ALBERT

Description: In this study, transparent ZnS ceramics were hot pressed from precipitated wurtzite nanopowders. Influences of sintering temperature on wurtzite-to-sphalerite phase transition and densification behavior have been investigated. Maximum sphalerite phase content and highest densification were simultaneously obtained in the sample hot pressed at 900°C with uniaxial pressure of 250 MPa for 2 h, which accounts for the highest transmittance above 55% and 70% in the range 2–5 μm and 5–13 μm, respectively. Preferred orientation of wurtzite grains in [002] direction paralleled to the press direction was also observed, which is supposed to be benefit to transmittance by reducing birefraction and second-phase scattering. Furthermore, second-phase scattering caused by wurtzite grains has been investigated. It is found that fine grains are conducive to hot-pressed ZnS ceramics with high transmittance, especially in the short-wavelength range.

Description: A glucose sol–gel combustion method has been developed to synthesize composite nanopowders with equal volume fractions of Y 2 O 3 and MgO. The synthesis involves the generation of precursor foam containing Y 3+ and Mg 2+ cations via the chemical and thermal degradation of glucose molecules in aqueous solutions. Subsequent calcination of the foam gave the composite nanopowders uniform composition and surface areas of 44–62 m 2 /g depending on the relative amount of glucose. Then the nanopowder with an average particle size of 19 nm was consolidated by the hot-pressing technique with different sintering temperatures. The fabricated nanocomposite is mid-infrared transparent as the result of fine grains, narrow grain size distribution, and uniform phase domains. The transmittance increases with increase in the sintering temperature and reaches 83.5% at 3–5 μm mid-infrared wave range once the temperature reaches 1350°C, which is close to the theoretical value of 85%. And it is noteworthy that the cutoff wavelength reaches 9.6 μm, which is superior to those of spinel, AlON, and sapphire. And the Vickers hardness of the sample reaches 10.0 ± 0.1 GPa, which is significantly higher than those of the coarse grained single-phase MgO and Y 2 O 3 . The results indicate that the glucose sol–gel combustion and hot-pressing technique is an effective method to fabricate infrared transparent Y 2 O 3 –MgO nanocomposites.

Description: A sol–gel combustion method has been used to synthesize Y 2 O 3 –50 vol%MgO composite nanopowders. Solutions of the precursor nitrates were mixed with citric acid and ethylene glycol, heated from 200°C to a predetermined temperature gradually, giving nanocrystalline ceramic powders. The influence of the ratio of yttrium nitrate to the whole precursor mixture and the holding temperature on the properties of the composite nanopowder was investigated using a combination of thermal analysis, X-ray diffraction, specific surface area analysis, and scanning electron microscopy techniques. When the ratio of yttrium nitrate to the whole precursor mixture reaches 22.5 mol%, the average particle size of synthesized composite nanopowder is 13 nm and the specific surface area is 45.9 m 2 /g. Then the synthesized Y 2 O 3 –MgO composite nanopowder was consolidated by the hot-pressing technique at 1200°C with different dwell time. As a result, the nanocomposite ceramic prepared with a dwell time of 60 min got the highest transmittance of 75% at 5 μm wavelength. The cut-off wavelength of Y 2 O 3 –MgO nanocomposite ceramic reaches 9.8 μm, which is superior to other mid-IR transparent materials. In addition, the fabricated sample is more or less transparent in visible wavelengths and the transmittance at 0.8 μm is as high as 14.5%.

Description: The thermal conductivity of monolayer graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) with different tensile strain is investigated by using a nonequilibrium molecular dynamics method. Significant increasing amplitude of the molecular thermal vibration, molecular potential energy vibration and thermal conductivity vibration of stretching GNRs were detected. Some 20%~30% thermal conductivity decay is found in 9%~15% tensile strain of GNR cases. It is explained by the fact that GNR structural ridges scatter some low-frequency phonons which pass in the direction perpendicular to the direction of GNR stretching which was indicated by a phonon density of state investigation.

Description: Transparent Y 2.85 Yb 0.15 Al 5 O 12 ceramics were prepared using an aqueous tape casting and vacuum sintering method. The rheological properties were measured by a rheometer. The results indicate high quality tapes, and ceramics can be obtained by increasing the solid loading of the corresponding slurries. The densities of the tapes increase from 2.42 to 2.69 g/cm 3 by increasing the solid loadings from 35 to 50 vol%. The corresponding green body densities range from 52.7 to 57.1% of the theoretical. The solid loading suitable for fabricating transparent Yb:YAG ceramics should be higher than 45 vol%.

Description: To study the dynamic mechanical characteristics and constitutive relation of concrete materials under freeze–thaw (FT) cycle conditions, C35 concrete was taken as the research object in this paper, and FT tests were carried out with a freeze–thaw range of −20–20 °C and a freeze–thaw frequency up to 50 times. By using the separated Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) system, impact compression tests of concrete specimens under different FT cycle actions were developed, then the dynamic fracture morphology, fracture block distribution, stress–strain curve, peak stress and other dynamic mechanical properties of concrete were analyzed, and the influence law of FT action and strain rate was obtained. Through introducing the freeze–thaw deterioration damage factor and the stress damage variable, the dynamic visco-elastic damage constitutive equation of freeze–thawed concrete was constructed based on component combination theory. Furthermore, the damage evolution process and mechanism of freeze–thawed concrete materials were revealed. The research results show that the dynamic mechanical properties of concrete under a freeze–thaw environment are the combined results of the freeze–thaw deterioration effect and the strain rate strengthening effect. The dynamic visco-elastic damage constitutive model established in this paper can effectively describe the dynamic mechanical properties of freeze–thawed concrete, and has the characteristics of few parameters and good effect. The stress damage evolution path of concrete goes backward with the increase of FT cycles and the development speed gradually slows down. The greater the difference in FT cycles, the greater the difference in stress damage path.

Description: To study the dynamic mechanical properties and fracture law of concrete after thermal treatment and reveal its mechanism, the impact compression test was carried out on different thermal-treated (400–800 °C) concrete specimens using a split Hopkinson pressure bas (SHPB) system. By using ANSYS/LS-DYNA, the finite element numerical simulation of the test process was illustrated. The research showed that under passive confining pressure, the more the loading rate is increased, the more obvious the effect of the passive confining pressure on the concrete specimen, as well as the more significant the improvement of the peak stress compared with the uniaxial test. On the other hand, as the temperature damage effect is enhanced, the increase in the material strength at different loading rates is reduced. Numerical simulations showed that in a uniaxial test, as the impact rate increases, the crack initiation time advances, and the degree of fracture increases at the same rate as that of the loading time. In the case of confining pressure, the stress gradually decreases to the edge from the center, and has a significant circumferential diffusion characteristic. The circumferential restraint of the passive confining pressure limits the radial deformation ability of the material to a certain extent, thereby increasing the axial compressive strength. In the analysis of the crushing process of concrete specimens, it was found that the fracture form showed a strong rate dependence. When the loading rate is low, the fracture form is a cleavage-like failure. As the loading rate increases, the fracture form changes to crush failure. The research results provide the necessary theoretical basis for the safety assessment, reinforcement, and maintenance of concrete structures after fire.

Description: To provide theoretical basis for fire rescue, post-disaster safety evaluation, and reinforcement of concrete structures, C35 concrete materials are treated with high-temperature heating (200 °C, 400 °C, 600 °C, 800 °C) under two different heating gradients. After natural cooling and water cooling to normal temperature, an impact compression test was carried out at different loading rates using a Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) system with a diameter of 100 mm, and finally the crushed specimens were subjected to a sieving test. The effects of elevated temperatures, cooling methods, heating gradients, and loading rates on the fragment size distribution, fractal characteristics, and energy dissipation of impact-compressed concrete specimens were studied. The results show that with the increase of the loading rate and the rise of the heating temperature, the crushing degree of concrete specimens gradually increases, the average fragment size decreases, and the mass distribution of the fragments move from the coarse end to the fine end. The fragment size distribution of the specimen has obvious fractal characteristics. In addition, its fractal dimension increases with the increase of loading rate and heating temperature, the average size of the specimen fragments decreases correspondingly, and the fracture of the specimen becomes more serious. When the different heating gradients were compared, it was found that the fractal dimension of the specimens subjected to rapid heating treatment was larger than that of the slow heating treatment specimens, and the crushing degree of the specimens with different cooling methods was discrete. By analyzing the energy dissipation of the specimen under different conditions, it is shown that both the fractal dimension and the peak stress increase with the increase of the fragmentation energy dissipation density. It shows that there is a close correlation between the change of fractal dimension and its macroscopic dynamic mechanical properties.