Geopolymer concrete-filled pultruded composite beams – Concrete mix design and application

The limited research on the geopolymer concrete mix design for targeting a specific strength is identified an obstacle for their effective design and wide use. In this paper, a mix design procedure has been proposed for fly-ash based geopolymer concrete and its use as infill hybrid composite beam is investigated. Then, the structural performance of geopolymer concrete filled hybrid composite beam is investigated to determine their possible application in civil infrastructure. Firstly, a detailed procedure of mix design for fly-ash based geopolymer concrete is presented. Secondly, three hybrid beams filled with geopolymer concrete were prepared and tested in a four-point bending setup to evaluate their flexural modulus and modulus of rupture. Numerical and analytical evaluation of the behaviour of hybrid beam were performed and results showed a good agreement with the experimental investigation. Thirdly, the suitability of the beam for a composite railway sleeper is evaluated and compared with existing timber and composite sleepers. Finally, the beams’ performance in a ballast railway track is analysed using Strand7 finite element simulation software and the results showed that the new concept of using geopolymer concrete as infill to pultruded composite section satisfied the stiffness and strength requirements for a railway sleeper.     

Bearing Failure Optimization of Composite Double-Lap Bolted Joints Based on a Three-Step Strategy Marked By Feasible Region Reduction and Model Decoupling

To minimize the mass and increase the bearing failure load of composite doublelap bolted joints, a three-step optimization strategy including feasible region reduction, optimization model decoupling and optimization was presented. In feasible region reduction, the dimensions of the feasible design region were reduced by selecting dominant design variables from numerous multilevel parameters by sensitivity analyses, and the feasible regions of variables were reduced by influence mechanism analyses. In model decoupling, the optimization model with a large number of variables was divided into various sub-models with fewer variables by variance analysis. In the third step, the optimization sub-models were solved one by one using a genetic algorithm, and the modified characteristic curve method was adopted as the failure prediction method. Based on the proposed optimization method, optimization of a double-lap single-bolt joint was performed using the ANSYS^® code. The results show that the bearing failure load increased by 13.5% and that the mass decreased by 8.7% compared with those of the initial design of the joint, which validated the effectiveness of the three-step optimization strategy.     

Moving Least-Squares Differential Quadrature Method for Free Vibration of Antisymmetric Laminates

In this paper, the moving least-squares differential quadrature (MLSDQ) method is employed for free vibration of thick antisymmetric laminates based on the first-order shear deformation theory. The generalized displacements of the laminates are independently approximated with the centered moving least-squares (MLS) technique within each domain of influence. The MLS nodal shape functions and their partial derivatives are computed quickly through back-substitutions after only one LU decomposition. Subsequently, the weighting coefficients in the MLSDQ discretization are determined with the nodal partial derivatives of the MLS shape functions. The MLSDQ method combines the merits of both the differential quadrature and meshless methods which can be conveniently applied to complex domains and irregular discretizations without loss of implementation efficiency and numerical accuracy. The natural frequencies of the laminates with various edge conditions, ply angles, and shapes are calculated and compared with the existing solutions to study the numerical accuracy and stability of the MLSDQ method. Effects of support size, order of completeness of basis functions, and node irregularity on the numerical accuracy are investigated in detail.     

Gamma-irradiation-induced Ag/SiO2 composite films and their optical absorption properties

Small Ag particles or clusters dispersed mesoporous SiO₂ composite films were prepared by a new method: First the matrix SiO₂ films were prepared by sol-gel process combined with the dip-coating technique, then they were soaked in AgNO₃ solutions followed by irradiation of γ-ray at room temperature and in ambient pressure. The structures of these films were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), and optical absorption spectroscopy. It has been shown that the Ag particles grown within the porous SiO₂ films are very small, and they are isolated and dispersed from each other with very narrow size distributions. With increasing the soaking concentration and an additional annealing, an opposite peakshift effect of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) was observed in the optical absorption measurements.     

SiC（w）／TZP＋mullite陶瓷复合材料界面和组成设计与力学性能

本文从理论上分析了ＳｉＣ（ｗ）ＴＺＰ＋ｍｕｌｌｉｔｅ（ｐ）复合材料界面残余热应力及其在基质内的分布规律。提出在ＳｉＣ（ｗ）表面涂复Ａｌ２Ｏ３和在ＰＺＴ中加入ｍｕｌｌｉｔｅ（ｐ）联合作用来降低晶须／基质界面残余热应力的界面设计方案，导出ＳｉＣ（ｗ）和ｍｕｌｌｉｔｅ（ｐ）协同补强ＰＺＴ的匹配条件。制备了ＳｉＣ（ｗ）／ＴＺＰ＋ｍｕｌｌｉｔｅ（ｐ）复合材料并了ＳｉＣ（ｗ）表面涂层Ａｌ２Ｏ３厚度和ＳｉＣ（ｗ     

Improved Matrix-Filler Adhesion

Enhanced matrix-filler adhesion is realized after filler treatment with a surface treatment process. The hydrosol/coupling agent treatment was applied to a wide range of inorganic and organic fillers, and adhesion to a variety of matrix resins was improved. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was used to determine the locus of failure in the filled systems. The locus of failure shows the relative degree of adhesion between the filler and the polymer matrix. Significant improvement in adhesion in humid environments is also observed.     

Level set and geodesic active contours based measurement of material removal between serial sections

The measurement of the thickness of material removed between serial sections is a crucial step of three-dimension reconstruction. Geodesic active contours is an efficient method for contour detection of objects on an image. The indents on the SiC/Al composite micrographs are segmented by using level set and geodesic active contours. After getting the contours of the indents, we calculate the distance from the uppermost pixel to the lowermost pixel to get the vertical diagonal length, and calculate the distance from the leftmost pixel to the rightmost pixel to get the horizontal diagonal length of each contour. Then the final length of each diagonal is acquired by averaging the vertical diagonal length and the horizontal diagonal length, respectively. The Vickers’ indenter is made by a square pyramidal-shaped diamond with opposite faces at an angle of 136°, so the thickness of material removed between two serial sections and the length difference of the diagonals on the two serial sections has a definite geometrical relation. Thus the thickness of material removed between two serial sections is acquired using the geometrical relation.     

Measurement of the Timoshenko Shear Stiffness. II: Effect of Transverse Compressibility

This is the second of two papers devoted to the issue of measuring the Timoshenko shear stiffness of thin-walled composite beams. In the first paper, the effect of warping on the effective Timoshenko shear stiffness, as measured through bending tests, was studied. The bending test was simulated using finite-element analysis, and the results indicated that the warping effect was minimal. On the other hand, the evidence suggests that transverse flexibility may have a significant influence on the effective Timoshenko shear stiffness, decreasing the effective shear stiffness at shorter test spans. The purpose of the present study is to further investigate this effect and to explore the use of a sandwich theory to predict the measurement error. A higher-order sandwich theory, which captures the transverse strain at concentrated loads and supports, is applied to a commercially available thin-walled composite beam. The results indicate that the sandwich model does capture the decrease in the effective shear stiffness at short spans, and the dependence of the shear stiffness on span-to-depth ratio is similar to that calculated in the first paper, using the finite-element method.