Sharif Digital Repository

In this manuscript, we designed and fabricated a novel integrated microfluidic Kidney Nephron-On-Chip. This chip is able to culture cell monolayers under various fluid shear stresses and divert osmotic pressure gradients while imposing four different concentrations of an injected drug on cells. The multi-layer platform consisting of two bubble-trappers to eliminate all unwanted bubbles from the system, a concentration gradient generator to generate four different concentrations of the injected drug, and a membrane-based cell culture chamber caple of providing renal cells with their in-vivo condition. Using colorimetric techniques, the bubble trapper ability was quantified at flow rates up to... 

The problem of PM pollutants has become one of the main environmental concerns of Tehran city due to the growth of city population and industrialization. As a consequence of this problem there is an increasing trend in the number of unhealthy days in Tehran in terms of air quality in recent years. Solving this problem needs strict regulations to limit the amount of pollutants released from vehicles, industries and power plants. To help this cause, this study investigates the effect of emissions and climate change under RCP scenarios on future PM2.5 concentration in Tehran by using WRF-SMOKE-CMAQ modeling system. The result of simulation of climate conditions under RCP8.5 scenario in 2050... 

This thesis investigates the performance of concentrically braced frames through numerical simulation approaches. During a moderate to severe earthquake, the bracing members and their connections are expected to undergo significant inelastic deformations into the post-buckling range. Recently, provisions for special concentrically braced frames (SCBFs) were developed to exhibit stable and ductile behavior in the event of a major earthquake. Special Concentrically Braced Frames (SCBFs) are distinguished from Ordinary Braced Frames in that they possess improved post-buckling capacity. Performance based evaluation of SCBF system as well as ordinary concentrically braced frame (OCBF) system... 

In this research, modal incremental dynamic analysis (MIDA) has been investigated on three-dimensional structures with irregular plans. The MIDA method is an incremental static analysis that considers higher modes of the structure. In fact, it is a combination of modal pushover (MPO) and incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) methods that incorporate the advantages of both and is much faster than the IDA method. Compared to constant analyses, incremental analysis is more extensive in terms of results and response to earthquakes. Due to the uncertainties in the nature of future earthquakes, engineers use the IDA method to achieve a broader view of the structure's response under potential... 

Enzymes are biological catalysts that reduce the activation energy of a reaction in a short time and thus increase the speed of the reaction. The most common enzymes used in various industries, including the detergent industry, are lipases, amylases, celluloses, and proteases. Proteases are one of the most important industrial enzymes. The performance of enzymes is affected by the durability of their activity in long-term storage. Therefore, using a technique that can maintain the activity of enzymes, under storage and usage conditions, is an essential step in making a product containing enzymes. Stabilization-immobilization operation is one of the important downstream processes in... 

The objective of this project is numerical simulation of air flow and heat transfer between two horizontal concentric cylinders with rotation of inner cylinder and inertia of outer cylinder grooves on the inner cylinder. In this study, the air, meanwhile rotational motion by the inner cylinder will enter into the annular space between two cylinders with certain flow rate. It can be mentioned to cooling of power plant generators, Electric motors and rotating machines among usages of air flow between two cylinders. In this article the objective is calculation of pressure drop and Nusselt number, temperature distribution on the inner cylinder under conditions of constant temperature of... 

Through our work, we conducted a three-stage solution to effectively reduce the impact of 'concentration polarization' and 'fouling' on ultrafiltration process. The stages were compromise of: 1. the design and selection of appropriate equipment along with outlining the operational parameters, 2. the pretreatment process design, and 3. the cleaning process design. Because of the presence of fat, there are incline both in permeate flux and the quality of the final product. Therefore, we studied the different methods of removing the lipid content, during pretreatment stage. After examining these methods, finally, we found that adding chitosan parallel with employing centrifugal separator is the... 

Simultaneous detection of pH and glucose levels in sweat is a promising tool for early skin disease detection and diabetes diagnosis. Hydrogels have attracted a lot of attention in the field of wearable biosensors due to sweat absorption capability, biocompatibility, and the ability to store enzymes and reagents in their cavities. In this research, we have presented an innovative wearable colorimetric biosensor based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel, which can simultaneously measure pH level (in the range of 3-9) and glucose concentration (in the range of 0.025-0.5 mM) of sweat with the help of machine learning (ML). This wearable sensor consists of two main parts: sensors and a patch, in... 

Density currents are occurred as a result of the intrusion of a dense fluid into a fluid with a different density. Density differences are typically caused by the difference in temperature, existence of solution or insoluble material and suspended solids. A special kind of density current is called a turbidity current which is a sediment-laden density current. This is a kind of flow which is driven by the force of gravity on suspended sediment particles that causes an excess fractional density with respect to the surrounding ambient fluid. In this work, the 2-D sediment-laden density current on a sloping surface of the channel is investigated through experiments. The channel is 12 m long,... 

Laboratory studies to investigate the effects of different saline concentrations (such as sodium chloride or calcium chloride) on the soil water retention behavior of clayey soils and their volumetric changes have received much attention recently. However, many previous studies have investigated these effects in only one path of the SWRC (wetting or drying path) and the effects of saline concentration on hydraulic hysteresis have not been considered. In addition, researchers have frequently studied these effects on SWRC on clay samples, and little research has been done on collapsible soils. Therefore, the most important purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of increasing... 

In this thesis, the application of solar energy in the steam injection as a thermal enhanced oil recovery (TEOR) is evaluated. The motivations of this project are using a renewable energy, suitable solar potential of Iran, successful experience in the world, undeveloped heavy oilfield reservoirs in Iran. This application is investigated by three aspects which are:Reservoir Engineering aspect: the heavy oilfield are determined and then screening for selection good candidate of steam injection are done. One of the reservoirs is analyzed by simulation and optimization the steam injection to determine how much it’s production will be improved by using steam injection (contionous and cyclic)... 

In recent years, dust storms have been recognized as one of the most crucial problems for people worldwide. Provided that the dust masses transport mechanisms are properly known, the main dust sources can be identified, and therefore, appropriate actions can be taken. Therefore, the main goals of the present study are estimating dust concentration, determination of dust distribution with an emphasis on Iran (especially Tehran), and finding the main dust sources which will be followed in five steps. In the first step, by analyzing the measured data during dust observations in Tehran through 2013-2016, several simple and multivariate nonlinear regression models have been established in order... 

In this study, mesh-reinforced cellulose acetate (CA)-based membranes were prepared for forward osmosis (FO) by immersion precipitation. Casting composition, preparation conditions, evaporation time, coagulation bath temperature, annealing temperature, CA percent and 1,4-dioxane/acetone ratio were tested for membranes’ performance. Also, the results were compared with commercially CTA membranes. The FO membrane prepared under optimized conditions had a smooth surface similar to commercial ones. The most proper membrane (17.9 % polymer and 1,4-dioxane /acetone ratio 1.89) showed water flux of 9.3 L/m2.hr (LMH) and RSF of 0.536 mol NaCl/m2.hr. Using mesh in the membrane structure, different... 

In terms of thermodynamics and heat transfer, heat pipes such as closed two-phase thermosyphon are of great importance in saving energy. In this study, a computational fluid dynamics model for simulation of a thermosyphon heat pipe with two-phase flow including phase change heat transfer was developed. The study has mainly focused on the effects of volume concentrations of Nanoparticles and the operating temperature on the heat transfer performance of the thermosyphon. The analysis was performed to compare heat transfer performance between a solid copper tube and a thermosyphon heat pipe which contained deionized water and graphene oxide(GO)/water Nanofluid as its working fluids. Based on a... 

Poor hole cleaning while drilling due to problems such as pipe sticking and ROP reducing will increase drilling cost. It is almost impossible to optimize the hole cleaning during the well planning due to the large number of effective parameters, so it is very important to monitor the hole cleaning conditions while drilling. The best way to monitor the well condition during drilling is using the real time drilling data (RTDD). Hook load (HKL) is one of many RTDD parameters that measured at the surface during drilling operations so it can be used to evaluate the hole cleaning condition. In this research, how to process the raw data recorded while drilling has been investigated. In the next... 

Although financial theory recommends investors to diversify their portfolios to reduce their overall unsystematic risk, some fund managers hold their portfolios concentrated in specific industries. This thesis study the relation between the industry concentration and the performance of Iranian equity funds in the period from 1392 to mid-1397. This relationship has been investigated in two approaches of dividing funds into portfolios by their industry concentration index and multivariate regression model approach by considering some characteristics of funds. To measure the performance of funds, two sets of measures based on the analysis of information of fund holdings and time series of fund... 

Direct steam generation (DSG) process using linear FRESNEL collectors has been developed widely in recent years and is one of the most promising solar technologies for thermal power generation, Industrial processes and domestic usage. In this process water as heat transfer fluid (HTF) is heated through a solar field. Continuous breakthroughs are being achieved on improvement of these collectors. A multi-phase CFD model is developed to calculate the wall temperature of linear Fresnel absorber tubes and fluid properties including temperature, velocity, and pressure. In order to design the collector field and identify the critical condition such as overheating of the absorber tubes, modeling of... 

The use of braced frames has become more popular in seismic design of buildings because of the simplicity in design and construction. The first event that occurs in the earthquake for a concentrically brace frame (CBF), is the buckling of the strut. The inelastic behavior of CBF systems is dominated by brace buckling, yielding and the post buckling behavior. The Inelastic performance of the brace is nonsymmetrical, because of the difference in the tensile and compressive strength of the brace and the deterioration in the resistance after buckling. so we have too complexity in modeling the inelastic performance of brace members. Also the subject of the near fault ground motion and design of... 

The kidneys serve essential regulatory roles in the body which remove excess organic molecules from the blood and the removal of waste products of metabolism. They are essential in the urinary system. Urinary concentration mechanism has long been interested for mathematicians and physiologists to elucidate the obscurities within the process. In this study, a novel three-dimensional approach is used for simulating urine concentrating mechanism in rat renal medulla. The model equations are based on three spatial dimensions mass and momentum transports. Exact 3D geometry has been designed by using COMSOL Multiphysics software and results have been compared with the latest available data. In... 

The combination of photovoltaic technology and Organic Rankine Cycle reduces the temperature of the solar panel and, on the other hand, generates separate electricity from excess heat. The reason for the use of the Organic Rankine Cycle is the low temperature of the heat source. It is not economical to use other cycles like steam Rankine cycle in low-temperature heat sources. To maximize the plant factor of the Organic Rankine cycle system, especially when there is not enough solar radiation, it is possible to utilize the flue gas heat recovery in office buildings and reduce the cost of electricity generation. In this project, the simulation of this system is carried out for the Energy...