Sharif Digital Repository

Steel structure with saddle connections constitutes a portion of the old steel structures in Iran. During past strong ground motions such as Manjil and Bam earthquakes, these structures were vulnerable and experienced significant damages. These structures were widely used due to their easy installation. However, according to their unpromising behavior, they need an appropriate lateral force-resisting system. A concrete shear wall is one of the suitable lateral force resisting systems that can improve the behavior of steel frames with saddle connections. To find the coefficients of seismic performance factors including response modification factor, overstrength factor, and deflection... 

Performance of reinforced concrete frames is highly dependent on detailing of the joint connections between its members, such as beams and columns. To have a good structural behavior, joints must show ductile behavior and designed based on the philosophy of strong column-weak beam. In the case of sever lacking ductility, strength or even rigidity of the connections, or having a weak column-strong beam, in the existing structures, there is a need for seismic upgrading of the connection. There are several ways for seismic upgrading of this type of connections.In this research, using steel plates for seismic upgrading of Concrete Beam-Column connections subjected to axial and cyclic loads has... 

This study investigates the cyclic experimental behavior of damaged exterior reinforced concrete beam–column joint specimens retrofitted with the proposed technique using steel elements called steel prop and curb. The technique is usable for local and global strengthening of reinforced concrete frames. Four half-scale RC joints were tested under the cyclic loading; two control specimens with the different beam heights were loaded up to their ultimate strength and this was followed by retrofitting of these damaged specimens as new specimens and tested again under the same loading system. This study indicate the importance of some parameters such as friction , jacket place , thickness of plate... 

Northridge earthquake in 1994 which damaged over 200 connections in moment resisting frames showed improper performance of regular connections. After this earthquake, diverse investigations have been started to clarify reasons of these failures and surveying new methods for their rehabilitation. Behavior of beam to column connections can be improved by shifting the location of inelasticity away from column’s face. Such connections can be achieved by reducing flange area of beams at a specific distance from column’s face, and they have been approved by various design codes. Another kind of these connections can be achieved by perforating beam’s web. Research on latter case shows that, if... 

In this thesis we study circuit models and their step responses of the Interconnects. First of all, we solve the Maxwell’s equations for lossless line to understand the models deeply and then generalize it for lossy lines. Only with equations that govern the model, one can realize the regions in which his model behaves correctly. After that, the transfer function of a single line with arbitrary load and source impedance is derived, based on lossy segmented model. Knowing this, we introduce different methods of getting the inverse Laplace of transfer function and their pros and cons. Finite pole approximation, Fourier series harmonics, and changing variable are various methods to simplify... 

The spectrum of a graph is related to many important combinatorial parameters. Let (G), ′(G) be the maximum number of edge-disjoint spanning trees and edge-connectivity of a graph G,respectively. Motivated by a question of Seymour on the relationship between eigenvalues of a graph G and bounds of (G), we use eigenvalue interlacing for quotient matrix associated to graph to get the relationship between eigenvalues of a graph and bounds of (G) and ′(G). We also study the relationship between eigenvalues and bounds of (G) and ′(G) in a multigraph G. In the first chapter we prove eigenvalue interlacing and give several applications of it for obtaining bounds for characteristic numbers of... 

Reduced beam section connection was one of the connections that were introduced and prequalified by SAC project to replace pre-northridge connections. This connection reduces both flanges of the beam at appropriate distances from beam to column connection to make a fuse protecting welds from brittle fracture. The RBS is prequalified in limited span-to-depth ratio, for designing this connection for short and deep beams may effect its performance. Since these limitations are based on limited experiments, forty three numerical models were analysed to recheck them in this study. These models are verified based on two published experiments and are capable of predicting all known yield mechanisms... 

Three-phase voltage source converter (VSC) is vastly utilized in the renewable energy resource and distributed generation (DG) systems interface units due to its high controllability and flexibility. Because of the high nonlinear nature of the system, the gird-connected inverter shows poor performance if the conventional control scheme are used. In this thesis, a new control scheme based on backstepping strategy is presented for control of a grid connected DG systems. The proposed scheme is responsible for regulating the active and reactive power components of the VSC power of the DG system. The VSC of the DG system is connected to a stiff utility grid through an L-type filter. In the first... 

Lateral forces on structures are transferred to braces as tensile and compressive loads. These loads enter the beams and columns through the gusset plates. The gusset connections to the beams and columns must be such that they be able to pass the loads through themselves. So far, five analytical models have been proposed for this connection and only one of them is recommended by AISC. These models estimate the existing forces and moments on the connection. The analytical models are: model 1 (KISS), model 2 (2A-AISC), model 3 (Thornton), model 4 (Ricker) and model 5 (Richard). Among these models, only model 3 is recommended by AISC because the others are more conservative. It should be noted... 

Beam to column connections affect on the performance of the steel frames. Connections are assumed pin, semi rigid or rigid based on rigidity. Previously most steel structures designed as pin or rigid connections but lately many studies have been done on structures with semi rigid connections and these studies show that semi rigid connections have excellent properties that makes this connection a superior response such as less base shear, more economic, ability to absorb more energy and etc. In this study semi rigid connection with torsional plate has been studied. In addition to previous characteristics, this connection has special properties such as simple implementation, Dimension... 

In recent years a large number of passive energy dissipating systems developed in accordance with pioneering work on friction dampers which was firstly reported by pall(1979). Uusing Friction dampers reduce the inelastic demand of the structure during severe earthquake motions by sliping and a large portion of input energy dissipated mechanically in friction instead of yielding the main components of the structure. Based on economical purposes, it is valuable to know in which storey and slip force should be employ the friction devices to have an optimized performance of the structure. Due to kinematic conditions of slip and stick stages, as well as transition zones between them in friction... 

Composite systems consisting of concrete columns and steel beams are introduces as structural systems in recent years. These structural systems enjoy merits of both steel and concrete frames by efficiently combining the advantages of them. This study is allocated to lateral force resistance system using armed concrete and structural steel. Advantages of composite structures rather to those of two other conventional ones are among performance characteristics under ultimate loads, economical conservation, and higher speed of construction.In this research the aim is to study these frame under earthquake induced loads. The seismic performances of these composite frames with through column beams,... 

Inverters are the main utility in transmitting power from distributed generation (DG) systems toward grid and their safe and immune performance has become a major concern among the system designers. In addition to poor power transmittance, faults in inverter can harm other equipment such as DG and local load. Consequently different protections has been considered to increase the reliability of these systems. Some of these protections like fuses and varistors are implemented in the hardware while others are considered in the processor. In the later class of protections, fault detection and isolation (FDI) system has been the subject of intense investigation in inverters over the past two... 

Swarm Robotics consists of homogonous robots with considerable abilities. In recent years, engineering applications, including multi-agent control and air vehicles have been existed and engineers have been interested more in multi-agent systems. Currently, progressive number of studies is being done on decreasing the expenses, developing applicability and compactness of robots. Exchanging some simple robots with a complicated robot results omitting over-complexity and expensive equipments. This project is looking for a method for emerging connectivity and consequently maintaining it for a swarm robotic suffering from limited communication. Limited communication means that agent distinguish... 

Patients with a single ventricle disease who have undergone Fontan surgery have always had long-term complications. These complications include pulmonary artery stiffness and decreased ability to exercise. In fact, due to removal of the right ventricle from the circulatory system, blood pressure and pulsatility inflow to total cavopulmonary connection (TCPC) are reduced following this surgery. Creating waves (radial displacement) on the IVC (Inferior Vena Cava) wall can increase pulmonary flow pulsations. The Objective of this study is to test the effect of induced wave amplitude on the pulmonary flow pulsations at the rest condition. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations were... 

Depression is a type of mental disorder that is characterized by the continuous occurrence of bad moods in the affected person. Studies by the World Health Organization (WHO) show that depression is the second disease that threatens human life, and eight hundred thousand people die due to suicide every year. In order to reduce the damage caused by depression, it is necessary to have an accurate method for diagnosing depression and its rapid treatment, in which electroencephalogram (EEG) signals are considered as one of the best methods for diagnosing depression. Until now, various researches have been conducted to diagnose depression using electroencephalogram signals, most of which were... 

A data transmission network constitutes of finite number of data processing stations which are connected together through data transmission lines. Each data transmission network corresponds to a graph which is called network’s graph. Obviously there are meaningful relations between structural properties of network’s graph and efficiency of network. In this thesis we investigate two aspects of network’s graph. The first subject is Cayley graphs. It has been shown that Cayley graphs are good models for designing data transmission networks. In this thesis we have surveyed some structural properties of Cayley graphs. The second subject is isoperimetric number. The isoperimetric number is a good... 

Increase in growing concerns over environmental pollution and depletion of fossil fuel resources motivate the need for cleaner energy technologies and stimulate research in facilitating renewable energy systems. In recent years, photovoltaic systems have attracted great attention since they remove the need for energy storage systems and intermediate processess for energy conversion. However, high capital cost, low efficiency and low energy density per area of these systems, as compared with other technologies hinder its industrial use. To surmount these bottlenecks and improve technical performance of PV systems, it is crucial to optimize configuration of convertor connection and to improve... 

The critical strain energy release rate for the solder joint fracture was measured as a function of cooling rate, time above liquidus (TAL) and soldering temperature. The specimens were prepared at 4 different levels of cooling rate, 3 varying levels of TAL, and 3 soldering temperature levels. Then, experiments were designed using the Taguchi method. Fracture tests were performed under bending at a strain rates of 10-5 and 0.5 s-1 and mode I loading conditions. It was found that the effect of soldering temperature insignificant on the Jci, but the cooling rate and the TAL due to their many effects were also studied by their interaction effects. It was observed that at the cooling rate of... 

The behaviour of a semi-rigid connection with appreciable shear deformation capacity was studied experimentally. The tests carried out on the specimens of this connection composed of ‘monotonic’ and ‘cyclic’ tests. The monotonic tests results showed the high shear deformation capacity of this connection as well as its high energy dissipation capacity. The cyclic tests, however, indicated the ability of this connection to endure large number of ‘well-rounded’ hysteresis cycles, which led to the dissipation of great amount of energy before failure