Sharif Digital Repository

Today, the interest on distributed generation has been increasing, especially due to technical development on generation systems that meet environmental and energy policy concerns. One of the most important distributed energy technologies is Combined Heat and Power (CHP). CHP is small and self-contained electric generation plan that can provide power for household applications, commercial or industrial facilities and hence its applications are overtly increasing. It can reduce power loss and enhance service reliability in distribution systems. One of the influential factors for the users is the purchasing cost of CHP which is largely dependent on its type, capacity and efficiency. Therefore... 

Today, the interest on distributed generation has been increasing, especially due to technical development on generation systems that meet environmental and energy policy concerns. One of the most important distributed energy technologies is Combined Heat and Power (CHP). CHP is small and self-contained electric generation plan that can provide power for household applications, commercial or industrial facilities and hence its applications are overtly increasing. It can reduce power loss and enhance service reliability in distribution systems. One of the influential factors for the users is the purchasing cost of CHP which is largely dependent on its type, capacity and efficiency. Therefore... 

In a practical power system, automating all the substations is neither affordable nor economically justifiable. On the other hand, the trend for electric power subsidies elimination in some regions, such as Iran, aggravates this situation. To enhance the cost effectiveness of distribution automation system, this paper proposes a novel applicable qualitative-quantitative method using analytical hierarchical process (AHP) to find the optimum placement of remote terminal units (RTU). Entire attempt is to contribute all the crucial technical and practical parameters related to this problem in order to find the most reliable solution. Optimum number of RTUs is determined using the concepts of... 

We propose a cost estimation model based on a fuzzy rule backpropagation network, configuring the rules to estimate the cost under uncertainty. A multiple linear regression analysis is applied to analyze the rules and identify the effective rules for cost estimation. Then, using a dynamic programming approach, we determine the optimal path of the manufacturing network. Finally, an application of this model is illustrated through a numerical example showing the effectiveness of the proposed model for solving the cost estimation problem under uncertainty  

In a practical power system, automating all the substations is neither affordable nor economically justifiable. On the other hand, the trend for electric power subsidies elimination in some regions, such as Iran, aggravates this situation. To enhance the cost effectiveness of distribution automation system, this paper proposes a novel applicable qualitative-quantitative method using analytical hierarchical process (AHP) to find the optimum placement of remote terminal units (RTU). Entire attempt is to contribute all the crucial technical and practical parameters related to this problem in order to find the most reliable solution. Optimum number of RTUs is determined using the concepts of... 

In this research, application of the Endurance Time (ET) method in performance-based design of structures with and without consideration of uncertainties is investigated and a practical optimum design procedure is proposed. The ET method is used as an analytical assessment tool because of its capabilities in response estimation with an affordable computational demand. In the first step of the proposed method, ET analysis is implemented in a multi-objective optimum design procedure in order to achieve a set of Pareto optimal designs. Optimization is conducted with respect to initial cost and expected life cycle cost using a deterministic approach. For each design alternative the median... 

This paper shows a new possible way with particle swarm optimisation (PSO) to achieve an exergoeconomic optimisation of combinedcycle power plants. The optimisation has been done using a classic exergoeconomic and genetic algorithm, and the effects of using three methods are investigated and compared. The design data of an existing plant is used for the present analysis. Two different objective functions are proposed: One minimises the total cost of production per unit of output, and maximises the total exergetic efficiency. The analysis shows that the total cost of production per unit of output is 2%, 3%and 5% lower and exergy efficiency is 4%, 8% and 6% higher with respect to the base case... 

An integrated hydrogen and power co-generation system with CO2 capture has been proposed and evaluated techno-economically. The proposed system is an alternative low cost clean power generation while supplying hydrogen for process plants. The baseline configuration has been designed based on the literature. Different cases are simulated in Aspen Plus and are evaluated economically. Thermodynamic models have been validated against the results of previous publications. The co-generation system with different product shares of hydrogen and power has been compared with CO2 captured and CO2-vented hydrogen plants by means of defined techno-economic-environmental indicators. Sensitivity analysis... 

A new design methodology based on the total value of structures is introduced. This methodology, namely Value Based Design of structures (VBD), uses the advantages of Endurance Time (ET) method. While prescriptive and earlier generations of performance based design approaches commonly try to find structures with the least initial cost, a design approach to directly incorporate the concept of value in design procedure has been formulated here. Reduced computational effort in ET analysis provides the prerequisites to practical use of optimization algorithms in seismic design. A genetic algorithm is used with the objective of minimizing total cost of the building during its lifespan. ET method... 

Wheel wear is one of the major costs in railway tracks consisting of sharp curves. In this paper, wear behavior of S1002 profiles of wheels in the "Southern Line" of Iran's railway, which consists of a large number of distinct and/or consecutive sharp curves, is studied using the field data measuring technique. Based on wear behavior analysis of all wheels, an optimal wagon maintenance technique called the "first and second limits" is suggested to minimize the wagon's cost per traveled distance. The results show that: 1) A severe wheel flange wear occurs for all wheels in comparison to the wheel tread wear in normal tracks; 2) A wagon's detachment for repair of critical wheels on its four... 

Concrete is widely used for many practices in Civil Engineering. Therefore, an understanding of its behavior helps engineers and researchers to perform more accurate and cost-effective analyses and designs. In this respect, several models have been proposed to predict the behaviors of concrete most of which are satisfactorily accurate. However, by increasing the accuracy of the models, their computational cost increases, too. In this study, a model with the least computational cost is proposed to predict the behaviors of various concretes and confinement conditions. This model does not require any experimental tests to determine its parameters. It was proved to be able to predict the... 

This paper reports on the application of low-grade sensible waste heat (liquid phase) driven multi-effect distillation (MED) technology to exploit waste heat sources that are generally abundant in the petrochemical industries especially, those located close to the Persian Gulf's coastline. For this purpose, a techno-economic feasibility study by considering local capital and operating costs for a selected petrochemical plant has been conducted. In this study, a sensible waste heat stream (practically at 80 °C in the liquid phase), which is actively cooled by the cooling process of the plant, is considered as the heat source for the proposed desalination process. This process can recover... 

In recent years there have been many efforts to develop a hydrogen energy system in Iran. For instance, the Iranian fuel cell steering committee conducted a project and determined some targets to implement hydrogen in different sectors, especially transportation. In this paper, the costs of building stations and the levelized cost of hydrogen for two types of stations, SMR and electrolysis, with various sizes and capacity factors have been investigated. Also, in the case of electrolysis, hydrogen cost sensitivity to the price of electricity has been examined. According to the cost analysis conducted here, it is understandable that hydrogen costs ($/kg) vary considerably based on station... 

In the past decade, distribution network operators have been broadly engrossed toward automated distribution networks. The operators acknowledge network automation as an efficient investment toward a better service reliability. This paper aims to provide a new long-term cost/benefit analysis for an optimal level of distribution network automation. In the analysis, reduction in customer outage cost is considered as the benefit of implementing automation systems with capital investment, and annual operation and maintenance costs. In the Finnish regulation model, there is a special incentive based on customer outage cost reduction. As the main contribution of this paper, the impact of earth... 

In this work a microgrid is established within the geographical perspective of interest. The characteristics of the grid and its urban are employed to determine the candidate points for establishment of EV charging stations. The investment costs and operation costs are calculated for each station realizing the required constraints. This process resulted in optimum selection of EV stations. The optimization is achieved based on two different types of preliminary assumptions. In the first one, it is assumed to have only one station, while in the second one possibility of having multi-stations is considered. Using the total investment and operation costs as the objective function of... 

Two major structures for rotor core of superconducting synchronous machine are air-cored and magnetic-cored structures. Magnetic-cored structure can be divided into two categories including salient and non-salient magnetic core. In this paper, three different structures of superconducting synchronous machine comprising air-cored, non-salient magnetic-cored and salient magnetic-cored, have been studied and compared considering required superconducting wire and machine weight. Required superconducting wire determines the capital cost and the weight of the machine determines the running cost in the case of portable applications such as ships and aircrafts  

A redundancy allocation problem consists of the selection of a number of redundancies to be allocated in each subsystem of a series-parallel configuration to maximize system reliability, while minimizing overall system cost. Most existing studies either ignore system cost or assume deterministic component reliabilities. However, the selection of a network system design requires the estimation of its reliability and cost. Therefore, the uncertainty associated with such estimates must be considered in the decision process. In this study, an efficient method based on the loss function approach is proposed to solve the redundancy allocation problem. This approach not only optimizes the overall... 

One of the main causes of death the world over are cardiovascular diseases, of which coronary artery disease (CAD) is a major type. This disease occurs when the diameter narrowing of one of the left anterior descending, left circumflex, or right coronary arteries is equal to or greater than 50 percent. Angiography is the principal diagnostic modality for the stenosis of heart vessels; however, because of its complications and costs, researchers are looking for alternative methods such as data mining. This study conducts data mining algorithms on the Z-Alizadeh Sani dataset which has been collected from 303 random visitors to Tehran's Shaheed Rajaei Cardiovascular, Medical and Research... 

The multivariate exponentially weighted moving average, MEWMA, control chart is an effective statistical tool for detecting small shifts in process mean vectors. On the one hand, the economic design process of a MEWMA control chart involves determining the main parameters of the chart, namely, the sample size n, the sampling interval h, the smoothing constant r, and the control limit L such that a quality cost function is minimized. On the other hand, the statistically constrained economic design of MEWMA chart is to determine the chart parameters such that a cost function is minimized while the statistical performance of the chart is maintained at a desire level. In this paper, the... 

With the proliferation of more complex systems has come the need to find better solutions in both technical and management domains. Such complex systems are usually larger in size, have more parallel operations and contain more complex interfaces (Eisner, 2005). The Design Structure Matrix is a very useful tool in handling such complexities, provided that the system designer can use it properly. This paper addresses how effectiveness & efficiency are defined for a DSM and how these two important characteristics can be achieved. The importance of understanding the solution space in constructing an effective & efficient DSM is discussed and general guidelines are given on configuring the DSM...