A low-profile metamaterial absorber with ultrawideband reflectionless and wide-angular stability

An ultrawideband reflectionless metamaterial absorber(MA)is proposed by replacing the metallic ground with the complementary split-ring resonator(CSRR)structure.The proposed MA exhibits-10 d B reflectivity spectrum from 1 GHz to 20 GHz,which maintains more than 90%absorption from 1.5 GHz to20 GHz.Furthermore,it achieves angle stability for TE and TM polarization at oblique incident angles up to 40°and 65°,respectively.To achieve broadband absorption spectrum,we have adopted a single-layer high-impedance surface(HIS)loaded with a double-layer magnetic material(MM)structure.To further realize the RCS reduction into a lower frequency range,we have employed the scattering cancellation technology into the traditional metallic ground.Finally,we have fabricated a sample exhibiting the 10 d B RCS reduction from 1 GHz to 20 GHz with a thickness of 10 mm.Measurement and simulation results confirm that the proposed MA exhibits excellent comprehensive performance,making it suitable for many practical applications.

Biomechanical analysis of an absorbable material for treating fractures of the inferior orbital wall

AIM:To investigate the biomechanical properties and practical application of absorbable materials in orbital fracture repair.METHODS:The three-dimensional(3D)model of orbital blowout fractures was reconstructed using Mimics21.0 software.The repair guide plate model for inferior orbital wall fracture was designed using 3-matic13.0 and Geomagic wrap 21.0 software.The finite element model of orbital blowout fracture and absorbable repair plate was established using 3-matic13.0 and ANSYS Workbench 21.0 software.The mechanical response of absorbable plates,with thicknesses of 0.6 and 1.2 mm,was modeled after their placement in the orbit.Two patients with inferior orbital wall fractures volunteered to receive single-layer and double-layer absorbable plates combined with 3D printing technology to facilitate surgical treatment of orbital wall fractures.RESULTS:The finite element models of orbital blowout fracture and absorbable plate were successfully established.Finite element analysis(FEA)showed that when the Young’s modulus of the absorbable plate decreases to 3.15 MPa,the repair material with a thickness of 0.6 mm was influenced by the gravitational forces of the orbital contents,resulting in a maximum total deformation of approximately 3.3 mm.Conversely,when the absorbable plate was 1.2 mm thick,the overall maximum total deformation was around 0.4 mm.The half-year follow-up results of the clinical cases confirmed that the absorbable plate with a thickness of 1.2 mm had smaller maximum total deformation and better clinical efficacy.CONCLUSION:The biomechanical analysis observations in this study are largely consistent with the clinical situation.The use of double-layer absorbable plates in conjunction with 3D printing technology is recommended to support surgical treatment of infraorbital wall blowout fractures.

Effect of Glutinous Rice Flour on Mechanical Properties and Microstructure of Cement-based Materials

The mechanism of glutinous rice flour,a kind of natural admixture,on the hydration process,setting time,and microstructure of the Portland cement was investigated.The experimental results show that the glutinous rice flour has an obvious setting retarding effect on cement pastes.The optimal dosage of the glutinous rice flour is 3wt%.In this case,the initial and final setting time of the paste are delayed by 140 and185 min,respectively.The flexural and compressive strengths of the hardened paste are increased by 0.35%and 0.07%after 56 d of curing.The glutinous rice flour hinders the mineral dissolution process and decreases the concentration of calcium ion at the initial stage of hydration due to the complexation effect,thereby hindering the nucleation and growth of CH and C-S-H phases and prolonging the hydration process.However,C-S-H phases combine with the glutinous rice flour to contribute the bonding effect together,which compacts the microstructure of hardened cement pastes at the later hydration stage of cement pastes.Thus,in-depth investigation on the utilization of glutinous rice flour as the admixture for the Portland cement is expected to be meaningful for the control of hydration exothermic rate and setting time.

Experimental and Numerical Research on Water Transport during Adsorption and Desorption in Cement-Based Materials

The durability of cement-based materials is related to water transport and storage in their pore network under different humidity conditions.To understand the mechanism and characteristics of water adsorption and desorption processes from the microscopic scale,this study introduces different points of view for the pore space model generation and numerical simulation of water transport by considering the“ink-bottle”effect.On the basis of the pore structure parameters(i.e.,pore size distribution and porosity)of cement paste and mortar with water-binder ratios of 0.3,0.4 and 0.5 obtained via mercury intrusion porosimetry,randomly formed 3D pore space models are generated using two-phase transformation on Gaussian random fields and verified via image analysis method of mathematical morphology.Considering the Kelvin-Laplace equation and the influence of“ink-bottle”pores,two numerical calculation scenarios based on mathematical morphology are proposed and applied to the generated model to simulate the adsorption-desorption process.The simulated adsorption and desorption curves are close to those of the experiment,verifying the effectiveness of the developed model and methods.The obtained results characterize water transport in cement-based materials during the variation of relative humidity and further explain the hysteresis effect due to“ink-bottle”pores from the microscopic scale.

Calculation and Analysis of Acoustic Characteristics of Straight-Through Perforated Pipe Muffler Based on Multilayer Sound Absorbing Material

Using the multi-physical field simulation software COMSOL,the acoustic characteristics of the multilayer sound absorbing material straight-through perforated pipe muffler are studied by the finite element method.The results show that the finite element calculation of the multilayer sound absorbing material straight-through the perforated pipe muffler agrees well with the experimental measurement results.The reliability of the finite element method for studying the acoustic performance of the straight-through perforated pipe muffler with multilayer sound absorbing materials is shown.Furthermore,the influence of some structural parameters of porous sound absorbing material and micro-perforated plate on the acoustic performance of the multilayer sound absorbing material straight-through perforated pipe muffler is analyzed.The muffler based on multilayer sound absorbing material is different from the traditional muffler.After applying the multilayer sound absorbing material to the straight-through perforated pipe muffler,the transmission loss value greatly increases,which provides new ideas and directions for future research on the muffler.

Recent progress and future prospects of oil-absorbing materials

Oil and organic solvent contamination, derived from oil spills and organic solvent leakage, has been recognized as one of the major environmental issues imposing a serious threat to both human and ecosystem health. Among the various presented technologies applied for oil/water separation, oil absorption process has been explored widely and offers satisfactory results especially with surface modified oil-absorbing material and/or hybrid absorbents. In this review, we summarize the recent research activities involved in the designing strategies of oil-absorbing absorbents and their application in oil absorption. Then, an extensive list of various oil-absorbing materials from literature, including polymer materials, porous inorganic materials and biomass materials, has been compiled and the oil adsorption capacities toward various types of oils and organic solvents as available in the literature are presented along with highlighting and discussing the various factors involved in the designing of oil-absorbing absorbents tested so far for oil/water separation. Finally, some future trends and perspectives in oil-absorbing material are outlined.

Effects of Surface-activated Coal Gangue Aggregates on Properties of Cement-based Materials

Effects of calcined coal gangue （CG） aggregates treated by the surface thermal activation on the flowability and strength, and paste-CG aggregate interfaces of the cement-based material were investigated. The experimental results show that the compressive and flexural strength of the cement-based material with the calcined CG aggregates is much higher than that of the material with the natural CG aggregates, but the flowability of the material with calcined CG is significantly reduced with the calcined time. The strength of the material with the calcined CG aggregates only increases little with the calcined time at the same w/c ratio, but is reduced with the calcined time at the same flowability. The CG aggregates calcined by the surface thermal activation obviously overcomes the disadvantages of fully calcined CG.

Interaction of Electromagnetic Waves with Two-Dimensional Metal Covered with Radar Absorbing Material and Plasma

A two-dimensional metal model is established to investigate the stealth mechanisms of radar absorbing material （RAM） and plasma when they cover the model together. Using the finite-difference time-domain （FDTD） method, the interaction of electromagnetic （EM） waves with the model can be studied. In this paper, three covering cases are considered： a. RAM or plasma covering the metal solely; b. RAM and plasma covering the metal, while plasma is placed outside; e. RAM and plasma covering the metal, while RAM is placed outside. The calculated results show that the covering order has a great influence on the absorption of EM waves. Compared to case a, case b has an advantage in the absorption of relatively high-frequency EM waves （HFWs）, whereas case c has an advantage in the absorption of relatively low-frequency EM waves （LFWs）. Through the optimization of the parameters of both plasma and RAM, it is hopeful to obtain a broad absorption band by RAM and plasma covering. Near-field attenuation rate and far-field radar cross section （RCS） are employed to compare the different cases.

Microwave Absorption Properties of the Carbonyl Iron/EPDM Radar Absorbing Materials

Employing carbonyl iron powder and Ethylene-Propylene-Diene Monomer （EPDM） as the absorbent and matrix, rubber radar absorbing materials （RAM） were prepared. Effects of the carbonyl iron volume fraction and the thickness of the RAM on the microwave absorption properties in the frequency range of 2.6-18GHz were studied, and a mathematical analysis was made using the electromagnetic theory. The experimental results indicate that the minimum reflectivity of the radar absorbing materials continuously decreases with the increase of the carbonyl iron volume fraction, and the absorption peak also moves towards the low frequency for the same thickness of the RAM. The minimum reflectivity of the 3.0 mm RAM is -21.7dB at 3.5 GHz when the volume fraction of carbonyl iron is 45%. The reflectivity of the RAM is not in direct proportional to the thickness of the RAM, when the RAM has the same volume fraction of the carbonyl iron. The reflectivity of the RAM presents a regular trend at a given carbonyl iron volume fraction in the frequency range of 2.6-18 GHz. With the increase of the thickness, the maximum absorption peak moves towards low frequency band, the minimum reflectivity firstly decreases and then increases, and the absorption bandwidth for reflectivity〈-10 dB firstly increases and then decreases. The microwave absorption properties of the RAM are determined by the thickness and the composition of the radar absorbing materials. Theoretical analysis indicates that the reflectivity of the RAM is determined by the matching degree of the air＇s characteristic impedance and the input impedance.

Self-healing Action of Permeable Crystalline Coating on Pores and Cracks in Cement-based Materials

The self-healing action of a permeable crystalline coating on the po rous mortar was investigated by two times impermeability test. Moreover, the sel f-healing mechanism of cement-based materials with the permeable crystalline c oating was studied by SEM. The results indicate that the permeable crystalline c oating not only seals the pores and cracks in mortar during its curing process, but also heals the permeable pathway caused by first impermeability test or crac ks produced by freeze-thaw cycles. Therefore, cement-based materials can be im proved by the permeable crystalline coating for the self-healing function. SEM images prove that the self-healing function is realized by generating a great q uantity of non-soluble dendritic crystalline within the pores and cracks, which prevents the penetration of water and other liquids.

Effects of the Component and Fiber Gradient Distributions on the Strength of Cement-based Composite Materials

The effects of the component gradient distribution at interface and the fiber gradient distribution on the strength of cement-based materials were studied. The results show that the flexural strength and compressive strength of the mortar and concrete with interface component and fiber gradient distributions are obviously improved. The strengthes of the fiber gradient distributed mortar and concrete (FGDM/C) are higher than those of fiber homogeneously distributed mortar and concrete (FHDM/C). To obtain the same strength, therefore, a smaller fiber volume content in FGDM/C is needed than that in FHDM/C. The results also show that the component gradient distribution of the concrete can be obtained by means of multi-layer vibrating formation.

Influence of Water Content on Conductivity and Piezoresistivity of Cement-based Material with both Carbon Fiber and Carbon Black

The influence of water content on the conductivity and piezoresistivity of cement-based material with carbon fiber （CF） and carbon black （CB） was investigated. The piezoresistivity of cement-based material with both CF and CB was compared with that of cement-based material with CF only, and the changes in electrical resistivity of cement-based material with both CF and CB under static and loading conditions in different drying and soaking time were studied. It is found that the piezoresistivity of cement-based material with both CF and CB has better repeatability and linearity than that of cement-based material with CF only. The conductivity and the sensitivity of piezoresistive cement-based material with both CF and CB are enhanced as the water content in piezoresistive cement-based material increases.

Effects of Specimen Shape and Size on Water Loss and Drying Shrinkage of Cement-based Materials

The effects of specimen size and shape on development of water loss and shrinkage of mortar and concrete respectively were investigated. The experimental results showed that the effects of specimen size and shape on water loss ratio were consistent with those on drying shrinkage strain. It is also indicated that drying shrinkage strain has obvious linear correlation with water loss ratios independent of specimen size and shape. The effects of specimen size and shape on the water loss ratio were embodied in established model of averaged relative humidity improved by considering effects of sequential hydration and calculated by finite difference method. Furthermore, the effects of specimen size and shape on drying shrinkage strain of concrete were experimentally deduced and applied to modify criterion EB-FIP1990. The comparison between experimental and calculated results shows that the modified EB-FIP1990 can be adopted to predict drying shrinkage strain of concrete with reasonable accuracy.

Research Progress on Nanostructured Radar Absorbing Materials

Nanostructured radar absorbing materials (RAMs) have received steadily growing interest because of their fascinating properties and various applications compared with the bulk or microsized counterparts. The increased surface area, number of dangling bond atoms and unsaturated co-ordination on surface lead to interface polarization, multiple scatter and absorbing more microwave. In this paper, four types of nanostructured RAMs were concisely introduced as follows: nanocrystal RAMs, core-shell nanocomposite RAMs, nanocomposite of MWCNT and inorganic materials RAMs, nanocomposite of nanostructured carbon and polymer RAMs. Their microwave properties were described in detail by taking various materials as

Effects of an AMPS-Modified Polyacrylic Acid Superplasticizer on the Performance of Cement-based Materials

A self-made AMPS-modified polyacrylic acid superplasticizer and two others of the same type but with different molecular structures, which are commercially available, are used in this study to investigate the effect of a 2-acrylamide-2-methyl propylene sulfonic （AMPS）-modified polyacrylic acid superplasticizer on the properties of cement-based materials. In the experiments, initial fluidity, 1 and 2 h fluidity over time after admixtion, bleeding rate of the net cement mortar, and adsorption capacity and rate of cement particles are determined by adding different dosages of the three superplasticizers into the cement paste to characterize the dispersivity and the dispersion retention capability of each superplasticizer. Water-reducing rates of three kinds of mortars are simultaneously determined to characterize the water-reducing capacity of each superplasticizer, as well as the 3 and 28 d compressive strengths to characterize the compression resistance. Results show that water-reducing effect and fluidity better maintain the capability of the AMPS-modified polyacrylic acid superplasticizer than the two commercially available polyacrylic acid superplasticizers, and the compressive strengths after 3 and 28 d show significant growth. In conclusion, the effects of water reduction and strengthening of the AMPS-modified polyacrylic acid superplasticizer are evidently better than those of the two commercially available polyacrylic acid superplasticizers.

Hydration mechanism of low quality fly ash in cement-based materials

The hydration mechanism of low quality fly ash in cement-based materials was investigated. The hydration heat of the composite cementitious materials was determined by isothermal calorimetry, and the hydration products, quantity, pore structure and morphology were measured by X-ray diffraction(XRD), thermalgravity-differential thermal analysis(TG-DTA), mercury intrusion porosimetry(MIP) and scanning electron microscopy(SEM), respectively. The results indicate that grinding could not only improve the physical properties of the low quality fly ash on particle effect, but also improve hydration properties of the cementitious system from various aspects compared with raw low quality fly ash(RLFA). At the early stage of hydration, the low quanlity fly ash acts as almost inert material; but then at the later stage, high chemical activity, especially for ground low quality fly ash(GLFA), could be observed. It can accelerate the formation of hydration products containing more chemical bonded water, resulting in higher degree of cement hydration, thus denser microstructure and more reasonable pore size distribution, but the hydration heat in total is reduced. It can also delay the induction period, but the accelerating period is shortened and there is little influence on the second exothermic peak.

Long-term Durability of Cement-based Materials with Very Low w/b

To investigate the durability, especially the long-term stability of cement-based materials with very low w/b, the air permeability test, carbonation test, capillary absorption rate test and dilation potential test were adopted under long-term heat treatment condition. Microstructure of these materials is also analyzed by scanning electronic microscopy （SEM） and mercury intrusion porosimeter （MIP） in order to further unveil its mechanism and interrelation between microstructure and its properties. The results indicate that in the area investigated, cement-based material with w/b 0.17, like RPC, possesses low porosity and excellent durability. Moreover, its porosity will further decrease under long-term heat treatment compared with normal heat treatment. Its long-term durability is much superior to that of other cement-based materials with w/b 0.25 or 0.35 as high strength concrete（HSC）.

Real-time in situ visualization of internal relative humidity in fluorescence embedded cement-based materials

The transmission and distribution of moisture in cement-based materials are of great significance to the properties and durability of materials. Traditional macro-humidity monitoring equipment in civil engineering cannot capture the microscale humidity inside cement-based materials in situ. In this paper, a method of using rhodamine 6G fluorescence to characterize the change in relative humidity in cement-based materials is proposed. Two kinds of moulding processes are designed, which are premixed and smeared after moulding, and the optimal preparation concentration is explored. The results showed that rhodamine 6G can reflect the relative humidity of cement-based materials in situ by its fluorescence intensity and had little effect on the hydration heat release and hydration products of cement-based materials;the fluorescence intensity was much higher when the internal relative humidity was 63% and 75%. The research results lead the application of polymer materials in the field of traditional building materials, help to explore the performance evolution law of cement-based materials in micro scale, and have important significance for the evolution from single discipline to interdisciplinary.

Fabrication and performance optimization of Mn-Zn ferrite/EP composites as microwave absorbing materials

Magnesium-substituted Mn0.8Zn0.2Fe2O4 ferrite is synthesized by the sol–gel combustion method using citrate acid as the complex agent. The electromagnetic absorbing behaviors of ferrite/polymer coatings fabricated by dispersing Mn–Zn ferrite into epoxy resin （EP） are studied. The microstructure and morphology are characterized by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope. Complex permittivity, complex permeability, and reflection loss of ferrite/EP composite coating are investigated in a low frequency range. It is found that the prepared ferrite particles are traditional cubic spinel ferrite particles with an average size of 200 nm. The results reveal that the electromagnetic microwave absorbing properties are significantly influenced by the weight ratio of ferrite to polymer. The composites with a weight ratio of ferrite/polymer being 3：20 have a maximum reflection loss of –16 dB and wide absorbing band. Thus, the Mn–Zn ferrite is the potential candidate in electromagnetic absorbing application in the low frequency range （10 MHz–1 GHz）.

Properties of Bamboo Charcoal and Cement-based Composite Materials and Their Microstructure

The objective of this work was to study the properties of bamboo charcoal and cement-based composite materials and their microstructure. The pastes with various bamboo charcoals were prepared and the relative properties such as setting times and strength were tested and the microstructures and pore characteristics of pastes with various bamboos were also studied. The experimental results indicated that bamboo charcoal affects the setting times of cement paste, but the introduction of water reducer relieves this condition. Bamboo charcoal also poses an impact on the hardened paste strength. The prominent strength decrease is found when more and larger size bamboo charcoal is mixed into the cement paste. Bamboo charcoal alters the paste microstructure and increases the porosity and pore volume, but it increases the pores with the diameter of less than 50 μm. The pastes with various bamboo charcoals are given with the good functions such as adjusting humidity and adsorption.