Transportation System Vulnerability and Resilience to Extreme Weather Events and Other Natural Hazards: Report for Pilot Project — KYTC District 1

This research’s objective is to assist the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) in its efforts to develop strategies to address natural hazard vulnerabilities and improve the resiliency of Kentucky’s transportation infrastructure. Recent federal legislation calls for state transportation agencies to develop a risk-based asset management plan for National Highway System (NHS) assets that includes consideration of natural hazards. Similarly, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) calls for state transportation agencies to identify potential vulnerabilities associated with extreme weather events and climate change, and to incorporate these findings into transportation planning, design, and maintenance practices

Directions of zero thermal expansion in anisotropic oxides

Figure 13. – Quadric surface visualizing the coefficients of thermal expansion of HfTiO4 at room temperature. Blue is positive, red is negative and yellow represents directions of zero thermal expansion. Oxide materials often have anisotropic crystal structures, which can result in direction-dependent material properties. While they typically have positive coefficients of thermal expansion, it has been observed that some oxide materials can have directions of negative thermal expansion over certain temperature ranges. Such materials, having both positive and negative coefficients of thermal expansion, must also have particular directions in which the thermal expansion is zero. Using the Quadrupole Lamp Furnace (QLF) developed in the Kriven group at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, high-temperature in-situ x-ray diffraction has been performed at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS II) X-ray powder diffraction beamline (XPD – 28-ID) to track directions of zero thermal expansion in orthorhombic HfTiO4. These results have important implications for the design of composites for high-temperature applications. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

In-situ phase diagram determination of the HfO2-Ta2O5 binary up to 3000˚C

Ceramic equilibrium phase diagrams have proven to be difficult to produce for materials above 1500 ˚C. We demonstrate that in-situ X-ray diffraction on laser heated levitated samples can be used to elucidate phase fields. In these experiments, solid spherical samples are suspended and rotated by a gas stream through a conical nozzle levitator, heated by a 400 W CO2 laser at Argonne National Labs beamline 6-ID-D. Please click on the link below for the full content

In-situ high temperature spatially resolved X-ray diffraction of TiB2 up to ~3250 ˚C

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Comparison of Cell Sediment and Surface Grown Test Plaque Using Scanning Electron Microscopy

Scanning electron microscopy was used to compare the morphology, integrity and distribution of bacterial cells in a test plaque grown on the surface of enamel with that of the cell sediment plaque routinely used in a short-term intraoral caries model. Cultures of S. mutans IB-1600 or S. sobrinus 6715-13 were grown in complex media supplemented with either 2.0% sucrose (glucan plaque) or 0.2 % glucose (non-glucan plaque). Cell sediment (CS) plaque was prepared by centrifuging the cultures after incubation, recovering the cell sediment, and spreading it on Metricel membrane filter paper. Surface grown (SG) plaque was prepared by suspending saliva-coated bovine enamel in the culture inedium, incubating, and recovering the enamel assembly with bacterial accumulations. Cell morphology and integrity, as well as the appearance of glucan-like material produced by the cells, was similar in both CS and SG test plaques. The cell distribution however, varied in the SG plaque from extremes of all cells to all glucan, whereas the cell sediment plaque was more uniform in cell distribution. A highly standardized test plaque minimizes variability in the intraoral caries model. These findings support the contention that the bacterial cells in a cell sediment plaque are similar in morphology, integrity and glucan production to surface grown plaque, and have the added advantage of uniform distribution, which makes the cell sediment plaque more appropriate for intraoral caries model studies

Experimental and Self-Consistent Modeling Study of De-twinning in a Twinning-Induced Plasticity Steel

The effect of compression-tension loading on the microstructure evolution in a fully annealed Fe-24Mn-3Al-2Si-1Ni-0.06C twinning-induced plasticity steel has been investigated. Electron back-scattering diffraction was used to track a region of interest at true strains of 0 (initial), − 0.09 (after forward compression loading), and 0.04 (after reverse tension loading). All deformation twins detected after forward compression loading were found to de-twin upon subsequent reverse tension loading, likely due to the reverse glide of partial dislocations bounding the twins. The reverse loading behavior, including the twinning and de-twinning processes, was successfully simulated using a recently modified dislocation-based hardening model embedded in the visco-plastic self-consistent polycrystal framework, taking into account the dislocation accumulation/annihilation, as well as the twin barrier and back-stress effects

Explore the World with a Global Education Curriculum

Recognizing and celebrating the diversity that exists in our communities has become a central goal of land-grant institutions and cooperative extension programs. This is coupled with the expectation that youth be equipped for a global workforce where they appreciate different world cultures, be able to evaluate global issues and challenges and understand the inter-connectedness of global systems. Given these points, a Global Education Curriculum developed by the WVU Extension Global Education & Engagement Team is presented as a tool to instill a deeper understanding of and appreciation for cultures, people and global issues by youth and the adults who support them