Sharif Digital Repository

Many reinforced concrete frame buildings with masonry partitions have been built all around the world. Observations from past earthquakes show that the partitions can endanger the life of buildings occupants and lead to significant damage and loss. Failure of the partitions can be caused by dynamic vibrations and in-plane and out-of-plane loads/displacements. The interaction between in-plane and out-of-plan behaviors and location of partitions, nonlinearity and higher modes of the structures could affect the out-of- plane seismic demands on partitions. Therefore, there is a need for a comprehensive assessment in order to limit the loss in buildings with masonry partitions. This research... 

On the average, ten thousand people die annually due to earthquakes. A UNESCO study gives damage losses amounting to ten billion dollars within the years 1926 to 1950 from earthquakes. These data shows the importance of earthquake issue that causes the scientists to pay special attention to this subject. In despite of significant improvements in many of scientific fields, earthquake is still remains as an unknown event without the possibility of predicting its time and location of occurrence. Because of that, a large effort has been paid for rehabilitation of structures to prevent the human loss and maintaining the necessary life safety. In this regard, various guidelines have been proposed... 

Among disasters, outbreaks of pandemics account for excessive human and material damages,including a significant number of deaths. During any pandemic and once an or a set of effective vaccines have been identified/produced, governments all around the world enter a crucial phase when a crucial demand for an effective global vaccination campaign arises to vaccinate the population to stop/avoid the disease, knowing that the vaccines are not immediately available and may even become available with considerable delays (i.e., delivery and validation delays). Therefore, such phase of a pandemic is very crucial to identify and produce effective vaccines as well as to globally and equitably... 

Data mining is the process of extracting information from large data sets using algorithms and methods derived from the field of statistics, machine learning and database management systems. Data mining, popularly known as knowledge discovery in big data, enables companies and organizations to make informed decisions by collecting, aggregating, analyzing and accessing company data. The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most important levels of the drug supply chain, which has a significant impact on the healthcare sector of any society. In this context data mining can be used in various procedure such as discovery of a new medicine, sequential registration of clinical trials, combining... 

The power systems’ net-load variability and uncertainty would aggravate significantly as the penetration of Renewable Energy Resources (RERs) in power systems increases. In response, power system researchers have introduced a new concept, namely flexibility, to quantitatively and systematically deal with unavoidable features of RERs. In power distribution systems as the connection point of power systems with customers, there are many opportunities for improving the flexibility level of systems. Nowadays, the emergence of prosumers has created new opportunities for distribution system operators in providing the system with different services of flexibility in distribution systems. Therefore,... 

The use of natural gas as a thermal fuel is only a part of the various efficiency cases of this precious material. The increasing need for gas to provide energy and fuel, as well as the currency obtained from its sale and export, and the existence of common natural gas resources with neighboring countries, doubles the need to pay attention to this category. The increasing expansion of the quantitative use and diversity of natural gas consumption as an abundant and cheap energy carrier, as well as the imbalance between the supply and demand of natural gas in cold seasons, require planning to create strategic reserves in the country. These reserves play an important strategic role in... 

To meet the high energy demand in greenhouse cultivation, clean technologies have been suggested. This research provides a computational and modeling framework to examine the integration of three systems including a photovoltaic panel, earth_air heat exchanger, and industrial symbiosis, to produce three types of energy (electricity cooling, and heating) in a Venlo-type greenhouse. To estimate the minimum energy required to maintain environmental parameters in optimal plant conditions, an energy demand model was developed with the ability to consider the effect of energy stored in the ground. For a greenhouse in Tehran, the annual heating requirement was calculated as 432 kWh/m2 and 227... 

In order to actualize the development of sustainable and smart cities, load disaggregation plays such an important role for energy consumption optimization, load response, and distributed energy production network optimization. Researchers have observed that non-intrusive load monitoring is a low-cost method because it doesn't require multiple sensors, but it has issues with algorithm complexity, algorithm variety, and algorithm accuracy dependence on factors like data collection frequency and the type of energy-consuming equipment. In this research, an effort has been made to evaluate how sensitive certain algorithms are to adjustments in the frequency of data collection and the duration of... 

Given the growth of the world's population along with the increase in the percentage of urban population by 2050, the way of responding to food consumption will change in the future. Controlled Environment Agriculture will largely account for future food supply. Vertical Farming is one of these systems. But despite the efficiency of these systems in terms of land and water and also not being affected by weather conditions, the main challenge in these systems is the consumption of energy use per unit of crop production. The cost of energy is about 25 to 40 percent of the total costs. The purpose of this study is to develop an integrated dynamic model for the determination of vertical farm... 

According to increasing energy demand in Iran and the world, the role of natural gas as a relatively clean and cost-effective source has received more attention. Given the high share of the residential sector in the country's natural gas consumption, providing a model for forecasting the demand of this sector is of great importance for policy makers and decision makers in this field. In the present study, we employ three popular methods of machine learning, support vector regression, artificial neural network and decision tree to predict the consumption of natural gas in the residential sector in Tehran according to meteorological parameters (including temperature, precipitation and wind... 

The power supply system is one of the most important and complex systems. Various factors affect this system. Climate change affects different parts of the power supply system. In this study, the effect of climate change on electricity demand and electricity supply system has been investigated by considering the limited water resources. The amount of water withdrawal and GHG emissions in different scenarios. Scenarios are considered in such a way that assess the probable rising prices of fuels and water, and carbon taxes at three levels. Also, scenarios of rising water prices have been considered to evaluate the effect of this policy alone. It is worth noting that power plants are modeled... 

With the growing population and the development of human societies, the demand for energy increases. And it is expected that for the next few decades, fossil fuels will continue to be recognized as the main sources of energy supply and used to meet energy demand. One of the biggest disadvantages of fossil fuel consumption is the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which raises the Earth's temperature and has devastating effects on the climate and the lives of its inhabitants. On the other hand, fossil fuels are recognized as non-renewable sources and their lifespan is only for the next few decades. Today, one of the major concerns of societies, especially in developed... 

The purpose of this study is to develop a new optimal solution method for controlling the greenhouse climate and minimizing energy demand for heating and cooling the greenhouse. As greenhouses move towards more advanced structures and technologies, the need for advanced control will be more important in order to reduce energy consumption. More comprehensive and accurate mathematical models are needed for complex systems, multiple inputs and multiple outputs to make system behavior perform better and more efficiently. In this research, a new method has been developed for optimal control of the greenhouse and a specific greenhouse climate model is used which is based on optimal closed loop... 

Heating demand required for greenhouses is mainly met by fossil fuels. On the other hand, anxieties over usage of fossil fuels have led the societies to move toward renewable energies. With this in mind, the purpose of this research is to analyze using both solar energy for satisfying the heating demand of greenhouses and heat storage for compensating the intermittence of renewable energy.Considering the mentioned points, in the current research, a linear optimization framework has been developed for design and operation of energy systems including long-term heat storage to meet heating demand of greenhouses. The objective of this framework is to minimize annual cost. The developed method... 

In this thesis, an optimum structure of electricity supply system will be presented that consumer and producer interests are provided in order to reducing greenhouse emissions in achieving targets Paris Accord. So, at first, subsidy of fossil and renewable power plants were determined with considering Iran’s energy rules and applying variables such as efficiency, FOB price of oil and natural gas, inflation rate, energy conversion price and FIT in renewable power plants. At second, electricity price will be estimated by System Dynamics (SD) method and Pay as bid pricing mechanism in energy market on years between at 2018 to 2030 (time period of Paris Accord). Based on the subsidy of fossil... 

The water and energy demand increase as the population grows. Increased usage of energy leads to scarcity of available resources and limited absorption capacity of environment. Development of efficient and environmentally compatible energy conversion technologies are conceived as an important option for resolving pressing challenges. Compatibility with environment requires considerable reduction in the share of fossil fuels and efficient utilization of renewable energy sources. Hence, development of high-efficiency solar energy systems is becoming an important challenge in the energy sector. The present study is involved with development an integrated solar system based on the application of... 

The purpose of this research is developing an analytical and decision-making tool that examines the interactions between greenhouse energy demand and yield production. Greenhouseholders can use the analytical tool to design and operate existintg and newly built greenhouses in an optimal way. Becides, the decision making tool helps planners and policymakers to improve the performance of greenhouses and extend greenhouse cultivation with respect to their economic or environmental objectives.In order to develop this decision making tool, existing models for greenhouses have been investigated and various algorithms have been combined to develop an integrated energy demand-plant growth model. The... 

One of the ways to solve the problem of water scarcity in the agricultural sector is the development of the greenhouse. Using greenhouse and control of its internal conditions can increase productivity and reduce water consumption. But the issue that needs to be noted is higher energy consumption in greenhouses in comparison to traditional agriculture. The purpose of the present research is to evaluate the various technologies of supplying water and energy with a view to the climate, type of equipment and economic parameters. An analytical tool for designing and operation of the greenhouse have been developed and presented that may be applied in greenhouse sector. It is possible to evaluate... 

A virtual power plant is defined as a set of independent consumers or diverse generating units, flexible loads and storage systems in a specific geographic area. The primary purpose of a virtual power plant is thus to coordinate the production and consumption of its constituent parts with a view to maximizing their performance in energy markets. The components of the virtual power plant that study in this research include microturbines as dispatchable power plants, storage units, solar cells as stochastic generating units, and demand-response. In this regard, first, the main components of the virtual power plant are identified. Then, the mathematical model of each of these components is... 

Both resources have shaped the development of societies during the course of history. The increase in population, the growthe of middle-class societies, climate changes, economic development, health and environmental concerns, all play roles in magnifying or reducing the growing stresses on the vital resources of water and energy. Projections for water availability and quality, food and enrgy availability, soil and air quality are alarming. These alarms point to a major conclusion:’business as usual’ is no longer viable. Indeed, they call for a fundamental shift in the manner in which we understand and manage resources: a shift away from traditional approaches toward more integrative,...