Strain-engineered S-HfSe₂ monolayer as a promising gas sensor for detecting NH₃: A first-principles study

The development of high-performance gas sensing materials is one of the development trends of new gas sensor technology. In this work, in order to predict the gas-sensitive characteristics of HfSe₂ and its potential as a gas-sensitive material, the interactions of nonmetallic element (O, S, Te) doped HfSe₂ monolayer and...

Short-circuit characteristics of superconducting permanent magnet generators for 10 MW wind turbines

Superconducting permanent magnet generators (SCPMGs) are a potential candidate for 10 MW direct-drive wind turbine applications. This paper presents two 10 MW SCPMG designs using MgB<sub>2</sub> cables for the armature winding and investigates the short-circuit characteristics of the designed SCPMGs. The first part...

Reactions of self-healing agents and the chemical binding of aggressive ions in sea water: Thermodynamics and kinetics

New self-healing agents that can chemically bind seawater ions invading cracked cementitious materials were proposed. The potential of self-healing and binding of seawater ions were investigated by thermodynamic modeling. It was found that CaO-NaAlO₂ and CaO-metakaolin agents can have Cl⁻, SO₄²⁻ and...

Evaluation of short-term streamflow prediction methods in Urban river basins

Efficient and accurate streamflow predictions are important for urban water management. Data-driven models, especially neural network (NN) models can predict streamflow fast, while the results are uncertain in some complex river systems. Physically based models can reveal the underlying physics, but it is relatively slow and computationally...

Wind effects on the water age in a large shallow lake

As the third largest fresh water lake in China, Taihu Lake is suffering from serious eutrophication, where nutrient loading from tributary and surrounding river networks is one of the main contributors. In this study, water age is used to investigate the impacts of tributary discharge and wind influence on nutrient status in Taihu Lake,...

Effect of the sodium silicate modulus and slag content on fresh and hardened properties of alkali-activated fly ash/slag

This paper presents the results of an experimental study performed to investigate the effect of activator modulus (SiO₂/Na₂O) and slag addition on the fresh and hardened properties of alkali-activated fly ash/slag (AAFS) pastes. Four activator moduli (SiO₂ /Na₂O), i.e., 0.0, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0, and...

SlimML: Removing Non- critical Input Data in Large-scale Iterative Machine Learning

The core of many large-scale machine learning (ML) applications, such as neural networks (NN), support vector machine (SVM), and convolutional neural network (CNN), is the training algorithm that iteratively updates model parameters by processing massive datasets. From a plethora of studies aiming at accelerating ML, being data...

Drying shrinkage of alkali-activated slag and fly ash concrete; A comparative study with ordinary Portland cement concrete

This study investigates the drying shrinkage and the shrinkage-induced stress of alkali-activated blast furnace slag and fly ash concrete (AC) in comparison with ordinary Portland cement concrete (OC). For samples that were dried from 1 day after casting, the drying shrinkage of AC was much higher than that of OC. For samples that were stored...

Geocon bridge geopolymer concrete mixture for structural applications

The sustainability of infrastructure projects is becoming increasingly important issue in engineering practice. This means that in the future the construction materials will be selected on the basis of the contribution they can make to reach sustainability requirements. Geopolymers are materials based on by-products from industries. By using...

Durable lubricant-infused anodic aluminum oxide surfaces with high-aspect-ratio nanochannels

Recently, lubricant-infused surfaces (LIS) have emerged as a prominent class of surface technology for antifouling, anti-icing and anticorrosion applications. However, long-term corrosion exposure and mechanical damages may deteriorate the practical performance of LIS during application. In this study, a robust LIS was fabricated by the...

Horizontal Circulation Patterns in a Large Shallow Lake: Taihu Lake, China

Wind induced hydrodynamic circulations play significant roles in the transport and mixing process of pollutants and nutrients in large shallow lakes, but they have been usually overlooked, while environmental, biological, and ecological aspects of eutrophication problems get the most focus. Herein we use a three-dimensional model, driven by...

Operation-driven heterogeneity and overlooked feed-associated populations in global anaerobic digester microbiome

Anaerobic digester (AD) microbiomes harbor complex, interacting microbial populations to achieve biomass reduction and biogas production, however how they are influenced by operating conditions and feed sludge microorganisms remain unclear. These were addressed by analyzing the microbial communities of 90 full-scale digesters at 51 municipal...

Spatial identification of critical nutrient loads of large shallow lakes: Implications for Lake Taihu (China)

Ongoing eutrophication frequently causes toxic phytoplankton blooms. This induces huge worldwide challenges for drinking water quality, food security and public health. Of crucial importance in avoiding and reducing blooms is to determine the maximum nutrient load ecosystems can absorb, while remaining in a good ecological state. These so...

Numerical simulation of the hydration process and the development of microstructure of self-compacting cement paste containing limestone as filler