Sharif Digital Repository

Since the beginning of industrial age the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases has been increased significantly due to excessive use of fossil fuels. An effective way for decreasing emission of greenhouse gases is injection of CO2 in geological formations. Moreover, from the reservoir engineering point of view, CO2 injection has been considered as a method of enhancing oil and gas recovery. While using CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) has been the subject of several studies in the past decades, enhanced gas recovery (EGR) has not been fully studied in the gas reservoirs, mainly because of high recovery factor of gas reservoirs and mixing of the reservoir gas and CO2. In this... 

Micro arc oxidation was employed to grow TiO2/hydroxyapatite composite layer on titanium substrate. The correlation between electrolyte concentration, diameter and density of the pores in fabricated layers was investigated. Therefore, the effect of electrolyte concentration on composition and morphology of grown layers was studied using SEM, EDX, XRD and XPS techniques. Samples were coated in electrolytes containing 5, 10 and 15 g/l calcium acetate and 1, 3 and 5 g/l β-glycerophosphate, at optimized voltage for 3 min. Pore size variations obey a similar pattern by the addition of both calcium acetate and β-glycerophosphatein various concentrations based on SEM observations. However,... 

Multiple contact miscible floods such as injection of relatively inexpensive gases into oil reservoirs are considered as well-established enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques for conventional reservoirs. A fundamental factor in the design of gas injection project is the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP), whereas local sweep efficiency from gas injection is very much dependent on the MMP. Slim tube displacements, and rising bubble apparatus (RBA) are two main tests that are used for experimentally determination of MMP but these tests are both costly and time consuming. Hence, searching for quick and accurate mathematical determination of gas-oil MMP is inevitable. The objective of this... 

In the present study, we developed a multi-component one-dimensional mathematical model for simulation and optimisation of a commercial catalytic slurry reactor for the direct synthesis of dimethyl ether (DME) from syngas and CO2, operating in a churn-turbulent regime. DME productivity and CO conversion were optimised by tuning operating conditions, such as superficial gas velocity, catalyst concentration, catalyst mass over molar gas flow rate (W/F), syngas composition, pressure and temperature. Reactor modelling was accomplished utilising mass balance, global kinetic models and heterogeneous hydrodynamics. In the heterogeneous flow regime, gas was distributed into two bubble phases: small... 

Functionalized magnetic core-zeolitic shell nanocomposites were prepared via hydrothermal and precipitation methods. The products were characterized by vibrating sample magnetometer, X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms, and transmission electron microscopy analysis. The growth of mordenite nanocrystals on the outer surface of silica-coated magnetic nanoparticles at the presence of organic templates was well approved. The removal performance and the selectivity of mixed metal ions (Pb2+ and Cd2+) in aqueous solution were investigated via the sorption process. The batch method was employed to study the sorption kinetic,... 

In the present work a central composite design based on response surface methodology (RSM) is employed for fine tuning of the aspect ratios of seed-mediated synthesized gold nanorods (GNRs). The relations between the affecting parameters, including ratio of l-ascorbic acid to Au3+ ions, concentrations of silver nitrate, CTAB, and CTAB-capped gold seeds, were explored using a RSM model. It is observed that the effect of each parameter on the aspect ratio of developing nanorods highly depends on the value of the other parameters. The concentrations of silver ions, ascorbic acid and seeds are found to have a high contribution in controlling the aspect ratios of NRs. The optimized parameters led... 

Chitosan was crosslinked with different amount of glutaraldehyde to prepare appropriate hydrogels to be used as drug delivery system. The swelling behavior of freeze-dried hydrogels in aqueous media at different temperature and pHs has been examined. The swelling, porosity and biocompatibility behavior of samples were investigated to check effects of polymer/polymer and polymer/drug interactions on these system characteristics. Obtained experimental results illustrates that with increasing crosslinking agent from 0.068 to 0.30, swelling of the prepared samples degrees from 1200% to 600% and pore diameters change from 100 to 500 μm. To investigate systems biocompatibility in gastric... 

This paper presents a new method for spectrophotometirc detection of sulfide applying fungal peroxidase immobilized on sodium alginate. The sensing scheme was based on decrease of the absorbance of the orange compound, purpurogallin produced from pyrogallol and H2O2 as substrates, due to the inhibition of peroxidase by sulfide. Absorbance of purpurogallin was detected at 420nm by using a spectrophotometer. The proposed method could successfully detect the sulfide in the concentration range of 0.6-7.0μM with a detection limit of 0.4μM. The kinetic parameters of Michaelis-Menten with and without sulfide were also calculated. Possible inhibition mechanism of peroxidase by sulfide was deduced... 

Thermal oxidation of commercial ilmenite concentrate from Kahnouj titanium mines, Iran, at 500-950 C was investigated for the first time. Fractional conversion was calculated from mass change of the samples during oxidation. Maximum FeO to Fe2O3 conversion of 98.63 % occurred at 900 C after 120 min. Curve fit trials together with SEM line scan results indicated constant-size shrinking core model as the closest kinetic mechanism of the oxidation process. Below 750 C, chemical reaction with activation energy of 80.65 kJ mol-1 and between 775 and 950 C, ash diffusion with activation energy of 53.50 kJ mol-1 were the prevailing mechanisms. X-ray diffraction patterns approved presence of... 

In this paper, the effect of basic parameters of laser and plasma on controlling self-focusing is investigated, and based on the introduced effective parameter for self-focusing (EPSF), the effects of laser wavelength, the initial spot size of laser beam, the initial intensity of laser, and the plasma electron density on self-focusing are discussed. It is found that the relativistic self-focusing strongly depend on the laser wavelength and the beam intensity. The nonlinear effect of beam intensity on the introduced parameter EPSF indicates that after an increasing region for focusing, the self-focusing effect decreases at ultrarelativistic intensities. The effect of the initial beam spot... 

Microbubbles are broadly used as ultrasound contrast agents. In this paper we use a low-cost flow focusing microchannel fabrication method for preparing microbubble contrast agents by using some surface active agents and a viscosity enhancing material to obtain appropriate microbubbles with desired lifetime and stability for any in vitro infusion for velocity measurement. All the five parameters that govern the bubble size extract and some efforts are done to achieve the smallest bubbles by adding suitable surfactant concentrations. By using these microbubbles for the echo-particle image velocimetry method, we experimentally determine the velocity field of steady state and pulsatile pipe... 

In this article, the propagation of one-dimensional stress waves in a plate made of functionally graded materials excited by a harmonic force is studied. The material properties of the functionally graded material plate are assumed to be graded in the thickness direction according to a power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The governing equations are based on stress-strain relation and the equation of motion. Keeping generality, the functionally graded material plate is assumed as a multilayer with linear material property in each layer while arbitrary exponential material property through the thickness. A plate made of aluminum and alumina is... 

An immersed solvent microextraction (SME) method was successfully developed for the trace enrichment of aryloxyphenoxypropionate herbicides from aquatic media. A microdrop of toluene was used as the extraction solvent. Some important extraction parameters such as type of solvent, solvent dropsize, stirring rate, ionic strength and extraction time were investigated and optimized. The microdrop volume of 1.5 μL, a sampling time of 25 min, and use of toluene were major parameters for achieving high enrichment factors. The linearity was studied by preconcentration of 4 mL of the water samples spiked with a standard solution of aryloxyphenoxypropionates at the concentration range of 0.15 to 30 ng... 

Single-layer reduced graphene oxide nanoribbons (rGONRs) were obtained through an oxidative unzipping of multi-walled carbon nanotubes and a subsequent deoxygenation by hydrazine and bovine serum albumin. Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) were isolated from umbilical cord blood and used for checking the concentration- and time-dependent cyto- and geno-toxic effects of the rGONRs and reduced graphene oxide sheets (rGOSs). The cell viability assay indicated significant cytotoxic effects of 10 μg/mL rGONRs after 1 h exposure time, while the rGOSs exhibited the same cytotoxicity at concentration of 100 μg/mL after 96 h. The oxidative stress was found as the main mechanism involved in the... 

In this work, hot tension tests were conducted on as cast and wrought samples of a high carbon high chromium tool steel to study the hot workability under the rolling conditions. The flow curves illustrate the classical shape of dynamic recrystallization (DRX). It is observed that broken carbide nets in the wrought samples result in lower deformation activation energy 398. kJ/mol in comparison to the as cast samples 432. kJ/mol. Necking strains were calculated using the inflection point of the work-hardening (θ) vs. stress curves. Wrought samples show higher hot ductility and lower maximum stress than the as cast ones. It is shown that lower activation energy of deformation and lower stress... 

In this article, the induced airflow and the resultant particles resuspension due to a disk falling freely under the effect of gravity is studied using numerical and experimental approaches. The results showed that an axisymmetric vortex is generated on the disk tip as the disk falls and sheds after impacting the floor. While the effect of this ring vortex on the particles detachment from the floor is small, it has considerable influence on the dispersion of resuspended particles. The simulation results indicated that particles are mainly resuspended from an annular area beneath the disk tip where the generated wall shear is sufficiently high. As particles detachment is mainly controlled by... 

Rheological behavior of two crude oils and their surfactant-stabilized emulsions with initial droplet sizes ranging from 0.5 to 75 μm were investigated at various temperatures under steady and dynamic shear testing conditions. In order to evaluate the morphology and Stability of emulsions, microscopic analysis was carried out over three months and average diameter and size distribution of dispersed droplets were determined. The water content and surfactant concentration ranged from 10 to 60% vol/vol and 0.1 to 10% wt/vol, respectively. The results indicated that the rheological properties and the physical structure and stability of emulsions were significantly influenced by the water content... 

Retained austenite as a key constituent in final microstructure plays an important role in TRansformation Induced Plasticity (TRIP) steels. The volume fraction, carbon concentration, size, and morphology of this phase are the well-known parameters which effects on the rate of transformation of retained austenite to martensite and the properties of steel, are studied by many researchers. Of the transformation of retained austenite to martensite under strain in a TRIP steel is studied in this paper. The experimental results show that the transformation rate of retained, austenite with similar characteristics, to martensite in differently processed TRIP steel samples, exhibits an anisotropic... 

In this investigation, bioleaching of vanadium from uranium ore residue of the leaching stage was studied by Aspergillus niger in a two-step process at 30 °C and 150 rpm. The first step was initiated by growth of fungi in the absence of mine waste. Using response surface methodology, three factors were surveyed for fungal growth: initial pH, sucrose concentration and spore population. Also concentrations of oxalic, citric, and gluconic acids were measured as response in this step. During 30 days, maximum productions of these acids were 3265, 11578, and 7988 mg/l, respectively. Initial pH and sucrose concentration were significant factors for oxalic and citric acid production; however, for... 

Cu-Sn composites incorporated with graphite and/or SiC particles were produced by electrodeposition technique. The effect of particle concentration in the plating bath and current density on tin content and volume percentage of particles in the coatings has been investigated. Structure, morphology, micro hardness and wear properties of the coatings have been studied. The results showed that particles cause an increase of tin content in the plated Cu-Sn. Graphite and silicon carbide particles had different effects on coating hardness; 7.8. vol.% graphite decreased the hardness of Cu-Sn layer from 231. Hv to 172. Hv whereas, 5.1. vol.% SiC raised the hardness to 316. Hv. Moreover, friction...