Sharif Digital Repository

Nowadays studying the brain's function in different Mental States like Resting-State or performing cognitive tasks is a very important component of research areas such as Biomedical Engineering, Neuroscience and Cognitive Sciences. The applications of studying the brain's function can be divided into two principal groups. In the first group of applications, the goal is understanding how the brain processes and response to external stimuli (like visual or audio stimuli) and internal states (like emotions). In these kinds of applications, particularly healthy subjects participate since the goal of these studies is finding healthy brain function in different states and stimuli. However, in the... 

Fractional Order Transfer Functions (FOTF) in comparison to Integer Order Transfer Functions, have higher degree of freedom and as a result they can behave more dynamically. Many methods for approximation of these transfer functions have been developed in recent years allowing to implement and simulate their time-domain and frequency-domain characteristics.
Fractional order orthonormal Laguerre filters are a generalization of conventional orthonormal Laguerre filters in fractional order transfer functions domain. Orthonormal Laguerre filters have applications in signal processing and system identification. In this thesis, we investigate the application of fractional order laguerre... 

Corrosion is caused through chemical interactions between metal and gases in the surrounding environment. Conductive polymers are used for corrosion protection, polyaniline is the most environmentally stable out of all the conductive polymers, the most studied of this materials, is highly stable, synthesized easily, highly conducting, and readily converted between its various oxidation states.
In this study we prepared nanoporous polyaniline coating on carbon steel to corrosion protection. Coating was included nanopouros polyaniline with doping molybdate (PANI-MoO_4^(-2)). To increase adhesion between steel and PANI-MoO_4^(-2) layer, oxalic acid was used. Polystyrene nanoparticle layer... 

Integrating functionalities of different-criticality levels on a shared computing platform known as Mixed-Criticality Systems (MCSs) has been noticed recently in research and industrial designs. Due to the battery-operated nature of some MCSs and different reliability requirement for tasks, joint energy and reliability management is crucial in these systems. Another important issue in these systems which is rarely addressed in previous works is tolerating permanent faults. In this thesis, we propose two comprehensive schemes: MC-4S and MC-2S which guarantee to tolerate permanent faults and maintaining the system reliability with respect to the transient faults. In addition, guaranteeing the... 

The core behaviour of a nuclear reactor might be fluctuated (deviations from the normal operating conditions) in operating conditions due to various reasons. Control rod vibrations and the alterations of coolant temperature and velocity could be the main reasons for the fluctuations. These fluctuations lead to neutronic flux noise and subsequently power noise. The main objective of the current thesis was to study the thermal-hydraulic noise of the PWRs in two-phase with the emphasis on VVER-1000, which is similar to the Bushehr-1 nuclear reactor. By considering the possibility of existing two-phase flow (maximum allowable quality is about 14%) in hot channel of the PWRs, thermal-hydraulic... 

The subject of this thesis to assessment environmental impacts of active desalination plants in Kish Island, which explains the problems derived from concentrate discharges in to the sea, sewage network, absorbing wells and ground surface.
It also studies its impacts on land and marine ecosystem and underground aquifers that are strategic resources in Kish Island. In addition, the environmental studies done in other countries, the existing regulations and by laws in the field of environmental impacts of desalination plants and concentrate discharges are re-mentioned. Concentrates contain chemicals, which are used in pre-filtration of MED and Ro systems, which are dangerous for marine... 

The deleterious effect of moisture on the structural integrity of asphalt mixtures has been recognized as one of the main causes of early deterioration of asphalt pavements. This phenomenon, usually referred to as moisture damage, is defined as the progressive loss of structural integrity of the mixture. Moisture damage is associated with the development of different physical, mechanical and chemical processes occurring within the microstructure of the mixture at different intensities and rates. Although there have been important advancements in identifying and characterizing this phenomenon, there is still a lack of understanding of the damage mechanisms occurring at the... 

Warm mix asphalt has received considerable attention over the past decade particularly due to its potential environmental benefit such as lower energy consumption and emission, its ability to be placed at lower ambient temperatures making it a suitable material for areas with short construction season. There are three warm mix asphalt (WMA) techniques are available; organic additive, foaming, and chemical additive. This study examined Sasobit, a micro crystalline wax which is an organic additive. The concentrations tested were 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5 percent of the base binder. A PG 64-22 asphalt binder from an Iranian refinery (Tehran refinery) was used as the base binder. Superpave binder... 

Bitumen ageing is one of the principal factors causing the deterioration of asphalt pavements. Ageing is a complex process that is affected by different parameters.With the rapid growth of modified binders in road paving applications over the past twodecades, it is important to study the ageing properties of these binders. A number of laboratory methods are used tosimulatethe bitumenageing at various stages of the production and service of hot mix asphalt.Recent studies have shown that Superpave testing protocol does not fully address the ageing of modified binders. To study the ageing properties of modified binders, three different types of binder modifiers, plastomer, elastomer, and ground... 

With a surge in consumption of modified binders in recent years, different methods have been used to evaluate the properties of modified binders with relative success. None of these methods are able to fulfill all the requirements for evaluation and intrerpretation of the physical, chemical and rheologocal properties of modified binders. Since rheological master curves can present a mechanical interpretation of the binders in a wide range of times and temperatures, in conjunction with other evaluation metheods, they are considered a promising means of evaluating the suitability of modified bindrers. The available master curve models do not possess the sufficient diversity for this purpose.... 

Utilization of RAP in HMA reduces the initial costs, conserves natural sources and avoids disposal problems. Aged binder from RAP will have some effects on resultant binder. To date, solvent extraction and recovery is the only method that physically separates the RAP binder from the RAP aggregate for characterization. Time consuming for recovery, altering the physical properties of the recovered asphalt binder like binder hardening and the possibility that Asphalt binder is not completely extracted from the aggregate are the weak points of this method. Addressing the need for non-solvent based RAP binder characterization; procedures for low temperature characterization of RAP binder... 

In this study performance of tack coat (thin layer bonding asphalt concrete layers) was evaluated. The shear strength of tack coat layer was considered as its measure of performance. Direct shear tests were conducted on two layered HMA specimens. The test variables included the type of tack coat material, application rate (amount of residual bitumen per unit area), substrate condition, normal stress and shear loading rate. Four types of liquid asphalt (CSS, CRS, modified CRS and MC-250) were applied as tack coat. Three substrates conditions were used in the tests. These were 3-days old, 17-days old and long term aged substrates were used. It was found that optimum application rate depends... 

Increased environmental concerns and high oil prices have encouraged highway agencies to maximize the use of recycled materials like Reclaimed Asphalt Pavements (RAP) in pavement construction. However, utilization of RAP has limited to low percentage, generally less than 25%. This is due aged, stiffer, and less strain tolerant asphalt binder in RAP. As the RAP proportion increases, a large amount of the aged binder will be introduced into the mixture. The excessive stiffness of HMA mixture tends to lead to less workable mixture. Studies were conducted to examine the effect of Sasobit on the workablility of high RAP mixtures. The results indicated while the utilization of Sasobit had improved... 

Pavement preventive maintenance methods such as slurry seals are cost-effective treatments that enhance pavement longevity. Incorporation of recycled materials such as reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) into asphalt pavements helps further reduce costs and energy consumption. Because the use of emulsions and pavement preventive methods is uncommon in Iran, there is little experience with the technology in this area. The present study designed and developed slurry seal and emulsion test devices at Sharif University lab to study the feasibility of incorporation of RAP into slurry seal mixtures while respecting the limits specified by the ISSA and ASTM. Two slurry seal mixtures in which cement... 

Asphalt concrete exhibits viscoelastic and viscoplastic behavior which is dependent on rate and temperature. To model this behavior, various mechanical modelshave been presented in which total strain, as the response of the applied stress, is decomposed by various researchers to recoverable and permanent strains.Accumulation and expansion of permanent response result in rutting which is a dominant and prevalent distress in hot mixed asphalt (HMA) in hot climates. The available models are not capable of accurately calculate the viscoplastic strain under cyclic loading.
To close this gap, recovered viscoelastic strain at rest (unloading) period was introduced. This parameter accounted for... 

Composite nature of asphalt mixtures necessitates a micromechanical scheme which depends on distinctive characteristics of various constitutive phases. In this regard, discrete element method was utilized to predict the creep behavior of asphalt mixtures and strain response in primary, secondary and tertiary stages. In this research, a modified mixture modeling procedure was considered to better simulate permanent deformation response of asphalt mixtures under creep loading. A random distribution of mastic and aggregate particles with respect to a typical dense gradation was implemented to reconstruct cylindrical specimens. A bonding model represented the cohesion effect in mastic... 

This investigative study intends to identify and characterize bitumen from seven Iranian bitumen production plants according to the Superpave Performance Grading (PG) system, conventional classic tests, and chemical separation tests. The study then compares the identified performance grades with the thirteen performance-grade binders required for specific climatic zones in Iran. It is observed that the variety of available binders is not adequate to fully cover the required PGs. Blending was initially considered as a suitable and economic method for production of the missing performance grades. However due to similar rheological properties of bitumen samples, resulting in nearly identical... 

Rutting is a primary cause of premature deterioration of asphalt pavements and modifying asphalt binders is a common way to improve binder characteristics and field performance. Two types of parameters are used to characterize asphalt rutting. One type includes binder parameters such as zero-shear viscosity and the Superpave rutting resistance index (G*/sinδ) derived from oscillatory loading tests such as the dynamic shear rheometer. The other type is derived from static and repeated loading creep tests on mixtures and binders. Researchers have pointed out that these parameters can rank modified binder and mixture rut susceptibility differently. In this study the rutting resistance of...