Sharif Digital Repository

Titanium matrix composites (TMCs) have wide application prospects in the field of aerospace, automobile and other industries because of their good properties, such as high specific strength, good ductility, and excellent fatigue properties. However, in order to improve their fatigue strength and life, crack initiation and growth at the surface layers must be suppressed using surface treatments. Shot peening (SP) is an effective surface mechanical treatment method widely used in industry which can improve the mechanical properties of a surface. However, artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been used as an efficient approach to predict and optimize the science and engineering problems. In... 

The burning of fossil fuels such as gasoline, coal, oil, natural gas in combustion reactions results in the production of carbon dioxide. The phase behavior of the carbon dioxide + water system is complex topic. Unlike methane, CO2 exhibits a minimum in the water content. These minima cannot be predicted by existing methods accurately. In this communication, two mathematical-based procedures have been proposed for accurate computation of CO2 water content for tempe-ratures between 273.15 and 348.15 K and the pressure range between 0.5 and 21 MPa. The first is based on least squares support vector machine (LSSVM) algorithm and the second applies multilayer perceptron (MLP) artificial neural... 

Permeability as a fundamental reservoir property plays a key role in reserve estimation, numerical reservoir simulation, reservoir engineering calculations, drilling planning, and mapping reservoir quality. In heterogeneous reservoir, due to complexity, natural heterogeneity, non-uniformity, and non-linearity in parameters, prediction of permeability is not straightforward. To ease this problem, a novel mathematical robust model has been proposed to predict the permeability in heterogeneous carbonate reservoirs. To this end, a fairly new soft computing method, namely least square support vector machine (LSSVM) modeling optimized with coupled simulated annealing (CSA) optimization technique... 

Hardened nickel coating is widely used in many industrial applications and manufacturing processes because of its benefits in improving the corrosion fatigue life. It is clear that increasing the coating thickness provides good protection against corrosion. However, it reduces the fatigue life. Thus, applying a thin layer of coated nickel might give an acceptable corrosion protection with minimum loss of the fatigue life. In the present study, the effects of hardened nickel coating with different thicknesses on the fatigue behavior of CK45 mild steel were experimentally investigated. After conducting the experimental tests, we carried out two different modeling approaches of finite element... 

The primary objective of this research is to obtain an accurate forecasting model for the US presidential election. To identify a reliable model, artificial neural networks (ANN) and support vector regression (SVR) models are compared based on some specified performance measures. Moreover, six independent variables such as GDP, unemployment rate, the president’s approval rate, and others are considered in a stepwise regression to identify significant variables. The president’s approval rate is identified as the most significant variable, based on which eight other variables are identified and considered in the model development. Preprocessing methods are applied to prepare the data for the... 

In this study, the semi-clathrate hydrate dissociation pressure for the CO2+N2, CO2+H2, CO2+CH4, and pure CO2 systems in the presence of different concentrations of TBAB aqueous solutions is predicted using a strong machine learning technique of multi-layer perceptron neural network (MLP-NN). The developed model, with an overall correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.9961 and mean square error (MSE) of 5.96E−02, presented an excellent accuracy in prognosticating experimental data. A complete statistical evaluation performed to promise the strength and generality of the multi-layer perceptron artificial neural network (MLP-ANN). In addition, the applicability of the proposed network and quality of... 

The primary objective of this research is to obtain an accurate forecasting model for the US presidential election. To identify a reliable model, artificial neural networks (ANN) and support vector regression (SVR) models are compared based on some specified performance measures. Moreover, six independent variables such as GDP, unemployment rate, the president’s approval rate, and others are considered in a stepwise regression to identify significant variables. The president’s approval rate is identified as the most significant variable, based on which eight other variables are identified and considered in the model development. Preprocessing methods are applied to prepare the data for the... 

An efficient, novel functionalized supported magnetic nanoparticle (AC@Fe3O4-NH2-COOH) has been synthesized by co-precipitation method for removal of mercury ions from saline solutions. High dispersed supported magnetic nanoparticles with particle sizes less than 30 nm were formed over activated carbon derived from local walnut shell. Surface characterizations of supported magnetic nanoparticles were evaluated by Boehm test, Brunauer- Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). A three-layer artificial neural network (ANN) code... 

Ground improvement techniques are inevitable for weak soils that cannot endure the design load imposed by superstructures. Deep mixing technique (DMT) as one of these methods is promising and effective when a deep soil layer with low bearing capacity is encountered. Such deposits are quite common in the South-west of Iran where the studied site is located. In order to validate the influence of DMT on the enhancement of strength, both in-situ and laboratory tests were conducted. Afterwards, a parametric study was carried out to investigate the influence of key factors including cement content, water–cement ratio, curing time and plasticity index (PI) on the performance of DMT. In summary, a... 

Ground improvement techniques are inevitable for weak soils that cannot endure the design load imposed by superstructures. Deep mixing technique (DMT) as one of these methods is promising and effective when a deep soil layer with low bearing capacity is encountered. Such deposits are quite common in the South-west of Iran where the studied site is located. In order to validate the influence of DMT on the enhancement of strength, both in-situ and laboratory tests were conducted. Afterwards, a parametric study was carried out to investigate the influence of key factors including cement content, water–cement ratio, curing time and plasticity index (PI) on the performance of DMT. In summary, a... 

Abstract: Shot peening is well-known process for mechanical properties integrity in metallic materials. In present study influences of different shot peening treatments on the surface hardness of different carbon steels were investigated experimentally and then alternative approach by using artificial neural network is presented for hardness prediction of the shot peened surface. After modeling a comprehensive parametric investigations and sensitivity analysis were applied according to the influence of the related effective parameters on surface hardness improvements. Graphic Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.] © 2020, The Korean Institute of Metals and Materials  

Object-oriented modeling methodology is used for encapsulating different methods and attributes of data reconciliation (DR) in classes. Classes which are defined for DR, cover steady-state, dynamic, linear and nonlinear DR problems. Two main classes are Constraints and DR and defined for manipulating constraints and general DR problem. The remaining classes are derived from these two classes. A class namely DDRMethod is developed for encapsulating all common attributes and methods needed for any DDR method. Developed DR software and the method of performing dynamic DR are discussed in this paper. Two illustrative examples of Extended Kalman Filtering and artificial neural networks are used... 

In general, the objective of distillation control is to maintain the desired products quality. In this paper, the performances of different one point control strategies for an aromatic distillation column have been compared through dynamic simulation. These methods are: a) Composition control using measured composition directly. This method sufferes from large sampling delay of measuring devices, b) Composition control by controlling the temperature of a specific tray. In this strategy, the composition-temperature relationship is used to find the temperature setpoint corresponding to the desired composition. Since composition-temperature relation depends on feed condition, an artificial... 

This effort attempts to study the change point problem in the area of non-linear profiles. A method based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) is proposed for estimating the real time of a single step change. The feature vector of the proposed Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) is based on Z and control chart statistics for nonlinear profiles. The merits of the proposed estimator are evaluated through simulation experiments. The results show that the estimator provides an accurate estimate of the single step change point in non-linear profiles in the selected case problem. © 2021, The Society for Reliability Engineering, Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM), India and The Division of... 

Changes in the physicochemical conditions of process unit, even under control, may lead to what are generically referred to as faults. The cognition of causes is very important, because the system can be diagnosed and fault tolerated. In this article, we discuss and propose an artificial neural network that can detect the incipient and gradual faults either individually or mutually. The main feature of the proposed network is including the fault patterns in the input space. The scheme is examined through a sample unit with five probable occurring faults. The simulation results indicate that the proposed algorithm can detect both single and two simultaneous faults properly  

In this paper, genetic algorithm (GA) and stepwise multiple regression variable selection methods were used as a feature-selection tools and neural network was employed for feature mapping. To provide an extended test of these hybrid methods, a data set consists of the bioconcentration factors (BCF) for 53 molecules were selected. Suitable set of molecular descriptors were calculated and the important descriptors were selected by genetic algorithm and stepwise multiple regression methods. These variables serve as inputs to generated neural networks. After optimization and training of the networks, they were used for the calculation of bioconcentration factors for the prediction set.... 

One of the requirements for the operation and planning activities of an electrical utility is the prediction of load for the next hour to several days out, known as short term load forecasting (STLF). This paper presents the STLF of the Iranian national power system (INPS) using artificial neural networks (ANN) and fuzzy expert systems (FES). The ANN is trained with the load patterns corresponding to the forecasting hours and the forecasted load is obtained. The FES modifies the initial forecasted load for the special holidays and also in the case sudden changes in temperature. A data analyser and a temperature forecaster are also included in the NRI STLF (NSTLF) package. The program has... 

A new series of six comprehensive descriptors that represent different features of the gas-liquid partition coefficient, K(L), for commonly used stationary phases is developed. These descriptors can be considered as counterparts of the parameters in the Abraham solvatochromic model of solution. A separate multiple linear regression (MLR) model was developed by using the six descriptors for each stationary phase of poly(ethylene glycol adipate) (EGAD), N,N,N',N'-tetrakis(2-hydroxypropyl) ethylenediamine (THPED), poly(ethylene glycol) (Ucon 50 HB 660) (U50HB), di(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid (DEHPA) and tetra-n-butylammonium N,N-(bis-2-hydroxylethyl)-2-aminoethanesulfonate (QBES). The results... 

The reinforcement of concrete columns with fabric reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM) is one of the most challenging issues in the construction of concrete structures, as there is still an absence of a promising model to assess their performance. This is because the behavior of such elements is complex and accompanied by a high margin of uncertainty. To address this issue, this study compiles a large dataset of the performance of FRCM-reinforced concrete columns under monotonic load. The obtained dataset is then used to train an artificial neural network (ANN) as a promising method for predicting the compressive strength of concrete columns with acceptable accuracy. Afterward, using a... 

In the present research, the authors have attempted to examine the compressive strength of conventional concrete, which is made using different aggregate sizes and geometries considering various curing temperatures. To this end, different aggregate geometries (rounded and angular) were utilized in various aggregate sizes (10, 20, and 30 mm) to prepare 108 rectangular cubic specimens. Then, the curing process was carried out in the vicinity of wind at different temperatures (5◦ C < T < 30◦ C). Next, the static compression experiments were performed on 28-day concrete specimens. Additionally, each test was repeated three times to check the repeatability of the results. Finally, the mean...