Sharif Digital Repository

This paper provides an approach based on the genetic algorithm for the dimensional synthesis of a six-bar mechanism for a shaper machine. The main purpose of the optimization algorithm is to maintain the velocity of the mechanism’s slider constant within a specified range of the rotational motion of the input link. Therefore, first, an objective function is defined for the slider. Then, the velocity function of the slider is calculated using a set of mathematical relationships and the mechanism’s kinematic constraints. In order for this function to reach the objective function, a cost function is defined. This cost function is minimized, and the output approaches the objective function by... 

Electroencephalogram (EEG) spellers are a vital communication tool for people with severe motor impairments, allowing them to express themselves by choosing letters or symbols on a screen. However, current EEG spellers face challenges such as low speed, low accuracy, and the lack of a universal method. This paper presents a novel approach that integrates a visual EEG-based speller with a Natural Language Processing (NLP) model to overcome these limitations. We use a hybrid SSVEP-RSVP model and augment it with an NLP model to create a speller that can write meaningful sentences. We evaluate our method on a between-subject scheme with four subjects and show that it significantly improves the... 

In this paper, We propose concurrent learning adaptive controller, which uses recorded and current data concurrently for adaptation, to model reference adaptive control (MRAC) of uncertain switched systems. In standard MRAC architecture for switched systems, the adaptive update laws are derived based on the gradient descent scheme, but here we developed two novel parameter estimation schemes by using modification terms in adaptation laws in which recorded data is used simultaneously with current data and a triggering time is considered in which a sufficient condition on the linear independence of the recorded data is obtained to guarantee the exponential convergence of tracking error and... 

The rendezvous is one of the most important parts of some current and future space missions. To reduce the risk of collision, the terminal phase of orbital rendezvous is very critical and requires high accuracy for controlling the chaser relative position and velocity. The terminal phase starts with detection of the target spacecraft by the chaser sensors. Due to the safety requirements and availability of the relative position and velocity data, generally the closed loop guidance and control are utilized. In this study, the closed loop guidance and control of the orbital rendezvous of a chaser satellite is studied. The target is assumed to be in an elliptical orbit and the relative dynamics... 

Tissue transglutaminase (TG2) is a unique multifunctional enzyme. The enzyme possesses enzymatic activities such as transamidation/crosslinking and non-enzymatic functions such as cell migration and signal transduction. TG2 has been shown to be involved in molecular mechanisms of cancers and several neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. The present study aimed at cloning and expression of full length human TG2 in Bac-to-Bac baculovirus expression system and evaluation of its activity. Methods: pFastBac HTA donor vector containing coding sequence of human TG2 was constructed. The construct was transformed to DH10Bac for generating recombinant bacmid. The verified bacmid was... 

A highly energy-efficiency switching procedure for the capacitor-splitting digital-To-Analog converter (DAC) is presented for successive approximation register (SAR) analogue-To-digital converters (ADCs). In this procedure, the MSB capacitor is divided into its binary constituents. All output digital bits, except the least significant bit (LSB), is determined using reference voltage (Vref), while the common-mode voltage (Vcm) is used to determine the LSB. Therefore, the precision of the proposed SAR ADC is independent of the precision of Vcm except in the LSB. This method reduces the area by 75% compared to the conventional binary weighted DAC and reduces the switching energy by 96.89%. ©... 

A high energy-efficiency and low-area switching method is proposed for the successive approximation register analog-to-digital converters. In the proposed scheme, the threshold voltage for comparison is derived from the charge sharing technique and using a voltage source connected to the bottom plates of the digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) capacitors. The switching method achieves an average DAC switching energy and DAC area reduction of 99.15% and 84.27%, respectively, with respect to the conventional method. The differential nonlinearity and integral nonlinearity of the proposed scheme are 0.1288 LSB and 0.1207 LSB, respectively. In addition, in the proposed method, the number of DAC... 

Most of the biped robots are controlled using pre-computed trajectory methods or methods based on multi-body dynamics models. The pre-computed trajectory-based methods are simple; however, a system becomes highly vulnerable to the external disturbances. In contrast, dynamic methods make a system act faster, yet extensive knowledge is required about the kinematics and dynamics of the system. This fact gave rise to the main purpose of this study, i.e., developing a controller for a biped robot to take advantage of the simplicity and computational efficiency of trajectory-based methods and the robustness of the dynamic-based approach. To do so, this paper presents a two-layer hierarchical... 

A high energy-efficiency and low-area switching method is proposed for the successive approximation register analog-to-digital converters. In the proposed scheme, the threshold voltage for comparison is derived from the charge sharing technique and using a voltage source connected to the bottom plates of the digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) capacitors. The switching method achieves an average DAC switching energy and DAC area reduction of 99.15% and 84.27%, respectively, with respect to the conventional method. The differential nonlinearity and integral nonlinearity of the proposed scheme are 0.1288 LSB and 0.1207 LSB, respectively. In addition, in the proposed method, the number of DAC... 

Simplified equations are used for the analysis of a dual active bridge converter leading to a conservative estimation of the zero voltage switching (ZVS) region. The ZVS is directly affected by the inserted deadband in each leg of the converter. In this paper the impact of the ZVS capacitor and deadband on soft switching region for this converter is analyzed. Also, the sufficient constraints for ZVS condition in the input and output bridges are determined by analyzing the circuit behavior during the bridges deadband. Simulation results of a 700V-350V, 50-kW DC-DC converter validate the analysis. © 2017 IEEE  

Introduction: One of the main objectives of reservoir engineering studies is to increase the production of hydrocarbon reservoirs with an optimal method. One of the artificial lift methods in wells is the gas lift. This system increases the oil production flow rate by reducing the pressure at the bottom of the well and increasing the pressure at the wellhead. In this method, by injection of high-pressure gas into the well's column, the average density of the well fluid is reduced, and through this, the well is reactivated. Method: In the current study, the simulation of a gas lift system in the horizontal and inclined wells was investigated. The pressure changes at the end of a simulated... 

This paper presents the results of an experimental study on the flexural behavior of ten 10 × 15 × 120 (cm) steel reinforced high strength concrete beams under deflection control loading conditions. Test variable includes volumetric percentage of steel fibers (0%, 1.5%, 3%, 4%, 5%). The plain concrete strength was 30MPa. The monotonic concentrated load was applied at the center of the beam, the relative deflection was measured, and demec points were used to determine curvature of the beam. Load-deflection and moment-curvature diagrams have been obtained and plotted for each beam individually. Test results indicate that higher fiber content considerably improves flexural behavior and provides... 

A three-phase dual active bridge (DAB) converter is designed and constructed as the DC/DC stage of a 50 kW fast charger station. Recently introduced 300A SiC power modules and drivers are utilized in the converter to obtain a high efficiency. Each module has two interconnected switches with anti-parallel diodes resembling a converter leg. It is observed that the driver halts the module operation as a result of protective actions such as over-current, gate under-voltage, or gate overvoltage. In such case the module operates as a leg with two diodes until an external hardware signal resets the driver. The aim of this paper is to provide analysis, simulation and experiments for a three-phase... 

Hot compression tests were carried out on a Fe-29Ni-17Co alloy in the temperature range of 900 °C to 1200 °C and at strain rates of 0.001-1 s-1. Dynamic recrystallization was found responsible for flow softening during hot compression. The flow behavior was successfully analyzed by the hyperbolic sine equation and the corresponding material constants A, n and α were determined. The value of apparent activation energy was determined as 423 kJ/mol. The peak and steady state strains showed simple power-law dependence on the Zener-Hollomon parameter. The dynamic recrystallization kinetics was analyzed using Avrami equation and the corresponding exponent was determined to be about 2.7. This... 

The hot ductility of Fe-29Ni-17Co alloy was studied in both cast and wrought conditions by hot tensile tests over temperature range of 900-1250°C and at strain rates of 0.001-1s-1. Over the studied temperature range, the wrought alloy represented higher elongation and reduction in area as compared to the cast alloy. Dynamic recrystallization was found responsible for the higher hot ductility of the wrought alloy and the improvement of hot ductility of the cast alloy at high temperatures. At temperature range of 1000-1150°C the wrought alloy exhibited a hot ductility drop while a similar trough was not observed in case of the cast alloy. It was also found that at temperatures of 1150-1250°C... 

A three-phase dual active bridge (DAB) topology has been widely applied in high power DC-DC conversion due to its advantages such as bidirectional power transfer, inherent soft switching capability and small filter size. In order to reach the high power density, the volume of the converter must be decreased. The basic idea to reduce the component size is to increase the switching frequency which causes the higher switching loss and reduces the efficiency of the converter. In this paper, the power losses of the three-phase DAB dc/dc converter are formulated and the variation of the efficiency as a function of switching frequency is investigated. In this analysis, the switching loss of the... 

Within elasticity theory, the reduced form of a displacement field is obtained for general cross-ply composite laminates subjected to a bending moment. The firstorder shear deformation theory of plates and Reddy's layerwise theory are then utilized to determine the global deformation parameters and the local deformation parameters appearing in the displacement fields, respectively. For a special set of boundary conditions an elasticity solution is developed to verify the validity and accuracy of the layerwise theory. Finally, various numerical results are presented within the layerwise theory for edge-effect problems of several cross-ply laminates under the bending moment. The results... 

Respiratory drug delivery has been under the research spotlight for the past few decades, mainly due to the high incidence of pulmonary diseases and the fact that this type of delivery offers the highest efficiency for treatment. Despite its invaluable benefits, there are some major drawbacks to respiratory drug delivery, the most important of which being poor delivery efficiency and relatively high drug deposition in undesirable regions, such as the mouth cavity. One way to improve the efficiency of respiratory drug delivery with metered-dose inhalers is placing a respiratory spacer between the inhaler exit and the mouth. It is argued that high drug deposition in the immediate airways of... 

Propagation of Gaussian X-ray laser beam is presented in collisional quantum plasma and the beam width oscillation is studied along the propagation direction. It is noticed that due to energy absorption in collisional plasma, the laser energy drops to an amount less than the critical value of the self-focusing effect and consequently, the laser beam defocuses. It is found that the oscillation amplitude of the laser spot size enhances while passing through collisional plasma. For the greater values of collision frequency, the beam width oscillates with higher amplitude and defocuses in a shallower plasma depth. Also, it is realized that in a dense plasma environment, the laser self-focusing... 

In this paper, we derive a theoretical model for the higher-order four-wave mixing (FWM) power in wavelength division multiplexing networks with non-zero dispersion shifted fibers for the first time. We have investigated the higher-order FWM power theoretically and by numerical simulations. Dividing the fiber into a finite number of elements and applying the boundary conditions allow us to derive an expression for the second-order power penalty. At the end of each element, we derive the first-order FWM power for all wavelengths and use these values to calculate the second-order FWM power in the next element. Consequently, for each channel we can compute the total second-order FWM power...