Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is the wireless non-contact implementation of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields to transfer necessary data to identify and to track tags attached to objects, automatically. RFID has been successfully used for supply chain management (SCM) problems in order to reduce errors associated with inventory. This paper uses RFID technique in five different scenarios of labeling, errors in stolen parts, waste, wrong replacement and delivery. The study uses simulation technique based on Enterprise Dynamics to analyze three parts in an auto industry. The study considers different criteria including inventory error estimation, profitability, profitability, customer satisfaction and SCM performance. The preliminary results indicate that the proposed method is capable of optimizing most objectives, significantly.

Composite materials due to high strength and stiffness to their weight ratio are widely used in different structures. Hence, it is necessary to predict their failure behavior under loading. The delamination due to interlaminar stresses at free edges is one of the most important damage modes in laminated composites. In this study, this mode in cross-ply and angle-ply laminates has been investigated using a cohesive zone model. The advantage of this method is the possibility of modeling the delamination initiation and propagation without requirement to the presence of initial crack and remeshing. Hence, at first an interface element based on bilinear cohesive law was implemented in Ansys. Next, laminated plates with different lay-ups under uniaxial tension loading were modeled. Also Hashin’s failure criteria were used to predict ply damage initiation. Numerical results show that in angle-ply laminates with small fiber angle orientation, delamination in the shear mode is the dominant mode in the loss of structural strength. The numerical and experimental results for global load-displacement response show a good agreement. Also numerical results show that in cross-ply laminates even under in-plane loading, the damage behavior extremely depends on the stacking sequence. Studies show that in cross-ply laminates under uniaxial tension, if 90o plies are inserted in top and bottom surface of the laminate, the mode I delamination and matrix cracking will start later.

This paper presents an investigation on the role of packaging design on persuading consumer to buy different products in city of Tehran, Iran. The proposed study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale consists of 26 questions, distributes it among some Iranian experts and analyzes it based on principal component analysis. During the survey, the number of questions is reduced from 26to 23. Cronbach alpha is calculated as 0.88 and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy and Approx. Chi-Square are 0.80 and 1880, respectively. Based on the results of our survey, we have derived five factors including requirement attributes, proportionality components, consumer choice, product appearance attractiveness and consumer characteristics.

One of the methods to reach continuous improvement on economy is to boost export and target international market. However, there are some limits on available resources, which present most developing countries for improvement of export activities. One way to overcome such trouble is to use foreign direct investment but this may happen only when we could determine major barriers and overcome the challenges. The present study presents an empirical investigation to detect important barriers on foreign direct investment in Iranian industries. The proposed study uses structural equation modeling to detect major barriers for export development. The results of our survey indicate that there were four factors including economic factors, feasibility study, infrastructure for investment and investment resources influencing on foreign direct investment.

In this paper, harmonic forced vibration of circular functionally graded plate integrated with two uniformly distributed actuator faces made of piezoelectric material is studied. The material properties of the functionally graded substrate layers are assumed to be graded in the thickness direction according to the power-law distribution, also the distribution of electric potential field along the thickness direction of piezoelectric layers is modeled by a quadratic function. The governing equations are solved for simply supported boundary condition of the sandwich circular plate and the solutions are presented by elementary Bessel functions. The performance of the present model is compared with that of ?nite element analyses as well as other available literature by the presentation of comparative results obtained for several examples encompassing different power indexes and vibration modes. The results show that thickness of piezoelectric layer and changing the power index in FG material has a significant influence on the deflection and natural frequencies of system.

Cold working a hole decreases tendency of fatigue crack initiation and growth near the hole. It is due to creation of some compressive tangential residual stresses around the hole. But there are many uncertainties which affect the residual strain and residual stress field. In fact these uncertainties lead to have scatter in the test results and considering the residual strains and residual stresses as random variables. In this paper strains recorded by strain gages mounted around the hole during cold working process in seven pieces specimens, were analyzed by statistical tests and stochastic properties of mentioned random variables were obtained using SPSS software. The residual strains have been also distributed by normal probability distribution function.

This paper deals with the investigation of thermo-vibrational convection induced by harmonic vibrations of the temperature boundary conditions in a square cavity heated from bellow and containing a low Prandtl number fluid. The governing equations are solved by using a finite volumes method. Effects of thermal modulation on the all regimes occurring in the cavity when convection intensity increases are analyzed. A characteristic modulation frequency allowing the reduction of the average intensity of the flow and heat transfer at the cold wall has been identified. The effect of phase difference between hot and cold temperature is also studied.

The present study deals with optimization of hydraulic efficiency and shaft fatigue life of a micro cross-flow hydraulic turbine. A micro cross-flow turbine (KTP-B60) with shaft fatigue failure was considered as a case study. Numerical flow simulations were performed using a 3D- two phase flow solver, and the results have shown a good agreement with experimental data. Using an analytical method, the shaft fatigue factor of safety (FOS) was extracted from numerical simulation. CFD results were utilized in the optimization process in order to improve hydraulic efficiency and shaft fatigue life simultaneously using a meta- model (Artificial Neural Network) and genetic algorithm (GA). The priority of hydraulic efficiency and shaft fatigue life was altered by defining different objective functions in the optimization process. In one of the cases comparison of initial and optimal turbine showed a hydraulic efficiency improvement of 10.14 % and relative shaft FOS improvement of 4.86 %. The proposed optimization method could be exploited as an efficient and low cost procedure for energy generation improvement in micro hydro turbines.

Supply chain is a complicated networking of suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses, distributors and end customers. Through this network, we can easily see the flow of raw materials, information and money. In the modern global manufacturing environment, change has become a constant phenomenon. Change occurs due to fluctuation in technology, environmental requirements, regulatory policies, societal needs and the last but economy is the most important thing. Uncertainties in supply and demand, globalization of the market, shorter product life cycle, the increasing use of manufacturing product, fast development of information technology, diversified demand of customer for products distribution and logistics partners are responsible for making more complex supply chain network. Because of all these phenomena emergence of Next–Generation of supply chain management is inevitable. Therefore, in this article we try to incorporate several issues and concerns regarding future supply chain such as natural disasters, problems in outsourcing and import-export issues associated with goods, raw material and several related issues such as taxation, cultural aspects, risk, reliability and last but not the most important one is associated with environmental issues. During the next-generation of supply chain management, the mode of production as well as management is changing from product oriented towards customer’s demand or service oriented. Another salient feature of this paper is to demonstrate how to do the planning and management of the next-generation supply chain so that it would maximize profit in the chain rather than maximizing profit of an organization in isolation.

Buckling is one of the most complicated concepts in mechanical engineering. Buckling often happens by compressive loads on thin structures. Thermal gradient between two ends of a column may cause a deflection in it. This will add an extra deformation to the one provided by compressive loads on the column. This phenomenon occurs when two ends of the column are at different temperatures, which can be seen at various structures. Because of the considered temperature gradients, the critical load of the column will decrease. In the current paper, various columns are modeled and the effect of thermal gradient and compressive load and other parameters on the Bi-material columns are studied. In other words, influences of compressive load and temperature gradient on critical load of Bi-material columns with interface crack are investigated. Effect of change in each parameter on critical load of column and crack opening was investigated. First, the thermal gradient was only applied to the model and in the next step; only the effect of mechanical loading was studied. Furthermore, artificial neural network (ANN) was used to extend the results to a bigger range of temperature conditions through the columns. Based on the results, ANN and finite element results are in a good agreement and the thermal effects may have a significant role in buckling of the column.