Sharif Digital Repository

Design and development of fault diagnosis schemes (FDS) for electric power distribution systems are major steps in realizing the self-healing function of a smart distribution grid. The application of the FDS in the electric power distribution systems is mainly aimed at precise detecting and locating of the deteriorated components, thereby enhancing the quality and reliability of the electric power delivered to the customers. The impacts of two types of the FDS on distribution system reliability are compared and presented in this paper. The first type is a representative of the FDS which diagnoses the deteriorated components after their failing. However, the second type is a representative of... 

ANSI RBAC is a standard for a consistent and uniform definition on Role Based Access Control features and their functional specifications ANSI (2004) [1]. We analyze both static and dynamic separation of duty constraints specifications in the ANSI RBAC standard and evaluate their reliabilities. We then suggest necessary improvements for making them completely reliable  

This study proposes an approach for improving service reliability in the distribution network based on establishing competition among electric distribution utilities. The idea behind this approach is to categorise the utilities and compare the performance of utilities located in one cluster with the other members of the same cluster. The reward/penalty mechanism (RPM) as a quality regulating instrument is designed for each cluster and used to penalise the utilities with a performance worse than the benchmark and to reward them for providing a performance better than the benchmark. Based on the RPM, utilities located in one cluster compete to make more profit by serving customers in better... 

Solid-State Drives (SSDs) are recently employed in enterprise servers and high-end storage systems in order to enhance performance of storage subsystem. Although employing high speed SSDs in the storage subsystems can significantly improve system performance, it comes with significant reliability threat for write operations upon power failures. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis investigating the impact of workload dependent parameters on the reliability of SSDs under power failure for variety of SSDs (from top manufacturers). To this end, we first develop a platform to perform two important features required for study: A) a realistic fault injection into the SSD in the... 

The impact of an interline power-flow controller (IPFC) on composite system delivery point and overall system reliability indices is examined in this paper. In this application, the IPFC with dc transmission lines is employed in a system for coordinated control of line impedances of two, distance away, transmission lines with the objective of managing power flows on the two lines. It is also used to balance the real power being transferred between the compensated lines. For this purpose, the reliability model associated with a converter station has been developed and incorporated in an IPFC reliability model. A number of reliability indices are calculated at both the loadpoint and system... 

Structural reliability methods are employed in this paper for nationwide probabilistic seismic hazard analysis of Iran and in-depth seismic hazard and hazard sensitivity analysis of Downtown Tehran. The companion paper proposes two analysis approaches based on reliability methods and presents the technical framework for such analyses. The first approach was based on Monte Carlo sampling reliability analysis, which is employed here to conduct hazard analysis at a grid comprising 3695 sites throughout Iran. The results are used to produce nationwide hazard maps for the peak ground acceleration, spectral acceleration, and cumulative absolute velocity. The other analysis approach employs the... 

Reliability methods are employed in this paper to analyze the seismic risk to the Vancouver metropolitan region in Canada. The use of reliability methods contrasts with several contemporary approaches for risk analysis. In this paper, two analysis approaches are presented and implemented in a new computer program. One utilizes the first-order and second-order reliability methods together with a hazard combination technique. The other is a sampling-based method that repeatedly generates damage scenarios in the time period of interest. Both strategies employ the same collection of probabilistic models for seismic risk analysis. While the models are presented in the companion paper, this paper... 

A library of probabilistic models for prediction of seismic risk is presented. The models are specifically intended for use with reliability methods to compute event probabilities, such as seismic loss probabilities. Several models are presented here for the first time. In particular, new and generic models are proposed for earthquake location, regional loss, building response, building damage, and building loss. Each model is presented with an explanation of its development and a discussion of its predictions. In addition, models from the literature are " smoothed" to make them amenable to reliability analysis. The models are implemented in a new computer program that is tailored for... 

The modeling and evaluation of enormous numbers of contingencies are the most challenging impediments associated with composite power system adequacy assessment, particularly for large-scale power systems. Optimal power flow (OPF) solution, as a widely common approach, is normally employed to model and analyze each individual contingency as an independent problem. However, mathematical representations associated with diverse states are slightly different in one or a few generating units, line outages, or trivial load variations. This inherent attribute brings a promising idea to speed up the contingency evaluation procedure. In this paper, postoptimal analysis (POA), as a well-recognized... 

Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP) play a significant role in the management of businesses processes. Determining the influential factors that are positioned behind a successful ERP implementation is critical to gain the most value-added from competitive potentials of such systems. The driver of current research is to gain a deeper understanding of the various subjective criteria to measure ERP implementation success with the aim of enhancing the chance success through investigating ERP implementation performance indicators. By exploring the international literature, a comprehensive list of potential success factors of ERP systems is identified which are complementary and critical to... 

To scavenge the energy from the environment and extend the network lifetime, some wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been equipped with energy harvesters recently. However, the variable amount of environmental energy can affect the reliability of energy harvesting wireless sensor networks (EH-WSNs). In addition, data transmission over a wireless media is vulnerable. Hence, utilizing suitable error control schemes are necessary to improve the reliability. Regarding this point, Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) and Cooperative ARQ (C-ARQ) schemes are applied in this generation of WSNs. Conventional ARQ as well as C-ARQ scheme are considered and examined through simulation. A comparative... 

Reliability analysis in FPGA implementation of logic circuits is an important issue in designing fault tolerant systems for faulty environments. In this paper an analytical method is developed for analyzing such systems. This method is based on signal probability propagation of faults from the location of appearance to final outputs of circuit. Single fault model is used for the faults occurred in routes and LUTs. In addition reconvergent fan-outs are handled using 16 correlation coefficients propagation approach. Experimental results show a good agreement between this method and Monte Carlo method for reliability analysis of MCNC benchmarks  

Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) infrastructures have so far been brought into the huge amount of focus since the need for a more reliable power system accosting with the catastrophic events of interruptions has been raised. Hence, benefiting from an automation technology which can remotely monitor and coordinate commands to enable immediate response and switching are obviously inevitable. This paper outlines an implementable method in response to the goal of placement of remote terminal units (RTUs) which are in charge for data acquisition and control in a power distribution system. In this light, a new practical methodology based on the robust decision making (DM) method,... 

Contaminant materials in lubricants are signs for prediction and measurement of wear in engines. Therefore oil monitoring is considered as one of the most effective techniques for maintaining the heavy equipments. However based on oil analysis data, the identification of engine problem is very hard due to different contribution factors. Hence, this paper is purposed to analyze the wear behavior of some sets of selected heavy equipment engine based on documented oil analysis data during two years in different conditions to track engine failures using trend analysis. Furthermore the selected equipments are divided into two major groups (plantation and forestry, and general construction) based...