Bushfire: Retrofitting Rural and Urban Fringe Structures—Implications of Current Engineering Data

Since the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in which 173 lives were lost, two-thirds of whom died in their homes, the question of what a home prepared for bushfire looks like has been repeatedly raised. The 2019/2020 fires saw us not much further advanced. This paper seeks to consolidate what is known about bushfire behavior, its influence upon structures, and, through this data, infer improved standards of practice for retrofitting rural and urban fringe homes. In particular, the prevention of ember and smoke incursion: the data suggesting the prior as the main mechanism of home destruction; the latter as high risk to sheltering occupant health. The article is framed around a comprehensive literature review, and the author’s own experiences and observations from fire impacted structures in Victoria’s northeast. The article’s import lies in demonstrating how embers and smoke may enter homes otherwise seen to be appropriately sealed prior to the fire’s approach. Included in the findings are developed hypotheses based on thermal expansion, pressure differentials and backdraft; offering defined paths towards future research. In addition, the work provides practical advice towards mitigating the identified issues using retrofit practices based upon the author’s practical experience as a tradesperson and building designer.

Evaluation of Weakening Characteristics of Reinforced Concrete Using High-Frequency Induction Heating Method

To increase the quality of recycling, a new demolition technique is required that can work in parallel with existing crushing methods, which use large equipment with high crushing efficiency. Moreover, the efficient collection of the remains from the fractional dismantling method needs to be considered based on its procedure, and the technology for partial dismantling that is efficient in remodeling, maintenance, and reinforcement has to be developed. In this study, the temperature-increasing characteristics of rebars inside ferroconcrete with respect to their arrangement was investigated by partial rapid heating through high-frequency induction heating. Based on this, the chemical and physical vulnerability characteristics of ferroconcrete due to the thermal conduction generated on the rebar surface and the cracks caused by the thermal expansion pressure of the rebar were verified. In addition, the objective of this study was to verify the applicability of the technology by specifying the vulnerability range of ferroconcrete based on the heating range with adequate consumption of energy.

Expansion-Induced Crack Propagation in Rocks Monitored by Using Piezoelectric Transducers

The objective of this study is to develop a new vibration-free excavation method based on vermiculite expansion for rock cracking and to evaluate the performance of the heating system via elastic wave monitoring. Natural vermiculites expand rapidly in volume when heated above 800 °C. MgO powder is used to evenly transmit the surface temperature of a heater rod, which can attain high temperatures rapidly, to the vermiculites. The insertion direction of the heater rod greatly affects the expansion pressure. Three cuboid rock specimens are prepared and equipped with the heating system at different hole-to-face distances. Crack propagation is monitored by a pair of disk-shaped piezoelectric transducers. For short hole-to-face distances, the wave velocity and maximum amplitude rapidly decrease after certain time. For the greatest hole-to-face distance, the shear wave velocity remains constant during the test, while the maximum amplitude decreases after a certain time. The time taken for the velocity and amplitude of the shear waves to decrease reasonably corresponded to that taken for detectable crack propagation to occur on the surface of the rock specimen. The proposed method and materials may be useful from the viewpoints of rapid expansion, economy, and crack control.

Impact of Grooves in Hydraulically Expanded Tube-to-Tubesheet Joints

The stress corrosion cracking of tube-to-tubesheet joints is one of the major faults causing heat exchanger failure. After the expansion process, the stresses are developed in a plastically deformed tube around the tube-to-tubesheet joint. These residual stressed joints, exposed to tube and shell side fluids, are the main crack initiation sites. Adequate contact pressure at the tube-to-tubesheet interface is required to produce a quality joint. Insufficient tube-to-tubesheet contact pressure leads to insufficient joint strength. Therefore, a study on the residual stress and contact pressure that have a great significance on the quality of the tube-to-tubesheet joint is highly demanded. In this research, a 2D axisymmetric numerical analysis is performed to study the effect of the presence of grooves in the tubesheet and the expansion pressure length on the distribution of contact pressure and stress during loading and unloading of 400 MPa expansion pressure. The results show that the maximum contact pressure is independent of the expansion pressure length. However, the presence of grooves significantly increased the maximum contact pressure. It is proven that the presence of grooves in the tubesheet is distinguishable from the maximum contact pressure and residual von mises equivalent stress. The tube pull-out strength increases with the expansion pressure and the number of grooves. In conclusion, the presence of the grooves affects the tube-to-tubesheet joints.

Influences of High-Sulphur Fly Ash on the Properties of Lightweight Cement-Treated Materials Subjected to Sulphate Corrosion

In this study, the effects of high-sulphur fly ash on the properties of lightweight cement-treated materials (LCMs) immersed in sodium sulphate solutions were studied. The unconfined compressive strength of LCMs corroded by sulphate was tested. The microscopic properties were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that high-sulphur fly ash has an adverse effect on the structural strength of LCMs after corrosion, but when the content of fly ash is less than 75%, the effect of fly ash on the strength is small. A small amount of high-sulphur fly ash can improve the density of the material structure; the internal pore structure of LCMs provides space for the growth of ettringite and other corrosive substances and relieves the expansion pressure. LCMs mixed with high-sulphur fly ash have a certain resistance to sodium sulphate corrosion.