Sharif Digital Repository

This is the first attempt at process modeling in terms of predictive control using a hierachical method based on regression analysis and artificial neural networks(ANNs).This hierachical use leads to the reliability improvement of neural model of process in prediction (extrapolation and interpolation) of process output. such an outlook makes it possible to predict the proper input settings which achieved a desired process output by designing various senarios for process set up. This approach was applied in Tile industry for spray dring process and in order to indicate the achieved improvement,three models:(i) regression model of process using multiple linear regression,(ii)Neural model of... 

The advent of digital age with the Internet revolution has made it extremely convenient for users to access, create, process, copy, or exchange multimedia data. This has created an urgent need for protecting intellectual property in both the digital and the print media. Digital watermarking is a suitable way to do this. In this technology, some hidden information called watermark are embedded into host signal and extracted to confirm copyright protection. However, the watermark should be embedded in the host in such a way that the attacks could not destroy it. Print and scan is a popular attack that is applied on digital images. This attack has complex nature and can be implemented easily.... 

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are a type of marine vehicles which are currently being used for exploration, maintenance, repairing of marine structures and military appliances. Unmanned underwater vehicles categorize in two types: ROVs and AUVs, ROVs (remotely operated vehicles) usually are connected to the mother vessel with a cable, conduction signals transfer through this cable and there is an operator in the control loop. The vehicle may be fed up with this cable, AUVs are modern underwater vehicles which the operator on controlling and conducting is removed, there is no connection between the vehicle and mother vessel, energy sources and controlling orders are set up in the... 

In the present study, waves maker and its effective parameters has been investigated. Different kind of wave makers have been investigated and compared with each others. Then, according to marine laboratory requirnents such as Dimensions, seakeeping tests, installation place and budget, a proper wave maker is designed. In design procedure, differential equations of waves and paddle wavemaker, wavemaker's power, forces on paddle and mechanical system with servo motor are used. For improving efficiency of system and converting the rotary motion to linear motion, a ball screw is utilized.
 

Because of increasing usage of modified polymers and consequent necessity for investigation and modeling of mechanical behavior of these materials, it is important to get a yield criterion for these materials. For this purpose the Gurson yield criterion presented for porous metals, was modified with regard to mechanical properties of polymers. Indeed pressure sensitivity of polymers and their large elastic strain during deformation, makes using of Gurson yield criterion problematic for modified polymers.
For modification of Gurson criterion, macroscopic hydrostatic yield stress equation was derived for a thick-walled spherical shell of epoxy and then Gurson criterion was modified with... 

In this research, Al-20Si-5Fe-2X (X=Cu,Ni,Cr) alloys were produced by gas atomizing and melt spinning processes. Microstructure and growth morphology of powder and ribbons were investigated using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, then, analyzed by solidification models. Powder and chopped ribbons were hot pressed at 400°C/250 MPa and microstructural variations, mechanical properties and thermal coefficient expansion were evaluated after consolidation. Results show that relatively high cooling rate in gas-atomized powders lead to refinement of the microstructure and formation of semi-equilibrium δ intermetallic phase. As the powder particle... 

In this study biological denitrification method by moving bed biofilm reactor is investigated. The main advantage of MBBR reactor is due to their capacity for high removal rates and low operational problems such as clogging. Two MBBRs in series with 3 liter volume each, were designed in experimental set up and used in this research. Nitrification reactor worked under aerobic conditions and denitrification reactor operated under anaerobic conditions. Methanol was used as carbon source in the reactors throughout the study. Fifty percent of each reactor volume was occupied with KMT1 packing. To finding the optimum nitrate loading rate, the concentration of ammonium and nitrate were changed from... 

This study has been carried out for investigating the need for an appropriate and fast seismic analysis method to be applied in performance based design (PBD), and show the application of Endurance Time (ET) method and its advantages in PBD. The major goal of this project is analysis and study of behavior of concrete frames with retrofitted shear walls with FRP by ET method with acceleration functions which are compatible with actual earthquake and comparation with time history analysis, forand comparation of whole results with shear wall frames that are not retrofitted. Performance criteria of FEMA code were used fore comparation of two frame categories (retrofitted and not retrofitted).... 

In a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) plant, equal moles of methyl acetate are produced as byproduct for every mole of PVA. Since there is a little demand for impure methyl acetate, it is converted to methanol and acetic acid as raw materials of PVA plant via hydrolysis reaction. Duo to the small equilibrium constant of hydrolysis reaction of methyl acetate, the conventional process (including reaction and separation sections) suffers some problems such as large recycle flow and high energy consumption. Therefore, reactive distillation is introduced as an alternative for these processes. Since the reactive distillation integrates both reaction and separation in a single vessel, it has more complex... 

Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell performance is directly related to the flow channel design on bipolar plates. Power gains can be found by varying the type, size, or arrangement of channels. It has been understood that the flow field design has a deterministic role on mass transport and water management, and thus great efforts have been made for the optimal design of flow field such that high and stable cell performance can be achieved. This study concentrates on the improvement in the performance of PEM fuel cells through optimization of the channel dimensions and patterns in the velocity and pressure fields in bipolar plates. For design and optimization purposes, a 2D numerical... 

Underground water is one of major resources of drinking water in Iran and thus, its quality (in terms of absence of pollutants) is a matter of great importance. The main goal of this research was to investigate the pollution concentration in underground water and soil in two regions: Dasht-e-naz in Sari and the fields near Sarkhoun gas refinery. The second goal was to determine the source and measure the distribution of the pollutants (in case of presence) and determine potential risks caused by them. The first step was to perform experimental tests in the two regions. In Sari's Dasht-e-naz region, a number of wells were chosen for sampling according to the direction of underground water... 

In view of environmental problems and the limited energy supply, synthesis of new liquid fuel from coal or natural gas is becoming a hot research in recent years. Dimethyl ether (DME) is one of the most promising alternates of such synthetic fuels. In this project the kinetics of direct DME synthesis from syngas (H2 and CO) over the new bifunctional catalyst has been investigated in slurry reactor system. A new mechanism and rate law expression were established. The kinetic model has been fitted the experimental data, which has been obtained by other researchers. The new bifunctional catalyst was composed of Cu/ZnO/ZrO2 and Al-modified H-Mordenite zeolite. The calculated apparent... 

The iron and steel industry has faced several challenges during the recent years. There has always been an aspiration towards higher economic profitability for the system. During the mid 1970s and 1980s the energy crises caused a dramatic rise in energy costs, which led to an increased awareness in energy conservation. In recent years, climate change issues have become more important for the industry. The operating practices for an industrial system are often affected by external restrictions concerning the economical, energy and environmental efficiency of the system. There are a large number of ways to increase the system efficiency, e.g. installation of new process equipment, and practice... 

In this study, uranium removal from phosphoric acid with doulite resin was examined. Different uptake properties of the doulite resin were examined using batch, stirred and column methods. Langmuier, freundlich and dubinin equation was fitted the isotherm data and freundlich equation showed the best fitting. Adsorption kinetics was controlled by slow intraparticle diffusion of UO22+ ions in resin, and it obeyed a shrinking core model. Also a pseudo-second order chemical reaction fairly fitted the kinetics data  

The present research aims at designing a hybrid powertrain for the urban utility vehicles whose internal combustion engines consume more fuel due to idling during most of the time of their mission in the cities. This design has considered development of a hybrid powertrain with the least changes in the vehicle together with a simultaneous lower cost. At first some experiments were conducted to examine the feasibility of using the hybrid powertrain for the urban utility vehicles. One of the results of this test was the speed of these vehicles in different times of working and we can achieved a standard drive cycle though separate methods by analyzing this result. The drive cycle is one of the... 

There is a need from the natural gas and energy industries to seek for an economically attractive way of converting remote gas reserves into transportable products, such as high quality fuels or petrochemicals. A possible way for the conversion of natural gas to middle distillates is based on a three-step process. Firstly, production of syngas from natural gas. Secondly,catalytic conversion of syngas into hydrocarbons, mostly parafins from C5 to C100. (Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis). Thirdly, hydrocracking of the heavy paraffinic hydrocarbons to middle distillates. The F-T synthesis step is highly exothermic. In order to control the temperature within the reactor, when considering high... 

One of the most common diseases associated with musculo-skeletal ailment is low back pain which is epidemic among general public so that billions of dollars is spent annually to treat this disease. There are back pain prevention strategies include training on correct lifting, ergonomic tool design, and industrial automation amongst others. In recent years, assistive devices have also been used to prevent back pain. There are assistive devices that can be installed on the body and significantly have reduced forces required for Erector Spinae muscle and Lumbar moments. In this research, at first the anatomy of the spine and muscles and method of processing Electromyography (EMG) of muscles... 

In this work, the viscoelastic fluids flow and their short fiber suspensions has been modeled in contraction geometry using conformation models, these models predict behavior of polymeric chains in contraction geometry. Prediction of viscoelastic fluids flow through a contraction is very important, especially in polymer processing where a polymer melt in barrel of an extruder is going to pass through a narrow die. We expect to see an eddy in each corner of barrel. The result has shown that increasing of De number enhances the eddy magnitude; also with making acute angle, we see decreasing of eddy magnitude. Normal stresses and velocity were investigated in contraction and their results had... 

Diabetes is a global problem as a silent epidemic disorder. Diabetes Mellitus has involved at least five percent of our population. It will cause so many complications and end-organs effects if it is not controlled. Today, treatment and control of diseases using computational intelligent systems has been paid a lot of attention to. That’s why this study has taken treatment and control of diabetes into consideration. So, the neural networks have been used to manage and treat diabetes. To do this, real data from diabetic patients has been gathered and based on the data, a model has been obtained to show the effect of insulin on the amount of blood glucose. Then, a neural network controller has... 

Nowadays, modeling the behavior of materials during forming processes is so important. The role of most of them is to investigate and predict the evolutions of microstructure and mechanical properties of materials during plastic deformation. Previous researches have demonstrated that the best parameter to investigate these evolutions is the dislocation density of materials. In this study, first, the dislocation-based models, which investigate the material parameters evolutions during plastic deformation, were investigated and it was revealed that among all presented models, only the two internal variables models can investigate the behavior of materials during severe plastic deformation. ...