Sharif Digital Repository

Estimation of distribution algorithms have evolved as a technique for estimating population distribution in evolutionary algorithms. They estimate the distribution of the candidate solutions and then sample the next generation from the estimated distribution. Bayesian optimization algorithm is an estimation of distribution algorithm, which uses a Bayesian network to estimate the distribution of candidate solutions and then generates the next generation by sampling from the constructed network. The experimental results show that the Bayesian optimization algorithms are capable of identifying correct linkage between the variables of optimization problems. Since the problem of finding the... 

The purpose of this paper is to present efficient and accurate analytical expressions for deflection of a shape memory polymer (SMP) beam employing Euler-Bernoulli beam theory in a thermomechanical SMP cycle. Material behavior is considered using a recently 3D thermodynamically consistent constitutive model available in literature. In different steps of an SMP thermomechanical cycle, closed form expressions for internal variables variations, stresses and beam curvature distribution are presented. We show that during the cooling process, stored strains evolve to fix the temporary shape and then during the heating process they relax to recover the permanent shape. Effects of applying external... 

This paper presents an improved firefly algorithm (FA) for fast optimization of truss structures with discrete variables. The enhanced accelerated firefly algorithm (AFA) is a simple, but very effective modification of FA. In order to investigate the performance and robustness of the proposed algorithm, some benchmark (structural optimization) problems are solved and the results are compared with FA and other algorithms. The results show that in some test cases, AFA not only finds lighter structures compared to other algorithms, but also converges faster. In the rest test cases, the optimal solutions are found with very less computational effort. The study also shows that the proposed AFA... 

This paper offers a systematic framework for the design of suboptimal integer-order controllers based on fractional-order structures. The proposed approach is built upon the integer-order approximations that are traditionally used to implement fractional-order controllers after they are designed. Accordingly, the fractional-order structures are exploited to derive a suitable parameterization for a fixed-structure integer-order controller. The parameters, which describe the structure of the fixed-order integer controller, are the same as those used to describe the original fractional structure. Optimal tuning is then performed in the parameter space of the fractional structure and the... 

In this research, the electromagnetic stirring (EMS) process was used to produce semi-solid slurry with globular structure from cast A356 aluminum alloy. Then the slurry was forged in a die, which named rheoforging process. Utilizing multidirectional forging (MDF), the effect of severe plastic deformation on microstructure and mechanical properties of this alloy in dendritic and globular states was investigated. Shear punch, micro- and macro-hardness tests were used to study the mechanical properties of these samples. For metallographic examinations, the optical microscope equipped with the Clemex ® image analyzer software was used. Optimum globular structure of rheoforged specimens was... 

A new di-manganese complex with "back-to-back" 1,4-bis(2,2′:6,2′′-terpyridin-4′-yl) benzene ligation has been synthesized and characterised by a variety of techniques. The back-to-back ligation presents a novel new mononuclear manganese catalytic centre that functions as a heterogeneous catalysis for the evolution of oxygen in the presence of an exogenous oxidant. We discuss the synthesis and spectroscopic characterizations of this complex and propose a mechanism for oxygen evolution activity of the compound in the presence of oxone. The di-manganese complex also shows efficient and selective catalytic oxidation of sulfides in the presence of H2O2. Density functional theory calculations were... 

A computational framework was developed to simulate the bone remodelling process as a structural topology optimisation problem. The mathematical formulation of the Level Set technique was extended and then implemented into a coronal plane model of the proximal femur to simulate the remodelling of internal structure and external geometry of bone into the optimal state. Results indicated that the proposed approach could reasonably mimic the major geometrical and material features of the natural bone. Simulation of the internal bone remodelling on the typical gross shape of the proximal femur, resulted in a density distribution pattern with good consistency with that of the natural bone. When... 

The objective of this work is making comparison between thermodynamic models and data-driven techniques accuracy in prediction of hydrate formation pressure as a function of temperature and composition of gas mixtures. The Peng-Robinson (PR) and Patel-Teja (PT) equations of state are used for thermodynamic modeling and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) are used as data-driven models. The capability of each method is evaluated by comparison with the experimental data collected from literature. It is shown that there is a good agreement between thermodynamic modeling and the experimental data in most of the cases; however, the prediction... 

In this paper, a practical method is developed for performance-based design of RC structures subjected to seismic excitations. More efficient design is obtained by redistributing material from strong to weak parts of a structure until a state of uniform deformation or damage prevails. By applying the design algorithm on 5, 10 and 15-storey RC frames, the efficiency of the proposed method is initially demonstrated for specific synthetic and real seismic excitations. The results indicate that, for similar structural weight, designed structures experience up to 30% less global damage compared with code-based design frames. The method is then developed to consider multiple performance objectives... 

Magnetorheological (MR) damper is a prominent semi-active control device to vibrate mitigation of structures. Due to the inherent non-linear nature of MR damper, an intelligent non-linear neuro-fuzzy control strategy is designed to control wave-induced vibration of an offshore steel jacket platform equipped with MR dampers. In the proposed control system, a dynamic-feedback neural network is adapted to model non-linear dynamic system, and the fuzzy logic controller is used to determine the control forces of MR dampers. By use of two feedforward neural networks required voltages and actual MR damper forces are obtained, in which the first neural network and the second one acts as the inverse... 

Split-field finite-difference time-domain (SF-FDTD) method can overcome the limitation of ordinary FDTD in analyzing periodic structures under oblique incidence. On the other hand, huge run times of 3D SF-FDTD, is practically a major burden in its usage for analysis and design of nanostructures, particularly when having dispersive media. Here, details of parallel implementation of 3D SF-FDTD method for dispersive media, combined with totalfield/ scattered-field (TF/SF) method for injecting oblique plane wave, are discussed. Graphics processing unit (GPU) has been used for this purpose, and very large speed up factors have been achieved. Also a previously reported formulation of SF-FDTD based... 

A novel solid phase microextraction (SPME) fiber was fabricated by electrospinning method in which a polymeric solution was converted to nanofibers using high voltages. A thin stainless steel wire was coated by the network of polymeric nanofibers. The polymeric nanofiber coating on the wire was mechanically stable due to the fine and continuous nanofibers formation around the wire with a three dimensional structure. Polyamide (nylon 6), due to its suitable characteristics was used to prepare the unbreakable SPME nanofiber. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of this new coating showed a diameter range of 100-200nm for polyamide nanofibers with a homogeneous and porous surface... 

This contribution focuses on the use of ladder particle swarm optimisation (LPSO) on modelling of oxadiazole- and triazolesubstituted naphthyridines as human immunodeficiency virus-1 integrase inhibitors. Artificial neural network (ANN) and Monte Carlo cross-validation techniques were combined with LPSO to develop a quantitative structure-activity relationship model. The techniques of LPSO, ANN and sample set partitioning based on joint x-y distances were applied as feature selection, mapping and model evaluation, respectively. The variables selected by LPSO were used as inputs of Bayesian regularisation ANN. The statistical parameters of correlation of deterministic, R2, and... 

This paper presents a centralized structure for optimum navigation of emergency vehicles with emphasis on ambulances in disaster situations. In this system, an enhanced fuzzy controlled ant colony system (FCACS) based search engine is proposed for optimum route selection. Performance of the system is evaluated by simulating it on a part on London, UK  

The vibration suppression of semi-actively controlled jacket-type offshore platforms using Magnetorheological (MR) dampers is studied. The main goal of using MR damper system is to reduce vibration caused by wave hydrodynamic forces. A fixed jacket-type offshore platform affected by wave-induced hydrodynamic forces and controlled by MR dampers is modelled as a semi-active controlled system with 30 DOFs. In comparison with earlier studies, an improvement in problem modelling is made. Based on the wave theory and Morison equation, an exosystem is designed to simulate regular wave forces. The necessary input voltage to MR dampers to generate desired damping force is derived by clipped optimal... 

Performance-based optimal seismic design of structures requires repetitive and massive dynamic analyses. In the Endurance Time (ET) method, structures are subjected to specially designed intensifying acceleration functions and their response at various excitation levels is estimated by each single response-history analysis, thus, significantly reducing the required computational demand. In this paper, the ET method is utilized to acquire optimal placement of viscous dampers in short steel frames with the target of obtaining the desirable performance in two hazard levels simultaneously. In the optimization procedure, the damping coefficients of the added dampers are treated as design... 

A practical optimization method is applied to design nonlinear truss-like structures subjected to seismic excitation. To achieve minimum weight design, inefficient material is gradually shifted from strong parts to weak parts of a structure until a state of uniform deformation prevails. By considering different truss structures, effects of seismic excitation, target ductility and buckling of the compression members on optimum topology are investigated. It is shown that the proposed method could lead to 60% less structural weight compared to optimization methods based on elastic behavior and equivalent static loads, and is efficient at controlling performance parameters under a design... 

Theoretical study of nitrogen monoxide adsorption on small Six (x = 3-5) clusters has been carried out using the advanced hybrid meta-density functional method of Truhlar (MPW1B95). MG3 semi-diffuse basis sets were employed to improve the results. The geometry, adsorption energy, natural bond orbital charge, natural population analysis (NPA)-derived spin density and vibrational frequency of NO adsorption on all optimized nanoclusters were investigated. Also using the NPA, we have investigated the change of bond orders through adsorption. It has been found that NO is capable of making n-centre bonds (n = 1-4) from the nitrogen side but bonds to one site from the oxygen end. In the later case... 

The problem of clustering with side information has received much recent attention and metric learning has been considered as a powerful approach to this problem. Until now, various metric learning methods have been proposed for semi-supervised clustering. Although some of the existing methods can use both positive (must-link) and negative (cannot-link) constraints, they are usually limited to learning a linear transformation (i.e., finding a global Mahalanobis metric). In this paper, we propose a framework for learning linear and non-linear transformations efficiently. We use both positive and negative constraints and also the intrinsic topological structure of data. We formulate our metric... 

It has been well documented that multivariate systems will benefit from application of advanced control strategies. The application of these methods has thus far been hindered for a variety of reasons which range from complexity of the design methodologies to the cost associated with implementation of these solutions. This paper shows that there exist alternative means by which existing control strategies of a multivariate system could be extended, thereby leading to increased efficiency, without the need to remove and implement a new control system installation. A realistic model of an entire pulping mill is used in this paper to show that by careful selection of only a few additional...