Sharif Digital Repository

Friction stir welding (FSW) of thermoplastic materials is an attractive but a challenging process due to inherent chemical and mechanical characteristics of polymeric materials. In the present work, thermo-mechanical models were employed to investigate the effect of processing parameters on of FSW of polycarbonate (PC). The heat flux during the joining process was localized around the PC join line and led to the formation of circular rings on the upper surface. According to the simulation results, increasing the tool rotational velocity reduced the temperature gradient and decfeased the suseptibelity of crack formation around the joint line. Cracks were formed at low frictional heats and... 

Laminated polymer-steel composites are promising layered materials for practical applications in the automotive industry considering their superior crush resistance capacity in terms of enhanced damping potential. In this research, the sheet lamination (SL) route of friction stir additive manufacturing (FTAM) technology was implemented for the production of a poly-methyl-methacrylate (PMMA) polymer matrix composite structure as reinforced by textile stainless steel layers, and feeding of PMMA granulates inside the stirred region. Layers bonding and the soundness of composite formation during fabrication of the laminated structure were studied. Possible chemical interactions between the steel... 

In the last decade, the friction stir welding of polymers has been increasingly investigated by the means of more and more sophisticated approaches. Since the early studies, which were aimed at proving the feasibility of the process for polymers and identifying suitable processing windows, great improvements have been achieved. This owes to the increasing care of academic researchers and industrial demands. These improvements have their roots in the promising results from pioneer studies; however, they are also the fruits of the adoption of more comprehensive approaches and the multidisciplinary analyses of results. The introduction of instrumented machines has enabled the online measurement... 

In the present work, the feasibility of friction stir welding (FSW) of poly(methyl methacrylate) sheets was studied experimentally and theoretically by employing thermomechanical simulations. The effect of processing parameters including tool plunge depth, tilt angle, tool rotational speed (w), and transverse velocity (v) was investigated to determine suitable conditions to attain sound and defect-free joints. It is shown that a low tool plunge depth of 0.2 mm and a tilt angle of 2° provide suitable material flow to gain sound joints. By controlling the heat input into stir zone by increasing the tool rotational speed and decreasing linear velocity, the formation of defects can be minimised.... 

Process optimization to prepare T-joints of poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) and AA5754 alloy by friction stir welding (FSW) was performed. Effects of processing parameters including tool rotational velocity, traverse speed, tilt angle and plunge depth (TP) were studied. The material flow and formation of interaction layer upon FSW were evaluated and the tensile strength and hardness of the joints were examined. It is shown that by controlling the heat input into stir zone through increasing the rotational velocity or decreasing travelling speed, less defects are formed while the thickness of the interaction layer increases. The optimum condition is attained at 1600 rpm/30 mm min−1 with a... 

We present a new semi-solid state procedure for efficient joining of dissimilar materials. The process called fed friction stir processing (FFSP) and works based on in-situ injection of colloidal nanoparticles in the welding line during processing. To present the efficiency of the process, friction stir welding of AA6062 aluminum alloy and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) through injection of alumina nanoparticles is presented. Microstructural features and mechanical characteristics of the weldments are elaborated. It is shown that in-situ feeding of the alumina nanoparticles during FFSP changes the thermo-mechanical regimes of the bonding zone and decreases the thickness of interaction... 

Effects of frustum, cubic and triangle tool pin profiles on the friction stir welding (FSW) of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) were studied by experimental analysis and thermomechanical simulations. It is shown that employing pins with a low contact surface area form macrocracks and voids along the joint line. Edged-type pins locally stir the polymer and cause tunnel defects which are formed at the root of the joint. In contrast, pins with relatively smooth and large surface area would yield a defect-free weldment if an appropriate processing condition is employed. Mechanical examinations in longitudinal (LS) and transverse (TS) directions indicate that the highest tensile strength (LS = 59... 

In this study, alumina-reinforced poly(methyl methacrylate) nanocomposites (PMMA/Al2O3) containing up to 20 vol% nanoparticles with an average diameter of 50 nm were prepared by friction stir processing. The effects of nanoparticle volume fraction on the microstructural features and mechanical properties of PMMA were studied. It is shown that by using a frustum pin tool and employing an appropriate processing condition, i.e. a rotational speed of 1600 rpm/min and transverse velocity of 120 mm/min, defect free nanocomposites at microscale with fine distribution of the nanoparticles can successfully been prepared. Mechanical evaluations including tensile, flexural, hardness and impact tests... 

The relation between process parameters and properties of polycarbonate (PC) sheet after friction stir welding (FSW) was investigated. Effects of FSW tool rotation speed (ω), travelling speed (V), tilt angle (α) and plunge depth on material flow, joint tensile strength, flexural strength, impact energy and hardness were investigated. It is shown that at low and high levels of heat input sound joints cannot be attained. At low heat inputs, the local temperature is not high enough to decrease the viscosity of the polymer to fill the interface, and thus voids and large planar cracks are formed in the joint root and stir zone. At high heat inputs, expelling of materials due to high peak... 

In this research, the feasibility of friction-stir welding (FSW) for dissimilar lap-joining of an aluminium-magnesium alloy (AA5058) and poly-methyl-methacrylate sheets to attain sound and defect-free joints was examined. The inter-mixing flow patterns between the metal and polymer counterparts during FSW were predicted by employing three-dimensional finite element models. It is shown that the bonding mechanism between the dissimilar materials is mechanical interlocking at the interface which controls the joint strength depending on the processing parameters. The most suitable dissimilar lap-joining regarding microstructural soundness is attained at w= 1600 rev min−1 and v = 25 mm min−1.... 

In this paper, we evaluate the capacity of Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems using directional antennas in non-isotropic scattering environments. Our analytical analysis approach results in closed-form approximate formulas in low Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) regime (in contrast to previous research works which have investigated the same problem by employing experimental or simulation frameworks). We propose an upper bound for the introduced approximate error. Our results show that MIMO systems equipped with directional antennas may have much higher capacity in nonisotropic scattering environments compared to MIMO systems equipped with omni-directional antennas. We also evaluate... 

This paper addresses dynamic cell formation problem (DCFP) which has been explored vastly for several years. Although a considerable body of literature in this filed, two remarkable aspects have been significantly ignored so far, as uncertainty and human-related issues. In order to compensate such a shortage, this paper develops a bi-objective stochastic model. The first objective function of the developed model seeks to minimize total cost of machine procurement, machine relocation, inter-cell moves, overtime utilization, worker hiring/laying-off, and worker moves between cells; while the second objective function maximizes labor utilization of the cellular manufacturing system. In the... 

In this paper, trace locality of reference (LoR) is identified as a mechanism to predict the behavior of a variety of systems. If two objects were accessed nearby in the past and the first one is accessed again, trace LoR predicts that the second one will be accessed in near future. To capture trace LoR, trace graph is introduced. Although trace LoR can be observed in a variety of systems, but the focus of this paper is to characterize it for data accesses in memory management systems. In this field, it is compared with recency-based prediction (LRU stack) and it is shown that not only the model is much simpler, but also it outperforms recency-based prediction in all cases. The paper... 

It is now known that at least 10% of samples with pancreatic cancers (PC) contain a causative mutation in the known susceptibility genes, suggesting the importance of identifying cancer-associated genes that carry the causative mutations in high-risk individuals for early detection of PC. In this study, we develop a statistical pipeline using a new concept, called gene-motif, that utilizes both mutated genes and mutational processes to identify 4211 3-nucleotide PC-associated gene-motifs within 203 significantly mutated genes in PC. Using these gene-motifs as distinguishable features for pancreatic cancer subtyping results in identifying five PC subtypes with distinguishable phenotypes and... 

This paper has been prepared, based on reports regarding extraordinary induced ac voltage on buried gas pipelines in residential and industrial areas of the capital city of Tehran, especially in densely populated central areas. Also, some reports are considered on the existence of ac induced voltage in buried gas pipelines under the overhead transmission lines, for example, one case located 80 Km to the west of Tehran, in an agricultural region of the town of Abyek. In this paper, the results of an extensive theoretical, experimental and practical investigation and implementation of methods carried out during the last two years are introduced. Furthermore, this paper includes evaluation of... 

The axial turbine is one of the most challenging components of gas turbines for industrial and aerospace applications. With the ever-increasing requirement for high-aerodynamic performance blades, three-dimensional aerodynamic shape optimization is of great importance. In this research, the rear part of a gas turbine consisting of a one-stage axial turbine is optimized numerically. A useful optimization algorithm is presented to improve the efficiency and/or pressure ratio of the axial turbine with two different objective functions. The three-dimensional blade-shape optimization is employed to study the effects of the turbine stator and rotor lean and sweep angles on the turbine performance.... 

A high quality joint of zinc based pressure die cast alloys can be hardly achieved by conventional fusion welding. In this study, a novel technique to achieve the globular weld structure using stirring the localized semisolid zone during butt joining of Zamak-3 pressure die cast alloy is proposed and effect of welding parameters on mechanical and microstructural properties are investigated. A gas heating system was designed to heat up the nitrogen gas to desired temperature accurately to create a localized semisolid pool. At this stage a fine stirrer was introduced into the weld seam in order to mix the two sides into a single uniform joint. By presented process, globular microstructure of... 

The human protein disulfide isomerase (hPDI), is an essential four-domain multifunctional enzyme. As a result of disulfide shuffling in its terminal domains, hPDI exists in two oxidation states with different conformational preferences which are important for substrate binding and functional activities. Here, we address the redox-dependent conformational dynamics of hPDI through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Collective domain motions are identified by the principal component analysis of MD trajectories and redox-dependent opening-closing structure variations are highlighted on projected free energy landscapes. Then, important structural features that exhibit considerable differences...