Sharif Digital Repository

The effect of tungsten and nitrogen on the as cast and the creep aged microstructures of heat resistant HP-Nb steel was studied. The steel was directionally solidified under two cooling rates of 31.2 and 7.6 K sec-1. Creep rupture tests were performed at temperatures of 1150-1255 K on the specimens prepared from the cast ingots in transverse and longitudinal directions. It is shown that the addition of nitrogen significantly increases the eutectic temperature and thus refines the dendrites and alters the morphology of M7C3 eutectic carbide. Also, it is found that due to short time aging, nitrogen addition decreases the M7C3 carbide fragmentation, increases the secondary M23C6 precipitation... 

In this paper, the failure of the reformer furnace tube, made of HP-Nb micro alloyed heat resistant steel is investigated. The failure was due to a longitudinal crack developing in the circumferential weld joint close to the outlet end of the tube, where the mean wall temperature had reached the highest value during service. According to the temperature records during the period of 7 years of being in service, the tube had experienced temperatures higher than the tubes designed temperature. This situation besides the occurrence of several sudden shutdowns caused the mechanical properties degradation.Macroscopic and microscopic examinations revealed that the failure had occurred due to the... 

Two series of heat-resistant 25Cr-35Ni-Nb stainless steels with tungsten addition and Nb/C ratio of ≈2.6 and 3.9 were directionally solidified under two cooling rates of 23–6 °C s−1, respectively. EDS analysis, electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), differential thermal analysis (DTA) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) tests were carried out to show that tungsten as a carbide phase nucleant promoted weak coupled eutectic growth of γ/ M7C3 and decreased the lamellar eutectic colonies. Substantial negative segregation of Ni and Fe and positive segregation of Nb and Cr in tungsten-bearing alloys stimulated the γ/M23C6 reaction and the M23C6 possessed a dendritic... 

Failure in a turbo-expander Tie-Bolt (stud) made of superalloy A-286 was investigated. The evaluation of the chemical composition and tensile properties confirmed compliance with the relevant standard. However, the coarsening of γ′ due to over aging condition, the non-uniform grain size and banded coarse MC carbide particles, the segregation of phosphorus to grain boundaries and the growth of carbide particles at the grain boundaries led to a decrease in fatigue strength of the alloy. Fractography studies showed that fracture occurred due to primary axial and secondary bending loads. Multiple ratchets and tire tracks on the fracture surface were consistent with low-cycle fatigue (LCF)... 

Ceramic suspensions were prepared from an alumino-silicate powder, polyethylene wax (PE-wax) as binder with additions of stearic acid (SA). The ceramic powder consisted of mullite, corundum and tridymite phases. The organic binders contained 3 to 8 wt.% ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) and were filled with various volume fractions of ceramic powder. The yield stresses of suspensions were estimated using shear stress-shear rate data measured at 90-120 °C. The addition level of EVA was shown to have a considerable effect on the yield stress of suspensions. The effect of EVA on the flow parameters was also investigated over the temperature range of 90 to 120 °C. It was shown that the addition of 5... 

From 1970s, studies have been conducted on the hydraulic design of stepped spillways and many empirical formulas were developed. Despite the simple geometry of these spillways, their hydraulic behavior is complicated. As a result, for many cases, the physical models are studied to verify the design. Numerical simulation is considered as a tool to reduce the laboratory tests, in order to save time and money. Furthermore, the parameters which are not investigated or measured in physical models could be evaluated. In this paper, the results of numerical simulations are compared with the results of physical models and empirical formulas for the spillway of Renwick dam studied in a 1/8 scale... 

The purpose of this study was to investigate the main causes of the co-fracture of sixteen connecting bolts of a filter press cylinder-piston system. Stress state of the bolts during the service conditions has been analyzed and the failure reasons were determined from the fractography analysis and gathered information. According to the obtained results, it was concluded that the bolts had failed by the fatigue mechanism. It seems that insufficient torque was used during assembly  

The failure analysis of a ruptured superheater tube after 20. years service in the oil-fueled boiler, as the typical problems in power plants, was investigated. A thin-lipped rupture at failed region was observed in superheater tube. By measuring the tube's wall thicknesses far from failed region, non-uniformity was seen. The suggested main root cause of failure was fireside corrosion of the tube during the service. Because of low grade of used fuel, sodium, sulfur, and vanadium elements were observed at the outer surface, which caused continuously scale formation and reduction of wall thickness, by metal consumption. In addition, it seems that it has been worsened by occurrence of long-term... 

The oxidation behavior of three types of stainless steels, namely AISI 321, AISI 316, and AISI 409, was compared. In all stainless steels, oxide layers were formed and their masses and thicknesses increased with oxidation time. Among them, AISI 409 ferritic stainless steel demonstrated higher oxidation rate. According to the kinetical oxidation behavior of them at elevated temperatures, the oxidation mechanism was determined. Among them, the AISI 409 ferritic stainless steel showed the lowest and AISI 321 austenitic stainless steel demonstrated the highest oxidation resistance. Based on the experimental results, it was suggested that the kinetic of oxide growth in stainless steels was... 

A novel intelligent semi-active control system for an eleven degrees of freedom passenger car's suspension system using magnetorheological (MR) damper with neuro-fuzzy (NF) control strategy to enhance desired suspension performance is proposed. In comparison with earlier studies, an improvement in problem modeling is made. The proposed method consists of two parts: a fuzzy control strategy to establish an efficient controller to improve ride comfort and road handling (RCH) and an inverse mapping model to estimate the force needed for a semi-active damper. The fuzzy logic rules are extracted based on Sugeno inference engine. The inverse mapping model is based on an artificial neural network... 

Using CNG as an additive for gasoline is a proper choice due to higher octane number of CNG enriched gasoline with respect to that of gasoline. As a result, it is possible to use gasoline with lower octane number in the engine. This would also mean the increase of compression ratio in SI engines resulting in higher performance and lower gasoline consumption. Over the years, the use of simulation codes to model the thermodynamic cycle of an internal combustion engine have developed tools for more efficient engine designs and fuel combustion. In this study, a thermodynamic cycle simulation of a conventional four-stroke spark-ignition engine has been developed. The model is used to study the... 

With the declining energy resources and increase of pollutant emissions, a great deal of efforts has been focused on the development of alternatives for fossil fuels. One of the promising alternative fuels to gasoline in the internal combustion engine is natural gas [1-5]. The application of natural gas in current internal combustion engines is realistic due to its many benefits. The higher thermal efficiency due to the higher octane value and lower exhaust emissions including CO2 as a result of the lower carbon to hydrogen ratio of the fuel are the two important feature of using CNG as an alternative fuel. It is well known that computer simulation codes are valuable economically as a cost... 

Gaining insight into possible vibratory responses of dynamical systems around their stable equilibria is an essential step, which must be taken before their design and application. The results of such a study can significantly help prevent instability in closed-loop stabilized systems by avoiding the excitation of the system in the neighborhood of its resonance. This paper investigates nonlinear oscillations of a rotary inverted pendulum (RIP) with a full-state feedback controller. Lagrange’s equations are employed to derive an accurate 2-DoF mathematical model, whose parameter values are extracted by both the measurement and 3D modeling of the real system components. Although the governing... 

A suction-controlled ring device has been developed to continuously measure the coefficient of lateral soil pressure in deformable unsaturated soil samples from the at-rest to the active condition under application of increasing vertical pressure and controlled matric suction. The device incorporates a thin aluminum specimen ring equipped with horizontal strain gages for recording the lateral soil strains. In addition, a sensor recording water volume changes is utilized to continuously monitor the degree of saturation of the soil sample during tests. The matric suction within the soil texture is controlled using the axis translation technique. In order to verify the performance of the ring... 

We introduce a new smooth, non-toxic, biocompatible method for cross-linking of gum tragacanth (GT), a polysaccharide of natural origin, in order to serve as a new supporting matrix for immobilization systems. The modified gum is used as a matrix for the catalysis of the conversion of benzyl penicillin to 6-aminopenicillanic acid (6-APA) by means of Escherichia coli ATCC11105 with penicillin G acylase (PGA) activity. The results show that GT beads can not only serve as a proper matrix for immobilization, but show enhanced hydrolysis rate and stability compared to other immobilization systems used for this reaction. This signifies the potential of GT as a biocompatible matrix for... 

The Class-E power amplifier has been widely studied and formulated in the literature. Although the majority of reported inductive coupling wireless power transfer (WPT) systems use a class-E power amplifier for driving the primary coil, still there is a lack of a comprehensive study on class-E circuit dedicated to WPT, providing a set of closed form design equations for proper class-E operation. This paper presents the required design equations needed to design a 'true' class-E circuit for WPT applications. Equations for the series-tuned secondary coil WPT system are presented, as well as two different design procedures for the parallel-tuned secondary coil. The derived equations have been... 

Pole Side Impact Tes is one out of three crash tests described by Euro NCAP standard for star rating of a vehicle and is required for assessing the Adult Occupant Protection. In this paper the goal is to determine the crashworthiness of side doors and B pillar in a Pole Side Impact Test based on Euro New Car Assessment Program (Euro-NCAP) using computer and simulation method. In this matter, a vehicle model has been prepared and meshed using Hypermesh and CATIA. The velocity of 29 km/h has been assigned to the vehicle which was on top of a cart while the pole has been assigned as a rigid static object based on Euro NCAP requirements specifically. Results show that different amounts of energy... 

To assess a car under the Euro New Car Assessment Program (Euro-NCAP), Adult Occupant Protection is one out of three parameters which need to be calculated with a weight factor of 50% while the other parameters, Child Occupant Protection and Pedestrian Occupant Protection, have a weight factor of 20%. The Pole Side Impact Test, beside two other tests, Side and Front Impact, is also required to calculate the Adult Occupant Protection. It shows how important the Pole Side Impact Test is and what an effective role it has in the car rating assessment. In this paper, the objective is to evaluate the effect of thickness on the energy absorbed by the side doors and the B pillar and its...