KUFA JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING

Landscapes are considered an essential and effective element in the city. However, the neglect occurring in them reflects negatively on the city, which requires the need to research how to deal with this through the concept of activating the landscapes. To determine the dimensions, the designer can rely on it in the activating of these spaces, the problem of research has emerged as (The absence of a theoretical framework that determines the dimensions involved in activating landscapes, which the designer can rely on). And to solve the research problem, through literature review, the research reaches the activating landscapes concept definition, and the dimensions of activating these spaces were extracted with its verification indicators to build the theoretical framework. Four dimensions were reached to activate the landscapes, which included both the social, economic, environmental, and symbolic dimensions. The research assumed, "the landscape activation requires the existence of the symbolic dimension, with the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental-social-economical)". To test the validity of the hypothesis, in the practical study, three landscape projects were selected, they are similar in having neglected spaces had been activated in its city centers, so to measure the extent to which the indicators of these dimensions have been achieved. The results showed the symbolic dimension as the most prominent dimension for activating the landscapes, followed by the environmental, then social, and finally the economic dimension. Finally, the research achieved a theoretical model for the landscape activation dimensions and its indicators and values, which the designer can rely on it in activation of these spaces.

The experimental work of this research included the test of seven columns, with dimensions of 900mm length, and cross section (150*150), a series of tests were carried out on control specimens (cylinder and prisms) for each mix for the purpose of studying the mechanical properties of reactive powder concrete such as compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, modulus of rupture and modulus of elasticity. The experimental results showed the increasing in steel fibers ratio by 2% led to the increase in the compressive strength by 22.3% and increased splitting tensile strength by 329.7%, modulus of rupture by 234.44% and modulus of elasticity by 20.80%. The experimental results of the tests of slender columns indicated that increasing the steel fiber ratio from 0% led decreasing the ultimate load by 36.454 % compared to the control columns, to 2% led increasing the ultimate load by 21.685 % compared to the control columns. The results showed that of diameter steel reinforcement ratio of short columns from Ø10 led to decreasing the ultimate load by 1.859% compared to the control columns, to Ø16 led to increasing the ultimate load by 32.901% compared to the control columns. And the results showed that of spacing between of stirrups (200mm) led to decreasing the ultimate load by 4.778% compared to the control columns, to (100mm) led to increasing the ultimate load by 12.924% compared to the control columns. In the second part of this research, the ANSYS program was used as a numerical method to investigate the behavior of these columns using nonlinear analysis (Finite element). When comparing the results of experimental with theoretical side ,the theoretical results showed a good agreement with the experimental results where the maximum difference ratio in ultimate load was about 9.03 % for all the tested and analyzed columns.

Seismic evaluation is one of the important ways to validate that buildings can resist the earthquake loads. The seismic evaluation is classified into global and local checking; the global includes the overall lateral deflection and inter-story drift, the local involves the plastic hinge formed in the structural elements (beams, columns, shear wall, etc.) of the buildings. This paper includes the seismic evaluation techniques according to previous international codes. These codes include ATC-40, FEMA-273, FEMA-356, FEMA-440, ASCE41-13, Euro code 8, Japanese standard code, and Newzland code. This study showed that the seismic evaluation techniques introduced in FEMA-440 and the Japanese standard code are almost complete compared with the other techniques in the other codes.

Reinforced concrete slabs are common structural parts that may subjected to impact loads plus static loads. Reinforced concrete structures subjected to harsh environments in some time and because of the high corrosion resistance of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) bars; can used as a substitute for traditional steel. Up to failure, FRP bars behave in a linear-elastic manner without yielding (brittle behavior), which necessitates a solution. Recently, there has been a proposed external bonding of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) sheet on the tension side of the slab to strengthen it. In this study, the number of CFRP sheet layers (one or two) and their configuration (covering the entire surface or only a portion of it) explored. Five (1550×1550×150) mm concrete slabs support all four corners of each one with simple support and reinforced with Glass Fiber Reinforce Polymer (GFRP) bars casted. Four of them externally bonded with CFRP sheets. All slabs tested under impact loads by dropping a 150kg mass from a height of 5m until cracks appeared. Displacement-time, strain-time, reaction force-time, and acceleration-time explored and compared between slabs with various configurations. The results show that increasing the layer number of CFRP on the tension side of the slab develops impact resistance by delaying the appearance of cracks until third blow. In general, slabs with totally bottom CFRP layers provide better performance than other configurations.

Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) code approaches Shannon–limit execution for twofold ‎field and long code lengths. The point of this work is to propose an LDPC calculation for Min ‎Sum (MS) deciphering and playing out its equipment execution investigation inside a proposed ‎communication framework. The MS calculation principally utilizes the base and expansion finding ‎procedure. The quantity of increases is subsequently altogether diminished, which tends to ‎decrease the execution intricacy. The consequences of the reenactment show that the proposed ‎MS interpreting calculation performs the same as the translating of the Sum-Product Algorithm ‎‎(SPA) while keeping up with the principle highlights of the MS disentangling. The further developing execution ‎by diminishing the number of stages in the deciphering system, diminishing the intricacy of the ‎implementation of the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).‎

The current work investigates the ability of the new aluminium-based electrocoagulation (EC) cell to remediate chemical oxygen demand (COD) from synthetic wastewater. The experimental work was carried out using a rectangular EC cell (10 cm in length, 9.5 cm in width, and 7 cm in depth). The EC cell was supplied with six perforated aluminium electrodes; four of these electrodes were used in the treatment methods (connected to DC electrical current), while the first and the last electrodes were used as baffle plates (to mix water). This lab-scale unit was used to treat synthetic wastewater having 300 mg/l of COD, considering the effect of the treatment time and initial pH. After 40 minutes of treatment at a pH of 7 and a current density of 10 A/m2, 51% of COD was removed by the new EC unit. The results also revealed that the removal of the COD is positively influenced by the increase of the applied current density and/or treatment time.