Sharif Digital Repository

In this work, examinations on the microstructure and mechanical properties of plain carbon steel and AISI 430 ferritic stainless steel dissimilar welds are carried out. Welding is conducted in both autogenous and using ER309L austenitic filler rod conditions through gas tungsten arc welding process. The results indicate that fully-ferritic and duplex ferritic-martensitic microstructures are formed for autogenous and filler-added welds, respectively. Carbide precipitation and formation of martensite at ferrite grain boundaries (intergranular martensite) as well as grain growth occur in the heat affected zone (HAZ) of AISI 430 steel. It is found that weld heat input can strongly affect grain... 

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is a highly-workable concrete that without any vibration or impact and under its own weight fills the formwork, and it also passes easily through small spaces between rebars. In this paper, the effect of steel fibers on rheological properties, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, and flexural toughness of SCC specimens, using four different steel fiber volume fractions (0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, and 2%), were investigated. Two mix designs with strengths of 40 MPa (medium strength) and 60 MPa (high strength) were considered. Rheological properties were determined through slump flow time and diameter, L-box, and V-funnel flow time tests.... 

Nano-biocomposites are a new class of hybrid materials composed of nano-sized filler (nanofiller) incorporated into a bio-based matrix. Such an association between eco-friendly biopolymers and nano-objects, with the aim to obtain synergic effects, is one of the most innovating routes to enhance the properties of these bio-matrices. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in Starch as an inexpensive and renewable source has been used as a filler for environmentally friendly plastics for about two decades. However, the poor mechanical properties of starch based biopolymers, leads to use of nanoparticles as reinforcing materials. In the present study, the influence of a... 

Seismic isolators are used to decrease the energy and forces of earthquakes. The weight of conventional steel-reinforced elastomeric isolators (SREIs) is high, mostly due to the use of multiple steel shim plates. On the contrary, the damping ratio of SREIs is relatively low. Accordingly, this research utilizes a new approach in which the steel shim plates are replaced by carbon and polyamide fibers. This study attempts to obtain the dynamic and mechanical properties of such carbon fiber- and polyamide fiber-reinforced elastomeric isolators, in comparison with SREIs. In this work, a number of specimens were initially designed and manufactured. Afterwards, compression and cyclic shear tests... 

This study attempts to find an optimum combination of the welding tool rotation rate (ω) and traveling speed (υ), concerning the corrosion and mechanical properties of Friction Stir Welded (FSWed) AA5052 Aluminum alloy. The effect of the tool speeds on the FSWed AA5052 are investigated via potentiodynamic polarization, open circuit potential (OCP) monitoring, test of the susceptibility to intergranular corrosion, weight loss, tension and micro-hardness tests. Optical microscope and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) were employed for studying the morphology and analyzing the probable intergranular attacks. It was found that by increasing υ up to 200. mm/min at ω=400 rpm, the microstructural... 

Over the past decades, Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAIDs) have been configured based on mechanical characteristics of Hard Disk Drives (HDDs). With the advent of Solid-State Drives (SSDs), configurations such as stripe unit size can be far from the characteristics of SSDs. In this paper, we investigate the effect of stripe unit size on the endurance and the overall I/O performance of an SSD-based RAID array and compare the optimal stripe unit size with the suggested stripe unit sizes for HDD-based RAID. To this end, we first examine the number of extra page reads and writes imposed by write requests, and then observe the corresponding impact on the overall throughput and the... 

Recent advances in materials science have necessitated the development and understanding of manufacturing processes for safe and repeatable utilization. Grinding is shown to be a promising material removal process especially for brittle and hard to cut materials such as superalloys. Grinding has always been associated with analysis and modeling complications regarding its nature which has limited its extension and reliability of use. The first step in analysis of grinding is considering the action of a single abrasive grit on workpiece surface. In this work the action of a single CBN abrasive grit in creep-feed grinding process of Inconel 718 superalloy is modeled and analyzed using a 3D FEM... 

The combined effects of SiC and carbon additives on the densification, structure and characteristics of pressureless sintered ZrB2-SiC ceramic composites were studied. The ZrB2-SiC (1-10wt%) composite powders were mixed by 1-2wt% carbon. The prepared powder mixtures were then cold-consolidated and sintered in argon environment in the temperature range of 1800-2100°C for 2h. The constituted phases and microstructural evolutions were studied using x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy dispersive x-ray detector. The obtained results concluded that the densification was increased by extending the sintering time and also by prior holding... 

Friction stir processing (FSP) is a solid state route with a capacity of preparing fine grained nanocomposites from metal sheets. In this work, we employed this process to finely distribute TiO2 nanoparticles throughout an Al-Mg alloy, aiming to enhance mechanical properties. Titanium dioxide particles (30 nm) were preplaced into grooves machined in the middle of the aluminium alloy sheet and multipass FSP was afforded. This process refined the grain structure of the aluminium alloy, distributed the hard nanoparticles in the matrix and promoted solid state chemical reactions at the interfaces of the metal/ceramic particles. Detailed optical and electron microscopic studies showed that the... 

A two-dimensional seven link biped dynamic model was developed to investigate the mechanical characteristics of the normal and amputee locomotion during the complete gait cycle. The foot-ground contact was simulated using a five-point penetration contact model. The equations of motion were derived using Lagrange method. Optimization of the normal human walking model provided constant coefficients for the driving torque equations that could reasonably reproduce the normal kinematical pattern. The resulting torques were then applied to the intact joints of the amputee model with a prosthetic leg equipped with a kinematical driver controller for the ankle and either a hydraulic, elastic or... 

Resistance spot welding of dissimilar materials especially in different thickness is generally more challenging than that of similar materials due to differences in the physical, chemical and mechanical properties of the base metals. And also when the part is under static and dynamic forces the health of spot-welds is crucial. Hence, the influence of welding parameters such as current, time, applied force and hold time on the shear-tensile load has been investigated in this study. Moreover, in this research the case study is one of the most important body parts of the vehicle which is front wheel house, and effect of above-mentioned parameter on the strength of spot-welds has been... 

Attempts were made to trace the effect of organoclay (OC) on the rheological and mechanical behaviors of the low density polyethylene (LDPE)/ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) blends. To do this effectively, in addition to LDPE/EVA/OC system, pure LDPE and LDPE/EVA blends were also examined as model systems. The rheological behavior was determined by the capillary rheometer. Morphological characterization was also carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and theoretical approach based on interfacial energies. Shear viscosity, tensile strength and elastic modulus of LDPE/EVA were found to decrease by increasing the EVA... 

In this research, Araldite 2011 has been reinforced using different weight fractions of Reduced Graphene Oxide (RGO). Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) analyses were conducted and it has been shown that introduction of the RGO greatly changes the film morphology of the neat adhesive. Uni-axial tests were carried out to obtain the mechanical characteristics of the adhesive-RGO composites. It has been observed that introducing 0.5 wt% RGO enhances the ultimate tensile strength of the composites by 30%. In addition, single lap joints using neat adhesive and adhesive-RGO composites were fabricated to... 

Hybrid Cu-SiC composites have been highly considered in order to achieve a combination of electrical and thermal properties along with high strength and wear resistance. However, limited investigations have ever been conducted over the effects of using hybrid (combination of nano and micro size) particles on the wear resistance behavior of these composites. Hence, in the present study, Cu-SiC nanocomposite with 4 vol% nanosize and 4 vol% microsize SiC, and Cu-SiC microcomposite with 8 vol% micro- SiC were fabricated through mechanical milling and hot pressing process. Results revealed the homogeneous dispersion of SiC particles in the matrix, high densification, and ultrafine-grain matrix... 

Glass-ceramic composites in the SiO2-CaO-MgO-(Na2O) system, reinforced with 5, 10 and 20 wt.% aluminum titanate were synthesized by pressureless sintering. Optimum sintering temperatures with maximum relative density were determined for each composition. The composites were fired above the crystallization peak temperature of glass-ceramic. Mechanical properties of glass-ceramic and sintered composites, such as fracture toughness, flexural strength and Vickers microhardness, were investigated. The sintered composites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersion spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results showed that the composite containing 10... 

Vibrational analysis of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is performed using a finite element method (FEM). To this end, the vibrational behavior of bridge and cantilever SWCNTs with different side lengths and diameters is modeled by three-dimensional elastic beams and point masses. The beam element elastic properties are calculated by considering mechanical characteristics of the covalent bonds between the carbon atoms in the hexagonal lattice. The mass of each beam element is assumed as point masses at nodes coinciding with the carbon atoms. Implementing the atomistic simulation approach, the natural frequencies of zigzag and armchair SWCNTs are computed. It is observed that the... 

Pervious concrete (PC) has been detecting application in pavement and concrete structures such as dams, small retaining walls, and etc during the past decades. Also, in recent years, the types of resins have been introduced to apply in concrete owing to the enhancing in mechanical and durability characteristics. However, few studies have investigated the mechanical behavior of high performance pervious concrete (HPPC) incorporated by polyester and epoxy resins as polymeric composites, where ordinary cement material has been completely deleted. The purpose of this investigation is to compare the mechanical properties, permeability, and durability of HPPCs made by polymeric composites (i.e.... 

In this work, the effects of the surface-modified nanodiamond particles (NDs) on the barrier, rheological, mechanical and thermal properties of ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) composites for the packaging applications were investigated. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, as well as thermal gravimetric analysis were employed to study the grafting of vinyltriethoxy silane (VTS) on the surface of NDs. Afterwards, EVA samples containing 0, 0.1, 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 wt% of surface-modified NDs were prepared by a two-stage process including the solution and injection processes. In order to evaluate the physicochemical, rheological, mechanical and thermal properties of the EVA/NDs samples, field... 

Hybrid Cu-SiC composites have been highly considered in order to achieve a combination of electrical and thermal properties along with high strength and wear resistance. However, limited investigations have ever been conducted over the effects of using hybrid (combination of nano and micro size) particles on the wear resistance behavior of these composites. Hence, in the present study, Cu-SiC nanocomposite with 4 vol% nanosize and 4 vol% microsize SiC, and Cu-SiC microcomposite with 8 vol% micro- SiC were fabricated through mechanical milling and hot pressing process. Results revealed the homogeneous dispersion of SiC particles in the matrix, high densification, and ultrafine-grain matrix... 

Small diameter vascular grafts (<6 mm) are highly demanded for patients suffering from severe occluded arteries to be used as a bypass or substituted conduit. Fabricating a graft with appropriate structural, mechanical and cell growth properties which has simultaneously anti-thrombogenic trait is a challenge nowadays. Here, we proposed a bilayer heparinized vascular graft that can mimic the structural and mechanical characteristics close to those of the native coronary artery by combining electrospinning and freeze drying methods. In this study, the inner layer was made by co-electrospinning of synthetic polymer, poly-caprolactone (PCL) and the natural polymer, gelatin (Gel). Also, heparin...