Hossein Rostami
Professor of Mathematics/Engineering
Contact
Hossein Rostami
Professor of Mathematics/Engineering
Education
PhD, Materials Engineering, Drexel University (1992)
MS, Mechanical Engineering, Drexel University (1985)
BS, Mechanical Engineering; Mathematics Minor, Drexel University (1983)
Publications
Rostami, H, “Physical and Chemical Properties of Alkali-Activated Fly Ash Materials” Sustainable Composites: fiber, resins and applications. Lancaster PA: DES tech publications, 2016.
Rostami, H., Masoodi, R.. and Bahadory, M. “Reduction of Corrosion of Reinforcing Steel in Concrete Using Alkali Ash Material” Journal of Solid Waste Technology and Management 41(2):136-145, 2015
Rostami, H., Tovia, F. and Bahadory, M. “Alkali Activated Material: Compression between Sodium and Potassium Based Activation” accepted for publication in International Refereed Journal of Engineering and Science (IRJES), 2014.
Rostami, H., Tovia, F. and Bahadory, M. “Reduction of Corrosion of Reinforcing Steel in Concrete Using Alkali Ash Material” the Solid Waste Technology and Management, and Water, Volume 39, No. 2, 2013..
Rostami, H., Brooks, R., Tovia, F., and Bahadory, M.,” Removal of Mercury from Contaminated Wate”, J.of Info. Sys. Tech. & Planning – JISTP, Volume 4, Issue 10, 2011.
Brooks, R, Bahadory, M, Tovia, F and Rostami, H,, Properties of Alkali Activated Fly Ash: High Performance to Lightweight, International Journal of sustainable Engineering, Taylor and Francis, Volume 3, No.3, 2010.
Brooks, R, Bahadory, M, Tovia, F and Rostami, H, “Removal of Lead from Contaminated water”, International Journal of Soil, Sediments, and Water, Volume 3, No. 2, 2010.
Rostami, H., Brooks, R., Tovia, F., and Bahadory, M., “Development of Lightweight Construction Material from Alkali Activated Fly Ash”, The Journal of Solid Waste Technology and Management, Volume 35, No. 3, August 2009.
Hossein Rostami, Fernando Tovia and Mozhgan Bahadory “Alkali Activated Material: Compression between Sodium and Potassium Based Activation” accepted for publication in International Refereed Journal of Engineering and Science (IRJES), 2013.
Hossein Rostami, Mozhgan Bahadory and Charles W. Bock, “Removal of Cadmium and Chromium from Contaminated Water Using Alkali Activated Fly Ash Permeable Reactive Barrier (AFA-PRB)”, 16th Annual AEHS Meeting and West Coast Conference on Soils, Sediments and Water, March 19-23, 2006, San Diego, CA Bhat KL, Howard NJ, Rostami H, Lai JH, Bock CW, Intramolecular dative bonds involving boron with oxygen and nitrogen in boronic acids and esters: a computational Source: Journal of Molecular Structure-Theochem 723 (1-3): 147-157 May 20 2005
Hossein Rostami, Krishna L. Bhat, and Charles W. Bock, “Alkali Activated Fly Ash for the Remediation of Water Contaminated with Lead”, 15th Annual AEHS Meeting and West Coast Conference on Soils, Sediments and Water, March 14-17, 2005, San Diego, CA
Rostami H., “Utilization of fly ash to produce high strength construction materials”, The Journal of Solid Waste Technology and Management, Vol. 30, No. 3. August 2004.
Rostami, H, “Chemical Properties of Alkali Ash Materials”, Journal of Solid Waste Technology and Management, Vol. 30, No. 1, February 2004
Rostami, H., and Brendley, W., "Alkali Ash Material: A Novel Fly Ash- Based Cement", Journal of Environ. Sci. & Technology, Vol. 37, Issue 15, August 2003
Jahanian, S. and Rostami, H., “Alkali Ash Material, A Novel Technique for Infrastructure Enhancement, Part 1: Physical Properties”, Journal of Engineering Structures, Vol. 23, 2001
Rostami H., Brendley, W., and Bahadory, M., “Removal of Cadmium and Chromium from Contaminated Water Using Alkali Activated Fly Ash Permeable Reactive Barrier (AFA-PRB)”, Journal of Solid Waste Technology and Management, Volume 27, Number 3 & 4, Nov. 2001.
Rostami, H. and Solomon, S., “Lightweight Alkali Ash Material for Construction Applications”, In Press to Journal Materials in Civil Engineering.
Rostami, H., “Preventing Steel Rebar corrosion Using Alkali Ash Material (AAM), The 17th Engineering Mechanics Conference of the American Society of Civil Engineers”, University of Delaware, June 2004
Rostami, H., “Chemically activated fly ash (CAFA) cellular concrete, Proceedings of the Nineteenth International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and management”, Philadelphia, PA, February 2004.
Rostami, H., “Removal of arsenic from contaminated water using alkali fly ash permeable reactive barrier (AFA-PRB) material”, The Annual International Conference on Contaminated Soils, Sediments, and Water, Amherst Ma, October 2003.
Rostami, H., Brendley, W, Jahanian, S. and Bahadory, M., “A new approach to preventing steel corrosion and chemical corrosion of concrete”, Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and management, Philadelphia, PA, February 2002.
Rostami H., Brendley, W., and Bahadory, M., “Removal of cesium from contaminated water using alkali fly ash permeable reactive barrier (A FA-PRB) material”. 2000 Conference on Selected Catalytic & Non-Catalytic Reduction for NOx Control, U.S. DOE, May 2000.
Rostami H., Brendley, W., and Bahadory, M., “Removal of lead and zinc from contaminated water using alkali fly ash permeable reactive barrier (AFA-PRB) material”,. Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Pittsburgh Coal Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, March 2000.
Rostami, H., Grega, J., Huxley, N, and Silverstrim, T., “ZeoTech Concrete for Acid Resistance Pipe and Precast Products” Accepted for Publication at Concrete Pipe for the New Millenium, ASTM STP 1368, J.I. Enyart and I. I. Kasper, Eds., ASTM, West Conshhoken, PA., April 1998
Rostami, H., Martin, J., Silverstrim, T., “Chemically Activated Fly Ash (CAFA) High Performance Concrete Pipe”, 1997 Ash Utilization Symposium, University of Kentucky, October 20-22, 1997.
Rostami, H. and Silverstrim, T. “Chemically Activated Fly Ash Concrete”, Proceedings of the Twelfth International Symposium on Use and Management of Coal Combustion By Product (CCBs), Orlando, FL, 1997.
Silverstrim, T., Rostami, H., Clark, B. and Martin, J., “Microstructure and Properties of Chemically Activated Fly Ash Concrete”, Nineteenth International Cement Microscopy Association, Cincinnati, OH, 1997.
Silverstrim, T., and Rostami, H., “CAFA: Acid Resistant Concrete for the Twenty-First Century”, Society of Protective Coatings, Regional Meeting, Media, PA, 1997.
Silverstrim, T., Martin, J. and Rostami, H., “High Performance Characteristics of Chemically Activated Fly Ash (CAFA)”, Precast Concrete Institute / Federal Highway Administration International Symposium on High Performance Concrete, Chicago, IL 1997.
Silverstrim, T., Ouali, A., Martin, J. and Rostami, H., “Effect of LOI on Chemically Activated Fly Ash (CAFA)”, Third Annual Conference on Unburned Carbon on Utility Fly Ash, Pittsburgh, PA 1997.
Rostami, H., Ouali, A., Silverstrim, T. and Martin, J., “New Type of Chemical Resistant, High Strength Fly Ash Concrete”, American Ceramic Society, 99 th Annual Meeting, Cincinnati, OH, May 4, 1997.
Silverstrim, T., Rostami, H., “ZeoTech Polymer Concrete: Corrosion Resistant Concrete”, American Concrete Institute Convention, Technology Transfer Meeting, November 19, 1997.
Silverstrim, T., Martin, J., Xi, Y.and Rostami, H., “High Performance Characteristics of Chemically Activated Fly Ash (CAFA)”, Precast Concrete Institute/ Federal Highway Administration International Symposium on High Performance Concrete, October 20-22, 1997.
Silverstrim, T., Rostami, H., Larralda, J., and Samadi, A., “Chemically Activated Fly Ash Material”, Patent #5,601,643, Issued February 11, 1997.
Rostami, H. and Silverstrim, T., “Chemically Activated Fly Ash (CAFA); A New Type of Fly Ash Based Cement”, Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Pittsburgh Coal Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, 1996.
Zandi, I, Lepore, J., and Rostami, H.”Particulate Rubber Included Concrete Compositions” Patent # 5,456,751, Issued September 15, 1994.
Rostami, H., and Kamel, I., “Surface Modification of Carbon Fibers Using RF Plasma, Polymer Composites, 15, 324, 1993.
Rostami, H., Zandi, I., Silverstrim, T., “Recycling of Waste Tire in Concrete”. Concrete 2000 International Conference on Concrete Technology, Dundee, Scotland, 1993.
Rostami, H., and Kamel, I., “Surface Modification of Spectra 900 Polyethylene Fibers Using RF Plasma, Polymer Composites, 13, 207, 1992.
Awards
Patent # 5,601,643, “Chemically Activated Fly Ash Material”, with Silverstrim, T., Larralda, J., and Samadi, A. Issued February 11, 1997.
Patent # 5,454,751,”Particulate Rubber Included Concrete Compositions” with Zandi, I, Lepore, J., September 15, 1994.
Research Interest
Environmental, Permeable Reactive Barrier, High Performance Concrete, Steel Corrosion Prevention and STEM.
A short description of research activities:
a) Development of Alkali Ash Material
In this project, a new type of construction material, called Alkali Ash Material (AAM) concrete, has been developed. AAM contains 40-95% Class F fly ash and is used as cement to bind sand, stone, and fibers creating concrete. AAM concrete has been tested for strength, durability, mechanical properties and, most importantly, economic viability.
AAM concrete is economically and technically suitable for many construction applications. Some properties include rapid strength gain (90% of its ultimate strength in 1 day) and high ultimate strengths (110 Mpa or 16,000 psi in 1 day). AAM’s resistance to chemical degradation by sulfuric (H2SO4), nitric (HNO3), hydrochloric (HCl), and organic acids, makes it superior to Portland cement concrete. AAM is also resistant to freeze-thaw attack based on ASTM C-666 specification.
Immediate applications of AAM material could include use in blocks, pipes, median barriers, sound barriers, and overlaying materials. Eventual markets are high-strength construction products, bridge beams, pre-stressed members, concrete tanks, highway appurtenances, and other concrete products.
b) Removal of Heavy Metals from Contaminated Water.
Contamination of water is a serious problem in the United States. Heavy metals account for 50% of surface and ground water contamination. I am developing an inexpensive, permeable, reactive barrier made of alkali-activated fly ash, called Alkali Ash Material (AAM). This material is capable of reducing heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, chromium, zinc, cesium and cobalt in water from a concentration of 100 ppm to below the drinking water standards.
To test this material, fly ash was chemically activated with the aid of a gassing agent to achieve the desired permeability of approximately 10 -1 cm/sec. Synthetic solutions of 10 ppm, 100 ppm and 1000 ppm of heavy metals were passed through a column packed with activated fly ash material. The results indicate that activated fly ash is capable of removing heavy metals from the aqueous solution to a level below the drinking water standard
c) Preventing Steel Rebar Corrosion Using Alkali Ash Material (AAM)
Concrete is a construction material that is relatively easy to work with. However, the tensile strength of concrete is very weak in comparison to its compressive strength. Because of the low tensile strength, reinforcing steel bars are placed in regions of tension in a concrete member. This combination of concrete and steel provides a relatively inexpensive and durable material that has become widely used in construction of roadways, bridges ,etc.
A refined metal such as iron or steel has a natural tendency to corrode. The rate of steel corrosion depends on its composition, grain structure, and the presence of entrained stress from fabrication. It also depends on the nature of the surrounding environment, such as the availability of water, oxygen, and ionic species, pH and temperature. AAM concrete has unique chemical properties because the hardened cementitious product is a sodium aluminosilicate hydrate rather than a calcium silicate hydrate. The AAM matrix has low porosity, low permeability, high pH, and creates a layer of silicate on reinforcing steel. The silicate layer inhibits corrosion beyond the effects of elevated pH. The resulting matrix provides a superior protection of steel from corrosion. In addition, AAM is resistant to chemical corrosion. AAM has shown excellent durability in a variety of severe chemical environments including strong mineral acids.
In this project, rebar was coated with AAM and tested for resistance against corrosion. The results were compared with those of uncoated steel and epoxy-coated steel. As the preliminary results indicted, AAM-coated rebar demonstrates a five-fold increase in resistance of corrosion over uncoated steel. Epoxy-coated
rebar performed three times better than AAM-coated rebar against corrosion. However, the performance of damaged epoxy-coated rebar was only 8% of undamaged epoxy-coated rebar.
Funded Projects
Heading
- Co-PI , STEM Summer Camp, Philadelphia University-Girls Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, After School Program, FY 2017-2020,
McKean Defense Group $120,000,
- Co-PI, STEM Summer Camp, Philadelphia University-Girls Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, After School Program, FY 2016-17,
McKean Defense Group $45,600
- Co-PI, STEM Summer Camp, Philadelphia University-Girls Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, After School Program, FY 2015-16,
McKean Defense Group $42,400,
- Co-PI , STEM Summer Camp, Philadelphia University-Girls Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, After School Program, FY 2014-15,
McKean Defense Group $52,100,.
- Co-PI , STEM Summer Camp, Philadelphia University-Girls Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, After School Program, FY 2013-14,
McKean Defense Group $47,300,.
- Co-PI , STEM Summer Camp, Philadelphia University-Girls Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, After School Program, FY 2012-13,
McKean Defense Group $42,400,.
- Co-PI , STEM Summer Camp, Philadelphia University-Girls Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, After School Program, FY 2011-12,
McKean Defense Group $50,000,.
- Co-PI, Nano-Enhanced Plastic-Based Cementitious Material,
September 2010-August 2012
Nano-Technology Institute $59,930
- Co-PI , STEM Summer Camp, Philadelphia University-Girls Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, After School Program, FY 2010-11,
McKean Defense Group $50,000,
- Co-PI, Using fly ash based material to construct sustainable and resilient residential shelters
September 2009-August 2010
National Science Foundation $50,000
- Co-PI, Alkali-Activated Fly Ash-Based Concrete as a Sustainable Structural Building Material
June 2009-December 2009
Keystone Imitative Grant $11,400
- PI, Phase II: Cenosphere Investigation for High Alumina Contents,
June 2005- July 2006
Foseco Corporation $30,000
- PI, Phase I: Cenosphere Investigation for High Alumina Contents,
June 2004- June 2005
Foseco Corporation $30,000