Evaluation of Environmental Risk Due to Metro System Construction in Jinan, China.

Jinan is a famous spring city in China. Construction of underground metro system may block groundwater seepage, inducing the depletion risk of springs. This paper presents an assessment of the risk due to metro line construction to groundwater in Jinan City using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Geographic International System (GIS).

Nanoindentation Characterization of a Ternary Clay-Based Composite Used in Ancient Chinese Construction.

Ternary clay-based composite material (TCC), composed of lime, clay and sand, and usually modified with sticky rice and other organic compounds as additives, was widely used historically in Chinese construction and buildings due to its high mechanical performance. In this study, to gain an insight into the micromechanical mechanism of this cementitious material, the nanomechanical properties and volume fraction of mechanically different phases of the binder matrix are derived from the analysis of grid nanoindentation tests. Results show that there are five distinct mechanical phases, where the calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) and geopolymer present in the binder matrix are almost identical to those produced in ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and alkali-activated fly-ash geopolymer materials in nano-mechanical performance.