Effect of crack width on chloride diffusion coefficients of concrete by steady-state migration tests

The purpose of the present study is to explore the diffusion characteristics of cracked concrete according to the width of cracks. Major test variables include crack width, concrete strength, fly ash addition, and maximum aggregate size. The diffusion characteristics have been measured by steady-state migration test. The present study indicates that the diffusion coefficients do not increase with increasing crack widths up to the so-called “threshold crack width.” The threshold crack width for diffusion is found to be around 55–80 μm. Above this threshold value, the diffusion coefficients start to increase with crack width. A composite model with the introduction of “crack geometry factor” was derived to identify the diffusion coefficient in cracked concrete. It was shown that the crack geometry factor ranges from 0.067 to 0.206. Finally, the effects of concrete strength, fly ash addition and maximum aggregate size on diffusion coefficients are also discussed.     

Pressure induced reactions amongst calcium aluminate hydrate phases

The compressibilities of two AFm phases (strätlingite and calcium hemicarboaluminate hydrate) and hydrogarnet were obtained up to 5 GPa by using synchrotron high-pressure X-ray powder diffraction with a diamond anvil cell. The AFm phases show abrupt volume contraction regardless of the molecular size of the pressure-transmitting media. This volume discontinuity could be associated to a structural transition or to the movement of the weakly bound interlayer water molecules in the AFm structure. The experimental results seem to indicate that the pressure-induced dehydration is the dominant mechanism especially with hygroscopic pressure medium. The Birch–Murnaghan equation of state was used to compute the bulk modulus of the minerals. Due to the discontinuity in the pressure–volume diagram, a two stage bulk modulus of each AFm phase was calculated. The abnormal volume compressibility for the AFm phases caused a significant change to their bulk modulus. The reliability of this experiment is verified by comparing the bulk modulus of hydrogarnet with previous studies.     

Characterization of poly(vinylidene fluoride) flat sheet membranes prepared in various ratios of water/ethanol for separator of li‐ion batteries: Morphology and other properties

PVDF, poly(vinylidene fluoride), membranes were prepared and investigated by a scanning electron microscope, a universal testing machine, and capillary porometer for its potential use as a separator in lithium ion batteries. The membranes were prepared by phase inversion with different polymer types, concentrations of solution, amounts of additive, and nonsolvent ratios of water/ethanol. The morphology of membranes is affected by the ratio of both the coagulation bath (water/ethanol) and a low molecular weight additive (polymer/solvent/additive). The results showed that significant variations in the membrane were detected when adding an additive to the casting solution or ethanol to the coagulation bath. With an increased concentration of ethanol, the upper structure was found to be transformed into a sponge‐like arrangement. In the case of Solef®1015 of the same polymer concentration, despite the higher molecular weight of 1015, a relatively small sized nucleus is formed, resulting in a denser network and relatively uniform membrane structure being formed. Mechanical testing showed that the tensile strength of the PVDF membranes increased when added to a 25 wt % ethanol coagulation bath, whereas it is decreased when added to higher concentrations of ethanol in the bath or additives in the casting solution. In a bath condition of water/ethanol = 75/25 wt % (Bath no. 2), the value of tensile strength is 7.11 and 7.52 MPa, for Solef®6010 20 wt % and Solef®1015 17 wt %, respectively. The thickness of the prepared membrane is 21–34 μm and the porosity is up to 50%. The electrolyte absorption changes of the fabricated membranes at different conditions are measured from 151 to 223 ± 15%. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011     

Polishing behaviors of ceria abrasives on silicon dioxide and silicon nitride CMP

The effects of ceria (CeO₂) abrasives in chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) slurries were investigated on silicon dioxide (SiO₂) and silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) polishing process. The ceria abrasives were prepared by the flux method, using potassium hydroxide (KOH) as the grain growth accelerator. The primary particle size of the ceria abrasives was controlled in the range of ~ 84-417 nm by changing the concentration of potassium hydroxide and the calcination temperature without mechanical milling process. The removal rate of silicon dioxide film strongly depended upon abrasive size up to an optimum abrasive size (295 nm) after CMP process. However, the surface uniformity deteriorated as abrasive size increases. The observed polishing results confirmed that there exists an optimum abrasive size (295 nm) for maximum removal selectivity between oxide and nitride films. In this study, polishing behaviors of the ceria abrasives were discussed in terms of morphological characteristics.     

Sequestration of carbon dioxide by m-xylylenediamine with forming a crystalline adduct

The reaction of m-xylylenediamine (mXD) with carbon dioxide was examined and its feasibility as a sequestration material of carbon dioxide was discussed. The reaction was monitored by using the FT-IR and gravitational methods, while the crystalline structure of the reaction product was investigated with elemental analysis, powder Xray diffraction, single crystallography, and ¹³C MAS NMR spectroscopy. Even at ambient temperature, mXD reacted with carbon dioxide of low partial pressure in the atmosphere and produced a 1: 1 molar adduct which appeared as a white crystalline material. The hydrogen bonds that formed between the adduct molecules resulted in the formation of a stable crystal. The sequestration capacity of mXD was very great, ～280 mg g _mXD ^?1 below 50 °C. An adsorbent prepared by dispersing mXD on silica was capable of capturing carbon dioxide, but it could be regenerated by evacuating at 25 °C.     

Study on the possibility of waste mushroom medium as a biomass resource for biorefinery

In order to investigate the possibility of waste mushroom medium as a biomass resource for biorefinery, characteristics of hydrolysate and pretreated biomass obtained from oxalic acid pretreatment were examined. The hydrolysate contained high glucose and low concentrations of inhibitors. The glucose concentration in the hydrolysate particularly increased when temperature gradient was used during pretreatment, compared with that of isocratic condition. The highest increase rate of glucose was 63.16% when pretreatment was performed at 140 °C for 25 min with 0.032 oxalic acid (g/g), and increased temperature to 170 °C. At the same time, ethanol production of Scheffersomyces stipitis using hydrolysate was 15.72 g/L after 48 h, which correspond to an ethanol volumetric productivity of 0.33 g L^?1 h^?1. Most of the lignin and some of the cellulose remained in the pretreated biomass. The total lignin content of the pretreated biomass, represent between 31.81 and 45.05%, compared to 28.8% of the raw material. The calorific value of the pretreated biomass ranged from 4940 to 5111 kcal/kg which represent increase of 3–6% compared to the raw material, due to higher contents of lignin in the pretreated biomass.     

Improved photo-catalytic activity of single-crystalline TiO2 nanowires surrounded by Pt cube nanoparticles

We report improved photo-catalytic properties of single-crystalline TiO₂ nanowires surrounded by Pt cubes for methanol electrooxidation under UV illumination. The TiO₂–Pt consists of single-crystalline TiO₂ nanowires grown along [0 0 1] direction and Pt cube nanoparticles with dominantly exposed {1 0 0} facets confirmed by transmission electron microscopy images and fast Fourier transform patterns. The nanostructure electrode consisting of TiO₂ nanowires and Pt cubes exhibits a remarkably improved performance for methanol electrooxidation in acid solution as compared to that of TiO₂ nanowires.     

Relay-volunteered multi-rate cooperative MAC protocol for IEEE 802.11 WLANs

In IEEE 802.11, the rate of a station (STA) is dynamically determined by link adaptation. Low-rate STAs tend to hog more channel time than high-rate STAs due to fair characteristics of carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance, leading to overall throughput degradation. It can be improved by limiting the transmission opportunities of low-rate STAs by backoff parameters. This, however, may cause unfair transmission opportunities to low-rate STAs. In an attempt to increase overall throughput by volunteer high-rate relay STAs while maintaining fairness, we propose a new cooperative medium access control (MAC) protocol, relay-volunteered multi-rate cooperative MAC (RM-CMAC) based on ready to send/clear to send in multi-rate IEEE 802.11. In the RM-CMAC protocol, we show that the effect of hogging channel time by low-rate STAs can be remedied by controlling the initial backoff window size of low-rate STAs and the reduced transmission opportunity of low-rate STAs can be compensated by the help of volunteer high-rate relay STAs. We analyze the performance of RM-CMAC, i.e., throughput and MAC delay, by a multi-rate embedded Markov chain model. We demonstrate that our analysis is accurate and the RM-CMAC protocol enhances the network throughput and MAC delay while maintaining the fairness of low-rate STAs.     

Architectural Design Issues in a Clockless 32‐Bit Processor Using an Asynchronous HDL

As technology evolves into the deep submicron level, synchronous circuit designs based on a single global clock have incurred problems in such areas as timing closure and power consumption. An asynchronous circuit design methodology is one of the strong candidates to solve such problems. To verify the feasibility and efficiency of a large‐scale asynchronous circuit, we design a fully clockless 32‐bit processor. We model the processor using an asynchronous HDL and synthesize it using a tool specialized for asynchronous circuits with a top‐down design approach. In this paper, two microarchitectures, basic and enhanced, are explored. The results from a pre‐layout simulation utilizing 0.13‐μm CMOS technology show that the performance and power consumption of the enhanced microarchitecture are respectively improved by 109% and 30% with respect to the basic architecture. Furthermore, the measured power efficiency is about 238 μW/MHz and is comparable to that of a synchronous counterpart.