Sharif Digital Repository

Temperature gradient on the thick Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV), caused by sudden overcooling events, especially in the downcomer, would intensify the propagation of structural defects. This situation known as Pressurized Thermal Shock (PTS) could be created in case of Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS) actuation which leads to injection of cold water into the cold leg of the primary loop in some accidents, e.g. Loss Of Coolant Accident (LOCA). Prediction of Plant response to LOCA and water temperature gradient in the downcomer are performed in thermal-hydraulic section of PTS analysis. Employment of system codes is one of the proposed procedures in literature to obtain plant response and... 

In this paper, some important operating parameters of nuclear power plants (NPPs) transients are forecasted using different supervised learning methods including feed-forward back propagation (FFBP) neural networks such as cascade feed-forward neural network (CFFNN), statistical methods such as support vector regression (SVR), and localized networks such as radial basis network (RBN). Different learning algorithms, including gradient descent (GD), gradient descent with momentum (GDM), scaled conjugate gradient (SCG), Levenberg-Marquardt (LM), and Bayesian regularization (BR) are used in CFFNN method. SVR method is used with different kernel functions including Gaussian, polynomial, and... 

Although morphological disorder of nanotube structure is further down than the nanoparticular electrode, its density of traps are the hindering effects in the charge transport. In this study, crack-free TiO2 nanotube membranes, which obtained through a re-anodizing process, are fixed on transparent fluorine–tin-oxide glass by applying a few drops of Titanium Isopropoxide without needing the TiO2 powder paste. Front-side illuminated dye sensitized solar cells fabricated by undoped, N-doped and blue TiO2 nanotube membranes are investigated. The electrical characteristics of TiO2 nanotube based dye sensitized solar cells are followed by theoretical analysis using simple one-diode model.... 

In this paper cross-correlation of measurable/unmeasurable parameters of nuclear power plants (NPPs) are detected. Correlation techniques including Pearson's, Spearman's, and Kendall-tau give appropriate input parameters for training/prediction of the target unmeasurable parameters. Fuel and clad maximum temperatures of uncontrolled withdrawal of control rods (UWCR) transient of Bushehr nuclear power plant (BNPP) are used as the case study target parameters. Different model-free methods including decision tree (DT), feed-forward back propagation neural network (FFBPNN) accompany with different learning algorithms (i.e. gradient descent with momentum (GDM), scaled conjugate gradient (SCG),... 

Nowadays, energy supply is one of the most prominent demands of countries in the world. The enhancement in energy efficiency, flexibility for applications in various industrial processes, and the reduction in the environmental impacts of pollutant emissions can be accomplished by using sustainable energy sources. Alternative procedures for heat and electricity production have been developed in the commercial and industrial sectors and focusing on the cogeneration systems, and the contribution of nuclear energy has been increased for improving processes. Nuclear reactors play an essential role in nonelectric applications, and combined heat and energy at different operating temperatures can be... 

In the present work, N-doped hollow carbon nanospheres (N-HCNSs) is prepared by direct carbonization of polyaniline-co-polypyrrole (PACP) hollow spheres without template needing. Two different NiO nanostructures (nanosheets and nanowires) are prepared by forming a shell around the N-HCNSs via simple hydrothermal/calcination processes (NiO-NSs@N-HCNSs and NiO-NWs@N-HCNSs). The morphology and structure of the nanostructures are characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The prepared nanocomposites are used as catalysts for the electrocatalytic... 

A comparison of various hydrogen production processes indicates that the thermal decomposition of methane (TDM) provides an attractive option from both economical and technical points of view. The main problem for this process is the deposition of the nano-carbon particles on the reactor wall (or catalyst surface). This research concentrates on the numerical simulation of the TDM process without use of a catalyst to find a technique that decreases the carbon accumulation in a tubular reactor. In this model, the produced carbon particles are tracked with the Lagrangian method under thermophoretic, Brownian, van der Waals, Basset, drag, lift, gravity, pressure and virtual mass forces. In... 

Current energy systems face multiple problems related to inflation in energy prices, reduction of fossil fuels, and greenhouse gas emissions which are disturbing the comfort zone of energy consumers and the affordability of power for large commercial customers. These kinds of problems can be alleviated with the help of optimal planning of demand response policies and with distributed generators in the distribution system. The objective of this article is to give a strategic proposition of an energy management system for a campus microgrid (µG) to minimize the operating costs and to increase the self-consuming energy of the green distributed generators (DGs). To this end, a real-time based... 

The power-to-liquid concept is a promising strategy to convert the power plants' flue gas to value-added liquid fuels using renewable energy. This technology could potentially reduce global greenhouse gases emissions and mitigate the environmental problems associated with the fossil fuels industry. In this regard, the main objective of the present study is to propose a novel power-to-liquid plant for the synthesis of formic acid and ammonia from power plants' flue gas, emphasizing the role of electrochemical technologies and renewable energy. The system's basis is developed by the integration of CO2 electroreduction cell, alkaline water electrolysis cell, and photovoltaic panel technologies.... 

We introduce an effective method for copper indium sulfide selenide (CISSe) doping with different alkali metals (Li, Na and K) based on a pre-deposited alkali chloride layer. A simple and fast spray method is used for pre-deposition of alkali chloride layer (LiCl, NaCl, KCl) on substrate surface before spray pyrolysis deposition of copper indium disulfide CuInS2 (CIS) films followed by selenization. The different properties of alkali-doped CISSe films by the alkali chloride pre-deposition (ACPD) method were compared to the post-deposition treatment (PDT) method. Based on FESEM images, a highly compact film with large grains can be obtained for CISSe films doped with K(∼0.72 μm) and Na (∼0.56... 

Steam/water stratified flow would occur in transient condition (e.g. LOCA) in light water Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). Due to high gradient of flow characteristics at the interface of steam/water flow, the prediction of flow characteristics (e.g. temperature, pressure, velocity, and Turbulent Kinetic Energy (TKE)) requires further attention and special interfacial models. Also, accurate simulation of these mentioned characteristics needs fine spatial mesh and very small time steps based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) standard criteria. In order to reduce the computational cost, the combination of thermal–hydraulic modelling and soft computing is considered as a new strategy in this... 

An effect-directed analysis (EDA) of fresh and artificially weathered (evaporated, photooxidized) samples of North Sea crude oil and residual heavy fuel oil is presented. Aliphatic, aromatic, and polar oil fractions were tested for the presence of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) agonist and androgen receptor (AR) antagonist, demonstrating for the first time the AR antagonist effects in the aromatic and, to a lesser extent, polar fractions. An extension of the typical EDA strategy to include an N-way partial least-squares (N-PLS) model capable of relating the comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC-TOFMS) data set to the bioassay data... 

In the present work, we investigated the characteristics of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and metal(loid)s in indoor/outdoor PM10, PM2.5, and PM1 in a retirement home and a school dormitory in Tehran from May 2012 to May 2013. The results indicated that the annual levels of indoor and outdoor PM10 and PM2.5 were much higher than the guidelines issued by the World Health Organization (WHO). The most abundant detected metal(loid)s in PM were Si, Fe, Zn, Al, and Pb. We found higher percentages of metal(loid)s in smaller size fractions of PM. Additionally, the results showed that the total PAHs (ΣPAHs) bound to PM were... 

A new dibenzothiophene (DBT) desulfurizing bacterium was isolated from oil-contaminated soils in Iran. HPLC analysis and PCR-based detection of the presence of the DBT desulfurization genes (dszA, dszB and dszC) indicate that this strain converts DBT to 2-hydroxybiphenyl (2-HBP) via the 4S pathway. The strain, identified as Rhodococcus erythropolis SHT87, can utilize DBT, dibenzothiophene sulfone, thiophene, 2-methylthiophene and dimethylsulfoxide as a sole sulfur source for growth at 30 °C. The maximum specific desulfurization activity of strain SHT87 resting cells in aqueous and biphasic organic-aqueous systems at 30 °C was determined to be 0.36 and 0.47 μmol 2-HBP min-1 (g dry cell)-1,... 

CdS is conventionally used as the n-type buffer layer in chalcopyrite (CIG(S, Se)) and Kesterite (CZT(S, Se)) solar cells. CdS is toxic and there are wide attempts to find substitutes for it. Here, we suggest SnS2 as a possible alternative. SnS2 films were deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD), characterized to estimate carrier concentration and electron affinity values, and the obtained values were used to model a CZT(S, Se) solar cell. The experimental values of a benchmark CZT(S, Se) cell with efficiency of 12.3% were employed to obtain the density and energy position of defects in CZT(S, Se) and validating the model. We observed that SnS2 results in almost identical performance as... 

Synthesis of dimethyl ether (DME) via methanol dehydration were investigated over various catalysts, and via direct CO hydrogenation over hybrid catalysts composed of Al-modified H-Mordenite zeolite and Cu/ZnO/ZrO 2. H-Mordenite zeolite exhibited the highest activity in dehydration of methanol. However, its selectivity toward dimethyl ether was rather low. For this reason, the H-Mordenite was modified. Modification of zeolites was performed by wet impregnation method and considered catalysts were characterized by AAS, XRD and NH3-TPD analyses. Results of catalytic tests indicated that H-Mordenite modified with 8 wt% aluminum oxide was the best catalyst for synthesis of dimethyl ether from... 

During transient tests, both pressure and temperature are changed depending on downhole flow rate. In gas producing wells, Joule-Thomson cooling and frictional heating effects are the main dynamic factors causing flowing bottomhole temperature to differ from the static formation temperature at that depth. When a gas well is shut in, JT cooling effect is vanished and this causes a sharp increase in sandface temperature. As effect of wellbore storage ends, wellbore temperature gradually cools down due to heat conduction with near wellbore region. This paper demonstrates a new technique for using temperature transient data in gas wells in order to determine end of wellbore storage. Also, effect... 

Urban transportation is one of the leading causes of air pollution in big cities. In-use emissions of vehicles are higher than the emission control certification levels. The current study uses a roadside remote sensing emission monitoring campaign to investigate (a) fraction of high emitters in the light-duty vehicle (LDV) fleet and their contributions to the total emissions, (b) emission inspection (I/M) programs' effectiveness, and (c) alternate fuel (natural gas) encouragement policy. LDVs consist of passenger or freight transport vehicles with four wheels equivalent to classes M1 and N1 of European union vehicle classifications. The motivation is to assess the current emission inspection... 

Various aspects of land use regression (LUR) models for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were systematically reviewed. Sixteen studies were identified published between 2002 and 2017. Of these, six were conducted in Canada, five in the USA, two in Spain, and one each in Germany, Italy, and Iran. They were developed for 14 different individual VOCs or groupings: benzene; toluene; ethylbenzene; m-xylene; p-xylene; (m/p)-xylene; o-xylene; total BTEX; 1,3-butadiene; formaldehyde; n-hexane; total hydro carbons; styrene; and acrolein. The models were based on measurements ranging from 22 sites in El Paso (USA) to 179 sites in Tehran (Iran). Only four studies in Rome (Italy), Sabadell (Spain),... 

The current study was designed to assess the association between temporal variations in urban PM2.5 chemical composition, sources, and the oxidative stress and inflammatory response in an alveolar macrophage (AM) model. A year-long sampling campaign collected PM2.5 samples at the Sharif University in Tehran, Iran. PM-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was measured both with an acellular dithiothreitol consumption assay (DTT-ROS; ranged from 2.1 to 9.3 nmoles min−1 m−3) and an in vitro macrophage-mediated ROS production assay (AM-ROS; ranged from 125 to 1213 μg Zymosan equivalents m−3). The production of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α; ranged from ~60 to 518 pg TNF-α m−3)...