Challenges in Modelling Reinforced Concrete Panels Subjected to Blast Load - A Critical Review

Reinforced concrete panels are widely used in modern facilities, and evaluating their blast loading capacity is vital for security-critical assets. Due to the high impulsive nature of blast loads, the response of reinforced concrete panels is characteristically different from that under static or low dynamic load conditions. The failure of individual components often initiates the blast load's destructive effects on the entire structure. The material breach can be caused by stress wave localized effects before the general structural response becomes significant. Numerical methods are one of the key methods for studying the behaviour of reinforced concrete panels under blast load. This paper aims to review the current state of practice in modelling reinforced concrete panels and predicting their blast capacity and failure mechanisms under blast load. The work addresses the research gaps associated with using advanced finite element modelling as compared to test results

Synthesis And Characterization Of Nanocrystalline Cds Thin Films By Microwave-Assisted Chemical Bath Deposition For Photodetectors Application

Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mensintesis filem nipis kadmium sulfida berstruktur-nano (CdS) untuk peranti pengesan-foto (PD) yang cekap menggunakan kaedah mudah dan berkos rendah. Filem nipis CdS berstruktur-nano telah dihasilkan di atas substrat Si (100) oleh pemendapan rendaman kimia berbantukan gelombang mikro. This study aimed to synthesize nanostructured cadmium sulfide (CdS) thin films for efficient photodetector (PD) devices using a simple and low-cost method. Nanocrystalline CdS thin films were grown on Si(100) substrates by microwave-assisted chemical bath deposition

Fabrication of ZnO/nanobentonite as a new efficient adsorbent for rapid elimination of xylenol orange dye

A novel ZnO-nanobentonite (ZnO/NB) nanocomposite was successfully prepared using hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HDTMA) as a surfactant and used as an efficient adsorbent to remove the xylenol orange (XO) from aqueous solutions. The fabricated nanocomposite was fully characterized by FTIR, FESEM, XRD, EDX, and BET measurements. The ZnO33%/NB sample with a high SBET and low total pore volume compared with the nanobentonite clay, based on BET results, indicated an increase in SBET due to the incorporation of ZnO nanoparticles into the layer of nanobentonite. For achieving the optimum condition, the effect of ZnO33%/NB sorbent dosage, initial pH, reaction time, and primary dye concentration, on XO dye elimination was investigated. The result show that the 97% elimination of XO dye occurred at optimum condition (40 mgl/l of dye concentration, pH 2, 15 mg of ZnO33%/NB adsorbent at 30 minutes), and the adsorption capacity and residual XO after treatment at this conditions is 48.5 and 1.2 ppm, respectively. Langmuir models and Freundlich model were used to studying the adsorption isotherms of the elimination process and results authenticated that XO dye adsorption followed the Langmuir model. Also, the recycling experiments showed that ZnO33%/NB adsorbent had more stability and recoverability. High adsorption capacity, simple fabrication method, short reaction time, and supreme reusability of ZnO33%/NB nanocomposite make it an effective sorbent for the elimination of XO dye from wastewaters

Phase Measurement Units based FACT’s Devices for the Improvement of Power Systems Networks Controllability

This paper describes the importance of FACTS devices; it presents the outcome of the study of its reflectance on the performance of power system networks. It seeks to increase and guarantee the fact and accuracy of response systems under disturbance conditions when the phase measurement units are introduced as Real-Time Measurement (RTM) stations. This paper also describes the importance of FACTS devices. The combination of FACTS devices and PMUs is presented to increase the controllability performance of power systems. This paper demonstrates how PMUs measure voltage, current and their angles. It provides, through a communication link, a Phase Angle Data Concentrator (PDC) to make an appropriate decision to correct the power system state using the FACTS device (TCSC). We utilized the Graph-Theoretic Algorithm to optimize the number and location of PMUs. The technique proposed was tested on the Iraqi National Super Grid’s 24bus network, Diyala City’s regional 10bus network and the 14bus IEEE standard test system. The MATLAB/PSAT package was utilized for the simulation of results. It is evident that our proposed algorithm and technique achieved the purpose of this paper as confirmed by the level of accuracy of the results obtained from most of the cases tested

Evaluation of Solid Waste Management in Al- Samawah City

The purpose of this study was to look into the evaluation of waste disposal stages (collection, storing, treatment, transporting, and landfilling) in addition to additional variables, including financial status, population size, and the technical methods employed to identify relationships with the handling of waste using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The AL-Samawah municipality's waste management wasn't staged due to no sorting and treatment processes, and the work was limited to solid waste collection and transportation. The landfill stage was carried out in a manner that did not preserve the environment and was limited to dumping waste on the earth's surface or digging a shallow trench into which waste was placed and backfilled. It is evident through costs, as collection and transportation costs account for 95% of total waste management costs. Working families generated more waste than non-working families, ranging from 3 to 15%, due to their reliance on fast food wrapped in plastic and cork containers, which generates more waste. The regression equations were created to predict the dumping cost based on the dependent variables: transportation and collection. The R2 values were 0.77

Design of Radiation Pattern-Reconfigurable 60-GHz Antenna for 5G Applications

noReconfigurable beam steering using circular disc microstrip patch antenna with a ring slotis proposed. The overall dimension of the antenna is 5.4×5.4 mm2 printed on a 0.504 mm thick, Rogers RT5870 substrate with relative permittivity 2.3 and loss tangent 0.0012. The designed antenna operates at the expected 5G frequency band 60 GHz with a central coaxial probe feed. TwoNMOS switches are configured to generate three different beam patterns. Activating each switch individually results in a near 70 degree shift in the main beam direction, whereas the frequency characteristics are unchanged. The power gains are between 3.9 dB and 4.8dB for the three states of switches configurations. Simulated results in terms of return loss, peak gains and radiation pattern are presented and show a reasonable agreement at the expected 60 GHz bandfor 5G applications.The published journal webpage is no longer available

A Comparative Study between Laser Hemorrhoidoplasty Procedure and Conventional Hemorrhoidectomy

      البواسير: هي من الأمراض الشرجية الشائعة جدا التي تصيب أي فئة عمرية ومن كلا الجنسين. هناك خيارات مختلفة وعديدة لعلاج المرضى الذين يعانون من البواسير. انطلاقا من العلاج التحفظي مع التعديلات الغذائية ، الربط باستخدام الشريط المطاطي ، حقن المعالجة بالتصلب ، التخثر الحراري ، أو عملية الجراحة المفتوحة ومؤخرا تم إدخال أنواع مختلفة من الليزر مثل ليزر ثاني أكسيد الكربون (CO2) ، والليوديميوم: الايتريوم والألومنيوم - العقيق (Nd: YAG).       في دراستنا ، اخترنا (1000 مريض) جميعهم كانوا خاليين من الأمراض الطبية ، وتكمن في مجموعتين رئيسيتين ، تم علاج 500 مريض (ذكور وإناث) مع فئات عمرية مختلفة باستخدام الجراحة التقليدية المفتوحة (ميليغان - مورغان) وتم علاج 500 مريض (ذكور وإناث) مع فئات عمرية مختلفة ايضا باستخدام تقنية ازالة البواسير بالليزر تستخدم تقنية ازالة البواسير بالليزر لعلاج المرضى الذين يعانون من البواسير من الدرجة الثانية والثالثة، كإجراء للمرضى في العيادات الخارجية دون التسبب في أي ضرر أو إصابات إضافية في الأنسجة الطبيعية (السليمة) المحيطة بها، ومضاعفات ما بعد العمليات الجراحية أقل بكثير مع وقت قصير جدا في الجراحة والعودة السريعة جدا إلى الأنشطة اليومية العادية.Hemorrhoids are very common anorectal diseases that affected any age groups and both genders.       There are different and several options for treatment of patients with hemorrhoids .ranging from conservative approach with dietary modifications ,rubber band ligation, sclerotherapy injection, diathermy coagulation, or minimal invasive procedures like; open surgical procedure and recently various types of laser was introduced such as carbon dioxide (CO2) laser, and the neodymium :yttrium – aluminum – garnet (Nd: YAG ) laser procedures.       In our study, we choose (1000 patients) all of them were free of  medical diseases, those lie into two main groups , 500 patients (males and females) with different  age groups  were  treated with conventional open surgical (Milligan – Morgan) hemorrhoidectomy operation ,and 500 patients (males and females) with different age groups were treated with minimally invasive diode laser hemorrhoidoplasty technique .       Laser hemorrhoidoplasty technique is used to treat the patients with 2nd and 3rd degree hemorrhoids, as an outpatients procedure without causing any additional harm or injuries to the surrounding normal (healthy) tissues, and significantly less post-operative complications with very short operative time and very rapid return to the normal daily activities

Effect of deposition time on the characteristics of nanocrystalline cds thin films and photodetection properties

Nanocrystalline CdS thin films were grown on silicon substrates using microwave-assisted chemical bath deposition. Aqueous solutions of cadmium chloride (CdCl2) and thiourea [SC(NH2)2], which served as cadmium Cd2+ and sulfur S2– ions sources, respectively were used to synthesize the nanocrystalline CdS thin films. Morphological, structural, and optical analyses revealed that the deposition time have significantly influenced the properties of the prepared thin films. CdS thin film prepared at a deposition time of 20 min showed the optimum characteristics. The photoluminescence measurements showed enhanced structural quality as suggested by the reduction in the intensity of the defect-related emissions. Prolonging the deposition time beyond 20 min does not improve the properties of the grown thin films. Metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors were fabricated based on the synthesized CdS thin films. Current–voltage measurements showed superior characteristics of the fabricated photodetectors based on CdS thin films grown at deposition times of 10 and 20 min compared to those based on CdS thin film grown at a deposition time of 30 min. Photodetector based on CdS thin film grown at a deposition time of 20 min exhibited enhanced photodetection properties. The device showed the fastest response time of 9 ms with a photosensitivity of 1440% to 500 nm chopped light at an applied bias of –1 V. Whereas, photodetector based on CdS thin film grown at a deposition time of 30 min showed the longest response and recovery times of 35 and 42 ms, respectively with a photosensitivity of 51.70%. Photodetection measurements revealed that schottky contact based devices have a superior performance than those with ohmic contact-based devices

Performance Comparison of Particle Swarm Optimization, and Genetic Algorithm in the Design of UWB Antenna

yesAn efficient multi-object evolutionary algorithms are proposed for optimizing frequency characteristics of antennas based on an interfacing created by Matlab environment. This interface makes a link with CST Microwave studio where the electromagnetic investigation of antenna is realized. Very small, compact printed monopole antenna is optimized for ultra- wideband (UWB) applications. Two objective functions are introduced; the first function intends to increase the impedance bandwidth, and second function to tune the antenna to resonate at a particular frequency. The two functions operate in the range of 3.2 to 10.6 GHz and depend on the level of return loss. The computed results provide a set of proper design for UWB system in which the bandwidth achieved is 7.5GHz at the resonance frequency 4.48GHz, including relatively stable gain and radiation patterns across the operating band

Design of Frequency Reconfigurable Multiband Compact Antenna using two PIN diodes for WLAN/WiMAX Applications

YesIn this paper, we present a simple reconfigurable multiband antenna with two PIN diode switches for WiMAX/WLAN applications. The antenna permits reconfigurable switching in up to ten frequency bands between 2.2 GHz and 6 GHz, with relative impedance bandwidths of around 2.5% and 8%. The proposed antenna has been simulated using CST microwave studio software and fabricated on an FR-4 substrate. It is compact, with an area of 50 × 45 mm2, and has a slotted ground substrate. Both measured and simulated return loss characteristics of the optimized antenna show that it satisfies the requirement of 2.4/5.8 GHz WLAN and 3.5 GHz WiMAX antenna applications. Moreover, there is good agreement between the measured and simulated result in terms of radiation pattern and gain.Engineering and Physical Science Research Council through Grant EP/E022936A