SELECTION OF A RATIONAL RECIPE OF LIGHTWEIGHT CONCRETE ON A MIXTURE OF CERAMSITE GRAVEL, NATURAL CRUSHED STONE AND GRANULAR SLAG

In conditions of dense urban development and a variety of engineering and geological conditions, the use of concretes with a combined aggregate of a rationally selected composition will solve the existing problem of reducing the mass of reinforced concrete structures of buildings and structures and maintaining the required strength and deformability. In this paper, studies have been carried out on the choice of a rational formulation of lightweight concrete based on expanded clay gravel, natural crushed stone and granulated blast furnace slag by varying the volume content of porous coarse aggregate and the volume content of fine aggregate in relation to the mixture. In total, 9 series of prototypes and 1 series of control samples are manufactured and tested. One series of samples includes three cubes with dimensions of 10x10x10 cm. All samples are tested in terms of density and compressive strength, the coefficient of constructive quality is determined. The results of the study shows that the introduction of expanded clay gravel into the composition of heavy concrete instead of part of the dense coarse aggregate and the replacement of the fine dense aggregate with granular blast furnace slag leads to an increase in the structural quality factor, that is, a decrease in the compressive strength of concrete is compensated for by an even more significant decrease in the density of the material, and means weight reduction. The increase in the coefficient of constructive quality of concrete based on expanded clay gravel, natural crushed stone and granulated blast-furnace slag in comparison with the control composition is 15.6 %.

3D printed continuous glass fibre-reinforced polyamide composites: Fabrication and mechanical characterisation

Fused Filament Fabrication is a very common additive manufacturing technology and several manufacturers have developed commercial 3D-printers that enable the use of fibre-reinforced filaments in order to improve the mechanical properties of the printed parts. The obtained material is a composite that exhibits complex mechanical properties. The aim of this study is to characterize the mechanical behaviour of 3D-printed continuous glass fibre-reinforced polyamide composites. In a first step, we focus on the reinforced filament: the heterogeneity of its microstructure is evidenced as well as its brittle elastic tensile behaviour. In a second step, parts of different fibre orientations and fibre volume contents are manufactured using a Mark Two 3D-printer (MarkForged®), their microstructure is analysed and tensile, flexural and short beam bending tests are performed. As expected, the results show a significant influence of fibre volume content and fibre orientation. Standard homogenization methods are used to compare the predicted mechanical behaviour to the experimental results. Regarding the elastic stiffness, a good correlation is observed when the material is loaded in the direction of the fibres. Regarding the tensile strength, the results show that no benefit is obtained above a fibre volume content of about 11%. These results highlight the importance of choosing an optimised stacking sequence prior to the printing process, in order to obtain composites with the desired mechanical properties. The mechanical results are analysed in the light of Scanning Electron Microscopy observations of specimen cross-sections before and after testing.

Homogenization of a unidirectional composite reinforced with two types of transtropic hollow fibers

A method for determining effective elastic constants of a composite unidirectionally reinforced with two types of transtropic hollow fibers is developed. Determining these characteristics is an integral step in the design of composite structures. The approach is based on analytical formulas for determining the elastic characteristics of a two-component composite with a transtropic matrix and hollow fiber. Hexagonal fiber lay-up with periodic reinforcement structure is considered. Double homogenization is used. The composite is conventionally divided into hexagonal regions of two types. The first is a hollow fiber of one material and the surrounding matrix. Similarly, the second one – with a hollow fiber of another material. In the first homogenization, elastic constants of the transtropic material of each of the two regions are determined. In the repeated homogenization, the region of the first type is taken as a “conditional” fiber, the region of the second type is taken as a “conditional” matrix. Effective elastic constants for a composite reinforced with two types of isotropic hollow fibers are calculated. The proposed method gives a good convergence of the results with calculations by known formulas. The maximum relative calculation error for the longitudinal elastic characteristics compared to known formulas does not exceed 0.05 %. The dependences of some effective elastic constants on the volume content of hollow fibers of various types are constructed. Using this approach, three-component composites can be modeled varying the materials of the matrix, hollow fibers and their volume content. This allows predicting the strength of such composites under certain deformations at the design stage

Studying the behavior of geopolymer concretes under repeated loadings

This article investigates utilization of polypropylene microfibers as reinforcement in geopolymer concrete to enhance the ductility characteristics since the geopolymer concrete is considered a brittle material. The polypropylene microfibers were added to geopolymer concrete at the fiber volume content of 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5%. In this article, a slump test and compressive strength were tested for geopolymer concretes to measure the effect of polypropylene microfibers on geopolymer concretes. Also, static flexural strength and dynamic loading were applied to find out the attitude of polypropylene fiber-reinforced geopolymer concrete and to measure both the deflection and number of load cycles until failure. While comparing the results with reference geopolymer concrete, all samples were tested at 28 days and, finally, a statistical test was carried out. The results concluded that the use of polypropylene microfibers improves the compressive strength and enhances the properties of polypropylene fiber-reinforced geopolymer concretes, increases the loading for the appearance of the first crack, and decreases the deflection of polypropylene fiber-reinforced geopolymer concretes compared with reference geopolymer concrete.

Experimental Studies of Liquid Holdup in the Impeller of Electric Submersible Pump

Artificial lift of oil by electric submersible pumps (ESP) is often complicated by free gas in production. Free gas content in production leads to ESP performance degradation in rate and head. Gas slip in the ESP impeller is one of the reasons of ESP performance degradation. Thus, the goal of the work is to determine the gas slip coefficient i.e. liquid holdup in the ESP impeller. It is known that a gas-liquid mixture (GLM) flow characterized by a slippage effect. Gas slippage relative to the liquid determines the GLM structure (bubble, dispersed-bubble, slug, stratified or annular), as well as the difference between the GLM densities calculated by liquid holdup or liquid volume content. Special stand was designed and created to determine the liquid holdup at the Department of Oil Fields Development and Operation of Gubkin University. Liquid holdup in the impeller of the ESP was measured by the method of cutting off the flow. This paper shows the results of experimental studies of liquid holdup and gas slip velocity in the ESP impeller (ESP5-50) at a rotational speed n = 2997 rpm, at an absolute intake pressure Pin = 0.4 MPa. The dependence of the liquid holdup on liquid volume content (i.e. the dependence of the gas void fraction on gas volume fraction) was determined for the model GLM "water-air", "water-surfactant-air" with different foaming capacity. The degradation of the ESP characteristics, boundaries of surging and gas locking limits are determined taking into account liquid holdup. The dependence of gas holdup was experimentally obtained over the entire range of ESP operation (from 0.5∙Qopt to Qmax). A comparison of the obtained correlation with existing models is presented too. A new correlation for predicting liquid holdup in the ESP impeller for the low-rate wells operation is obtained. A new approach to determining the liquid holdup and consequently gas slip velocity in the ESP impeller is proposed.

BENCHMARKING VIRTUAL PERMEABILITY PREDICTIONS OF REAL FIBROUS MICROSTRUCTURE

ABSTRACT For fast and complete impregnation in Liquid Composite Molding, knowledge about the permeability of the fibrous reinforcement is required. While development of experimental methods continues, a parallel benchmark effort to numerically characterize permeability is being pursued. The approach was to send out the images of a real fibrous microstructure to a number of participants, in order for them to apply their methods for virtual permeability prediction. Via resin transfer molding a plate was manufactured, using the glass woven fabric Hexcel 01102 (295 g/m²) at a fiber volume content of 54% and a thermoset resin. From this plate, a specimen was scanned using a 3D x-ray microscope at a scan size of 1000 x 1000 x 1000 μm³ and a resolution of 0.521 μm³ per voxel. The sample extracted for the simulations with a size of 523 x 65 x 507 μm³ contains about 400 fibers of a single tow. It revealed a variation of filament diameters between 7.5-9.3 μm and a fiber volume content in average of 56.46% with a variation of 54 - 59% in the individual 2D-slices transverse to the fiber direction. The image segmentation was performed by 2D-slices, to which a Hough transform was applied to detect fiber centers and cross-sections. Then fiber paths were tracked through-out the slices by the closest neighbor algorithm. Finally, fiber paths were smoothened by means of the local regression using weighted linear least squares and a 1st degree polynomial model. The participants received a stack of 973 segmented (binary) 2D-images and a corresponding segmented 3D volume raw-file. They were asked to calculate the full permeability tensor components and fill out a detailed questionnaire including questions e.g. on applied flow models and conditions, numerical discretization and approximation methods, fluid properties etc. The received results scatter considerably over two orders of magnitude, although the participants were provided an already segmented image structure, thus eliminating from the beginning a significant source of variation that could have come from image processing. Model size, meshing and many other sources of variation were identified, allowing further specification of the guidelines for the next step.

The Effect of Sn Addition on Zn-Al-Mg Alloy; Part I: Microstructure and Phase Composition

In this study, the addition of Sn on the microstructure of Zn 1.6 wt.% Al 1.6 wt.% Mg alloy was studied. Currently, the addition of Sn into Zn-Al-Mg based systems has not been investigated in detail. Both as-cast and annealed states were investigated. Phase transformation temperatures and phase composition was investigated via DSC, SEM and XRD techniques. The main phases identified in the studied alloys were η(Zn) and α(Al) solid solutions as well as Mg2Zn11, MgZn2 and Mg2Sn intermetallic phases. Addition of Sn enabled the formation of Mg2Sn phase at the expense of MgxZny phases, while the overall volume content of intermetallic phases is decreasing. Annealing did not change the phase composition in a significant way, but higher Sn content allowed more effective spheroidization and agglomeration of individual phase particles.

ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE SIZE OF FLAKE GRAPHITE INCLUSIONS AND ITS VOLUME CONTENT ON THE ACOUSTIC PARAMETERS OF CAST IRON AND THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ULTRASONIC LONGITUDINAL WAVE SIGNALS

Algorithms have been presented for calculating the velocity (in the approximation of a fine-layered model) and the attenuation coefficient of a longitudinal ultrasonic wave in cast iron, depending on the average size of graphite elements and its volume content, the calculation results for which are qualitatively confirmed experimentally. The calculation was performed using a fine-layered model of the structure, the graphite inclusions were described in the form of plane-parallel layers placed in an isotropic elastic medium (metal base). Computer simulation of acoustic paths for a mediumcast iron with flake graphite for standard direct converters is carried out in order to study the influence of such a medium on the characteristics of transmitted and received signals during ultrasonic testing. In the course of the research, a previously developed model was used to calculate the attenuation coefficient of longitudinal waves in cast iron with flake graphite due to their Rayleigh and phase scattering on graphite inclusions. Computer simulation of the acoustic characteristics of the signals of a direct linear probe with a phased array in cast iron with flake graphite was carried out, during which the shape of the acoustic pulses of the longitudinal wave was calculated, depending on the distance traveled by the wave and the value of the attenuation coefficient for various models of cast iron. The main modeled characteristics of the transducer include the directivity characteristic and the change in the signal amplitude along the acoustic axis. It is shown that for cast iron with flake graphite, there are cases when the directivity of the probe with a phased array transmitted into the cast iron is practically absent.

Parametric characteristics analysis of three cells in 3D and five-directional annular braided composites

On the basis of analyzing the movement law of 3D circular braided yarn, the three-cell model of 3D five-direction circular braiding composite material is established. By analyzing the node position relationship in various cell models, the calculation formulas of braiding angle, cell volume, fiber volume and fiber volume content in various cell models are obtained. It is found that there are four different braiding angles in four internal cells, and the braiding angles in internal cells gradually increase from inside to outside. The braiding angles of upper and lower surface cells are approximately equal. With the increase of the length of the knuckles, the braiding angles of each cell decrease, and the braiding angles of the four inner cells decrease greatly, while the braiding angles of upper and lower surfaces decrease slightly. The results of parametric analysis showed that with the increase of the length of the knuckles and the inner diameter of cells, the mass of cells increased proportionally, while the total fiber volume content of cells decreased. With the increase of braiding yarn number and axial yarn number, the unit cell mass decreases in direct proportion, and the unit cell total fiber volume content increases. Through the research results of this paper, the geometrical characteristics of the cell model under different braided parameters can be obtained, which greatly improves the analysis efficiency.