Sharif Digital Repository

Customers participating in demand response programs known as active customers provide significant flexibility in demand, thereby causing a meaningful reduction in customer interruption cost (CIC) during critical periods. This letter illustrates the impact on the amount of CIC of active customers' flexible demand realized by smart grid technologies. The focus of this letter is on residential electricity use. The study is applied to actual data from Kainuu, Finland  

Assessment of respiratory volume is extensively performed in clinical applications in order to assess the cases of respiratory illness and the progression of the respiratory syndromes. Respiratory plethysmography is employed to determine the changes of chest volume to monitor breathing. A wearable respiration measuring system has been introduced to detect volume variations of chests. The system consists of a flexible sensor, stretchable cloth and electrical board. The flexible sensor, which measures electrical voltage produced by extension movements, is installed inside the shirt and nearly contacts the chest. The system can be used everywhere and be self-applied by patients. The main... 

By considering the detailed structure of DNA in the base pair level, two possible definitions of the persistence length are compared. One definition is related to the orientation of the terminal base pairs, and the other is based on the vectors which connect two adjacent base pairs at each end of the molecule. It is shown that although these definitions approach each other for long DNA molecules, they are dramatically different on short length scales. We show analytically that the difference mostly comes from the shear flexibility of the molecule and can be used to measure the shear modulus of DNA  

A reciprocating single-chamber micropump is designed and experimentally tested. The actuation technique of the pump is based on Lorentz force acting on an array of low-weight microwires placed on a flexible membrane surface. A square-wave electric current (5.6 and 7.8 A) with a low-frequency range (5.6 to 7.6 Hz) is applied through the microwires in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field (0.08 to 0.09 T). The resultant oscillating Lorentz force causes the membrane to oscillate with the same frequency, and pushes the fluid to flow toward the outlet using a high-efficiency ball-valve. The micropump has exhibited a maximum efficiency of 2.03% with a flow rate as high as 490 μl/s and... 

This paper suggests several improvements over the original Time-expanded Decision Network (TDN; a powerful and generic methodology introduced by Silver and de Weck for designing evolvable complex systems) in order to leverage its ease, flexibility, and scope of use. A more accurate model of the switching process, a simpler network representation, and the ability to address systems with unknown lifetime are some of the improvements. However, the most important added feature is the ability to account for other design requirements within the process, which enables the designers to embed the TDN methodology into their general concept exploration phase. As a result, the enhanced TDN (ETDN)... 

Design and performance of a beam shaping device based on a simple flexible plastic fiber-bundle stripe and a prism duct is described in this study. Such a system offers practical means to modify and change the output beam shape and also provides quantitative information concerning the transmitted power. It is possible to measure transmitted power signal by using a precise photodetector and also analyze beam images taken by a digital camera. The photograph picture of the illuminating LED beam just at its output point shows a circular shape with a radius of about 4 mm and the fiber-bundle output beam is rectangular shape with a dimension of 22.5×2 mm. A regular duct is tested in this study and... 

In this paper we consider the anharmonic corrections to the anisotropic elastic rod model for DNA. Our model accounts for the difference between the bending energies of positive and negative rolls, which comes from the asymmetric structure of the DNA molecule. We will show that the model can explain the high flexibility of DNA at small length scales, as well as kink formation at high deformation limit. © 2009 The American Physical Society  

The subject of the present paper is the investigation of the sharp edged gust effects on the aeroelastic behavior of a flexible wing. It is important to determine the response of the wing to the atmospheric turbulences during normal flight. So, linear modal analysis technique and linear quasi-steady aerodynamic are used for structural modeling and aerodynamic loading, respectively. Also, Lagrange method is used to obtain the system of equations of motion. Using the normal modes of free vibration, structural and aerodynamic matrices can be constructed. Then the aeroelastic instability of the system is determined using p method. Kussner function is used to model the sharp gust effects on the... 

In some tasks, a rigid robot manipulator handles a long, slender, and flexible tool, which usually has not been equipped with vibration measuring devices. This situation makes a different tool tip position control problem. In this paper, a new method will be presented for simultaneous tip position and vibration suppression control of a flexible tool on a rigid-link 3-DOF robot. This approach uses fuzzy logic rule-based controllers without using any sensors and actuators on the tool or a priori knowledge about the tool. Numerical simulation of robot and tool set has been accomplished and results support the fact that designed fuzzy controllers perform remarkably well in reducing vibrations... 

Purpose: The paper aims to report a fire test conducted on a three-dimensional frame in order to investigate the behaviour of bare steel flush end-plate connections with relatively low thickness at elevated temperatures. Design/methodology/approach: A half-scale model was fabricated and exposed to modified (scaled) ISO 834 heating curve using a semi-open furnace. The maximum temperature inside the furnace reached 1,026 °C. Findings: The rotations of connections are reported and compared with those of a previous study on an exactly the same model with thick end-plates. Various modes of failure such as local buckling of the beams flanges and lateral-torsional buckling of beams were observed... 

A large number of offshore platforms of various types have been installed in deep or shallow waters throughout the world. These structures are mainly made of tubular members which are interconnected by using tubular joints. In tubular frames, joints may exhibit considerable flexibility in both elastic and plastic range of response. The resulting flexibility may have marked effects on the overall behavior of offshore platforms.This paper investigates the effects of joint flexibility on local and global behavior of tubular framed structures in linear range of response. A new joint flexibility element is developed on the basis of flexibility matrix and implemented in a finite-element program to... 

The aerodynamic performance of a flexible membrane flapping wing has been investigated here. For this purpose, a flapping-wing system and an experimental set-up were designed to measure the unsteady aerodynamic forces of the flapping wing motion. A one-component force balance was set up to record the temporal variations of aerodynamic forces. The flapping wing was studied in a large low-speed wind tunnel. The lift and thrust of this mechanism were measured for different flapping frequencies, angles of attack and for various wind tunnel velocities. Results indicate that the thrust increases with the flapping frequency. An increase in the wind tunnel speed and flow angle of attack leads to... 

Flapping wings are promising lift and thrust generators, especially for very low Reynolds numbers. To investigate aeroelastic effects of flexible wings (specifically, wing's twisting stiffness) on hovering and cruising aerodynamic performance, a flapping-wing system and an experimental setup were designed and built. This system measures the unsteady aerodynamic and inertial forces, power usage, and angular speed of the flapping wing motion for different flapping frequencies and for various wings with different chordwise flexibility. Aerodynamic performance of the vehicle for both no wind (hovering) and cruise condition was investigated. Results show how elastic deformations caused by... 

The dynamics of the flexible robot arm subjected to tip mass during an actual deployment is studied. The Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and the real deployment are considered in the simulation. A new real axial velocity profile is developed. This new suggested profile simulates the actual deployment such that the arm movement starts from immovability and after attaining the final required length comes back again to the static state. Using Lagrange's equation, the equations of motion of the system are derived to study the system dynamics in this suggested deployment profile. A series approximation is used to represent the lateral elastic displacements. Using variables separation and also some... 

Ornithopters or mechanical birds produce aerodynamic lift and thrust through the flapping motion of their wings. Here, we use an experimental apparatus to investigate the effects of a wing's twisting stiffness on the generated thrust force and the power required at different flapping frequencies. A flapping wing system and an experimental set-up were designed to measure the unsteady aerodynamic and inertial forces, power usage and angular speed of the flapping wing motion. A data acquisition system was set-up to record important data with the appropriate sampling frequency. The aerodynamic performance of the vehicle under hovering (i.e., no wind) conditions was investigated. The lift and... 

In this paper, the planar maneuver of a flexible satellite with regard to its flexible appendages vibration has been studied. The flexible satellite translates and rotates in a plane; in addition, the flexible appendages can also vibrate in that plane. The system governing equations, which are coupled partial and ordinary differential equations, are obtained based on Hamilton's principle. Then the original system converts to three equivalent subsystems, two of which contains one partial differential equation and one ordinary differential equation along with four boundary conditions, by using change of variables. Employing control forces and one control torque which are applied to the central...