• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.375-384
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• 2022

The glacial tills and shales in Midwestern states of the USA often show strength degradation after construction. They are often in need of applying soil modification techniques to remediate their strength degradation with weathering process. This study investigated the weathering durability of these natural soils and biopolymer treated soils by comparing direct shear test results for wet-dry and wet-freeze-thaw-dry cycled specimens. The tests showed that untreated glacial tills maintained only 62% and 50% initial shear strength after eight wet-dry cycles and eight wet-freeze-thaw-dry cycles, respectively. These untreated soils could not withstand by themselves after 16 weathering cycles. The same soils treated with 1.5% (by dry weight) food-grade Xanthan gum maintained 140% and 88% initial shear strength of untreated soils after 16 weathering cycles for wet-dry cycles and wet-freeze-thaw-dry cycles, respectively. The same soils treated with 1.5% (by dry weight) Gellan gum maintained 82% and 60% initial shear strength of untreated ones after 16 weathering cycles, respectively. Similar results were obtained for crushed shales, manifesting that the biopolymerization method may be adopted as a new eco-friendly method to enhance the weathering durability of these problematic soils of glacial tills and shales.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.175-181
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• 2019

Low-calcium fly ash (LCFA) were used to prepare cement/LCFA specimens in this study. The basic physical properties including water demand, fluidity, setting time, soundness and drying shrinkage of cement/LCFA paste were investigated. The effects of curing time, immersion time and wet-dry cycles in 3% $Na_2SO_4$ solution on the compressive strength and the microstructures of specimens were also discussed. The results show that LCFA increases the water demand, setting time, soundness of cement paste samples. 50% and 60% LCFA replacement ratio decrease the drying shrinkage of hardened cement paste. The compressive strength of plain cement specimens decreases at the later immersion stage in 3% $Na_2SO_4$ solution. The addition of LCFA can decrease this strength reduction of cement specimens. For all specimens with LCFA, the compressive strength increases with increasing immersion time. During the wet-dry cycles, the compressive strength of plain cement specimens decreases with increasing wet-dry cycles. However, the pores in the specimens with 30% and 40% LCFA at early ages could be large enough for the crystal of sodium sulfate, which leads to the compressive strength increase with the increase of wet-dry cycles in 3% $Na_2SO_4$ solution. The microstructures of cement/LCFA specimens are in good agreement with the compressive strength.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.69-84
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• 2017

This paper presents results of an experimental investigation on the behaviour of bond between external glass fibre reinforced polymer reinforcement and concrete exposed to three different environmental conditions, namely, temperature cycles, wet-dry cycles and outdoor environment separately for extended durations. Single shear tests (pull-out test) were conducted to investigate bond strengths (pull-out strengths) of control (unexposed) and exposed specimens. Effect of the exposure conditions on the compressive strength of concrete were also investigated separately to understand the effect of changing concrete compressive strength on the pull-out strength. Based on the comparison of experimental results of exposed specimens to control specimens in terms of bond strengths, failure modes and strain profiles, the most significant degradation of pull-out strength was observed in specimens exposed to outdoor environment, whereas temperature cycles did not cause any deterioration of strength.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.553-564
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• 2022

Concrete is a representative composite material that shows excellent performance in the construction field. However, it is a brittle and nonhomogeneous material and exhibits weak behavior against bending and tensile forces. To compensate for such weakens, fiber reinforcement has been utilized, and steel fiber has been recognized as one of the best material for such purpose. However, steel fiber can seriously affect the durability of concrete exposed to the marine environment due to the corrosion caused by chlorine ions. This study intended to evaluate the mechanical performance of steel fiber reinforce concrete during and after repeated wet/dry cycles in salt solution. According to the experimental results, there was no reduction in the relative dynamic modulus of concrete during the repeated wet/dry cycles in salt solution for 37 weeks. Flexural strength was not decreased after completion of repeated wet/dry cycles in salt solution. There was no sign of corrosion in steel fibers after visual observation of fractured surface. However, the flexural toughness was decreased, and this is because about half of the concrete specimen showed failure before reaching the maximum displacement of 3 mm. Although repeated wet/dry cycles in salt solution did not cause cracks in concrete through corrosion of steel fibers, specific attention is required because it can reduce flexural toughness of steel fiber reinforced concrete.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.583-600
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• 2023

The resilient modulus (M_R) of various pavement materials plays a significant role in the pavement design by a mechanistic-empirical method. The M_R determination is done by experimental tests that need time and money, along with special experimental tools. The present paper suggested a novel hybridized extreme gradient boosting (XGB) structure for forecasting the M_R of modified base materials subject to wet-dry cycles. The models were created by various combinations of input variables called deep learning. Input variables consist of the number of W-D cycles (WDC), the ratio of free lime to SAF (CSAFR), the ratio of maximum dry density to the optimum moisture content (DMR), confining pressure (σ₃), and deviatoric stress (σ_d). Two XGB structures were produced for the estimation aims, where determinative variables were optimized by particle swarm optimization (PSO) and black widow optimization algorithm (BWOA). According to the results' description and outputs of Taylor diagram, M1 model with the combination of WDC, CSAFR, DMR, σ₃, and σ_d is recognized as the most suitable model, with R² and RMSE values of BWOA-XGB for model M1 equal to 0.9991 and 55.19 MPa, respectively. Interestingly, the lowest value of RMSE for literature was at 116.94 MPa, while this study could gain the extremely lower RMSE owned by BWOA-XGB model at 55.198 MPa. At last, the explanations indicate the BWO algorithm's capability in determining the optimal value of XGB determinative parameters in M_R prediction procedure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 1998.05a
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• pp.3-3
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• 1998

The atmospheric corrosIOn properties of Zinc (Zn) under wet/dry transition of $H_20$ film were investigated in this study. The atmospheric corrosion of metal is usually occurred as a result of repetitious thickness transition (so called wet/dry transition) of liquid phase which is covering the metal surface. Corrosion potential and the polarization behaviour of Zn during liquid film thickness transition were measured by Kelvin probe method which IS using vibrating reference electrode without touching the liquid film. The oxidized states of Zn as a result of successive wet/dry transition were also investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results show that the corrosion potential and the corrosIOn rate of Zn both are increasing during drying. However, the corrOSIon rate is decreasing again when the Zn surface is completely dried while the corrosion potential still remains high. This behaviour can be explained by the polarization behaviour change of Zn according to the $H_20$ film thickness change. The completely dried surface is consisted mostly with Zn and ZnO phases. After a number of cycles of wet/dry transition, however, the oxidized Zn phase of ${\varepsilon}-Zn(OH)_2$, which has rather voluminous and defected structure, were found.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 1999.05a
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• pp.21-22
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• 1999

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.165-170
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• 2003

Atmospheric corrosion behaviors of Zn, Zn-5%Al and Zn-55%A l coated steels have been investigated under cyclic wet-dry environments containing chloride ions. The wet-dry cycle was carried out by alternate exposure to immersion in 0.5 M (or 0.05 M) NaCl solutions and drying at $25^{\circ}C$ and 60 %RH. The polarization resistance $R_p$ and solution resistance $R_s$ were monitored by AC impedance technique. From the obtained $1/R_p$ and $1/R_s$ values, the corrosion rate of the coatings and the Time of Wetness (TOW) were estimated, respectively. Effects of chloride ions and TOW on the corrosion rates of Zn, Zn-5%Al, Zn-55%Al coatings and appearance of red rust (onset of underlying steel corrosion) under wet-dry cycles are discussed on the basis of the corrosion monitoring data.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.68-80
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• 2022

Timber boardwalk decks are widely installed in parks and scenic areas to provide pedestrians an elevated footpath as well as harmony with the surrounding natural scene. In order to extend the lifespan of boardwalks in the outdoor environment, industrially treated pine timber, such as Pinus sylvestris, is often adopted. However, accidents of pedestrians injured by damaged boardwalk decks have been constantly reported. Therefore, the mechanical behavior of two different types of treated timber was examined in this study under repeated wetting and drying. An increasing number of radial cracks appeared with increasing length and width as more cycles were performed. A loss of more than 40% of the screw withdrawal capacity was observed in both end grain and face grain for the two types of timber after twelve accelerated wet-dry cycles, which coincides with the observation of damaged timber boardwalks in the field investigation. At the same time, it was found that both the compressive and the flexural strength was not sensitive to the wet-dry cycles especially at large cycle numbers.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.619-629
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• 2024

To improve the utilization rate of phosphate tailings (PTs) and widen the sources of subgrade filler, the PTs is employed to modify clay, forming a PTs modified clay, applied in the subgrade. Accordingly, the environmental friendliness of PTs was investigated. Subsequently, an optimal proportion was determined through compaction and California Bearing Ratio (CBR) experiments. Afterward, the stability of mixture with the optimal proportion was further evaluated through the water stability and dry-wet stability experiments. Finally, via the gradation and microstructure experiments, the strength mechanism of PTs modified clay was analyzed. The results show that the PTs were classified in the non-hazardous solid wastes, belonging to Class A building materials. With the increase of PTs content and the decrease of clay content, the optimum water content and the swelling degree gradually decrease, while the maximum dry density and CBR first increase and then decrease, reaching their peak value at 50% PTs content, which is the optimal proportion. The resilient modulus of PTs modified clay at the optimal proportion reaches 110.2 MPa. The water stability coefficient becomes stable after soaking for 4 days, while the dry-wet stability coefficient decreases with the increase of cycles and tends to be stable after 8 cycles. Under the long-term action, the dry-wet change has a greater adverse impact than continuous soaking. The analysis demonstrates that the better strength mainly comes from the skeleton role of PTs and the cementation of clay. The systematic laboratory test results and economic analysis collectively provide data evidence for the advantages of PTs modified clay as a subgrade filler.