• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제21권6호
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• pp.751-759
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• 2018

Glass fibre reinforced polymers (GFRP) are widely exploited in many industrial branches. Due to this Structural Health Monitoring systems containing embedded fibre optics sensors are applied. One of the problems that can influence on composite element durability is water contamination that can be introduced into material structure during manufacturing. Such inclusion can be a damage origin significantly decreasing mechanical properties of an element. A non-destructive method that can be applied for inspection of an internal structure of elements is THz spectroscopy. It can be used for identifications of material discontinuities that results in changes of absorption, refractive index or scattering of propagating THz waves. The limitations of THz propagation through water makes this technique a promising solution for detection of a water inclusion. The paper presents an application of THz spectroscopy for detection and localisation of a water drop inclusion embedded in a GFRP material between two fibre optics with fibre Bragg grating sensors. The proposed filtering method allowed to determine a 3D shape of the water drop.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제66권5호
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• pp.631-636
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• 2018

This study aims to investigate the flexural behaviour of glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) laminated hybrid fibre reinforced concrete (HFRC) beams. The flexural and ductility performance of GFRP laminated HFRC beams having different proportions of polyolefin and steel fibres with 1.0% of total volume fraction were investigated. The parameters of this investigation included: load and deflection at first crack, yield, and ultimate stages, ductility and crack width. A total of seven beams of $150{\times}250mm$ in cross-section were tested in the laboratory over an effective span of 2800 mm. One reinforced concrete (RC) beam without any internal or external GFRP was taken as the reference beam. Of the remaining six beams, one beam was strengthened with GFRP, one beam with 100% steel fibres was strengthened with GFRP and four beams, each with different volume proportions of polyolefin and steel fibres (20:80, 30:70, 40:60, 50:50) were strengthened with GFRP. All the above beams were tested until failure. The experimental results show that a fibre volume proportion of 40:60 (polyolefin-steel) has significantly improved the overall performance of the tested beams.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제15권6호
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• pp.623-643
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• 2013

Concrete filled steel tubular members (CFST) become a popular choice for modern building construction due to their numerous structural benefits and at the same time aging of those structures and member deterioration are often reported. Therefore, actions like implement of new materials and strengthening techniques become essential to combat this problem. The application of carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) with concrete structures has been widely reported whereas researches related to strengthening of steel structures using fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) have been limited. The main objective of this study is to experimentally investigate the suitability of CFRP to strengthening of CFST members under flexure. There were three wrapping schemes such as Full wrapping at the bottom (fibre bonded throughout entire length of beam), U-wrapping (fibre bonded at the bottom throughout entire length and extended upto neutral axis) and Partial wrapping (fibre bonded in between loading points at the bottom) introduced. Beams strengthened by U-wrapping exhibited more enhancements in moment carrying capacity and stiffness compared to the beams strengthened by other wrapping schemes. The beams of partial wrapping exhibited delamination of fibre and were failed even before attaining the ultimate load of control beam. The test results showed that the presence of CFRP in the outer limits was significantly enhanced the moment carrying capacity and stiffness of the beam. Also, a non linear finite element model was developed using the software ANSYS 12.0 to validate the analytical results such as load-deformation and the corresponding failure modes.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제58권1호
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• pp.181-197
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• 2016

In this paper, we investigated the propagation of surface waves in a nonhomogeneous rotating fibre-reinforced viscoelastic anisotropic media of higher order of nth order including time rate of strain. The general surface wave speed is derived to study the effect of rotation on surface waves. Particular cases for Stoneley, Love and Rayleigh waves are discussed. The results obtained in this investigation are more general in the sense that some earlier published results are obtained from our result as special cases. Also results for homogeneous media can be deduced from this investigation. For order zero our results are well agreed to fibre-reinforced materials. Also by neglecting the reinforced elastic parameters, the results reduce to well known isotropic medium. It is also observed that, surface waves cannot propagate in a fast rotating medium. Comparison was made with the results obtained in the presence and absence of rotation and parameters for fibre-reinforced of the material medium Numerical results are given and illustrated graphically. The results indicate that the effect of rotation and parameters for fibre-reinforced of the material are very pronounced.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제17권2호
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• pp.283-300
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• 2004

Currently commercial dry sows are housed in individual stalls and subject to restricted feeding. These sows often show stereotypic behaviours which increase their maintenance energy requirement. Group housing is desirable to improve animal welfare and public perception. However, under restricted feeding systems, group-housed dry sows are also aggressive. The feed intake of these sows is variable, depending on their social rank, which results in different milk production and variable piglet performance. These problems can be solved by ad libitum feeding systems, but the large capacity of intake by dry sows will not allow this feeding system to be practical as high feeding level during pregnancy can reduce reproduction performance of sows. Current research indicates that feeding high fibre diets to dry sows enables sows to be fed ad libitum, but the effect of dietary fibre on feed intake and nutrient utilisation is dependent on the quality of fibre sources. Most research has focused on sugar beet pulp, straw, lucerne meal and by-products, but there is a need to identify and evaluate some widely available and cheap fibre materials and feed grains for developing the best strategy to control nutrient intake of dry sows while feeding ad libitum.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제26권6호
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• pp.886-895
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• 2013

This study was conducted to explore the antioxidant potential and functional value of guava (Psidium guajava L.) powder in muscle foods. Guava powder was used as a source of antioxidant dietary fibre in sheep meat nuggets at two different levels i.e., 0.5% (Treatment I) and 1.0% (Treatment II) and its effect was evaluated against control. Guava powder is rich in dietary fibre (43.21%), phenolics (44.04 mg GAE/g) and possesses good radical scavenging activity as well as reducing power. Incorporation of guava powder resulted in significant decrease (p<0.05) in pH of emulsion and nuggets, emulsion stability, cooking yield and moisture content of nuggets while ash and moisture content of emulsion were increased. Total phenolics, total dietary fibre (TDF) and ash content significantly increased (p<0.05) in nuggets with added guava powder. Product redness value was significantly improved (p<0.05) due to guava powder. Textural properties did not differ significantly except, springiness and shear force values. Guava powder was found to retard lipid peroxidation of cooked sheep meat nuggets as measured by TBARS number during refrigerated storage. Guava powder did not affect sensory characteristics of the products and can be used as source of antioxidant dietary fibre in meat foods.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제18권6호
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• pp.605-614
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• 2019

The present paper seeks to investigate propagation and reflection of waves at free surfaces of homogeneous, anisotropic and rotating micropolar fibre-reinforced medium with voids. It has been observed that, in particular when P-wave is incident on the free surface, there exist four coupled reflected plane waves traveling in the medium; quasi-longitudinal displacement (qLD) wave, quasi-transverse displacement (qTD) wave, quasi-transverse microrotational wave and a wave due to voids. Normal mode Analysis usually called harmonic solution method is adopted in concomitant with Snell's laws and appropriate boundary conditions in determination of solution to the micropolar fibre reinforced modelled problem. Amplitude ratios which correspond to reflected waves in vertical and horizontal components are presented analytically. Also, the Reflection Coefficients are presented using numerical simulated results in graphical form for a particular chosen material by the help of Mathematica software. We observed that the micropolar fibre-reinforced, voids and rotational parameters have various degrees of effects to the modulation, propagation and reflection of waves in the medium. The study would have impact to micropolar fibre-reinforecd rotational-acoustic machination fields and future works about behavior of seismic waves.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제49권5호
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• pp.571-585
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• 2023

The application of relatively low volumes of fibres in normal strength concrete has been shown to be of significant benefit when applied to composite slabs with profiled sheet decking. This paper reports on an experimental study aimed at quantifying further potential benefits that may arise from applying ultra-high performance fibre reinforced concrete. To assess performance six simply supported beams were tested under hogging and sagging loading configurations along with three two span continuous beams. Fibre contents are varied from 0% to 2% and changes in strength, deformation, crack width and moment redistribution are measured. At the serviceability limit state, it is shown that the addition of high fibre volumes can significantly enhance member stiffness and reduce crack widths in all beams. At the ultimate limit state it is observed that a transition from 0% to 1% fibres significantly increases strength but that there is a maximum fibre volume beyond which no further increases in strength are possible. Conversely, member ductility and moment redistribution are shown to be strongly proportional to fibre volume.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제25권12호
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• pp.1726-1733
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• 2012

The effect of genotype, fibre level and fibre source on gut morphology, environment and microflora was studied using 18 Mong Cai (MC) and 18 Landrace${\times}$Yorkshire (LY) pigs, aged around 60 d. The diets were based on maize, rice bran, soybean meal, fish meal and soybean oil, and cassava residue (CR) or brewer's grain (BG) as fibrous ingredient sources in the high-fibre diets (HF). A low-fibre diet (LF), containing around 200 g NDF/kg dry matter (DM), was formulated without CR and BG as feed ingredients. The HF diets (HF-CR and HF-BG) were formulated to contain around 270 g NDF/kg DM. The experiment was arranged according to a $2{\times}3$ factorial completely randomized design with six replications, and lasted 30 d. Crypt density in ileum was lowest (p<0.05) and villus height in jejunum and ileum were the greatest (p<0.05) in pigs fed diet HF-BG. Villus width in ileum was greatest in pigs fed diets HF-CR and HF-BG (p<0.05). Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) counts in stomach were greatest (p<0.05) and E. coli counts in ileum and colon were lowest (p<0.05) in pigs fed diet HF-CR. The concentration of total organic acids in ileum, caecum and colon were greatest (p<0.05), and pH in ileum and colon were lowest (p<0.05) in pigs fed diet HF-CR. Crypt density in ileum was lowest, and villus height in ileum and villus width in jejunum and ileum was greatest in LY pigs (p<0.05). LAB counts in stomach and ileum were greatest, and E. coli counts in ileum were lowest in MC pigs (p<0.05). The concentration of total organic acids in ileum, caecum and colon were greatest (p<0.05) and pH lowest (p<0.05) in MC pigs.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제25권11호
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• pp.1515-1520
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• 2012

Insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) gene is important for regulation of growth and development in mammals. The present investigation was carried out to study DNA polymorphism by PCR-RFLP of IGFBP-3 gene and its effect on fibre traits of Chinese Inner Mongolian cashmere goats. The fibre traits data investigated were cashmere fibre diameter, combed cashmere weight, cashmere fibre length and guard hair length. Four hundred and forty-four animals were used to detect polymorphisms in the hircine IGFBP-3 gene. A 316-bp fragment of the IGFBP-3 gene in exon 2 was amplified and digested with HaeIII restriction enzyme. Three patterns of restriction fragments were observed in the populations. The frequency of AA, AB and BB genotypes was 0.58, 0.33 and 0.09 respectively. The allelic frequency of the A and B allele was 0.75 and 0.25 respectively. Nucleotide sequencing revealed a C>G transition in the exon 2 region of the IGFBP-3 gene resulting in R158G change which caused the polymorphism. Least squares analysis revealed a significant effect of genotypes on cashmere weight (p<0.0001), cashmere fibre length (p<0.001) and hair length (p<0.05) of the animals. The effect of genotypes on cashmere fibre diameter was not statistically significant (p>0.05). The animals of AB and BB genotypes showed higher cashmere weight, cashmere fibre length and hair length than the animals possessing AA genotype. These results suggested that polymorphisms in the hircine IGFBP-3 gene might be a potential molecular marker for cashmere weight in cashmere goats.