Mortar with high workability even without a water-reducing agent and with high tensile and compressive strengths (3.1 and 78 MPa, respectively) was obtained by using as an admixture silica fume that had been surface treated with a silane coupling agent. The treatment enhanced the wettability of silica fume by water, thereby increasing the workability of the mortar mix. It also enhanced the bond...

Changes in the behavior of sputum viscoelasticity due to differences in macroscopic appearance of sputum brought about by stirring and those due to the addition of an expectorant to purulent sputum in vitro, were studied in a coaxial cylinder rheometer. First, initial results from stirring the sputum indicated the following: Samples of untreated sputum showed no obvious differences among the th...

The impedance at frequencies of 1-1000 kHz and dynamic bending storage modulus measured by the vibrating reed method were compared for potato tuber tissue, which had been processed by various methods. Raw potato tuber tissue strips were either heated for 30 min up to 100 degrees C or frozen-thawed. Some samples were osmotically dehydrated in a mannitol solution up to a concentration of 0.7 mol/...

Glutinous rice flour (GRF) and glutinous rice starch (GRS) were modified by dry-heat treatment and their rheological, thermal properties and freeze-thaw stability were evaluated. Compared with the native GRF and GRS, the water-holding ability of modified GRF and GRS were enhanced. Both the onset and peak temperatures of the modified samples increased while the endothermic enthalpy change decrea...

The bending behavior of composites sandwich plates with multi-layered laminated face sheets has been investigated, using a new four-nodded rectangular finite element formulation based on a layer-wise theory. Both, first order and higher-order shear deformation; theories are used in order to model the face sheets and the core, respectively. Unlike any other layer-wise theory, the number of degre...

The closed-form solution of the transient response of damped dynamic force microscopy subjected to the nonlinear interatomic force is derived. The frequency shift and the decay rate of a V-typed probe can be determined easily and precisely by the proposed method. If the taper ratio is zero, a uniform cantilever is obtained. Moreover, the transient response of a non-uniform cantilever can be det...

Poly (butylene succinate) (PBS) is one of the most common biodegradable plastic polymers that has recently been used in green environmental field. Enhancement physicochemical characteristics these by using plant-based materials like Baobab ( Adansonia digitata ) will improve its industrial application. This study evaluated powder (BP) and PBS composites under various ratios (PBS/BP: 90/10, 80/2...

Understanding the mechanism underlying the behavior of polymer-based nanocomposites requires investigation at the molecular level. In the current study, an atomistic simulation based on molecular dynamics was performed to characterize the mechanical properties of polycarbonate (PC) nanocomposites reinforced with single-walled armchair carbon nanotubes (SWCNT). The stiffness matrix and elastic p...