Study on Temperature Control of Gravity Anchorage without Cooling Water

This paper uses Midas Fea simulation software to analyze the hydration heat of a suspension bridge anchorage mass concrete construction without cooling water. According to specific boundary conditions and convection coefficients, the concrete heating process and cooling process are simulated. Analyze the influence of surface air convection coefficient on the surface tensile stress of the cast layer, and the influence of the pouring interval on the interlayer stress of the anchor block, and the temperature difference between the inside and outside of the concrete when the anchor block is layered. It is found that reducing the surface convection coefficient of the pouring layer can effectively improve the stress condition, and the pouring interval has little effect on the stress.

Thermoresponsive Poly(glycidyl ether) Brush Coatings on Various Tissue Culture Substrates—How Block Copolymer Design and Substrate Material Govern Self-Assembly and Phase Transition

Thermoresponsive poly(glycidyl ether) brushes can be grafted to applied tissue culture substrates and used for the fabrication of primary human cell sheets. The self-assembly of such brushes is achieved via the directed physical adsorption and subsequent UV immobilization of block copolymers equipped with a short, photo-reactive benzophenone-based anchor block. Depending on the chemistry and hydrophobicity of the benzophenone anchor, we demonstrate that such block copolymers exhibit distinct thermoresponsive properties and aggregation behaviors in water. Independent on the block copolymer composition, we developed a versatile grafting-to process which allows the fabrication of poly(glycidyl ether) brushes on various tissue culture substrates from dilute aqueous-ethanolic solution. The viability of this process crucially depends on the chemistry and hydrophobicity of, both, benzophenone-based anchor block and substrate material. Utilizing these insights, we were able to manufacture thermoresponsive poly(glycidyl ether) brushes on moderately hydrophobic polystyrene and polycarbonate as well as on rather hydrophilic polyethylene terephthalate and tissue culture-treated polystyrene substrates. We further show that the temperature-dependent switchability of the brush coatings is not only dependent on the cloud point temperature of the block copolymers, but also markedly governed by the hydrophobicity of the surface-bound benzophenone anchor and the subjacent substrate material. Our findings demonstrate that the design of amphiphilic thermoresponsive block copolymers is crucial for their phase transition characteristics in solution and on surfaces.

Bach Dang cable-stayed bridge – Underslung form traveller

<p>The Bach Dang Bridge forms part of the Ha Long – Hai Phong Highway in Vietnam. It will help cut 50km from the journey between Hanoi and the Ha Long Bay UNESCO world heritage site. The focal cable-stayed section of the bridge will consist of two main spans of 240 m. The tallest of the three towers will reach a height of almost 100 m.</p><p>The construction technique used for the cable-stayed section is to cast 9.6 m-long and 28 m-wide concrete segments in situ, using an underslung form traveller (FT) which is launched to the next position once the segment is cast.</p><p>The FT has been designed by the Technical Centre of specialist contractor VSL. Its weight is minimised by using the stay cable as a support at the front of the traveller. The stay cable is connected to the FT by precasting the anchor block and securing it to the FT. This innovation was previously, successfully used by VSL on the Ironton-Russell project in the USA. Besides, the formwork system has been mechanised to be easily collapsed from one segment to the next.</p><p>This paper discusses the design of this innovative construction technique and how it was used on this major bridge project in Vietnam.</p>

Block copolymers from ionic liquids for the preparation of thin carbonaceous shells

This paper describes the controlled radical polymerization of an ionic-liquid monomer by RAFT polymerization. This allows the control over the molecular weight of ionic liquid blocks in the range of 8000 and 22000 and of the block-copolymer synthesis. In this work we focus on block copolymers with an anchor block. They can be used to control the formation of TiO2 nanoparticles, which are functionalized thereafter with a block of ionic-liquid polymer. Pyrolysis of these polymer functionalized inorganic nanoparticles leads to TiO2 nanoparticles coated with a thin carbonaceous shell. Such materials may, e.g., be interesting as battery materials.