Iraqi Journal of Civil Engineering

Scour around bridge piers is a well-known threat to bridge stability worldwide. It can cause losses in lives and the economy, especially during floods. Therefore, an artificial intelligence approach called artificial neural network (ANN) was used to predict the scour depth around bridge piers. The ANN model was trained with laboratory data, including pier width, flow velocity, particle diameter, sediment critical velocity, flow depth, and scour depth. The data was divided into 70% for training, 15 for validation, and 15% for testing. Besides, the ANN model was trained using various training algrthins and a single hidden layer with 20 neurons in the hidden layer. The results showed that the ANN model with Bayesian regularization backpropagation training algorithm provides a better predicted scour depth with a correlation coefficient (R) equal to 0. 9692 and 0.926 for training and test stages, respectively. Besides, it showed a low mean squared error (MSE), which was 0.0034 for training and 0.0066 for the test. These results were slightly better than the ANN with Levenberg-Marquardt backpropagation with  R training equals 0.9552 (MSE training = 0.0047), and R test equals 0.838 (MSE test = 0.007).On the other hand, the ANN model with a scaled conjugate gradient backpropagation training algorithm showed worse predictions (R training = 0.7407  and R test = 0.6409). Besides, the ANN model shows better outcomes than the linear regression model. Finally, the sensitivity analysis has shown that the pier width is the most crucial parameter for estimating scour depth using the ANN model.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of adding recycled materials such as CKD and RAP to weak cohesive soils, in addition to evaluate the change in the strength of these soils. This study was conducted on soil type MH, and only RAP particles finer than 10 mm were used in preparing the mixtures. 7, 14, and 28 days were selected as curing periods for soil- CKD and soil- CKD- RAP mixtures to obtain the effect of curing periods on soil improvement. The results showed that adding 20% of CKD to the natural soil increased the unconfined compression strength UCS from 0.43 MPa to 2.6 MPa at a 28-day curing period. Also, the results showed that adding 25% of RAP to the soil- 20% CKD mixture increased the UCS value to 5.3 MPa after 28 days of the curing period. The final results showed that the optimum contents of CKD and RAP added to the cohesive soil were 20% and 25%, respectively, while the optimum curing period was 28 days

Organic soils are problematic soil for various engineering applications due to their high compressibility and low shear strength which need to be improved. For many soil improvement techniques, using waste materials, such as fly ash (FA), is a practical and sustainable process. In this research, FA and geopolymer were used e used to reduce organic soil's compressibility. A one-dimensional consolidation test was performed to evaluate the organic soil's consolidation and compressibility properties. The geopolymer was prepared using 20% FA and of sodium hydroxide ratio and sodium silicate alkali solutions. The geopolymer specimens were first cured for 2 hours at 45 and 65 ^oC, then cured for further 28 days at room temperature. The consolidation test results showed that FA-based geopolymer is effective in stabilizing organic soils due to the observed improvement in the compressibility, consolidation, and permeability characteristics. The compression index decreased by 98.16%, and the permeability decreased by 95%.

Wind and water levels influence wave overtopping and consequent coastal flood threat, which is especially important in hyper-tidal bays where even modest variations in wave heights may be devastating if they coincide with high tides. The influence of wind and wave characteristics on wave propagation, as well as the sensitivity of significant wave height, are numerically investigated along the Gaza Strip's beachfront as an example. Wind waves with a high amplitude and short duration are susceptible to opposing winds, and their steepening effect varies throughout the bay shoreline, underlining the impact of shoreline geometry and bathymetry on wave hazard. The findings contribute to our existing knowledge of the complex interplay between wind and waves, as well as the crucial variables that maximize danger and hazard variability along the coastline. The findings of this study can assist port and harbor managers prevent financial losses due to downtime, influence sustainable coastal sea defense design, and better understand how wave danger may change in the future owing to shifting storm tracks. The findings can also be used to improve coastal infrastructure design and disaster response planning.
Two scenarios were investigated with a wind direction of 330 and 30. It seems that when the wind direction is 330, it produces a higher Hs of 1.2 m and relatively larger wave return period with a range of 12-22 s and a higher wave energy dissipation of 220 N/Ms. In contrast, when the wind direction is 30, it produces a smaller HS of 1m with a short wave return period of 15-17s and smaller wave energy dissipation of 120 N/Ms. Overall, a wind direction of 30 has fewer occurring chances over the year but it seems to produce a destructive wave that are spread over the whole coast with a rapid return period.

SIFCON is a relatively new material and consists of slurry (cement or cement and sand), water, super plasticizers (water reducers) and fibers. In all previous research, steel fibers and other types of fibers were used, but in this study, waste plastic fibers Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) created by cutting carbonated beverage bottles were used for the first time in the production of SIFCON.
  Three volume ratios (3%, 6% and 10%) of the total volume of the concrete mixture were used to add fibers in different volume ratios, and a reference concrete mixture was created for comparison. Tests of compressive strength, impact resistance, ultrasound transmission velocity check and other tests were performed on the constructed models. Compared with the reference concrete, according to the analysis of the results. The results showed an improvement in the compressive strength it increased by (18.5%), an increase in the impact resistance by (416.67%), and a decrease in the velocity of ultrasound by (19.42%).

In the present paper, a one-dimensional finite element model for the analysis of composite beams of partial interaction is constructed. This model was verified against some analytical results available in the literature and achieved very good agreement with the natural frequencies and the time histories it was compared to. Then it was utilised to analyse partial interaction composite beams under the effect of uniform step loads and provided important information about the expected dynamic amplification factors, which turned out to be particularly high, and the effects of the linear stiffness ratio of the interface and the boundary conditions of the lower layer of the beam. The results, in particular, showed that even for extreme cases the orders of magnitude of the slip and the corresponding uplift remain the same. This pointed out an important finding that the uplift in the researched context, at least, is not negligible as it is widely assumed in the literature.

The reduction of gases emissions as one of its most significant long-term strategies in any country in the world. Many Iraqi cities suffered from the uncontrolled increasing in the number of vehicles which has a positive relationship with the emission of gases especially the carbon monoxide. This study aims to evaluate the effect of traffic characteristics such as logarithm of average flow, the percentage of heavy vehicles, and free flow speed on the emission of carbon monoxide. The study selected the main roads in Al- Ramadi network, the data was collected for traffic characteristics and carbon monoxide between 2018 to 2020. A random parameters approach was used to develop a model to estimate the carbon monoxide emission for 345 roadway segments, this approach was used due to the ability of this method to account the heterogeneity that raised from the traffic characteristics which led to predict more accurate results than other approaches. The results of the random parameters model show that the carbon monoxide emission increased due to increase of logarithm of average flow, the percentage of heavy vehicles, and free flow speed. The model results show that the parameters of logarithm of average flow, the percentage of heavy vehicles, and free flow speed was varied a cross the roadway segments.

Crack monitoring of pavements is an ever-evolving technology with new crack identification technologies being introduced frequently. Although older technologies consisted of physical removing the pavement section using coring, however new methods are available that are non-destructive and yield a higher performance than conventional technologies. This paper compiles various crack monitoring technologies such as wireless sensor networks, photo imaging, laser imaging, 3D road surface profile scans, acoustics wave propagation technology, embedded strain sensors and onboard vehicle sensors that majorly use an artificial intelligence algorithm to identify and categorize the cracks. The research also includes the use of convolutional neural network that can be used to analyze pavement images and such neural network can localize and classify the cracks for crack initiation and propagation stage. The research concludes with the favor of using the optical imaging technology called Syncrack which serves better performance in terms of time of prediction by 25% and accuracy by 30% when compared to other sensing technologies.

Adding fibers to the shotcrete concrete mixes is very important to increase the load carrying capacity, toughness, and reducing crack propagations by bridging the cracks. On the other hand, this fiber has an effect on the fresh and hardened properties of shotcrete. In this study, fresh properties evaluated by using slump flow, , and segregation resistance tests. Hardened properties included testing of air voids, dry density, water absorption, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), compressive strength, and flexural strength. This works including two types of fibers in three forms (waste plastic (PET)fibers only, polypropylene fibers (PP) only, and hybrid fiber (PET and PP)), each form added by three percentages (0.35%, 0.7%, and 1%) by volume.The results showed that the addition of 1% of all types of fiber has a negative impact on fresh properties. Especially in shotcrete containing waste plastic fiber. Also, all specimens containing fibers showed a decrease in the ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) and an increase in air voids and water absorption compared to the reference specimens. Also, the results clarify that the addition of waste plastic fiber to shotcrete led to a slight decrease in dry density. The highest increasing in compressive strength of shotcrete recorded by about 8.2% with using 0.35% PP fiber and highest decreasing was 20.9% with using 1% waste plastic fiber. the highest increasing in flexural strength was 62 with using 1% PP fibers.

Pavement rutting as a permanent deformation is a major type of distress in flexible pavements. In Iraq, the rutting in Expressway pavements represents a severe problem due to its widespread, and high severity and distress density levels. Therefore, driving is profoundly dangerous and causes severe damage to the vehicle’s parts and the life of its riders. To date, the number of comprehensive research on pavement rutting has been limited in Iraq, owing to several technical, logistic, and economic considerations. The current research studies the major mechanisms responsible for rutting and evaluates the structure of the Iraqi Expressway No.1 at selected sections. The work encompasses field and laboratory aspects. The field work involved; performing field surveys to investigate the pavement rutting condition and its extension with depth, characterizing pavement layers in terms of geometric material properties, and collecting field samples for lab tests. The laboratory work was detailed and included; performing a set of standard lab tests on samples taken from the asphalt, the subbase, and the subgrade layers as well as the natural ground. In addition, the project’s archive was searched for specific design information and limitations. In order to assess pavement rutting in the selected sections of Expressway No.1/R9 (A and B), two well-established evaluators were considered; The rutting severity levels and the distress density.

The design of reinforced concrete structures has traditionally relied on empirical techniques based on experience or experimental research on actual structural members. Although this approach produces a high level of precision, it is usually exceedingly costly and time-consuming. This paper studied the convergence between theoretical analysis (ACI 318-19 Equations) and numerical analysis (FEM) of eleven one way reinforced concrete slab specimens casted by shotcrete contains three types of plastic fibers including waste plastic (PET), polypropylene (PP), and hybrid (PET+PP) fibers with three addition ratios (0.35%, 0.7%, and 1%) for each type. The results concluded that the numerical analysis (ANSYS FE model) showed a good agreement with the theoretical (ACI 318-19) of one-way slab in terms of ultimate load, with a variance, and standard deviation equal to 0.00076, and 0.027 respectively. Hence, ANSYS v15 software can be used for the analysis of reinforced concrete slabs casted by shotcrete contain waste plastic fibers and polypropylene fibers.