Sharif Digital Repository

A simple method for estimating the apparent viscosity of semi-solid alloys was investigated. A drop weight of 50Kg and backward extrusion equipments were used to test the deformation. Backward extrusion was employed in a closed die system due to the very little separation of liquid from solid phases compared with other methods at very high deformation rate. The half of the calculated impact velocity, 700mm/s was considered as an average velocity for deformation during the test, since the slop of the velocity changes against time is constant in the middle stage of the deformation. The initial height of the sample and the thickness of the residual compressed solid at the bottom of the cup were... 

A high quality joint of zinc based pressure die cast alloys can be hardly achieved by conventional fusion welding. In this study, a novel technique to achieve the globular weld structure using stirring the localized semisolid zone during butt joining of Zamak-3 pressure die cast alloy is proposed and effect of welding parameters on mechanical and microstructural properties are investigated. A gas heating system was designed to heat up the nitrogen gas to desired temperature accurately to create a localized semisolid pool. At this stage a fine stirrer was introduced into the weld seam in order to mix the two sides into a single uniform joint. By presented process, globular microstructure of... 

Stepped planing hulls have the potential to reach high-speeds in the sea. The step on the bottom of these vessels influence the pressure distribution and thus stability of the vessel, especially in transverse plane. Understanding the behavior of these vessels in a non-zero heel condition is fundamental in the early stage design. In the current paper, numerical simulation of the viscous flow field around a heeled one-stepped planing hull is performed to evaluate influences of the asymmetric planing on the performance of the vessel. The numerical model is validated in two steps. At the first step, performance of a heeled stepless planing hull operating in calm water is simulated using the... 

Computer base and simulation technique have been applied for modeling the semi-solid die filling and part of the solidification process of aluminum A356 alloy. A fairly simple one-phase rheological model has been implemented into a fluid flow finite element software Procast, to solve the partial differential equations. This model is purely viscous nature and is implemented in the power law cut-off model of Procast. The constitutive parameters of this model were determined for a rheocast A356 alloy. Using these parameters and comparing the simulation results with experimental data showed good correlation with the model prediction. The designed die for rheocasting was applied for the... 

Microstructural evolution of the spray atomized and powder thixoformed hyper-eutectic A390 aluminum alloy was investigated. The spray atomized powder revealed homogeneous and very fine silicon particles distribution, due to the rapid solidification of the alloy. The semi-solid powders were extruded into a closed die cavity through a hole for the plastic deformation of the powder particles. A drop forge of 45kg weight at different heights was used in this investigation. Remarkable rearrangement and growth of the silicon rich phase was revealed in the final stage  

Current studies show a growing interest on transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) in austenitic steels. Most researches are based on inducing plasticity via tensile stresses, so it seems interesting to accomplish these researches by compressive stresses. Rolling process is a suitable choice to make compressive stresses. In present work, the effects of a wide range of rolling strains (5%-60%) at 0 and 24 °C on the austenite to martensite transformation were investigated on high-alloy austenitic steel. For this purpose, XRD, hardness test and magnetic measurements were used. Results show that by increasing the amount of rolling strain, transformation of austenite to martensite generally... 

A technique to achieve the globular weld structure using stirring the localized semisolid zone during butt-joining of zinc AG40A (Zamak-3) die cast alloy is reported. Since the semisolid temperature range of this alloy is very narrow, the accurate controlling of weld pool temperature must be considered. By presented process, globular microstructure of the weld zone can be achieved. Moreover the near weld zone would have the globular structure due to semisolid holding. A gas heating system was designed to heat up the nitrogen gas to desired temperature accurately. A heating element was embedded in a castable ceramic block while a stream of gas could pass closely around the hot element length.... 

Globulization of the grain refined AZ91 magnesium alloy with Ca on a cooling slope was investigated. Dendritic morphology of the grains was transferred into round and well distributed small particles as a result of grain-refinement effect of Ca in the alloy. Semi-solid holding of the alloy was carried out at different temperatures to improve the spherecity of the globules. Results show that, remelting at 540 °C for 30 min provides the best shape factor for the alloy. The study of coarsening kinetic in this alloy showed lower growth rate alternative other research which used same condition for produce semi-solid billet just in using Ca  

The present work is focused on the segregation behavior of semi-solid AZ91 magnesium alloy with Ca content. For this purpose a simple back extrusion test was used and the semi-solid billet was fabricated through a cooling slope. Different shear rates were obtained by variation in ram speed and extrusion ratio. Microstructures of the extruded samples were investigated and liquid segregation was described by Darcy's law. Homogeneity was improved by using higher shear rates, produced either by increasing plunger velocity or extrusion ratio, while at very high shear rates the air was entrapped inside the wall of the extruded sample. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved  

In this paper, utilizing the non-local theory, the resonant frequency and sensitivity of an AFM microcantilever are investigated. To that end, the governing equation of motion and corresponding boundary conditions are obtained using the variational approach. Afterwards, the resonant frequency and sensitivity of the AFM microcantilever are derived analytically and depicted in some figures versus the contact stiffness of the sampling surface. The results of the current model are compared to those of the classical theory. The comparison shows that the difference between the results of the non-local theory and those of the classical theory is significant when the non-local parameter is high but... 

Background: The exact pathogenic mechanism causes hair miniaturization during androgenic alopecia (AGA) has not been delineated. Recent evidence has shown a role for non-coding regulatory RNAs, such as microRNAs (miRNAs), in skin and hair disease. There is no reported information about the role of miRNAs in hair epithelial cells of AGA. Objectives: To investigate the roles of miRNAs affecting AGA in normal and patient's epithelial hair cells. Methods: Normal follicular stem and progenitor cells, as well as follicular patient's stem cells, were sorted from hair follicles, and a miRNA q-PCR profiling to compare the expression of 748 miRNA (miRs) in sorted cells were performed. Further, we... 

Background: The exact pathogenic mechanism causes hair miniaturization during androgenic alopecia (AGA) has not been delineated. Recent evidence has shown a role for non-coding regulatory RNAs, such as microRNAs (miRNAs), in skin and hair disease. There is no reported information about the role of miRNAs in hair epithelial cells of AGA. Objectives: To investigate the roles of miRNAs affecting AGA in normal and patient's epithelial hair cells. Methods: Normal follicular stem and progenitor cells, as well as follicular patient's stem cells, were sorted from hair follicles, and a miRNA q-PCR profiling to compare the expression of 748 miRNA (miRs) in sorted cells were performed. Further, we... 

A novel intelligent semi-active control system for an eleven degrees of freedom passenger car's suspension system using magnetorheological (MR) damper with neuro-fuzzy (NF) control strategy to enhance desired suspension performance is proposed. In comparison with earlier studies, an improvement in problem modeling is made. The proposed method consists of two parts: a fuzzy control strategy to establish an efficient controller to improve ride comfort and road handling (RCH) and an inverse mapping model to estimate the force needed for a semi-active damper. The fuzzy logic rules are extracted based on Sugeno inference engine. The inverse mapping model is based on an artificial neural network... 

Using CNG as an additive for gasoline is a proper choice due to higher octane number of CNG enriched gasoline with respect to that of gasoline. As a result, it is possible to use gasoline with lower octane number in the engine. This would also mean the increase of compression ratio in SI engines resulting in higher performance and lower gasoline consumption. Over the years, the use of simulation codes to model the thermodynamic cycle of an internal combustion engine have developed tools for more efficient engine designs and fuel combustion. In this study, a thermodynamic cycle simulation of a conventional four-stroke spark-ignition engine has been developed. The model is used to study the... 

With the declining energy resources and increase of pollutant emissions, a great deal of efforts has been focused on the development of alternatives for fossil fuels. One of the promising alternative fuels to gasoline in the internal combustion engine is natural gas [1-5]. The application of natural gas in current internal combustion engines is realistic due to its many benefits. The higher thermal efficiency due to the higher octane value and lower exhaust emissions including CO2 as a result of the lower carbon to hydrogen ratio of the fuel are the two important feature of using CNG as an alternative fuel. It is well known that computer simulation codes are valuable economically as a cost... 

Gaining insight into possible vibratory responses of dynamical systems around their stable equilibria is an essential step, which must be taken before their design and application. The results of such a study can significantly help prevent instability in closed-loop stabilized systems by avoiding the excitation of the system in the neighborhood of its resonance. This paper investigates nonlinear oscillations of a rotary inverted pendulum (RIP) with a full-state feedback controller. Lagrange’s equations are employed to derive an accurate 2-DoF mathematical model, whose parameter values are extracted by both the measurement and 3D modeling of the real system components. Although the governing... 

A suction-controlled ring device has been developed to continuously measure the coefficient of lateral soil pressure in deformable unsaturated soil samples from the at-rest to the active condition under application of increasing vertical pressure and controlled matric suction. The device incorporates a thin aluminum specimen ring equipped with horizontal strain gages for recording the lateral soil strains. In addition, a sensor recording water volume changes is utilized to continuously monitor the degree of saturation of the soil sample during tests. The matric suction within the soil texture is controlled using the axis translation technique. In order to verify the performance of the ring... 

We introduce a new smooth, non-toxic, biocompatible method for cross-linking of gum tragacanth (GT), a polysaccharide of natural origin, in order to serve as a new supporting matrix for immobilization systems. The modified gum is used as a matrix for the catalysis of the conversion of benzyl penicillin to 6-aminopenicillanic acid (6-APA) by means of Escherichia coli ATCC11105 with penicillin G acylase (PGA) activity. The results show that GT beads can not only serve as a proper matrix for immobilization, but show enhanced hydrolysis rate and stability compared to other immobilization systems used for this reaction. This signifies the potential of GT as a biocompatible matrix for...