Sharif Digital Repository

The demand for freshwater has enormously risen the water stress in various parts of the globe. Accessibility of clean water is crucial for sustainable development involving socioeconomic and environmental promotion. Considering the fact that 96.5% of all Earth’s water is related to seawater, desalination (producing clean potable water from sea or saline water) can be considered as a leading solution to fulfill water scarcity problem. Among various advanced and conventional techniques, carbon nanotube (CNT) membrane has become an attractive alternate for most of water treatment methods owing supreme features such as easy operationality, low energy and expense requirement, high water... 

The effect of bisulfite (HSO3–) in nCaO2/Fe(III)/HSO3– system on improving HO• generation and trichloroethene (TCE) removal was innovatively reported. The enhancement mechanism of HSO3– for TCE removal in nCaO2/Fe(III)/HSO3– system was caused not only by the complexing and reducing effects on promoting the conversion of Fe(III) to Fe(II), but also due to the reaction with O2 in water to produce SO4–• for accelerating TCE degradation. A double effect of nCaO2 as an oxidant source to generate HO• and as a O2 source to promote SO4–• generation was revealed. A pseudo-second-order kinetic model of TCE removal was determined and 94.6% TCE degradation was achieved within 60 min at the... 

Background: Water contamination by noxious heavy metals due to urbanization is a global environmental problem. Heavy metal ions pollution makes the water unsuitable for drinking and is also highly toxic to human beings and eco-system. The remediation of heavy metals is therefore very crucial. Methods: Adsorbents based on biopolymer and eco-friendly polymer composites have been developed and fabricated to remediate and remove heavy metals from the ecosystem. Results: In recent years biocomposites have been successful as cost-effective adsorbents for the remediation of various contaminants with their eco-friendly nature and sustainability. Conclusion: This review article gives an overview on... 

Elevated levels of nitrate (NO3) in groundwater systems pose a serious risk to human populations and natural ecosystems. As part of an effort to remediate NO3 contamination in irrigated stream-aquifer systems, this study elucidates agricultural and environmental parameters and processes that govern NO3 fate and transport at the regional (500 km2), local (50 km2), and field scales (<1 km2). Specifically, the revised Morris sensitivity analysis method was applied to a finite-difference nitrogen cycling and reactive transport model of a regional-scale study site in the lower Arkansas River valley in southeastern Colorado. The method was used to rank the influence of anthropogenic activities and... 

Liquefaction-induced lateral spreading caused severe damages to pile foundations during past earthquakes. Micropiles can be used as a mitigation strategy against lateral spreading e ects on pile foundations. However, the available knowledge about the possible efficiency of this strategy is quite limited. In this regard, the present study aims to evaluate the e ectiveness of a vertical micropile system as a lateral spreading countermeasure using large-scale 1 g shake table tests on 3 x 3 pile groups. The results showed that the micropile system was not able to e ectively reduce the bending moments in piles; however, it considerably reduced the lateral soil pressures exerted on the upslope... 

Originally, application of nano zero valent iron (nZVI) particles for the removal of lead (Pb2+) in porous media was studied. At first, stabilized nZVI (S-nZVI) was prepared and characterized, then used in batch and continuous systems. Based on the batch experiments, corresponding reaction kinetics well fitted with the pseudo-first-order adsorption model, and reaction rate ranged from 0.01 to 0.04 g/mg/min depend on solution pH and the molar ratio between Fe and Pb. In batch tests, optimal condition with more than 90% removal efficiency at 60 min was observed at a pH range of 4 to 6 and Fe/Pb ratio more than 2.5. Continuous experiments exposed that Pb2+ remediation was as well influenced by... 

In this paper, a system wide scheme is proposed to arrest voltage instability. This scheme consists of two stabilizing and securing parts. For post- contingency situations, where there are no equilibrium solutions, first, the stabilizing scheme finds the closest solvable operating point, and then passes this point to the securing scheme. The securing scheme brings the solvable, but insecure operating point, back to a secure and stable one. Also, a voltage stability indicator is proposed to monitor the available margin to the collapse point. The proposed stabilizing and securing model are solved using the sequential quadratic programming technique. ©2009 IEEE  

The application of a hybrid Cu(tpa).GO (Cu(tpa) copper terephthalate metal organic framework, GO graphene oxide) composite as a new adsorbent for the removal of toxic metal ions was reported. New hybrid nanocomposite with excellent dispersibility and stability was successfully fabricated by the simple and effective ultrasonication method. The synthesized composite was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-Vis and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) techniques. The characterization results concluded that the binding mechanism of the Cu(tpa) and GO was related to both packing and hydrogen bonding. For scrutinizing the sorption activity, the prepared adsorbents were assessed... 

In this paper, the dissolution and mobilization of non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) blobs in the Surfactant-Enhanced Aquifer Remediation (SEAR) process were upscaled using dynamic pore network modeling (PNM) of three-dimensional and unstructured networks. We considered corner flow and micro-flow mechanisms including snap-off and piston-like movement for two-phase flow. Moreover, NAPL entrapment and remobilization were evaluated using force analysis to develop the capillary desaturation curve (CDC) and predict the onset of remobilization. The corner diffusion mechanism was also applied in the modeling of interphase mass transfer to represent NAPL dissolution as the dominant mass transfer... 

The remediation of nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) enhanced by surfactant and nanoparticles (NP) has been investigated in numerous studies. However, the role of NP-assisted surfactants in the dissolution process is still not well discussed. Besides, there is a lack of empirical dissolution models considering the effects of initial residual saturation Strap, NAPL distribution, and surfactant concentration in NAPL-aqueous phase systems. In this work, micromodel experiments are conducted to quantify mass transfer coefficients for different injected aqueous phases including deionized water, SDS surfactant solutions, and NP-assisted solutions with different levels of concentrations and flow... 

Polyvinylpyrrolidone coated nano zero valent iron-copper (PVP-nZVI-Cu) bimetallic nanoparticles were successfully synthesized for dechlorination of trichloroethylene (TCE) into non-toxic byproducts in the presence of persulfate oxidant. The average size of PVP-nZVI-Cu nanoparticles (3-25 nm) was smaller than PVP-nZVI (25-60 nm) and nZVI (50-90 nm) particles due to PVP role in the prevention of iron aggregation and agglomerations. The synthesized PVP-nZVI-Cu nanoparticles were used as an efficient persulfate (PS) activator to generate reactive oxygen species (ROSs) for the degradation of TCE. The complete removal of TCE (99.6%) was achieved in the presence of 0.4 g/L of PVP-nZVI-Cu... 

This paper proposes a comprehensive analytic method for applying various optimal remedial actions to improve critical electromechanical modes damping without jeopardizing damping of non-critical modes and violating security constraints of power system. Generators and reactive power sources redisptach, demand side management and the generators voltage reference tuning are remedial actions that are considered here. Dynamic equations of the flux-decay dynamic model of generators, standard dynamic models of excitation system and power system stabilizer and algebraic equations of active and reactive powers balance are formulated in the quadratic eigenvalue problem framework. With simultaneous use... 

Non-pumping reactive wells (NPRWs) filled by zero-valent iron (ZVI) can be utilized for the remediation of groundwater contamination of deep aquifers. The efficiency of NPRWs mainly depends on the hydraulic contact time (HCT) of the pollutant with the reactive materials, the extent of the well capture zone (Wcz), and the relative hydraulic conductivity of aquifer and reactive material (Kr). We investigated nitrate removal from groundwater using NPRWs filled by ZVI (in nano and micro scales) and examined the effect of NPRWs orientations (i.e. vertical, slanted, and horizontal) on HCT and Wcz. The dependence of HCT on Wcz for different Kr values was derived theoretically for a homogeneous and... 

Due to problems followed by asphaltene deposition, which cause many remedial processes and costs, it seemed necessary to develop equations for determining asphaltene precipitation quantitatively or qualitatively. In this study a new scaling equation as a function of temperature, molecular weight, and dilution ratio (solvent) has been developed. This equation can be used to determine the weight percent of precipitated asphaltene in the presence of different precipitants (solvents). The proposed methodology utilizes least square support vector machines/regression (LSSVM/LSSVR) to perform nonlinear modeling. This paper proposes a new feature selection mechanism based on coupled simulated... 

Soft errors due to cosmic radiations are the main reliability threat during lifetime operation of digital systems. Fast and accurate estimation of soft error rate (SER) is essential in obtaining the reliability parameters of a digital system in order to balance reliability, performance, and cost of the system. Previous techniques for SER estimation are mainly based on fault injection and random simulations. In this paper, we present an analytical SER modeling technique for ASIC designs that can significantly reduce SER estimation time while achieving very high accuracy. This technique can be used for both combinational and sequential circuits. We also present an approach to obtain... 

Nowadays, data and information are recognized as a precious resource in an organization. Data quality indicators help organizations manage the quality of data quantitatively and improve organizational processes. Organizations manage data and information with the help of information systems and make decisions within the framework of data collected and analyzed. On the other hand, continuous evaluation of the quality of data flow in systems can lead to a preventive program to formulate strategies for improving performance. This can be done effectively and efficiently in the form of control charts. In this paper, control charts are employed to monitor the quality of data flow in information... 

Various challenging pollutants are produced in the environment by organic materials of diverse industries including leather, paint, and textile. Nowadays, it is vital to develop efficient manners regarding the fundamental issues and removing pollutants. Such pollutants can be effectively removed from the environment through heterogeneous catalysts. Recently, a huge deal of interest has been attracted by hydrogel-based metal catalysts as heterogeneous and efficient catalysts. In this regard, silver with its unique features is suitable for environmental remediation. Hence, the present review deals with summarizing the present advances in the synthesis of silver-based hydrogel catalysts, as... 

Practical designs of non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) remediation strategies require reliable modeling of interphase mass transfer to predict the retraction of NAPL during processes such as dissolution. In this work, the dissolution process of NAPL during two-phase flow in heterogeneous porous media is studied using pore-network modeling and micromodel experiments. A new physical-experimental approach is proposed to enhance the prediction of the dissolution process during modeling of interphase mass transfer. In this regard, the normalized average resident solute concentration is evaluated for describing the dissolution process at pore-level. To incorporate the effect of medium...