Thermal and radiation chemical stabilities of some polymers after Cu(II) build-up

The interaction of polyacrylic acid (PAA), polysodium acrylate (PAANa), polyacrylamide (PAM) and acrylic acid–acrylamide copolymer P(AM-AA) with copper sulphate was studied to evaluate the thermal and radiation chemical stabilities of the resultant polymers which contained increasing quantities of Cu^{2 +} . It was found that the efficiency of the polymers toward Cu^{2 +} interaction, as determined by XRF, follows the order P(AM-AA) > PAM > PAANa. PAA was inactive, and no Cu^{2 +} ions were detected. Generally, the results obtained from TGA and DSC reveal that there is an improvement in the thermal stability when Cu^{2 +} is incorporated into the polymer matrix, but the amount of Cu^{2 +} bound to the polymeric chains does not correlate with their relative thermal stability. The degree of crystallinity estimated by X-ray diffraction also increases as Cu^{2 +} is incorporated into the polymer. In addition to the thermal stability, the radiation chemical stability of polymer with accumulated Cu^{2 +} was found to be very high, so that the percentage of Cu^{2 +} released from the crosslinked polymers was zero at radiation doses of up to 500 kGy. © 1999 Society of Chemical Industry     

Lateral Behavior of Pile Groups in Layered Soils

Assessment of the response of a laterally loaded pile group based on soil–pile interaction is presented in this paper. The behavior of a pile group in uniform and layered soil (sand and/or clay) is evaluated based on the strain wedge model approach that was developed to analyze the response of a long flexible pile under lateral loading. Accordingly, the pile’s response is characterized in terms of three-dimensional soil–pile interaction which is then transformed into its one-dimensional beam on elastic foundation equivalent and the associated parameter (modulus of subgrade reaction Es) variation along pile length. The interaction among the piles in a group is determined based on the geometry and interaction of the mobilized passive wedges of soil in front of the piles in association with the pile spacing. The overlap of shear zones among the piles in the group varies along the length of the pile and changes from one soil layer to another in the soil profile. Also, the interaction among the piles grows with the increase in lateral loading, and the increasing depth and fan angles of the developing wedges. The value of Es so determined accounts for the additional strains (i.e., stresses) in the adjacent soil due to pile interaction within the group. Based on the approach presented, the p–y curve for different piles in the pile group can be determined. The reduction in the resistance of the individual piles in the group compared to the isolated pile is governed by soil and pile properties, level of loading, and pile spacing.     

Lateral Loaded Pile Response in Liquefiable Soil

This paper provides a new analysis procedure for assessing the lateral response of an isolated pile in saturated sands as liquefaction develops in response to dynamic loading such as that generated during earthquake shaking. This new procedure predicts the degradation in pile response and soil resistance due to the free-field excess porewater pressure generated by the earthquake, along with the near-field excess porewater pressure generated by lateral loading from the superstructure. The new procedure involves the integration of the developing (free- and near-field) porewater pressure in the strain wedge (SW) model analysis. The current SW model, developed to evaluate drained response (a nonlinear three-dimensional model) of a flexible pile in soil, has been extended in this paper to incorporate the undrained response of a laterally loaded pile in liquefied sand. This new procedure has the capability of predicting the response of a laterally loaded isolated pile and the associated modulus of subgrade reaction (i.e., the p–y curve) in a mobilized fashion as a result of developing liquefaction in the sand. Current design procedures assume slight or no resistance for the lateral movement of the pile in the liquefied soil which is a conservative practice. Alternatively, if liquefaction is assessed not to occur, some practitioners take no account of the increased free-field porewater pressure, and none consider the additional near-field porewater pressure due to inertial interaction loading from the superstructure; a practice that is unsafe in loose sands.     

Rank aggregation methods comparison: A case for triage prioritization

This paper seeks to test and to determine a suitable aggregation method to represent a set of rankings made by individual decision makers (DMs). A case study for triage prioritization is used to test the aggregation methods. The triage is a decision-making process with which patients are prioritized according to their medical condition and chance of survival on arrival at the emergency department (ED). There is a lot of subjective decision-making in the process which leads to discrepancies among nurses. Four rank aggregation methods are applied to the prioritization data and then an expert evaluates the results and judges them on practicality and acceptability. The proposed recommendation for preference aggregation is the method of the estimation of utility intervals. Expert opinion is highly valued in a decision-making environment such as this, where experience and intuition are key to successful job performance and outcomes.     

Prévision de la résistance mécanique du ciment en 30 heures

Le développement considérable de I'Arabie saoudite a obligé les laboratoires d'essai des matériaux à faire de grands progrès en peu de temps. Dans cet article, les chercheurs du Laboratoire d'essai des matériaux de Riyad expliquent comment ils ont utilisé un procédé accéléré pour prévoir la résistance à la compression de différents ciments Portland après 30 heures. Les résultats obtenus concordent, en moyenne, à ± 5% près avec les résistances que donnent les méthodes traditionnelles de conservation dans I'eau.     

Multi-scale analysis of generalised processor sharing queues with long-range-dependent traffic inputs and variable service rates

An analytical technique is provided to estimate queue-length and delay distributions for multi-queue systems using generalised processor sharing discipline with time-correlated variable service rates, based on two-dimensional multi-level decoupling. First, temporal decomposition is used to convert the time-correlated queuing problem into a set of sub-problems over several timescales. Subsequently, queue decomposition exploits the queue weight dependencies to convert a multi-queue problem into a set of single-queue problems. The core of the analysis lies in estimating the multi-scale service rate models for each of these queues. The authors show the hierarchy of this estimation and the dependency of the queue service rate on the unused capacity of the other queues and their weights. Simulation and analytical results on queue and delay survivor functions are in good agreement.