Sharif Digital Repository

By using the normalised least mean squared (NLMS) algorithm, a semi-active multi-variable adaptive controller is designed for a seismically excited structure. There is no need for a large power supply. A number of valves and battery size low-power supplies will suffice. The valves control the amount of flow of a fluid through bypass on-off orifice channels in installed energy dissipating mechanisms. Each mechanism is composed of a piston attached to a A-shaped chevron wind-bracing on each floor and to a cylinder attached to the upper floor. Adaptive controller parameters are estimated by the LMS optimiser, in order to search for optimal non-classical damping coefficients of the dissipating... 

A fast and simple procedure for designing relatively wide band fractional delay (FD) all-pass filters is proposed and filters designed based on it are compared to those designed using Thiran’s method, which is one of the simplest, fastest and widely used approaches in designing FD all-pass filters. It is shown that filters designed using the introduced method have wider fractional group delay (fgpd) bandwidths compared to those obtained via Thiran’s technique, as well as some other desired properties. The designed filters are also demonstrated to be stable for several pairs of filter orders and fgpd values. r2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved  

Although the fractional delay filtering literature is full of design methods and implementation techniques for fractional sample interpolators, a fundamental need for the proposition of low-order efficient designs still strongly exists. Proposed is such a system for half-sample interpolation. In contrast to the typical systems studied in the literature for fractional delay filtering, the system proposed continuously adapts its interpolation kernel to the statistical variations of the input signal, and this is in fact the reason for it being needless of having a high order. Satisfactory performance of the proposed structure has been demonstrated via simulation  

Appropriate sensors are a crucial necessity for the success of recognition systems. Nature has always coevolved sensors and recognition systems and this can also be done in artificially intelligent systems. To get a very fast isolated word speech recognition system for a small embedded speech recognizer, an evolutionary approach has been used to create together the required sensors and appropriate recognition structures. The input sensors are designed and evolved through inspiration by the human auditory system and the classification is done by artificial neural networks. The resulting system is compared with a widely used speech recognition system, and the results are quite satisfactory. ©... 

In a recently published article by Backer [Opt. Express 27(21), 30308 (2019).], a computational inverse design method is developed for designing optical systems composed of multiple metasurfaces. The forward propagation model used in this method was a discretized version of the angular spectrum propagator described by Goodman [Introduction to Fourier Optics, 1996]. However, slight modifications are necessary to increase the accuracy of this inverse design method. This comment examines the accuracy of the results obtained by the above-mentioned method by a full-wave electromagnetic solver and explains the reason of their difference. Thereafter, slight modifications to the method proposed by... 

This study introduces a simple and efficient method to determine the peak floor acceleration (PFA) at different performance levels for three types of plane reinforced concrete (RC) structures: moment-resisting frames (MRFs), infilled–moment-resisting frames (I-MRFs), and wall-frame dual systems (WFDSs). By associating the structural maximum PFA response with the deformation response, the acceleration-sensitive nonstructural components, and the building contents, can be designed to adhere to the performance-based seismic design of the supporting structure. Thus, the proposed method can accompany displacement-based seismic design methods to design acceleration-sensitive nonstructural elements... 

Inverse design in external flow regimes usually involves finding the wall shape associated with a prescribed distribution of wall pressure or velocity. In this research, a novel iterative inverse design method is developed for inviscid subsonic and transonic external flow regimes. The method links up a novel inverse design algorithm, called Ball-Spine Algorithm (BSA), and a 2D inviscid analysis code. The Euler equations are solved for a physical domain of which some unknown boundaries are iteratively modified via BSA until a prescribed pressure distribution is reached. In BSA, the unknown walls are composed of a set of virtual balls that move freely along the specified directions called... 

New techniques for Class-AB Operational Transconductance Amplifiers (OTAs) are presented. These new techniques are two topologies based on current boosting in class-AB stage which achieve considerable improvement of Slew Rate and Gain-Bandwidth while maintaining the same power consumption as the conventional design. Circuit level analysis and simulation results of proposed circuits in 0.18μm CMOS technology for gain, GBW, slew rate, and settling time are presented to prove the effectiveness of the proposed design method  

The aim of this article is presenting a new constrained multi-product pricing and inventory model in which perishable products are put into three categories: substitute, complementary and independent. The general demand is found by considering the relations of different products and the impact of their prices. The goal of the model is deciding on the prices as well as the inventory and production decisions in order to maximize the total profit. The derived model is a non-linear programming model and a genetic algorithm is developed for its solution. To enhance the performance of our genetic algorithm, we apply the Taguchi experimental design method to tune the parameters of the algorithm.... 

When cracks along rivet holes and other highly stressed regions of mostly aged aircrafts are found, usually repairs are being made to arrest these cracks. Patches provide an innovative repair technique, which can enhance the way aircrafts are maintained. Composite patch design along with axiomatic design technique deployment is a possibility. Axiomatic Design (AD) is expressed as a system design methodology that is applicable to creation of a new design, analysis and improvement of an existing design. While, here Patch Design system architecture is expressed as application of principles of axiomatic design on top level requirements with consideration of design parameters and constraints. A... 

Isolated, high-density DC-DC converters play a crucial role in the power supply unit of information technology industries. By virtue of high efficiency and high power density, LLC resonant converters-among the rest of DC-DC converters-are suitable candidates for this application. The magnetic structure of this converter, however, is a bulky, dissipative part, which has a considerable portion of power loss. Improvement in the size and efficiency of the LLC transformer will lead to an overall enhancement of power density and efficiency of the converter. Nevertheless, the optimization of planar transformers for the LLC converter has not been studied enough. This paper proposes a... 

In this paper, we present a design method of dual-band waveguide rectangular cavity filters, with a series in-line topology. The coupling matrix is based on asynchronously tuned designs, where two sets of resonances exist for the two bands. Thus the filter is inherently different than the typical dual-band designs in the literature, as existing designs utilize resonators at the same frequency. The design at Ku band validates the underlying idea and concept, and the theory of the detuned coupling matrix. This rectangular waveguide implementation can provide noticeable miniaturization in applications with high-power requirements  

A new impeller configuration with innovatively-designed shrouds is introduced, and its impact on the pressure head and efficiency of the semi-open centrifugal pump is explored using experimental and numerical approaches. The proposed design includes attaching specific plates called bladelets to a semi-open impeller to limit the secondary flows over the blades resulting in an increase in the pump head and efficiency. Hydraulic performance of a centrifugal pump with three different bladelets at angles of 30°, 60°, and 90° is investigated experimentally, and the results are compared to semi-open and closed impellers. The values of pressure head and efficiency of the proposed centrifugal pump... 

Numerous studies have investigated driving equations used to predict the slip factor in centrifugal compressors so far. Inevitably, through these studies, the ow field characteristics have been simplified and the effects of the related parameters have been neglected. The present study, experimentally and numerically, investigates the slip phenomenon in a specific centrifugal compressor with complex blade curves and splitter blades, considering the main effective parameters such as the number of blades, exit angle, etc. To this end, a three-dimensional simulation of the viscous flow field of the compressor via an appropriate turbulence method was performed. In addition, an experimental study... 

Real-time measurement of soil water pressure has been recognized as an essential part of investigating water ow in unsaturated soils. Tensiometry, amongst different measuring techniques, is a common method for direct evaluation of water pressure. However, the lower limit of measurable water pressure by a conventional tensiometer becomes even more limited by increasing its length in the vertical installation. This paper describes the development of a Vacuum-Refilled Tensiometer (VRT) for monitoring soil water pressure independent of installation depth. This is achieved by fixing the distance between pressure sensor and ceramic cup together with incorporating an ancillary vacuumre filling... 

We present an emulation design method for converting asymmetrical transmitters to nonreciprocal isolators equipped with time-varying metasurfaces. To illustrate the model, we design a structure using a combination of the photonic crystal (PhC) and time-varying metasurface. Moreover, we propose a general approach for numerical analysis of the time-modulated proposed structure using the extension of the transfer matrix method (TMM) which consists of working through the device one layer at a time and calculating an overall transfer matrix including the time-variation of the permittivity and permeability in each layer. Also, we use an optimization algorithm that is less used in the field of... 

A series of V2O5 catalysts supported on multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT), single wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT), and graphene were synthesized by hydrothermal and reflux methods for oxidative dehydrogenation of propane (ODHP) to propylene. The catalysts were characterized by techniques including the BET surface area measurements, XRD, FTIR, H2-TPR, NH3-TPD, FESEM, and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The performance of the catalysts and the supports were subsequently examined in a fixed bed reactor. The main products were propylene, ethylene and CO x. The vanadium catalyst supported on graphene with C/V molar ratio of 1:1 synthesized through the hydrothermal method had the best... 

This paper is concerned with a quasi-3D design method for the radial and axial diffusers of a centrifugal compressor on the meridional plane. The method integrates a novel inverse design algorithm, called ball-spine algorithm (BSA), and a quasi-3D analysis code. The Euler equation is solved on the meridional plane for a numerical domain, of which unknown boundaries (hub and shroud) are iteratively modified under the BSA until a prescribed pressure distribution is reached. In BSA, unknown walls are composed of a set of virtual balls that move freely along specified directions called spines. The difference between target and current pressure distributions causes the flexible boundary to deform...