Comparative study of EICP treatment methods on the mechanical properties of sandy soil

This study analyzed the effect of different treatment methods in enzyme-induced carbonate precipitation (EICP) on the mechanical properties of soil. Soybean crude urease was used to catalyze the precipitation of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). A multiple-phase method was proposed and further compared with commonly practiced EICP treatment methods (including the one-phase method, two-phase method, and premix-and-compact method) from the aspects of chemical conversion efficiency, CaCO₃ precipitation distribution, permeability, and unconfined compressive strength. Based on the findings, the characteristics of each method were further discussed and summarized. Although the enzymatic CaCO₃ precipitation generated from all the treatment methods could potentiate the soil strength to a great or less degree, using the proposed multiple-phase method could bring about a high chemical conversion efficiency, uniform distribution of CaCO₃ as well as preferable permeability retention. In addition, the multiple-phase method could significantly improve the efficiency of urease usage.     

Evaluation of back-calculated elastic moduli of unreinforced and geocell-reinforced unbound granular material from full-scale field tests

This paper presents a field-scale experimental track over a poor subgrade with an unreinforced section and a geocell-reinforced section subjected to in-situ performance tests. Plate load tests and Benkelman beam tests were carried out distributed in several unreinforced and reinforced layers. The objective was to: (1) examine the variability of the elastic modulus of unbound granular material (UGM) due the influence of its thickness and the presence of poor subgrade in its base, (2) evaluate the modulus improvement factor (MIF) generated by the geocell reinforcement in the UGM and (3) verify the most appropriate condition to apply the MIF to transport infrastructure design. The results showed that there is a significant influence of the thickness of the UGM layer on its elastic modulus when the layer is supported directly over a soft subgrade. The MIF values obtained in field suggest that its determination is mostly related to the UGM maximum elastic modulus rather than its decreased values (by virtue of poor subgrade or reduced thicknesses), and that the analytical formulation presented for MIF calculation has good predictive capability to be applied to pavement design.     

Effect of heat moisture treatment on resistant starch content among carbohydrate sources: a meta-analysis

Resistant starch (RS) can be generated through heat moisture treatment (HMT). The HMT was conducted by modifying starch using different ratio of moisture content, high temperature and heating time. A number of studies showed that the effects of HMT on RS contents in cereals, pulses, tubers and fruits were inconsistent. This study aimed to analyse the impact of HMT on RS level in various carbohydrate sources through a meta-analysis approach. Study selection was conducted with the PRISMA method. There were 21 relevant studies and 67 data used for meta-analysis. The database was analysed by using Hedges’ d. The results showed that there was a significant impact of HMT on RS level of cereals, especially wheat. The highest increase in RS levels for various carbohydrate sources in starch was influenced by the interaction of treatment between water content at 15 ≤ x < 25%, heating time at 0.25 < x ≤ 6 h and temperature at 120 ≤ x ≤ 130 °C.     

铅锌多金属矿分段浓缩选别技术的研究与应用

通过多碎细磨、原矿分级溢流优先浓缩脱水,进行了高浓度选铅银、选锌,锌尾矿再浓缩脱水选硫、选锰,同时匹配合理的选矿药剂,原矿浓缩水回用于磨矿分级和选铅,锌尾浓缩水回用于选锌,尾矿浓缩水回用于选硫、选锰,剩余各种废水经适度处理回用于选铅和磨矿分级等,使一段磨矿细度-74μm从70%提高到80%,铅、锌、硫入选初始浓度分别提高到50%、40%、50%,选矿废水全部分质回用。铅锌硫银回收率分别提高了1.5、2.83、13.57、1.01个百分点,硫精矿主品位从38.9%提高到46.5%,设备减少40%、能耗降低25%,节约了选矿药剂消耗和废水处理费用,实现了铅锌多金属矿产资源的高效回收和节能环保。     

Energy efficiency of fibre reinforced soil formation at small element scale: Laboratory and numerical investigation

This paper explores the aspects related to the energy consumption for the compaction of unreinforced and fibre reinforced samples fabricated in the laboratory. It is well known that, for a fixed soil density, the addition of fibres invariably results in an increased resistance to compaction. However, similar peak strength properties of a dense unreinforced sample can be obtained using looser granular soil matrices mixed with small quantities of fibres. Based on both experimental and discrete element modelling (DEM) procedures, this paper demonstrates that less compaction energy is required for building loose fibre reinforced sand samples than for denser unreinforced sand samples while both samples show similar peak strength properties. Beyond corroborating the macro-scale experimental observations, the result of the DEM analyses provides an insight into the local micro-scale mechanisms governing the fibre-grain interaction. These assessments focus on the evolution of the void ratio distribution, re-arrangement of soil particles, mobilisation of stresses in the fibres, and the evolution of the fibre orientation distribution during the stages of compaction.     

高光谱成像检测煎制中调理牛肉品质的变化

将牛肉混合调料后煎制到不同熟度,制成调理肉,研究调理牛肉加工中水分、色泽、嫩度等理化品质及370～1 023nm波段内的光谱特征变化,并构建品质的可视化检测模型。结果表明,牛肉煎制中含水率下降,剪切力上升,且变化显著(P0.05)。由于调料混合以及煎炸加工的不均匀性,调理肉表面色泽与可见光区间光谱变化不规律,而在近红外光谱(800～1 023nm)反射值随熟度显著增高。基于100块牛肉数据,采用主成分分析(PCA)降维高光谱数据,支持向量机(SVM)建模并用粒子群(PSO)优化参数,预测调理牛肉水分和剪切力R~2分别为0.908,0.763,RMSEP分别为1.096,2.097。证实高光谱技术具备对混有各种调料的复杂食品的检测能力。     

Extruded meat alternatives made from Maillard-reacted beef bone hydrolysate and plant proteins: part I – Effect of moisture content

This study investigated the effects of moisture content (MC) on the physicochemical properties of extruded meat alternatives made from Maillard-reacted beef bone hydrolysate and plant proteins. Samples were extruded at 170 °C (maximum barrel temperature), at 3.6 kg h⁻¹ (liquid feed rate) and at 1.8, 2.2, 2.6 and 3.0 kg h⁻¹ (dry feed rates) to obtain MC of 60%MC, 56%MC, 52%MC and 49%MC, respectively. Meat alternatives at 52%MC showed the greatest degree of texturisation. However, meat alternatives at 49%MC were the closest in terms of both textural and microstructural properties to reference sample, boiled chicken breast. Results from protein solubility suggested that a large amount of aggregated proteins were associated with hydrogen bonds, while disulphide bonds were the main contributor in the formation of fibrous structure in meat alternatives. Results showed that the change in MC as process parameter played an important role in the formation of fibrous structure in extruded meat alternatives.     

Radon and moisture impacts from interventions integrated with housing energy retrofits

Energy retrofits can reduce air exchange, raising the concern of whether indoor radon and moisture levels could increase. This pre/post-intervention study explored whether simple radon interventions implemented in conjunction with energy retrofits can prevent increases in radon and moisture levels. Treatment homes (n = 98) were matched with control (no energy retrofits or radon intervention) homes (n = 12). Control homes were matched by geographic location and foundation type. t-tests were used to determine whether post-energy retrofit radon and moisture level changes in treatment homes significantly differed from those in control homes. The radon interventions succeeded in preventing statistically significant increases in first floor radon using arithmetic (p = 0.749) and geometric means (p = 0.120). In basements, arithmetic (p = 0.060) and geometric (p = 0.092) mean radon levels statistically significantly increased, consistent with previous studies which found that basement radon levels may increase even if first floor levels remain unchanged. Changes in infiltration were related to changes in radon (p = 0.057 in basements; p = 0.066 on first floors). Only 58% of the change in infiltration was due to air sealing, with the rest due to weather changes. There was no statistically significant association between air sealing itself and radon levels on the first floor (p = 0.664). Moisture levels also did not significantly increase.     

An effective method of bulk materials moisture measurement using capacitive sensors

When we speak about capacitance moisture meters for bulk materials we have to face with different values of dielectric permittivity for different bulk materials in dehydrated state, what causes a method error that can be named ‘type uncertainty’. Besides, different varieties of the same material have different values of dielectric permittivity, which depend from geographical origin, processing conditions etc. It can be hardly predicted automatically and type uncertainty can be compensated only in separate situations with the help of preliminary calibration. Main tasks of the research are to develop new comparison principle of moisture measurement with better accuracy due to effective compensation of physical, chemical and granulometric composition influence on the result of moisture measurement, develop new primary and secondary instrument transducers. Moisture sensor consists of four measuring capacitors. Two of them should be filled with a sample, which moisture content should be determined, and other pair of measuring capacitors should be filled with a same substance, but previously dehydrated. Mathematical models, developed to take into account granulometric composition of a bulk material were used to carry out a comparison analysis for three types of instrument measuring transducers. Obtained results proved that suggested principle of moisture measurement provides effective compensation of granulometric composition influence. Developed measuring principle had been experimentally tested what helped to confirm that it provides two times better compensation of different physical and chemical composition for different materials in comparison with the direct comparison method.     

Hygrothermal coupling analysis of magneto-electroelastic beams using finite element methods

In this article, the finite element (FE) method has been used to assess the coupled static behavior of hygro-thermo-magneto-electroelastic (HTMEE) beam. Influence of externally applied hygrothermal loads on the direct (displacements, electric and magnetic potentials) and derived quantities (stresses, electric displacement and magnetic flux densities) of HTMEE beam have been studied in detail. The principle of total potential energy and the coupled constitutive equations of HTMEE material are used for the FE formulation. A generalized condensation technique is adopted to solve the global FE equations of motion. Numerical examples are discussed to examine the effect of hygrothermal loads and distinct effect of moisture concentration on the behavior of the beam. Particular emphasis has been placed to analyze the influence of temperature and moisture dependent elastic stiffness coe?cients associated with empirical constants. Considering the independent effect of temperature and moisture on the coupled static responses, the most significant combination of the empirical constants corresponding to temperature dependency and moisture dependency are explored. Extensive computational examples are considered to examine the significant effect of boundary conditions, temperature gradient, moisture concentration gradient and empirical constants on the static behavior of HTMEE beam. It is observed that the static behavior of HTMEE beam is significantly influenced by the hygrothermal loads and empirical constants. The results presented in this article would serve as a benchmark results in design and analysis of HTMEE structures for sensors and actuators applications.