Sharif Digital Repository

A new bracing system with new features somewhat different from those of the existing ones was devised and is presented. These features comprise some of the advantages of eccentric bracing systems including their ability to dissipate energy through bending of flexural elements while lacking some of the disadvantages of such systems including their inability of being replaced upon damage during events such as earthquakes, etc. While in traditional types of braces, including both concentric and eccentric ones, braces are under axial loading, in this new system they work in a bending capacity. As a result, the sort of flexibility which is introduced in the system in the presence of eccentric... 

In this work successful synthesis of multiwall carbon nanotube (CNT) using solution combustion and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) methods are reported. Ceramic nanocomposite samples of (Al 2-xFe xO 3)-(y)ZrO 2 formula with x = 0.017, 0.034 and 0.17 and y = 0.15 were initially prepared. These were then subjected to CVD process during which the in situ reduction of iron oxide to metallic iron (Fe/Fe 3C) phase/s provided the necessary catalyst for the CNT formation. The formation of long flexible filaments with a smooth and regular surface bridging between alumina-zirconia (AZ) grains could be detected. The diameters of the formed filaments were in the range of ∼70 to ∼320 nm and length of the... 

The ideal simulator for Endoscopic Sinus and Skull Base Surgery (ESSS)training must be supported by a physical model and provide repetitive behavior in a controlled environment. Development of realistic tissue models is a key part of ESSS virtual reality (VR)-based surgical simulation. Considerable research has been conducted to address haptic or force feedback and propose a phenomenological tissue fracture model for sino-nasal tissue during surgical tool indentation. Mechanical properties of specific sino-nasal regions of the sheep head have been studied in various indentation and relaxation experiments. Tool insertion at different indentation rates into coronal orbital floor (COF)tissue is... 

Yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (Y-TZP) have been widely applied in fixed partial prostheses as well as dental uses i.e. a substructure for crowns. However, Y-TZP has limited applications, which is due to the presence of defects in its microstructure introduced during the manufacturing process. Accordingly, due to Y-TZP limitations, the novel (X)Y-TZP- 20Al2O3-(80-X) SiO2 (X = 65, 70 and 75) ceramic nanocomposites were successfully fabricated via the powder metallurgy method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of commercial powders showed the stabilization of monoclinic zirconia (ZM) by increasing the silica content. In order to determine the fracture load and micro-bending... 

Targeted drug delivery methods have shown a significant impact on enhancing drug delivery efficiency and reducing drug side effects. While various stimuli have been used to promote the drug delivery process, applying ultrasound (US) waves to control drug particles through the human body, noninvasively, has drawn the scientist's attention. However, microcarriers delivery reaches the aneurysmal artery by US waves that exert volumetric forces on blood, and drug carriers, which can therefore affect blood flow patterns and movement pathways of drug carriers, have not yet been studied. In this study, we developed a 3-D patient-specific model of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) to evaluate the... 

Estimating the depth of anesthesia (DOA) is still a challenging area in anesthesia research. The objective of this study was to design a fuzzy rule based system which integrates electroencephalogram (EEG) features to quantitatively estimate the DOA. The proposed method is based on the analysis of single-channel EEG using frequency and time domain methods. A clinical study was conducted on 22 patients to construct subsets of reference data corresponding to four well-defined anesthetic states: awake, moderate anesthesia, surgical anesthesia and isoelectric. Statistical analysis of features was used to design input membership functions (MFs). The input space was partitioned with respect to the... 

Estimating the depth of anesthesia (DOA) is still a challenging area in anesthesia research. The objective of this study was to design a fuzzy rule based system which integrates electroencephalogram (EEG) features to quantitatively estimate the DOA. The proposed method is based on the analysis of single-channel EEG using frequency and time domain features as well as Shannon entropy measure. The fuzzy classifier is trained with features obtained from four subsets of data comprising well-defined anesthesia states: awake, moderate, general anesthesia, and isoelectric. The classifier extracts efficient fuzzy if-then rules and the DOA index is derived between 100 (full awake) to 0 (isoelectric)... 

To achieve a cost-effective and reliable use of wind power generation, advanced control techniques are required. In this paper, the application of two control strategies for the improvement of wind turbine power output is investigated in the presence of model/environmental uncertainties. Rotational speed of the wind turbine and consequently its power output are controlled via manipulation of blades pitch angle (at a constant generator torque). First, the classical PID controller is designed based on root locus analysis while in the second scheme, an H∞-robust controller is designed via μ-synthesis based on DKiteration algorithm. Performance of the two controllers in tracking of the desired... 

In this research, nonlinear dynamics of an air-ehandling unit (AHU) is studied for tracking objectives, in the presence of harmonic perturbations. Three arbitrary realistic set-paths are considered for the indoor temperature and relative humidity. Two controllers based on feedback linearization (FBL) and pole placement approaches are designed to preserve the dynamic system around the desired tracking paths. It is shown that FBL controller works efficiently in bifurcation control and transforms the quasi-periodic limit cycles into the periodic ones (and consequently comfortable indoor conditions). In addition, FBL controller guarantees suppression of larger periodic limit cycles into the... 

Under different loading conditions, the over-head cranes may experience a wide range of model parameters variation. A robust control strategy is developed to achieve the high positioning accuracy, short transportation time and suppression of swing angle for an uncertain over-head crane system. Over-head crane is modeled as a three degrees of freedom system and control problem is investigated for two cases: a system with a single control input (the force on trolley) and a system with two control inputs (the force on trolley and the torque on lifter). Regulator and observer systems are designed. To achieve the tracking objectives, an optimal robust controller is designed based on μ-synthesis...