Sharif Digital Repository

The Real Option Theory (ROT) offers a modern methodology for the valuation of an investment project because it considers the value of managerial flexibility facing project uncertainties. The present work seeks to study the Expand and Swich options value for a polymer plant investment project. Perhaps the most critical step of ROT is the estimation of the project volatility. This work also makes an effort to estimate the project volatility in different cases considering different possibilities of modeling the uncertain variables. The main uncertain variables that can positively affect the project value are the price of the raw material, the price of the product and the demand growth of the... 

In this paper, the general research of impedance control is addressed for a robotic manipulator with a moving flexible base. Impedance control imposes a relation between force and displacement at the contact point with the environment. The concept of impedance control of flexible base moving manipulators (FBMM) is rather new and is being considered. The dynamic of manipulator is decomposed into slow and fast dynamics using singular perturbation method. New sliding mode impedance control method (SMIC), using an element on the end effector is proposed for high precision impedance control of FBMM. The sliding mode impedance control method as a robust impedance control law is derived for the... 

Integrated design includes CAD, process planning and CNC code generation based on an integrated data structure. To enable different CAD/CAM software solutions to be interoperable, it is required to support data exchange in manufacturing enterprises. To realize interoperability there are two basic approaches: i. to focus on STEP standard to support data exchange between CAD systems as well as CAPP/CAM and CNC machining systems; the use of STEP standard ensures the data integration based on STEP standard. ii. utilizing a platform consists of structures and procedures to enable exchange of data between different CAD/CAM/CAPP software applications seamlessly. In this article, the important... 

Control of two-arm flexible robot is studied in this research. The goal is to control the robot in order to carry a fluid tank installed in the top of the last arm, while the vibration of fluid must be damped. The equations governing the system are extracted by the energy method while Euler-Bernoulli beam is selected to model the elastic members. In order to develop the equations, all of the potential and kinematic energies due to rigid and elastic motions are calculated, then a proper controller is designed for the system to accomplish the considered missions. Since the system is classified as an under-actuated system, the exact feedback linearization method is not practical to control the... 

Preservation and survival of ecological systems by vegetation is important. A study focusing on the hydrodynamics of these complex ecosystems could help to explain the filtering ability of vegetation in wetlands and estuaries. Wetlands assist in flood control, shoreline protection, and groundwater recharge. In addition, they play a purification role in removing sediments and contaminants from polluted waters, nutrient uptake, and oxygen production.
Laboratory experiments have been designed to study the influence of marsh vegetation on lateral dispersion in flexible vegetation that has been modelled with inclined cylinder. The flow through vegetation is modelled by a circulating flow... 

Nowadays, small and big businesses do their best to automate their business process by using a workflow management system. Therefore, these systems play a key role in IT. By expansion of the business and ever-changing rules and procedures of organization, the need for consecutive changes to workflow management systems arises. The most challenging part of this change is the state of running instances. Previous solutions put the challenges of migrating instances, dealing with their inconsistencies and runtime errors on the users. It is worth noting that there are a few tools which consider instance migrations, but most of them lack a comprehensive viewpoint. Related solutions are often based... 

In the Pay-TV industry, it is necessary to limit access of unauthorized users. Conditional Access System (CAS) is the solution. In the Pay-TV, the ability of instant join and leave operation is desirable for users. On the other hand, this characteristic is in contradiction with growth of user number.
Previous proposed conditional access systems address the requirement of pay-TV from several aspects. Key distribution management is on of them which plays a key role in the security and efficiency of a conditional access system. Re-examining the process of key distribution management make it possible to find a way to provide a greater flexibility for the users.
The purpose of this... 

This study aimed to develop a green network design for a multi-echelon multi-product supply chain with a focus on bottleneck points as the means of enhancing unutilized capacities to maintain the optimal levels of flexibility. Two different models were developed to compare different approaches of flexible capacity planning by minimizing the total cost of facility establishment as well as their utilization and transportation cost. The proposed mixed-integer linear programming model was characterized by its novelty in taking bottleneck points into account to build a platform for flexible capacity planning required for responding to uncertainties such as fluctuations in demand and new product... 

Cogeneration technologies such as Combined Heat and Power (CHP) have promising features for providing the electrical energy that various industries require while reducing the emissions and other environmental impacts of these industries. Investments in CHP systems require substantial implementation costs followed by a relatively long period of recovering the invested capital through savings in utilities bills. Appropriate timing of CHP system investments can reduce capital expenses and enhance returns on investments. An appropriate investment valuation method is needed to identify the appropriate time to implement a given CHP system and to find the values of properly scheduled investments.... 

Cloud Manufacturing is a new paradigm which under development and has been introduced as one of the promising models for providing ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable manufacturing resources (e.g, networks, servers, facilities, applications, robots, machines and services) that can be rapidly provisioned with minimal management effort and service provider’s interaction. Cloud Manufacturing is defined based on Cloud Computing. Like the Cloud Computing, Cloud Manufaturing offers a service-oriented architecture that is based on information technology (IT) in which each manufacturing resources is expressed as a service. For providing a... 

In this research, room-temperature flexible humidity sensors using graphene oxide (GO) and partially reduced grapheme oxide (PRGO) are reported. Sensing layer was deposited onto Kapton substrate by spin coating method. Topography of the sensing layer was observed by Optical Microscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Partial reduction of the GO was confirmed by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) data. Humidity sensing properties of the samples that were annealed in different temperatures in the range of 125-200 were measured at room temperature. The sample which was reduced at 125 presented higher response about 106% and shorter recovery time of about 65 s.... 

One of the challenges which increasing penetration of renewable energy sources with variable generation brings is the need for more flexibility in the power system. A promising way to overcome the challenge is to have local sources of the flexibility in distribution level. To this end, we present a new model for multi-stage distribution system expansion planning which jointly considers expanding the network assets and increasing the flexibility at local level by installing conventional dispatchable distributed generator units and energy storage systems. Demand response is also considered as another source of the flexibility which can be utilized by the system operator. Since deviating from... 

In the first part of this research, for the first time, we introduced a flexible high performance graphene-based supercapacitor using silver fiber fabric as the current collector. The silver fiber fabric offers remarkable advantages such as light weight, mechanical flexibility and ease of integration with electronic textiles, which well-suited for wearable energy storage devices. A new hybrid material of graphene-silver fiber fabric (rGO/SFF) was prepared through a facile electrophoretic deposition of graphene and being used as a binder-free flexible supercapacitor electrode. In order to obtain the optimum condition, the effect of deposition time was investigated and a duration time of 10... 

In this study, the behavior of a new innovative bracing system under cyclic loading and according to AISC code is investigated. An Ideal bracing system, in addition to having sufficient stiffness, should have a suitable ductility. Also, in order to prevent inelastic behavior of other structural members, braces, in addition to possessing high architectural adaptivity, must be able to contain the damage within itself and behave like a fuse. Three specimens with different sections, IPE100, HEA100 and 2UNP100, were designed and tested. The results of these tests represent an elastic- (approximately) perfectly plastic behavior of the brace if an appropriate section is used. Moreover, this bracing... 

Natural gas liquefaction is an enabling technology which could make natural gas resources globally accessible. Nonetheless, the design and operation of LNG processes is highly complex, and is subject to multiple criteria including energetic, environmental and safety performance. Moreover, such processes must be flexible enough to operate under different feed conditions. The present research applies integrated process and product design framework to enhance simultaneously energy efficiency, environmental benignness, and inherent safety of a small-scale LNG process. The challenge is that the current group contribution methods applied for the estimation of the thermophysical properties, suffer... 

In recent decades, attention to renewable energy sources has been increased, and these resources will be an integral part of power systems in the future. Meeting the equilibrium point between power consumption and power generation at the power grid is of paramount importance. However, the equilibrium point is not solely dependent on the decisions of consumers and generation units and is influenced by other parameters as well. In this regard, penetration of renewable energies into the power system can affect this equilibrium point. These sources have random behavior, which will determine the future structure of the electricity grid. These sources can also change the shape of the network net... 

In this study, two conventional methods for controlling flexible two-link robots based on artificial neural networks is improved. The first method is implemented by combining fuzzy logic and reinforcement learning in the form of a neural network. This method is modified in two steps. In the first step, the system feedback is changed and in the second step, the system Jacobin is used. This Jacobin can be the result of system identification. In the second method, an optimal controller is proposed for the system, which is also implemented in the form of a neural network. The performance of the neural-optimal controller is further improved by redefining the Bellman's principle of optimality.... 

With the development of fractional order calculus and more accurately modeling of physical phenomena, the problem of controlling these systems, by considering the uncertainties in the system, will become necessary and inevitable. In this thesis, the fractional order transfer function model of a satellite with Coupled rigid-flexible structures is used as the reference work of the research. To control this dynamical system, sliding mode control method, which is one of the robust control methods, has been used. It is clear that it is not possible to directly design a sliding mode controller for a transfer function. For this reason, a fractional order pseudo-state space model is first obtained... 

Severe plastic deformation (SPD) processes, in addition to increasing the strength of alloys, reduce their ductility. Aluminum alloy 2024 in the initial annealing state (420°C, 150 minutes) is failed after 5 passes if subjected to the multi-directional forging (MDF) process at room temperature. Therefore, in this project, with initial effective strains of 1 and 2, intermediate annealing was used at temperatures of 150°C, 250°C and 350°C (20 minutes) between process passes. This not only maintains the major strength created in this alloy after the initial passes but also provides the capability of applying more passes in this process. After each step, the microstructural examination was... 

The main focus of this project is the fabrication of surface engineering scaffolds based on polyurethane and titanium dioxide. The research's aim is the creation of the synergistic properties of TiO2 and PU as a new strategy for engineering artificial autologous blood vessels. In the first section, PU-TiO2 nanocomposites were synthesized by co-insitu synthesis of nanoparticles and polymer. The nanocomposite films were prepared by solvent casting and thermally induced phase separation methods. Mechanical and biological properties of films were compared with pure PU film. In solvent casting method, the outcomes revealed that the rate of endothelialization of the nanocomposite scaffold after 7...