Sharif Digital Repository

Traditionally, the model of a resource-constrained project-scheduling problem (RCPSP) contains a single objective function of either minimizing project makespan or maximizing project net present value (NPV). In order to be more realistic, in this paper, two multi-objective meta-heuristic algorithms of multi-population and two-phase sub-population genetic algorithms are proposed to find Pareto front solutions that minimize the project makespan and maximize the project NPV of a RCPSP, simultaneously. Based on standard test problems constructed by the RanGen project generator, a comprehensive computational experiment is performed, where response surface methodology is employed to tune the... 

In this study, application of the Response Surface Methodology and the Central Composite Design (CCD) technique for modeling and optimization of the influence of several operating variables on titanium recovery in a leaching process were investigated. The four main leaching parameters, namely temperature, acid concentration, leaching time and solid to liquid ratio, were changed during-the leaching experiments based on the CCD. A total of 30 leaching experiments were designed and carried out in the CCD method according to software-based designed matrix. According to the results, i.e., titanium recoveries with these four parameters as well as empirical model equations were developed. The model... 

Finesmigration is a noticeable problem in petroleum-production engineering. Plugging of throats in porous media occurs because of detachment of fine particles from sand surfaces. Thus, the study of interactions between fines and pore surfaces and the investigation of governing forces are important factors to consider when describing the mechanism of the fines-release process. The main types of these forces are electric double-layer repulsion (DLR) and London-van der Waals attraction (LVA). It may be possible to alter these forces with nanoparticles (NPs) as surface coatings. In comparison with repulsion forces, NPs increase the effect of attraction forces. In this paper, we present new... 

Response surface methodology (RSM) explores the relationships between several explanatory variables and one or more response variables. The main idea of RSM is to use a set of designed experiments to obtain an optimal response. RSM tries to simplify the original problem through some polynomial estimation over small sections of the feasible area, elaborating on optimum provision through a well known optimization technique, say Gradient Method. As the real world problems are usually very complicated, polynomial estimation may not perform well in providing a good representation of the objective function. Also, the main problem of the Gradient Method, getting trapped in local minimum (maximum),... 

Forming limit diagrams (FLDs) are extensively used in industries, particularly the auto industry. The establishment of these diagrams using a predictive approach can lead to reduction in both cost and time. In the present work, Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman (GTN), a porosity-based model, was used to predict the FLD of an interstitial-free steel via finite element simulation. Optimum values of the GTN model were obtained by applying a response surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite design. Results show that RSM is a good method for an appropriate determination of the GTN model parameters, such as initial void volume fraction, effective void volume fraction, critical void volume... 

Titanium alloys, in particular Ti6Al4V, are increasingly used recently due to high strength-to-weight ratio, biocompatibility and robust mechanical-properties at high temperatures. However, Ti6Al4V have poor machinability because of their poor thermal conductivity and high reactivity. Usually in conventional grinding (CG) of these alloys, surface burning is unavoidable. Ultrasonic assisted grinding (UAG) is an efficient method for overcoming the poor machinability of such materials. In this research, effect of imposed vibration on grinding of Ti6Al4V is studied. Obtained results show forces and surface roughness are reduced 18% and 12% by UAG comparing to CG respectively. It also results in... 

This paper discusses the studies carried out for the optimal production of enzyme l-asparaginase (l-asparagine amidohydrolase, EC 3.5.1.1) from Escherichia coli (ATCC 11303). It was found that inoculum age of 18 h and inoculum size of 10% were the most favorable operating conditions for enzyme production. Lactose, yeast extract and KH 2PO 4 were found to be the best carbon, nitrogen and ion sources, respectively. Statistical method was used to survey how various medium conditions affect the enzyme production. By response surface methodology, the values of lactose, tryptone, yeast extract, KH 2PO 4 and l-asparagine concentration were investigated to obtain the maximum enzyme activity. The... 

The technological and clinical need for orthopedic replacement materials has led to significant advances in the field of nanomedicine, which embraces the breadth of nanotechnology from pharmacological agents and surface modification through to regulation and toxicology. A variety of nanostructures with unique chemical, physical, and biological properties have been engineered to improve the functionality and reliability of implantable medical devices. However, mimicking living bone tissue is still a challenge. The scope of this review is to highlight the most recent accomplishments and trends in designing nanomaterials and their applications in orthopedics with an outline on future directions... 

A molybdate-based heterogeneous magnetic catalyst was synthesized and used in direct oxidation of various primary and secondary organic halides to the corresponding aldehydes and ketones using 30% H2O2 as an oxidant in ethanol. Various organic halides were oxidized to their corresponding aldehydes and ketones in good to excellent yields. The catalyst system can be easily separated by applying an external magnetic field and reused for 6 runs without any significant loss of catalytic activity. The catalyst was fully characterized by FT-IR, SEM, TEM, EDS, XRD, VSM, ICP-AES techniques, and elemental analysis (CHN)  

The optimization of leaching parameters for the Ni recovery of the used catalyst was developed using response surface methodology. The relationship between the Ni recoveries, and four main leaching parameters, temperature, acid concentration, leaching time and particle size were presented as empirical model equations. The predicted values of nickel recoveries were found to be in a reasonable agreement with the experimental values, with R2 as correlation factor being 0.9669 and 0.9869 for sulfuric and nitric acids, respectively. The model equations were then optimized using the quadratic programming method to maximize nickel recovery. The optimum conditions were found to be 103.4°C... 

Lake surface temperature is an important indicator of the lake state and a driver of regional weather and climate near large lakes. The objective of this study is to use thermal imagery from the MODIS on board the Earth Observing System Terra and Aqua platforms to assess the spatial and temporal variations in Urmia lake temperature. Urmia Lake, located in northwestern Iran is one of the largest permanent hypersaline lakes in the world. The surface temperature of Urmia Lake is examined between 2008 and 2009, as dry years. MODIS-derived lake SWT then was calibrated with monthly observations. MODIS-derived lake SWT exhibits a cool bias (-0.72°C) relative to in situ temperature observations in... 

Surfaces and interfaces behave differently from their bulk counterparts especially when the dimensions approach small scales. The recent studies have shown that the surface/interface free energy (surface stress) plays an important role in the effective mechanical properties of solids with nanosized inhomogeneities. In this work, within a micromechanical framework, the effect of surface stress is taken into account to obtain a macroscopic yield function for nanoporous materials containing cylindrical nanovoids. Gurtin-Murdoch model of surface elasticity is incorporated in the generalized self-consistent method to obtain a closed-form expression for the transverse shear modulus of transversely... 

Direct CO dissociation is seen the main path of the first step in the Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis (FTS) on the reactive iron surfaces. Cu/Fe alloy film is addressed with various applications over face-centered-cubic (fcc)-Cu and body-centered-cubic (bcc)-Fe in the FTS, i.e. preventing iron carbide formation (through direct CO dissociation) by moderating the surface reactivity and facilitating the reduction of iron surfaces, respectively. In this study by density functional theory, the stable configurations of CO molecule on various Cu/Fe alloys over fcc-Cu(100) and bcc-Fe(100) surfaces with different CO coverage (25% and 50%) have been evaluated. Our results showed that the ensemble effect... 

This research has investigated the effect of certain geometric parameters on cooling performance of three vortex tubes. The influencing parameters include three length/diameter ratios L/D = 10, 25, 40, three nozzle cases and each case with number n = 2, 4, 6 nozzles, three cold orifice/diameter ratios β = 0.389, 0.5, 0.611 and three inlet pressures Pi = 2, 2.5 and 3 bar. The experiments are conducted based on three factors, two-level and central composite face-centred design with full factorial. The results are analysed according to the principle of response surface methodology. The goodness of fit of the regression model is inspected using the analysis of variance and F-ratio test. The... 

Surface/interface stresses, when notable, are closely associated with a surface/interface layer in which the interatomic bond lengths and charge density distribution differ remarkably from those of the bulk. The presence of such topographical defects as edges and corners amplifies the noted phenomena by large amounts. If the principal features of interest are such studies as the physics and mechanics of evolving microscopic-/nanoscopic-interfaces and the behavior of nano-sized structures which have a very large surface-to-volume ratio, traditional continuum theories cease to hold. It is for the treatment of such problems that augmented continuum approaches like second strain gradient and... 

Surface urban heat island (SUHI) is defined as the elevated land surface temperature (LST) in urban area in comparison with non-urban areas, and it can influence the energy consumption, comfort and health of urban residents. In this study, the existence of daytime SUHI, in Cairo and its new towns during the summer, is investigated using three different approaches; (1) utilization of pre-urbanization observations as LST references; (2) utilization of rural observations as LST references (urban-rural difference); and (3) utilization of the SIUHI (Surface Intra Urban Heat Island) approach. A time series of Landsat TM & ETM+ data (46 images) from 1984 to 2015 was employed in this study for... 

We have conducted Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations with the Environment-Dependent Interatomic Potential (EDIP) to obtain the natural frequency of ultra-thin Silicon Nanowires (SiNWs) with various crystallographic structures, boundary conditions and dimensions. As expected, results show that the mechanical properties of SiNWs are size-/orientation-dependent. The observed phenomena are ascribed to the surface effects which become dominant due to the large surface-to-volume number of atoms at the investigated range of dimensions. Due to their accuracy, atomistic simulations are widely accepted for the investigations of such nano-scaled systems; however, they suffer from high computational... 

Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA), Glycerol (G) and sunflower oil blends with varying concentration were subjected to enzymatic esterification using a 1, 3-specific immobilized lipase. CLA was used as acyl due to its purported health benefits. The transesterified lipids were evaluated for free fatty acids (FFA) and composition of fatty acids by gas chromatography. Lipozyme RM IM is preferred for enzymatic esterification because of more CLA incorporation and less free fatty acids at the end of reaction than Lipozyme TL IM. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to determine the effects of three variables Glycerol concentration, reaction temperature, and amount of enzyme on the lipase... 

In this study, for the first time a statistical analysis based on the response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to investigate individual and interaction effects of key operating parameters of the photocatalytic degradation under visible-light irradiation using Ag-S/PEG/TiO2. Ag-S/PEG/TiO2 is a visible-light-driven photocatalyst and was synthesized (based on earlier research) by co-doping of TiO2 with silver and sulphur and addition of polyethylene glycol (as a reagent template). In addition, the model pollutant was methylene orange (MO) and the studied operating parameters included the photocatalyst loading, initial concentration of the pollutant, and pH of the solution. The... 

As the ordinary least squares (OLS) method is very sensitive to outliers as well as to correlated responses, a robust coefficient estimation method is proposed in this paper for multi-response surfaces in multistage processes based on M-estimators. In this approach, experimental designs are used in which the intermediate response variables may act as covariates in the next stages. The performances of both the ordinary multivariate OLS and the proposed robust multi-response surface approach are analyzed and compared through extensive simulation experiments. Sum of the squared errors in estimating the regression coefficients reveals the efficiency of the proposed robust approach. © 2017 Taylor...