Sharif Digital Repository

A novel organic–inorganic hybrid tandem solar cell with inverted structure is proposed. This efficient double-junction hybrid tandem solar cell consists of a single-junction hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) subcell with n-i-p structure as front cell and a P3HT:PCBM organic subcell with inverted structure as back cell. In order to optimize the hybrid tandem cell, we have performed a simulation based on transfer matrix method. We have compared the characteristics of this novel structure with a conventional structure. As a result, a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 6.1 and 24% improvement compared to the conventional hybrid tandem cell was achieved. We also discuss the high potential... 

An inverted organic solar cell (IOSC) with nanograting array as anode of the cell has been simulated and analyzed using a combined electrical and optical approach. We have used finite difference time domain (FDTD) method for optimizing device structure. We have compared the characteristics of the IOSC with grating structure with a reference IOSC without grating structure. As a result, an improvement of 11% and 26% in power conversion efficiency (PCE) and short circuit current (JSC) compared to the reference structure was achieved. An analysis is provided on the origin of reduced fill factor (FF) in the IOSC with grating structure. We also have discussed about disadvantage of using optical... 

Nowadays, the significance of sustainability has urged composite manufacturers to replace traditional synthetic fibers with eco-friendly natural alternatives due to their environmental and economic benefits. This work aims to fabricate hybrid polypropylene (PP) composites with short flax fibers, octene-ethylene copolymer (POE) rubber particles, and maleic anhydride-grafted polypropylene (MAPP) compatibilizer. The main goal is to gain an insight into the combined effect of toughening mechanisms induced by the short fibers and rubber particles at the crack tip and wake of composites, which is a crucial step in reaching a balance between toughness and rigidity. In this regard, a novel... 

Motivation: Single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) offers the opportunity to dissect heterogeneous cellular compositions and interrogate the cell-type-specific gene expression patterns across diverse conditions. However, batch effects such as laboratory conditions and individual-variability hinder their usage in cross-condition designs. Results: Here, we present a single-cell Generative Adversarial Network (scGAN) to simultaneously acquire patterns from raw data while minimizing the confounding effect driven by technical artifacts or other factors inherent to the data. Specifically, scGAN models the data likelihood of the raw scRNA-seq counts by projecting each cell onto a latent embedding.... 

It is a current practice to employ composite claya mixture of clay and aggregates that float within the clayey matrixas the core of embankment dams that have classically been constructed from pure clays. Experience has shown that significant pore pressures could build up during cyclic undrained loading in composite clays. This may threaten dam stability during earthquake loading. However, it is difficult to attribute a single value to excess pore pressure in conventional seismic stability analysis because of the random nature of earthquake loading, leading to uncertainty in the evaluation of factor of safety against sliding. This article evaluates the importance of pore pressure build-up in... 

The alkaline treatment condition plays a crucial role in governing the ultimate properties of flax fibers. In this study, flax fibers were modified with mild alkalization and severe mercerization conditions to give fundamental insight into how the molecular-scale changes in cell wall fine structure and cellulose supramolecular structure can affect the macroscopic properties of fibers. SEM, FTIR, XRD, TGA, and DSC techniques were employed to characterize the variations in morphology, composition, crystalline structure, and thermal properties of fibers. Also, tensile tests evaluated their reinforcing performance in polypropylene-based composites. The results indicated that alkalization in 5%... 

The alkaline treatment condition plays a crucial role in governing the ultimate properties of flax fibers. In this study, flax fibers were modified with mild alkalization and severe mercerization conditions to give fundamental insight into how the molecular-scale changes in cell wall fine structure and cellulose supramolecular structure can affect the macroscopic properties of fibers. SEM, FTIR, XRD, TGA, and DSC techniques were employed to characterize the variations in morphology, composition, crystalline structure, and thermal properties of fibers. Also, tensile tests evaluated their reinforcing performance in polypropylene-based composites. The results indicated that alkalization in 5%... 

Al-15wt.% Mg2Si composites were prepared by in situ casting and characterized in wear tests. Previous to the extrusion of specimens at 470°C - varying extrusion ratio (7.4, 14.1 and 25), the as-cast composites were homogenized at 500°C for 5h, followed by slow furnace cooling. The microstructure, hardness and sliding wear behavior were characterized for both, the as-cast and hot extruded composites. Results show that increasing the extrusion ratio causes a significant improvement in hardness and wear resistance. This is ascribed to the observed decrease in average size and better distribution of Mg2Si particles, in tandem with a remarkable decrease in porosity percentages, which goes from... 

The aim of this research is the study of hexyltriphenylphosphonium bromide (HTPB) ionic liquid as a bifunctional promoter (solvent and catalyst) in the presence of cerium(IV) ammonium nitrate as a single electron oxidant for the Michael reaction at room temperature and solvent-free conditions. A novel, one-pot and environmentally benign the process to achieve the chemoselective of 2-(3-oxo-1,3-diarylpropyl)malononitrile derivatives instead of 2-(1,3-diarylallylidene)malononitriles using a three-component reaction involving acetophenone derivatives, various aromatic aldehydes and malononitrile was developed. This protocol is simple and provides biologically interesting products in good... 

In this paper, the stability of whirling composite cylindrical shells partially filled with two liquid phases is studied. Using the first-order shear shell theory, the structural dynamics of the shell is modeled and based on the Navier-Stokes equations for ideal liquid, a 2D model is developed for liquid motion at each section of the cylinder. In steady state condition, liquids are supposed to locate according to mass density. In this study, the thick shells are investigated. Using boundary conditions between liquids, the model of coupled fluid-structure system is obtained. This coupled fluid-structure model is employed to determine the critical speed of the system. The effects of the main... 

In this paper, we consider the problem of secret key agreement in state-dependent 3-receiver broadcast channels. In the proposed model, there are two legitimate receivers, an eavesdropper and a transmitter where the channel state information is non-causally available at the transmitter. We consider two setups. In the first setup, the transmitter tries to agree on a common key with the legitimate receivers while keeping it concealed from the eavesdropper. Simultaneously, the transmitter agrees on a private key with each of the legitimate receivers that needs to be kept secret from the other legitimate receiver and the eavesdropper. For this setup, we derive inner and outer bounds on the... 

In this work, studies of underground gas storage (UGS) were performed on a partially depleted, naturally fractured gas reservoir through compositional simulation. Reservoir dynamic model was calibrated by history matching of about 20 years of researvoir production. Effects of fracture parameters, i.e. fracture shape factor, fracture permeability and porosity were studied. Results showed that distribution of fracture density affects flow and production of water, but not that of gas, through porous medium. However, due to high mobility of gas, the gas production and reservoir average pressure are insensitive to fracture shape factor. Also, it was found that uniform fracture permeability... 

The main objective of perforating is to connect the wellbore to the reservoir zone by creating tunnels through casing and damaged zone into the undamaged rock. The process of detonating perforation charges generally causes damage due to crushed rock material around the perforation tunnels. There are different methods used to mitigate damage due to perforation, such as static and dynamic underbalanced perforation. In static underbalanced perforation, conventional high shot density perforating guns are run in underbalanced conditions in order to have clean-up after perforation. In dynamic underbalanced perforation, a specific gun design associated with gun puncher charges provides dynamic... 

The effect of a multiphase fluid, including an arbitrary number of liquid phases, and a functionally graded density fluid on the stability of rotating partially-filled cylindrical shells is investigated. The first-order shear shell theory is used for modeling the structural dynamics of the shell and a 2D model is introduced based on the Navier–Stokes equations, for fluid motion. The multiphase and the functionally graded density fluids are arranged according to the mass density in a steady state condition due to centrifugal forces. Using the boundary conditions between liquid phases and the boundary conditions of the fluid on the cylinder wall, the coupled fluid-structure system model is... 

Embedded systems have migrated from special-purpose hardware to commodity hardware. These systems have also tended to Mixed-Criticality (MC) implementations, executing applications of different criticalities upon a shared platform. Multi-core processors, which are commonly used to design MC systems, bring out new challenges due to the process variations. Power and frequency asymmetry affects the predictability of embedded systems. In this work, variation-aware techniques are explored to not only improve the reliability of MC systems, but also aid the scheduling and energy saving of them. We leverage the core-to-core (C2C) variations to protect high-criticality tasks and provide full service... 

Purpose: This study aims to systematically review the economic complexity literature to advance the knowledge on its contribution to building regional competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, we did a systematic review of 111 relevant papers. In this regard, we did a thematic analysis on all the collected papers, which led to a two-level processed approach. In the first level, the contributions of the reviewed articles have been classified into three main streams. In the second level, the findings under each contribution category are analyzed and explained. This approach led to a thematic network demonstrating economic complexity and the dynamics of regional... 

Artificial neural network (ANN) and genetic algorithm were used in this study to obtain a relatively high flow stress in compression tests for 304 stainless steel. Cold and warm compression were carried out in a temperature range from 20 to 600 °C, strain-rate from 0.001 to 100 S-1 and a strain range from 0.1 to 0.5. Optimum conditions for each case were obtained experimentally and were evaluated by the ANN model. The ANN model was used as fitness function for genetic algorithm. The results indicated that this combined algorithm offers an effective condition for 304 stainless steel, which avoids flow localization, dynamic strain aging, adiabatic shear deformation and void generation. © 2005... 

In present research, nanocrystalline Fe100-xSix (x = 6.5, 10, 13.5, 20 and 25 at.%) and Fe83.5Si13.5Nb3 alloy powders were prepared by mechanical alloying using high-energy ball milling. The resulting powders mainly consist of micron-sized particles with an average grain size of less than 20 nm. According to the XRD test results, by increasing the milling time and/or the Si content the lattice parameter decreases and the internal microstrain increases. In addition, the specific saturation magnetization diminishes as Si content increases. The coercive forces of the as-milled nanocrystalline powders are much higher than those of corresponding Fe-Si bulk alloys with a minimum at 13.5 at.% Si.... 

In this investigation, fine Fe85Si10Ni5 (at.%) powders with a nanocrystalline structure were prepared by high energy ball milling. The effects of milling time on microstructure and magnetic properties of Fe85Si10Ni5 powders were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The optimum soft magnetic properties (maximum saturation magnetization and minimum coercivity) were obtained in alloy powders with an average grain size of 8 nm after 70 h milling. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved  

In this study, the prediction of flow stress in 304 stainless steel using artificial neural networks (ANN) has been investigated. Experimental data earlier deduced-by [S. Venugopal et al., Optimization of cold and warm workability in 304 stainless steel using instability maps, Metall. Trans. A 27A (1996) 126-199]-were collected to obtain training and test data. Temperature, strain-rate and strain were used as input layer, while the output was flow stress. The back propagation learning algorithm with three different variants and logistic sigmoid transfer function were used in the network. The results of this investigation shows that the R2 values for the test and training data set are about...