Laboratory testing of a densified municipal solid waste in Beijing

Municipal solid waste （MSW） and its disposal are gaining significant importance in geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering. However, conventional research is primarily focused on fresh MSW or MSW that is compacted under its own weight in the landfill. In this work, a series of tests to study the properties of a densified MSW after ground treatment were presented. The tests involved oedometer test, simple shear test, triaxial shear test, and permeability test, which were conducted to investigate the compressibility, shear strength, creep behavior and permeability of the MSW. The results show that the compressibility modulus of the MSW increases as the dry density increases. However, the influence of density on modulus decreases once the density reaches a certain value. Like most soils, the stress-strain curve of the densified MSW can be approximated by a hyperbola in the triaxial shear test. Fibrous components provide additional cohesion for MSW, but have a relatively smaller effect on friction angle. Permeability is also found to be closely related to the dry density of the MSW, i.e., MSW with a higher dry density has a smaller permeability. The permeability coefficient may be less than 10 7 cm/s if the density is high enough.

Precipitating thermally reinforcement phase in aluminum alloys for enhanced strength at 400℃

Heat-resistant aluminum alloys are widely used in aerospace and automotive fields for manufacturing hot components due to their advantages in lightweight design and energy conservation.However,the high-temperature strength of existing cast aluminum alloys is always limited to about 100 MPa at 350℃due to coarsening and transformation of strengthening phases.Here,we reveal that the yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of the T6 state Al-8.4Cu-2.3Ce-1.0Mn-0.5Ni-0.2Zr alloy at 400◦C increase by 34%and 44%after re-aging at 300℃for 100 h,and its thermal strength exhibits distinguished ad-vantage over traditional heat-resistant aluminum alloys.The enhanced elevated-temperature strength is attributed to the reprecipitation of the Ni-bearing T-Al_(20)Cu_(2)Mn_(3)phase,whose number density increases over one time.The significant segregation of Ni,Ce,and Zr elements at the interfaces helps improve the thermal stability of the T phase.The thermostable T phase effectively strengthens the matrix by in-hibiting dislocation motion.Meanwhile,a highly interconnected 3D intermetallic network along the grain boundaries can still remain after long-term re-aging at 300℃,which is conducive to imposing a drag on the grain boundaries at high temperatures.This finding offers a viable route for enhancing the elevated-temperature strength of heat-resistant aluminum alloys,which could provide expanded opportunities for higher-temperature applications.