Scopus Research — Maryam Hameed Naser Al-mamoori

Twenty-eight piles were divided into four groups. Two groups were made of natural aggregate, while the other two were made of full replacement of recycled aggregate. In each group, the cement was replaced with 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30% of silica fume. Two groups were stored for 270 days under normal water conditions, while the other two were stored underground water conditions. Tests results have shown that it’s possible to improve the strength and the structural behavior of piles under sulfate attack considerably by using 20% of silica fume, while 15% is sufficient when the piles are under normal conditions. However, high levels of silica fume 25–30% in recycled aggregate concretes piles and 20–30% in normal aggregate concretes piles gave a clear decrease in ultimate load capacity. © 2024 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest.

Waste glass in combination with recycled aggregate used in concrete under effect of sulfate attack is not yet explored. This research studies the possibility of using the wastes materials in two types of concrete applications, i.e., normal and aggressive environmental conditions for specimens of mechanical properties and RC beam models for shear behavior studies. The results demonstrated that the mechanical properties of concrete did not change when replacing recycled aggregate with recycled bricks with 50% gravel. While strength deterioration becomes evident at high rates of 100% thermestone, since non-structural concrete weakens the overall structure due to high porosity and water absorption. Also, the research investigates the effect of glass powder is used as a replacement of cement weight percentages: 0%, 10%, and 20%. Beams containing 20% glass powder showed good resistance and satisfactory shear performance under aggressive conditions. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

Concrete is a brittle substance; thus, it is reinforced with rebars and fibers to enhance its ductility. On the other hand, the presence of waste from various industries negatively impacts the environment. The ongoing reconstruction in Iraq has resulted in an abundance of locally produced rebar-connecting wire (RCW) and copper electric wire (CEW) waste. To minimize the environmental impact of these wastes, they can be reused in other industries, such as the concrete industry. Few studies have dealt with concrete’s structural and mechanical properties containing these local residues. Therefore, this study included an experimental investigation of concrete columns with and without various types of industrial and waste fibers. Two types of industrial fibers (macro hooked-end; CH, and micro straight; CS) steel fibers and two types of waste fibers (RCW and CEW) were utilized. Six reinforced concrete (RC) columns (150 × 150 × 450 mm3) were cast: one control column without fibers and five columns with fibers. The fiber content within the columns was fixed at 0.75% of the concrete volume. The cracks pattern, load-deflection behavior and concrete strain for RC columns were investigated. Moreover, the mechanical properties in terms of compressive, splitting tensile, and flexural strengths tests were also conducted. The results revealed that all types of fibers used improved the mechanical and structural properties of the concrete. Moreover, although the hybrid synthetic fibers gave the best improvement compared to the reference sample, the waste fibers (especially RCW) showed a significant improvement that reached 30.91% in relation to the ultimate load and (10.1, 10.8 and 14.4%) in relation to the compressive, tensile, and flexural strengths respectively. © 2024, International Islamic University Malaysia-IIUM. All rights reserved.

The present study includes experimental and numerical investigations of the behavior and the load carrying capacity of RC two-hinged beams with radius corner arch at the bottom face subjected to static loading conditions. The experimental program included four specimens with the same volume of concrete and amount of steel reinforcement but, with a different span of the arch (1180 mm, 900 mm, 740 mm, and 600 mm). The goals were to evaluate the effect of a span of the arch and to find the optimum ratio of the arch length to beam span for the maximum load capacity as well as to validate the numerical results taken from the finite element model. From the results of this work, it was found that the best load carrying capacity for the beam with a radius corner arch is when the arch length/beam span ratio is equal (0.62). Also, the FEM result seems efficient and gives good accuracy through comparison with the experimental results. © 2024 The Authors.

Using recycled steel fibers (RSF) from wastes of old car tires in combination with hybrid (steel and CFRP) dowel bars to improve the structural behavior of construction joints is the purpose of this study. The main objectives of this work were (i) to evaluate the effect of the shape and type of construction joints (vertical, inclined with 60°, key I, key II and fingers), (ii) to perform a comparison between joints with and without RSF (iii) to investigate the effect of adding hybrid deformed dowel (steel and/or CFRP) bars and the effect of their (number, diameter and length) on the performance of the jointed beam, and (iv) to study the effect of compressive strength class (normal, moderate and high) to highlight its influence on the structural behavior of RC beams. The results showed that each type of these joints has a different effect on the deflection-load response, cracking and ultimate capacity. The inclined joint has the most significant effect on the ultimate capacity (reduction is 20%), while the fingers and key joints have a slight effect (reduction is 8.4% and 9.58%), respectively. It was also found that the ultimate load of beams containing construction joints with RSF is greater than that of the monolithic beams without RSF by about 39.88–46.84%. Such beams also exhibited a higher stiffness and a change to a more ductile failure mode. Deformed steel one dowel bars with a length of eight diameter in RC jointed beams improves slightly all the load–deflection response with no significant increase in stiffness and ultimate load capacity. In using dowel bars in combination with RSF the enhancement becomes more obvious and may range between (1.6–1.9) times the failure load of the jointed beam specimens without RSF and dowel bar. It was also noted that the number, embedded length and the diameter of dowel bar have an effect on the structural behavior of jointed beams. Using CFRP dowel bars in construction joint, lead to a decrease in the ultimate load capacity by about 11.7% with a decrease in stiffness. Using hybrid (steel/CFRP) dowel bars gives better results of ultimate strength and stiffness compared with CFRP bars only. Concrete compressive strength also has an effect on the ultimate load and stiffness of beams containing construction joints, as it improves the load–deflection response. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.

The present research studies the effect of adding sugar factory waste sugarcane molasses as an alternative to chemical inhibitory additives manufactured on concrete cast during hot weather in the summer of Iraq. The current study includes a study of the setting time for cement paste and workability for fresh concrete and some mechanical properties of hardened concrete with sugarcane molasses using percentage 0–0.3% of cement weight. The study also included studying the value of pH of concrete to investigate the effect of sugarcane molasses on reinforced concrete. The results showed that the sugarcane molasses can be used by about 0.1% of cement weight for medium projects and between 0.1 and 0.2% for large projects. It was also found that the compression strength increased by about 11.5% and the indirect tensile strength increased by about 7.5 and 7.4% for splitting and flexural test, respectively for concrete mixtures containing 0.2% of sugarcane molasses. © 2023 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest.

This paper presents a theoretical method to analyze a two-hinged beam with elliptical arched bottom subjected to two concentrated loads. The two-hinged beam is a statically indeterminate structure to the first degree. Therefore, it is not possible to calculate the reactions and internal forces in the ordinary method by using equilibrium equations alone. Towards this end, the strain energy stored in the Hinged-hinged beam during deformation is given, considering the change of the cross-section along the length of the beam. The Gaussian Quadrature method was used to perform numerical integration to obtain the Horizontal Thrust for non-prismatic members. Also, a comparison was made between the proposed method and the experimental results that are shown by some authors. The comparison shows rather good agreement between the theoretical and experimental ultimate loads of the beams with an elliptical-arched bottom. The difference ratio of the ultimate load between theoretical data and experimental data was recorded from (1.13-1.29). © 2024 Author(s).

Building distortions due to some environmental factors refer to problems and diseases that lead to distortions and defects in buildings, which are caused by climatic causes and natural environmental factors. Understanding its causes and the imbalance resulting from it, and trying to measure it, enables preventive measures to be taken to avoid their occurrence, and enables to treatment. Through the field visits that took place in Babil Governorate, it was observed that a large number of buildings were distorted due to various environmental factors such as rain, humidity and heat, which led to distortion in the buildings from an aesthetic and the structural behavior. Sixty two buildings of different uses were monitored and were under the influence of a number of environmental factors. The monitoring method, follow up and some non-destructive tests were used to collect data, and then the data were analyzed using comparison tables. In this paper, it was concluded that the most important environmental factor affecting buildings is humidity, which is determined by more than 68% and is considered one of the most important problems that lead to building deformations and cracks, followed by the effect of soil. It was also found that the influence of other factors such as light, temperature and wind is very small compared to other factors. Also, some sources of moisture that affect building deformations in the city of Babylon have been identified, the most important of which are ground water and wastewater. Then, a number of proposals and recommendations that contribute to reducing these distortions were identified. © 2024 American Institute of Physics Inc.. All rights reserved.

The maximum temperature in the annual time series is a variable with a broad impact on heatstroke, energy consumption, cooling system stability, peak water consumption, and cardiovascular patients. Due to climate change, variations in the high return period of maximum temperature in the annual time series are expected. Due to the significant impact of the high return period of maximum temperature in the annual series in urban areas, it is necessary to study its Spatial-Temporal variations in these areas. In this study, using long-term data from 41 urban areas in Iran, the Generalized additive Models for Location, Scale, and Shape (GAMLSS) have been used to estimate changes in the return period of 100 and 50 of maximum temperatures. Findings show that in 83% of urban areas in Iran, the nonstationarity in the maximum temperature time series is statistically significant. Ignoring the nonstationarity has led to underestimating the maximum temperature in the high return period up to 2.6 °C and overestimating up to 7 °C. Also, the conventional stationary approach in most Iran urban areas has led to underestimating the hazard of annual maximum temperature. Compared to other areas, the western and southern urban areas of Iran are more clearly affected by the nonstationarity of maximum temperature in the annual time series, which means that the related designs in these areas should be corrected. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

This study investigates the overall behavior and performance of R.C. beams with CFRP plates for improving the infrastructure buildings performance. The parameters studied include different widths and thickness of fiber reinforced polymer plates along the beams tension face. For this analysis, a computer program (ABAQUS CAE.18) is used. To achieve the aim, two sets of beams have been analyzed. The first group consists of five specimens strengthened with CFRP plates of thickness 1.2 mm and width (25, 50, 75, 100 and 140) mm in flexure, the second group of beams also consist of five specimens strengthened with CFRP plates similar to the first group but with thickness of 2.4 mm and the control beam is without CFRP. A variety of CFRP width and thickness applications were tested to determine the ultimate strength of the beam specimens. A comparison is made between the experimental results from previous study done by (K. Shadhan) and the numerical model. The comparison indicates that the results of the numerical modeling were in good agreement with the experimental results (1.7% difference in ultimate strength for the specimen without CFRP strengthening and 1.6% difference for the specimen strengthened with CFRP plate of thickness 1.2 and width 100mm). Moreover, it can be noticed that the strengthening with CFRP plate with thickness of 1.2mm, the ultimate strength increases with the increase of the plate width and the increment reach 45% when plate width 75mm compared with specimen without CFRP. But, the ultimate strength decrease when CFRP plate width increased to 140mm (3.6% compared with specimen strengthened with 75mm CFRP plate). The strengthening with CFRP plates of 2.4 mm thick increases the ultimate strength more than when compared to beams reinforced with 1.2 mm thick CFRP plates of the same width (7.2%, 0.3%, 0.7%, 0.6%, 1.1%) for widths (25, 50, 75, 100, 140) mm, respectively. © 2023 Author(s).

The naturally fractured reservoirs are one of the most challenging due to the tectonic movements that are caused to increase the permeability and conductivity of the fractures. The instability of the permeability and conductivity effects on the fluid flow path causes problems during the transfer of the fluids from the matrix to the fractures and fluid losses during production. In addition, these complications made it difficult for engineers to estimate fluid flow during production. The fracture properties' study is important to model the fluid flow paths such as the fracture porosity, permeability, and the shape factor, which are considered essential in the stability of fluid flow. To examine this, this research introduced new models including decision tree (DT), random forest (RF), K-nearest regression (KNR), ridge regression (RR), and LASSO regression model,. The research studied the fracture properties in naturally fractured reservoirs like the fracture porosity (FP) and the shape factor (SF). The datasets used in this study were collected from previous studies "i.e., Texas oil and gas fields"to build an intelligence-based predictive model for fluid flow characteristics. The prediction process was conducted based on interporosity flow coefficient, storativity ratio, wellbore radius, matrix permeability, and fracture permeability as input data. This study revealed a positive finding for the adopted machine learning (ML) models and was superior in using statistical accuracy metrics. Overall, the research emphasized the implementation of computer-aided models for naturally fractured reservoir analysis, giving more details on the extensive execution techniques, such as injection or the creation of artificial cracks, to minimize hydrocarbon losses or leakage. © 2023 Mustafa Mudhafar Shawkat et al.

The objective of this research is to manufacture a flow measurement locally device for open channels and predict the discharge coefficient for two types of weirs, then compared its results with extracted from the standard device. Experimentally, two weirs shape were investigated, known as a V-notch with a right angle (90o) and a rectangular notch with a crest width (0.3m). The height of crest for both remained constant in locally and standard flow measurement device. In order to developing the hydraulic properties of flow over a crest weir and to achieve the study purpose, a different crest heads were investigated. Experimental results showed that the increase of crest head causes an increase in a discharge coefficient for both V-notch and rectangular weirs. In other words, the coefficient of discharge is dependent on the volumetric flow rate and its head of water level from the notch base, the discharge coefficient corresponds differently to the head of water level and to the notch type used. In flow measurement locally device, results show that local device has the ability to measure the hydraulic properties of flow over weir of open channel flow in both triangular and rectangular notch with an error percentage of Cd 9.3% and 6.56% for rectangular and V-Notch weir, respectively. © 2023 American Institute of Physics Inc.. All rights reserved.

Extreme climatic conditions and natural hazard-related phenomenon have been affecting coastal regions and riverine areas. Floods, cyclones, and climate change phenomena have hammered the natural environment and increased the land dynamic, socio-economic vulnerability, and food scarcity. Saltwater intrusion has also triggered cropland vulnerability and, therefore, increased the area of inland brackish water fishery. The cropland area has decreased due to low soil fertility; around 252.06 km2 of cropland area has been lost, and 326.58 km2 of water bodies or inland fishery area has been added in just thirty years in the selected blocks of the North 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, India. After saltwater intrusion, soil fertility appears to have been decreased and crop production has been greatly reduced. The cropland areas were 586.52 km2 (1990), 419.92 km2 (2000), 361.67 km2 (2010) and 334.46 km2 (2020). Gradually the water body areas were increased 156.21 km2 (1990), 328.15 km2 (2000), 397.77 km2 (2010) and 482.78 km2 (2020). The vegetated land area also decreased due to it being converted into inland fishery areas, and around 79.15 km2 were degraded during the last thirty years. The super cyclone Aila, along with other super cyclones and other environmental stresses, like water-logging, soil salinity, and irrigation water scarcity were the reasons for the development of the new fishery areas in the selected blocks. There is a need for proper planning for sustainable development of this area. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

The resolution of an optimization issue is a topic studied and debated by academics from a wide variety of areas continuously. Without an optimal solution, a lot of time and resources are likely to be wasted, and the issue will remain unsolved in the worst-case scenario. Due to these concerns, researchers are increasingly resorting to the development of robust meta-heuristic optimization techniques to improve current methods while creating new population-based approaches capable of exploring the required feature space. Therefore, biogeography-based optimization (BBO) is proposed in this paper, which is impacted by species' movement and emigration across islands in quest of better favorable environments. The BBO is indeed a population-based optimization approach used to solve complicated optimization issues. However, due to the nature of its operators, this technique might become stuck in sub-optimal solutions, which slows down convergence and increases the amount of computing time needed to find optimal solutions. In order to address these issues, this research proposes a BBO version that incorporates a ranked-based strategy (RBS), an exponential dynamic Brownian random differential (EBD) mechanism, and a successful adaptive random differential mutation (SarDM) mechanism to find a more effective solution in the feasible region. RBBO is the name given to the suggested approach. It has been evaluated for addressing four standard engineering problems with restrictions and 23 benchmark functions (seven unimodal, eight multimodal, and ten composite functions). The experimental findings and evaluations show that the suggested technique outperforms the conventional BBO's efficiency and accuracy. In the case of engineering problems, for instance, the four-reservoir problem, the proposed RBBO can provide superior results in terms of the average objective function (308.71) and standard deviation (0.16) over 30 different runs compared with the other optimization methods. We expect the community to use the suggested BBO-based technique to solve more challenging tasks. © 2022

For companies, notably in the realms of energy and power supply, the essential requirement for highly efficient thermal transport solutions has become a serious concern. Current research highlighted the use of metallic oxides and carbon-based nanofluids as heat transfer fluids. This work examined two carbon forms (PEG@GNPs & PEG@TGr) and two types of metallic oxides (Al2O3 & SiO2) in a square heated pipe in the mass fraction of 0.1 wt.%. Laboratory conditions were as follows: 6401 ≤ Re ≤ 11,907 and wall heat flux = 11,205 W/m2. The effective thermal–physical and heat transfer properties were assessed for fully developed turbulent fluid flow at 20–60 °C. The thermal and hydraulic performances of nanofluids were rated in terms of pumping power, performance index (PI), and performance evaluation criteria (PEC). The heat transfer coefficients of the nanofluids improved the most: PEG@GNPs = 44.4%, PEG@TGr = 41.2%, Al2O3 = 22.5%, and SiO2 = 24%. Meanwhile, the highest augmentation in the Nu of the nanofluids was as follows: PEG@GNPs = 35%, PEG@TGr = 30.1%, Al2O3 = 20.6%, and SiO2 = 21.9%. The pressure loss and friction factor increased the highest, by 20.8–23.7% and 3.57–3.85%, respectively. In the end, the general performance of nanofluids has shown that they would be a good alternative to the traditional working fluids in heat transfer requests. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

One of the problems that restrict the use of FA in high volume as a substitute for cement is its slow hydration and the rate of strength improvement at an early age. Therefore, a study has been undertaken to accelerate the hydration process by proposing an accelerated curing method of high volume fly ash concrete (HVFAC). A large amount of cement (up to 70% by weight) has been replaced by FA. The accelerated curing method by using hot water was utilized in this study. The accelerated curing cycle is designed according to ACI 517. The experimental tests included that, the slump test, compressive strength and drying shrinkage. The test results of the compressive strength of accelerated cured mixtures give about (87-100)% strength ratios from its 28 days compressive strength within one day only. This finding indicates the compressive strength at 28 days can be achieved within 1 day only by using proposed accelerated curing. The results of drying shrinkage show that the drying shrinkage of mixtures under conventional and accelerated curing conditions are comparable and these results add the further benefit of this proposed accelerated curing. © 2022 Trans Tech Publications Ltd, Switzerland.

This article aims to explain the actions of reinforced concrete beams (RCHBs). (RCHBs). Based on the analysis of previous books, it could be observed that the pieces of study on the actions of haunches beams are quite unusual and to the awareness of the scholar, the latest studies have not dealt with this subject in greater detail. This article aims to explore the structural reaction and strength capability of RCHBs exposure to two-point load for shear behavior by conducting nonlinear static analysis by ABAQUS. For estimating the nonlinear behavior of haunches beams under statically loading, a novel finite element (FE) model is introduced in this article. The FE model developed provides for the analysis of three sequences of RCHBs with various variables (haunch angle, haunch weight, and point load distance). To validate the efficacy of used computational methods involving load capacities, load-deflection graphs, and crack patterns of haunches beams, the FE model then was confirmed vs an experimental work available in the literature, which demonstrated a strong agreement. © 2021 Author(s).

This study aims to improve the tensile strength of cement mortar using recycled short copper fibers (CE) from wastes of electrical connection wires and long steel fibers from galvanized binding wires (GB). Therefore, a series of direct tensile tests were performed to investigate the tensile behavior of mono and hybrid fiber reinforced cement mortar in addition to compressive and flexural strengths properties. Different hybrid ratios (CE: GB = 0: 100, 100: 0, 50: 50, 30: 70, and 70: 30) % and fiber volume contents (0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.5 and 2)% were studied to investigate their effects on the tensile behavior. The test results revealed the following: (i) the (GB) fibers improve the flexural strength in all volume fraction ratio when compared with (CE) fibers and the optimum ratio was 1%. While for mixtures with hybrid fibers, the (30%CE to 70%GB) combination gives the highest percentage increase in flexural strength at 1.5% volume content when compared with all other mixtures; (ii) for both types (GB) and (CE) fibers, the direct tensile strength increases with the increase in volume fraction ratio till 1.5%. While, for hybrid fibers, the direct tensile strength increases with the increase in fibers ratio for all volume contents and for all combinations; (iii) the largest increase in direct tensile strength is observed at 1.5% volume content of (GB) fibers and give the highest values in comparison with (CE) fibers and hybrid fibers in all mixes; (iv) the brittleness ratio ranges between (4%-8%), (5%-10%) and (4.5%-9.5%) for (CE), (GB) and hybrid fibers cement mortar, respectively. And the direct tensile strength is nearly about 55% of flexural tensile strength as average for all fibrous cement mortar. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

The current research includes study the effect of internal sulfate (Calcium sulfate) on mechanical properties of normal and light weight concrete. The mechanical properties included compressive, splitting tensile, and flexural strength. The experimental work consists of casting and testing 216 cubes (150×150×150) mm, 216 cylinders (200×100) mm, and 144 prisms (400×100×100) mm having different condition including: ratio of the sulfate, the age test, type of concrete, and type of cement. This research consists of two part normal and light weight concrete, each part divided to three groups according to type of cement (type I cement, type V cement, and type I cement with 15% silica fume replacing from weight of cement). Each group consisting of four set with different ratio of sulfate (0.28% (reference SO3), 0.5%, 1% and 1.5%) by weight of fine aggregate where these ratios approximate the actual reality of the sulfates present in internal concrete components such as sand, each set having nine cubes tested in a different age (28, 60, and 90) days. The experimental results show that the harmful effect of internal sulfate in concrete on mechanical properties was decreased by using type I cement with 15% silica fume replacement whether normal and light weight concrete. Using of silica fume concrete is more effective to enhance the concrete resistance to internal sulfate attack. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

This paper presents the experimental study about the effect of water mixing temperature on concrete compressive strength containing different ratios of silica fume by compressive testing of 108 cubes of (150 150 150) mm dimensions. The parameters were studied; temperature of water mixing, ratio of silica fume and age of test. The specimens were divided into four groups having different temperature of mixing water (20, 40, 60, and 80) C, each group consisting of three set with different ratio of silica fume (0%, 10%, and 20%), each set having nine cubes tested in a different age (7, 14, and 28 days). In fresh state, the results showed that different water temperatures give different values of slump when the percentage of silica fume is constant, where the slump value decrease by about (2-4) mm for each 20 C increase in temperature. Also, the slump of the concrete decrease about (5-10) mm at each replace 10% from weight of cement by silica fume. In hardened state, the greatest increase in compressive strength obtained at 40 C by about (20-30) % in compared with 20 C and then began to drop slightly at 60 C, but at a temperature of 80 C observed a great decrease in compressive strength. It is also found that as advanced the age of test, compression strength increases but rate of increase fall at high of temperatures due to early curing causing by high temperature of hydration. it was observed in this study when the water temperature increased above 60 C, the presence of SF resulted to decreasing in the concrete strength. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

The present study includes an experimental and numerical investigations for the behavior and the load carrying capacity of simply supported beam with segmental arch bottom of high strength concrete (HSC) subjected to static loading condition. The goals were to evaluate the effect of arch dimensions on the behavior of beam with the same volume of concrete and amount of steel reinforcement and to find the optimum ratio of the arch length to beam span for the maximum load capacity as well as to validate the numerical results taken from the finite element model. The experimental program consists of testing four simply supported beams containing arch at the bottom face and tested under two-point load. The beams are different spans of arch (1180 mm, 900 mm, 740 mm, and 600 mm) with the same volume of concrete and amount of steel reinforcement. Among conclusions of this work, it is concluded that the increase of the arch length to beam span ratio increased the ultimate load capacity to more than 60 %. FEM appears efficient and gives good accuracy through comparison with the experimental results where the maximum difference in the ultimate load value was less than 4%. ©IAEME Publication.