Sharif Digital Repository

Solid-state joining of powder-metallurgy processed (P/M) Al–2 vol% Al2O3 (15 nm) nanocomposite by friction stir welding (FSW) was studied. The nanocomposite was prepared via high-energy mechanical milling followed by hot consolidation processes. The microstructure, mechanical properties and fracture behavior of the welds were evaluated and compared with FSWed wrought 1050 aluminum sheets (WAS). We have found that unlike WAS that can processed at various FSW conditions, the working window for the solid-state joining of P/M nanocomposite is narrow and only feasible at relatively high heating inputs. Microstructural studies showed the formation of melted zones with high hardness at the... 

Semiconductor photoelectrodes for water oxidation that absorb visible light usually have poor electronic transport properties and small optical absorption coefficients near their absorption edge. Therefore, innovative designs that lead to significant optical absorption in relatively thin layers of these compounds are highly desirable. Here, using full-field electromagnetic optical simulations, we demonstrate that a monolayer of resonant-size BiVO4 spheres can provide enhancement up to a factor of two in solar light absorption relative to dense planar layers. In this monolayer, BiVO4 spheres do not need to be interconnected; therefore, such monolayers are flexible and their fabrication... 

A new computational algorithm is introduced in the present study to solve multimaterial topology optimization problems. It is based on the penalization of the objective functional by the multiphase volume constrained Ginzburg-Landau energy functional. The update procedure is based on the gradient flow of the objective functional by a fractional step projected steepest descent method. In the first step, the new design is found based on the projected steepest descent method to ensure the reduction in the objective functional, simultaneously satisfying the control constraints. In the second step, regularization step, an H1 regularity of the solution is ensured while keeping the feasibility of... 

In a nanoscopic thin film of a strong topological insulator (TI) the Coulomb interaction in the channel that exchanges the two electrons with the same chirality in two different planes of the slab takes advantage of the minus sign resulting from such "exchange" and gives rise to a bound state between the positive-energy states in one surface and the negative-energy states in the opposite surface. Therefore particle and hole pairs in the undoped Dirac cone of the TI thin film form an inter-surface spin-singlet state that lies below the continuum of free particle-hole pairs. This mode is similar to the excitons of semiconductors, albeit formed between the electron and hole pairs from two... 

A new method for the evaluation of separation quality in hyphenated chromatographic measurements based on the information-theoretic concept of mutual information (MI) is developed. The MI values for the purest spectra selected using the simple-to-use interactive self-modeling mixture analysis (SIMPLISMA) and orthogonal projection approach (OPA) methods are calculated according to the differential information entropy (Shannon entropy). To calculate the MI values for more than two variables, the Kozachenko-Leonenko (KL) estimation of the Shannon entropy is used. The MI values of the purest spectra can reliably reflect the degree of peak overlap in the chromatographic direction. Herein, the... 

Knowledge of process parameters during and after hot rolling is a significant requirement in order to produce a material with the desired microstructures and mechanical properties. In continuous hot rolling mills, different stages may exist, including water descaling, rolling stands, interstand sections, and run-out table. In each of these sections, various thermal and/or mechanical conditions are applied on the rolling metal that would affect material response in successive stages. In other words, an integrated model should be employed in hot rolling operations to evaluate metal behavior and microstructural events at the same time. Therefore, the thermal-mechanical response as well as... 

Power system operation from an operator's perspective. Power systems are operated with the primary objectives of safety, reliability, and efficiency. Practical Power System Operation is the first book to provide a comprehensive picture of power system operation for both professional engineers and students alike. The book systematically describes the operator's functions, the processes required to operate the system, and the enabling technology solutions deployed to facilitate the processes. In his book, Dr. Ebrahim Vaahedi, an expert practitioner in the field, presents a holistic review of: The current state and workings of power system operation; Problems encountered by operators and... 

In this paper, an effective way is proposed for reduction of oscillations in the response of dynamical systems. In this regard, it is analytically shown that the undesirable oscillations in the response of dynamical systems can be reduced using a simple input shaping fractional order filter. The effectiveness of the proposed fractional calculus based technique is numerically verified in reduction of oscillations in a mass-spring-damper system, a low-pass Chebyshev filter, and a PI-controlled two-mass drive system  

The main purpose of this article is to generalize a recent result about isometries of Lipschitz spaces. Botelho, Fleming and Jamison [2] described surjective linear isometries between vector-valued Lipschitz spaces under certain conditions. In this article, we extend the main result of [2] by removing the quasi-sub-reflexivity condition from Banach spaces  

An examination of the influence of rolling path change on the static recrystallization behavior of commercial purity aluminum was performed in the present work. Aluminum strips were cold rolled to a reduction of 50 % under various rolling sequences, i.e. single-pass, double-pass from one direction and with reverse directions, and were then annealed in 290 °C for different durations, while mechanical evaluations such as hardness and tensile tests were used to study the mechanical response of cold deformed and annealed samples. It was indicated that a variation in the recrystallization kinetics of the cold rolled aluminum strips takes place when the rolling path is altered from single to... 

We study diffusive heterogeneous predator-prey system with Holling type-II functional response in the presence of harvesting in prey equation i.e.{-δu=λu-a(x)u2-buv1+mu-ch(x)in Ω,-δv=μv-v2+duv1+muin Ω,∂νu=∂νv=0on ∂Ω, where Ω is a smooth bounded region in RN and a(x) is a nonnegative continuous function on Ω, with Ω0 a region such that Ω⊂Ω and a(x)>0 on Ω\u03a90. We show that in the case of weak prey growth rate, i.e. λ less than the first eigenvalue of -δ in Ω0, the system has a positive solution for the values of μ in a bounded interval and c>0 sufficiently small. We also investigate the multiplicity of positive solutions in this case. When the prey growth rate is strong, we will show that... 

Recently it has been shown that projected entangled-pair states can be considered as a (physically motivated) resource state for measurement-based quantum computation. Here we elaborate on how to construct a deterministic measurement-based quantum computation model on projected entangled-pair states. In particular, we use this scheme to build a four-level many-body model for universal quantum computation on qubits. We also derive a 3-local parent Hamiltonian for this model, whose ground state is nondegenerate  

A comparative investigation has been developed for the stability constants of several amino acid complexes with divalent metal ions, which have been determined by potentiometric pH titration. Depending on the metal ion-binding properties, vital differences in the building complexes were observed. The present study indicates that in some M(L) complexes, metal ions are arranged in carboxyl groups, but in other M(L)complexes, some metal ions are able to build chelate over amine groups. The results mentioned-above demonstrate that for some M(L) complexes, the stability constants are also largely determined by the affinity of metal ions for amine group. This leads to a kind of selectivity of... 

Increasing concerns about unbridled fossil fuel consumption and a growing generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) in Iran and related environmental challenges require adoption of more sustainable approaches in energy and waste management. Energy recovery from waste can play an important role to achieve environmentally sustainable development that has been defined for the country as a main policy. Iran’s growing urban population generates massive amounts of MSW that mostly end up in landfills. A population of 75 million is generating 50,000 tonnes of MSW every day that mostly are buried in landfills. Detrimental emissions from landfills and many other long-lasting environmental issues have... 

Operation of two different optical fiber sensor designs for distance measurements with a good sensitivity, resolution, and wide dynamic range is reported. Design is based on the intensity modulation due to reflectance measurement from a target surface. Two reported designs are fabricated with a triple-fiber assembly, in which one uses a double-transmitter, while another one uses a double-receiver fiber design. Reflection signals from different targets are tested with these sensors and results for the mirror and A4 paper surfaces are described. The response curve for both experiments starts from a near zero level, shows a maximum at a certain distance and gradually drops to the background... 

In the present work, an improved method is developed for preparing highly pure ultrathin barium titanate nanostructured films with desired structural and morphological characteristics. In contrast to other approaches, our method can be carried out at a relatively lower temperature to obtain barium titanate ultrathin films free from secondary phases, impurities, and cracks. To reach an in-depth understanding of scientific basis of the proposed process, and in order to disclose the mechanism of formation and growth of barium titanate ultrathin film, in-detail analysis is carried out using XRD, SEM, FE-SEM, and AFM techniques aided by theoretical calculations. The effects of calcining... 

Mixing in droplets is an essential task in a variety of microfluidic systems. Inspired by electrokinetic mixing, electric field-induced hydrodynamic flow inside a charged droplet embedded in an unbounded polyelectrolyte hydrogel is investigated theoretically. In this study, the polyelectrolyte hydrogel is modeled as a soft, and electrically charged porous solid saturated with a salted Newtonian fluid, and the droplet is considered an incompressible Newtonian fluid. The droplet-hydrogel interface is modeled as a surface, which is located at the plane of shear, with the electrostatic potential ζ. The fluid inside the droplet attains a finite velocity owing to hydrodynamic coupling with the... 

The aim of this paper is to provide a survey on the recently obtained results which are useful in time response analysis of fractional-order control systems. In this survey, at first some results on error signal analysis in fractional-order control systems are presented. Then, some previously obtained results which are helpful for system output analysis in fractional-order control systems are summarized. In addition, some results on the analysis of the control signal and the system response to the load disturbances in fractional-order control systems are reviewed  

Endurance Time (ET) method is a new dynamic procedure that has been recently developed for seismic safety evaluation of structures. This method is based on the comparison of seismic response of new-designed or existing structures under intensifying ET records with the pre-assigned damage index. Also this method can efficiently reproduce the seismic responses of the structures excited by scaled earthquakes that are required in time history analysis by the codes. In this paper, first general idea of this new method is described and then is applied to evaluate the seismic safety of a cylindrical steel storage tank under multidirectional excitations. It is shown that the ET method can predict... 

Inaccuracies in workpiece location lead to errors in position and orientation of machined features on the workpiece, and strongly affect the assemblability and the quality of the product. The accurate positioning of workpiece on a fixture is influenced by rigid body displacements and rotations of the workpiece due to several errors (e.g. geometric radial and position errors in locators and manufacturing tolerances of the workpiece). In this paper, an efficient approach is introduced for analysis and compensation errors in the workpiece-fixture-cutting tool system. A new mathematical formulation of workpiece-fixture modelling is proposed to establish the relationship between the locating...