Journal of Engineering

Aging of asphalt pavements typically occurs through oxidation of the asphalt and evaporation of the lighter maltenes from the binder. The main objective of this study is to evaluate influence of aging on performance of asphalt paving materials.nAsphalt concrete mixtures, were prepared, and subjected to short term aging (STA) procedure which involved heating the loose mixtures in an oven for two aging period of (4 and 8) hours at a temperature of 135 o C. Then it was subject to Long term aging (LTA) procedure using (2 and 5) days aging periods at 85 o C for Marshall compacted specimens. The effect of aging periods on properties of asphalt concrete at optimum asphalt content such as Marshall Properties, indirect tensile strength at 25 o C, Resilient Modulus and resistance to permanent deformation were evaluated. The impact of Short-term and long-term aging on asphalt concrete properties was evaluated. The stiffness of the mixture increases by increasing aging period that lead to increase of Marshall Stability, indirect tensile strength, and the resilient modulus, which leads to increases the resistance of mixtures against permanent deformation. The 8 hr. short term aging causes the Marshall stability, indirect tensile strength at 25 o C and resilient modulus to be increased by 52%, 34 % , 20% respectively as compared with control mixture while, the permanent deformation decreased by (33 %) as compared with control mixture.

Some structures such as tall buildings, offshore platforms, and bridge bents are subjected to lateral loads of considerable magnitude due to wind and wave actions, ship impacts, or high-speed vehicles. Significant torsional forces can be transferred to the foundation piles by virtue of eccentric lateral loading. The testing program of this study includes one group consists of 3 piles, four percentages of allowable vertical load were used (0%, 25%, 50%, and 100%) with two L/D ratios 20 and 30, vertical allowable load 110 N for L/D = 20 and 156 N for L/D = 30. The results obtained indicate that the torsional capacity for pile group increases with increasing the percentage of allowable vertical load, when the percentage of allowable vertical load was 100% and L/D ratio (20) the torsional capacity for pile group increases about 42% if compared with the torsional capacity when the percentage of allowable vertical load was 0% for the same L/D ratio. Also increasing L/D ratio leads to increasing the torsional capacity of pile group, when the percentage of allowable vertical load is 100% and L/D ratio (30), the torsional capacity for pile group increased about 51% if compared with torsional capacity when L/D ratio was (20) for the same groups and the same percentage of allowable vertical load. At failure the twist angle for pile group remain constant 3° when the percentage of allowable load change from 0% to 100 and L/D ratio 20, while it decreases from 2.9° to 2.7° when the percentage of allowable load change from 0% to 100% respectively and L/D ratio 30.

The political situation experienced by Iraq before the events of 2003 that led to the collapse of infrastructure. rebuilding costs were estimated after 2003 by187(million USD) according to the estimates of the basic needs as stated in Five-Year Plan 2010-2014. The difficult in financing projects and the continuous demands for maintenance and operating cost, and working by contemporary styles in different countries, the strategic option is to adopt the government entering the private sector as a partner in the development process. Since public _private partnership (PPP's) is at a germinating stage of development in Iraq, it has been studied the critical success factors(CSF's) in the experiences of countries that have implemented the style (PPP's) in infrastructure projects which can be ensured or controlled in some way and in the effective management of those already embarked upon . It should pave the way for enhanced decision making in the choice of suitable projects. The mainly aims of this paper are:
1- To highlight the importance and need of PPP‘s contracts in Iraq.
2- Establishing a model of CSF's for infrastructure projects in Iraq. collected (87)success factors which characterized by the state directly in PPP's projects consists of (8)main criteria(Privatization and investment Policy, Economical , Legal and political ,Financial and commercial, Administration and organizational ,Social and environmental ,Technical and Support , motives and guarantees of government) and found out (40) CSFs among them through questionnaire experienced in these projects to work to assess the standards and compare them and come to decisions by the decision maker, and therefore have a database of views experienced for use in other projects.

The aim of this research is to study the effect of high concentrations of salts, pressure and temperature on the performance of the RO membrane with time. Four different (Na2CO3) concentrations (5000, 15000, 25000 and 35000) ppm and various pressures such as (1, 3 and 5) bars at different temperatures of the feed solution (i.e., 25, 35 and 45) ◦C were used in this work. It was found that, as the concentration of salt and feed temperatures increase, the rejection of the salt decrease. While the salt rejection of the membranes increases with increase of transmembrane pressure.

In this study, the kinetics for the reaction of tert-butanol esterification with acetic acid in the presence of Dowex 50Wx8 catalyst was investigated. The reaction kinetic experiments were conducted in 1000 milliliter vessel at temperatures ranged from 50 - 80 oC, catalyst loading 25-50 g/L, and the molar ratios of acetic acid to tert-butanol from 1/3 – 3/1. The reaction rate was found to increase with increasing temperature and catalyst loading. It was also found the conversion of the tert-butanol increases as the molar ratio of acid to alcohol increases from 1/3 – 3/1. The Non-ideality of the liquid phase was taken into account by using activities instead of molar fractions. The activity coefficients were calculated according to the group contribution UNIFAC method. The results show that the activation energy of tert-butanol esterification with acetic acid was found to be 1.09 kJ/mol.

An experimental study was conducted with low cost natural waste adsorbent materials, barley husks and eggshells, for the removal of Levofloxacine (LEVX) antibacterial from synthetic waste water. Batch sorption tests were conducted to study their isothermal adsorption capacity and compared with conventional activated carbon which were, activated carbon > barley husks > eggshells with removal efficiencies 74, 71 and 42 % with adsorbents doses of 5, 5 and 50 g/L of activated carbon, barley husks, and eggshells respectively. The equilibrium sorption isotherms had been analyzed by Langmuir, Freundlich, and Sips models, and their parameters were evaluated. The experimental data were correlated well with the Langmuir model which gives the best fit for LEVX adsorption / biosorption on to activated carbon, barley husks, and eggshells respectively.
The adsorption capacity was almost dependent on temperature. The thermodynamic parameters associated with the adsorption process, ΔGo , ΔHº and ΔSº were reported and it is suggested to be physisorption, and of exothermic nature.

In this paper an attempt to provide a single degree of freedom lumped model for fluid structure interaction (FSI) dynamical analysis will be presented. The model can be used to clarify some important concept in the FSI dynamics such as the added mass, added stiffness, added damping, wave coupling ,influence mass coefficient and critical fluid depth . The numerical results of the model show that the natural frequency decrease with the increasing of many parameters related to the structure and the fluid .It is found that the interaction phenomena can become weak or strong depending on the depth of the containing fluid .The damped and un damped free response are plotted in time domain and phase plane for different model parameters It is found that the vibration free response is still sinusoidal for weak FSI coupling ,however for strong coupling it behaves as modulated periodic response .To justify some of the theoretical aspects such as; the effects of the fluid density and the interact shape on the natural frequency an experiment was conducted .The results of the experiment shows a good agreement with the theory where the error is not exceeded 7%.

The present paper describes and analyses three proposed cogeneration plants include back pressure steam-turbine system, gas turbine system, diesel-engine system, and the present Dura refinery plant. Selected actual operating data are employed for analysis. The same amount of electrical and thermal product outputs is considered for all systems to facilitate comparisons. The theoretical analysis was done according to 1st and 2nd law of thermodynamic. The results demonstrate that exergy analysis is a useful tool in performance analysis of cogeneration systems and permits meaningful comparisons of different cogeneration systems based on their merits, also the result showed that the back pressure steam-turbine is more efficient than other proposals. Moreover, the results of the present work indicate that these alternative plants can produce more electric power than that required in the refinery. At present time, the industrial cogeneration plants are recommended in Iraq, especially in petroleum industry sectors, in order to contribute with ministry of electricity to solve the present crisis of electric power generation. Such excess in the power can sold to the main electric network. The economic analysis are proved the feasibility of the proposed cogeneration plants with payback period of four year and six months ,three year and eight months, and ten years for steam cogeneration plant, gas turbine cogeneration plant and diesel engine cogeneration plant respectively.

The long-term monitoring of land movements represents the most successful application of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), particularly the Global Positioning System. However, the application of long term monitoring of land movements depends on the availability of homogenous and consistent daily position time series of stations over a period of time. Such time series can be produced very efficiently by using Precise Point Positioning and Double Difference techniques based on particular sophisticated GNSS processing softwares. Nonetheless, these rely on the availability of GNSS products which are precise satellite orbit and clock, and Earth orientation parameters. Unfortunately, several changes and modifications have been made periodically on the policy of producing these products which led to degradation in the consistency of these products over time. For the long term monitoring of land movements, it is essential that any such developments and changes can also be used to produce improved products that go back in time, to enable the homogeneous reprocessing of archived observation data. This paper deals with two main themes. Firstly, it demonstrates the significant and imperative role of the GNSS in geological applications by addressing major global and regional studies of the Earth’s deformation which represent one of the main and essential applications in satellite geodesy. The role of the continues GPS measurements in this application is highlighted and discussed for modeling global and regional plate motions and modeling Glacial Isostatic Adjustment. Secondly, this paper locates the most important obstacles which stand behind the inability to use the GNSS in applications of long-term monitoring of land movements.

The permanent deformation of flexible pavement represent serious problem in hot climate region. Numerous efforts are devoted to mitigate this distress such as modifying asphalt binder by polymers. The present study demonstrate the effect of utilizing four types of polymers to reduce the permanent deformation, these polymers are Polyethylene Wax (PEW), Styrene Butadiene Rubber (SBR), Ethylene Propylene Dien Monomer (EPDM) and Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA). The prepared mixtures composed of 4.9 % of 40/50 asphalt binder, 12.5 mm nominal aggregate maximum size and limestone dust as filler. The permanent and resilient strains have been recorded when the cylindrical specimens, 101.6 mm in diameter and 203.2 mm in height, tested by repeated loading system. The main conclusions exhibit that SBR and EPDM with the same concentration (15 % by weight of asphalt binder) reduced the permanent deformation by 30.20 % and 30.46 % respectively. Although, the PEW and EVA reduced permanent deformation by lower values, 13.24 % and 17.35 % respectively, but the incremental percentage of their action are higher. The influences of testing temperature and stress level on permanent deformation were investigated. Linear regression model was established to correlate the values of permanent deformation and the resilient modulus of asphalt mixtures.

The research shed light on the historic evolution of Baghdad through its long, expansive history. The starting point focuses on the geographic characteristics, and the nature of its habitation, prior to laying the circular plan of Baghdad. Then the research proceeds to cover the stage of building the round city of Baghdad. The research continue to cover the expansion and sequential growth across the banks of Tigris river.
A concentrated attention is devoted to analyses the morphological, geographical and above all the makeup of present day city of Baghdad, pinpointing the apathetic plans, decisions, and actions which completely disfigured the image, and tradition of the old city of Baghdad, behind the delusive slogans of “comprehensive development”. From the above ejective acts, the research problem is formulated as: The gradual dilapidation of major components that recall the historic image of Baghdad.
The research assumption thus formulated the causes that lead to the disfigurement of Baghdad historic identity in the consequent plans and policies which gave little or no attention to the historic developmental formation of the city. From the above assumption, the research goal can be stated as “Pin pointing the historic path of development to enclose the salient historic features that makes impact on the present day image of Baghdad.

World statistics proved that the most of work dangerous accidents, which causes death, are occurred in the construction works. These accidents related to many causes such as loss of workers experience and ignoring rules of safety requirements, especially young workers. Due to the risk of accidents that may occur in the site of work, the idea of this study crystallized to show the relationship between the age of worker and number of injuries and accidents, to identify the causes of these injuries, and to put the appropriate solutions to avoid or reduce the risk of work injuries. Also, the research shows the main principles of safety requirements to forming a clear picture about the subject of the study. A questioner form was prepared to collect the information and then analyzing it statistically in order to reach to the results and recommendations which contribute to decrease the occurrence of work injuries in the sites of construction projects.