The most common method used to strengthening, rehabilitation or repairing of reinforced concrete (RC) members is to use external carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets. CFRP can greatly improve the flexural and shear capacity of deteriorated members and therefore extends their useful life. The main problem of external CFRP is the debonding of the sheets from the concrete surface at some point of loading, which negatively affects the efficiency of strengthening and may consequently lead to an unanticipated failure of the strengthened members. The major reason for this early debonding is likely due to the low accuracy of the preparation and the high stress concentration at the flat contact area exists between CFRP sheets and the concrete. The problem has been extensively discussed in the literature and some CFRP application techniques such as "Externally Bonded Reinforcement on Grooves (EBROG)" and "Externally Bonded Reinforcement in Grooves (EBRIG)" have been proposed as alternatives to the conventional application methods. Although some research has been carried out, there have been few experimental investigations that provided quantitative discussion of the efficiency of the new developed techniques. This research was aimed to experimentally assess the efficiency of grooving techniques and to provide a quantitative data regarding the behaviour of bonding between CFRP and concrete. The effects of shape and direction of the grooves and CFRP layers on the load carrying capacity, mid-span deflection and failure mode of thirteen RC beams have been investigated and discussed. In general, CFRP has significantly improved the flexural capacity of strengthened beams especially when grooving technique has been employed.

Marshlands in arid and semi-arid areas are considered constantly changing environments due to unsecured water supplies as a result of high evapotranspiration and limited and highly variable rainfall. Classification of marshlands in these regions and mapping of their land cover is not an easy task and maps need to be upgraded frequently. Satellites provide enormous amounts of information and data for the continuous monitoring of changes. The aim of this paper is to introduce an approach using multispectral satellite imagery that was adopted to classify and monitor the Al Hammar Marsh (Iraq) over several years and to suggest a relationship between the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), the Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI), and the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), using Landsat 8 data with a resolution of 30 m × 30 m, validated with Sentinel-2 datasets at 10 m × 10 m. Six land cover classes were used: (1) open water, (2) dry area, (3) dense vegetation, (4) medium-density vegetation, (5) sparse vegetation, and (6) wet soil. Three indices, NDWI, NDMI, and NDVI, were chosen for the automatic classification of each pixel and the creation of a time series of land cover maps. The proposed method can efficiently classify and monitor marshlands and can be used to study different marshlands by adjusting the thresholds for NDVI, NDMI, and NDWI. Overall, the correlation for all classes (R) between Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 is about 0.78. Thus, this approach will help to preserve marshes through improved water management.

The dried Iraqi marshlands were re-flooded after the year 2003. Because of the water shortage feeds the marshes during the last years, the re-flooded marshes began to dry again. The Al-Sanaf marsh is part of the Al Hammar marsh located in the Thi Qar province. It is not separated hydraulically from the Al Hammar marsh. The study suggested separating the two marshes by replacing the culverts under security dyke with uncontrolled weir to keep the area of Al-Sanaf marsh submerged. If there is any added water, it will cross from the suggested structure to the Al Hammar marsh. A hydrodynamic and water quality routing models (RMA2 and RMA4) were prepared based on mass conservation low, mass balance model, and four scenarios were applied for the Al-Sanaf marsh based on the incoming discharges. The suggested model was calibrated with field data measured in the marsh. The four suggested scenarios are to keep the requirement of the Al-Sanaf marsh restoration. The maximum submerged area of the marsh is 100 km 2 under any operation conditions while this area was reduced to 72 km 2 under low flow conditions (minimum inflow from the feeders). The three scenarios operated considering values of inflow from Euphrates River with the required inflow from Al Khamissiya canal to keep the minimum level of salinity in the submerged area. While the fourth scenario operated with the minimum value of discharge from all feeders.

The study consists of building a hydraulic model that can account for the effect of the slope of the pipeline on the pumping system performance. The model system is about a single perforated pipe with several different sizes opening holes equally distributed along the pipe and connected to the pump at the inlet, while the other end of the pipe is closed. The model was applied and implemented in several cases of pipe slope level, uphill, and downhill. Results have been shown for the case of equilibrium between the pump and the pipe system that the pressure head at the beginning of the pipe will increase when is in an uphill slope but inflow decreases because of the deficit in the pressure head and flowrate at the middle and end of the pipe and vice versa. A reasonable agreement between the model and previous studies was achieved for the model validation and accuracy. Also, the study showed that there is a large change in pressure head and flowrate along the pipe due to the change in elevation along the modeled pipe. The capacity of the system decreases in the case of an uphill slope and becomes lesser than the design capacity and decreases with increasing the slope value. More power is needed to adjust the differences between the actual and calculated system curve, and in sequences increase the cost of the pumping and decrease the efficiency of the pump. While in the case of a downhill slope, the capacity of the system is higher than the design capacity. In turn, less power is required to adjust the design operation point and low cost of the pumping, but there is a slight decrease in the efficiency of the pump. Also, the study concluded that the slope of the pipeline is a key issue in the design of the pumping pipeline system to reduce energy consumption and cost. This study can be considered a useful tool to perform the pumping system under various conditions of the hydraulic system.

Dissipating the high kinetic energy of an open channel flow under sluice gates can have a significant impact on eliminating scoring of the riverbed at the downstream. This paper discusses the outcome of an experimental study consisting of 28 runs, with the aim of achieving minimum hydrodynamic forces and maximum energy dissipation downstream of hydraulic structures through stilling basins with directional diverting blocks, DDBs and straight wall baffle, and SWB. Stilling basins with a distinct configuration were made for this purpose. The hydraulic parameters that were involved were evaluated and experimentally analyzed using a rectangular flume in the hydraulic laboratory of the University of Thi-Qar, Thi-Qar, Iraq. Two different kinds of DDB models were made of wood with a triangular form, and the striate line impact wall had intiidinid tininiidni. The study showed that the configuration characterized by two rows of DDB with SWB between them is the most effective in dispersing energy. Out of all the suggested constructions, the DDB are more effective with two or more rows, rather than the SWB, but they are subjected to forces in the flow direction.