Sharif Digital Repository

After an earthquake, the residual stiffness and strength of structural elements are typically estimated based on a qualitative visual inspection of cracks that is prone to error. In this paper a new approach is proposed to automatically estimate the updated stiffness and strength of damaged unreinforced masonry walls by characterization of crack patterns by a mathematical index. It is shown that structural and textural fractal dimensions of a crack pattern reflect the extent of cracking and the type of cracking or crushing, i.e., whether the cracks pass through joints or whether bricks have been damaged and crushed. Using results of six quasi-static cyclic tests on unreinforced brick masonry... 

Tunnels constructed using New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) are always based on certain round (unsupported) advance lengths, after which, the temporary lining is placed. The settlement of the ground surface resulting from such construction is of high significance in design and practice. The existing data in this respect, however, is scarce. It is the aim of this paper to propose a semi-analytical procedure based on three-dimensional finite element analyses to predict the maximum surface settlement of the ground in NATM tunnels under different combinations of tunnel diameter, overburden depth, round length and soil and lining properties. The comparison of the results with three case... 

This paper presents a novel HMM-based speech enhancement framework based on Laplace and Gaussian distributions in DCT domain. We propose analytical procedures for training clean speech and noise models with the aim of Baum's auxiliary function and present two MMSE estimators based on Gaussian-Gaussian (for clean speech and noise respectively) and Laplace-Gaussian combinations in the HMM framework. The performance evaluation is done using SNR and PESQ measures and the results of the proposed techniques are compared with AR-HMM approach. Higher SNR improvement is achieved for the proposed method in the Gaussian-Gaussian case in comparison with AR-HMM and Laplace-Gaussian techniques for both... 

A powerful and now theoretical approach is used to obtain an expression for the effect of creep on reinforced concrete shear deform able beams. First, a method is proposed for Ruler-Bernoulli beam to analyze the long-term behavior of concrete beams based on linear strain theory. Second, a formulation has been developed to analyze the strain distribution in shear deformablo concrete beams. Finally, three numerical examples are included in order to compare well-known codes with the proposed method. The comparison of the proposed method, FEM, codes, and experimental works demonstrates that the proposed analytical procedure can effectively simulate creep behavior of reinforced concrete beams.... 

A powerful and now theoretical approach is used to obtain an expression for the effect of creep on reinforced concrete shear deform able beams. First, a method is proposed for Ruler-Bernoulli beam to analyze the long-term behavior of concrete beams based on linear strain theory. Second, a formulation has been developed to analyze the strain distribution in shear deformablo concrete beams. Finally, three numerical examples are included in order to compare well-known codes with the proposed method. The comparison of the proposed method, FEM, codes, and experimental works demonstrates that the proposed analytical procedure can effectively simulate creep behavior of reinforced concrete beams.... 

A headspace adsorptive microextraction technique was developed using a novel polyaniline-nylon-6 (PANI-N6) nanofiber sheet, fabricated by electrospinning. The homogeneity and the porosity of the prepared PANI-N6 sheet were studied using the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and nanofibers diameters were found to be around 200nm. The novel nanofiber sheet was examined as an extracting medium to isolate some selected chlorobenzenes (CBs), as model compounds, from aquatic media. The extracted analytes were desorbed using μL-amounts of solvent and eventually an aliquot of extractant was injected into gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Various parameters affecting the extraction and...