Journal of Engineering

Regression analysis models are adopted by using SPSS program to predict the 28-day compressive strength as dependent variable and the accelerated compressive strength as independent variable. Three accelerated curing methods were adopted: warm water (35ºC) and autogenous according to ASTM C C684-99, and the British method (55ºC) according to BS1881: Part 112:1983. The experimental concrete mix design was according to ACI 211.1. Twenty-eight concrete mixes with slump ranges (25-50) mm and (75-100) mm for rounded and crushed coarse aggregate with cement content (585, 512, 455, 410, 372, and 341) Kg/m³. The experimental results showed that the accelerated strength was equal to about (0.356), (0.492), and (0.595) of the 28-day compressive strength for warm water, autogenous, and British curing methods respectively. A statistical regression analysis using SPSS program is implemented for the experimental results of the 28-day compressive strength ranging from (16 to 55.2) MPa and accelerated strength for different curing methods. The linear models with high R² and F-value are adopted for different curing methods while the Power model with constant is the best model for non-parametric analysis.

Undoubtedly, Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) are a major dilemma in terms of mortality and morbidity facing the road users as well as the traffic and road authorities. Since 2002, the population in Iraq has increased by 49 percent and the number of vehicles by three folds. Consequently, these increases were unfortunately combined with rising the RTAs number, mortality and morbidity. Alongside the humanitarian tragedies, every year, there are considerable economic losses in Iraq lost due to the epidemic of RTAs. Given the necessity of understanding the contributory factors related to RTAs for the implementation by traffic and road authorities to improve the road safety, the necessity have been a rise for this research which focuses into two objectives; the first objective is a descriptive analysis for the RTA based on a retrospective analysis during the period of 2002–2015 with the aids of the data obtained from the reports of Iraqi Central Statistical Organization whereas the second objective is to conduct a statistical analysis for RTAs to correlate the criterion variable of accident number, mortality or morbidity to predictor variable which include motorization level or population using traditional statistical regression approach and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) approach.

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) have become an integral part of a wide range of applications. One of these applications of GNSS is the implementation of the cellular phone to locate the position of users, and this technology has been employed in social media applications. Moreover, GNSS has been effectively employed in transportation, GIS, mobile satellite communications, and more. On the other hand, the geomatics sciences use the GNSS for many practical and scientific applications such as surveying, mapping, and monitoring. In this study, the GNSS raw data of ISER CORS, which is located in the North of Iraq, are processed and analyzed to build up coordinate time series for the purpose of detecting the Arabian tectonic plate motion over seven years and a half. Such coordinate time series have been produced very efficiently using GNSS Precise Point Positioning (PPP). The daily PPP results were processed, analyzed, and presented as coordinate time series using GPS Interactive Time Series Analysis. Furthermore, MATLAB (V.2013a) is used in this study to computerize GITSA with Graphic User Interface (GUI). The objective of this study was to investigate both the homogeneity and consistency of the Iraq CORSs GNSS raw data for detecting any geophysical changes over a long period of time. Additionally, this study aims to employ free online PPP services, such as CSRS_PPP software, for processing GNSS raw data for generating GNSS coordinate time series. The coordinate time series of ISER station showed a +20.9 mm per year, +27.2 mm per year, and -11.3 mm per year in the East, North, and up-down components, respectively. These findings showed a remarkable similarity with those obtained by long-term monitoring of Earth's crust deformation and movement based on global studies, highlighting the importance of using GNSS for monitoring the movement of tectonic plate motion based on CORS and online GNSS data processing services over a long period of time.

The importance of the present work falls on the pitting corrosion behavior investigation of 304 SS and 316 SS alloys in 3.5 wt% of aqueous solution bearing with chloride and bromide anion at different solutions temperature range starting from (20-50)ºC due to the pitting corrosion tremendous effect on the economic, safety and materials loss due to leakage. The impact of solution temperatures on the pitting corrosion resistance at 3.5wt% (NaCl and NaBr) solutions for the 304 SS and 316 SS has been investigated utilizing the cyclic polarization techniques at the potential range -400 to 1000 mV vs. SCE at 40 mV/sec scan rate followed by the surface characterization employing Scanning Electron Microscope. The results show that a significant decline in the pitting corrosion potential Ep values of both stainless steel alloys in chloride and bromide solution during temperature increase attributed to the pitting corrosion potential decreased arises from the modification of the passive film properties. The surface examination using optical microscope and scanning electron microscope prove the occurring of higher pitting density over 304 SS in chloride solution than that observed in bromide solution with a non-circular lacy cover pitfall out at the center and falls inside the pits hall in comparison to the isolated circular lacy cover pit formed on 316 SS in 3.5wt% NaBr solution at 50ºC.

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) have become an integral part of a wide range of applications. One of these applications of GNSS is the implementation of the cellular phone to locate the position of users, and this technology has been employed in social media applications. Moreover, GNSS has been effectively employed in transportation, GIS, mobile satellite communications, and more. On the other hand, the geomatics sciences use the GNSS for many practical and scientific applications such as surveying, mapping, and monitoring. In this study, the GNSS raw data of ISER CORS, which is located in the North of Iraq, are processed and analyzed to build up coordinate time series for the purpose of detecting the Arabian tectonic plate motion over seven years and a half. Such coordinate time series have been produced very efficiently using GNSS Precise Point Positioning (PPP). The daily PPP results were processed, analyzed, and presented as coordinate time series using GPS Interactive Time Series Analysis. Furthermore, MATLAB (V.2013a) is used in this study to computerize GITSA with Graphic User Interface (GUI). The objective of this study was to investigate both the homogeneity and consistency of the Iraq CORSs GNSS raw data for detecting any geophysical changes over a long period of time. Additionally, this study aims to employ free online PPP services, such as CSRS_PPP software, for processing GNSS raw data for generating GNSS coordinate time series. The coordinate time series of ISER station showed a +20.9 mm per year, +27.2 mm per year, and -11.3 mm per year in the East, North, and up-down components, respectively. These findings showed a remarkable similarity with those obtained by long-term monitoring of Earth's crust deformation and movement based on global studies, highlighting the importance of using GNSS for monitoring the movement of tectonic plate motion based on CORS and online GNSS data processing services over a long period of time.

Buzurgan oil field, located in the south of Iraq, has been producing oil for five decades, leading to a drop in production in many oil wells. This paper provides a technical and economical comparison between the ESP and gas lift in one oil well (Bu-16) to help enhance production and maximize revenue. Prosper software was used to build, match, and design the artificial lift method for the selected well, also to predict the well behavior at different water cut values and its effect on artificial lift method efficiency. The validity of the software model was confirmed by matching, where the error difference value between actual and calculated data was (-1.77%). The ESP results showed the durability of ESP regarding the increment of water cut value, while gas lift design was restricted to surface injection pressure and injected gas volume, which in return causes a restriction to production rate, especially when water cut value increases. Economically, the results showed ESP is cheaper and more applicable than gas lift.

This study investigates the removal of Zn(II) ions from wastewater using a novel configuration of a split-plate airlift electrochemical reactor. The electrocoagulation/flotation method was employed to treat synthetic wastewater containing Zn(II) ions. The effects of various operating parameters, such as current density, initial pH, and electrolyte concentration, on the removal efficiency were examined. The results showed that the split-plate airlift electrochemical reactor achieved high removal efficiency of Zn(II) ions under optimal conditions. The study concluded that this method is effective for the treatment of wastewater containing Zn(II) ions and can be applied in industrial wastewater treatment processes.

In this modern Internet era and the transition to IPv6, routing protocols must adjust to assist this transformation. RIPng, EIGRPv6 and OSPFv3 are the dominant IPv6 IGRP (Interior Gateway Routing Protocols). Selecting the best routing protocol among the available is a critical task, which depends upon the network requirement and performance parameters of different real time applications. The primary motivation of this paper is to estimate the performance of these protocols in real time applications. The evaluation is based on a number of criteria including: network convergence duration, Http Page Response Time, DB Query Response Time, IPv6 traffic dropped, video packet delay variation and video packet end to end delay. After examining the simulation results, a conclusion will be extracted to reveal the findings of which protocol performs the best upon implementation within a IPv6 WAN. OPNET modeler simulator is used to evaluate the accomplishment of these protocols. To get the results, three scenarios are designed, one for each protocol.

This paper presents an improved technique on Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm. The procedure is applied on Single Machine with Infinite Bus (SMIB) system with power system stabilizer (PSS) at three different loading regimes. The simulations are made by using MATLAB software. The results show that by using Improved Ant Colony Optimization (IACO) the system will give better performance with fewer iterations compared to previous modifications on ACO. Additionally, the probability of selecting the optimal path is enhanced, leading to improved damping performance of power systems.

Document analysis of images snapped by camera is a growing challenge. These photos are often poor-quality compound images, composed of various objects and text; this makes automatic analysis complicated. OCR is one of the image processing techniques which is used to perform automatic identification of texts. Existing image processing techniques need to manage many parameters in order to clearly recognize the text in such pictures. Segmentation is regarded one of these essential parameters. This paper discusses the accuracy of segmentation process and its effect over the recognition process. According to the proposed method, the images were firstly filtered using the wiener filter then the active contour algorithm could be applied in the segmentation process. The Tesseract OCR Engine was selected in order to evaluate the performance and identification accuracy of the proposed method. The results showed that a more accurate segmentation process shall lead to a more accurate recognition results. The rate of recognition accuracy was 0.95 for the proposed algorithm compared with 0.85 for the Tesseract OCR Engine.

In this paper, first and second order sliding mode controllers are designed for a single link robotic arm actuated by two Pneumatic Artificial Muscles (PAMs). A new mathematical model for the arm has been developed based on the model of large scale pneumatic muscle actuator model. Uncertainty in parameters has been presented and tested for the two controllers. The simulation results of the second-order sliding mode controller prove to have a low tracking error and chattering effect as compared to the first order one. The verification has been done by using MATLAB and Simulink software.

This paper presents a new design of a nonlinear multi-input multi-output PID neural controller of the active brake steering force and the active front steering angle for a 2-DOF vehicle model based on modified Elman recurrent neural. The goal of this work is to achieve the stability and to improve the vehicle dynamic’s performance through achieving the desired yaw rate and reducing the lateral velocity of the vehicle in a minimum time period for preventing the vehicle from slipping out the road curvature by using two active control actions: the front steering angle and the brake steering force. Bacterial forging optimization algorithm is used to adjust the parameters weights of the proposed controller. Simulation results based Maltab package show the control methodology has effectiveness performance in terms of the excellent dynamic behavior of the vehicle model by minimizing the tracking error and smoothness control signals without saturation state obtained, especially when adding a bounded external disturbances to the vehicle model.

In this paper, Response Surface Method (RSM) is utilized to carry out an investigation of the impact of input parameters: electrode type (E.T.) [Gr, Cu and CuW], pulse duration of current (I p), pulse duration on time (T on), and pulse duration off time (T off) on the surface finish in EDM operation. To approximate and concentrate the suggested second-order regression model is generally accepted for Surface Roughness Ra, a Central Composite Design (CCD) is utilized for evaluating the model constant coefficients of the input parameters on Surface Roughness (Ra). Examinations were performed on AISI D2 tool steel. The important coefficients are gotten by achieving successfully an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at the 5 % confidence interval. The outcomes discover that Surface Roughness (Ra) is much more impacted by E.T., T on, T off, I p and little of their interactions action or influence. To predict the average Surface Roughness (Ra), a mathematical regression model was developed. Furthermore, for saving in time, the created model could be utilized for the choice of the high levels in the EDM procedure. The model adequacy was extremely agreeable as the constant Coefficient of Determination (R2) is observed to be 99.72% and adjusted R 2 -measurement (R 2adj) 99.60%.

Laser shock peening (LSP) is deemed as a deep-rooted technology for stimulating compressive residual stresses below the surface of metallic elements. As a result, fatigue lifespan is improved, and the substance properties become further resistant to wear and corrosion. The LSP provides more unfailing surface treatment and a potential decrease in microstructural damage. Laser shock peening is a well-organized method measured up to the mechanical shoot peening. This kind of surface handling can be fulfilled via an intense laser pulse focused on a substantial surface in extremely shorter intervals. In this work, Hydrofluoric Acid (HF) and pure water as a coating layer were utilized as a new technique to improve the properties and to harden the treated surface of the Al-alloy 7075-T6. Fatigue life by means of laser peened workpieces was improved to 154.3%, 9.78%, respectively, for Hydrofluoric (HF) and pure water compared to un-peened specimens. And the outcomes of Vickers hardness test for laser shock peening with acid and pure water as well as un-peened specimens were 165.2HV30, 143.95HV30 and 134.7HV30, respectively showed a significant improvement in the hardness property.

The integration of decision-making will lead to the robust of its decisions, and then determination optimum inventory level to the required materials to produce and reduce the total cost by the cooperation of purchasing department with inventory department and also with other company, s departments. Two models are suggested to determine Optimum Inventory Level (OIL), the first model (OIL-model 1) assumed that the inventory level for materials quantities equal to the required materials, while the second model (OIL-model 2) assumed that the inventory level for materials quantities more than the required materials for the next period. This study was applied in Wasit Company for Textile Manufacturing in the Textile Factory, where it produces five products, which are printed striped, plain, poplin, dyed poplin and Naba weave. The products are made from cotton and they are passing through several stages to transfer to the final product. A genetic algorithm is used to determine the optimum quantity of the purchase a cotton and colors for each month and with minimum cost. Where the purchasing and transportation costs were either constant or variable with respect to purchased quantities while holding cost is kept constant. The results showed that the total cost of the first model is minimum than the second model because the holding cost for this model is less from the second model, while the purchasing and transportation costs from two models are equals. The percentage of purchasing cost for cotton is the biggest value, more 99% of purchasing cost for two models.

Improving the accuracy of load-deformation behavior, failure mode, and ultimate load capacity for reinforced concrete members subjected to in-plane loadings such as corbels, wall to foundation connections and panels need shear strength behavior to be included. Shear design in reinforced concrete structures depends on crack width, crack slippage and roughness of the surface of cracks. This paper illustrates results of an experimental investigation conducted to investigate the direct shear strength of fiber normal strength concrete (NSC) and reactive powder concrete (RPC). The tests were performed along a pre-selected shear plane in concrete members named push-off specimens. The effectiveness of concrete compressive strength, volume fraction of steel fiber, and shear reinforcement ratio on shear transfer capacity were considered in this study. Furthermore, failure modes, shear stress-slip behavior, and shear stress-crack width behavior were also presented in this study. Tests’ results showed that volume fraction of steel fiber and compressive strength of concrete in NSC and RPC play a major role in improving the shear strength of concrete. As expectedly, due to dowel action, the shear reinforcement is the predominant factor in resisting the shear stress. The shear failure of NSC and RPC has the sudden mode of failure (brittle failure) with the approximately linear behavior of shear stress-slip relationship till failure. Using RPC instead of NSC with the same amount of steel fibers in constructing the push-off specimen result in high shear strength. In NSC, shear strength influenced by the three major factors; crack surface friction, aggregate interlock and steel fiber content if present. Whereas, RPC has only steel fiber and cracks surface friction influencing the shear strength. Due to cementitious nature of RPC in comparisons with NSC, the RPC specimen shows greater cracks width. It is observed that the Mattock model gives very satisfactory predictions when applied to the present test results with a range of parametric variations; ranging from 0 % to 0.5 % in steel fibers content; from 0 % to 0.53 % in transverse reinforcement ratio; from 15 to 105 MPa in compressive strength of concrete. While it gives a poor prediction for a specimen with 1% steel fiber.

This paper highlights the importance of cost management, the types of housing costs, the methods of control, and the most important planning and design strategies to be adopted in order to achieve efficient cost management in housing projects. The research points out the need to highlight the most effective and influential cost indicators in housing projects and to determine strategies in the management of these indicators to raise the efficiency of housing projects quality. One local project under construction was selected as a case study to evaluate the application of the indicators and the efficiency of cost management on planning and design levels.