Computational Methods in Engineering

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Overhead transmission lines are influenced by different factors which are mostly electrical and mechanical. These factors can cause problems for lines, distortions in network and outage of line. In designing transmission lines mechanical properties are evaluated after selecting a suitable conductor and clearance with regard to electrical properties. In lines designing, an important mechanical parameter for estimating of phase distance is oscillations. Strong wind or ice fall from conductor surfaces or simultaneous presence of ice and wind may cause different oscillations. These oscillations are classified to aeoliane, galloping, and swing. Aeoliane is of high frequency (5-100Hz) and low amplitude (about a few centimeters), galloping is of low frequency (0.1 to 0.3Hz) and high amplitude (about of span sagging), also swing is of horizontal oscillation. In this paper, the mechanism of conductor galloping oscillation and its different types are described. Also these oscillations are simulated on the typical span by personal computer. Keywords: Galloping, Overhead transmission lines, Single conductors, Modeling

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There is a worldwide interest in the proper design of embankment dams to resist earthquake loadings. For the first time in Iran, a complete ambient vibration survey due to low-level loads such as wind, machinery activities, low level tectonic activities, and water exit from bottom outlet was performed on Marun embankment dam. These kinds of ambient vibration tests are suitable for manifesting the lower vibration modes of the dam body. Using different signal processing methods such as Power Spectra Density, the results of in-situ tests have been used to evaluate the natural frequencies, mode shapes and modal damping of the dam body. Besides ambient vibration tests, the 3-D modal analysis of the dam body was performed using ANSYS software. The foundation and abutment flexibility effects on dynamic characteristics of the dam body was investigated and the dynamic soil properties were used from Engineer’s report and some empirical relations. Also initial shear modulus of the dam body and foundation materials were evaluated by refraction survey. In this paper, the test procedures, related signal processing results, numerical analysis results and its comparison with the dynamic characteristics of the dam body obtained from the full-scale dynamic tests will be presented. Finally, calibrating procedures of the numerical model (based on increasing the accuracy of dam body geometry, soil and rock material parameters and foundation and abutment flexibility) will be discussed. Keywords: Embankment Dam, Dynamic Characteristics, Ambient Vibration Test, Modal Analysis

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In this paper an upwind algorithm based on Roe’s scheme is presented for solution of PNS equations. Non iterative-implicit method using finite volume technique is used. The main advantage of this approach, in comparison with similar upwind methods, is reduction of oscillations around sonic line. This advantage causes the present method to be able to analyze supersonic flows with free stream Mach number near to one, where similar upwind methods normally fail. Some two dimensional/ axisymmetric test cases have been computed to validate the present method. These cases are: Hypersonic flow over a 15-degree compression ramp, two-dimensional supersonic flow over a flat plate and axisymmetric supersonic flow over a tangent ogive. The results are compared with the results of other numerical schemes, such as Beam and Warming scheme Keywords: Upwind, Navier stokes, Hypersonic

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An analysis of the demands of ULSI and GSI technologies shows the necessity of multi-layer devices to reduction of signal transmission delay time. This reduction is realized by using a better conductor metal, such as Cu and a surrounding insulator with low capacity than actually used, such as Dow Cyclotene 3022. In this paper, the results of evaporated and sputtered Cu to Dow Cyclotene 3022 were studied. After presentation of interfacial reaction that causes adherence, the methods of enhanced adherence as surface modification of polymer by nitrogen plasma have been investigated. Keywords: Metalization, Cyclotene, Adherence, Plasma, Multi-layer

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Algorithmic skeleton has received attention as an efficient method of parallel programming in recent years. Using the method, the programmer can implement parallel programs easily. In this study, a set of efficient algorithmic skeletons is introduced for use in implementing parallel genetic algorithm (PGA).A performance modelis derived for each skeleton that makes the comparison of skeletons possible in order to select the best one for the application. The performance of the selected skeleton can be increased by specifying the virtual topology required by the appliation.This is a novel approach with no precedent. Nesting of skeletons used hereis another novelty of the study which has been employed only in few previous studies.

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The objective of this study is to design a robust direct model reference adaptive controller (DMRAC) for a nonlinear cardiovascular model over a range of plant parameters representing a variety of physical conditions. The direct adaptive controllers used in thisd study require the plant to be almost strictly positive real (ASPR) that is, for a plant to be controlled there must exist a feedback gain such that the resulting closed loop system is strictly positive real. We designed a new compensator so that the system composed of the cardiovascular plant and the compensator satisfy the ASPR condition. Numerous studies in the past have considered a small range of gain variations of the cardiovascular system. In most cases, the controller was designed based on variations in either time delay or plant gains. Many of these workers treated the cardiovascular system as a single-input single output (SISo) plant in which the control output was Mean Arterial Pressure (MAO). We treated the cardiovascular system as a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) plant in which both the MAP and Cardiac Output (CO) are simultaneously controlled. In this study, a new linear model is presented that provides a better approximation thanthe one the original linear model does. By doing so and utilizing the DMRAC algorithm, we could satisfy the stability conditions for the nonlinear model while satisfactory responses obtained under every possible condition for the cardiovascular nonlinear model.

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Many important problems in Artificial Intelligence can be defined as Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSP). These types of problems are defined by a limited set of variables, each having a limited domain and a number of Constraints on the values of those variables (these problems are also called Consistent Labeling Problems (CLP), in which “Labeling means assigning a value to a variable.) Solution to these problems is a set of unique values for variables such that all the problem constraints are satisfied. Several search algorithms have been proposed for solving these problems, some of which reduce the need for backtracking by doing some sort of looking to future, and produce more efficient solutions. These are the so-called Forward Checking (FC), Partially Lookahead (PL), and Fully Lookahead (FL) algorithms. They are different in terms of the amount of looking to the future, number of backtracks that are performed, and the quality of the solution that they find. In this paper, we propose a new search algorithm we call Modified Fully Lookahead (MFL) which is Shown to be more efficient than the original Fully Lookahead algorithm

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Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) techniques are commonly used to control the output voltage and current of DC to AC converters. Space Vector Modulation (SVM), of all PWM methods, has attracted attention because of its simplicity and desired properties in digital control of Three-Phase inverters. The main drawback of this PWM technique is its complex and time-consuming computations in real-time implementation. The time-consuming calculation as well as software and hardware complexities of the network grow dramatically as the number of inverter levels increases. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an exact, fast, and general computation SVM algorithm for multi-level converters. This paper introduces such an algorithm. Specifically, the SVM computation algorithm based on a vector classification technique, introduced for 2-level inverters in 1996, is developed and generalized to be applicable in determining the switching sequences and calculating the switching instants in m-level inverters. The proposed technique reduces hardware and software complexities, decreases the computation time, and increases the accuracy of the positioning of the switching instants when compared with the conventional implementation of the SVM in multi-level converters

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Similar to random sea waves, forces on the offshore structures due to waves are random. These forces can be mainly divided into two components, namely, inline forces and transverse or lift forces. The random nature of lift forces is more complicated than that of inline forces and both should be combined for design purposes. In the present paper, two different approaches have been used to determine time series of lift forces. Along these lines, the determination of lift coefficients is discussed which have then been used to obtain transverse forces and compared with experimental data. The experimental data used in this study were collected at Delft Hydraulics Laboratory on a full-scale rough vertical cylinder.

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In this paper, an elastic constitutive model based on the Eulerian corotational rate of the logarithmic strain tensor is proposed. Using this model, the large deformation of a closed cycle containing tension, shear, compression and inverse shear is analyzed. Since the deformation path includes a closed cycle and the material is considered as an isotropic elastic material, the normal and shear components of the stress at the end of the cycle must vanish. Using conventional constitutive models, the non-zero solution for the stress components is obtained. Using the proposed constitutive model, the normal and shear components of stress at the end of the cycle are obtained to be exactly equal to zero.

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Several experiments involving two-dimensional and axisymmetric bodies have been carried out in a Trisonic wind tunnel at supersonic speeds to investigate and analyse the measured values of base pressure and to compare them with those from the theoretical methods. The objective of the experiments was to obtain an appropriate method for processing the results of wind tunnel tests on rockets or aircraft having base area, hence, base drag. Among numerous semi-empirical methods available for two-dimensional and axisymmetric geometry, the methods presented by Chapman, Korst and Tanner have been utilized to calculate values of base pressure for comparison with the experimental findings for the same model. The results indicate that the pressure increase for the 2-D model with a steplike base is greater that of the axisymmetric model with the same conditions. The experimental results for all cases considered in this investigation compare well with those from existing the theoretical method developed by Tanner

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Physical properties of cotton yarns are affected by the characteristics of cotton fibers such as fineness, length, maturity and strength. This relationship has been worked out by means of multivariable regression and stepwise method for an open-end spun (NeC 20) cotton yarn. Moreover, with the help of linear programming, it was made possible to determine the percentage of different cottons in the blend with the aim of reducing the yarn price to a minimum while keeping the yarn quality to a certain level.

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Hidden Markov Model is a popular statisical method that is used in continious and discrete speech recognition. The probability density function of observation vectors in each state is estimated with discrete density or continious density modeling. The performance (in correct word recognition rate) of continious density is higher than discrete density HMM, but its computation complexity is very high, especially in very large discrete utterance recognition problems. For real time implementation of very large discrete utterance recognition, we must use discrete density HMM (DDHMM). To increase the performance of DDHMM, one usual solution is fuzzy interpolation. In this study, we present a new method named Gaussian interpolation. We implemented and compared the performance of two types of interpolation methods for 1500 Persian speech command words. Results show that precision and flexibility of Gaussian interpolation is better thanthose of the fuzzy interpolation.

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In this paper, two-dimensional cutting stock problem with demand has been studied.In this problem, cutting of large rectangular sheets into specific small pieces should be carried out hence, the waste will be minimized. Solving this problem is important to decrease waste materials in any industry that requires cutting of sheets. In most previus studies, the demand of pieces has not been usually considered. The cutting problems belong to the category of Np-hard problems. So finding a desirable solution in a suitable time is practically impossible and heuristic methods must be used. A meta-heuristic algorithm using SA approach is presented.Then attempt will be made to regulate the SAs parameters. Initial solutions are produced with a rule based algorithm and two internal and main SAs are used that lead to better performance of the algorithm. Due to lack of benchmark or test problems, two procedures for generating random problems is presented and are used to study efficiency of the algorithm. For this purpose, problems about 10 to 50 types of pieces with maximum demands of 2400 are generated and solved using the proposed algorithm. The results indicate that the algorithm capable of finding a solution with less than 6% of waste for problems with 30 types of pieces and total demands of 500.

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Flood hydrograph simulation is affected by uncertainty in Rainfall – Runoff )RR( parameters. Uncertainty of RR parameters in Gharasoo catchment, part of the great Karkheh river basin, is evaluated by Monte–Carlo (MC) approach. A conceptual-distributed model, called ModClark, was used for basin simulation, in which the basin’s hydrograph was determined using the superposition of runoff generated by individual cells dividing the catchment in a raster–based discretization. A narrow parameter range was obtained through application of the MC method. Parameter range depended on goodness of fit measures. The results of various goodness-of-fit measures are discussed in this paper. The selected goodness-of-fit measures gave high weight to peak discharge to reduce peak discharge error.

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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 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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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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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