Sharif Digital Repository

Darrieus type vertical axis wind turbines have several advantages over other wind turbines for local electricity generation in urban environments. However, the main aerodynamic challenge is the negative impacts of the dynamic stall phenomenon on the turbine performance. This study numerically scrutinizes the effects of plasma actuators on the dynamic stall control and performance improvement of a Darrieus turbine. For this sake, unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations are solved using a pressure-based finite volume method. The Suzen-Hoang plasma actuator model is employed to calculate the body forces attributed to the plasma actuator. First, the dynamic stall characteristics of... 

Inlet performance has an important role in the operation of air-breathing propulsion systems. In this study, performance of a supersonic axisymmetric mixedcompression inlet in the supercritical operating condition is numerically studied. The effects of free-stream Mach number and engine-face pressure on performance parameters, including mass flow ratio, drag coefficient, total pressure recovery, and flow distortion, are investigated. For this sake, a multi-block density-based finite volume CFD code is developed, and Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with Spalart-Allmaras oneequation turbulence model are employed. The code is validated by comparing numerical results against other... 

The interaction between a lake and groundwater has important implications to the quantity and quality of water in both environments. Quantification of lake-groundwater interaction (LGI) has been challenging in regions with limited in-situ data. LGI can be quantified by physically-based models, direct measurement of seepage, measurements of conservative chemical or isotopic tracers, and lake water balance. Despite the accuracy of the methods based on hydrochemical or isotopic measurements and analysis, they require extensive field data that are costly to collect in large lakes. Instead, the data required to quantify LGI by the lake water budget method can be obtained via typical ground... 

Titania nanofibers were prepared using a colloidal solution of Titania nanoparticles and a templating method. The preparation comprises impregnation of cellulose fibers in the solution containing Titania nanoparticles followed by thermal removal of the cellulose template. It is evidenced by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) that the residue substance consists of micron size fibers with a microstructure of nanofibers. The pore size distribution of the substance is multi-scale and fractal morphology was demonstrated with two fractal regimes with dimensions of 1.78 and 2.97 for sizes below and above 7.5nm, respectively. The surface area of the Titania fibers was measured about 250m2/g. The... 

Application of curved beams in special structures requires a special analysis. In this study, the differential quadrature method (DQM) as a well-known numerical method is utilized in the dynamic analysis of the Euler-Bernoulli curved beam problem with a uniform cross section under a constant moving load. DQ approximation of the required partial derivatives is given by a weighted linear sum of the function values at all grid points. A prismatic semicircular arch with simply supported boundary conditions is assumed. The accuracy of the obtained results is corroborated by employing the Galerkin and finite element methods. Finally, the convergence rate of the DQM and Finite Element Method (FEM)... 

Density of surface charges of cellulose fibers and -potential of TiO2 nanoparticles in the solution were measured and controlled by pH. The adsorption and clustering of TiO2 nanoparticles on the surface of cellulose fibers were studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and a scale in different situations of repulsion and attraction between the particles and surface. The experiments show formation of two-dimensional clusters of nanoparticles on the surface. Weight measurement of the adsorbed particles and clusters via the adsorption time results in that there are three stages containing nucleation, two-dimensional growth and saturation for clustering of nanoparticles on the surface.... 

TiO2 nanofibres were prepared using a templating method with tetraisopropylorthotitanate (TiPT) as a precursor. The preparation comprises liquid phase deposition on cellulose fibres followed by thermal removal of the cellulose template. The obtained TiO2 fibrous substance consists of micron-size fibres with a microstructure of nanofibres. It was demonstrated that nanofibres are basically formed through the aggregation of TiO2 nanoparticles and nanorods into chain structures during the thermal treatment process. The measured surface area of the TiO2 fibres was about 250 m2 g-1. It was shown that the pore size distribution is multi-scale and a fractal morphology was demonstrated with two... 

TiO2 deposited on a membrane of Ag fibers was prepared as a photoelectrochemical cell electrode. Ag fibers were made by reduction of Ag complexes on cellulose fibers, followed by burning out the template. TiO 2 photocatalyst layers were grown on the fibers by electrophoretic deposition of TiO2 nanoparticles. Ag fibers could be uniformly deposited. Photocatalytic tests by dye decomposition and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) under UV illumination demonstrate that Ag fibers act as a good substrate that provides both high surface area and good separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and causes the enhancement of photocatalytic activity in comparison with a thin film of... 

Porous poly-silicon (PPS) is a cheaper alternative to single crystal porous silicon and is a favorable choice for making gas sensors. In this study, porous poly-silicon samples were prepared using different HF concentrations and the structural and gas-sensing properties were studied. The topography of the surface was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques. The variation of electrical conductivity of the samples in the presence of dry air-diluted acetone, ethanol and methanol showed that for a constant etching current, the sensitivity was highest for samples prepared in 13% HF solution. The structure of the films in the optimum HF... 

Transdermal drug delivery systems have overcome many limitations of other drug administration routes, such as injection pain and first-pass metabolism following oral route, although transdermal drug delivery systems are limited to drugs with low molecular weight. Hence, new emerging technology allowing high molecular weight drug delivery across the skin—known as ‘microneedles’—has been developed, which creates microchannels that facilitate drug delivery. In this report, drug-loaded degradable conic microneedles are modeled to characterize the degradation rate and drug release profile. Since a lot of data are available for polylactic acid-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) degradation in the literature,... 

A novel intelligent semi-active control system for an eleven degrees of freedom passenger car's suspension system using magnetorheological (MR) damper with neuro-fuzzy (NF) control strategy to enhance desired suspension performance is proposed. In comparison with earlier studies, an improvement in problem modeling is made. The proposed method consists of two parts: a fuzzy control strategy to establish an efficient controller to improve ride comfort and road handling (RCH) and an inverse mapping model to estimate the force needed for a semi-active damper. The fuzzy logic rules are extracted based on Sugeno inference engine. The inverse mapping model is based on an artificial neural network... 

Using CNG as an additive for gasoline is a proper choice due to higher octane number of CNG enriched gasoline with respect to that of gasoline. As a result, it is possible to use gasoline with lower octane number in the engine. This would also mean the increase of compression ratio in SI engines resulting in higher performance and lower gasoline consumption. Over the years, the use of simulation codes to model the thermodynamic cycle of an internal combustion engine have developed tools for more efficient engine designs and fuel combustion. In this study, a thermodynamic cycle simulation of a conventional four-stroke spark-ignition engine has been developed. The model is used to study the... 

With the declining energy resources and increase of pollutant emissions, a great deal of efforts has been focused on the development of alternatives for fossil fuels. One of the promising alternative fuels to gasoline in the internal combustion engine is natural gas [1-5]. The application of natural gas in current internal combustion engines is realistic due to its many benefits. The higher thermal efficiency due to the higher octane value and lower exhaust emissions including CO2 as a result of the lower carbon to hydrogen ratio of the fuel are the two important feature of using CNG as an alternative fuel. It is well known that computer simulation codes are valuable economically as a cost... 

Gaining insight into possible vibratory responses of dynamical systems around their stable equilibria is an essential step, which must be taken before their design and application. The results of such a study can significantly help prevent instability in closed-loop stabilized systems by avoiding the excitation of the system in the neighborhood of its resonance. This paper investigates nonlinear oscillations of a rotary inverted pendulum (RIP) with a full-state feedback controller. Lagrange’s equations are employed to derive an accurate 2-DoF mathematical model, whose parameter values are extracted by both the measurement and 3D modeling of the real system components. Although the governing... 

A suction-controlled ring device has been developed to continuously measure the coefficient of lateral soil pressure in deformable unsaturated soil samples from the at-rest to the active condition under application of increasing vertical pressure and controlled matric suction. The device incorporates a thin aluminum specimen ring equipped with horizontal strain gages for recording the lateral soil strains. In addition, a sensor recording water volume changes is utilized to continuously monitor the degree of saturation of the soil sample during tests. The matric suction within the soil texture is controlled using the axis translation technique. In order to verify the performance of the ring... 

We introduce a new smooth, non-toxic, biocompatible method for cross-linking of gum tragacanth (GT), a polysaccharide of natural origin, in order to serve as a new supporting matrix for immobilization systems. The modified gum is used as a matrix for the catalysis of the conversion of benzyl penicillin to 6-aminopenicillanic acid (6-APA) by means of Escherichia coli ATCC11105 with penicillin G acylase (PGA) activity. The results show that GT beads can not only serve as a proper matrix for immobilization, but show enhanced hydrolysis rate and stability compared to other immobilization systems used for this reaction. This signifies the potential of GT as a biocompatible matrix for... 

The Class-E power amplifier has been widely studied and formulated in the literature. Although the majority of reported inductive coupling wireless power transfer (WPT) systems use a class-E power amplifier for driving the primary coil, still there is a lack of a comprehensive study on class-E circuit dedicated to WPT, providing a set of closed form design equations for proper class-E operation. This paper presents the required design equations needed to design a 'true' class-E circuit for WPT applications. Equations for the series-tuned secondary coil WPT system are presented, as well as two different design procedures for the parallel-tuned secondary coil. The derived equations have been...