Sharif Digital Repository

In this paper, the hydrodynamic and thermal behavior of a Fe3O4 ferrofluid flow was experimentally investigated inside a cupric u-shaped tube on a horizontal surface, under the effect of a variable magnetic field. The inlet flow regime was laminar and considered under the thermal boundary conditions of the tube with a uniform heat flux, which was affected by the variable magnetic field in some regions. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of parameters such as volume fraction of nanoparticles, Reynolds number of the flow, the radius of the curvature, and magnetic field frequency at three levels and four factors in the flow behavior in order to increase the convection heat... 

Purpose: Although it has been proposed that individuals with patellofemoral pain show less lower limb intersegmental coordination variability, the evidence to support this hypothesis is rare. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to evaluate whether individuals with patellofemoral pain exhibit less intersegmental coordination variability compared with healthy individuals during walking and running. Also, it was hypothesized that increasing task demand would exacerbate group differences regarding coordination variability measures. Methods: Three-dimensional kinematics were collected while 17 females with patellofemoral pain and 17 healthy females walked at preferred speed, and ran at... 

A novel method based on EEG nonlinear analysis and analysis of steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) has been processed. The EEG phase space is reconstructed, and some new geometrical features are extracted. Statistical analysis is carried out based on ANOVA, and most significant features are selected and then fed into a multi-class support vector machine (MSVM). Both offline and online phases are considered to fully address SSVEP detection. In the offline mode, the whole design evaluation, feature selection, and classifier training are performed. In the online scenario, the proposed method is evaluated and the detection rate is reported for both phases. Subject-dependent and... 

In this research, polysulfone (PSf) ultrafiltration (UF) membranes were prepared by a phase inversion method. Surface modification of the PSf membranes was carried out via grafting of acrylic acid as a hydrophilic monomer by free radical graft polymerization initiated by redox reaction. A central composite design (CCD) of response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to design the experiments. The process variables were acrylic acid concentration (CAA), redox system contact time (T1), and acrylic acid polymerization time (T2), while the contact angle (CA), pure water flux (PWF), and flux recovery ratio (FRR) were considered as the responses. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) demonstrated that... 

Objective: Spine kinematics, kinetics, and trunk muscle activities were evaluated during different stages of a fatigue-induced symmetric lifting task over time. Background: Due to neuromuscular adaptations, postural behaviors of workers during lifting tasks are affected by fatigue. Comprehensive aspects of these adaptations remain to be investigated. Method: Eighteen volunteers repeatedly lifted a box until perceived exhaustion. Body center of mass (CoM), trunk and box kinematics, and feet center of pressure (CoP) were estimated by a motion capture system and force-plate. Electromyographic (EMG) signals of trunk/abdominal muscles were assessed using linear and nonlinear approaches. The L5-S1... 

The present work is comprised of two main parts. In part 1 the Co-Ni/γ-Al2O3 catalyst was prepared using a sol-gel procedure. Then the effect of calcination variables including the calcination temperature and time on the catalytic performance for production of light olefins was investigated and optimized. The obtained results have shown that the catalyst which was calcined at 550 °C for 6 h has revealed the better catalytic performance for production of light olefins. In part 2 the effect of process conditions including the reaction temperature, H2/CO feed ratio and total reaction pressure on the catalytic performance (CO conversion%, (C2-C4) selectivity% and C5+ selectivity%) was... 

In this work, slag based aluminosilicate geopolymer was reinforced with polymeric fibers including, polyester (PES) (waste tire cap plies), polymeric particles including polyethylene terephthalate (PET) (waste water bottle), styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) (waste tire), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) (waste water hose). The tensile and compressive strength of the material was evaluated. Taguchi method was employed to assess the influence of the effective parameters on the mechanical characteristics of the geopolymer composite. QUALITEK-4 software was used to create the L32 orthogonal array with 192 (96+96) geopolymer specimens and 32+32 experiments. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was utilized to... 

The process of laser assisted machining (LAM) of metal matrix composites (MMC) is experimentally studied. The effects of process parameters (cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut), laser parameters (laser power, laser frequency and laser beam angle), and the percentage of reinforcing particles on the tool wear and the surface roughness are investigated. Furthermore, the effects of the mentioned parameters on the built-up edge (BUE), chip shape, and workpiece temperature are explored. The experiments were performed using uncoated tungsten carbide and PCD tools under dry conditions. In order to analyze the sensitivity of the process parameters, the Plackett-Burman method was used for... 

Background: Comparison of the kinematic variability and dynamic stability of the trunk between healthy and low back pain patient groups can contribute to gaining valuable information about the movement patterns and neuromotor strategies involved in various movement tasks. Methods: Fourteen chronic low back pain patients with mild symptoms and twelve healthy male volunteers performed repeated trunk flexion-extension movements in the sagittal plane at three different speeds: 20 cycles/min, self-selected, and 40 cycles/min. Mean standard deviations, coefficient of variation and variance ratio as variability measures; maximum finite-time Lyapunov exponents and maximum Floquet multipliers as... 

In this study, the effects of pulse current parameters on corrosion resistance and mechanical properties of anodized coatings were evaluated. Hardness measurements, polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy tests were employed to investigate the mechanical properties and corrosion behavior of these coatings. Also, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) was used to analyze the surface morphology and microstructure of the coatings. It was found that the properties of anodized coatings were dependent on various parameters, among which, time, temperature and pulse current parameters (current density limit, frequency and duty cycle) were optimized. Analysis of Variance... 

Microalgae as a candidate for production of biodiesel, possesses a hard cell wall that prevents intracellular lipids leaving out from the cells. Direct or in situ supercritical transesterification has the potential for destruction of microalgae hard cell wall and conversion of extracted lipids to biodiesel that consequently reduces the total energy consumption. Response surface methodology combined with central composite design was applied to investigate process parameters including: Temperature, Time, Methanol-to-dry algae, Hexane-to-dry algae, and Moisture content. Thirty-two experiments were designed and performed in a batch reactor, and biodiesel efficiency between 0.44% and 99.32% was... 

This paper presents the creep behavior of various FRP (GFRP, CFRP, and hybrid) bars in order to investigate the effects of different parameters, including the applied stress levels, bar diameter, and the type of fiber and resin in the creep behavior of FRP bars. The creep strains versus time curves were experimentally obtained for 83 days. Moreover, a statistical study, including analysis of variance (ANOVA) and linear Bayesian regression was conducted to investigate the contribution of the studied parameters. The results showed that in GFRP bars the ratio of ultimate creep strain to the initial elastic strain decreased when the applied stresses on the bars exceeded 30% of their ultimate... 

Over the last few decades, polymer concrete (PC) has been finding use in quick repairing of concrete structures. However, there have been only few studies on the mechanical behavior of PC. The aim of this study is to evaluate the mechanical behavior of PC using destructive and non-destructive tests (NDT). The mixtures were prepared with three different polymer ratios (10%, 12%, and 14%) and two different coarse aggregate sizes (4.75–9.5 mm and 9.5–19 mm). The samples were subsequently tested under three different temperatures (−15 °C, +25 °C, and +65 °C). The Taguchi method and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to optimize PC mixes based on the compressive, splitting-tensile, and... 

In this study, the optimum curing temperature and alkaline solution-to-binder (S:B) ratio of geopolymer mortars based on waste ceramic powder (WCP) were investigated. For this purpose, mixes with S:B ratios of 0.4–0.7 were prepared and cured at 60, 75, 90, and 105 °C. The density, compressive and flexural strengths were measured at 3, 7, 14, and 28 days. Higher S:B ratios enhanced the flow of the fresh mortar. The optimum mortar was obtained for S:B ratio of 0.6 and curing temperature of 90 °C. The SEM analysis revealed that the optimal mix had a dense matrix with minimum pores. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd  

Pervious concrete (PC) has been detecting application in pavement and concrete structures such as dams, small retaining walls, and etc during the past decades. Also, in recent years, the types of resins have been introduced to apply in concrete owing to the enhancing in mechanical and durability characteristics. However, few studies have investigated the mechanical behavior of high performance pervious concrete (HPPC) incorporated by polyester and epoxy resins as polymeric composites, where ordinary cement material has been completely deleted. The purpose of this investigation is to compare the mechanical properties, permeability, and durability of HPPCs made by polymeric composites (i.e.... 

This paper studied the durability, microstructure, and fire behavior of lightweight mortars based on cement, metakaolin (MK), ultrafine ground granulated blast furnace slag (UGGBFS), ceramic waste powder (CWP), and clay brick waste powder (CBWP). Two sets of mixes were prepared with two types of lightweight aggregate including lightweight expanded clay aggregate (LECA) and pumice aggregate. Regarding the durability assessment, the electrical resistivity and water absorption of the mortars were measured. The UGGBFS-based alkali-activated mortar with pumice aggregate exhibited the highest electrical resistivity and lowest water absorption, while CBWP-based geopolymer mortar with LECA showed... 

Utilization of nanoparticles in oil and gas industry has attracted considerable attention of engineers and researchers. In this article, the feasibility of nanoemulsion flooding is investigated as a method for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) through coreflooding experiments, using a packed bed and real reservoir fluids. Nine different mixtures of the solvent, surfactant, and nanoparticles in the form of a nanoemulsion phase are generated and used to recover the oil in the context of an EOR process. Various tests are conducted to determine the properties of porous medium and fluids. To study the production performance of this EOR technique, pressure drop across the packed bed are measured, along... 

In this research, the mechanical properties of glass and carbon fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) bars with epoxy resin matrices embedded in concrete were investigated under an extensive range of elevated temperatures (i.e., 25–800 °C). Embedded FRP bars with various bar diameters were studied in order to determine bar diameter influence on the results. In addition, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed on the experimental results to investigate the contribution of exposure temperature and bar diameter to the tensile behavior of embedded in concrete FRP bars at elevated temperatures. The results show that the tensile strength of embedded FRP bars generally decreases with increasing... 

This study investigated the effect of gilsonite and Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene (SBS) as asphalt binder modifiers on the physical and rheological properties of asphalt binders. For this, binder tests such as penetration test, softening point, rotational viscosity (RV), Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR), and Bending Beam Rheometer (BBR) were conducted on the neat and modified binders. The effect of gilsonite and SBS on the binder temperature susceptibility was also investigated by measuring Penetration Index (PI), Activation Energy (AE) and Viscosity-Temperature Susceptibility (VTS) of all the study binders. Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) test was directed toward investigation of... 

Electrification involves many activities that have detrimental impacts on environment. Over the last few years, many studies have been conducted to understand, estimate and mitigate the carbon footprint of electricity distribution but other environmental aspects of electrification remain almost neglected. In recent years, electricity distribution companies have adopted many waste management techniques to reduce the amount of waste generated in their key processes. However, the causes of waste and the necessary corrective actions to alleviate the waste generation in electricity distribution have not been studies in an integrated framework. In current study, which was conducted to fill this...