Engineering and Technology Journal

This research presents the results of 14 tests, where the pile is subjected to static lateral loads. The tests are carried out on pile models with different length / diameter ratios embedded in sand with different relative densities. The influence of embedment length to diameter ratios (L/D), relative density and mode of failure of the pile on the ultimate lateral resistance of piles are investigated. A series of different ratios of embedded length to constant diameter ranging from 12 to 30 was used to perform this study. From the results of the experimental models, it is found that, the length to diameter ratio is a significant variable that influences the ultimate resistance of the piles, where lateral static loads were employed to the single pile by a static lateral load using a device designed for this purpose, and due to the static lateral load the pile was deflected. The ultimate lateral resistance of a pile is investigated to specify the behavior of the pile under the effect of lateral loads as a rigid or flexible pile.

Most of the studies of laterally loaded piles focused on the behavior for piles subjected to static or cyclic lateral loading embedded within dry or saturated soils, few studies investigate the behavior of piles embedded within partially saturated soils and subjected to dynamic loads. In this research, an experimental study presents an aluminum pile model embedded within dry, fully saturated and partially saturated soils, subjected to dynamic load with the El Centro 1940 NS acceleration data (0.05g, 0.15g, and 0.32g) accelerations. Three different lowering levels of the water table for fully saturated soils model is achieved to get partially saturated soils of three different values of matrix suction. During an earthquake model, a liquefaction phenomenon is observed by boiling of sand and completed collapse in the soil as shown in the results. It is concluded that the resisting to the bending moment reduced by 22%, 50%, and 57% after 1st, 2nd and 3rd lowering of water level respectively, than that of the saturated condition. This reduction approaches to 28% for completely dry soil. It is worth to mention, that, the deflection of the pile reduced as the lowering of water level increased. The soil resistance increases with the increasing of dynamic load acceleration. The soil resistance increases about 35% when the acceleration increase from 0.05g to 0.15g and an increase of about 22% when the acceleration increases from 0.15g to 0.32g.

Dispersive soils are characterized by three features: (1) unstable structure, (2) they are readily flocculate in water, and (3) very erodible. The use of dispersed clay soils in hydraulic structures, dams and road dams can cause serious engineering problems when this soil is not identified and used befittingly. There is a simple way to determine soil dispersion and more difficult to measure dispersion.  (Atterberg’slimits) (grain size analysis), and (visible classification) are not enough to recognize between (normal clays) and (dispersive clays).ASTM tests can identify dispersive clay, these include: (double hydrometer test), (chemical tests), (Crumb test), and (Pinhole test). In this paper, the dispersed soil has been artificially prepared by adding Na₂CO₃  to  natural clay in different proportions. The proportions are 5%, 15%, 25%, 30%, 35%, and 40% by weight. The target of this investigation is to investigate the effect of degree of dispersion of the soil on Atterberg limits. The study showed that the percentage of dispersion increases  with Atterberg’slimits  and the dispersion ratio and the plasticity index relationship are related by a direct relationship.

Reinforcement interlayer reduces the development of cracks in the asphalt overlay by absorbing the stresses induced by heavy traffic or underlying cracking in the early-constructed pavement. This research is dedicated to studying the behavior of pavement layers on a sand subgrade under simulated effect of earthquake. In this study, the sand layer has a thickness of 600 mm and the base course is taken as 300 mm. The asphalt layer was prepared as a panel with dimensions of 300 × 300 × 50, which represents the surface layer. These layers are experimentally tested under the influence of earthquake loading with different frequencies 0.5, 1, 1.5 Hz. The tests consist of two parts without adding the geogrid, with geogrid in the center of the base layer and between the base layer and sand layer. Loaded stresses in the three layers are monitored using stress gauge sensors, while displacements of the asphalt layer by using displacement gauge sensor. Obtained results considered models reinforced with geogrid, the stress recorded is higher than in unreinforced models but the displacement decreases by increasing the geogrid in the layers at three frequencies. When the geogrid is laid between the base course and sand layer, the stress in the sand subgrade layer is less than that in the base and asphalt layers.

Multifunctional Cementitious Composite (MCC) characteristics are directly related to the type and dosage of the Electrically Conductive Materials (ECMs) reinforcing the relevant concrete matrices. This study investigated the electro-mechanical capacities of fiber reinforced concrete pavement (FRCP) with and without the addition of micro scale-carbon fiber (CF). The impact energy of FRCP under compacted load was evaluated initially; then, the effects of 0.5% and 1% content by volume of CF on the piezoresistivity capacities of FRCP were investigated under applied impact load. This type of load is the most common force causing long-term rigid pavement deterioration. Obtained results showed that the use of a hybrid fiber (micro-scale carbon fiber 0.5% and macro-scale steel fiber 1% by volume) enhanced the impact strength (impact energy) due to CF’s resistance to micro-cracks. The developed FRCP showed good results in terms of self-sensing under compact load with both 0.5 and 1.0% by volume of CF.

The production process of cement is the main binder material in concrete usually accompanied by carbon dioxide emission. Therefore, geopolymer concrete (GPC) an alternative binder material was developed as a replacement for cement. In order to make this promising material more common in constructions and applicable for different design purposes further investigations for GPC mechanical properties were needed. This work aims to predicate the splitting tensile strength, modulus of elasticity and flexural strength for normal and high strength GPC by deriving new equations covering a wide range of compressive strength based on data available from previous work. Equations behavior along the changes in compressive strength from normal to high is adopted in comparisons as illustrated. The results show that the proposed equations, as compared with other equations established by previous works, provide a steady behavior for the various values of compressive strength especially for high strength. The coefficient of variation (COV) used as additional comparison criteria, and shows that the proposed equations provide better estimation of GPC mechanical properties.

Over the past few decades,  interest has grown about the role of the piled raft structure in soils. A structural fill cushion separates the piles from the raft in the form of an unconnected piled raft base (UCPRF). Given the advantage of this structure, the load is dispersed between the raft and the piles by the cushion. The cushion serves as a load redistributor between the raft and the piles. Load dispersion capability of the system was theoretically estimated using PLAXIS finite element analysis software in this study. The effect of cushion thickness on settlement reductions was investigated as well.  Obtained results showed that the pile head has the greatest axial stress in the piled raft system., however decreased along the length of the pile according to finite element analysis. The unconnected head's maximum axial load is transferred down to a point a certain distance below the pile head (approximately two meters in the studied model). Above the top two meters, the axial stress in the pile begins to decrease, following the same pattern as the connected system. The thickness of the cushion affects the load sharing between the cushion and the piles. As the cushion thickness increases, the axial stress at the pile head decreases

The great economic development and the growth of modern means of construction have led to the spread of large quantities of chemical admixtures that we must be cautious of. As the world is turning towards environmentally friendly alternatives, finding locally viable solutions is becoming inevitable. The influence of using Nano starches of a biopolymer on certain properties of silica fume concrete in the fresh case (slump and fresh density) and in the hardened case (compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and flexural strength) has been investigated. It has been added to silica fume concrete in various percentages of (0%, 0.25%, 0.5%, and 0.75%) by cement weight. The mix proportions of concrete mixtures were 1:2.3:2.3, with a fixed w/c of 0.47 and 15 % silica fume added by the weight of cement for all mixers. super plasticizer of 0.75% is also added by the weight of cement for all mixtures. According to the findings, slump increased by 19%, and fresh density increased by 3% when Nano starch was added at a concentration of 0.75%. The optimal level of Nano starch addition was 0.25%, which resulted in a 43% increase in compressive strength and a 34% and 26% increase in splitting tensile and flexural strength of concrete, respectively.

Mobile phone use is one of the most common daily tasks and this is normal, however, this task could be problematic while driving. The use of mobile phones while driving has become a major cause of road accidents and poses a threat to public health. This study investigated the effect of mobile phone usage while driving on response time, as it investigated four mobile phone tasks (hands-free calling, hand calls, reading text messages, and sending text messages) in addition to basic driving. A total of 42 participants, ranging in age from (19 to 55), with a mean age (mean = 33.14, SD = 10.26) participated in the driving simulation at the University of Technology and all participants performed five tasks. The participants had to interact with voice commands by performing the throttle maneuver. The results concluded with a delay in response, which means an increase in cognitive reaction time when using a mobile phone compared to basic driving. It has also been found that the response time increases with the age of drivers.

Geopolymer is a binder material that was created as a result of efforts to decrease Portland cement's negative environmental effects.  Geopolymer concrete shares certain properties with ordinary concrete, including brittleness. Like ordinary concrete, geopolymer concrete, when exposed to stresses, cracks and fails under these stresses. The purpose of adding fibers to geopolymer concrete is to overcome the matrix's brittleness and enhance its strength (particularly flexural strength). This study used metakaolin, a range of alkaline activators, and different quantities of polypropylene fibers to produce geopolymer concrete. Metakaolin's chemical composition, workability, density, flexural and compressive strength of geopolymer concrete were all examined for the purpose of determining the effect of polypropylene fibers on geopolymer concrete. Polypropylene fibers were used to make the mixes, which were then added to the mix at various percentages of 0 %, 0.5 %, and 1 % of the total volume of concrete. The results of the experiments showed that increasing the polypropylene fiber content to 0.5 % boosts the compressive strength of geopolymer concrete. On the seventh day, the compressive strength increased to 21 %. The density of geopolymer concrete was increased by adding polypropylene fibers, and there was a decrease in the workability with different fiber ratios.

The main objective of this paper is to study the confinement of the rectangular reinforced concrete short inclined columns. This paper was based on theoretical analysis using the MATLAB program according to Universal Codes, and variables that were carefully selected to be the most influential factor. The angle of the inclination (α) was taken as a major variable in the paper, in addition other variables which in turn affect directly on the behavior of inclined columns such as the percentage of reinforcing steel in the concrete section of the column (ρ), the compressive strength of the concrete (fʹc), yield strength of steel bars (fy) and effective depth ratio (γ). The results show that best ratio of reinforcing steel that improves the value of the confinement ranges from 0.4 - 0.6 which leads to an increase in the confinement of (60 – 100) %, and these rates increase with increasing α, and the increase in fʹc leads to a significant increase in the confinement, especially when HSC is used..On the other hand, decreasing  fy leads to increase in confinement, and the value of the γ had a considerable effect on the confinement that was decreased by about 11% when γ equals 0.9, compared with the corresponding γ equals 0.6.

In the presented study, a WorldView2 WV2 satellite image has been prepared to be used in map updating projects. The performed operations can be classified into two categories, the first category includes pansharpening methods for creating a new 8- spectral bands of WV2 Imagery, each one of them has a 0.5-meter spatial resolution. The Pansharpening technique has been implemented with four different approaches, i.e. (Principal Components PC, Wavelet Transform WT, Hyperspherical Color Space HCS, and High Pass Filtering HPF). For these four methods and based on a visual comparison among the quality of the resulting images (with respect to the original Multi-spectral Worldview2 MS-WV2 image), the HCS image has been determined as the best one of them. Because of the high-security situation of the study area, and the impossibility of using the Global Positioning System GPS and other surveying devices there, the Controlled Image Based CIB of 1-meter resolution has been depended on as a source of reference Ground Control Points GCPs. Initially, set GCPs and Check Points are determined on both the HCS Pansharpened image and the CIB image. For maintaining the linearity of the geometric distortion within WV2 original image, the 1st order polynomial transformation model has been selected to perform the geometric correction process. It is clearly concluded that the resulted Root Mean Square Error RMSE of the geometric correction process is acceptable for a wide range of mapping applications. Moreover, the resulting geometrically corrected pan-sharpened WV2 image can be utilized for increasing the interpretation capability of the land features by giving more false color displaying options, and finally supporting the related map updating projects.

The religious endowments are one of the important sources, which acquire historical, cultural, and economic importance in all countries of the world. In particular, a religious endowment in Iraq includes several distributed real estates and lands that usually require efficient management systems. One of the most important factors affecting the management of real estates that belong to religious endowments is the rental amount of each real estate. In general, the estimation of the rental of real estates can support the future development of religious endowments. Governmental agencies are faced with some challenges in the management of religious endowments in terms of rental pricing due to numerous economic and geographic factors. The rapid development of artificial intelligence systems and Geomatic techniques can present a framework for rental amount estimation based on spatial and non-spatial factors. In this study, a machine learning algorithm (Support Vector Regression) will be combined with Geographic Information System (GIS) to predict and evaluate the rental amount of real estates that belong to a religious institution in Iraq (Shiite endowment in Hillah city). The final results indicated that the proposed method achieved an overall accuracy of 71%, a root mean square error of 0.2257 million Iraq, Dinar (IQD), and a correlation coefficient of 0.9272. This study can be used as an effective tool for the decision-makers to plan and manage the religious endowments in developing countries.  

The increase in the number of traffic accidents, deaths, and injuries is a major concern for traffic and safety professionals. Distraction from the road is common, but increases safety concerns. Drivers engage in many behaviors that are a distraction from the task of driving, and these sources may be inside or outside the vehicle. The driver may not have a clear idea of the negative impact of such activities on achieving safe driving. The paper focused on one type of distraction that occurs inside the car, the factor of eating while driving in order to address the question of whether such activities cause anxiety. The effect of eating while driving as an additional task (dual task) compared to driving baseline (single task) on each driver's performance and safety was studied. This research was conducted at the University of Technology-Iraq uses a fixed and medium accuracy driving simulator. To measure driver performance, the driver's ability to maintain a set speed limit was tested. For safety, the driver's ability to avoid accidents was measured. The highway environment scenario was adopted to perform driving experiences for the 42 participants, the length of the road was 15 km, and the driving experience took (30) minutes at a rate of (10-15) minutes for each driving task. The results revealed a decrease in the mean journey speed of all participants during the (dual driving) experiment compared to the results of the mean journey speed (single driving). The speed of females decreased more than males. The youngest age group (19-29) years led at a faster rate than the age groups (30-39), (40-49), and (50-55). No accidents were recorded during the baseline driving task. In the dual driving task, females recorded a higher number of accidents than males. The youth category (19-29) was characterized by recording the largest number of accidents.

Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) is a new generation of concrete characterized by its high strength, high durability, and high stiffness. Autogenously shrinkage represents one of the issues of UHPC that occurred at early ages. It occurs particularly during the first 48 hours after casting. This paper focuses on the ways that can be depended on to mitigate the autogenously shrinkage and obtain the outstanding mechanical properties of UHPC. The results showed that the use of coarse sand and high dose of high range water reduced the admixture above 5% of cementations of materials weight, and high ambient temperature at the time of mixing and casting led to increasing the autogenously shrinkage. While using fine sand, silica fume at 25% of cement weight, and crushed ice at 50% of mixing water to control the mixing temperature can reduce autogenously shrinkage significantly.

Pozzolime is a promising alternative binder, compared to Portland cement because of its low CO₂ emission. it is produced by mixing hydrated lime, silica fume, and fly ash. Fiber is added to concrete to improve the durability, mechanical properties of the structure, and others. In this study, high-strength Pozzolime concrete was reinforced with hooked-end steel fiber which was added as fractions of volume of 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2%. Optimization for fiber content was performed according to the workability and strength of the fiber-reinforced mixture. Obtained results showed that the compressive strengths at 14d and 90d increased by 71.4% and 58.3% respectively when adding 1.5% steel fiber. Correspondingly, the 14d, 28d, and 90d flexural strength of pozzolime concrete increased by 170.4%, 203.2%, and 191.4% respectively at 1.5% and a further increase in fiber content caused a reduction in strength. The finding presented in this research confirmed that the volume fraction (1.5%) can be considered as the optimum content.

Self-compacting geopolymer concrete (SCGPC) is a cutting-edge sustainable engineering material in construction that eliminates the need for both compaction and Portland cement. In this study, the impact of various steel fiber content on the workability of SCGPC was investigated. The basic workability features of freshly made SCGPC, such as filling ability, passing ability, and segregation resistance, were assessed by employing slump flow, V-funnel, L-box, and J-ring test techniques. Obtained results showed that all the investigated characteristics of SCGPC have retreated due to the inclusion of steel fibers. Findings presented in this research confirmed that the basic requirements of EFNARC could only be satisfied when Vf ≤ 1.0%.

This work aims to use the digital elevation model (DEM) or 3-Dimensional surface to model and analyze the water flow in the Tigris River. The first stage of this study is based on filed data acquisition survey at 38 stations.  These stations were adopted to implement the one-dimensional steady and unsteady numerical flow models. The HEC-RAS software was used to implement these models. The most important results of the steady-state model were that the maximum discharge and velocity and minimum flow area were 638.17 m³/sec, 2.12 m/sec and 301.42 m² respectively. These values occurred at station 66+700. While, the minimum discharge and velocity and maximum flow area were 504.5 m³/sec, 0.13m/sec and 4758.13 m² respectively. The results of unsteady state were analyzed based on the recorded discharge in the year 2018. The maximum and minimum discharge (flow velocity) were 638.12 m³/sec (2.42 m/sec) at the stations 94+666+7 and 635.57 m³/sec(0.14 m/sec) at station 00+00, respectively. The maximum and minimum Froude number were 0.52 and 0.02 at stations 94+666+7 and 04+800, respectively. These results help to identify the flow choking areas that cause defects. In addition, it can be the base for determining the critical sedimentation stations in which the bed level rises and aggravate the flow choking problem within the considered reach of the Tigris River.

Biomass’ pyrolysis process is responsible for producing the biochar charcoal, this process does not incorporate the oxygen, and it is utilized as a soil enhancer for each one of the carbon sequestration, and soil health prospects. Biochar can be defined as a stabilized solid which is enriched with carbon and could remain in the soil for extended period of time. Biochar has been studied as a way of carbon sequestration, and it might be a way used for handling climate change and global warming. It happens due to the processes that are associated with pyrogenic carbon capturing and storages. This review is focused on an overview of biochar preparation and application in the environment, previous studies and Applications. Biochar is prepared from various organic materials such as miscanthus, switch grass, corn stover, and sugarcane bagasse. The method of preparation varies with different temperatures and the discharge of nitrogen gas used for a period of one hour not to mention thermal decomposition at different temperatures of heat (500, 600, 700 and 800oC). The success of its use as a adsorbent material, and in treating the soil from heavy metals, its suitability for agriculture, and the treatment of the liquid leachate from solid waste down into the groundwater, in addition to the treatment of groundwater when the topography of the region differs.

Geomatics involves the collection, management, integration, representation, analysis, modeling and display of geographically referenced information describing both the Earth’s physical features and the built environment. One of the main use of this tool is to estimate electrical energy demand throughout Al Anbar Governorate, which have major problems in this sector with about 750 to 770 MW. The consumption of the city of Al Ramadi is about 200 MW. According to official forecasts by the Directorate of Electricity Networks of Al Anbar, this demand is expected to increase to about 900 MW during the summer of 2020. The present distribution systems in Al Ramadi are mostly overhead. Gradual conversion from overhead to underground systems, particularly at the 11 kV level, is recommended, especially in the central part of the city. This will allow for higher system safety and reliability, and for a much aesthetically improved appearance. This necessitated the construction of additional backup stations. Furthermore, prepared a plan for stations that have been constructed in the year 2020, in order to meet the anticipated demand growth during the planning period. Long-term plan for the Governorate of Al Anbar in order to cope with the increased demand for electrical energy.

This paper discusses a finite element analysis of shallow footing subjected to axial loading rested on different types of cohesive soil by using a computer program called PLAXIS-3D (V.20) software. The behavior of cohesive soil is simulated using several constitutive models (Mohr-Coulomb model, Hardening soil model, and Hardening soil with small strain stiffness model in order to find the best match between theoretical and experimental results).Two cases are considered square and rectangle. Moreover, some parameters that affect the load settlement relation curve; such as internal friction angle and soil modulus elasticity were investigated. It was found that the simulation by the Hardening soil model with small strain stiffness gives better results in both cases of the square and rectangle (C=25) and square footing (C=70). It was also observed that increasing the foundation width led to increases in bearing capacity, however, there was an increase of bearing capacity to about (9.45 %) for an increase in footing width of (6.25), so it was about (17%) for (12.5). For square footing in stiff clayey soil, the bearing capacity of the soil increases to about (23%) when the range of the modules of elasticity of soil increases from (10000 to 30000KN/m²).

Science evidence suggests that fatigue due to lack of sleep is a major cause of most traffic accidents. Fatigue can arise when people do not get enough sleep, which is at least 7 hours, and this deprivation can impair body performance physically and mentally while driving. This study investigated the effect of sleep deprivation fatigue on driving performance. Experiments were performed for two types of tasks, Fatigue driving tasks (sleep deprivation) and non-Fatigue driving tasks (without sleep deprivation) on a driving simulator at the University of Technology, in which 42 participants; aged (19-55) took part with an average age (mean = 33.14, SD = 10.26). Driver performance was assessed using descriptive methods to verify response time and subjective behavior methods using the Stanford Drowsiness Scale. The results showed a gradual increase in the average response time of the fatigued drivers compared to the non-fatigue drivers. The results of the response time indicated that all groups were affected by the test conditions, through the variation in the average response time between the two tasks. In a related context, the results of the Stanford Drowsiness Scale show a significant increase in the average degree of drowsiness for fatigue drivers, as it was greater than for non-Fatigue drivers.