by about 30 percent and this reduction is so important in terms of cost saving and enhancement the structural performance. In this research paper investigation is carried out to study the shear strength behavior of one-way bubble deck slab using self-compacting reinforced concrete. The experimental program consists of testing thirteen one-way slabs with dimensions of (1700 length, 700 width and 150 thick) mm. One of the tested slabs is a solid slab (without balls) is used as a reference, the remaining twelve bubbled slabs with ball diameter (73, 60) mm are divided into five groups according to the parameters of the experimental work, the parameters of the experimental work include: type of slab (bubble and solid slabs), ball diameter (73, 60) mm, shear reinforcement and spacing between balls. The experimental results showed that the bubbled slabs without shear reinforcement have a decrease in the ultimate load as compared to solid slab by about 3.7% to 14.3% and an increase in the deflection at ultimate load by about 10% to 22%, at the same time the first crack load decreases by about 15.3% to 42.4% as compared to solid slab due to decreases of moment of inertia of bubble slab compared to solid slab. Also, the results showed that the bubbled slabs withe shear reinforcement (multi-leg) have an increase in the ultimate load as compared to solid slab by about 35.4% to 57.3% and an increase in the deflection at ultimate load by about 1% to 15%, at the same time the first crack load decreases by about 2.8% to 27.4% as compared to solid slab.
Orthoses and prostheses were Chosen and laminated based on their high Yield, ultimate stresses, bending stresses, and fatigue limit. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was utilized to find the best values for two parameters reinforcement perlon fiber and percent of Titanium Nanoparticle coupled with the matrix resin during optimization. The response surface methodology combined the expertise of mathematicians and statisticians to construct and analyze experimental models. Using this method, we identified 13 different lamination samples comprising a wide range of perlon number and Ti nano Wt% in their Perlon layer composition. All lamination materials defined by RSM methods and produced by a vacuum system were subjected to a battery of tests, with fatigue tests performed on the ideal laminating material in contrast to laminations created in the first study (Tensile test, Bending test, and Fatigue tests according to the ASTM D638 and D790 respectively). In comparison to the other 12 laminations tested using Design Expert version 10.0.2, the lamination with ten perlon layers and 0.75 percent Ti nano proved to be the strongest overall in terms of Yield, ultimate, and bending loads. This study used composite materials and titanium nanoparticles to characterize and fabricate ankle foot orthoses. Strength in bending should amount to about 70 MPa, around 85 MPa in tensile tension. Two empirical quadratic equations for the models of peak bending strength and maximum tensile stress with 95% confidence were created using the response surface approach and analysis of variance within the design of experiments software.
Soil’s characteristics are essential for the successful design of projects such as airports runway and flexible pavement. CBR (California Bering Ratio) is one of the significant soil characteristics for highways and airports projects. Thus, the CBR property can be used to determine the subgrade reaction of soil through correlations. Many of the soil geotechnical parameters such as compaction characteristics (Maximum Dry Density, MDD; Optimum Moisture Content, OMC), and consistency parameters (Liquid Limit, LL; Plastic Limit, PL; Plasticity Index, PI) can be in charge of changes that happen in soil CBR value. Soaked and/or non-soaked conditions of soils also affect CBR value. Hence, testing soils in a laboratory for CBR calculation is time-consuming that needs notable effort. Therefore, this study aims to generate some useful correlations for soil’s CBR with compaction and consistency parameters for 85 samples of fine-grained soils. The study trials were applied on natural soil samples of various places in Sulaimani Governorate, Northern Iraq. Statistical analysis has been carried out by using SPSS software (Version 28). Soaked CBR is counted, which is important for conditions such as rural roads that remain prone to water for few days. Based on the statistical analysis, there is a significant correlation between LL, PL, PI, MDD, and OMC with CBR as the dependent variable as a single variable equation with R2 of 0.7673, 0.5423, 0.5192, 0.6489, and 0.51, respectively. In addition, the highest value of R2 correlation was obtained between CBR value with consistency and compaction properties as a multiple regression equation with R2 of 0.82. The obtained equations for correlation purposes are successfully achieved and can be used, notably, to estimate CBR value.
Expansive soil poses significant challenges for civil engineers worldwide since it seriously affects the structures built upon it. This soil has a very active group of minerals called montmorillonite, which is responsible for the significant volume change it exhibits. For a number of years, chemical additives have been utilized to stabilize soil, with various levels of success. Soil stabilization has involved the use of a variety of additives, including cement, lime, polymers, salts, and combinations of these. However, lime is very often used for expansive soil stabilization as it improves the soil's mechanical properties. The effects of adding three percentages of lime (3%, 6%, and 9%) to expansive soil to improve its engineering properties are investigated through several tests. The laboratory tests consist of standard compaction, sieve analysis, atterberg limits, hydrometer, California bearing ratio, consolidation test, swelling potential, and specific gravity. The test results displayed that the plasticity index, liquid limit, swelling potential, and maximum dry density, specific gravity decreased using (3%, 6%, and 9%) lime. In contrast, the plastic limit, and optimum moisture content increased using (3%, 6%, and 9%) lime. The California bearing ratio is increased from (12.13% to 14.65%) by adding (9% L). The swelling index and compression index are decreased from (0.070 to 0.030) and from (0.581 to 0.193) respectively by adding (9% L). The swelling percentage is reduced from (18.77% to 6.03%) by adding (9% L).
Regaining the activities of daily living after stroke and spinal cord injury requires repetitive and intensive tasks, meaning that rehabilitation therapy should be treated with a long duration. Thus, the need for rehabilitation devices based home is of most importance to increase the rehabilitation process and provide more comfortability for patients. This paper focuses on implementing and construction of a three degree of freedom (DOF) (flexion/extension, adduction/abduction, and pronation/supination), low cost, lightweight, and portable robotic exoskeleton for wrist-forearm rehabilitation. SolidWorks software program and 3D printer technology are used to model and construct the proposed robotic exoskeleton structure. In addition, the anthropometric parameters of the normal human lower arm are considered for this exoskeleton to provide a range of motion (ROM) and velocity for the links, joints, which matches with the anatomical structure of human and also to avoid the excesses motions over the normal range. The exoskeleton is constructed by a 3D printer utilizing polylactic acid (PLA) plastic material. The proposed implementing structure of the robotic exoskeleton shows comfortable, lightweight, simple and economic as well.
This research studies the physical and mechanical properties of mortar composed of PVC plastic waste particles used as fine aggregate replacement material. PVC particles in quantities of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, and 30% by volume were used for sand fraction substitution. This quantity of PVC was used to formulate seven mixes with a cement content of 525 kg/m3 and a water-to-cement ratio (w/c) of 0.45. At 7 and 28 days, the compressive and splitting tensile strengths of the mortar's mechanical characteristics were evaluated. Additionally, the physical characteristics of density and absorption were investigated. The findings demonstrated that the mechanical properties and density of mortar containing PVC powder were minimized.
This paper presents a numerical investigation to study the effect of variations in displacement history sequence and magnitude on cyclic response of RC tapered (haunched) beams (RCHBs).Five simply supported RCHBs (four haunched and one prismatic) were selected from experimental work carried out by Aranda et al. The selected variables included were five loading history types. The first part of this study focused to verify the finite element analysis with selected experimental work and the second part of this study focused too studying the effect of varying in loading history to the response of RCHBs. The finite element code Abaqus was used in the modeling. The adopted cyclic simulation performance of the selected beams using the plastic- damage model for concrete developed by Lubliner and Lee & Fenves. The constitutive model of plain concrete describing the uniaxial compression response under cyclic loading proposed by Thorenfeldt, and the uniaxial tension response follows the softening law proposed by Hordijk was used in the modeling. Menegotto-Pinto model was used to simulate the steel response. Model verification has shown A good agreement to the selected experimental work. The variations in loading history will decrease the ultimate load and corresponding deflection with increase in the number of cycles at ultimate load.
In this paper, a quick stop device technique and the streamline model were employed to study the chip formation in metal cutting. The behavior of chip deformation at the primary shear zone was described by this model. Orthogonal test of turning process over a workpiece of the 6061-T6 aluminum alloy at different cutting speeds was carried out. The results of the equivalent strain rate and cumulative plastic strain were used to describe the complexity of chip formation. Finite element analysis by ABAQUS/explicit package was also employed to verify the streamline model. Some behavior of formation and strain rate distribution differs from the experimental results, but the overall trend and maximum results are approximately close. In addition, the quick stop device technique is described in detail. Which could be used in other kinds of studies, such as the metallurgical observation.
CFDSST Concrete Filled Double-skinned steel tubular columns are composite columns consisting of two concentric circular steel tubes with concrete filler in between. Finite elements method is considered through the use of the computer program ABAQUS to model CFDSST columns numerically under cyclic axial compression. Damage plasticity model was considered to model the concrete while elastic-plastic model used to model the steel tubes. six CFDSST specimens and three ordinary Concrete Filled Steel Tubular (CFST) specimens were analyzed under static axial compression, while three CFDSST specimens were considered for analysis under cyclic axial compression. The numerical results were presented in terms of axial load axial strain displacement curves. It was found that the ultimate axial load carrying capacity calculated numerically in good agreement with that of the experimentally tested specimens. Also it was concluded that Damage plasticity model used for simulating the behavior of concrete and metal plasticity model used for simulating the behavior of steel produced accurate results as compared to the experimental results.
This study was devoted in investigating the optimum geometric parameters for underactuated linkage three phalanges robotic finger. New kinematic and kinetic equations of grasping were derived in this research taking into account the angle for the ternary solid links of the four-bar linkages. To obtain the target of optimization, a gradient descent method was used which consists of three stages to find the optimal geometric parameters with high accuracy. Five criteria were selected to find the optimal solution by using multi objectives function algorithm, these are percentage of the grasping stability, the grasp forces, squeezing force, Mimic function for grasping task, and transmission angle for grasping operation. Gradient descent method starts by detecting the optimal geometric parameters for each criterion and choosing the best geometric parameters from the five criteria functions. At the optimum solution, the underactuated robotic finger prototype was built from hard Polylactic acid (PLA) plastic using rapid prototyping and was tested performance by grasping objects. Finally, the results have been shown that the robotic finger adapts to the wanted configurations.
Most of building rubbles or wastes contain some damaged materials such as cement, brick, steel, ceramic, plastic and other substances. Among these materials, ceramic and brick when using both of them as a partial replacement by the weight of conventional coarse aggregate in mixture concrete with presence of variety ratios ( 10% to 30%) for sawdust as replacement of fine aggregate, the resulting concrete properties will affected. So, this paper was based on the study some properties of concrete that produced of 50% replacement for those rubbles plus to presence 10%, 20% and 30% sawdust for both of them. The results revealed that present of sawdust with each of type of those rubbles provides database which are potential to be used in the production of lighter and economical new concrete material. Furthermore, the higher ratios of sawdust (more than 10 %) lead to obvious affected on the strength as well as other properties. While, those negative effects will perceptible improved when added 10% sawdust in ceramic aggregate concrete compared to brick aggregate concrete.
Soil reinforcement techniques have been successfully used to improve the shear properties of weak soils in recent years. To improve the utilization of waste resources and promote sustainable development of infrastructure amid rapid urbanization, one potential option for reinforcement materials is human hair fibers (HHF). Because it is a natural fiber, there are risks to human and environmental health associated with the improper disposal of human hair fiber, an occurring waste product that does not decompose completely. This fabric is abundant, has a high reusability rate, and is ideal for use as a reinforcement to address waste management issues and make the most of inefficient or unnecessary manufacturing websites for long-term sustainability. The CBR test was executed on several samples with diverse fiber possibilities to evaluate the engineering properties of the randomly placed HHF in clayey soil samples using fibers whose average length was 50 mm and whose diameter ranged from 60 to 80 microns and compared the outcomes to those of unreinforced soil. The soil sample was treated with different percentages of Human Hair fiber (0%, 0.75%, 1.5%, 1.75% and 2.25%). The results showed that the value of CBR of the soil sample decrease at 0.75% of HHF and then increased up to 2.25% of HHF.
The objective of this paper is find the effect of using iron oxide as a filler on the Marshall stability, flow and the volumetric properties of HMA and compared the results with conventional HMA using limestone dust. Three blends were used: coarse, mid and fine with neat bitumen (AC 40-50). One aggregate type (crushed) with two types of fillers: limestone and iron oxide III (?- ) with three different filler content 6%, 8% and 10%. The Marshall mix design was conducted on the three blends and the optimum binder content is computed for each blend. The Marshall stability test results and the volumetric properties analysis showed that increasing the iron oxide content from 6% to 10% increases the stability about 28%, 17% , 16% for the coarse , mid and fine mixtures respectively. This increment in stability of mixtures using iron oxide related to the increment in specific gravity of the mix (Gmb) by (1.3% to 1.5% about 30 to 50 kg/m3). On the other hand, the flow of mixtures is decreased about (5%) for mixes using iron oxide than the ones that used limestone as filler. The fine blend with 10% iron oxide exhibit the highest stability of 13.3 kN. While the coarse blend stability was 10 kN for the same filler type and content. Generally, the Marshall Test results of HMA using iron oxide as filler showed better resistance to plastic deformation, also produce denser HMA with higher stiffness. On the other hand, the volumetric properties analysis showed lesser values as compared with conventional mixture where the void in mineral aggregates and void filled with asphalt has decreased but within the acceptable limits.