Engineering and Technology Journal

This study was conducted to monitor the agricultural drought in the Middle Euphrates area, Iraq during the period from 1988 to 2018. Multispectral Landsat TM, ETM+, and OLI images were used. The images dated 1988, 1993, 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2018, which obtained during growth months of plants (January, February, March, November, and December).A computerized drought monitoring was adopted using ERDAS Imagine 2015, ENVI 3.2, and ArcGIS 10.5 environments to process and analysis the data. The spectral indices, which used in this study were: The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Vegetation Condition Index (VCI). The change analysis presented in this study is based on the statistics extracted from the six resultant drought maps. The final results were illustrated that drought area in the region had a noticeable increase compared with no drought area. The results revealed that percentage of no-drought area ranged between (7%) and (17%) during the period from 1988 to 2018. The extremely and severely drought classes recorded high percentage followed by moderately and mild drought in the region. From this study can be concluded that there is a high rate of drought in the region, especially in its southern and western parts.

A Three-chambers MDC was made using three identical cubical plexi-glass sections. Each chamber has an effective volume of 35 cm3. An anion exchange membrane (AEM) was used to separate the anode from the desalination chambers while a cation exchange membrane (CEM) was used to separate the cathode from the desalination chambers. Two graphite sheets were used as anode and cathode electrodes. Biotic experiments have included air-cathode MDC fed with synthetic municipal wastewater, Bio-cathode MDC in which the cathode chamber was inoculated with microalgae as an oxygen source and air-cathode MDC was fed with floated oil layer in the anode chamber as an organic source. Maximum power density obtained from the MDC was 121 mW/m2. The corresponding current density was 410 mA/m2. Maximum power density obtained in this study was in consistency with that presented in previous studies. Maximum coulombic efficiency and charge efficiency achieved were 9% and 165% respectively. The results of this study confirmed the validity of using MDC technology to treat municipal wastewater as well as oil, desalinate brackish water and generate electric power simultaneously. Moreover, the results revealed the possibility of using mixed culture algae, available in the Iraqi environment, in the cathode chamber as an oxygen source to develop more energy efficient MDC. Further study deals with different system configurations and different operating conditions are needed.

Finite element modeling has been conducted to investigate the effect of die radius fillet, tube wall thickness, and friction coefficient on both external and internal inversion for the aluminum tube. A 3D model was used to build the contact pair for the aluminum tube and the steel die. Due to the axial symmetry, a 45o sector for the contact pair has been chosen. It has been found that there is an important role for those parameters to govern the inversion process and the mode of deformation beside the value of the applied force. No local buckling was seen in the external inversion in contrast with internal inversion. A good correlation for current results with experimental one that has been got by others.

Kinematics of the robot is divided into two parts: the forward kinematics, which evaluates the end-effector’s position from joint angles, and the inverse kinematics, which demonstrates the joint angles from the end-effector's position. The solution of the inverse kinematics problem is too difficult and complicated for the redundant robot arm manipulator. A Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is an effective method to solve global optimization problems. This paper presents the solution of inverse kinematics problem of a three-link redundant manipulator robot arm using PSO without using the inverse kinematics equations. The circle, square and triangle generated trajectories using PSO are enhanced as compared with the trajectories of other works. The enhanced PSO algorithm is successfully found the best generating three joint angles and the best generating end-effector's position of a three-link robot arm. Then according to these joints and positions the circle, square and triangle path trajectories, results are smoother than the path trajectories of other work. This enhanced solution of inverse kinematics using PSO algorithm is too fast due to the short elapsed time in every iteration of trajectory. Besides that, these velocities results have been given evaluated and give an indication that the three-link robot is moving fast during the PSO algorithm. The elapsed time of circle trajectory equals to 20.903981 seconds, the elapsed time of square trajectory equals to 11.747171 seconds and the elapsed time of triangle trajectory equals to 15.729663 seconds. MATLAB R2015b program is used in order to simulate all results. The main benefit of this work is to solve two problems: 1) inverse kinematics is too complex equations of the three-link robot. The solutions of best joint angles using PSO are computed within joint limits without using inverse kinematics equations. 2) Another problem, this work is enhanced three trajectories with respect to the best joint angles and reaches 96% percent as compared with another work. The error is too small according to the start and goal PSO generated points for each trajectory.

Torsion of structural members and the behavior of steel fiber self- compacting reinforced concrete became the area of interest for many researchers nowadays. The experimental program of the present work consists of casting nine reinforced self-compacting concrete beams in three groups. Each group consists of three beams with the dimensions of 200×300×1500 mm. The first beam has a solid cross-section, the second beam has a hollow core with the dimensions of 60×120×1500mm and the last beam has a hollow core with the dimensions of 80×180×1500mm. The steel fiber contents were 0, 0.5 and 1.0 % by volume for first, second and third groups respectively. The torsional angle of twist versus torsional moment (torque) of each beam was found during the experiments, and the effect of variables, fibers volume fraction and section geometry, on this relationship was investigated. Moreover, the fresh and hardened properties of concrete were carried out using several tests, which included slump flow, L-Box, compressive strength, tensile strength, and finally the torsion test. The current results showed that the addition of steel fibers has improved the torsional strength for all beams and the fibers were more effective in hollow core sections than in the solid

In this study, Al-Diwaniyah River within Al- Diwaniyah Governorate was monitored for a set of chemical, physical, and bacteriological parameters for the assessment of water quality during January to July 2018. Water quality maps for this river were plotted to represent the change in each parameter during the study period using GIS program. Three sampling stations along the river and eighteen parameters were selected: air temperature, water temperature, turbidity, pH value, electrical conductivity (EC), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), dissolved oxygen (DO), alkalinity, chloride, Sulfate, total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), calcium, magnesium, total hardness, lead, total coliform, and Escherichia coli bacteria. The results explained that the water temperature varied between (15-31) °C. pH values ranged between (7.4-8.2) and river water was considered as slightly alkaline with alkalinity concentrations between (124-176) mg/L. Most water of the river was very hard according to the values of hardness that varied between (384-531) mg/L. The turbidity values of the river ranged between (1.5-35.2) NTU. Electrical conductivity was between (998-1380) μs/cm. Total dissolved solids and total suspended solids were their values varied between (620-932) mg/L and (2-28) mg/L respectively. It was found that among measured positive ions, calcium concentrations were higher than the magnesium concentrations, ranging between (71-175) mg/L and (21-67) mg/L respectively. On the other hand, when studying Anions, sulfate concentrations were higher than chloride concentrations with values ranging from (152-339) mg/L and (101-167) mg/L respectively. River water contained dissolved oxygen concentrations ranging (6.3-10.1) mg/L while concentrations of biochemical oxygen demand varied between (0.6-7.6) mg/L. Lead ranged in values between (0.001-0.017) mg/L. The study found that bacteriological parameters, including total coliform and E. coli, ranged between (500-1600) MPN/100ml and (30-1600) MPN/100ml respectively. In general, the parameters of Turbidity, SO4, BOD5, TC and E. coli have exceeded Iraqi standards for drinking water IQS: 417 while the rest of the parameters were within these limits. It revealed that station 2 which was located only at a short distance from the site of the wastewater treatment plant was more polluted than the other two stations. The results showed that the water of the river is neither suitable for drinking, nor suitable for swimming

Land Subsidence is considered as one of the riskiest hazards in nature and geology. It may be caused by human activities including but not limited to long-term depletion of water, petroleum, and gas from underground reservoirs. Monitoring and zoning of regions susceptible to land-subsidence within Tigris and Euphrates rivers basin can play a major role in predicting and preventing damages from subsidence and can aid in better planning for utilizing its water resources. Accordingly, this study proposed to employ 9 effective parameters on subsidence including: precipitation, total water underground changes, elevation, slope, population, land use, distance from petroleum and gas fields, distance from faults, and distance from rivers. Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory method was applied for analyzing relationships between parameters. Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process and Boolean methods were combined to produce zoning maps of Tigris and Euphrates basin subsidence. The results were indicative of the high potential of subsidence in zones contributing to 1.39% of the total area of the Tigris and Euphrates basin. Inter-parameter analysis by using of Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory indicated that land cover, total water underground changes, and population were the most impressible factors in land subsidence zoning, respectively.

This paper presents the results of experimental study on reinforced concrete columns rehabilitation with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) under concentrated load. Twelve short circular reinforced concrete columns (150 mm diameter and 600 mm height) were tested. Three specimens were unstrengthening and tested until failure as control specimens. Nine specimens were rehabilitation by carbon fiber reinforced polymer after loading about 75% from ultimate axial load capacity of control specimens. The test parameters were the type of concrete are normal strength concrete (NSC), high performance concrete (HPC) and high performance concrete containing engine oil (HPCEO) in additional to effective the ratio CFRP confining (fall wrap (100%strengthening), 50mm strips wrap 50mm spacing (50%strengthening)and 40mm strips wrap-60mm spacing(40%strengthening)). Test results showed that Adding used engine oil to concrete have significantly effect on workability of concrete where work as plasticizer. HPCEO mix showed lower strength (compressive, splitting tensile and flexural) and ultimate axial load of column than those HPC mix but greater than NSC mix. Where the compressive strength of concrete was (27.3 MPa, 45.8 MPa and 69.7 MPa) for NSC, HPCEO and HPC respectively. The ultimate axial load capacity of unconfined reinforced concrete columns was (52 ton, 78 ton and 117 ton) for NSC, HPCEO and HPC respectively. Reducing efficiency of rehabilitation by CFRP with increasing in compressive strength of concrete. The ratios of increasing in ultimate axial load capacity of rehabilitation RC columns with 100% and 50% wrapping in comparison with 40%wrapping are 20% and 4% respectively for NSC, while these ratios become 15% and 5% respectively fo

Total knee replacement is a surgical procedure for treatment of knee Osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid arthritis and posttraumatic arthritis. The main goals of TKR are relieve the pain, restore function, mobility and restore normal limb alignment for the patients. The aim of the study to investigate the gait dynamic improvements following TKR surgery by compare the dynamic parameter pre-operative and post-operative and then comparing the results with the normal gait parameters. The gait analysis was performed on five patients before and after they underwent unilateral TKR surgery. After three months from the total knee replacement there was a remarked increase in the function and decrease in pain. The varus and valgus malalignment will be return to normal alignment after operation, which is one of the main goals of the TKR. Post-operative cadence is higher than pre-operative for four patients, post-operative speed is faster than pre-operative for four patients and post-operative stride length is larger than pre-operative for four patients. The patients continue to walk with significant gait abnormalities by examining the kinetics and the kinematics of the operated limb, the results show the knee function not fully restored three months after unilateraL TKR surgery.

Nowadays Internet of Things (IoT) is growing to be a serious factor in numerous areas of our daily life style. Internet of Things brings different opportunities of intelligence to important aspects such as health, payments, energy management, industrial sectors, transportation and also many other specialties. It is important to notice that the interaction between these two part the embedded equipment and Cloud based web services is such a common or prevalent scenario of Internet of Things deployment. When it comes to the security point of view, jointly users (consumer) and smart devices need to reassure and establish a secure and confident communication channel and should have a perfect form of digital identity. In many situations, IoT devices needs an already or earlier established infrastructure for their usage and that cannot be managed by the device owner, such as the case in smart homes. Furthermore, the scenario presupposes a security stack that it is appropriate for heterogeneous devices which can be integrated in Internet of Things frameworks or in already presented operating systems. We proposed a Foggy Smart Home Architecture (FSHA). We identify end users by writing an authentication and authorization protocol, and we will reduce the time required for this security operation, so that the proposed method can prevent Non-manipulation, online/offline password guessing attack and user impersonation attack and man-in-the-middle attack. Our method improves performance of smart home and using fog layer can minimize traffic between cloud and gateways.