Retrofitting the seismically deficient structures before earthquakes provides a feasible approach to improve their load carrying capacity and reducing their vulnerability. This study presents an analytical assessment investigation on hollow block slab reinforced concrete building. The building is not designed according to seismic standards; moreover, hollow block slab systems may lack the sufficient lateral seismic resistance. Different retrofitting systems to enhance the seismic capacity of the target building are proposed and evaluated. These systems include strengthening the columns with reinforced concrete jackets or using internal shear walls or introducing steel chevron bracing. The target building before and after retrofitting is analyzed either as bare frames or considering masonry infill walls with different parameters. The three dimensional nonlinear pushover analysis procedures are used in evaluating the seismic performance of the original building and the retrofitted ones. The demand response spectra proposed by the Egyptian Code of Loads, ECOL 201, 2012 edition, for different seismic zones with different soil properties are utilized in the evaluation. Real seven earthquakes response spectra with maximum-scaled spectrum acceleration close to the one calculated for Cairo city are also applied. It is found that the original target building, before retrofitting, fails to fulfill the demands of neither many of the ECOL response spectra nor many of the applied real earthquakes. All the proposed retrofitting systems succeed in highly enhancing the seismic capacity of the original building. Considering masonry infill walls in the analysis has a crucial role on the seismic performance of the original building, the retrofitting systems can, due to the increase in the lateral strength, limit this effect.

Using of false ceilings (FC) for decoration and covering different ducts in modern buildings is spreading so much nowadays. This paper tries to find a new employment and other benefits for using false ceilings (FC).A one dimensional transient mathematical model has been established to study the effects of using false ceiling on reduction of heat gained from concrete roof of controlled temperature space. The effect of using false ceiling (FC), with and without adding reflector sheet on its upper side facing to concrete roof on the room cooling load is studied by modeling and solving the transient heat transfer processes in the different components of the space. The results showed that using of false ceiling only without reflector sheet reduces heatgain introduced to space through 24 hours by 66.8%, while using of false ceiling with reflector sheet increases the reduction percent of heat gained from concrete roof to be 81.6% for the same period.

In this paper, a D-Q model of fuzzy based unified power flow controller (UPFC) has been proposed to control the active and reactive power flow through the transmission lines. Power loss reduction also intends with the proposed UPFC controller. The UPFC's shunt and series controllers are developed based on D-Q fuzzy logic (FL) controller, which has been designed in PSCAD environment as an independent module. The proposed UPFC controller is tested by using IEEE-5 and 14 bus systems. The performance of D-Q fuzzy based UPFC reveals better improvement compared to PI based UPFC in terms of power flow control and power loss reduction.

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The composite coating of a titanium carbide aluminide–alumina-iron composite was synthesized by centrifugal-assisted self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS). The in situ TiC–Al2O3–Fe with intermetallic phases of titanium aluminide (TiAl/Ti3Al) possesses excellent metallurgical properties. This composite was produced from compacted titanium (Ti) and carbon (C) powders in the form of pellets embedded in a tube, which were exposed to very high temperature generated by the thermite Fe2O3 and Al reaction. The process took place in a graphite–steel tube mounted in a centrifugal accelerator machine purposely developed for this function. Functionally graded coating was produced under the centrifugal acceleration field and the product of the thermite reaction (Al2O3 and Fe) infiltrated the TiC pellet and to create a strong, titanium aluminide intermetallic layer. The centrifugal force significantly enhanced both metallurgical alloying and mechanical interlocking between different sample layers during product formation. The purpose of the research addresses the applications of local reinforcement of the ceramic-lined tubes.

The determination of the myocardium's tissue properties is important in constructing functional finite element (FE) models of the human heart. To obtain accurate properties especially for functional modeling of a heart, tissue properties have to be determined in vivo. At present, there are only few in vivo methods that can be applied to characterize the internal myocardium tissue mechanics. This work introduced and evaluated an FE inverse method to determine the myocardial tissue compressibility. Specifically, it combined an inverse FE method with the experimentally-measured left ventricular (LV) internal cavity pressure and volume versus time curves. Results indicated that the FE inverse method showed good correlation between LV repolarization and the variations in the myocardium tissue bulk modulus K (K = 1/compressibility), as well as provided an ability to describe in vivo human myocardium material behavior. The myocardium bulk modulus can be effectively used as a diagnostic tool of the heart ejection fraction. The model developed is proved to be robust and efficient. It offers a new perspective and means to the study of living-myocardium tissue properties, as it shows the variation of the bulk modulus throughout the cardiac cycle.

A modified smoothed particle hydrodynamic (MSPH) computational technique was utilized to simulate molten particle motion and infiltration speed on multi-scale analysis levels. The radial velocity and velocity gradient of molten alumina, iron infiltration in the TiC product and solidification rate, were predicted during centrifugal self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) simulation, which assisted the coating process by MSPH. The effects of particle size and temperature on infiltration and solidification of iron and alumina were mainly investigated. The obtained results were validated with experimental microstructure evidence. The simulation model successfully describes the magnitude of iron and alumina diffusion in a centrifugal thermite SHS and Ti + C hybrid reaction under centrifugal acceleration.

The purpose of this article is to synthesize a Ti-C system under a known cooling rate by applying a secondary hybrid system in the form of semi-reacted titanium carbide. The synthesis reaction is performed in a hot, inert, shielded crucible. The portions of reacting and interacting materials are determined using the Rietveld phase quantification method. The product microstructure is studied, and the nanomechanical properties are measured via a nanoindentation technique. The experimental results revealed that the reaction behavior and mechanical properties of Ti+C elemental powder were initiated at a particular temperature level. At 2610°C, the titanium carbide phase formed 14% of the compound composition, with 65 GPa Young’s modulus and 563 MPa hardness.