Sharif Digital Repository

Continuity of service of wind energy conversion systems as well as their reliability and performances are some of the major concerns in this power generation area. Six-legs AC/DC/AC converters are normally used in modern wind energy systems like as in the system with a doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG). A sudden failure of the converter can lead to the total or partial loss of the control of the phase currents and can cause serious system malfunction or shutdown. Therefore, to prevent the spread of the fault to the other system components and to ensure continuity of service, fault tolerant converter topologies associated to quick and effective fault detection and compensation methods... 

This chapter defines rapid manufacturing (RM) as a technique for manufacturing solid objects by the sequential delivery of energy and/or material to specified points in space. Current practice is to control the manufacturing process by using a computer-generated mathematical model. This chapter compares the large speed and cost advantages of RM to alternative polymer or metal manufacturing techniques such as powder metallurgy manufacturing or die casting. Moreover, the RM as an application of solid freeform fabrication for direct manufacturing of goods is addressed. Unlike methods such as computer numerical control (CNC) milling, these techniques allow the fabricated parts to be of high... 

In this paper, we present results of our experiments in implementation of a widely used DSP primitive on a programmable SoC (System-on-a-Chip) Device. The DSP primitive is a 16-bit digital FIR filter which we implemented on Triscend E5 CSoC® family. Experimental results show that by properly breaking the DSP task into hardware and software parts, one can achieve higher throughput compared to DSP processor implementations, while having more flexibility and less time-to-design compared to full-hardware realizations. Programmable SoC device facilitates rapid design-space exploration, which we employed to optimize our mixed hardware-software architecture. We compared our filter throughput to... 

Access to a prototype during R&D can play a crucial role in early identification of the weaknesses in the design. Under circumstances that a particular commercial subsystem with the exact required specific features is unavailable, the realization of such a prototype can be delayed. In this paper, an example of rapid prototyping for a dual-channel biosignal data acquisition system based on the open-source concept is described. The selected biosignal is the finger photoplethysmogram. Except for Matlab, all other software components are open-source. The hardware design of the optical sensor utilized to record the signals is also open-source, making the system extremely affordable with the... 

An iron based powder blend has been developed for rapid tooling using a direct laser sintering process. The powder consists of a mixture of different elements including Fe, C, Cu, Mo and Ni. High sintering activities were obtained by tailoring the powder characteristics and optimizing the chemical constituents. The manufacturing of complex-shaped parts is possible at rates of 6.75 cm3/h according to CAD data. The residual porosity is less than 5 vol.%. The bending strength is around 900 MPa and the artifact hardness is 490 HV30. To further improve the service life of tools, the processed parts are sintered again in a vacuum furnace at 1260 °C for 30 min. This enables to manufacture precision... 

Medical applications of rapid prototyping have an increasing trend, making the future of RP more and more promising. These applications may include design, development, and manufacture of medical devices and instrumentation, as well as implant design, anatomical modeling, surgical planning, surgical implants, and prosthesis fabrication. This paper provides a new methodology for customized hip prosthesis that could provide high accuracy of femoral canal reconstruction via 3D modeling of prosthesis stem, 3D modeling of prosthesis neck, and facilitating the communication between the designer and surgeon. Combining RP technologies and rapid tooling with this novel custom-made hip prosthesis,... 

The performance of cellular solids in biomedical applications relies strongly on a detailed understanding of the effects of pore topology on mechanical properties. This study aims at characterizing the failure mechanism of scaffolds based on nodal connectivity (number of struts that meet in joints) and geometry of the pores. Plastic models of scaffolds having the same relative density but different cubic and trigonal unit cells were designed and then fabricated via three dimensional (3-D) printing. Unit cells were repeated in different arrangements in 3-D space. An in-situ imaging technique was utilized to study the progressive deformation of the scaffold models. Different nodal... 

This paper presents a closed-loop laser cladding process used in nonplanar deposition of desired metallic materials. In the proposed system, the deposited layer geometry is continuously controlled via a sliding mode controller (SMC). The controller, which uses the scanning speed as the control input, is designed based on a parametric Hammerstein model. The model is a parametric dynamic model with several unknown parameters, which are identified experimentally using the recursive least squares method. The designed SMC is robust to all model parameters' uncertainties and disturbances. The results showed that the tracking accuracy improves and the chattering effect reduces if an integrator on... 

In this paper, an FPGA-based fault-tolerant back-to-back converter without redundancy is studied. Before fault occurrence, the fault-tolerant converter operates like a conventional back-to-back six-leg converter, and after the fault, it becomes a five-leg converter. Design, implementation, and experimental verification of an FPGA-based reconfigurable control strategy for this converter are discussed. This reconfigurable control strategy allows the continuous operation of the converter with minimum affection from a fault in one of the semiconductor switches. A very fast detection scheme is used to detect and locate the fault. Implementation of the fault detection and of the fully digital... 

Rapid prototyping is a promising technique for producing tissue engineering scaffolds due to its capacity to generate predetermined forms and structures featuring distinct pore architectures. The objective of this study is to investigate the influences of different pore geometries and their orientation with respect to the compressive loading direction on mechanical responses of scaffolds. Plastic models of scaffolds with cubic and hexagonal unit cells were fabricated by three-dimensional (3-D) printing. An in situ imaging technique was utilized to study the progressive compressive deformation of the scaffold models. In both cubic and hexagonal geometries, organized buckling patterns relevant... 

Cu-alloyed sintered steels are one of the main product groups in ferrous powder metallurgy (P/M). To expand the application of P/M technology to different sectors of industry and to create new market, it is believed that rapid prototyping and short serial production of sintered parts for functional testing is important. In the present work, rapid prototyping of sintered Fe-C-Cu steel powders by direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) process was studied. Fe, Fe-0.8%C, Fe-2%Cu, Fe-4%Cu, Fe-0.8%C-2%Cu-0.35%P powders were laser sintered in widely varying conditions. The densification and microstructural features of the sintered parts were evaluated. The results revealed that rapid prototyping of... 

In the present work, the densification and microstructural evolution during direct laser sintering of metal powders were studied. Various ferrous powders including Fe, Fe-C, Fe-Cu, Fe-C-Cu-P, 316L stainless steel, and M2 high-speed steel were used. The empirical sintering rate data was related to the energy input of the laser beam according to the first order kinetics equation to establish a simple sintering model. The equation calculates the densification of metal powders during direct laser sintering process as a function of operating parameters including laser power, scan rate, layer thickness and scan line spacing. It was found that when melting/solidification approach is the mechanism... 

In the present work, the role of graphite addition on the laser sintering of iron powder was studied. Powder mixtures containing iron and 0.4, 0.8, 1.2, and 1.6 wt.% graphite were prepared by blending elemental powders. These powders were sintered layer-by-layer under nitrogen atmosphere using a continuous wave CO2 laser beam. A laser power of 70-225 W, scan rate of 50-600 mm s-1, scan line spacing of 0.1-0.3 mm, and layer thickness of 0.1 mm was used. It was found that the processing parameters play a key role on the densification of the iron-graphite powder mixtures. The addition of graphite enhances the densification of the iron powder and improves the surface quality of the laser...