Effects of excluding grazing on the vegetation and soils of degraded sparse-elm grassland in the Horqin Sandy Land, China

Livestock grazing is a crucial cause of vegetation degradation and desertification in sandy lands. The sparse-elm grassland of Horqin Sandy Land, China has suffered severe degradation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Management to exclude grazing is often necessary for ecological restoration, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. We report effects on vegetation and soils in a 10-year experiment to exclude livestock, completely or seasonally, in comparison with a continuously grazed area in Horqin. Complete exclusion of grazing and restriction of grazing to summer both led to significantly increased plant cover and density relative to the grazed control. Species richness increased, reflected in higher Shannon-Wiener indices; only complete exclusion increased the Simpson diversity index, whereas Pielou evenness was significantly lowest under seasonal grazing. Exclosure treatments were also associated with improved soil texture, and increased water retention, available nitrogen, total nitrogen, total carbon and total phosphorus. Soil pH and C/N ratio were highest under the seasonal grazing regime. The results indicated that exclosure management indeed improved biodiversity and ecosystem services in an erosion-prone region. Although total exclosure was most effective in restoration of degraded sparse-elm grassland, seasonal grazing management was highly beneficial and represented a good compromise with resource utilization and economic development

Experimental Study on the Shear Performance of Steel-Truss-Reinforced Concrete Beam-Column Joints

In order to study the influence of the axial compression ratio and steel ratio on the shear-carrying capacity of steel-truss-reinforced beam-column joints, five shear failure interior joint specimens were designed. The effect of different coaxial pressure ratios (0.1, 0.2, and 0.3) and steel contents on the strain, ultimate bearing capacity, seismic performance, and failure pattern of cross-inclined ventral and chord bars in the joint core area was investigated. The experimental results show that the load-displacement hysteretic curves of all test specimens exhibit a bond-slip phenomenon. With the increase of the axial compression ratio, the ultimate bearing capacity of the joint core increases by 3.4% and 5.9%, respectively. While the ductility decreases by 10.3% and 13.1%, and the energy consumption capacity decreases by 3.2% and 5.8%, respectively. The shear capacity and ductility of the member with cross diagonal ventral steel angle in the joint core are increased by 12.9% and 13.4%, respectively. The shear capacity and ductility of the joint can be significantly improved by increasing the amount of steel in the core area. The expression of shear capacity suitable for this type of joint is obtained by fitting analysis, which can be used as a reference for engineering design

Modelling of Web-Crippling Behavior of Pultruded GFRP I Sections at Elevated Temperatures

The concentrated transverse load may lead to the web crippling of pultruded GFRP sections due to the lower transverse mechanical properties. Several investigations have been conducted on the web-crippling behavior of the GFRP sections under room temperature. However, the web-crippling behavior is not yet understood when subjected to elevated temperatures. To address this issue, a finite element model considering the temperature-dependent material properties, Hashin failure criterion and the damage evolution law are successfully developed to simulate the web-crippling behavior of the GFRP I sections under elevated temperatures. The numerical model was validated by the web-crippling experiments at room temperature with the end-two-flange (ETF) and end bearing with ground support (EG) loading configurations. The developed model can accurately predict the ultimate loads and failure modes. Moreover, it was found that the initial damage was triggered by exceeding the shear strength at the web-flange junction near the corner of the bearing plate and independent of the elevated temperatures and loading configurations. The ultimate load and stiffness decreased obviously with the increasing temperature. At 220 °C, the ultimate load of specimens under ETF and EG loading configurations significantly decreased by 57% and 62%, respectively, whereas the elastic stiffness obviously reduced by 87% and 88%, respectively

Investigation on flexural behavior of steel-UHPC composite beams with steel shear keys

YesTo investigate the flexural performance of steel-UHPC (ultra-high performance concrete) composite beams with welded steel shear keys (SSK), eight specimens were experimental studied by four-point bending test. The finite element (FE) models were established based on the experimental results, then, the failure mode, load, deflection, strain and relative interface slip were parametric analyzed. The influences of strength, dimensions and configuration of upper concrete slab, steel beams as well as SSK on flexural performance, in terms of load-deflection response, ductility and ultimate energy dissipation, were studied. The experimental results show that steel-UHPC composite beams have superior bearing capacity, deformation capacity, ductility and energy dissipation ability when compared with steel-NSC (normal strength concrete) composite counterparts. Increasing the height of upper concrete slab has a significant effect on improving bending capacity and flexural stiffness, while increasing the width has a significant effect on enhancing deformation, ductility and ultimate energy dissipation. Increasing the yield strength, thickness of web and flange of steel beams has significant effect on improving bending capacity. Reducing the SSK spacing or increasing the yield strength of SSK, height and thickness slightly improve the cracking, yield and ultimate loads, reduce deflections, enhance the flexural stiffness, slightly weakens the ductility and ultimate energy dissipation. Besides, four types of failure modes were defined, based on reasonable assumptions, formulae for bearing capacity were proposed, and the predicted results fit well with experimental results. The results can be taken as reference for the design and application of steel-UHPC composite beams in long-span and heavy-load structures.The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support to the work by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (BK20201436), High-End Foreign Experts Project of Ministry of Science and Technology, China (G2022014054L), Science and Technology Project of Jiangsu Construction System (2021ZD06, 2018ZD047), Science and Technology Cooperation Fund Project of Yangzhou City and Yangzhou University (YZU212105, YZ2022194), Science and Technology Project of Yangzhou Construction System (202309, 202312, 202204).The full text of this article will be released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 11th Aug 2024

Experimental Study on Shear-Peeling Debonding Behavior of BFRP Sheet-to-Steel Interfaces

In order to study the failure mode and debonding behavior of the interface between BFRP (basalt fiber reinforced polymer) sheet and structural steel under mixed-mode loading conditions, eighteen specimens with different initial angles were tested in this study. The specimens were designed with different initial angles to ensure that the interface performed under mixed-mode loading conditions. The relations between the bond strengths, failure modes, and initial angles were investigated. A new evaluation method to predict the interfacial bond strength under shear-peeling loading mode was proposed. The test results show that specimens with a smaller initial angle are more likely to exhibit a shear debonding failure at the interface between the steel plate and adhesive. In contrast, specimens with a larger initial angle are more likely to exhibit peeling of the interface. The ultimate tensile strength of the specimen is higher with a smaller initial angle. The results predicted by the proposed method are in good agreement with the experimental results

Cyclic Behavior of Multiple Hardening Precast Concrete Shear Walls

Precast Concrete (PC) shear walls are becoming popular in building structures. With “wet” connection techniques, PC shear walls often behave like conventional cast-in-place walls, where hardening occurs after yielding. In this study, two PC shear walls assembled by the “dry” connection technique, and one cast-in-place shear wall, were tested by means of quasi-static cyclic loading. The main purpose of the experiment was to systematically investigate the cyclic response of PC shear walls with varying types of vertical connection in the form of a friction-bearing device. The results showed that vertical bearing in devices, which mainly stems from the longitudinal elongation of PC wall panels, could enlarge the axial force of end column so that it provided an additional resistance moment. The PC shear wall with weak connection achieved ductile failure and second ascending branches on load-displacement relationship, i.e., secondary hardening, and the wall with strong vertical connection performed great moment capacity as well as tertiary hardening. Compared to cast-in-place walls, the peak load and cumulative hysteretic energy of PC shear walls increased by about 60% and 100%, respectively. A conceptual analysis of the multiple hardening phenomenon is presented based on experimental results

3D printed silk-gelatin hydrogel scaffold with different porous structure and cell seeding strategy for cartilage regeneration

Hydrogel scaffolds are attractive for tissue defect repair and reorganization because of their human tissue-like characteristics. However, most hydrogels offer limited cell growth and tissue formation ability due to their submicron- or nano-sized gel networks, which restrict the supply of oxygen, nutrients and inhibit the proliferation and differentiation of encapsulated cells. In recent years, 3D printed hydrogels have shown great potential to overcome this problem by introducing macro-pores within scaffolds. In this study, we fabricated a macroporous hydrogel scaffold through horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-mediated crosslinking of silk fibroin (SF) and tyramine-substituted gelatin (GT) by extrusion-based low-temperature 3D printing. Through physicochemical characterization, we found that this hydrogel has excellent structural stability, suitable mechanical properties, and an adjustable degradation rate, thus satisfying the requirements for cartilage reconstruction. Cell suspension and aggregate seeding methods were developed to assess the inoculation efficiency of the hydrogel. Moreover, the chondrogenic differentiation of stem cells was explored. Stem cells in the hydrogel differentiated into hyaline cartilage when the cell aggregate seeding method was used and into fibrocartilage when the cell suspension was used. Finally, the effect of the hydrogel and stem cells were investigated in a rabbit cartilage defect model. After implantation for 12 and 16 weeks, histological evaluation of the sections was performed. We found that the enzymatic cross-linked and methanol treatment SF5GT15 hydrogel combined with cell aggregates promoted articular cartilage regeneration. In summary, this 3D printed macroporous SF-GT hydrogel combined with stem cell aggregates possesses excellent potential for application in cartilage tissue repair and regeneration

Numerical and theoretical research on flexural behaviour of steel-precast UHPC composite beams

In order to promote the utilization of high strength materials and application of prefabricated structures, flexural behaviour of section steel-precast UHPC (Ultra-High performance concrete) slab composite beams prefabricated with bolt shear connectors are numerically simulated by the finite element (FE) software ABAQUS. The model is verified by three prefabricated steel-concrete composite beams tested. Numerical analysis results are in good accordance with experimental results. Furthermore, parametric studies are conducted to investigate the effects of strength of section steel and concrete of precast slab, thickness of section steel, width and height of precast concrete slab, diameters of steel bars and bolt shear connectors. The flexural behaviour of composite beams, in terms of bearing capacity, deflection, ductility and energy dissipation, are compared. The numerical results indicate that the improvement of strength of section steel results in a decrease of ductility, but a significant increase of the ultimate load and energy dissipation. Compared with composite beam made of section steel with thickness of 10 mm, the ultimate load of beams made of section steel with thickness of 14 and 18 mm improve by 29.0% and 58.8%, respectively, the ductility enhance by 2.8% and 8.3%, respectively, and the energy dissipation improve by 8.0% and 12.3%, respectively. With the increase of concrete strength, the ultimate load, deflection and energy dissipation gradually increase. The ductility of steel-UHPC composite beam is the highest, that of steel-HSC composite beam is the lowest. The effect of reinforcement ratio of concrete slab and diameter of shear bolts on the ultimate load of composite beam is limited. Simplified formulae for two different sectional types of proper-reinforced section steel-precast UHPC slab composite beams occurred bending failure are proposed, and the predicted results fit well with the simulated results. The results can be taken as a reference for the design and construction of section steel-precast UHPC slab composite beams