Kerbala Journal for Engineering Sciences

Internal degradation induced in the metropolitan areas by leakage of sewers. As the
resistance to erosion depends on the distribution of soil particles and the water pressure in
sewer pipes, it is worthwhile to research the impact of water pressure on the soil erosion
resistance of embedded pipes. This study aims to find physical model tests which
simulating erosion and sinkhole development due to cyclic leakage in an experimental
ground model through defect sewers. Proposed parameters like cyclic leaks through pipe
crashes, eroded soil properties, initiation cavity, and evolution up until sinkhole failure were
studied. During this process, the ground settlement monitored with Paricle:Image
Velocimetry (PIV). Also, soils with various classification were utilized to identify the total
subsidence for the different soil types. Five various water pressures were used:i.e.,
0.8,1.1,1.4,1.7, and 2.0 meter,(7.85, 10.79, 13.73, 16.76, and 19.61 Kpa), respectively, and
local sandy soil, local loamy soil, and local clayey soil also were used. The results showed
that two parameters influence soil failure,noticebliy:- the first is water pressure which has a
direct proportion to erosion and subsidence, where the increment of total eroded soil of 2.0
m water head reached 3.95 times 0.8 m head , and the second is soil types which showed
that the clayey soil is highly sensitive and suffering more from subsidence rather than
erosion on the contrary of other soil types.

Drip irrigation is used where water resources are scarce and expensive or have salt
problems. This system distributes water over a pipe network to the field and
converts it by emitters from the pipe network to the plant. Many experiments were
carried out in Fadak Farm that based in the Governorate of holy Karbala / Iraq.
This study aims to assess the performance of the drip irrigation systems installed
for the date palm. The head discharge relationships for emitters were expressed at
different operating pressure, and the best model equipped with the highest R2 was
calculated. Results from established models for the relationship of pressure
discharge indicated that the pressure exponent was less than 0.5, which indicated
that the type of dripper is compensated pressure. By measuring the discharge rates
for emitters, the uniformity parameters, namely: absolute emission uniformity,
field emission uniformity, coefficient of variation, application efficiency, design
emission uniformity, statistical uniformity coefficient, emitter flow variation and
pressure variation were determined. The obtained results for drip system indicate
96.5% for field emission uniformity, 96.25% for absolute emission uniformity,
95.9% for design emission uniformity, 97% for statistical uniformity coefficient,
6.85% for emitter flow variation, 0.026 for coefficient of variation, 96.5% for
application efficiency, and 16.98% for pressure variation. In this study, the drip
irrigation system was worked well efficiently over the entire study region. The
performance of the drip system under study can be classified as excellent in
accordance to the criteria used to assess the current drip irrigation system over the
defined area of study and compared with the standards laid down.

Due to rapid urbanization, cities and urban areas become responsible for about
two- thirds of CO2 and the GHG emissions, as well as the depletion of different
types of energies and natural resources. The sustainable of urban development
may be considered a fundamental solution which can achieve the balance between
human needs and nature. Furthermore, it facilitates the dealing with urban design
challenges for the long term. It also encourages local community engagement in
the design process through different stages, as well as contributing to
decision-making to create sustainability of urban design. From this vision, many
global assessment tools were emerged and have been used in different countries
around the world. This paper aims to clarify the viability of using well-known
methods to assess the urban design projects in Iraq and the suitability of local
realities. The proper conduct analysis of current situations based on an in-depth
critical review and a comprehensive comparison among three well-known urban
sustainability assessment methods, namely: BREEAM Communities from the UK,
LEED-ND from US, and PEARLS Communities from the UAE (as a
neighbouring country to Iraq). The study conducted an in-depth qualitative and
quantitative analysis of the main evaluation criteria for the selected tools, such as
content use, the weighting system, scoring, certificate rating, and the context. The
key findings stressed that the global assessment tools in used, are focusing on the
sustainability assessment of the local context and dealt with the local urban
challenges. Therefore, they cannot be generalized to be global tools that can be
used anywhere, especially for urban design and development projects in Iraq.

The current paper shows an economic and simple way which useful approach
to produce porous ceramics (alumina) using three types of pore-forming agents
(PFAs) utilizing a fugitive materials technique. Yeast material (natural active), ash
of rice husk (commercial), and waste of graphite from used primary batteries have
been used as (PFAs). Practical results revealed that with increasing the PFA ratio
for yeast material (natural active), ash of rice husk, and waste of graphite the
porosity increased from 30.2 to 63.8 %, 42.9 to 49.0%, and 37.3 to 61.1%
respectively. Utilizing the three-point bending test, the evaluation of the
mechanical behavior of porous ceramics (alumina) specimens was a function of
the level of porosity. The characterization of mechanical behavior exhibit that the
bending strength using the ash of rice husk increased at 50 wt% (92.38 ± 2.68
MPa) and 30 wt %( 93.03±4.07) due to the presence of the ceramic phases. While
the bending strength of porous ceramics (alumina) using yeast material (natural
active) and waste of graphite as PFAs decreased from 72.56±3.07 to 20.72±1.58
MPa and from 71.28±1.78 to 30.42±2.15 MPa respectively. Recommended
application fields include the metal of molten, hot gas filters, and implantation
processes.

Asphalt binder represents a visco-elastic material that consist of four types of
chemical fractions named saturates, aromatics, resins, and asphaltene, differ in
their polarity and molecular weight, and then their effect on the properties of
asphalt binder. The high solar absorption of asphalt binder due to its black color,
making asphalt pavements suffer from various types of distresses like: rutting,
fatigue, raveling, etc. The high increment in traffic loads and volumes nowadays
leads to sever increment in these distresses. Therefore, the concept of improving
asphalt pavements, as well as, reducing the environmental problems and
maintaining the natural resources, in addition to saving costs, have stimulated
researchers to use the sustainable materials in the improvement process of asphalt
binder. Nevertheless, there are limited researches deals with these modifiers. This
study aims to study the effect of Reed Fly Ash (RFA) that is represents a type of
by-product materials on the physical properties of asphalt binder. Neat bitumen
was blend with three dosages of RFA: 6%, 12% and 18% by weight of bitumen.
The effect of this modifier on the properties of bitumen was characterized in terms
of penetration, softening point, ductility, penetration index, viscosity and aging.
The results of these properties indicate that the use of RFA as a modifier for
asphalt binder help in decrease both penetration and ductility, increase softening
point, viscosity and bitumen sensitivity, as well as, help in enhance the resistance
of bitumen to aging, and the influence of RFA on these properties increase as RFA
increase. The results encourage the concept of enhancing the asphalt binder by fly
ash products.