Sharif Digital Repository

The small-strain shear modulus, Go, is an important fundamental soil property. Although many studies have been conducted on this property for clean sands and pure clays, small-strain behavior for mixtures of sand and fines has been less addressed. This paper presents the results of a comprehensive laboratory study on G0 value of sand containing various amounts of different fines. To this aim, bender elements were integrated into a conventional triaxial apparatus, and shear wave velocity was measured on samples of sand with different amounts of highly-plastic, medium-plastic, low-plastic, or non-plastic fines at different void ratios. Measuring the shear wave velocity and thus... 

The application of the simplified method for evaluating the liquefaction potential based on shear wave velocity measurements has increased substantially due to its advantages, especially for microzonation of liquefaction potential. In the simplified method, a curve is proposed to correlate the cyclic resistance ratio (CRR) with overburden stress-corrected shear wave velocity (Vs1). However, the uniqueness of this curve for all types of soils is questionable. The objective of this research is to study whether the correlation between CRR and Vs1 is unique or not. Besides, the necessity of developing the soil-specific correlations is also investigated. Based on laboratory test data, a new... 

Functional relationship between supplier and buyer in an open market place leads to investigate the role of both quantifiable and non-quantifiable parameters in coordination mechanism with the aim of achieving higher performance in supply chain activities. Here, we develop a supply chain model and a new agent to analyze and simulate the players' behavior in the network. A cooperative game theory framework is utilized between buyer and supplier in order to increase the supply chain performance. The study is supported by presenting SC Net Optimizer as a tool for implementing the proposed coordination mechanism and evaluates the performance of the chain by simulation using stochastic Petri nets... 

Decentralized supply chain management is found to be significantly relevant in today’s competitive markets. Production and distribution planning is posed as an important optimization problem in supply chain networks. Here, we propose a multi-period decentralized supply chain network model with uncertainty. The imprecision related to uncertain parameters like demand and price of the final product is appropriated with stochastic and fuzzy numbers. We provide mathematical formulation of the problem as a bi-level mixed integer linear programming model. Due to problem’s convolution, a structure to solve is developed that incorporates a novel heuristic algorithm based on Kth-best algorithm, fuzzy... 

Decentralized supply chain management is found to be significantly relevant in today’s competitive markets. Production and distribution planning is posed as an important optimization problem in supply chain networks. Here, we propose a multi-period decentralized supply chain network model with uncertainty. The imprecision related to uncertain parameters like demand and price of the final product is appropriated with stochastic and fuzzy numbers. We provide mathematical formulation of the problem as a bi-level mixed integer linear programming model. Due to problem’s convolution, a structure to solve is developed that incorporates a novel heuristic algorithm based on Kth-best algorithm, fuzzy... 

Companies and firms, nowadays, due to mounting competition and product diversity, seek to apply virtual cellular manufacturing systems to reduce production costs and improve quality of the products. In addition, as a result of rapid advancement of technology and the reduction of product life cycle, production systems have turned towards dynamic production environments. Dynamic cellular manufacturing environments examine multi-period planning horizon, with changing demands for the periods. A dynamic virtual cellular manufacturing system is a new production approach to help manufacturers for decision making. Here, due to variability of demand rates in different periods, which turns to flow... 

Several methods have been used for the evaluation of liquefaction potential, among which the simplified method is mostly used. In this method, which is mainly based on standard penetration test (SPT), cone penetration test (CPT) and shear wave velocity (Vs) measurement, a boundary curve is provided to separate the liquefiable and non-liquefiable soil zones. Vs measurement is a good alternative method of penetration-based methods (SPT and CPT). This is especially true in micro-zonation of liquefaction potential. Although relatively large studies have been carried out to establish the correlation between Vs and liquefaction resistance for sands; there are uncertainties about the effects of... 

The use of shear wave velocity (Vs) measurements as an in situ test for evaluation of liquefaction potential has increased substantially due to its advantages. Relatively large numbers of studies have been performed to establish the correlation between Vs and liquefaction resistance (CRR) of clean sands. Usually, natural sands contain silt and/or clay, and previous studies have shown that both the amount of fines and their nature influence the values of CRR as well as Vs. Therefore, the CRR–Vs correlations may also be affected by fines content and type of sandy soils. However, effect of fines content and especially fines type of sandy soils on the correlation between Vs and CRR is... 

Accumulative roll bonded (ARBed) AA1050 and Al-2 vol% SiCp (AMC) samples were anodized in an H2SO4 electrolyte to improve corrosion resistance. The SEM images revealed that the anodic oxide's morphology is significantly dependent on the microstructure of the ARBed bare samples, owing to high internal energy that accelerates Al consumption during anodizing process. Potentiodynamic polarization measurements and EIS evaluation showed that anodic oxide improves the corrosion resistance of both ARBed AA and AMC samples; however, the electrochemical behavior of the processed samples changed due to the formation of a complex oxide structure comprising of twisted pore channels and attack routes. ©... 

The effect of α-Al 2O 3 seeds and MgO on the densification behavior and microstructure of the nanocrystalline γ-Al 2O 3 powder was investigated. The required α-Al 2O 3 seeds were produced by 'autogenous seeding' where the seeds were obtained by calcination of the initial nanosized γ-Al 2O 3 powders above its transformation temperature and incorporated into γ-Al 2O 3 matrix. The seeds were characterized by means of laser particle size analyzer, X-ray diffraction, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface analyzer. The simultaneous influence of α-Al 2O 3 seeds and MgO on γ-Al 2O 3 behavior was evaluated by differential thermal analysis, densitometry, and electron microscopy. The results showed that... 

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is an extracellular natural polymer produced by many microorganisms and its properties could be tailored via specific fabrication methods and culture conditions. There is a growing interest in BC derived materials due to the main features of BC such as porous fibrous structure, high crystallinity, impressive physico-mechanical properties, and high water content. However, pristine BC lacks some features, limiting its practical use in varied applications. Thus, fabrication of BC composites has been attempted to overcome these constraints. This review article overviews most recent advance in the development of BC composites and their potential in biomedicine including... 

The aim of this paper is the design and development of a novel user interface to interact with a meta system. Our focus is rather on interacting with Ambient Intelligence as a whole, which would for example enable users to influence the overall behaviors and attributes of dynamic device compositions. We call such interfaces Meta User Interfaces. The design details of a proposed user interface as well as a cognitive walkthrough evaluation are presented in this paper  

In this work, novel chitosan/bacterial cellulose (CS/BC) nanofibrous composites reinforced with graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets are introduced. As cell attachment and permeability of nanofibrous membranes highly depend on their fiber diameter, the working window for successful electrospinning to attain sound nanofibrous composites with a minimum fiber diameter was determined by using the response surface methodology. It is shown that the addition of GO nanosheets to CS/BC significantly reduces the average size of the polymeric fibers. Their mechanical properties are also influenced and can be tailored by the concentration of GO. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy reveals hydrogen bonding... 

A series of reduced graphene oxide/ZnxCd1-xS (RGO/ZnxCd1-xS) nanocomposites (0 < x < 1) with different ratios of Zn/Cd were synthesized via a facile hydrothermal route under optimized experimental conditions and were carefully characterized by various techniques. Because very little is known about the morphology, specific surface area, and crystal phase effects of RGO/ZnxCd1-xS crystals on their photoresponsivity, field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), BET surface area analysis and X-ray diffraction (XRD) data were studied to investigate their effects on photoactivity. Based on the results, a crystal phase transition from a cubic phase in RGO/Zn0.9Cd0.1S to a hexagonal... 

Superhydrophobic surfaces demonstrate significant characteristics which make them suitable for a wide variety of applications. In this study, we propose a facile, one-step, and cost-effective anodizing scheme using aluminum nitrate/stearic acid mixture solution to create a superhydrophobic surface on an aluminum mesh. The surface outperforms the surface anodized by the widely used oxalic acid solution in terms of superhydrophobicity and water-surface friction behavior. The proposed surface reduced the friction by 11% on average respective to the surface prepared by oxalic acid. The durability of the introduced superhydrophobic surface has also been investigated. The proposed surface retained... 

This paper presents a dynamic programming methodology for finding the optimum preventive maintenance schedule of generating units of a GENCO in open power systems. The objective function for the GENCO is to sell electricity as much as possible, according to the market price forecast. Various constraints such as generation capacity, duration of maintenance and maintenance crew are taken into account. In a case study, introducing a GENCO with six generating units, and implementing dynamic programming, we obtain the optimal maintenance schedule over the planning period. © 2002 IEEE  

A dense membrane of La0.6Sr0.4Co0.8Fe0.2O3- δ (LSCF) perovskite was prepared by a new chelating agent, ethylene diamine N,N,N′,N′-tetra N-acetyl diamine (EDTNAD). As a potent ligand, EDTNAD provided a facile one-step method to form complexes of the four metal ions, simultaneously. The oxygen permeation flux through the pure perovskite LSCF dense membrane was measured over temperature range of 1073-1223 K, thickness of 0.7-1.0 mm and oxygen partial pressure of 0.1-1.0 bar. Oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) reaction using LSCF disk in the atmospheric membrane reactor and over the temperature range of 1073-1173 K showed a C2 selectivity of 100% and C2 yield of 5.01% at 1153 K. Furthermore,...