Journal of Advanced Materials in Engineering (Esteghlal)

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This paper is about discrete sensitivity analysis. A triangular bending element with constant moment and six degrees of freedom is used. The required derivatives for sensitivity analysis are calculated explicitly. These formulations, finite element method and sequential linear programming are utilized to find shape optimization of plate bending structures. The numerical examples, which show the ability of the derivatives, are presented.

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In this research the microorganism was initially isolated and selected after evaluation based on COD reduction of cheese whey and biomass production. The selected microorganism was identified as Trichosporon sp. The cultivation conditions of the microorganism were optimized under batch: temperature 30˚C initial pH = 6 aeration speed = 2 ν.ν.m and agitation rate: 800 rpm. Under these conditions, the specific growth rate and biomass doubling time were measured as 0.59 h-1 and 1.16 h, respectively. The COD reduction and biomass production under optimized batch conditions after 24 hours were obtained as 52% and 8.73 g L-1, respectively. The optimized conditions under continuous cultivation were: temperature, 30˚C agitation rate, 800 rpm aeration speed, 2 ν.ν.m dilution rate, 0.42 h-1 pH in fermentor, 4-5. Under these conditions the biomass production, COD reduction and productivity were obtained as: 8.17 g L-1, 53.21%, and 3.4 g L-1 h-1 respectively. The nutritional value of biomass was evaluated for crude protein, nucleic acid, fat, ass and moisture content. According to the results, the single cell protein obtained in this research is suitable and valuable for animal and poultry feed.

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Observations of the Caspian Sea during August-September 1995 are used to develop a three-dimensional numerical model to be used in calculating temperature and current. The model has variable grid resolution and horizontal smoothing that filters out small scale vertical motion. Data from the meteorological buoy network on the Caspian Sea are combined with routine observations at first-order synoptic station around the lake to obtain hourly values of wind stress and pressure fields. The hydrodynamic model of the Caspian Sea has 6 vertical levels and a uniform horizontal grid size of 50 km. The model is driven with surface fluxes of heat and momentum derived from observed meteorological data. The model was able to reproduce all the basic features of the thermal structure in the Caspian Sea and larger-scale circulation patterns tended to be anticyclone, with anticyclone circulation within each sub-basin. The results matched observation data. Keywords: Circulation, Temperature, Numerical model, Vorticity, wind stress

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Titanium is a highly reactive metal so that a thin layer of oxide forms on its surface whenever exposed to the air or other environments containing oxygen. This layer increases the corrosion resistance of titanium. The oxide film is electrochemically formed through anodizing. In this study, anodizing of titanium was performed in phosphate-base solutions such as H3Po4, NaH2Po4, and Na2Hpo4 at 9.75Ma/cm2 and 35ºC under galvanostatic conditions. The Potential-Time curves in the above solutions show that the anodic films formed on titanium are compact and their thickness depends on the solution type and concentration. The SEM and XRD techniques show that these layers are amorphous. In this paper, the effect of electrolyte concentration, composition and resistivity on breakdown voltage have been discussed in terms of Ikonopisov electron avalanche breakdown model. This model shows that the major factor contributing to the decrease in breakdown voltage is the increased electrolyte concentration leading to increased primary electronic current.

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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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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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Considering the vulnerability of double-layer grid space structures to progressive collapse phenomenon, it is necessary to pay special attention to this phenomenon in the design process. Alternate path method is one of the most appropriate and accepted methods for progressive collapse resistant design of structures. Alternate Path Method permits local failure to occur but provides alternate paths around the damaged area so that the structure is able to absorb the applied loads without overall collapse. Following the sudden initial local failure event, severe dynamic effects may arise which should be taken into account in determining the realistic collapse behavior of the structure. In this paper, a new methodology based on alternate path method is presented to apply dynamic effects of initial local failure. The method is called nonlinear dynamic alternate path method. Due to its capability to take account of dynamic nature of the failure, this method can be used to evaluate realistic collapse behavior of the structure and to investigate the vulnerability of the structure to progressive collapse phenomenon.

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An intensive experimental investigation was conducted to study the effect of vertical tail, single and twin (with different cant angles) on the flow field and the corresponding aerodynamic forces and moments of a model of a fighter A/C. Aerodynamic forces under different flight conditions and different vertical tail settings were measured in a supersonic wind tunnel. Furthermore, effects of vertical tail on the model wake at subsonic speed were investigated. In addition to the force and pressure measurements, schlieren system was used to visualize the shock formation and movement oat various locations on the model. The results show existence of a pair of symmetric vortices for the model equipped with a 22 degree vertical tail cant angle. The vortices burst symmetrically at moderate angle of attack. The drag coefficient increases with increasing cant angle at low to moderate alpha and decreases when alpha is further increased.

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In this paper, the problem of batch scheduling in a flexible flow shop environment is studied. It is assumed that machines in some stages are able to process a number of jobs simultaneously. The applications of this problem can be found in various industries including spring and wire manufacturing and in auto industry. A mixed integer programming formulation of the problem is presented and it is shown that the problem is NP-Hard. Three heuristics will then be developed to solve the problem and a lower bound is also developed for evaluating the performance of the proposed heuristics. Results show that heuristic H3 gives better results compared to the others.

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In this paper, two suboptimum detectors are proposed for coherent radar signal detection in K-distributed clutter. Assuming certain values for several initial moments of clutter amplitude, the characteristic function of the clutter amplitude is approximated by a limited series. Using the Pade approximation, it is then converted to a rational fraction. Thus, the pdf of the clutter amplitude is obtained as a sum of simple exponential functions. Using such a pdf, we develop the suboptimum detectors PGLR and PAALR, which are simplified forms of the GLR and AALR. Computer simulations show that the suggested detectors have appropriate performance compared to OLD, GLR and AALR detectors.

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In the present work, thermal and mechanical behaviors of phenolic resin are investigated. This polymer can be used as a matrix for carbon-carbon composites. To find out the best heating process, five different cycles are used for curing the polymer and flexural strength of the specimens are obtained. The cycle with maximum strength is used for the next steps. Then, the oxidation behavior of specimens is studied at different temperatures. The results show that the polymer can withstand temperature about 350°C without significant weight changes. Carbonization of phenolic resin is studied by four different cycles at 1100°C. Oxidation of carbon obtained from carbonization cycle is analyzed extensively and shows no weight change until 550°C. The microstructure of specimens is also investigated by SEM. By additining SiC micro particles to phenolic polymer, the strength change is achieved.

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In the present work, molecular dynamics simulation method was used for determining Young's modulus, Shear modulus and Poisson’s ratio of Al-SiC nanocomposites, with different volume fractions of the reinforcements. For simulation, the open source package, LAMMPS, was used. After putting Aluminum and Silicon Carbide atoms in their initial positions, interatomic potentials between them were defined. EAM potential was used for Aluminum atoms, Morse potential was used for Al-C and Al-Si, and for C-C, Si-C, and Si-Si Tersoff potential was used. According to the elastic bounding principal, and the comparison between the simulations results and Voigt, Ruess and Halpin-Tsai micromechanical models showed that the results were close to the upper bound Voigt model.

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Mechanical alloying technique is used for production of nanostructured soft magnetic alloys. In this work the back propagation (BP) artificial neural adopted to model the effect of various mechanical alloying parameters i.e. milling time and chemical composition, on the properties of Fe-Ni powders. Lattice parameter, grain size, lattice strain, coersivity and saturation intrinsic flux density are considered as the output of five BP neural networks. The results obtained show the efficiency of designed networks for the prediction of the properties of Fe-Ni powders.

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Due to their superior properties such as high specific strength, high creep resistance and high strength at elevated temperatures, aluminum composites reinforced with alumina nano particles are widely used for advanced purposes such as aerospace and auto industries. Lack of an appropriate welding process limits their applications. Transient liquid phase (TLP) bonding is one of the state-of-the-art joining processes. It is used for welding composites and advanced materials. Microstructure and mechanical properties of TLP bonding depend on the bonding time and temperature. In the current study, the effect of bonding time on the microstructure and bonding strength of the TLP diffusion bonded of Al2O3p/Al nanocomposite was investigated. A thin layer of copper deposited by electroplating was used as an interlayer. The bonding times of 20 and 40 min were not sufficient for completing the isothermal solidification, and the bonding strengths were not satisfactory. By increasing the bonding time to 60 min at constant bonding temperature of 580 ºC, the isothermal solidification was completed and the final joint microstructure consisted of soft α-Al phase with dispersed CuAl2 precipitated particles. Decreasing the amount of brittle eutectic structures in the joint seam by increasing the bonding time was the main reason for improvement of the joint shear strength. The maximum joint shear strength was achieved at 580 ºC for 60 min which was about 85% of the shear strength of the base material.

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In this paper, the effect of MgCl2 addition on the kinetics of MA spinel formation was investigated. For this purpose, the stoichiometric mixture of MgCO3 and calcined aluminum was calcined at 1100 °C for 1 hr. Then, the calcined composition was wet-milled and after addition of 6% MgCl2 the compositions were pressed and fired at 1300 and 1500 °C for different times. Spinel phase content was determined using semi-quantitative phase analysis. With regard to Jander's equation, the rate constant was calculated, and the activation energy was obtained from Arrhenius equation. The results showed that the addition of MgCl2 leads to the acceleration of the spinel formation reaction. Besides, 55.71 Kcal/mol as the activation energy was calculated for the composition containing 6 wt.% MgCl2 compared with 93.06 Kcal/mol for the composition without MgCl2.

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In this study, the chemical composition, thickness and tribocorrosion behavior of oxide films prepared on Ti-6Al-4V alloy by anodising treatment in H2SO4/H3PO4 electrolyte at the potentials higher than the dielectric breakdown voltage were evaluated. The thickness measurement of the oxide layers showed a linear increase of thickness by increasing the anodizing voltage. The EDS analysis of oxide films demonstrated precipitation of sulfur and phosphor elements from electrolyte into the oxide layer. Tribocorrosion results indicated that the tribocorrosion behavior of samples was significantly improved by anodising process. Furthermore, the tribocorrosin performance of thesamples anodised at higher voltages was enhanced. SEM and EDS of worn surfaces indicated that the oxide layer on the samples anodised at lower voltages was totally removed, but for the samples anodised at higher voltages, the oxide layer was only locally removed within the wear track. Moreover, measurement of wear volume of the treated samples exhibited lower values on the samples anodised at higher voltages.

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The positive effect of Si and Zn ions on bone formation and metabolism has already been confirmed. The aim of this study was preparation and characterization of Willemite (Zn2SiO4) for the repair of bone defects. Willemite was prepared through solid state reaction. Phase analysis and chemical compositions were investigated. The zeta potential of the nanoparticles was determined in physiological saline, and compressive strength and Young's modulus of the samples were measured. The ability of hydroxyapatite formation was investigated in simulated body fluid (SBF) and cytotoxicity of the particles was evaluated in contact with human bone marrow stem cells. The results of this study showed that Willemite nanobioceramic is obtained with the expected chemical composition and negative zeta potential. The results also showed that the hydroxyapatite forming ability in SBF was not strong. MTT assay confirmed the cell proliferation and availability in contact with a specific concentration of Willemite nanoparticles. All these findings indicate that Willemite nanobioceramic with proper biocompatibility can be suggested as a novel biomaterial for the repair of bone defects.

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Effects of discontinuous ultrasonic treatment on the microstructure, nanoparticle distribution, and mechanical properties of cast Al413-SiCnp nanocomposites were studied. The results showed that discontinuous ultrasonic treatment was more effective in improving the mechanical properties of the cast nanocomposites than the equally timed continuous treatment. The yield and ultimate tensile strengths of Al413-2%SiCnp nanocomposites discontinuously treated for two 20 minute periods increased by about 126% and 100% compared to those of the monolithic sample, respectively. These improvements were about 107% and 94% for the nanocomposites continuously treated for a single 40 minute period. The improvement in the mechanical properties was associated with severe refinement of the microstructure, removal of the remaining gas layers on the particles surfaces, more effective fragmentation of the remaining agglomerates as well as improved wettability and distribution of the reinforcing particles during the first stage of solidification.