Study on the Optimization of Filling Ratio and Strength Variation Characteristics of Cemented Backfills Containing Fly Ash

The fly ash for underground filling can effectively utilize solid waste, improve the strength of the backfill, and reduce the cost, thus creating good social and economic benefits. Relying on the filling requirements of a gold mine in Jilin, this paper carried out the filling ratio experiments containing fly ash and analyzed the reasons for the variation of the backfill strength based on the hydration characteristics of cement and fly ash and scanning electron microscope. The results show that fly ash has an overall effect on the strength of the backfill, and the strength development is mainly concentrated in the period of 28–56 d; when the filling slurry contains tailings, the excessive amount of fly ash is likely to cause a large number of fine particles to obstruct the hydration of cementitious materials; when the concentration of the filling slurry is 74%, the cement content is 5%, the mass ratio of waste rock-tailings-fly ash is 6:2:3, and the CaO content is 6:3, the strength of the backfill is significantly higher than the current strength of the backfill of the mine, and the cost can be saved by RMB 0.56 per cubic meter; the strength characteristics of the backfill mainly depend on the pore structure; when the filling slurry is better matched, the cement and fly ash hydration generates a large number of C-S-H gel particles, which wraps the aggregate to form a dense structure with less pore structure, and the strength of the backfill increases; the strength variation process of backfill containing cement and fly ash is divided into cement hydration period, fly ash infiltration period, and slurry hardening period. To enhance the strength of the backfill, it is necessary to determine the appropriate cementitious material ratio to maximize the excitation of fly ash hydration during the fly ash infiltration period, and the hydration produces a gel structure with an excellent aggregate ratio. In addition, the slurry hardening reduces the porosity of the backfill. The results can provide basic data and theoretical guidance for further promotion and application of fly ash in mine filling.

Numerical investigation on redundancy of bridges with AASHTO I-girders

Bridge safety is one of the most critical concerns among civil engineering fields due to its high importance. The redundancy of bridges was heavily investigated in the literature; however, they were focused on twin girder redundancy cases. Additionally, literatures were scarce in studies that focused on the improvement that should be made to achieve redundancy systems in different AASHTO I-girder types. Thus, this study focused on assessing the additional required number of tendons for different AASHTO I-girder types and spacing between them to achieve the redundancy of I-girder bridges. The additional unbonded tendons are suggested to be added externally or internally. The parameters varied in this study are compressive strength of ultrahigh-performance concrete (UHPC), spacing between girders (i.e. number of girders) and type of girders. Leap Bridge Concrete software was used to simulate the required structural modes. After performing extensive numerical analyses following AASHTO LRFD guidelines, the results have shown that in case of the removal of external I-girder, the tendons in the nearest girder need to be nearly increased by 1.85 to 2.3 times compared to the original design, depending on spacing, compressive strength, and the number of girders. On the other hand, in the case of interior girder removal, the number of tendons in the nearest two girders need to be increased by 1.24 to 1.32 times the original design. The effect of compressive strength variation of the used UHPC was negligible compared to spacing and type of girder. It is worth mentioning that all simulations in this study were verified using CSI Bridge software.

Structures and impact strength variation of chemically crosslinked high-density polyethylene: effect of crosslinking density

Crosslinking significantly improves the toughness and impact strength of HDPE and extends its application, especially at low temperature.