Sharif Digital Repository

This paper presents an approach to the assignment of a confidence interval to the mean of a stream of autocorrelated output data from a steady-state simulation run. Based on the principal-components analysis method, the approach is to derive a linear transformation of the data that yields approximate independence of the transformed data. To aid convergence to normality (on which the confidence interval is based) and to keep the dimension of the transformation reasonable, the original output data are batched prior to performing the transformation. The approach is fairly simple to understand and to implement, and experimental results indicate that it may perform better than the non-overlapping... 

The gravity currents on the inclined boundaries are formed when the inflow fluid has a density difference with the ambient fluid and a tangential component of gravity becomes the driving force. If the density difference arises from the suspension of particles, the currents are known as particle-driven density currents, in which the local density of the gravity current depends on the concentration of particles. A low Reynolds k-ε turbulence model is used to simulate three dimensional turbidity currents. Also a laboratory apparatus was built to study the 3D flow resulting from the release of particle laden density currents on a sloping surface in a channel of freshwater via a sluice gate and... 

In this paper, a new non-linear D/A converter (DAC) is presented. This D/A converter uses neural network to approximate a sine function. It is targeted for direct digital frequency synthesizers in which the phase to sine amplitude conversion is usually performed using a ROM. Utilizing the proposed DAC, the power hungry ROM is removed. A design example is presented and the performance of the DAC is compared to the conventional method. The impact of non-idealities on the performance of the system is also investigated. © 2006 IEEE  

Embedding metrics into constant-dimensional geometric spaces, such as the Euclidean plane, is relatively poorly understood. Motivated by applications in visualization, ad-hoc networks, and molecular reconstruction, we consider the natural problem of embedding shortest-path metrics of unweighted planar graphs (planar graph metrics) into the Euclidean plane. It is known that, in the special case of shortest-path metrics of trees, embedding into the plane requires Θ(√n) distortion in the worst case [19, 1], and surprisingly, this worst-case upper bound provides the best known approximation algorithm for minimizing distortion. We answer an open question posed in this work and highlighted by... 

A Legendre polynomial expansion of electromagnetic fields for analysis of layers with an inhomogeneous refractive index profile is reported. The solution of Maxwell's equations subject to boundary conditions is sought in a complete space spanned by Legendre polynomials. Also, the permittivity profile is interpolated by polynomials. Different cases including computation of reflection-transmission coefficients of inhomogeneous layers, band-structure extraction of one-dimensional photonic crystals whose unit-cell refractive index profiles are inhomogeneous, and inhomogeneous planar waveguide analysis are investigated. The presented approach can be used to obtain the transfer matrix of an... 

In this paper, the extended finite element method (X-FEM) is developed for modeling of frictional contact problems. In order to model the frictional contact behavior within the standard finite element framework, the special functions are included in standard FE method to simulate discontinuity without considering the boundary conditions in meshing the domain. The classical finite element approximation is therefore enriched by applying additional terms to simulate the frictional behavior of contact between two bodies. These terms, which are included for enrichment of nodal displacements, depend on the contact condition between two surfaces. The partition of unity method is applied to... 

In this paper, a mathematical model has been developed to determine temperature distribution on the run-out table. The variational formulation and the finite element method have been employed to solve the governing conduction-convection equation. In order to avoid numerical instabilities due to the convection term, the heat transfer equation is first transformed to the standard form and then Raylieght-Ritz approximation technique and the finite element method have been utilized to solve the equation. To include the effect of phase transformation during cooling of steel, a second-order rate equation for describing austenite decomposition kinetics is coupled with the heat transfer model. A... 

In this paper, optimal production and maintenance planning of a flexible manufacturing system under a time variant demand is considered. There is a preventive maintenance plan to reduce the failure rate of the machine. It is assumed that the failure rate of the machine is a function of its age and its maintenance rate. It is, also, assumed that the demand of the manufacturing product is time dependent and its rate depends on the level of the advertisement on that product, The objective is to maximize the expected discounted total profit of the firm over an infinite time horizon. To solve this optimization problem, first, an optimal control is characterized by a set of Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman... 

Using tight binding band picture for 2D graphite, and the Hubbard interaction, recently we obtained a gapless, neutral spin-1 collective mode branch in graphite [Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 016402], In this paper we present a detailed RPA analysis of the Neutron Scattering cross section for this collective mode. Near K-point and very close to Γ-point, the intensity of neutron scattering peaks vanishes as q3. This is shown using a simple Dirac cone model for the graphite band structure, which captures the small-q behavior of the system. As we move away from the Γ- and Κ-points in the Brillouin zone of the collective mode momenta, we can identify our collective mode quanta with spin triplet excitons... 

In this paper, a parallel algorithm for computing the roots of a given polynomial of degree n on a ring of processors is proposed. The algorithm implements Durand-Kerner's method and consists of two phases: initialization, and iteration. In the initialization phase all the necessary preparation steps are realized to start the parallel computation. It includes register initialization and initial approximation of roots requiring 3n-2 communications, 2 exponentiation, one multiplications, 6 divisions, and 4n-3 additions. In the iteration phase, these initial approximated roots are corrected repeatedly and converge to their accurate values. The iteration phase is composed of some iteration... 

This paper discusses the effects of substrate motions on the performance of a microgyroscope modeled as a ring structure. Using Extended Hamilton's Principle, the equations of motion are derived. The natural frequency equation and response of gyroscope are then extracted in closed-form for the case where substrate undergoes normal rotation. The Galerkin approximation is used for discretizing the partial differential equations of motion into ordinary differential equations. In these equations, the effects of angular accelerations, centripetal and coriolis accelerations are well apparent. The response of the system to different inputs is studied and the system sensitivity to input parameter... 

Atomic force microscopes (AFM) can image and manipulate sample properties at the atomic scale. The non-contact mode of AFM offers unique advantages over other contemporary scanning probe techniques, especially when utilized for reliable measurements of soft samples (e.g., biological species). The distance between cantilever tip and sample surface is a time varying parameter even for a fixed sample height, and hence, difficult to identify. A remedy to this problem is to directly identify the sample height in order to generate high precision, atomic-resolution images. For this, the microcantilever is modeled by a single mode approximation and the interaction between the sample and cantilever... 

The vibration of a simply supported beam with rotary springs at either ends is studied. The governing equations of motion are investigated considering the nonlinear effect of stretching. These equations are made non-dimensional and then solved to first order approximation using the two methods of the multiple scales and the mode summation. The first five natural frequencies of the beam for few pairs of the boundary condition parameters are evaluated. A multilayer feed-forward back-propagation artificial neural network is trained using these natural frequencies. The artificial neural network used in this study shows high degree of accuracy for the natural frequency of the beam with general... 

The numerical errors associated with explicit upstream finite difference solutions of two-dimensional advection - Dispersion equation with linear sorption are formulated from a Taylor analysis. The error expressions are based on a general form of the corresponding difference equation. The numerical truncation errors are defined using Peclet and Courant numbers in the X and Y direction, a sink/source dimensionless number and new Peclet and Courant numbers in the XY plane. The effects of these truncation errors on the explicit solution of a two-dimensional advection-dispersion equation with a first-order reaction or degradation are demonstrated by comparison with an analytical solution in... 

The six-fold rotational symmetry of photonic crystal fibers has important manifestations in the radiated fields in terms of i) a focusing phenomena at a finite distance from the end-facet and ii) the formation of low-intensity satellite peaks in the asymptotic far field. For our study, we employ a surface equivalence principle which allows us to rigorously calculate radiated fields starting from fully-vectorial simulations of the near field. Our simulations show that the focusing is maximal at a characteristic distance from the end-facet. For large-mode area fibers the typical distance is of the order 10 x A with A being the pitch of the triangular air-hole lattice of the photonic crystal... 

In this work the Ghotbi-Vera mean spherical approximation (GV-MSA) model, coupled with two different expressions for the cation-hydrated diameters, was used in predicting the mean ionic activity coefficients (MIAC) of electrolytes for a number of the mixed-solvent and mixed-salt electrolyte solutions at 25 °C. In all cases the cation diameters in solutions changed with concentration of electrolyte while the anion diameters were considered to be constant and equal to the corresponding Pauling diameters. In application of the GV-MSA model to the electrolyte systems, two different expressions were used for concentration dependency of cation-hydrated diameters, i.e., the GV-MSA1 and GV-MSA2... 

Proportional and integral (PI) control parameters are determined by approximating a dynamic matrix control (DMC). Since accuracy of the approximation depends on DMC parameters in a complicated manner, a combination of direct and indirect optimization methods are employed in this paper. Quadratic programming (QP) is used to determine PI parameters, and a simple grid method is used to find optimal DMC parameters. A tuning formula for the PI controller based on a curve-fitting technique, is suggested. Computer simulations are performed to compare performance of the new PI design method with those achievable using some existing PI controllers. © 2005, Sage Publications. All rights reserved  

This paper discusses the effects of substrate motions on the performance of microgyroscopes modeled as suspended beams with a tip mass. The substrate movements can be motions along as well as rotations around the three axes. Using Extended Hamiltonian Principle and Galerkin approximation, the equations of the motion of the beam are analytically derived. In these equations, the effects of beam distributed mass, tip mass, angular accelerations, centripetal and coriolis accelerations are clearly apparent. The effect of electrostatic forces inducing the excitation vibrations are considered as linear functions of beam displacement. The response of the system to different inputs is studied and the... 

The atomic force microscope (AFM) system has evolved into a useful tool for direct measurements of intermolecular forces with atomic-resolution characterization that can be employed in a broad spectrum of applications. In this paper, the nonlinear dynamical behavior of the AFM is studied. This is achieved by modeling the microcantilever as a single mode approximation (lumped-parameters model) and considering the interaction between the sample and cantilever in the form of van der Waals potential. The resultant nonlinear system is then analyzed using Melnikov method, which predicts the regions in which only periodic and quasi-periodic motions exist, and also predicts the regions that chaotic... 

In this paper, an explicit finite element based numerical procedure is presented for simulating three-dimensional inviscid compressible flow problems. The implementation of the first-order upwind method and a higher-order artificial dissipation technique on unstructured grids, using tetrahedral elements, is described. Both schemes use a multi-stage Runge-Kutta time-stepping method for time integration. The use of an edge-based data structure in the finite element formulation and its computational merits are also elaborated. Furthermore, the performance of the two schemes in solving a benchmark problem involving transonic flow about an ONERA M6 wing is compared and detailed solutions are...