Sharif Digital Repository

The photocatalytic degradation of p-nitrophenol (PNP) using TiO2 particles immobilized on a fiberglass cloth was investigated in a novel design of a photo-impinging stream reactor. A spray painted method has been used for the coating process. The structural properties of the immobilized sample were examined using X-ray diffraction and a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The photocatalytic degradation results showed the good performance of the reactor. The flow regime within the reactor was characterized and modeled by applying a liquid residence time distribution. A compartment model consisting of four continuous stirred regions was assigned to describe the flow pattern in the reactor. A... 

In primary sedimentation tanks, short-circuiting enlargement of dead zones and high flow mixing problems are caused by circulation regions (dead zones), which can reduce the optimal sedimentation of particles. For proper design of such tanks, the formation of recirculation zones should be avoided. The provision of a baffle as a geometrical modification of a tank may influence the flow field for better sedimentation. Thus, in this study, velocity measurements were performed by a three-dimensional Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) to investigate baffle effects on the velocity distribution in a primary rectangular sedimentation tank, quantitatively. Effects of baffle positioning were also... 

A holding or a multi-business corporate seeks to coordinate its supply for minimum overall costs. A Corporate Supply Optimizer (CSO), as a central entity taking advantage, of the notion of flow networks, gathers necessary operational information from members of the corporate supply chain. The CSO then guides supply chain members on ordering decisions for a minimum overall cost for the entire supply chain. Its computational engine models the entire supply chain with multiple members in four stages to satisfy customer demand. The CSO seeks a solution with minimum total costs, unlike noncooperative supply chains where individual members compete, to optimize, their local costs. The existing... 

In this investigation, the Flexible String Algorithm (FSA) used before for the inverse design of 2D subsonic ducts is developed and applied for the inverse design of subsonic and supersonic ducts with and without normal shock waves. In this method, the duct wall shape is changed under a novel algorithm based on the deformation of a virtual flexible string in a flow. Deformation of the string due to the local fl.ow conditions resulting from changes in the wall geometry is performed until the target shape satisfying the. prescribed walls pressure distribution is achieved. The flow field at each shape modification step is analyzed using an Euler equation solution by the. A USM method. Some... 

In this paper, microgravity modulation effects on free convection in a cavity are investigated using the lattice Boltzmann method. In order to create microgravity modulation, a sinusoidal time-dependent function is considered. Parameters of the flow are chosen such that the maximum Rayleigh number approaches 106. The natural frequency of the system is obtained at first. Afterwards, effects of different frequencies on the flow and heat transfer fields are investigated in detail. Results are presented in four different frequency ratios categorized as (1) ω∗=1200, 1100, 120, and 110; (2) ω∗=18, 15, 13, and 12; (3) ω∗ = 0.75, 0.85, and 0.95; and (4) the last one is considered for natural... 

Surface turbulence during the filling of the mold triggers the entrainment of oxide films, which appears to be detrimental to the soundness of the final casting. Nonpressurized and bottom-gating systems have been employed in order to avoid such casting defects by reducing the surface velocity of the liquid metal. However, recent studies have shown that the melt front velocity in the mold entrance may exceed the critical value in the nonpressurized and bottom-gating systems. Therefore, a study was conducted on numerical simulation melt flow pattern in nonpressurized and bottom-gating systems. It was noted that the liquid metal enters the gate and then mold cavity with a higher velocity by... 

This study concentrates on the improvement in the performance of PEM fuel cells through optimization of the channel dimensions and patterns in the velocity and pressure fields in bipolar plates. For design and optimization purposes, a 2D numerical simulation of the flow distribution based on the Nervier-Stokes equations using individual computer code has been done. The outcome of the numerical simulations showed excellent agreement with the experimental results in previous works. Finally numerical simulation has been conducted to investigate the advantages of conventional patterns with inspiration from leaf flow pattern. It was found that both velocity and pressure fields are very uniform in... 

Micro-mixers are considered as vital components of Micro Total Analysis systems (μTAS). Major objective in the design of micro-mixers is achieving high mixing quality in short mixing times. In this paper, numerical simulation of some micro-mixer designs has been carried out to understand the detailed flow pattern and thereby to propose modifications for improving mixing efficiency. It is well known that inducing convection will provide turbulent like behavior with corresponding mixing enhancement. In micro systems to drive the flow, electro-osmotic force is usually used by introducing electrodes. In this work, mixing electrodes have been implemented to induce convection and eddies. This... 

In this study, a numerical model of unsteady potential flow around submerged marine propellers has been developed. The boundary element approach in combination with time stepping method to model free wake dynamics has been implemented. An important feature of this method in the simulation of pressure-dominant problems is a proper balance between time and accuracy in the numerical process. Another advantage of time stepping method is that there is no need to define wake geometry before modeling. Due to inherent instability of boundary integral equations, a smoothing function to damp the effect of singularities is imposed to the solution. The main innovative idea of this work is that the... 

In this paper three-dimensional single-phase liquid flow through microchannels with a square-shaped cross-section driven by simultaneous application of pressure gradient and electroosmotic pumping mechanism is studied. The governing system of equations consists of the electric potential field and flow field equations. The solution procedure involves three steps. First, the net charge distribution on the cross-section of the microchannel is computed by solving two-dimensional Poisson-Boltzmann equation using the finite element method. Then, using the computed fluid's charge distribution, the magnitude of the resulting body force due to interaction of an external electric field with the... 

In this paper, two models are developed to predict liquid pressure drop and velocity profile in the wicks of concentric annular heat pipes. A steady-state incompressible laminar flow is modeled in the wicks based on velocity and pressure mean values by the extended Darcy-Brinkman model. The corresponding one- and two-dimensional governing equations are solved analytically and numerically, respectively, in the range of low to moderate radial Reynolds numbers. It has been found that there is a difference, about 12% in the worse case, between the total pressure drops of the two models. Whereas, the predicted total pressure drop by the one-dimensional model and that of the Darcy model are in... 

An experimental investigation has been carried out to verify characteristics of pressure fluctuations inside a circular, horizontal and inclined pipeline (90mm inside diameter and 10 m long) carrying two-phase air-water flow in a controlled manner (operating at room temperature and normal pressure). The pressure fluctuation was considered to be due to interaction between the fluid and air bubble compressibility in the pipe. The fluctuating pressure was studied in detail while the flow pattern was mainly slug, wavy or stratified flow. The tests were carried out varying with time, space, water flow rate/air flow rate ratio and pipe inclination. The pressure fluctuations were measured... 

More than 80% of desalination plants use the multi-stage flash (MSF) technology in the Persian Gulf and hence may have a severe irreversible impact on the marine environment. In the present study, geometrical, mixing, and turbulence characteristics of thermal-saline jets, similar to MSF effluents, are numerically investigated using the dynamic Smagorinsky sub-grid scale (SGS) model and UNESCO equation of state. For this purpose, two affecting dimensionless parameters are considered: (1) density ratio, which is thermal flux to salinity flux ratio, and (2) salinity Froude number. Examining the effects of density ratio reveals that the jet flow pattern only depends on the density ratio with a... 

A series of wind-tunnel tests were conducted on a Y-shaped diverterless supersonic inlet (DSI) in order to investigate its performance at various operating conditions. The present DSI was designed for a freestream Mach number of M∞ 1.65. The experiments were performed at supercritical, critical, and subcritical operating conditions and at 0 deg angle of attack and angle of side slip. The results showed that the present DSI had an acceptable performance at its design condition. A symmetric supersonic flow pattern was observed at both supercritical and critical operating conditions. At low subcritical operating conditions, the supersonic flow pattern remained symmetric too. However, at high... 

The present study provides the experimental results of the flow pattern around two-circular piers positioned in side-by-side arrangement. The experiments were performed for two bed configurations (with and without a scour hole). Velocities were measured by an Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV). Flat bed and scour hole were frozen by synthetic glue to facilitate the performance of the experiments. The contours and distributions of the time-averaged velocity components, turbulence intensities, turbulence kinetic energy, and Reynolds stresses at different horizontal and vertical planes are presented. Streamlines and velocity vectors obtained from time-averaged velocity fields are used to show... 

In this study, the flow patterns of air-water, two-phase flows have been investigated experimentally in a vertical mini pipe. The flow regimes were observed by a high speed video recorder in pipes with diameters of 2,3 and 4 mm and length 27, 31 and 25 cm, respectively. The comprehensive visualization of air-water, two-phase flow in a vertical mini pipe has been performed to realize the physics of such a two-phase flow. Different flow patterns of air-water flow were observed simultaneously in the mini pipe at different values of air and water flow rates. Consequently, the flow pattern map was proposed for flow in the mini-pipe, in terms of superficial velocities of liquid and gas phases. The... 

Many heavy oil reservoirs contain discontinuous shales which act as barriers or baffles to flow. However, there is a lack of fundamental understanding about how the shale geometrical characteristics affect the reservoir performance, especially during polymer flooding of heavy oils. In this study, a series of polymer injection processes have been performed on five-spot glass micromodels with different shale geometrical characteristics that are initially saturated with the heavy oil. The available geological characteristics from one of the Iranian oilfields were considered for the construction of the flow patterns by using a controlled-laser technology. Oil recoveries as a function of pore... 

Intracranial pressure (ICP) is derived from cerebral blood pressure and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) circulatory dynamics and can be affected in the course of many diseases. Computer analysis of the ICP time pattern plays a crucial role in the diagnosis and treatment of those diseases. This study proposes the application of Linninger et al.s [IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. , vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 557565, Apr. 2005] fluidsolid interaction model of CSF hydrodynamic in ventricular system based on our clinical data from a group of patients with brain parenchyma tumor. The clinical experiments include the arterial blood pressure (ABP), venous blood pressure, and ICP in the subarachnoid space (SAS). These...