Cu₄₆Zr₄₆Al_4.8Ti_3.2 bulk metallic glass (BMG) was successfully synthesized by copper-mold casting and the mechanical properties at room temperature were measured by compression tests. The structure and thermal characteristics were analyzed by XRD and DSC, and the fracture surface morphology was examined by SEM. The glassy alloy with 4 mm in diameter shows an high fracture strength of 1 960 MPa, with an improvement of about 20% compared to the ultimate compression fracture strength of the Cu₄₆Zr₄₆Al₈ BMG, which suggests that the Ti addition improves the compression fracture strength. The different degrees of the adiabatic heating induce four types of fracture features: a vein-like structure, an elongated and striated vein pattern, melting and smooth regions. The elongated and striated vein patterns as well as the melting region show that enormous strain energy is released, which causes significant adiabatic heating. Furthermore, many micro-cracks observed in the smooth region are caused by the strong shear force. In addition, the strong shear force leads to many shear bands as well as the melting in the lateral surface.

For the purpose of improving the electrochemical cycle stability of the La-Mg-Ni based A₂B₇-type electrode alloys, both reducing Mg content and substituting La with Pr were adopted. The La_0.8−xPr_xMg_0.2Ni_3.15Co_0.2Al_0.1Si_0.05 (x=0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4) electrode alloys were fabricated by casting and annealing. The investigation on the structures and electrochemical performances of the alloys was performed. The obtained results reveal that the as-cast and annealed alloys comprise two major phases, (La, Mg)₂Ni₇ phase with the hexagonal Ce₂Ni₇-type structure and LaNi₅ phase with the hexagonal CaCu₅-type structure, as well as a little residual LaNi₃ phase. It is also found that the addition of Pr element observably affects the electrochemical hydrogen storage characteristics of the alloys, just as the discharge capacity and high rate discharge ability (HRD) first rise then fall with the growing of Pr content, and among all the alloys, the as-cast and annealed (x=0.3) alloys generate the largest discharge capacities of 360.8 and 386.5 mA·h/g, respectively. Additionally, the electrochemical cycle stability of all the alloys markedly grows with the increase of Pr content. The capacity retaining rate (S₁₀₀) at the 100th charging and discharging cycle is enhanced from 64.98% to 77.55% for the as-cast alloy, and from 76.60% to 95.72% for the as-annealed alloy by rising Pr content from 0 to 0.4. Furthermore, the substitution of Pr for La results in first increase and then decrease in the hydrogen diffusion coefficient (D), the limiting current density (I_L) as well as the electrochemical impedance.

W-doped Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ in the form of Li₄Ti_4.95W_0.05O₁₂ was firstly synthesized via solid state reaction. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were employed to characterize the structure and morphology of Li₄Ti_4.95W_0.05O₁₂. W-doping does not change the phase composition and particle morphology, while remarkably improves its cycling stability at high charge/discharge rate. Li₄Ti_4.95W_0.05O₁₂ exhibits an excellent rate capability with a reversible capacity of 131.2 mA·h/g at 10C and even 118.6 mA·h/g at 20C. The substitution of W for Ti site can enhance the electronic conductivity of Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ via the generation of mixing Ti⁴⁺/Ti³⁺, which indicates that Li₄Ti_4.95W_0.05O₁₂ is promising as a high rate anode for the lithium-ion batteries.

Coconut-based activated carbons were modified with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). The activated carbons, which were modified by different concentrations of SDS, were characterized by acid/base titrations, textural analysis (BET), atomic absorption spectrochemical analysis and Zeta potential measurements. The effects of SDS modification on Pb²⁺ absorption were studied further. The results indicate that after the modification of SDS, there are new functional groups on the surface of modified activated carbons and the number of functional group has changed remarkably, the total acidity decreases observably, but the total alkalinity increases dramatically. With the increase of surface load with SDS, the Pb²⁺ adsorption mass of activated carbons increases and the optimal pH for Pb²⁺ adsorption of the SDS modified activated carbons is 5. The experimental data are simulated better by Freundlich isotherm model for the modified activated carbons, and the experimental data are simulated better by Langmuir isotherm model for unmodified ones.

A series of porous intelligent hydrogels, which exhibited appropriate lower critical solution temperature (LCST) and fast response behavior, were synthesized by radiation method. The structure and surface morphology of hydrogels were examined by the infrared radiation and the scanning electron microscopy, respectively. The influences of the content of crosslinking agent and relative molecular mass of polyethylene glycol (PEG) on the swelling properties of hydrogels were discussed. The molecular mechanics simulations were performed to investigate the phase transformation mechanism of poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) (PNIPA) hydrogel. The results show that macropores are observed in hydrogels, whereas hydrogels prepared without using PEG have a dense surface. LCST of hydrogels increases with the increase of relative molecular mass of PEG. The swelling mechanism of PNIPA porous hydrogels follows non-Fickian diffusion model. The theoretical maximum water absorption S_∞ is approximately consistent with experimental value according to the second-order kinetics model established by Schott. The molecule chains of PNIPA hydrogel begin folding and curling, resulting in volume shrinkage at 305 K. There are much intramolecular nonbonding interactions in molecule chains of hydrogels. The porous hydrogels are expected to be applied in the field of artificial intelligence material.

Chiral ionic liquids (CILs) containing imidazolium cations and L-Proline (L-Pro) anions were applied as chiral selector to separate tryptophan (Trp) enantiomers on a C18 column by ligand exchange chromatography. Several factors influencing Trp enantiomers separation, such as alkyl chain length of CILs, concentrations of Cu²⁺ and CILs, pH of the mobile phase, flow rate, organic solvent and temperature, were studied. Under the optimal conditions, the Trp enantiomers could be successfully separated within 21 min with the resolution of 2.30. At the same time, some thermodynamical parameters were obtained. The experimental results show that the enthalpy values of the Trp enantiomers are negative, indicating that the separation process is exothermic. And the enthalpy values of D-Trp are larger than those of L-Trp, which indicates that L-Trp could form more stable ternary complexes with tryptophan enantiomers.

A novel approach was presented to solve the navigation problem of autonomous mobile robots in unknown environments with dense obstacles based on a univector field method. In an obstacle-free environment, a robot is ensured to reach the goal position with the desired posture by following the univector field. Contrariwise, the univector field cannot guarantee that the robot will avoid obstacles in environments. In order to create an intelligent mobile robot being able to perform the obstacle avoidance task while following the univector field, Dyna-Q algorithm is developed to train the robot in learning moving directions to attain a collision-free path for its navigation. Simulations on the computer as well as experiments on the real world prove that the proposed algorithm is efficient for training the robot in reaching the goal position with the desired final orientation.

Peta-scale high-performance computing systems are increasingly built with heterogeneous CPU and GPU nodes to achieve higher power efficiency and computation throughput. While providing unprecedented capabilities to conduct computational experiments of historic significance, these systems are presently difficult to program. The users, who are domain experts rather than computer experts, prefer to use programming models closer to their domains (e.g., physics and biology) rather than MPI and OpenMP. This has led the development of domain-specific programming that provides domain-specific programming interfaces but abstracts away some performance-critical architecture details. Based on experience in designing large-scale computing systems, a hybrid programming framework for scientific computing on heterogeneous architectures is proposed in this work. Its design philosophy is to provide a collaborative mechanism for domain experts and computer experts so that both domain-specific knowledge and performance-critical architecture details can be adequately exploited. Two real-world scientific applications have been evaluated on TH-1A, a peta-scale CPU-GPU heterogeneous system that is currently the 5th fastest supercomputer in the world. The experimental results show that the proposed framework is well suited for developing large-scale scientific computing applications on peta-scale heterogeneous CPU/GPU systems.

The dynamic equivalent continuum modeling method of the mast which is based on energy equivalency principle was investigated. And three kinds of mast dynamic model were established, which were equivalent continuum model, finite element model and simulation model, respectively. The mast frequencies and mode shapes were calculated by these models and compared with each other. The error between the equivalent continuum model and the finite element model is less than 5% when the mast length is longer. Dynamic responses of the mast with different lengths are tested, the mode frequencies and mode shapes are compared with finite element model. The mode shapes match well with each other, while the frequencies tested by experiments are lower than the results of the finite element model, which reflects the joints lower the mast stiffness. The nonlinear dynamic characteristics are presented in the dynamic responses of the mast under different excitation force levels. The joint nonlinearities in the deployable mast are identified as nonlinear hysteresis contributed by the coulomb friction which soften the mast stiffness and lower the mast frequencies.

The hysteresis characteristic is the major deficiency in the positioning control of magnetic shape memory alloy actuator. A Prandtl-Ishlinskii model was developed to characterize the hysteresis of magnetic shape memory alloy actuator. Based on the proposed Prandtl-Ishlinskii model, the inverse Prandtl-Ishlinskii model was established as a feedforward controller to compensate the hysteresis of the magnetic shape memory alloy actuator. For further improving of the positioning precision of the magnetic shape memory alloy actuator, a hybrid control method with hysteresis nonlinear model in feedforward loop was proposed. The control method is separated into two parts: a feedforward loop with inverse Prandtl-Ishlinskii model and a feedback loop with neural network controller. To validate the validity of the proposed control method, a series of simulations and experiments were researched. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the maximum error rate of open loop controller based on inverse PI model is 1.72%, the maximum error rate of the hybrid controller based on inverse PI model is 1.37%.

Nowadays, rapid technological progress influences the dependability of equipments and also causes rapid obsolescence. The mechatronic and electronic equipment components are mostly affected by obsolescence. A new challenger unit possesses identical functionalities, but with higher performances. This work aims to find the optimal number of components which should be replaced by new-type units, under budgetary constraints. In this work, the new challenger unit is characterized by lower energy consumption and the optimization steps are based on genetic algorithm (GA). The result shows the importance of this type of replacement in order to economize energy consumption and to deal with obsolescence.

A simulation-based multi-objective optimization approach for roll shifting strategy in hot strip mills was presented. Firstly, the effect of roll shifting strategy on wear contour was investigated by numerical simulation, and two evaluation indexes including edge smoothness and body smoothness of wear contours were introduced. Secondly, the edge smoothness average and body smoothness average of all the strips in a rolling campaign were selected as objective functions, and shifting control parameters as decision variables, the multi-objective method of MODE/D as the optimizer, and then a simulation-based multi-objective optimization model for roll shifting strategy was built. The experimental result shows that MODE/D can obtain a good Pareto-optimal front, which suggests a series of alternative solutions to roll shifting strategy. Moreover, the conflicting relationship between two objectives can also be found, which indicates another advantage of multi-objective optimization. Finally, industrial test confirms the feasibility of the multi-objective approach for roll shifting strategy, and it can improve strip profile and extend same width rolling miles of a rolling campaign from 35 km to 70 km.

A geometrical parameters optimization and reducers selection method was proposed for robotic manipulators design. The Lagrangian approach was employed in deriving the dynamic model of a two-DOF manipulator. The flexibility of links and joints was taken into account in the mechanical structure dimensions optimization and reducers selection, in which Timoshenko model was used to discretize the hollow links. Two criteria, i.e. maximization of fundamental frequency and minimization of self-mass/load ratio, were utilized to optimize the manipulators. The NSGA-II (fast elitist nondominated sorting genetic algorithms) was employed to solve the multi-objective optimization problem. How the joints flexibility affects the manipulators design was analyzed and shown in the numerical analysis example. The results indicate that simultaneous consideration of the joints and the links flexibility is very necessary for manipulators optimal design. Finally, several optimal combinations were provided. The effectiveness of the optimization method was proved by comparing with ADAMS simulation results. The self-mass/load ratio error of the two methods is within 10%. The maximum error of the natural frequency by the two methods is 23.74%. The method proposed in this work provides a fast and effective pathway for manipulator design and reducers selection.

The high aerodynamic noise induced by automotive air conditioning systems has important effects on the ride comfort, and the centrifugal fan is the largest noise source in these systems. It is very important to reduce the aerodynamic noise generated by the centrifugal fan. The flow field and the sound field on the whole centrifugal fan configuration have been carried out using the computational fluid dynamics. Simulation results show that the sound pressure level near the outlet of the centrifugal fan is too high. Based on the relationship between flow characteristics and the aerodynamic noise, four parameters of the centrifugal fan, i.e., impeller blade’s outlet angle θ, volute tongue’s gap t, collector inclination angle β, and rotating speed n, were selected as design variables and optimized using response surface methodology. While keeping the function of flow rate unchanged, the peak noise level is reduced by 8 dB or 10.8%. The noise level is satisfactorily reduced.

To study the alternating current (AC) impedance properties of Ag/AgCl electrocardiograph (ECG) electrodes, the electrode pair was gel-to-gel connected, and then the electrical potential was recorded after a safe stimulating current passes through the electrode pair, so the AC impedance data of ECG electrodes were obtained. Varying the frequency and value of stimulating current, the detailed comparison and analysis of AC impedance properties of the electrodes were performed, and the stability was further characterized by using the continuous measurement within 24 h. The experimental results show that the AC impedance values of electrodes decreased, and then slightly increased with the increase of frequency of stimulating current. The minimum AC impedance value was obtained when the frequency was changed to 10 kHz. When the stimulating current increased, the AC impedance values of electrodes showed a slight decrease, but did not change significantly. Besides, the continuous measurement results show that the impedance value presented a significant increase in the initial 30 min, and then was stabilized in the following measuring process.

In order to take precaution and cure against internet of vehicles (IOV) worm propagation in expressway, the IOV worm propagation and its corresponding anti-worm strategy were studied in expressway interchange terminal. According to omnirange driving in expressway interchange terminal and vehicular mobile communication environment, an IOV worm propagation model is constructed; and then according to the dynamic propagation law and destructiveness of IOV worm in this environment, a novel hybrid anti-worm strategy for confrontation is designed. This worm propagation model can factually simulates the IOV worm propagation in this interchange terminal environment; and this hybrid anti-worm strategy can effectively control IOV worm propagation in the environment, moreover, it can reduce the influence on network resource overhead.

A new genetic algorithm for community detection in complex networks was proposed. It adopts matrix encoding that enables traditional crossover between individuals. Initial populations are generated using nodes similarity, which enhances the diversity of initial individuals while retaining an acceptable level of accuracy, and improves the efficiency of optimal solution search. Individual crossover is based on the quality of individuals’ genes; all nodes unassigned to any community are grouped into a new community, while ambiguously placed nodes are assigned to the community to which most of their neighbors belong. Individual mutation, which splits a gene into two new genes or randomly fuses it into other genes, is non-uniform. The simplicity and effectiveness of the algorithm are revealed in experimental tests using artificial random networks and real networks. The accuracy of the algorithm is superior to that of some classic algorithms, and is comparable to that of some recent high-precision algorithms.

The key exposure problem is a practical threat for many security applications. In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), keys could be compromised easily due to its limited hardware protections. A secure group key management scheme is responsible for secure distributing group keys among valid nodes of the group. Based on the key-insulated encryption (KIE), we propose a group key management scheme (KIE-GKMS), which integrates the pair-wise key pre-distribution for WSN. The KIE-GKMS scheme updates group keys dynamically when adding or removing nodes. Moreover, the security analysis proves that the KIE-GKMS scheme not only obtains the semantic security, but also provides the forward and backward security. Finally, the theoretical analysis shows that the KIE-GKMS scheme has constant performance on both communication and storage costs in sensor nodes.

In low earth orbit (LEO) satellite or missile communication scenarios, signals may experience extremely large Doppler shifts and have short visual time. Thus, direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) systems should be able to achieve acquisition in a very short time in spite of large Doppler frequencies. However, the traditional methods cannot solve it well. This work describes a new method that uses a differential decoding technique for Doppler mitigation and a batch process of FFT (fast Fourier transform) and IFFT (invert FFT) for the purpose of parallel code phase search by frequency domain correlation. After the code phase is estimated, another FFT process is carried out to search the Doppler frequency. Since both code phase and Doppler frequency domains are searched in parallel, this architecture can provide acquisition fifty times faster than conventional FFT methods. The performance in terms of the probability of detection and false alarm are also analyzed and simulated, showing that a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) loss of 3 dB is introduced by the differential decoding. The proposed method is an efficient way to shorten the acquisition time with slightly hardware increasing.

A low computational cost cancelable fingerprint template, namely the multi-line codes was proposed. The formulation of a single-line code involves the inspection of minutiae distribution along a straight line constructed based on the reference minutia. Multi-line code is introduced to elevate the performance by combining several single-line codes. Experiments were carried out on a few FVC databases. It has been proven that the proposed method yields relatively low computational complexity as compared to existing minutiae distribution-based methods, while preserving the performance. The equal error rate obtained for FVC2002 DB1 is 4.69% in stolen-key case, and the total arithmetic operations utilized are 14 520 additions and zero multiplication.

A signal probability and activity probability (SPAP) model was proposed firstly, to estimate the impacts of the negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) and positive bias temperature instability (PBTI) on power gated static random access memory (SRAM). The experiment results show that PBTI has significant influence on the read and write operations of SRAM with power gating, and it deteriorates the NBTI effects and results in a up to 39.38% static noise margin reduction and a 35.7% write margin degradation together with NBTI after 10⁶ s working time. Then, a circuit level simulation was used to verify the assumption of the SPAP model, and finally the statistic data of CPU2000 benchmarks show that the proposed model has a reduction of 3.85% for estimation of the SNM degradation after 10⁶ s working time compared with previous work.

The reaction of CO₂ reforming of CH₄ has been investigated with γ-Al₂O₃-supported platinum and ruthenium bimetallic catalysts, with the specific purpose of thermochemical energy storage. The catalysts were prepared by using the wetness impregnation method. The prepared catalysts were characterized by a series of physico-chemical characterization techniques such as BET surface area, thermo-gravimetric (TG), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In addition, the amount of carbon deposits on the surface of the catalysts and the type of the carbonaceous species were discussed by TG. It was found that the bimetallic Pt-Ru/γ-Al₂O₃ catalysts exhibit both superior catalytic activity and remarkable stability by comparison of monometallic catalysts. During the 500 h stability test, the bimetallic catalyst showed a good performance at 800 °C in CO₂ reforming of CH₄, exhibiting an excellent anti-carbon performance with the mass loss of less than 8.5%. The results also indicate that CO₂ and CH₄ have quite stable conversions of 96.0 % and 94.0 %, respectively. Also, the selectivity of the catalysts is excellent with the products ratio of CO/H₂ maintaining at 1.02. Furthermore, it was found in TEM images that the active carbonaceous species were formed during the catalytic reaction, and well-distributed dot-shaped metallic particles with a relatively uniform size of about 3 nm as well as amorphous carbon structures were observed. Combined with BET, TG, TEM tests, it is concluded that the selected bimetallic catalysts can work continuously in a stable state at the high temperature, which has a potential to be utilized for the closed-loop cycle of the solar thermochemical energy storage in future industry applications.

A solution of 0.1 mol/L to 1.0 mol/L H₂SO₄ can dissolve alkali metals and alkaline earth metals which weaken an active site of SCR catalyst. The waste catalyst washed with 0.5 mol/L H₂SO₄ regained the best catalytic activity. When a concentration of the sulfuric acid is less than 0.5 mol/L, sufficient cleaning effects cannot be obtained. In contrast, when the concentration is greater than 1.0 mol/L, the active components, vanadium and tungsten are undesirably eluted. The total BET surface of the catalyst regenerated by air lift loop reactor showed almost the same as that of fresh catalyst due to the removal of insoluble compounds which may be penetrated into pores of catalyst. The addition of a solution of 0.075 mol/L ammonium vanadate (NH₄VO₃) and 0.075 mol/L ammonium paratungstate (5(NH₄)₂O·12WO₃·5H₂O) to 0.1 mol/L H₂SO₄ significantly increases the activity of the waste catalyst.

A batch experiment was conducted to investigate the adsorption of trivalent chromium (Cr(III)) from aqueous solutions by sugarcane pulp residue (SPR) and biochar. The results show that Cr(III) adsorption by SPR and biochar is highly pH-dependent and Cr(III) adsorption amount increases with the increase of pH. The adsorption kinetics of Cr(III) fits well with the pseudo-second-order model. The maximum Cr(III) adsorption capacities of 15.85 mg/g and 3.43 mg/g for biochar and SPR were calculated by Langmuir model. This indicates that biochar has a larger ability for Cr(III) adsorption than SPR. The free energy change value (ΔG) reveals a spontaneous sorption process of Cr(III) onto SPR and non-spontaneous sorption process onto biochar. The entropy change (ΔS) and enthalpy change (ΔH) are found to be 66.27 J/(mol·K) and 17.13 kJ/mol for SPR and 91.59 J/(mol·K) and 30.875 kJ/mol for biochar which further reflect an affinity of Cr(III) onto SPR and biochar. It is suggested that biochar has potential to be an efficient adsorbent in the removal of Cr(III) from industrial wastewater.

According to Cubic law and incompressible fluid law of mass conservation, the seepage character of the fracture surface was simulated with the simulation method of fractal theory and random Brown function. Furthermore, the permeability coefficient of the single fracture was obtained. In order to test the stability of the method, 500 simulations were conducted on each different fractal dimension. The simulated permeability coefficient was analyzed in probability density distribution and probability cumulative distribution statistics. Statistics showed that the discrete degree of the permeability coefficient increases with the increase of the fractal dimension. And the calculation result has better stability when the fractal dimension value is relatively small. According to the Bayes theory, the characteristic index of the permeability coefficient on fractal dimension P(D_fj|R_i) is established. The index, P(D_fj|R_i), shows that when the simulated permeability coefficient is relatively large, it can clearly represent the fractal dimension of the structure surface, the probability is 82%. The calculated results of the characteristic index verify the feasibility of the method.

In order to ensure overall optimization of the underground metal mine production scale, multidisciplinary design optimization model of production scale which covers the subsystem objective function of income of production, safety and environmental impact in the underground metal mine was established by using multidisciplinary design optimization method. The coupling effects from various disciplines were fully considered, and adaptive mutative scale chaos immunization optimization algorithm was adopted to solve multidisciplinary design optimization model of underground metal mine production scale. Practical results show that multidisciplinary design optimization on production scale of an underground lead and zinc mine reflect the actual operating conditions more realistically, the production scale is about 1.25 Mt/a (Lead and zinc metal content of 160 000 t/a), the economic life is approximately 14 a, corresponding coefficient of production profits can be increased to 15.13%, safety factor can be increased to 5.4% and environmental impact coefficient can be reduced by 9.52%.

Spectrum characteristics of different types of seismic waves and dynamic response characteristics of super high-rise building structures under long-period ground motions were comparatively analyzed. First, the ground response wave (named LS-R wave) of a soft soil site with deep deposit, taking long-period bedrock seismic record as input, was calculated by wave propagation method. After that, a TOMAKOMAI station long-period seismic record from the Tokachi-Oki earthquake and conventional El-Centro wave were also chosen. Spectrum characteristics of these waves were analyzed and compared. Then, a series of shaking table tests were performed on a 1:50 scale super high-rise structural model under these seismic waves. Furthermore, numerical simulation of the prototype structure under these excitations was conducted, and structure damages under different intensive ground motions were discussed. The results show that: 1) Spectrum characteristics of ground response wave are significantly influenced by soft soil site with deep deposit, and the predominant period has an increasing trend. 2) The maximum acceleration amplification factor of the structure under the TOM wave is two times that under the El-Centro wave; while the maximum displacement response of the structure under the TOM wave is 4.4 times that under the El-Centro wave. Long-period ground motions show greater influences on displacement responses than acceleration responses for super high-rise building structures. 3) Most inelastic damage occurs at the upper 1/3 part of the super high-rise building when subjected to long-period ground motions.

Slip of a composite box beam may reduce its stiffness, enlarge its deformation and affect its performance. In this work, the governing differential equations and boundary conditions of composite box beams were established. Analytic solutions of combined differential equations were also established. Partial degree of freedom was adopted to establish a new FEA element of three-dimensional beam, taking into account the slip effect. Slip and its first-order derivative were introduced into the nodes of composite box beams as generalized degree of freedom. Stiffness matrix and load array of beam elements were established. A three-dimensional nonlinear calculation program was worked out. The results show that the element is reliable and easy to divide and is suitable for special nonlinear analysis of large-span composite box beams.

A methodology was proposed for the design of micropiles to increase earth slopes stability. An analytic model based on beam-column equation and an existing P-y curve method was set up and used to find the shear capacity of the micropile. Then, a step-by-step design procedure for stabilization of earth slope with micropiles was introduced, involving six main steps: 1) Choosing a location for the micropiles within the existing slope; 2) Selecting micropile cross section; 3) Estimating length of micropile; 4) Evaluating shear capacity of micropiles; 5) Calculating spacing required to provide force to stabilize the slope; 6) Designing the concrete cap beam. The application of the method to an embankment landslide in Qinghai Province was described in detail. In the final design, three rows of micropiles were adopted as a group and a total of 126 micropiles with 0.23 m in diameter were used. The micropile length ranged between 15 and 18 m, with the spacing 1.5 m at in-row direction. The monitoring data indicate that slope movement has been effectively controlled as a result of the slope stabilization measure, which verifies the reasonability of the design method.

To overcome the deficiencies of conventional geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported (GRPS) embankment, a new improvement technique, fixed geosynthetic technique of GRPS embankment (FGT embankment), was developed and introduced. Based on the discussion about the load transfer mechanism of FGT embankment, a simplified check method of the requirement of geosynthetic tensile strength and a mechanical model of the FGT embankment were proposed. Two conditions, the pile cap and pile beam conditions are considered in the mechanical model. The finite difference method is used to solve the mechanical model owing to the complexity of the differential equations and the soil strata. Then, the numerical procedure is programmed. Finally, a field test is conducted to verify the mechanical model and the calculated results are in good agreement with field measured data.

The effective stress method is developed to predict the axial capacity of piles in clay. The effective stress state changes due to the resulting pore pressure change and therefore, the strength and stiffness of the soil will change. In this work, the finite element method is utilized as a tool for the analysis of pile-soil systems in undrained condition. The computer program CRISP was developed to suit the problem requirements. CRISP uses the finite element technique and allows predictions to be made of ground deformation using critical state theories. Eight-node isoparametric element was added to the program in addition to the slip element. A pile loading problem was solved in which the pile-soil system is analyzed in undrained condition. The pile is modelled as elastic-plastic material, while the soil is assumed to follow the modified Cam clay model. During undrained loading condition, the settlement values increase by 22% when slip elements are used. The surface settlement increases by about three times when the load is doubled and the surface settlement at all points increases when using slip elements due to the mode of motion which allows smooth movement of the adjacent soil with respect to the pile. The vertical displacement increases as the distance decreases from the pile and negligible values are obtained beyond 10D (where D is the pile diameter) from the center of the pile and these values are slightly increased when slip elements are used. The vertical effective stress along a section at a distance D from the pile center is approximately the same for all load increments and lower values of effective vertical stress can be obtained when slip elements are used.

Adjacent high-rise building with CFG pile composite foundation was studied using model test method to investigate stress and displacement of the foundation pile retaining structure, the subsidence and transmogrification law of the composite foundation. Two different project cases with and without high-rise building adjacent to pile foundation were compared. The relationships of slope pile bending moment, earth pressure, pile top displacement and complex settlement with respect to time were obtained. 1) When there is no adjacent building, the displacement of supporting system caused by excavation is mainly in the horizontal direction; while when the adjacent building exists, the displacement of supporting system will be vertical. 2) When the excavation depth is less than or equal to the adjacent building’s composite foundation depth, the force of supporting structure is uniform and has small value, at the same time, the pile strength is in fully use and the foundation is stable; while when the excavation depth is greater than the depth of adjacent building’s composite foundation, the results will be opposite. 3) During the excavation process, the adjustment of the composite ground loads on the supporting structure is carried out downward and the force of the supporting structure is reduced through the deformation of the bearing layer.

The closed form solutions of the stress and displacement in strain softening rock mass around a newly formed cavity are derived with a three step-wise elasto-plastic model. Hoek-Brown criterion is adopted as the yielding criterion of rock mass. Damage factors are proposed to account for degradation of the material parameters to reflect the degree of strain softening. The surrounding rock mass around the cavity is divided into three regions: elastic region, strain softening region and residual state region. The analytical solutions of stress, strain, displacement and radius of each region are obtained. The effects of the strain softening and shear dilatancy behavior on the results are investigated with parametric studies. The results show that the radii of the residual state region and strain softening region in the surrounding rock mass with higher damage degree are larger. The radii of the residual state region and strain softening region are 1–2 times and 1.5–3 times of the cavity radius, respectively. The radial and tangential stresses decrease with the increase of the damage factor. The displacement of the cavity wall for the case with maximum plastic bulk strain is nearly twice than that with no dilation. Rock mass moves more toward the center for the case with larger damage factor and shear dilation. The area of the plastic region is larger when the damage factors are considered. The displacements in the surrounding rock mass increase with the increase of the damage factors and shear dilation factors. The solutions can be applied to the stability analysis and support design of the underground excavation.

In order to simulate the airflow in anhydrous case and the water-air flow in groundwater case, a numerical model of airflow in soil was developed. For the nonlinearity of the governing partial differential equation, the corresponding discretization and linearization methods were given. Due to the mass transfer between air-phase and water-phase, phase states of the model elements were constantly changing. Thus, parameters of the model were divided into primary ones and secondary ones, and the primary variables changing with phase states and the secondary variables can be obtained by their functional relationship with the primary variables. Additionally, the special definite condition of this numerical model was illustrated. Two examples were given to simulate the airflow in soil whether there was groundwater or not, and the effectiveness of the numerical model is verified by comparing the results of simulation with that of experiment.

The shear strength parameters for geotechnical designs are obtained mainly from consolidated drained (CD) or consolidated undrained (CU) triaxial tests. However, during construction, the excess pore-air pressure generally dissipates instantaneously while the excess pore-water pressure dissipates with time. This condition needs to be simulated in a constant water content (CW) triaxial test. The study on Yunnan red clay is carried out to investigate the soil-water characteristics and the shear strength characteristics under the constant water content condition. Osmotic technique is used to obtain the soil-water characteristic curve. A series of CW triaxial tests are conducted on statically compacted specimens. The experimental results show that the soil-water characteristic curve has a low air entry value of 7 kPa due to large pores in non-uniform pore size distribution, and a high residual value exceeding 10 MPa. In addition, the initial degree of saturation and net confining stress play an important role in affecting the shear characteristics under the constant water content condition. Finally, a new semi-empirical shear strength model in terms of degree of saturation is proposed and then applied to Yunnan red clay. Simulation result shows that the model is capable of capturing some key features of soils. The model can be used in whole engineering practice range, covering both unsaturated and saturated soils.

Extended finite element method (XFEM) implementation of the interaction integral methodology for evaluating the stress intensity factors (SIF) of the mixed-mode crack problem is presented. A discontinuous function and the near-tip asymptotic function are added to the classic finite element approximation to model the crack behavior. Two-state integral by the superposition of actual and auxiliary fields is derived to calculate the SIFs. Applications of the proposed technique to the inclined centre crack plate with inclined angle from 0° to 90° and slant edge crack plate with slant angle 45°, 67.5° and 90° are presented, and comparisons are made with closed form solutions. The results show that the proposed method is convenient, accurate and computationally efficient.

Ballastless tracks have been widely applied in high-speed railway (HSR). The adaptability research between continuous welded rails (CWR) and long-span bridges of HSR is of great practical engineering significance. Based on the HSR long-span continuous bridges, the integrative spatial finite element model of track-bridge-pier-foundation system was established with the nonlinear spring element simulating the longitudinal resistance between track and bridge. Comparative study on the various additional longitudinal forces of CWR using the common fasteners and small resistance fasteners was carried out. Analysis results indicate that the additional expansion forces and additional rail-breaking forces in long-span ballastless continuous girders can be reduced evidently by 40%–50% after adopting small resistance fasteners, but lead to greater rail broken gap. The small resistance fasteners have little influence on the additional force only caused by vertical load, but can reduce the additional force caused by vertical load combined with braking load by over 10%. Besides, transient analysis method is proved to be more accurate and safe in calculating additional longitudinal forces when the train running or braking on the bridge, compared with the traditional static method.

The main objective of this work is to propose new mixture response parameters and to compare correlations with rut depths and sensitivity of permanent deformation response parameters based on field extracted cores and lab-mixed duplicates. A new “mix-confined” test is developed and four new parameters for this test are proposed. Correlation coefficients with rut depths and coefficients of variation (sensitivity) are compared between the four new and two existing parameters. Some parameters are recommended to be used for the newly developed test. The results show that, newly developed test can capture the changes of permanent deformation of asphalt mixtures. Only one new parameter (D₁ of Stephen Price model) and one existing parameter (flow number, F_n) have strong correlations with rut depths of asphalt pavements (R² greater than 0.7) and have relative small sensitivity (coefficient of variation, COV, less than 30%). For polymer modified asphalt mixtures, the parameter D₁ rather than F_n should be used. These findings can be used to check the permanent deformation of asphalt mixture during the mix design.