Rechnerische Beurteilung der Schubtragfähigkeit einer Spannbetonbrücke mit geringem Querkraft bewehrungsgrad

Assessment of the shear strength of an existing post‐tensioned concrete bridge with a low amount of shear reinforcement – First application of the ”Flexural Shear Crack“ model in practice In recent years it was reported several times, that within a static assessment according to current standards the shear strength of post‐tensioned bridges, which were built in Austria before 1989, cannot be fulfilled any more. However, test results prove, that especially prestressed structures have additional load bearing capacities, which cannot be reproduced with current calculation models. In the framework of a pilot project a new developed shear model (Flexural Shear Crack Model) was used. In this paper the approach as well as the main results of a statical reevaluation of an existing post‐tensioned road bridge at the Tauern Autobahn A10 will be presented.     

Toughened carbon fiber fabric‐reinforced pCBT composites

Toughened carbon fiber‐fabric reinforced polymerized cyclic butylene terephthalate (pCBT) composites were obtained by chemical modification of cyclic butylene terephthalate (CBT) with small amounts of epoxy resin and isocyanates as chain extenders. Homogeneous CBT/epoxy and CBT/isocyanate blends were prepared by melt blending the components in a lab‐scale batch mixer at low temperatures and high shear rate. Melt blending was stopped before the ring‐opening polymerization of CBT could start. The modified CBT was the starting material for carbon fiber fabric‐reinforced pCBT composites (fiber content at about 65 wt%) which were prepared by ring‐opening polymerization during compression molding using a simple powder prepreg method. Interlaminar shear strength, flexural strength, and failure strain of the chemically modified composites increased up to 60% with respect to unmodified pCBT composites. Nevertheless, the flexural moduli slightly decreased due to the toughening effect of the chain extender on the pCBT matrix. Drop weight impact tests revealed that the energy absorption of the modified composites was relatively higher as compared to unmodified pCBT composites. POLYM. COMPOS., 37:1453–1460, 2016. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Pd-, Ni-, Fe-, and Co-Catalyzed Cross-Couplings Using Functionalized Zn-, Mg-, Fe-, and In-Organometallics

The development of new methods for preparing polyfunctional organometallics has made a broad range of such reagents available for various transition metal-catalyzed cross-couplings. An overview of the most general preparation methods will be presented. Applications to practical cross-coupling procedures will be covered, emphasizing the functional group compatibility and the reaction scope.     

Computer-Assisted Determination of Reaction Parameters for the Simulation of Micropollutant Abatement in Wastewater Ozonation

For the purpose of the simulation of the kinetics of the reaction of ozone with wastewater in a bubble column, the kinetics can be adequately described by two components and their respective rate constants. Ozone uptake and ozone steady states along a bubble column have been determined. A modeling procedure has been developed that allows us to describe this behavior and to simulate the degradation of micropollutants. For fast (diclofenac) and moderately fast (bezafibrate) reacting micropollutants this model describes their measured elimination well.     

CO<Subscript>2</Subscript>-laser treatment of indium tin oxide nanoparticle coatings on flexible polyethyleneterephthalate substrates

A CO₂-laser treatment was used to improve the electrical conductivity of coatings of indium tin oxide (ITO) nanoparticles on flexible polyethyleneterephthalate (PET) substrates. The electrical conductivity and the transparency of CO₂-laser-treated ITO nanoparticle coatings were characterized with regard to the application as transparent electrodes. Furthermore, the stability of the electrical conductivity under oscillatory bending was investigated. A specific resistance of 0.12 Ω cm is obtained by CO₂-laser treatment without thermally damaging the PET film. The improvement of the electrical conductivity can be explained by a slight sinter neck formation. For a film thickness of 3 μm, a sheet resistance of 400 Ω/□ and a transmission in the visible range of 80% were achieved. The stability of the electrical conductivity of CO₂-laser-treated ITO nanoparticle coatings under bending was investigated using a specially constructed device for the application of various oscillatory bending loads. For a bending radius of 10 mm, the sheet resistance does not exceed 1000 Ω/□ after 300 bending cycles. Compared to commercial sputtered ITO coatings, CO₂-laser-treated ITO nanoparticle coatings show a significant higher stability under oscillatory bending.     

Nachträgliche Verstärkung gemauerter Tragwerke mit Faserverbundwerkstoffen

Gemauerte Konstruktionen lassen sich sehr effektiv mit Faserverbundwerkstoffen nachträglich verstärken. Dabei ist es sinnvoll, den Faserverbundwerkstoff direkt auf der Mauerwerksoberfläche durch das Einlegen von Fasergelegen in eine Klebstoffmatrix herzustellen. Anwendungsgebiete dieses Verfahrens sind die Umschnürung gemauerter Pfeiler, die Verstärkung von Wänden unter Scheibenbeanspruchung und die zugfeste Bewehrung biegebeanspruchter Bauteile. Die wichtigsten Ergebnisse umfangreicher experimenteller Untersuchungen, die an der Universität Kassel in den vergangenen Jahren durchgeführt wurden, werden vorgestellt und erläutert. Post‐strengthening of masonry structures with fibre reinforced polymers. Fiber reinforced polymeres can be used effectively for post‐strengthening of masonry structures. In this context it is reasonable to manufacture the FRP material by wet‐lay‐up directly on the surface of the masonry structure. Possible applications of the method are the confinement of columns as well as post‐strengthening of in‐plane and out‐of‐plane loaded structures. The main results of experimental research carried out at the University of Kassel during the last years will be presented.     

Modeling subjectively perceived annoyance of H.264/AVC video as a function of perceived artifact strength

This paper is concerned with the subjective perception of video coding artifacts in H.264/AVC encoded and decoded video. Our objective is to model the perceived annoyance of such low bit rate video sequences as a function of perceived artifact strength. We introduce a new method for determining this function and apply it to the data from two psychophysical experiments. Both experiments produced numerical judgments of the subjectively perceived annoyance of artifact combinations and the perceived strength of the respective coding artifacts. Our method produces a discrete multi-dimensional representation of the relationships in the data from which the function relating annoyance to artifact strength is derived. The method is applied to the data of the first experiment and the resulting function is shown to describe the data from the second experiment as well.     

UNICORE 6 — Recent and Future Advancements

UNICORE is a European Grid Technology with more than 10 years of history. Originating from the Supercomputing domain, the latest version UNICORE 6 has turned into a general-purpose Grid technology that follows established standards and offers a rich set of features to its users. The paper starts with an architectural insight into UNICORE 6, highlighting the workflow features, standards and the different clients. Next, the current state of advancement is presented by describing recent developments. The paper closes with an outlook on future planned developments.     

Exposure assessment of a burning ground for chemical ammunition on the Great War battlefields of Verdun

The destruction of arsenical shells from the 1914/18 war in the vicinity of Verdun (France) during the 1920s resulted in a locally limited but severe soil contamination by arsenic and heavy metals. At the study site, the main part of the contaminant inventory occurs in the upper 20 cm of the topsoil which is essentially composed of combustion residues. Besides, some Cu (cmax.=16,877 mg/kg) and Pb (cmax.=26,398 mg/kg) in this layer, As (cmax.=175,907 mg/kg) and Zn (cmax.=133,237 mg/kg) were detected in very high concentrations. The mobilities of Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn in the soil system were derived from ammonium nitrate eluates. They are strongly influenced by the soil pH and can be described by quadratic regression curves from which threshold pH values were calculated. Below these values more than 10% of the element content was available as mobile species. Within the examined pH range, this method could not be adopted for arsenic, because the mobility of As was only slightly controlled by the soil pH. In the heavily contaminated topsoil, Cu and Pb were fixed by the moderately acidic soil pH which varied from 4.8 to 5.8. No migration to the underlying horizons occurred. A different behavior was observed for As and Zn. The calculated threshold pH of Zn was 5.5, so certain amount of this element was transferred to the subsoil and the leachate (cmax.=350 microg/l). However, a major dispersion of Zn was prevented by a rise of the soil pH in the carbonate-containing subsoil. Elevated concentrations of As were found in all soil horizons up to a depth of 2 m and also in the leachate (cmax.=2377 microg/l). Contrary to Cu, Pb and Zn the mobility of As evidently was less affected by the subsoil. Regarding organic contaminants, nitroaromatic explosives were detected only in minor concentrations in the soil (cmax.=14.7 mg/kg) and the leachate (cmax.=13.5 microg/l). No aromatic organoarsenicals were detected in the soil and the leachate samples. The main hazard of the site is the severe arsenic contamination and the transfer of this carcinogen by leachate, surface runoff and probably by wind. Nevertheless, some studies on the effects of the contaminant inventory on the local vegetation revealed that ammonium nitrate elutable zinc is responsible for the spatial distribution of some tolerant plant species and not arsenic. Previously undetected buried munitions from the former delaboration facility can be an other source of environmental contaminants. This is supported by elevated concentrations of chlorate (cmax.=71 mg/l) and perchlorate (cmax.=0.8 mg/l) detected in the leachate samples. This is the second report about environmental contamination related to post-war ammunition destruction activities along the 1914/18 Western Front.     

Electron transfer capacities and reaction kinetics of peat dissolved organic matter

Information about electron-transfer reactions of dissolved organic matter (DOM) is lacking. We determined electron acceptor and donor capacities (EAC and EDC) of a peat humic acid and an untreated peat DOM by electrochemical reduction and reduction with metallic Zn and H2S (EAC), and by oxidation with complexed ferric iron (EDC) at pH 6.5. DOC concentrations (10-100 mg L(-1)) and pH values (4.5-8) were varied in selected experiments. EAC reached up to 6.2 mequiv x (g C)(-1) and EDC reached up to 1.52 mequiv-(g C)(-1). EDC decreased with pH and conversion of chelated to colloidal iron, and the electron-transfer capacity (ETC) was controlled by the redox potential Eh of the reactant (ETC = 1.016x Eh - 0.138; R(2) = 0.87; p = 0.05). The kinetics could be adequately described by pseudo first-order rate laws, one or two DOM pools, and time constants ranging from 2.1 x 10(-3) d-1 to 1.9 x 10(-2) d(-1) for the fast pool. Reactions were completed after 24-160 h depending on the redox couple applied. The results indicate that DOM may act as a redox buffer over electrochemical potentials ranging from -0.9 to +1.0 V.