Jin-Kyu Song

Human brain activation in response to visual stimulation with rural and urban scenery pictures: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Human brain activation was assessed in terms of eco-friendliness while viewing still photographs depicting rural and urban surrounding environments with the use of a functional magnetic resonance imaging technique. A total of 30 subjects who had both rural and urban life experiences participated in this study. In order to explore the common and differential activation maps yielded by viewing two extreme types of scenery, random effect group analysis was performed with the use of one-sample and two-sample t-tests. Activation of the anterior cingulate gyrus, globus pallidus, putamen and head of the caudate nucleus was dominant during rural scenery viewing, whereas activation of the hippocampus, parahippocamus and amygdala was dominant during urban scenery viewing (p<0.01). These findings allow better characterization of neural activation, suggesting an inherent preference towards nature-friendly living. Such a theoretical acquisition may have an important practical impact in view of potential applications for bio-housing and the development of environmental psychology-related areas.

Flow and Compressive Strength of Alkali-Activated Mortars

The authors present results of testing performed on 18 fly ash (FA)-based mortars and 36 slag-based mortars activated by sodium hydroxide and/or sodium silicate powders. Activator sodium oxide mixing ratio to source materials, fine aggregate-binder ratio (s/b), and water-binder ratio (w/b) are the main variables investigated. That much higher compressive strength and slightly less flow were exhibited by slag-based alkali-activated (AA) mortars when compared to FA-based AA mortars for the same mixing condition was shown by test results. For AA mortar initial flow and 28-day compressive strength evaluation, nonlinear multiple regression analysis developed feed-forward neural networks and simplified equations were developed. A comprehensive database of the results of 82 tests of sodium silicate activated mortars was used for neural network training and testing and simplified equation calibration. Estimation of slag-based AA mortar compressive strength development was also done using the ACI 209R specified formula calibrated against the collected database. Test results were in good agreement with predictions obtained from developed simplified equations and trained neural network, although there was slight overestimation of slag-based AA mortar early strength by the proposed simplified equations.

Shear Capacity of Reinforced Concrete Beams Using Neural Network

Optimum multi-layered feed-forward neural network (NN) models using a resilient back-propagation algorithm and early stopping technique are built to predict the shear capacity of reinforced concrete deep and slender beams. The input layer neurons represent geometrical and material properties of reinforced concrete beams and the output layer produces the beam shear capacity. Training, validation and testing of the developed neural network have been achieved using 50%, 25%, and 25%, respectively, of a comprehensive database compiled from 631 deep and 549 slender beam specimens. The predictions obtained from the developed neural network models are in much better agreement with test results than those determined from shear provisions of different codes, such as KBCS, ACI 318-05, and EC2. The mean and standard deviation of the ratio between predicted using the neural network models and measured shear capacities are 1.02 and 0.18, respectively, for deep beams, and 1.04 and 0.17, respectively, for slender beams. In addition, the influence of different parameters on the shear capacity of reinforced concrete beams predicted by the developed neural network shows consistent agreement with those experimentally observed.

Strength Development of Blended Sodium Alkali-Activated Ground Granulated Blast-Furnace Slag (GGBS) Mortar

Strength model for blasted furnace slag mortar blended with sodium was investigated in this study. The main parameters of AAS (alkali activated slag) mortar were dosage of alkali activator, water to binder ratio (W/B), and aggregate to binder ratio (A/B). For evaluating the property related to the dosage of alkali activator, sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) of 4~8% was added to 4% dosage of sodium hydroxide (NaOH). W/B and A/B was varied 0.45~0.60 and 2.05~2.85, respectively. An alkali qual- ity coefficient combining the amounts of main compositions of source materials and sodium oxide (Na2O) in sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate is proposed to assess the compressive strength of alkali activated mortars. Test results clearly showed that the compressive strength development of alkali-activated mortars were significantly dependent on the proposed alkali quality coef- ficient. Compressive strength development of AAS mortars were also estimated using the formula specified in the previous study, which was calibrated using the collected database. Predictions from the simplified equations showed good agreements with the test

Tests on Cementless Alkali-Activated Slag Concrete Using Lightweight Aggregates

Five all-lightweight alkali-activated (AA) slag concrete mixes were tested according to the variation of water content to examine the significance and limitation on the development of cementless structural concrete using lightweight aggregates. The compressive strength development rate and shrinkage strain measured from the concrete specimens were compared with empirical models proposed by ACI 209 and EC 2 for portland cement normal weight concrete. Splitting tensile strength, and moduli of elasticity and rupture were recorded and compared with design equations specified in ACI 318-08 or EC 2, and a database compiled from the present study for ordinary portland cement (OPC) lightweight concrete, wherever possible. Test results showed that the slump loss of lightweight AA slag concrete decreased with the increase of water content. In addition, the compressive strength development and different mechanical properties of lightweight AA slag concrete were comparable with those of OPC lightweight concrete and conservative comparing with predictions obtained from code provisions. Therefore, it can be proposed that the lightweight AA slag concrete is practically applicable as an environmental-friendly structural concrete.

Carbonation Characteristics of Alkali-Activated Blast-Furnace Slag Mortar

Alkali-activated ground granulated blast-slag (AAS) is the most obvious alternative material for ordinary Portland cement (OPC). However, to use it as a structural material requires the assessment and verification of its durability. The most important factor for a durability evaluation is the degree of carbonation resistance, and AAS is known to show lower performance than OPC. A series of experiments was conducted with a view to investigate the carbonation characteristics of AAS binder. As a consequence, it was found that the major hydration product of AAS was calcium silicate hydrate (CSH), with almost no portlandite, unlike the products of OPC. After carbonation, the CSH of AAS turned into amorphous silica gel which was most likely why the compressive strength of AAS became weaker after carbonation. An increase of the activator dosage leads AAS to react more quickly and produce more CSH, increasing the compaction, compressive strength, and carbonation resistance of the microstructure.

Basic Mixing and Mechanical Tests on High Ductile Fiber Reinforced Cementless Composites

Cement has been traditionally used as a main binding material of high ductile fiber reinforced cementitious composites. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of using alkali-activated slag and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers for manufacturing high ductile fiber reinforced cementless composites. Two mixture proportions with proper flowability and mortar viscosity for easy fiber mixing and uniform fiber dispersion were selected based on alkali activators. Then, the slump flow, compression, uniaxial tension and bending tests were performed on the mixes to evaluate the basic properties of the composites. The cementless composites showed an average slump flow of 465 mm and tensile strain capacity of approximately 2% of due to formation of multiple micro-cracks. Test results demonstrated a feasibility of manufacturing high ductile fiber reinforced composites without using cement.

A Stress-Strain Relationship of Alkali-Activated Slag Concrete

The present study summarizes a series of compressive tests on concrete cylinder in order to examine the stressstrain relationship of alkali-activated (AA) slag concrete. The compressive strength and unit weight of concrete tested ranged from 8.6 MPa to 42.2 MPa and from to , respectively. A mathematical equation representing the complete stress-strain curve was developed based on test results recorded from 34 concrete specimens. The modulus of elasticity, strain at peak stress, slopes of ascending and descending branches of stress-strain curves were generalized as a function of compressive strength and unit weight of concrete. The mean and standard deviation of the coefficient of variance between measured and predicted curves were 6.9% and 2.6%, respectively. This indicates that the stress-strain relationship of AA slag concrete is represented properly with more accuracy in the proposed model than in some other available models for ordinary portland cement (OPC) concrete.

Effect of Water Content on the Properties of Lightweight Alkali-Activated Slag Concrete

The water content and lightweight aggregate proportions in lightweight alkali-activated (AA) concrete need to be carefully managed to control the quick slump loss of fresh concrete and to meet the mechanical properties that are required for structural concrete. This study tested 10 lightweight AA slag concrete specimens to evaluate the effect of the water content on the workability and various mechanical properties of the concrete. The source material, ground granulated blast furnace slag, was activated by using sodium silicate and calcium hydroxide powders to produce a cementless binder. The rate of development of the compressive strength and the shrinkage strain measured from the concrete specimens were compared with empirical models proposed by American Concrete Institute (ACI) 209 for normal-weight portland cement concrete. To examine the practical applicability of the lightweight AA slag concrete, the splitting tensile strength and the moduli of elasticity and rupture recorded from the concrete speci...

Carbonation Characteristics of Alkali Activated Blast-Furnace Slag Mortar

Alkali-activated slag (AAS) is the most obvious alternative materials that can replace OPC. But, AAS industrial usage as a structural material should be evaluated for its durability. Carbonation resistance is one of the most important factors in durability evaluation. Test results for 18 slag-based mortars activated by sodium silicate and 6 OPC mortars were obtained in this study to verify the carbonation property. Main variables considered in the study were flow, compressive strength before and after carbonation, and carbonation depth. Mineralogical and micro-structural analysis of OPC and AAS specimens prior to and after carbonation was conducted using XRD, TGA, FTIR FE-SEM. Test results showed that CHS was major hydration products of AAS and, unlike OPC, no other hydration products were found. After carbonation, CSH of hydration product in AAS turned into an amorphous silica gel, and alumina compounds was not detected. From the analysis of the results, it was estimated that the micro-structures of CSH in AAS easily collapsed during carbonation. Also, the results showed that this collapse of chemical chain of CSH lowered the compressive strength of concrete after carbonation. By increasing the dosage of activators, carbonation resistance and compressive strength were effectively improved.