Sharif Digital Repository

Solar-driven ejector refrigeration (SER) systems have been granted special attention as a green and sustainable replacement for conventional vapor compression cooling systems. However, despite their significant advantages, SER systems suffer from a relatively low coefficient of performance and failure at high ambient temperatures and low solar radiations. Therefore, the need for an auxiliary heat source and cooling system has hindered their adoption in practice. In an attempt to eliminate the need for an auxiliary heat source and cooling system, this contribution puts forward a novel Solar-driven Multi-Ejector Refrigeration (SMER) system with an internal heat exchanger, a regenerator, and a... 

As one of the cleanest energies, hydrogen has attracted much attention over the past decade. Hydrogen can be produced using water electrolysis in a Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolysis Cell (PEMEC). In the present study, the performance of the PEMEC, powered by the Photovoltaic-Thermal (PVT) system, is scrutinized. It is considered that the PVT system provides the required electrical power of the PEMEC and preheats the feedwater. A comprehensive numerical model of the coupled PVT-PEMEC system is developed. The model is used to investigate the effect of various operating parameters, including solar radiation intensity, inlet feedwater temperature, and feedwater mass flow rate, on the... 

Costly and time-consuming approaches for solder joint lifetime estimation in electronic systems along with the limited availability and incoherency of data challenge the reliability considerations to be among the primary design criteria of electronic devices. In this article, an iterative machine learning framework is designed to predict the useful lifetime of the solder joint using a set of self-healing data that reinforce the machine learning predictive model with thermal loading specifications, material properties, and geometry of the solder joint. The self-healing dataset is iteratively injected through a correlation-driven neural network (CDNN) to fulfill the data diversity. Outcomes... 

The aim of this paper is to provide a solution to decrease water consumption in the slab-cooling unit of Mobarakeh Steel Complex in Iran. The plan should give an hourly decline in water consumption during a one-year operation period to calculate the annual reduction in water consumption of the proposed process. Recommended solutions for the conversion scheme of an existing wet cooling tower to a dry or hybrid cooling system require modeling of the slab cooling process. The curves of temperature drop in slabs are extracted in this paper by modeling the transient heat transfer of the slabs in the cooling process. This will reduce the computational volume. Then, the design and optimization of... 

Direct reduction of iron process in steel industry has special production conditions. Low quality cooling water, low cold and high hot cooling water temperature, space limitation for new equipment installation, high value-added of product and severe effect of cooling water temperature on production rate are of these conditions. Considering technical and economic constraints and limitations, this situation makes this process an attractive case study for converting the existing wet cooling tower to hybrid cooling system. In this paper, based on integration of process, dry and wet cooling system and ambient conditions profiles, a new method for designing hybrid cooling system has been proposed.... 

The yearly thermo-economic performance is dynamically investigated for three solar heating and cooling systems: solar heating and absorption cooling (SHAC), solar heating and ejector cooling (SHEC), and heating and solar vapor compression cooling (HSVC). First, the effects of important design parameters on the thermo-economic performance of the systems to supply the heating and cooling loads of the building are evaluated. The systems are parametrically analyzed with the weather conditions of Tehran, Iran. The results show that the life cycle costs (LCC) of the SHAC and HSVC systems are alike and much lower than those of the SHEC system. The HSVC system exhibits the best performance from... 

Heat pipes are useful devices in heat transfer and particularly, in cooling systems. Given the high demand for cooling systems in various applications, an improvement in the performance of heat pipes has gained much attraction in recent years. In this study, the effects of utilizing working fluids with different thermal properties on the performance of pulsating heat pipes (PHP) are experimentally studied. Hence, nano-encapsulated phase change material (NPCM), reduced graphene oxide nanosheets, and their mixture, as a novel hybrid nanofluid, are prepared and dispersed in water as a working fluid. NPCM at 3 concentrations of 5, 10, and 20 g/L, as well as nanosheets at three concentrations of... 

Thermal power generation needs great volumes of water for cooling purposes. A multi-period Low Water Generation Expansion Planning (LW-GEP) model is proposed to plan the future generation mix including type, capacity, time of installation, and proper cooling system of generation technologies to supply the future electric peak loads under the water resource limitations. Different types of generation technologies with conventional and modern cooling systems are considered as expansion candidates in the proposed LW-GEP model. The access of candidate and existing power plants to the water resources are considered. Renewable resources as water smart solutions are integrated in the proposed energy... 

In this study, a vapor-compression cooling system utilizing different phase change materials (PCMs) has been studied whereby the electricity consumption peak load is shifted. More specifically, the dynamic performance of cooling systems with and without using PCM is evaluated for the hottest day of the year. The proposed system uses the cooling energy to freeze, or “discharge” the PCM during nighttime when the cooling load is minimally needed and uses the stored thermal energy during the peak load hours by melting, or “charging” the PCM. This leads to better performance during peak load hours when higher cooling loads are needed. Different PCMs including oleic acid, SP224A, CL, CaCl2·6H2O... 

A vapor-compression cooling system utilizing PCM is studied whereby the electricity consumption peak load is shifted. More specifically, the dynamic performance of the cooling system with and without PCM is evaluated and is presented with details on the hottest day of the year in Tehran, Iran. The proposed system uses the cooling energy to freeze or “discharge” the PCM during nighttime when the cooling load is minimally needed and uses the stored cooling energy during the peak load hours by melting or “charging” the PCM. This leads to better performance during the peak load hours when higher cooling loads are required. Oleic acid was chosen as PCM. The simulation was performed in EES... 

As one of the cleanest energies, hydrogen has attracted much attention over the past decade. Hydrogen can be produced using water electrolysis in a Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolysis Cell (PEMEC). In the present study, the performance of the PEMEC, powered by the Photovoltaic-Thermal (PVT) system, is scrutinized. It is considered that the PVT system provides the required electrical power of the PEMEC and preheats the feedwater. A comprehensive numerical model of the coupled PVT-PEMEC system is developed. The model is used to investigate the effect of various operating parameters, including solar radiation intensity, inlet feedwater temperature, and feedwater mass flow rate, on the... 

Costly and time-consuming approaches for solder joint lifetime estimation in electronic systems along with the limited availability and incoherency of data challenge the reliability considerations to be among the primary design criteria of electronic devices. In this paper, an iterative machine learning framework is designed to predict the useful lifetime of the solder joint using a set of self-healing data that reinforces the machine learning predictive model with thermal loading specifications, material properties, and geometry of the solder joint. The self-healing dataset is iteratively injected through a correlation-driven neural network to fulfill the data diversity. Outcomes show a... 

Nowadays, one of the most important challenges in developing greenhouses is meeting their energy demand. The other challenge is the high water consumption of evaporative-cooling systems in arid and semi-arid regions. In this study, a integrated dynamic model is developed to determine the greenhouse relative humidity, carbon dioxide, and temperature, considering transpiration. The model is applied to a greenhouse utilizing a ground to air heat transfer system, located in the Alborz province of Iran and the results are validated with experimental data. Energy and water performance of the greenhouse are evaluated for the case study greenhouse. Then, the model is applied to a greenhouse (similar... 

Three novel geothermal-based organic Rankine cycle (ORC) systems are proposed to enhance the efficiency and for waste heat recovery purpose. The proposed systems are modeled based on a basic ORC system (concept 1), an ORC system with an internal heat exchanger (concept 2), and a regenerative ORC system (concept 3). Accordingly, two thermoelectric generators (TEG) are introduced into the systems to exploit the waste heat of the system. The condenser is replaced with a TEG unit while the other TEG unit is used to recover the waste heat of the reinjected geothermal fluid. A comprehensive numerical investigation is conducted to compare the proposed systems from the thermodynamic and... 

Three novel geothermal-based organic Rankine cycle (ORC) systems are proposed to enhance the efficiency and for waste heat recovery purpose. The proposed systems are modeled based on a basic ORC system (concept 1), an ORC system with an internal heat exchanger (concept 2), and a regenerative ORC system (concept 3). Accordingly, two thermoelectric generators (TEG) are introduced into the systems to exploit the waste heat of the system. The condenser is replaced with a TEG unit while the other TEG unit is used to recover the waste heat of the reinjected geothermal fluid. A comprehensive numerical investigation is conducted to compare the proposed systems from the thermodynamic and... 

Solar systems are the most promising technologies to reduce building energy consumption. In recent years, one of the popular solar technologies is building integrated photovoltaic-thermal collectors, because of profitability and no need for separate architectural space. In this study, a new combination of glazed building integrated photovoltaic thermal solar collectors and an absorption cooling system, as a trigeneration system, to provide thermal and electrical energy demands of a case study residential building, is proposed. Dynamic simulation of the proposed system is performed using the TRNSYS-MATLAB co-simulator. Because there is no model for the glazed photovoltaic thermal solar... 

Secure operation of protective intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) has been recognized as a crucial issue for power grids. By gaining access to substation IEDs, intruders can severely disrupt the operation of protection systems. This paper develops an analytical reliability assessment framework for quantifying the impacts of the hypothesized integrity attacks against protection systems. Petri net models are used to simulate possible intrusion scenarios into substation networks. The cyber network model is constructed from firewall, intrusion prevention system (IPS), and password models, which are three types of defense mechanisms for protecting substation networks. In this paper, two main... 

Ground-coupled ejector cooling (GCEC) systems have been introduced to solve the air-coupled ejector cooling (ACEC) systems problems. To date, no research study is dedicated to compare the GCEC and the ACEC systems and determine the relative payback period of the GCEC system vs. the ACEC system. Furthermore, almost all the previous studies simulated the GCEC systems by elementary models. Therefore, a comprehensive simulation is conducted to assess the techno-economic performance of a GCEC system. The model consists of the ejector and the borehole heat exchanger submodels. The first section of the results compares the ACEC system and the GCEC system during a cooling season. The seasonal... 

The yearly thermo-economic performance is dynamically investigated for three solar heating and cooling systems: solar heating and absorption cooling (SHAC), solar heating and ejector cooling (SHEC), and heating and solar vapor compression cooling (HSVC). First, the effects of important design parameters on the thermo-economic performance of the systems to supply the heating and cooling loads of the building are evaluated. The systems are parametrically analyzed with the weather conditions of Tehran, Iran. The results show that the life cycle costs (LCC) of the SHAC and HSVC systems are alike and much lower than those of the SHEC system. The HSVC system exhibits the best performance from... 

Liquid air energy storage is one of the most recent technologies introduced for grid-scale energy storage. As the title implies, this technology offers energy storage through an air liquefaction process. High energy storage density, no geographical limitation, and applicability for large-scale uses are some of the advantages of this technology. To improve the performance and environmental friendliness of the conventional design of this technology, a novel liquid air energy system combined with high-temperature thermal energy storage, thermoelectric generator, and organic Rankine cycle is proposed in the present article. The thermal energy storage unit removes the need for the conventional...