12,123 research outputs found
Mechanical properties of soft clay stabilized with cement-rice husks (RH)
Chemical stabilization has been extensively used for the improvement of soft
clay soils, in enhancing the shear strength and limiting the deformation behaviours.
Cement is widely used as a stabilizing material for soils, but the increasing price is
causing economic concerns among practitioners and clients alike. The quest for
alternative cheaper stabilizing agents is therefore more urgent than before. Rice husk is a
major agricultural waste in Malaysia and the common disposal method of open burning
has notoriously contributed to environmental pollution. The possibility of admixing rice
husks with cement for stabilizing soft soils could be a solution to both problems. This
study was aimed at assessing the usefulness of cement-rice husks as an effective soil
stabilizer for improving the mechanical properties of clay soils. Laboratory experiments
were carried out on a stabilized soft clay to study the inter-relationships between shear
wave velocity, one-dimensional compressibility and unconfined compressive strength.
Bulk clay samples were collected from the Research Centre for Soft Soils (RECESS) of
UTHM. The stabilized specimens were prepared with the clay admixed with 5 % and 10
% cement and various quantities of rice husks, then compacted into cylindrical
specimens measuring 38 mm in diameter and 76 mm high. The specimens were then left
to cure for different periods up to a month. The stabilized specimens were observed to
undergo increase in stiffness and strength, as well as significant reduction in
compressibility, highlighting the great potential of cement-rice husk as an alternative
soft soil stabilizer.
Keywords: Clay soil stabilization, cement, rice husk, shear wave velocity, onedimensional
compressibility,
unconfined
compressive
strengt
Shear strength analysis of concrete beams reinforced with GFRP bars using strut and tie model
This dissertation presents an experimental investigation on the behavior and
ultimate shear strength of reinforced concrete beam. Sixteen reinforced concrete beams
was design and tested to failure. This study consists of two series of beams, which are
conventional steel reinforced beams (BSN) and reinforced concrete beams with Strut and
Tie Model (STM) using StaadPro software and both result were compared in term of
shear strength. The main test variables were shear span-to-depth ratio (2.1 and 2.9),
percent of longitudinal reinforcement ratio (tension) steel and GFRP (0.6% and 0.9%),
and shear reinforcement ratio (1.5% and 0.6%). The test results revealed that the mode of
failure for all beam is flexural with shear reinforcement characteristics and longitudinal
reinforcement ratio play a critical role in controlling the mode of failure. The
experimental approved that the spacing between shear cracks for the specimens with
larger shear span to depth ratio is greater than the smaller shear span to depth ratio and
while the shear span to depth ratio (a/d) decreases, the shear strength increase. For
longitudinal reinforcement ratio it can be inferred that the higher longitudinal
reinforcement ratio brings the smaller diagonal crack. Also, greater stirrup spacing leads
to the greater diagonal crack, confirming that there is a significant influence of the stirrup
spacing on the spacing between shear cracks. The reason for this behavior is the
decreasing effective concrete area, in which shear crack width is controlled by the stirrup,
and hence the increasing bond effect between the stirrup and the surrounding concrete
Pembangunan dan penilaian modul berbantukan komputer bagi subjek pemasaran : Politeknik Port Dickson
Kajian ini bertujuan membangunkan Modul Berbantukan Komputer (MBK) bagi
subjek Pemasaran. MBK ini dibangunkan dengan menggunakan pensian AutoPlay
Media dan Flash MX. Sampel kajian ini terdiri daripada 30 orang pelajar Diploma
Pemasaran di Politeknik Port Dickson. Data dikumpulkan melalui kaedah soal
selidik dan dianalisis berdasarkan kekerpan, peratusan dan skor min dengan
menggunakan perisian Statistical Package For Social Sciene (SPSS) versi 11.0.
Dapatan kajian menunjukkan penilaian terhadap pembagunan MBK di dalam proses
P&P adalah tinggi. Ini bermakna MBK ini sesuai digunakan di Politeknik Port
Dickson di dalam proses P&P
Optimization of stand-alone photovoltaic system by implementing fuzzy logic MPPT controller
A photovoltaic (PV) generator is a nonlinear device having insolation-dependent
volt-ampere characteristics. Since the maximum-power point varies with solar
insolation, it is difficult to achieve an optimum matching that is valid for all
insolation levels. Thus, Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) plays an
important roles in photovoltaic (PV) power systems because it maximize the
power output from a PV system for a given set of condition, and therefore
maximize their array efficiency. This project presents a maximum power point
tracker (MPPT) using Fuzzy Logic theory for a PV system. The work is focused
on a comparative study between most conventional controller namely Perturb and
Observe (P&O) algorithm and is compared to a design fuzzy logic controller
(FLC). The introduction of fuzzy controller has given very good performance on
whatever the parametric variation of the system
Clark County School District’s English Language Learners An Analysis of Enrollment, Educational Opportunities, and Outcomes in Nevada and CCSD
As the largest school district in Nevada and the fifth-largest school district in the country, Clark County School District (CCSD) served approximately 310,000 students in 341 schools during the 2010-2011 school year. Typical of urban districts, more than half of its students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, and 68 percent are students of color. Many schools are located in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, as well as racial and linguistic isolation (Terriquez, Flashman & Schuler-Brown 2009). Also, the patterns of enrollment show dramatic increases in the proportions of English language learners (ELLs) in CCSD over the last two decades
Understanding the Regulation of Predatory and Anti-Prey Behaviours for an Artificial Organism
An organism’s behaviour can be categorised as being either predatory or anti-prey. Predatory behaviours are behaviours that try to improve the life of an organism. Anti-prey behaviours are those that attempt to prevent death. Regulation between these two opposing behaviours is necessary to ensure survivability—and gene regulatory networks and metabolic networks are the mechanisms that provide this regulation. We know that such regulatory behaviour is encoded in an organism’s genes. The question is, how is it encoded? The understanding of this encoding can help with the development of an artificial organism, for example an autonomous robotic system; whereby the robot will have the ability to autonomously regulate the switching between the opposing behaviours using this encoded mechanism, in order to ensure its sustainable and continuous system operations. This paper aims to look into the properties of an artificial bio-chemical network consisting of a genetic regulatory network and a metabolic network that can provide these capabilities
Investigating the properties of bio-chemical networks of artificial organisms with opposing behaviours
Organisms, be it singled-celled organisms or multi-cellular organisms, are constantly faced with opposing objectives requiring different sets of behaviours. These behaviours can be classified into two, predatory behaviours or anti-prey behaviours, with one set of behaviours causing an opposite effect to the other. A healthy organism aims to achieve its equilibrium state or to be in homeostasis. Homeostasis is achieved when a balance between the two opposing behaviours is created and maintained. This raises some questions: is there an innate mechanism that encodes for these categories of behaviours? Is there also an innate mechanism(s) that resolves conflicts and allows switching between these two opposing behaviours? If we consider artificial organisms as single-celled organisms, how do the organisms’ gene regulatory network, metabolic network and/or signalling network (their biochemical networks) maintain homeostasis of the organisms? This paper investigates the properties of the networks of best evolved artificial organisms, in order to help answer these questions, and guide the evolutionary development of controllers for artificial systems
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