Sharif Digital Repository

The objective of this research is to diagnose an inaccessible rolling bearing by indirect vibration measurement. In this study, a shaft supported with several bearings is considered. It is assumed that the vibration for at least one bearing is not recordable. The purpose is to diagnose inaccessible bearing by the recorded data from the sensors located on the other bearings. To achieve this goal, the continuous wavelet transform is used to detect weak signatures in the available vibration signals. A new criterion for adjusting the scale parameter of continuous wavelet transform is proposed based on the amplitude of the bearing characteristic frequencies. In this criterion, the optimal scale... 

One of the challenges in predicting the remaining useful life (RUL) of rolling element bearings (REBs) is determining a proper failure threshold (FT). In the literature, the FT is usually assumed to be a constant value of an extracted feature from the vibration signals. In this study, a degradation indicator was extracted to describe damage to REBs by applying principal component analysis (PCA) to their run-to-failure data. The relationship between this degradation indicator and the vibration peak was represented through a joint probability distribution using statistical copula models. The FT was proposed as a probability distribution based on the fluctuation increase in the vibration trend.... 

Hand in hand with the flourish of the biodiesel industry, glycerol (GLY) as an inconvenient by-product has generated environmental and sustainability concerns. Devising measures for efficient transformation of GLY into value-added products is a promising solution. In this contribution, the transformation of GLY to lactic acid (LA) as a valuable chemical was investigated in a continuous process for industrial applications. In this regard, a catalytic method using heterogeneous Cu nanoparticles in NaOH solution was studied in a microreactor by a CFD simulation. A seven-inlet micromixer comprising an optimized mixing unit was incorporated for uniform distribution of the species. The effects of... 

Periodic cycles of flood and drought are aggravated by global warming, thereby inducing critical desiccation cracks in soils. However, the estimation and prevention of crack propagation is imperfect due to the imprecise field measurements and the underlying soil uncertainties. To address these issues, this study presents an alternative framework to assess the probability of crack propagation. Thus, a series of Monte Carlo sampling (MCS) and Gaussian random fields are employed to quantify the associated uncertainties. The results suggest that matric suction has a governing effect in the course of crack propagation and induces cracking particularly at shallow depths. Crack propagation tends to... 

Static recrystallization and microstructural changes in austenitic stainless steel 304L were studied. The rolling experiments at 200 °C were carried out, and then, annealing treatment was made at temperatures ranging between 500 and 830 °C. A model was also developed to simulate the kinetics of non-isothermal recrystallization within the rolled steel. The distribution of plastic strains during rolling was predicted utilizing an elastic–plastic finite element formulation performed in ABAQUS/Explicit, while the predicted results were used to generate the as-rolled microstructure and to estimate the stored energy. Finally, microstructural–thermal model based on cellular automata was developed... 

In this work, non-isothermal annealing of cold-rolled 304L austenitic stainless steel was studied at temperatures ranging between 400 and 800 °C. In the first place, a dual-phase structure containing work-hardened austenite and strain-induced martensite was produced by means of multi-pass plate rolling, and then, the deformed steel was subjected to annealing heat treatments. To determine the distribution of stored strain energy in the rolling operations, an elastic–plastic finite-element modeling was conducted. Afterwards, an artificial neural network technique was coupled with the thermal-cellular automata model for prediction of martensite reversion, temperature history, and... 

A new conceptual framework of collective orientation in team contexts has recently been proposed in terms of vertical and horizontal dimensions of idiocentrism and allocentrism. A two-phase longitudinal study of 270 university students engaged in 86 academic groups partly confirmed the conceptualization by identifying four interpretable factors: vertical and horizontal idiocentrism, horizontal allocentrism, and avoiding arguments. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and a structural model of relationships between the four dimensions in both phases of the study are reported in this article. © 2007 Sage Publications