Local comparability of proficiency testing results: determination of concrete slump and compressive strength values

A proficiency testing (PT) scheme is developed for comparability assessment of results of concrete slump and compressive strength determination. The scheme is based on preparing of a test portion/sample of a concrete in-house reference material (IHRM) at a reference laboratory (RL) in the same conditions for every PT participant. Therefore, in this scheme IHRM instability is not relevant as a source of measurement/test uncertainty, while intra- and between-samples inhomogeneity parameters are evaluated using the results of RL testing of the samples taken at the beginning, the middle and the end of the PT experiment. The IHRM assigned slump and compressive strength values are calculated as averaged RL results. Their uncertainties include the measurement/test uncertainty components and the components arising from the material inhomogeneity. The test results of 25 PT participants were compared with the IHRM assigned values taking into account both the uncertainties of the assigned values and the measurement/test uncertainties of the participants. Since traceability of the IHRM assigned values to the international measurement standards and SI units cannot be stated, local comparability of the results is assessed. It is shown, that comparability of the slump and compressive strength determination results is satisfactory, while uncertainty evaluation for slump results requires additional efforts.     

Determination of compressive strength of unidirectional composites by three-point bending tests

A simple way for obtaining compressive strength of unidirectional composites by three-point bending tests is proposed in the present work. The interpretation of test results includes the stress singularity induced by the applied concentrated load and the determination of the contact zone between loading roller and specimen. Unidirectional carbon/epoxy composite T6T/F593 from Hexcel Composites has been tested by three-point bending with different thicknesses and spans. When failure occurs by compressive stresses, experimental results agree with the strength obtained by compressive tests. The best agreement is obtained in the case of 7 mm nominal thickness and span of 120 mm.     

Estimation of polymer-surface interfacial interaction strength by a contact AFM technique

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements were employed to assess polymer-surface interfacial interaction strength. The main feature of the measurement is the use of contact-mode AFM as a tool to scratch off the polymer monolayer adsorbed on the solid surface. Tapping-mode AFM was used to determine the depth of the scraped recess. Independent determination of the layer thickness obtained from optical phase interference microscopy (OPIM) confirmed the depth of the AFM scratch. The force required for the complete removal of the polymer layer with no apparent damage to the substrate surface was determined. Polypropylene (PP), low-density polyethylene (PE), and PP-grafted-maleic anhydride (PP-g-ma) were scraped off silane-treated glass slabs, and the strength of surface interaction of the polymer layer was determined. In all cases it was determined that the magnitude of surface interaction force is of the order of van der Waals (VDW) interactions. The interaction strength is influenced either by polymer ability to wet the surface (hydrophobic or hydrophilic interactions) or by hydrogen bonding between the polymer and the surface treatment.     

SmartMetals: a new method for metal identification based on fuzzy logic

This paper presents a method of searching, identifying and cross‐referencing metal alloys based on their chemical composition and/or mechanical properties, typically obtained by analysis and tests. The method uses a general pattern similar to the approach of a human expert, and relies on a classification of metals based on metallurgical expertise and fuzzy logic for identifying metals and comparing their chemical and mechanical properties. The algorithm has been tested and deployed in real applications for fast metal identification and finding of unknown equivalents, by the leading companies in the field. The same principles can also be used in other domains for similar problems, such as organic and inorganic materials identification and generic drugs comparison. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Derivation of substructures from infrared band shapes by fuzzy logic and partial cross correlation functions

 Cyclic voltammetry of iron-EDTA and iron-DETPA, in different supporting electrolytes showed electrochemical reversibility in ammonium citrate at pH 8.0, while quasi-reversible nature was noticed with iron-NTA. The absence of electroactive peaks when adding a polyhydric alcohol such as mannitol (providing greater stability to the chelate in alkaline pH) or a tertiary amine such as triethanolamine (as an organic buffer) to the supporting electrolyte enabled the use of CV for quantitative analysis of iron in a complex matrix containing these ingredients. The decrease in the diffusion coefficient of Fe(III)-chelate with an increase in the organic buffer suggested the need for limiting the concentration of the amine in order to obtain efficient mass transport while providing better pH control, when such a solution is required for the oxidation of the sulfide/hydrosulfide ion to elemental sulfur. Received: 6 June 1995/Revised: 23 January 1996/Accepted: 24 January 1996     

Assessment of the impact of a phosphatic fertilizer plant on the adjacent environment using fuzzy logic

The impact of a phosphatic fertilizer plant on the adjacent environment was examined. Selected rare earth elements, heavy metals and metalloids were determined in substrates and products, waste by-product, and grass and soil samples. Concentration gradients of elements in grass and soil samples along the southerly and easterly directions were examined and compared with the content of interior soil and grass samples, substrates, and products. Results were compared with available data on soil permissible element concentration levels. Two fuzzy principal component analysis (FPCA) methods for robust estimation of principal components were applied and compared with classical PCA. The efficiency of the new algorithms is illustrated. The investigation explored the impact of the plant on the adjacent environment. The most reliable results, in good agreement with types of samples, were produced using the FPCA-O algorithm     

Estimation of molecular properties by high-dimensional model representation

Additivity models have been widely employed to approximate unknown molecular properties based on previously measured or calculated data for similar molecules. This paper proposes an improved formulation of additivity, which is based on high-dimensional model representation (HDMR). HDMR is a general function-mapping technique that expresses the output of a multivariate system in terms of a hierarchy of cooperative effects among its input variables. HDMR rests on the general observation that, for many physical systems, only relatively low-order input variable cooperativity is significant. A molecule is expressed as a multivariate system by defining binary-valued input variables corresponding to the presence or absence of a chemical bond, with the molecular property as the output. Conventional additivity decomposes a molecular property into contributions from nonoverlapping subcomponents of fixed size. On the other hand, HDMR decomposes a molecular property into the exact contributions from the full hierarchy of its variable-sized subcomponents and contains additivity as a special case. The complete hierarchical structure of HDMR can in many cases lead to a much more accurate estimate than conventional additivity. Also, when full group additivity is not possible, HDMR gives an expression for a lower-order approximation for the missing group additivity value, greatly expanding the scope of HDMR compared to additivity. The component terms in an HDMR approximation have well-defined physical significance. Moreover, HDMR gives an exact expression for the truncation error in any given HDMR approximation, also with a well-defined physical significance. The HDMR model is tested for the enthalpy of formation of a broad range of organic molecules, and its advantages over additivity are illustrated.     

Estimation of the adhesion strength of rubber-metal bonds

The dependence of the strength of rubber-metal bonds on different methods of their preparation is considered. Methods of hot and cold bonding of rubbers are described. The effect of different technological factors on the strength of rubber-metal bonds is analyzed.     

A study of the carbonation profile of cement pastes by thermogravimetry and its effect on the compressive strength

In a previous work, the authors have carbonated totally high initial strength and sulfate-resistant Portland cement pastes. In order to solve the mechanical problems caused by the intense carbonation that occurred during those experiments, new carbonation conditions were applied in this study. The obtained products were analyzed with respect to the carbonation reactions by thermogravimetry and compressive mechanical strength. Comparative analysis with reference pastes obtained without carbonation at the same age shows that CO₂ capture increases with carbonation time. However, there is an optimum time, up to which the carbonation treatment does not affect the mechanical properties of the paste. Below this time, the lower is the carbonation time the higher is the increase of compressive strength, when compared to that of the reference pastes processed at same operating conditions without carbonation.     

Determination of the expected decrease in strength of high alumina cement concrete by derivatography

Methods involving the use of the derivatograph in the determination of the expected decrease in strength of high alumina cement are described. In a series of steps the strength, porosity and the cement content of the concrete are determined by physico-chemical measurements. The actual phase composition of the cement component of concrete is determined by derivatography. Methods of separating the two overlapping peaks due to the dehydration of the calcium aluminate hydrates present in the cement are described.     

Electrochemical behavior and compressive strength of Al-Cu/xCu composites in NaCl solution

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - This experimental investigation is focused on the evaluation of the compressive strength and corrosion behavior of Al-5Cu/xCu composites with Cu content,...     

Inverse design of ligands using a deep generative model semi-supervised by a data-driven ligand field strength metric

Transition metal (TM) complexes exhibit diverse structural and electronic properties. The properties of a TM complex can be tuned by modulating the ligand field strength (LFS) inflicted by its ligands. Current quantification of the LFS of a ligand is mainly derived from experimental measurements on a subset of highly symmetrical TM complexes and is limited in ligand scope. Herein, we report a data-driven method to quantify the LFS of ligands assigned from experimental crystal structures of TM complexes. We first show that the experimental metal–ligand bond lengths of over 4,000 mononuclear Fe, Co, and Mn complexes form bimodal distributions. Using Gaussian fits on the bimodal distributions, each TM complex is assigned a spin state (SS) label. These SS labels can then be used to calculate the LFS of the ligands of the complexes. Using the obtained data-driven LFS metric, we establish that a semi-supervised deep generative model, junction tree variational autoencoder (JTVAE), can be employed to predict LFS values. Our model exhibits a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.047 and root mean squared error of 0.072 on the training set. The model also allows the generation of novel ligands with desirable LFS values.     

Tear strength and tensile strength of model filled elastomers

Measurements have been made of the tear strength, tensile strength, and energy dissipated during stretching for model filled elastomers consisting of polybutadiene with glass beads incorporated. The glass beads were pretreated with various silanes, some of which could, in principle, form covalent bonds with the polybutadiene matrix during free-radical crosslinking of the latter and some of which could not. The tear strength of the elastomer was increased by the addition of glass beads, by about 25% for the largest beads, having a mean diameter of 150μm. This effect is attributed to increased roughness of the tear path. The breaking elongation in tension was reduced by the addition of glass beads but the breaking stress was only seriously reduced for the least-well-adhering beads. The stored strain energy density at break was reduced in all cases. This is attributed to large glass beads acting as fracture nuclei in tension. Calculated sizes of a Griffith crack, 150–300 μm, are consistent with this hypothesis. Strain energy dissipated due to dewetting was found to be in the range 4–13% of the input energy, depending upon the degree of interfacial adhesion, in addition to about 10% dissipated in the unfilled material. The maximum value observed is in reasonable agreement with theoretical predictions.     

焦炭与CO2和水蒸气气化后孔隙结构和高温抗压强度研究

通过焦炭气化反应装置和高温抗压强度测定装置,研究了焦炭与CO₂和水蒸气气化后孔隙结构变化规律及溶损率、温度和孔隙结构对焦炭高温抗压强度的影响。结果表明,与CO₂气化相比,水蒸气气化后焦炭平均孔径较小,比表面积和100 μm以下气孔数量增加,且整体高温抗压强度更高。焦炭气化后高温抗压强度随溶损率增加而降低,随温度升高而降低。温度为1 200 ℃时,随溶损率增加压缩过程焦炭承受压缩功(WOC_u)逐渐降低,水蒸气气化后的WOC_u高于CO₂条件,随溶损率增加焦炭压缩过程形变量呈降低趋势。在相同溶损率下,水蒸气气化后焦炭的孔隙结构对焦炭强度损害相对较小,抗变形能力更强。     

Twin formation by a compressive stress on the transition of CsCl

Crystals of CsCl expand uniaxially in the transition from the CsCl-type to the NaCl-type structure under stress-free condition. When the expansion is mechanically inhibited, spinel twinning appears in the produced crystals. Two common symmetry axes of the produced twinned crystals of the NaCl-type structure, $\text{[11}\text{1}\text{]}$ and [011], are kept parallel to [010] and [001], respectively, of the original CsCl-type structure. Although this relation is different from that in the stress-free case, the transition mechanism is explained as a modification of that in the latter case.     

Influences of fly ash and fluorgypsum on the hydration heat and compressive strength of cement

The hydration heat of pure cement, fly ash single-doped cement, as well as fly ash and fluorgypsum co-doped cement were investigated by means of micro-calorimetry with an eight-channel micro-calorimeter. The results showed that the hydration heat and the hydration rate could be reduced significantly by fly ash and fluorgypsum. However, the reduction was not proportional to the loading of dopant. The exothermic peak of the co-doped cement was appeared earlier than that of the single-doped cement. As the temperature decreased, the hydration heat and the hydration rate of both the doped cement were reduced, and the exothermic peak appeared later. The effect of fly ash and fluorgypsum on the compressive strength of cement was also investigated. The results revealed that the early compressive strength of concrete made up of the co-doped cement was largely higher than that of the single-doped cement. Based on the experiment results obtained in this article, we could conclude that fluorgypsum is a suitable additive for the single-doped cement.     

The fundamental Fuzzy logic operators and some complex boolean logic circuits implemented by the chromogenism of a spirooxazine

1,3-Dihydro-1,3,3-trimethyl-8'-nitro-spiro[2H-indole-2,3'-[3H]naphth[2,1-b][1,4]oxazine] (SpO) is a photochromic, acidichromic and metallochromic compound. Its chromogenic properties are characterized in acetonitrile, at room temperature. They are exploited to process both boolean and Fuzzy logic. By using HClO(4), AlCl(3) and Cu(ClO(4))(2) as chemical inputs, UV radiation as power supply, and the absorbance at specific wavelengths in the visible as optical output, SpO results in a five-states molecular switch whereby some complex boolean logic circuits are implemented. If the chemical inputs are varied in an analog manner, the solution of SpO assumes an infinite number of colours. Therefore, by choosing the RGB colour coordinates as optical outputs, the fundamental operators of the "infinite-valued" Fuzzy logic are implemented. Particularly, two Fuzzy logic systems are built upon a new defuzzification procedure imitating the way humans perceive colours.     

A new approach to the statistical treatment of 2D-maps in proteomics using fuzzy logic

A new approach to the statistical treatment of 2D-maps has been developed. This method is based on the use of fuzzy logic and allows to take into consideration the typical low reproducibility of 2D-maps. In this approach the signal corresponding to the presence of proteins on the 2D-maps is substituted with probability functions, centred on the signal itself. The standard deviation of the bidimensional gaussian probability function employed to blur the signal allows to assign different uncertainties to the two electrophoretic dimensions. The effect of changing the standard deviation and the digitalisation resolution are investigated.