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Concrete is a multi-phase, porous system. The pore structure has an important influence on the properties of the concrete. In this paper, a kind of fiber reinforced mortar was prepared with desert sand and its pore structure was studied. The MIP technique was used to investigate the pore structure characteristics between 1 nm and 500 μm (in diameter). Meanwhile, the μX-CT technique was used to study the pore structure characteristics above 200 μm. It was found that the total porosity tends to decrease first and then increase as the dosage of desert sand increased. The porosity decreased gradually from the upper to bottom area inside the sample, and the diameter of the air voids near the upper area became larger. After curing for 28 days, the compressive strength of fiber reinforced mortar reached the maximum when the content of desert sand was 50%. In conclusion, the appropriate amount of desert sand can reduce the porosity of the fiber reinforced mortar to some extent and the number of large size air voids can be significantly reduced, which improves the pore structure and the mechanical properties of the fiber reinforced mortar.

Given their outstanding versatile properties, multilayered anticorrosion coatings have drawn great interest from researchers in the academic and engineering fields. However, the application of multilayered coatings is restricted by some limitations such as low interlayer compatibilities, the harsh preparation process, etc. This work introduced a composite film fabricated on a 2A12 aluminum alloy surface, including an anodic oxide film, a sol−gel film, and a layer-by-layer (LBL) self-assembling film from bottom to top. The microstructure and elemental characterization indicated that the finish of the coating with the LBL film resulted in a closely connected multilayered coating with a smoother surface. The anticorrosion performance was systematically evaluated in the simulated corrosive medium and neutral salt spray environment. The integrated coating with the LBL film presented an excellent anticorrosion ability with system impedance over 108 Ω·cm2 and a self-corrosion current density two orders of magnitude lower than that of the other coatings. After the acceleration test in a salt spray environment, the multilayered coatings could still show a good protective performance with almost no cracks and no penetration of chloride ions. It is believed that the as-constructed multilayered coating with high corrosive properties and a fine surface state will have promising applications in the field of anticorrosion engineering.