Sharif Digital Repository

In this report, crack-free nanostructured barium titanate thin films are prepared by a sol-gel processing method. Glacial acetic acid, barium acetate, titanium tetraisopropyl alkoxide, 2-propanol and deionized water are used as precursors for preparing stable precursor solution. Then very thin films (thickness=26 nm) are deposited on fused silica substrates. In order to prepare crack-free thin films of BaTiO3, much attention is given to solvent evaporation process and a controlled pre-drying process is developed. It is found that the control of the process, especially in the initial stage of drying process is crucial and important for preparation of the crack-free ultrathin nanostructured... 

In this paper, an extended dynamic model of peripheral milling process including process damping, structural and cutting force nonlinearities is presented. Cutting forces are described through a third-order polynomial function of chip thickness while a cubic nonlinear function is considered for the structural stiffness. Under stable and regenerative chatter conditions and using Fourier series components, closed form expressions for the nonlinear cutting forces are derived. Parameters of the proposed model are identified through a set of experiments. For this purpose, modal experiments and measurement of cutting forces (at various feed rates) are performed to determine the modal parameters... 

In this study, the aeroelastic stability and response of an aircraft swept composite wing in subsonic compressible flow are investigated. The composite wing was modeled as an anisotropic thin-walled composite beam with the circumferentially asymmetric stiffness structural configuration to establish proper coupling between bending and torsion. Also, the structural model consists of a number of nonclassical effects, such as transverse shear, material anisotropy, warping inhibition, nonuniform torsional model, and rotary inertia. The finite state form of the unsteady aerodynamic loads have been modeled based on the indicial aerodynamic theory and strip theory in the subsonic compressible flow.... 

Jacket-type offshore platforms play an important role in oil and gas industries in shallow and intermediate water depths such as Persian Gulf region. Such important structures need accurate considerations in analysis, design and assessment procedures. In this paper, nonlinear response of jacket-type platforms against extreme waves is examined utilizing sensitivity analyses. Results of this paper can reduce the number of random variables and consequently the computational effort in reliability analysis of jacket platforms, noticeably. Effects of foundation modeling have been neglected in majority of researches on the response of jacket platforms against wave loads. As nonlinear response of... 

This article presents a new model for pricing a new product considering a skimming pricing strategy in the presence of competition. We consider two periods for price setting, including skimming and an economy period. The problem is to decide on skimming as well as economy price, in order to maximize total profit. The derived model is a non-linear programming model and we have analyzed the structure and properties of an optimal solution to develop a solution method. Analytical results, as well as managerial insights, are presented by mathematical and numerical analyses  

Salep phosphate modified biopolymers with different phosphate contents were prepared via reacting salep (a multi-component polysaccharide obtained from dried tubers of certain natural terrestrial orchids) with a solution of primary and secondary sodium phosphates under basic conditions in a semidry process. Structural characterization of salep phosphates were carried out by 31P NMR, FT-IR spectra and TGA curves. Determination of the phosphate content in samples was done by a standard spectrophotometric method. Then, novel (salep phosphate)-based hydrogels were synthesized by graft copolymerization of acrylic acid (AA) monomer onto salep phosphate backbones. Effect of the phosphate contents... 

This article presents a new model for pricing a new product considering skimming pricing strategy in the presence of the competition. We consider two periods for price setting including skimming and economy period. The problem is deciding on a skimming price as well as an economy price in order to maximize the total profit. The derived model is a non-linear programming model and we analyzed the structure and properties of optimal solution to develop a solution method. Analytical results as well as managerial insights are presented by mathematical analysis and numerical analysis  

In this paper, application of a new dynamic procedure called Endurance Time (ET) method in seismic analysis of steel frames is explained. In this method, structures are subjected to gradually intensifying ground shaking and their performance is assessed based on their response considering relevant design criteria at each intensity level. By considerably reducing the number of time history analyses for assessment of structural response at different intensities, this procedure tends to pave a way for practical performance based design of structures. The accuracy of ET method in predicting the response of structures in linear and nonlinear analysis is investigated by considering a set of steel... 

Tungsten trioxide has been prepared by using P-PTA as a precursor on alumina substrates by spin coating method. Palladium introduced on WO 3 film via electrolysis deposition by using palladium chloride as catalytic precursor. The catalytic precursor was introduced on the series of films with different morphologies. X-ray diffractometry (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and XPS were applied to analyze structure and morphology of the fabricated thin films. Then we measured variation of samples' electrical conductivity of pure and Pd added films in air and diluted hydrogen. Addition of Pd resulted in a remarkable improvement of the hydrogen sensing properties of WO 3 by detection of... 

In endurance time (ET) method structures are subjected to a set of predesigned intensifying excitations. These excitations are produced in a way that their response spectrum, while complying with a specified spectrum, intensifies with time so they can be used approximately to simulate the average effects of several ground motions scaled to different intensities. In this paper applicability of the ET method for evaluating collapse potential of buildings is investigated. A set of four steel moment frames is used for collapse assessment. The process of using ET method in collapse evaluation is explained and the results are compared with incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) results. It is shown... 

The development of damage detection techniques for offshore jacket structures is vital for preventing catastrophic events. This paper applies a frequency response based method for the purpose of structural health monitoring. In this approach, the concept of a minimum rank perturbation theory is used. The feasibility of using a finite number of sensors and its effect on damage detection capabilities is investigated. In addition, the performance of the proposed method is evaluated in the case of multiple damages. The aforementioned points are illustrated using the numerical study of a two dimensional jacket platform  

One of the important challenges in the auto industry is to reduce the mass of the vehicle while meeting structural performance requirements for Crashworthiness, Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) etc. In this paper, a multidisciplinary optimization (MDO) of a car back-bonnet is investigated by using trie Response Surface Method (RSM). Firstly, a car body is fully surface modeled in CATIA and meshed in HYPERMESH software. Then, modal analysis of the finite element model is performed by NASTRAN software to find natural frequencies. Frequency map of that component is extracted and compared with a reference map to detect defects. Design of Experiments (DOE) methodologies is used for a... 

A high-order compact finite-difference scheme is applied and assessed for the numerical simulation of structural dynamics. The two-dimensional elastic stress-strain equations are considered in the generalized curvilinear coordinates and the spatial derivatives in the resulting equations are discretized by a fourth-order compact finite-difference scheme. For the time integration, an implicit second-order dual time-stepping method is utilized in which a fourth-order Runge-Kutta scheme is used to integrate in the pseudo-time level. The accuracy and robustness of the solution procedure proposed are investigated through simulating different two-dimensional benchmark test cases in structural... 

Sensor networks usually generate mass of data, which if not structured for future applications, will require much effort on analytical processing and interpretations. Thus, storing sensor data in an effective and structured format is a key issue in the area of sensor networks. In the meantime, even a little improvement on data storing structure may lead to a significant effect on the lifetime and performance of the sensor network. This paper describes a new method for sensor storage that combines semantic web concepts, a data aggregation method along with aligning sensors in hierarchical form. This solution is able to reduce the amount of data stored at the sink nodes significantly. At the... 

Linear position sensors are widely used in linear motion-control systems. In this paper, the design, optimization, performance analysis, and prototyping of a linear resolver (LR) are discussed. Mathematical model of the proposed structure is presented based on a simple design-oriented method. Then, a comprehensive iterative design algorithm considering design constraints of linear electromagnetic sensors is proposed. All resistances and inductances of the designed LR are calculated based on the design parameters. Then, a 3-D time-stepping finite-element method is used to validate the design, optimization, and analytical model. Finally, a prototype of the sensor is built and tested.... 

A large portion of the railway bridge stock in many countries is comprised of masonry arch bridges. During recent years, more attention has been paid to the maintenance of such structures. Rehabilitation and retrofitting methods have been proposed to enhance the performance of masonry arch bridges and extend their service life. Because a large portion of forces exerted on such structures comes from the railway track and passing trains, structural elements are added to the track to reduce the forces transmitted to bridges. One such element is the ballast mat, which, according to suppliers, has a positive impact on the structural performance of the track. This paper tries to assess the effects... 

A high-order compact finite-difference total Lagrangian method (CFDTLM) is developed and applied to nonlinear structural dynamic analysis. The two-dimensional simulation of thermo-elastodynamics is numerically performed in generalized curvilinear coordinates by taking into account the geometric and material nonlinearities. The spatial discretization is carried out by a fourth-order compact finite-difference scheme and an implicit second-order accurate dual time-stepping method is applied for the time integration. The accuracy and capability of the proposed solution methodology for the nonlinear structural analysis is investigated through simulating different static and dynamic benchmark... 

In this study, novel hydrogel nanoparticles with dual triggerable release properties based on fibrous structural proteins (keratin) and thermoresponsive copolymers (Pluronic) are introduced. Nanoparticles were used for curcumin delivery as effective and safe anticancer agents, the hydrophobicity of which has limited their clinical applications. A drug was loaded into hydrogel nanoparticles by a single-step nanoprecipitation method. The drug-loaded nanoparticles had an average diameter of 165 and 66 nm at 25 and 37 °C, respectively. It was shown that the drug loading efficiency could be enhanced through crosslinking of the disulfide bonds in keratin. Crosslinking provided a targeted release... 

Some existing platforms may have some problems with probable extreme future loads such as earthquake. From economic point of view, it is preferable to retrofit and continue using of existing jackets in many cases, in comparison to a new installation. Two efficient rehabilitation methods of friction damper device and buckling restrained braces are presented and investigated numerically for seismic loads from far-fault and near-fault earthquakes. As an example, an existing four-leg service platform placed in the Persian Gulf (Ressalat) is considered and the results are presented. Because of low redundancy in jacket platforms (after buckling of compression members), it is important to... 

A probabilistic approach to modeling the seismic damage incurred by structural and nonstructural components is developed in this study. The resulting models are intended for use in detailed risk analysis of structures through structural reliability methods. The proposed modeling approach employs Bayesian linear regression to characterize the epistemic uncertainty in the model. In this approach, regressors are selected and constructed based on the mechanics of damage. In turn, the probability distributions of the model parameters and the model error are quantified by Bayesian linear regression using real-life data from laboratory experiments and/or post-earthquake inspections of damaged...