In marine environment, the physical and mechanical performances of reinforced concrete members will vary distinctly with time, which reduces the safety of the structures. The main factors influencing the durability of reinforced concrete members include the deterioration of concrete, the reduction of reinforcing bar strength, the decrease of reinforcing bar area, the weakening of the bond stren...

The paper discusses the work carried out over the past decade within ISO TC59/SC8 and RILEM TC139-DBS committees towards the development of a durability test standard for sealants. In 2001, RILEM TC139-DBS published a RILEM Technical Recommendation (RTR) on a durability test method for curtain wall joint sealants. The paper discusses the development of this test method as well as results obtain...

BACKGROUND Treatment of congenital heart disease may include placement of a right ventricle to pulmonary artery conduit that requires future surgical replacement. We sought to identify surgeon-modifiable factors associated with durability (defined as freedom from surgical replacement or explantation) of the initial conduit in children less than 2 years of age at initial insertion. METHODS Sin...

BACKGROUND It is unclear whether there is a clinical benefit to adding hydroxyapatite (HA) coatings to total knee implants, especially with the tibial component, where failure of the implant more often occurs. A systematic review of the literature was undertaken to identify all prospective randomized trials for determining whether the overall clinical results (as a function of durability, funct...

Thermal modification has been developed for an industrial method to increase the biological durability and dimensional stability of wood. In this study the effects of thermal modification on resistance against softand brown-rot fungi of sapwood and heartwood of Scots pine and Norway spruce were investigated using laboratory test methods. Natural durability against soft-rot microfungi was determ...

In order to assess mineralogical composition influence on durability and strength of rocks, four samples of hornfelsic rocks were selected from southern and western parts of the city of Hamedan, west of Iran. These rock samples were subjected to mineralogical, physical and mechanical tests in the laboratory. Also, they were evaluated in 15 cycles of slake-durability testing in different pH of s...

We have developed highly reliable and radiation-hardened power MOSFETs for use in outer space applications in satellites and space stations. The largest difference between these newly developed Rad-Hard Power MOSFETs and general-use MOSFETs is that they have excellent durability against high energy charged particles and ionizing radiation. To provide increased durability, electrical characteris...

Durability describes the ability of a device to operate properly in imperfect conditions. We have recently proposed a novel neural network structure called an “Affordable Neural Network” (AfNN), in which affordable neurons of the hidden layer are considered as the elements responsible for the robustness property as is observed in human brain function. Whereas earlier we have shown that AfNNs ca...