This paper describes influence of cargo lorry traveling at high speed under a lightweight footbridge on the structure vibrations. The unsteady CFD simulations were performed to obtain aerodynamic load functions on the footbridge. These loads were introduced to nonlinear structural dynamics transient calculation to obtain footbridge response. The influence of aerodynamic forces was evaluated in terms of pedestrian comfort and safety. Parametric study of the influence of vehicle speed, structure clearance, cabin deflectors and distance between lorries grouped in convoy is also presented.
In the past few years, overhead copper transmission lines have been replaced by lightweight aluminum transmission lines to minimize the cost and prevent the sagging of heavier copper transmission lines. High strength aluminum alloys are used as the core of the overhead transmission lines because of the low strength of the conductor line. However, alloying copper with aluminum causes a reduction in electrical conductivity due to the solid solution of each component. Therefore, in this study, the authors attempt to study the effect of various Al/Cu ratios (9:1, 7:3, 5:5) to obtain a high strength Al-Cu alloy without a significant loss in its conductivity through powder metallurgy. Low-temperature extrusion of Al/Cu powder was done at 350ºC to minimize the alloying reactions. The as-extruded microstructure was analyzed and various phases (Cu9Al4, CuAl2) were determined. The tensile strength and electrical conductivity of different mixing ratios of Al and Cu powders were studied. The results suggest that the tensile strength of samples is improved considerably while the conductivity falls slightly but lies within the limits of applications.
The by-products of wood sawdust and wood fiber are considered to be waste material. It is utilized in the construction of buildings in the form of sawdust concrete or wood fiber concrete. It is used to make lightweight concrete and possesses heat transfer of a long duration. In this study, wood concrete was made at eleven different mix proportions of cement to wood waste by weight, to produce a lightweight concrete aggregate that has the density 1508-2122 kg/m3. The experimental work consists of 330 concrete specimens as 99 cubes (150 * 150 * 150) mm, 165 cylinders (150 * 300) mm, 33 prisms (50 * 100 * 200) mm, and 33 prisms (100 * 100 * 500) mm. Mechanical and thermal properties such as stiffness, workability, compressive strength, static elasticity modulus, flexural forces, splitting tensile strength and density were examined in the specimens after 28 days of 20 oC curing. Also, compressive strength was investigated at 7 and 14 days of curing at 20 oC. The basic observation of the results shows the values with the limitations of ACI and ASTM. Moreover, it is the perfect way to reduce solid wood waste and produce lightweight concrete to be used in industrial construction. It was found that with the increase in the quantity of wood waste, the strength decreased; however, in terms of workability and concrete with a higher quantity of wood waste held very well. Lightweight concrete aggregate is around 25 percent lighter in dead load than standard concrete. Given all the physical and mechanical properties, the study finds that wood concrete can be used in the construction of buildings.
A spinal code is the type of rateless code, which has been proved to be capacity- achieving over both a binary symmetric channel (BSC) and an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. Rateless spinal codes employ a hash function as a coding kernel to generate infinite pseudo-random symbols. A good hash function can improve the perfor- mance of spinal codes. In this paper, a lightweight hash function based on sponge structure is designed. A permutation function of registers is a nonlinear function. Feedback shift registers are used to improve randomness and reduce bit error rate (BER). At the same time, a pseudo-random number generator adopts a layered and piecewise combination mode, which further encrypts signals via the layered structure, reduces the correlation between input and output values, and generates the piecewise random numbers to compensate the shortcoming of the mixed linear congruence output with fixed length. Simulation results show that the designed spinal code with the lightweight hash function outperforms the original spinal code in aspects of the BER, encoding time and randomness.
In the paper an alternative method for increasing punching shear resistance of the flat slabs from lightweight aggregate concrete by means of hidden steel fibre reinforced capital was presented. Previous experimental studies demonstrated that the addition of steel fibres to concrete allows for increase in the punching shear resistance of flat slab. Steel fibres modify the tensile strength of concrete, which translates into increased ductility of the material. The results of the experimental investigations were presented, the aim of which was to assess the effectiveness of the proposed solution. For economic and technological reasons, a hidden capital of a height equal to half of the slabs depth was made so that the top reinforcement could be installed later. It was found that presented solution allowed to increase the load carrying capacity by about 36% with respect to the control element, made entirely of lightweight aggregate concrete.
In the paper the results of experimental investigations concerning flat slabs made from reinforced lightweight concrete with sintered fly ash aggregate CERTYD were presented. In the research program 6 models made in a natural scale were included. The main variable parameter was slab longitudinal reinforcement ratio. The aim of investigation was the experimental verification of efficiency of double-headed studs as punching shear reinforcement. In the existing technical approvals such kind of reinforcement was allowed only in normal concrete slabs. It was demonstrated that double-headed studs can be an effective transverse reinforcement of lightweight aggregate concrete slabs. The use of double-headed studs resulted in increase in the ultimate load from 19% to 44%, depending on the slab reinforcement ratio which ranged from 0.5% to 1.2%. The comparative analysis showed that the Eurocode 2 provisions were conservative in relation to the experimental results, which were on average 42% higher than the theoretical ones however with a very low 7% coefficient of variation.
The main objective of this study is to highlight the performance of beams composed of lightweight concretefilled steel tubes (square and circle sections) composite with reinforced concrete deck slab. A total of nine composite beams were tested included two circular and seven square concrete-filled steel tubes. Among the nine composite beams, one beam, S20-0-2000, was prepared without a deck slab to act as a reference specimen. The chief parameters investigated were the length of the specimen, the compressive strength of the concrete slab, and the effect of the steel tube section type. All beams were tested using the three-point bending test with a concentrated central point load and simple supports. The test results showed that the first crack in the concrete deck slab was recorded at load levels ranging from 50.9% to 77.2% of the ultimate load for composite beams with square steel tubes. The ultimate load increased with increasing the compressive strength of the concrete slab. Shorter specimens were more stiffness than the other specimens but were less ductile. The slip values were equal to zero until the loads reached their final stages, while the specimen S20-55-1100 (short specimen) exhibited zero slip at all stages of the load. The ultimate load of the hollow steel tube composite beam was 13.2% lower than that of the reference beam. Moreover, the ductility and stiffness of the beam were also higher for beams with composite-filled steel tubes.