This study aims to improve different properties of sustainable self-compacting concrete SCC containing treated and modified polyethylene terephthalate PET fibers. For this purpose, gamma ray surface treatment and geometric modification were utilized for the used PET fibers. Concrete fresh properties include slump flow, T500mm, L-box and sieve segregation while mechanical properties include compressive, split tensile strength, flexural strength, static modulus of elasticity and impact strength. Further, physical properties and related durability properties comprise dry density, ultrasonic pulse velocity, porosity and water absorption. The results obtained demonstrated that the treatment and the modification used for the PET fibers slightly reduced the fresh properties of produced sustainable SCC (slump flow, T500 mm, L-Box and sieve segregation). However, they were within the limits of the SCC specification as reported in EFNERC guidelines. Further, concrete hardened properties in terms of compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, modulus of elasticity, impact strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity, decrease in the dry density, decrease in porosity and water absorption increased significantly.
The thermal and acoustic isolation properties of unsaturated polyester composites reinforced by palm waste filler have been experimentally investigated. The composites have been prepared using hand lay-up technique with filler weight fraction of (0%, 3%, 5% and 7%). Three types of palm waste that (Date seed, old leaf bases and petiole) were ground and sieved separately to produce the filler with particle size ≤ 400µm. Thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and specific heat capacity were examined using Hot Disk thermal analyses. The acoustic isolation property examined in a sound-insulated box. The experimental results show that the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of the composite specimens reinforced by seed or old leaf bases filler increased with increasing the fillers weight fraction. While increasing the petiole filler decreased the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity by 19% and 40% respectively at 5% weight fraction as compared with a pure unsaturated polyester material. So, the composite reinforced with petiole filler has improved the thermal insulation properties. The composites samples reinforced with palm waste show higher sound absorption in compared to the pure unsaturated polyester material. The sound absorption properties of composite reinforced with 7% old leaf bases filler improved by 15% and 23% at low and high frequency respectively rather than of pure unsaturated polyester material.
This paper specifies a proposed improvement model of Data Encryption Standard (DES) which may be used to protect sensitive data. Protection of data during transmission may be necessary to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of the transformation represented by data. Instead of expansion step in each round which made by copying 16 bit from 32 bits data in each right side of the standard algorithm, the unused 8-bits as a key (sometimes it is used for error detection and correction purposes, or it is possible to generate an additional 8-bits with the 56-bits standard key) in the first starting round with the other 8-neglected bits from each of 16 round in the key algorithm will be used, and take the same locations of the expanded data. As a result, the complexity to cryptanalysis of the secured data has been increased. The proposed method was more active and reliable than standard conventional DES, where it can be switched to the system at any round for working with original DES algorithm, which means that an additional security has been added