Artificial Thermal Quenching and Salt Crystallization Weathering Processes for the Assessment of Long-Term Degradation Characteristics of Some Sedimentary Rocks, Egypt

This research aims at investigating the deterioration of limestone rocks due to the influences of thermal quenching and salt crystallization weathering tests and predicting their long-term durability. Therefore, six types of limestones were quarried from different provinces of Egypt and subjected to 50 cycles of thermal quenching and 25 cycles of salt crystallization weathering processes. The porosity, Schmidt hammer rebound hardness, ultrasound pulse velocity, Brazilian tensile strength, and uniaxial compression strength were determined before and after weathering processes. In addition, the mathematical decay function model was developed to evaluate the degradation rate of samples against weathering processes. Results proved that the cyclic salt crystallization deteriorates the physico-mechanical characteristics of the studied limestone more strongly than the thermal quenching cycles do. The decay constant and half-life indexes obtained here indicate that the degradation rate differs for various limestone specimens under thermal and salt weathering processes. This model also showed that the deterioration rate of the studied rocks was higher during cyclic salt crystallization in comparison with thermal quenching. Therefore, the rock degradation rate and or long-term durability under cyclic thermal and salt processes can be estimated accurately. These results show that the studied limestones can be used as building stones in regions exposed to frequent cyclic thermal and salty weathering conditions for long periods without degradation. However, partial attention should be given to LSG limestone rocks characterized by increased porosity and water absorption characteristics

Numerical Analysis of an Unsteady, Electroviscous, Ternary Hybrid Nanofluid Flow with Chemical Reaction and Activation Energy across Parallel Plates

Despite the recycling challenges in ionic fluids, they have a significant advantage over traditional solvents. Ionic liquids make it easier to separate the end product and recycle old catalysts, particularly when the reaction media is a two-phase system. In the current analysis, the properties of transient, electroviscous, ternary hybrid nanofluid flow through squeezing parallel infinite plates is reported. The ternary hybrid nanofluid is synthesized by dissolving the titanium dioxide (TiO2), aluminum oxide (Al2O3), and silicon dioxide (SiO2) nanoparticles in the carrier fluid glycol/water. The purpose of the current study is to maximize the energy and mass transfer rate for industrial and engineering applications. The phenomena of fluid flow is studied, with the additional effects of the magnetic field, heat absorption/generation, chemical reaction, and activation energy. The ternary hybrid nanofluid flow is modeled in the form of a system of partial differential equations, which are subsequently simplified to a set of ordinary differential equations through resemblance substitution. The obtained nonlinear set of dimensionless ordinary differential equations is further solved, via the parametric continuation method. For validity purposes, the outcomes are statistically compared to an existing study. The results are physically illustrated through figures and tables. It is noticed that the mass transfer rate accelerates with the rising values of Lewis number, activation energy, and chemical reaction. The velocity and energy transfer rate boost the addition of ternary NPs to the base fluid