Sharif Digital Repository

Investigation of the dynamic characteristics of an existing structure system based on field tests is of practical significance, since it can be employed in the field of examining construction quality, validating or improving analytical finite element structural models, or conducting damage assessment. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the dynamic characteristics of dams using the seismic response data. Whereas, in the process of frequency domain identification of dam properties, frequency response function (FRF) plays the most important role, evaluating the corresponding parameters with better accuracy has always been desirable. Therefore, a comparison was made between some... 

In this study, eggshell (ES) particles as an available and low-cost waste material were used for preparing hydrogel composites as dye biosorbents. For this purpose, hydrogel composites were prepared through free-radical graft copolymerization of wheat starch and sodium methacrylate (NaMA) in the presence of different contents of ES particles with various size ranges. FTIR spectroscopy confirmed graft copolymerization of NaMA moieties onto starch backbone besides the combination of ES particles with the starch-g-PNaMA matrix. The gel content values were high (>99%), which showed proper graft efficiency for hydrogel composites. Incorporation of ES particles into hydrogel matrix resulted in... 

In this paper, a sensitivity-based finite element (FE) model updating method using singular value decomposition (SVD) of frequency response function (FRF) is introduced. An exact sensitivity equation is proposed by incorporating measured responses of a damaged structure in the mathematical formulations. A set of incompletely measured natural frequencies of a damaged structure and mode shapes of the intact structure are used to deal with incomplete measurement without the implementation of FE model reduction or data expansion algorithms. The insights provided from the variation of SVD of transfer functions are used for the selection of proper updating frequency ranges. The appropriate... 

The seismic responses of steel water tanks are unconventional given their complex dynamic behavior and the sources of nonlinearity. Therefore, providing a reliable, finite-element model is instrumental in better understanding their dynamic behavior and improving the design conditions. This paper aims to evaluate the seismic performance of steel water tanks using shaking table tests and provide a finite-element reference model for simulating real-size, semi-anchored water tanks by conducting a series of large-scale tests in the Shaking Table Lab of the Sharif University of Technology (SUT). Since scaling the tank requires a difficult process involving changing the liquid density, this paper... 

Structural reliability methods are employed in this paper for nationwide probabilistic seismic hazard analysis of Iran and in-depth seismic hazard and hazard sensitivity analysis of Downtown Tehran. The companion paper proposes two analysis approaches based on reliability methods and presents the technical framework for such analyses. The first approach was based on Monte Carlo sampling reliability analysis, which is employed here to conduct hazard analysis at a grid comprising 3695 sites throughout Iran. The results are used to produce nationwide hazard maps for the peak ground acceleration, spectral acceleration, and cumulative absolute velocity. The other analysis approach employs the... 

Structural reliability methods are employed in this paper for nationwide probabilistic seismic hazard analysis of Iran and in-depth seismic hazard and hazard sensitivity analysis of Downtown Tehran. The companion paper proposes two analysis approaches based on reliability methods and presents the technical framework for such analyses. The first approach was based on Monte Carlo sampling reliability analysis, which is employed here to conduct hazard analysis at a grid comprising 3695 sites throughout Iran. The results are used to produce nationwide hazard maps for the peak ground acceleration, spectral acceleration, and cumulative absolute velocity. The other analysis approach employs the... 

This paper presents the design and the application of a new self-powered hybrid electromagnetic damper that can harvest energy while mitigating the vibration of a structure. The damper is able to switch between an energy harvesting passive mode and a semi-active mode depending on the amount of energy harvested and stored in the battery. The energy harvested in the passive mode resulting from the suppression of vibration is employed to power up the monitoring and electronic components necessary for the semi-active control. This provides a hybrid control capability that is autonomous in terms of its power requirement. The proposed hybrid circuit design provides two possible options for the... 

Recently it was shown that the differential form of Eringen’s nonlocal elastic theory is unable to model, predict and track the mechanical behaviors of many nano-structures due to their boundary conditions. Therefore, having an accurate model for formulating such structures became an important issue. With respect to this concern, in this study, the influence of having an axially varying elastic environment on vibrational behavior of nanobeams is investigated for the first time. Size-dependent effects are modeled using Eringen’s two-phase local/nonlocal integral model which is well-posed with higher accuracy. The elastic environment is modeled using the Pasternak-Winkler method which could... 

The seismic behaviour of a 4-story building is investigated under horizontal excitation of simulated earthquakes. The model has been constructed with a 3D sandwich panel system without any conventional frame system in four storeys on a shaking table. The building has been modelled before construction. Due to the table limit, the scale factor of the model is chosen as 1: 2.35 of a prototype. The shaking table test of the scaled model of the building is carried out under several ground motions to verify the safety of the system. The simulated motions were applied to the model in two-perpendicular directions, simultaneously. The failure mechanism and dynamic behaviour of the model, as a... 

In this paper, the characteristics of a hybrid regenerative electromagnetic (EM) damper are first determined and experimentally examined. The main idea is to have two modes of operation for the EM damper, namely passive energy harvesting and semi-active modes. In the passive mode, the vibrational energy of an underlying structure is harvested and stored in a rechargeable battery. The harvested energy can then be employed in the semi-active control mode to supply the power demand for the required sensors and microcontroller. This hybrid damper would thus be capable of realizing the characteristics of a self-powered EM damper. A prototype of the damper was designed and tested under different... 

Production optimization is defined as the process of maximizing oil production over the long term while minimizing total production costs. The overall goal is to achieve the optimum profitability from the well or field. In this process, the reservoir system can be considered as a multiple input–output system. In this complex system injection and production wells are known as inputs and outputs. The output of the system is often affected by various parameters consisting reservoir conditions, petrophysics, and PVT data. The optimization of the injector rates and number and installation of submersible pumps are the main issues which have been studied in this paper. Determining the factor with... 

In this paper, different aspects of the behavior of 2×2 pile groups under liquefaction-induced lateral spreading in a 3-layer soil profile is investigated using large scale 1g shake table test. Different parameters of the response of soil and piles including time-histories of accelerations, pore water pressures, displacements and bending moments are presented and discussed in the paper. In addition, distribution of lateral forces due to lateral spreading on individual piles of the groups is investigated in detail. The results show that total lateral forces on the piles are influenced by the shadow effect as well as the superstructure mass attached to the pile cap. It was also found that... 

One of the main factors affecting membrane fouling in MBRs is operational conditions. In this study the influence of aeration rate, filtration mode, and SRT on hollow fiber membrane fouling was investigated using a triple fouling layers perspective. The sludge microbial population distribution was also determined by PCR method. Through various applied operational scenarios the optimal conditions were: aeration rate of 15 LPM; relaxation mode with 40s duration and 8 min. interval; and SRT of 30 days. The similarity between SMP variations in triple fouling layers with its corresponding hydraulic resistance confirmed the effect of SMP on membrane fouling. Among three fouling fractions, the... 

This paper studies a two-echelon reverse supply chain (RSC) involving a remanufacturer and a collector, in which the collector receives the used products by paying a reward to consumers. The reward amount given to customers is crucial for encouraging them to exchange used products. An exchanged item is accepted if it meets the minimum acceptable quality level (AQL). Both the remanufacturing capacity and the quality of exchanged products present uncertainties. Under the buyback contract, the remanufacturer purchases used products at a higher price than in the decentralized and centralized cases from the collector. In return, the collector undertakes to repurchase a certain number of used... 

The authors consider the problem of finding a minimum cost multicast sub-graph based on network coding, where delay values associated with each link, limited buffer-size of the intermediate nodes and link capacity variations over time are taken into account. The authors consider static multicast (where membership of the multicast group remains constant for the duration of the connection) in lossless wireline networks. For such networks, first the continuous-time (asynchronous packet transmissions) model is formulated. Subsequently, the discrete-time model for the synchronous packet transmissions scenario is derived. Then, by using an auxiliary time-expanded network, a decentralised algorithm... 

Blood and blood banks play an essential role in patient care. This study proposes a novel mathematical model for Blood Supply Chains (BSCs), which minimizes the total costs and maximizes donor satisfaction by reducing the system's waiting time. The model addresses several aspects of the BSC, such as locating collection centers, allocating blood donors to collection centers, inventory control in the main blood center, blood shortage and deterioration considerations, and queueing systems in collection centers over a planning horizon. Queueing systems lead to a better understanding of the BSC and provide an opportunity to investigate donors’ attendance and waiting times. A real-world case study...