Journal of Engineering

An adaptive sliding mode control (SMC) based on PWM and an observer scheme for
predicting the state of charge (SOC) of lithium-ion batteries is proposed. The control scheme
is developed for a dc-dc buck converter used in regulated charge control of lithium-ion
batteries. Unlike many estimation schemes where the converter’s output voltage is
predetermined and the nonlinearities ignored, the proposed scheme estimates the buck
converter’s output voltage, SOC, and nonlinearities in terms of errors in parameters. The
stability of the proposed scheme is guaranteed by the Lyapunov method. The simulation was
carried out in the Simulink in the MATLAB environment to transition from constant current
charging mode to constant voltage charging mode. The results obtained from both modes in
the Simulink in the MATLAB environment have shown that the dynamic control system of
the SMC is asymptotically stable

The utilization of Solar Water Heating Systems (SWHS) is a potential solution to use as an
alternative to fuel and electricity in areas where these resources are scarce, costly, and not
easily accessible. Research was conducted in Duhok City, Kurdistan of Iraq to evaluate the
efficiency of a traditional type of SWHS, namely the serpentine collector variant. An active
system collector that employed a moving water pump to facilitate the circulation of water
inside the systems was used in the experiment. An analysis was conducted to assess the
performance of the collector concerning solar irradiation, wind speed, and mass flow rate.
This study utilized a Flat Plate Collector (FPC) with a tubular serpentine shape absorber
made of steel sheet and copper tube. The serpentine collector had a maximum total heat loss
coefficient of 5.53 ???? ⁄????2 . ℃. The serpentine collector demonstrated its highest level of
practical heat gains at 561W. Its performance was observed to improve with increasing solar
irradiation and water mass flow rate, but declined when wind speed exceeded the rated
values. The serpentine collector achieved maximum efficiency with a flowrate of 0.042 kg/s,
resulting in a productivity of 66.6%. While the maximum increase in water tank temperature
in the serpentine collector was 25.8 ℃ at the mass flowrate 0.05 kg/s.

Foam concrete is a type of concrete that is widely used in civil engineering as a high-quality
building material with low weights and usually low compressive strength. Improving the
compressive strength is the main objective of this paper by supplying this type of concrete
with different proportions from carbon fibers. This study included preparing an
experimental mixture to produce foam concrete consisting of optimal ratios of water-to-
cement ratio (0.35), sand-to-cement ratio (1:1.5), and superplasticizer (1.8 %). The
appropriate dosage of foaming agent was selected to obtain lightweight foam concrete with
an appropriate compressive strength of up to 17.4 MPa and a target density of (1300-1350)
kg/m3 after 28 days. Adding carbon fibers gave a 1 % highest compressive strength
estimated at 9.77 % but the flow rate decreased by about 8.55 % compared to the reference
mixture after 28 days. The results indicate that adding fibers contributed to increasing the
compressive strength of foam concrete, but it negatively affected the flow rate.

A key characteristic of diesel engines is predicting the ignition delay period. This work
predicts the ignition delay in diesel engines using combinations of ethanol/diesel fuel blend
and pure diesel as fuel replacements. It provides an empirical formula for predicting delay
periods. A growing interest in alternative fuel blends, representing a substantial shift from
the use of traditional diesel fuel, is reported. Modern study is focused on examining these
combinations and how they might affect the dynamics of combustion in diesel engines.
Experiments were carried out utilizing five different ethanol/diesel fuel blends, including
pure diesel, with ethanol percentages varying from 5% to 20% in 5% quantities. Tests were
conducted at a constant engine speed of 1,500 rpm, with various compression ratios of 16,
17, and 18, with torque levels ranging from 0 to 21 N.m. In this study, general formulas for
predicting ignition delay are constructed numerically. There was a greater consistency
between the experimental outcomes and the expected ignition delay. The findings indicated
that the E20 combined fuel continuously exhibited the least igniting delay period across all
compression ratio variables. The findings demonstrated that the ignition delay period starts
to shorten with increased cetane number, ignition pressure, temperature, and equivalency
ratio. A shorter period of ignition delay is the outcome of higher compression ratios. The
predictive model created here is a ground-breaking addition to the industry, offering a solid
foundation for assessing the efficiency and emissions properties of different ethanol/diesel
blends.

The governing differential equations about the seepage were resolved using the standard
numerical. The research location was on the Darbandikhan dam, which is about 230
kilometres northeast of the governorate of Baghdad in the district of Sulaymaniyah on the
Diyala River. The Geo-Studio program and its subprogram SEEP/W were used to examine
the total water head through the dam and water flux, and exit gradient through the numerical
model that represents the dam body to show how seepage affects the dam's stability. To run
the dam numerical model, three upstream reservoir water levels at a Minimum water level
of 434 m, Normal water level of 472 m, and flood water level of 485 m were selected to
represent the model boundary conditions. Maximum total water head through the dam was
found when the water level in the reservoir was 485 m while the maximum water flux
through the dam was found when the water level in the reservoir

This article demonstrates how different cooling rates and precipitation hardening affected
the mechanical properties of AA2024. Three impact test samples were chosen. Solution heat
treatment was conducted at 500 °C for 2 hrs., followed by quenching in three different
quenching media (Sunflower Oil, Sesame Oil, and Corn Oil). As a result, the Sunflower Oil
showed the lowest shock absorption rate; hence, it was chosen as the quenching medium for
this study. Consequently, all samples of tensile, hardness, and impact tests were solution heat
treated at 500 °C for 2 hours, then quenched in Sunflower Oil to room temperature and
artificially aged at temperatures of 180°C for 1,2,4 hour, 195°C for 1, 2, 4 hour, and 210°C for
1,2,4 hour. Considerable improvements in strength and hardness were observed while
decreasing the ductility Due to the production of finely dispersed grains. Precipitation
hardening at 180°C for 1 hour was the overall optimum achievement, which enhanced the
UTS by 28.7% to 579 MPa, compared to the as-received sample with UTS 450 MPa. While
annealing has reduced the UTS by 32.7% to 303 MPa.

The Shatt Al-Arab River, in southern Iraq, flows southeastwardsthrough Basrah City to the Arabian Gulf. Seven creeks are branched off the river: Jubyla, Muftya, Robat, Khandek, Ashar, Khora, and Saraji, where they are affected by tidal phenomena.The change in the hydrological status of the river over the last decade has adversely affected the quality of the river's water. Urban sewage and industrial wastewater are usually discharged directly or indirectly into the river. The entire river's course is studied, starting at the point where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet in the Qurnah district and extending into the vicinity of the river's estuary. The use of the Shatt Al Arab Riverin modelling a planned regulator on the riveris demonstrated as one of the solutions offered to address the deterioration of river water quality. Results showed a slight increase in organic nitrogen, nitrate, ammonia, organic phosphorus, inorganic phosphorus, and carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand by (4.76, 3.61, 7.23, 4.44, 2.76, and 12.27%), respectively,and a decrease in dissolved oxygen by 2.6% were because of trapping pollutants fed by rivers branches and cleaning process stopping that was caused by the tides. This increase is expected. It does not cause significant harm compared to the benefit expected from constructing the regulator because of the high decrease in total dissolved solids by 30.58% and phytoplankton by 80.7%. In addition, there are government efforts to prevent this pollution by establishing a system of conveyor pipelines to get rid of these pollutants. It is concluded that there is a great benefit to establishing a regulator.

The Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS) network has several stations that
collect and record data from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) constellations. These
stations run continuously in an automated manner to collaborate and interact with different
users for positioning services. In this study, the collected GNSS data at five CORS sites of the
Iraqi Geodetic network was assessed to determine if there were any significant changes in
the positions of these stations for a long time. This change gives a clear interpretation of the
impact of different geophysical phenomena (e.g. tectonic plate motion) on the stability of
positions within time. Therefore, the collected data at ZAXO, ISER, ISBA, ISKU and ISNA
stations were analysed for seven years 2015 – 2022 (i.e. from 1st Jan 2015 to 31st Dec 2021).
The daily position of each station can be computed from 24-hour recording data at a 30-
second rate using GAPS or CSRS free software for Precise Point Positioning (PPP). Thus, 8806
observation daily files were used. The processed data was represented as a time series in
Easting, Northing and Up coordinates for each station to analyse the trend of movement in
these stations. It was found that the change in both Easting and Northing coordinates has a
linear trend, which agrees with the general trend of tectonic motion in this part of the world.
The mean yearly change was within 22-27 mm. On the other hand, the change in the Up
coordinate with time had a fluctuated change over time "wave behaviour" or exhibited
periodic variations.

Climate change poses a global challenge with profound repercussions on land cover,
particularly affecting areas like Iraq due to decreased rainfall, rising temperatures,
desertification, vegetation loss, and reduced river tiers attributable to weather change. This
study investigates the impact of climate change on land cover in the Al-Hillah district of Babil
province, Iraq, using remote sensing data and satellite imagery from Landsat 5 and 8 through
the website of the US Geological Survey from 1995 to 2021. ArcMap 10.8 software program
was employed to analyze and visualize these changes. The Al-Hillah district spans an area of
878 km2, encompassing built-up areas, agriculture areas, desert land, wetlands, and river
surface areas. The analysis involved Landsat satellite imagery for 1999, 2015, and 2021. The
findings display that Hilla District has skilled the outcomes of climate change, primarily
manifested in the expansion of desert areas. In 1999, barren land covered 93 km 2. It had
increased to 183 square kilometers, resulting in rising temperatures and decreased rainfall
about 2 degrees below the overall common. It has brought about a reduction in vegetation
cover in an area of 196 square kilometers, compared to the year 1999 covered 45.6%.

Pedestrian detection is well known as one of the most important applications in computer
vision. However, reliable pedestrian detection is difficult due to a variety of factors, including
changing size of pedestrian characteristics and crowded backgrounds. This study aims to
evaluate and compare the pedestrian detection performance of three different types of
classifiers: Random-Forest (RF), Convolution-Neural-Network (CNN), and Support-Vector-
Machine (SVM). The presented methodology involves using You_Only_Look_Once (YOLOv8)
architecture for object segmentation and the Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) for
feature extraction. Then, RF, CNN and SVM classifiers are trained and tested using the
extracted HOG features. Using the EPFL pedestrian dataset, the experiment showed that the
CNN model returned the highest results which had a speed of 0.42s and an accuracy
percentage of 93.34%. Compared to SVM and RF, CNN provides a high detection speed and
accuracy. RF has the slowest detection speed, while SVM has the lowest detection accuracy.
This study gives useful information regarding the efficacy of these classifiers in detecting
pedestrians under various weather circumstances, and the findings show that CNNs can
achieve high accuracy while maintaining remarkable detection efficiency.

The Post-project evaluation in highway construction is crucial but underdeveloped in
infrastructure management, especially for Iraqi road project authorities. This
comprehensive study combines insights from global schemes in England, Scotland, France,
Australia, Norway, and New Zealand to develop a strong post-evaluation framework .This
study used criteria from six international schemes, a thematic analysis framework, and open
interviews with experts to identify and improve the final list of criteria that could be used in
the evaluation process. Five criteria were identified as the final result, which are efficiency
(cost, time, and quality), traffic analysis (volume, travel time, and impact), safety (accidents
and security), sustainability, and impact (economic and social). Then, to develop a multiple
regression model for the success of a project, criterion weights were derived through the
utilization of the Inner Product Vector (IPV). This study emphasizes the need for a
comprehensive post-evaluation framework, especially in complex highway construction. A
milestone is reached when international standards and careful variable extraction are
combined. Based on empirical data and expert judgment, the mathematical model simplifies
assessment and predicts project

When multitudes of people need to be evacuated from their homes for various reasons,
including natural catastrophes and armed conflicts, time and money are of the essence.
Therefore, emergency relief tents are considered the most effective option for this situation.
However, the indoor environment of these tent types might be thermally uncomfortable,
particularly on hot or extremely cold days. Different techniques were used to overcome this
problem including evaporative cooling systems. The present study aims to use a numerical
approach to assess the impact of utilizing a two-stage indirect/direct evaporative cooling
system on enhancing the interior thermal comfort conditions of the relief tent. The numerical
part was done by utilizing software that was written in Fortran language to simulate the case
under various parameters, including changing the cellulose pad thickness and the volumetric
water flow rates in the second heat exchanger of the indirect cooling stage. The selection of
boundary conditions that were applied in numerical analysis was based on experimental
data collected over specified days during the summer of 2022, in particular from July 15th
to September 15th. According to the findings, having two heat exchangers in the indirect
cooling stage of the cooling system helps keep the tent model at a comfortable temperature
because of the exceptional performance of the proposed cooling system in lowering both dry
and wet bulb air temperatures before entering the direct evaporative cooling stage. In
addition, it was found that the indoor temperature drop increased by about 19% when
increasing the thickness of the cellulose pad and raising the water flow rate in the second
heat exchanger of the indirect cooling stage.