Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) film is observed to increase surface roughness during annealing. Longer annealing times leads to greater surface roughness. The coefficient of friction of PTFE film is affected by the shape of microscale sized particles on the film surface. In this study, we investigate the coefficient of friction of PTFE films using a coarse-grained molecular dynamics model based on experimental observations. We observe how the variation in PTFE chain length and film density affect the topography of PTFE films. We also investigate how these properties of PTFE, and the indenter radius affect the coefficient of friction observed during surface scratch. We find that short PTFE chain lengths create a dense film with greater particle spacing, but longer chains form a mesh structure which reduces the density and creates overlapping portions of particles in the film. We develop a convolutional neural network to classify PTFE film surface and predict the coefficient of friction of a modeled film based solely on the equilibrated film topography. The accuracy of the network was seen to increase when the density and images of internal fiber orientation were added as input features. These results indicate that the coefficient of friction of PTFE films in part is governed by the internal structure of the film.

We have successfully synthesized GexSe1-x (x = 0.225) glass samples and incorporated commercially produced (Protein Mods) carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into the glass samples. We investigated the glass transition temperature (Tg) using modulated differential scanning calorimetry (MDSC). CNTs, being a very hygroscopic material as well as oxygen absorbing material, needed to be cleaned under vacuum with the hot water-bath to get rid of contaminants. We used contaminant-free CNTs for our study. The same cleaning process was used to prepare GexSe1-x (x = 0.225) glass samples with and without CNTs. The base GexSe1-x (x = 0.225) glass sample has a Tg of 220°C. The Tg was found to be independent of starting materials (germanium and selenium) from different sources as well as hot water-bath temperature. The Tg was found to be lower when 5% CNT's by mass was added to the base GexSe1-x (x = 0.225) glass sample. For 10% incorporation, the Tg was found to increase from that of 5% and it was found to decrease from that of 10% when 15% CNTs was added to the base glass sample. We also found that the Tg for GexSe1-x (x = 0.225) glass samples with the incorporation of 5% not-cleaned CNTs was 10oC higher, indicating the sensitivity of Tg on contaminants. Further, it was found that the variation of Tg with the incorporation of bulk carbon into the GexSe1-x (x = 0.225) glass samples was inconsistent compared to the contaminant-free CNTs incorporation.

The characteristics of earth cement blocks depend on soil composition, grading of the soil, cement-soil ratio and water content, etc… In the present study, an experimental program is conducted to evaluate the influence of soil grading in the mechanical properties of earth cement blocks. Five gradings of soil used for the preparation of earth cement blocks. Soil grading effect on following properties of earth-cement blocks such as block density, compressive strength in wet and dry condition, flexural tensile strength in wet and dry condition, and water absorption was compared. Results show that the properties of the earth cement blocks are dependent upon the fine content and uniformity coefficient of the soil. The increase in the finer content in mortar improves water absorption, compressive strength and flexural tensile strength.

Calcium carbonate is widely used as a filler material in the production of polymer matrix composites and studies have shown that eggshell contains about 94% calcium carbonate. The effect of calcium carbonate from eggshell particles in polypropylene was studied in this work and the result compared with unreinforced polypropylene. Industrially synthesized calcium carbonate/eggshell particles were used as filler in polypropylene matrix with varying mass fractions from 5 to 20 wt. % at 5 wt. % increment. The produced samples were mechanically characterized for indentation hardness and uniaxial tensile properties using a Rockwell hardness tester and universal mechanical testing machine respectively. These properties were measured at different compositions to determine its compositional dependence. Microstructural analysis of the composites top and fracture surface was also carried out using scanning electron microscope to examine possible failure mode. The results were compared to measure the effect of reinforcement and the replacement criteria for the conventional calcium carbonate. The results obtained showed that calcium carbonate reinforced polypropylene has its highest tensile strength, elastic modulus and modulus of rupture at 5 wt. %, ductility and modulus of resilience at 10 wt. %, and hardness at 15 wt. %. The results also showed that granulated eggshell can provided appreciable improvement in the mechanical properties of polypropylene as obtainable in mineral calcium carbonate reinforced polypropylene.

This paper presents an experimental study on the characteristics of earth cement blocks with Rice Husk Ash (RHA) as a partial replacement to cement. The replacement of RHA content is limited to 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% by mass of the total binder in the earth cement block. The experiments on earth cement blocks investigate the compressive strength and flexural tensile strength for mechanical properties and water absorption, sorption rate and erosion against water spray for its durability. Due to the high content of SiO2 in RHA with great reactivity, a significant increase in the compressive and flexural tensile strength of earth cement blocks was observed up to 10% RHA content. However, the durability of earth cement blocks becomes adverse with the increasing percentage of RHA replacement, but within the allowable limit. The experimental results indicate that to some extent, RHA based earth cement blocks have a significant potential for reduction in cement used in the construction industry.

This study investigated the use of mixed weathered coal fine ash (MWA) and coal gasification ash (CGA), sourced from Sasol® Ltd, South Africa, as partial replacements (10%, 15% and 30% by mass) of Portland Cement (PC) in concrete. The objective was to assess the feasibility of using the ashes, which are generally of lower quality than FA, in concrete in order to avert their negative environmental impact i.e. disposal in heaps and landfills. Companion reference concretes were made using conventional fly ash (FA). Two water-to-binder (w/b) ratios (0.50 and 0.60) were used. The concretes were tested for compressive strength (7, 28 and 56 days) and durability (gas permeability and chloride resistance at 28 and 56 days). In general, the results strongly suggest that the ashes can be used in conventional structural concrete – both from strength and durability viewpoints. Aspects that require attention when they are used include decrease in both workability and rate of strength gain. The gas permeability of the CGA and MWA concretes were similar to those for FA at all replacement levels but a 15% replacement level gave higher chloride resistance.

This paper presents the residual tensile strength test results of corroded high yield steel bars. Single steel bars were embedded at a cover depth of 20 mm in 150 × 150 × 625 mm long cracked concrete beam specimens made with 70/30 PC/FA and 50/50 PC/SL binders with a constant w/b ratio of 0.40. The steel bars were placed in the cross-section centre and near the orthogonal edge of the beams, and selected beam faces epoxy-coated in order to simulate, respectively, 1D and 2D chloride ingress. The beams were subjected to 2-week wetting (with 5% NaCl) and 2-week air-drying cycles in the laboratory for 110 weeks after which the corroded steel bars were extracted, assessed for corrosion morphology, and tested in tension for ultimate strength, fracture strength and ductility performance. The steel bars in concretes exposed to 1D chloride ingress had isolated corrosion pits while both general and isolated corrosion pits were observed in specimens exposed to 2D chloride ingress. The residual ultimate and fracture tensile strengths, and ductility of corroded steel reinforcing bars in concretes exposed to 2D chloride ingress are lower than those for steel bars in concretes exposed to 1D chloride ingress.

The reliability of the plasma etched copper lines with the self-aligned copper oxide passivation layer has been studied with the electromigration stress method. The oxide passivation layer was prepared by plasma oxidation, which covers the entire exposed copper line to prevent the surface oxidation under the ambient condition. The void formation and growth process reflect the line broken mechanism. Voids formed from grain boundary depletion and grain thinning were monitored by optical microscopes. The line failure times with respect to line width and current density were measured. The addition of the oxide passivation layer shortened the lifetime due to the poor heat transfer and copper diffusion, which accelerated the formation and growth of the voids. The narrow line has a longer lifetime than the wide line because of the fewer grain boundaries for flux divergence to form voids. The copper oxide passivation layer was formed self-aligned to the copper line. It also gettered copper atoms diffused from the bulk copper film.