Sharif Digital Repository

The microstructure evaluation and phase transformation of multi-pass friction stir-processed (FSP) commercially pure titanium were investigated using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy equipped with a backscatter detector, and electron backscatter diffractometer. The microstructure characterization shows that the grain refinement mechanism changed with the increasing number of passes. The equiaxed α grains in the untreated sample changed to lath-shaped grains surrounded by serrated grain boundaries, and produced Widmanstätten morphology during the cooling cycle of FSP. The higher micro-hardness values and bio-corrosion resistances of the FSP-treated samples are due to their... 

This article presents a crystal plasticity methodology to evaluate the AA1050 sheet formability. In order to determine the orientation distribution of the crystals, initial texture of the material is measured through X-ray diffraction technique. Also, the stress-strain behavior of the material is determined by performing tensile test. In order to simulate the path-dependent crystal plasticity behavior of body-centered cubic crystal structures, a UMAT subroutine that employs the rate-dependent crystal plasticity model along with the power law hardening was developed previously by the authors and linked to the finite element software ABAQUS. This subroutine was further developed to simulate... 

Background: Foot orthoses are used to optimize lower extremity function and can improve postural stability by enhancing the afferent somatosensory feedback available to the central nervous system. Objective: The aim of this review was to evaluate the effect of foot orthoses on balance control in older subjects. Study design: Systematic review. Methods: The search strategy was based on the Population Intervention Comparison Outcome method. A search was performed in PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and ISI Web of Knowledge databases by using selected keywords. A total of 22 articles were selected for final evaluation. Results: The results demonstrated that older people should be advised... 

This paper focuses on the determination of the complete set of ideal orientations of FCC materials in the equibiaxial tension mode of deformation. The simulations are based on the numerical procedure developed by the authors in which, a rate-sensitive crystal plasticity model with Secant hardening law was employed. The resulting nonlinear system of equations is solved by the modified Newton-Raphson method. An Euler space scanning method is used to obtain the ideal orientations of a deformation mode. In this method some initial orientations which are evenly spaced in the Euler space are selected and their evolutions into the ideal orientations are tracked. To verify the accuracy of the... 

Herein, we report a new strategy for improving the efficiency and reducing the fabrication cost of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) by elimination of the three- or four-fold layer deposition of TiO2. This is performed by replacing a single layer deposition of mesoporous TiO2 beads, with sub-micrometer size, high surface area and tunable pore size, synthesized by a combination of sol-gel and solvothermal methods. Furthermore, superior electronic properties gained by a reduction in electronic trap states are achieved through doping of pristine TiO2 beads with lithium. The beads have a spherical shape with monodispersed texture consisting of anatase-TiO2 nanocrystals and ultra-fine pores. The... 

Herein, we demonstrate a new fabrication strategy for low-cost and stable-operation perovskite solar cells (PSCs) suitable for commercialization. This is performed by fabrication of the device under ambient conditions using a Cs0.05(MA0.17FA0.83)0.95Pb(Br0.17I0.83)3 formulation as the mixed cation and halide (MCH) perovskite and CuInS2 (CIS) as the inorganic hole transporting layer. The deposited MCH perovskite with uniform, compact and smooth microstructure containing equiaxed large grains showed excellent thermal and structural stability under intense conditions at 85 °C for 2 h in humid air (i.e., 45% relative humidity). Moreover, it had higher phosphorescence emission, absorption and... 

Abstract: The effect of annealing temperature on the properties of silver thin films has been investigated. Ag thin films have been deposited on glass substrates by electron beam coating, afterward subjected to annealing in a mixed ambient of air and oxygen at 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500°C for 3 h and then cooled slowly. The crystallographic structures of the Ag thin films were studied as a function of the annealing temperature. X‑ray diffraction (XRD) was used to estimate the crystallographic texture and grain size. All the films were found to have crystalline structure. The film microstructures were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The XRD and SEM results confirmed the... 

Equal channel angular pressing is an effective technique to control the texture and microstructure of metals and alloys. Texture and microstructure of an Al-7075 alloy subjected to repetitive equal channel angular pressing through a 90° die were evaluated by X-ray diffractometer and orientation imaging microscopy. It is observed that processing through different routes leads to different types of textures, in both qualitative and quantitative senses. The texture calculation by Labotex software reveals that texture strengthens after the first pass and weakens by progressing ECAP process up to 4 passes. Microstructure investigations show that after 4 passes of equal channel angular pressing... 

Magnesium and its alloys have gained significant popularity due to their light weight and their potential for use as bioresorbable materials. However, their application is limited in practice due to their relatively poor corrosion resistance. Several methods are available for improving the corrosion resistance of Mg alloys for bio-applications such as using different coatings, alloying, and modifying the microstructural parameters such as the grain size and the crystallographic texture. This review provides a comprehensive summary of the effects of crystallographic texture and twinning, as one of the most important deformation mechanisms of Mg and Mg alloys, on the corrosion behavior.... 

Magnesium and its alloys have gained significant popularity due to their light weight and their potential for use as bioresorbable materials. However, their application is limited in practice due to their relatively poor corrosion resistance. Several methods are available for improving the corrosion resistance of Mg alloys for bio-applications such as using different coatings, alloying, and modifying the microstructural parameters such as the grain size and the crystallographic texture. This review provides a comprehensive summary of the effects of crystallographic texture and twinning, as one of the most important deformation mechanisms of Mg and Mg alloys, on the corrosion behavior.... 

The thermal field and the grain structure of a cored superalloy turbine blade, which has been directionally solidified with the liquid metal cooling (LMC) process, has been simulated in three dimensions using a cellular automaton (CA) coupled with finite-element (CAFE) model. The cooling induced by the liquid aluminum bath has been replaced by a heat-transfer coefficient, whose temperature- and time-dependence has been adjusted on the basis of natural convection simulations and dimensionless analyses. The simulated grain structure and crystallographic texture have been compared with the microstructure, and the electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD) results were obtained for a real blade.... 

Creating laser texture on dental implants is a novel method for accelerating osseointegration and prolongation of lifespan. The purpose of this research was twofold: (1) Creating intersecting lines pattern with different angles (0°, 15°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75°, and 90°) on the surface of Ti6Al4V, using pulse Nd:YAG laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm and a pulse length of 170 ns and (2) comparing optical and SEM images, EDS analyses, contact angles (CAs), and surface free energies (FEs) for different intersecting lines angles. CA and FE depended on the intersecting lines angle according to Y = Y 0 + A sin (x B + C), where Y is the CA or FE; x is the intersecting lines angle; and Y0, A, B, and C... 

Partial discharge (PD) measurement is one of the best methods for condition monitoring of transformers. In this paper, we use 5 different types of defects as follows: scratch on winding insulation, bubble in oil, moisture in insulation paper, a very small free metal particle in the transformer tank, and a fixed sharp metal point on the transformer tank, for our PD-related studies. Each type of defect is implemented into 1 of the 5 identical transformer models, which had been developed in the authors' recent work. The continuous wavelet transform is applied to each related measured time-domain PD signals. This process results in an image, for each PD pulse in the time-frequency domain. Using... 

Gas flooding is a practical secondary scenario for enhanced oil recovery. Channeling and fingering of the injected gas are the major problems facing this technique. These challenges can be mitigated by the injection of gas as foam. However, foam stability influences the overall efficiency of the process, which could be improved by nanoparticles (NPs). This work provides a theoretical and experimental analysis of the NPs wettability effects on foam behavior, in both static and dynamic states. The treated calcite (CaCO3) NPs along with a cationic surfactant (HTAB) were used for this purpose. By comparison of theoretical and experimental data, it was shown that the foam stability in the... 

The first important limitation of ADI usage in industries is the machinability of the parts. Machinable Austempered Ductile Cast Iron (MADI) is a novel kind of ADI with improved properties such as better machinability compared to ADI and similar to as cast ductile iron. Furthermore, MADI has a higher strength than ductile iron at the same hardness value. The present work aimed to investigate into the impact of the austempering time and temperature on microstructure and mechanical properties of ductile iron samples prepared from Y-block with 75 mm thickness. In order to achieve the microstructure of the continuous matrix of equiaxed ferrite with islands of austenite, samples were partially... 

This study, for the first time, reports the synthesis of CuO- and Cu2O nanoparticles (NPs) using the Salvia hispanica extract by a high-gravity technique. The original green synthesis procedure led to the formation of nanoparticles with promising catalytic and biological properties. The synthesized nanoparticles were fully characterized and their catalytic activity was evaluated through a typical Azide-Alkyne Cycloaddition (AAC) reaction. The potential antibacterial activity against gram positive (S. aureus) and gram negative (E. coli) bacteria were investigated. It was shown that the antibacterial properties were independent of the NP morphology as well as of the texture of the synthesis... 

The problem of motion detection has received considerable attention due to the explosive growth of its applications in video analysis and surveillance systems. While the previous approaches can produce good results, the accurate detection of motion remains a challenging task due to the difficulties raised by illumination variations, occlusion, camouflage, sudden motions appearing in burst, dynamic texture, and environmental changes such as weather conditions, sunlight changes during a day, and so on. In this paper, a novel per-pixel motion descriptor is proposed for motion detection in video sequences which outperforms the current methods in the literature particularly in severe scenarios.... 

Fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) nano-powders were synthesized by a gel combustion method. To analyse the effect of processing factors and their interactions and to achieve an equation for nano-powder particle size in terms of code factors, D-optimal factorial design was used. Stannous chloride penta-hydride, ammonium fluoride and citric acid were used to synthesize the FTO nano-powders. The structure, morphology and composition of the synthesized powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, respectively. The results revealed the formation of homogenous FTO nano-powders with an average particle size of 20 nm... 

Breast cancer is considered as the most important cause of death among women. Architectural distortions are very important signs of breast cancer and early detection of them is a rewarding work. In this paper we propose a method to recognize architectural distortion from normal parenchyma. In our proposed method, appropriate features are extracted by the analysis of oriented textures with the application of orientation component of recent the state-of-the-art local texture descriptor called Monogenic Binary Coding (MBC). In addition, we transform Region of Interests (ROIs) to polar coordinates in order to highlight some specific patterns in mammograms. Various classifiers are used over a set... 

Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer if not treated early. The best way to cure melanoma is to treat it in its earliest stage of development. Since melanoma is similar to benign moles in its shape and appearance, it is often mistaken for moles and left untreated. Automatic melanoma detection is an essential way to increase the survival rate of patients by detecting melanoma in its early stages. In this paper, a new method for automatic diagnosis of melanoma using segmented dermatoscopic images is provided. Almost all related methods follow similar approaches but using different features. We have introduced several new features which could improve the accuracy of diagnosing melanoma....