Sharif Digital Repository

In the present study, the development of a neutron noise simulator, DYN-ACNEM, using the Average Current Nodal Expansion Method (ACNEM) in 2-G, 2-D hexagonal geometries is reported. In first stage, the static neutron calculation is performed. The neutron/adjoint flux distribution and corresponding eigen-values are calculated using the algorithm developed based on power iteration method by considering the coarse meshes. The results of the static calculation are validated against the well-known IAEA-2D benchmark problem. In the second stage, the dynamic calculation is performed in the frequency domain in which the dimension of the variable space of the noise equations is lower than the time... 

Using the newly introduced asymptotic expansion method to obtain equations of state for hard sphere fluid, new simple equations of state for hard disks based on known virial coefficients are derived. Comparison of the obtained equations of state with computer simulation data shows that they are accurate in the whole fluid region. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved  

This paper presents an efficient way for overcoming the inaccurate path error encountered in ray tracing for site-specific indoor propagation modeling. The source is modeled using triangular ray tubes each of which consists of three rays which do not lie in the same plane. Each possible source ray inside an arbitrary ray tube is expanded in terms of the three rays defining that ray tube. The variations of the expansion coefficients during the intersections of the ray tubes with dielectric media are derived and used for correcting the paths of the rays toward the receiver. A verification example is presented which proves that the presented method has the ability to be efficiently used in... 

In this article, the dynamic response of a non-uniform Timoshenko beam acted upon by a moving mass is extensively investigated. To this end, the eigenfunction expansion method is adapted to the problem, employing the natural mode shapes of a uniform Timoshenko beam. Moreover, the orthonormal polynomial series expansion method is successfully applied to the coupled set of governing differential equations pertaining to the dynamic behavior of non-uniform Timoshenko beam actuated by a moving mass. Some numerical examples are solved in which the excellent agreement of the two presented methods is illustrated  

Power reactor noise analysis is one of the most powerful tools in online monitoring and diagnostics of nuclear power reactors. Unfortunately, since such an analysis belongs to the non-linear “parametric excitation” realm, its theoretical aspects and relations have been mostly carried out after linearization. In this paper a general framework, i.e. the Ladder Expansion Method, is developed to convert such equations to a series of coupled linear equations, up to any desired accuracy. This method is then applied to the single mode random fluctuations of the absorption cross sections in a power reactor which is modelled by the multigroup diffusion equation with multiple delayed neutron groups. A... 

The safety and optimal performance of nuclear reactors require online monitoring in the core. The present paper describes a method that avoids the solution of the time-dependent neutron diffusion equation, and it uses online readings of the fixed in-core neutron detectors to reconstruct the three-dimensional (3D) neutron flux distribution. The essential idea of the nodal synthesis method is the separation of time and space-dependence of the neutron flux distribution. The time-dependent section of the flux distribution is determined by in-core neutron detector readings, and the space-dependent section is obtained from pre-computed harmonics of the neutron diffusion equation. In online... 

In this article, OPSEM (Orthonormal Polynomial Series Expansion Method) is developed as a new computational approach for the evaluation of thin beams of variable thickness transverse vibration. Capability of the OPSEM in assessing the free vibration frequencies and mode shapes of an Euler-Bernoulli beam with varying thickness is discussed. Multispan continuous beams with various classical boundary conditions are included. Contribution of BOPs (Basic Orthonormal Polynomials) in capturing the beam vibrations is also illustrated in numerical examples to give a quantitative measure of convergence rate. Furthermore, OPSEM is adopted for the forced vibration of a thin beam caused by a moving mass.... 

Using the source dependent expansion method and paraxial approximation, the evolution of the beam spot size (BSS) in laser plasma interaction is investigated. Considering a collisionless mechanism, the self-focusing of a Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) light beam in a plasma medium is studied and the evolution of the BSS is solved analytically for the non-saturating nonlinearity state, and numerically for the saturating state. The self-focusing of a doughnut beam depends on the initial BSS, in which if the initial BSS gets bigger, the beam in the medium will be focused faster. We show that if the nonlinear effect of the plasma medium is saturated, the LG beam profile can remain stable and the BSS... 

In the present study, free vibrations and stability of rotating single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) is investigated by nonlocal theory of elasticity; while the CNT is partially resting on an elastic foundation. The governing equations of motion are presented by using Love's shell assumptions. An exact series expansion method of solution is employed and very accurate results are obtained. Some parameter studies including the effects of rotating speed, foundation stiffness, slenderness ratio and nonlocal parameter on the natural frequency and stability margins of the current model are studied. The studies show that rotation rates and foundation elasticity can contribute significantly in the... 

In this article, transverse vibration of an Euler-Bernoulli beam carrying a series of traveling masses is analyzed. A semi-analytical approach based on eigenfunction expansion method is employed to achieve the dynamic response of the beam. The inertia of the traveling masses changes the fundamental period of the base beam. Therefore, a comprehensive parametric survey is required to reveal the resonance velocity of the traversing inertial loads. In order to facilitate resonance detection for engineering practitioners, a new simplified formula is proposed to approximate the resonance velocity  

In this study, the SD-HACNEM (Sharif Dynamic - High order Average Current Nodal Expansion Method) neutron noise simulator in two energy groups using a second-order flux expansion method for two-dimensional rectangular X Y-geometry has been developed. In the first step, the calculations were performed for the steady state and results of ACNEM (Average Current Nodal Expansion Method) and HACNEM (High order Average Current Nodal Expansion Method) were examined and compared. To solve the problem, the power iteration algorithm has been used to calculate the distribution of neutron flux and neutron multiplication factor by considering the coarse-mesh (each fuel assembly one node). To validate the... 

A novel integrated aeroelastic model of flapping wings (FWs) undergoing a prescribed rigid body motion is presented. In this respect, the FW nonlinear structural dynamics is enhanced via a newly proposed modification of implicit condensation and expansion (MICE) method that better considers the structural nonlinear effects. In addition, the unsteady aerodynamic model is also an extension of the widely utilized modified strip theory (MST) in which the flexibility effects are accounted for (MST-Flex). The integrated utility of the proposed generalized MICE and MST-Flex is demonstrated to be more realistic for elastic FW flight simulation applications. The prescribed rigid body motion is... 

The governing differential equation of motion of a thin rectangular plate excited by a moving mass is considered. The moving mass is traversing on the plate's surface at arbitrary trajectories. Eigenfunction expansion method is employed to solve the constitutive equation of motion for various boundary conditions. Approximate and exact expressions of the inertial effects are adopted for the problem formulation. In the approximate formulation, only the vertical acceleration component of the moving mass is considered while in the exact formulation all the convective acceleration components are included in the problem formulation as well. Parametric studies are carried out to investigate the... 

We propose a new method to extract the modes of photonic crystal slabs and, thus, obtain their band structures. These slabs, which are 2-D periodic structures with finite thickness, can completely confine light and have the important advantage of simple construction for applications in integrated optic devices. In this paper, reflection pole method (RPM) is utilized to analyze photonic crystal slabs. Modes are poles of reflection and transmission coefficients of multilayered structures. According to this principle, modes can be detected by only pursuing phase variations of transmission coefficients that are equal to π rad. Therefore, extraction of modes becomes fast and simple through... 

In this study, the dynamic response of a Timoshenko beam under moving mass is investigated. To this end, vectorial form orthogonality property of the Timoshenko beam free vibration modes is applied to the EEM (Eigenfunction Expansion Method). The implication of the vectorial form series and an appropriate inner product of mode shapes in combination are focused for a beam with arbitrary boundary conditions. Consequently, significant simplifications and efficacy in the utilization of the EEM in eliminating the spatial domain is achieved. In order to comprise validation, the present study is compared with the DET (Discrete Element Technique) and the RKPM (Reproducing Kernel Particle Method)  

The present study aims at the investigation of free vibration analysis of thin cylindrical shells surrounded by an elastic medium, which is distributed over a particular length of the shell. The Love’s shell theory is utilized along with the Winkler foundation to obtain the governing equations of motion. An exact series expansion method of solution is employed for any arbitrary boundary conditions. The excellent accuracy of the obtained results is validated by comparing to the available literature. Moreover, several case studies are performed to provide an insight into the influence of some practically important parameters on free vibrations of circular cylindrical shells, including... 

In this study, based on multipole expansion method an analytical treatment is presented for the anti-plane scattering of SH-waves by an arbitrarily oriented elliptic cavity/crack which is embedded near the interface between exponentially graded and homogeneous half-spaces. The cavity is embedded within the inhomogeneous half-space. The boundary value problem of interest is solved by constructing an appropriate set of multipole functions which satisfy (i) the governing equation in each half-space, (ii) the continuity conditions across the interface between the two half-spaces, and (iii) the far-field radiation and regularity conditions. The analytical expressions for the scattered... 

The safety and optimal performance of nuclear reactors require online monitoring in the core. The present paper describes a method that avoids the solution of the time-dependent neutron diffusion equation, and it uses online readings of the fixed in-core neutron detectors to reconstruct the three-dimensional (3D) neutron flux distribution. The essential idea of the nodal synthesis method is the separation of time and space-dependence of the neutron flux distribution. The time-dependent section of the flux distribution is determined by in-core neutron detector readings, and the space-dependent section is obtained from pre-computed harmonics of the neutron diffusion equation. In online...