Sharif Digital Repository

In this paper, a novel multi-step method is proposed for solving the inverse point kinetics problem using Lagrange polynomial method. By use of this approach, the need for nuclear power history or the Laplace transform is vanished. Furthermore, the accuracy of the method is of order hn for the (n + 1)-point formula, where h is the computational time-step. The three- and five-point formulas of the Lagrange method are used for on-line reactivity calculations and results are benchmarked against reference solutions for different nuclear power forms. Moreover, results for different computational time-steps are compared in each case. The results show the accuracy of the proposed method in all... 

-In this paper, a new optimized structure for two-speed, capacitor-run, single-phase axial flux induction motor (AFIM) for direct-drive operation is presented. Although, there are many advantages for direct-drive systems, their axial forces between the stator and rotor increases with reduction in air-gap length and is of serious concern. An increase in the air-gap length will result in the deterioration of performance characteristics of the motor. In this paper, a new construction technique is proposed to fabricate an AFIM with adjustable air-gap length. After presenting a comprehensive design algorithm, all geometrical dimensions and electrical equivalent circuit parameters are analytically... 

In this paper, the fluid-structure interaction problem in mechanical systems in which a high frequency vibrating solid structure interacts with the surrounding fluid flow is considered. Such a situation normally appears in many microelectromechanical systems like a wide variety of microfluidic devices. A different implementation of the residual-based variational multiscale flow method is employed within the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian formulation. The combination of the variational multiscale method with appropriate stabilization parameters is used to handle the so-called small time step instability in the finite element analysis of the fluid part in the coupled fluid-structure interaction... 

The analysis of core composition changes is complicated by the fact that the time and spatial variation in isotopic composition depend on the neutron flux distribution and vice versa. Fortunately, changes in core composition occur relatively slowly and hence the burnup analysis can be performed by dividing the burnup period into some burnup spans and assuming that the averaged flux and cross sections are constant during each step. The burnup span sensitivity analysis attempts to find that how much the burnup spans could be increased without any significant deviation in results. This goal has been achieved by developing a new MCNP-ORIGEN linkage program named as MOBC (MCNP-ORIGEN Burnup... 

This paper presents a high performance real-time simulator for power electronic systems applications and primarily intended for controller hardware-in-the-loop (CHIL) testing. The novelty of the proposed simulator resides in the massively parallel hardware architecture that efficiently exploits fine-grained parallelism without imposing severe communication overhead time that can limit the performance. The simulator enables the use of a nanosecond range simulation timestep to simulate power electronic systems. Through the use of this nanosecond range simulation timestep, the simulator minimizes the error arising from the intersimulation timestep switching phenomenon associated with CHIL. The... 

In this paper, the so-called small time-step instability in finite element simulation of the fluid part is considered in fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problems in which a high-frequency vibrating structure interacts with an incompressible fluid. Such a situation is common in many microfluid manipulating devices. A treatment has been proposed that uses the dimensionless set of FSI governing equations in order to scale up the problem time step to a proper level that precludes the potential small time-step instability. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional finite element simulations of a mechanical micropumping device are performed to verify the efficiency of the presented approach. Solid... 

In the present paper, a fully coupled numerical model is developed for the hydromechanical analysis of deforming, progressively fracturing porous media interacting with the flow of two immiscible, compressible wetting and non-wetting pore fluids. The governing equations involving the coupled two-phase fluid flow and deformation processes in partially saturated porous media containing cohesive cracks are derived within the framework of the generalized Biot theory. The displacement of the solid phase, the pressure of the wetting phase and the capillary pressure are taken as the primary unknowns of the three-phase formulation. A softening cohesive law is employed to describe the nonlinear... 

Assessment of the macrocell corrosion which deteriorates reinforced concrete (RC) structures have attracted the attention of many researchers during recent years. In this type of rebar corrosion, the reduction in cross-section of the rebar is significantly accelerated due to the large ratio of the cathode's area to the anode's area. In order to examine the problem, an analytical solution is proposed for prediction of the response of the RC structure from the time of steel depassivation to the stage just prior to the onset of microcrack propagation. To this end, a circular cylindrical RC member under axisymmetric macrocell corrosion of the reinforcement is considered. Both cases of the... 

Red Blood Cells (RBCs) are the main cells in human blood, with a main role in the mechanical properties of blood as a fluid. Several methods have been improved to simulate the mechanical behavior of RBC in micro-capillaries. Since, in microscopic scales, using discrete models is more preferred than continuum methods, the Moving Particle Semi-Implicit method (MPS), which is a recent innovative particle based method, can simulate micro-fluidic flows based on NavierStokes equations. Although, by recent developments, the MPS method has turned into a considerable tool for modeling blood flow in micro meter dimensions, some problems, such as a commitment to use small time step sizes, still... 

In this paper, design and optimization of a ladder-type single-sided linear induction motor (Ladder SLIM) for machine tool applications is investigated. High-speed linear induction machines suffer from the end-effect phenomenon, which can reduce the thrust and result in declined output characteristics. Although it is common to consider this phenomenon in high-speed applications, it is essential to take it into account in the design and analysis of low-speed low-air-gap linear machines. In addition, Ladder SLIMs have significant flux density ripples, and using skewed bars for secondary of the machine is a common solution for it. Therefore, providing required equations, an algorithm for... 

This paper proposes a design solution for static eccentricity (SE) in axial flux resolvers (AFRs). There are two definitions for SE in AFRs. The first approach is based on the definition of SE in conventional radial flux resolvers, wherein the rotor axis does not coincide with the stator bore, but the rotor rotates around its own shaft. In other words, it is different in the angular inclination of the rotor and stator axis. Thus, the air gap of the motor is not uniform. In the second approach, which is more common in AFRs, when SE occurs, air-gap length remains uniform. Rotor axis remains parallel with the stator axis, although it does not coincide with the stator bore. This means that there... 

In this paper, a multi-scale molecular dynamics-finite element coupling is presented to study the mechanical behavior of heterogeneous nano-crystalline structures. The stiffness and mass matrices of the continuum sub-domain are generated by applying a linear transformation on the matrices obtained via the atomic structure underlying the FE mesh. A Lagrange multiplier method is employed to the transition zone imposing velocity resemblance of the coupling regions. The constraint equations of motion are solved by the multi-time-step decomposition thus giving the opportunity to ascribe different time steps to each individual zone. The molecular dynamics is performed by employing the... 

In this paper, application of the Endurance Time (ET) method in the performance-based design of steel moment frames is explained from a conceptual viewpoint. ET is a new dynamic pushover procedure that predicts the seismic performance of structures by subjecting them to a gradually intensifying dynamic action and monitoring their performance at various excitation levels. Structural responses at different excitation levels are obtained in a single time-history analysis, thus significantly reducing the computational demand. Results from three analyses are averaged to reduce the random scattering of the results at each time step. A target performance curve is presented based on the required... 

In this paper we highlight a remarkable difference between the step responses of a classical second-order transfer function and its fractional-order counterpart. It can be easily shown that the step response of a stable classical second-order transfer function crosses its final value infinitely over time. In contrast, it is illustrated here that the step responses of a fractional-order counterpart of the classical second-order model possess only a finite number of such crossovers. In other words, for such a system one can find a specific time instant after which the step response is over or under-convergent to its final value. This property interprets some phenomena observed in the... 

In this paper, design and prototyping of two-speed capacitor-run single-phase axial-flux induction motor (AFIM) for direct-drive applications is presented. The proposed structure has single stator-single rotor configuration with high magnetic pull between the stator and rotor, which may compel rotor to lock. Although the most efficient method to overcome this problem is using a second rotor or stator in the mirror with the first one, it is not applicable in low-cost applications. So, in this paper, two new and fast construction techniques are proposed to fabricate an AFIM with extra low air-gap length and minimum cost. Beside design and optimization process, a thermal equivalent circuit... 

Although modular linear flux-reversal permanent magnet motors are widely attractive for high reliability urban rail transit because of their advantages such as high power density, high reliability, low permanent magnet flux leakage problem, and improved fault-tolerant capability, they suffer from high thrust ripples. In this article the authors use a layer model for defining different optimization problems to improve thrust density, efficiency, and thrust ripples, independently and simultaneously. Design variables are chosen based on the sensitivity analysis of different objective functions relative to motor different geometrical parameters and some constraints are taken into account to... 

Radial flux variable reluctance resolvers (RFVR2s) are widely used in variety of applications. However, they suffer from an intrinsic error which is called static eccentricity (SE). Although most of the errors in the resolvers can be suppressed using electronic methods in resolver to digital (R/D) converters, static misalignment is an exception. In this paper an axial flux configuration is proposed for variable reluctance (VR) resolvers with concentric windings. Then the proposed structure is optimized to achieve the minimum sensitivity of accuracy against SE. The performance of the presented structure, so called axial flux variable reluctance resolver (AFVR2), is validated using 3-D time... 

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... 

Resolvers are electromagnetic position sensors that are widely used in industrial applications. In this study, a new axial flux brushless resolver (AFBR) with a wound rotor is introduced. In the proposed resolver, the core of the rotary transformer (RT) is omitted, and an innovative design is used to supply the excitation winding of the resolver. The proposed resolver can be built with smaller dimensions, and its thermal stability and mechanical strength are increased compared with conventional AFBRs. The performance of the proposed structure is simulated and optimized by using a 3-D time-stepping finite element method. The effect of the leakage flux of the rotary transformer on the... 

Modular linear doubly salient permanent magnet motors are well adapted to linear propulsion systems because of their distinct characteristics, such as high efficiency and power density, reduced maintenance and initial cost, low noise and permanent magnet (PM) leakage flux, and fault tolerance capability. However, such motors suffer from high cogging thrust. In this study, various techniques based on previously proposed methods for PM machines are applied on the studied motor and evaluated by using non-linear three-dimensional time-stepping finite element analysis; three novel, optimised techniques are then presented. The techniques presented are based on the minimisation of the variation in...