Sharif Digital Repository

Lake Urmia, which was once the second-largest saline lake in the world, has been shrinking dramatically. Moreover, Lake Urmia has become supersaturated with total salinity averaging more than 350 g/l. Salt precipitation and dissolved materials brought by inflowing rivers have formed a layer of sediment with low hydraulic conductivity on the lakebed. Considering the flat bathymetry of Lake Urmia, we conducted a series of numerical simulation scenarios to study the groundwater flow pattern in the vicinity of the hypersaline Lake Urmia using COMSOL Multiphysics®. In the first step, we performed the simulations in steady-state conditions. Secondly, we simulated the lake level fall in 10 years at... 

This paper provides a feasibility study on a low cost system called Hydrokinetic Wells turbine for surface wave energy conversion without using plenum chambers. The elimination of the plenum chamber and its complicated valve systems can reduce the expenses of wave energy conversion up to 23%.The feasibility process were done for high and low frequency conditions. For the low frequency waves, we offer the 300 rpm angular velocity as an optimum selection for further studies. For the high frequency condition a reliable analytical approach based on validated methods was developed. The analytical results indicate that a wells turbine with 60 cm diameter could produce up to 1600 Watts power in... 

In this paper, a computational model is developed for the simulation of hydro-fracture growth in naturally layered impervious media using the extended finite element method (X-FEM). The equilibrium equation of the bulk is solved in conjunction with the hydro-fracture inflow and continuity equations using the staggered Newton method. The hydro-fracture inflow is modeled by using the lubrication theory, where the permeability of the fracture is incorporated by taking advantage of the cubic law. The Eigen-function expansion method is utilized in order to develop enrichment functions suited for the asymptotic stress field in the vicinity of the singular points. An energy release rate-based... 

Clustering has become an increasingly important task in modern application domains. Targeting useful and relevant information on the World Wide Web is a topical and highly complicated research area. Clustering techniques have been applied to categorize documents on web and extracting knowledge from the web. In this paper we propose novel clustering algorithms based on Harmony Search (HS) optimization method that deals with web document clustering. By modeling clustering as an optimization problem, first, we propose a pure HS based clustering algorithm that finds near global optimal clusters within a reasonable time. Then we hybridize K-means and harmony clustering to achieve better... 

In this paper the effect of the sulphate concentration on the performance of a three-stage anaerobic baffled packed-bed reactor (ABPR) was investigated. Synthetic wastewater (3000 mg COD/l) was used as the sole organic substrate. The 30 liters fixed-bed bioreactor filled with plastic packing and divided in three equal sections was used as the mABPR reactor. The unit was run at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 1 day and at temperature of 25° C. The results of this study showed that when COD/SO42- ratios were changed from 30 to 3 with increasing sulphate concentration from 100 to 1000 mg/l, COD removal slightly was decreased. Maximum COD and sulphate removal were 91 and 96%, respectively,... 

In this research the fluid and thermal characteristics of a rectangular turbulent jet flow is studied numerically. The results of three dimensional jet issued from a rectangular nozzle are presented. A numerical method employing control volume approach with collocated grid arrangement was employed. Velocity and pressure fields are coupled with SIMPLEC algorithm. The turbulent stresses are approximated using k-e model with two different inlet conditions. The velocity and temperature fields are presented and the rates of their decay at jet centerline are noted. The velocity vectors of a main flow and secondary flow are illustrated. Also effect of aspect ratio on mixing in rectangular cross... 

It is a current practice to employ composite claya mixture of clay and aggregates that float within the clayey matrixas the core of embankment dams that have classically been constructed from pure clays. Experience has shown that significant pore pressures could build up during cyclic undrained loading in composite clays. This may threaten dam stability during earthquake loading. However, it is difficult to attribute a single value to excess pore pressure in conventional seismic stability analysis because of the random nature of earthquake loading, leading to uncertainty in the evaluation of factor of safety against sliding. This article evaluates the importance of pore pressure build-up in... 

Nutrient pollution has become a global environmental issue. Innovative biological nutrient removal (BNR) processes are needed to overcome the drawbacks of conventional technologies. This study evaluates the potential of a hybrid 5-stage Bardenpho - moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) process for organic carbon and nutrient removal from municipal wastewater at different hydraulic retention time (HRT) and nitrate recycle ratio (R). Response surface methodology (RSM) based on a central composite design (CCD) of thirteen experiments was applied to optimize the nitrogen and phosphorus conversion of the treatment system. High removal efficiencies of about 98.20%, 92.54%, 94.70% and 96.50% for total... 

Waste management issue in mining industry has become increasingly important. In this regard, construction of tailings dams plays a major role. Most of the tailings dams require some kinds of remedial actions during their operational lifetime, among which heightening is the most common. In the first stage of the remedial provisions for Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex tailings dam in Iran, it has been decided to use hydrocyclone method to provide suitable construction material due to the high cost associated with using borrow materials for heightening of the dam. To undertake this project a series of laboratory experiments was performed to determine the copper 'original tailings' and 'cycloned... 

In this paper the development of a quasi-three-dimensional numerical model that can be used for quantifying groundwater inputs and associated contaminant discharged from coastal aquifers into the coastal zone at a regional scale is presented. The present model is called MODSharp. In order to handle problems at a regional scale, the sharp interface approach which is used for conceptualising seawater intrusion, is applied to this model. This model can be used for the simulation of groundwater flow and contaminant transport in layered coastal aquifers at a regional scale. The method of characteristics is used to solve the advection-dispersion equation, which governs contaminant transport in... 

Air-water two-phase flow usually occurs during a sudden rise in water level at a tunnel or during the falling of the water level at an upstream reservoir while entering the conduit. When this happens, different flow patterns are generated, due to the hydraulics of flow and fluid properties. An analytical/numerical model, based on the assumption of a rigid incompressible water column and a compressible air bubble, is derived, to simulate pressure fluctuation, void fraction, air/water flow rate and water velocity in a closed conduit, including water depth at the upper reservoir, due to air bubbles becoming trapped in the water, for the highest possible number of flow patterns. It is a... 

Purpose: This paper aims to study the thermal and thermo-hydraulic performances of ferro-nanofluid flow in a three-dimensional trapezoidal microchannel heat sink (TMCHS) under uniform heat flux and magnetic fields. Design/methodology/approach: To investigate the effect of direction of Lorentz force the magnetic field has been applied: transversely in the x direction (Case I);transversely in the y direction (Case II); and parallel in the z direction (Case III). The three-dimensional governing equations with the associated boundary conditions for ferro-nanofluid flow and heat transfer have been solved by using an element-based finite volume method. The coupled algorithm has been used to solve... 

In this study, a numerical and empirical scheme for increasing cooling tower performance is developed by combining the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm with a neural network and considering the packing’s compaction as an effective factor for higher accuracies. An experimental setup is used to analyze the effects of packing compaction on the performance. The neural network is optimized by the PSO algorithm in order to predict the precise temperature difference, efficiency, and outlet temperature, which are functions of air flow rate, water flow rate, inlet water temperature, inlet air temperature, inlet air relative humidity, and packing compaction. The effects of water flow rate,... 

In this study, a numerical and empirical scheme for increasing cooling tower performance is developed by combining the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm with a neural network and considering the packing’s compaction as an effective factor for higher accuracies. An experimental setup is used to analyze the effects of packing compaction on the performance. The neural network is optimized by the PSO algorithm in order to predict the precise temperature difference, efficiency, and outlet temperature, which are functions of air flow rate, water flow rate, inlet water temperature, inlet air temperature, inlet air relative humidity, and packing compaction. The effects of water flow rate,... 

A new nanocomposite polymer gel is synthesized for reduction of excess water production in petroleum reservoirs at real operating conditions. This new nanocomposite gel contains SiO2 nanoparticles, partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) and chromium triacetate. High pressure and high temperature tests using porous carbonate core are carried out to evaluate the effects of nanoparticles on the synthesized polymer gel performance. It is shown that the residual resistance factor ratio of water to oil using the synthesized polymer gel nanocomposite in this work is much higher than that of the ordinary polymer gels. The presented results confirm the high performance of the synthesized... 

The formation of liquid bridge is pertinent to many fields including seepage into underground fractured rocks as an environmental issue and capillary continuity between matrix blocks which controls oil recovery in fractured reservoirs. Evaporation from the surface of liquid bridge into the surrounding gas could affect the stability of liquid bridge and fracture capillary pressure, which is not well discussed in the available literatures. In this research, by the aid of analogy between the diffusive flux and electrostatic potential, a new model for predicting evaporation rate from a liquid bridge inside a horizontal fracture is presented. The proposed model is then coupled with Young-Laplace... 

Accurate implementation of river interactions with subsurface water is critical in large-scale hydrologic models with a constant horizontal grid resolution when models apply kinematic wave approximation for both hillslope and river channel flow. The size of rivers can vary greatly in the model domain, and the implemented grid resolution is too coarse to accurately account for river interactions. Consequently, the flow velocity is underestimated when the width of the rivers is much narrower than the selected grid size. This leads to inaccuracy and uncertainties in calculations of water quantities. In addition, the rate of exfiltration and infiltration between the river and the subsurface may... 

Proppants transport is an advanced technique to improve the hydraulic fracture phenomenon, in order to promote the versatility of gas/oil reservoirs. A numerical simulation of proppants transport at both hydraulic fracture (HF) and natural fracture (NF) intersection is performed to provide a better understanding of key factors which cause, or contribute to proppants transport in HF–NF intersection. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in association with discrete element method (DEM) is used to model the complex interactions between proppant particles, host fluid medium and fractured walls. The effect of non-spherical geometry of particles is considered in this model, using the multi-sphere... 

In this paper, the impression of surface oxidization on the aluminum nanopowders is investigated using the reactive molecular dynamics (MD) method under the triaxial compression tests. Validation of the computational model is examined with the experimental results, which demonstrates an acceptable accuracy of the numerical simulations. The MD simulations are performed in three stages; relaxing the nanopowders at 300 K and 0.1 MPa, confining the nanopowders under hydrostatic pressure, and imposing the deviatoric stress through the triaxial compression. Evolutions of the relative density with pressure, stress with strain, and dislocation density with strain are derived together with the... 

In current study, a meta-analysis approach was used to identify and evaluate the impact of various factors on the performance of integrated systems of anaerobic digestion with microbial electrolysis cell. In this study, related articles on the topic were systematically identified and collected according to the considered criteria, and the effect size that refers to the value of the difference between variables mean (total chemical oxygen demand (TCOD) removal rate and CH4 yield) was estimated. According to the meta-analysis, fed-batch operation mode, the range of 20< temperature ≤30 °C, metal cathodes, the range of 500< anode surface area ≤5000 cm2, HRT (hydraulic retention time) >20 days,...