109 research outputs found
Corrosion of steel in concrete: new challenges
No full textReinforced concrete is the most used construction material worldwide, especially for civil infrastructures, with a long and proven track record regarding structural safety and durability. This technology faces new challenges that are as follows: (1) in industrialized countries, the aging stock of assets needs high maintenance and repair with very high costs and (2) in emerging countries, a great part of the infrastructure has to be built now as well as in the future in a durable way. For both situations, this means to combine long-service life and low environmental footprint of the materials used. To reduce the environmental impact of building industry, more and more blended cements with increasingly lower clinker content will be used—with possible negative effects on the durability. Civil engineering has to move forward from an empirical-based technology to a more science-driven way that allows understanding deterioration mechanisms and service life prediction. This article briefly presents the fundamentals of durability of RC structures. Focusing on the challenges “new blended cements,” it is shown how the use of new sensors and measuring setups can contribute to the understanding of the carbonation mechanism and the corrosion rate of steel in carbonated concrete. Finally, some new aspects to the everlasting research challenge “critical chloride content” both from experimental and theoretical side are presented
"The day of the great writer is gone for ever": Author surrogacy in Martin Amis’s Money and J.M. Coetzee’s Summertime.
No full textThis study focuses on the use of author surrogacy in the novels Money: A Suicide Note by Martin Amis and Summertime: Scenes from Provincial Life by J.M. Coetzee. It addresses the connection between their use of author surrogacy and their comments on what scholars classify as the postmodern cultural condition. Both authors have written themselves into their novels with a different purpose but both used strikingly similar themes to incorporate this purpose, although the stress on these themes varies. Authorial power, the distinction between the real and the imagined, and the fading line between high- and lowbrow culture are examples of the topics discussed in this study with regards to author surrogacy and the postmodern cultural condition. This study concludes that, through their use of author surrogacy, J.M. Coetzee mainly aims to critique, while Martin Amis satirises postmodern culture.
Keywords: Amis, author surrogacy, authorial power, Coetzee, fact-fiction distinction, high- and lowbrow culture, postmodern cultural condition
Alive but Cancelled: The Public’s Response to the Controversial Author
No full textThis thesis explores how the public has responded to authors J.K. Rowling and Lionel Shriver, who have become the subject of public controversy, and what this response tells us about the current conceptions about the author. Academics like Wenche Ommundsen and English & Frow have established that authors are no longer the faceless names they once were, and several of them have reached a proper celebrity status. Especially now, in a time in which social media exerts great influence on how the general public views celebrities and concepts like “wokeness” and social justice become increasingly relevant topics, celebrities and celebrity authors are often expected to display socially just behaviour and reprimanded when they do not. By analysing the online responses to the controversies caused by these two prominent authors, this thesis argues that the public perceives a strong relationship between authors and their work and generally attributes a great deal of responsibility to popular authors with vast platforms.
Keywords: Lionel Shriver; J.K. Rowling; literary celebrity; wokeness; cancel culture; Death of the Author; transphobia; cultural appropriatio
Corrosion rate measurements in concrete—a closer look at the linear polarization resistance method
No full textForecasting chloride-induced reinforcement corrosion in concrete—effect of realistic reinforcement steel surface conditions
No full textSpatial variability of chloride in concrete within homogeneously exposed areas
No full textThe concept of variability is increasingly considered in service life predictions. This paper reports experimental data on the spatial distribution of chloride in uncracked concrete subjected to homogeneous exposure. Chloride concentrations were measured with potentiometric sensors embedded in concrete exposed to chloride ingress by cyclic wetting and drying. The sensors allow highly localised, non-destructive measurements. Six different concrete mixes were tested, each with more than 20 sensors embedded within a plane at constant depth. The resulting dataset is discussed with respect to causes for the observed spatial variability of chloride as well as implications for service life predictions and experimental methods. It is concluded that the observed spatial chloride variability is a true property of chloride penetration into concrete and not an uncertainty arising from limited measurement precision. The primary cause was identified to be the presence of coarse aggregates rather than w/c ratio, cement type or exposure conditions
Super high-rise in Rotterdam
No full textThere is large difference in height between high-rise buildings in the Netherlands and high-rise in other continents such as North America and Asia. The tallest building in the Netherlands, the “Maastoren”, has a height of 164.75 meter whereas in the rest of the world buildings with a height of more than 300 meter are not uncommon. In Dubai the Burj Khalifa has even reached a height of 828 meter. Each high-rise project is unique and depends on the many location-bound conditions which influence the choices made in the design of a tall building. Because of this the following question is asked: “Is it technically possible to achieve similar heights in the Netherlands?”. In order to answer this question the goal of this thesis is to deliver the structural design of a tall building with a predetermined height of 800 meter.Design and ConstructionCivil Engineering and Geoscience
The Return of Modernism: An Analysis of The Relation between the Metamodernist Debate and Two Novels by Ali Smith
No full textThis master thesis aims to analyse how two twenty-first century novels by Ali Smith, Hotel World (2001), and How to Be Both (2014) relate to the modernism of the twentieth century. For this research, author research, a close analysis of both of the novels, and reception research will be carried out to analyse whether the author profiles herself as modernist, and if this can be seen in the novels themselves and their reception. To outline the metamodernist debate, Tim Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker’s, as well as David James and Urmila Seshagiri’s articles and book on metamodernism will be discussed. Bourdieu’s theories are used to explain the importance of reception research. This thesis argues that Smith does not actively relate herself to twentieth century modernism, but does use modernist techniques in both of the novels
An Abundance of Truths: How Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending and The Only Story prove that postmodernism is not dead.
No full textThere has been a decline in the use of postmodern themes and aspects since the 2000’s. According to critics the postmodern values no longer corresponded with those of society. However, does this mean that postmodernism is now no longer a practiced art movement? Julian Barnes is a well-known British author who often incorporated postmodern themes and techniques to his writing. Though postmodernism is often claimed to be a dead movement, Barnes is still using postmodern aspects in his more recent novels. In this thesis The Sense of an Ending (2011) and The Only Story (2019) will be discussed and analysed to show that postmodernism remains a relevant art movement in literature. This thesis aims to contribute to the discussion regarding the proclaimed end of postmodernism.
Key words:
Postmodernism, metamodernism, Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending (2011), The Only Story (2019
Schrijvers als sterren. Literaire interviews in de Nederlandse Esquire
No full textSince the 1980’s there is a market for men’s magazines in the Netherlands. In 1991 Gijs van de Westelaken founded a Dutch edition of the originally American lifestyle magazine Esquire. Although it is not a literary magazine, Esquire pays attention to literature in almost every issue by prepublications, book reviews, literary columns and interviews with literary authors (literary interviews). Even though much research has been done on literature in popular women's magazines, the men's segment is still unexplored territory. This thesis focuses on the men’s magazine Esquire and on the genre of the literary interview, because of the phenomenon that the visibility of the author has become more important in the modern celebrity culture and society. The thesis describes on the basis of all 65 literary interviews that are published in Esquire between 1990 and 2014 how the genre functions in the magazine and what image of ! masculini ty emerges in the interviews. It turns out that the number of literary interviews increased over the years and that there are large differences between male and female interviewees, both in number and in appearance, age and imaging. Female interviewees are less frequently interviewed and they are younger and more attractive than men. While Esquire shows female authors frequently as a sex object, male authors are generally imaged as macho men, family men, sophisticated men or stylish men. It can also be concluded that literature is not the main subject of the interviews. Some interviews are not about literature at all and in others it is only briefly noted as the occasion of the interview. The personality of the interviewed author seems, especially in the longreads, a more important topic. This finding fits with the phenomenon of the celebrity culture
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