Sharif Digital Repository

This paper presents a new approach for unit commitment (UC); where a large scale wind power exists and the wind speed has a fuzzy characteristic; by using particle swarm optimization method (PSO). In this approach, the system reserve requirements, the requirement of having a load balance, and the wind power availability constraints are realized. A proper modeling of these constraints is an important issue in power system scheduling. Since these constraints are "fuzzy" in nature, any crisp treatment of them in this problem may lead to over conservative solutions. In this paper, a fuzzy optimization-based method is developed to solve power system UC problem with a fuzzy objective function and... 

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) model is naturally suitable to organizations where users are assigned organizational roles with well-defined privileges. However, due to the large number of users in nowadays online services of organizations and enterprises, assigning users to roles is a tiresome task and maintaining user-role assignment up- to-date is costly and error-prone. Additionally, with the increasing number of users, RBAC may have problems in prohibiting cheat and changing roles of users. In order to categorize information and formulate security policies, human decision making is required which is naturally fuzzy in the real world. This leads using a fuzzy approach to address the... 

Iran, having two separate coastlines at its north and south of about 3000 km length, with very different characteristics, suffers from various coastal problems. While its northern coastal area is over-populated and its sensitive and unique habitats must be protected from destruction, most of its southern coastal areas are undeveloped and deserted. Intense oil and gas exploitation activities in the Caspian Sea region and occurrence of two wars in the Persian Gulf during the last two decades have rendered hydrocarbon pollution a major issue for this country's marine and coastal environment. Biodiversity is under threat in some areas and natural resources are deteriorating. To overcome the... 

In this paper, a multi-product multi-chance constraint joint single-vendor multi-buyers inventory problem is considered in which the demand follows a uniform distribution, the lead-time is assumed to vary linearly with respect to the lot size, and the shortage in combination of backorder and lost-sale is assumed. Furthermore, the orders are placed in multiple of packets, there is a limited space available for the vendor, there are chance constraints on the vendor service rate to supply the products, and there is a limited budget for each buyer to purchase the products. While the elements of the buyers' cost function are holding, shortage, order and transportation costs, the set up and... 

The objective of the dynamic economic dispatch (DED) problem is to schedule power generation for the online units for a given time horizon economically, satisfying various operational constraints. Due to the effect of valve-point effects and prohibited operating zones (POZs) in the generating units cost functions, DED problem is a highly non-linear and non-convex optimization problem. The DED problem even may be more complicated if transmission losses and ramp-rate constraints are taken into account. This paper presents a novel and heuristic algorithm to solve DED problem of generating units, by employing time varying acceleration coefficients iteration particle swarm optimization... 

This study presents a parallel evolutionary optimization approach to determine optimal management strategies of large-scale coastal groundwater problems. The population loops of evolutionary algorithms (EA) are parallelized using shared memory parallelism to address the high computational demands of such applications. This methodology is applied to solve the management problems in an aquifer system in Kish Island, Iran using a three-dimensional density-dependent groundwater numerical model. EAs of continuous ant colony optimization (CACO), particle swarm optimization, and genetic algorithm are utilized to solve the optimization problems. By implementing the parallelization strategy, a... 

In the present study, considering two-dimensional porosity distribution through a functionally graded porous (FGP) beam, its optimal distributions are obtained. A multi-objective optimization problem is defined to maximize critical buckling load and minimize mass of the beam, simultaneously. To this end, Timoshenko beam theory is employed and equilibrium equations for two-dimensional functionally graded porous (2D-FGP) beam are derived. For the solution, we present generalized differential quadrature method (GDQM) and consider two symmetric boundary conditions (Clamped-Clamped and Hinged-Hinged). Solving generalized eigenvalue problem, critical buckling load for 2D-FGP beam is then obtained.... 

This paper introduces a new hub-and-center transportation network problem for a new company competing against an operating company. The new company intends to locate p hubs and assign the center nodes to the located hubs in order to form origin–destination pairs. It desires not only to maximize the total captured flow in the market but also aims to minimize the total transportation cost. Three competition rules are established between the companies which must be abided. According to the competition rules, the new company can capture the full percentage of the traffic in each origin-destination pair if its transportation cost for each route is significantly less than of the competitor. If its... 

Installation of a significant number of distributed generators (DGs), besides the application of non-sinusoidal loads such as; Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs), in the emerging smart distribution networks and the industrial plants have posed a major challenge to the existing methods of optimal transformer sizing (OTS). The harmonic currents generated in these new environments not only substantially increase the transformer load losses, but also cause abnormal winding temperature rise and hence transformer excessive loss of life. Therefore, the harmonic contents of the loads currents should be accounted in choosing the appropriate size of distribution transformers. To address this... 

In the proposed study, a Hybrid Model Predictive Controller is introduced for cruise control of an automobile model. The presented model consists of the engine, the gearbox, and the transmission dynamics, where the aerodynamics force and elastic friction between the tires and road are taken into account. Through Piecewise Linearization of nonlinearities in the system; (torque)-(throttle)-(angular velocity) of engine and (aerodynamic drag force)-(automobile velocity), a comprehensive piecewise linear model for the system is obtained. Then combined with the switch and shift between engaged gears in gearbox, the Piecewise Affine (PWA) model for the vehicle dynamics is acquired. As far as the... 

Laccase production by indigenous fungus, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, requires solving optimal problems to determine the maximum production of the enzyme within a definite time period and conditions specified in the solid-state fermentation process. For this purpose, parallel to response surface methodology, an analytical approach has been proposed based on the advanced concepts of Poisson geometry and Lie groups, which lead to a system of the Hamiltonian equations. Despite the dating of the Hamiltonian approach to solving biological problems, the novelty of this paper is based on the expression of a Hamiltonian system in notions of Poisson geometry, Lie algebras and symmetry groups and... 

The critical issue in designing correlated data networks like Wireless Sensor Networks is to minimize the total cost of data transmission in the network, and decrease the amount of data flow. The problem of finding optimal aggregation tree for correlated data gathering in single sink network is considered as an NP-Complete problem and hence heuristic methods are usually applied to solve it[1]. In this paper, we apply genetic algorithm (GA) to solve the problem. In our method, we improve the performance of genetic search by selecting proper initial population. This initial population is determined in two ways, by using Prime's algorithm, and shortest path tree. The main issue is to regard... 

Under voltage load shedding (UVLS) is one of the most powerful countermeasure and somehow an economical solution to sustain voltage stability especially for double or severe contingencies in power systems. In this paper the concept of dynamic security-constrained OPF is employed to develop a model for optimal UVLS. Considering dynamic voltage security, the presented model attempts to provide sufficient voltage stability margin for post contingency condition. This is done by means of interruption some portion of loads at minimum cost. The voltage stability margin, which is measured as a MW distance to the collapse point, is incorporated into the power flow equations. Although some powerful... 

In this study, we have proposed a novel method investigates MR-Images for normal and abnormal brains which effected by Alzheimer's Disease (AD) to extract 336 number of different features based on texture analysis. Before applying this algorithm, we have to use a registration method because of variety in size of normal and abnormal images. Consequently, the output of Texture Analysis System (TAS) is a vector containing 336 elements that are features extracted from texture. This vector is considered as the input of the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) which is feed-forward one. The features extracted from the Gray-level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) have been interpreted and compared with normal... 

In this paper, Analytic Hierarchy Process and Data Envelopment Analysis are introduced as multi attribute decision making techniques in planning of standalone micro-power systems. The objective of the planning framework is to select the best configuration and capacity of different generating technologies in micro-power systems to minimize certain economical and environmental attributes. The economical attributes are capital cost and net present cost and the environmental attribute is emission. The proposed framework is illustrated by a case study on a real network in northern region of Iran  

In this study, the nonlinear vibrations analysis of an inclined pinned-pinned self-weight Timoshenko beam made of linear, homogenous and isotropic material with a constant cross section and finite length subjected to a traveling mass/force with constant velocity is investigated. The nonlinear coupled partial differential equations of motion for the rotation of warped cross section, longitudinal and transverse displacements are derived using the Hamilton's principle. These nonlinear coupled PDEs are solved by applying the Galerkin's method to obtain dynamic responses of the beam. The dynamic magnification factor and normalized time histories of mid-point of the beam are obtained for various... 

Meshless methods are a relatively new type of numerical methods that have attracted the attention of many researchers over the past years. So far, a number of meshless methods have been developed and applied to solve problems in various fields of engineering, including solid mechanics and geotechnical problems. The Element-Free Galerkin (EFG) method is adopted in this study for solving the governing partial differential equations of equilibrium and continuity of pore fluid flow for numerical simulation of coupled hydro-mechanical problems. For this purpose, the weak form of the governing equations is derived by applying the weighted residual method and Galerkin technique. The penalty method... 

The city of Zahedan, in South-eastern Iran, has high population growth, limited local freshwater resources and inadequate water distribution system resulting in water supply failures in recent years. This paper will investigate integration of several demand management measures such as leakage detection on water distribution network, water metering and low volume water fixtures as well as the conjunctive use of surface and groundwater resources of this city. For integration of water management criteria, compromise programming will be used as a multi-objective decision making method. The criteria include minimizing the cost, maximizing water supply and minimizing the social hazards due to the...