Fly and bottom ashes from biomass combustion as cement replacing components in mortars production: Rheological behaviour of the pastes and materials compression strength

In the present research mortar pastes obtained by replacing a commercial cement with the equivalent mass of 5, 10, 20 and 30 wt.% of fly ash or bottom ash from fir chips combustion, were prepared and rheologically characterized. It was observed that the presence of ash modifies their rheological behaviour with respect to the reference blend due to the presence, in the ashes, of KCl and K₂SO₄ which cause precipitation of gypsum and portlandite during the first hydration stages of the pastes. Hydrated materials containing 5 wt.% of ash display compression strength and absorption at 28 d of same magnitude as the reference composition; conversely, progressive increase of ash cause a continuous decline of materials performances. Conversely, samples tested after 180 d display a marked decline of compression strength, as a consequence of potassium elution and consequent alkali-silica reaction against materials under curing.     

强度折减有限元法中边坡失稳的塑性区判据及其应用

将抗剪强度折减法基本概念、弹塑性有限元分析原理与计算结果图形实时显示技术相结合,提出了以广义塑性应变及塑性开展区作为边坡失稳的评判依据,并与以非线性迭代收敛条件作为失稳评判指标的强度折减有限元方法进行了对比。对于天然垂直边坡的算例数值分析表明,采用广义塑性应变与塑性开展区作为失稳判据可以比较准确地预测边坡潜在破坏面的形状与位置及相应的稳定安全系数,验证了这种失稳判据的合理性。对开挖边坡和开挖支护边坡的实例计算结果表明本文方法对于复杂的边坡稳定性分析是实用的。     

Solidification of tannery wastes

The high chromium concentrations in tannery-wastewater treatment-plant sludges, render them unsuitable for direct disposal. Therefore, one aims to fix the chromium of the tannery waste by adding different additive materials to cause solidification. The properties of the raw sludge were determined and subsequently, the sludge was mixed with cement and additives and left to solidify for 28 days. During the study, 28 different mixtures were prepared and their compressive strengths were determined. Standard elutriation tests were carried out with each solidified sample. Compressive strengths were obtained below the desired concrete strengths. Most of the pollutant parameters in eluate were under the required values.     

测定回弹法专用测强曲线的数据融合方法

混凝土强度现场检测结果的准确性直接关系到结构的安全性。笔者利用通用回弹测强曲线提供的共性信息和现场试验得到的个性信息 ,通过数据融合方法 ,提出适应于现场情况的混凝土强度与回弹值之间的关系曲线。该曲线仍运用原有的幂函数形式并保持回归参数不变 ,通过增加位置参数反映现场试验的个性信息。其修正后的结果既反映混凝土回弹值和强度值之间的一般关系 ,又反映现场试验的实际情况。在混凝土回弹检测中采用该曲线 ,可极大地提高检测精度和检测结果的可靠性     

Quantifying ecological thresholds from response surfaces

Ecological thresholds are abrupt changes of ecological state. While an ecological threshold is a widely accepted concept, most empirical methods detect them in time or across geographic space. Although useful, these approaches do not quantify the direct drivers of threshold response. Causal understanding of thresholds detected empirically requires their investigation in a multi-factor domain containing the direct drivers (often referred to as state space). Here, we present an approach to quantify thresholds from response surfaces modeled empirically in state space. We present two indices of shape attributes measured from response surfaces. The response surfaces are built using a regression method in state space. The indices are threshold strength (T) and diagonality (D). We use 48 simulated response surfaces of different shapes to test the efficacy of the indices in 3D. Our results show that T is sensitive to the steepness of the transition from one state to the next, with various forms of abrupt, centralized thresholds yielding the highest values among the simulated surfaces. D represents the orientation of the response surface or the simultaneous influence of more than one predictor in eliciting the response gradient. Strongly diagonal surfaces have the most diagonal surface area demonstrated by sharply undulating diagonal surfaces. Given that the success of T and D requires a regression method to accurately capture any shape of complex data structure, we also test the accuracy of empirical regression methods known to be tractable with complex data. We test classification and regression trees (CART), Random Forest, and non-parametric multiplicative regression (NPMR) for binary and continuous responses. We use the 48 simulated response surfaces to test the methods, and we find that prediction accuracy depends on both the T and D of the simulated data for each method. We choose the most accurate method among those we test for capturing any shape of response surface from real data, NPMR. Finally, we use NPMR to build response surfaces and quantify T and D from real ecological data sets. We demonstrate how measuring threshold strength and diagonality from multi-factor response surfaces can advance ecology.     

新疆45年间不同强度等级沙尘暴天气空间格局年际变化趋势研究

通过对1960-2005年新疆54个气象站的气象资料进行分析,研究了新疆不同强度等级沙尘暴天气的时空分布年际演变趋势.结果显示：新疆各强度等级沙尘暴天气的发生区域均在逐年缩小,强沙尘暴、扬沙发生区域有东移的趋势,浮尘空间分布格局显现出向南退缩的趋势.沙尘暴空间格局变动较频繁没有明显的移动趋势.     

Solidification/stabilization of ash from medical waste incineration into geopolymers

In the present work, bottom and fly ash, generated from incinerated medical waste, was used as a raw material for the production of geopolymers. The stabilization (S/S) process studied in this paper has been evaluated by means of the leaching and mechanical properties of the S/S solids obtained. Hospital waste ash, sodium hydroxide, sodium silicate solution and metakaolin were mixed. Geopolymers were cured at 50 °C for 24 h. After a certain aging time of 7 and 28 days, the strength of the geopolymer specimens, the leachability of heavy metals and the mineralogical phase of the produced geopolymers were studied. The effects of the additions of fly ash and calcium compounds were also investigated. The results showed that hospital waste ash can be utilized as source material for the production of geopolymers. The addition of fly ash and calcium compounds considerably improves the strength of the geopolymer specimens (2–8 MPa). Finally, the solidified matrices indicated that geopolymerization process is able to reduce the amount of the heavy metals found in the leachate of the hospital waste ash.     

Utilization of silica fume in concrete: Review of hardened properties

Several types of industrial byproducts are generated. With increased environmental awareness and its potential hazardous effects, utilization of industrial byproducts has become an attractive alternative to disposal. One such by-product is silica fume (SF), which is a byproduct of the smelting process in the silicon and ferrosilicon industry. Silica fume is very effective in the design and development of high strength high performance concrete.This paper covers the physical, chemical properties of silica fume, and its reaction mechanism. It deals with the effect of silica fume on the workability, porosity, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, creep and shrinkage of concrete.