Journal of Engineering

Bearing capacity of a concrete pile in fine grained cohesive soils is affected by the degree of saturation of the surrounding soil through the contribution of the matric suction. In addition, the embedded depth and the roughness of the concrete pile surface (expressed as British Pendulum Number BPN) also have their contribution to the shear strength of the concrete pile, consequently its bearing capacity. Herein, relationships among degree of saturation, pile depth, and surface roughness, were proposed as a mathematical model expressed as an equation where the shear strength of a pile can be predicted in terms of degree of saturation, depth, and BPN. Relationship among undrained shear strength of the soil, depth and degree of saturation also found and expressed as mathematical equation that represents a 3D- surface; where the value of cu can be predicted by knowing the other aforementioned factors. Relationship between shear strength and the concrete surface roughness was also shown reflecting that the shear strength increases with the increase of surface roughness.

This paper presents experimentally a new configuration of shear connector for Steel-Concrete-Steel (SCS) sandwich beams that is derived from truss configuration. It consists of vertical and inclined shear connectors welded together and to cover steel plates infilled with concrete. Nine simply supported SCS beams were tested until the failure under a concentrated central load (three- point bending). The beams were similar in length (1100mm), width (100mm), and the top plate thickness (4mm). The test parameters were; beam thickness (150, 200, 250, and 300mm), the bottom plate thickness (4, and 6mm), the diameter of the shear connectors (10, 12, and 16mm), and the connector spacing (100, 200, and 250mm). The test results showed that the stiffness of SCS beam augmented with the increase in beam thickness, lower plate thickness, and connector diameter while it decreased with increasing the connector spacing. The ultimate load capacity of the SCS beams increased to 72.2% and 42.1% by enlarging the beam thickness and connector diameter to 100% and 60%, respectively. Increasing the connector spacing of 150% led to a considerable reduction in the ultimate load reached to 68.4%. Finally, the ultimate strength was not affected by augmenting the bottom plate thickness up to 50%.

This paper studies the combination of fluid viscous dampers in the outrigger system to add supplementary damping into the structure, which purpose to remove the dependability of the structure to lower variable intrinsic damping. This optimizes the accuracy of the dynamic response and by providing higher level of damping, basically minimizes the wanted stiffness of the structure while at the same time optimizing the achievement.
The modal considered is a 36 storey square high rise reinforced concrete building. By constructing a discrete lumped mass model and using frequency-based response function, two systems of dampers, parallel and series systems are studied. The maximum lateral load at the top of the building is calculated, and this load will be applied at every floor of the building, giving a conservative solution. For dynamic study Response Spectrum Analysis was conducted and the behavior of the building was determined considering response parameters. MATLAB software, has been used in the dynamic analysis for three modes.
For all modes, it is observed that the parallel system of dampers result in lower amplitude of vibration and achieved more efficiently compared to the damper is in series, until the parallel system arrives 100% damping for mode three.

The present work reports on the performance of three types of nanofiltration membranes in the removal of highly polluting and toxic lead (Pb2+) and cadmium (Cd2+) from single and binary salt aqueous solutions simulating real wastewaters. The effect of the operating variables (pH (5.5-6.5), types of NF membrane and initial ions concentration (10-250 ppm)) on the separation process and water flux was investigated. It was observed that the rejection efficiency increased with increasing pH of solution and decreasing the initial metal ions concentrations. While the flux decreased with increasing pH of solution and increasing initial metal ions concentrations. The maximum rejection of lead and cadmium ions in single salt solution was 99%, 97.5 % and 98 % at pH 6, 6.5 and 6.2 and 78%, 49.2% and 44% at pH 6.5, 6.2 and 6.5 for NF1, NF2 and NF3 respectively. On the other hand, maximum permeate flux for single NF2 (32.2)> NF3 (16.1)>NF1 (14.2) (l/m2.h) for 100 ppm, higher than binary salt solution was NF2 (23.7) ˃ NF3 (13) ˃ NF1 (8) (l/m2.h) for (10 Pb2+/50 Cd2+) ppm. The NF membranes proved able to achieve high separation efficiency of both lead and cadmium ions in very suitable conditions, leaving wastewaters in a condition suitable prior discharged into the environment.

Biotreatment using immobilized cells (IC) technology has proved to be the most promising and most economical approach for the removal of many toxic organic pollutants found in petroleum-refinery wastewater (PRW) such as phenol. This study was undertaken to evaluate the degradation of phenol by Pseudomonas cells individually immobilized in two different bio-carrier matrices including polyvinyl alcohol-guar gum (PVA-GG) and polyvinyl alcohol-agar agar (PVA-AA). Results of batch experiments revealed that complete removal of phenol was attained in the first cycle after 150 min using immobilized cells (IC) in both PVA-GG and PVA-AA. Additional cycles were confirmed to evaluate the validity of recycling beads of immobilized cells for phenol biodegradation. Results revealed that the phenol percentage removals were 95, 92, 86, and 84 % for second, third, fourth, and fifth cycles, respectively using Pseudomonas immobilized in PVA-GG beads. Whereby they were 96, 92, 90, and 84 % using Pseudomonas immobilized in PVA-AA beads for the same sequence of cycles.

Solid waste generation and composition in Baghdad is typically affected by population growth, urbanization, improved economic conditions, changes in lifestyles and social and cultural habits.
A burning chamber was installed to burn cellulosic waste only. It was found that combustion reduced the original volume and weight of cellulosic waste by 97.4% and 85% respectively.
A batch composting study was performed to evaluate the feasibility of co-composting organic food waste with the cellulosic bottom ash in three different weight ratios (w/w) [95/5, 75/25, 50/50].
The composters were kept in controlled aerobic conditions for 7 days. Temperature, moisture, and pH were measured hourly as process successful indicators. Maximum temperature ranged between (41 to 53) ºC.
Results showed that the blend of M2 [OFMSW: BCA] [75:25] was the most beneficial to composting. It maintained the highest temperature for the longest duration for 9hrs. at (53) ºC, achieved the highest nitrogen content(1.65%) , a C/N ratio of (14.18 %), nitrification index(N-NH4/N-NO3) of (0.29),nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium(NPK)(1.65, 1.22, 1.73)% respectively, seed germination 80% indicating that the achieved compost is mature and stable.
Heavy metal contents (Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) were detected in the above compost and all were lower than the regulation limits of the metal quality standards for compost and stabilized bio-waste.

In this study, the flow and heat transfer characteristics of Al2O3-water nanofluids for a range of the Reynolds number of 3000, 4500, 6000 and 7500 with a range of volume concentration of 1%, 2%, 3% and 4% are studied numerically. The test rig consists of cold liquid loop, hot liquid loop and the test section which is counter flow double pipe heat exchanger with 1m length. The inner tube is made of smooth copper with diameter of 15mm. The outer tube is made of smooth copper with diameter of 50mm. The hot liquid flows through the outer tube and the cold liquid (or nanofluid) flow through the inner tube. The boundary condition of this study is thermally insulated the outer wall with uniform velocity at (0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 m/s) at the cold loop and constant velocity at (0.5 m/s) at the hot loop.
The results show that the heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number increased by increasing Reynolds number and particle concentration. Numerical results indicate that the maximum enhancement in Nusselt number and heat transfer coefficient were 9.5% and 13.5% respectively at Reynolds number of 7100 and particles volume fraction of 4%. Results of nanofluids also showed a good agreement with the available empirical correlation at particles volume fractions of 1%, 2% and 3%, but at volume fractions of 4% a slight deviation is obtained.

In this work, ZnO nanostructures for powder ZnO were synthesized by Hydrothermal Method. Size and shape of ZnO nanostructureas can be controlled by change ammonia concentration. In the preparation of ZnO nanostructure, zinc nitrate hexahydrate [Zn(NO3)2·6H2O] was used as a precursor. The structure and morphology of ZnO nanostructure have been characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD). The synthesized ZnO nanostructures have a hexagonal wurtzite structure. Also using Zeta potential and Particle Size Analyzers and size distribution of the ZnO powder

In this work, a convex lens concentrating solar collector is designed and manufactured locally by using 10 convex lenses (concentrator) of a diameter 10cm and one Copper absorber tube of a diameter 12.5mm and 1mm in thickness 1m length. Two axes manual Tracking system also constructed to track the sun continuously in two directions. The experiments are made on 17th of May 2015 in climatic conditions of Baghdad. The experimental data are fed to a computer program to solve the thermal performing equation, to find efficiency and actual useful energy. Then this data is used in numerical CFD software for three different absorber diameters (12.5 mm, 18.75 mm and 25 mm). From the results that obtained the maximum thermal efficiency for the collector of diameter 12.5mm equal to 82.3% is higher than that for the collector of 18.75 mm and 25 mm diameter. The maximum outlet temperature is found equal to (105ᵒC, 93.9ᵒC and 83.5ᵒC) for collector absorber diameter equal to (12.5 mm, 18.75mm and 25 mm) respectively. The maximum mass flow rate 0.53 kg/hr when the solar radiation intensity equal to 899 W/m2. The all-day collector efficiency varies with diameter and reaches to maximum value of (77.9%, 61.4% and 52.8) for collector diameter equal to (12.5 mm, 18.75mm and 25 mm) respectively.

Fractal geometry is receiving increase attention as a quantitative and qualitative model for natural phenomena description, which can establish an active classification technique when applied on satellite images. In this paper, a satellite image is used which was taken by Quick Bird that contains different visible classes. After pre-processing, this image passes through two stages: segmentation and classification. The segmentation carried out by hybrid two methods used to produce effective results; the two methods are Quadtree method that operated inside Horizontal-Vertical method. The hybrid method is segmented the image into two rectangular blocks, either horizontally or vertically depending on spectral uniformity criterion; otherwise the block is segmented by the quadtree. Then, supervised classification is carried out by means the Fractal Dimension. For each block in the image, the Fractal Dimension was determined and used to classify the target part of image. The supervised classification process delivered five deferent classes were clearly appeared in the target part of image. The supervised classification produced about 97% classification score, which ensures that the adopted fractal feature was able to recognize different classes found in the image with high accuracy level.

Mass transfer was examined at a stationary rectangular copper electrode (cathode) by using the reduction of cupric ions as the electrochemical reaction. The influence of electrolyte temperature (25, 45, and 65 oC), and cupric ions concentration (4, 8, and 12 mM) on mass transfer coefficient were investigated by using limiting current technique. The mass transfer coefficient and hence the Sherwood number was correlated as