Sharif Digital Repository

This paper aims to examine the key factors influencing driving risk perception in Iran. We conducted separate surveys for two groups of Iranian drivers, namely passenger car drivers and truck drivers. In order to assess driving risk perception, respondents were asked what they think about their Probability of Having a Road Accident (PHRA) and if they eventually have an accident as a driver, what they think about the Probability of it being Fatal or causing Severe Injury (PFSI). A Bivariate Ordered Probit model, which considers the possible correlation between PHRA and PFSI, was developed to explain the observed driving risk perception using type of vehicle, driving experience,... 

Power transformers are in service in different environmental, electrical and mechanical conditions. Many experiences have proved that the inner insulation system degradation may pose the transformer to fail while in service. On the other hand, partial discharges (PD) are recognized as the main cause of insulation deterioration process. Therefore, reaching the optimum inner insulation system is one of the challenges a transformer designer is faced with. The solution lies in the correct and accurate modelling of different types of transformer windings. Transformer strength especially during transient conditions is a criterion for transformer insulation designers. This challenge has made... 

A5/1 is the strong version of the encryption algorithm on GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) used in many countries. It is constructed of a combination of three LFSRs (Linear Feedback Shift Registers) with irregular clocking manner. One of the most practical attacks against this algorithm is time-memory trade-off attack, which is based on birthday paradox. The goal of this attack is to find any intersection between precomputed LFSRs states set and set of states generating the output bits in the actual execution of the algorithm. In order to increase feasibility of this attack, the biased birthday attack was introduced. In this attack special states producing a specific pattern in... 

Road traffic crashes have become an important public health problem. By studying the statistics of heavy vehicle crashes in the world, it becomes obvious that although heavy vehicle drivers experience fewer crashes than private car drivers, a large percentage of heavy vehicle crashes leads to death. So, it is important to identify the driving characteristics of heavy vehicle drivers. In this study, 474 Iranian truck drivers were interviewed face to face. Response rate of the survey was 80%, the participants who answered the questions on two behavioral questionnaires: Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ) and Attention-Related Driving Error Scale (ARDES). Also, two sleep assessing... 

Traffic collisions are one of the most important challenges threatening the general health of the world. Iran's crash statistics demonstrate that approximately 16,500 people lose their lives every year due to road collisions. According to the traffic police of Iran, heavy vehicles (including trailers, trucks, and panel trucks) contributed to 20.5% of the fatal road traffic collisions in the year 2013. This highlights the need for devoting special attention to heavy vehicle drivers to further explore their driving characteristics. In this research, the effect of heavy vehicle drivers' behavior on at-fault collisions over three years has been investigated with an innovative approach of... 

Power transformer inner insulation system is a very critical component. Its degradation may pose apparatus to fail while in service. On the other hand, experimental experiences prove that partial discharges are a major source of insulation failure in power transformers. If the deterioration of the insulation system caused by PD activity can be detected at an early stage, preventive maintenance measures may be taken. Because of the complex structure of the transformer, accurate PD location is difficult and is one of the challenges power utilities are faced with. This problem comes to be vital in open access systems. In this paper a theory for locating partial discharge and its propagation... 

Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) is a fast, solvent-free technique, which, since its introduction in the 1990s, has been increasingly applied to sample preparation in analytical chemistry. Conventional SPME fibers are fabricated by making a physical bond between the usual silica substrate and the polymeric coatings. However, some applications are limited, as the lifetime and the stability of conventional SPME fibers cannot meet the demands of analyzing relatively non-volatile compounds with more polar moieties. There have been attempts to analyze less volatile compounds by increasing the thermal, physical and chemical stability of the fibers. In this review, we present some new... 

In this paper a method for selecting optimal wavelet is introduced, which is implemented for evaluating electrical measured partial discharges on a 66 kV/25 MVA fully interleaved winding of a power transformer. Applying wavelet transform to a signal produces a wavelet detail coefficient distribution throughout the time-scale, which depends on the wavelet chosen. This method is based on the capability of the chosen wavelet for generating coefficients with maximal values. The basic idea of this method is described and applications to partial discharge studies are explored. The paper demonstrates that the wavelet based de-noising method proposed in the paper can be employed in extracting the PD... 

Error control is an important mechanism for providing robust multimedia communication in wireless sensor networks. Although there have been several research works in analysis of error control mechanisms in wireless multimedia networks and wireless sensor networks, but none of them are directly applicable to the wireless multimedia sensor networks (WMSNs) which has resource and performance constraints of WSNs as well as QoS requirements of multimedia communications. In this paper, we comprehensively evaluate the performance of several error control mechanisms in WMSNs. The results of our analysis provide an extensive comparison between automatic repeat request (ARQ), forward error correction... 

A three-dimensional (3D) finite element model (FEM) is developed to predict the progressive fatigue damage with provision for stochastic distribution of material properties. Fatigue damage model for low and high cycle fatigue considering plastic deformation is implemented in the FEM and the results are presented for Al 6061-T6, Al 7075-T6, Ti 6Al-4V and SS 316. Comparisons of the numerical and experimental results of stress-life reveal the validity of the approach. Also presented is the result of an investigation showing the effect of element types, element size, variation of material properties, and initial flaws on the randomness of fatigue life. The present fatigue damage simulation... 

Mixing of solid nanoparticles in viscous fluids is a key stage in synthesis of nanocomposites and can affect their final properties. A multi-step preparatory mixing is developed to synthesize the nanocomposites of layered silicate in thermosetting polymers. This study aims to investigate the influences of mixing conditions and steps taken to process the thermosetting nanocomposites on the viscoelastic properties of suspensions. We also examine subsequent influences of mixing on the microstructure and dispersion state of cured hybrids of organically modified clays in a polyester resin. The nanocomposites were prepared in a sequential mixing process developed for the model nanocomposites of... 

At the present research, a new analytical model is developed for the impact of a deformable blunt projectile to metallic targets using the plastic stress wave propagation theory and the momentum equations. At this model, the deformation of the projectile is considered, too. Also, the effects of dishing and plugging phenomena on failure of the target are investigated. All of the obtained results are compared with the experimental and other available analytical results where good agreement has been observed. The other outcome of this research is a new definition for the penetration stages which includes 9 ones. Motion equations are derived for each of these stages, accordingly  

Common methods of gait generation of bipedal locomotion based on experimental results, can successfully synthesize biped joints' profiles for a simple walking. However, most of these methods lack sufficient physical backgrounds which can cause major problems for bipeds when performing fast locomotion such as running and jumping. In order to develop a more accurate gait generation method, a thorough study of human running and jumping seems to be necessary. Most biomechanics researchers observed that human dynamics, during fast locomotion, can be modeled by a simple spring loaded inverted pendulum system. Considering this observation, a simple approach for bipedal gait generation in fast... 

The emerging multimedia applications of Wireless Sensor Network (WSNs) impose new challenges in design of algorithms and communication protocols for such networks. In the view of these challenges, error control is an important mechanism that enables us to provide robust multimedia communication and maintain Quality of Service (QoS). Despite the existence of some good research works on error control analysis in WSNs, none of them provides a thorough study of error control schemes for multimedia delivery. In this paper, a comprehensive performance evaluation of Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ), Forward Error Correction (FEC), Erasure Coding (EC), link-layer hybrid FEC/ARQ, and cross-layer hybrid... 

Aggregation services play an important role in the domain of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) because they significantly reduce the number of required data transmissions, and improve energy efficiency on those networks. In most of the existing aggregation methods that have been developed based on the mathematical models or functions, the user of the WSN has not access to the original observations. In this paper, we propose an algorithm which let the base station access the observations by introducing a distributed method for computing the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The proposed algorithm is based on transmission workload of the intermediate nodes. By using PCA, we aggregate the... 

Reliability of machinery and equipment in flexible manufacturing systems are among the most important issues to reduce production costs and to increase efficiency. This paper investigates the reliability of machinery in job shop production systems, where materials, parts, and other production needs are handled by automated guided vehicles (AGV). The failures time of the parallel machines in a given shop follow either an exponential or a Weibull distribution. As there is no closed-form equation to calculate the reliability of the shop in the Weibull case, a simulation approach is taken in this paper to estimate the reliability. Then, a bi-objective nonlinear optimization model is developed... 

Tool reliability is one of the most important issues in a flexible manufacturing system. If a tool fails to operate correctly, the performance of the manufacturing system is reduced, the due date may be violated, or the product quality falls behind the standards. This paper develops a bi-objective mathematical model for tool selection in a flexible manufacturing system in order to optimize both reliability and cost. The tools in these environments are considered to have increasing failure rates as they are used over time; a case closer to reality. This paper aims to evaluate the availability of different tools used in a production system, in which the reliability of a tool is dependent on... 

Thermal stratification accompanied by a release of nutrients from sediment is a serious problem for the management of water quality. Water aeration and mixing technology can be widely used to control endogenous pollution and algae growth in reservoirs and lakes by water quality managers. In this research, a diffuser aeration system, was installed in a water column, in the Mamloo stratified Reservoir; and the impact of artificial aeration was brought under extensive assessment in relevance with the qualitative and biological parameters of the water, during the preliminary 6 d of aeration. The results showed that the thermal stratification was remarkably disturbed. After aeration, the amount... 

The insulation lifetime of power cables is determined by several factors. One of the more important of these is the occurrence of partial discharge (PD) at the dielectric. The ability to detect and locate a PD source is limited by attenuation of the high frequency PD pulses as they propagate through the cable. Therefore it is necessary to understand the high frequency response of such cables. Further, to enable reconstruction of PD signals as emitted a viable high frequency model for simulation is needed. This paper presents results of measurements of PD calibration pulse and high frequency sinusoid propagation in HV XLPE cables. In addition to the tests a cable model was developed using the... 

Partial discharges (PD) are recognized as the main cause of the inner insulation deterioration process in power transformers. Therefore, the optimum inner insulation design is one of the challenges a transformer designer is faced with. Transformer strength, especially during transient conditions, is a criterion for transformer insulation designers. This challenge has made designers initiate and employ other types of winding, for example, rather than ordinary layer and disc windings employ the multiple-α windings. Multiple-α windings have a more complicated structure and are comprised of various parts with different physical structures and electrical characteristics. Typical partial discharge...