Strength Characteristics and Rheological Behavior of a High Level of Fly Ash in the Production of Concrete.

This study investigates the valorization of coal fly ash (FA-C) generated by the Jerada thermal power plant, aiming to address the pressing need for sustainable construction practices and reduced greenhouse gas emissions in the concrete industry. It is widely used as a pozzolanic material. The key objective is to harness the potential of FA-C as a supplementary material in concrete production, which not only reduces costs but also contributes to environmental sustainability.

Structural characterization of Moroccan wooden artifacts during natural degradation progress using infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD).

The present work is focused on spectroscopic study of four samples of Argan wooden artifact pertaining to the 17, 18, 20 and 21 centuries. The objective is to characterize their unknown structures by the study of their non degraded parts and to investigate changes occurred in their degraded parts due to the natural degradation process. Attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy gauges the presence of many functional groups related to cellulose I and/or II (OH, C-O-C and -CH), hemicelluloses (particularly C=O acetoxy ester band at 1732 cm), and lignin (OH phenolic, C-O and C=C) and provides qualitative information on the state of wood alteration by informing on the evolution of new former C=O bands.