• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.431-444
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• 2022

The unique thermomechanical properties of shape memory alloys (SMAs) make it a versatile material for strengthening and repairing structures. In particular, several research studies have already demonstrated the effectiveness of using the heat activated shape memory effect of nickel-titanium (Ni-Ti) based SMAs to actively confine concrete members. Despite the proven effectiveness and wide commercial availability of Ni-Ti SMAs, however, their high cost remains a major obstacle for applications in real structural engineering projects. In this study, the shape memory effect of a new, much more economical iron-based SMA (Fe-SMA) is characterized and the compressive behavior of concrete confined with Fe-SMA strips is investigated. Tests showed the Fe-SMA strips used in this study are capable of developing high levels of recovery stress and can be easily formed into hoops to provide effective active and passive confining pressure to concrete members. Compared to concrete cylinders confined with conventional carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites, Fe-SMA confinement yielded significantly higher compressive deformation capacity and residual strength. Overall, the compressive behavior of Fe-SMA confined concrete was comparable to that of Ni-Ti SMA confined concrete. This study clearly shows the potential for Fe-SMA as a robust and cost-effective strengthening solution for concrete structures and opens possibilities for more practical applications.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.197-204
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• 2022

Recently, the demand has increased for protective clothing materials capable of shielding the wearer from bullets, fragment bullets, knives, and swords. It is therefore necessary to develop light and soft protective clothing materials with excellent wearability and mobility. To this end, research is being conducted on hybrid design methods for various highly functional materials, such as carbon nanotube (CNT) sheets, which are well known for their low weight and excellent strength. In this study, a hybrid protective material using CNT sheets was developed and its performance was evaluated. The material design incorporated a bonding method that used a binder for interlayer combination between the CNT sheets. Four types of binders were selected according to their characteristics and impregnated within CNT sheets, followed by further combination with aramid fabric to produce the hybrid protective material. After applying the binder, the tensile strength increased significantly, especially with the phenoxy binder, which has rigid characteristics. However, as the molecular weight of the phenoxy binder increased, the adhesive force and strength decreased. On the other hand, when a 25% lightweight-design and high-molecular-weight phenoxy binder were applied, the backface signature (BFS) decreased by 6.2 mm. When the CNT sheet was placed in the middle of the aramid fabric, the BFS was the lowest. In a stab resistance test, the penetration depth was the largest when the CNT sheet was in the middle layer. As the binder was applied, the stab resistance improvement against the P1 blade was most effective.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.335-353
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• 2023

The possibility of energy harvesting as well as controlled vibration of a three-layered beam consisting of two piezoelectric layer and one core layer made of nonpiezoelectric material is investigated using paradox-free local/nonlocal theory. The three-layered nanobeam is resting on an elastic foundation and subjected to a blast load. Also, the core layer is made of Nano-composites reinforced by CNTs and carbon fibers (MHCD). Governing equations as well as boundary conditions are obtained using Hamilton,s principle. The equations discretized by Generalized Differential Quadrature Method (GDQM) and solved by Newmark beta method. In addition, two differential and integral gains are employed for controlling the forced vibration. The size-dependency of the elastic foundation is considered using two-phase elasticity. The effect of elastic foundation, control gains, nonlocal factor, as well as parameters affecting the core material on the forced vibration and energy harvesting is investigated in detail. The equations as well as solution procedure is validated utilizing some compassion studies. This work can be a basis for future studies on energy harvesting and controlled vibration in small scales.

• Composites Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.50-53
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• 2009

This paper mainly describes the armor materials, especially the ceramic materials for the personal protection. In the ceramic armor materials, B4C ceramics and SiC ceramics are the most popular materials. The $B_4C$ ceramics which consists of 4 atoms of boron and I atom of carbon is very light and strong. It is usually used to personal protection armor and chair protection in the helicopter. This material must be sintered at very high temperature because it melts at $2400^{\circ}C$. In order to have a good armor property, it must have very high density which is achieved by hot press or subsidiary sintering aid methods such as reducing the particle size of raw materials or mixing the sintering agents to the raw materials.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.395-403
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• 2023

The main objective of this article is to investigate the response of different fiber metal laminates subjected to low velocity impact experimentally and numerically via finite element method (FEM). Hence, two different fiber metal laminate (FML) samples (GLARE/CARALL) are made of 7075-T6 aluminum sheets and polymeric composites reinforced by E-glass/carbon fibers. In order to study the responses to the low velocity impacts, samples are tested by drop weight machine. The projectiles are released from 1- and 1.5-meters height were the speed reaches to 4.42 and5.42 meter per second and the impact energies are measured as 6.7 and 10 Joules. In addition to experimental study, finite element simulation is done and results are compared. Finally, a detailed study on the maximum deflection, delamination and damages in laminates and geometry's effect of projectiles on the laminate response is done. Results show that maximum deflection caused by spherical projectile for GLARE samples is more apparent in comparison with the CARALL samples. Moreover, the maximum deflection of GLARE samples subjected to spherical projectile with 6.7 Joules impact energy, 127% increases in comparison with the CARALL samples in spite of different total thickness.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.4
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• pp.431-441
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• 2023

The aim of this paper is to present a new sustainable ternary and quaternary binder by partially replacing ordinary Portland cement (OPC) with different percentages of supplementary cementitious materials. The motivation is to reduce our dependency on OPC to reduce CO₂ emission and carbon foot print. As the main substitute for the OPC, siliceous fly ash was used. Moreover, silica fume and nanosilica were also used. During examinations the main mechanical parameters of concrete composites, i.e., compressive strength (f_cm) and splitting tensile strength (f_ctm) were assed. The microstructure of these materials was also analysed. It was found that the concrete incorporating pozzolanic materials is characterized by a well-developed structure and has high values of mechanical parameters. The quaternary concrete containing: 80% OPC, 5% FA, 10% SF, and 5% nS have shown the best results in terms of good strength parameters as well as the most favourable microstructure, whereas the worst mechanical parameters with microstructure containing microcracks at phase interfaces were characterized by concrete with more content of FA additive in the concrete mix, i.e., 15%. Nevertheless, all concretes made on quaternary binders had better parameters than the reference one. It can be stated that sustainable concrete incorporating pozzolanic materials could be good substitute of ordinary concretes.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.357-363
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• 2015

The development of the environment-friendly tire that meets the standard requirements according to tire labeling system can be improved through using highly homogeneous silica immobilized zinc oxide nanoparticles. In this study, a considerable amount of nanoporous silica was essentially added into nano zinc oxide to improve the physiochemical properties of the formed composite. The introduction of nanoporous silica materials in the composite facilitates the improvement of the wear-resistance and increases the elasticity of the tread. Therefore, the introduction of nanoporous silica can replace carbon black as filler in the formation of composites with desirable properties for conventional green tire. Herein, mesoporous silica immobilized zinc oxide nanoparticle with desirable properties for rubber compounds was investigated. Composites with homogeneous dispersion were obtained in the absence of dispersants. The dispersion stability was controlled through varying the molar ratio, ageing time and mixing order of the reactants. A superior dispersion was achieved in the sample obtained using 0.03 mol of zinc precursor as it had the smallest grain size (50.5 nm) and then immobilized in silica aged for 10 days. Moreover, the specific surface area of this sample was the highest ($649m^2/g$).

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.171-178
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• 2019

Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites have proved to be reliable as strengthening materials. Most of existing studies used single types of FRP composites. Therefore, in this experimental study, carbon FRP sheet, aramid FRP sheet, and hybrid FRP plate including glass fibers were fabricated, and the effect of pre-stressed FRP composites on flexural strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) beams was investigated. In total, eight RC beam specimens were fabricated, including one control beam (specimen N) without FRP composites and seven FRP-strengthened beams. The main parameters were type of FRP composite, the number of anchors used for pre-stressing, and thickness of FRP plates. As a result, the beam strengthened with pre-stressed FRP plate showed superior performance to the non-strengthened one in terms of initial strength, strength and stiffness at yielding, and ultimate strength. As the number of anchors and thickness of FRP plate (i.e., amount of FRP plates) increased, the strengthening effect increased as well. When hybrid FRP plates were pre-stressed, the strengthening effect was higher in comparison with pre-stressed single type FRP plate.

• Composites Research
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.207-212
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• 2013

In this study, the thickness optimization for uni-directional (UD) glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) laminates of the spar cap of composite tidal blades was performed under the tip deflection constrains. The spar cap was composed of GFRP composites and carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites. The stress distributions in the blade as well as its material costs for the optimized results were additionally investigated. The optimized thickness was obtained by interacting a sequential quadratic programming (SQP) algorithm and an ABAQUS software to calculate an objective function. It was confirmed that the thickness of UD GFRP increased with a decrease of the restrained tip deflection when a thickness of UD CFRP laminates was constrained to 9 mm. The weight of the optimized spar-cap increased up to 96.2% while the maximum longitudinal tensile stress decreased up to 24.6%. The thickness of UD GFRP laminates increased with a decrease of the thickness of UD CFRP laminates when the tip deflection was constrained to 126.83 mm. The weight increased up to 40.1%, but the material cost decreased up to 16.97%. Finally, the relationships among the weight, internal tensile stress, and material costs were presented based on the optimized thicknesses of the spar cap.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.16-22
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• 2006

In this work, the effect of cure temperature and time on the thermal stability and the exothermic cure reaction peak of a waterborne resol-type phenol-formaldehyde resin, which may be used for preparing phenolic sheet molding compounds (SMC), has been investigated using a thermogravimetric analyzer and a differential scanning calorimeter. The weight loss of waterborne phenol-formaldehyde resin was mainly occurred at three temperature stages: near $200^{\circ}C,\;400^{\circ}C$, and $500^{\circ}C$. The carbon yield at $750^{\circ}C$ for the cured resin was about 62%~65%. Their thermal stability increased with increasing cure temperature and time. Upon cure, the exothermic reaction was taken placed in the range of $120^{\circ}C{\sim}190^{\circ}C$ and the maximum peak was found in between $165^{\circ}C$ and $170^{\circ}C$. The shape and the maximum of the exothermic curves depended on the given cure temperature and time. To remove $H_2O$ and volatile components, the uncured resin needed a heat-treatment at $100^{\circ}C$ for 60 min at least prior to cure or molding. Curing at $130^{\circ}C$ for 120 min made the exothermic peak of waterborne phenol-formaldehyde resin completely disappeared. And, post-curing at $180^{\circ}C$ for 60 min further improved the thermal stability of the cured resin.