Applied Research Journal
Volume:2 Issue: 4, Apr 2016

The bearing capacity of soils and its prediction is a subject that is practiced every day. Shallow foundations are usually constructed on unsaturated soils where the soil strength may be higher compared to fully saturated soils due to the contribution of the matric suction resulting from the reduction in degree of saturation. In this paper, the variation of the matric suction due to variation in degree of saturation and the relative density of sandy soil is studied through experimental tests that were carried out on four states of sandy soil (Dr = 20%, Dr = 35%, Dr = 55%, and Dr = 75%). The results show that the variation in relative density and degree of saturation causes significant changes and important equations were proposed describing these effects on the matric suction, consequently, the variation of the matric suction shown has a great effect on the shear strength of sandy soil.

Waste quantity of construction projects increased dramatically as a result of the development in the field of construction industry in addition, increasing the number of construction projects, the waste has great economic and environmental effects on the project and the region where the project is located. In spite of these negative effects there is no system applied to waste management in construction projects of Iraq, so this study aims to propose a system for managing waste in each phase of construction projects in Iraq. To achieve this aim, the researcher is studied the relevant literatures and studies on the subject of construction waste for identifying the key factors affecting waste management, then conducted an interviews with a specified number of experts to identify the treatment measures for each effective factors. The result of this study is building a proposed system for managing waste in life cycle of construction projects. At last, this proposed system has applied in one of construction projects of Iraq to ensure and judge how well it performs, and evaluated by a number of engineers who working in construction projects.

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between managerial style and personality characteristics of managers and executives. The main aim to investigate the relationship between managerial style and personality traits of managers and executives. To measure the managerial style of leadership style questionnaire Hersey, Blanchard and personality traits of NEO Five-Factor Inventory character was used. In order to analyze the data in this study descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum score and tilt and strain, Pearson correlation coefficient, independent t test, Cronbach's alpha and split-half methods for the reliability coefficients and the analysis of data collected from computer software spss version 20 is used. The results of this study showed that there is a significant relationship between personality traits and leadership styles that show the two are inseparable.

Sustainable roadway life cycle requires a good balance between environment, economy, and social aspects. Green construction for roads should have a voluntary sustainable rating system for roadway life cycle including planning, design, execution, and maintenance stages and it should be applicable to all roadway projects as new, reconstructed and rehabilitated roadway. The rating system could be used to rank, score and compare different roads projects according to their overall performance toward being more sustainable than the traditional road project. The goal of this research is to develop a sustainable rating system for roadway projects in Iraq (ISRS) by taking into consideration the local environmental conditions, economy, and materials processing actions available. This paper investigates criteria and sub criteria weightings of the suggested roadway rating system depending on planning, design, execution, and maintenance activities through the project life cycle. The methodology processes includes data collection by using a closed questionnaire distributed to 40 roadway experts in order to verify the criteria and sub criteria credit weightings based on the relative importance of the roadway related impacts that each credit addresses. Statistical analysis of experts answers have been evaluated by using SPSS with factors analysis method to ensure the compatibility and the validity of credits selected in the rating system. Finally five classification levels have been selected of the Iraqi roadway based on credits earned by the road according to the application of the proposed evaluation system (ISRS).

The effects of cadmium (0.02, 0.04 and 0.06 mM ) on carbohydrate fractions were evaluated in 2-8 day old seedlings of three pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L.) cultivars LRG30, LRG41 and ICPL85063. The accumulation of starch, total soluble, reducing and nonreducing sugar contents in roots and shoots exhibited a continuous increase and the cotyledons showed a continuous decrease in the starch and sugar contents with increasing age of the seedlings as well as with increasing concentrations of externally supplied metal ions. Amylase activity of the different parts of the three pigeonpea cultivars decreased with increasing concentrations of Cd ions. Between the three pigeonpea cultivars, LRG41 and ICPL85063 exhibited lower values than LRG30 in response to Cd treatment.

Theoretical and applied research in flow, heat and mass transfer in porous media has received increased attention during the past three decades. This is due to the importance of this research area in many engineering applications. In this paper, water was used as a fluid passes through the porous and non-porous media. The magnitude of fluid flow rate, fluid temperature gradient in the boundary area and pressure changes in porous and non-porous media were simulated and were validated with literature data. In this article, meshing was done in order to increase the accuracy and decrease the computational error. In the modeling, it was assumed that the fluid around the boundaries of porous and non-porous media is stagnant. According to modeling and simulation, use of porous media has caused the significant increase of velocity (3.810-8 cm/s in non-porous media and 5.0810-5 cm/s in porous media). Also the use of porous media caused increase of convective heat transfer 1.7 times more than non-porous media. There was a very good agreement between simulation results and literature data with ARE (Average Rate of Error) maximum 10.2%.

Piled raft is a geotechnical composite structure consists of three elements: piles, raft, and soil. It is, usually, utilized as a foundation for tall building. During earthquakes, a soil-pile, soil-raft, and pile-raft elements are subjected to a complex system of stresses. Stress–strain behavior of soil is, usually, hysteric and non-linear. The problem is further compounded by the interaction of stress waves and soil and piles. Due to significant increasing in seismic activity in world during the last decades especially in Middle East reign, the response of piled raft system needs more attention. This paper aims to study interaction of sandy soils with piled raft and detecting its effects on settlement using numerical analysis by finite element method. PLAXIS 3D package was used as a finite element simulator. The results indicated that there is minor differences in settlement with rigid interface case (R=1) in comparison to the other interface cases (R=0.1-0.9). In addition, the settlement of piled raft, slightly, varies with the size and strength of their interface elements (adhesion and wall friction) to the soil strength (cohesion and friction angle).

Fischer-Tropsch synthesis is an important method for producing light olefins. Ethylene and propylene are both the valuable key raw materials in various industries which are produced in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. The influence of operating pressure and temperature have been studied on liquid hydrocarbon product distribution by CO-Ni-ZrO2 catalyst. The optimization of the reaction conditions for the production of ethylene and propylene was investigated. Data analysis indicated the highest selectivity for ethylene and propylene at a pressure of 31 atm and a temperature of 529°K. The effect of operating conditions on the average carbon number distribution, dispersion, and skewness were also studied. Results indicated that the maximum average number of carbonwas obtained in a pressureof 1 atm and a temperature of 523°K. Deviation of the distribution also illustrated the distribution of well-focused.

This research is conducted to study the behavior and load carrying capacity of post-tensioning concrete beams exposed to fire flame. The exposure of these beams to fire causes changes in their structural behavior. Finite element method was used to idealize the effect of burning by fire flame exposed to post-tensioning concrete beams. The beams that were subjected to fire flame at temperature levels of (300, 500 and 700 ̊C) for 1 hour period of exposure at age of 60 days were determined. A three-dimensional nonlinear finite element model was adopted to investigate the structural behavior of post-tensioning concrete beams specimens with and without exposure to burning. Good agreement was observed between the adopted finite element model results and experimental results. It is found that the theoretical values of beam capacity exceeds values by a margin the experimental ranging between (1-23%) after burning for the analyzed beams specimens. The adopted finite element analysis showed, also, good agreement with experimental results throughout the load-deflection behavior before and after burning.