Journal of Advanced Materials in Engineering (Esteghlal)

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Triaxial consolidated drained, unconfined compression, and CBR tests have been conducted in order to study the stress-strain, strength, and volume change characteristics of fine sand specimens reinforced by polymeric fibers made from carpet wastes. The variables are aspect ratio (length/width) and weight percentage of the fibers. The results indicate that the peak strength and total volume change of reinforced specimens increase whereas the maximum elastic modulus decreases as the fiber content increases. The rate of increase in the peak strength and total volume change, however, diminishes with increasing the fiber content. The effect of increase in the aspect ratio on results is similar to that of the fiber content.

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In this paper, a numerical scheme is proposed for the multi-fluid compressible flows. This method is applied to the problem of underwater explosion. The proposed scheme is basically the extension of Godunov method in gas dynamic problems to the multifluid environments and is second-order accurate in space. In this method, also, the problem of artificial mixing of two different phases on Eulerian grids is prevented by a front tracking technique. The numerical results of this study are in very good agreement with previous numerical and exprimental results

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In this paper the laminar flow in the rectangular channel bends is simulated using numerical techniques. The turning angle of the channel bend and the area ratio of the channel cross-section are two important parameters to be examined. For flow simulation, the body fitted 3-D continuity and momentum equations are used and a body fitted general purpose code is developed. The existing results of a tied-diriven cavity and the experimental results from a 90 degree square bend were used for code validation. After the code validation, the effect of the area change in the 90 degree bend is examined. The numerical results indicated that increasing the area causes changes in the flow pattern, in turn, which has a direct impact on pressure drop. Similar results were obtained for other bend angles including 30, 60, 120, 150 and 180 degree bends. The results showed that increased bend turning angle increases the pressure drop which is in good agreement with existing experimental data.

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On electropolished steel at low current densities, morphology and texture of electrodeposited zinc were investigated. Zinc coating is consisted of hexagonal crystallites laid on each other to produce packets. These packets are of different sizes and are stacked in different orientations to construct a homogeneous coating on steel substrate. This coating does not have texture, i.e., it has a random texture. With increasing current density, the morphology changes completely as each grain attains a special orientation. In this case, coating has a strong basal plane (0002) along with low angle planes (1013 and 1014). Coating obtained on mechanically polished surfaces consists of individual packets of zinc crystals, which are near each other with different orientations. These coatings have a higher density of basal plane (0002) in comparison to electropolished surfaces. The morphology and texture variations with cathodic polarization and surface preparation of steel are due to their effect on nucleation and growth.

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In the present stady, thermochemical treatment in H2/NH3 atmosphere was used as a post-treatment for electroless Ni-P coatings on the AISI 4140 steel substrates. High phosphorus (9%) coatings with thicknesses of 2, 24 and 48 m were applied and the effects of the thermochemical treatment on the morphology, structural changes, roughness, hardness and wear resistance of coatings were studied by SEM, EDS, XRD, profilometry, and microhardness tester. Wear test was used to evaluate wear characteristics of coatings. The wear behaviour of the thermochemical treated/Ni-P coated samples was assessed by comparison with thermochemical treated/uncoated (nitrided) samples. The results showed that effect of thermochemical treatment varies with the coating thickness. In addition, it was shown that a multicomponent coating containing phosphide, nitride and intermetallic phases as well as diffusion region can be developed in the thin (2 m) electroless Ni-P coated steel by thermochemical treatment. This sample showed better wear resistance than 24 m Ni-P coated steel under higher load. This behavior was ascribedto nitride phases formed at the surface as well as a nitrogen diffusion zone at the subsurface of thin Ni-P coated steel

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Zinc-Nickel electrodeposits have been widely adopted for surface treatment of automobile steel sheet for high corrosion resistance. In this work the effect of pulse parameters on the Zn-Ni alloy electrodeposits was investigated. The hardness, thickness, corrosion resistance and composition of deposits thus produced were investigated. The surface topography of the deposits was also observed in SEM and results are reported. It has been shown that the thickness of the pulse electrodeposits was almost even. The hardness in the pulse electrodeposits increased by increasing the on-time period and by decreasing the current density. It was also noticed that increasing the on-time period increases the nickel content of the deposit. Pulse electrodposits had fine structure and the structure become finer by reducung the on-time period and pulse frequency. The corrosion dehaviors of the deposits were then investigated. The results showed that the corrosion resistance of the DC electrodeposits improves in their nickel content increases. Pulse electodeposits show the same behavior, but deposits with about 13% nickel show maximum corrosion resistance.

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The rapid increase of non-linear loads in the last three decades has caused electrical quantities such as voltages and currents in 3-phase distribution systems to become distorted waveforms. This paper reviews, explains and discusses some new concepts, definitions and new available theory in the unbalanced and distorted systems. The usefulness of the proposed practical definitions is investigated by means of applying them to the real-world measurements of a three-phase electric arc furnace voltages and currents. Finally, the main power terms such as fundamental and non-fundamental power components, harmonic pollution, phase unbalance, active, reactive nonactive and distortion components are evaluated for a 3-phase arc furnace.

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Generation Expansion Planning (GEP) is one of major modules of power system planning studies, normally performed for the nex 10-30 years horizon. The current industrial practices are to find the generation requirements based on a nodal analysis. In this way, the allocations are not determined and subequent studies are required to find the exact locations which as decomposed from the earlier stage, may result in non-optimum solution. A new approach is proposed in this paper in which, based on dynamic programming and sensitivity factors, GEP is performed with due to consideration of transmission system effects. In this way, the allocations of justified generation plants are also determined. The results for Iranian Power Grid for the years 2011 to 2021 are demonstracted.

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With progress in radar systems, a number of methods have been developed for signal processing and detection in radars. A number of modern radar signal processing methods use time-frequency transforms, especially the wavelet transform (WT) which is a well-known linear transform. The interference canceling is one of the most important applications of the wavelet transform. In Ad-hoc detection methods, the interference is firstly canceled and then a simple detector, like an energy detector, is used. Therefore, we have used wavelet-based approaches to cancel the interference and then an energy detector has been employed. In this paper, it is shown that in practical cases where the performance of matched filter or near-matched filter is degraded, wavelet-based methods are more efficient. Also, we have shown that for cases where targets with slow radial velocity or one close to blind velocity are removed by the MTI filter, wavelet-based denoising has a better performance.

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Time-cost trade-off is one of the most important subjects in project management and of interest to contractors. The goal of time-cost trade-off is sensivity analysis of project costs to changes in activity duration in order to obtain the best combination of activity duration decrease, in a way that the sum of project costs is minimized. In the heuristics presented in this area, time crashing is on the base of the minimum cost slope of activities. But since projects are usually performed over long periods, they can be affected by interest rate. In this paper, a new heuristic algorithm is presented in order to obtain the best combination of activity duration decrease while the monetary value is taken into account, with the goal of minimizing the sum of present value of project costs

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A special class of the knapsack problem is called the separable nonlinear knapsack problem. This problem has received considerable attention recently because of its numerous applications. Dynamic programming is one of the basic approaches for solving this problem. Unfortunately, the size of state-pace will dramatically increase and cause the dimensionality problem. In this paper, an efficient algorithm is developed to find surrogate multipliers in each stage of dynamic programming in order to transform the original problem to a single constraint problem called surrogate problem. The upper and lower bounds obtained by solving the surrogate problem can eliminate a large number of state variables in dynamic programming and extremely reduce the duality gap according to our computational results.

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Rainfall is one of the most important climatic variables in the hydrology cycle. In flood estimation as well as environmental pollution studies in medium to large watersheds not only mus temporal pattern of rainfall t be known, but also the knowledge of its spatial distribution is required. Estimation of daily rainfall distribution without comparison and selection of suitable methods may lead to errors in input parameters of rainfall – runoff models. Interpolation methods are among the techniques for estimating spatial distribution of rainfall. In this study, Thin Plate Smoothing Splines (TPSS), Weighted Moving Average (WMA) and Kriging are applied to estimate spatial daily rainfall in the southwest of Iran. Cross validation technique is used for comparison and evaluation of the methods. The results of analysis with two different station density showed that the TPSS method with power of 2 is the most accurate method in estimating daily rainfall. Zoning of the region also increased the interpolation accuracy. Generally speaking, division of the region based on cluster analysis improves accuracy compared with division by inter basin boundaries

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In recent years, determining bearing capacity of piles from in-situ testing data as a complement to static and dynamic analysis has been used by geotechnical engineers. In this paper, different approaches for estimating bearing capacity of piles from SPT data are studied and compared. A new method based on N value from SPT is presented. Data averaging, failure zone and plunging failure of piles are revisited in the light of this new method. A data bank was compiled including 42 full scale pile load tests in sites where SPT was performed close to pile locations. Comparison of current methods by error investigation with statistical and cumulative probability approaches demonstrates that the new method predicts pile capacity with more accuracy and less scatter than others. Therefore, it can be applied as a suitable solution in geotechnical design.

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Forced hydraulic jump in a horizontal stilling basin with one and two continuous sills at the downstream end of an ogee standard weir was investigated. Experiments were completed on sills of five different heights which were fixed at two different distances from the toe of the weir. The main characteristics of the jump such as the sequent depth ratio, relative roller length, and relative energy loss were analysed. Based on the momentum equation and using an experimental coefficient, a method was adopted to predict the sequent depth ratio. Using the results of the experiments, an analytical expression was developed for the prediction of the relative roller length. These methods agree well with the writers, and other investigators, experiments. The results of experiments on one and two prolonged sills showed that by increasing the height of the sill or shortering the distance of the sill from the toe of the weir, the reduction of the sequent depth and also the roller length obtains, but the energy loss increases

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Five methods are introduced for design of castellated I beams encased in concrete. One of the methods, plastic analysis, is thoroughly explained and the relevant equations are developed. Eight castellated I beams encased in concrete are made and tested. The theoretical design methods are all compared with the test results and the safety factor for each method is calculated. The results show that the plastic method of analysis and design is the most economical, which also gives a reasonable safety factor against beam failure

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Contaminant transport analysis was performed for four selected solid waste landfill designs using the computer code POLLUTE. The diffusion coefficients were determined for the natural soils (aquitard) and compacted soils from the Urumia landfill site, using the diffusion tests. These coefficients along with the geometrical, physical, and chemical parameters of the natural soil and engineered layers, as well as the dominant boundary conditions were used in the analysis of the four selected designs for the landfill. These designs were evaluated for the contamination of the underlying aquifer in a specified period, using the drinking water standard for chloride ion. The comparisons showed that the fourth design which includes the engineered elements of a blanket type leachate collection layer and a compacted clayey liner underneath the landfill base, has more certainty in controlling the contaminant transport from the landfill base to the underlying aquifer. This type of landfill could be introduced as an optimum and semi-engineered design to be used for solid waste landfills in Iran.

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The use of roller compacted concrete (R.C.C) without conventional cover in important hydraulic structures is investigated through laboratory observation of abrasion phenomena sujected to high velocity flow and floating particles. The main parameters affecting abrasion and erosion resistance of R.C.C. studied in the present study include: "Mixed Hydraulic Mean Radius" (which collectively represents several different parameters such as shape, type of surface, fine and coarse aggregate ratio, mixture irregularity, and energy of compaction), water cement ratio, and age of R.C.C. samples. It should be noted that most references in this filed concentrate on conventional concrete abrasion with often soft surfaces. In the present study, however, research findings on abrasion-erosion resistance of R.C.C. and their applications in new investigations will be investigated using a new test device called "Evaluation of Concrete Resistance" designed by H. Bayat. The device works with several phase flows. Single and multivariate analyses of the results, graphs, and empirical relations are used to determine abrasion and erosion resistance in terms of the above parameters. It is expected that in future only one parameter, namely, the Mixture Hydraulic Mean Radius", will suffice for evaluating R.C.C. abrasion resistance.

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There are a number of parameters influencing the dynamic and seismic response of bridges. Of these, two important parameters warranting special notice include: the properties of the neoperenes in the state of connection between girders and columns and the shear stiffness of underlying soil in the level of bridge substructure’s connectivity to the ground. In this paper, the effects of these two parameters on the dynamic and seismic response of Ghadir Bridge in Isfahan are investigated. The main conclusions drawn from these investigations include: the sensitivity of the bridge’s lateral modes of vibration to the horizontal shear stiffness of the neoperenes and the substantial effects of the soil’s shear rigidity on the longitudinal modes. Based on the findings, it is recommended tha a thorough geotechnical site investigation of the soil be conducted and the properties of the underlying soil be accurately established in order to correctly identify the dynamic behaviour of a bridge.

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When rails are laid in a railway track, small gaps are left between the ends of adjoining rails to allow for the expansion of the rails when the temperature rises. Rail joints are provided to form a continuous rail path which are normally laid in standard lengths bolted together by fishplates. When two rail joints are exactly opposing each other, they are called square (side by side) joints. Manufacturers produce rails with different standard lengths. The inner line of rails in a curve is shorter than the outer line therefore, it would be complicated to have square joints by using only rails of standard length for both inner and outer rails in the curve. If some short rails were used in the inner line, it would be possible for all joints of rails to lie opposite each other in a precise manner. It is clear that equal rail lengths can easily create square joints along the straight portion of the track. In curves with larger radii, there is a substantial difference between inner and outer arcs of the cruve. Manufacturers producing different standard lengths also produce some short rails in two or three different lengths. This paper presents a simple method of finding the location of joints in the railway curve. Previous methods (used in European and American railways) use some short rails (3 or 4 short rails) with different lengths for the inner arc. In this method, short rails of one single length are used.

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Flow separation at water intake is the main cause of head loss and flow discharge reduction. As a result, study of shape and size of separation is very essential when designing an optimum water intake. Water intake is normally built with a 90 degree angle to the main channel flow direction. However, the flow structure in this type of water intake consists of large separation size along with vortex generation. In this study, the effect of the ratio of discharge at water intake to the main channel discharge (Qr) on the location and size of separation is investigated numerically and experimentally. The velocity of the flow at each point is measured in two dimensions using electromagnetic velocity meter. The results from the experimental data indicate that the location and shape of separations are a function of flow discharge ratio (Qr). These results also indicate that at higher ratios of flow discharge, the separation occurs downstream the water intake, whereas at lower flow discharges, the flow separation occurs upstream the water intake. Additionally, the capabilites of numerical turbulence computation models including standard k-e and RNG k-e models are investigated in this study. The computed flow velocity from the turbulence models showed that the result of standard k-e model is approximately close to the experimental data when compared with RNG k-e model