Sharif Digital Repository

This paper puts forward a new methodology for time-variant seismic risk analysis of transportation networks. Risk here denotes the probability of exceeding the sum of direct loss due to repair costs of bridges in the network and indirect loss due to the reduced capacity for traffic flow. The proposed methodology employs reliability methods and a host of probabilistic models for earthquake events, damage, repair cost, downtime, and travel time, while accounting for time-varying phenomena of aging and discounting. A comprehensive application on the transportation network of Isfahan, Iran, is presented that features 64 bridges subject to seismicity from seven sources. © 2018 Taylor & Francis... 

This paper puts forward a new methodology for time-variant seismic risk analysis of transportation networks. Risk here denotes the probability of exceeding the sum of direct loss due to repair costs of bridges in the network and indirect loss due to the reduced capacity for traffic flow. The proposed methodology employs reliability methods and a host of probabilistic models for earthquake events, damage, repair cost, downtime, and travel time, while accounting for time-varying phenomena of aging and discounting. A comprehensive application on the transportation network of Isfahan, Iran, is presented that features 64 bridges subject to seismicity from seven sources. © 2018, © 2018 Taylor &... 

In this paper, the effects of Stone-Wales (SW) defect on transport properties of armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs) are studied using tight binding calculations combined with nonequilibrium Green's function (NEGF). We evaluate transmission and density of states (DOS) in two cases, pristine and defective AGNR, and we compare the results. Our results indicate that in the latter case, a larger bandgap is made due to symmetry breaking in GNR layer  

In this paper, we investigate optimal coding strategies for a class of linear deterministic relay networks. The network under study is a relay network, with one source, one destination, and two relay nodes. Additionally, there is a disturbing source of signals that causes interference with the information signals received by the relay nodes. Our model captures the effect of the interference of message signals and disturbing signals on a single relay network, or the interference of signals from multiple relay networks with each other in the linear deterministic framework. For several ranges of the network parameters we find upper bounds on the maximum achievable source-destination rate in the... 

Polymer-layered silicate nanocomposites have been observed to demonstrate enhanced mechanical properties particularly at low weight fractions of silicate. Experimental and theoretical investigations reveal that numerous structural parameters strongly influence the modulus of such nanocomposites. A multiscale micromechanical model is developed which considers a wide range of different affecting parameters including the particle aspect ratio, the number of silicate layers per stack, the d-spacing ratio between the layers, the penetration of polymer chains along silicate sheets, the intercalation feature, and the particle volume fraction. The developed model illustrates the accuracy and... 

In this paper, a three-dimensional numerical model is developed to analyze flow characteristics of pressure driven, electroosmotic and combined pressure driven-electroosmotic flows through micro-channels. The governing system of equations consists of the electric-field and flow-field equations. The solution procedure involves three steps. The net charge distribution on the cross section of the microchannel is computed by solving two-dimensional Poisson-Boltzmann equation using the finite element method. Then, using the computed fluid's charge distribution, the magnitude of the resulting body force due to interaction of an external electric field with the charged fluid is calculated along the... 

The electrocardiogram (ECG) signal is widely used for diagnosis of various types of cardiac diseases. However, in practical cases, the signal is corrupted by artifacts through the recording process. Thus, denoising of this type of biological signals seems necessary. Several methods have been suggested in recent years for the purpose of ECG denoising; some of which have been based on Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD). In this paper, an EMD-based approach is proposed which uses the time interval between two adjacent zero crossings within an Intrinsic Mode Function (IMF), defined as Instantaneous Half Period (IHP), to distinguish noise components from the main ECG signal. Noisy signal is... 

The objective of the present study is to predict Young's modulus of polymer-layered silicate nanocomposites (PLSNs) containing fully intercalated structures. The particular contribution of this article is to consider the changes in structural parameters of different intercalated morphologies in vicinity of each other. These parameters include aspect ratio of intercalated stacks, number of silicate layers per stack, d-spacing between the layers, modulus of the gallery phase, and volume fraction of each intercalated morphology. To do this, the effective particle concept has been employed and combined with the Mori-Tanaka micromechanical model. It has been shown that the simultaneous effects of... 

Motivated by specific applications, electrostatically actuated bistable arch shaped micro-nano resonators have attracted growing attention in the research community in recent years. Nevertheless, some issues relating to their nonlinear dynamics, including the possibility of chaos, are still not well known. In this paper, we investigate the chaotic vibrations of a bistable resonator comprised of a double clamped initially curved microbeam under combined harmonic AC and static DC distributed electrostatic actuation. A reduced order equation obtained by the application of the Galerkin method to the nonlinear partial differential equation of motion, given in the framework of Euler-Bernoulli beam... 

Due to various sources of nonlinearities, micro/nano-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS/NEMS) resonators present highly nonlinear behaviors including softening- or hardening-type frequency responses, bistability, chaos, etc. The general Duffing equation with quadratic and cubic nonlinearities serves as a characterizing model for a wide class of MEMS/NEMS resonators as well as lots of other engineering and physical systems. In this paper, after brief reviewing of various sources of nonlinearities in micro/nano-resonators and discussing how they contribute to the Duffing-type nonlinearities, we propose a Homotopy Analysis Method (HAM) approach for derivation of analytical solutions for the... 

Chaotic vibrations of a bistable resonator comprised of doubly clamped shallow arch under simultaneous harmonic AC and static DC distributed electrostatic actuation are investigated. A single degree of freedom model obtained by application of the Galerkin decomposition method to the Euler-Bernoulli shallow arch equation is used for the studies. The bistable arch possessing an asymmetric double-well potential is vulnerable to homoclinic chaos at certain values of parameters. We have implemented the Melnikov's method to derive a necessary condition for the initiation of chaos in this type of resonators. Moreover, we have used a heuristic chaos prediction criterion, together with an analytical... 

Due to various sources of nonlinearities, micro/nano-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS/NEMS) resonators present highly nonlinear behaviors including softening- or hardening-type frequency responses, bistability, chaos, etc. The general Duffing equation with quadratic and cubic nonlinearities serves as a characterizing model for a wide class of MEMS/NEMS resonators as well as lots of other engineering and physical systems. In this paper, after brief reviewing of various sources of nonlinearities in micro/nano-resonators and discussing how they contribute to the Duffing-type nonlinearities, we propose a Homotopy Analysis Method (HAM) approach for derivation of analytical solutions for the... 

Although numerous molecular methods for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) detection have been exploited, most of hem are laborious, time consuming and costly. Recently, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have attracted attention in the field of colourimetric bioanalysis, because AuNP aggregation can be tracked with the naked eye as well as ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) peak analysis. Here, based on a non-cross linking platform, a colourimetric-based method was used to evaluate the capability of thiolated oligo-AuNPs (Au nanoprobes) to distinguish between normal individuals, carriers and those with SMA. In this platform, removal of the repulsive force of the Au nanoprobes using high salt concentration... 

This paper deals with the investigation of the size-dependent nature of nonlinear dynamics, in a doubly clamped shallow nano-arch actuated by spatially distributed electrostatic force. We employ strain gradient theory together with the Euler-Bernoulli and shallow arch assumptions in order to derive the nonlinear partial differential equation governing the transverse motion of the arch with mid-plane stretching effects. Using the Galerkin projection method, we derive the lumped single degree of freedom model which is then used for the study of the size effects on the nonlinear snap-through and pull-in instabilities of the arch nano-electro-mechanicalsystem (NEMS). Moreover, using strain... 

Strengthening is often a necessary measure to overcome an unsatisfactory deficient situation or where a new code requires the structure or a member of it to be modified to achieve new requirements. In the engineering practice such restraint to lateral dilation, indicated by the name of confinement, has been traditionally provided to compression members through steel transverse reinforcement in the form of spirals, circular hoops or rectangular ties. Steel and concrete jackets are other techniques for providing additional confinement for compression members, too. This paper presents the results of experimental and analytical study on the application of strapping technique for retrofitting of... 

This work presents some new optimization approaches to implementation of Medium Access Control (MAC) layer of IEEE 802.11 wireless networking protocol using general purpose DSP and gate array systems. Optimization starts at design level. The hardware/software partitioning of the MACs architecture is optimized in the sense of minimal implementation burden, while maintaining the system's functionalities and performance. The proposed partitioning and implementation technique obviates the use of any Real Time Operating System (RTOS), which leads to a simple, high speed, and low memory structure of the MACs software. Also, solutions such as using hash tables and pipeline processing are given and... 

27Al NMR spectroscopy is a powerful tool for the study of coordination and solvation in both aqueous and nonaqueous solutions. In this study, the complexes coexisting upon dissolution of AlCl3 in acidic acetone + methanol solutions are shown to consist essentially of mixed hexacoordinated species of the general formula [Al(CH3OH) 6-n (CH3COCH3) n ]3+ (n=1,2 and 3), all exhibiting distinctly different 27Al shielding effects. The relative populations of the various mixed species are found to be highly dependent upon the acetone:methanol mole ratio that in the more acetone-rich mixtures with aluminum become appreciably coordinated by acetone. The results demonstrate that the key factor for the... 

Natural and synthetic anion receptors are extensively employed, but the structures of their bound complexes are difficult to determine in the liquid phase. Infrared spectroscopy is used in this work to characterize the solution structures of bound anion receptors for the first time, and surprisingly only two of three hydroxyl groups of the neutral aliphatic triols are found to directly interact with Cl-. The binding constants of these triols with zero to three CF3 groups were measured in a polar environment, and KCD3CN(Cl-) = 1.1 × 106 M-1 for the tris(trifluoromethyl) derivative. This is a remarkably large value, and high selectivity with respect to interfering anions such as, Br-, NO3 -...