Sharif Digital Repository

Tehran is the capital of Iran and is one of the largest cities in the world. With its history of earthquakes, high population density, and a population of over 8.5 million, it must be prepared to cope with disaster. This article introduces a new method for estimating the reliability of a roadway network that considers the physical characteristics of the road and link capacity degradation. The proposed method was applied to a real road network and the connectivity reliability of the city was calculated. The proposed technique for computing connectivity reliability is sensitive to the characteristics of the road and adjacent buildings. The results indicate that northern Tehran, with a low... 

The problem of early convergence in the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm often causes the search process to be trapped in a local optimum. This problem often occurs when the diversity of the swarm decreases and the swarm cannot escape from a local optimal. In this paper, a novel dynamic diversity enhancement particle swarm optimization (DDEPSO) algorithm is introduced. In this variant of PSO, we periodically replace some of the swarm's particles by artificial ones, which are generated based on the history of the search process, in order to enhance the diversity of the swarm and promote the exploration ability of the algorithm. Afterwards, we update the velocity of the artificial... 

A repeated inflation-unemployment game within the linear-quadratic frame-work of Barro and Gordon is studied assuming that the government would like to cheat optimally and the finite heterogeneous population of private agents attempts to learn the government's targets using a reinforcement learning algorithm. Private agents are heterogeneous in their initial expectations of inflation rate but are assumed to utilize an identical anticipatory reinforcement learning process, namely Q-learning. In our heterogeneous setting, the only way for the private agents to achieve a zero value for their loss function, is for all of them to correctly anticipate the Nash equilibrium. It is of particular... 

In this article, a new method for solving multidimensional population balance (PB) equations for agglomeration is presented. First, discretized 2-dimensional PB (DPB) is derived and by applying probability approach, this method is extended to n-dimensional PB. The discretization of size intervals is in the form of v(j) = 2j-i v(i) and the volume based PB is used. Because of conservative nature of volume, all internal coordinates are converted to some independent volumes. A simple and clear procedure for solving multidimensional PB is proposed using probability concept. In addition, various types of birth and death mechanisms involved in PB are analyzed separately. Moreover, results of... 

In spite of the development of different experimental methods and theoretical models devoted to understand and predict the asphaltene behavior in dead/model oils, the asphaltene aggregation phenomena in live oil systems at high pressure-high temperature conditions has been grossly missing in the available literature. In this study, a population balance model with geometric scaling approach is proposed to simulate the asphaltene aggregates growth in time for live oil systems. Appropriate collision kernels are incorporated to describe the aggregation mechanisms taking into account the effect of pressure, temperature and oil characteristics. In modeling of the asphaltene aggregation phenomena... 

A statistical algorithm is introduced to improve the false inference of active loci, in the population in which members are admixture. The algorithm uses an advanced clustering algorithm based on a Bayesian approach. The proposed algorithm simultaneously infers the hidden structure of the population. In this regard, the Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) algorithm has been used to evaluate the posterior probability distribution of the model parameters. The proposed algorithm is implemented in a bundle, and then its performance is widely evaluated in a number of artificial databases. The accuracy of the clustering algorithm is compared with the STRUCTURE method based on certain criterion. © 2019... 

In this paper, a simpler approach compared to the existing approaches is developed to analyze nuclear reactor dynamics based on the explicit Monte Carlo method. A new population control method is also introduced to prevent neutron population growth and consequent computer memory shortages, which also increases simulation speed. The scheme is applied for time-dependent particle tracking in three-dimensional arbitrary geometries in the presence of feedbacks through a code named MCSP-Explicit. Changes in material density, as well as geometry dimensions, are also considered during simulation. MCSP-Explicit can be run with either continuous or multigroup data libraries, and it is further boosted... 

In this paper, a simpler approach compared to the existing approaches is developed to analyze nuclear reactor dynamics based on the explicit Monte Carlo method. A new population control method is also introduced to prevent neutron population growth and consequent computer memory shortages, which also increases simulation speed. The scheme is applied for time-dependent particle tracking in three-dimensional arbitrary geometries in the presence of feedbacks through a code named MCSP-Explicit. Changes in material density, as well as geometry dimensions, are also considered during simulation. MCSP-Explicit can be run with either continuous or multigroup data libraries, and it is further boosted... 

We consider a market in which two competing sellers offer two similar products on a social network. In this market, each agent chooses iteratively between the products based on her neighbors reactions and prices. This introduces two games: one between the agents and one between the sellers. We show that the first game is a full potential game and provide an algorithm to compute its convergence point. We also study various properties of the second game such as its equilibrium points and convergence  

Two atomic models are proposed for an Er 3+-doped YAG crystal with application to lasing with and without population inversion. It is shown how an incoherent pumping field and coherent control coupling field can produce a laser in the presence and absence of population inversion  

This paper is an endeavor to picture excessive population threats to the resiliency of a large metropolitan area. By employing an existing evolutionary model of traffic flow on a small expository network, we show how chaotic situations occur at certain demand and supply parameter values and try to address the questions: How may one determine city population capacity for its transportation network, what happens if the city passes this limit, or how may one return the city to a stable situation when it runs into unstable or chaotic situations. Under certain assumptions, the paper designs a simulation experiment to revisit the phenomenon discovered by Greenshields in 1934, but for a... 

Mechanistic modelling is an engineering approach to simulate reasonable physical and chemical processes to develop a model to describe the behaviour of a system. Mathematical models are commonly adopted to explore the physical limits of a process, and are applied to process development, optimization and control. In this work, the population balance model and the moment technique have been utilized to model a suspension polymerization reactor and predict the dynamic evolution of particle size and molecular weight distributions. These distributions are two important factors that affect the physical, rheological and mechanical properties of a polymer, and its final product quality. The cell... 

Petroleum contamination of soil is a serious problem throughout the oil producer countries. Vegetation may play an important role in the biodegradation of toxic organic chemicals in soil. For petroleum compounds, the presence of rhizosphere micro flora may accelerate biodegradation of the contaminants. In a greenhouse study, petroleum contaminated soil were treated using phytoremediation . The C/N ratios and microbial populations were assessed in the beginning and the end of trials. The results showed that Puccinellia distance could tolerate the harsh condition of the soils. As MPN increases, C/N ratios decrease among trials. N, as a nutrient, had effects on both microbial populations and... 

In this work, a new control strategy for controlling the particle size distribution (PSD) in emulsion polymerization has been proposed. It is shown that the desired PSD can be achieved by controlling the free surfactant concentration which in turn can be done by manipulating the surfactant feed rate. Simulation results show that the closed-loop control of free surfactant concentration results in a better control of PSD compared to open-loop control strategy, in presence of model mismatch and disturbances. Since the on-line measuring of ionic free surfactant concentration is difficult, conductivity which is related to it is measured instead and used for control purposes. The closed-loop... 

A deterministic model based on the discrete population balance equation (PBE) is used to examine the precipitation of barium sulfate nanoparticles in nonionic inverse microemulsion systems. It is shown that coagulation can have a significant effect at low initial reactants concentration. The simulation results show that a bimodal particle size distribution (PSD) observed in experimental analysis reported in the literature cannot be predicted by neglecting the coagulation effect. A coagulation kernel is proposed that takes into account the effect of interparticle forces through the Fuchs' stability ratio. The effect of electrolyte concentration on the surfactant headgroup area is also... 

An electromagnetically induced phase grating (EIG) controlled by coherent population trapping (CPT) in a fourlevel Y-type atomic system is studied. The CPT condition promotes significantly the dispersion of light into the first-order diffraction in constructing a phase modulation grating by transferring energy from zero-order to firstorder diffraction. The diffraction efficiency of the phase grating is enhanced by up to 30% of the total probe intensity at the first-order diffraction. The present atomic scheme takes full advantage of the microwave-driven field for generating the EIG, which induces the quantum coherence and controls linear and nonlinear behaviors of the present system.... 

With the rise in oil price and population growth, renewable energies are assumed to be the main source of energies for the next generation. Wind as a natural, eco-friendly and renewable source of energy has been at the center of concentration for decades. Recently there has been some ideas regarding the self-regulating urban wind turbines. Researchers have shown that a proper enclosure increases the wind velocity and therefore more torques can be exerted on the rotors, therefore more power can be generated. These enclosures are light and cheap, therefore they are applicable and effective. In the present study, an enclosure was modified to increase the exerted torque with implementing a step...