Dynamic Mechanical Behaviors of Desert Sand Concrete (DSC) after Different Temperatures
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Please revise the images, they are not consistent all along the paper (fonts, size, etc)
Author Response
Question1:Please revise the images, they are not consistent all along the paper (fonts, size, etc).
Answer: Following the reviewer’s suggestion, some figures are adjusted in detail and all figures are consistent with each other in this paper (fonts, size, etc) now.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
This manuscript presents an experimental study on the compressive and flexural performance of Desert Sand Concrete (DSC) under different strain rates and temperatures.
Comment 1
Page 1, Lines 35-36: The phrase “in this study” is repeated.
Comment 2
The quality of English needs improvement throughout the paper. Especially, correct the tense from past to present when referring to Figures (Ex: Page 7, Line 3), Tables (Ex: Page 6, Line 19) and Equations (Page 9, Line 29) within the text.
Comment 3:
Page 7, Lines 6-13: The discussion in is not clear.
Comment 4
Section 3.1.3: What is the authors’ opinion regarding the applicability of the ZWT model for the intermediate strain rates, considering the fact that results for only three strain rates were obtained from the experiments?
Comment 5
Page 5, Lines 25-26: Can the authors justify categorizing the given range of strain rates as dynamic?
Author Response
Question1: Page 1, Lines 35-36: The phrase “in this study” is repeated.
Answer: I’m terribly sorry. It’s most careless of me. Following the reviewer’s comment, the repetitive phrase “in this study” has been removed.
Question2: The quality of English needs improvement throughout the paper. Especially, correct the tense from past to present when referring to Figures (Ex: Page 7, Line 3), Tables (Ex: Page 6, Line 19) and Equations (Page 9, Line 29) within the text.
Answer:Thanks for your comment. According to the reviewer’s suggestion, we have improved the quality of English as much as possible and revised the tense when referring to Figures, Tables and Equations.
Question3:Page 7, Lines 6-13: The discussion in is not clear.
Answer:We are very sorry that thesection(Page 7, Lines 6-13) is not clear in this paper.According to the reviewer’ comment, the section (Page 7, Lines 6-13) is carefully rewritten in detail on revised manuscript(Page 7, Lines 6-15).
Question4:Section 3.1.3: What is the authors’ opinion regarding the applicability of the ZWT model for the intermediate strain rates, considering the fact that results for only three strain rates were obtained from the experiments?
Answer: It is a pity that all intermediate strain rates cannot be carried out fitting under interval of experiment due to the universality of strain rates.According to reading related articles based on ZWT models, the intermediate strain rates of experiment are also suitable for ZWT model. Jiang [1] performs experiment based on0.00025s-1, 0.0025s-1 and 0.025s-1 and says that the ZWT model is also suitable for the range of 0.00025s-1 to 0.025s-1.Liu [2] performs experiment based on0.0004s-1, 0.004s-1 and 0.04s-1and says that the ZWT model is also suitable for the range of 0.0004s-1 to 0.04s-1.
Article [1]: Jiang J, Xu J S, Zhang Z S, et al. Rate-dependent compressive behavior of EPDM insulation: Experimental and constitutive analysis[J]. Mechanics of Materials, 2016, 96:30-38.
Article [2]: Liu B H, Sun Y T, Li Y B, et al.Systematic experimental study on mechanical behavior of PVB (polyvinyl butyral) material under various loading conditions[J]. Polymer Engineering & Science, 2012, 52(5):1137-1147.
Question5: Page 5, Lines 25-26: Can the authors justify categorizing the given range of strain rates as dynamic?
Answer:Thank you very much. We can justify categorizing the given range of strain rates as dynamic. The range of 10-6s-1 to 10-4s-1 (Page 5, Lines 25-26) corresponds to the case of building subjected to earthquake, marine structures subjected to sea wave and nuclear reactor shell sufferingnuclear reaction [3].The range of 10-7s-1 to 10-5s-1(Page 6, Line 11) corresponds to the case of tensile failure of building subjected to impact loading. The damage section of building appears various degrees of tensile failure, expect compressive failure, when the building structure occurs to damage by reason of air blast, strong winds or earthquake [4].
Article [3]: L P Y, Song Y P. Dynamic compressive test of concrete and its constitutive model[J]. The Ocean Engineering, 2002,20(2):43-48. (In Chinese)
Article [4]:SuarisW , Shah S P . Properties of Concrete Subjected to Impact[J]. Journal of Structural Engineering, 1983, 109(7):1727-1741.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Thank you for answering the comments.
This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
APPLIED SCIENCES
Dynamic mechanical behaviors of desert sand concrete (DSC) after different temperatures
by Minghu Zhang, Haifeng Liu, Shuai Sun, Xialong Chen and Don Shu Ing
This manuscript is reporting useful information on the possible replacement of river sand and crushing sand by desert sand. Indeed, too often, desert sand is available but not used due to a lack of information on its behaviour in concrete. In addition, the paper is addressing two aspects that are neglected in most studies: (1) dynamic mechanical behaviour, and (2) the influence of high temperatures. The experimental methods and the results are clearly described. Therefore, I recommend publication.
However, it is a pity that the comparison between desert sand and hill sand has been made on the sole basis of the “replacement ratio” without taking the full concrete grading curve into account. Indeed, the particle size distribution of the two sands are very different (desert sand is much finer) and replacing one by the other while keeping the total amount of fine aggregates constant is changing dramatically the total grading curve. Due to this, the interpretation of the results – in particular, the optimum of properties for ~40% replacement – can only be conjectural and qualitative.
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper presents an experimental campaign on desert sand-based concrete. The paper presents some interesting results but some point should be made more clear by the authors.
-line 106 "Desert sand in general was vicious" the authors should make this sentences clear. In this same sentence, the authors suggest the use of plasticizers for the DSRR mixes. This point should be better developed since the use of additives can make the mixes far less interesting from an economical or environmental viewpoint
-line 137/138: how many samples were tested for each mix?
-figures 3, 4, 9 and 10 should be improved, they are difficult to read
-paragraph 3.1.1 should be reformulated. The explanation provided by the authors is not very clear.
-fig6 should be corrected
-tables 8 and 10 are hard to read, please correct
I'd expect some more "scientific" conclusions rather than a simple resumé of the observations. What is the effectof the additions and what are the physical explanations put forward by the authors?
