Sharif Digital Repository

Since the discovery of nanomaterials, the nanotubes have found special considerations. The high strength beside the low density, have attracted the interest of the scientists and engineers. Nowadays, one of the common methods to produce composites with high specific strength is to utilize of the nanotubes in the matrix of lightweight metals and alloys such as magnesium and aluminum. Recent researches indicate that very limited focus has been given to the production and properties of the magnesium - carbon nanotube composites and their workability. In this research, magnesium alloy - carbon nanotube composite is produced by casting method and its strength and workability are investigated as... 

In this study, a multivariate-based strategy was developed for simultaneous determination of thirteen carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in water samples using gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) as solid-phase extraction (SPE) sorbent combined with gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID). The extraction technique is based on the strong affinity between citrate capped AuNPs and PAHs. Furthermore, characterization of AuNPs was performed by UV-Vis and TEM techniques. A rotatable central composite design (CCD) combined with multiple linear regression (MLR) was used for designing the extraction procedure and developing models using the GC peak areas of 13 PAHs. Also,... 

There is a growing interest in developing high-performance sensors monitoring fungicides, due to their broadly usage and their adverse effects on humans and wildlife. In the present study, a colorimetric probe has been proposed for detection of prothioconazole based on aggregation of unmodified silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). Under optimized condition, linear relationships between the concentration of prothioconazole and the absorbance ratio of A500/A395 were found over the range of 0.01 µg. mL-1 to 0.4 µg. mL-1 with Detection limit as low as 1.7 ng. mL-1. Furthermore, AgNPs color change from yellow to pink-orange in presence of prothioconazole, indicates highly sensitive naked-eye... 

In this study, modification of Polyvinylidene fluoride membrane in order to reduce membrane fouling in membrane bioreactors is investiged. To achieve this goal, chemical modification and grafting methods were used. Initially, by chemical modification, the reaction was made to make hydroxyl groups on the membrane surface. The hydroxyl functional groups were used as a site for connecting of subsequent monomers. Finally, the lysozyme enzyme was used as the main modifier to improve the hydrophilicity and antibacterial properties of the membrane surface. To evaluate the performance of the modified membrane in comparison with the pristine membrane, different tests, such as water contact angle... 

In this research, multi-disciplinary design optimization (MDO) of a flying vehicle has been done based on the flight simulation. A meta-heuristic algorithm called Multi-objective Adaptive Real-coded Memetic Algorithm (MARCOMA) has been used for optimization. Since solving a MDO problem is a time consuming process, a RBF neural network has been used in the optimization algorithm as a surrogate model. The new algorithm, called MARCOMA+NN, has been tested with some standard benchmarks. MDO problem has six disciplines consists structure, aerodynamic, propulsion, guidance, control, and fire control. The MDO problem has 31 design variables and two objective functions. The objective functions are... 

A cooperative aerial system to defense a Ground Station (GS), against an Incoming aerial Targets (IT) is presented. GS is surrounded by given terrains and a group of homogenous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are employed using a novel online guidance algorithm in a decentralized manner. The proposed algorithm includes loiter, midcourse and terminal phases. During loiter; UAVs follow an optimal circular path. IT is supposed to approach GS along an optimal low altitude trajectory with respect to the terrains. UAVs are informed the initial position and velocity of IT and they are unaware of IT trajectory. Each UAV decides on whether to engage with IT or not, and shares its decision with other... 

PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) magnetic nanocomposite films were prepared by solution casting using two types of nanomagnetic particles: (i) magnetic nanoparticles synthesized by using an alkaline solution of mixed ferrous/ferric salts along with oleic acid as a coating agent at 70˚C; (ii) Fe3O4 nanoparticles prepared by hydrolysis of aqueous solution of ferrous/ferric salts with potassium hydroxide at room temprature. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the PVDF magnetic nanocomposite had a porous structure with Fe3O4 nanoparticles dispersed inside the porous polymer matrix. The presence of crystalline magnetite within the polymer matrix was confirmed by X-Ray diffraction method... 

In this project, a method for cooperative search and localization of RF ground moving targets by a group of UAVs is developed. It should be noted that UAVs are just equipped with GPS and directional sensors. Since there is fuel constraint for UAVs, they take fuel from a tanker whenever they require. Moreover, searching method enables the UAVs to see different parts of the desired area with almost uniform distribution. In addition, the proposed approach enables the UAVs to perform a local search with the aim of finding the targets having lost their signal during localization mode. Finally, based upon a fueling decision function the UAVs take turn, approach to the fuel tanker, and start... 

In this research a novel intelligent back-stepping control method is developed. This method is robust to sensor noise and external disturbances. In addition, the controller is robust under model uncertainty. This controller does not need precise knowledge of system parameters. This method is based on three methods of: back-stepping control, least squares estimation and a fuzzy compensator. This controller is used to control quadrotor stand witch is like an inverse pendulum. In quadrotor stand modeling, the inverse pendulum effect is considered too, witch is one of the innovations of the research. By doing various simulations, the validity of controller is tested. Also the performance of the... 

Topic that is investigated in this article include identify and localization a number of aerial target penetrating into a protected by area by a swarm of UAVs is fixed wing. UAVs do not have any prior notice of positioning targets. In addition, it is assumed that lacks any radiation exploitable targets and thus use UAVs for Targets Detection from an active radar system. Obviously this article focus on developing a guidance algorithm UAVs to this particular issue and also as the targets participatory is localization algorithm. In addition, extraction type and performance characteristics radar system required and also performance characteristics of the class of UAVs, which is suitable to... 

The purpose of this paper is to design an integrated controller and observer (ICO) for a nonlinear system using genetic programming. ICO is a function that constructs control command directly from the measured state variables of the system. It means that, this function should imitate the behavior of the observer and controller and control the system with acceptable performance in different initial conditions, at the presence of disturbances and system uncertainties. The complexity of this design method, is not related to the complexity of the plant, in fact, the complexity in plant just effects at run time, but the design procedure does not change. So, if exact model of plant exist, using... 

Nowdays much of the organic solid waste and wastewater is buried using centralized and traditional methods. This leads to many problems, including groundwater pollution, methane emissions into the atmosphere and rapid transmission of disease. In order to avoid these problems, using a decentralized approach can be a good solution. In this study, recovery of organic waste and wastewater of residential buildings using anaerobic digester as a decentralized way, have been examined. Using experiments, the optimum mass ratio of organic solid waste and wastewater is obtained as 80% and 20% respectively. Biogas production model is developed using mass balance and Balance of electrons in redox... 

Multi-disciplinary design optimization (MDO) of a surface to air flying vehicle has been done in this research, on the basis of flight simulation. The MDO problem have five disciplines consists of aerodynamic, propulsion, guidance, control, and fire control. Multiple campaign scenarios are defined. The MDO problem has 31 design variables and two objective functions. The objective functions are flying vehicle weight and miss distance. A new meta-heuristic algorithm has been designed to solve multi-objective optimization problems. The new algorithm has been called Multi-objective Adaptive Real-coded Memetic Algorithm (MARCOMA). The MARCOMA can solve large-scale and multi-objective problems and... 

In this Thesis, an unmanned multicopter with a new structure is modeled and a nonlinear controller is designed for it to track the trajectories precisely. The multicopter in this thesis, has six propellers with a hybrid propulsion system (a combination of fuel and electric propulsion system) that has the ability to carry more payload and maintain more flight duration compared to electric multicopters. In the beginning, the performance characteristics and technical specifications of the hexacopter are presented. For modeling, first the equations of six degrees of freedom movement of the hexacopter are derived by the Newton-Euler method. In the next step, the forces and torques applied to the... 

Understanding of the Molecules is the main purpose of the chemistry. Ab-initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) as a branch of the computational chemistry, tries to give us a deep comprehension of the molecule, and its chemical, physical and optical activities. This comprehension, relies on the accuracy of quantum mechanics, in addition to the speed of the classical mechanics. The mixing of the quantum mechanics and the classical mechanics could simulate activities of the atoms in the time-domain, provided the mixing is done with precaution. This, in turn, helps us to forecast the response of a molecule in different situations, and also translating the macroscopic phenomena in a nanoscopic... 

The aim of the present thesis is to develop a novel heuristic filter by utilizing Firefly Optimization Algorithm for state estimation of nonlinear, non-Gaussian systems. The proposed filter formulates the estimation problem as a dynamic, stochastic one. The swarm intelligence of the fireflies enables the filter to find and track the best estimation. To estimate the states of a system, the model of the system is required. Hence, an 8-DoF quadrotor with slung payload system, as a case study, is modeled by the tensor method. In this case, as a highly nonlinear system, in order not to rely on extra sensors for monitoring swing-angle, the estimation of payload states is needed. In this regard,...