Sharif Digital Repository

In this paper we focus on a two-stage supply chain consisting of one vendor and one buyer. We develop an integrated production-inventory-marketing model to determine the relevant profit-maximizing decision variable values. The model proposed is based on the joint total profit of both the vendor and the buyer, and it finds out the optimal ordering, shipment and pricing policies. We are able to ascertain the optimal decision variable values employing an analytical solution procedure. The numerical evidence suggests that it is more beneficial for the buyer and the vendor to cooperate with each other when the demand is more price sensitive. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved  

This paper presents a model for “Domestic Facility and Hub Location” in transportation network. Number of hubs and facilities are unknown and the objective is to minimize the transportation cost, lost demand penalty and facility set up costs. Also the distribution of demand among domestic facilities and hubs adheres to gravity rule. To solve the problem, sequential and integrated approaches were undertaken. In the sequential approach, domestic facilities were allocated and hubs were selected afterwards. However the integrated approach deals with both concurrently, with a more sophisticated steps reaching to the solution. This is mainly because the demand itself is highly dependent to where... 

An integrated fuzzy spatial multi-criteria evaluation and analytic hierarchy process within a GIS was applied to assess the land use suitability for agriculture in Golestan province, Iran. In this way, a type of multi-criteria evaluation method called weighted linear combination in a spatial domain was employed to incorporate six factors and three constraining criteria into the evaluation of land use suitability for agriculture. A fuzzy set methodology was used to calculate values of a membership function of each factor. The relative importance weights of factors were estimated using analytic hierarchy proces. The application of the presented approach in Golestan province indicated that the... 

Occurrence of drought, as an inevitable natural climate feature, cannot be ceased while happening. However, costs of the consequences could be alleviated using mature scientific integrated approaches. To reduce the amount of damage, it is required to provide “Contingency” and “Mitigation” action plans. For this reason, development of efficient operating instructions for various regions based on weather conditions and field studies is needed as well as having a sophisticated understanding of socioeconomic situations. This paper describes an approach to provide the first national agricultural drought risk management plan for a river basin in Iran country as a pilot. The study lasted for... 

Enhancing the quality of the product has always been one considerable concern of production process management, and this subject gave way to implementing so many methods including robust design. In this paper, robust design utilizes response surface methodology (RSM) considering the mean and variance of the response variable regarding system design, parameter design, and tolerance design. In this paper, customer requirements and robust design are regarded simultaneously to achieve enriched quality. Subsequently, with a non-linear programming, a novel method for integrating RSM and quality function deployment has been proposed to achieve robustness in design. The customer requirements are... 

Motion planning and trajectory control are two basic challenges of unmanned vehicles. In motion planning problem, feasible trajectories are developed while nonlinear dynamic model and performance constraints of the vehicle under utility are considered. In this study, motion planning is performed via an enhanced particle swarm optimization algorithm. The resulting offline generated trajectories are tracked using a nonlinear trajectory control system methodology. The Lyapunov-based constrained backstepping approach and command filters are utilized in designing the trajectory control system. Command filters smoothen the input signals and provide their derivatives. Evaluation of the proposed... 

Supplier selection is a multi-criteria problem which includes both tangible and intangible factors. In these problems when suppliers have capacity or other different constraints, two questions persist: which suppliers are the best and how much should be purchased from a selected supplier? Here, we propose an integrated approach of analytic hierarchy process (AHP), Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), and multi-objective nonlinear programming to consider both tangible and intangible factors in choosing the best suppliers and define the optimum quantities among selected suppliers to maximize the total value of purchasing and minimize the budget, total... 

In this paper, an integration approach consists of implementation of true internal state variables constitutive model to finite element (FE) analysis is presented. From the approach, the deformation homogeneity during severe plastic deformation of sheet (SPD) is investigated. Since there is not any constitutive model for large deformation that based on appropriated physical assumptions, here a new constitutive model is proposed that is entirely based on metallurgical mechanisms. Also, in order to achieve accurate results with low computation time, a new approach for integration of the constitutive model to FE analysis is presented. By coupling the constitutive model and FE analysis, the... 

Photovoltaic energy is one of the clean and efficient energies which has been developing quickly in the last years. As the penetration of solar plants is increasing in the electricity network, new problems have arisen in network operation. This paper models a high penetration factor of solar energy in the electricity network and investigates the impact of solar energy growth on both the generation schedule of different power plants and in the natural gas transmission network. Fuel management of gas power plants is modeled through simulation of the natural gas transmission network. To this end, an increase in the penetration of solar energy in the electricity network inevitably leads to a... 

The objective of the present study is the development of an optimization model for identifying the best configuration of renewable-based integrated energy systems. The system includes a combination of renewable energy systems such as wind, solar, hydropower and hydrogen production, storage facilities and conventional fossil-fuel generators. The developed tool consists of various modules where water heating assumes the utilization of waste energy as an option. Furthermore, the application, which is demonstrated for a case study in Tehran, has been considered. The power exchange with the distribution network and injection of hydrogen produced from excess renewable sources into gas network are... 

In this work, a three-dimensional numerical model is developed to investigate the performance of a photovoltaic thermal system integrated with a thermoelectric generator module (PVT/TE). Furthermore, the effects of various operating parameters such as solar radiation, coolant mass flow rate, and inlet and ambient temperatures on the performance of both the PVT and PVT/TE systems are investigated and compared. Based on the obtained results, the electrical efficiency of the PVT/TE system, when exposed to solar radiation of 600 and 1000 W/m2, is 6.23% and 10.41% higher than that of the PVT system, respectively. Besides, the electrical efficiency of the PVT and PVT/TE by increasing the inlet... 

Energy hubs, an important component of future energy networks employing distributed demand-side management, can play a key role in enhancing the efficiency and reliability of power grids. In power grids, energy hub operators need to optimally schedule the consumption, conversion, and storage of available resources based on their own utility functions. In sufficiently large networks, scheduling an individual hub can affect the utility of the other energy hubs. In this paper, the interaction between energy hubs is modeled as a congestion game. Each energy hub operator (player) participates in a dynamic energy pricing market and tries to maximize his/her own payoff when satisfying energy... 

Iran, having two separate coastlines at its north and south of about 3000 km length, with very different characteristics, suffers from various coastal problems. While its northern coastal area is over-populated and its sensitive and unique habitats must be protected from destruction, most of its southern coastal areas are undeveloped and deserted. Intense oil and gas exploitation activities in the Caspian Sea region and occurrence of two wars in the Persian Gulf during the last two decades have rendered hydrocarbon pollution a major issue for this country's marine and coastal environment. Biodiversity is under threat in some areas and natural resources are deteriorating. To overcome the... 

In our investigation, the model of optimal energy flow in a passenger vehicle has been founded on the theory of firm microeconomics. Based on this theory, the car owner tries to minimize the total cost of the system (including the cost of time of the traveller) subject to the satisfaction of the required transport services and technological, economical, environmental and institutional constraints. The aforementioned model has been developed using a technique of mathematical programming. The model depicts the behaviour of a nonlinear system and it includes many nonlinear functions in the objective function and in the constraints. Solving the large nonlinear set of constraints and identifying... 

In this study, an integrated 2D numerical model is applied to investigate the mechanical effects of the vegetation and soil type on slope stability. The developed model can assess the mechanical aspects of vegetation in slope stabilization. For this purpose, a case study of the Kheyrud forest located in northern Iran is considered as a real case site. Different scenarios including; three soil types (fine grain with low-, medium-, and high-strength) and two vegetation types (Maple and Common-ash) are assessed in the stability analysis (based on safety factor). The results confirm that the considered vegetation can prevent shallow landslide occasions, but has a limited impact on deep landslide... 

Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) is an effective risk analysis and failure avoidance approach in the design, process, services, and system. With all its benefits, FMEA has three limitations: failure mode risk assessment and prioritization, complex FMEA worksheets, and difficult application of FMEA tables. This paper seeks to overcome the shortcomings of FMEA using an integrated approach based on a developed Pythagorean fuzzy (PF) k-means clustering algorithm and a popular MCDM method called PF-VIKOR. In the first step, Pythagorean fuzzy numbers (PFNs) were used to collect Severity (S), Occurrence (O), and Detection (D) factors for failure modes to incorporate uncertainty and fuzziness... 

Deposition of asphaltenes upon precipitation is a main flow assurance concern, which propelled the development of various experimental and modeling techniques to accurately predict its occurrence. This work develops an integrated approach combining thermodynamic and deposition modules with a multiphase flow simulator to simultaneously model asphaltenes precipitation and deposition in wellbores. The Peng-Robinson equation of state and the modified Miller-Flory-Huggins theory are used to calculate the thermodynamic properties of the oil and asphaltenes precipitation, respectively. The deposition module is based on conservation laws for asphaltenes transport and is linked to the flow simulator... 

An integrated approach is presented for predicting granule particle size using Partial Correlation (PC) analysis and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs). In this approach, the proposed model is an abstract form from the ANN model, which intends to reduce model complexity via reducing the dimension of the input set and consequently improving the generalization capability of the model. This study involves comparing the capability of the proposed model in predicting granule particle size with those obtained from ANN and Multi Linear Regression models, with respect to some indicators. The numerical results confirm the superiority of the proposed model over the others in the prediction of granule... 

The development of technologies such as micro turbines and gas furnaces has been the major driving force towards integration of electricity and natural gas networks in the EH (energy hubs). Besides, the existing power grids are getting smarter by implementing the new generation of information technologies and communication systems. In smart grid, the electricity suppliers can modify the customers' electrical load consumption by employing appropriate scheduling schemes such as DR (demand response) programs. In this paper, we consider the S. E. Hubs (smart energy hubs) framework, in which the customers can use EMS (energy management system) to access to the electricity and natural gas prices... 

Stock market prediction is regarded as a challenging task in financial time-series forecasting. The central idea to successful stock market prediction is achieving best results using minimum required input data and the least complex stock market model. To achieve these purposes this article presents an integrated approach based on genetic fuzzy systems (GFS) and artificial neural networks (ANN) for constructing a stock price forecasting expert system. At first, we use stepwise regression analysis (SRA) to determine factors which have most influence on stock prices. At the next stage we divide our raw data into k clusters by means of self-organizing map (SOM) neural networks. Finally, all...