Sharif Digital Repository

The economical operations of power plants and environmental awareness are the major factors affecting the importance of control in boiler-turbine units. In this paper, a multivariable nonlinear model of boiler-turbine unit is considered. Drum pressure, electric output and water level of drum (as output variables) are adjusted at desired values by manipulation of valve positions for fuel, steam and feed-water flow rates (as input variables). Nonlinear dynamics of the unit is investigated through the concepts of bifurcation and limit cycles behaviour. In the presence of harmonic disturbances, some coefficients of the dynamic model, fuel and steam flow rates play as the bifurcation parameters.... 

To guarantee the safety and efficient performance of the power plant, a robust controller for the boiler-turbine unit is needed. In this paper, a robust adaptive sliding mode controller (RASMC) is proposed to control a nonlinear multi-input multi-output (MIMO) model of industrial boiler-turbine unit, in the presence of unknown bounded uncertainties and external disturbances. To overcome the coupled nonlinearities and investigate the zero dynamics, input-output linearization is performed, and then the new decoupled inputs are derived. To tackle the uncertainties and external disturbances, appropriate adaption laws are introduced. For constructing the RASMC, suitable sliding surface is... 

Performance of a haptic device is evaluated based on the concept of transparency. Stability of a haptic device prevalently has been evaluated based on the passivity criterion. Due to conservativeness of passivity, it appears as an obstacle to improve transparency. In this paper, passivity is suggested to be replaced by the complementary stability criterion which accounts for the robust stability of the interaction in the presence of uncertain user hand dynamics. In this respect, an algorithm is proposed which guarantees transparency of the haptic device in a stable manner. Assuming that the dynamics of the device is known, a certain compensatory structure is assigned. This special structure... 

In this paper, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) has been used to identify the dynamics of robots used in haptic and master slave devices in order to improve transparency. In haptic and master slave devices, transparency depends on some factors such as robot's mass and inertia, gravitational forces and friction [1]. In such systems, mass and inertia of the robot has an undesirable effect on the system outputs, which should be neutralized for improved transparency. The main purpose of this paper introducting a method to neutralize the undesirable effects of mass and inertia of the robot. A recurrent multilayer perceptron (RMLP) is used in a way that the inputs and outputs of the neural network... 

In this paper, motion of a micro-robot with two perpendicular vibrational actuators is studied. In this work, separation of the micro-robot body from the substrate of motion is modeled. If the applied vertical force to the micro-robot body is greater than its weight, body of the micro-robot jumps apart from the substrate and then returns to it. This motion will continue intermittently until it is damped. In this condition, the motion mechanism of “stick-slip” is not valid, and a hybrid motion according to “stick-slip-jump” mode is governed. By increasing the applied vertical force, the motion velocity of the micro-robot becomes disordered and unrepeatable. By numerical solving of the... 

Large amplitude oscillation of the power transmission lines, which is also known as galloping phenomenon, has hazardous consequences such as short circuiting and failure of transmission line. In this article, to suppress the undesirable vibrations of the transmission lines, first the governing equations of transmission line are derived via mode summation technique. Then, due to the occurrence of large amplitude vibrations, nonlinear quadratic and cubic terms are included in the derived linear equations. To suppress the vibrations, arbitrary number of the piezoelectric actuators is assumed to exert the actuation forces. Afterwards, a Lyapunov based approach is proposed for the robust adaptive... 

Background: The bio-oxidation of ferrous iron is a potential industrial process in the regeneration of ferric iron and the removal of H2S in combustible gases. Bio-oxidation of ferrous iron may be an alternative method of producing ferric sulfate, which is a reagent used for removal of H2S from biogas, tail gas and in the pulp and paper industry. For practical use of this process, this study evaluated the optimal pH and initial ferric concentration. pH control looks like a key factor as it acts both on growth rate and on solubility ofmaterials in the system. Results: Process variables such as pH and amount of initial ferrous ions on oxidation by A. ferrooxidans and the effects of process... 

Horseradish peroxidase was encapsulated in calcium alginate for the purpose of phenol removal. Upon immobilization, pH profile of enzyme activity changes as it shows higher value at basic and acidic solution. Investigation into time course of phenol removal for both encapsulated and free enzyme showed that encapsulated enzyme had nearly similar efficiency in comparison with the same concentration of free enzyme; however the capsules were reusable up to four cycles without any changes in their retention activity  

The surface of polyacrylonitrile electrospun nanofibrous membrane (PAN NFM) was aminated by the ammonia plasma treatment. The content of amine groups has been estimated for different time of plasma treatment. The newly generated amine groups were successfully activated by glutaraldehyde (Ga) for the covalent attachment of the protein molecules on the NFM surface. Bio-functionalization of ammonia plasma treated PAN NFM was carried out by the primary antibodies (Ab) immobilization as a protein model through Ga coupling chemistry. For comparison, the immobilization of Ab was also performed through physical interactions. Attenuated total reflection-fourier transform infrared spectroscopy... 

Nowadays, exoskeletons have been gaining popularity due to their potential use in rehabilitation and augmentation. These robots often utilize series elastic actuators to facilitate compliant interaction with the human. Numerous studies have been carried out with the purpose of identification and control of these type of actuators. The goal of this paper is to provide a method for dynamic modeling and identification of series elastic actuators. This model is then used in the control loop as a feed-forward term to eliminate the actuator's dynamics. Each series elastic actuator used in the Sharif wearable robot, uses a brushless DC motor, a torsional spring, a harmonic drive, a timing belt, a... 

The current study is an attempt to contribute for efficient and cost-effective substrates for xanthan gum production. In this context, the sugar cane molasses wastes can be used as a cheap substrate for xanthan gum production. Xanthan biopolymer production by a novel Xanthomonas campestris strain IBRC-M 10644 was optimized with statistical approaches. Based on the results of Response Surface Methodology (RSM) with Central Composite Design (CCD) technique, a second-order polynomial model was developed and evaluated the effects of variables on the maximum xanthan production. Agitation rate (X1: 200-500 rpm), sugar cane molasses concentration (X2: 30-90 g/L) and operation temperature (X3: 25-35... 

In this paper, the stick-slip-jump motion of a micro-robot with two perpendicular vibratory actuators is studied. A practical model of this micro-robot is designed and fabricated with two Langevin type piezoelectric actuators, which are driven by harmonic voltages. Depending on the amplitude and frequency of the driving voltages of the micro-robot actuators, as well as their phase difference, the type of the motion dynamics and the states of the contact points in the motion (slipping or jumping) are determined. Considering the conditions of the contact points of the micro-robot, the motion is based on the combination of the friction drive principle (stick-slip) and jumping phenomenon. A... 

In this study, a new algorithm for explicit model predictive control of linear discrete-time systems subject to linear constraints, disturbances, uncertainties, and actuator faults is developed. The algorithm is based on dynamic programming, constraint rearrangement, multi-parametric programming, and a solution combination procedure. First of all, the dynamic programming is used to recast the problem as a multi-stage optimization problem. Afterwards, the constraints are rearranged in an innovative manner to take into account the worst admissible situation of unknown bounded disturbances, uncertainties, and actuator faults. Then, the explicit solution of the reformulated optimization problem... 

In this article, to improve the precision, performance and robustness of an industrial boiler-turbine, two robust controllers are designed. First, a robust adaptive variable structure control scheme (RAVSC) is proposed to control a nonlinear multi-inputs multi-outputs (MIMO) model of an industrial boiler-turbine unit, in the presence of significant uncertainties and external disturbances. To guarantee the reliable performance of the RAVSC, appropriate adaption and control laws are introduced to compensate the uncertainties and modeling imprecisions and guarantee the convergence to the sliding surface. Then, the robustness and stability of the proposed RAVSC is proved via Lyapunov stability... 

Efficient robust control methods are required to keep the boiler-turbine unit performance appropriately. In this paper, a hybrid multivariable robust control strategy including the regulator and observer is designed to improve the performance of an industrial boiler-turbine unit. In the nonlinear model of the process, output variables including the drum pressure, electric power and water level of the drum are controlled at the desired set-points by manipulation of the fuel, steam, and feed-water flow rates. Due to economic and technical reasons and for the estimation of process states, the full-order observer is designed. For disturbance rejection and process stability, a regulator system is... 

Blend drug-loading method in electrospun scaffolds has gained much attention as a cost-effective and simple delivery system in regenerative medicine. However, it has some drawbacks, such as the burst release of encapsulated drugs and denaturing active agents in harsh organic solvents. In this study, a new silk fibroin-gelatin (SF–G) fibrous sheet has been introduced as an engineered scaffold and a straightforward drug delivery system for skin tissue engineering applications. The hybrid sheets have been prepared via co-electrospinning and in-situ crosslinking methods without corrosive solvents and toxic crosslinking agents. To evaluate the proposed scaffold as a controlled release system, the... 

In the article, a bilayer nanocomposite scaffold made of oxidized alginate (OAL), gelatin (G), and silk fibroin (SF) has been prepared via combining electrospinning, in situ gas foaming, in situ crosslinking and freeze drying methods. The physicochemical and mechanical properties, as well as thermal stability of the proposed composite, have been investigated by SEM, FTIR, XRD, tensile, and TGA analysis. The data indicate that structure and degree of crosslinking play a vital role in adjusting the physical and mechanical properties of composite scaffolds. Further, the authors find a favorable adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cell's (AMSC) attachment and distribution within this novel... 

A nonlinear robust adaptive sliding mode admittance controller is proposed for exoskeleton rehabilitation robots. The proposed controller has robustness against uncertainties of dynamic parameters using an adaptation law. Furthermore, an adaptive Sliding Mode Control (SMC) scheme is employed in the control law to provide robustness against disturbances (non-parametric uncertainties) with unknown bounds. For this purpose, another adaptation law is defined for the variation of the SMC gain. The proposed scheme is augmented with an admittance control method to provide the patient with compliance during interaction with the rehabilitation robot. The stability of the proposed controller and the...