• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.69-78
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• 2023

This investigation delves into the adverse repercussions stemming from the impact of arsenic on steel pipes concealed within soil designated for rice cultivation. Simultaneously, the study aims to ascertain effective techniques for detecting arsenic in the soil and to provide strategies for mitigating the corrosion of steel pipes. The realm of nanotechnology presents promising avenues for addressing the intricate intersection of renewable energy, oil, and environmental pollution from a novel perspective. Nanostructured materials, characterized by distinct chemical and physical attributes, unveil novel pathways for pioneering materials that exert a substantial impact across diverse realms of food production, storage, packaging, and quality control. Within the scope of the food industry, the scope of nanotechnology encompasses processes, storage methodologies, packaging paradigms, and safeguards to ensure the safety of consumables. Of particular note, silver nanoparticles, in addition to their commendable antibacterial efficacy, boast anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory prowess, environmental compatibility, minimal irritability and allergenicity, resilience to microbial antagonism, thermal stability, and robustness. Confronting the pressing issue of arsenic contamination within both environmental settings and the food supply is of paramount importance to preserve public health and ecological equilibrium. In response, this study introduces detection kits predicated upon silver nanoparticles, providing an expeditious and economically feasible avenue for identifying arsenic concentrations ranging from 0.5 to 3 ppm within rice. Subsequent quantification employs Hydride Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (HG-AAS), which features a detection threshold of 0.05 ㎍/l. A salient advantage inherent in the HG-AAS methodology lies in its capacity to segregate analytes from the sample matrix, thereby significantly reducing instances of spectral interference. Importantly, the presence of arsenic in the soil beneath rice cultivation establishes a causative link to steel pipe corrosion, with potential consequences extending to food contamination-an intricate facet embedded within the broader tapestry of renewable energy, oil, and environmental pollution.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.21-34
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• 2023

This work presents a complete optimal model for trapezoidal combined footings that support a concentric load and moments around of the "X" and "Y" axes in each column to obtain the minimum area and the minimum cost. The model presented in this article considers a pressure diagram that has a linear variation (real pressure) and the equations are not limited to some cases. The classic model takes into account a concentric load and the moment around of the "X" axis (transverse axis) that is applied due to each column, i.e., the resultant force is located at the geometric center of the footing on the "Y" axis (longitudinal axis), and when the concentric load and moments around of the "X" and "Y" axes act on the footing is considered the uniform pressure applied on the contact surface of the footing, and it is the maximum pressure. Four numerical problems are presented to find the optimal design of a trapezoidal combined footing under a concentric load and moments around of the "X" and "Y" axes due to the columns: Case 1 not limited in the direction of the Y axis; Case 2 limited in the direction of the Y axis in column 1; Case 3 limited in the direction of the Y axis in column 2; Case 4 limited in the direction of the Y axis in columns 1 an 2. The complete optimal design in terms of cost optimization for the trapezoidal combined footings can be used for the rectangular combined footings considering the uniform width of the footing in the transversal direction, and also for different reinforced concrete design codes, simply by modifying the resisting capacity equations for moment, for bending shear, and for the punching shear, according to each of the codes.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.49-56
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• 2024

Objective : Obesity, which has recently been rapidly increasing in the obese population, is caused by an imbalance in energy intake and consumption. The reason why we need to manage obesity well is that the prevalence of complications such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular disease increases. In this study, the effect of FO (Fragaria orientalis) water extract on fat metabolism in 3T3-L1 cells was observed to develop a new anti-obesity material based on Mongolian medical books. Methods : The effect of FO extract on adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 cells was observed using DPPH scavenging, pancreatic lipase inhibitory activity, MTT analysis and Oil-red-O staining method. And the expression of proteins related to lipid metabolism was analyzed by Western blot. Results : The FO group significantly increased the DPPH radical scavenging activity at 5 mg/ml compared to the positive control BHA at 0.1 mg/ml. In oil red O staining at a safe concentration without cytotoxicity, lipid accumulation was significantly inhibited by less than 80% compared to the control group at all concentrations. Moreover, treatment of FO significantly increased the expression of proteins related to lipid metabolism, such as p-AMPK and p-ACC, in 3T3-L1 cells, and the expression of CPT-1 tended to increase in a dose-dependent manner. However, the expression of PPAR-γ was significantly decreased in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusion : These results suggest that FO water extract has a potential anti-obesity effect and are expected to be utilized in the development of materials for obesity prevention and treatment.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.155-167
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• 2023

The penetrated chloride in concrete has different behavior with mix proportions and local exposure conditions, even in the same environments, so that it is very important to quantify surface chloride contents for durability design. As well known, the surface chloride content which is a key parameter like external loading in structural safety design increases with exposure period. In this study, concrete samples containing OPC (Ordinary Portland Cement), GGBFS (Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag), and FA (Fly Ash) had been exposed to submerged, tidal, and splash area for 5 years, then the surface chloride contents changing with exposure period were evaluated. The surface chloride contents were obtained from the chloride profile based on the Fick's 2nd Law, and the regression analysis for them was performed with exponential and square root function. After exposure period of 5 years in submerged and tidal area conditions, the surface chloride content of OPC concrete increased to 6.4 kg/m³ - 7.3 kg/m³, and the surface chloride content of GGBFS concrete was evaluated as 7.3 kg/m³ - 11.5 kg/m³. In the higher replacement ratio of GGBFS, the higher surface chloride contents were evaluated. The surface chloride content in FA concrete showed a range of 6.7 kg/m³ to 9.9 kg/m³, which was the intermediate level of OPC and GGBFS concrete. In the case of splash area, the surface chloride contents in all specimens were from 0.59 kg/m³ to 0.75 kg/m³, which was the lowest of all exposure conditions. Experimental constants available for durability design of chloride ingress were derived through regression analysis over exposure period. In the concrete with GGBFS replacement ratio of 50%, the increase rate of surface chloride contents decreased rapidly as the water to binder ratio increased.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.169-176
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• 2023

The aim of the study was to establish the influence of particle size, chemical and phase composition of fine microspherical high-calcium fly ash (HCFA), as well as superplasticizer content on the strength of cementless composite materials based on 100% HCFA and mixtures of HCFA with Portland cement (PC). For the initial HCFA fractions, the particle size distribution, chemical and quantitative phase composition were determined. The compressive strength of cured composite materials obtained at W/B 0.4 and 0.25 was determined at a curing time of 3-300 days. For cementless materials, it was found that a change in the particle size d90 from 30 ㎛ (fraction 3) to 10 ㎛ (fraction 4) leads to an increase in compressive strength by more than 2 times. Compressive strength increases by at least another 2.2 times with the addition of Melflux 5581F superplasticizer (0.12%) and at W/B 0.25. The HCFA-PC blends were investigated in the range of 60-90% HCFA and the maximum compressive strength was found at 80% HCFA. On the basis of 80% HCFA-20% PC blend, the samples of ultra-high strength (108 and 150 MPa at 28 and 100 days of hardening) were obtained with the addition of 0.3% Melflux 5581F and 5% silica fume. The quantitative phase composition was determined for composite materials with a curing age of 28 days. It has been established that in a sample with ultra-high strength, a more complete transformation of the initial phases of both HCFA and PC occurs as compared to their transformation separately.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.177-188
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• 2023

In the context of the shortage of river sand, two types of manufactured sand (MS) were used to partially replace river sand (RS) to design manufactured sand concrete (MSC). A total of 81 specimens were designed for uniaxial compression test and beam flexure test. Two parameters were considered in the tests, including the types of MS (i.e. limestone manufactured sand (LMS), pebble manufactured sand (PMS)) and the MS replacement percentage (i.e., 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%). The stress-strain curves of MSC were obtained. The effects of these parameters on the compressive strength, elastic modulus, peak strain, toughness and flexural strength were discussed. Additionally, the sensitivity of particle size distributions to the performance of MSC was evaluated based on the grey correlation analysis. The results showed that compared with river sand concrete (RSC), the rising slope of the stress-strain curves of limestone manufactured sand concrete (LMSC) and pebble manufactured sand concrete (PMSC) were higher, the descending phrase of LMSC were gentle but that of PMSC showed an opposite trend. The physical and mechanical properties of MSC were affected by the MS replacement percentage except the compressive strength of PMSC. When the replacement percentage of LMS and PMS were 50% and 25% respectively, the corresponding performances of LMSC and PMSC were better. In generally, when the replacement percentage of LMS and PMS were same, the comprehensive performance of LMSC were better than that of PMSC. The constitutive model and the equations for mechanical properties were proposed. The influence of particle ranging from 0.15 mm to 0 mm on the performance of MSC was lower than particle ranging from 4.75 mm to 0.15 mm but this influence should not be ignored.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.205-216
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• 2023

Concrete structures may become vulnerable during their lifetime due to several reasons such as degradation of their material properties; design or construction errors; and environmental damage due to earthquake. These structures should be repaired or strengthened to ensure proper performance for the current service load demands. Several methods have been investigated and applied for the strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) structures using various materials. Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) reinforcement is one of the most recent type of material for the strengthening purpose of RC structures. The main objective of the present research is to identify the behavior of reinforced concrete slabs strengthened with FRP bars by using near surface mounted (NSM) technique. Validation study is conducted based on the experimental test available in the literature to investigate the accuracy of finite element models using LS-DYNA to present the behavior of the models. A parametric analysis is conducted on the effect of FRP bar diameters, number of grooves, groove intervals as well as width and height of the grooves on the flexural behavior of strengthened reinforced slabs. Performance of strengthening RC slabs with NSM FRP bars was confirmed by comparing the results of strengthening reinforced slabs with control slab. The numerical results of mid-span deflection and stress time histories were reported. According to the numerical analysis results, the model with three grooves, FRP bar diameter of 10 mm and grooves distances of 100 mm is the most ideal and desirable model in this research. The results demonstrated that strengthening of reinforced concrete slabs using FRP by NSM method will have a significant effect on the performance of the slabs.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.277-290
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• 2023

In order to study the mechanical properties of basalt fiber reinforced ultra-fine fly ash concrete (BFUFARC), the effects of ultra-fine fly ash (UFA) content, basalt fiber content, basalt fiber length and water reducing agent content on the compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and flexural strength of the composite material were studied through experimental and theoretical analysis. Also, a scanning electron microscope (SEM) was employed to analyze the mesoscopic structure in the fracture surface of composite material specimens at magnifications of 500 and 3500. Besides, the energy release rate (G_c) and surface free energy (γ_s) of crack tip cracking on BFUFARC in different basalt fiber content were studied from the perspective of fracture mechanics. Further, the cracking resistance, reinforcement, and toughening mechanisms of basalt fibers on concrete substrate were revealed by surface free energy of BFUFARC. The experimental results indicated that basalt fiber content is the main influence factor on the splitting tensile strength of BFUFARC. In case that fiber content increased from 0 to 0.3%, the concrete surface free energy at the tip of single-sided crack showed a trend of increased at first and then decreased. The surface free energy reached at maximum, about 3.59 × 10^-5 MN/m. During the process of increasing fiber content from 0 to 0.1%, G_C-2_γS showed a gradually decreasing trend. As a result, an appropriate amount of basalt fiber can play a preventing cracking role by increasing the concrete surface free energy, further effectively improve the concrete splitting tensile performance.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.303-316
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• 2023

Using industrial wastes and construction and demolition (C&D) wastes is potentially advantageous for concrete production in terms of sustainability improvement. In this paper, a sustainable Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) made with industrial wastes and C&D wastes was proposed by considerably replacing natural counterparts with recycled coarse aggregates (RCAs) and supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) (i.e., Fly ash (FA), ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) and silica fume (SF)). A total of 12 SCC mixes with various RCAs and different combination SCMs were prepared, which comprise binary, ternary and quaternary mixes. The mechanical properties in terms of compressive strength and static elasticity modulus of recycled aggregates (RA-SCC) mixes were determined and analyzed. Microstructural study was implemented to analyze the reason of improvement on mechanical properties. By means of life cycle assessment (LCA) method, the environmental impacts of RA-SCC with various RCAs and SCMs were quantified, analyzed and compared in the system boundary of "cradle-to-gate". In addition, the comparison of LCA results with respect to mechanical properties was conducted. The results demonstrate that the addition of proposed combination SCMs leads to significant improvement in mechanical properties of quaternary RA-SCC mixes with FA, GGBS and SF. Furthermore, quaternary RA-SCC mixes emit lowest environmental burdens without compromising mechanical properties. Thus, using the combination of FA, GGBS and SF as cement substitution to manufacture RA-SCC significantly improves the sustainability of SCC by minimizing the depletion of cement and non-renewable natural resources.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.127-139
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• 2023

In this study, the steel fiber and the polypropylene fiber were used to enhance the mechanical properties of fully recycled coarse aggregate concrete. Natural crushed stone was replaced with recycled coarse aggregate at 100% by volume. The steel fiber and polypropylene fiber were used as additive material by incorporating into the mixture. In this test two parameters were considered: (a) steel fiber volume ratio (i.e., 0%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%), (b) polypropylene fiber volume ratio (i.e., 0%, 0.1%, 0.15%, 0.2%). The results showed that compared with no fiber, the integrity of cubes or cylinders mixed with fibers after failure was better. When the volume ratio of steel fiber was 1~2%, the width of mid-span crack after flexural failure was 5~8 mm. In addition, when the volume ratio of polypropylene fiber was 0.15%, with the increase of steel fiber content, the static elastic modulus and toughness of axial compression first increased and then decreased, and the flexural strength increased, with a range of 6.5%~20.3%. Besides, when the volume ratio of steel fiber was 1.5%, with the increase of polypropylene fiber content, the static elastic modulus decreased, with a range of 7.0%~10.5%. The ratio of axial compression toughness first increased and then decreased, with a range of 2.2%~8.7%. The flexural strength decreased, with a range of 2.7%~12.6%. On the other hand, the calculation formula of static elastic modulus and cube compressive strength of fully recycled coarse aggregate with steel-polypropylene fiber was fitted, and the optimal fiber content within the scope of the test were put forward.