scholarly journals Investigation and Application of Fractal Theory in Cement-Based Materials: A Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 247
Author(s):  
Lei Wang ◽  
Xiaoman Zeng ◽  
Huamei Yang ◽  
Xingdong Lv ◽  
Fanxing Guo ◽  
...  

Cement-based materials, including cement and concrete, are the most widely used construction materials in the world. In recent years, the investigation and application of fractal theory in cement-based materials have attracted a large amount of attention worldwide. The microstructures of cement-based materials, such as the pore structures, the mesostructures, such as air voids, and the morphological features of powders, as well as the fracture surfaces and cracks, commonly present extremely complex and irregular characteristics that are difficult to describe in terms of geometry but that can be studied by fractal theory. This paper summarizes the latest progress in the investigation and application of fractal theory in cement-based materials. Firstly, this paper summarizes the principles and classification of the seven fractal dimensions commonly used in cement-based materials. These fractal dimensions have different physical meanings since they are obtained from various testing techniques and fractal models. Then, the testing techniques and fractal models for testing and calculating these fractal dimensions are introduced and analyzed individually, such as the mercury intrusion porosimeter (MIP), nitrogen adsorption/desorption (NAD), and Zhang’s model, Neimark’s model, etc. Finally, the applications of these fractal dimensions in investigating the macroproperties of cement-based materials are summarized and discussed. These properties mainly include the mechanical properties, volumetric stability, durability (e.g., permeability, frost and corrosion resistance), fracture mechanics, as well as the evaluation of the pozzolanic reactivity of the mineral materials and the dispersion state of the powders.

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1796
Author(s):  
Dimitar Shandurkov ◽  
Petar Ignatov ◽  
Ivanka Spassova ◽  
Stoyan Gutzov

Attenuated Total Reflectance Infrared (ATR-IR) spectroscopy and texture measurements based on nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms are combined to characterize silica aerogel granules with different degrees of hydrophobicity. The aerogels were prepared from tetraethoxysilane via a room temperature hydrolysis-gelation process, solvent exchange, hydrophobization, and drying at subcritical conditions. The dependencies between the texture properties, pore architectures, surface fractal dimensions, and degree of hydrophobicity of the samples are extracted from the ATR-IR spectra and the adsorption-desorption isotherms. The IR absorption in the region of the Si-O-Si and Si-OH vibrations is used for a description of the structural and chemical changes in aerogel powders connected with their surface hydrophobization. The Frenkel–Halsey–Hill (FHH) theory is applied to determine the surface fractal dimension of the powder species.


Fractals ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (03) ◽  
pp. 1550029 ◽  
Author(s):  
BOQI XIAO ◽  
XING TU ◽  
WEN REN ◽  
ZONGCHI WANG

In this study, the analytical expressions for the hydraulic permeability and Kozeny–Carman (KC) constant of porous nanofibers are derived based on fractal theory. In the present approach, the permeability is explicitly related to the porosity and the area fractal dimensions of porous nanofibers. The proposed fractal models for KC constant is also found to be a function of the microstructural parameters (porosity, area fractal dimensions). Besides, the present model clearly indicates that KC constant is not a constant and increases with porosity. However, KC constant is close to a constant value which is 18 for ϕ > 0.8. Every parameter of the proposed formulas of calculating permeability and KC constant has clear physical meaning. The model predictions are compared with the existing experimental data, and fair agreement between the model predictions and experimental data is found for different porosities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bing Sun ◽  
Shun Liu ◽  
Sheng Zeng ◽  
Shanyong Wang ◽  
Shaoping Wang

AbstractTo investigate the influence of the fissure morphology on the dynamic mechanical properties of the rock and the crack propagation, a drop hammer impact test device was used to conduct impact failure tests on sandstones with different fissure numbers and fissure dips, simultaneously recorded the crack growth after each impact. The box fractal dimension is used to quantitatively analyze the dynamic change in the sandstone cracks and a fractal model of crack growth over time is established based on fractal theory. The results demonstrate that under impact test conditions of the same mass and different heights, the energy absorbed by sandstone accounts for about 26.7% of the gravitational potential energy. But at the same height and different mass, the energy absorbed by the sandstone accounts for about 68.6% of the total energy. As the fissure dip increases and the number of fissures increases, the dynamic peak stress and dynamic elastic modulus of the fractured sandstone gradually decrease. The fractal dimensions of crack evolution tend to increase with time as a whole and assume as a parabolic. Except for one fissure, 60° and 90° specimens, with the extension of time, the increase rate of fractal dimension is decreasing correspondingly.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1519
Author(s):  
Jong Gyeong Kim ◽  
Sunghoon Han ◽  
Chanho Pak

The price and scarcity of platinum has driven up the demand for non-precious metal catalysts such as Fe-N-C. In this study, the effects of phosphoric acid (PA) activation and phosphorus doping were investigated using Fe-N-C catalysts prepared using SBA-15 as a sacrificial template. The physical and structural changes caused by the addition of PA were analyzed by nitrogen adsorption/desorption and X-ray diffraction. Analysis of the electronic states of Fe, N, and P were conducted by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The amount and size of micropores varied depending on the PA content, with changes in pore structure observed using 0.066 g of PA. The electronic states of Fe and N did not change significantly after treatment with PA, and P was mainly found in states bonded to oxygen or carbon. When 0.135 g of PA was introduced per 1 g of silica, a catalytic activity which was increased slightly by 10 mV at −3 mA/cm2 was observed. A change in Fe-N-C stability was also observed through the introduction of PA.


2014 ◽  
Vol 804 ◽  
pp. 149-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ji Sun Kim ◽  
Jae Ho Baek ◽  
Myung Hwan Kim ◽  
Seong Soo Hong ◽  
Man Sig Lee

In this study, we confirmed effect of carbon pre-treatment on Pd dispersion in synthesis of Pd/C catalyst. Physical characteristics on the surface of before and after pre-treated carbon were analyzed by nitrogen adsorption-desorption analysis. The dispersion and size of Pd particles were analyzed by XRD, FE-TEM and CO-chemisorption. After pre-treatment, surface area of carbon were decreased. And mesopore area ratio were increased with decreasing micropore area ratio. In the case of pre-treated carbon, we confirmed high dispersion of Pd particles.


2013 ◽  
Vol 284-287 ◽  
pp. 230-234
Author(s):  
Yu Jen Chou ◽  
Chi Jen Shih ◽  
Shao Ju Shih

Recent years mesoporous bioactive glasses (MBGs) have become important biomaterials because of their high surface area and the superior bioactivity. Various studies have reported that when MBGs implanted in a human body, hydroxyl apatite layers, constituting the main inorganic components of human bones, will form on the MBG surfaces to increase the bioactivity. Therefore, MBGs have been widely applied in the fields of tissue regeneration and drug delivery. The sol-gel process has replaced the conventional glasses process for MBG synthesis because of the advantages of low contamination, chemical flexibility and lower calcination temperature. In the sol-gel process, several types of surfactants were mixed with MBG precursor solutions to generate micelle structures. Afterwards, these micelles decompose to form porous structures after calcination. Although calcination is significant for contamination, crystalline and surface area in MBG, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, only few systematic studies related to calcination were reported. This study correlated the calcination parameters and the microstructure of MBGs. Microstructure evaluation was characterized by transmission electron microscopy and nitrogen adsorption/desorption. The experimental results show that the surface area and the pore size of MBGs decreased with the increasing of the calcination temperature, and decreased dramatically at 800°C due to the formation of crystalline phases.


2018 ◽  
Vol 156 ◽  
pp. 03046 ◽  
Author(s):  
Widyawanto Prastistho ◽  
Winarto Kurniawan ◽  
Hirofumi Hinode

The influences of mechanical milling on Indonesian Natural Bentonite (INB) characteristics and manganese (Mn) removal from acid mine drainage (AMD) were investigated. The INB characteristics were observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen adsorption-desorption for specific surface area (SSA) and microporosity measurement, cation exchange capacity (CEC) and particle size distribution (PSD) analyzer. Four minutes milling with frequency 20 Hz on INB caused morphological change which showed more crumbled and destructed particle, lost the (001) peak but still retained the (100) peak that indicated delamination of montmorillonite mineral without breaking the tetrahedral-octahedral-tetrahedral (T-O-T) structure, rose the CEC from 28.49 meq/100g to 35.51 meq/100g, increase in the SSA from 60.63 m2/g to 104.88 m2/g, significant increase in microporosity which described in the t plots and decrease in the mean particle size distribution peak from 49.28 μm to 38.84 μm. The effect of contact time and effect of adsorbent dosage on Mn sorption was studied. Both unmilled and milled samples reached equilibrium at 24 hours and the pH rose from 4 to 7 in first 30 minutes. The Mn removal percentage increased significantly after milling. Using Langmuir isotherm, the maximum adsorbed metals (qmax) also increased from 0.570 to 4.219 mg/g.


2018 ◽  
Vol 159 ◽  
pp. 01006
Author(s):  
Bagus Hario Setiadji ◽  
Supriyono ◽  
Djoko Purwanto

Several studies have shown that fractal theory can be used to analyze the morphology of aggregate materials in designing the gradation. However, the question arises whether a fractal dimension can actually represent a single aggregate gradation. This study, which is a part of a grand research to determine aggregate gradation based on known asphalt mixture specifications, is performed to clarify the aforementioned question. To do so, two steps of methodology were proposed in this study, that is, step 1 is to determine the fractal characteristics using 3 aggregate gradations (i.e. gradations near upper and lower bounds, and middle gradation); and step 2 is to back-calculate aggregate gradation based on fractal characteristics obtained using 2 scenarios, one-and multi-fractal dimension scenarios. The results of this study indicate that the multi-fractal dimension scenario provides a better prediction of aggregate gradation due to the ability of this scenario to better represent the shape of the original aggregate gradation. However, careful consideration must be observed when using more than two fractal dimensions in predicting aggregate gradation as it will increase the difficulty in developing the fractal characteristic equations.


MRS Advances ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (61) ◽  
pp. 3543-3549
Author(s):  
Pablo González ◽  
Andrea C. De Los Santos ◽  
Jorge R. Castiglioni ◽  
María A. De León

ABSTRACTA raw clay from Uruguay was modified with aluminium to obtain an aluminium pillared clay (Al-PILC). The solids were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms. The Al-PILC retained the typical laminar structure of montmorillonite. The specific surface area and the microporous volume of the Al-PILC, 235 m2 g-1 and 0.096 cm3 g-1, respectively, were much higher than those of the clay. The phosphate adsorption capacity of the Al-PILC was higher than those of the clay. The phosphate adsorption kinetic followed the pseudo-first-order model for both, the clay and the Al-PILC, and the phosphate adsorption isotherm for the Al-PILC fit the Freundlich model.


2012 ◽  
Vol 463-464 ◽  
pp. 543-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng Feng Li ◽  
Xiao Lu Ge ◽  
Shu Guang Liu ◽  
Fei Yu Liu

Core-shell structured hydroxyapatite (HA)/meso-silica was prepared and used as absorbance of methylene blue (MB). HA/meso-silica was synthesized in three steps: preparation of nano-sized HA by wet precipitation method, coating of dense silica and deposition of meso-silica shell on HA. As-received samples were characterized by Fourier transformed infare spectra, small angle X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherm and transmission electron microscopy. A wormhole framework mesostructure was found for HA/meso-silica. The specific surface area and pore volume were 128 m2•g-1 and 0.36 cm3•g-1, respectively. From the adsorption isotherm, HA/meso-silica with the great specific surface area exhibited a prominent adsorption capacity of MB (134.0 mg/g) in comparison with bare HA (0 mg/g). This study might shed light on surface modification of conventional low-cost adsorbents for removal of organic pollutants from aqueous solutions.


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