Utilization of Recycled Construction and Demolition Waste in the Manufacture of Prefabricated Wall Claddings to Achieve Sustainability

The climate of Egypt is characterized by high temperatures. Clay bricks, the most common type of building bricks in Egypt, are one of the main reasons for increasing the heat gain of buildings. The absence of suitable environmental alternatives for clay bricks calls for an attempt to find and evaluate effective alternatives.This research aims to manufacture wall claddings that meet the environmental requirements and thermal comfort needs of buildings in Egypt through recycling construction and demolition waste (CDW). Multiple proposals featuring different mixtures of cement, sand, water and CDW (crushed concrete and crushed bricks) were tested to determine the most suitable mixture in terms of thermal insulation. After comparing the results of each proposal, the best performing samples were further tested and applied to clay bricks to assess their performance and effectiveness in achieving thermal comfort. These tests yielded promising results, as the best performing wall claddings succeeded in reducing heat gain by up to 86%. Results revealed that the application of CDW wall claddings could significantly reduce the energy consumed for cooling and air conditioning. Furthermore, wall claddings have a relative environmental advantage over clay bricks commonly used in residential buildings in Egypt as they represent a safe way to dispose of construction and demolition waste that is normally disposed of in harmful ways with a negative impact on the environment. The researchers recommend examining different materials and alternatives that can be manufactured from construction and demolition waste, as the available capabilities remain numerous and not sufficiently researched

Utilization of Recycled Construction and Demolition Waste in the Manufacture of Prefabricated Wall Claddings to Achieve Sustainability

The climate of Egypt is characterized by high temperatures. Clay bricks, the most common type of building bricks in Egypt, are one of the main reasons for increasing the heat gain of buildings. The absence of suitable environmental alternatives for clay bricks calls for an attempt to find and evaluate effective alternatives.This research aims to manufacture wall claddings that meet the environmental requirements and thermal comfort needs of buildings in Egypt through recycling construction and demolition waste (CDW). Multiple proposals featuring different mixtures of cement, sand, water and CDW (crushed concrete and crushed bricks) were tested to determine the most suitable mixture in terms of thermal insulation. After comparing the results of each proposal, the best performing samples were further tested and applied to clay bricks to assess their performance and effectiveness in achieving thermal comfort. These tests yielded promising results, as the best performing wall claddings succeeded in reducing heat gain by up to 86%. Results revealed that the application of CDW wall claddings could significantly reduce the energy consumed for cooling and air conditioning. Furthermore, wall claddings have a relative environmental advantage over clay bricks commonly used in residential buildings in Egypt as they represent a safe way to dispose of construction and demolition waste that is normally disposed of in harmful ways with a negative impact on the environment. The researchers recommend examining different materials and alternatives that can be manufactured from construction and demolition waste, as the available capabilities remain numerous and not sufficiently researched

Deception between spouses and its impact on the family relationship

This research highlights deceit between couples which is considered a widely spread problem in this time threatens and leads to division and conflict between many couples.I define deceit linguistic and idiomatic, besides I clarify its types and its Islamic law, some of the words or deeds one or both of the couples could do to deceive each other particularly the new things, the consequences of this deceit and the rule of Islamic law in such deeds and words. The study concludes that any word or deed may lead to deceit between couples must be interdicted and there must be an openness and clarification before a contract between couples Keywords: China insurance industry, Foreign fund, Challeng

Analysis and Design of a Sub-Optimal MEKF for Low Earth Orbit Attitude Estimation Using a Radically Inexpensive MEMS IMU

A previous study investigated the feasibility in using a radically inexpensive MEMS IMU with a GPS and a model of Earth’s magnetic field for attitude determination. A Multiplicative Extended Kalman Filter was designed to estimate the biases and errors associated with the IMU and reduce attitude uncertainty. States with large influence on overall uncertainty were identified through error budget and sensitivity analysis. It was determined that the complexity of the Kalman filter could be significantly reduced by removing 18 of the 42-element state vector. In this study, the sub- optimal filter is designed and its feasibility for attitude determination is demonstrated through Monte Carlo simulations. The primary mission is inertial attitude control in support of spacecraft mission operations in low Earth orbit. Our challenge is to create a radically inexpensive spacecraft using commercially available and bespoke subsystems. This inhibits the use of expensive and larger attitude sensors such as star cameras and sun sensors. While the proposed system uses a Raspberry Pi as the main flight computer, reducing computational complexity enhances the ability to provide near-real-time attitude solutions. This sub-optimal MEKF therefore improves mission capabilities by reducing computational load

Compressive behavior of hollow concrete columns reinforced with GFRP bars

Hollow concrete columns (HCCs) reinforced with steel bars have been employed extensively for bridge piers, ground piles, and utility poles because they offer higher structural efficiency compared to solid concrete columns with the same concrete area. Many experimental studies have been conducted to investigate the behavior of HCCs under different loading conditions and have found that the structural performance of HCCs is critically affected by the inner-to-outer diameter, reinforcement ratio, volumetric ratio, and concrete compressive strength. The improper design of the HCCs led to brittle failure behavior due to either buckling of the longitudinal bars or concrete wall crushing. Moreover, the corrosion of steel bars in HCCs is a critical issue due to their inner and outer exposed surfaces. Therefore, this research systematically investigated the fundamental behavior of HCCs reinforced with GFRP bars in compression to develop new, durable and structurally reliable construction systems. Firstly, HCCs with different inner-to-outer diameter (i/o) ratios was investigated by testing four concrete columns 250 mm in external diameter and reinforced longitudinally with six 15.9 mm diameter GFRP bars with different inner diameters (0, 40, 65, and 90 mm). One HCC reinforced with steel bars was also prepared and tested as a control sample. Based on the experimental results, increasing the i/o ratio up to 0.36 changed the failure behavior from brittle to ductile. GFRP-reinforced HCCs exhibited higher deformation capacity and confinement efficiency compared to the GFRP-reinforced SCC and steel-reinforced HCC. The optimal (i/o) ratio was found at 0.36 as it resulted in the highest confined strength and ductility for GFRP-reinforced HCC. Similarly, reinforcing with longitudinal GFRP bars enhanced the overall behavior of HCCs. The effect of varying the reinforcement ratio was investigated as the second study. To study this parameter, six HCCs reinforced longitudinally with GFRP bars with different reinforcement ratios (1.78%, 1.86%, 2.67%, 2.79%, 3.72%, and 4.00%) were prepared and tested. These reinforcement ratios were achieved by changing the bar diameter (12.7 mm, 15.9 mm, and 19.1 mm) and number of bars (4, 6, 8, and 9 bars). The test results show that the increase in the bar diameter and number enhanced the strength, ductility and confinement efficiency of HCCs. For columns with equal reinforcement ratios, using a higher number and smaller diameter of GFRP bars yielded 12% higher confinement efficiency than in the columns with a lesser number and larger diameter of GFRP bars. The capacity of the GFRP-reinforced HCC can be reliably predicted by considering the contribution of the concrete and up to 3000 ue in the longitudinal reinforcement. The crushing strain of the GFRP bars embedded in the HCCs was 52.1% of the ultimate tensile strain, and was affected by the confinement provided by the lateral reinforcements and the compressive strength of concrete. The effect of spiral spacing and concrete compressive strength was investigated as the third study. Seven large-scale HCCs with (i/o) ratio of 0.36, and reinforced with six longitudinal GFRP bars were prepared and tested. Out of these seven columns, three had spiral spacing of 50 mm, 100 mm, and 150 mm, and one had no spirals to investigate the effect of this design parameter. The fc of the other three columns were varied from 21 to 44 MPa to investigate the effect of the concrete compressive strength. Test results show that reducing the spiral spacing resulted in increasing the design load capacity, ductility, and confined strength of the HCCs due to the high lateral confinement. Increasing fc, on the other hand, increased the axial load capacity and reduced the ductility and confinement efficiency due to the brittle behavior of the high concrete compressive strength. The analytical model was then developed considering the contribution of the GFRP bars and the confined concrete core, which accurately predicted the post-loading behavior of the HCCs. The experimental results from the three experimental studies demonstrated that the (i/o) ratio, p, pv , and fc affect the overall behavior of GFRP-reinforced HCCs. Therefore, a new design-oriented model considering the effects of these design parameters was developed in the fourth study to accurately and reliably describe the behavior of the GFRP-reinforced HCCs. The new design-oriented model was based on the plasticity theory of concrete and considered the critical design parameters to precisely model the compressive load–strain behavior of GFRP-reinforced HCCs under monotonic and concentric loading. The results demonstrated that the proposed design-oriented model was accurate and yielding a very good representation of the axial compressive load behavior of GFRP-reinforced hollow concrete columns. From the results of this research, a detailed understanding on how the critical design parameters affect the structural performance of GFRP-reinforced HCCs was gained. Moreover, the results from this research will provide useful information in revealing the many benefits of this new structurally efficient and non-corrosive construction system, which support the work of the technical committees engaged in the development of design provisions for GFRP-reinforced concrete columns

LYMPHOMA: EXPLORING AWARENESS IN LEBANON

In 2012, 14.1 million patients were diagnosed with cancer worldwide of which 385,700 estimated new cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Also, 81,080 new cases of lymphoma were reported in the United States (US) among both genders in 2016. In Lebanon, Lymphoma represents the fifth most frequent cancer, nonetheless, little is known regarding its epidemiological attributes. This study aims to determine the current knowledge of the Lebanese people living in Lebanon about Lymphoma. About 400 participants were approached in public places, universities, hospitals or work places in different regions across Lebanon. A survey including questions about lymph nodes, cancer and lymphoma as well as demographic characteristics was given to all eligible participants. The data was collected and analyzed using SPSS and p value \u3c 0.05 was considered significant. When asked about the types of cancers they knew, the majority of participants (93.5%) were able to identify breast cancer, while less than half of (30.67%) identified lymphoma as a cancer. Enlargement of the lymph nodes (LN) was the most common recognized symptom (93.4%) whereas 76.42% thought that family history of lymphoma was the most frequent risk factor for lymphoma. Among those who claim to know about lymphoma (30%), true in-depth knowledge about lymphoma was still lacking. The results of this independently conducted survey reveal the lack of awareness about lymphomas among the Lebanese population and highlight the need for campaigns to increase the knowledge and awareness

By-Product Alcohol: Fusel Oil as an Alternative Fuel in Spark Ignition Engine

Fusel oil is a by-product obtained through the fermentation of some agricultural products. The fusel oil properties are closer to other alternative combustible types and the limited number of studies on the use of fusel oil as an alcohol derivative in SI engines constitutes to the base of this study. This paper experimentally examined the impacts of a by-product of alcohol, which is fusel oil by blending it with gasoline, on engine performance, combustion characteristics, and emissions in a 4-cylinder SI engine. The test was achieved at different engine speeds and a 60 % throttle valve (load). As results, brake power, BTE, and BSFC of F10 are higher at all engine speeds. Maximum engine BTE was 33.9%, at the lowest BSFC with F10. Moreover, it is worth seeing that the F10 under rich air-fuel ratio has less variation of COVIMEP compared to the F20 and gasoline. F10 represents shorter combustion duration, thereby, the engine power increased. NOx emission for F10 at 4500 rpm was lower than gasoline. The highest value of HC emission is obtained with F10 compared to gasoline and F20 with an average increase of 11% over the engine speed range. CO and CO2 emissions increased when using fusel oil blends

Performance, Combustion Characteristics and Emission Tests of Single Cylinder Engine Running on Fusel Oil - Diesel Blended (F20) Fuel

Alcohols produced from a renewable source are amongst the important alternative fuels for internal combustion engines. Investigations on alternative fuels for compression ignition engines regarded as one of the major research areas. This paper details an experimental examination of the performance and emissions in single cylinder compression ignition engines operating with fusel oil F20 and pure diesel F0 at five engine speeds and 50% engine load. The test results indicated that the engine power and torque slightly decrease with the F20 at low speeds compared with pure diesel. Further, the in-cylinder pressure was decreased at all engine speed for F20 in comparison with pure diesel. The volumetric efficiency and fuel consumption were increased for F20 due the low heating value of fusel oil. The results showed that CO2 and CO emissions were increased because of the water content, low heating value and low cetane number for fusel oil. The maximum reduction in NOx emissions was 18% for F20 at 1500 rpm

Effect of Palm Fiber-Hydrated Lime Composition on the Permeability of Stabilised Sandy Soil

Sandy soil is one of the most conventional construction materials used as backfill materials in the retention of structures in foundations. This study to investigate the composition of admixture permeability experimental to stabilized sandy soil use the composition percentage (4, 6, & 8% hydrated lime only), sandy soil with 2% hydrated lime (0.5%, 1%, and 1.5% palm fiber) and 6% of hydrated lime (0.5%, 1% and 1.5% of palm fiber) proportionally. The results presented that the mixture of 2% and 6% hydrated lime with 0.5%, 1%, and 1.5% of palm fiber proportionally, decreased the percentage of reduction of permeability from 94.22% at 0 days to 66.67% at 7 days. The mixture of 6% of hydrated lime and 1.5% of palm fiber at 0 dan 7 curing time give a better performance. Thus, this helps in using the constant head method in Geotechnical practices