• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제25권1호
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• pp.31-40
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• 2021

Injection grouting is one of the most common ground improvement practice to increase the strength and reduce the hydraulic conductivity of soils. Owing to the environmental concerns of conventional grout materials, such as cement-based or silicate-based materials, bio-inspired biogeotechnical approaches are considered to be new sustainable and environmentally friendly ground improvement methods. Biopolymers, which are excretory products from living organisms, have been shown to significantly reduce the hydraulic conductivity via pore-clogging and increase the strength of soils. To study the practical application of biopolymers for seepage and ground water control, in this study, we explored the injection capabilities of biopolymer-based grout materials in both linear aperture and particulate media (i.e., sand and glassbeads) considering different injection pressures, biopolymer concentrations, and flow channel geometries. The hydraulic conductivity control of a biopolymer-based grout material was evaluated after injection into sandy soil under confined boundary conditions. The results showed that the performance of xanthan gum injection was mainly affected by the injection pressure and pore geometry (e.g., porosity) inside the soil. Additionally, with an increase in the xanthan gum concentration, the injection efficiency diminished while the hydraulic conductivity reduction efficiency enhanced significantly. The results of this study provide the potential capabilities of injection grouting to be performed with biopolymer-based materials for field application.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제26권6호
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• pp.477-487
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• 2024

The interaction between multiple structures through the supporting soil media, known as structure-soil-structure interaction (SSSI), has become an increasingly important issue due to rapid urbanization. There is a need to investigate the effect of SSSI on the structural response of buildings compared to non-interaction analysis (NIA) and soil-structure interaction (SSI) analysis. In the present study, two identical 4-bay×4-bay, three-story RCC buildings are modeled adjacent to each other with a soil domain beneath it to investigate the effect of SSSI on the forces experienced by footings under gravity and seismic load cases. The ANSYS software is used for modeling various non-interaction and interaction models which work on the principle of FEM. The results indicate that in most of the footings, the SSSI effect causes a significant redistribution of forces compared to SSI and NIA under both gravity and seismic load cases. The maximum interaction effect is observed on the footings that are closer to the adjacent building. The axial force, shear force and bending moment values on these footings show that SSI causes a significant increase in these values compared to non-interaction analysis but the presence of adjacent building relieves these forces significantly.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제21권4호
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• pp.337-348
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• 2020

Tropical organic soils having more than 65% of organic matters are named "peat". This soil type is extremely soft, unconsolidated, and possesses low shear strength and stiffness. Different conventional and industrial binders (e.g., lime or Portland cement) are used widely for stabilisation of organic soils. However, due to many factors affecting the behaviour of these soils (e.g., high moisture content, fewer mineral particles, and acidic media), the efficiency of the conventional binders is low and/or cost-intensive. This research investigates the impact of different constituents of cement-sodium silicate grout system on the compressibility behaviour of organic soil, including settlement and void ratio. A microstructure analysis is also carried out on treated organic soil using Scanning Electron Micrographs (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX), and X-ray Diffraction (XRD). The results indicate that the settlement and void ratio of treated organic soils decrease gradually with the increase of cement and kaolinite contents, as well as sodium silicate until an optimum value of 2.5% of the wet soil weight. The microstructure analysis also demonstrates that with the increase of cement, kaolinite and sodium silicate, the void ratio and porosity of treated soil particles decrease, leading to an increase in the soil density by the hydration, pozzolanic, and polymerisation processes. This research contributes an extra useful knowledge to the stabilisation of organic soils and upgrading such problematic soils closer to the non-problematic soils for geotechnical applications such as deep mixing.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제24권4호
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• pp.371-388
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• 2021

A novel flexibility-based beam-foundation model for inelastic analyses of beams resting on foundation is presented in this paper. To model the deformability of supporting foundation media, the Winkler-Pasternak foundation model is adopted. Following the derivation of basic equations of the problem (strong form), the flexibility-based finite beam-foundation element (weak form) is formulated within the framework of the matrix virtual force principle. Through equilibrated force shape functions, the internal force fields are related to the element force degrees of freedom. Tonti's diagrams are adopted to present both strong and weak forms of the problem. Three numerical simulations are employed to assess validity and to show effectiveness of the proposed flexibility-based beam-foundation model. The first two simulations focus on elastic beam-foundation systems while the last simulation emphasizes on an inelastic beam-foundation system. The influences of the adopted foundation model to represent the underlying foundation medium are also discussed.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.41-50
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• 2024

Presence of hazardous dyes in water cause considerable risks to the human health and environment due to their potential toxicity and ecological disruptions. Therefore, in the present research, to suggest an alternative method for the retention of toxic Azocarmine G (ACG) dye from aqueous media, natural and H₂SO₄-modified acacia sawdust were performed for the first time as low-cost and efficient adsorbents. Based on batch experiments, it was determined that the best conditions for the developed dye retention process were an initial pH of 2.0 and an equilibrium time of 240 min. Analysis of the data using both pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order kinetic models showed that the retention of ACG onto the adsorbents predominantly occurred through chemical adsorption. Langmuir, Freundlich, and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherm models were employed to provide insights into the interaction between the adsorbate and adsorbent and the mechanism of the adsorption process. Maximum monolayer adsorption capacities of natural and H₂SO₄-modified acacia sawdust were determined as 28.01 and 64.90 mg g^-1, respectively by Langmuir isotherm model. Results of the study clearly indicated that the modification of acacia sawdust with H₂SO₄ leads to a substantial increase in the adsorption performance of anionic dyes.

• Advances in environmental research
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• 제4권2호
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• pp.69-81
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• 2015

A new magnetite-silica core/shell nanocomposite ($Fe_3O4@nSiO_2@mSiO_2$) was synthesized and functionalized with trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS). The prepared nanocomposite was used for the removal of diesel oil from aqueous media. The characterization of magnetite-silica nanocomposite was studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), surface area measurement, and vibrating sample magnetization (VSM). Results have shown that the desired structure was obtained and surface modification was successfully carried out. FTIR analysis has confirmed the presence of TMCS on the surface of magnetite silica nanocomposites. The low- angle XRD pattern of nanocomposites indicated the mesoscopic structure of silica shell. Furthermore, TEM results have shown the core/shell structure with porous silica shell. Adsorption kinetic studies indicated that the nanocomposite was able to remove 80% of the oil contaminant during 2 h and fit well with the pseudo-second order model. Equilibrium studies at room temperature showed that the experimental data fitted well with Freundlich isotherm. The magnetic property of nanocomposite facilitated the separation of solid phase from aqueous solution.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제64권3호
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• pp.381-390
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• 2017

Present paper deals with the large amplitude flexural vibration of carbon nanotube reinforced composite (CNTRC) plates. Distribution of CNTs as reinforcements may be uniform or functionally graded (FG). The equivalent material properties of the composite media are obtained according to a refined rule of mixtures which contains efficiency parameters. To account for the large deformations, von $K{\acute{a}}rm{\acute{a}}n$ type of geometrical nonlinearity is included into the formulation. The matrix representation of the governing equations is obtained according to the Ritz method where the basic shape functions are written in terms of the Chebyshev polynomials. Time dependency of the problem is eliminated by means of the Galerkin method and the resulting nonlinear eigenvalue problem is solved employing a direct displacement control approach. Results are obtained for completely clamped and completely simply supported plates. Results are first validated for the especial cases of FG-CNTRC and cross-ply laminated plates. Afterwards, parametric studies are given for FG-CNTRC plates with different boundary conditions. It is shown that, nonlinear frequencies are highly dependent to the volume fraction and dispersion profiles of CNTs. Furthermore, mode redistribution is observed in both simply supported and clamped FG-CNTRC plates.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• 제6권6호
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• pp.479-495
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• 2019

Periodic cellular core structures included in sandwich panels possess good stiffness while saving weight and only lately their potential to act as passive vibration filters is increasingly being studied. Classical homogeneous honeycombs show poor vibracoustic performance and only by varying certain geometrical features, a shift and/or variation in bandgap frequency range occurs. This work aims to investigate the vibration filtering properties of the AUXHEX "hybrid" core, which is a cellular structure containing cells of different shapes. Numerical simulations are carried out using two different approaches. The first technique used is the harmonic analysis with commercially available software, and the second one, which has been proved to be computationally more efficient, consists in the Wave Finite Element Method (WFEM), which still makes use of finite elements (FEM) packages, but instead of working with large models, it exploits the periodicity of the structure by analysing only the unit cell, thanks to the Floquet-Bloch theorem. Both techniques allow to produce graphs such as frequency response plots (FRF's) and dispersion curves, which are powerful tools used to identify the spectral bandgap signature of the considered structure. The hybrid cellular core pattern AUXHEX is analysed and results are discussed, focusing the investigation on the possible spectral bandgap signature heritage that a hybrid core experiences from their "parents" homogeneous cell cores.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제51권4호
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• pp.685-705
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• 2014

This paper presents a new formulation for forward scalar wave simulations in semi-infinite media. Perfectly-Matched-Layers (PMLs) are used as a wave absorbing boundary layer to surround a finite computational domain truncated from the semi-infinite domain. In this work, a hybrid formulation was developed for the simulation of scalar wave motion in two-dimensional PML-truncated domains. In this formulation, displacements and stresses are considered as unknowns in the PML domain, while only displacements are considered to be unknowns in the interior domain. This formulation reduces computational cost compared to fully-mixed formulations. To obtain governing wave equations in the PML region, complex coordinate stretching transformation was introduced to equilibrium, constitutive, and compatibility equations in the frequency domain. Then, equations were converted back to the time-domain using the inverse Fourier transform. The resulting equations are mixed (contain both displacements and stresses), and are coupled with the displacement-only equation in the regular domain. The Newmark method was used for the time integration of the semi-discrete equations.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제30권3호
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• pp.197-207
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• 2022

Population growth in cities increases the need for service facilities and different urban spaces, and the organism of the city undergoes profound changes. One of the main problems that endanger the physical environment of the city due to this turmoil is the lack of public spaces and cultural complexes that increase individual and social pollution and on the other hand make leisure facilities available to the public. It severely limits people and, ultimately, the flourishing of individual and social artistic tastes. Thus, dealing with an issue called cultural complex has special importance and is one of the most basic categories in the field of architecture and urban planning, so dealing with it must be done in a measured, comprehensive and accurate manner. Cultural shock results from the immersion of an unprepared traveler in a foreign culture. In other words, human connection with people, objects, places, organizations and institutions, thoughts and the world of information will be constantly becoming more unstable and diverse. As a result, there is a need to create places for information or, in a central sense, to acquire up-to-date knowledge that requires information in the fields of human individual and social life. Spaces and places are all kinds of media tools from gramophone records to cassettes, CDs, newspapers, magazines, Internet books, etc. Each person can use them according to his needs and work.