Steel Mesh-Reinforced Cementitious Composites (SMRCC) (traditionally known as ferrocement) have been in existence for few decades, but have some limitations set on element thickness and number of reinforcing mesh layers and the resulting deflection ductility. Therefore, the author has made an attempt to explore whether deflection ductility will improve in mesh-reinforced cementitious composites (25 mm thick) if discontinuous fibres are added to slab elements. For this purpose, thin slab elements of dimensions 700 mm (length) × 200 mm (width) × 25 mm (thickness) were cast and subjected to four point bending tests. Based on the flexural tests conducted on SMRCC (Control Slab Elements, cast with Steel Mesh Volume of reinforcement, MVr = 0.78, 0.94, and 1.23%) and Hybrid Mesh-and-Fibre-Reinforced Cement Based Composite (HMFRCBC) (Test Slab Elements, combining MVr = 0.78, 0.94 and 1.23% and Polyolefin Fibre Volume fraction, PO-FVf = 0.5‒2.5% of volume of specimens, with 0.5% interval), load-deflection and the deflection ductility index were analyzed. From the flexural load-deflection curves it has been observed that HMFRCBC slabs demonstrate higher flexural load-carrying capacity and deflection ductility when compared to SMRCC slabs. This study shows that higher the polyolefin fibre volume fraction (PO-FVf) from 0.5 to 2.5% (with a 0.5% interval) in HMFRCBC slabs, the higher the flexural deflection ductility. The Deflection Ductility Index (DDI) of HMFRCBC (with 5 layers of mesh and PO-FVf = 2.5%) is 4.5 times that of SMRCC. This study recommends that HMFRCBC can be used as an innovative construction material due to its higher flexural ductility characteristics.
Very thin liquid jets can be obtained using electric field, whereas an electrically-driven bending instability occurs that enormously increases the jet path and effectively leads to its thinning by very large ratios, enabling the production of nanometre size fibres. This mechanism, although it was discovered almost one century ago, is not yet fully understood. In the following study, experimental data are collected, with the dual goal of characterizing the electro-spinning of different liquids and evaluating the pertinence of a theoretical model.
Two constructions of microfluidic structures are described in this paper. A fibre optic microcell for spectrophometric measurements and a microcell for fluorescence experiments were designed and tested. The structures were made of polymer optical fibres which were incorporated into polymeric material i.e. poly(dimethylsiloxane). The structures were tested as detectors in absorbance measurement (solutions of bromothymol blue with diffierent pH were used) and in fluorescence tests (solution of fluoresceine was used).
Coal ash produced from thermal power plants as a substitute for conventional construction material has increased considerably in recent years. In the past, studies on partial replacement of soil were carried out with a single type of ash. Because of the insufficient evidence, limited research has been initiated on the productive usage of Fly and Bottom Ashes. This paper aims to study the properties of these materials and investigate their efficacy in road construction. Laboratory investigations were conducted to assess chemical and physical properties and mechanical performance to evaluate both ash types in pavement construction. The rutting factor is calculated for various combinations of coal ash materials with the addition of polypropylene fiber as a reinforcement in increments of 0.1% of its total weight with an aspect ratio of 200. The analytical tool ANSYS is used to validate the service life, vertical strain and quality of reinforced ash materials.
This paper presents the results of computer simulations carried out to determine coordination numbers for a system of parallel cylindrical fibres distributed at random in a circular matrix according to twodimensional pattern created by random sequential addition scheme. Two different methods to calculate coordination number were utilized and compared. The first method was based on integration of pair distribution function. The second method was the modified sequential analysis. The calculations following from ensemble average approach revealed that these two methods give very close results for the same neighbourhood area irrespective of the wide range of radii used for calculation.
This paper presents the results of research on high performance
concretes (HPC) modified by theaddition of polypropylene fibres
(PP
fibres). The scope of the research was the measurement of theresidual
transport properties of heated and recooled concretes: gas permeability
and surface waterabsorption. Seven types of concrete modified with
fibrillated PP fibres were tested. Three lengths: 6,12 and 19 mm and
three amounts of fibres: 0, 0.9 and 1.8 kg/m3 were used. The research
programmewas designed to determine which length of fibres, used in which
minimum amount, will, after thefibres melt, permit the development of a
connected network and pathway for gases and liquids.
We demonstrated two methods of increasing the bandwidth of a broadband light source based on amplified spontaneous emission in thulium-doped fibres. Firstly, we have shown by means of a comprehensive numerical model that the full-width at half maximum of the thulium-doped fibre based broadband source can be more than doubled by using specially tailored spectral filter placed in front of the mirror in a double-pass configuration of the amplified spontaneous emission source. The broadening can be achieved with only a small expense of the output power. Secondly, we report results of the experimental thulium-doped fibre broadband source, including fibre characteristics and performance of the thulium-doped fibre in a ring laser setup. The spectrum broadening was achieved by balancing the backward amplified spontaneous emission with back-reflected forward emission.
In this paper our results of investigation on a pump power combiner in a configuration of 7×1 are presented. The performed combiner, with pump power of 80–85% transmission level, was successfully applied in a thulium doped fibre laser. The performed all-fibre laser setup reached a total CW output power of 6.42 W, achieving the efficiency on a 32.1% level
In this work studies on propagation properties of a microstructured polymer optical fibre infiltrated with a nematic liquid crystal are presented. Specifically, the influence of an infiltration method on the LC molecular alignment inside fibre air-channels and, thus, on light guidance is discussed. Switching between propagation mechanisms, namely the transition from modified total internal reflection (mTIR) to the photonic bandgap effect obtained by varying external temperature is also demonstrated.
A mode-locked Tm3+-doped fibre laser and amplifier operating at a central wavelength of 1994.3 nm is demonstrated. A thulium oscillator is passively mode-locked by a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror to generate an average power of 17 mW at a fundamental repetition rate of 81 MHz in a short linear cavity. This 2-µm laser train is amplified to an average power to 20.26 W by two double-clad thulium-doped allfibre amplifiers. The pulse energy, duration and peak power is 250 nJ, 23 ps and 9.57 kW, respectively. This represents one of the highest values of average power at ∼ 2-µm-wavelength for picosecond thulium-doped fibre lasers and amplifiers. The performance of the laser system is described in details.
The paper deals with a composite element in which the matrix is reinforced with two families of parallel continuous fibres inclined to the x1 axis at the angles n1 and n2. The stress and strain states were determined in an element subjected to normal and tangential loads. The problem of two-criteria optimization is considered. Minimum strain energy and minimum cost of composite element were chosen as criteria. The strain energy is determined with respect to the system of principal axes of stress. Three independent variables: the angle directing the first family of fibres, the angle between two families and volume fraction of fibres are selected as the design variables. Examining particular load cases in composites made with epoxy resin reinforced with carbon fibres elements and in high performance fibre reinforced cementitious composite elements, optimum solutions have been determined in the sense of assumed criteria.
Synthetic polymer latexes, such as styrene–butadiene rubber (SBR) latex addition in Portland cement has gained wider acceptance in many applications in the construction industry. Polymer-modified cementitious systems seals the pores and micro cracks developed during hardening of the cement matrix, by dispersing a film of polymer phase throughout the concrete. A comprehensive set of experimental test were conducted for studying the compressive properties of SBR latex polymer with crimped polypropylene fibres at relative volume fractions of 0.1 and 0.3%. The results indicated that the addition of polypropylene fibre has little effect on the reduction in the workability of concrete composite containing fly ash and SBR Latex. Increase in polypropylene fibres upto 0.3% Vf showed increase in compressive strength upto 57.5 MPa. The SBR concrete without fibre showed an increase in strength upto 20% compared to plain concrete. Test results also indicated that the compressive strength was increased in SBR fibre concrete by means of an ordinary dry curing process than wet curing because of their excellent water retention due to polymer film formation around the cement grains. On the contrary the compressive strength reduces for SBR fibre concretes under wet curing compared to dry curing.
We experimentally studied three different D-shape polymer optical fibres with an exposed core for their applications as surface plasmon resonance sensors. The first one was a conventional D-shape fibre with no microstructure while in two others the fibre core was surrounded by two rings of air holes. In one of the microstructured fibres we introduced special absorbing inclusions placed outside the microstructure to attenuate leaky modes. We compared the performance of the surface plasmon resonance sensors based on the three fibres. We showed that the fibre bending enhances the resonance in all investigated fibres. The measured sensitivity of about 610 nm/RIUfor the refractive index of glycerol solution around 1.350 is similar in all fabricated sensors. However, the spectral width of the resonance curve is significantly lower for the fibre with inclusions suppressing the leaky modes.
We experimentally studied three different D-shape polymer optical fibres with an exposed core for their applications as surface plasmon resonance sensors. The first one was a conventional D-shape fibre with no microstructure while in two others the fibre core was surrounded by two rings of air holes. In one of the microstructured fibres we introduced special absorbing inclusions placed outside the microstructure to attenuate leaky modes. We compared the performance of the surface plasmon resonance sensors based on the three fibres. We showed that the fibre bending enhances the resonance in all investigated fibres. The measured sensitivity of about 610 nm/RIU for the refractive index of glycerol solution around 1.350 is similar in all fabricated sensors. However, the spectral width of the resonance curve is significantly lower for the fibre with inclusions suppressing the leaky modes.
In this paper, we present a fibre-optic sensor for simultaneous measurement of refractive index and thickness of liquid layers.We designed an experimental low-coherence setup with two broadband light sources and an extrinsic fibre-optic Fabry–Pérot interferometer acting as the sensing head.We examined how the refractive index of a liquid film and its thickness affect spectrum at the output of a fibre-optic interferometer. We performed a series of experiments using two light sources and only one sensing head. The spectra were collected in ranges of 1220÷1340 nm and 1500÷1640 nm. The obtained results show that using two spectra recorded simultaneously for two wavelength ranges enables to determine thickness in a range of 50÷500 μm, and refractive index of a liquid film in a range of 1:00÷1:41 RIU using only one sensing head.
This paper presents a non-invasive measurement method for simultaneous characterization of diameter and refractive index of transparent fibres. The method is based on scattering of a polychromatic beam of light by a side-illuminated fibre under study. Both quantities of interest are inversely calculated from the scattering far-field region in the vicinity of the primary rainbow. The results of practical measurements are examined with the use of a novel optical system for laboratory-level tests. An analysis of prediction errors for 20– 120 μm thick fibres having various refractive indices helps to assess the outcome of the measurement data. The results show a clear route to improve the measurement process in on-line industrial process control.
As part of the work, the error level of simulations of uniform optical-fibre Bragg gratings was determined using the transitionmatrixmethod. The errorswere established by comparing the transmission characteristics of the structures obtained by simulation with the corresponding characteristics arrived at experimentally. To compile these objects, elementary properties of the characteristics were specified, also affecting the applications of Bragg gratings, and compared with each other. The level of error in determining each of these features was estimated. Relationships were also found between the size of the physical properties of Bragg gratings and the level of errors obtained. Based on the findings, the correctness of the simulation of structures with the said method was verified, giving satisfying results.
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