Comparison of dynamic properties of spliced and monolithic prestressed concrete box railway girders

Longitudinal splicing of precast prestressed concrete (PSC) girders has recently gained increasing support as an effective method to accelerate bridge construction. The presence of the joints in the spliced girder may alter the dynamic properties of the system. In this study, a 20 m long full-scale spliced PSC girder was fabricated and tested to identify its dynamic characteristics against a monolithically fabricated girder (monolithic girder) with the same dimensions. The experimental program involved two phases. First, the dynamic properties of the test girders were identified from a modal test. Numerical modal analyses based on three-dimensional finite element models were also performed, and the calculated modal parameters were compared with the test results. The second phase involved a characteristic decrease of the natural frequency due to the damage to each girder after the load test. This study shows that the spliced girder provides a dynamic performance comparable to that of a monolithic girder in both the uncracked and cracked states.     

Formation of unidirectional nanoporous structures in thickly anodized aluminum oxide layer

A series of anodic aluminum oxide(AAO) was grown on the commercially pure 1050 aluminum sheet by controlling electrolyte temperature (2–15 °C) and an odizing time (0.5–6 h), using a fixed applied current density of 3 A/dm² in diluted sulfuric acid electrolyte. A crack-free thick AAO with the thickness of 105–120 μm and containing unidirectional nano sized pores (average pore diameter of 5–7 nm) is successfully achieved in the specimens anodized for 2 h, irrespective of electrolyte temperature. When anodizing time reaches 6 h, very thick AAO with the thickness of 230–284 μm is grown, and average diameter of unidirectional pores is in the range of 6–24 nm. The higher values in both the AAO thickness and pore diameter are attained for the specimens anodized at higher temperatures of 10–15 °C. A crack is observed to exist in the AAO after anodizing up to 4 h and more. A higher fraction (more than 9%) of the crack is shown in the specimens anodized at higher temperatures of 10–15 °C for 6 h and a considerable amount of giant cracks are contained.     

Characterization of plasma electrolytic oxide formed on AZ91 Mg alloy in KMnO4 electrolyte

The aim of this work is to investigate microstructure, corrosion resistance characteristics and nanohardness of the oxide layer on AZ91 Mg alloy by applying different voltage with KMnO₄ contained solution. There are lots of closed pores that are filled with another oxide compound compared with the typical surface morphology with pore coated until 350 V of coating voltage. The thickness of oxide layer increases with increasing coating voltage. The oxide layer formed on AZ91 Mg alloy in electrolyte with potassium permanganate consists of MgO and Mn₂O₃. Corrosion potential of the oxide layer on AZ91 Mg alloy obtained at different plasma electrolytic oxidation(PEO) reaction stages increases with increasing coating voltage. The corrosion resistance of AZ91 Mg alloy depends on the existence of the manganese oxide in the oxide layer. The inner barrier layer composed of the MgO and Mn₂O₃ may serve as diffusion barrier to enhance the corrosion resistance and may partially explain the excellent anti-corrosion performance in corrosion test. Nanohardness values increase with increasing coating voltage. The increase in the nanohardness may be due to the effect of manganese oxide in the oxide layer on AZ91 Mg alloy coated from electrolyte containing KMnO₄.     

Low cycle fatigue properties and cyclic deformation behavior of as-extruded AZ31 magnesium alloy

The low cycle fatigue(LCF)properties of as-extruded AZ31 Mg alloy were investigated under total strain amplitudes in the range of 0.4%-1.2%with strain rate of 1×10- 2s -1.Due to the twinning effect in compression during loading and the detwinning effect during unloading,the alloy showed an asymmetric hysteresis loop.The cyclic stress response exhibited cyclic hardening at high total strain amplitudes.The cyclic deformation behaviors were discussed using the Coffin-Manson plot,which divided the plastic strain amplitudes into the tension side and the compression side.Through the LCF tests that were started from either tension or compression under a total strain amplitude of 1.0%,the interaction between the twinning effect and dislocation was analyzed.The twinning effect during the LCF test and the variation of the dislocation density were investigated using optical microscopy and transmission electron microscopy,respectively.     

nc886, a Non-Coding RNA,Is a New Biomarker and Epigenetic Mediator of Cellular Senescence in Fibroblasts

Functional studies of organisms and human models have revealed that epigenetic changes can significantly impact the process of aging. Non-coding RNA (ncRNA), one of epigenetic regulators, plays an important role in modifying the expression of mRNAs and their proteins. It can mediate the phenotype of cells. It has been reported that nc886 (=vtRNA2-1 or pre-miR-886), a long ncRNA, can suppress tumor formation and photo-damages of keratinocytes caused by UVB. The aim of this study was to determine the role of nc886 in replicative senescence of fibroblasts and determine whether substances capable of controlling nc886 expression could regulate cellular senescence. In replicative senescence fibroblasts, nc886 expression was decreased while methylated nc886 was increased. There were changes of senescence biomarkers including SA-β-gal activity and expression of p16INK4A and p21Waf1/Cip1 in senescent cells. These findings indicate that the decrease of nc886 associated with aging is related to cellular senescence of fibroblasts and that increasing nc886 expression has potential to suppress cellular senescence. AbsoluTea Concentrate 2.0 (ATC) increased nc886 expression and ameliorated cellular senescence of fibroblasts by inhibiting age-related biomarkers. These results indicate that nc886 has potential as a new target for anti-aging and that ATC can be a potent epigenetic anti-aging ingredient.     

An evaluation of the influence of impurity concentration and composition in concrete on activation and radiation dosein the reactor facility

The content analysis of radioactive waste and radiation dose evaluation is considered as one of the important factors in the reactor facility design.This kind of buildings consists of the concrete for the most part and uses it as the structure and shield of the building.Generally,the concrete has impurities such as cobalt,europium,nickel,and cesium with specific content depending on the production method or manufacturing company.Dominant radioactive nuclides generated from the fundamental components of concrete are considered that it is less contributed to the radiation dose because they are beta decay nuclides in general.Thus,impurities of irradiated concrete in the reactor facilities,are considered occasionally an important evaluation factor for induced activity.In this study,the influence on the activation of impurities in concrete was evaluated from the radiation dose and induced activity calculations.The calculation was evaluated at the bio-shield which is one of the areas with the highest neutron irradiation among the concrete structure in the reactor facility.The results show that radioactive nuclides with gamma decay were produced in these impurities.Moreover,the radiation dose of concrete with impurities was higher than concrete without impurities.The increased radiation dose was quantified through the content of impurities.     

Signal processing for real-time identification of similar metals by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS) is regarded as a promising technique for realtime sorting of scrap metals due to its capability of fast multi-elemental and in-air analysis. This work reports a method for signal processing which ensures high accuracy and high speed during similar metal sorting by LIBS. Similar metals such as aluminum alloys or stainless steel are characterized by nearly the same constituent elements with slight variations in elemental concentration depending on metal type. In the proposed method, the original data matrix is substantially reduced for fast processing by selecting new input variables(spectral lines) using the information for the constituent elements of similar metals. Specifically, principal component analysis(PCA) of full-spectra LIBS data was performed and then, based on the loading plots, the input variables of greater significance were selected in the order of higher weights for each constituent element. The results for the classification test with aluminum alloy, copper alloy,stainless steel and cast steel showed that the classification accuracy of the proposed method was nearly the same as that of full-spectra PCA, but the computation time was reduced by a factor of 20 or more. The results demonstrated that incorporating the information for constituent elements can significantly accelerate classification speed without loss of accuracy.     

Ni-25%Al合金中稳态至亚稳态共晶生长的结构转变(英文)

在10-100μm/s的生长速度范围,热梯度为10 K/mm的情况下,研究Ni-25%Al(摩尔分数)合金定向凝固的微观结构演变规律。凝固组织显示了γ’-β平衡共晶相向γ-β亚稳态共晶加β枝晶相的转变。在25μm/s的生长速度时生成的γ’-β和γ-β共晶的混合微观组织表明转变发生在γ和γ’相之间的竞争生长期间。在凝固期间选取微观结构时应考虑各个相的生长温度,试验结果显示在给定生长速度的情况下,在凝固期间,应优先选择在最高温度固化的某个相或微观结构。而且,在25-60μm/s的生长速度范围内,由于稳态和亚稳态共晶具有相似的生长温度,因此可以共存且同时生长。