Influence of concrete strength and length/diameter on the axial capacity of CFT columns

This paper presents an experimental analysis of the confinement effects in steel–concrete composite columns regarding two parameters: concrete compressive strength and column slenderness. Sixteen concrete-filled steel tubular columns with circular cross section were tested under axial loading. The tested columns were filled by concrete with compressive strengths of 30, 60, 80, and 100 MPa, and had length/diameter ratios of 3, 5, 7, and 10. The experimental values of the columns’ ultimate load were compared to the predictions of 4 code provisions: the Brazilian Code NBR 8800:2008, Eurocode 4 (EN 1994-1-1:2004), AINSI/AISC 360:2005, and CAN/CSA S16-01:2001. According to the results, the load capacity of the composite columns increased with increasing concrete strength and decreased with increasing length/diameter ratio. In general, the code provisions were highly accurate in the prediction of column capacity. Among them, the Brazilian Code was the most conservative, while Eurocode 4 presented the values closest to the experimental results.     

Confinement effect of stiffened and unstiffened concrete-filled stainless steel tubular stub columns

This paper presents a comparative study between stiffened and unstiffened concrete-filled stainless steel hollow tubular stub columns using the austenitic stainless steel grade EN 1.4301 (304). Finite element analysis of concrete-filled stainless steel unstiffened tubular stub columns is constructed herein based on the confined concrete model recently available in the literature. It is then compared with the experimental results of concrete-filled stainless steel stiffened tubular stub columns. The stiffened stainless steel tubular sections were fabricated by welding four lipped angles or two lipped channels at the lips. The longitudinal stiffener of the column plate was formed to avoid shrinkage of the concrete and to act as a continuous connector between the concrete core and the stainless steel tube. The behavior of the columns was investigated using two different nominal concrete cubic strengths of 30 and 60 MPa. The overall depth-to-width ratios (aspect ratio) varied from 1.0 to 1.8. The depth-to-plate thickness ratio of the tube sections varied from 60 to 90. The stiffened and unstiffened concrete-filled stainless steel tube specimens were subjected to uniform axial compression over the concrete and stainless steel tube to force the entire section to undergo the same deformations by blocking action. The ABAQUS 6.6 program, as a finite element package, is used in the current work. The results of the comparative study showed that the stainless steel tubes in stiffened concrete-filled columns offered a high average of increase in the confinement of the concrete core than that of the unstiffened concrete-filled columns.     

Circular tunnel in a semi-infinite aquifer

The steady gravity flow that is generated by a circular tunnel disturbing the hydrostatic state of a semi-infinite, homogeneous and isotropic aquifer is solved exactly. Many aspects of the flow are found in closed analytical forms such as the water inflow, pressure, leakage and recharging infiltration, which give a complete view of the aquifer in the drained steady state. It is found that the maximum value of the recharging infiltration does not exceed the hydraulic conductivity allowing stating a criteria for recharge intervention to ensure the stability of the aquifer. In addition to the main results, two aspects of the water inflow are treated. These are the necessary modifications that are to be considered in the case of an inclined water table and in the case of a lined tunnel that develops a constant internal pressure. It is also found that under an inclined water table a tunnel may cease to drain on its complete circumferential edge and a limiting condition is stated. Furthermore, the Muskat–Goodman and other water inflow predictions are compared to the exact gravity water inflow.     

A Preliminary Investigation of the ISG Glass Vapor Hydration

During the geological disposal of high-level waste, the nuclear glass is expected to be first hydrated in water vapor prior to liquid alteration. In the present work, we investigated the vapor hydration of the International simple glass (ISG) at 175°C and different relative humidities (60%, 80% and 98%). The glass hydration was investigated by nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) and Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy. The chemical and mineralogical compositions of the alteration products were studied using scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and μ-Raman spectroscopy, respectively. The NRA results gave water diffusion coefficients of 2.31–7.34 × 10⁻²¹ m²/s_, in good agreement with the literature data on borosilicate glasses altered in aqueous media. The glass hydration increased with relative humidity percentage and the SEM-EDS analysis showed a slight enrichment in Si and loss of Na in the hydrated glass layer compared with the pristine glass. The hydration rate of the ISG glass was little higher than that of the French SON68 glass hydrated using water vapor. The corrosion products were analcime, tobermorite, and calcite, which were typical of the SON68 glass hydrated in similar conditions.     

Target Multiplicity Performance Analysis of Radar CFAR Detection Techniques for Partially Correlated Chi-Square Targets

Most radar targets are complex objects and produce a wide variety of reflections. An important class of targets is represented by the so-called moderately fluctuating Rayleigh targets, which, when illuminated by a coherent pulse train, return a train of correlated pulses with a correlation coefficient in the range 0<ρ<1 (intermediate between SWII and SWI models). The detection of this type of fluctuating targets is therefore of great interest. On the other hand, the CFAR detection is one of the desirable features for radar receivers. Because of the simplicity of cell-averaging (CA detectors in their implementation, they are commonly used in modern radar systems to automatically adapt the detection threshold to the local background noise or clutter power in an attempt to maintain an approximately constant rate of false alarm. In this paper, we analyze the performance of these detectors for the case where the radar receiver postdetection integrates M square-law detected pulses and the signal fluctuation obeys chi-square statistics with two degrees of freedom. These detectors include the mean-level ML), the greatest-of (GO) and the smallest-of (SO) schemes. In these processors, the estimation of the noise power levels from the leading and the trailing reference windows is based on the CA technique. Exact formulas for the detection probabilities are derived, in the absence as well as in the presence of spurious targets. The primary and the secondary interfering targets are assumed to be fluctuating in accordance with the chi-square fluctuation model with two degrees of freedom. Swerling's well known fluctuation models I and II represent the cases where the signal is completely correlated and completely decorrelated, respectively, from pulse to pulse. Probability of detection curves are presented for the chi-square family of fluctuations, including the Swerling cases I and II. The ML detector has the best homogeneous performance, the SO processor has the best multiple-target performance, while the GO scheme does not offer any merits neither in the absence nor in the presence of outlying targets.     

Optical Nanoscale Pool‐on‐Surface Design for Control Sensing Recognition of Multiple Cations

General design of optical chemical nanosensors is needed to develop efficient sensing systems with high flexibility, and low capital cost for control recognition of toxic analytes. Here, we designed optical chemical nanosensors for simple, high‐speed detection of multiple toxic metal ions. The systematic design of the nanosensors was based on densely patterned chromophores with intrinsic mobility, namely, “building‐blocks” onto three‐dimensional (3D) nanoscale structures. The ability to precisely modify the nanoscale pore surfaces by using a broad range of chromophores that have different molecular sizes and characteristics enables detection of multiple toxic ions. A key feature of this building‐blocks design strategy is that the surface functionality and good adsorption characteristics of the fabricated nanosensor arrays enabled the development of “pool‐on‐surface” sensing systems in which high flux of the metal analytes across the probe molecules was achieved without significant kinetic hindrance. Such a sensing design enabled sensitive recognition of metal ions up to sub‐picomolar detection limits (～10^?11 mol dm^?3), for first time, with rapid response time within few seconds. Moreover, because these sensing pools exhibited long‐term stability, reversibility and selectivity in detecting most pollutant cations, for example, Cr(VI), Pb(II), Co(II), and Pd(II) ions, they are practical and inexpensive. The key result in our study is that the pool‐on‐surface design for optical nanosensors exhibited significant ion‐selective ability of these target ions from environmental samples and waste disposals.     

Nanoscale Membrane Strips for Benign Sensing of HgII Ions: A Route to Commercial Waste Treatments

The integration of actively‐functional receptors into nanoscale networks outperformed competent detection devices and other ion‐sensing designs. Synthesis of azo chromophores with long hydrophobic tails showed an ecofriendly sensing and an extreme selectivity for divalent mercury analytes. In order to tailor the tip to Hg^II ion‐sensing functionality, we manipulated the chromophores into nanoscale membrane discs, which led to small, easy‐to‐use optical sensor strips. The design of these hydrophobic probes into ordered pore‐based membranes transformed the ion‐sensing systems into smart, stable assemblies and portable laboratory assays. The nanosensor membrane strips with chemical and mechanical stability allowed for reversible, stable and reusable detectors without any structural damage, even under rigorous chemical treatment for several numbers of repeated cycles. The optical membrane strips provided Hg^II ion‐sensing recognition for both cost‐ and energy‐saving systems. Indeed, the synthetic strips proved to have an efficient ability for various analytical applications, targeting especially for on‐site and in situ chemical analyses, and for continuous monitoring of toxic Hg^II ions. On the proximity‐sensing front, these miniaturized nanomembrane strips can revolutionize the consumer and industrial market with the introduction of the probe surface‐mount naked‐eye ion‐sensor strips.     

On the Optimality of the ARQ-DDF Protocol

In this correspondence, the performance of the automatic repeat request-dynamic decode and forward (ARQ-DDF) cooperation protocol is analyzed in two distinct scenarios. The first scenario is the multiple access relay channel where a single relay is dedicated to simultaneously help two multiple access users. For this setup, it is shown that the ARQ-DDF protocol achieves the channel's optimal diversity multiplexing tradeoff (DMT). The second scenario is the cooperative vector multiple access channel where two users cooperate in delivering their messages to a destination equipped with two receiving antennas. For this setup, a new variant of the ARQ-DDF protocol is developed where the two users are purposefully instructed not to cooperate in the first round of transmission. Lower and upper bounds on the achievable DMT are then derived. These bounds are shown to converge to the optimal tradeoff as the number of transmission rounds increases.     

Temperature behavior of spiral inductors on high resistivity substrate in SOI CMOS technology

This paper reviews and analyzes a compact model for integrated planar spiral inductors on standard and high resistivity substrates in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. The inductors have been characterized over a temperature range from 25 to 200 °C. The temperature variation of each model parameter has been investigated. It demonstrates that only the variations of the metallic losses versus temperature have to be taken into account to model properly the high frequency behavior over a wide temperature range of a spiral inductor integrated on silicon high resistivity substrate. Based on these experimental and characterization results, guidelines for practical inductor designs in RFICs for high-temperature applications are drawn.     

Peroxidase-active cell free extract from onion solid wastes: biocatalytic properties and putative pathway of ferulic acid oxidation

The exploitation of food residuals can be a major contribution in reducing the polluting load of food industry waste and in developing novel added-value products. Plant food residues including trimmings and peels might contain a range of enzymes capable of transforming bioorganic molecules, and thus they may have potential uses in several biocatalytic processes, including green organic synthesis, modification of food physicochemical properties, bioremediation, etc. Although the use of bacterial and fungal enzymes has gained attention in studies pertaining to biocatalytic applications, plant enzymes have been given less consideration or even disregarded. Therefore, we investigated the use of a crude peroxidase preparation from solid onion by-products for oxidizing ferulic acid, a widespread phenolic acid, various derivatives of which may occur in food wastes. The highest enzyme activity was observed at a pH value of 4, but considerable activity was retained up to a pH value of 6. Favorable temperatures for increased activity varied between 20-40 degrees C, 30 degrees C being the optimal. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of a homogenate/H(2)O(2)-treated ferulic acid solution showed the formation of a dimer as a major oxidation product.