Sharif Digital Repository

Capillary imbibition is an important recovery mechanism in naturally fractured reservoirs when water-filled fractures surround water-wet matrix blocks. A large amount of studies of imbibition process is simply total or partial immersion of nonwetting phase saturated rock in aqueous wetting phase. However, water advance in fractures during water flooding or water encroachment from an active aquifer introduces time dependent boundary conditions where invariant exposure of rock surface to water is not representative. In this work, a laboratory simulated matrix-fracture system was used to investigate different aspects of imbibition in the presence of fracture fluid flow (namely dynamic... 

A new characteristic-based method is developed and used for solving the mixed and forced convection problems. The nano-fluid flow with heat transfer is simulated with a novel characteristic-based scheme in closed domains with different aspect ratios. For this purpose, a FORTRAN code has been written and developed. Water as a pure fluid and water-titanium dioxide as a nano-fluid were considered. The governing equations are solved by the finite volume utilizing a characteristic-based scheme for the convective fluxes. The simulation is done at Grashof numbers from 100 to 104, Reynolds numbers from 100 to 1000, and volume fractions of nano-particles from 0% to 10%. Streamlines, isotherms,... 

In this paper, the stability of pipes conveying fluid with viscoelastic fractional foundation is investigated. The pipe is fixed at the beginning while the pipe end is constrained with two lateral and rotational springs. The fluid flow effect is modeled as a lateral distributed force, containing the fluid inertia, Coriolis and centrifugal forces. The pipe is modeled using the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and a fractional Kelvin-Voigt model is employed to describe the viscoelastic foundation. The equation of motion is derived using the extended Hamilton's principle. Presenting the derived equation in Laplace domain and applying the Galerkin method, a set of algebraic equations is extracted.... 

Static and dynamic properties of porous media are highly dependent on its internal geometry. CT scan images are generally used to characterize porous media geometry. Direct simulation of fluid flow on CT scan images is possible but considerably time-consuming. In this study, a new method was developed for extracting a simplified representation known as “pore network model” by utilizing a rigorous algebraic-analytical method. By using a moving frame in the 3D matrix of the CT scan image and stepwise identifying-removing of image components, running time for a 4003 voxels sample in a typical computer system decreased to less than 350 s. The identification of throats was based on a new... 

To increase the flight endurance of a Micro air vehicle (MAVs), which operates at low Reynolds number flow, one way is to harvest energy during its flight. By inspiring from the nature when all the birds use their feathers to control and distribute their power along the flying time, a solution might be design of a piezoelectric plate as feathers, which scavenges energy directly from the fluid flow. Cantilevered beam with piezo-ceramic layer undergoing vortex-induced vibrations can convert the mechanical energy available from the ambient environment to a usable electrical power. Since a flow-driven piezoelectric composite beam takes a form of natural three-way coupling of the turbulent fluid... 

Natural convection in a porous enclosure in the presence of thermal dispersion is investigated. The Fourier–Galerkin (FG) spectral element method is adapted to solve the coupled equations of Darcy’s flow and heat transfer with a full velocity-dependent dispersion tensor, employing the stream function formulation. A sound implementation of the FG method is developed to obtain accurate solutions within affordable computational costs. In the spectral space, the stream function is expressed analytically in terms of temperature, and the spectral system is solved using temperature as the primary unknown. The FG method is compared to finite element solutions obtained using an in-house code... 

In this study, the effect of the geometrical parameters of the Lateral Flow Immunoassay (LFI) membrane on the performance of the pregnancy kits is investigated. Consequently, a new geometry for LFI membrane is proposed based on some theoretical, numerical and experimental observations in order to improve the performance of the related kits. A pregnancy kit (for the detection of hCG in urine samples) is developed and the effect of the relocation of the test and the control lines over the membrane was studied based on the variation of the sample fluid velocity. Using Lattice-Boltzmann simulation of the lateral flow within the porous media and the experimental results, the fluid flow within the... 

In this paper, a numerical model is developed based on the X-FEM technique to simulate the proppant transport and tip screen-out in hydraulic fracturing. The governing equations are based on the momentum balance and mass conservation of the fluid. The hydro-mechanical coupling between the fracture and surrounding porous medium is fulfilled through the weak form of the governing equations. The fluid inflow within the fracture is modeled using the one-dimensional mass conservation of the injected slurry and proppant along the fracture, in which the viscosity of the slurry is dependent on the proppant concentration. The transition from the Poiseuille to Darcy flow regime is incorporated into... 

Drilling fluid is a complex fluid, including base fluid and other materials, carrying out the vital functions during drilling operation such as cutting transport and controlling formation pressure. In order to optimize performance of a drilling process, a reliable rheological model is required in the computation of fluid flow dynamics. Time-independent Generalized Newtonian formulation are the most common models for describing the rheological behavior of drilling fluids due to its simplicity and ease of use, in spite the fact that they are not able to predict the normal stresses and could not consider effects of active components on the rheological behavior of the drilling fluid and also... 

In the study, the daily and monthly performance of a photovoltaic thermal system integrated with phase change material is investigated in Shanghai, China. A three-dimensional model of photovoltaic thermal system integrated with phase change material system is developed and numerically simulated. Water is considered as working fluid, and the fluid flow regime is laminar and incompressible. Both quasi-steady and transient models are compared together, and the transient model is selected because of its higher accuracy. Validation analysis is performed on the numerical model to show the reasonable agreement of current research compared to some other research. After obtaining the suitable... 

Increasing efficiency, improving energy consumption, and optimizing energy in industries are more than ever considered by researchers. Some methods such as nanoparticles use and porous medium are used to increase the heat transfer rate. For this reason, in this paper, simulation and optimization of a two-dimensional tube with the presence of water–silver nanofluid and porous media have been performed to improve heat transfer. Different profiles of the rate, pressure, and temperature of the two-dimensional tube at volume fraction, porosity coefficient and Darcy numbers have been obtained and finally, the results are compared. Then, the Nusselt number and the friction coefficient in the range... 

Capacitance-Resistive Model (CRM), as a fast yet efficient proxy model, suffers from some limitations in modeling relatively complex reservoirs. Some current improvements on this proxy made it a more powerful simulator with updating parameters over time. However, the model's intrinsic uncertainty arisen from simplifying fluid-flow modeling by some limited number of constant parameters is not addressed yet. In this study, this structural limitation of CRM has been addressed by introducing a time-correlated model error, including stochastic and non-stochastic parameters, embedded into this proxy's formulation. The error term's non-stochastic parameters have been tuned to be used in forecasting... 

Bioreactor system has been used in bone tissue engineering in order to simulate dynamic nature of bone tissue environments. Perfusion bioreactors have been reported as the most efficient types of shear-loading bioreactor. Also, combination of forces, such as rotation plus perfusion, has been reported to enhance cell growth and osteogenic differentiation. Mathematical modeling using sophisticated infrastructure processes could be helpful and streamline the development of functional grafts by estimating and defining an effective range of bioreactor settings for better augmentation of tissue engineering. This study is aimed to conduct computational modeling for newly designed bioreactors in... 

Plasma actuator is a flow control device to improve the aerodynamic performance of wind turbine blades at low airspeeds. One of the most robust numerical models for simulation of plasma actuator interaction with the fluid flow is the electrostatic model. This model is improved recently and is extensively verified by the authors. Due to the high cost of performing experimental optimizations, the optimized geometrical dimensions and materials of a plasma actuator may be sought by this numerical model. The aim of the present study is the aerodynamic enhancement of a DU21 wind turbine blade airfoil in which the effect of geometric parameters and the dielectric material is examined separately.... 

In the current research, a three-dimensional photovoltaic thermal system integrated with phase change material system with nanofluids is investigated. The working fluids involved in this study include nano-magnesium oxide, multiwall carbon nano tube and hybrid (mixture of nano-magnesium oxide and nano-multiwall carbon nano tube) nanofluids dispersed in pure water. After comparing single-phase model and mixture model, the mixture model is used in the study and fluid flow regime in the collector is assumed to be laminar, fully develop, uniform and incompressible, to model the nanofluid in the system. A parametric analysis is conducted to examine the effect of various parameters such as working... 

In the present study, the temperature and the velocity fields during gas tungsten arc welding of commercial pure aluminum were simulated using the solution of the equations of conversation of mass, energy and momentum in three dimensions and under steady-state heat transfer and fluid flow conditions. Then, by means of the prediction of temperature and velocity distributions, the weld pool geometry, weld thermal cycles and various solidification parameters were calculated. To verify the modeling results, welding experiments were conducted on two samples with different thicknesses and the geometry of the weld pool was measured. It is found that there is a good agreement between the predicted... 

Since the mechanical properties and the integrity of the weld metal depend on the solidification behaviour and the resulting microstructural characteristics, understanding weld pool solidification is of importance to engineers and scientists. Thermal and fluid flow conditions affect the weld pool geometry and solidification parameters. During solidification of the weld pool, a columnar grain structure develops in the weld metal. Prediction of the formation of the microstructure during welding may be an important and supporting factor for technology optimization. Nowadays, increasing computing power allows direct simulations of the dendritic and cell morphology of columnar grains in the... 

A hybrid lattice Boltzmann and level set method (LBLSM) for two-phase immiscible fluids with large density differences is proposed. The lattice Boltzmann method is used for calculating the velocities, the interface is captured by the level set function and the surface tension force is replaced by an equivalent force field. The method can be applied to simulate two-phase fluid flows with the density ratio up to 1000. In case of zero or known pressure gradient the method is completely explicit. In order to validate the method, several examples are solved and the results are in agreement with analytical or experimental results. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved  

A mathematical model is developed to assess the solidification behaviour of the weld pools. To do so, during gas tungsten arc welding of commercial pure aluminium, equations of conversation of mass, energy and momentum are numerically solved considering three-dimensional steady state heat transfer and fluid flow conditions. The weld pool geometry, weld thermal cycles and various solidification parameters are calculated using temperature and velocity fields acquiring from the utilised model. The solidification behaviour of the weld pool at the weld centreline and the fusion line is then studied using the solidification parameters including temperature gradient G, solidification rate R and the... 

In this research, the centrifugal compressor of a turbocharger is investigated experimentally and numerically. Performance characteristics of the compressor were obtained experimentally by measurements of rotor speed and flow parameters at the inlet and outlet of the compressor. Three dimensional flow field in the impeller and diffuser was analyzed numerically using a full Navier-Stokes program with SST turbulence model. The performance characteristics of the compressor were obtained numerically, which were then compared with the experimental results. The comparison shows good agreement. Furthermore, the effect of area ratio and tip clearance on the performance parameters and flow field was...