Search Results

Many countries all over the world are promoting the recycled aggregate concrete for its advantage to solve the problem of shortage of natural resources in aggregates as well as promoting the recycling of waste and the reuse of materials. Recycled aggregate concrete replaces natural concrete with various rates of restitution of natural aggregates into recycled…

Instead of approaches of solid mechanics or a formal description of experimental data an interdisciplinary approach is proposed to consider failure and deformation as thermodynamic processes. Mathematical modeling of the processes is carried out using rheological models of the material. One fracture criterion is used, that formally corresponds to the achievement of a threshold concentration…

Fuel Cells (FCs) and Combined Cooling, Heating and Power (CCHP) systems are becoming very popular due to their environmental friendliness and immense applications. This extended review paper commenced by introducing the rampant South Africa’s electricity crisis as the basis for the study, followed by some structural analyses of up to forty-four miscellaneous power electronics converters…

This study tests the feasibility of manufacturing concrete blocks made of recycled materials. The paper is an extension of work originally presented in ASET conference in Dubai. The paper, depicts and analyzes how the characteristics of the blocks (strength/durability) are affected by the presence of recycled concrete ingredients (recycled aggregate (RA)) and recycled water (RW).…

Lime mortar, an age-long building material is primarily popular for its flexibility, the basis of its ability to accommodate masonry deformation, hence durability. However, lime’s characteristic delayed setting/hardening time, low mechanical strength and poor internal cohesion often characterised by volumetric changes have put its use into decline. These shortcomings have therefore relegated relevance of this…

Prior to the 19th century discovery of Portland Cement (PC), Lime Based Mortar remained popular due to its flexibility, permeability and more importantly, associated low carbon emissions. However, lime’s characteristic delayed setting/hardening time, low mechanical strength, poor internal cohesion and some volumetric changes have overshadowed significance of its outstanding features particularly, flexibility, and consequently put…

Relational database management systems (RDBMS) have been imposed for more than three decades as a facto standard for data storage, management, and analysis. They have a good reputation by supporting ACID properties (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability) and by adopting the SQL language which has become a standardized language. However, despite their power, RDBMS have…