Physical Characterization of Natural Straw Fibers as Aggregates for Construction Materials Applications.

The aim of this paper is to find out new alternative materials that respond to sustainable development criteria. For this purpose, an original utilization of straw for the design of lightweight aggregate concretes is proposed. Four types of straw were used: three wheat straws and a barley straw.

On cavitation and macroscopic behaviour of amorphous polymer-rubber blends.

The macroscopic behaviour of rubber-modified polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) was investigated by taking into account the microdeformation mechanisms of rubber cavitation. The dependence of the macroscopic stress-strain behaviour of matrix deformation on the cavitation of rubber particles was discussed. A phenomenological elastic-viscoplastic model was used to model the behaviour of the matrix material, while the rubber particles were modelled with the hyperelasticity theory.