Sharif Digital Repository

Environmentally responsive surface-modified nanoparticles are colloidal nanoparticles coated with, at least, two physicochemically distinct surface groups. Recent advances in the synthesis and production of nanoparticles have enabled the production of environmentally responsive surface-modified nanoparticles with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic surface groups. These nanoparticles act like colloidal surfactants. In this paper, environmentally responsive surface-modified silica nanoparticles are synthesized and used for enhancement of oil recovery. For this purpose, silica nanoparticles are coated with polyethylene glycol chains as hydrophilic agent and propyl chains as hydrophobic agent at... 

A non-equilibrium simplex simulated annealing algorithm is applied as a global optimization method to parameter optimization for an equation of state based on the generalized statistical associating fluid theory incorporating potentials of variable range. The parameters are determined by optimizing the calculated phase behaviour of a number of pure solvents, such as water and alcohols, and aqueous electrolyte solutions. The optimized parameters obtained via the simulated annealing algorithm are compared to those obtained using the simplex method and, for the electrolyte solutions, a gradient-based quasi-Newton method. In the case of the pure solvents, the lowest values of the objective... 

The aim of this study is to couple molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) stack with integrated gasification combined cycle fed by refinery residues, to remove CO2 from gas turbine exhaust gases that have CO2 emission rate of 14,200 ton/year. By applying multi-objective optimisation (MOO) using genetic algorithm, the optimal values of operating load and the corresponding values of objective functions are obtained. The MOO of the MCFC system regarding two scenarios is performed. The first scenario is minimisation of cost of electricity (COE) and CO2 emission rate. Objective functions of the second scenario are the same as in the first scenario while CO2 tax is taken into account. Results show that... 

An EOS based on the statistical associating fluid theory generalized to include potentials of variable range was applied to pure associating solvents (water, n-propanol, i-propanol, n-butanol, and n-pentanol) and more commonly encountered electrolyte solutions containing the ions Li+, Na+, K+, Ca++, Br--, Cl-, I-, OH-, and NO 3-. The model incorporated the Yukawa attraction potential for segment-segment interactions between solvent segments and also for the segment-ion interactions, and the non-restricted mean-spherical approximation to account for the long-range interactions between ionic species. The resulting model could correlate VLE for the pure solvents and binary solvent/salt mixtures... 

An equation of state based on the statistical associating fluid theory for potentials of variable range (SAFT-VR) is used to model 7 hydrogen-bonding solvents and 23 electrolyte solutions. Solvent-solvent hydrogen bonding interactions are explicitly taken into account as in other versions of the SAFT approach. In addition, long-range Coulombic interactions between ionic species are accounted for using the non-restricted mean-spherical approximation, while solvent-solvent and solvent-ion dispersion interactions are included and are treated using Yukawa potentials. Previously a similar approach had been proposed in which the dispersion interactions were treated using square-well potentials. In... 

In this study by Thermal Chemical Vapor Deposition (TCVD) method, the synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and temperature affects on the grown CNTs on the NiSio2 catalyst and 304-type stainless steel was investigated. The purification of the grown CNTs on the 304-type stainless steel was also investigated in this study. The synthesis and purification of the samples were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), termogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Raman spectroscopy. Our obtained result by SEM and TEM shows that densities of CNTs growth on the 304-type stainless steel are more than the CNTs growth on the NiSio2 catalyst and both of them have... 

Considering the growing rate of energy consumption as well as significant enhancement in worldwide energy demand, it is necessary to improve the performance of energy storage, i.e., melting and solidification rates in thermal energy storage systems. Phase change materials (PCMs) with high latent heats of fusion and proper melting points can be used as alternatives in energy storage systems. The most serious shortcoming in the existing PCMs is low thermal conductivity which confines the rate of energy storage. This issue can be tackled using nanoparticles with much higher thermal conductivities conjugated with the existing PCMs. In this research, effect of nanoparticle addition into PCMs... 

In this study design and operation of invasive and non-invasive cylindrical capacitive sensor (CCS) designs for the electrical measurements of water, water solutions, and water mixtures are reported. Operation of the capacitance measurement module for such probes is based on the charge/discharge method. The measured capacitances and resistances for distilled water, mineral water, tap water and salt water samples are reported by using two sensor types and results are compared. The measured capacitance by invasive CCS for distilled water is about 2.28 μF and by non-invasive CCS is 31.40 pF, which shows a big difference for different probes. Such a difference is due to the electrical... 

In this study by using a Cylindrical Capacitive Sensor (CCS), the Electrical Conductivity (EC), effects on the capacitance measurements of the water liquids was investigated. Theoretical values of the capacitance measurements of water liquids with the cylindrical length in the range 0.5-5 cm are calculated. Our obtained results indicate that measured capacitance value by CCS depends on the liquid capacitance and reactance capacitance. Liquid capacitance value of the distilled water for permittivity of 80 is about 33.5 pF and reactance capacitance value is about 0.290 μF, when the cylindrical length value is about 1.6 cm. The reactance capacitance for the mineral, tap and dilute salt water... 

In this study by using a capacitive cell probe the temperature variation of the electrical properties of the water liquids is investigated. Variation of the reactance capacitance parameter of liquids with temperature in the range of 17-60°C is measured for the plain water and water mixtures. The temperature variations of the capacitance for the cool distilled and tap water samples are studied for the range of 17-29°C obtained. Present results indicate an averaged variation of 4.69 μF/°C for the distilled water and 3.24 μF/°C for tap water in warm up process to a near room temperature. The cooling behaviors for the warm mineral, tap and salt water liquids are also investigated in this study.... 

Artificial neural networks (ANN) have not been used in chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) outcome prediction following surgery. We used two methods, namely logistic regression and ANN, to predict using eight variables CSDH outcome as assessed by the Glasgow outcome score (GOS) at discharge. We had 300 patients (213 men and 87 women) and potential predictors were age, sex, midline shift, intracranial air, hematoma density, hematoma thickness, brain atrophy, and Glasgow coma score (GCS). The dataset was randomly divided to three subsets: (1) training set (150 cases), (2) validation set (75 cases), and (3) test set (75 cases). The training and validation sets were combined for regression... 

In the context of stationary power generation, fuel cell based systems are being predicted as a valuable option to tabernacle the thermodynamic cycle based power plants. In this paper, multi objective optimization approach is used to optimize the planer solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stacks performance using genetic algorithm technique. Multi objective optimization generates the most attractive operating conditions of a SOFC system. This allows performing the optimization of the system regarding to two different objectives. Two pairs of different objectives are considered in this paper as distinguished strategies. In the first strategy, minimization of the breakeven per-unit energy cost... 

The interaction between design parameters and operation variables is a complex problem that affects system techno-economic performance. The aim of this paper is to optimize the design and operation of an SOFC/MGT integrated system. The problem consists of design and operation optimization of an integrated SOFC/MGT system. Decision variables including design parameters (number of SOFC cells) as well as the operation parameters (air pressure ratio, methane and air flow rates). The multi objective approach using genetic algorithm is applied considering two pairs of proposed objectives: (1) maximization of output power and minimization of the electricity cost and (2) maximization of system... 

In this paper, a methodology for energy management system (EMS) based on the multi-objective receding horizon optimization (MO-RHO) is presented to find the optimal scheduling of hybrid renewable energy system (HRES). The proposed HRES which is experimentally installed in educational building comprising the PV panels, wind turbine, battery bank and diesel generator as the backup system. The data acquisition system provides input profiles for receding horizon optimizer. A mixed-integer convex programing technique is used to achieve the optimal operation regarding to two conflicting operation objectives including diesel fuel cost and battery wear cost. The Pareto frontiers are presented to... 

In this work, a novel convex sequence framework for real-time receding horizon operation optimization of a hybrid renewable energy system integrated with optimal sizing is presented to increase the penetration rate of renewable energy in supplying the demand. The proposed framework optimizes the entire lifetime cost of a system consisting of two main steps which are 1) design & installation and 2) operation as two sequence modules. This framework is applied to a hybrid renewable energy system which includes PV, wind turbine, batteries and a diesel generator. In the operation optimization, receding horizon strategy is used to optimize the operation schedule. Mixed integer convex programming... 

Graphene oxide (GO) was chemically modified withpara-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) to immobilize copper(ii) ions on its surface and used as a nanocatalyst for the oxidative C(sp2)-H bond amination reaction. A practical method to prepare Cu2+supported onpara-aminobenzoic acid grafted on GO was reported. The prepared Cu2+@GO/PABA was characterized by FT-IR, XRD, SEM, AFM, TEM, UV-Vis, and ICP techniques. The results showed that the morphology, distribution, and loading of copper ions could be well-adjusted by grafting of PABA on GO. Moreover, just 2 mol% of Cu2+@GO-PABA could catalyze the C-H activation reaction of benzoxazole and benzothiazole with secondary amines in >94% yields. Also, the... 

In this study, operation of the contact Cylindrical Capacitive Sensor (CCS) for the reactance capacitance measurement of the water liquids by using the charge/discharge measurement module is investigated. The effect of geometric factor on the capacitance measurement of different liquid samples is also studied. The measured capacitances for the distilled, mineral, tap and salt water samples are reported by using two contact CCSs with the active length of 16 and 74 mm. The measured capacitances by small contact CCS for the saltwater is 1.76 uF and by big contact CCS is 47.8 uF, which shows a big difference for different probes. In another study, the effects of the liquid conductance on the...