A Targeted Approach to High-Volume Fly Ash Concrete Pavement (Phase I)

Unlike the conventional method of admixing nanomaterials directly in fresh concrete mixture, a more targeted approach was explored. Specifically, nanomaterials were used to improve the interface between coarse aggregate and cement paste, by coating the coarse aggregate with cement paste that contained graphene oxide or nanosilica. Using coated coarse aggregates, the mechanical and transport properties of high-volume fly ash (HVFA) concrete were tested to evaluate the effect of nanomaterial coating on the interface transition zone of concrete. The compressive and splitting strengths of HVFA concrete at 3, 7, 14, and 28 days and the water sorptivity and chloride migration coefficient at 28 days were studied. Results show that nanomaterial-coated coarse aggregate can improve the transport properties of HVFA concrete by reducing permeability. However, no improvement was seen in the compressive and splitting strengths when incorporating coated coarse aggregate, compared with direct mixing of nanomaterials in fresh concrete. Resistance to freezing/thawing cycles and scanning electron microscope/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy of concrete samples were also investigated to obtain a more comprehensive and mechanistic understanding of nanomaterial coating

Electromagnetic decays of vector mesons as derived from QCD sum rules

We apply the method of QCD sum rules in the presence of external electromagnetic fields $F_{\mu\nu}$ to the problem of the electromagnetic decays of various vector mesons, such as $\rho\to\pi\gamma$, $K^\ast\to K\gamma$ and $\eta'\to\rho\gamma$. The induced condensates obtained previously from the study of baryon magnetic moments are adopted, thereby ensuring the parameter-free nature of the present calculation. Further consistency is reinforced by invoking various QCD sum rules for the meson masses. The numerical results on the various radiative decays agree very well with the experimental data.Comment: To appear in Phys. Lett.