Sharif Digital Repository

Assessment of existing jacket type offshore platform against environmental wave loading hazard is the central component of this work. Two general approaches exist in this context, deterministic and probabilistic assessment. In this study, a new probabilistic method (reliability analysis) to assess offshore structures under environmental loading (extreme wave) is introduced. Before describing this approach, several necessary elements such as collapse analysis, sampling methods and wave hazard analysis should be investigated. First of all, deterministic assessment of SPD2 platform located in Persian Gulf, which is the case study considered in this dissertation, is conducted utilizing... 

Analyzing reliability of large cold-standby systems has been a complicated and time-consuming task, especially for systems with components having non-exponential time-to-failure distributions. In this research, an approximation model, which is based on the central limit theorem, is presented for the reliability analysis of binary cold-standby systems whit non-identical components. The proposed model can estimate the reliability of large cold-standby systems with binary-state components having arbitrary time-to-failure distributions in an efficient and easy way. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method are illustrated using several different types of distributions, such as... 

In recent decades, large economic losses and social impacts following earthquakes and hurricanes have revealed the need for improved design criteria intended to reduce consequences including economic impacts to an acceptable level along with life protection. So, it is tried to express the expected performance of structures as financial and social criteria. Any assessment on earthquake consequences requires estimations of structural responses to seismic excitations. Endurance Time (ET) method as a dynamic procedure requiring reasonably reduced computational effort compared to other common time-history based procedures, is used to estimate the response of the structure in all levels of hazard... 

The main concern of power system planners and operators is to serve electric energy services economically and in an acceptable reliability level. Nowadays, in developing integrated large-scale power networks, reliability evaluation becomes a very tough and time-consuming process. The complexity of this assessment is mainly because of the large number of components, their possible operating states, different faults that can happen, and environmental and other affecting parameters. In power systems, in order to address the complexity, reliability evaluation can be conducted in three different levels. The most complicated study among these three levels is HLII that is so-called composite... 

This research investigated the seismic performance of gravity dam in the reliability and sensitivity analysis framework under earthquake loading. The performance criteria were defined using crest displacement and tensile stress. The uncertainty due to the material properties of the dam was considered for the reliability approach, in addition to the different ground motion intensity levels for parametric analysis. The exceedance probability of the limit-state functions was computed for varying threshold values through Mean-Value Second-Moment, First-Order Reliability Method and improved Latin Hypercube sampling. Approximation methods were applied along with the sampling method for considering... 

Assessment of existing jacket type offshore platforms in Persian Gulf for life extension is of great importance in the field of offshore platforms in recent years. The main question to answer is whether an existing platform is safe enough to be used beyond the design life. Evaluation of existing jacket type offshore platforms under extreme environmental (wave) loading in Persian Gulf is a part of this major assessment. Two general approaches exist in this context, deterministic and probabilistic assessment. In this thesis, a new probabilistic method (reliability analysis) to assess offshore structures under environmental loading (extreme wave) is introduced. This method is a... 

Considering connections as ideally rigid or pinned is a common assumption during design and analysis of steel moment frames. However, in real world, steel connections show a non-linear behavior between these two ideal states. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of partially restrained connections on the design and performance of two-dimensional steel moment frames under vertical and horizontal loads that are applied statically. For this aim, nonlinear finite element modeling is used in probabilistic evaluation process to assess the performance of existing structures. To capture the real behavior of structure in models, geometric and material sources of nonlinearity are... 

This study investigates the reliability analysis of mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) wall and takes into account the uncertainty associated in the mechanical properties of soil and geogrid, the magnetude of surcharge load and the soil-geosynthetic interface friction angle. In addition, the effect of number, length and place of the geogrid layers on the performance of this wall has been evaluated. The failure modes related to external stability, internal stability and horizontal displacement of the wall were considerd. In order to determine the probabilistic characteristics and the probability distribution function of soil and soil-geosynthetic interface friction angle, direct shear test... 

Fillet welds are widely used in steel construction due to their high strength and economy. In the joints used in construction, eccentricity loads in complex weld stress. The current research involves 72 bending specimens and 16 torsion specimens being modeled to study different design code relationships regarding the plastic properties of welds. In line with an even comprehensive study, the previous experimental programs in this field have been added to the modeling results.Reliability analysis has been applied to examine code relationships more precisely. The analysis involved examination of various uncertainties which showed that applying elastic methods proves more conservative than other... 

Reliability modeling, analysis and computation of a Thrust Vector Control System (TVC) is investigated. In this respect, first the TVC subsystems including the jet vanes (JVs), sensors and actuators,... are identified and their pertinent Reliability Block Diagram (RBD) is depicted. Subsequently static reliability of a jet vane is calculated considering both structural and thermal loadings via related verified limit state functions. In addition, a sensitivity analysis is performed that identifies the key JVs design parameters from a reliability point of view. Next, knowing the structural and thermal reliability of the JVs, static reliability of the total TVC system is computed via utility of... 

More than half a century has passed since the start of research on seismic liquefaction phenomenon in cohesionless soils, and various researchers has proposed different correlations for liquefaction prediction based on in situ tests. However, there still exists a great uncertainty in liquefaction prediction correlations, and liquefaction still occurs in different parts of the world. Hence, the main objective of this research is to reduce uncertainty in seismic liquefaction initiation correlations. While the technical literature indicates that soil resistance can alter due to liquefaction and shaking events and soil resistance after the liquefaction is not necessarily indicative of it prior... 

In this study, a framework for reliability analysis of offshore wind turbine structures has been presented. The rapid development of these structures in the world due to the increasing need for electrical energy and limited sources of fossil fuels has increased the importance of research on the behavior and condition of these structures. For Iran, despite its fossil fuels resources due to its international voluntary commitments to reduce greenhouse gases such as Paris agreement, the use of renewable energy such as offshore wind energy is important. Also, the offshore wind turbine structure is affected by different forces and environmental conditions in its life cycle, which are associated... 

Nowadays, construction with earthen materials has become more widespread due to their advantages: low construction cost, low embodied energy, application of green materials, and recyclability. Rammed earth (RE) as a sustainable construction has been used worldwide for decades. They are built in many countries such as Australia, China, India, and many parts of Africa and Europe. The rammed earth materials are cheap, accessible, and green and provide good thermal buffering. Stabilizers such as cement and lime with high embodied energy are frequently used in rammed earth construction to enhance materials' mechanical properties and durability. Stabilizers in RE materials could affect the energy... 

Material durability is quite critical in corrosive environments. In this study, two hundred and seventy geopolymer concrete specimens with different mix designs were prepared and then wrapped with two different fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) materials. For 12960 hrs (eighteen months), the specimens were exposed to four different pHs (2.5, 7, 7.25, 12.5). The reliability and SEM analysis were performed after modeling the compressive strength over time. Based on the results, the reduction of the compressive strength was up to 22% in an acidic environment. The compressive strength of the specimens was increased up to 11 percent after alkaline solution exposure. The ductility of all specimens... 

In this research, a Reusable Flexible Launch Vehicle (RFLV) design problem is presented by Multi-Disciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) approach in primary design phase. Trajectory, structure, aerodynamic, aeroelasticity and thermal protection system are considered as involved disciplines in design problem. The study purpose will be to obtain an optimal trajectory which meets all the control and structure limitation while the estimating body skin and thermal protection thicknesses base on structural evaluating in re-entry trajectory is in process. The flexible launch vehicle body is considered as a free-free Bernoulli-Euler beam and D’alembert’s principle addresses inertia force in static... 

Solid-State Drives (SSDs) provide high performance, low power consumption, and hence are widely used in the I/O cache of enterprise storage systems and high performance servers. Although employing high performance SSDs in the I/O cache of storage systems significantly improves system performance, it comes with significant reliability threats for write operations upon power failures. In order to provide high level of reliability, storage architectures employ SSDs in I/O cache with RAID-1 configuration, however, such configuration only partially mitigates the reliability issues of the SSDs. In this thesis, we analyze the reliability of SSD-based I/O caches against power outage and high...