The flame retardancy of asphalt binders with layered double hydroxides (LDHs) was investigated using limiting oxygen index (LOI) and cone calorimeter tests. The flame-retardant mechanism of the LDHs was also studied with thermogravimetry and differential scanning calorimetry (TG–DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The cone calorimeter testing results indicated that 2 wt.% of the LDHs can decease the peak heat and smoke release rate of asphalt binders. Because a low dose of LDHs can be well dispersed in asphalt binder and favor the formation of polyaromatic structures during combustion, the thermal oxidation resistance and compactness of the char layer can be improved. The LOI of asphalt binder can be increased and the heat and smoke release during combustion can be decreased with 25 wt.% LDHs. The decomposition of LDHs can absorb the heat release of the initial two stages of asphalt combustion and reduce the burning rate of asphalt. Due to the loss of loosely bound water in the LDHs during the blending process and the decrease of dispersibility at a high LDH dose, the improvement of thermal stability is limited.

Accurate underwater gas pipeline leak localization requires particular attention due to the sensitivity of environmental conditions. Experiments were performed to analyze the localization performance of a distributed optical fiber sensing system based on the hybrid Sagnac and Mach–Zehnder interferometer. The traditional null frequency location method does not easily allow accurate location of the leakage points. To improve the positioning accuracy, the particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) tuning of the support vector machine (SVM) was used to predict the leakage points based on gathered leakage data. The PSO is able to optimize the SVM parameters. For the 10 km range chosen, the results show the PSO-SVM average absolute error of the leakage points predicted is 66 m. The prediction accuracy of leakage points is 98.25% by PSO tuning of the SVM processing. For 20 leakage test data points, the average absolute error of leakage point location is 124.8 m. The leakage position predicted by the PSO algorithm after optimization of the parameters is more accurate.

To design a distributed fiber optic vibration sensor for urban natural gas pipeline leak detection, the light polarization fading transmission model based on Jones matrix is built in this mixed Sagnac/Mach-Zehnder interferometer configuration. The interference light intensity of pipeline with leakage and without leakage cases is compared through spectrum analyzer. When fiber length ranges from 1.5 to 9.5 km, the light power intensity (central wavelength 1550 nm) reduces to −56 dB. In experiment, the leaky spectrum null frequencies are captured and the average relative error of leakage point location varies from 2.3 to 5.3%. When the sensing length is expanded to 9.5 km, the vibration sensor system sensitivity is 0.57 Hz/m.

Compounded aluminum hydroxide (ATH) flame retardants have been widely used for their low cost and environmentally friendly characteristics. However, previous research lacks a systematic and comprehensive comparison. In addition, the combustion characteristics and phase characterization of asphalt binders are not taken into account either. In this work, flame retardants, for instance, APP, Sb₂O₃, ZB, and LDHs, were compounded with ATH. The flame retardant behavior, together with the smoke suppression behavior, of asphalt binders with compounded flame retardants was determined by LOI and CCT. Furthermore, mechanisms on flame retardants were investigated. It was found that ATH compounded with ZB significantly reduced the heat smoke release and suppressed the formation of toxic volatiles during asphalt combustion. This was because ATH/ZB facilitated the formation of polyaromatic structures and improved the resistance of the char layer. ATH compounded with APP showed an antagonistic effect in the limiting oxygen test because the reaction between ATH and APP inhibited and delayed the decomposition of ATH during asphalt combustion with more aluminum phosphate presenting relatively poor barrier properties produced.