The current research project mainly aims to investigate the corrosion resistance and bond performance of steel reinforced recycled aggregate concrete incorporating nano-silica under both normal and corrosive environmental conditions. The experimental part includes testing of 180 pull-out specimens prepared from 12 different mixtures. The main parameters studied were the amount of recycled aggregate (RCA) (i.e. 0%, 25%, 50% and 100%), nano silica (1.5% and 3%), steel embedment length as well as steel bar diameter (12 and 20mm). Different levels of corrosion were electrochemically induced by applying impressed voltage technique for 2, 5, 10 and 15 days. The experimental observations mainly focused on the corrosion level in addition to the ultimate bond, failure modes and slips occurred. Experimental results showed that the bond performance between un-corroded steel and recycled aggregate concrete slightly reduced, while a significant degradation was observed after being exposed to corrosive conditions, in comparison to normal concrete. On the other hand, the use of nano silica (NS) showed a reasonable bond enhancement with both normal and RCA concretes under normal conditions. However, much better influence in terms of bond and corrosion resistance was observed under advancing levels of corrosion exposure, reflecting the improvement in corrosion resistance. Therefore, NS was superbly effective in recovering the poor performance in bond for RCA concretes. More efficiency was reported with RCA concretes compared to the conventional concrete. The bond resistance slightly with a small amount of corrosion (almost 2% weight loss), then a significant bond degradation occurs with further corrosion. The influence of specific surface area and amount of nano silica on the performance of concrete with different water/binder (w/b) ratios has been also studied, using 63 different mixtures produced with three different types of colloidal NS having various surface areas and particle sizes. The results showed that the performance of concrete is heavily influenced by changing the surface area of nano silica. Amongst the three used types of nano silica, NS with SSA of 250 m2 /g achieved the highest enhancement rate in terms of compressive strength, water absorption and microstructure analysis, followed by NS with SSA of 500 m2/g, whilst NS with SSA of 51.4 m2 /g was less advantageous for all mixtures. The optimum nano silica ratio in concrete is affected by its particle size as well as water to binder ratio. The feasibility of the impact-echo method for identifying the corrosion was evaluated and compared to the corrosion obtained by mass loss method. The results showed that the impact-echo testing can be effectively used to qualitatively detect the damage caused by corrosion in reinforced concrete structures. A significant difference in the dominant frequencies response was observed after exposure to the high and moderate levels of corrosion, whilst no clear trend was observed at the initial stage of corrosion. Artificial neural network models were also developed to predict bond strength for corroded/uncorroded steel bars in concrete using the main influencing parameters (i.e., concrete strength, concrete cover, bar diameter, embedment length and corrosion rate). The developed models were able to predict the bond strength with a high level of accuracy, which was confirmed by conducting a parametric study. / Higher Education Institute in the Libyan Government MONE BROS Company in Leeds (UK) for providing recycled aggregates BASF and Akzonobel Companies for providing nano silica NS, Hanson Ltd, UK, for suppling cement

One hundred billion tons of mine solid waste are estimated to be produced worldwide each year. In Canada, the mining and oil industries produce the most solid and semi-solid waste in the country, with more than a billion tons each year. In the earlier days of mining, the initial practices that were used to contain these waste materials consisted of surface storage, river dumping or just simple abandonment, while the more recent practices include dam impoundment and underground waste fill. These methods however can potentially cause environmental hazards and geotechnical problems. Against this context and as a result of stricter environmental regulations, cemented paste backfilling has been developed as a solution. This relatively new technology uses the produced waste tailings to backfill the mine stopes, greatly reducing their environmental impact while offering proper structural support in an efficient manner. However, the cost of cemented paste backfill (CPB) is greatly impacted by the binder content which can constitute up to 75% of its total cost. Additionally, the binder is usually mostly composed of ordinary Portland cement, and its production is highly energy-intensive and generates a large volume of carbon dioxide (CO₂). Indeed, it is estimated that the cement industry accounts for approximately 7% of the global anthropogenic CO₂ emissions, which is expected to increase on an annual basis. All of these factors have compelled the mining industry to seek alternatives for cement to enhance CPB strength, in hopes of reducing its carbon footprint. Against this context, this study investigates the effect of the addition of nanoparticles, namely nano silica (SiO₂) and nano-calcium carbonate (CaCO₃), on the strength development of CPB cured at a constant room temperature and in non-isothermal conditions. Nanoparticles have been studied and used as chemical admixtures in different cementitious materials with promising results; non-isothermal curing conditions better reflect the in-situ thermal curing conditions of CPB. Thus, numerous different laboratory tests and analyses, including uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) tests, thermogravimetric/derivative thermogravimetric (TG/DTG) analyses and electrical conductivity monitoring, have been conducted on CPB samples with or without nanoparticles, and cured at room temperatures or under non-isothermal conditions. The non-isothermal conditions replicate the development of temperature in two different sizes of CPB structures in the field. The results show that CPB that contains nanoparticles show a higher UCS over the entire period of curing in all of the tested conditions. The mechanical performance is further enhanced when tested under higher temperatures in non-isothermal temperature profiles. Most of the strength increase takes place at the early ages (3 days) of the testing. The reason for the improvement in the mechanical strength is linked to accelerated binder hydration and the nucleating and filler effects of the nano-material, which is corroborated by results obtained through microstructural analyses and EC monitoring. The use of natural gold tailings affects the mechanical performance of CPB and the accelerating effect of the nanoparticles due to sulphate attacks. Overall, these promising findings can help to contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of mining activities, and improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of mine backfilling processes.

Droplets as precursor are extensively applied in diverse fields of science and engineering. Various contributions are provided previously towards analysis of single phase and multi-phase droplets of single and multiple components. This thesis describes modelling of multi-phase (nano fluid) droplet vaporization. The evaporation of liquid phase along with migration of dispersed particles in two-dimensional plane within droplet is detailed using the governing transport equations along with the appropriate boundary and interface conditions. The evaporation model is incorporated with aggregate kinetics to study agglomeration among nano silica particles in base water. Agglomeration model based on population balance approach is used to track down the aggregation kinetics of nano particles in the droplet. With the simulated model it is able to predict different types of final structure of the aggregates formed as observed in experimental results available in literature. High spatial resolution in terms of agglomeration dynamics is achieved using current model. Comparison based study of aggregation dynamics is done by heating droplet in convective environment as well as with radiations and using different combination of heating and physical parameters. The effect of internal flow field is also analysed with comparative study using levitation and without levitation individually. For levitation, droplet is stabilized in an acoustic standing wave. It is also attempted to study the transformation of cerium nitrate to ceria in droplets when heated under different environmental conditions. Reaction kinetics based on modified rate equation is modelled along with vaporization in aqueous cerium nitrate droplet. The thermo physical changes within the droplet along with dissociation reaction is analysed under different modes of heating. The chemical conversion of cerium nitrate to ceria during the process is predicted using Kramers' reaction velocity equation in a modified form. The model is able to explain the kinetics behind formation of ceria within droplet at low temperatures. Transformation of chemical species is observed to be influenced by temperature and configuration of the system. Reaction based model along with CFD (computational fluid dynamics) simulation within the droplet is able to determine the rate of chemical dissociation of species and predict formation of ceria within the droplet. The prediction shows good agreement with experimental data which are obtained from literature.