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We present a novel approach to the fabrication of advanced polymeric nanocomposites from poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) by incorporation of PVA-grafted graphene oxide. In this work, we have synthesized PVA-grafted graphene oxide (PVA-g-GO) for the strong interfacial adhesion of graphene oxide (GO) to the PVA matrix. It was found that the mechanical properties of PVA were greatly improved by incorporating PVA-g-GO. For example, the tensile strength and Young’s modulus of the PVA nanocomposite films containing 1 wt % net GO in the PVA-g-GO significantly increased by 88 and 150%, respectively, as compared to unfilled PVA. The elongation at break was also increased by 22%, whereas the GO/PVA nanocomposite containing 1 wt % pristine GO was decreased by 15%. Therefore, the presence of the PVA-g-GO in the PVA matrix could make the PVA not only stronger but also tougher. The strong interfacial adhesion between PVA-g-GO and the PVA matrix was attributed to the good compatibility between PVA-g-GO and the matrix PVA as well as the hydrogen-bonding between them.

To reduce ground displacements induced by dewatering and excavation in foundation engineering, it is crucial to predict the ground displacements before construction. Two types of analyses, i.e., transient analysis (TA) and steady state analysis (SSA), are often used to predict ground displacements. To facilitate appropriate use of the two analyses in this study, both TA and SSA are carried out for a large-scale excavation in Shanghai, China. The calculations include groundwater table, ground settlement, and horizontal displacement. Comparisons between the calculated results and the measured results are made. Both the calculated and the measured results suggest that the deep mixing soil walls and diaphragm walls play an important part in preventing groundwater seepage and constraining soil movement. The calculated results show similar tendencies to the measured results, although the magnitudes were different. The comparisons indicate that TA is more accurate, and it is appropriate for detailed anal...

Dewatering-induced ground settlement is an important issue, and there a cumulative effect in stratified soil settlement. Detailed research of the stratified soil settlement devotes to a better evaluation of ground settlement. To better investigate the dewatering-induced stratified settlement characteristics of the soil strata in Shanghai, an intensive field-monitoring program was carried out for the excavation of an underground metro station, which involved the dewatering of confined aquifers in urban areas. Analyses of monitoring results suggest that the groundwater tables dropped steadily. The ground settlement decreased with an increasing distance from the excavation, and the maximum ground settlement was less than the allowable value. The results for stratified settlement monitoring showed that the ground settlement was less than the settlement at the bottom of the soft soil clay layer, which indicates that the clay layer swelled during dewatering in the underlying soil layer. This special phe...

In terms of the mixture theory and phase field theory, a phase field model is developed for the saturated porous medium undergoing phase transition. In the proposed model, it is postulated that during the phase transition of the porous medium, both the solid skeleton and pore fluid will undergo phase transition. The phase states of the solid skeleton and pore fluid are characterized by respective order parameters. To simplify the proposed phase field model, the temperatures and order parameters of the solid skeleton and pore fluid are assumed to be equal. The balance laws of the porous medium are given by the conventional mixture theory. The order parameter and the porosity of the porous medium are considered as internal variables and their evolution equations are determined by the entropy inequality of the porous medium. The constitutive representations for the stresses, entropies, heat fluxes, drag force and the evolution equations for the order parameter and porosity are derived by exploitation of the entropy inequality. To illustrate the proposed model, a concrete phase field model for the freezing porous medium is established in the paper. In the model, the memory effect associated with phase transition of the porous medium is taken into account by assuming Stieltjes integral for the strain energy of the porous medium. The constitutive representations for the above variables are then derived according to the proposed free energy expression for the porous medium. Finally, the boundary condition associated with the proposed model and the determination of some parameters involved in our model are discussed in the paper briefly.