Effect of expandable graphite and ammonium polyphosphate on the thermal degradation and weathering of intumescent fire-retardant coating

This research aims to study the effect of ammonium polyphosphate and expandable graphite on the intumescent coating formulations (ICF). The coating presented in this research article is based on carbon source expandable graphite (EG), blowing agent melamine, acid source ammonium polyphosphate (APP), epoxy resin as a binder with polyamide amine. The stability of the developed coating was verified at 950°C for 1-hour fire test. The results showed that the coating is stable and well bond with the steel substrate. The char was characterized by using FESEM, XRD, FTIR, DTA, TGA, XPS, Py-GCMS and Weathering Test. The morphology of the char was studied by SEM of the coating after furnace fire test. XRD and FTIR show the presence of graphite, borophosphate; boron oxide and sassolite in the residual char. TGA and DTG disclosed that EG improved the residual mass of coating. XPS analysis showed the char residue of IF5-APP-EG contains carbon and oxygen contents 47.50 and 40.70, respectively. Py-GCMS analysis described that the IF5-APP-EG released less gaseous compounds. The weathering test illustrated that's the char expansion of coatings samples was decreased due to the presence of a humid environment and UV light. The IF5-APP-EG showed the maximum char expansion, lower substrate temperature and high residual weight among the studied formulations.     

Flexural Behavior of Concrete-Filled Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Circular Tubes

This paper presents the experimental results of large-scale concrete-filled glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) circular tubes and control hollow GFRP and steel tubes tested in bending. The diameter of the beams ranged from 89 to 942 mm and the spans ranged from 1.07 to 10.4 m. The study investigated the effects of concrete filling, cross-sectional configurations including tubes with a central hole, tube-in-tube with concrete filling in between, and different laminate structures of the GFRP tubes. The study demonstrated the benefits of concrete filling, and showed that a higher strength-to-weight ratio can be achieved by providing a central hole. The results indicated that the flexural behavior is highly dependent on the stiffness and diameter-to-thickness ratio of the tube, and, to a much less extent, on the concrete strength. Test results suggest that the contribution of concrete confinement to the flexural strength is insignificant; however, the ductility of the member is improved. A strain compatibility model has been developed, verified by the experimental results, and used to provide a parametric study of the different parameters, significantly affecting the behavior. The parametric study covered a wide range of FRP sections filled with concrete, including under-reinforced, balanced, and over-reinforced sections.     

Wet Chemical Treatment and Mg Doping of p-InP Surfaces for Ohmic Low-Resistive Metal Contacts

Manufacturing a low-resistive Ohmic metal contact on p-type InP crystals for various applications is a challenge because of the Fermi-level pinning via surface defects and the diffusion of p-type doping atoms in InP. Development of wet-chemistry treatments and nanoscale control of p-doping for InP surfaces is crucial for decreasing the device resistivity losses and durability problems. Herein, a proper combination of HCl-based solution immersion, which directly provides an unusual wet chemical-induced InP(100)c(2 × 2) atomic structure, and low-temperature Mg-surface doping of the cleaned InP before Ni-film deposition is demonstrated to decrease the contact resistivity of Ni/p-InP by the factor of 10 approximately as compared to the lowest reference value without Mg. Deposition of the Mg intermediate layer on p-InP and postheating of Mg/p-InP at 350 °C, both performed in ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) chamber, lead to intermixing of Mg and InP elements according to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Introducing a small oxygen gas background (O₂ ≈ 10⁻⁶ mbar) in UHV chamber during the postheating of Mg/p-InP enhances the indium outdiffusion and provides the lowest contact resistivity. Quantum mechanical simulations indicate that the presence of InP native oxide or/and metal indium alloy at the interface increases In diffusion.     

Performance evaluation of OFDM and single‐carrier systems using frequency domain equalization and phase modulation

In this paper, we study the performance of the continuous phase modulation (CPM)‐based orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CPM‐OFDM) system. Also, we propose a CPM‐based single‐carrier frequency domain equalization (CPM‐SC‐FDE) structure for broadband wireless communication systems. The proposed structure combines the advantages of the low complexity of SC‐FDE, in addition to exploiting the channel frequency diversity and the power efficiency of CPM. Both the CPM‐OFDM system and the proposed system are implemented with FDE to avoid the complexity of the equalization. Two types of frequency domain equalizers are considered and compared for performance evaluation of both systems; the zero forcing (ZF) equalizer and the minimum mean square error (MMSE) equalizer. Simulation experiments are performed for a variety of multipath fading channels. Simulation results show that the performance of the CPM‐based systems with multipath fading is better than their performance with single path fading. The performance over a multipath channel is at least 5 and 12 dB better than the performance over a single path channel, for the CPM‐OFDM system and the proposed CPM‐SC‐FDE system, respectively. The results also show that, when CPM is utilized in SC‐FDE systems, they can outperform CPM‐OFDM systems by about 5 dB. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pre-service teachers' perspectives of the diffusion of information and communications technologies (ICTs) and the effect of case-based discussions (CBDs)

This study investigates pre-service teachers' perspectives of the diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in elementary education and the effect of case-based discussions (CBDs). The sample consisted of 170 first-year pre-service teachers from elementary teacher education programs of the largest teacher education college in Turkey. The cases used in the study were obtained from a case repository at http://ornekolay.org, indexing teaching cases from elementary classrooms of the capital city of Turkey. The cases were mainly text-based and presented stories of elementary teachers' in-class usage of ICTs. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was executed to test the effect of pre-service teachers' perspectives on ICTs diffusion in elementary teaching. Three scales were developed based on Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation Theory (2003) to measure pre-service teachers' preferred innovativeness, innovation perceptions, and innovation decisions in the use of ICTs. The results showed that pre-service teachers had pre-established perspectives, mainly positive, about the diffusion of ICTs in elementary teaching; their perceptions about innovativeness and relative advantage were the main indicators of persuasion and decision; and CBDs positively affected their perceptions such that their computer-related persuasion and decisions positively increased.     

Adhesion, spreading and osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells cultured on micropatterned amorphous diamond, titanium, tantalum and chromium coatings on silicon

It was hypothesized that human mesenchymal stromal cell (hMSC) can be guided by patterned and plain amorphous diamond (AD), titanium (Ti), tantalum (Ta) and chromium (Cr) coatings, produced on silicon wafer using physical vapour deposition and photolithography. At 7.5 h hMSCs density was 3.0–3.5× higher (P < 0.0003, except Ti) and cells were smaller (68 vs. 102 μm, P 0.000006–0.02) on patterns than on silicon background. HMSC-covered surface of the background silicon was lower on Ti than AD patterns (P = 0.015), but at 5 days this had reversed (P = 0.006). At 7.5 h focal vinculin adhesions and actin cytoskeleton were outgoing from pattern edges so cells assumed geometric square shapes. Patterns allowed induced osteogenesis, but less effectively than plain surfaces, except for AD, which could be used to avoid osseointegration. All these biomaterial patterns exert direct early, intermediate and late guidance on hMSCs and osteogenic differentiation, but indirect interactions exist with cells on silicon background.     

Fundamental mechanisms of bonding of glass fiber reinforced polymer reinforcement to concrete

Fundamental mechanisms of bonding between glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) bar and concrete are presented. Contributions from chemical bonding, bearing resistance, and frictional resistance to bond were delineated by measuring the following: the load corresponding to complete debonding of the bar, the load corresponding to onset of sliding and pullout of the bar along the entire embedment length, and the frictional load corresponding to frictional resistance to sliding. Research findings indicate that while chemical bonding was the main contributor to the interfacial bond strength, the other two mechanisms contributed to the pullout strength of the bar. Correlation between the bar’s surface geometry and the contributions from the three mechanisms are discussed.     

Evaluation du transport solide et de l’envasement dans le bassin versant de Siliana (Tunisie): cas des barrages Siliana et Lakhmess

The evaluation of the sediment transport and the silting in the artificial dam installed on the Siliana river (Tunisia) has been obtained using direct and indirect methods through the qualitative and quantitative study of the erosive phenomena existing in the subtended catchment area and the sedimentation entity accumulated on the dam’s reservoir. The study area, which extends approximately 1036 km², is mainly composed of quaternary alluvial deposits (clay, sandy clay, gravels, limestone). The relief is almost flat (600 meters of altitude), dominated by the presence of mountains of the Tunisian dorsal (the most elevated are: Jebel Bargou, Jebel Sardj). The dominant climate is the semi arid one. The study area is among the zones which are mainly concerned by several erosion phenomena in Tunisia. The indirect evaluation of the lands erodibility of the catchment area has been obtained through the application, with the aid of geo-informatics technologies, of two previsional models: the Quantitative Geomorphological Analysis and the PISA model. The obtained results, for the total Siliana catchment and for Lakhmess sub-catchment, allowed to estimate the entity and the variability of lands erodibility on the basis of some representative factors of the physico-climatic conditions that characterize the study area. The direct measurement of the sediment volumes present in the Siliana dam’s reservoir, has allowed to quantify the effective entity of silting of the same reservoir. The latter, obtained through a bathymetric relief has turned out equal to 14.66 10⁶ m³, to which corresponds a medium erodibility, pertinent to the entire catchment area, of 1322 t/km²/year. The comparison of such value with those obtained from the two indirect applied models has shown, at least for the studied area, the better suitability of the Quantitative Geomorphological Analysis as an instrument of indirect evaluation of the erosion entity in Lakhmess catchment and the PISA model as a good model for estimating the siltation on Siliana dam. The quantitative data obtained from this study, with the qualitative information shown in the numerous thematic charts realized, relative to the various physico-environmental characters of the catchment area, represent an adapted base, to which it will be possible to make reference to the manager responsible for the administration of the dam so as to realize the pertinent and necessary interventions of hydraulic management and soil conservation which are required for the protection of the water resource of the dam.     

Prediction of fabrics mechanical behaviour in uni-axial tension starting from their technical parameters

On the basis of a phenomenological study, which consists in determining the response of a fabric sample to the traction and the relaxation, we proposed a rheological model with 15 coefficients. This model of mechanical behaviour in uni-axial tension takes into account the elastic and the viscous components. To characterize the coefficients of this model, simple tension and relaxation tests were performed for 29 fabrics in the warp and the weft directions. An artificial neuronal network trained with a retro-propagation algorithm performs functional mapping between these mechanical coefficients and the technical parameters of fabric, which allowed us to predict the mechanical behaviour in tension and relaxation of fabrics starting only from their technical parameters.