Isothermal sintering experiments were performed on the 316L stainless steel fiber felts with fiber diameters of 8 μm and 20 μm. Surface morphologies of the sintered specimens were investigated by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optical microscopy. The results show that the amount of the sintering necks and the relative densities of the fiber felt increase with the increasing of both the sintering temperature and the sintering time. And the activation energies estimated present a decline at high relative densities for both 8 μm and 20 μm fiber felts. Moreover, the sintering densification of the fiber felts is dominated by volume diffusion mechanism at low temperature and relative densities. As more grain boundaries are formed at higher temperature and relative density, grain boundary diffusion will also contribute to the densification of the specimen.

AISI 304 stainless steel plates were welded with activated flux tungsten inert gas (A-TIG) method by utilizing self-developed activated flux. It is indicated from the experimental results that for 8 mm-thick AISI 304 stainless steel plate, weld joint of full penetration and one-side welding with good weld appearance can be obtained in a single pass without groove preparation by utilizing A-TIG welding. Moreover, activated flux powders do not cause significant effect on the microstructure of TIG weld and the mechanical properties of A-TIG weld joints are also superior to those of C-TIG (conventional TIG) welding.

The corrosion behavior of 907 steel under thin electrolyte layer (TEL) has been investigated by means of cathodic polarization curve measurement, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that the cathodic diffusion current density presents the variation trend of initial increase and subsequent decrease with the decrease of TEL thickness, and the maximum deposits at 58 μm. The cotangent-hyperbolic impedance (O) is rationally first introduced to study the diffusion process of the reactants through the corrosion products layer with many permeable holes. The initial corrosion rate of 907 steel under different TEL thickness increases with the decrease of TEL thickness except that of 104 μm, whereas the corrosion rate after long time corrosion can be ranked as 104 μm>402 μm>198 μm>301 μm >bulk solution.

The flow stress behavior of high-purity Al-Cu-Mg alloy under hot deformation conditions was studied by Gleeble-1500, with the deformation temperature range from 300 to 500 °C and the strain rate range from 0.01 to 10 s⁻¹. From the true stress-true strain curve, the flow stress increases with the increasing of strain and tends to be constant after a peak value, showing dynamic recover, and the peak value of flow stress increases with the decreasing of deformation temperature and the increasing of strain rate. When the strain rate is 10 s⁻¹ and the deformation temperature is higher than 400 °C, the flow stress shows dynamic recrystallization characteristic. TEM micrographs were used to reveal the evolution of microstructures. According to the processing map at true strain of 0.7, the feasible deformation conditions are high strain rate (>0.5 s⁻¹) or 440–500 °C and 0.01–0.02 s⁻¹.

For Gu-Ag alloy, an important parameter called workability in the forming process of materials can be evaluated by processing maps yielded from the stress-strain data generated by hot compression tests at temperatures of 700–850 °C and strain rates of 0.01–10 s⁻¹. And at the true strain of 0.15, 0.35 and 0.55, respectively, the responses of strain-rate sensitivity, power dissipation efficiency and instability parameter to temperature and strain rate were studied. Instability maps and power dissipation maps were superimposed to form processing maps, which reveal the determinate regions where individual metallurgical processes occur and the limiting conditions of flow instability regions. Furthermore, the optimal processing parameters for bulk metal working are identified clearly by the processing maps.

Mg-6%Zn-10%β-Ca₃(PO₄)₂ composite was prepared through powder metallurgy methods with different chitosan coatings on its surface. The properties of the chitosan coatings on the surface of Mg-6%Zn-10%β-Ca₃(PO₄)₂ composite, such as the adhesion ability, the corrosion behavior and the cytotoxicity properties, were investigated, and the microstructure of the chitosan coating was observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results show that chitosan coating improves the corrosion resistance of the magnesium composite specimens significantly. Mg-6%Zn-10%β-Ca₃(PO₄)₂ composite specimens exhibit good corrosion resistance and low pH values in simulated body fluid (SBF) at 37 °C in the immersion test with 7-layer chitosan coating whose relative molecular mass is 30×10⁴ Da. The cytotoxicity tests indicate that Mg-6%Zn-10%β-Ca₃(PO₄)₂ with chitosan coating is nontoxic with a cytotoxicity grade of zero against L-929 cells, which is better than that of uncoated composites.

A Ti interlayer with thickness about 300 nm was sputtered on Cu microchannels, followed by an ultrasonic seeding with nanodiamond powders. Adherent diamond film with crystalline grains close to thermal equilibrium shape was tightly deposited by hot-filament chemical vapor deposition (HF-CVD). The nucleation and growth of diamond were investigated with micro-Raman spectroscope and field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray detector (EDX). Results show that the nucleation density is found to be up to 10¹⁰ cm⁻². The enhancement of the nucleation kinetics can be attributed to the nanometer rough Ti interlayer surface. An improved absorption of nanodiamond particles is found, which act as starting points for the diamond nucleation during HF-CVD process. Furthermore, finite element simulation was conducted to understand the thermal management properties of prepared diamond/Cu microchannel heat sink.

Although multi-stage incremental sheet forming has always been adopted instead of single-stage forming to form parts with a steep wall angle or to achieve a high forming performance, it is largely dependent on empirical designs. In order to research multi-stage forming further, the effect of forming stages (n) and angle interval between the two adjacent stages (Δα) on thickness distribution was investigated. Firstly, a finite element method (FEM) model of multi-stage incremental forming was established and experimentally verified. Then, based on the proposed simulation model, different strategies were adopted to form a frustum of cone with wall angle of 30° to research the thickness distribution of multi-pass forming. It is proved that the minimum thickness increases largely and the variance of sheet thickness decreases significantly as the value of n grows. Further, with the increase of Δα, the minimum thickness increases initially and then decreases, and the optimal thickness distribution is achieved with Δα of 10°. Additionally, a formula is deduced to estimate the sheet thickness after multi-stage forming and proved to be effective. And the simulation results fit well with the experimental results.

The drawn copper wires have been analyzed by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and a new method, which uses DSC measurements to determine the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov (JMAK) exponent via introducing Arrhenius behavior and modifying the baseline of DSC curves, has been proposed. The results show that JMAK exponent and recrystallization activation energy of the drawn copper wires with a strain of 2.77 are about 2.39 and 125 kJ/mol, respectively. The line linking the tangency points of DSC curve hypotenuse can be used as the baseline when calculating recrystallization fraction. The JMAK exponent obtained by the DSC method is in a good agreement with that obtained by microhardness measurements. Compared to traditional methods to measure the exponent, the proposed method is faster and less labor intensive.

Numerical simulations based on a new regularized phase-field model were presented, to simulate the solidification of hexagonal close-packed materials with strong interfacial energy anisotropies. Results show that the crystal grows into facet dendrites, displaying six-fold symmetry. The size of initial crystals has an effect on the branching-off of the principal branch tip along the 〈100〉 direction, which is eliminated by setting the b/a (a and b are the semi-major and semi-minor sizes in the initial elliptical crystals, respectively) value to be less than or equal to 1. With an increase in the undercooling value, the equilibrium morphology of the crystal changes from a star-like shape to facet dendrites without side branches. The steady-state tip velocity increases exponentially when the dimensionless undercooling is below the critical value. With a further increase in the undercooling value, the equilibrium morphology of the crystal grows into a developed side-branch structure, and the steady-state tip velocity of the facet dendrites increases linearly. The facet dendrite growth has controlled diffusion and kinetics.

CeO₂@SiO₂ core-shell nanoparticles were prepared by microemulsion method, and metalloporphyrins were immobilized on the CeO₂@SiO₂ core-shell nanoparticles surface via amide bond. The supported metalloporphyrin catalysts were characterized by N₂ adsorption-desorption isotherm (BET), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), ultraviolet and visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The results show that the morphology of CeO₂@SiO₂ nanoparticles is core-shell microspheres with about 30 nm in diameter, and metalloporphyrins are immobilized on the CeO₂@SiO₂ core-shell nanoparticles via amide bond. Especially, the core-shell structure contains multi CeO₂ core and thin SiO₂ shell, which may benefit the synergistic effect between the CeO₂ core and the porphyrin anchored on the very thin SiO₂ shell. As a result, this supported metalloporphyrin catalysts present comparably high catalytic activity and stability for oxidation of ethylbenzene with molecular oxygen, namely, ethylbenzene conversion remains around 12% with identical selectivity of about 80% for acetophenone even after six-times reuse of the catalyst.

The volatilization of stibnite (Sb₂S₃) in nitrogen from 700 to 1000 °C was investigated by using thermogravimetric analysis. The results indicate that in inert atmosphere, stibnite can be volatilized most efficiently as Sb₂S₃ (g) at a linear rate below 850 °C, with activation energy of 137.18 kJ/mol, and the reaction rate constant can be expressed as k=206901exp(−16.5/T). Stibnite can be decomposed into Sb and sulfur at temperature above 850 °C in a nitrogen atmosphere. However, in the presence of oxygen, stibnite is oxidized into Sb and SO₂ gas at high temperature. Otherwise, Sb is oxidized quickly into antimony oxides such as Sb₂O₃ and SbO₂, while Sb₂O₃ can be volatilized efficiently at high temperature.

The leaching kinetics of molybdenum from Ni-Mo ore in sulfuric acid solution with sodium peroxodisulfate was studied. The effects including leaching temperature, reaction time, particle size, stirring speed, and concentrations of sulfuric acid and sodium peroxodisulfate were investigated. The leaching process of molybdenum from Ni-Mo ore is controlled by the chemical reaction through the solid layer across the unreacted shrinking core. The apparent activation energy of the leaching of molybdenum is calculated to be 41.0 kJ/mol and the leaching kinetics equation of molybdenum from Ni-Mo ore is expressed as 1-(1-a)^1/3=3405.7exp[−41030.0/(RT)]t.

Bioleaching and electrochemical experiments were conducted to evaluate pyrrhotite dissolution in the presence of pure L. ferriphilum and mixed culture of L. ferriphilum and A. caldus. The results indicate that the pyrrhotite oxidation behavior is the preferential dissolution of iron accompanied with the massive formation of sulfur in the presence of L. ferriphilum, which significantly hinders the leaching efficiency. Comparatively, the leaching rate of pyrrhotite distinctly increases by 68% in the mixed culture of L. ferriphilum and A. caldus at the 3rd day. But, the accumulated ferric ions and high pH value produced by bioleaching process can give rise to the rapid formation of jarosite, which is the primary passivation film blocking continuous iron extraction during bioleaching by the mixed culture. The addition of A. caldus during leaching by L. ferriphilum can accelerate the oxidation rate of pyrrhotite, but not change the electrochemical oxidation mechanisms of pyrrhotite. XRD and SEM/EDS analyses as well as electrochemical study confirm the above conclusions.

To reduce carbon intensity, an improved management method balancing the reduction in costs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is required for Tianjin’s waste management system. Firstly, six objective functions, namely, cost minimization, GHG minimization, eco-efficiency minimization, cost maximization, GHG maximization and eco-efficiency maximization, are built and subjected to the same constraints with each objective function corresponding to one scenario. Secondly, GHG emissions and costs are derived from the waste flow of each scenario. Thirdly, the range of GHG emissions and costs of other potential scenarios are obtained and plotted through adjusting waste flow with infinitely possible step sizes according to the correlation among the above six scenarios. And the optimal scenario is determined based on this range. The results suggest the following conclusions. 1) The scenarios located on the border between scenario cost minimization and GHG minimization create an optimum curve, and scenario GHG minimization has the smallest eco-efficiency on the curve; 2) Simple pursuit of eco-efficiency minimization using fractional programming may be unreasonable; 3) Balancing GHG emissions from incineration and landfills benefits Tianjin’s waste management system as it reduces GHG emissions and costs.

Desorption of total saturated fractions (i.e. SAT, defined for this study as the summation of the concentrations of the saturated hydrocarbon from n-C₁₀ to n-C₂₆) and polycyclic aromatic fractions (i.e. PAH, defined as the summation of the concentrations of all polycyclic aromatic fractions including the 16 EPA priority PAH) in two types of soils subjected to the changes of pH and salinity and different bio-surfactant concentrations were investigated. In general, compared with the experiments without bio-surfactant addition, adding rhamnolipid to crude oil-water systems at concentrations above its critical micelle concentration (CMC) values benefits SAT and PAH desorption. The results indicate that the change of pH could have distinct effects on rhamnolipid performance concerning its own micelle structure and soil properties. For loam soil, the adsorption of non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) and rhamnolipid would be the principle limiting factors during the NAPL removal procedure. For sand soil, less amount of rhamnolipid is adsorbed onto soil. Thus, with the increase of salinity, the solubilization and desorption of rhamnolipid solution are more significant. In summary, the pH and salt sensitivity of the bio-surfactant will vary according to the specific structure of the surfactant characteristics and soil properties.

Considering the compliance control problem of a hexapod robot under different environments, a control strategy based on the improved adaptive control algorithm is proposed. The model of robot structure and impedance control is established. Then, the indirect adaptive control algorithm is derived. Through the analysis of its parameters, it can be noticed that the algorithm does not meet the requirements of the robot compliance control in a complex environment. Therefore, the fuzzy control algorithm is used to adjust the adaptive control parameters. The satisfied system response can be obtained based on the adjustment in real time according to the error between input and output. Comparative experiments and analysis of traditional adaptive control and the improved adaptive control algorithm are presented. It can be verified that not only desired contact force can be reached quickly in different environments, but also smaller contact impact and sliding avoidance are guaranteed, which means that the control strategy has great significance to enhance the adaptability of the hexapod robot.

For vision-based mobile robot navigation, images of the same scene may undergo a general affine transformation in the case of significant viewpoint changes. So, a novel method for detecting affine invariant interest points is proposed to obtain the invariant local features, which is coined polynomial local orientation tensor (PLOT). The new detector is based on image local orientation tensor that is constructed from the polynomial expansion of image signal. Firstly, the properties of local orientation tensor of PLOT are analyzed, and a suitable tuning parameter of local orientation tensor is chosen so as to extract invariant features. The initial interest points are detected by local maxima search for the smaller eigenvalues of the orientation tensor. Then, an iterative procedure is used to allow the initial interest points to converge to affine invariant interest points and regions. The performances of this detector are evaluated on the repeatability criteria and recall versus 1-precision graphs, and then are compared with other existing approaches. Experimental results for PLOT show strong performance under affine transformation in the real-world conditions.

Deepwater deployment of offshore structures in different sea states was investigated. The whole deployment system was modeled as a lumped mass model, and discretization scheme for cable geometry and methodology for calculating the internal and external force acting on deploying cable were presented. The deployment model suitable for the time-varying length of deploying cable was specified. The free-surface flow fields together with the ship motions were used to calculate dynamic tension in the deploying cable during deployment of the structure. The deployment of deep sea mining system which was a typical subsea working system was employed. Based on lumped mass analysis model and parameters of deep sea mining system, numerical simulations were performed, and dynamic load and dynamic amplification factor (DAF) with different cable parameters, deploying velocities and sea states were obtained. It is shown that cable parameters and amplitudes of ocean waves can significantly influence the dynamic load and DAF, and the time-varying natural period of deploying system is a dominant factor, while the effect of deploying velocity is not obvious.

The most common apparatus used to investigate the load-deformation parameters of homogeneous fine-grained soils is a Casagrande-type oedometer. A typical Casagrande oedometer cell has an internal diameter of 76 mm and a height of 19 mm. However, the dimensions of this kind of apparatus do not meet the requirements of some civil engineering applications like studying load-deformation characteristics of specimens with large-diameter particles such as granular materials or municipal solid waste materials. Therefore, it is decided to design and develop a large-scale oedometer with an internal diameter of 490 mm. The new apparatus provides the possibility to evaluate the load-deformation characteristics of soil specimens with different diameter to height ratios. The designed apparatus is able to measure the coefficient of lateral earth pressure at rest. The details and capabilities of the developed oedometer are provided and discussed. To study the performance and efficiency, a number of consolidation tests were performed on Firoozkoh No. 161 sand using the newly developed large scale oedometer made and also the 50 mm diameter Casagrande oedometer. Benchmark test results show that measured consolidation parameters by large scale oedometer are comparable to values measured by Casagrande type oedometer.

In order to improve the strength and stiffness of shield cutterhead, the method of fuzzy mathematics theory in combination with the finite element analysis is adopted. An optimal design model of structural parameters for shield cutterhead is formulated, based on the complex engineering technical requirements. In the model, as the objective function of the model is a composite function of the strength and stiffness, the response surface method is applied to formulate the approximate function of objective function in order to reduce the solution scale of optimal problem. A multi-objective genetic algorithm is used to solve the cutterhead structure design problem and the change rule of the stress-strain with various structural parameters as well as their optimal values were researched under specific geological conditions. The results show that compared with original cutterhead structure scheme, the obtained optimal scheme of the cutterhead structure can greatly improve the strength and stiffness of the cutterhead, which can be seen from the reduction of its maximum equivalent stress by 21.2%, that of its maximum deformation by 0.75%, and that of its mass by 1.04%.

The calculation method of sliding ratios for conjugate-curve gear pair, generated based on the theory of conjugate curves, is proposed. The theoretical model of conjugate-curve gear drive is briefly introduced. The general calculation formulas of sliding ratios are developed according to the conjugate curves. The applications to the circular arc gears based on conjugate curves and the novel involute-helix gears are studied. A comparison on the sliding coefficient with the conventional corresponding gear drive is also carried out. The influences of gear parameters such as spiral parameter, gear ratio and modulus on the sliding ratios of gear drive are discussed. Brief description of manufacturing method for conjugate-curve gear pair is given. The research results show that the sliding ratios of gear pair become smaller with the increase of spiral parameter and gear ratio, respectively. And it will be greater with the increase of modulus for the tooth profiles. The meshing characteristics of conjugate-curve gears are further reflected and the optimization design of tooth profiles with high performance may be obtained.

In order to improve the performance of the probability hypothesis density (PHD) algorithm based particle filter (PF) in terms of number estimation and states extraction of multiple targets, a new probability hypothesis density filter algorithm based on marginalized particle and kernel density estimation is proposed, which utilizes the idea of marginalized particle filter to enhance the estimating performance of the PHD. The state variables are decomposed into linear and non-linear parts. The particle filter is adopted to predict and estimate the nonlinear states of multi-target after dimensionality reduction, while the Kalman filter is applied to estimate the linear parts under linear Gaussian condition. Embedding the information of the linear states into the estimated nonlinear states helps to reduce the estimating variance and improve the accuracy of target number estimation. The meanshift kernel density estimation, being of the inherent nature of searching peak value via an adaptive gradient ascent iteration, is introduced to cluster particles and extract target states, which is independent of the target number and can converge to the local peak position of the PHD distribution while avoiding the errors due to the inaccuracy in modeling and parameters estimation. Experiments show that the proposed algorithm can obtain higher tracking accuracy when using fewer sampling particles and is of lower computational complexity compared with the PF-PHD.

A 3rd-order Butterworth active-RC complex band-pass filter was presented for ZigBee (IEEE802.15.4) transceiver applications. The filter adopted cascaded complex pole stages to realize the 3 MHz bandwidth with a centre frequency of 2 MHz which was required by the ZigBee transceiver applications. An automatic frequency tuning scheme was also designed to accommodate the performance deterioration due to the process, voltage and temperature (PVT) variations. The whole filter is implemented in a 0.18 μm standard process and occupies an area of 1.3 mm×0.6 mm. The current dissipation is 1.2 mA from a 1.8 V single power supply. Measurement results show that the image rejection ratio (IRR) of the filter is 24.1 dB with a pass-band ripple less than 0.3 dB. The adjacent channel rejection is 29.8 dB@7 MHz and alternate channel rejection 47.5 dB@12 MHz, respectively.

In order to improve the energy efficiency of large-scale data centers, a virtual machine (VM) deployment algorithm called three-threshold energy saving algorithm (TESA), which is based on the linear relation between the energy consumption and (processor) resource utilization, is proposed. In TESA, according to load, hosts in data centers are divided into four classes, that is, host with light load, host with proper load, host with middle load and host with heavy load. By defining TESA, VMs on lightly loaded host or VMs on heavily loaded host are migrated to another host with proper load; VMs on properly loaded host or VMs on middling loaded host are kept constant. Then, based on the TESA, five kinds of VM selection policies (minimization of migrations policy based on TESA (MIMT), maximization of migrations policy based on TESA (MAMT), highest potential growth policy based on TESA (HPGT), lowest potential growth policy based on TESA (LPGT) and random choice policy based on TESA (RCT)) are presented, and MIMT is chosen as the representative policy through experimental comparison. Finally, five research directions are put forward on future energy management. The results of simulation indicate that, as compared with single threshold (ST) algorithm and minimization of migrations (MM) algorithm, MIMT significantly improves the energy efficiency in data centers.

Low-rank matrix recovery is an important problem extensively studied in machine learning, data mining and computer vision communities. A novel method is proposed for low-rank matrix recovery, targeting at higher recovery accuracy and stronger theoretical guarantee. Specifically, the proposed method is based on a nonconvex optimization model, by solving the low-rank matrix which can be recovered from the noisy observation. To solve the model, an effective algorithm is derived by minimizing over the variables alternately. It is proved theoretically that this algorithm has stronger theoretical guarantee than the existing work. In natural image denoising experiments, the proposed method achieves lower recovery error than the two compared methods. The proposed low-rank matrix recovery method is also applied to solve two real-world problems, i.e., removing noise from verification code and removing watermark from images, in which the images recovered by the proposed method are less noisy than those of the two compared methods.

Compared with the rank reduction estimator (RARE) based on second-order statistics (called SOS-RARE), the RARE based on fourth-order cumulants (referred to as FOC-RARE) can handle more sources and restrain the negative impacts of the Gaussian colored noise. However, the unexpected modeling errors appearing in practice are known to significantly degrade the performance of the RARE. Therefore, the direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation performance of the FOC-RARE is quantitatively derived. The explicit expression for direction-finding (DF) error is derived via the first-order perturbation analysis, and then the theoretical formula for the mean square error (MSE) is given. Simulation results demonstrate the validation of the theoretical analysis and reveal that the FOC-RARE is more robust to the unexpected modeling errors than the SOS-RARE.

The static test of 13 square hollow section (SHS) X-joints with different β and different types of plate reinforcement under in-plane moment in brace was carried out. Experimental test schemes, failure modes of specimens, moment-vertical displacement curves, moment-deformation of the chord, and strain strength distribution curves were presented. The effect of β and plate reinforcement types on in-plane flexural property of SHS X-joints was studied. Results show that punching shear of chord face disappears, brace material fracture appears and concave and convex deformation of chord decrease when either collar plates or doubler plates were welded on chord face. Moment-vertical displacement curves of all specimens have obvious elastic, elastic-plastic and plastic stages. As β increases, the in-plane flexural ultimate capacity and initial stiffness of joints of the same plate reinforcement type increase, but ductility of joints decreases. With the same β, the in-plane flexural initial stiffness and ultimate capacity of doubler plate reinforced joints, collar plate reinforced joints, and unreinforced joints decrease progressively. Thickness of reinforcement plate has no obvious effect on in-plane flexural initial stiffness and ultimate capacity of joints. As thickness of reinforcement plate increases, the ductility of reinforced X-joints decreases. The concave and convex deformation of every specimen has good symmetry; as β increases, the yield and ultimate deformation of chord decrease.

The influence of the most important parameters on the service life of reinforced asphalt overlay with geogrid materials in bending mode was examined by employing the Taguchi method and analysis of variance techniques. The objectives of this experiment was to investigate the effects of grid stiffness, tensile strength, coating type, amount of tack coat, overlay thickness, crack width and stiffnesses of asphalt overlay and existing asphalt concrete on propagation of the reflection cracking. Results indicate that the stiffnesses of cracked layer and overlay are the main significant factors that can directly improve the service life of an overlay against the reflection cracking. Generally, glass grid is more effective in reinforced overlay than polyester grid. Effect of crack width of the existing layer is significant when its magnitude increases from 6 to 9 mm.

Aiming at the difficulty in stress analysis for strata under pillars with actual bearing conditions, an approach was proposed to apply multi-sectional linear approximation to the characteristic curves of pillar loads, and stress of strata was calculated under pillars with linear load by calculation method for uniform load. This approach leads to a rapid analyzing method for strata stress under pillars with any form of loads. Through theoretical analysis, strata stress expressions for pillars under linear bearing conditions are obtained. In addition, two concepts, stress increase factor and stress factor, are proposed for the approximate analysis of strata stress by uniform load approximation method. It is also found that the stress increase factor of strata is related to the strata stress factor and the ratio of the minimum load on the pillar’ two ends to the maximum one; and the distribution features of stress factors and the sizes of their influencing areas in strata influenced by overlying pillars are obtained. Combining with the gob pillar conditions of Jurassic coal seam in Tongxin Coal Mine, it is demonstrated that the results obtained by stress distribution analysis of the strata stress in non-influencing areas of pillars with linear bearing through uniform load approximation are in basic accordance with the results obtained for pillars under linear bearing condition. Therefore, it is feasible and accurate to calculate stress in non-influencing area in strata under pillars with linear bearing condition by uniform load calculation method.

Casting blast can greatly reduce the stripping cost and improve the production capacity of opencast coal mines. Key technologies including high bench blasting, inclined hole, millisecond blasting, pre-splitting blasting and casting blast parameters determination which have influence on the effect of casting blast have been researched with the combination of the ballistic theory and experience in mines. The integrated digital processing system of casting blast was developed in order to simplify the design process of casting blast, improve working efficiency and veracity of design result and comprehensively adopt the software programming method and the theory of casting blast. This system has achieved five functions, namely, the 3D visualization graphics management, the intelligent management of geological information, the intelligent design of casting blast, the analysis and prediction of the blasting effect and the automatic output of the design results. Long-term application in opencast coal mines has shown that research results can not only reduce the specific explosive consumption and improve the blasting effect, but also have high value of popularization and application.

The present research is focused on the numerical crack coalescence analysis of the micro-cracks and cracks produced during the cutting action of TBM disc cutters. The linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) concepts and the maximum tangential stress criterion are used to investigate the micro crack propagation and its direction underneath the excavating discs. A higher order displacement discontinuity method with quadratic displacement discontinuity elements is used to estimate the stress intensity factors near the crack tips. Rock cutting mechanisms under single and double type discs are simulated by the proposed numerical method. The main purposes of the present modeling are to simulate the chip formation process of indented rocks by single and double discs. The effects of specific disc parameters (except speed) on the thrust force F_r, the rolling force F_r, and the specific energy E_S are investigated. It has been shown that the specific energy (energy required to cut through a unit volume of rock) of the double disc is less than that of the single disc. Crack propagation in rocks under disc cutters is numerically modeled and the optimum ratio of disc spacing S to penetration depth P_d (i.e. S/P_d ratio) of about 10 is obtained, which is in good agreement with the theoretical and experimental results cited in the literature.

Rock cutting performance of recycling abrasives was investigated in terms of cutting depth, kerf width, kerf taper angle and surface roughness. Gravity separation technique was employed to separate the abrasives and the rock particles. The recycling abrasive particles were then dried and sieved for determination of their disintegration behaviors. Before each cutting with recycling abrasives, the abrasive particles less than 106 μm were screened out. It is revealed that a considerable amount of used abrasives can be effectively reused in the rock cutting. The reusabilities of abrasives are determined as 81.77%, 57.50%, 34.37% and 17.72% after the first, second, third and fourth cuttings, respectively. Additionally, it is determined that recycling must be restricted three times due to the excessive disintegration of abrasives with further recycling. Moreover, it is concluded that cutting depth, kerf width and surface roughness decreases with recycling. No clear trend is found between the kerf taper angle and recycling. Particle size distribution is determined as an important parameter for improving the cutting performance of recycling abrasives.

To investigate the seismic passive earth thrust with two-dimensional steady seepage, a general pseudo-dynamic solution was established based on the limit equilibrium analysis. This solution was purposefully applied to a waterfront gravity wall, which retains a submerged backfill with a drainage system along the backfill-structure interface. The wall was assumed to move towards the backfill to the passive failure state. And the theoretical derivation considered the pore pressures induced by the seepage, the excess pore pressures generated by the earthquake and the seismic inertial forces. Thereinto, the hydrostatic and hydrodynamic pressures were calculated by the analytical formulas, while the seismic forces were obtained by the pseudo-dynamic method. In the parametric study, the results indicate that the velocity of shear wave has a more prominent impact on the seismic passive earth thrust than that of primary wave. Both the horizontal and vertical seismic actions decrease the passive earth pressure, but the horizontal one affects the amplitude of the earth pressure coefficient more significantly. Moreover, the soil friction and the wall friction distinctly increase the seismic passive earth pressure just like the static situation. The comparison shows that the results are consistent with the previous work, which verifies its validity.

On the basis of upper bound theorem, non-associated flow rule and non-linear failure criterion were considered together. The modified shear strength parameters of materials were obtained with the help of the tangent method. Employing the virtual power principle and strength reduction technique, the effects of dilatancy of materials, non-linear failure criterion, pore water pressure, surface loads and buried depth, on the stability of shallow tunnel were studied. In order to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, the solutions in the present work agree well with the existing results when the non-associated flow rule is reduced to the associated flow rule and the non-linear failure criterion is degenerated to the linear failure criterion. Compared with dilatancy of materials, the non-linear failure criterion exerts greater impact on the stability of shallow tunnels. The safety factor of shallow tunnels decreases and the failure surface expands outward when the dilatancy coefficient decreases. While the increase of nonlinear coefficient, the pore water pressure coefficient, the surface load and the buried depth results in the small safety factor. Therefore, the dilatancy as well as non-linear failure criterion should be taken into account in the design of shallow tunnel supporting structure. The supporting structure must be reinforced promptly to prevent potential mud from gushing or collapse accident in the areas with abundant pore water, large surface load or buried depth.

Based on long-term monitoring data, the relationships between permafrost degradation and embankment deformation are analyzed along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway (QTH). Due to heat absorbing effect of asphalt pavement and climate warming, permafrost beneath asphalt pavement experienced significant warming and degradation. During the monitoring period, warming amplitude of the soil at depth of 5 m under asphalt ranged from 0.21 °C at the XD1 site to 0.5 °C at the KL1 site. And at depth of 10 m, the increase amplitude of ground temperature ranged from 0.47 °C at the NA1 site to 0.07 °C at the XD1 site. Along with ground temperature increase, permafrost table beneath asphalt pavement decline considerably. Amplitude of permafrost table decline varied from 0.53 m at the KL1 site to 3.51 m at the NA1 site, with mean amplitude of 1.65 m for 8 monitoring sites during the monitoring period. Due to permafrost warming and degradation, the embankment deformation all performed as settlement at these sites. At present, those settlements still develop quickly and are expected to continue to increase in the future. The embankment deformations can be divided into homogeneous deformation and inhomogeneous deformation. Embankment longitudinal inhomogeneous deformation causes the wave deformations and has adverse effects on driving comfort and safety, while lateral inhomogeneous deformation causes longitudinal cracks and has an adverse effect on stability. Corresponding with permafrost degradation processes, embankment settlement can be divided into four stages. For QTH, embankment settlement is mainly comprised of thawing consolidation of ice-rich permafrost and creep of warming permafrost beneath permafrost table.

Effects of strain rate and water-to-cement ratio on the dynamic compressive mechanical behavior of cement mortar are investigated by split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) tests. 124 specimens are subjected to dynamic uniaxial compressive loadings. Strain rate sensitivity of the materials is measured in terms of failure modes, stress-strain curves, compressive strength, dynamic increase factor (DIF) and critical strain at peak stress. A significant change in the stress-strain response of the materials with each order of magnitude increase in strain rate is clearly seen from test results. The slope of the stress-strain curve after peak value for low water-to-cement ratio is steeper than that of high water-to-cement ratio mortar. The compressive strength increases with increasing strain rate. With increase in strain rate, the dynamic increase factor (DIF) increases. However, this increase in DIF with increase in strain rate does not appear to be a function of the water-to-cement ratio. The critical compressive strain increases with the strain rate.

To investigate the mechanical properties of cement mortar in sodium sulfate and sodium chloride solutions, uniaxial compression test and ultrasonic test were performed. Test results show that the relative dynamic elastic modulus, the mass variation, and the compressive strength of cement mortar increase first, and then decrease with increasing erosion time in sodium sulfate and sodium chloride solutions. The relative dynamic elastic moduli and the compressive strengths of cement mortars with water/cement ratios of 0.55 and 0.65 in sodium sulfate solution are lower than those in sodium chloride solution with the same concentration at the 420th day of immersion. The compressive strength of cement mortar with water/cement ratio of 0.65 is more sensitive to strain rate than that with water/cement ratio of 0.55. In addition, the strain-rate sensitivity of compressive strength of cement mortar will increase under attacks of sodium sulfate or sodium chloride solution.

A model of damage to fresh concrete in a corrosive sulphate environment was formulated to investigate how and why the strength of corroded concrete changes over time. First, a corroded concrete block was divided into three regions: an expanded and dense region; a crack-development region; and a noncorroded region. Second, based on the thickness of the surface corrosion layer and the rate of loss of compressive strength of the corroding region, a computational model of the concrete blocks’ corrosion-resistance coefficient of compressive strength in a sulphate environment was generated. Third, experimental tests of the corrosion of concrete were conducted by immersing specimens in a corrosive medium for 270 d. A comparison of the experimental results with the computational formulae shows that the calculation results and test results are in good agreement. A parameter analysis reveals that the corrosion reaction plays a major role in the corrosion of fresh concrete containing ordinary Portland cement, but the diffusion of the corrosion medium plays a major role in the corrosion of concrete mixtures containing fly ash and sulphate-resistant cement. Fresh concrete with a high water-to-cement ratio shows high performance during the whole experiment process whereas fresh concrete with a low water-to-cement ratio shows poor performance during the late experiment period.

Mixed convection flow of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Jeffrey nanofluid over a radially stretching surface with radiative surface is studied. Radial sheet is considered to be convectively heated. Convective boundary conditions through heat and mass are employed. The governing boundary layer equations are transformed into ordinary differential equations. Convergent series solutions of the resulting problems are derived. Emphasis has been focused on studying the effects of mixed convection, thermal radiation, magnetic field and nanoparticles on the velocity, temperature and concentration fields. Numerical values of the physical parameters involved in the problem are computed for the local Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are computed.

In order to increase the efficiency of solar collector, a methodology is proposed based on the analysis of its influencing factors, such as thermal conductivity of filled layer, structure forms of filled layer and heat loss coefficient. The results of analysis show that the heat transfer between pipes in evacuated tube is one of the most important factors, which can lead to the decrease of the outlet temperature of working fluid. In order to eliminate the negative influence of the heat transfer between pipes, the hollow filled-type evacuated tube with U-tube (HUFET) was developed, and the heat transfer characteristics of HUFET were analyzed by theoretical and experimental studies. The results show that the thermal resistances decrease with the increase of the thermal conductivity of filled layer. When the thermal conductivity is over 10 W/(m·K), the change of thermal resistances is very little. Furthermore, the larger the thermal conductivity of filled layer, the less the rate of the energy transfer between the two pipes to the total energy transfer, which is between the absorber tube and the working fluid. There is a little difference between the efficiencies of HUFET and UFET, with the efficiency of HUFET 2.4% higher than that of UFET. Meanwhile, the validation of the model developed was confirmed by the experiment.

The magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) boundary layer flow of Casson fluid in the presence of nanoparticles is investigated. Convective conditions of temperature and nanoparticle concentration are employed in the formulation. The flow is generated due to exponentially stretching surface. The governing boundary layer equations are reduced into the ordinary differential equations. Series solutions are presented to analyze the velocity, temperature and nanoparticle concentration fields. Temperature and nanoparticle concentration fields decrease when the values of Casson parameter enhance. It is found that the Biot numbers arising due to thermal and concentration convective conditions yield an enhancement in the temperature and concentration fields. Further, we observed that both the thermal and nanoparticle concentration boundary layer thicknesses are higher for the larger values of thermophoresis parameter. The effects of Brownian motion parameter on the temperature and nanoparticle concentration are reverse.

The nano particles have demonstrated great potential to improve the heat transfer characteristics of heat transfer fluids. Possible parameters responsible for this increase were studied. The heat transfer profile in the nanolayer region was combined with other parameters such as volume fraction, particle radius thermal conductivity of the fluid, particle and nanolayer, to formulate a thermal conductivity model. Results predicting the thermal conductivity of nanofluids using the model were compared with experimental results as well as studies by other researchers. The comparison of the results obtained for the CuO/water and TiO₂/water nanofluids studied shows that the correlation proposed is in closest proximity in predicting the experimental results for the thermal conductivity of a nanofluid. Also, a parametric study was performed to understand how a number of factors affect the thermal conductivity of nanofluids using the developed correlation.

The aerodynamic performances of a passenger car and a box car with different heights of windbreak walls under strong wind were studied using the numerical simulations, and the changes of aerodynamic side force, lift force and overturning moment with different wind speeds and wall heights were calculated. According to the principle of static moment balance of vehicles, the overturning coefficients of trains with different wind speeds and wall heights were obtained. Based on the influence of wind speed and wall height on the aerodynamic performance and the overturning stability of trains, a method of determination of the load balance ranges for the train operation safety was proposed, which made the overturning coefficient have nearly closed interval. A min(|A₁|+|A₂|), s.t. |A₁|→|A₂| (A₁ refers to the downwind overturning coefficient and A₂ refers to the upwind overturning coefficient) was found. This minimum value helps to lower the wall height as much as possible, and meanwhile, guarantees the operation safety of various types of trains under strong wind. This method has been used for the construction and improvement of the windbreak walls along the Lanzhou-Xinjiang railway (from Lanzhou to Urumqi, China).

A reliability-based stochastic system optimum congestion pricing (SSOCP) model with endogenous market penetration and compliance rate in an advanced traveler information systems (ATIS) environment was proposed. All travelers were divided into two classes. The first guided travelers were referred to as the equipped travelers who follow ATIS advice, while the second unguided travelers were referred to as the unequipped travelers and the equipped travelers who do not follow the ATIS advice (also referred to as non-complied travelers). Travelers were assumed to take travel time, congestion pricing, and travel time reliability into account when making travel route choice decisions. In order to arrive at on time, travelers needed to allow for a safety margin to their trip. The market penetration of ATIS was determined by a continuous increasing function of the information benefit, and the ATIS compliance rate of equipped travelers was given as the probability of the actually experienced travel costs of guided travelers less than or equal to those of unguided travelers. The analysis results could enhance our understanding of the effect of travel demand level and travel time reliability confidence level on the ATIS market penetration and compliance rate; and the effect of travel time perception variation of guided and unguided travelers on the mean travel cost savings (MTCS) of the equipped travelers, the ATIS market penetration, compliance rate, and the total network effective travel time (TNETT).