Sharif Digital Repository

The study deals with the design and optimization of external and internal geometry of micro-wind turbines blades. A specified objective function which consists of the power coefficient and the starting time was defined and the genetic algorithm optimization technique in conjunction with the blade-element momentum theory was adopted to find the geometry of the blades including the distributions of the chord, the twist angle and also the shell thickness. Moreover, the allowable stress of the blades was considered as a constraint to the objective function. Results show that a reasonable compromise is achievable such that the starting time of the blades reduces noticeably in return for a small... 

Since the air density reduces as altitude increases, operation of small wind turbines (SWTs), which usually have no pitch adjustment, remains challenging at high altitudes due largely to the reduction of starting aerodynamic torque. By reducing the moment of inertia through the use of hollow blades, this study aims to speed up the starting while maintaining the structural integrity of the blades and high output power. A horizontal axis turbine with hollow blades was designed for two sites in Iran with altitude of 500 m and 3000 m. The design variables are the distributions of the chord, twist, and shell thickness and the improvement of output power and starting are the design goals.... 

In this study, the effect of protection methods regarding the corrosion decrement of steel in concrete was simulated by artificial neural networks (ANNs) and fuzzy logic (FL) approaches. Hot dip galvanizing as a protective coating, Ferrogard 901 corrosion inhibitor, a pozzolanic component, such as fly ash (FA) and micro-silica (MS), and eventually rebar AISI-304 were employed in concrete. Reinforced concrete samples were held under impressed voltage of 30 V in 3.5 % NaCl electrolyte for 350 hours toward a stainless-steel auxiliary electrode. Corrosion currents have been modelled using feed forward back propagation ANNs and FL methods. The results demonstrate good consistency between... 

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of P 2O5 particle size distribution on the crystalline phases and microstructure of lithium disilicate glass-ceramics derived from the TiO2-ZrO2-Li2O-CaO-Al2O 3-SiO2 system for dentistry applications. The samples were made via fusion and casting procedure. Crystallisation as well as the morphology and microstructure of the samples were investigated using X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetric and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that the crystallisation of the samples occurred in the range of 500-650°C. The main crystalline phase was lithium disilicate (Li2Si2O5) along with Lithium metasilicate (Li2SiO3),... 

The process of self-color anodizing of titanium is done in acidic and alkaline solutions, and anodic films of different colors are formed. Results of this work show that the corrosion rate of titanium decreased after the application of an anodizing layer  

Partial state estimation of dynamical systems provides significant advantages in practical applications. Likewise, pre-compensator design for multi variable systems invokes considerable increase in the order of the original system. Hence, applying functional observer to pre-compensated systems can result in lower computational costs and more practicability in some applications such as fault diagnosis and output feedback control of these systems. In this note, functional observer design is investigated for pre-compensated systems. A lower order pre-compensator is designed based on a H2 norm optimization that is designed as the solution of a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Next, a... 

The study develops a methodology for the aero-structural design including consideration of the starting of a small wind turbine blade. To design a fast-starting blade, starting time was combined with output power in an objective function and the blade allowable stress was considered as a constraint. The output power and the starting time were calculated by the blade-element momentum theory and the simple beam theory was employed to compute the stress and deflection along the blade. A genetic algorithm was employed to solve the constrained objective function, finding an optimal blade for which the starting time was small and output power was high while the stress limitation was also met.... 

In this research, we simulate the corrosive behavior of steel reinforcements on 5 different mixtures to investigate the effect of two powerful protective methods, including pozzolanic additives and corrosion inhibitor on concrete, by artificial neural networks (ANNs). Related to this model, fly ash (FA), micro silica (MS), and slag were used as pozzolanic materials at an optimum 25%, 10%, and 25% of cement weight, respectively. Moreover, Ferrogard 901 as an inhibitor was also utilized. The producer recommends using12 kg/m3 to get the best possible results. The non-linear corrosion of concrete into a marine solution (3.5% NaCl) was simulated by the feed forward back propagation (FFBP)... 

In this research, we simulate the corrosive behavior of steel reinforcements on 5 different mixtures to investigate the effect of two powerful protective methods, including pozzolanic additives and corrosion inhibitor on concrete, by artificial neural networks (ANNs). Related to this model, fly ash (FA), micro silica (MS), and slag were used as pozzolanic materials at an optimum 25%, 10%, and 25% of cement weight, respectively. Moreover, Ferrogard 901 as an inhibitor was also utilized. The producer recommends using12 kg/m3 to get the best possible results. The non-linear corrosion of concrete into a marine solution (3.5% NaCl) was simulated by the feed forward back propagation (FFBP)... 

Corrosion of steel rebars in concrete can reduce the durability of concrete structures in coastal environments. The corrosion rate of these concrete structures can be reduced by using suitable concrete additives and coating on rebars. This paper investigates the corrosion resistance of steel rebars by the addition of pozzolanic materials including fly ash, silica fume, polypropylene fibers, and industrial 2-dimethylaminoethanol (FerroGard 901) inhibitors to the concrete mixture. Three different types of rebars including mild steel rebar st37, and two stainless steel reinforcements, AISI 304 and AISI 316, were used. Various types of primer and coating including alkyd based primer, hot-dip... 

In this paper, a novel temperature-dependent multi-scale method is developed to investigate the role of temperature on surface effects in the analysis of nano-scale materials. In order to evaluate the temperature effect in the micro-scale (atomic) level, the temperature related Cauchy–Born hypothesis is implemented by employing the Helmholtz free energy, as the energy density of equivalent continua relating to the inter-atomic potential. The multi-scale technique is applied in atomistic level (nano-scale) to exhibit the temperature related characteristics. The first Piola–Kirchhoff stress and tangential stiffness tensor are computed, as the first and second derivatives of the free energy... 

The grain size dependence of flow stress in Cu-2.7 vol.%Al2O3 (15 nm) composite with a bimodal structure was studied. It is shown that the yield strength obeys the Hall-Petch equation when an appropriate value of average grain size based on the "rule of mixture" is employed. The Hall-Petch constants (σ0ε and kε) are proportional to strain as ε0.5. An equation for flow stress as a function of true strain and average grain size is proposed. The effect of alumina nanoparticles on the yield strength is shown to be related to large amounts of dislocations density. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved  

Operational modal analysis based on power spectral density transmissibility (PSDT) functions is a useful tool to identify the modal parameters with low sensitivity to excitations. For pole extraction from the PSDT function, a proper parametric identification method such as the polyreference least squares complex frequency-domain method or poly-Max method can be used. Then, the poles are selected from a stabilization diagram (SD) with overestimating the system model order. Therefore, spurious modes can be identified that must be distinguished and removed from the system poles. To reach this aim, many techniques have been proposed and applied. In this paper, a new algorithm is proposed to... 

Cu-2.7 vol.% Al2O3 (15 nm) composite was synthesized by an internal oxidation and hot extrusion process. The grain growth at elevated temperatures was studied and compared with extruded copper powder. Abnormal grain growth via a mechanism analogous to that of site-saturated phase transformation was observed. The critical grain size for the abnormal growth was determined to be 1.1 ± 0.2 μm. The growth rate decreased with time until the grain size approaching a final value ranging from 7.9 to 13.3 μm depending on the temperature. © 2008 Acta Materialia Inc  

Fifteen years after introduction of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) and a series of successful and not-so-successful BPR implementation, a revised methodology is needed to incorporate cases of major and sudden organizational or environmental changes with BPR. The new methodology can also be particularly applicable to project oriented businesses. September 11, Tsunami, and other major world events show that nothing is constant but change. A reengineered process may only stay as the environment factors stay the same. Therefore, the processes can no longer be the central focus of reengineering, but the output needs. Technology has enabled us to refocus and apply reengineering constantly to...