When colloidal suspensions dry, stresses build up and cracks often occur -a phenomenon undesirable for important industries such as paint and ceramics. We demonstrate an effective method which can completely eliminate cracking during drying: by adding emulsion droplets into colloidal suspensions, we can systematically decrease the amount of cracking, and eliminate it completely above a critical...

Concrete and cracking are nearly synonymous despite our best efforts and intentions. Relationships between cracking and the stress states that lead to cracking can be instructive. In an effort to better understand these relationships, X-ray microtomography was used to make high-resolution three-dimensional digital images of small concrete specimens under load. Using 3D image analysis, quantitat...

Water quality along the Waratah Rivulet in the Woronora Lake Catchment, New South Wales (NSW), Australia, has been monitored during the last three years by the Sydney Catchment Authority. Water quality data shows changes in chemical composition due to cracking of streambeds and rockbars, and diversion of surface water into subsurface routes in the Hawkesbury Sandstone aquifer. Water quality ups...

Steels are being designed with ever decreasing interstitial contents. At the same time, processing technology allows accelerated cooling without excessive distortion or microstructural gradients [1–5]. Lean steels with lower ‘carbon equivalents’ can therefore be manufactured, making fabrication relatively easy. Alloys such as these give uniform microstructures in spite of solidfication–induced ...

This study establishes the ability of hydrate formation to initiate internal corrosions along natural gas pipelines. The identified corrosion types, which are cavitations, erosion and corrosions by chemical reactions, are capable to individually or collectively initiate pitting and stress cracking corrosions which are also dangerous to gas pipelines. The impacts of these corrosion types are cla...

Culture extends biology in that the setting of development shapes the traditions that individuals learn, and over time, traditions evolve as occasional variations are learned by others. In humans, interactions with others impact the development of cognitive processes, such as sustained attention, that shape how individuals learn as well as what they learn. Thus, learning itself is impacted by c...

The catalytic cracking method of PAHs for the pyrolysis gaseous products is proposed to control their pollution to the environment. In this study, the Py-GC-MS is used to investigate in situ the catalytic effect of CaO and Fe2O3 on the 16 PAHs from Pingshuo coal pyrolysis under different catalytic temperatures and catalyst particle sizes. The results demonstrate that Fe2O3 is effective than tha...

The kinetics of alkane cracking in zeolites MFI and FAU have been simulated theoretically from first principles. The apparent rate coefficient for alkane cracking was described as the product of the number of alkane molecules per unit mass of zeolite that are close enough to a Brønsted-acid site to be in the reactant state for the cleavage of a specific C-C bond and the intrinsic rate coefficie...

In this paper, the cyclic fatigue hysteresis loops of 2D woven SiC/SiC ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) at elevated temperatures in steam have been investigated. The interface slip between fibers and the matrix existing in matrix cracking modes 3 and 5, in which matrix cracking and interface debonding occurred in longitudinal yarns, is considered as the major reason for hysteresis loops of 2D w...