Sharif Digital Repository

Lake Urmia is the second-largest hypersaline lake in the world. There has been a drastic water level drop of 7.2 m from 1995 to 2016. Beginning in October 2013, the Lake Urmia Restoration Plan (LURP) launched a 10-year program. An increase in water level and a relative improvement in Lake Urmia condition has been observed since 2017. It is an undecided and controversial issue whether the recent positive trend of Lake Urmia has been due to the LURP activities or it is a natural contribution of climate factors variations. To shed some light on this issue, we examine three other lakes, adjacent to the Lake Urmia basin, with similar rainfall variability to investigate their status during the... 

In this paper we examine how exchange flow in Urmia Lake plays a crucial role in dynamics of the lake. Urmia Lake, a very large hyper-saline lake of high ecological significance, is located in northwest of Iran with a 15-km causeway dividing it into north and south lakes. A 1250-m opening in the causeway near the east coast links the two lakes. The differences in mean water levels and densities of the two lakes increase in spring due to large freshwater inflows into the south lake. High evaporation dominates the lake in summer. By incorporating the results of a two-layer hydraulics theory into a mixing model of the lake, we show that the exchange flow through the opening diminishes the water... 

In this paper, a combination of the Lagrangian meshfree method of SPH and Polyhedral DEM is presented to simulate the interaction between the free surface of water and solid objects possessing sharp edges and flat surfaces, such as armour units of breakwaters. Both SPH and DEM schemes are validated successfully against experimental data. The numerical scheme is utilized to inspect the stability of concrete cubic armours in rubble-mound breakwaters through systematic analyses with various geometrical parameters and environmental conditions. The numerical results regarding the required dimensions of the cubic blocks for providing stability of the armour units under the wave attack are compared... 

Hydrodynamics of highly nonlinear cnoidal waves and their subsequent strong plunging breakers are among the least understood and most significant issues in coastal engineering. In this work, a weakly compressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) formulation is used for the study of the generation and propagation of cnoidal waves and investigation of the characteristics of the induced strong plunging breakers. Numerical results show the capability of the SPH scheme for properly simulating the cnoidal waves. For the case of strong plunging breakers, dynamic and kinematic features of the flow are computed and compared with certain implementations of other numerical techniques. SPH is shown... 

Stable control of water level of drum is of great importance for economic operation of power plant steam generator systems. In this paper, a linear model of the boiler unit with time varying parameters is used for simulation. Two transfer functions between drum water level (output variable) and feed-water and steam mass rates (input variables) are considered. Variation of model parameters may be arisen from disturbances affecting water level of drum, model uncertainties and parameter mismatch due to the variant operating conditions. To achieve a perfect tracking of the desired drum water level, two sliding mode controllers are designed separately. Results show that the designed controllers... 

Stable control of water level of drum is of great importance for economic operation of power plant steam generator systems. In this paper, a linear model of the boiler unit with time varying parameters is used for simulation. Two transfer functions between drum water level (output variable) and feed-water and steam mass rates (input variables) are considered. Variation of model parameters may be arisen from disturbances affecting water level of drum, model uncertainties and parameter mismatch due to the variant operating conditions. To achieve a perfect tracking of the desired drum water level, two sliding mode controllers are designed separately. Results show that the designed controllers... 

Losing eight meters of water level over a 20-year period from 1996 to 2016 marked the Lake Urmia (LU) as one of the regional environmental crises. This condition has threatened biota life, intensified desertification around the lake, and raised social concerns by adversely impacting the inhabitants’ health and economy. In 2013, the Urmia Lake Restoration National Committee (ULRNC) started implementing certain management practices to stop the drying trend of LU, resulted in the cease of water level drop and stabilization of LU condition in 2016. Nevertheless, the restoration actions have not yet raised the lake to the water level as planned by the roadmap. This paper aims to describe and to... 

Water crisis is one of the main global risks that has different impacts on the society. This work uses available data and tools to track water storage changes in Iran, where lack of observations limits hydroclimatological studies and thus causes disasters. Data from Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) are combined to analyze water storage changes (LWE) in Iran. GRACE signals indicate a large reduction of the water storage in North of Iran along the coast of the Caspian Sea (the largest global inland water body), where the water level has been oscillating significantly. In addition, results show the largest reduction of the water... 

Air-water two-phase flow usually occurs during a sudden rise in water level at a tunnel or during the falling of the water level at an upstream reservoir while entering the conduit. When this happens, different flow patterns are generated, due to the hydraulics of flow and fluid properties. An analytical/numerical model, based on the assumption of a rigid incompressible water column and a compressible air bubble, is derived, to simulate pressure fluctuation, void fraction, air/water flow rate and water velocity in a closed conduit, including water depth at the upper reservoir, due to air bubbles becoming trapped in the water, for the highest possible number of flow patterns. It is a... 

In the presence of harmonic disturbances, boiler-turbine units may demonstrate quasi-periodic behaviour due to the occurrence of various types of bifurcation. In this article, a nonlinear model of boiler-turbine unit is considered in which drum pressure, electric output and drum water level are controlled via manipulation of valve positions for fuel, steam and feed-water flow rates. For bifurcation control in tracking problem, two controllers are designed based on gain scheduling and feedback linearization (FBL). To investigate the efficiency of control strategies, three cases are considered for desired tracking objectives (a sequence of steps, ramps/steps, and a combination of them).... 

Urmia Lake is a large hyper-saline lake located in the northwest of Iran. It plays an important role in the hydrology, climate and ecology of its surrounding regions. In recent years, the water level of Urmia Lake has been dropped significantly. This study investigates the seasonal and annual variations of the lake area from 2000 to 2011 using remote sensing data. MODIS imageries of Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) were used to extract the water surface area of the lake. Results reveal a significant decline in the lake area during the last past 12 years. Analysis of the seasonal images shows that maximum and minimum areas of Urmia Lake usually occur in winter and autumn,... 

Karst features have caused serious problems in many engineering projects because of their permeability and high leakage potential; a clear example is Lar Dam, 84 km northeast of Tehran in which normal water level has never been reached since the filling of its reservoir in 1980. Sometimes conventional methods of studying karst features (e.g., borings and sampling) fail to precisely reveal their underground structure and this may result in inaccurate design, extensive leakage and creation of sinkholes. In the present paper, an under-study dam site in Lajamgir, Zanjan province, northern Iran is investigated. Ground observations indicated the possibility of presence of Karst caves while borings... 

Small islands around the world face various hazards such as sea-water level rise, hurricanes, human activities over pressure, environmental degradation, and pollution. Resiliency is a critical feature that has to be maintained in these sensitive and vulnerable areas. This paper focuses on the importance of Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) in increasing the level of resiliency in small islands. Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) has been recommended for practice by United Nations 1992 Rio Conference resolution to conserve the valuable natural resources of the coastal areas around the globe and improve their deteriorating environmental conditions. Integrated coastal management plan... 

In this work, impulsive wave generation and propagation generated by landslides are studied numerically for a real case. Maku dam reservoir, in the northwestern of Iran is considered as the case study. Generated wave heights, wave run-up, maximum wave height above the dam crest and the probable overtopping volume have been evaluated, using a two-dimensional numerical model (LS3D). This model is validated using available three-dimensional experimental data for simulating impulsive wave caused by sub-aerial landslides. Based on the results, the generated wave height for first and second scenarios are 12 m and 18 m respectively. The wave height of 8 m is observed close to dam body. Because of... 

Urmia Lake in the northwest of Iran is the second largest hyper-saline lake worldwide. During the past two decades, a significant water level decline has occurred in the lake. The existing estimations for the lake water balance are widely variable because the lake bathymetry is unknown. The main focus of this study is to extract the volume-area-elevation (V-A-L) characteristics of Urmia Lake utilizing remote sensing data and analytical models. V-A-L equations of the lake were determined using radar altimetry data and their concurrent satellite-derived surface data. Next, two approximate models, a power model (PM) and a truncated pyramid model (TPM), were parameterized for Urmia Lake and... 

Due to demands for the economical operations of power plants and environmental awareness, performance control of a boiler-turbine unit is of great importance. In this paper, a nonlinear Multi Input-Multi Output model (MIMO) of a utility boilerturbine unit is considered. Drum pressure, generator electric output and drum water level (as the output variables) are controlled by manipulation of valves position for fuel, feedwater and steam flows. After state space representation of the problem, two controllers, based on gain scheduling and feedback linearization, are designed. Tracking performance of the system is investigated and discussed for three cases of 'near', 'far' and 'so far' setpoints.... 

Hamoon-Jazmoorian plain is located in southeast of Iran. Overexploitation of groundwater in this plain has led to water level decline and caused serious problems such as land subsidence, aquifer destruction and water quality degradation. The increasing population and agricultural development along with drought and climate change, have further increased the pressure on water resources in this region over the last years. In order to overcome such crisis, introduction of surface water into an aquifer at particular locations can be a suitable solution. A wide variety of methods have been developed to recharge groundwater, one of which is aquifer storage and recovery (ASR). One of the fundamental... 

Lake Urmia (LU) is the second largest hypersaline lake in the world. Lake Urmia's water level has dropped drastically from 1277.85 m to 1270.08 m a.s.l (equal to 7.77 m) during the last 20 years, equivalent to a loss of 70% of the lake area. The likelihood of lake-groundwater connection on the basin-scale is uncertain and understudied because of lack of basic data and precise information required for physically-based modeling. In this study, cross-correlation analysis is applied on a various time-frames of water level of the lake and groundwater levels (2001–2018) recorded in 797 observation wells across 17 adjacent aquifers. This provides insightful information on the lake-groundwater... 

Mine tailings are the most common materials that are used in construction of tailings dams. Due to high level of environmental hazard and serious consequences that are associated with tailings dam failure, proper design of tailings dams is an important factor in mining industry. Water level fluctuation, change in permeability of dam foundation, seismic loads, and excessive settlements are the most common reasons of failure, particularly in upstream type tailings dams. Due to low shear strength of wet tailings, drying of tailing material is very common in practice during the dam construction. In hot climate, the received solar energy at the soil surface converts to soil heat flux, air heat...