Sharif Digital Repository

In this paper dynamic strain ageing behavior in an Al-Mg-Si alloy related to equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) was investigated. In order to examine the combined plastic deformation and ageing effects on microstructure evolutions and strengthening characteristics, the Al6061 alloy were subjected to φ=90° ECAP die for up to 4 passes via route Bc at high temperatures. For investigating the effects of ageing temperature and strain rate in ECAP, Vickers hardness tests were performed. The combination of the ECAP process with dynamic ageing at higher temperatures resulted in a significant increase in hardness. The microstructural evolution of the samples was studied using electron... 

While the transistor density continues to grow exponentially in Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), the increased leakage current of CMOS transistors act as a power wall for the aggressive integration of transistors in a single die. One recently trend to alleviate the power wall in FPGAs is to turn off inactive regions of the silicon die, referred to as dark silicon. This paper presents a reconfigurable architecture to enable effective fine-grained power gating of unused Logic Blocks (LBs) in FPGAs. In the proposed architecture, the traditional soft logic is replaced with Mega Cells (MCs), each consists of a set of complementary Generic Reconfigurable Hard Logic (GRHL) and a conventional... 

To attain an ongoing electricity economy, developing novel widespread electricity supply systems based on diverse energy resources are critically important. Several photovoltaic (PV) technologies exist, which cause various pathways to produce electricity from solar energy. This paper evaluates the competition between three influential solar technologies based on photovoltaic technique to find the optimal pathways for satisfying the electricity demand: (1) multicrystalline silicon; (2) copper, indium, gallium, and selenium (CIGS); and (3) multijunction. Besides the technical factors, there are other effective parameters such as cost, operability, feasibility, and capacity that should be... 

The effects of relaxation and nanocrystallization on magnetic properties of (Fe0.5Co0.5)73.5Si13.5B 9Nb3Cu1 ribbons have been investigated. Ribbons were melt-spun at wheel speed of 38 m/s and then annealed at different temperatures. The results indicated that the relaxation processes shift the Curie temperature of amorphous phase to the higher temperatures. It was also found that through crystallization phenomena the saturation magnetization increases due to the super-exchange between Fe and Co atoms in the crystalline phase. A slight variation in magnetization was observed at ~700 °lC during heating due to the ordering transition in FeCo system. At early stage of crystalline phase... 

Conventional continuum theory does not account for contributions from length scale effects which are important in modeling of nano-beams. Failure to include size-dependent contributions can lead to underestimates of deflection, stresses, and pull-in voltage of electrostatic actuated micro and nano-beams. This research aims to use nonlocal and strain gradient elasticity theories to study the static behavior of electrically actuated micro- and nano-beams. To solve the boundary value nonlinear differential equations, analogue equation and Gauss–Seidel iteration methods are used. Both clamped-free and clamped–clamped micro- and nano-beams under electrostatical actuation are considered where... 

Cu/SiC nanocomposite powders with homogeneously distributed nanosize SiC particles were produced by high energy mechanical milling (MM). Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and micro-hardness and density measurements were performed to understand the effects of microstructure and hardness on compaction behavior during MM. The effects of SiC nanoparticle content and mechanical milling time on apparent density (AD) and tap density (TD) of the nanocomposite powders were systematically investigated. The Hausner ratio (HR), defined as TD to AD, were estimated to evaluate friction between the particles. Increasing MM duration and SiC content resulted... 

We study the thermal properties of ultra-narrow silicon nanowires (NW) with diameters from 3 nm to 12 nm. We use the modified valence-force-field method for computation of phononic dispersion and the Boltzmann transport equation for calculation of phonon transport. Phonon dispersion in ultra-narrow 1D structures differs from dispersion in the bulk and dispersion in thicker NWs, which leads to different thermal properties. We show that as the diameter of the NW is reduced the density of long-wavelength phonons per cross section area increases, which increases their relative importance in carrying heat compared with the rest of the phonon spectrum. This effect, together with the fact that... 

Plasmonic Sierpinski nanocarpet as back structure for a thin film Si solar cell is investigated. We demonstrate that ultra-broadband light trapping can be obtained by placing square metallic nanoridges with Sierpinski pattern on the back contact of the thin film solar cell. The multiple-scale plasmonic fractal structure allows excitation of localized surface plasmons and surface plasmon polaritons in multiple wavelengths leading to obvious absorption enhancements in a wide frequency range. Full wave simulations show that 109 % increase of the short-circuit current density for a 200 nm thick solar cell, is achievable by the proposed fractal back structure. The amount of light absorbed in the... 

In this study the influence of precipitates on the mechanical properties and plastic anisotropy of an age hardenable aluminum alloy during uniaxial loading was investigated using crystal plasticity modeling. The kinetics model of Myhr et al. was used to obtain the solute and precipitate features after different cycles of aging treatment. The amounts of solute, precipitate size and volume fraction, and dislocation density varying during deformation, were used to calculate the slip system strength. An explicit term was obtained based on the elastic inclusion model for the directional dependency of internal stress developed by non-shearable rod shape precipitates. Also, a dislocation evolution... 

We present a new method for modeling and design of photonic crystal nano-beam resonators (PCNBRs) based on cascaded transmission lines. The proposed model provides an accurate estimate of the PCNBRs properties such as resonance wavelength and quality factor (Q) with much smaller computation cost as compared to the brute-force numerical methods. Furthermore, we have developed a straightforward technique for the design of high-Q PCNBRs based on resonance modes with Gaussian electromagnetic field profiles. The results obtained by using the proposed transmission line model are compared against numerical and experimental results and the accuracy of the model is verified. The proposed model... 

Functionally graded aluminum matrix composites (FGAMC) are new advanced materials with promising applications due to their unique characteristics in which composite nature is combined with graded structure. Different architectures of Al6061/SiCp composite laminates were fabricated by successive hot roll-bonding. For FGAMCs, two composite layers as outer strips and a layer of Al1050 as interlayer were applied. To investigate laminate toughness, the quasi-static three-point bending test was conducted in the crack divider orientation. Genetic programming as a soft computing technique was implemented to find mathematical correlations between architectural parameters and experimentally obtained... 

In this research, FINEMET alloy with composition of Fe73.5Si13.5B9Nb3Cu1 was produced by mechanical alloying from elemental powders. The effect of milling time on the magnetic and structural properties of alloy has been investigated using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and vibrating sample magnetometery. The results showed that milling for 53 hr leads to the formation of Fe supersaturated solid solution which includes Si, B and Nb atoms with mean crystallite size of ~30 nm. The shift of the main peak of Fe to the higher angles indicated that Si and B atoms dissolve in the Fe solid solution, at primary stage of mechanical alloying, up to the... 

We show a methodology for how to construct Dirac points that occur at the corners of Brillouin zone as the Photonic counterparts of graphene. We use a triangular lattice with circular holes on a silicon substrate to create a Coupled Photonic Crystal Resonator Array (CPCRA) which its cavity resonators play the role of carbon atoms in graphene. At first we draw the band structure of our CPCRA using the tight-binding method. For this purpose we first designed a cavity which its resonant frequency is approximately at the middle of the first H-polarization band gap of the basis triangular lattice. Then we obtained dipole modes and magnetic field distribution of this cavity using the Finite... 

Kinetics of crystallization in an amorphous (Fe0.5Co 0.5)77Si11B9Cu0.6Nb 2.4 (at.%) alloy was investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Transformed fraction as a function of temperature was obtained by accurate DSC measurement and the experimental data analyzed with Vyazovkin model-free kinetic method. Reconstructed form of the experimental kinetics model, g(α), clearly showed the crystallization mechanism do not belongs to a single model but almost follows the Avrami-Erofe'ev. Magnetic coercivity and hysteresis loss values of the annealed samples at 823 K were 7.5 A m-1 and 1.2 J m-3, compared to 17.1 A m-1 and 37.1 J m-3 for as spun samples. Magnetic measurements show the... 

This article presents the cyclic behavior of the A356.0 aluminum alloy under low-cycle fatigue (or isothermal) and thermo-mechanical fatigue loadings. Since the thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF) test is time consuming and has high costs in comparison to low-cycle fatigue (LCF) tests, the purpose of this research is to use LCF test results to predict the TMF behavior of the material. A time-independent model, considering the combined nonlinear isotropic/kinematic hardening law, was used to predict the TMF behavior of the material. Material constants of this model were calibrated based on room-temperature and high-temperature low-cycle fatigue tests. The nonlinear isotropic/kinematic hardening... 

In transient liquid phase (TLP) bonding for commercial applications, one of the important key parameters is the holding time required for complete isothermal solidification tIS, which is a prerequisite for obtaining a proper bond microstructure. The objective of the study is to analyse the isothermal solidification kinetics during TLP bonding of cast IN718 nickel based superalloy. Experiments for TLP bonding were carried out using a Ni-7Cr-4.5Si-3Fe-3.2B (wt-%) amorphous interlayer at several bonding temperatures (1273-1373 K). The time required to obtain TLP joints free from centreline eutectic microconstituents was experimentally determined. Considering the solidification behaviour of... 

In this paper, a new fatigue lifetime prediction model is presented for the aluminium-silicon-magnesium alloy, A356.0. This model is based on the plastic strain energy density per cycle including two correction factors in order to consider the effect of the mean stress and the maximum temperature. The thermal term considers creep and oxidation damages in A356.0 alloy. To calibrate the model, isothermal fatigue and out-of-phase thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF) tests were conducted on the A356.0 alloy. Results showed an improvement in predicting fatigue lifetimes by the present model in comparison with classical theories and also the plastic strain energy density (without any correction... 

Data are presented on the solidification of aluminum alloys and their macro segregation behavior. Three alloys with different solidification ranges were prepared in two temperatures. Two types of molds were also prepared by sand and metallic materials. The solidification of Al alloys were studied and the effects of four parameters were determined, including cooling rate, casting temperature, degassing and nucleation effects on solidification and a comparison was conducted to Scheil model performance. Three types of aluminum alloys (Al-12.1%Si, Al-6.9%Si and Al-4.4% Cu) with short, medium and wide solidification ranges were studied and the results showed that degassing, nucleation, increasing... 

We present a technology for the manufacturing of silicon- filled integrated waveguides enabling the realization of lowloss high-performance millimeter-wave passive components and high gain array antennas, thus facilitating the realization of highly integrated millimeter-wave systems. The proposed technology employs deep reactive-ion-etching (DRIE) techniques with aluminum metallization steps to integrate rectangular waveguides with high geometrical accuracy and continuousmetallic side walls. Measurement results of integrated rectangular waveguides are reported exhibiting losses of 0.15 dB/ at 105GHz.Moreover, ultra-wideband coplanar to waveguide transitions with 0.6 dB insertion loss at 105... 

Researchers have examined different approaches to improve damage tolerance of discontinuously reinforced aluminum (DRA). In this study, three-layer DRA laminates containing two exterior layers of Al6061-15 vol.% SiCp and an interlayer of Al1050 were fabricated by hot roll bonding. Interfacial adhesion between the layers was controlled by means of rolling stain. The results of shear test revealed that, the bonding strength of laminates was influenced by number of rolling passes. Considering this effect, the role of interfacial bonding on the toughness of laminates was studied under three-point bending in the crack divider orientation. The quasi-static toughness of the laminates was greater...