Numerical Analysis and Poromechanics Calculation for Saturated Mortar Involved with Sub-Freezing Temperature.

The individual coupling processes of two-phase materials are controlled to some extent by damage theory. However, the existing theory is not sufficient to explain the effect of pore pressure on mortar materials under freeze-thaw action. In order to predict the resistance of saturated mortars during rapid cooling and to describe the physical behavior of the pore structure, the authors derived in detail the governing equations of saturated mortars during freezing in the framework of the pore elasticity theory and analyzed the sensitivity of physical parameters to the influence of temperature stresses by means of stress-strain calculations. In addition, the effects of phase change and latent heat of freezing on the local thermodynamic equilibrium are considered, and a mathematical model is established for quantitatively simulating the temperature distribution of the specimen. This model is reformulated and extended in the current work to intuitively reveal the effect of concrete dimensions on the temperature hysteresis effect. The results of the numerical model calculations show that during the freezing process, for the specimen with dimensions of 50 mm × 50 mm × 50 mm and a water-cement ratio of 0.6, the maximum temperature difference from center to surface is 10 °C, the maximum vertical strain on the surface is 4.27 × 10-4, and the maximum pore water pressure at the center of the specimen is 76 MPa. The model calculation results present a similar pattern to the physical interpretation and reference results, thus effectively evaluating the freezing damage process of saturated mortar.

Single pullout experiment and reinforcement properties of basalt fiber in vegetation concrete.

Basalt fiber (BF) reinforced vegetation concrete (VC) technique has attracted the attention of researchers. In order to investigate the reinforcement properties of BF reinforced VC, the optimal BF length and content. Through the single BF pullout test and direct shear test, the properties of interfacial strength between BF/VC and the reliability of the formula for calculating the optimal BF reinforcement length are studied. It has been found that the designed equipment is an efficient method to obtain the interfacial peak shear strength and residual shear strength of BF/VC. Moreover, the direct shear test proves the feasibility of the formula, which is used as a basis for mixing BF length in engineering. The anchoring effect between the cement hydration product and the fiber in the VC changes the mechanical action between BF/VC and significantly improves the shear strength of the interface. Higher dry density effectively enhanced the peak tension of a single BF by 149.23%. The optimal BF length and content make the softening degree of vegetation concrete not evident, which improves the durability of VC engineering. The formula of optimum fiber reinforced length and empirical formula can be used as reference for mixing basalt fiber in practical engineering.

Application of Spatiotemporal Hybrid Model of Deformation in Safety Monitoring of High Arch Dams: A Case Study.

As an important feature, deformation analysis is of great significance to ensure the safety and stability of arch dam operation. In this paper, Jinping-I arch dam with a height of 305 m, which is the highest dam in the world, is taken as the research object. The deformation data representation method is analyzed, and the processing method of deformation spatiotemporal data is discussed. A deformation hybrid model is established, in which the hydraulic component is calculated by the finite element method, and other components are still calculated by the statistical model method. Since the relationship among the measuring points is not taken into account and the overall situation cannot be fully reflected in the hybrid model, a spatiotemporal hybrid model is proposed. The measured values and coordinates of all the typical points with pendulums of the arch dam are included in one spatiotemporal hybrid model, which is feasible, convenient, and accurate. The model can predict the deformation of any position on the arch dam. This is of great significance for real-time monitoring of deformation and stability of Jinping-I arch dam and ensuring its operation safety.

Risk Analysis of Earth-Rock Dam Failures Based on Fuzzy Event Tree Method.

Earth-rock dams make up a large proportion of the dams in China, and their failures can induce great risks. In this paper, the risks associated with earth-rock dam failure are analyzed from two aspects: the probability of a dam failure and the resulting life loss. An event tree analysis method based on fuzzy set theory is proposed to calculate the dam failure probability. The life loss associated with dam failure is summarized and refined to be suitable for Chinese dams from previous studies. The proposed method and model are applied to one reservoir dam in Jiangxi province. Both engineering and non-engineering measures are proposed to reduce the risk. The risk analysis of the dam failure has essential significance for reducing dam failure probability and improving dam risk management level.

An approach using ensemble empirical mode decomposition to remove noise from prototypical observations on dam safety.

It is very important for dam safety control to identify reasonably dam behavior according to the prototypical observations on deformation, seepage, stress, etc. However, there are many cases in which the noise corrupts the prototypical observations, and it must be removed from the data. Considering the nonlinear and non-stationary characteristics of data series with signal intermittency, an ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD)-based method is presented to remove noise from prototypical observations on dam safety. Its basic principle and implementation process are discussed. The key parameters and rules, which can adapt the noise removal requirements of prototypical observations on dam safety, are given. The displacement of one actual dam is taken as an example. The noise removal capability of EEMD-based method is assessed. It is indicated that the dam displacement feature can be reflected more clearly by removing noise from prototypical observations on dam displacement. The statistical model, which is built according to noise-removed data series, can provide the more precise forecast for structural behavior.

Electrochemical and passivation behavior investigation of ferritic stainless steel in simulated concrete pore media.

The applications of stainless steel are one of the most reliable solutions in concrete structures to reduce chloride-induced corrosion problems and increase the structures service life, however, due to high prices of nickel, especially in many civil engineering projects, the austenitic stainless steel is replaced by the ferritic stainless steels. Compared with austenite stainless steel, the ferritic stainless steel is known to be extremely resistant of stress corrosion cracking and other properties. The good corrosion resistance of the stainless steel is due to the formation of passive film. While, there is little literature about the electrochemical and passive behavior of ferritic stainless steel in the concrete environments. So, here, we present the several corrosion testing methods, such as the potentiodynamic measurements, EIS and Mott-Schottky approach, and the surface analysis methods like XPS and AES to display the passivation behavior of 430 ferritic stainless steel in alkaline solution with the presence of chloride ions. These research results illustrated a simple and facile approach for studying the electrochemical and passivation behavior of stainless steel in the concrete pore environments.

Rate effect on mechanical properties of hydraulic concrete flexural-tensile specimens under low loading rates using acoustic emission technique.

Acoustic emission (AE) waveform is generated by dislocation, microcracking and other irreversible changes in a concrete material. Based on the AE technique (AET), this paper focuses on strain rate effect on physical mechanisms of hydraulic concrete specimens during the entire fracture process of three point bending (TPB) flexural tests at quasi-static levels. More emphasis is placed on the influence of strain rate on AE hit rate and AE source location around peak stress. Under low strain rates, namely 0.77×10(-7)s(-1), 1×10(-7)s(-1) to 1×10(-6)s(-1) respectively, the results show that the tensile strength increases as the strain rate increases while the peak AE hit rate decreases. Meanwhile, the specimen under a relatively higher strain rate shows a relatively wider intrinsic process zone in a more diffuser manner, lots of distributed microcracks relatively decrease stress intensity, thus delay both microcracking localization and macrocrack propagation. These phenomena can be attributed to Stéfan effect. In addition, further tests, namely the combination of AE monitoring and strain measuring systems was designed to understand the correlation between AE event activity and microfracture (i.e., microcracking and microcracking localization). The relative variation trend of cumulative AE events accords well with that of the load-deformation curve.