Injection Temperature Effects on the Properties of High Density Polyethylene Crates

This study was undertaken to provide more insight on the optimum injection temperature used for the production of PE crates, thereby saving time and money, and improving part quality. The work included processing trails of HDPE crates in an injection molding machine at five temperatures ranged from 220 to 300°C. Both Rheological and mechanical characterization was conducted in order to understand the effect of injection temperature on the properties of crates. Oven aging was also applied for (4 weeks) to evaluate the long-term thermal stability. The results revealed that producing the crates at a temperature range of (260-280 °C) gives the best rheological and mechanical result. The lowest drop in thermal stability has been observed for the crates produced at this temperature range

The Effect of Shear on the Properties of Rigid PVC

The rheological and fusion behavior of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) compounds plays a dominant role in the processing operations and in the development of physical properties in the processed material. A comprehensive study was made in this work to evaluate the effect of shear and thermal history on stability, mechanical and rheological properties of rigid PVC compounds. Different samples of Rigid Poly vinyl chloride including dry blend powder, granules, and bottles molded from both were examined. A study was also made on recycled RPVC where 25% of reclaimed material was continuously blended with fresh dry blend and processed for 15 cycles. Results showed that compaction of the PVC material took place in the brabender plastograph at constant temperature and shear stress. Correlations were given to explain results concerning residual stability and rheological behavior. Furthermore, it was seen that elongation and tensile impact are dependent on shear history

The Development of a Low Carbon Cementitious Material Produced from Cement, Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag and High Calcium Fly Ash

This research represents experimental work for investigation of the influence of utilising Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBS) and High Calcium Fly Ash (HCFA) as a partial replacement for Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and produce a low carbon cementitious material with comparable compressive strength to OPC. Firstly, GGBS was used as a partial replacement to OPC to produce a binary blended cementitious material (BBCM); the replacements were 0, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50% by the dry mass of OPC. The optimum BBCM was mixed with HCFA to produce a ternary blended cementitious material (TBCM). The replacements were 0, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50% by the dry mass of BBCM. The compressive strength at ages of 7 and 28 days was utilised for assessing the performance of the test specimens in comparison to the reference mixture using 100% OPC as a binder. The results showed that the optimum BBCM was the mix produced from 25% GGBS and 75% OPC with compressive strength of 32.2 MPa at the age of 28 days. In addition, the results of the TBCM have shown that the addition of 10, 15, 20 and 25% of HCFA to the optimum BBCM improved the compressive strength by 22.7, 11.3, 5.2 and 2.1% respectively at 28 days. However, the replacement of optimum BBCM with more than 25% HCFA have showed a gradual drop in the compressive strength in comparison to the control mix. TBCM with 25% HCFA was considered to be the optimum as it showed better compressive strength than the control mix and at the same time reduced the amount of cement to 56%. Reducing the cement content to 56% will contribute to decrease the cost of construction materials, provide better compressive strength and also reduce the CO2 emissions into the atmosphere

Studying the Structural Behaviour of RC Beams with Circular Openings of Different Sizes and Locations Using FE Method

This paper aims to investigate the structural behaviour of RC beams with circular openings of different sizes and locations modelled using ABAQUS FEM software. Seven RC beams with the dimensions of 1200 mm×150 mm×150 mm were tested under threepoint loading. Group A consists of three RC beams incorporating circular openings with diameters of 40 mm, 55 mm and 65 mm in the shear zone. However, Group B consists of three RC beams incorporating circular openings with diameters of 40 mm, 55 mm and 65 mm in the flexural zone. The final RC beam did not have any openings, to provide a control beam for comparison. The results show that increasing the diameter of the openings increases the maximum deflection and the ultimate failure load decreases relative to the control beam. In the shear zone, the presence of the openings caused an increase in the maximum deflection ranging between 4% and 22% and a decrease in the ultimate failure load of between 26% and 36% compared to the control beam. However, the presence of the openings in the flexural zone caused an increase in the maximum deflection of between 1.5% and 19.7% and a decrease in the ultimate failure load of between 6% and 13% relative to the control beam. In this study, the optimum location for placing circular openings was found to be in the flexural zone of the beam with a diameter of less than 30% of the depth of the beam

Limitations on ACI Code Minimum Thickness Requirements for Flat Slab

Reinforced concrete two-way flat slabs are considered one of the most used systems in the construction of commercial buildings due to the ease of construction and suitability for electrical and mechanical paths. Long-term deflection is an essential parameter in controlling the behavior of this slab system, especially with long spans. Therefore, this study is devoted to investigating the validation of the ACI 318-19 Code long-term deflection limitations of a wide range of span lengths of two-way flat slabs with and without drop panels. The first part of the study includes nonlinear finite element analysis of 63 flat slabs without drops and 63 flat slabs with drops using the SAFE commercial software. The investigated parameters consist of the span length (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10m), compressive strength of concrete (21, 35, and 49 MPa), the magnitude of live load (1.5, 3, and 4.5 kN/m2), and the drop thickness (0.25tslab, 0.5tslab, and 0.75tslab). In addition, the maximum crack width at the top and bottom are determined and compared with the limitations of the ACI 224R-08. The second part of this research proposes modifications to the minimum slab thickness that satisfy the permissible deflection. It was found, for flat slabs without drops, the increase in concrete compressive strength from 21MPa to 49MPa decreases the average long-term deflection by (56, 53, 50, 44, 39, 33 and 31%) for spans (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 m) respectively. In flat slab with drop panel, it was found that varying drop panel thickness t2 from 0.25  to 0.75  decreases the average long-term deflection by (45, 41, 39, 35, 31, 28 and 25%) for span lengths (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 m) respectively. Limitations of the minimum thickness of flat slab were proposed to vary from Ln/30 to Ln/19.9 for a flat slab without a drop panel and from Ln/33 to Ln/21.2 for a flat slab with drop panel. These limitations demonstrated high consistency with the results of Scanlon and Lee's unified equation for determining the minimum thickness of slab with and without drop panels. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2021-03091769 Full Text: PD

Applying of No-fines concretes as a porous concrete in different construction application

Recently, the demands on the concretes with no fines aggregate has been increased as a results of the industry revolution. Many researchers are trying to recycle the concretes and rubble. In addition, the increase in noise in the surrounding environment as a result of the growing population and cars has generated an urgent need to produce concretes characterized by good sound insulation. No-fines concretes is considered as a kind of porous lightweights concretes, gained by removing the sand from the ordinary concretes mixture. The aim of this study is replace the coarse aggregate by waste ceramics in order to reduce the wastes as well as investigate strengths against compression s, density and porosity of No-fines concretes before and after substitution the coarse aggregate by waste ceramics. The methodology of this research paper has been mainly depending on strengths against compression s test and the measured ultrasonic pulse velocity as well as the density. The investigational research has been implemented by 54 samples cast by six various blending proportion consisting of (cement, coarse aggregate, water) utilizing ceramic wastes (CWs) as a substation ratio of coarse aggregates in making concretes free of fine aggregate, so that the proportions of ceramic residues are (0, 10%, 20, 30, 40, 50) as a partial substation of the coarse aggregates and examined at the ages of (7, 28 and 90) days. The mechanism of failure has been detected and categorized beside the concrete’s density and void percentage have been collected. The results show that, the increasing the substitution ratio for waste ceramic within the no-fine mixtures cause a decrease in the density with increasing the strengths against compression s for the specimens

Effect of Expanded Glass Lightweight Aggregate on the Performance of Geopolymer Mortar at Elevated Temperatures

The greenhouse gas emissions associated with conventional concrete as a result of the cement industry have prompted scientists to search for eco-friendly alternatives. Among these promising alternatives is geopolymer concrete or mortar. This work studies the impact of using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers and lightweight expanded glass (EG) aggregate on the mechanical behaviour of lightweight geopolymer mortar (LWGM) at various temperatures (room temperature, 250 °C, and 500 °C). EG was utilized to partially replace the sand by 10 and 20%. Limited studies dealt with geopolymer mortar based on such composition at high temperatures. The geopolymer mortar was created using slag as the main precursor activated by a mixed solution of sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate. Various combinations were produced, and their behaviour was observed at room and high temperatures. Several tests such as workability, compressive and flexural strengths, density, stress-strain relationship, load-displacement behaviour, and uniaxial tensile strength were performed. The findings of the study indicate that the density and compressive strength of geopolymer mortar reduced with increasing the replacement level by the EG. However, the utilization of 10% EG can produce a lightweight mortar with a compressive strength of 17.9 at 28 days. Moreover, the use of 1% PVA significantly improves the mechanical performance. Furthermore, the mechanical characteristics of the materials were considerably altered when subjected to extreme temperatures of 500 °C as observed from experimental data

Flexural behaviour of reinforced concrete beams with horizontal construction joints

In the present research, ten simply supported reinforced concrete beams having a rectangular cross-section were cast and tested up to failure under the action of two-point loads. Eight of these beams were designed to contain horizontal construction joints (HCJs) of different number and location in the beam while the other two beams had no construction joint which were referred to as reference beams for the sake of comparison of results. All the tested beams had been designed to fail in flexure and had the same amount and type of longitudinal and transverse reinforcement as well as similar concrete properties. The results of this series of tests have indicated that the presence of HCJs in reinforced concrete beams leads to a decrease in its ultimate loads and increase in its ultimate deflection. The values of the recorded ultimate loads ranged between 83% to 98% times that of the reference beam while the ultimate deflection ranged between 102% to 133% times that of the reference beam

The development of an ecofriendly binder containing high volume of cement replacement by incorporating two by-product materials for the use in soil stabilization

The development of an ecofriendly binder containing high volume of cement replacement by incorporating two waste materials for the use in soil stabilization. This paper investigates the possibility of replacing ordinary Portland cement (OPC) by two waste and by-product materials for the use of a silty clay soil stabilization purpose. The soil was treated by 9.0% OPC where this mixture was used as a reference for all tests. Two by - product materials: ground granulated blast furnace slag and cement kiln dust were used as replacement materials. Consistency limits, compaction and unconfined compression strength (UCS) tests were conducted. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis was carried out for the proposed binder to investigate the reaction of products over curing time. Seven curing periods were adopted for all mixtures; 1, 3, 7, 14, 28, 52, and 90 days. The results showed that the strength development over curing periods after cement replacement up to 45-60% was closed to those of the reference specimens. The microphotographs of SEM analysis showed that the formation of Ettringite and Portladite as well as to calcium silicate hydrate gel was obvious at curing periods longer than 7 days reflected that the replacing materials succeed to produce the main products necessary for binder formation