Sharif Digital Repository

This study proposes a new method for the detection of a weak scatterer among strong scatterers using prior-information ultrasound (US) imaging. A perfect application of this approach is in vivo cell detection in the bloodstream, where red blood cells (RBCs) serve as identifiable strong scatterers. In vivo cell detection can help diagnose cancer at its earliest stages, increasing the chances of survival for patients. This work combines time-domain US with frequency-domain compressive US imaging to detect a 20-μ MCF-7 circulating tumor cell (CTC) among a number of RBCs within a simulated venule inside the mouth. The 2D image reconstructed from the time-domain US is employed to simulate the... 

A nonlinear fluid–structure interaction (FSI) model is presented for nonlinear vibration analysis of sandwich cylindrical shells subjected to an external compressible flow by considering the curvature nonlinearity in impermeability condition and bending. The sandwich shells are made of two face sheets and a central core of advanced materials including functionally graded (FG), metal foam, and anisogrid lattice composite. Based on the Kirchhoff–love hypotheses with the geometric nonlinearities in the normal strain and curvature of mid-surface, one decoupled nonlinear integral–differential equation is obtained for axisymmetric bending vibration of sandwich cylindrical shells. For the first... 

Central Nervous System (CNS) malignant tumors are a leading cause of death worldwide with a high mortality rate. While numerous strategies have been proposed to treat CNS tumors, the treatment efficacy is still low mainly due to the existence of the Blood–Brain Barrier (BBB). BBB is a natural cellular layer between the circulatory system and brain extracellular fluid, limiting the transfer of drug particles and confining the routine treatment strategies in which drugs are released in the blood. Consequently, direct drug delivery methods have been devised to bypass the BBB. However, the efficiency of these methods is not enough to treat deep and large brain tumors. In the study at hand, the... 

Analytical frequency analysis of a nonlinear viscoelastic microcantilever is performed based on strain gradient theory. The Kelvin–Voigt scheme is utilized to model the viscoelasticity effect. Due to the microcantilever shortening effect via Euler–Bernoulli inextensibility condition, geometric, inertia, stiffness, and inherent damping nonlinearities are considered. The equation of motion is derived from Hamilton’s principle, and discretized using Galerkin method. The multiple timescale perturbation method is performed to solve the time response equation. Implying steady-state condition, the nonlinear relation between detuning parameter and amplitude of the vibration of a nonlinear... 

A diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) -based statistical micromechanical model was developed to study the effect of axonal fiber architecture on the inter- and intra-regional mechanical heterogeneity of the white matter. Three characteristic regions within the white matter, i.e., corpus callosum, brain stem, and corona radiata, were studied considering the previous observations of locations of diffuse axonal injury. The embedded element technique was used to create a fiber-reinforced model, where the fiber was characterized by a Holzapfel hyperelastic material model with variable dispersion of axonal orientations. A relationship between the fractional anisotropy and the dispersion parameter of... 

In this study, dynamic modeling of an elbow axially functionally graded (AFG) macro/micro-tube carrying magnetic flow with different cross-sections is considered. Parametric optimization is performed for vibration suppression of such fluid-interaction systems. Implementing computer simulations, passive vibration control procedures, along with the effect of AFG materials and magnetic properties of the fluid as well as precisely manufactured geometry of the system, is investigated. It is assumed that the material characteristics of the system vary in the longitudinal direction based on exponential and power-law distribution profiles. Influence of the downstream inclination angle and... 

Based on the first-order shear deformation (FSD) model and nonlocal elasticity theory, the simultaneous effects of shear and small scale on the nonlinear vibration behavior of functionally graded carbon nanotube-reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) beams are investigated for the first time. To this end, the governing equations of bending and stretching with von Kármán geometric nonlinearity are decoupled into one fourth-order partial differential equation in terms of transverse deflection. A closed-form solution of the nonlinear natural frequency, which can be used in conceptual design and optimization algorithms of FG- CNTRC beams with different boundary conditions, is developed using a hybrid... 

Based on the linear fluid-solid interaction (FSI) model and classical shell theories, vibration behavior of sandwich cylindrical shells subjected to external incompressible or compressible fluid flow is investigated. The sandwich shell includes the same outer and inner face sheets made of carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced composites and a metal foam core. The effective mechanical properties of CNT reinforced composites are obtained using the extended rule of mixture. Also, the porosity distribution through the foam thickness is assumed to be in the form of a trigonometric function. Equations of motion and corresponding boundary conditions are derived according to the Donnell's, Love's and... 

In this study, dynamic modeling of an elbow axially functionally graded (AFG) macro/micro-tube carrying magnetic flow with different cross-sections is considered. Parametric optimization is performed for vibration suppression of such fluid-interaction systems. Implementing computer simulations, passive vibration control procedures, along with the effect of AFG materials and magnetic properties of the fluid as well as precisely manufactured geometry of the system, is investigated. It is assumed that the material characteristics of the system vary in the longitudinal direction based on exponential and power-law distribution profiles. Influence of the downstream inclination angle and... 

Within the compressive sensing (CS) framework, one effective way to increase the likelihood of successful signal reconstruction is to employ random processes in the construction of the sensing matrix. This study presents a 3D holey cavity, with diverse frequency modes, to spectrally code, that is, randomize, the ultrasound wave fields. The simulated results show that the use of such a cavity enables imaging simple or complex targets, such as spheres or the letter E, by only a single transceiver—something that is not possible without the use of a coding structure like the cavity. The effect of noise on imaging results and the size of the targets on the first-order Born approximation (BA) are... 

Micro/Nano mechatronic systems might be defined as systems that include nano- or micro-scale components. These components can be sensors, actuators, and/or physical structures. Furthermore, the high-precision control laws for such small scales are important to ensure stability, accuracy, and precision in these systems. In this writing, four categories of such small-scale systems are considered by providing multifarious novel or key examples from the literature: control engineering and modeling, design and fabrication, measurement engineering, and sensor/actuator development. The applications discussed in the examples vary from nano-positioners, crucial in systems such as atomic force... 

A computationally efficient 3D human head finite element model was constructed. The model includes the mesoscale geometrical details of the brain including the distinction between white and grey matter, sulci and gyri, the ventricular system, foramen magnum, and cerebrospinal fluid. The heterogeneity and anisotropy from diffusion tensor imaging data were incorporated by applying a one-to-one voxel-based correspondence between diffusion voxels and finite elements. The voxel resolution of the model was optimized to obtain a trade-off between reduced computational cost and higher geometrical details. Three sets of constitutive material properties were extracted from the literature to validate... 

Optimal hyperplastic coeficients of the micromechanical constituents of the human brain stem were investigated. An evolutionary optimization algorithm was combined with a Finite Element (FE) model of a Representative Volume Element (RVE) to nd the optimal material properties of axon and Extra Cellular Matrix (ECM). The tension and compression test results of a previously published experiment were used for optimizing the material coeficients, and the shear experiment was used for the validation of the resulting constitutive model. The optimization algorithm was used to search for optimal shear moduli and ber sti ness of axon and ECM by tting the average stress in the axonal direction with the... 

A diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) -based statistical micromechanical model was developed to study the effect of axonal fiber architecture on the inter- and intra-regional mechanical heterogeneity of the white matter. Three characteristic regions within the white matter, i.e., corpus callosum, brain stem, and corona radiata, were studied considering the previous observations of locations of diffuse axonal injury. The embedded element technique was used to create a fiber-reinforced model, where the fiber was characterized by a Holzapfel hyperelastic material model with variable dispersion of axonal orientations. A relationship between the fractional anisotropy and the dispersion parameter of... 

In this work, the dynamic and vibrational behavior of a micro/nano-manipulator has been studied. The manipulator comprises three links attached serially. While the connection of the links is rigid, which makes the whole body a monolithic structure, the movement of the manipulator is derived from the links deflection. Piezoelectric layers were employed as an actuator to impose deflection on the links, thereby moving the manipulator. After defining the dynamic behavior of each link, manipulator equations of motion were developed. To evaluate the validity of the mathematical model, two FEM models were constructed. The observed results showed a good agreement between the models, and they... 

Based on the classical Donnell's and Love's shell theories, free vibration behavior of variable-thickness thin cylindrical shells rotating with a constant angular velocity is analyzed. The equations of motion and corresponding boundary conditions of rotating homogenous cylindrical shells with axisymmetric variation of thickness are derived using Hamilton's principle. This formulation includes effects of initial hoop tension due to the centrifugal force as well as Coriolis and centrifugal accelerations. Considering the variation of stiffness coefficients in axial direction, the classical Love's theory results in a coupled system of two second-order and one fourth-order partial differential... 

A viscoelastic microcantilever beam is analytically analyzed based on the modified strain gradient theory. Kelvin-Voigt scheme is used to model beam viscoelasticity. By applying Euler-Bernoulli inextensibility of the centerline condition based on Hamilton's principle, the nonlinear equation of motion and the related boundary conditions are derived from shortening effect theory and discretized by Galerkin method. Inner damping, nonlinear curvature effect, and nonlinear inertia terms are also taken into account. In the present study, the generalized derived formulation allows modeling any nonlinear combination such as nonlinear terms that arise due to inertia, damping, and stiffness, as well... 

Pregnant vehicle occupants experience relatively large acceleration when the vehicle passes a speed-bump. In this paper, the effect of such sudden acceleration on a pregnant uterus is investigated. A biomechanical model representing the fundamental dynamic behaviors of a pregnant uterus has been developed. The model relates to the 32nd week of gestation when the fetus is in head-down, occipito-anterior position. Considering the drag and squeeze effects of the amniotic fluid, we derive a comprehensive differential equation that represents the interaction of the uterus and fetus. Solving the governing equation, we obtain the system response to different speed-bump excitations. Using the fetal... 

In this paper, as an application in biometrics, the electrical capacitance of normal and cancerous blood samples is experimentally determined in order to test the null hypothesis that the electrical capacitance of the two samples differs. The samples taken from healthy donors and patients diagnosed with different types of hematologic cancer are examined by a cylindrical capacitor with blood as its dielectric. The capacitance of these samples is measured at room temperature and a single frequency of 120 Hz, well below the frequency where β-dispersion starts, using a simple LCR meter device. The measurements indicate that the capacitance of the blood increases under applied electric field for... 

This study presents a novel statistical volume element (SVE) for micromechanical modeling of the white matter structures, with histology-informed randomized distribution of axonal tracts within the extracellular matrix. The model was constructed based on the probability distribution functions obtained from the results of diffusion tensor imaging as well as the histological observations of scanning electron micrograph, at two structures of white matter susceptible to traumatic brain injury, i.e. corpus callosum and corona radiata. A simplistic representative volume element (RVE) with symmetrical arrangement of fully alligned axonal fibers was also created as a reference for comparison. A...