Sharif Digital Repository

Micro grippers are essential tools for manipulation of objects in micron size. An electrostatic micro stepper-motor is used for actuating a proposed gripper mechanism and performance of this gripper is compared with the previous ones. The characteristic of the proposed mechanism is analyzed by simulation and it is shown that the designed gripper has the capability of doing manipulation in micron dimension with an acceptable performance  

Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) is getting common these days. MIS robots using special tools can perform surgery precisely as humans. This is only possible with dexterous end-effectors and a well-controlled system. Local, lightweight and powerful actuators positioned at end-effectors provide the ability to decrease the degrees of freedom and simplify the design. This paper discusses a grasper design actuated by Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) wires that can be used in MIS robotics. The properties of a commercially available shape memory alloy are explored and analytical formulations for the actuation procedure are developed. The grasper actuated by SMA wires is studied and the procedure of... 

Regarding the structural health monitoring of pipelines, early detection of cracks may be one of the possible ways to prevent future failures. Among the detection methods which have been known, one is to measure the vibration signals generated due to the hydraulics of pipe. This article discusses application of thin film piezo sensors mounted directly on the pipe. The vibration induced strain is transuded into electric voltage by the piezoelectric sensor. The recorded signals are used for PSD analysis which indicates that this method can be used as an accurate and cost effective detection. Moreover the promising results from the respective experiments on pipes indicated that second natural... 

Pipelines are one of the most important and efficient ways for transporting energy like water, gas, oil and etc. between different places all across the world. As these pipelines are located in different conditions and situations, they are all sensitive to a wide variety of damages like vibration, so monitoring their structural behavior is an essential task. Monitoring pipeline vibration caused by cavitation through an orifice by a piezoelectric sensor is presented in this paper  

In this paper, a nonlinear Finite Element (FE) approach based on the layerwise displacement theory is utilized to obtain the interlaminar stresses due to buckling phenomena in unsymmetric laminated smart composite morphing structure. An On/Off control strategy is designed to control the snap-through phenomena. Due to cycling nature of applied load on morphing, these structures are vulnerable to failure due to fatigue. A failure control mechanism utilizing a piezoelectric actuator is developed to control the failure  

Storage tanks are always under different hazards such as corrosion and leaking. In this work we have introduced a computational analysis on storage tanks in which a real-time yet efficient monitoring technique using Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors for corrosion detection on the bottom plate and vibration monitoring on outer surfaces of storage tanks is proposed. A finite element model for the tank is developed, in which the outer tanks surfaces are considered as plate elements and FBG sensors as beam elements. An array of FBG sensors is utilized to compute the generated strain in the FBGs due to losing thickness in the tank's bottom plate and due to vibration on the outer surfaces in... 

In the present work, a multi sensing grasper has been developed for minimally invasive surgery with embedded ZnO piezoelectric and Fiber Bragg Grating sensors. In this model, a sensing patch equipped with three FBG sensors to sense the temperature in rage of 800 n.m and two separated FBG in range of 1550 m.m to detect the displacement in x and y directions. ZnO piezoelectric is highly sensitive to time and provides a good resistance to temperature. Therefore, this sensor is used for measuring the rate of strain and creep coefficient. A finite element approach based on the viscous material theory and plane displacement theory of anisotropic materials has been utilized to obtain the compliance... 

In the present work, an unsymmetric laminated plate with surface bonded piezoelectric sensors, and actuators has been considered. Piezoelectric sensor were used to monitor the load and deformation bifurcation occurs. Monitoring the shape and load of a morphing structure is essential to ascertain that the structure is properly deployed and it is not loaded excessively, thus, preventing structural to failure. A piezoceramic actuator is used to provide activation load and to force the structure to change its stability state from one to another. A non-linear finite element model based on the layerwise displacement theory considering the electro-mechanical coupling effects of piezoelectric... 

Rapid growth in generating power from wind turbines led to application of long laminated composite blades. However, as the length of blades increases, the risk of failure due to excessive vibration increases. Therefore, a reliable wind power generator requires an efficient and accurate, yet economical structural health monitoring system to detect vibration and apply a reliable control to prevent from unpredicted failure. This paper presents an optimal, low cost and continuous vibration monitoring system for laminated composite blades using Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG). Utilizing a layerwise displacement theory, the Finite Element (FEM) model has been developed for the wind turbine blade. The... 

The developing of technology has discovered new materials which have been applied to improve the performance of structures. The researchers have recently increased the attention in controllable fluids and its applications. Magnetorheological (MR) dampers are devices that employ rheological fluids to modify their mechanical properties. Their mechanical simplicity, high dynamic range, lower power requirements, large force capacity, robustness and safe manner operation in case of fail have made them attractive devices to passive, semi-active and active control in mechatronic, civil, aerospace and automotive applications. The characteristics of the MR damper change when the rheological fluid is... 

A novel semi-active control system for suspension systems of passenger car using Magnetorheological (MR) damper is introduced. The suspension system is considered as a mass-spring model with an eight-degrees-of-freedom, a passive damper and an active damper. The semi-active vibration control is designed to reduce the amplitude of automotive vibration caused by the alteration of road profile. The control mechanism is designed based on the optimal control algorithm, Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR). In this system, the damping coefficient of the shock absorber changes actively trough inducing magnetic field. It is observed that utilizing the present control algorithm may significantly reduce... 

Buried pipe lines are an efficient way of transporting of water, sewage, oil, and gas resources in all over the world. Since the buried pipe lines are exposed to many unexpected conditions, such as landslides, corrosion, fatigue, earthquakes, material flaws or even intentional damaging, so the inspection requirements lead to adoption of new method of maintenance, protection and conserving. This report aims to improve the trustworthiness, reliability, yet economical technologies for monitoring of behavior and manner of buried pipe lines during operation and assessing the risk of pipe lines failure. Distributed sensors (piezoelectric) are surface designed and embedded to investigate the... 

In recent years, structures integrated with magnetorheological (MR) fluid have been considered for their tunable dynamic characteristics. Shear modulus of MR layer in composite structure is dramatically lower than the elastic layers, leading to high shear deformation inside the MR layer, thus classical theories are not accurate enough to predict the dynamic behavior of such structures. In present study a layerwise displacement theory has been utilized to predict a more accurate deformation for MR-composite beam and equation of motions derived using finite element model (FEM). ASTM E756-98 was employed to evaluate the complex shear modulus of MR fluid. By experimental test a practical... 

Titanium matrix composites (TMCs) have wide application prospects in the field of aerospace, automobile and other industries because of their good properties, such as high specific strength, good ductility, and excellent fatigue properties. However, in order to improve their fatigue strength and life, crack initiation and growth at the surface layers must be suppressed using surface treatments. Shot peening (SP) is an effective surface mechanical treatment method widely used in industry which can improve the mechanical properties of a surface. However, artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been used as an efficient approach to predict and optimize the science and engineering problems. In... 

Vibration behavior of adaptive laminated composite beams integrated with magnetorheological (MR) fluid layer has been investigated using layerwise displacement theory. In most of the existing studies on the adaptive laminated beams with MR fluids, shear strain across the thickness of magnetorheological (MR) layer has been assumed a constant value, resulting in a constant shear stress in MR layer. However, due to the high shear deformation pattern inside MR layer, this assumption is not adequate to accurately describe the shear strain and stress in MR fluid layer. In this work a modified layerwise theory is employed to develop a Finite Element Model (FEM) formulation to simulate the laminated... 

Vibration behavior of adaptive laminated composite beams integrated with magnetorheological (MR) fluid layer has been investigated using layerwise displacement theory. In most of the existing studies on the adaptive laminated beams with MR fluids, shear strain across the thickness of magnetorheological (MR) layer has been assumed a constant value, resulting in a constant shear stress in MR layer. However, due to the high shear deformation pattern inside MR layer, this assumption is not adequate to accurately describe the shear strain and stress in MR fluid layer. In this work a modified layerwise theory is employed to develop a Finite Element Model (FEM) formulation to simulate the laminated... 

Laminated composite beams incorporated with magneto-rheological fluid are being used in variety of critical applications. An N-layer magneto-rheological-laminated beam based on layerwise theory has been developed to study the dynamic characteristics. For simulation purpose, an MR-laminated beam with five layers is considered in which two layers filled with magneto-rheological and three layers are made of composite materials. The results of simulations are compared with existing layerwise, first-order shear-deformation theory and experimental tests where it shows the accuracy and functionality of the present model. The complex shear modulus of magneto-rheological fluid has been determined... 

This paper deals with vibrational behaviors of blades with cracks which are key components in rotating machines. However, since modelling and analysis of real blade is a complex problem, a simplified cantilever beam with both chordwise (in X-Y plane) and flapwise (in X-Z plane) motion are modeled instead. Finite Element Method (FEM) is used to model beam and to investigate its natural frequencies with a crack. Finally a limit function using modal data is developed and reliability analysis of beam model is performed. © 2017 IEEE  

Laminated composite structures are widely being used in modern industries particularly robot arms, aerospace and wind turbine blades where the structures mainly exposed to harsh random vibration and in turn, leads to unpredicted failure. Adding Magneto-rheological (MR) fluids in such structures may significantly improve their dynamic response. In the present work, the vibration response of laminated composite beams filled with MR fluids (MR laminated beam) under random loading has been investigated using experimental as well as simulation approaches. Finite Element Model (FEM) has been utilized to simulate the vibration response under random loading. An in-house set-up has been designed to... 

Laminated composite beams incorporated with magneto-rheological fluid are being used in variety of critical applications. An N-layer magneto-rheological-laminated beam based on layerwise theory has been developed to study the dynamic characteristics. For simulation purpose, an MR-laminated beam with five layers is considered in which two layers filled with magneto-rheological and three layers are made of composite materials. The results of simulations are compared with existing layerwise, first-order shear-deformation theory and experimental tests where it shows the accuracy and functionality of the present model. The complex shear modulus of magneto-rheological fluid has been determined...