Sharif Digital Repository

This article deals with the rubber-based friction materials (RBFMs) which can be used in brake system. The physico-mechanical and tribological properties of a series of fiber filled RBFMs containing steel wool and aramid pulp at different concentrations along with a fiber-free reference material were characterized. Rubber-glass transition induced at higher sliding velocities was identified based on the friction fade behavior of the RBFMs. The rubber-glass transition which is inherently originated by viscoelastic response of polymeric binder was found to be influential on the tribological properties of the RBFMs. It was revealed that steel wool increased coefficient of friction (COF) and... 

The effects of incorporating the ester functional group (-C=OO-) into the side chain of the 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium cation ([C1COOCnC1im]+, n = 1, 2, 4) paired with [Br]-, [NO3]-, [BF4]-, [PF6]-, [TfO]-, and [Tf2N]- anions on the various thermodynamic properties and interaction energies of these biodegradable ionic liquids (ILs) were investigated by means of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations combined with ab initio calculations in the temperature range of 298-550 K. Excluding the simulated density, the highest values of the volumetric properties such as molar volume, isobaric expansion coefficient, and isothermal compressibility coefficient can be attributed to the largest cation... 

Rocks and rock-like materials frequently fail under compression due to the initiation, propagation and coalescence of the pre-existing microcracks. The mechanism of microcrack coalescence process in rock-like materials is experimentally and numerically investigated. The experimental study involves some uniaxial compression tests on rock-like specimens specially prepared from portland pozzolana cement, mica sheets and water. The microcrack coalescence is studied by scanning electron microscopy on some of the prepared thin specimens. It is assumed that the mica sheets play the role of microcracks within the specimens. Some analytical and numerical studies are also carried out to simulate the... 

Hydrogels made of natural polymers [chitosan (CS) and gelatin (G)] have been prepared having mechanical properties similar to those of muscle tissues. In this study, the effect of polymer concentration and scaffold stiffness on the behavior of seeded muscle-derived cells (MDCs) on the CS-G hydrogel sheets has been evaluated. Both variables were found to be important in cell viability. Viability was assessed by observation of the cell morphology after 1 day as well as a 14-day MTT assay. The CS-G hydrogels were characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis, which revealed evidences of strong intermolecular interactions between CS and G. Hydrogel samples with intermediate... 

Axon is an important part of the neuronal cells and axonal microtubules are bundles in axons. In axons, microtubules are coated with microtubule-associated protein tau, a natively unfolded filamentous protein in the central nervous system. These proteins are responsible for cross-linking axonal microtubule bundles. Through complimentary dimerization with other tau proteins, bridges are formed between nearby microtubules creating bundles. Formation of bundles of microtubules causes their transverse reinforcement and has been shown to enhance their ability to bear compressive loads. Though microtubules are conventionally regarded as bearing compressive loads, in certain circumstances during... 

Magnetic Shape Memory Alloys (MSMAs) are a category of active materials which can be excited by magnetic field. These alloys have been used in sensor and actuator applications recently. MSMAs possess special properties such as large magnetic field-induced strains (up to %10) and high actuation frequency (about 1kHz), while ordinary shape memory alloys can't act in frequencies above 5Hz due to the time involved with heat transformation. In this paper, MSMAs are modeled by an incremental modeling approach which utilizes different secant moduli for different parts of stress-strain curve. Furthermore, stress-strain curve of MSMAs is approximated using an analytical expression. The incremental... 

Chemical and electron beam irradiation methods were used to introduce a branched structure into polypropylene and propylene-ethylene copolymer. The chemical method was carried out in an internal mixer using initiator and TMPTMA monomer. In irradiation method, the polymer was irradiated by electron beam under air and nitrogen atmosphere. The branched structure in the modified polymer was confirmed by rheological measurements. While degradation was significant in chemical method, branching occurred efficiently by irradiation under air. Small amount of ethylene in the propylene copolymer promoted branching over degradation  

Inkjet printing of colloidal metals is an attractive method for direct patterning of electrically conductive structures and interconnects in electronic devices, owing to low-cost, low-waste and simplicity of the process. In the present work, mixtures of well-dispersed silver nanoparticles and ethylene glycol were prepared for the inkjet printing process. Three different surfactants including PVP, MSA and AOT were added to study the stability of the nanosilver colloids. The effect of high-intensity ultrasonic treatment and temperature on the rheological properties was investigated utilising a rheometer in plate-plate geometry. It is shown that the viscosity of the ink increases with... 

The challenges of water resources sustainable development are enormous. Around the globe, the increasing use of water coupled with environmental deterioration calls for sustainable development of the limited water resources. As a significant part of the world's population still lacks access to safe water and adequate sanitation, and as global urbanization continues to increase, continuous, comprehensive, coordinated and cooperative water resources management is required for the sustainable future of urban areas. The objective of this study was to assess water resources sustainable development for selected urban areas around the world. Using centralized databases of international agencies for... 

Rheological behavior of agglomerated silver nanoparticles (~ 40 nm) suspended in diethylene glycol over a wide range of volumetric solids concentrations (φ{symbol} = 0.11-4.38%) was studied. The nanoparticle suspensions generally exhibited a yield pseudoplastic behavior. Bingham plastic, Herschel-Bulkley and Casson models were used to evaluate the shear stress-shear rate dependency. Analyzing the effect of silver concentrations on the yield stress and viscosity of the suspensions followed an exponential form, revealing an increase in the degree of interparticle interactions with increasing solid concentrations. Fractal dimension (Df) was estimated from the suspension yield stress and... 

This study investigates the effect of body acceleration on human cardiac function. Finite element analysis is conducted to simulate geometrical and mechanical properties of human heart. Heart geometrical modeling in three-dimension is performed by segmentation of cardiac MRI images. The nonlinear mechanical behavior of myocardium is modeled by Mooney-Rivlin, Polynomial, Ogden and Yeoh hyperelastic material models. Stress-strain curves of myocardial tissue are obtained from experimental compression tests on bovine heart samples. The experimental results are employed for the evaluation of material coefficients by the nonlinear least squares method. Among hyperelastic models, the Yeoh model... 

In this paper, nonlinear radial and hoop thermoelastic stress analysis of rotating disk made of functionally graded material (FGM) with variable thickness is carried out by using the finite element method. In this method, one-dimensional second order elements with three nodes have been used. The geometrical and boundary conditions are in the shape of nonexistence of the pressure (zero radial stress) in both external and internal layers and zero displacement at the internal layer of rotating disk. Furthermore, it's assumed that heat distribution is as second order curve while material properties such as elasticity modulus, Poisson's ratio and thermal expansion coefficient vary by using a... 

Structural health monitoring (SHM) has been adopted in the aircraft and civil industries over the last two decades. The ultrasonic guided wave propagation technique is a promising damage detection approach in airplane thin wall structures because of their long distance traveling ability and low attenuation. In fact, by efficiently designing the pattern of sensors one can effectively pick up the changes that happen in propagated signals due to presence of any kind of structural damage. This detection approach could be effectively assisted by numerical simulation techniques like finite-element modeling. To obtain a damage detection algorithm based on instantaneous baseline data, the... 

In this paper, a micromechanical model for connective soft tissues based on the available histological evidences is developed. The proposed model constituents i.e. collagen fibers and ground matrix are considered as hyperelastic materials. The matrix material is assumed to be isotropic Neo-Hookean while the collagen fibers are considered to be transversely isotropic hyperelastic. In order to take into account the effects of tissue structure in lower scales on the macroscopic behavior of tissue, a strain energy density function (SEDF) is developed for collagen fibers based on tissue hierarchical structure. Macroscopic response and properties of tissue are obtained using the numerical... 

Autofrettage is a technique for introducing beneficial residual stresses into cylinders. Both analytical and numerical methods are used for the analysis of the autofrettage process. Analytical methods have been presented only for special cases of autofrettage. In this work, an analytical framework for the solution of autofrettaged tubes with constant axial strain conditions is developed. Material behavior is assumed to be incompressible, and two different quadratic polynomials are used for strain hardening in loading and unloading. Clearly, elastic perfectly plastic and linear hardening materials are the special cases of this general model. This quadratic material model is convenient for the... 

In this research, the characteristics of the prepared samples in epoxy matrix by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), as well as scanning electron microscope (SEM) are evaluated. Meanwhile, the obtained mechanical properties of the specimen are investigated. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is also employed to evaluate the thermal degradation of manufactured nanocomposites. The thermal neutron absorption properties of nanocomposites containing 3 wt% of montmorillonite nanoclay (closite30B) have been studied experimentally, using an Am-Be point source. Mechanical tests reveal that the higher B4C concentrations, the more tensile strengths, but lower... 

A series of herbal extract incorporated into poly(lactic acid) (PLA) composite nanofibrous scaffolds were successfully prepared by using electrospinning technique. Equisetum arvense extract (EE) and nanohydroxyapatite (nHA) in different quantities were loaded into PLA solution to fabricate composite nanofibrous webs under various electrospinning conditions. Uniform nanofibers were obtained with an average diameter of 157 ± 47 nm in the case of those containing the herbal extract. Characterization of the webs was carried out by means of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and... 

Different experimental techniques which have been developed to obtain data related to force-deformation behaviour of soft tissues play an important role in realistically simulating surgery processes as well as medical diagnoses and minimally invasive procedures. Indeed, an adequate quantitative description of soft-tissue-mechanical-behaviour requires high-quality experimental data to be obtained and analysed. In this review article we will first scan the motivations and basic technical issues on surgery simulation. Then, we will concentrate on different experimental techniques developed for recording force-deformation (stress-strain) behaviour of soft tissues with focussing on the in-vivo... 

In this paper, a constitutive and micromechanical model for prediction of rate-dependent behavior of connective tissues (CTs) is presented. Connective tissues are considered as nonlinear viscoelastic material. The rate-dependent behavior of CTs is incorporated into model using the well-known quasi-linear viscoelasticity (QLV) theory. A planar wavy representative volume element (RVE) is considered based on the tissue microstructure histological evidences. The presented model parameters are identified based on the available experiments in the literature. The presented constitutive model introduced to ABAQUS by means of UMAT subroutine. Results show that, monotonic uniaxial test predictions of... 

Experimental acoustic cell separation methods have been widely used to perform separation for different types of blood cells. However, numerical simulation of acoustic cell separation has not gained enough attention and needs further investigation since by using numerical methods, it is possible to optimize different parameters involved in the design of an acoustic device and calculate particle trajectories in a simple and low cost manner before spending time and effort for fabricating these devices. In this study, we present a comprehensive finite element-based simulation of acoustic separation of platelets, red blood cells and white blood cells, using standing surface acoustic waves...