Sharif Digital Repository

The growth of urbanization and climate change, coupled with resource limitations, has intensified the demand for controlled environment agriculture (CEA) systems to ensure food security and environmental sustainability. Vertical farming (VF), as one of the most advanced CEA methods, offers significant advantages over traditional farming in limited urban spaces. However, the high energy consumption in these systems poses a serious challenge, leading to substantial economic and environmental costs. This study aims to develop a dynamic optimization model for vertical farming by leveraging machine learning models and advanced optimization techniques to minimize energy consumption and enhance... 

Numerical investigation of flow field and determination of velocity components in swirl flow are novel and important subjects in combustion chamber of swirl flow. The exact understanding of vortex phenomena and flow structures in vortex engine results in better design and control in terms of stability, geometry, cooling, and combustion efficiency. Although, numerical approaches are computationally complex, they are worthwhile and efficient. The aim of this work is to study the velocity field in a bidirectional swirl flow within the combustion chamber using numerical approaches. The investigation of flow field has been performed in the cold chamber. Four different models (RSM and LES) have... 

We present here an analysis of controlling the Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) using the Q-learning algorithm, the most widely-known among reinforcement learning (RL) techniques. The method is to train the controller to guide and sustain the fuel cell power output in the 2.5 kW mark by way of manipulating elements of the reaction subsystem including the fuel cell current, the relative humidity, and the anode/cathode pressures. As the Q-learning algorithm need be implemented within a fuel cell simulation environment, the mathematical model known as Amphlett steady-state model of the PEM fuel cell was employed. The semi-empirical nature of this model necessitates the... 

Deduplication is a data reduction technique, which eliminates redundant data by storing only a single copy of each file or block, along with a reference to the unique copy of data. Deduplication reduces the storage space and bandwidth requirements of data storage systems, and becomes more effective when applied across multiple users. All deduplication techniques use cryptographic algorithms to detect duplication instead of byte-by-byte comparison between input data and all previously stored data. In this manner, the data stream is divided into non-overlapping chunks of data. Then, the hash values of non-overlapping chunks create an exclusive criterion to identify duplicates. In this thesis,... 

With ever increasing amount of digital data, numerous efforts have been made in recent years towards improving reliability and availability of data storage systems. Previous studies have reported significant gap between estimated failure rates and observed failure rates in the field. This gap is mainly due to neglecting correlated failures in Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAIDs). Proposing a model to consider correlated failures can significantly improve reliability models. In this thesis, we present a reliability model which considers correlated failures in RAID arrays. In the propose model, we use a correlation probability to take into account the correlation of failures between... 

Hoganas is a gas based process which is more than a hundred years old. In this research, studying parameters affecting the quality of sponge iron like temperature, time, particle size, type of reductant, type and dimension of crucible were discussed. Groups of particle size was 0-150,150-500,500-1000microns and temperature range was 900, 950, 1000, 1100, 1150°C. Time of tests was between 2 to 30 hours.at 1000 °C and 10 hours maximum metallization degree was 94.76.while at 1100 °C and 5hours better metallization degree was achieved. at 1000 °C and 5 h, particles with 500-1000micron size had better result than other groups.at higher temperature effect of particle size was gradually decreased... 

Aluminum sulfate is widely used in water treatment as a polyelectrolyte. Its dissolution and recrystallization into nanoparticles directly affects the working conditions. This study concerns determination of the metastable zone and induction time in nucleation of aluminum sulfate nanoparticles in aqueous media and in presence of acetone as anti-solvent. Later the effect of SDS on the metastable zone and induction time are also studied.. The study also shows if the presence of anti-solvents and surface active agents can vary this phenomenon. The study also adds to our understanding of the media in creation and stabilization of nanoparticles. This project has a special focus on the changes... 

Reservoir computing, a computational paradigm nested within recurrent neural networks, offers a powerful framework for processing time-dependent inputs, exhibiting remarkable performance in tasks such as voice recognition and time series approximation. Recently, there has been a burgeoning interest in implementing reservoir computing in the realm of optics due to its potential for reduced power consumption, increased bandwidth, and enhanced parallelization. The crux of implementing a reservoir computer with artificial neurons lies in utilizing a nonlinear function with a delay line, which accumulates temporally delayed outputs of the function, integrates them with new inputs, and feeds them... 

The air distribution is the main factor of contaminant transportation in cleanrooms. The experimental method is the most reliable one for investigation of flow field, which the difficulties associated with it, has limited not only the examination of the flow field in cleanrooms, but also the improvement of their qualities. Most of the experimental researches in indoor air quality concern conventional rooms and do not take into account specific supply-exhaust diffuser configurations, which are used in cleanrooms. Using small-scale models can reduce the complexity and the cost of measurements. In this research, the 3D velocity field of a small-scale cleanroom is measured in three different... 

The aim of this research is to analyze the failure and investigate crack growth in graphene using peridynamic theory. The presence of spatial partial derivatives in the equations of classical continuum mechanics has led to the fact that methods based on this theory are not valid in displacement discontinuities such as cracks. Peridynamic theory emerges as a nonlocal reformulation of mechanics, uniquely well-suited for modeling discontinuities and dynamic fractures in both continuous and discrete media. Its adaptability extends to various dimensions, encompassing phenomena at the nanoscale. In the present study, based on the ordinary state-based peridynamic theory, we investigated the... 

Taghizadeh Manzari, M. (In this work, a modified Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method, with a new moving solid boundary treatment approach, is utilized to simulate the particulateflow problems. The renormalized first and second derivative schemes which lead tothe consistency of the method, are also used along with a modification to the continuityequation which prevents the spurious pressure oscillations. The proposed methodis validated by solving benchmark problems of solid body motion in channel flows.There is a good agreement between the obtained results and those reported in theliterature. The convergence of solutions for different domain discretizations is alsoassessed. In order... 

The study on new rheoforming technologies of semi-solid alloys has recently been one main subject interesting many researchers and industrials, and so many new methods about preparing semi-solid alloy slurry and rheoforming process have been suggested. Among more than 20 proposed methods, only MHD (Magneto Hydro Dynamics) and EMS (electromagnetic stirring) methods has been industrialized. In this research, the semi-solid slurry of A356 aluminum alloy was fabricated by electromagnetic stirrer under different conditions of stirring current, stirring time and pouring temperatures. Then the semi-solid slurry prepared in optimum conditions was injected into a step-die cavity by a drop device and... 

During the various stages of uranium processing in Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF) in Isfahan, significant amounts of liquid waste stream is produced which is sent to evaporation ponds. In addition to environmental considerations, uranium recovery from existing pools is also economically feasible due to high concentration uranium in liquid waste. Several methods have been evolved over the years to remove dissolved uranium from uranium bearing solution. These methods are: chemical precipitation, liquid-liquid extraction, ion exchange and membrane processes. The purpose of this study is recovery of uranium from liquid waste of Isfahan UCF plant by using ion exchange method. Although this... 

Solid-State Disks (SSDs) offer advantages such as no mechanical parts, low power consumption, and constant read latency. SSDs, however, suffer from shortcomings such as erase-before-update requirement and limited endurance.Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) are commonly used in storage servers to enhance performance and reliability. To further enhance system performance, one can employ efficient Input/Output (I/O) scheduling algorithms suitedto the disk structure in RAID-based systems.In this thesis, we present an I/O scheduling method to improve endurance and performance of SSD-based RAID systems. In the proposed I/O scheduling algorithm, read requests are sent directly to SSDs and... 

Recently, security of integrated circuits has received more attention as ICs have become more complex and their usage has increased in safety critical systems. Many orgeniaztions use the ICs that made by third party companies. This is due to the high costs to build and maintain state-of-the-art semiconductor factories. This subject puts the trustworthiness of the ICs under the question. The chips might be maliciously modified in each stage of the manufacturing chain. This threat is called hardware backdoor in scientific community. The aim of this project is to assess the features embedded in a microprocessor and evaluate the side channel effect of various hardware backdoors. hardware... 

Growth factors play an important role in tissue repair and regeneration including articular cartilage tissue. Direct injection of growth factor is a common practice in clinics. However, it has been shown that this method is not very effective and, in some cases, induces some side effects. Moreover, incorporation of this valuable signals in systems where they are quickly released and washed out is not effective as well. Thereby the aim of this study was to design and fabricate an efficient system to effectively deliver growth factors for cartilage tissue engineering. The designed system is an injectable, in situ forming hydrogel, based on hyaluronic acid (HA) as a biocompatible and attractive... 

The Fukushima accident is one of the reasons why the spent fuel pool (SFP) is an important safety element. The large amount of spent fuel inside the spent fuel pool has made it a source of hydrogen and radioactive material in the accident of any disturbance to pool cooling. Although the loss of spent fuel pool cooling system accident has a slow transient, it can lead to disasters if you ignore it. In this project, spent fuel pool of Bushehr Power Plant unit ‘I’ was simulated by Ansys Fluent and the natural circulation of fluids in the absence of cooling system was investigated. The distribution of water temperature in the pool was investigated for the worst possible spent fuel pool loading... 

The solution to the hyperbolic conservation laws may involve discontinuities or shocks even if initial condition is smooth. Devising low cost methods which can identify shocks accurately, has always been a challenge. This project focuses on applying high resolution schemes to the solution of two and three phase Buckley-Leverett equation and hyperbolic conservation laws in general.Buckley-Leverett equation is a transport equation which is used to describe two and three phase flows in porous media. Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory (WENO) schemes with reconstruction on fluxes in finite difference formulation are used to solve one dimensional systems of equations including Euler equation as... 

Nowadays energy consumption increases in our daily life and incredibly enhancement of growth rate can be seen recent years. Hence, the use of renewable energy is prioritized. Solar energy is one of the choices because it is free and available. In this research, it has been tried to get electrical and thermal power at a reasonable cost both during the day and night. The system is equipped with a linear parabolic concentrator with a collector installed in the center of the concentrator which has been installed on its faces photovoltaic cells and thermoelectric modules, and five different systems have been tested with different components. Also, the paraffin has been used as a phase change...