During the service life of buildings, natural aging and eventual damage of materials due to different chemical, physical, and biological processes can take place. Ageing of the materials is one aspect of the environmental processes and involve different chemical, mechanical and biological reactions of the materials. Bio-deterioration, e.g. mould, decay and insect damage in buildings, is caused ...

With the aim to enhance interfacial adhesion of a hydrophobic polymer matrix and cellulosic fibers and fillers, chemical surface modifications with silane coupling agents are performed. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) could be used to determine the degree of surface functionalization. However, similar thermal properties of treated and untreated cellulose hamper a precise determination of silan...

This work presents a method for force calibration of rectangular atomic force microscopy (AFM) microcantilevers under heavy fluid loading. Theoretical modeling of the thermal response of microcantilevers is discussed including a fluid-structure interaction model of the cantilever-fluid system that incorporates the results of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. This model is curve fit to the me...

Time-dependent creep analysis is presented for the calculation of stresses and displacements of axisymmetric thick-walled cylindrical pressure vessels made of functionally graded material (FGM). For the purpose of time-dependent stress analysis in an FGM pressure vessel, material creep behavior and the solutions of the stresses at a time equal to zero (i.e. the initial stress state) are needed....

The wood used in making musical instruments usually undergoes pre-treatments or conditioning. Some processes have resulted from laboratory research, while many treatments are applied by craftsmen using traditional methods that have not yet been scientifically assessed. This paper is based on laboratory methods which simulate hydrothermal pre-treatments traditionally applied by Iranian lute make...

The. ce.c.c•ncl largest volcanic province on Mar• lies in the E!?ium region I•ike the larger Tharsis province, Elysium is marked by a topographic rise and a broad free air gravity anomaly and also exhibits a complex assortment of tectonic and volcanic features. We test the hypothesis that the tectonic features in the Elysium region are the product of stresses produced by loading of the Martian ...

Thick bonding wires are used in modern power modules as connectors between integrated circuits, carrying current from one circuit to another. They experience high values of current, which generates heat through Joule heating and can lead to various failure mechanisms. Typically used wire materials in industry are aluminum (Al), copper (Cu), and intermetallic compounds of Cu-Al. They are broadly...

The present investigation deals with the deformation in micropolar generalized thermoelastic medium with mass diffusion subjected to thermo mechanical loading due to thermal laser pulse. Laplace and Fourier transform technique is used to solve the problem. Concentrated normal force and thermal source are taken to illustrate the utility of approach. The closed form expressions of normal stress, ...