Sharif Digital Repository

The use of micromechanical models to study composite material's behavior leads to save time and cost. In this paper, bridging micromechanical models have been used in order to observe the behavior of unidirectional laminate composite under fatigue loading. In order to study the fatigue behavior, stiffness degradation has been studied as well as the strength degradation and a driftnet model has been proposed for each of them. The strength degradation has only been studied for the unidirectional fiber, while the stiffness degradation has been studied for the fibers with different fiber angle. The results are compared with macro-mechanical models and other methods in literature  

The present study was carried out to evaluate the degradation efficiency of benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX) by isolated bacteria from various petroleum-hydrocarbons contaminated sites. Five isolated bacteria were selected for testing BTX biodegradation from liquid culture media. Each of these bacteria was able to degrade BTX but with different efficiencies. Maximum biodegradation efficiency for benzene (more than 70 %) was obtained by Gram-positive coccobacillus, Gram-positive coccus and Gram-negative bacillus bacteria, for toluene (60 %) and xylene (70 %) by Gram-positive coccobacillus and Gram-negative coccobacillus. It was found that the presence of xylene in the substrate mixture... 

Lead-acid battery is a storage technology that is widely used in photovoltaic (PV) systems. Battery charging and discharging profiles have a direct impact on the battery degradation and battery loss of life. This study presents a new 2-model iterative approach for explicit modelling of battery degradation in the optimal operation of PV systems. The proposed approach consists of two models: namely, economic model and degradation model which are solved iteratively to reach the optimal solution. The economic model is a linear programming optimisation problem that calculates the optimal hourly battery use profile based on an assumed value of the battery degradation cost. The degradation model,... 

Reducing the burden of the remaining actuators through decreasing the performance gracefully is an important field in active fault tolerant control. According to the literature, two important points have been identified in the works considering graceful performance degradation: 1) using single-objective optimization, 2) assuming an engineering insight into the performance of the faulty system. This paper has two contributions: First, it is shown that in some cases, single-objective optimization may not be able to provide a satisfactory solution for the problem. Second, a new systematic and general method is proposed to remove the need for the engineering insight. The proposed method is based... 

In this study, for the first time a statistical analysis based on the response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to investigate individual and interaction effects of key operating parameters of the photocatalytic degradation under visible-light irradiation using Ag-S/PEG/TiO2. Ag-S/PEG/TiO2 is a visible-light-driven photocatalyst and was synthesized (based on earlier research) by co-doping of TiO2 with silver and sulphur and addition of polyethylene glycol (as a reagent template). In addition, the model pollutant was methylene orange (MO) and the studied operating parameters included the photocatalyst loading, initial concentration of the pollutant, and pH of the solution. The... 

Gas turbine hot-section parts can be very expensive components with a finite lifetime. Their durability is strongly dependent on the operating service conditions which control the maintenance intervals and associated expenses. Blade damage is the most frequent reason for failures in gas turbine engines and also oxidation is one of the most critical degradation mechanisms when the power system operates in partially loading condition. This paper describes the methodology of oxidation life assessment for uncoated and coated blades with various metallic coatings in the first stage of a typical gas turbine engine. The resultant weight-change curves were validated by comparing them with the... 

We describe here a theoretical framework to model the bulk degradation of hydrogels, which are prepared by chemical cross-linking of pendant functional groups on long polymer chains. The random order of the cleavage of degradable bonds was described by stochastic Monte Carlo simulation. The events of bond cleavage were related to the macroscopic changes of hydrogel by the Bray-Merrill equation. Next, the time for the gel to disintegrate was predicted by considering the relation between the recursive nature in breaking the cross-link nodes and gel-to-sol transition. To start the simulation, initial network properties including the number of active functional groups on the polymer chain and... 

This study investigates the flexural and impact behaviour of GFRP laminates after exposure to elevated temperatures. The effect of fibre's length and orientation, laminate's thickness, and exposure time is studied. A total number of 540 tests in terms of three-point bending and Charpy impact tests were conducted to obtain the mechanical properties. In addition, SEM analyses were carried out to investigate the degradation mechanisms. Finally, statistical study was conducted to investigate the contribution of each variable and develop probabilistic models using ANOVA and linear Bayesian regression method. The results showed that generally the flexural and impact properties of GFRP laminates... 

The present research examines the effects of UV radiation, moisture and elevated temperature on the mechanical properties of GFRP pultruded profiles. Flexural, compressive and tensile properties of different GFRP sections were studied after they were exposed for 1000, 1500, 2000 and 3000 h to UV radiation and water vapour condensation cycles. Mechanical tests, including three-point bending, compression and tension tests, SEM analyses, and statistical studies were conducted to gather comprehensive results. The results showed that the mechanical properties of various GFRP sections generally decreased with the duration of conditioning: however, the rate of the decrease that was only slight up... 

This review covers the development of bioresorbable polymeric composites for applications in tissue engineering. Various commercially available bioresobable polymers are described, with emphasis on recent bioresorbable composites based on natural and synthetic polymers. Bioresorbable polymers contain hydrolyzable bonds, which are subjected to chemical degradation via either reactive hydrolysis or enzyme-catalyzed active hydrolysis. For synthetic polymers, chemical hydrolysis is the most important mode of degradation. The degradation rate can be controlled by varying the molecular weight and crystallinity. Examples of bioresorbable polymers are: polyurethane, poly(D,L)lactide,... 

Operation of solid oxide fuel/electrolysis cells (SOFC/SOEC) at high temperatures (T > 850 °C) is accompanied by degradation phenomena, which severely affect the operational lifetime of the cell. Degradation processes are expected to occur slower at low temperatures. However, significant reduction in electrocatalytic activity of the oxygen electrode, is one of the major challenges in decreasing the operating temperature down to 500 °C-650 °C. Recently, Pr6O11 infiltrated Ce0.9Gd0.1O2 (CGO) based electrodes have been proposed to realize high electrochemical performance at intermediate temperature. In this study, Pr-oxide has been infiltrated into a well performing sub-micro... 

Motivated by recent works indicating the role of AC current on the reliability of electronic systems, the microstructural characterization and mechanical properties of solder joints, as vulnerable parts of electronic packages, under different alternating current shapes were investigated. The sine-, square- and triangle-waveform currents were considered for the experiments. The simulation results showed that the triangle shape current creates the highest thermal fluctuations and stress variations in the solder joints. This event was due to the lack of any relaxation time at the critical states, induced by triangle shape current, which leads to the intensification of stress in the solder... 

Polymer sintering is not only a well-established procedure for producing functional polymeric parts, but it is also the basis for the relatively new additive manufacturing technique, selective laser sintering. Although studying the impact of thermo-oxidative degradation during sintering has significant practical importance, few studies have focused on this aspect of the sintering process. In the present work, we have investigated the active thermo-oxidative degradation mechanisms during sintering of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) particles, the conditions that promote them, and their respective impact on the morphological evolution of the polyethylene particles. To perform a comprehensive... 

In this work, cycling-induced aging occurring in 18650-type LiFePO4/graphite full cells at different C-rates is studied extensively. The mechanism of performance degradation is investigated using a combination of electrochemical and microstructural analyses. Half-cell studies are carried out after dismantling the full cells, using fresh and cycled LiFePO4 cathode and graphite anode to independently study them. The results show that the capacity of LiFePO4 electrodes is significantly recovered. The rate of capacity fading in the discharge state considered as irreversible capacity in the graphite is higher than LiFePO4 half cells, indicating a greater degradation in the performance of this... 

This review covers the development of bioresorbable polymeric composites for applications in tissue engineering. Various commercially available bioresobable polymers are described, with emphasis on recent bioresorbable composites based on natural and synthetic polymers. Bioresorbable polymers contain hydrolyzable bonds, which are subjected to chemical degradation via either reactive hydrolysis or enzyme-catalyzed active hydrolysis. For synthetic polymers, chemical hydrolysis is the most important mode of degradation. The degradation rate can be controlled by varying the molecular weight and crystallinity. Examples of bioresorbable polymers are: polyurethane, poly(D,L)lactide,... 

TiO2 nanoparticles were prepared by the sol - gel process using 2-hydroxylethy- lammonium formate as an ionic liquid. Nanoparticles were crystallized at various temperatures (300-700°C). The products were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen adsorption - desorption isotherms and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. It was found that the resulting TiO2 nanoparticles had good thermal stability either to resist collapse or the anatase-to-rutile phase transformation during heat treatment. The photocatalytic activity of the nanocrystalline TiO2 was evaluated by the degradation of Acid Blue 92 (AB92) which is\ commonly used as a textile dye. The results showed that the...