Sharif Digital Repository

Utilization of heat storage units in solar energy systems can resolve the challenge of fluctuation and uncertainty of the solar energy. Phase change materials (PCMs) are used as the storage media for solar energy storage systems. In this research, a system including of a solar collector and a PCM-based cascaded energy storage unit was numerically investigated. Air was used as the heat transfer fluid (HTF) and three paraffin-based materials (RT50, RT65, and RT80) were used as PCM for the energy storage unit. The investigated system mainly operates between 15 °C and 90 °C and considering different PCMs, the selected PCMs were appropriate. Paraffin-based PCMs also present acceptable thermal... 

A theoretical model concerning simultaneous diffusion and reaction was developed to describe the steady state behavior of a cationic glucose-sensitive membrane with consideration of oxygen limitation and swelling-dependent diffusivities of involved species inside the membrane. Donnan equilibrium was used to find concentrations of buffer ions inside the membrane. The profiles of species concentrations, pH, polymer volume fraction and solute diffusivity inside the membrane were predicted by the model in response to step changes of glucose concentration in the external solution. The influence of various factors on the responsiveness of the membrane was analyzed using the model. The results... 

Outsourcing as a useful strategy in the industry can be integrated into scheduling problems. Moreover, batch outsourcing is a practical assumption owing to the logistics issues for transferring the parts between the manufacturer and the subcontractors. However, this assumption is rarely addressed in the scheduling literature. In this paper, a novel single machine scheduling problem with the option of batch outsourcing is studied. The objective is to minimize the sum of the total completion time of the jobs and the total outsourcing cost. To solve the problem, first, two mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) models, named MP1 and MP2, are developed, which respectively use a straightforward... 

The use of ZrO2 nanoparticles is common in the Cu matrix to manufacture Cu/ZrO2 nanocomposites. Many approaches and parameters produce Cu/ZrO2 nanocomposites with an appropriate wear rate and other properties. Hence, proposing an accurate and reliable model was imperative. The main goal of this paper is to find out the best models among the ant colony optimization (ACO), gene expression programming (GEP), artificial bee colony (ABC), and gray wolf optimization algorithm (GWOA) to predict the wear rate of/ZrO2 nanocomposites. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first research that predicts Cu/ZrO2 nanocomposites wear rate using group modeling. To develop models, 105 data were collected... 

The reaction progress variable is a crucial concept in the advanced flamelet combustion models. As a controlling variable, a well-defined progress variable must consider the essential features of the combustion process. It is usually a heuristically defined linear combination of some major chemical species mass fractions. However, such a simple definition could lead to inaccurate results for the fuel-rich reactive mixtures or complicated fuels, due to the vast number of chemical species in the combustion process. In this paper, a new method for generating a reaction progress variable is proposed through solving a constrained optimisation problem. The proposed method uses a genetic algorithm... 

Natural gas has widely been used as a fuel in conventional Diesel and spark ignition engines. The better understanding of injector parameters on the jet structure is helpful for the combustion optimization. This paper presents an experimental and numerical study on the jet structure of gaseous fuel injector in spark ignition direct injection engine by Schlieren technique and numerical procedure. Helium was injected through a gaseous injector at the different pressure ratios and nozzle diameters to understand the effects of nozzle geometry and pressure ratio for a dedicated correlation of CNG-SIDI injector. It was found that higher pressure ratio and exit nozzle diameter led to more tip... 

In this paper, an axial dispersion mathematical model is developed to simulate a three-phase slurry bubble column reactor for direct synthesis of dimethyl ether (DME) from syngas. This large-scale reactor is modeled using mass and energy balances, catalyst sedimentation and single-bubble as well as two-bubbles class flow hydrodynamics. A comparison between the two hydrodynamic models through pilot plant experimental data from the literature shows that heterogeneous two-bubbles flow model is in better agreement with the experimental data than homogeneous single-bubble gas flow model. Also, by investigating the heterogeneous gas flow and axial dispersion model for small bubbles as well as the... 

This work presents the optimization of a solar collector surface in solar desiccant wheel cycle which for cooling process with typical configuration naming desiccant wheel, heat exchanger and water spray evaporative cooler. In this cooling cycle the thermal solar energy has used to heat the regeneration air of desiccant wheel cycle. The optimum solar collector surface has determined by taking into account of design parameters such as velocity of air, wheel speed, thickness of the desiccant and hydraulic diameter of the desiccant wheel and also operating conditions such as outside temperature, outside relative humidity, regeneration air temperature and total solar irradiance. For this... 

Ultrasonic assisted machining (UAM) is an efficient nontraditional machining operation for brittle, hard-to-cut and poor-machinability materials. In UAM, high frequency oscillation in ultrasonic range at low amplitude is imposed on the workpiece or cutting tool. In most cases, the equipments that generates and transfers the vibration, have a complicated structure, and requires significant effort to achieve their optimum function. In this work, a mathematical model is developed and an optimization method is employed for design process. This makes it possible to achieve proper setup and reduce the amount of calculation. For this purpose, the combination of a two level full factorial design is... 

Statistically based experimental designs were applied to screen and optimize the bioleaching of spent hydrocracking catalyst by Penicillium simplicissimum. Eleven factors were examined for their significance on bioleaching using a Plackett-Burman factorial design. Four significant variables (pulp density, sucrose, NaNO3, and yeast extract concentrations) were selected for the optimization studies. The combined effect of these variables on metal bioleaching was studied using a central composite design (CCD). Second-order polynomials were established to identify the relationship between the recovery percent of the metals and the four significant variables. The optimal values of the variables... 

A novel semi-active control system for suspension systems of passenger car using Magnetorheological (MR) damper is introduced. The suspension system is considered as a mass-spring model with an eight-degrees-of-freedom, a passive damper and an active damper. The semi-active vibration control is designed to reduce the amplitude of automotive vibration caused by the alteration of road profile. The control mechanism is designed based on the optimal control algorithm, Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR). In this system, the damping coefficient of the shock absorber changes actively trough inducing magnetic field. It is observed that utilizing the present control algorithm may significantly reduce... 

In the present work, numerical simulation of cross flow microfiltration of non-alcoholic beer in a tubular membrane has been studied theoretically and verified experimentally. Finite element method was used as a powerful tool for simulation. The feed stream, which flows mainly tangentially to the porous membrane surface, is modeled by the Navier-Stokes equations whereas the porous wall conditions are described by the Darcy equation that relates the pressure gradient within a flow stream to the flow rate through the permeable wall. A new model that considers transient behavior of the membrane due to fouling was used to estimate the permeate flux reduction. A pilot-scale cross flow membrane... 

In poorly developed fractured rocks, the contribution of individual fracture on rock conductivity should be considered. However, due to the lack of data, a deterministic approach cannot be used. The conventional way to model discrete fractures is to use a Poisson process, with prescribed distribution, for fracture size and orientation. Recently, a stochastic approach, based on the idea that the elastic energy due to fractures follows a Boltzmann distribution, has been used to generate realizations of correlated fractures in two dimensions. The elastic energy function has been derived by applying the appropriate physical laws in an elastic medium. The resulting energy function has been used... 

One of the factors that has hindered the commercialization of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) has been the high cost per kW from the high cost of platinum catalyst. Hence it is important to optimize the use of the platinum catalyst. In many previous PEMFC models, the catalyst distribution in Cathode Catalyst Layer (CCL) was assumed to be uniform, and there are very few models in which the variation of catalyst loading across the CCL is taken into account. This paper aims to enhance PEMFC power density by optimally distributing the catalyst used in CCL employing a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation in conjunction with agglomerate model of the CCL. First, a numerical... 

Electrospray ionization is a wide spread technique for producing polymeric microcarriers (MCs) by applying electrostatic force and ionic cross-linker, simultaneously. In this study, fabrication process of gelatin-chitosan MCs and its optimization using the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is reported. Gelatin/chitosan (G/C) blend ratio, applied voltage and feeding flow rate, their individual and interaction effects on the diameter and mechanical strength of the MCs were investigated. The obtained models for diameter and mechanical strength of MCs have a quadratic relationship with G/C blend ratio, applied voltage and feeding flow rate. Using the desirability curve, optimized G/C blend... 

Laccase production by indigenous fungus, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, requires solving optimal problems to determine the maximum production of the enzyme within a definite time period and conditions specified in the solid-state fermentation process. For this purpose, parallel to response surface methodology, an analytical approach has been proposed based on the advanced concepts of Poisson geometry and Lie groups, which lead to a system of the Hamiltonian equations. Despite the dating of the Hamiltonian approach to solving biological problems, the novelty of this paper is based on the expression of a Hamiltonian system in notions of Poisson geometry, Lie algebras and symmetry groups and... 

The electric power industry is the main part of Science development, and today, with the advent of technology, the demand for electric power has been expanded. On the other hand, smart grids are developing heavily. One of the notable features of these networks is the presence of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). The addition of these cars to the network has its own advantages and disadvantages. One of the most important issues in smart grids is network management and control of critical system parameters. In this paper the effect of these cars on the grid is investigated. These vehicles impose an increase in production capacity in the uncontrolled charge mode. They also have the... 

With the introduction of restructuring concepts to traditional power systems, a great deal of attention is given to the utilization of distributed generation. Since the integration of DG units has been known as an alternative for main grid as a resource for energy supply, the determination of optimal sizing and sitting is an important issue in the planning procedure of DG. This work presents a comprehensive multi-objective model for integration of distributed generations into a distribution network, regarding various technical, economical and environmental issues such as reduction of carbon dioxide emissions and investment & running costs while the bus voltages shall be kept within... 

Electric spring (ES) as a novel concept in power electronics has been developed for the purpose of dealing with demand-side management. In this paper, to conquer the challenges imposed by intermittent nature of renewable energy sources (RESs) and other uncertainties for constructing a secure modern microgrid (MG), the hybrid distributed operation of ESs and electric vehicles (EVs) parking lot is suggested. The proposed approach is implemented in the context of a hybrid stochastic/robust optimization (HSRO) problem, where the stochastic programming based on unscented transformation (UT) method models the uncertainties associated with load, energy price, RESs, and availability of MG equipment.... 

Network-on-Chips are now the popular communication medium to support inter-IP communications in complex on-chip systems with tens to hundreds IP cores. Higher scalability (compared to the traditional shared bus and point-to-point interconnects), throughput, and reliability are among the most important advantages of NoCs. Moreover, NoCs can well match current CAD methodologies mainly relying on modular and reusable structures with regularity of structural pattern. However, since NoCs are resource-limited, determining how to distribute application load over limited on-chip resources (e.g. switches, buffers, virtual channels, and wires) in order to improve the metrics of interest and satisfy...