Effect of Silica Fume on the Properties of Steel-Fiber Reinforced Self-compacting Concrete

Implementing significant advantages in the supply of self-compacting concrete (SCC) is necessary because of the, negative features of SCC. Examples of these features are the ductility problem along with the very high cost of its constituted materials. Silica fume with steel fiber can fix this matter by improving the ductility and decreasing the total cost of SCC by varying the cement ingredients. Many different researchers have found that there have not been enough research carried out on the steel fiber-reinforced self-compacting concrete (SFRSCC) produced with silica fume. This paper inspects both the fresh and the mechanical properties of SFRSCC with silica fume, the fresh qualities where slump flow, slump T50 and V- funnel. While, the mechanical characteristics were the compressive strength, ultrasound pulse velocity (UPV) and elastic modulus of the concrete samples. The experimental results have proven that steel fiber can enhance the mechanical features. In addition, the silica fume within the entire hybrid mix may possibly adapt the fiber dispersion and strengthen deficits due to the fibers. It could also improve the strength plus the bond between the fiber and the matrix with a dense calcium silicate-hydrate gel in SFRSCC. The concluded result was predicted using linear mathematical models and was found to be in great agreement with the experimental results.

Efficient Oxyhydrogen Mixture Determination in Gas Detonation Forming

Oxyhydrogen is a mixture of Hydrogen (H2) and Oxygen (O2) gases. Detonative mixtures of oxyhydrogens with various combinations of these two gases were used in Gas Detonation Forming (GDF) to form sheets of mild steel. In die forming experiments, three types of conical dies with apex angles of 60, 90 and 120 degrees were used. Pressure of mixtures inside the chamber before detonation was varied from 3 Bar to 5 Bar to investigate the effect of pre-detonation pressure in the forming process. On each conical die, several experiments with different percentages of Hydrogen were carried out to determine the optimum gaseous mixture. According to our results the best forming process occurred when approximately 50-70%. Hydrogen was employed in the mixture. Furthermore, the experimental results were compared to the ones from FEM analysis. The FEM simulation results of thickness strain, hoop strain, thickness variation and deformed geometry are promising.

Dimensional Variations of Cement Matrices in the Presence of Metal Fibers

The objective of this study is to present and to analyze the feasibility of using steel fibers as reinforcement in the cementations matrix to minimize the effect of free shrinkage which is a major cause of cracks that have can observe on concrete structures, also to improve the mechanical resistances of this concrete reinforced. The experimental study was performed on specimens with geometric characteristics adapted to the testing. The tests of shrinkage apply on prismatic specimens, equipped with rods fixed to the ends with different dosages of fibers, it should be noted that the fibers used are hooked end of 50mm length and 67 slenderness. The results show that the compressive strength and flexural strength increases as the degree of incorporation of fibbers increases. And the shrinkage deformations are generally less important for fibers-reinforced concrete to those appearing in the concrete without fibers.

Strength and Permeability Characteristics of Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete

The results reported in this paper are the part of an extensive laboratory investigation undertaken to study the effects of fibre parameters on the permeability and strength characteristics of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC). The effect of varying fibre content and curing age on the water permeability, compressive and split tensile strengths of SFRC was investigated using straight steel fibres having an aspect ratio of 65. Samples containing three different weight fractions of 1.0%, 2.0% and 4.0% were cast and tested for permeability and strength after 7, 14, 28 and 60 days of curing. Plain concrete samples were also cast and tested for reference purposes. Permeability was observed to decrease significantly with the addition of steel fibres and continued to decrease with increasing fibre content and increasing curing age. An exponential relationship was observed between permeability and compressive and split tensile strengths for SFRC as well as PCC. To evaluate the effect of fibre content on the permeability and strength characteristics, the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistical method was used. An a level (probability of error) of 0.05 was used for ANOVA test. Regression analysis was carried out to develop relationship between permeability, compressive strength and curing age.

Effect of Zr Addition on Mechanical Properties of Cr-Mo Plastic Mold Steels

We investigated the effects of the additions of Zr and other alloying elements on the mechanical properties and microstructure in Cr-Mo plastic mold steels. The addition of alloying elements changed the microstructure of the normalized samples from the upper bainite to lower bainite due to the increased hardenability. The tempering temperature influenced the strength and hardness values, especially the phenomenon of 350oC embrittlement was observed. The alloy additions of Cr, Mo, and V improved the resistance to the temper embrittlement. The addition of Zr improved the tensile strength and yield strength, but the impact energy was sharply decreased. It may be caused by the formation of Zr-MnS inclusion and rectangular-shaped Zr inclusion due to the Zr addition.

Seismic Excitation of Steel Frame Retrofitted by a Multi-Panel PMC Infill Wall

A multi-panel PMC infilled system, using polymer matrix composite (PMC) material, was introduced as new conceptual design for seismic retrofitting. A proposed multi panel PMC infilled system was composed of two basic structural components: inner PMC sandwich infills and outer FRP damping panels. The PMC material had high stiffness-to-weight and strength-to-weight ratios. Therefore, the addition of PMC infill panels into existing structures would not significantly alter the weight of the structure, while providing substantial structural enhancement. In this study, an equivalent linearized dynamic analysis for a proposed multi-panel PMC infilled frame was performed, in order to assess their effectiveness and their responses under the simulated earthquake loading. Upon comparing undamped (without PMC panel) and damped (with PMC panel) structures, numerical results showed that structural damping with passive interface damping layer could significantly enhance the seismic response.

Stabilization of Steel Beams of Monosymmetric Thin-Walled Cross-Section by Trapezoidal Sheeting

Steel thin-walled beams have been widely used in civil engineering as purlins, ceiling beams or wall substructure beams. There are often planar members such as trapezoidal sheeting or sandwich panels used as roof or wall cladding fastened to the steel beams. The planar members also serve as stabilization of thin-walled beams against buckling due to loss of stability. This paper focuses on problem of stabilization of steel monosymmetric thin-walled beams by trapezoidal sheeting. Some factors having influence on overall behavior of this structural system are investigated using numerical analysis. Thin-walled beams in bending stabilized by trapezoidal sheeting are of primarily interest of this study.

Degradation Propensity of Welded Mild Steel in Coastal Soil of University of Lagos

Study on corrosion propensity of welded mild steel- bar in soil media around the coastal area of University of Lagos has been carried out using gravimetric method. Six (6) samples each for welded and unwelded mild steels were cut, their initial weights were recorded and buried in two selected soil. The weight losses of these coupons were measured at regular intervals for a period of six months (180 days). The corrosiveness of the soil media varied widely depending on the potency level of its constituents. The results revealed that soil in the studied area have marked variations in composition and contents. Soil medium with a lower pH and higher chloride ion concentration aggressively attacked the coupons with the welded steel coupon corroding faster than unwelded one. The medium resistivity to the flow of current is another strong factor affecting corrosion rate.

Tool Wear of (Ti,W,Si)N-Coated WC-Ni-Based Cemented Carbide in Cutting Hardened Steel

In this study, WC-Ni-based cemented carbides having different nickel contents were used as the substrate for cutting tool materials. Hardened steel was turned by a (Ti,W,Si)N-coated WC-Ni-based cemented carbide tool, and the tool wear was experimentally investigated. The following results were obtained: (1) In the (Ti,W,Si)N-coated WC-Ni-based cemented carbide, the hardness of the coating film was not much different from the content of the binding material, Ni, and the adhesion strength increased with a decrease in Ni content. (2) There is little difference between the wear progress of the (Ti,W,Si)N-coated WC-7%Ni-based cemented carbide tool and that of the (Ti,W,Si)N-coated WC-6%Co-based cemented carbide tool. (3) The wear progress of the (Ti,W,Si)N-coated WC-Ni-based cemented carbide became slower with a decrease in Ni content. From the above, it is has become clear that WC-Ni-based cemented carbide can be used as a substrate for cutting tool materials.

Structural Safety Evaluation of Zip-Line Due to Dynamic Impact Load

In recent year, with recent increase of interest towards leisure sports, increased number of Zip-Line or Zip-Wire facilities has built. Many researches have been actively conducted on the emphasis of the cable and the wire at the bridge. However, very limited researches have been conducted on the safety of the Zip-Line structure. In fact, fall accidents from Zip-Line have been reported frequently. Therefore, in this study, the structural safety of Zip-Line under dynamic impact loading condition were evaluated on the previously installed steel cable for leisure (Zip-Line), using 3-dimensional nonlinear Finite Element (FE) model. The result from current study would assist assurance of systematic stability of Zip-Line.

Modeling Studies for Electrocoagulation

Synthetic oily wastewaters were prepared from metal working fluids (MWF). Electrocoagulation experiments were performed under constant voltage application. The current, conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen concentration and temperature were recorded on line at every 5 seconds during the experiments. Effects of applied voltage differences, electrode materials and distance between electrodes on removal efficiency have been investigated. According to the experimental results, the treatment of MWF wastewaters by iron electrodes rather than aluminum and stainless steel was much quicker; and the distance between electrodes should be less than 1cm. The electrocoagulation process was modeled by using block oriented approach and found out that it can be modeled as a single input and multiple output system. Modeling studies indicates that the electrocoagulation process has a nonlinear model structure.

Influence of Initial Surface Roughness on Severe Wear Volume for SUS304 Austenitic Stainless Steels

Simultaneous measurements of the curves for wear versus distance, wear rate versus distance, and coefficient of friction versus distance were performed in situ to distinguish the transition from severe running-in wear to mild wear. The effects of the initial surface roughness on the severe running-in wear volume were investigated. Disk-on-plate friction and wear tests were carried out with SUS304 austenitic stainless steel in contact with itself under repeated dry sliding conditions at room temperature. The wear volume was dependent on the initial surface roughness. The wear volume when the initial surfaces on the plate and disk had dissimilar roughness was lower than that when these surfaces had similar roughness. For the dissimilar roughness, the wear volume decreased with decreasing initial surface roughness and reached a minimum; it stayed nearly constant as the roughness was less than the mean size of the oxide particles.

Experimental Investigation of Surface Roughness Effect on Single Phase Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer in Micro-Tube

An experimental investigation was conducted to study the effect of surface roughness on friction factor and heat transfer characteristics in single-phase fluid flow in a stainless steel micro-tube having diameter of 0.85 mm and average internal surface roughness of 1.7 μm with relative surface roughness of 0.002. Distilled water and R134a liquids were used as the working fluids and testing was conducted with Reynolds numbers ranging from 100 to 10,000 covering laminar, transition and turbulent flow conditions. The experiments were conducted with the micro-tube oriented horizontally with uniform heat fluxes applied at the test section. The results indicated that the friction factor of both water and R134a can be predicted by the Hagen-Poiseuille equation for laminar flow and the modified Miller correlation for turbulent flow and early transition from laminar to turbulent flows. The heat transfer results of water and R134a were in good agreement with the conventional theory in the laminar flow region and lower than the Adam’s correlation for turbulent flow region which deviates from conventional theory.

Improvement in Mechanical Behavior of Expulsion with Heat treated Thermite Welded Rail Steel

Thermite welding is mainly used in world. The reasons why the thermite welding method is widely used are that the equipment has good mobility and total working time of that is shorter than that of the enclosed arc welding method on site. Moreover, the operating skill, which required for thermite welding, is less than that of for enclosed arc welding. In the present research work, heat treatment and combined 'expulsion and heat treatment' techniques were used improve the mechanical properties and weldment structure. The specimens were cut in the transverse direction from expulsion with Heat treated and heat treated Thermite Welded rails. Specimens were prepared according to AWS standard and subjected to tensile test, Impact test and hardness and their results were tabulated. Microstructural analysis was carried out with the help of SEM. Then analyze to effect of heat treated and 'expulsion with heat treated' with the properties of their thermite welded rails. Compare the mechanical and microstructural properties of thermite welded rails between heat expulsion with heat treated and heat treated. Mechanical and microstructural response expulsion with heat treated thermite welded rail is higher value as compared to heat treatment.

Study on the Effect of Volume Fraction of Dual Phase Steel to Corrosion Behaviour and Hardness

The objective of this project is to study the corrosion behaviour and hardness based on the presence of martensite in dual phase steel. This study was conducted on six samples of dual phase steel which have different percentage of martensite. A total of 9 specimens were prepared by intercritical annealing process to study the effect of temperature to the formation of martensite. The low carbon steels specimens were heated for 25 minutes in a specified temperature ranging from 7250C to 8250C followed by rapid cooling in water. The measurement of corrosion rate was done by using extrapolation tafel method, while potentiostat was used to control and measured the current produced. This measurement is performed through a system named CMS105. The result shows that a specimen with higher percentage of martensite is likely to corrode faster. Hardness test for each specimen was conducted to compare its hardness with low carbon steel. The results obtained indicate that the specimen hardness is proportional to the amount of martensite in dual phase steel.

Value–based Group Decision on Support Bridge Selection

Value-based group decision is very complicated since many parties involved. There are different concern caused by differing preferences, experiences, and background. Therefore, a support system is required to enable each stakeholder to evaluate and rank the solution alternatives before engaging into negotiation with the other stakeholders. The support system is based on combination between value-based analysis, multi criteria group decision making based on satisfying options, and negotiation process based on coalition formation. This paper presents the group decision and negotiation on the selection of suitable material for a support bridge structure involving three decision makers, who are an estate manager, a project manager, and an engineer. There are three alternative solutions for the material of the support bridge structure, which are (a1) steel structure, (a2) reinforced concrete structure and (a3) wooden structure.

Effects Edge end Free-free Boundary Conditions for Analysis Free Vibration of Functionally Graded Cylindrical Shell with Ring based on Third Order Shear Deformation Theory using Hamilton's Principle

In this paper a study on the vibration of thin cylindrical shells with ring supports and made of functionally graded materials (FGMs) composed of stainless steel and nickel is presented. Material properties vary along the thickness direction of the shell according to volume fraction power law. The cylindrical shells have ring supports which are arbitrarily placed along the shell and impose zero lateral deflections. The study is carried out based on third order shear deformation shell theory (T.S.D.T). The analysis is carried out using Hamilton-s principle. The governing equations of motion of FGM cylindrical shells are derived based on shear deformation theory. Results are presented on the frequency characteristics, influence of ring support position and the influence of boundary conditions. The present analysis is validated by comparing results with those available in the literature.

EBSD Investigation of Friction Stir Welded Duplex Stainless Steel

Electron back-scattered diffraction was used to follow the evolution of microstructure from the base metal to the stir zone (SZ) in a duplex stainless steel subjected to friction stir welding. In the stir zone (SZ), a continuous dynamic recrystallization (CDRX) was evidenced for ferrite, while it was suggested that a static recrystallization together with CDRX may occur for austenite. It was found that ferrite and austenite grains in the SZ take a typical shear texture of bcc and fcc materials respectively.

Analytical Prediction of Seismic Response of Steel Frames with Superelastic Shape Memory Alloy

Superelastic Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) is accepted when it used as connection in steel structures. The seismic behaviour of steel frames with SMA is being assessed in this study. Three eightstorey steel frames with different SMA systems are suggested, the first one of which is braced with diagonal bracing system, the second one is braced with nee bracing system while the last one is which the SMA is used as connection at the plastic hinge regions of beams. Nonlinear time history analyses of steel frames with SMA subjected to two different ground motion records have been performed using Seismostruct software. To evaluate the efficiency of suggested systems, the dynamic responses of the frames were compared. From the comparison results, it can be concluded that using SMA element is an effective way to improve the dynamic response of structures subjected to earthquake excitations. Implementing the SMA braces can lead to a reduction in residual roof displacement. The shape memory alloy is effective in reducing the maximum displacement at the frame top and it provides a large elastic deformation range. SMA connections are very effective in dissipating energy and reducing the total input energy of the whole frame under severe seismic ground motion. Using of the SMA connection system is more effective in controlling the reaction forces at the base frame than other bracing systems. Using SMA as bracing is more effective in reducing the displacements. The efficiency of SMA is dependant on the input wave motions and the construction system as well.

Reformulations of Big Bang-Big Crunch Algorithm for Discrete Structural Design Optimization

In the present study the efficiency of Big Bang-Big Crunch (BB-BC) algorithm is investigated in discrete structural design optimization. It is shown that a standard version of the BB-BC algorithm is sometimes unable to produce reasonable solutions to problems from discrete structural design optimization. Two reformulations of the algorithm, which are referred to as modified BB-BC (MBB-BC) and exponential BB-BC (EBB-BC), are introduced to enhance the capability of the standard algorithm in locating good solutions for steel truss and frame type structures, respectively. The performances of the proposed algorithms are experimented and compared to its standard version as well as some other algorithms over several practical design examples. In these examples, steel structures are sized for minimum weight subject to stress, stability and displacement limitations according to the provisions of AISC-ASD.