A low-autogenous-shrinkage alkali-activated slag and fly ash concrete

Alkali-activated slag and fly ash (AASF) materials are emerging as promising alternatives to conventional Portland cement. Despite the superior mechanical properties of AASF materials, they are known to show large autogenous shrinkage, which hinders the wide application of these eco-friendly materials in infrastructure. To mitigate the...

Revealing an Interconnected Interfacial Layer in Solid-State Polymer Sodium Batteries

Replacing the commonly used nonaqueous liquid electrolytes in rechargeable sodium batteries with polymer solid electrolytes is expected to provide new opportunities to develop safer batteries with higher energy densities. However, this poses challenges related to the interface between the Na-metal anode and polymer electrolytes. Driven by...

On cohesive element parameters and delamination modelling

The cohesive element (CE) has been widely used to model delamination in laminated composites. The penalty stiffness, interfacial strength and fracture toughness are three CE parameters that often determine the accuracy of the numerical analysis by finite elements (FEs). The fracture toughness may be experimentally determined through standard...

The Relative Biological Effect of Spread-Out Bragg Peak Protons in Sensitive and Resistant Tumor Cells

Purpose: Variations in the radiosensitivity of tumor cells within and between tumors impact tumor response to radiation, including the dose required to achieve permanent local tumor control. The increased expression of DNA-PKcs, a key component of a major DNA damage repair pathway in tumors treated by radiation, suggests that DNA-PKcs– dependent...

Adaptive floating node method for modelling cohesive fracture of composite materials

The cohesive element has been widely employed to model delamination and matrix cracking in composite materials. However, an extremely fine mesh along the potential crack path is required to achieve accurate predictions of stresses within the cohesive zone. A sufficient number of cohesive elements must be present within the cohesive zone ahead...

A separable cohesive element for modelling coupled failure in laminated composite materials

A three-dimensional separable cohesive element (SCE) is proposed to enable the modelling of interaction between matrix cracking and interfacial delamination in laminated fibre-reinforced composite materials. It is demonstrated that traditional cohesive elements are incapable of modelling the coupled failure mechanisms accurately if...

Economic City Branding in China: the Multi-Level Governance of Municipal Self-Promotion in the Greater Pearl River Delta

In the urban development policy in China, city brands play an important role in setting targets for Chinese cities. These economic city brands, however, are not produced in an institutional vacuum: they are embedded in the visions national, provincial and municipal governments have for these cities, i.e., on multi-level governance. In this paper...