Sharif Digital Repository

This thesis is concerned with a fundamental problem in computational geometry. This problem inspects covering a space with a set of points provided that each point of the space is visible to at least one point from the selected subset. Applications of these problems are in the areas such as geographic information systems (GIS), robotics,computer graphics and the military.The investigated space is a planar rectangular region which is partitioned into smaller rectangles by connected edges. The objective of this study is to find an optimized corridor; i.e., a connected subset of edges which contains at least one point from each rectangle. For the minimum diameter corridor problem, an exact... 

Finding a path between two specified points is one of the most common problem in computational geometry. The minimum-link path problem is in this category. The minimum-link path between two points is the path between these points with the minimum number of segments. Minimum-link paths have application in areas such as computer graphic, geographic information systems, robotics, image processing, cryptography and VLSI.In this thesis we study variations of the minimum link path problem. Specifically we consider the constrained minimum-link paths in which the path must passes through some given
regions. We detected a flaw in a previously presented algorithm and propose a method to fix this... 

In this study, the effect of martensite volume fraction on the wear behaviour of 4340 steel with triple-phase steel microstructure with a constant volume fraction of 34% ferrite was investigated. Using the Holman equation, it was found that triple-phase steel with different martensite volume fraction has two stages of work hardening. By increasing martensite volume fraction, yield strength and ultimate tensile strength and work hardening exponent of first and second stages increase and the elongation decreased. To perform the wear test, the pin on disc apparatus was used according to the ASTM G99 standard, and the test was done at two forces of 10 and 50 N at a fixed distance of 400 m. The... 

Structural efficiency is a primary concern in today’s aerospace and aircraft industries. This brings about the need for strong and light weight structures. To increase the strength of a panel without considerable increase in its weight, we may use a lattice of stiffeners which may have shells connected to one side of the lattice or both sides of it. These structures are usually called grid stiffened structures. Aircraft fuselage and launch vehicle fuel tanks are some of the many applications of these structures in aerospace and aircraft industries. These structures include two major groups; isogrids (grid stiffened structures with equivalent isotropic properties) and orthogrids (grid... 

Membrane bioreactor (MBR) is a combination of conventional activated sludge (CAS) and membrane filtration which owing to its advantages such as high quality effluent and low excess sludge production, has gained increasing application in wastewater treatment. The major drawback of a MBR is the membrane fouling that reduces the permeate flux, which in turn increases the overall operational costs due to high energy requirements. In existing study, the combination of sludge oxidation and coagulation/flocculation addition was investigated for mitigation of membrane fouling in a membrane bioreactor. Oxidation can facilitate sludge flocculation and hence improve the properties of mixed liquor. The... 

Capturing the atmospheric CO2 and turning it into value added products is a topic that has been extensively studied in recent years. One of the methods through which CO2 is valorized is via converting it into carbon nanofiber, CNFs. CNFs can be an important material in future human activities due to its valuable properties such as wide range of electrical conductivity, their superior flexibility and strength, But it is currently obstructed in use due to the high cost of manufacturing and the complexity of the synthesis. Furthermore, in today's world, human life is heavily influenced by greenhouse gases, and avoiding emitting gases like CO2, is almost infeasible. This thesis provides an... 

LFP characteristics have been shown to be informative of sensory stimuli and influenced by attention. We show the gamma power in area MT is selective to motion direction showing a Gaussian tuning curve. Here we show for the first time, some evidence based on a single monkey’s data that spatial attention enhances the tuning curve based on gamma power.The synchronization of activity across neurons has been a focus in many recent studies of information processing in networks of cortical cells and areas. One aspect of such inter-neuronal synchrony is the locking of spiking activity to local field potentials (LFPs). Such an interaction has been observed between the timing of individual action... 

A novel broadband and tunable terahertz (THz) source based on the modulation instability phenomenon (MI) is proposed. By introducing higher-order dispersion terms in nonlinear Schrodinger equation (NLSE) the MI gain is spread toward larger frequencies which in turn shifts the input optical frequency to the THz range. In this method, the need for any further pump signal is eliminated while the input power is reasonable, less than 1W, due to using EDFA fiber. By changing the input signal power, the generated THz signal frequency could be tuned. The proposed structure is numerically simulated in the designed values of dispersion orders  

In the experimental approach, graphene and Graphene Oxide (GO) were synthesized through a chemical method. In order to study the quality of GO, characterization tests were performed. Then, reinforced polymer with GO and graphene was made. Moreover, tension, compression and Split- Hopkinson pressure bar tests were performed on standard samples of reinforced polymer nanocomposite. The experimental data show that nanoparticles have a destructive effect in very low and high percentages for extension test as well as in high percentages for compression test. On the other hand, graphene is more effective than GO on improving material properties. Furthermore, comparison of compression results in... 

Reviewing trends of energy consumption in the world reveals that sooner or later energy resources will be depleted. This concerning rate of consumption has brought about more greenhouse gases (GHG) emission influencing deleteriously on environment and climate. Human has continued energy consumption to maintain and improve the quality of his life through industrial production. Industry as a significant energy user owns considerable contribution to this consumption. Several attempts have been carried out to develop energy management systems in order to improve the energy efficiency of industrial sectors. Whilst they are comprehensive and could be applied to any sector, there is lack of... 

Complex directed networks are widely used in representing, modeling and summarizing various homo and heterogeneous real networks such as protein-protein interactions, social and twitting networks, brain connectomes, chipsets mapping and marketing. While working on undirected networks in the hope for detecting communities or any other static and dynamic structures, has been on agenda of many physician and computer scientists, dealing with directed ones seems more challengeable for quick advances. Availability of theoretical basis especially symmetric adjacency matrix recommends modeling with undirected graphs but we believe that directed graphs are more general and practical to model real... 

The behavior of boundary layer under the effect of the sweep angle is considered. The measurements were performed by a pitot tube rake. Three models with various sweep angels at angles of attack -2, 0 and 2 degree were tested. Both tip and root of all wings were closed by flat plates in order to prevent the flow to roll-up. However the flow field on the wing was still three-dimensional because of the sweep angle. The velocity on the wing has two components; longitudinal and lateral. The cross flow emerges due to the non-equilibrium of pressure and centrifugal forces. The velocity profiles showed that the magnitude of cross flow was stronger near the leading edge of the wing. The cross flow... 

This research attempts to develop the optimal solution for an inventory problem consisting of a single machine which produces items some of which may be defective. We assume that no shortages are allowed and all defective items are to be reworked. Setup cost for rework and waiting time of defectives are considered. This research consists of two different parts. In the first part we consider two different policies where in the first policy in each cycle after the regular production the machine is setup for the rework of defectives of the same cycle. In the second policy several cycles constitute a period. All the defectives produced in the period are reworked in the last cycle of that period.... 

Energy harvesters are used in today’s Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) to harvest the energy from the environment. One of the important advantages of the energy harvesting sensor networks over battery-operated sensor networks is that the use of the energy harvester prolongs the life time of the nodes, while a battery-operated node becomes useless once its energy runs out. Although an energy harvester can provide a supply source with a lifetime much greater than a battery, the amount of available energy for an energy harvesting system is a random variable and is not as predictable as the energy of a battery. This unpredictability may cause reliability problems. In order to solve the existing... 

Wireless Sensor Networks have become widespread because of their flexibility, applicability and ability to precept data with high accuracy. However, the most limiting factor in their usage is the amount of available energy in nodes since energy depletion in a node means that it is dead, therefore many efforts have been done for optimum energy management in Wireless Sensor Networks. In many cases, the key solution to prolong the network lifetime is load balancing. In this way, all the nodes will die (approximately) together and the lifetime of network will be maximized. Load balancing can be implemented in all layers from physical layer to application. It should be noted that it is not always... 

The competitiveness of a port convinced shipping lines and shippers with a significant basis in selecting a port. Port authorities and port operators can make use of the competitive advantage as a parameter for counter measures by grasping the advantages and disadvantages of the ports and be a prime factor of opportunities and threats of the ports. Ports have a significant role in today’s networked business environment. They are being regarded as hubs that are part of various logistic systems. The very essence of a seaport is to link maritime networks and land network. These networks for the port are means of analyzing its competitiveness. A port overall competitiveness is determined by it’s... 

Concrete is the second most structural material in the world. So attention and promotion of the concrete mix design with respect to variable issues and requirements, is very important. On the other hand, these days environment and its pollution has become very popular discussion. Waste-glass which is produced by human products is one of the environmental pollutants. In this thesis it replaces some aggregate in concrete and it can reduce the level of this material in the world. Also we study effects of silica-fume as cement replacement and properties enhancer in our concrete mix design and see how it can ...