Sharif Digital Repository

In this paper, the development of a controller for autonomous lateral alignment of fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with runway centerline in landing phase is presented. Fuzzy Logic Control (FLC) is used in order to enable the vehicle to mimic the decision making procedure that a pilot follow in the same situation. Also, for longitudinal motion controller design for the UAV to follow a pre-defined trajectory, the pole-placement technique is used. It is assumed that the runway relative position and orientation are provided by a built in vision system and its associated image processing unit. The performance of the controller in the presence of the Gaussian noises is investigated by... 

A new generalized and non-group contribution method has been developed to predict critical temperature (Tc), critical pressure (Pc), critical volume (Vc) and acentric factor (ω) for pure substances and petroleum fractions based on two types of input parameters. This method can take either refractive index and molecular weight or refractive index and normal boiling point as its input. Since refractive index cannot be obtained for an unknown mixture (petroleum fraction), in order to apply the proposed method for petroleum fractions, refractive index is converted to mass density at 293K using the one-third rule. Moreover, the proposed correlation is capable of predicting the properties using... 

Estimation of petroleum fractions properties is one of the major problems in the reservoir fluids analysis, due to the fact that they cannot exactly be diagnosed and their constituents are not available clearly. In this study, a simple model has been developed to estimate the viscosity of pure hydrocarbon substances, bitumens, size-asymmetric mixtures and reservoir fluids (containing unknown hydrocarbon mixtures or petroleum fractions). The proposed model has been extended based on the two conventional and physical properties which can be measured for both pure components and unknown mixtures, without requiring to have their components and compositions. This model uses the pressure (P),... 

A new-generation equation of state, perturbed-chain statistical association fluid theory (PC-SAFT), has attracted much attention to modeling the phase behavior of fluids using molecular-based equations of state. A set of three pure component parameters is needed for non-associative compounds, conventionally determined by fitting vapor pressure and liquid density data simultaneously. Unfortunately, experimental data are scarce, and the number of pure substances is too large. Thus, it is indispensable for developing predictive methods to determine the pure component parameters. In the present paper, a new model has been developed to estimate PC-SAFT parameters for different pure components,... 

The recrystallization behavior of a commercial nickel-cobalt base superalloy, AEREX 350, is investigated by means of hardness test, X-ray diffraction, and microscopy. It is found that the alloy resists recrystallization up to a high temperature of 1025 °C. Recrystallized grains are readily formed at grain boundaries below this temperature; however, the growth of these new grains is inhibited by Widmanstätten η particles having coherent facets with the nickel matrix (γ). The passage of the recrystallization front results in coherency loss and consequently dissolution of the η platelets. Recrystallization proceeds with a discontinuous precipitation of the η phase behind the moving boundary  

A large variety of modifications have been presented for the temperature dependent function (α) existing in the attractive term of cubic equations of state (CEOS). Most of α-functions attempted to modify the vapor pressure prediction of polar components while other modifications have focused on both polar and non-polar compounds and other relations have considered an expansion of polynomials in the acentric factor (ω) and reduced temperature (Tr) to predict vapor pressure more accurately. In most cases such as Soave and Peng-Robinson equations of state, the suggested α-functions do not show a limiting behavior when temperature increases infinitely. In addition, the incompetency of many... 

This study investigates the effect of cold rolling prior to inter-critical annealing on microstructure and mechanical properties of ferrite-martensite dual phase steel. Samples were heated to 850 °C for 1 h followed by oil quenching, then the steel sheet were cold rolled by 0%,10%,15% and 20% reduction in thickness. The inter-critical annealing treatment (750 °C, 120min) was performed to generate a ferrite-martensite microstructure. Microstructural studies showed that increasing the applied cold rolling, leading to increase in volume fraction of martensite and decrease in ferrite grain size. Mechanical properties of dual phase steel were measured by tensile, impact and hardness tests.... 

This paper proposes a high performance voltage tracking and current sharing among parallel connected inverters by applying optimal control and minimizing the cost function. The control system forces the voltage of load to track the voltage reference, and the current of all inverters becomes equal. Therefore, both current sharing and voltage tracking are obtained. In addition, the smallest input energy and simplicity in control circuit are the other advantages of the suggested method. To show the performance of the proposed control scheme, the simulations with two-modular practical systems are performed and the results are provided. The results indicate that the control objectives are... 

In this work, PC-SAFT, an equation of state based on perturbation theory, is applied to predict the reservoir fluids phase behavior. PC-SAFT parameters for pure components have previously been assessed, but they cannot be determined for petroleum fractions with unspecified components and composition. In order to remove this difficulty and making use of PC-SAFT model in the reservoir fluids simulations, a new approach is studied which leads to appearing generalized correlations for the estimation of PC-SAFT parameters for petroleum cuts and plus fractions using only their molecular weight and specific gravity, without the essential need for the characterization of petroleum fractions in... 

Recorded ground accelerations at various locations of Karun III Dam during November 20, 2007, were recorded by an array of accelerometers located on the dam. In terms of amplitude and phase, these accelerations show non-uniformities in different elevations. In this paper, the effect of these non-uniform ground motions on the seismic response of the dam taking dam-reservoir-foundation interaction into account is investigated. The EACD-3D-2008 finite element program and ABAQUS Software are used for carrying out the seismic analyses. For this purpose, time histories of the earthquake accelerations are interpolated at nodal points located on the dam foundation interface. The analysis has been... 

Thermal analysis of Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) dams is generally carried out considering identical ambient boundary conditions at upstream and downstream faces. For the case of Shahri-Kor Dam (an RCC dam with a height of 57 m), recorded thermal data depicts a considerable difference between upstream and downstream ambient temperatures, especially during cold months. This paper investigates how taking this difference into account can affect the thermal response of the dam. For this purpose, two thermal analyses are carried out with and without consideration of these different ambient boundary conditions (DABC). Consequently, the computed temperatures at representative points are compared...