Sharif Digital Repository

Today, the global environmental restrictions as well as; energy problems have directed researchers toward developing ideas of producing a clean liquid fuel from coal or natural gas as a major research topic. In this regard, a special attention is paid to the dimethyl ether (DME) as a clean material containing 34.8% oxygen possessing enough positive potential to replace the diesel and LPG fuels. One of the most economic routes for producing the DME is known to be the direct conversion of the synthesis gases and carbon dioxide first to the methanol and then its dehydration to the DME. Moreover, the DME is not limited to a particular country or resource area since small reservoirs of natural... 

An acinus is defined as the complex of airways supplied by one first order respiratory or transitional bronchiole. In this part, the replenishment of oxygen at the alveolar surface occurs by a combination of convective air flow with diffusion of oxygen in the air. So for studying gas exchange in the lung, modeling gas species transport and exchange in an acinus is important. Due to lacking direct measurements of the distribution of oxygen (or carbon dioxide) concentration in the acinus, several mathematical models have been developed and studied by numerical simulations. But in none of them the influence of breathing pattern and the role of blood flow in restricting the gas exchange rate have... 

The aim of this project is decentralized control of a group of robots (swarm robots); such that the aggregation maneuver, leader following, Identification and imaging the target, will be performed so good as to make a three-dimensional model of the target from these images. Swarm robots consist of a number of similar and limited features robots which interaction in a group of robots, will lead to special features for the group. Any agent of group decides what to do only with its local information from the environment. Swarm robots are more applicable for the jobs in which a distributed perception from the environments needed, for example space exploration and military operations.In this... 

In recent years, due to the development of cities and population growth, the number of underground floors and the depth of excavations have increased. Sustainability of excavation and control of deformation due to excavation process has always been considered as one of the important issues in geotechnical engineering. One of the most commonly used systems for deep excavation, especially in urban areas, is the soldier pile wall with tiebacks. This system consists of anchoring on soldier piles that are performed at horizontal distances around the excavation range. The cables have two parts. Unbond and bond length that, when pretensioned, have the task of transfering load out of the wedge of... 

Magnetic shape memory alloys (MSMAs) are a new class of smart materials that exhibit characteristics of large recoverable strains and high frequency. These unique characteristics, make MSMAs interesting materials for applications such as actuators, sensors, and energy harvesters. This thesis presents a three-dimensional phenomenological constitutive model for MSMAs, developed within the framework of irreversible continuum thermodynamics. To this end, a proper set of internal variables is introduced to reflect the microstructural consequences on the material macroscopic behavior. Moreover, a stress-dependent thermodynamic force threshold needed for variant reorientation is introduced which... 

Radial inflow gas turbines are widely used in auxiliary power units, small industrial gas turbines and turbocharger of internal combustion engines. They have advantage for low mass flow rate and wide range operation conditions. This research aimed to improve aerodynamic performance of the radial turbine of GT4082 Garret turbocharger. First, performance characteristics of the turbine were obtained experimentally at Turbocharger Laboratory of Sharif University of Technology. Laboratory results are the basis for modeling evaluation. Then, a one-dimensional model was developed to predict the turbine performance characteristics. The model results were compared with experimental results, that... 

Prediction of axial flow turbine’s performance with different operating conditions due to the high costs and lack of reliable empirical data is always under developing. In this type of turbine, fluid flow is three-dimensional, viscous and highly turbulent. Nowadays, although a relatively detailed picture of the flow field can be obtained by the computational and numerical tools, but using of appropriate loss models in one-dimensional modeling for the performance prediction as well as optimization of the turbine in initial design phases, is a common trend.
In the current study, aerodynamic losses in the axial flow turbine are investigated. Several loss models for the axial flow turbines... 

Nowadays, advanced and inexpensive pre-clinical methods for investigating the effects of anti-cancer drugs are expanding. One of the latest three-dimensional laboratory modeling for evaluating the effects of drugs is the use of tumor-on-chip technology, which actually models the physiological system of the body through three-dimensional scaffolds, multicellular cultures, and shaped vascular systems. In this study, three-dimensional culture of cancer cells was performed in the form of spheroids. A chip of U-shaped microstructures with and without gaps was used to trap cells and form cancer spheroids. We simulated the simultaneous effect of drug and oxygen concentration distribution inside the... 

Effect of utilizing Central Beam Column (CBC) structure on shallow, large span underground spaces excavation is studied. The CBC method focuses on increasing the overall rigidity of tunnel supporting system prior to full face excavation, in which central drift excavation is limited to the dimensions of the central beam and column to reduce disturbances. Constructing the central beam and column structure, the excavation is completed with NATM excavation method in a symmetric manner about centerline. In CBC method on each side of the centerline there is an arch structure composed of the initial lining resting on roof beam on top and bottom beam at the invert. The roof and bottom beams take the... 

As the crowded cities require public transportation and because of lack of space on the ground, Subway and boring underground tunnels encountered. In this thesis the interaction of boring the line 7 of Tehran metro with the existing station of line 1 of Tehran metro (Molavi station) is studied. By changing the soil specification, The surface settlement is significant so the soil specification is one of the important parameters of the interaction. For comparinf the effect of these parameters, the soil settlement and bending moments is investigated in different parts of station while the lower tunnel is passing beneath it. The 3D Abaqus software is used for modeling this interaction. In... 

Axial-flow compressor is one of the most basic components of gas turbine engines. Consequently, it is essential to design this machine appropriately. Full three dimensional analyses of axial-flow compressors is time consuming due to the flow field complexity, so a method with minimum running time and producing an acceptable design is required. One dimensional design method is a low cost procedure with acceptable results for preliminary stages of design. It receives inlet flow conditions, such as total pressure ratio, mass flow and rotational speed and designs a compressor which satisfies the desired input data. Too many efforts have been accomplished to predict energy losses, design... 

One major problem in sport match analysis and interpretation is that there are restricted viewpoints of the game. 3D reconstruction allows us to have virtual replay from any viewpoint so that the events such as penalties can be detected easily. For achieving this purpose, we use many cameras with overlapped views that cover almost all parts of the field. After some preprocessing, 3D reconstruction and texture mapping, we can enhance the viewer experience by having arbitrary viewpoint of the match. In this research, we use two different visual hull methods for 3D reconstruction. In the first method, the visual hull of an object is computed efficiently and robustly from image contours. This... 

Numerous studies have shown a direct relationship between skeletal muscle active force and intracellular calcium ion concentrations; In fact, no matter how the muscle is stimulated (neurological, electrical, chemical, and mechanical stimuli), the main cause of muscle activation and consequently force generation is calcium ions.According to this scientific finding, the purpose of this study is to present a new chemo-mechanical multiscale model of skeletal muscle based on the fundamental principles of continuum thermodynamics. In this model, unlike other similar studies, muscle active force is not considered as the conventional multiplication of isometric force in a set of corrective... 

Compressors are one of the most important components of gas turbines and turbomachinery processes. Thus some precise and quick tools are needed for design and analysis purposes. Despite of vast development of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools, Through-Flow Streamline Curvature Methods (SCM) has retained their position. 2D and quasi-3D forms of SCM in combination with CFD results nowadays make more than 80% of turbomachinery design process of axial and radial compressors and turbines. In this thesis, the basics of developing a tool for axial-flow compressor analysis are introduced. As will be seen, this analysis tool can be used for design purposes too. The method that is chosen for... 

The existing statistical studies implies that in Iran like most of developing countries, the great percent of houses are traditional. Statistics of the most disastrous current quakes also show damages caused by masonry structures in developing countries. The main problem of brick and masonry structures especially the unreinforced one is their weak performance against quake. Different methods are use to analyse the seismic performance of this structures. The modern endurance time method is a kind of time history analysis using standard increasing accelerograms which examines different parameters of structure behavior during excitation actions. In this project we analyse these structures using... 

Since, seepage- related problems account for more than forty percents of earth dams’ failure, seepage analysis is one of the most important stages in designing of embankment dams. The most usual method of making a seepage analysis is doing a two dimensional one in the maximum cross- section and generalizing its results to the third dimension. As a natural consequence of this kind of seepage analysis, the effect of valley shape and material properties’ changes along the third dimension are ignored and so, in narrow valleys where the cross-section changes along longitude profile or in the specific cases of nonhomogeneity, using this kind of analysis can make false results. Besides, because of...