Most historical buildings and structures in Oman were built using unreinforced stone masonry. Such structures are prone to damage from seismic activity as these structures have negligible resistance to tensile stresses. This paper presents an exploration of the physical and chemical properties of local building materia …
Residential projects represent the largest section of the construction industry in Oman. It is widely claimed that designers in Oman tend to unnecessarily overdesign structures, thereby aggravating construction costs. The aim of this research was to investigate the existence and extent of structural overdesign through …
Sarooj is a local term used for pozzolana. It has been used extensively as a hydraulic binder in buildings, hydraulic installations, forts and castles, and in the renovation of historical monuments. It is produced by burning specific clay soil that possesses adequate quantities of silica, alumina and iron oxides. In th …
Tests were conducted on five reinforced concrete T-beams subjected to combined load of bending and torsion. Elastic stress field in conjunction with Nielsen's 2D yield criterion for reinforced concrete subjected to in-plane forces were used in the Direct Design Method for the design of reinforcement. The beam dimension …
The effect of curing conditions and silica fume replacement on the compressive strength and the initial surface absorption of high performance concrete is reported. The silica fume contents were 5, 10, 15 and 20%, by weight of cement. Four different curing conditions were used: air curing, control curing and two other …
The aim of this study is to illustrate the problem of fire accidents in the Sultanate of Oman and their causes in order to find out how the existing data could be used as a base to improve fire resistance, to detect the weak points (vulnerability to fire) in existing structures, and to minimize fire occurrences in plac …
Strength development of lime-pozzolana mortars is affected by the fineness of the pozzolan. This paper examines the effect of the fineness of artificial pozzolana on the strength development of lime-pozzolana mixtures. An artificial pozzolana produced by calcining clays from Oman was used in this study. The artificial …
In the past, sarooj had been used as the basic cementing material with which the A flaj system (the irrigation system used in Oman) was built. Worldwide, materials like sarooj existed and were known for their good impermeability and long durability. For this reason it was extensively used in hydraulic structures. Even …
Qualitative and quantitative analysis of clay minerals are important in the evaluation of the swelling potential of expansive soils A relatively simple method for the quantification of clay minerals of Al-Khod (Northern Oman) using an X-ray diffraction method is described in detail in this paper. The method is based on …