Journal of Engineering

The performance of photovoltaic (PV) panel having staggered metal foam fins was examined
experimentally in Baghdad, Iraq. Three staggered metal foam fin configurations attached to the
backside of the PV panel were studied. The measured parameters were front and back surfaces
temperature, open voltage and current circuits, maximum power, and PV efficiency. It was noted
that the maximum electrical efficiency enhancement was 4.7% for staggered metal foam fins (case
III) than the reference PV panel. The operating temperature of the cell was increased when the
value of solar intensity was high. Thereby, the electrical efficiency was decreased. It was found
that the metal foam fins decreased the PV temperature by 2-3 oC

This paper presents an experimental study of cooling photovoltaic (PV) panels using evaporative
cooling. Underground (geothermal energy) water used to extract heat from it during cooling and
cleaning of PV panels. An experimental test rig was constructed and tested under hot and dusty
climate conditions in Baghdad. An active cooling system was used with auxiliary an underground
water tank to provide cold water as a coolant over both PV surfaces to reduce its temperature. The
cellulose pad has been arranged on the back surface and sprays cooling on the front side. Two
identical PV panels modules used: without cooling and evaporative water cooling. The
experiments are comprised of four cases: Case (I): backside cooling, Case (II): front and back
cooling (pump supply water every 35 minutes), Case (III): cooling both sides using Arduino
controller. Water cooling pump operation depending on the panel temperatures (temperature
sensors were installed on the front of the panel), Case (IV): Repeating case III with different water
flow rates. Experimental results showed that the average reduction in module temperatures was 4,
8,12.2 and 12.6 ⁰C respectively by Case (I), (II), (III) and (IV) with respect to a non-cooling
module. Using evaporative water cooling achieved a total improvement of 1.74%, 2.8%, 15.8%,
and 16% in the conversion efficiency of the panel by the Case (I), (II), (III) and (IV) respectively
when compared to a non-cooling module.

This work aims to provide a statistical analysis of metal removal during the Magnetic Abrasive
Finishing process (MAF) and find out the mathematical model which describes the relationship
between the process parameters and metal removal, also estimate the impact of the parameters on
metal removal. In this study, the single point incremental forming was used to form the truncated
cone made of low carbon steel (1008-AISI) based on the Z-level tool path. Then the finishing was
accomplished using a magnetic abrasive process based on the Box-Behnken design of the
experiment using Minitab 17 software was used to finish the surface of the formed truncated cone.
The influences of different parameters (feed rate, machining step size, coil current, and spindle
speed) on metal removal were (32.948, 21.896, 10.587, and 13.907) %, respectively.

Shatt al-Arab is the only navigational artery in Iraq, extending from the city of Qurna to its mouth
in the Arabian Gulf at the city of Al-Fao within the governorate of Basrah for a length of
approximately 204 km. Its width ranges from 400 m to 2000 m, and its depth ranges from 8 m to
20 m. The southern part of it, 93 km long from Umm al-Rassas Island to Ras al-Bisha, represents
the international border between Iraq and Iran, where the Thalweg line represents the border
between the two countries, which is the deepest point in the riverbed (according to the 1975 Algiers
Agreement). The western bank (the Iraqi side) within the common border of Shatt al-Arab is
subject to continuous erosion, which leads to the shifting of the Thalweg line towards Iraqi territory
and thus leads to loss of Iraqi land to Iran. Reducing flow velocity along the Iraqi side can lead to
reducing or preventing erosion in the river. Increasing the riverbed roughness will reduce the
velocity of flow and then reducing the erosion. This principle was adopted in this study to
investigate the effect of increasing roughness in a strip along a reach of the riverbed on the
distribution of longitudinal velocity in cross-sections at the rest of the selected reach. A reach of
Shatt al-Arab with a length of 2500 m, located 34 km north of Fao City, was selected to represent
the study area. This reach was simulated by using numerical modeling CFD solver (fluent) with
three different roughnesses for an upstream part of the river bed and the velocities compared with
the natural (original) roughness of Shatt al-Arab. The results showed an appreciable effect of the
increased bed roughness on the velocity distribution and the maximum velocity location by shifting
it to the other side.

The pumping station became widely used in many fields. Free surface vortices at intakes of pumps
are not favorable. It may cause noise, excessive vibration, damage to the pumping structure,
reduction in efficiency and flow for hydro-turbines, etc. One of the important problems
encountered during the pump intake design is the depth of submergence and other design
parameters to avoid strong free-surface vortices formation. This study aims to compute the critical
submergence depth with some geometrical and hydraulic limitations by using Computational Fluid
Dynamic (CFD) package. The mathematical model was validated with a laboratory model that had
been conducted. The model of three intake pipes was investigated under five different
submergence depth (S), three different spaces between intake pipes (b), and five different suction
velocities (v). The results showed the best operation cases when the space between intake pipes
(b) equal to 4D, the submergence depth of water is equal or greater than 1.25 from the bell mouth
diameter of intake pipe (D), and the suction velocity less than 2 m/s. The worst case was when the
space between the suction pipe (b) was (2D), in this case, the vortex appeared at submergence
depth (S/D = 2) with suction velocity 3 m/s

The best design of subsurface trickle irrigation systems requires knowledge of water and salt
distribution patterns around the emitters that match the root extraction and minimize water
losses. The transient distribution of water and salt in a two-dimensional homogeneous Iraqi soil
domain under subsurface trickle irrigation with different settings of an emitter is investigated
numerically using 2D-HYDRUS software. Three types of Iraqi soil were selected. The effect of
altering different values of water application rate and initial soil water content was investigated
in the developed model. The coefficient of correlation (R2) and the root-mean-square error
(RMSE) was used to validate the predicted numerical result. This statistical analysis revealed
that there was no much difference between the predicted numerical results, and the measured
values. R2 varied from 0.75 to 0.93 and the (RMSE) from 0.079 to 0.116. The comparison
confirms the accuracy of the developed model, and it shows that it can be used to simulate the
front wetting patterns of water and salt distribution under subsurface trickle irrigation systems.
The simulation outcome showed that as the distance from the emitter increased, soil salinity far
from the emitter decreased. As expected, irrigation duration and amount affects the dimension of
the solute distribution.

A Tonido cloud server provides a private cloud storage solution and synchronizes customers and
employees with the required cloud services over the enterprise. Generally, access to any cloud
services by users is via the Internet connection, which can face some problems, and then users may
encounter in accessing these services due to a weak Internet connection or heavy load sometimes
especially with live video streaming applications overcloud. In this work, flexible and inexpensive
proposed accessing methods are submitted and implemented concerning real-time applications that
enable users to access cloud services locally and regionally. Practically, to simulate our network
connection, we proposed to use the Raspberry-pi3 model B+ as a router wireless LAN (WLAN)
that enables users to have the cloud services using different access approaches such as wireless
and wireline connections. As a case study for a real-time application over the cloud server, it is
suggested to do a live video streaming using an IP webcam and IVIDEON cloud where the
streaming video can be accessed via the cloud server at any time with different users taking into
account the proposed practical connections. Practical experiments showed and proved that
accessing real-time applications of cloud services via wireline and wireless connections is
improved by using Tonido cloud server's facilities

Urban morphological approach (concepts and practices) plays a significant role in forming our
cities not only in terms of theoretical perspective but also in how to practice and experience the
urban form structures over time. Urban morphology has been focused on studying the processes
of formation and transformation of urban form based on its historical development. The main
purpose of this study is to explore and describe the existing literature of this approach and thus
aiming to summarize the most important studies that put into understanding the city form. In this
regard, there were three schools of urban morphological studies, namely: the British, the Italian,
and the French School. A reflective comparison between the three schools has been conducted in
order to recognize the main critical points among them. Therefore, a theoretical framework is
derived.