This study explores the damage evolution and crack behavior exhibited by CFRP-strengthened corroded RC beams subjected to bending loads, with the application of AE monitoring. The results show that three primary failure modes were observed: concrete cover separation, debonding of the CFRP sheet with anchor pullout and matrix cracking and fiber tearing, with the middle mode exhibiting greater ductility. AE ringing counts analysis effectively divided the damage process into three stages: initial damage, damage development, and continuous damage. Signal intensity analyses provided insights into damage severity, revealing enhanced crack propagation in corroded beams, while severe corrosion reduced AE signal frequency and intensity in later stages, indicating initial crack activity inhibition and accelerated damage in mild to moderate corrosion. The Ib-value demonstrated trends in ductility and damage severity, with higher ductility in less corroded beams and restricted damage development in heavily corroded ones. RA-AF crack classification and Gaussian Mixture Clustering identified an increased proportion of shear cracks with higher corrosion levels, reducing shear load-carrying capacity. These findings highlight AE-based monitoring as an effective tool for real-time damage assessment in CFRP-strengthened RC beams.

This study introduces a novel approach that integrates Acoustic Emission monitoring with fractal analysis to assess and predict damage progression in FRP-strengthened reinforced concrete beams subjected to corrosion-induced deterioration. By combining AE signals with fractal measures, specifically the correlation dimension, the research provides an effective tool for tracking internal damage evolution and offering early-warning indicators for structural health. The developed damage model identifies three distinct stages of damage: initial damage, damage evolution, and sustained growth. The study reveals that corrosion accelerates both the accumulation and rate of damage, with AE ring counts significantly increasing in moderately to severely corroded beams, indicating heightened crack activity and reduced structural capacity. The correlation dimension shows a strong relationship with the degree of damage, with higher values corresponding to more disordered internal damage. The correlation dimension evolves from an initial increase to a decrease as damage progresses, marking the transition from early to advanced degradation. These findings highlight that corrosion not only accelerates damage but also lowers the detection threshold for significant structural damage.

The CR/SBS composite-modified asphalt (CR/SBS-CMA) is recognized for its excellent rutting and fatigue resistance, but with poor workability. Sasobit has been introduced as an additive to improve the workability of CR/SBS-CMA. This study aims to investigate the effects of Sasobit content on the storage stability and rheological properties of CR/SBS-CMA. The Brookfield viscosity tests were used to measure the viscosity of samples. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) tests were conducted to study the modification mechanism. The cigar tube and fluorescence microscopy (FM) tests were employed to study the storage stability of samples. The penetration, softening point, and ductility of samples were assessed. The rheological behaviors of samples were assessed through dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) tests and bending beam rheometer (BBR) tests. The test results indicate that Sasobit can effectively reduce the viscosity of CR/SBS-CMA. Sasobit can also improve the rutting resistance, fatigue resistance, and storage stability of CR/SBS-CMA. However, Sasobit negatively affects the low-temperature performance of CR/SBS-CMA, so its content should be lower than 3 % when applied in areas with low temperatures. This study will contribute to the reduction of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions during the construction of CR/SBS-CMA pavement.

With advancements in reusable liquid rocket engine technology to meet the diverse demands of space missions, engine systems have become increasingly complex. In most cases, these engines rely on stable open-loop control and closed-loop regulation systems. However, due to the high degree of coupling and nonlinear dynamics within the system, most transient adjustments still depend on open-loop control. Open-loop control often fails to provide the optimal control strategy when encountering external disturbances. To address this issue, we introduce the intrinsically motivated twin delayed deep deterministic (TD3) algorithm, specifically designed for the startup process of LOX/Kerosene high-pressure staged combustion engine. This approach leverages intrinsic motivation to enable the algorithm to adapt to the abrupt parameter changes during the start-up process. A series of comprehensive experiments were conducted to verify the effectiveness of our method. The experimental results demonstrate that our method outperforms both the PID method and previous researchers' reinforcement learning methods based on the TD3 algorithm and DDPG, achieving a faster and more stable start-up process and significantly enhancing engine performance.

In 1966, Pierre-Gilles de Gennes proposed a non-volatile mechanism for switching superconductivity on and off in a magnetic device. This involved a superconductor (S) sandwiched between ferromagnetic (F) insulators in which the net magnetic exchange field could be controlled through the magnetisation-orientation of the F layers. Because superconducting switches are attractive for a range of applications, extensive studies have been carried out on F/S/F structures. Although these have demonstrated a sensitivity of the superconducting critical temperature (T_c) to parallel (P) and antiparallel (AP) magnetisation-orientations of the F layers, corresponding shifts in T_c (i.e. ΔT_c = T_c,AP− T_c,P) are lower than predicted with ΔT_c only a small fraction of T_c,AP, precluding the development of applications. Here, we report EuS/Au/Nb/EuS structures where EuS is an insulating ferromagnet, Nb is a superconductor and Au is a heavy metal. For P magnetisations, the superconducting state in this structure is quenched down to the lowest measured temperature of 20 mK meaning that ΔT_c/T_c,AP is practically 1. The key to this so-called 'absolute switching' effect is a sizable spin-mixing conductance at the EuS/Au interface which ensures a robust magnetic proximity effect, unlocking the potential of F/S/F switches for low power electronics.

Layered hybrid perovskites comprising adamantyl spacer (A) cations based on the A₂FA_n−1Pb_nI_3n+1(n= 1-3, FA = formamidinium) compositions have recently been shown to act as promising materials for photovoltaic applications. While the corresponding perovskite solar cells show performances and stabilities that are superior in comparison to other layered two-dimensional formamidinium-based perovskite solar cells, the underlying reasons for their behaviour are not well understood. We provide a comprehensive investigation of the structural and photophysical properties of this unique class of materials, which is complemented by theoretical analysisviamolecular dynamics simulations and density functional theory calculations. We demonstrate the formation of well-defined structures of lower compositional representatives based onn= 1-2 formulations with (1-adamantyl)methanammonium spacer moieties, whereas higher compositional representatives (n> 2) are shown to consist of mixtures of low-dimensional phases evidenced by grazing incidence X-ray scattering. Furthermore, we reveal high photoconductivities of the corresponding hybrid perovskite materials, which is accompanied by long charge carrier lifetimes. This study thereby unravels features that are relevant for the performance of FA-based low-dimensional hybrid perovskites.

A 400-MHz/2.4-GHz combo transceiver (TRX) integrated chip (IC) Supporting simultaneous dual-band communication is designed and fabricated in a 65-nm CMOS technology for compact wireless personal area network applications. The IC is composed of a 3-10 Mb/s quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK)/offset QPSK (OQPSK) TRX working at the 400-500 MHz band, and a 1-3 Mb/s Gaussian frequency shift keying (GFSK)/half sine OQPSK (HS-OQPSK) TRX at the 2.4-2.4835 GHz band for the Bluetooth low energy/IEEE 802.15.4 protocols. The presented combo TRX IC requires one single antenna without any bidirectional RF coupler, to support simultaneous dual-band communication. Two key circuit techniques, namely, the combination biasing technique to suppress the high-order harmonics and the active in-band interference cancellation, are adopted to tackle the crosstalk interference between the two bands during simultaneous dual-band operation. Measurement results show that the in-band interference presented to the 2.4-GHz receiver due to the 400-MHz transmitter is suppressed by 19 dB with the presented design techniques.