• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.1241-1251
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• 2015

Faced with the growing needs of material resources and requirements of environmental protection for achieving sustainable development, it has become necessary to study and investigate all possibilities of exploring crushed and dune sand, reusing industrial wastes and by-product, and also applying new technologies including sand concrete which can replace the conventional concretes in certain structures to surmount the deficit on construction materials, conserve natural resources, lessen the burden of pollutants to protect the environment and reduce the consumption of energy sources. This experimental study is a part of development and valorization of local materials project in Skikda region (East of Algeria). It aims at studying the effects of partial replacement of sand with marble waste as fines on several fresh and hardened properties of sand concrete in order to reuse these wastes in the concrete manufacturing, resolve the environmental problems caused by them and find another source of construction materials. To achieve these objectives, an experimental program has been carried out; it was consisted to incorporate different percentages of marble waste fines (2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12%) in the formulations of sand concrete and study the development of several mechanical and rheological properties. We are also trying to find the optimal percentage of marble waste fine replaced in sand concrete that makes the strength of the concrete maximum. Obtained results showed that marble waste fines improve the properties of sand concrete and can be used as an additive material in sand concrete formulation.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.41-47
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• 2009

Column experiments were performed in this study to investigate humic acid adhesion to iron oxide-coated sand (ICS) under different experimental conditions including influent humic acid concentration, flow rate, solution pH, and ionic strength/composition. Breakthrough curves of humic acid were obtained by monitoring effluents, and then column capacity for humic acid adsorption ($C_cap$), total adsorption percent (R), and mass of humic acid adsorbed per unit mass of filter media ($q_a$) were quantified from these curves. Results showed that humic acid adhesion was about seven times higher in ICS than in quartz sand at given experimental conditions. This indicates that humic acid removal can be enhanced through the surface charge modification of quartz sand with iron oxide coating. The adhesion of humic acid in ICS was influenced by influent humic acid concentration. $C_cap$ and $q_a$ increased while R decreased with increasing influent humic acid concentration in ICS column. However, the influence of flow rate was not eminent in our experimental conditions. The humic acid adhesion was enhanced with increasing salt concentration of solution. $C_cap$, $q_a$ and R increased in ICS column with increasing salt concentration. On the adhesion of humic acid, the impact of CaCl2 was greater than that of NaCl. Also, the humic acid adhesion to ICS decreased with increasing solution pH. $C_cap$, $q_a$ and R decreased with increasing solution pH. This study demonstrates that humic acid concentration, salt concentration/composition, and solution pH should be controlled carefully in order to improve the ICS column performance for humic acid removal from water.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.59-64
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• 2012

Sand-concrete is being researched for potential usage in construction in Saharan regions of Algeria, because of shortage in coarse aggregate resources. This research work deals with the effect of dune sand, available in huge quantities in these regions, on the properties of flowing sand-concrete (FSC) prepared with different proportions of dune and river sands. Mini-cone slump test, v-funnel flow-time test and viscosity measurements were used to characterize the behaviour of FSC in fresh state. The 28-day compressive strength was also determined. Test results show that an optimal content of dune sand, which makes satisfied fresh and hardened properties of FSC, is obtained. Moreover, the obtained flow index (constant b) calculated by the help of power-law viscosity model is successfully correlated to the experimental results of v-funnel flow time.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.317-328
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• 2023

The soil behaviour can be represented by numerical modelling of element testing using diverse constitutive models. However, not all constitutive models allow the simulation of the stress-strain response at the critical state in granular soils with both contractive and dilative behaviour. Moreover, the accuracy of these models depends highly on the quality of the experimental data used for their calibration. This study addresses the modelling of the critical state behaviour of an alluvial natural soil from the Lower Tagus Valley (south of Portugal), known as TP-Lisbon sand, using the NorSand constitutive law. For this purpose, a series of numerical simulations of element testing was carried out using two algorithms performed in Visual Basic (VB) and Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua (FLAC). Moreover, this study presents the characterisation of of NorSand parameters from an accurate experimental programme based on triaxial and bender element testing. This experimental program allowed defining: (i) the critical state locus, (ii) the stress-dilatancy, and (iii) the soil elasticity of TP-Lisbon sand -all fundamental to calibrate the contractive and dilative behaviour of such alluvial soil. The results revealed a good agreement between experimental data and NorSand simulations using VB and FLAC. Therefore, this study showed that the quality of laboratory testing procedures and its good interpretation enables NorSand constitutive law to capture representatively the non-associated plastic strains, often expressed by the state parameter, allowing a representation of soil behaviour of alluvial soils within the critical state soil mechanics framework for different state parameters.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.261-273
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• 2015

In the present investigation, a series of laboratory compaction and unconfined compressive strength laboratory tests has been performed. To determine the effect of compaction energy, type of sand, and fly ash content, compaction tests have been performed with varying compaction energy ($2700kJ/m^3-300kJ/m^3$), types of sand, and fly ash content (0% to 40%) respectively. From the experimental results, it has been found that the optimum value of unconfined compressive strength obtained for a sand-fly ash mixture comprised of 65% sand and 35% fly ash. Based on the data obtained in the present investigation, a linear mathematical model has been developed to predict the OMC of sand-fly ash mixture.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.109-112
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• 2010

Part I of this study was devoted to the electrical accelerated chloride diffusion in mortars. In this second part, natural chloride diffusion has been investigated for four types of mortars under exposure to a 0.5 mol/L NaCl solution for a period of up to 35 days. Two different types of sand were used for the production of test samples: siliceous sand (used as a reference) and limestone sand (used in this study). The effect of water to cement ratio and exposure time on the diffusion coefficients of mortars was also investigated. In this study, the total and free chloride content and penetration depth of mortar were measured after immersion, and Fick's second law of diffusion was fitted to the experimental data to determine the diffusion coefficient. Their results show that the use of crushed limestone sand in mortar had a positive effect on the chloride resistance. The apparent diffusion coefficient in all specimens was smaller than that in siliceous sand mortar. However, the chloride penetration of these mortars was increased as exposure time progressed.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.11-14
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• 2009

This paper is interested in the incorporation of crushed sand and desert sand in the composition the self compacting concretes (SCC). Desert dune sand, which has a fine extra granulometry, and the crushed sand, which contains an important content of fines, can constitute interesting components for SCC. Part II consists in studying the behaviour of SCC containing various sands with different origins. These sands, with different sizes, consist of several combinations of rolled sand (RS), crushed sand (CS) and desert sand (DS). The study examines the influence of the granular combination of sands on the characteristics in the fresh and the hardened state of SCC. The results of the experimental tests showed an improvement of the workability of the fresh SCC by combining sands of varied granulometry. The addition of the DS to CS or to RS allowed the increase of the mixture viscosity but decreased the mechanical strengths. Furthermore, the CS-RS combinations increased the compressive and the tensile strengths of the studied SCC. The optimized formulations of sands gave the highest performances of the SCC.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.279-299
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• 2015

Suction anchors are widely adopted and play an important role in mooring systems. However, how to reliably predict the failure mode and ultimate pullout capacity of the anchor in sand, especially by an easy-to-use theoretical method, is still a great challenge. Existing methods for predicting the inclined pullout capacity of suction anchors in sand are mainly based on experiments or finite element analysis. In the present work, based on a rational mechanical model for suction anchors and the failure mechanism of the anchor in the seabed, an analytical model is developed which can predict the failure mode and ultimate pullout capacity of suction anchors in sand under inclined loading. Detailed parametric analysis is performed to explore the effects of different parameters on the failure mode and ultimate pullout capacity of the anchor. To examine the present model, the results from experiments and finite element analysis are employed to compare with the theoretical predictions, and a general agreement is obtained. An analytical method that can evaluate the optimal position of the attachment point is also proposed in the present study. The present work demonstrates that the failure mode and pullout capacity of suction anchors in sand can be easily and reasonably predicted by the theoretical model, which might be a useful supplement to the experimental and numerical methods in analyzing the behavior of suction anchors.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.305-321
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• 2012

This study entails establishing reference standard sand in Nigeria for engineering and geoenvironmental research work. Sands from four geographical locations in southwestern Nigeria were examined for baseline geotechnical and mineralogical properties. A total of sixteen sand samples were collected. The samples were air dried and subjected to tests in accordance with standard specifications. The tests carried out were: specific gravity, grain size analysis, moisture content, bulk density, porosity, void ratio, chemical analysis, X-ray diffraction and Differential Thermal Analysis. The properties of the samples were compared with a standard (Ottawa sand in Illinois of the United States) in order to find out which of the four samples selected from southwestern Nigeria could serve as standard baseline sand. The results show that Igbokoda sand has geotechnical and mineralogical characteristics closest to Ottawa sand. It was therefore concluded that Igbokoda sand could be used as a standard baseline sand for research work in southwestern Nigeria and other parts of Nigeria since it needs little processing to bring it to the same level as standard baseline sand, like the Ottawa sand.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.35-51
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• 2017

The use of Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) and naturally occurring silica (Sand) as filtration media in water and waste water treatment systems is very common. While GAC offers the additional functionality of being an "adsorptive" filter for dissolved organics it is also more expensive. In this paper we present an experimental evaluation of the performance of a bed of GAC for colloid removal and compare the same with that from an equivalent bed of Sand. The experiments are performed in an "intermittent" manner over extended time, to "simulate" performance over the life of the filter bed. The experiments were continued till a significant drop in water flow rate through the bed was observed. A novel "deposition" and "detachment" rate based transient mathematical model is developed. It is observed that the data from the experiments can be explained by the above model, for different aqueous phase electrolyte concentrations. The model "parameters", namely the "deposition" and "detachment" rates are evaluated for the 2 filter media studied. The model suggests that the significantly better performance of GAC in colloid filtration is probably due to significantly lower detachment of colloids from the same. While the "deposition" rates are higher for GAC, the "detachment" rates are significantly lower, which makes GAC more effective than sand for colloid removal by over an order of magnitude.