Sharif Digital Repository

In this research, compressive and tensile behaviors of polymer concrete have been investigated. A series of tests were performed on polymer concrete (PC) specimens with different amounts of epoxy resin to investigate the effect of epoxy resin content on behavior of PC. For prediction of this behavior the disturbed state concept (DSC) has been used. The proposed model was then verified by predicting laboratory compressive tests used to find parameters along with independent data sets from other researchers. Moreover, the applicability of existing cement concrete models for predicting the behavior of PC was assessed since they are basically phenomenological, based on experimental observation... 

In this paper dynamic property of Cement-Admixed clay under a wide range of strains were studied considering the effect of different mixing ratio and the change of confining pressures through dynamic triaxial test. Triaxial tests were conducted on untreated and cement treated soils and the results were then analyzed to study the variations in dynamic elastic modulus (Ed) and the damping ratio (D) of soil specimens at different cement ratio. Increasing cement ratio has a significant effect on Ed of the treated soils, and increases it. In contrast, increasing cement ratio decreases D; however, the rate of decreasing D with increasing cement ratio is not considerable. The feed-forward... 

Sliding friction between a pavement and tire is an important concern in traffic safety. The British pendulum test has been used worldwide to evaluate friction characteristics of pavement surfaces. However, because of considerable differences in apparatus, procedures, and operation, significant variability can occur for evaluations of British pendulum number (BPN). In this investigation, a direct shear test (DST) device is modified and proposed to determine the sliding friction coefficient between tire and pavement surface under dry and wet conditions. Dissipated energy values obtained from DST were compared with evaluations of BPN, and a high correlation was obtained. Tests were done using... 

The paper describes an experimental research on fracture characteristics of self-compacting concrete (SCC). Three point bending tests conducted on 154 notched beams with different water to cement (w/c) ratios. The specimens were made from mixes with various w/c ratios from 0.7 to 0.35. For all mixes, common fracture parameters were determined using two different methods, the work-of-fracture method (WFM) and the size effect method (SEM). Test results showed that with decrease of w/c ratio from 0.7 to 0.35 in SCC: (a) the fracture toughness increases linearly: (b) the brittleness number is approximately doubled: (c) the effective size of the process zone cf in SEM and the characteristic... 

In this study, a two-layer feed-forward neural network was constructed and applied to determine a mapping associating mix design and testing factors of cement-nano silica (NS)-rice husk ash ternary blended concrete samples with their performance in conductance to the water absorption properties. To generate data for the neural network model (NNM), a total of 174 field cores from 58 different mixes at three ages were tested in the laboratory for each of percentage, velocity and coefficient of water absorption and mix volumetric properties. The significant factors (six items) that affect the permeability properties of ternary blended concrete were identified by experimental studies which were:... 

The aim of this study was to investigate the influences of combination of the two different SiO2 nanoparticles (15 nm and 80 nm) on compressive, flexural and tensile strength of ternary blended concrete. SiO2 nanoparticles with two different sizes of 15 and 80 nm have been used as a partial cement replacement by 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 wt.% in 16 different proportions of mixture followed by curing in lime solution for 7, 28 and 90 days. The results indicate that in all curing ages in lime solution specimens with 2.0% of 15 nm plus 1.5% of 80 nm cement replacement achieved higher mechanical properties. The continuous cement paste with the lowest delicate zones might be due to the fact of quick... 

There are very limited researches carried out to investigate the influence of saturation degrees, freezing-thawing, and curing times on geotechnical properties of lime concrete (LC) and lime-cement concrete (LCC) due to the capillary action and changes in groundwater table. Subsequently, the primary goal of this research is to investigate the influence of these parameters on mechanical properties of LC and LCC using unconfined compression tests, namely uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), stress-strain behavior, deformability index (I D ), secant modulus (E S ), failure strain, bulk modulus (K), resilient modulus (M R ), brittleness index (I B ), and shear modulus (G). At first, the... 

Many concrete structures such as bridges, offshore structures, and pavements are under cyclic loads when they are exposed to different environmental conditions during their lifespan. The durability and fatigue performance of these structures are significant issues that should be considered. Therefore, this study investigated the long-term environmental effects on Polymer Concrete (PC) and Ordinary Cement Concrete (OCC) subjected to cyclic fatigue loading under four different environmental conditions (freshwater, seawater, acidic and alkaline) for six months. Concrete specimens are tested under high cyclic loading with the frequency of 6 Hz and low cyclic loading with a frequency of 1 Hz.... 

Polymer concrete is well-known for quick repairing of concrete structures and pavement. However, there are relatively few studies on the durability of epoxy polymer concrete (EPC). This study aims to investigate the long-term environmental effects on the mechanical properties of EPC. Therefore, EPC and ordinary cement concrete (OCC) specimens were prepared and exposed to four chemical solutions with pH values of 2.5, 7, 12.5 and artificial seawater in intervals of 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. Epoxy resin (10 and 12% by weight) and Portland cement were used as binder phase in EPC and OCC specimens, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was additionally applied to investigate the... 

In this investigation, polymer concrete (PC) with three different epoxy resin contents, ordinary cement concrete (OCC), lightweight concrete (LWC), and lime-mortar soil (LMS) have been studied under uniaxial and triaxial compression tests to determine their mechanical behavior by measuring axial stress-strain and volumetric strain versus axial strain curves. According to the results, PC showed higher strength, ductility, and energy absorption than that of OCC and LWC. Then, nonlinear finite element analysis (NFEA) was implemented to predict the experimental results using hierarchical single-surface (HISS) failure criterion and disturbed state concept (DSC) to capture the elastoplastic... 

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) have recently been introduced as an efficient artificial intelligence modeling technique for applications involving a large, number of variables, especially with highly nonlinear and complex interactions among input/output variables in a system without any prior knowledge about the nature, of these, interactions. Various types of ANN models are developed and used for different problems. In this paper, an artificial neural network of the feed-forward back-propagation type has been applied for the prediction of density and compressive strength properties of the cement paste portion of concrete mixtures. The mechanical properties of concrete are highly... 

This study investigates the durability of confined geopolymer concrete with fiber-reinforced polymer and compares the results with ordinary Portland cement concrete (OPCC). Two hundred and seventy geopolymer concrete (GPC) specimens with different mix designs (fly ash- and granulated blast furnace slag(GBFS)-based GPC) were prepared and then wrapped with two different fiber-reinforced polymers (carbon and glass FRPs). For 12,960 hrs (eighteen months), the specimens were exposed to four different pHs (2.5, 7 (water), 7.25 (saltwater), 12.5). The reliability analysis was performed after modeling the compressive strength over time. Based on the results, the ductility of all specimens decreased... 

Due to the increasingly serious environmental problems presented by waste tires, the feasibility of using elastic and flexible tire-rubber particles as aggregate in concrete is investigated in this study. Tire-rubber particles composed of tire chips, crumb rubber, and a combination of tire chips and crumb rubber, were used to replace mineral aggregates in concrete. These particles were used to replace 12.5%, 25%, 37.5%, and 50% of the total mineral aggregate's volume in concrete. Cylindrical shape concrete specimens 15 cm in diameter and 30 cm in height were fabricated and cured. The fresh rubberized concrete exhibited lower unit weight and acceptable workability compared to plain concrete....