Sharif Digital Repository

The influence of sheet thickness on sheet metal forming limits is a controversial issue; while some investigations indicate the considerable influence of thickness on forming limit diagrams (FLDs), others suggest that it is of negligible importance. In the present work, it has been demonstrated that if the thickness-reduction process is chosen so as not to alter the micro structure of the material, the forming limits do not change with variations of thickness. A material which has extensive usage in sheet metal forming processes of automotive industry (St14) has been provided. The initial thickness of the sheet is 1.5mm and using grinding process (which does not alter the microstructure) the... 

Air pollution in urban centers has become a key public concern around the world. Apart from its adverse health effects, air pollution could impact less visible outcomes like cognitive performance. Standardized tests are a fixture of all education settings that are susceptible to pollution shocks because they require high cognitive function. Given that test scores are widely used as signals by parents, employers, and education institutions, pollution shocks could render tests unfair and unreliable. In this paper, we combine pollution data with test scores from a large testing institution in Iran between 2012 and 2017 to quantify the impact of short-term exposure to air pollution on test... 

Introduction of large amounts of new wind generation can affect the small signal stability of power systems with three mechanisms: displacing synchronous generators (SGs); reducing SGs power generation; and the dynamics of wind farms (WFs) interacting with the electromechanical mode of SGs. In this paper a novel approach is developed to investigate the impact of the latter mechanism on existing power systems oscillations. In this approach, the dynamic behavior of grid connected WFs is studied independent of the dynamic behavior of system SGs. This approach helps to identify the conditions in which the dynamics of WFs may interact with the electromechanical mode of SGs. Also it helps to... 

The effect of porosity in oscillating situations (to the authors' knowledge, for the first time) on a supercritical airfoil (SC0410) has been experimentally investigated. Tests have been carried out in an open circuit suction-type wind tunnel at a free stream Mach number of M = 0:80. Both static and dynamic (pitching) tests have been carried out on the mentioned airfoil. The oscillation frequency for the unsteady tests has been set to 3 and 6 Hz. The amplitude of frequency is ±1 deg. The effect of porosity has been surveyed on the magnitude of pressure fluctuations, phase shift, and lift coefficient loop. The investigations show that increasing porosity in the test section of transonic... 

Samples of INCONEL 718 were levitated and melted in a slag by the application of an electromagnetic field. The effects of temperature, time, and slag composition on the inclusion content of the samples were studied thoroughly. Samples were compared with the original alloy to study the effect of the process on inclusions. Size, shape, and chemical composition of remaining non-metallic inclusions were investigated. The samples were prepared by Standard Guide for Preparing and Evaluating Specimens for Automatic Inclusion Assessment of Steel (ASTM E 768-99) method and the results were reported by means of the Standard Test Methods for Determining the Inclusion Content of Steel (ASTM E 45-97).... 

This paper presents an experimental study on prediction of the early-age creep and shrinkage of concrete with and without silica fumes, trass, ground-granulated blast-furnace slag, combinations thereof, and influences of the proposed Iranian pozzolans. Experiments were carried out under a controlled ambient condition at a temperature of 40° C and a relative humidity (RH) of 50%, and a laboratory ambient condition at a temperature of 20° C and a relative humidity (RH) of 30% in order to collect the required data. Comparisons are made between ACI209-92, BS8110-1986 and CEB1970 prediction models, and an estimation model, based on 28-day results (short-term test method), using the same... 

The Next Bit Test briefly states that a sequence is random if and only if, given any i bits of the sequence, it is not possible to predict the next bit of the sequence with a probability of success significantly greater than 1/2. In 1996, Sadeghiyan and Mohajeri proposed a so-called "new universal test for bit strings", based on the theoretical next bit test. In this paper, we study different aspects of this test and show its weakness. Then, we improve it both theoretically and practically for better classification of the sequences. As a result, a Practical Next Bit (PNB) test is introduced in two Global and Local versions and a histogram, which gives an impression of the global evaluation... 

There is an increasing interest and use of energy foundation worldwide. Full-scale tests, physical model tests at one Earth's gravity and at elevated gravity in a geotechnical centrifuge and numerical simulations have been widely reported in the literature. Almost all studies have focused on single energy piles (EPs) and pile groups subjected to symmetrical thermal loads, although it is not unusual to have energy pile groups stressed by non-symmetrical thermal loads. In this study, a series of non-symmetrical thermal loading centrifuge model tests were conducted in saturated soft clay (OCR = 1.7), which is much vulnerable to temperature changes. The tests aim to investigate the effects of... 

Various control charts have been proposed to monitor generalized linear pro les in Phase II. However, the robustness of the proposed methods in detecting di erent types and especially di erent directions of changes is not well-studied in the literature. In real-world applications, di erent kinds of change such as drift and multiple changes are likely to occur, which can be isotonic (increasing) or antitonic (decreasing). This paper studies the robustness of the Rao Score Test (RST) method, T2, and Multivariate Exponential Weighted Moving Average (MEWMA) in di erent types, drift and multiple, and directions of changes. The RST method also bene ts from a change-point detection approach whose... 

A zirconia/alumina nanocomposite stabilized with cerium oxide (Ce-TZP/Al2O3 nanocomposite) can be a good substitute as reinforcement in metal matrix composites. In the present study, the effect of the amount of 10Ce-TZP/Al2O3 particles on the microstructure and properties of Al/(10Ce-TZP/Al2O3) nanocomposites was investigated. For this purpose, aluminum powders with average size of 30μm were ball-milled with 10Ce-TZP/Al2O3 nanocomposite powders (synthesized by aqueous combustion) in varying amounts of 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10wt.%. Cylindrical-shape samples were prepared by pressing the powders at 600MPa for 60min while heating at 400-450°C. The specimens were then characterized by scanning and... 

Metal matrix composites (MMCs) have received considerable attention due to their excellent engineering properties. However, poor machinability has been the main deterrent to their substitution for metal parts. The hardness and abrasive nature of reinforcement phase causes rapid tool wear during machining which results in high machining costs. In this study, the effect of SiC particles (5, 15 & 20 percent) on tool wear in turning process is experimentally investigated. Continuous dry turning of Al/SiC particulate metal matrix composite produced by powder metallurgy and utilizing titanium carbide inserts has been achieved as the test method. The influence of machining parameters, e.g. cutting... 

Infill materials in rock joints usually cause a reduction in the joint shear strength. The shear behavior of rock discontinuities depends upon whether they are clean and unfilled or filled, so this concern invites accurate understanding of the shear behavior and strength of infilled joints. A series of constant normal load direct shear tests was performed to investigate the shear strength of artificial samples with infilled rough joint surfaces having different asperity and infill characteristics. The current study focuses on the effects of factors that influence the shear strength of infilled rock joints samples, with emphasis on forward and reverse shearing. In the forward cycle, the front... 

In this paper, the effects of Equal Channel Angular Pressing process (ECAP) followed by Shot Peening process (SP) on the fatigue properties of 6082 aluminum alloy are investigated. Several samples of the alloy are ECAPed and SPed and then their mechanical behavior are characterized using tensile, micro-hardness, and fatigue tests. The results indicate that shot peening and then polishing the specimen after one-pass ECAP is an effective method to improve the fatigue life of the alloy. Moreover, by increasing the number of ECAP passes before shot peening, a local work softening occurs at the subsurface layer, leading to a significant decrease in the fatigue life of the alloy. The results of... 

Crumb rubber modification (CRM) is an effective means of improving neat asphalt performance. Numerous studies have investigated the effects of CRM using the current Superpave® laboratory tests. Recent studies have shown that the assumption of linear viscoelastic behavior or employing insufficient stress or strain levels makes current tests inadequate for properly assessing the performance of binders, especially when modified. This problem has resulted in the development of improved test methods such as the time sweep binder fatigue test and the multiple stress creep and recovery (MSCR) test for permanent deformation. The present study assesses the performance of binders modified with a wide... 

Sliding friction between a pavement and tire is an important concern in traffic safety. The British pendulum test has been used worldwide to evaluate friction characteristics of pavement surfaces. However, because of considerable differences in apparatus, procedures, and operation, significant variability can occur for evaluations of British pendulum number (BPN). In this investigation, a direct shear test (DST) device is modified and proposed to determine the sliding friction coefficient between tire and pavement surface under dry and wet conditions. Dissipated energy values obtained from DST were compared with evaluations of BPN, and a high correlation was obtained. Tests were done using... 

The paper presents a numerical finite difference model of self-boring pressuremeter test (SBPM) using FLAC software. Different cavity expansion theories in sand have been compared to the results of numerical analyses carried out in this study. Limit pressure is believed to be used as a key parameter for the estimation of soil parameters from pressuremeter tests. In practice, SBPM tests are conducted up to 10–15% cavity strains, and the strain level associated with the limit pressure state is not reached. Therefore, determination of limit pressure usually needs extrapolation. In this paper, the authors suggest to use cavity pressure at 10% strain (P10) for the interpretation of in situ... 

In this work, energy absorption of ceramic tiles wrapped by aluminum foil on its impact face is experimentally and numerically studied. Penetration tests as well as numerical simulations are employed to obtain Ballistic Limit Velocity (BLV) of the tiles. Experimental and numerical results yield BLV of bare tiles as 145 ± 2 and 141.5 m/s, respectively. For the wrapped tiles, these values are increased to 168 ± 2 and 162 m/s, respectively. Therefore, 13% increase in BLV of the ceramic tiles is obtained by just 2.4% increase in its weight. Moreover, it is shown that energy absorption of the wrapped tiles is at least 11% greater than that of the bare ones. Based on the results, the increase in... 

Material modeling of high strength steels plays an important role in the accurate analysis of autofrettaged tubes. Although, the loading behavior of such materials is nearly elasticperfectly plastic, their unloading behavior due to Bauschinger effect is very complicated. DIN1.6959 steel is frequently used for construction of autofrettaged tubes in some countries such as Germany and Switzerland. In spite of similarity between chemical compositions of this steel with that of A723 steel, due to different material processing, these two steels have an unlikely behavior. In this paper the material behavior of DIN1.6959 was accurately modeled by uniaxial tension-compression test results. Both 6 mm... 

In conducting mechanical tests on the brain tissue, it is preferred to perform multiple tests on the same sample. In this study, we investigated the behavior of the bovine brain tissue in repeated compression tests wit h 0 recovery periods (namely, 10, 60, 120, 180, 240, and 300 s). Compression tests were performed on cylindrical samples with average diameter and height of 18.0 mm and 15.0 mm, respectively. Two testing protocols were employed; t he first one comprised experiments wit h 5, 25, and 125 mm/min loading speeds up to 33% strain and the second one consisted of tests with 25 and 125 mm/min loading speeds up to 17% strain. Each experiment was conducted in two cycles separated by a...