Sharif Digital Repository

Severe peak rebounds are likely in absence of a system-wide coordination among customers participating in demand response programs. This paper aims to establish a decentralized system-wide framework to coordinate demand response of residential customers in a smart grid. The objective of the framework is to modify system load profile provided that customers' payments are minimized, and their comfort and privacy are preserved. Home load management (HLM) modules, embedded in customers' smart meters are autonomous agents of the framework. The energy service provider iteratively exchanges load information with HLM modules in the hope of achieving his desired load profile. In each iteration, the... 

The aim of this research is to obtain the bending moment and shear live load distribution factors (LLDFs) for interior girders of simply supported slab-girder bridges subjected to continuous loading, such as military tanks. The effective parameters considered in calculating the live load distribution factor were: Girders’ number and spacing, span length, slab thickness and the longitudinal to transverse ratio of deck stiffness. Over fifty 3D finite element models were created based on the existing information of bridges in the USA. An equation was obtained for the distribution factor and its validity was assessed against the numerical results. The proposed equation was compared with the... 

An axial load-transfer analysis for energy piles is presented in this study that incorporates empirical models for estimating the side shear resistance and end bearing capacity in rock along with associated normalized stress-displacement curves. The analysis was calibrated using results from field experiments involving monotonic heating of three 15.2 m-long energy piles in sandstone. Analyses of the field experiments indicates that poor cleanout of the excavations led to an end restraint smaller than that expected for a clean excavation in sandstone. Specifically, end bearing parameters representative of cohesionless sand were necessary to match the load-transfer analysis to the field... 

A new beam-to-column joint with high rotational as well as shear deformation capacity was devised. This high rotational 'capacity' is required to fulfill the great 'demand' for rotation arising during earthquakes, severe waves and current loads, etc. Due to its ability to contain damage during an overload, it leaves the connected elements intact. This, together with its replaceability can reduce the cost of post-event repair substantially. Its bending as well as shear performance under "monotonie" loading had already been assessed experimentally (OMAE'02-28864, OMAE'03-37292, OMAE'04-51494 & OMAE'05-6736l) and proved well superior to that of conventional joints. In order to study its... 

In this paper, considering horizontal components of seismic excitation, an algorithm for the nonlinear multi-component analysis of building structures by the Endurance Time (ET) method is proposed, and results of the ET method for various steel moment frames with one to seven stories are verified by comparing with the results from Nonlinear Time History Analysis with use of two different sets of ground motions. In addition, several parameters such as eccentricities and irregularities in structure, rotational and lateral stiffness, effect of hysteresis type and ductility have been considered for sensitivity analysis on results, obtained by ET method. Results show that on the basis of... 

In this paper, based on the high-order theory (HOT) of sandwich structures, the response of sandwich cylindrical shells with flexible core and any sort of boundary conditions under a general distributed static loading is investigated. The faces and the core are made of isotropic materials. The faces are modeled as thin cylindrical shells obeying the Kirchhoff–Love assumptions. For the core material, it is assumed to be thick and the in-plane stresses are negligible. The governing equations are derived using the principle of the stationary potential energy. Using harmonic differential quadrature method (HDQM), the equations are solved for deformation components. The obtained results are... 

This paper describes how Enexis, one of the largest distribution network operators in the Netherlands, has adapted its load forecasting method for HV/MVtransformers to incorporate the influence of distributed generation. This new method involves the making of separate forecasts for demand and generation and determining the resulting transformer loading, based on the known correlation between demand and generation  

An exact planar solution for the determination of electroelastic responses are presented for functionally graded piezoelectricmaterials (FGPMs). The electro-mechanical properties are assumed to vary exponentially. Exploiting the potential functions for stress and induction, the governing equations reduce to systems of fourth order inhomogeneous partial differential equations (PDEs), which are solved in a closed form manner. Validity of the obtained solution is checked by other existing results in the literatures. Several examples are provided under distinctive thermo-electro-mechanical loadings. Finally, the effect of the graded indices is examined upon the electroelastic response of the FGP... 

A stress-based forming limit diagram for necking prediction which is based on the strain gradient theory of plasticity in conjunction with the M-K model has been represented and used in tube hydroforming. In this study, the finite element model for bulge forming of straight tube has been constructed and verified with published experimental data. The adaptive simulation technique is based on the ability to detect the onset and growth of defects (e.g., wrinkling, and bursting) and to promptly readjust the loading paths. Thus, a suitable load path has been obtained by applying Adaptive Simulation Method in ANSYS Parametric Design Language (APDL)  

Effect of loading rate on toughness characteristics of hybrid rubber-modified epoxy was investigated. Epoxy was modified by amine-terminated butadiene acrylonitrile (ATBN) and recycled tire. Samples were tested at various loading rates of 1-1000 mm/min. Fracture toughness measurements revealed synergistic toughening in hybrid system at low loading rates (1-10 mm/min); hybrid system exhibited higher fracture toughness value in comparison with the ATBN-modified resin with same modifier content. However, synergistic toughening was eliminated by increasing the loading rate. At higher loading rates (10-1000), the fracture toughness of hybrid system decreased gradually to the level lower than that... 

Different reasons such as power system restructuring, electricity price variation in some hours of a day and growth in the fuel price, have led to more attention to demand response (DR) programmes for consumers. Two important issues in DR programmes are emergency demand response programming (EDRP) and Interruptible/Curtail able (I/C) programme that is utilised as interruptible load contracts (ILC). The EDDR is utilised to decrease the consumption in peak load or critical hours of the day. This occurs by means of customer's behaviour in response to the incentives. However, the curtailment of voluntarily loads in the critical hours considering the consumer requirements is an action that can be... 

Structures of tapered geometry are customarily used in a variety of applications. The analysis of such structures is usually made through finite element method using traditional beam, shell or brick elements. In this paper, a new tapered superelement is presented that lends itself to modeling revolving geometries under lateral, axial and torsional loads. The presented tapered superelement has 16 nodes. The performance of this element under static and dynamic loading and in rotating condition is examined. It is shown that this element yields accurate results with higher computational efficiency compared to conventional elements. Furthermore, it is verified that a single tapered superelement... 

In this article, an analytical elastic-plastic solution for thick-walled cylinders made of Functionally Graded Materials (FGMs) subjected to internal pressure and thermal loading is presented. Based on the experimental results, a mathematical model to predict the yielding through the thickness of FG AlA359/SiCp cylinder is developed. It is shown that under the temperature gradient loading, there is a point in the cylinder where the circumferential stress changes from compressive to tensile. The position of this point depends on the geometry and material properties of the FG cylinder and is independent of the temperature gradient  

This paper presents a new method in order to predict the monthly electricity peak load of a country based on the prediction of Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) of monthly peak electricity demand variation using the ARIMA methodology. For validation, the result of this method was used to predict monthly peak load variation of the recent two years in Iranian national grid. The primary goal of this article is to show the application and implementation of Discrete Fourier Transform to predict monthly variation of electricity peak load in national electric power systems. Furthermore, it is elaborated to demonstrate the benefits and shortcomings of DFT approach comparing to the commonly used... 

Based on the first-order nonlinear von Karman theory, the post-buckling analysis of FG circular plates under asymmetric transverse and in-plane loadings are presented. The nonlinear governing equations are reformulated using a stress function and a boundary layer function, and solved by employing a multi-parameter perturbation technique and Fourier series method. The material properties are assumed to vary through the plate thickness according to a power-law distribution of the volume fractions of the constituents. The results are verified with the known results in the literature. The effects of loading, material properties, and boundary conditions on different response quantities are... 

In this study, scaling effects on fiber metal laminates under tensile and three-point bending tests were investigated numerically and experimentally. The fiber metal laminate specimens were made of aluminum 1050 and unidirectional glass-epoxy. Two scaled sizes of specimens were prepared based on A1n, 0n=90n s. Some specified mechanical properties of these samples were investigated and results showed that fiber metal laminates obey scaling law under quasi-static loading. Explicit finite element code LS-DYNA was utilized for numerical simulation. After validating numerical simulation with experiments, scaling law was studied numerically for four different... 

The islanding of a distributed generation (DG)-fed distribution system generally results in frequency drop, which means less power is generated than it is needed. The only way of dealing with this problem is shedding loads as the system cannot generate any more electricity. Load shedding is intended to restore balance between generated and consumed power. This paper proposes a new method for load shedding based on the rate of change of frequency (RoCoF) at the first step and on voltage drop at subsequent steps. For this purpose, three lookup tables were created in order to prioritize loads to be shed according to the willingness of subscribers to pay and the RoCoF. The strength of the... 

The effect of loading rate on toughening mechanisms of rubber-modified epoxy resin was investigated using amine-terminated butadiene acrylonitrile (ATBN) rubber. Rubber-modified samples were tested at various loading rates in the range of 1-1000 mm/min. At low loading rates, modified resin exhibited a high fracture toughness, which decreased by increasing the rate of loading. At higher loading rate a transition region was observed, where the fracture toughness did not change noticeably with increasing the loading rate. Beyond the transition region, the resin fracture toughness dropped dramatically to the level of unmodified epoxy. Fractography of the damage zone showed different toughening... 

A significant amount of research on self-consolidating concrete (SCC) technology has been devoted to evaluating the suitability of the material for its use in structural applications. However, more research is required to confirm the adequacy of SCC structural members for resisting gravity and seismic loads. This study focuses on the experimental investigation of the seismic performance of interior reinforced concrete beam-column connections with SCC. Four beam-column connection specimens, three with SCC and one with normally vibrated concrete (NC), were designed for this experimental study. Factors such as concrete type (SCC or NC) and axial load ratio (0, 7.5 and 15 % of column section...