scholarly journals Effect of Polyvinyl Acetate Stabilization on the Swelling-Shrinkage Properties of Expansive Soil

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin Liu ◽  
Yong Wang ◽  
Yi Lu ◽  
Qiao Feng ◽  
Faming Zhang ◽  
...  

Polyvinyl acetate constitutes a class of polymers that can entirely dissolve in water to form a solution. In this study, polyvinyl acetate as a nontraditional chemical stabilizer was used in soil improvement. Laboratory tests were carried out to evaluate the effect of polyvinyl acetate on swelling-shrinkage properties of expansive soil. A series of shrink/swell tests were performed with adding polyvinyl acetate as amendment at a concentration 3 g/cm3 to four aggregate sizes in the range of 0–0.5 mm, 0.5–1 mm, 1-2 mm, and 2–5 mm and five concentrations 1.5 g/cm3, 3 g/cm3, 4.5 g/cm3, 6 g/cm3, and 9 g/cm3 to soils with aggregate size in the range of 0.5–1 mm for comparison of results with those of untreated soils. The results show that all the linear swelling ratio (LSWR) and linear shrinkage ratio (LSHR) values of the treated specimens decrease. SEM images and the test results indicate the achieved reduction in volume change of the soil tested using soil pore filling and particle encapsulation.

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (10) ◽  
pp. 2437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Shakiba ◽  
Peyman Rahgozar ◽  
Amir Reza Elahi ◽  
Reza Rahgozar

The main aim of this study is to investigate the effect of activated pozzolan on hydration and microstructure of high-volume natural pozzolan paste. Thermal activation of natural pozzolan with Ca(OH)2 has been applied with nano-silica (NS) as activator at three different temperatures. X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), laser particle analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive spectroscopy were employed. In order to analyze the test results, notions of “pre C-S-H” based on XRD and TGA results of activated pozzolan powders has been used. SEM images indicated microstructural improvements of the pastes with activated pozzolans compared to paste with natural pozzolan and natural pozzolan incorporating NS, showing the pore-filling effect of activated pozzolans. The microstructural improvements were proportion to the amount of pre C-S-H formed during the activation of pozzolan.


2011 ◽  
Vol 261-263 ◽  
pp. 1831-1835
Author(s):  
Guo Gang Qiao ◽  
Da Jun Yuan ◽  
Bo Liu

Red clay soil is widely distributed in south China, the microstructure of red clay soil was studied applying scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) test found that a large number of swelling inducing minerals, for example, montmorillonite, illite-montmorillonite or chlorite-smectite were contained in the red clay soil. Shield tunneling in this kind of stratum is prone to arising “cake” and “arch” phenomena and it prone to lead screw conveyor device unsmooth dumping, so soil improvement measures must be taken. Foam as the most advanced soil conditioner has been widely used in shield construction. Using self-developed foam agent, experimental research on foam conditioning red clay soil was carried out, test results show that foam can not only significantly reduce the soil shear strength, but also can greatly enhance the soil's compressibility and fluidity, which is significant for the smooth dumping and excavation face stability maintenance.


2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiqing Li ◽  
Chuan Tang ◽  
Ruilin Hu ◽  
Yingxin Zhou

According to Mengzi expansive soil, consolidated drained tests and undrained tests are carried on under saturated and remoulded conditions. The stress-strain characteristics of saturated soil are researched systematically under different confining pressure, initial dry density, initial water content, shearing rate and drainage condition. The inherent unity of diversity of shearing strength for the same samples measured by different experimental methods is indicated according to the normalization of critical state test results. And the failure lines in p ‘- q - ν space of remoulded saturated expansive soil under consolidated drained and undrained conditions are attained. The hyperbolic curve model can fit well the weak hardening stress-strain curves and the exponential curve model can fit the weak softening stress-strain curves. The test results can provide technical parameters and theoretical help for shearing strength variation of slope during rainfall and strength state of soil structure in normal water level.


2011 ◽  
Vol 391-392 ◽  
pp. 1445-1449
Author(s):  
Chun Hua Zhang ◽  
Shi Lin Luan ◽  
Xiu Song Qian ◽  
Bao Hua Sun ◽  
Wen Sheng Zhang

The influences of low temperature on the interlaminar properties for PBO fiber/epoxy composites have been studied at liquid nitrogen temperature (77 K) in terms of three point bending test. Results showed that the interlaminar shear strength at 77 K were significantly higher than those at room temperature (RT). For the analysis of the test results, the tensile behaviors of epoxy resin at both room temperature and liquid nitrogen temperature were investigated. The interface between fiber and matrix was observed using SEM images.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camilo E. Valderrama ◽  
Daniel J. Niven ◽  
Henry T. Stelfox ◽  
Joon Lee

BACKGROUND Redundancy in laboratory blood tests is common in intensive care units (ICU), affecting patients' health and increasing healthcare expenses. Medical communities have made recommendations to order laboratory tests more judiciously. Wise selection can rely on modern data-driven approaches that have been shown to help identify redundant laboratory blood tests in ICUs. However, most of these works have been developed for highly selected clinical conditions such as gastrointestinal bleeding. Moreover, features based on conditional entropy and conditional probability distribution have not been used to inform the need for performing a new test. OBJECTIVE We aimed to address the limitations of previous works by adapting conditional entropy and conditional probability to extract features to predict abnormal laboratory blood test results. METHODS We used an ICU dataset collected across Alberta, Canada which included 55,689 ICU admissions from 48,672 patients with different diagnoses. We investigated conditional entropy and conditional probability-based features by comparing the performances of two machine learning approaches to predict normal and abnormal results for 18 blood laboratory tests. Approach 1 used patients' vitals, age, sex, admission diagnosis, and other laboratory blood test results as features. Approach 2 used the same features plus the new conditional entropy and conditional probability-based features. RESULTS Across the 18 blood laboratory tests, both Approach 1 and Approach 2 achieved a median F1-score, AUC, precision-recall AUC, and Gmean above 80%. We found that the inclusion of the new features statistically significantly improved the capacity to predict abnormal laboratory blood test results in between ten and fifteen laboratory blood tests depending on the machine learning model. CONCLUSIONS Our novel approach with promising prediction results can help reduce over-testing in ICUs, as well as risks for patients and healthcare systems. CLINICALTRIAL N/A


2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-42
Author(s):  
Zibei Ren ◽  
Ming Li ◽  
Yanzhe Hui ◽  
Zengwang Ma ◽  
Jiancai Gu

Soil desertification affects the service functions of the ecosystem. In severe cases, it even causes a decline in agricultural productivity and shrinkage of animal husbandry, posing a threat to regional eco-environment and economic sustainability. The previous research on soil remediation research mainly concentrates on heavy metal degradation, saline soil improvement, and eroded and degraded soil improvement. There is little report on the biomass improvement and restoration of sandy soil. Therefore, this paper explores the remediation effect of biomass amendment on the physical-chemical performance and sustainable utilization of sandy soil in Huangyangtan, the largest sandy land in northern China’s Hebei Province. Specifically, the authors detailed the strategies to measure the physical-chemical indices and microbial diversity of Huangyangtan sandy soil, and introduced the materials and mode of the biomass amendment test on Huangyangtan sandy soil, followed by an elaboration on the test results. The influence of different test fertilizers on the soil was analyzed in four dimensions, namely, physical performance, chemical performance, biological performance, and crop yield. The results show that biomass amendment can effectively remediate sandy soil, and promote its sustainable utilization.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuefu Zhang ◽  
Yuanfu Zhou ◽  
Bin Zhang ◽  
Yuanjiang Zhou ◽  
Shiyang Liu

A lot of crystallizations exist on the inner wall of tunnel drainage pipes in Chongqing. Tunnel support structure often bears larger load than usual because the tunnel drainage pipes are blocked easily by the crystals and the groundwater level would rise. In order to investigate what the crystals are, site investigations and laboratory tests of crystals and groundwater were completed. Some valuable results have been obtained. Firstly, the crystallizations are usually discovered in drainage pipe exits of tunnels which are under construction in Chongqing. Furthermore, the results of XRD have confirmed that the crystals are calcite. And calcite morphology could be found in most SEM images. But there are other morphologies in these images other than calcite because calcite is often influenced by some factors, such as important ions in groundwater, pH of groundwater, kinetics effect, and so on. Finally, some steps and solutions to solve blocking of tunnel drainage pipes caused by crystallization are suggested. One of the best solutions is that some special materials which could prevent crystals from being attached to pipes are coated on the inner surface of drainage pipes. The results could contribute to understand the crystallization phenomenon profoundly and help solve the similar situations of tunnel drainage pipe blocking.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabe Mwape ◽  
Victor Daka ◽  
Scott Matafwali ◽  
Kapambwe Mwape ◽  
Jay Sikalima ◽  
...  

Background Medical laboratory diagnosis is a critical component of patient management in the healthcare setup. Despite the availability of laboratory tests, clinicians may not utilise them to make clinical decisions. We investigated utilsation of laboratory tests for patient management among clinicians at Ndola Teaching Hospital (NTH) and Arthur Davison Childrens Hospital (ADCH), two large referral hospitals in the Copperbelt Province, Ndola, Zambia. Method We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study among clinicians. The study deployed self-administered questionnaires to evaluate clinician utilisation, querying and confidence in laboratory results. Additional data on demographics and possible laboratory improvements were also obtained. Data were entered in Microsoft excel and exported to SPSS version 16 for statistical analysis. Results Of the 80 clinicians interviewed, 96.2% (77) reported using laboratory tests and their results in patient management. 77.5% (62) of the clinicians indicated they always used laboratory results to influence their patient management decisions. Of the selected laboratory tests, clinicians were more confident in using haemoglobin test results (91.2%). There was no statistically significant association between the clinicians gender or qualification and use of test results in patient management. Conclusion Our findings show that despite the majority querying laboratory results, most of the clinicians use laboratory results for patient management. There is need for interactions between the laboratory and clinical area to assure clinician confidence in laboratory results. Key words: utilisation, clinicians, laboratory tests, Ndola Teaching Hospital, Arthur Davison Childrens Hospital


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