A general method for brazing ceramics to metals using a compliant metallic foam as a buffer layer has been developed. Using stainless steel foams, bonds between alumina and 316 stainless steel with shear strengths up to 33 MPa have been achieved. The resultant ductility enhances the resistance of the joint to thermal cycling; AlN-Inconel 600 bonds exhibited good thermal shock resistance. Alumin...

The increase of shear strength in soil, reinforced with the geogrid (alternate reinforcer), is resulted from an increase of modulus of soil hardness, and also from the tensile strength of reinnforcer. The shear strength of contact surface in soil appears due to both the friction strength against the contact surface, and the passive strength formed in front of the elements of the geogri...

The fuel resistance property plays an important role in asphalts, but available standards for determining this characteristic are presently lacking. In the present work, a number of polymer modified bitumen with styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) polymer (4, 5, 6% SBS) and SBS/ sulfur modified bitumen with various percentages of sulfur (1.65, 3, 3.5% based on polymer content) were prepared. Each s...

A new Ultra Violet (UV) curable solution acrylic polymer based technology has been under development for manufacturing optically clear pressure sensitive adhesives. Monomers, functional groups, and formulating components can be selected to modify and tailor product properties for specific optically clear end uses. Refractive index, outgassing, heat resistance, and humidity resistance among othe...

Analyzing piles subjected to lateral loads significantly depends on soil resistance at any point along the pile as a function of pile deflection, known as p-y curve. On the other hand, the deformation characteristics of soil defined as “the soil strain at 50% of maximum deviatoric stress (ε50)” has considerable effect on the generated p-y curve. In this research, several models are proposed to ...

Soy-based adhesives inherently possess low water resistance and brittleness, which limit their application on plywood fabrication. This investigation involves using a long chain cross-linker, neopentyl glycol diglycidyl ether (NGDE), to produce an intrinsic toughening effect to reduce the brittleness and improve the water resistance of a soybean meal–based adhesive. The solids content, viscosit...

We explore the effect of microbial activity stimulated by root exudates on the penetrometer resistance of soil and its elastic modulus. This is important because it is a measure of the mechanical strength of soil and it correlates closely with the rate of elongation of roots. A sandy soil was incubated with a synthetic root exudate at different temperatures, for different lengths of time and wi...

We hypothesized that aging is characterized by a reduced release of nitric oxide (NO) in response to shear stress in resistance vessels. Mesenteric arterioles and arteries of young (6 mo) and aged (24 mo) male Fischer 344 rats were isolated and cannulated. Shear stress (15 dyn/cm(2))-induced dilation was significantly reduced and shear stress (1, 5, 10, and 15 dyn/cm(2))-induced increases in pe...