Sharif Digital Repository

Dealing with numerical analysis of problems, especially ones with semi-infinite boundaries, scaled boundary finite element method has emerged as one of the efficient tools for the task. Combining the exactness of strong forms with the flexibility of weak formulations makes the method an improvement to its predecessors. Problem with the method arises when the analytical solution of the semi-discretized system is not available, which is the case for numerous problems. In the most recent attempt to solve the issue, a shooting method was proposed for elastostatic problems. Generality of the method removes any concerns regarding the type of governing equations since it no longer needs any... 

The scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM) is known for its inherent ability to simulate unbounded domains and singular fields, and its flexibility in the meshing procedure. Keeping the analytical form of the field variables along one coordinate intact, it transforms the governing partial differential equations of the problem into a system of one-dimensional (initial–)boundary value problems. However, closed-form solution of the said system is not available for most cases (e.g. transient heat transfer, acoustics, ultrasonics, etc.) since the system cannot be diagonalized in general. This paper aims to establish a numerical tool within the context of the shooting technique to evaluate... 

Natural convective heat transfer of Fe3O4/ethylene glycol nanofluids around the platinum wire as a heater in the absence and presence of the high electric field was investigated, numerically. The control volume finite element method was employed for the numerical simulation. Effects of the flow model, the volume fraction of nanoparticles, Rayleigh number, and the electric field intensity on the natural heat transfer coefficient (NHTC) of nanofluid were studied. Simulation results of single-phase and two-phase flow models showed that the two-phase model could better predict experimental data than the single-phase model due to take into account the velocity of each phase in the mixture. The... 

The production with high quality at the lowest production time can be a key means to success in the competitive environment of manufacturing companies. Therefore, in recent years, the need for extra precise and high-speed machine tools has been impressively increased in manufacturing applications. One of the main sources of errors in the motion of high-speed spindles is the occurrence of non-repetitive runouts (NRRO) in the bearing. The NRRO can be caused by some factors such as the form of balls, the waviness of rings, the number of balls, and the permutation of one or two balls in the ball bearing. In this paper, a Taguchi-based approach is proposed for the optimal design of high-speed... 

One of the most popular models that has been applied to predict the fluid velocity inside the fracture with impermeable walls is the cubic law. It highlights that the mean flux along the fracture is proportional to the cubic of fracture aperture. However, for a fractured porous medium, the normal and tangential interface conditions between the fracture and porous matrix can change the velocity profile inside the fracture. In this paper, a correction factor is introduced for flow equation along the fracture by imposing the continuity of normal and tangential components of velocity at the interface between the fracture and porous matrix. As a result, the mean velocity inside the fracture... 

Purpose: Spiral-wound heat exchangers (SWHEs) are widely used in different industries. In special applications, such as cryogenic (HEs), fluid properties may significantly depend on fluid temperature. This paper aims to present an analytical method for design and rating of SWHEs considering variable fluid properties with consistent shell geometry and single-phase fluid. Design/methodology/approach: To consider variations of fluid properties, the HE is divided into identical segments, and the fluid properties are assumed to be constant in each segment. Validation of the analytical method is accomplished by using three-dimensional numerical simulation with shear stress transport k-ω model, and... 

In this article, an algebraic solution for localizing a moving target using a nonstationary multistatic radar system is proposed. By utilizing the quadruple hybrid measurement set, which consists of time delay, Doppler shift, angle of arrival, and angle rate measurements, the proposed method can estimate the target position and velocity vectors via a simple one-stage weighted least squares estimator without the need for introduction of the nuisance parameters, which enables us to locate the target with the minimum number of antennas. The proposed estimator takes the uncertainty concerned with the position and velocity of the antennas in its design. The proposed estimator is shown to be... 

Fracture process of fiber-reinforced concrete notched beams is investigated here. Polypropylene macrosynthetic fibers are utilized for reinforcing concrete specimens, and a high-strength mix design is used to produce strong bonds between the embossed polypropylene fibers and the cementitious matrix of beams. Considering different locations for the notch, this study focuses on bridging mechanism under different conditions using both experimental and numerical approaches. First mode of fracture occurs due to opening of crack faces. This mode of failure is simulated by imposing symmetric boundary conditions on middle-notched beams. Inducing the notch with an offset from the middle, mixed-mode... 

This study introduces a numerical method for investigating the appropriate arrangement of visco-pseudo-elastic dampers applicable to shell and plate structures under large deformation. These passive dampers are considered as discrete shape memory alloy (SMA) wires and viscoelastic layers. The SMA constitutive model is adopted and developed based on carried out experimental tests (i.e., calorimetry and tensile tests) on Ni-rich Nitinol alloy samples. Pseudoelastic, pseudoplastic, strain recovery and de-twinning phenomena are perceived experimentally. The presented model characterizes pseudoelastic response of shape memory alloys. The current finite element formulation is based on an... 

In this work, synthesis of CuIn0.75Ga0.25S2 (CIGS) nanoparticles, the formation of stable dispersion, deposition of high-quality films and, fabrication of thin-film Perovskite solar cells are reported. The stability of nanoparticle ink is crucial in the formation of device-quality films. The chalcogenide-based materials are widely used in thin-film solar cells; in particular, Cu(In,Ga)S2 are used as an absorber and hole transporting layer. In the present study, the nanoparticles of about 20 nm size and bandgap of 1.5 eV are synthesized using a heat-up method. A variety of solvents are used as dispersing media and the stability of the inks is evaluated by precise optical monitoring. We... 

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) introduce a promising electrochemical conversion technology to generate electricity directly from fuel oxidization. A three-dimensional (3D) numerical model is proposed to evaluate the SOFC performance by employing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach based on the finite element method. This research includes simultaneously solving momentum, energy, and mass transport equations linked with the electrochemical reactions. First, the modeling results of a SOFC system with a rectangular channel in the absence of obstacles are compared with the experimental data, showing very good agreement. The effects of different shapes and numbers of obstacles on fuel... 

Microfluidic systems are an interesting topic for investigation due to their wide-spreading applications. Nowadays, polymeric solutions are used mainly for the generation of microparticles in biomedical engineering, food, and pharmaceutical industries. Droplet-based microfluidic devices have proposed an extensive interest in many applications such as chemical/biological/nanomaterial preparation to understand deeply the droplet size and formation in microchannels. However, numerous experimental and numerical studies have been done for oil-water combination, polymeric solutions behavior in the presence of oil has not been investigated widely. Therefore, it is important to understand the... 

The hydro-acoustic analysis of submerged propellers is an important issue in marine industries, which is examined to reduce the vibrations and noise level of vessels alongside reducing fuel consumption and improving hydrodynamic efficiency. B-series propellers are common propellers whose hydrodynamic and acoustic investigation through applying suitable rake, and skew angle can offer proper results to designers for enhancing the hydrodynamic performance and reducing noise. In this study, a model of the five-bladed B-series propeller with the normal skew angle is chosen. The effects of geometric parameters, including the rake angle, skew angle, geometric pitch ratio, and the number of blades... 

Liquefaction is a phenomenon through which saturated sandy soil loses its shear strength and turns into a liquefied state. One of the most detrimental consequences of liquefaction is the reconsolidation volumetric settlements after the earthquakes, which is due to the dissipation of excess pore pressure caused by earthquakes. Severe floods can follow these settlements in free fields such as grounds close to the sea or rivers. Several researchers studied this phenomenon using data obtained from experiments in the lab or observations in the fields. Previous works were mainly based on a limited number of experimental observations and considered loadings and boundary conditions that were... 

A key direction toward enhancing the long term and outdoor stability of the perovskite solar cells is encapsulation. As a result, a suitable encapsulation package is required to prevent moisture and oxygen penetration toward the perovskite solar cells. In this work, a low-cost commercially available bilayer structure of poly (methyl methacrylate)/ room-temperature vulcanizing silicone rubber (RTV) encapsulation package for enhancing the long term stability of the perovskite solar cells has been investigated. Encapsulated cells retained more than 80% of the initial efficiency at the environmental condition of 50% moisture, and room temperature after 1000 h, however reference cell efficiency... 

A viscoelastic microcantilever beam is analytically analyzed based on the modified strain gradient theory. Kelvin-Voigt scheme is used to model beam viscoelasticity. By applying Euler-Bernoulli inextensibility of the centerline condition based on Hamilton's principle, the nonlinear equation of motion and the related boundary conditions are derived from shortening effect theory and discretized by Galerkin method. Inner damping, nonlinear curvature effect, and nonlinear inertia terms are also taken into account. In the present study, the generalized derived formulation allows modeling any nonlinear combination such as nonlinear terms that arise due to inertia, damping, and stiffness, as well... 

The aim of present study is to investigate the convective heat and mass transfer in steady MHD boundary layer flow of an electrically conducting micropolar fluid over an inclined surface. Partial differential equations resulting from the mathematical modeling of the phenomenon are reduce to nonlinear ODEs, and a finite difference based scheme has been adopted to iteratively find the numerical solution by employing the successive over-relaxation (SOR) method. A self-developed computer code has been used in the MATLAB environment. Influence of chemical reaction, Brownian motion, thermophoresis, and viscous dissipation on the relevant features of the flow are discussed and analyzed through... 

The aim of present study is to investigate the convective heat and mass transfer in steady MHD boundary layer flow of an electrically conducting micropolar fluid over an inclined surface. Partial differential equations resulting from the mathematical modeling of the phenomenon are reduce to nonlinear ODEs, and a finite difference based scheme has been adopted to iteratively find the numerical solution by employing the successive over-relaxation (SOR) method. A self-developed computer code has been used in the MATLAB environment. Influence of chemical reaction, Brownian motion, thermophoresis, and viscous dissipation on the relevant features of the flow are discussed and analyzed through... 

Researchers usually simplify their simulations by considering the Newtonian fluid assumption in microfluidic devices. However, it is essential to study the behavior of real non-Newtonian fluids in such systems. Moreover, using the external electric or magnetic fields in these systems can be very beneficial for manipulating the droplet size. This study considers the simulation of the process of non-Newtonian droplets’ formation under the influence of an external electric field. The novelty of this study is the use of a shear-thinning fluid as the droplet phase in this process, which has been less studied despite its numerous applications. The effects of an external electric field on this... 

This paper aims at investigating the seismic behavior of strengthened reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls using a 3D finite element analysis. A series of four different configurations of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites and four different schemes of steel elements are utilized to compare the two methods of retrofitting RC shear walls with similar dimensions and reinforcement ratios. Nonlinear simulations of the RC shear walls are conducted under the action of lateral cyclic loading in ABAQUS Explicit software. In addition, the numerical modeling for RC walls strengthened by CFRP composites as well as steel elements are validated according to the previous experimental...