70 publications from this institution
High densities and small grain size of alumina ceramic bodies provide high strength and better mechanical properties than lower density and larger grain size bodies. The final sintered density and grain size of slip-cast, alumina samples depends greatly on the processing of the slip and the alumina powder, as well as the sintering schedule. There were many different variables explored that include initial powder particle size, slurry solids percent, amount and type of dispersant used, amount and type of binder used, and sintering schedule. Although the experimentation is not complete, to this point the sample with the highest density and smallest grain size has been a SM8/Nano mixture with Darvan C as the dispersant and Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) as the binder, with a solids loading of 70 wt% and a 1500 C for 2 hours sintering schedule. The resultant density was 98.81% of theoretical and the average grain size was approximately 2.5 {micro}m.
Ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) has received increasing attention in recent years due to its remarkable ductility, durability, and mechanical properties. However, the manufacture of UHPC can cause serious environmental issues. This work addresses the feasibility of using aeolian sand to produce UHPC, and the mix design, environmental impact, and mechanical characterization of UHPC are investigated. We designed the mix proportions of the UHPC according to the modified Andreasen and Andersen particle packing model. We studied the workability, microstructure, porosity, mechanical performance, and environmental impact of UHPC with three different water/binder ratios. The following findings were noted: (1) the compressive strength, flexural strength, and Young’s modulus of the designed UHPC samples were in the ranges of 163.9–207.0 MPa, 18.0–32.2 MPa, and 49.3–58.9 GPa, respectively; (2) the compressive strength, flexural strength, and Young’s modulus of the UHPC increased with a decrease in water/binder ratio and an increase in the steel fibre content; (3) the compressive strength–Young’s modulus correlation of the UHPC could be described by an exponential formula; (4) the environmental impact of UHPC can be improved by decreasing its water/binder ratio. These findings suggest that it is possible to use aeolian sand to manufacture UHPC, and this study promotes the application of aeolian sand for this purpose.
The safety of nuclear power plant can be improved via core catcher, and cement-based sacrificial materials are widely used in most core catchers because of their simple construction process and the low manufacturing cost. This paper carried out a preliminary investigation to explore the feasibility of using strontium ferrite to prepare cement-based sacrificial materials. The effects of strontium ferrite on the room temperature and high temperature properties of cement mortar were systematically studied in the work. In addition, the damage evolution of cement mortar containing strontium ferrite subjected to elevated temperatures was also identified according to the damage mechanics theory. It was found that, (1) the addition of strontium ferrite led to the deterioration of the mechanical properties, microstructure and pore structure of cement mortar; (2) it was feasible to prepare cement-based sacrificial materials containing strontium ferrite that met the requirements on basic properties like mechanical properties, free water content, volume stability, and the high temperature integrity by controlling the content of strontium ferrite; (3) the correlation between the internal damage of cement mortar and the temperature could be described by Weibull Distribution Model, which provided a basis for the identification and evaluation of serious nuclear power accidents.
Siliceous and ferro-siliceous sacrificial concrete (SC) are designed to reduce the leakage potential of radioactive materials in case of severe nuclear accidents. This paper presents an investigation on thermal behavior and damage evolution of SCs subjected to high temperatures. In this study, the microstructure, porosity, high-temperature integrity, mass loss, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and thermal diffusivity of SCs were investigated at different elevated temperatures up to 1000°C. Using ultrasonic testing technique, variations of ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) propagation in SCs exposed to different high temperatures were obtained. According to definition of damage, a relationship between damage of SC and UPV was derived, eventually concluding a correlation between the damage of SC and high temperatures that SC subjected to. It was found that, (1) the SCs designed have very good performances, and are suitable for use in practice; (2) with temperature increasing, the thermal diffusivity of SCs decreases continually, and the damage evolution of SCs can be described by a Weibull distribution model.
Polycarboxylate superplasticizer (PCE) is an important part of improving the overall performance of concrete. However, its synthetic raw materials are overly dependent on petrochemical products, and it also causes problems such as environmental pollution. With the development of the building material industry, the demand for petrochemical resources required for synthetic water-reducing agents will increase rapidly. Therefore, there is an urgent need to transition the synthetic raw materials of PCE from petrochemicals to biomass materials to reduce the consumption of nonrenewable resources as well as the burden on the environment. Biomass materials are inexpensive, readily available and renewable. Utilizing biomass resources to develop good-performing water-reducing agents can reduce the consumption of fossil resources. This is conducive to carbon emission reduction in the concrete material industry. In addition, it promotes the high-value utilization of biomass resources. Therefore, in this study, a biomass polyether monomer, acryloyl hydroxyethyl cellulose (AHEC), was synthesized from cellulose via the reaction route of ethylene oxide (EO) etherification and acrylic acid (AA) esterification. Biomass polycarboxylate superplasticizers (PCE-Cs) were synthesized through free radical polymerization by substituting AHEC for a portion of the frequently utilized polyether monomer isopentenyl polyoxyethylene ether (TPEG). This study primarily focused on the properties of PCE-Cs in relation to cement. The findings of this study indicated that the synthesized PCE-C5 at a dosing of 0.4% (expressed as mass fraction of cement) when the AHEC substitution ratio was 5% achieved good water reduction properties and significant delays. With the same fluidity, PCE-C5 could enhance the mechanical strength of cement mortar by 30% to 40%. This study utilized green and low-carbon biomass resources to develop synthetic raw materials for water-reducing agents, which exhibited effective water-reducing performance and enhanced the utilization rate of biomass resources, demonstrating significant application value.
We report for the first time a continuous-wave (CW) orange radiation at 598 nm by intracavity sum-frequency generation of 1341 nm Nd:GdVO4 laser and 1080 nm Nd:YAlO3 (Nd:YAP) laser. Orange laser is obtained by using a doubly cavity, type-II critical phase matching KTP crystal sum-frequency mixing. With total pump power of 36 W, TEM00 mode orange laser at 598 nm of 268 mW is obtained. The orange power stability in 30 min is better than 3.8%.
Progress in the field of nanomaterials presents an opportunity to improve the performance of cementitious composites via graphene or its derivatives. This paper presents an experimental study on mechanical and thermal properties of sacrificial concrete without and with graphene sulfonate nanosheets (GSNSs) during high temperature exposure. The microstructure, porosity, mechanical strengths, thermal analysis, coefficient of thermal expansion, thermal diffusivity and ablation behaviour of sacrificial concrete during exposure to various temperatures up to 1000°C were comprehensively investigated. Two new experimental apparatuses were developed and used to measure mechanical strengths of sacrificial concrete at elevated temperatures. It was found that the compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, thermal diffusivity and decomposition enthalpy of sacrificial concrete were increased by 12.98–25.36%, 8.66–34.38%, 25.00–103.23% and 4.23% respectively when adding 0.1wt% GSNSs, while the porosity and ablation velocity of sacrificial concrete were reduced by 3.01–6.99% and 4.14% respectively due to the incorporation of GSNSs.
Within the domain of municipal solid waste (MSW) management, incineration is recognized as an efficient volume reduction method, yet it produces substantial quantities of bottom ash (IBA). Redirecting IBA into cementitious frameworks is challenging due to diminished workability, mechanical properties, and durability. This study investigates alumina micro powder (ALMP)'s effect on improving the mechanical and durability aspects of ecological ultra-high performance concrete (EUHPC) produced with IBA. The research examines ALMP's role at various doping levels on the EUHPC's rheological properties, mechanical strengths, durability indices, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), and elastic modulus. Additionally, nanoindentation tests discern ALMP's reinforcing effect on EUHPC's stiffness. Summarizing key findings: ALMP significantly enhances EUHPC's flexural and compressive strengths, with increases ranging from 6.98 % to 24.87 % and 12.39–20.81 %, respectively. Moreover, ALMP raises the elastic modulus by 6.05–19.07% and UPV by 3.11–7.18 %, reflecting a denser, more compact matrix structure. Durability enhancements are evidenced by reductions in drying shrinkage by 4.41–20.01 % and decreased chloride migration by 7.01–22.14 %. Nanoindentation reveals a densification in the microstructure, with escalated high-density C-S-H phases and reduced low-density C-S-H and unhydrated materials. IBA replacement yields energy savings of 11.43 %, CO2 emission reduction of 7.01 %, and cost savings of 1.18 %. The optimal ALMP inclusion is identified at 10 %, balancing workability, mechanical and microstructural benefits in EUHPC. These revelations position IBA as a useful component in the concrete sector and advocate for ALMP as a beneficial adjunct to elevate the performance of IBA-based concrete towards sustainable development goals.
Anti-washout admixtures (AWAs) are a unique component of underwater non-dispersive concrete (UNDC), which gives the concrete the ability to remain undispersed in water. On some special occasions, freshly mixed underwater non-dispersive concrete is exposed to the erosion of moving water, and conventional acrylamide-based AWAs are only suitable for static water or the water flow rate is small. In this study, the inorganic component nanosilica (NS) is modified, treated, and copolymerized with the organic components acrylamide (AM) and acrylic acid (AA) to form an inorganic–organic hybrid polymer with a hyperbranched structure, which changes the linear structure of the original polyacrylamide molecule, and we optimize the synthesis process. The polymers are characterized at the microscopic level and their compatibility with polycarboxylic acid water-reducing agents (SP) is investigated. In addition, the polymers are compared and evaluated with commonly used PAM in terms of their working performance. The experimental results indicated that under specific process conditions, polymers endow cement mortar with good resistance to water erosion. At the same time, the polymers’ three-dimensional network structure is prominent, with good compatibility with SP and better anti-dispersity. The microstructure of the cement paste with added polymers is dense and flat, but its flowability and setting time are slightly worse. This study provides a new development direction for the development of AWAs under a dynamic water environment, which has specific engineering significance.
This paper mainly concerns with the analysis and design for a class of nonlinear networked control systems (NCSs), which can be represented by a T-S fuzzy model with interval time-varying network delay. By using the convexity of the matrix function, the conservatism caused by enlarging¿ (t) to ¿M can be avoided. The controller parameters that guarantee the asymptotical stability and the performance of the closed-loop system are obtained by solving a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). A numerical example is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
We report the generation of a green laser at 543 nm by intracavity frequency doubling of the continuous-wave (cw) laser operation of a 1086 nm Nd:YVO4 laser under 888 nm diode pumping into the emitting level 4F3/2. An LiB3O5 (LBO) crystal, cut for critical type I phase matching at room temperature, is used for the laser second-harmonic generation. At an incident pump power of 17.8 W, as high as 4.53 W cw output power at 543 nm is achieved. The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency is up to 25.4%, and the fluctuation of the green output power is better than 2.3% in a 30 min period.
In this study, the pitting behaviour of a new corrosion-resistant alloy steel (CR) is compared to that of low-carbon steel (LC) in a simulated concrete pore solution with a chloride concentration of 5 mol/L. The electrochemical behaviour of the bars was characterised using linear polarisation resistance (LPR) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The pitting profiles were detected by reflective digital holographic microscopy (DHM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the chemical components produced in the pitting process were analysed by X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The results show that the CR bars have a higher resistance to pitting corrosion than the LC bars. This is primarily because of the periodic occurrence of metastable pitting during pitting development. Compared to the pitting process in the LC bars, the pitting depth grows slowly in the CR bars, which greatly reduces the risk of pitting. The possible reason for this result is that the capability of the CR bars to heal the passivation film helps to restore the metastable pits to the passivation state.
Currently, researchers have been studying ways to reduce the raw materials costs and energy consumption of ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) production. Therefore, the feasibility of using aeolian sand to partially or totally replace natural river sand in UHPC is studied. The workability and quasi-static and dynamic mechanical properties were comprehensively studied to investigate the effect of aeolian sand on UHPCs. It was found that: 1) The workability of UHPCs was significantly improved when river sand was partially or totally replaced by aeolian sand; 2) The compressive strength of UHPCs could be enhanced when river sand was partially or totally replaced by aeolian sand, and the differences in flexural strength among all the mixtures were not distinct; 3) Incorporation of aeolian sand as a fine aggregate slightly increased the toughness of UHPCs under uniaxial compression test; 4) The differences in the dynamic impact parameters among UHPCs containing aeolian or river sand, as well as those in the parameter evolution rules regarding impact times, were not obvious. The findings of this research promote the preparation of eco-friendly UHPC and provide a new way to use waste resources.
Although ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) performs well in terms of strength and durability properties, it is still limited by the low elastic modulus. To overcome this limitation, for the first time, a system investigation was carried out to validate the feasibility of producing UHPC with high elastic modulus (HEMUHPC) by using steel chips (SC) and alumina micro-powder. The initial mixture of HEMUHPC was designed via modified Andreasen and Andersen particle packing model, and the effects of different contents of steel chips on the workability, mechanical properties and durability of HEMUHPC were systematically investigated. Besides, the influence of SC on the microstructure of HEMUHPC was also studied. It was found that, 1) the flexural strength, compressive strength, and elastic modulus of HEMUHPC were increased by 15.49%, 18.33%, and 18.84%, respectively, when the SC content was 50 wt%; 2) when the steel chips content was 50 wt%, the chloride migration coefficient of HEMUHPC was reduced by 12.22%; 3) appropriate amount of SC could lead to a reduction in the porosity and threshold pore diameter of HEMUHPC; 4) the optimal content of SC in HEMUHPC was 50 wt%, considering the effects of SC on the mechanical properties, microstructure, and durability.
