Geometrically non‐linear thermoelastic analysis of functionally graded shells using finite element method

A finite element formulation governing the geometrically non‐linear thermoelastic behaviour of plates and shells made of functionally graded materials is derived in this paper using the updated Lagrangian approach. Derivation of the formulation is based on rewriting the Green–Lagrange strain as well as the 2nd Piola–Kirchhoff stress as two second‐order functions in terms of a through‐the‐thickness parameter. Material properties are assumed to vary through the thickness according to the commonly used power law distribution of the volume fraction of the constituents. Within a non‐linear finite element analysis framework, the main focus of the paper is the proposal of a formulation to account for non‐linear stress distribution in FG plates and shells, particularly, near the inner and outer surfaces for small and large values of the grading index parameter. The non‐linear heat transfer equation is also solved for thermal distribution through the thickness by the Rayleigh–Ritz method. Advantages of the proposed approach are assessed and comparisons with available solutions are presented. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Environmentally responsive design in the vernacular architecture of mountainous regions. The case of Kang village,Iran

Vernacular architecture is highly compatible with local conditions and is often referred to as environmentally friendly and sustainable architecture. Today, due to issues that threaten the environment, re-paying attention to these compatibility methods and their application in contemporary architecture can be one of the priorities of architectural planning. This research seeks to answer the question of how vernacular architecture in mountainous regions is formed in order to adapt to local characteristics and particularly the role of semi-open spaces in this coordination. The article is a case study of the residential units in Kang village, Torqabeh city, Khorasan Razavi province, Iran. For this purpose, the physical variables of the village, including how the village texture and its thoroughfares were established and formed, mass and space structure, the configuration of residential units and the formation of closed, open, and semi-open spaces, material types, building techniques, and construction details, and issues related to the openings of residential units are studied in 35 house samples of the village. The result shows that the physical planning of the village, in accordance with the principles proposed in the Mahoney table for cold semi-arid climates, causes the most passive heating. Examination of the physical characteristics of the semi-open spaces in relation to the residential unit shows that these spaces play a major role in coordinating the building with the coldness of the region.

     

Prediction of hydrate equilibrium conditions using k-nearest neighbor algorithm to CO2 capture

Gas or clathrate hydrates are an important issue when they form in the oil and gas pipelines. Since the determination of the hydrate formation temperature and pressure is very difficult experimentally for every gas system and it is impossible in terms of cost and time approximately, mathematical models can be useful tools to overcome these difficulties. In this study, k-nearest neighbor model was used to predict the equilibrium conditions of hydrate formation in absorption and separation of carbon dioxide from flue gas mixture, containing carbon dioxide and nitrogen. At the training phase, temperature and composition data of nitrogen and carbon dioxide in the flue gas mixture at equilibrium conditions and the equilibrium pressures of hydrate formation were used as input and output, respectively. The error percentage less than 0.38% indicates the high accuracy of the proposed model. In this study, 80%, 85%, and 90% of the training data are examined for three numbers of nearest. For three numbers of used nearest (k = 1, k = 2 and k = 3), the value of k = 1 leads to the lowest error; so, it is selected as the best nearest in the presented model.     

Effect of oxidation and annealing temperature on optical and structural properties of SnO2

Tin oxide thin films were deposited on glass substrate with 100 nm thickness of Sn, which was coated by magnetron sputtering followed by thermal oxidation at different temperatures. The effect of oxidation temperature on the optical and structural properties of SnO₂ films were investigated. Higher transmittance, lower absorption and lesser structural defects were obtained at higher temperatures. Optical bandgap increases with temperature, while the Urbach energy showed reduction. The X-ray diffraction studies showed that at lower temperatures (300, 350 °C), a combined phase of SnO and SnO₂ was obtained, while at higher temperatures (400, 450 °C), a nearly polycrystalline SnO₂ film with preferred orientation of (101) was produced. Annealing of the samples at 500–650 °C caused the transmittance and optical bandgap increased, while the absorption decreased. Reduction of the Urbach energy after annealing could be attributed to the reduction of the degree of thermal disorder. AFM studies showed that although the thin films were annealed under similar condition, their roughness was not similar because of different oxidation temperatures, which means that initial oxidation temperature played an important role on surface uniformity of SnO₂ thin films.     

Electrical and rheological properties of PMMA/LDPE blends filled with carbon black

Conductive immiscible multiphase blends of PMMA/LDPE filled with carbon black (CB) were studied in this work. Thermo-electrical behavior of the blends was compared with the composites made up of individual polymers in the blend, PMMA and LDPE filled with CB. The conductivity of the immiscible binary blend at different CB content was followed and modeled using a model circuit in which resistors resembling different phases and the interface between them present in the blend. Electrical percolation threshold was measured for the blend and compared with the single component polymers in order to judge the preferred phase for CB distribution in it. Rheological network formation by CB particles in the blend was also studied using dynamic rheology. The effect of CB loading on the morphology of the multiphase blend was also studied using FESEM images. Theoretical models were also used to predict the percolation thresholds for electrical and rheological network formation and compared with the experimental values.     

Harmony search optimization algorithm for a novel transportation problem in a consolidation network

This article presents a new harmony search optimization algorithm to solve a novel integer programming model developed for a consolidation network. In this network, a set of vehicles is used to transport goods from suppliers to their corresponding customers via two transportation systems: direct shipment and milk run logistics. The objective of this problem is to minimize the total shipping cost in the network, so it tries to reduce the number of required vehicles using an efficient vehicle routing strategy in the solution approach. Solving several numerical examples confirms that the proposed solution approach based on the harmony search algorithm performs much better than CPLEX in reducing both the shipping cost in the network and computational time requirement, especially for realistic size problem instances.     

An approach to the investment analysis of small and medium hydro-power plants

Hydro-power plants, as a part of infrastructure projects, play an important role in the economic-social development of countries. Since a large amount of investment is needed for construction of these power plants, which appeared to be an obstacle in these developments, however it is possible to finance these infrastructure plants by assigning these affairs to private sectors by using build operate transfer (BOT) method, which is quite well-known all around the world. This paper reviews the structure of BOT contracts and through an economic evaluation based on different percentage of investments of private sector in providing the expenses of small and medium hydro-power plants (S&M-HPP) (e.g. MHPP in “Bookan, Iran” and SHPP in “Nari, Iran”), demonstrates that by increasing the percentage the share of the private sector in the investment, the economic indices B/C and NPV improve substantially.     

Implementation of a constitutive model in finite element method for intense deformation

Since the constitutive information is one of the most important aspects of material deformation analysis, here a new constitutive model is proposed that can investigate the behavior of material during intense deformation better than existent models. The model that is completely based on physical mechanisms can predict all stages of flow stress evolution and also can elucidate the effects of strain and strain rate on flow stress evolution of material during intense plastic deformation. Here as an application, implementation of the constitutive model in finite element method (FEM) is used to compare two methods of sever plastic deformation (SPD) processes of copper sheet; repetitive corrugation and straightening (RCS) and constrained groove pressing (CGP). The modeling results are in good agreement with the experimental data and show that the hardness uniformity and its magnitude for RCSed sheet are higher than that for CGPed sheet. However, the prominence of these processes in strain uniformity depends on pass number.     

Exploring the tensile strain energy absorption of hybrid modified epoxies containing soft particles

In this paper, tensile strain energy absorption of two different hybrid modified epoxies has been systematically investigated. In one system, epoxy has been modified by amine-terminated butadiene acrylonitrile (ATBN) and hollow glass spheres as fine and coarse modifiers, respectively. The other hybrid epoxy has been modified by the combination of ATBN and recycled Tire particles. The results of fracture toughness measurement of blends revealed synergistic toughening for both hybrid systems in some formulations. However, no evidence of synergism is observed in tensile test of hybrid samples. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission optical microscope (TOM) and finite element (FEM) simulation were utilized to study deformation mechanisms of hybrid systems in tensile test. It is found that coarse particles induce stress concentration in hybrid samples. This produces non-uniform strain localized regions which lead to fracture of hybrid samples at lower tensile loading and energy absorption levels.