Sharif Digital Repository

Solar updraft tower (SUT) is a simple power plant in which ventilation of heated air inside a channel drives a turbine. This system is recognised as suitable for areas with abundant solar radiation. As a result, there is no extensive research on the performance of SUTs under mild solar radiation. Studies show that strong ambient crosswinds can affect the performance of a SUT. In this paper, the efficiency of SUTs in areas which benefit from strong winds, despite low solar radiation, is investigated through numerical modelling. Comparison is made between the efficiency of a commercial-scale SUT in Manzanares (Spain) with intensive solar radiation, and one of the same size potentially located... 

The objective of the present work is to compare the performance of the regenerator of pulse tube refrigerators at low and high frequencies. The hydrodynamic and thermal behavior of the regenerator is investigated in this respect. To consider the system performance, a system of conservation equations including two energy equations for the regenerator as a porous media is employed. The present model considers one-dimensional, periodic, unsteady, compressible flow in the regenerator. The conservation equations are transformed by implementing the volumetric average scheme. The method of harmonic approximation is employed to derive an analytical solution. To explore the system performance, net... 

This paper presents a hybrid scheduling technique for generating the predictive schedules of passenger trains. The algorithm, which represents a combination of simulated annealing and a constraint-based heuristic, has been designed using an object-oriented methodology and is suitable for a primarily single-track railway with some double-track sections. The search process gets started from a good initial solution created by the scheduling heuristic and continues, according to the simulated annealing search control strategy. The heuristic is also used in the neighborhood exploration process. This hybrid approach solves the problem in a short span of time. Simulation experiments, with the real... 

This paper introduces a new hybrid electro membrane bioreactor (HEMBR) for reverse osmosis (RO) pretreatment and advanced treatment of effluent by simultaneously integrating electrical coagulation (EC) with a membrane bioreactor (MBR) and its performance was compared with conventional MBR. Experimental results and their statistical analysis showed removal efficiency for suspended solids (SS) of almost 100% for both reactors. HEMBR removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) improved by 4% and membrane fouling was alleviated according to transmembrane pressure (TMP). The average silt density index (SDI) of HEMBR permeate samples was slightly better indicating less RO membrane fouling. Moreover,... 

The use of hybrid renewable energy has increased in recent years due to the growing environmental concerns caused by the consumption of fossil fuels. The purpose of this study was the economic-environmental feasibility of using hybrid energy systems in one of the most polluted and populated provinces in Iran, Isfahan province. Various components of the hybrid energy system such as wind turbine (WT), photovoltaic panel (PV), diesel generator (DG), converter (CV) along with two scenarios of energy storage including battery (BT) and hydrogen storage have been considered in modeling the energy system. Six scenarios were considered based on the combination of different components for supplying... 

In this study, two conceptual models, the classic reservoir (CR) model and exchange reservoirs model embedded by dual porosity approach (DPR) are developed for simulation of karst aquifer functioning drained by multiple outlets. The performances of two developed models are demonstrated at a less developed karstic aquifer with three spring outlets located in Zagros Mountain in the south-west of Iran using 22-years of daily data. During the surface recharge, a production function based on water mass balance is implemented for computing the time series of surface recharge to the karst formations. The efficiency of both models has been assessed for simulation of daily spring discharge during the... 

In this research, cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) electrospun nanofiber membrane (ENM) was prepared by electrospinning method in order to separate the contaminants of an industrial wastewater. The influence of various electrospinning parameters on morphology and average fiber diameter of the membranes were investigated by scanning electron microscopy and image analysis. The permeability of the membranes was evaluated by measuring pure water flux. In order to investigate the performance of the prepared membranes for tomato wastewater treatment, the rejection of the pollution indices and flux were determined. The results demonstrated the potential of using CAB nanofiber membrane for... 

Traditional fragmented and mechanistic science is unable to cope with issues about sustainability, as these are often related to complex, self-organizing systems. In the paper, sustainable development is seen as an unending process defined neither by fixed goals nor by specific means of achieving them. It is argued that, in order to understand the sources of and the solutions to modern problems, linear and mechanistic thinking must give way to non-linear and organic thinking, more commonly referred to as systems thinking. System Dynamics, which operates in a whole-system fashion, is put forward as a powerful methodology to deal with issues of sustainability. Examples of successful... 

A novel MED-based desalination system for low-grade heat sources with a temperature between 65 °C and 90 °C has been proposed. Low-grade heat-driven desalination systems are of the most important methods for increasing energy efficiency and assisting the environment along with alleviating the water scarcity problem. The new proposed system is known as cascade multi-effect distillation (CMED). It is designed based on multi-step heat extraction from the heat source fluid (HSF). Multi-step heat absorption helps to form two arrays of MED effects and to utilize two boosters to achieve better performance. The advantage of this system is less complexity (for example, lower vapor injection), and... 

We hereby demonstrate symmetric and asymmetric supercapacitors (SSCs and ASCs) based on core/shell-like Ni-Co oxide@cotton//Fe2O3-carbon nanotubes@cotton that are capable of storing a remarkable amount of energy, while retaining a high power density and long cycle life. Hierarchical, porous structures of Ni-Co-O nano-rod (NR) decorated Pd-activated cotton fibers (CFs) were fabricated using an eco-benign hydrothermal method and directly used as the cathode of the supercapacitors. Fe2O3-single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) decorated CFs were employed as anodes of the fabricated ASCs. The assembled Ni-Co-O@cotton//Fe2O3-SWCNTs@cotton based ASCs possessed the benefits of a relatively high energy... 

Progression in the renewable energy field is tied to the development of high-performance energy storage devices with superior power and energy densities. Herein, an innovative material design was employed to prepare binder-free nickel-cobalt sulfide (NCS) on niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5)-decorated carbon spheres (CSs). Initially, CSs were directly grown on nickel foam (NF) via a hydrothermal carbonization approach. Core/shell-like NCS@Nb2O5@CS-NF was then synthesized through a hydrothermal process, followed by an electrodeposition process. When employed as an electrode material, NCS@Nb2O5@CS-NF achieved an excellent volumetric capacity of 9300 C L−1 at a current density of 18 A L−1. Later, an... 

In this paper, a simpler implementation of the well-known droop method for the control of parallel Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems is presented. In this method, in the power-sharing control scheme, the output current is calculated by software without the need for a current sensor, resulting in a simpler and cheaper structure. By doing so, the number of feedback sensors is reduced from three to two. The paralleling strategy uses the droop method in which the control strategy is based on the drop in the inverter output frequency and amplitude. The application of Proportional-Resonant (PR) controllers is also extended to parallel inverter and its superior performance over the... 

In this research, the potential of bismuth chromate (BCO), a new bismuth-based semiconductor belongs to the family of Bi2XO6 (X = Mo, W, or Cr), was introduced by a novel 1D/2D structure consist of BCO nanobelts and N2-freezed ultra-wrinkled graphitic carbon nitride (N–CN) nanosheets. To enhance intimate contact between BCO and N–CN (BCO/N–CN composite), surface oxygen vacancy (VO) was created as an efficient electron transfer highway using a simple alkaline-treatment-assisted method. Various characterization techniques, including XRD, FT-IR, EPR, FE-SEM, TEM, BET, DRS, PL, EIS, and photocurrent transient analyses were conducted to elucidate the physicochemical aspects of catalysts. The... 

In the present research, proton exchange membranes based on partially sulfonated poly (ether sulfone) (S-PES) with various degrees of sulfonation were synthesized. It was found that the increasing of sulfonation degree up to 40% results in the enhancement of water uptake, ion exchange capacity and proton conductivity properties of the prepared membranes to 28.1%, 1.59 meq g -1, and 0.145 S cm -1, respectively. Afterwards, nanocomposite membranes based on S-PES (at the predetermined optimum sulfonation degree) containing various loading weights of organically treated montmorillonite (OMMT) were prepared via the solution intercalation technique. X-ray diffraction patterns revealed the... 

This paper proposes a decentralized market-based model for long-term capacity investment decisions in a liberalized electricity market. Investment decisions are fundamentally based on total revenues gained by investors. In most electricity markets, the complementary mechanisms are designed to ensure a desired level of reliability while covering investment costs of the suppliers. In such an environment, investment decisions are highly sensitive to expectation of price signals in both of energy market and capacity mechanisms. In this work, the system dynamics concepts are used to model the structural characteristics of electricity market such as, long-term firms' behavior and relationships... 

The current performance-based seismic assessment procedure can be computationally intensive as it requires a large number of time history analyses (THA) each requiring time intensive post-processing of results. This study proposes the endurance time analysis (ETA) method as an alternative method to THA and incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). ETA is a time history based dynamic pushover procedure that applies a set of gradually intensifying acceleration functions to the structure and monitors the performance of the building accordingly. In this paper, the application of ETA in the seismic assessment of multistory steel concentrically braced frames is compared with THA and IDA methods.... 

Using gas-liquid lifting pumps is a quite different technology for pumping two or three phase flows rather than other types of pumping systems. Therefore, finding performance characteristic chart for this type of pumping system seems to be necessary. In this type of pumping system, the liquid phase is pushed upward by the compressed air which has been injected in the bottom of upriser pipe of the pump. Therefore, compressed air acts as the driving force in gas lifting pumps instead of moving parts in ordinary pumps. It can be concluded that the definition of characteristic curve used for ordinary pump is not very appropriate for this type of pumping system. In this study, it has been... 

In this work, attempt is made to development of active non-precious metal catalysts (NPMCs) for the oxygen reduction reaction in polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) based on the heat treatment of poly-aniline/transition metal/carbon precursors. All the materials have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) small and wide angle, N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy (XPS). Moreover for electrochemical evaluation of samples, Rotating Disk electrode (RDE) technique and Fuel Cell test were employed. The results showed that onset potential for the optimized... 

A Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm for a Flow Shop Sequence Dependent Group Scheduling (FSDGS) problem, with minimization of total flow time as the criterion (Fmmls, Spuc, prmu 52 Q), is proposed in this research. An encoding scheme based on Ranked Order Value (ROV) is developed, which converts the continuous position value of particles in PSO to job and group permutations. A neighborhood search strategy, called Individual Enhancement (IE), is fused to enhance the search and to balance the exploration and exploitation. The performance of the algorithm is compared with the best available meta-heuristic algorithm in literature, i.e. the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm, based... 

In this paper, the performance of a turbocharger twin-entry radial inflow turbine is investigated analytically and experimentally under steady state, full and partial admission conditions. In this modeling, the mass flow rate, pressure ratio and efficiency of the turbine are assumed unknown. The turbine geometry and the inlet total pressure and temperature are known, hence, the turbine performance characteristics can be obtained. In the turbocharger laboratory, performance characteristics of the turbine are determined, measuring the main parameters for various operating conditions. Comparing the model and experimental results shows good agreement. Also, considering the effect of test...