Fly Ash Application as Supplementary Cementitious Material: A Review.

This study aimed to expand the knowledge on the application of the most common industrial byproduct, i.e., fly ash, as a supplementary cementitious material. The characteristics of cement-based composites containing fly ash as supplementary cementitious material were discussed. This research evaluated the mechanical, durability, and microstructural properties of FA-based concrete. Additionally, the various factors affecting the aforementioned properties are discussed, as well as the limitations associated with the use of FA in concrete. The addition of fly ash as supplementary cementitious material has a favorable impact on the material characteristics along with the environmental benefits; however, there is an optimum level of its inclusion (up to 20%) beyond which FA has a deleterious influence on the composite's performance. The evaluation of the literature identified potential solutions to the constraints and directed future research toward the application of FA in higher amounts. The delayed early strength development is one of the key downsides of FA use in cementitious composites. This can be overcome by chemical activation (alkali/sulphate) and the addition of nanomaterials, allowing for high-volume use of FA. By utilizing FA as an SCM, sustainable development may promote by lowering CO2 emissions, conserving natural resources, managing waste effectively, reducing environmental pollution, and low hydration heat.

Fly Ash-Based Eco-Efficient Concretes: A Comprehensive Review of the Short-Term Properties.

Development of sustainable concrete as an alternative to conventional concrete helps in reducing carbon dioxide footprint associated with the use of cement and disposal of waste materials in landfill. One way to achieve that is the use of fly ash (FA) as an alternative to ordinary Portland cement (OPC) because FA is a pozzolanic material and has a high amount of alumina and silica content. Because of its excellent mechanical properties, several studies have been conducted to investigate the use of alkali-activated FA-based concrete as an alternative to conventional concrete. FA, as an industrial by-product, occupies land, thereby causing environmental pollution and health problems. FA-based concrete has numerous advantages, such as it has early strength gaining, it uses low natural resources, and it can be configurated into different structural elements. This study initially presents a review of the classifications, sources, chemical composition, curing regimes and clean production of FA. Then, physical, fresh, and mechanical properties of FA-based concretes are studied. This review helps in better understanding of the behavior of FA-based concrete as a sustainable and eco-friendly material used in construction and building industries.

Application of Plastic Wastes in Construction Materials: A Review Using the Concept of Life-Cycle Assessment in the Context of Recent Research for Future Perspectives.

The urbanization process contributes to the growth of solid waste generation and causes an increase in environmental impacts and failures in the management of solid waste. The number of dumps is a concern due to the limited implementation and safe disposal of this waste. The interest in sustainable techniques has been growing in relation to waste management, which is largely absorbed by the civil construction sector. This work aimed to review plastic waste, especially polyethylene terephthalate (PET), that can be incorporated with construction materials, such as concrete, mortars, asphalt mixtures, and paving. The use of life-cycle assessment (LCA) is related, as a tool that allows the sustainability of products and processes to be enhanced in the long term. After analyzing the recent literature, it was identified that studies related to plastic wastes in construction materials concentrate sustainability around the alternative destination of waste. Since the plastic waste from different production chains are obtained, it was possible to affirm the need for a broader assessment, such as the LCA, providing greater quantification of data making the alternative processes and products more sustainable. The study contributes to enhance sustainability in alternative building materials through LCA.

Polymers under Load and Heating Deformability: Modelling and Predicting.

The polymer deformability under load and heating is the determining factor in calculating reinforced polymer structures used under heating. Deformability-load/temperature relations make it possible to calculate temperature stresses and deformations in bearing cross-sections of polymer structures such as chimneys, smokestacks, etc. The present study suggests a method of calculating deformability of polymers subjected to the temperature loads. The method is based on the structure model of pack or layer bonded polymer domains where the elasticity of rigid bonds decreases with heating according to entropy principles. The method has been successfully tested on various polymers and compounds with due account for the effect of mineral additives on the deformation modulus increase.

Response of Novel Functionally-Graded Prepacked Aggregate Fibrous Concrete against Low Velocity Repeated Projectile Impacts.

Preplaced Aggregate Fibrous Concrete (PAFC) is a newly minted composite that has recently become more popular. The production of PAFC involves two essential processes; first, the fibres and coarse aggregate were filled into the empty framework to form the first layer of a natural skeleton, followed by grout injecting. A cement grout fills the voids in the first layer skeleton with slight compaction. This process is repeated to complete the remaining layers; hence, a type of Functionally-graded Preplaced Aggregate Fibrous Concrete (FPAFC) is obtained. The most recent studies revealed that the literature regarding the high-velocity projectile impact on fibrous concrete is well documented; however, the low-velocity repeated projectile impact on PAFC is still unexplored and needs particular emphasis. This research aims to investigate the FPAFC made with a new type of steel and polypropylene fibres against low-velocity projectile impact to fill this research gap. In the current study, twelve mixes were prepared with mono and hybrid combinations of fibres for pioneering the possible utilization of fibres in FPAFC. The maximum fibre dosage in this study is limited to 2.4%. The projectile impact resistance of FPAFC was assessed in line with penetration depth, front and rear damage surface area, weight loss, damage ratio and failure pattern. Additionally, a simplified analytical model was introduced to compute the ejected composite mass from the tested specimens. The results revealed that the addition of steel fibre in a single layer FPAFC exhibited an increasing compressive strength trend compared to the two/three-layered FPAFC. Furthermore, increasing the dosage of fibre at the bottom and top layers of FPAFC with a hybrid combination alleviates the spalling with an increasing number of impacts. The results from this research offer the reference information for more detailed research and studies of FPAFC under low-velocity projectile impact.

Evaluation of Mode II Fracture Toughness of Hybrid Fibrous Geopolymer Composites.

This research aims to examine the fracture toughness of hybrid fibrous geopolymer composites under mode II. For this purpose, eight geopolymer mixtures were cast and tested to evaluate the influence of steel and synthetic fiber hybridization on mode II fracture response. The first mixture was plain and was kept as a reference, while steel, polypropylene and glass fibers were used in the rest seven mixtures. The first three of which were mono-reinforced with one of the three fibers, while the rest of the four were hybrids reinforced with combinations of steel and synthetic fibers. The Brazilian center notched disc and the double notched cube test configurations were used to evaluate the mode II fracture toughness of the eight mixtures. The results of the tests showed that steel fibers played the vital role in enhancing the fracture toughness, where the mixtures S1.6 and S1.3G0.3 showed the best performance. The results also showed that increasing the notch depth decreased the fracture toughness with an approximate linear decrement fashion. It was found that the use of double-notched cubes resulted in much higher fracture toughness than the Brazilian notched discs, where the ratio of normalized fracture toughness of the disc specimens to cube specimens was approximately 0.37 to 0.47. This is attributed to the concentration of stresses along one defined path in the disc specimens compared to the multi-path stresses in the cube specimens. In addition, the accompanied tensile stresses in the disc specimens may lead to a mode I fracture before the designed mode II fracture.

Systematic Quantum Mechanical Region Determination in QM/MM Simulation.

Hybrid quantum mechanical-molecular mechanical (QM/MM) simulations are widely used in enzyme simulation. Over ten convergence studies of QM/MM methods have revealed over the past several years that key energetic and structural properties approach asymptotic limits with only very large (ca. 500-1000 atom) QM regions. This slow convergence has been observed to be due in part to significant charge transfer between the core active site and the surrounding protein environment, which cannot be addressed by improvement of MM force fields or the embedding method employed within QM/MM. Given this slow convergence, it becomes essential to identify strategies for the most atom-economical determination of optimal QM regions and to gain insight into the crucial interactions captured only in large QM regions. Here, we extend and develop two methods for quantitative determination of QM regions. First, in the charge shift analysis (CSA) method, we probe the reorganization of electron density when core active site residues are removed completely, as determined by large-QM region QM/MM calculations. Second, we introduce the highly parallelizable Fukui shift analysis (FSA), which identifies how core/substrate frontier states are altered by the presence of an additional QM residue in smaller initial QM regions. We demonstrate that the FSA and CSA approaches are complementary and consistent on three test case enzymes: catechol O-methyltransferase, cytochrome P450cam, and hen eggwhite lysozyme. We also introduce validation strategies and test the sensitivities of the two methods to geometric structure, basis set size, and electronic structure methodology. Both methods represent promising approaches for the systematic, unbiased determination of quantum mechanical effects in enzymes and large systems that necessitate multiscale modeling.

Proteopedia: 3D visualization and annotation of transcription factor-DNA readout modes.

3D visualization assists in identifying diverse mechanisms of protein-DNA recognition that can be observed for transcription factors and other DNA binding proteins. We used Proteopedia to illustrate transcription factor-DNA readout modes with a focus on DNA shape, which can be a function of either nucleotide sequence (Hox proteins) or base pairing geometry (p53). © 2012 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.