Sharif Digital Repository

k-medoids algorithm is a partitional, centroid-based clustering algorithm which uses pairwise distances of data points and tries to directly decompose the dataset with n points into a set of k disjoint clusters. However, k-medoids itself requires all distances between data points that are not so easy to get in many applications. In this paper, we introduce a new method which requires only a small proportion of the whole set of distances and makes an effort to estimate an upperbound for unknown distances using the inquired ones. This algorithm makes use of the triangle inequality to calculate an upper-bound estimation of the unknown distances. Our method is built upon a recursive approach to... 

Multi-phase flows, particularly two-phase flows, are widely used in the industries, hence in order to predict flow regime, pressure drop, heat transfer, and phase change, two-phase flows should be studied more precisely. In the petroleum industry, separation of phases such as water from petroleum is done using rotational flow and vortices; thus, the evolution of the vortex in two-phase flow should be considered. One method of separation requires the flow to enter a long tube in a free vortex. Investigating this requires sufficient knowledge of free vortex flow in a tube. The present study examined the evolution of tube-constrained two-phase free vortex using computational fluid dynamics. The... 

Structural, half-metallic, magneto-optic, and thermoelectric properties of CrTiZ (Z = As, P) half-Heusleres compounds are investigated based on density functional theory. These compounds have mechanical stability in the ferromagnetic state with a high bulk modulus. They are often half-metallic with a large and integer magnetic moment and are very attractive in spintronics, magneto-optics applications. The magnetic moments of CrTiAs and CrTiP were 2.9865 μB and 3.00 μB, respectively, which were attributed to their ferromagnetic phase. Additionally, the positive sign of the phonon branches indicates the dynamic stability of these compounds. Applying both GGA and mBJ approximations, CrTiAs and... 

Purpose: The morphological stability of silicon single crystal wafers was investigated, after performing cleaning surface treatments based on moderate temperature annealing and plasma sputtering. Methods: The wafer surfaces were measured by Tapping mode atomic force microscopy in air, before and after the different treatments. The 3D images were segmented by watershed algorithm identifying the local peaks, and the stereometric parameters were extracted thereof. The analysis of variance allowed to better assess the statistically significant differences. Results: All the resulting quantities were critically discussed. It appeared that the different cleaning treatments affected differently the... 

In this study, ZrO2 coatings with different thicknesses were grown by the electron beam evaporation technique. The crystalline structure was studied by XRD analysis which suggested the tetragonal and monoclinic phases for ZrO2 coatings. Additionally, the film thickness slightly enhanced the crystallinity. The surface morphology and fractal features were analyzed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The surface statistical parameters and the fractal geometry were employed to analyze the impact of the coating thickness and homogeneity on the morphology of the films. The statistical processing and fractal dimension revealed variations in the morphology parameters due to the electron beam... 

On silicon substrates, boron nitride nanosheets (BNNS) consisting of interconnected hexagonal boron nitride nano-layers were produced via chemical vapor deposition process at 1200 °C whose roughness's are at the micrometer- and nanometer-scale. The BNNS were functionalized in argon plasma admixed with ammonia or nitrogen or oxygen. The samples were characterized to investigate the surface chemistry and structural changes after plasma treatment using X-ray photoelectron spectroscope and Micro-Raman spectroscope techniques, respectively. While no significant changes in the surface features, upon plasma treatments of the BNNS, were noticed during SEM and TEM examination, the oxygen functional... 

Thin films of bismuth and iron oxides were obtained by atomic layer deposition (ALD) on the surface of a flexible substrate poly(4,4′-oxydiphenylene-pyromellitimide) (Kapton) at a temperature of 250°C. The layer thickness was 50 nm. The samples were examined by secondary-ion mass spectrometry, and uniform distribution of elements in the film layer was observed. Surface morphology, electrical polarization, and mechanical properties were investigated by atomic force microscope, piezoelectric force microscopy, and force modulation microscopy. The values of current in the near-surface layer varied in the range of ±80 pA when a potential of 5 V was applied. Chemical analysis was performed by... 

The micromorphology of tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5) thin films, deposited on glass substrates by electron gun method, has been analyzed using atomic force microscopy (AFM), UV–Vis–NIR spectrophotometry and multifractal analyses. Two samples were grown at basic pressure of 7 × 10−6 mbar, work pressures of 1.3 × 10−4 and 2.0 × 10−4 mbar, and thicknesses of 0.38 μm and 0.39 μm, respectively. Subsequently, these samples were annealed at 300 °C for 2 h. The physical, structural and optical analyses were investigated by spectroscopic ellipsometry, spectrophotometry and AFM. The measured transmittance spectra were studied based on the Swanepoel method, whose results also yielded to the estimation of...