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The alkali activation of aluminosilicate materials as binder systems derived from industrial byproducts have been extensively studied due to the advantages they offer in terms enhanced material properties, while increasing sustainability by the reuse of industrial waste and byproducts and reducing the adverse impacts of OPC production. Fly ash and

The alkali activation of aluminosilicate materials as binder systems derived from industrial byproducts have been extensively studied due to the advantages they offer in terms enhanced material properties, while increasing sustainability by the reuse of industrial waste and byproducts and reducing the adverse impacts of OPC production. Fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag are commonly used for their content of soluble silica and aluminate species that can undergo dissolution, polymerization with the alkali, condensation on particle surfaces and solidification. The following topics are the focus of this thesis: (i) the use of microwave assisted thermal processing, in addition to heat-curing as a means of alkali activation and (ii) the relative effects of alkali cations (K or Na) in the activator (powder activators) on the mechanical properties and chemical structure of these systems. Unsuitable curing conditions instigate carbonation, which in turn lowers the pH of the system causing significant reductions in the rate of fly ash activation and mechanical strength development. This study explores the effects of sealing the samples during the curing process, which effectively traps the free water in the system, and allows for increased aluminosilicate activation. The use of microwave-curing in lieu of thermal-curing is also studied in order to reduce energy consumption and for its ability to provide fast volumetric heating. Potassium-based powder activators dry blended into the slag binder system is shown to be effective in obtaining very high compressive strengths under moist curing conditions (greater than 70 MPa), whereas sodium-based powder activation is much weaker (around 25 MPa). Compressive strength decreases when fly ash is introduced into the system. Isothermal calorimetry is used to evaluate the early hydration process, and to understand the reaction kinetics of the alkali powder activated systems. A qualitative evidence of the alkali-hydroxide concentration of the paste pore solution through the use of electrical conductivity measurements is also presented, with the results indicating the ion concentration of alkali is more prevalent in the pore solution of potassium-based systems. The use of advanced spectroscopic and thermal analysis techniques to distinguish the influence of studied parameters is also discussed.
ContributorsChowdhury, Ussala (Author) / Neithalath, Narayanan (Thesis advisor) / Rajan, Subramanium D. (Committee member) / Mobasher, Barzin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description
The main objective of this study is to investigate the behaviour and applications of strain hardening cement composites (SHCC). Application of SHCC for use in slabs of common configurations was studied and design procedures are prepared by employing yield line theory and integrating it with simplified tri-linear model developed in

The main objective of this study is to investigate the behaviour and applications of strain hardening cement composites (SHCC). Application of SHCC for use in slabs of common configurations was studied and design procedures are prepared by employing yield line theory and integrating it with simplified tri-linear model developed in Arizona State University by Dr. Barzin Mobasher and Dr. Chote Soranakom. Intrinsic material property of moment-curvature response for SHCC was used to derive the relationship between applied load and deflection in a two-step process involving the limit state analysis and kinematically admissible displacements. For application of SHCC in structures such as shear walls, tensile and shear properties are necessary for design. Lot of research has already been done to study the tensile properties and therefore shear property study was undertaken to prepare a design guide. Shear response of textile reinforced concrete was investigated based on picture frame shear test method. The effects of orientation, volume of cement paste per layer, planar cross-section and volume fraction of textiles were investigated. Pultrusion was used for the production of textile reinforced concrete. It is an automated set-up with low equipment cost which provides uniform production and smooth final surface of the TRC. A 3-D optical non-contacting deformation measurement technique of digital image correlation (DIC) was used to conduct the image analysis on the shear samples by means of tracking the displacement field through comparison between the reference image and deformed images. DIC successfully obtained full-field strain distribution, displacement and strain versus time responses, demonstrated the bonding mechanism from perspective of strain field, and gave a relation between shear angle and shear strain.
ContributorsAswani, Karan (Author) / Mobasher, Barzin (Thesis advisor) / Dharmarajan, Subramaniam (Committee member) / Neithalath, Narayanan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Description
The studies on aluminosilicate materials to replace traditional construction materials such as ordinary Portland cement(OPC) to reduce the effects caused has been an important research area for the past decades. Many properties like strength have already been studied and the primary focus is to learn about the reaction mechanism and

The studies on aluminosilicate materials to replace traditional construction materials such as ordinary Portland cement(OPC) to reduce the effects caused has been an important research area for the past decades. Many properties like strength have already been studied and the primary focus is to learn about the reaction mechanism and the effect of the parameters on the formed products. The aim of this research was to explore the structural changes and reaction product analysis of geopolymers (Slag & Fly Ash) using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and deconvolution

techniques. Spectroscopic techniques give valuable information at a molecular level but not all methods are economic and simple. To understand the mechanisms of alkali activated aluminosilicate materials, attenuated total reflectance (ATR) FTIR has been used where the effect of the parameters on the reaction products have been analyzed. To analyze complex systems like geopolymers using FTIR, deconvolution techniques help to obtain the properties of a particular peak attributed to a certain molecular vibration.

Time and temperature dependent analysis were done on slag pastes to understand the polymerization of reactive silica in the system with time and temperature variance. For time dependent analysis slag has been activated with sodium and potassium silicates using two different `n'values and three different silica modulus [Ms- (SiO2 /M2O)] values. The temperature dependent analysis was done by curing the samples at 60C and 80C. Similarly fly ash has been studied by activating with alkali hydroxides and alkali silicates. Under the same curing conditions the fly ash samples were evaluated to analyze the effects of added silicates for alkali activation.

The peak shifts in the FTIR explains the changes in the structural nature of the matrix and can be identified using the deconvolution technique. A strong correlation is found between the concentrations of silicate monomer in the activating position of the main Si-O-T (where T is Al/Si) stretching band in the FTIR spectrum, which

gives an indication of the relative changes in the Si/Al ratio. Also, the effect of the cation and silicate concentration in the activating solution has been discussed using the Fourier self deconvolution technique.
ContributorsMadavarapu, Sateesh Babu (Author) / Neithalath, Narayanan (Thesis advisor) / Rajan, Subramaniam D. (Committee member) / Marzke, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Description
Concrete design has recently seen a shift in focus from prescriptive specifications to performance based specifications with increasing demands for sustainable products. Fiber reinforced composites (FRC) provides unique properties to a material that is very weak under tensile loads. The addition of fibers to a concrete mix provides additional ductility

Concrete design has recently seen a shift in focus from prescriptive specifications to performance based specifications with increasing demands for sustainable products. Fiber reinforced composites (FRC) provides unique properties to a material that is very weak under tensile loads. The addition of fibers to a concrete mix provides additional ductility and reduces the propagation of cracks in the concrete structure. It is the fibers that bridge the crack and dissipate the incurred strain energy in the form of a fiber-pullout mechanism. The addition of fibers plays an important role in tunnel lining systems and in reducing shrinkage cracking in high performance concretes. The interest in most design situations is the load where cracking first takes place. Typically the post crack response will exhibit either a load bearing increase as deflection continues, or a load bearing decrease as deflection continues. These behaviors are referred to as strain hardening and strain softening respectively. A strain softening or hardening response is used to model the behavior of different types of fiber reinforced concrete and simulate the experimental flexural response. Closed form equations for moment-curvature response of rectangular beams under four and three point loading in conjunction with crack localization rules are utilized. As a result, the stress distribution that considers a shifting neutral axis can be simulated which provides a more accurate representation of the residual strength of the fiber cement composites. The use of typical residual strength parameters by standards organizations ASTM, JCI and RILEM are examined to be incorrect in their linear elastic assumption of FRC behavior. Finite element models were implemented to study the effects and simulate the load defection response of fiber reinforced shotcrete round discrete panels (RDP's) tested in accordance with ASTM C-1550. The back-calculated material properties from the flexural tests were used as a basis for the FEM material models. Further development of FEM beams were also used to provide additional comparisons in residual strengths of early age samples. A correlation between the RDP and flexural beam test was generated based a relationship between normalized toughness with respect to the newly generated crack surfaces. A set of design equations are proposed using a residual strength correction factor generated by the model and produce the design moment based on specified concrete slab geometry.
ContributorsBarsby, Christopher (Author) / Mobasher, Barzin (Thesis advisor) / Rajan, Subramaniam D. (Committee member) / Neithalath, Narayanan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Description
Ultra-concealable multi-threat body armor used by law-enforcement is a multi-purpose armor that protects against attacks from knife, spikes, and small caliber rounds. The design of this type of armor involves fiber-resin composite materials that are flexible, light, are not unduly affected by environmental conditions, and perform as required. The National

Ultra-concealable multi-threat body armor used by law-enforcement is a multi-purpose armor that protects against attacks from knife, spikes, and small caliber rounds. The design of this type of armor involves fiber-resin composite materials that are flexible, light, are not unduly affected by environmental conditions, and perform as required. The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) characterizes this type of armor as low-level protection armor. NIJ also specifies the geometry of the knife and spike as well as the strike energy levels required for this level of protection. The biggest challenges are to design a thin, lightweight and ultra-concealable armor that can be worn under street clothes. In this study, several fundamental tasks involved in the design of such armor are addressed. First, the roles of design of experiments and regression analysis in experimental testing and finite element analysis are presented. Second, off-the-shelf materials available from international material manufacturers are characterized via laboratory experiments. Third, the calibration process required for a constitutive model is explained through the use of experimental data and computer software. Various material models in LS-DYNA for use in the finite element model are discussed. Numerical results are generated via finite element simulations and are compared against experimental data thus establishing the foundation for optimizing the design.
ContributorsVokshi, Erblina (Author) / Rajan, Subramaniam D. (Thesis advisor) / Neithalath, Narayanan (Committee member) / Mobasher, Barzin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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Description
Composite materials are widely used in various structural applications, including within the automotive and aerospace industries. Unidirectional composite layups have replaced other materials such as metals due to composites’ high strength-to-weight ratio and durability. Finite-element (FE) models are actively being developed to model response of composite systems subjected to a

Composite materials are widely used in various structural applications, including within the automotive and aerospace industries. Unidirectional composite layups have replaced other materials such as metals due to composites’ high strength-to-weight ratio and durability. Finite-element (FE) models are actively being developed to model response of composite systems subjected to a variety of loads including impact loads. These FE models rely on an array of measured material properties as input for accuracy. This work focuses on an orthotropic plasticity constitutive model that has three components – deformation, damage and failure. The model relies on the material properties of the composite such as Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio, stress-strain curves in the principal and off-axis material directions, etc. This thesis focuses on two areas important to the development of the FE model – tabbing of the test specimens and data processing of the tests used to generate the required stress-strain curves. A comparative study has been performed on three candidate adhesives using double lap-shear testing to determine their effectiveness in composite specimen tabbing. These tests determined the 3M DP460 epoxy performs best in shear. The Loctite Superglue with 80% the ultimate stress of the 3M DP460 epoxy is acceptable when test specimens have to be ready for testing within a few hours. JB KwikWeld is not suitable for tabbing. In addition, the Experimental Data Processing (EDP) program has been improved for use in post-processing raw data from composites test. EDP has improved to allow for complete processing with the implementation of new weighted least squares smoothing options, curve averaging techniques, and new functionality for data manipulation.
ContributorsSchmidt, Nathan William (Author) / Rajan, Subramaniam D. (Thesis advisor) / Neithalath, Narayanan (Committee member) / Mobasher, Barzin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
Concrete develops strength rapidly after mixing and is highly influenced by temperature and curing process. The material characteristics and the rate of property development, along with the exposure conditions influences volume change mechanisms in concrete, and the cracking propensity of the mixtures. Furthermore, the structure geometry (due to restraint as

Concrete develops strength rapidly after mixing and is highly influenced by temperature and curing process. The material characteristics and the rate of property development, along with the exposure conditions influences volume change mechanisms in concrete, and the cracking propensity of the mixtures. Furthermore, the structure geometry (due to restraint as well as the surface area-to-volume ratio) also influences shrinkage and cracking. Thus, goal of this research is to better understand and predict shrinkage cracking in concrete slab systems under different curing conditions. In this research, different concrete mixtures are evaluated on their propensity to shrink based on free shrinkage and restrained shrinkage tests.Furthermore, from the data obtained from restrained ring test, a casted slab is measured for shrinkage. Effects of different orientation of restraints are studied and compared to better understand the shrinking behavior of the concrete mixtures. The results show that the maximum shrinkage is near the edges of the slab and decreases towards the center. Shrinkage near the edges with no restraint is found out to be more than the shrinkage towards the edges with restraining effects.
ContributorsNimbalkar, Atharwa Samir (Author) / Neithalath, Narayanan (Thesis advisor) / Mobasher, Barzin (Thesis advisor) / Rajan, Subramaniam (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
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Description
Alkali-activated aluminosilicates, commonly known as "geopolymers", are being increasingly studied as a potential replacement for Portland cement. These binders use an alkaline activator, typically alkali silicates, alkali hydroxides or a combination of both along with a silica-and-alumina rich material, such as fly ash or slag, to form a final product

Alkali-activated aluminosilicates, commonly known as "geopolymers", are being increasingly studied as a potential replacement for Portland cement. These binders use an alkaline activator, typically alkali silicates, alkali hydroxides or a combination of both along with a silica-and-alumina rich material, such as fly ash or slag, to form a final product with properties comparable to or better than those of ordinary Portland cement. The kinetics of alkali activation is highly dependent on the chemical composition of the binder material and the activator concentration. The influence of binder composition (slag, fly ash or both), different levels of alkalinity, expressed using the ratios of Na2O-to-binders (n) and activator SiO2-to-Na2O ratios (Ms), on the early age behavior in sodium silicate solution (waterglass) activated fly ash-slag blended systems is discussed in this thesis. Optimal binder composition and the n values are selected based on the setting times. Higher activator alkalinity (n value) is required when the amount of slag in the fly ash-slag blended mixtures is reduced. Isothermal calorimetry is performed to evaluate the early age hydration process and to understand the reaction kinetics of the alkali activated systems. The differences in the calorimetric signatures between waterglass activated slag and fly ash-slag blends facilitate an understanding of the impact of the binder composition on the reaction rates. Kinetic modeling is used to quantify the differences in reaction kinetics using the Exponential as well as the Knudsen method. The influence of temperature on the reaction kinetics of activated slag and fly ash-slag blends based on the hydration parameters are discussed. Very high compressive strengths can be obtained both at early ages as well as later ages (more than 70 MPa) with waterglass activated slag mortars. Compressive strength decreases with the increase in the fly ash content. A qualitative evidence of leaching is presented through the electrical conductivity changes in the saturating solution. The impact of leaching and the strength loss is found to be generally higher for the mixtures made using a higher activator Ms and a higher n value. Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) is used to obtain information about the reaction products.
ContributorsChithiraputhiran, Sundara Raman (Author) / Neithalath, Narayanan (Thesis advisor) / Rajan, Subramaniyam D (Committee member) / Mobasher, Barzin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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Description
There is a high demand for customized designs of various types of cement-based materials in order to address specific purposes in the construction field. These demands stem from the need to optimize the cementitious matrix properties and reinforcement choices, especially in high reliability, durability, and performance applications that include infrastructure,

There is a high demand for customized designs of various types of cement-based materials in order to address specific purposes in the construction field. These demands stem from the need to optimize the cementitious matrix properties and reinforcement choices, especially in high reliability, durability, and performance applications that include infrastructure, energy production, commercial buildings, and may ultimately be extended to low risk/high volume applications such as residential applications. The typical tools required to guide practicing engineers should be based on optimization algorithms that require highly efficient capacity and design alternatives and optimal computational tools. The general case of flexural design of members is an important aspect of design of structural members which can be extended to a variety of applications that include various cross-sections such as rectangular, W-sections, channels, angles, and T sections. The model utilized the simplified linear constitutive response of cement-based composite in compression and tension and extends into a two-segment elastic-plastic, strain softening, hardening, tension-stiffening, and a multi-segment system. The generalized parametric model proposed uses a dimensionless system in the stress-strain materials diagram to formulate piecewise equations for an equilibrium of internal stresses and obtains strain distributions for the closed-form solution of neutral axis location. This would allow for the computation of piecewise moment-curvature response. The number of linear residual stress implemented is flexible to a user to maintain a robust response. In the present approach bilinear, trilinear, and quad-linear models are addressed and a procedure for incorporating additional segments is presented. Moreover, a closed-form solution of moment-curvature can be solved and employed in calculating load-deflection response. The model is adaptable for various types of fiber-reinforced and textile reinforced concrete (FRC, TRC, UHPC, AAC, and Reinforced Concrete). The extensions to cover continuous fiber reinforcement such as textile reinforced concrete (TRC, FRCM) strengthening and repair are addressed. The theoretical model is extended to incorporate the hybrid design (HRC) with continuous rebar with FRC to increase the ductility and ultimate moment capacity. HRC extends the performance of the fiber system to incorporate residual capacity into a serviceability-based design that reduced the reliance on the design based on the limit state. The design chart for HRC and as well as conventional RC has been generated for practicing engineering applications. Results are compared to a large array of data from experimental results conducted at the ASU structural lab facilities and other published literature.
Contributorspleesudjai, chidchanok (Author) / Mobasher, Barzin (Thesis advisor) / Neithalath, Narayanan (Committee member) / Rajan, Subramaniam (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
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Description
Composites are replacing conventional materials in aerospace applications due to their light weight, non-corrosiveness, and high specific strength. This thesis aims to characterize the input data for IM7-8552 unidirectional composite to support MAT213, an orthotropic elasto-plastic damage material model and MAT_186, a mixed mode cohesive zone model used to model

Composites are replacing conventional materials in aerospace applications due to their light weight, non-corrosiveness, and high specific strength. This thesis aims to characterize the input data for IM7-8552 unidirectional composite to support MAT213, an orthotropic elasto-plastic damage material model and MAT_186, a mixed mode cohesive zone model used to model delamination. MAT_213 in conjunction with MAT_186 can be used to predict the behavior of composite under crush and impact loads including delamination. MAT_213 requires twelve sets of stress-strain curves, direction-dependent material constants, and flow rule coefficients as input. All the necessary inputs are obtained through the post-processing of a total of twelve distinct quasi-static and room temperature (QS-RT) experiments. MAT_186 is driven by a set of Mode I and Mode II fracture parameters and traction separation laws, a constitutive law that derives the relationship between stresses and relative displacements at integration points of cohesive elements. Obtaining cohesive law parameters experimentally is a tedious process as it requires close monitoring of the crack length during the test, which is a difficult task to achieve with accuracy even after using sophisticated equipment such as Digital Image Correlation (DIC). In this thesis, a numerical inverse analysis method to precisely predict these parameters by using finite element analysis with cohesive zone modeling and response surface methodology (RSM) is proposed. Three steps comprise RSM. The process in Step 1 involves calculating the root mean square error between the finite element and experimental load-displacement curves to produce the response surface. In step 2, the response surface is fitted with a second-order polynomial using the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. In step 3, an optimization problem is solved by minimizing the fitted function to find the optimum cohesive zone parameters. Finally, the obtained input for MAT_213 and MAT_186 material models is validated by performing a quasi-isotropic tension test simulation.
ContributorsRaihan, Mohammed (Author) / Rajan, Subramaniam (Thesis advisor) / Neithalath, Narayanan (Committee member) / Hoover, Christian (Committee member) / Yellavajjala, Ravi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023