Image Processing Techniques-based fire detection

In this paper different fire detection systems and techniques has been reviewed, many techniques have been developed for the purpose of early fire detection in different scenarios. The most accurate technique used among all these methods is Image Processing based Techniques. Different color models like RGB, HSI, CIE L*a*b and YCbCr have been used along with different edge detection algorithms like Sobel and Novel edge detection, finally the color segmentation technique was discussed in the review paper. All the mentioned methods in these papers have significantly proved to detect fire and flame edges in digital images with a timely manner, which has a huge impact on saving life and reducing loss of life.

Experimental Work on Using Fully Wrapped Post-Tensioned Metal Straps Around Normal Steel Reinforced Beams to Increase Flexural Strength of R.C Beams

To increase the capacity load carrying of the beams, post tensioned metal straps are fully wrapped around the beams in their tensile zone in this study. In total four normal R.C beams with the depth of 160 mm, height of 240 mm and total length of 2100 mm are cast and tested under four-point load testing. The number of variables is kept to minimum of two which are the number and location of the straps. It is found that using post tensioned metal straps fully wrapped around the beams can increase the load-carrying capacity of the beams by 36% at least and 39% at a max. The main factor in influencing the rate is the location of the straps. A complete guide on using the material along with its application on the beams are explicitly described in the paper.

Mechanical properties of concrete reinforced with hybrid polypropylene- PET waste fibers

In this article, flexural strength and compressive strength of concrete containing polypropylene fiber (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste fiber and a combination between them were experimentally investigated. For this reason, laboratory experiments were performed on a total of 40 mixes. Results show that compressive strength property of concrete reinforced with PET waste fiber is not comparable to that of concrete reinforced with PP fiber, in which there is a compressive strength reduction, and the effect of PET fiber length on the strength is not important. Behavior of concrete contained PET waste fiber in flexure was found better. There is a good opportunity to use a hybrid fiber (25% PET and 75% PP) to enhance flexural strength of concrete.

Tests on workability and strength of high strength-flowable concrete containing PET waste fiber

This study describes two workability tests, compressive strength and tensile strength tests of high strength flowable concrete containing plastic fiber prepared from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste bottles. For the high fluidity mix Vebe time and V-funnel time tests were carried out. Results show that there is a Vebe time increase with PET fiber addition to concrete being increased with increasing fiber volume and fiber length. V-funnel time was found to reduce when up to 0.75% fiber volume is added to concrete, followed by an increase for larger fiber volumes. When fiber length is increase, there is more time increase, but in general, V-funnel time increase was lower than that of Vebe time, indicating a different influence of PET fiber on the compatibility and flowability. The measured V-funnel time for all mixes was found to conform to the limits of European specifications on the flowability of self compacting concrete. Small descending in compressive strength was recorded for RPET fiber reinforced concrete that reached 15.74 % for 1.5 percent fiber content with 10 mm fiber length. Attractive results was recorded in split tensile strength of RPET fibrous samples which resulted in improvement up to 63.3 % for 1.5 percent of 40 mm fiber length content.

Development of the methods of calculation of the electrical installations working operation in case of quality supply disturbance

This paper proposes a method of calculating of asymmetrical modes of operation of electrical installations where simple and adequate loads equivalent circuits are available with working electrical equipment. So the mathematical model of equation system is derived as universal way for calculating the systems operating modes when it is subjected to a disturbance due to asymmetry. With the help of the obtained model we can calculate different cases of symmetry disturbances, all types of short circuits, between phase short circuits, any type of longitudinal asymmetry, open circuits when there is a resistance for the fault current at the place of damage In the given method, specific types of asymmetry are considered as particular cases and easily calculated from the generalized formula, which is essentially reduces the calculation and allows us to consider cases of asymmetry of any complexity. Therefore this method is offered as a basic for calculation of asymmetry when the system is subjected to a disturbance.

The Role of Architectural Awards for Enhancing Heritage-Based Graduation Projects Analytical Study of Tamayouz Excellence Award for Iraqi Students

The cultural heritage plays an important role in determining the identity of any community, and the architectural output is at the forefront of this subject since it‟s the direct visual product of a cumulative result of the experience led by the communities within a given time and place which is compatible with the cultural structure and social life. From this point of view, the academic curriculum in many architectural schools tries to enhance the students‟ vision for the cultural heritage by introducing that heritage as a main source of inspiration in the creation of their design product. This comes in various ways, most of which are based on the employing of visual elements and external details showing their impact on the facades of the design projects as a blind repetition of that legacy, while some schools are investigating more deeply the ideology behind the production of that legacy and direct their students to study the deep structure of that heritage and reproduce it differently from previous to more contemporary architecture. The process of evaluating student‟s architectural products supports those approaches of inspiring heritage-based projects as those processes considered as an evaluating means for the outputs. One of the most important sources for those evaluations were students‟ project competitions and awards, which play a vital role in implicitly inspiring the cultural values of that heritage. Tamayouz Excellence Award for Graduation Projects stands on the head of these awards for the final stage output of Iraqi students. This paper aims to investigate the extent to which the academic output of the students' products which were chosen as a shortlist by (Tamayouz Excellence Award for Iraqi Students) can reflect the iconic, canonic, pragmatic, and analogy depiction of that heritage, and thus its ability to create a product with a deep local cultural vision. This is done by examining those output of several Iraqi architectural final stage students by analyzing those projects according to the structural elements that formulate their concepts, to point out those trends that help the promoting out values of identity within their works. The research found that the projects which inspire the heritage were not the most likely to run for the final positions. The reason for this lies in the superficial approach in which these projects dealt with the heritage values, and the local culture has been limited to the inspiration of the just formal elements without going deeply into the intellectual depth of that heritage

Compressive Strength of Cement Mortar Modified with Nano-Alumina in Correlation with Different Water-to-Cement Ratios and Curing Periods -A Statistical Analysis

One promising insight to extended service life of cement mortar and improve it is durability by assimilating nano mechanism into the cement-based materials. Regardless of many research studies on the effect of nano alumina on the mechanical performance of cement mortar, there has not been a widespread study examining the effect of nano Al2O3, curing period (t), and water-to-cement ratio (w/c) on the compressive strength (σc) of cement mortar. Consequently, this study explores the subject matter which could be helpful for the building and construction field. In this study, the data collected on the compressive strength of the cement mortar modified with different percentages of nano alumina ranging from 0.5% to 13.5% (by dry weight of the cement) were gathered from the literature. A nonlinear modeling NLM and statistical data analysis were performed on above 500 assembled data. The w/c ratio of the cement mortar varied from 0.3% to 0.79%, and the compressive strength of cement mortar modified with nano alumina and cured for 1,7 and 28 up to 90 days leads to high strength ranged from (10 MPa to 68 MPa). The result of NLM showed that curing period has the highest effect on the compressive strength in combination with water to cement ratio and percentage of nano alumina replacement with a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.85.

Assessment of the Quality of Ground Water in Kalar City- Kurdistan Region- Iraq

This paper was carried out to test the quality of ground water in Kalar city- Kurdistan Region- Iraq, bacteria, TDS, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium and nitrate were tested in order to the quality assessment. The assessment was done for the water quality of 39 wells in kalar city as case of study. It was concluded that TDS levels of these wells were high levels in general and the main reason was due to high levels of calcium and magnesium. Turbidity, pH, sodium, potassium and nitrate values for the samples of water were in standard region. The maximum and non-standard values of TDS, calcium and magnesium were recorded in sample of well no. 27 in values of 545 mg/l, 149 mg/l and 52 mg/l respectively. The research suggested water softener system to cure the hardness of the ground water by decreasing the high levels of TDS, calcium and magnesium to be in safe ranges. It was also proposed the reverse OSMOSIS removes as a second way of ground water treatment. High level of TDS was reduced to standard range from 545 mg/l to 296 mg/l through the water softener system and reduced to 98 mg/l through the reverse OSMOSIS. It found that ground water may contain bacteria such as E. coli and Coliform, and chlorine treatment can be used to avoid bacteria contaminant.

Analyses of Aggressiveness, Impulsiveness, and Demographics of the Drivers in Sulaimaniyah City Using Questionnaire Forms

In order to increase traffic safety on our roads, certain forms of behavior and personality traits of passenger car drivers were studied. As an attempt to understand the potential contribution of drivers’ impulsiveness and aggressiveness in traffic accidents in Sulaimaniyah City, this study was conducted. The correlation between drivers’ impulsiveness and aggressiveness were also explored. Participants, who filled Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) and Aggressive Driving Behavior Questionnaire (ADBQ), were 244 drivers. The male drivers who answered the questionnaires were 143, while female drivers were 101. The results of the statistical analyses showed that male drivers are driving more aggressively than female drivers; as a result, male drivers faced higher numbers of traffic accidents than female drivers. There were no significant differences between male and female drivers regarding drivers’ impulsivity. Speeding as a measuring scale of the aggressive driving is significantly correlated with second-order impulsiveness subscales. The attentional and motor impulsiveness subscales are more correlated with the total score of the driving aggressiveness than non-planning subscale. There was moderate correlation between the impulsiveness total score and the overall aggressiveness score. The impulsiveness of the drivers was negatively correlated with the drivers’ ages and positively correlated with number of crashes; while the driving aggressiveness was significantly correlated with number of crashes and negatively with gender and age of the drivers. The traffic police in Sulaimaniyah City can benefit from the results of this paper during permitting driving license and enforcement processes.

Mechanical Properties of Normal Strength Concrete Containing Different Types of Waste Material as Coarse Aggregate Replacement

In this study, the effect of different types of waste materials on the mechanical properties of normal strength concrete was investigated. Three types of waste material crumbed rubber, granular plastic, and crushed brick with different percentage up to 15% ( by weight of coarse aggregate) were used. The effect of waste material on the compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and static elastic modulus of hardened concrete for 28 days of curing with constant w/c= 0.45 were studied. The maximum loss in concrete compressive strength was recorded to be 54.95%, 50.31%, and 20.41% for concrete mix with 15% crumbed rubber and plastic aggregate and 5% crushed brick particles. Maximum reduction in splitting tensile strength noticed to be 65%, 43.15%, and 13.59% for 15% replacement of crumbed rubber, granular plastic, and crushed brick respectively. The maximum loss in static elastic modulus was found to be 48.29%, 27.14, and 11.23% for concrete mix with 15% crumbed rubber, granular plastic, and 5% crushed brick. From test results it is concluded that up to 15% waste material can be safely used to produce this type of recycled concrete.