Sharif Digital Repository

In order to investigate the feasibility and effects of core permeability on capillary imbibition recoverable oil from carbonate cores, some laboratory tests were carried out at the EOR research laboratories of Sharif University, Iran. Outcrop rocks with different permeabilities were taken away from a recognized outcrop and used in these experiments. Special core analysis tests were run on two core samples to find out relative permeability and end point saturations. Wellhead separator oil and gas samples were collected and recombined to a reservoir gas - oil ratio. A core flooding system with a capability of free and forced imbibition testing was designed and installed. A number of free and... 

Wettability alteration in porous media is one of the mechanisms for enhancing oil recovery through injecting low-salinity water into carbonate reservoirs, in which active ions can remove the carboxylic oil component from the rock surface, altering the rock's wettability toward a water-wet condition. This study investigated the concomitant effects of low-salinity water and hydrophilic SiO2 nanoparticles on oil-wet dolomite rock. Results revealed that low-salinity water coupled with hydrophilic nano-SiO2 in oil-wet dolomite rock remarkably affected the wettability alteration of the rock, showing that the simultaneous presence of ions in water and hydrophilic nano-SiO2 led to considerable... 

Two main reservoir mechanisms that impact oil recovery factors are wettability alteration and interfacial tension (IFT) change. In this study, these two key mechanisms are evaluated experimentally for samples from the Asmari (carbonate) oil reservoir utilizing silica nanoparticles in the presence of low-salinity water. The nanofluid, rock formation and crude oil samples were prepared meticulously to ensure meaningful experimental could be conducted over a range of low-salinity conditions. The results show that across the range of salinities studied, the absolute value of zeta potential of nanofluids decreases with increasing total dissolved solids (TDS) in the water treated with silica... 

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) is a relatively new separation technique that has received much attention in recent years. This process is an alternative to distillation or liquid extraction. Its main advantage over the conventional ones is that the dissolved extract may be completely separated from the supercritical fluid simply by decreasing the pressure. In recent years considerable effort has been devoted to the measurement of equilibrium solubility data for solids in supercritical fluids. A coal tar distillate, anthracene oil, which contains 34.46 mass-% phenanthrene, 33.8 mass-% anthracene, 13.89 mass-% carbazole and other impurities, was used as the model mixture. In this study,... 

An experimental flow-type apparatus has been tested for the separation of phenanthrene from a mixture of solids (phenanthrene, anthracene, and carbazole) and also from anthracene oil of the Isfahan Coal Tar Refining Company based on retrograde crystallization phenomena in supercritical carbon dioxide. The results show that by exploiting the crossover effect it is possible to obtain (82 and 24) mass % of phenanthrene from the solid mixture and anthracene oil, respectively, with a single temperature cycle  

Supercritical fluid extraction is a new technology that could be effectively used to treat oil-contaminated drill cuttings generated during drilling for oil and gas. In this work, the solubility of oil-contaminated drill cuttings in supercritical carbon dioxide is obtained by an experimental flow type apparatus. The solubility was measured at 200 bar pressure, over a temperature range of 55-79.5°C. The measured solubility and experimental data for oil in drill cuttings were correlated using the PC-SAFT, PR and SRK EOS models, without any adjustable parameters. Average absolute derivations of less than 15.1 %, 98.7 %, and 99.3 % are achieved between predicted and experimental values for the... 

Improving testability during the early stages of high-level synthesis has several benefits including reduced test hardware overheads, reduced test costs, reduced design iterations, and significant improved fault coverage. In this paper, we present a novel register allocation method, which is based on weighted graph coloring algorithm, targeting testability improvement for digital circuits. In our register allocation method, several high-level testability parameters including sequential depth, sequential loop, and controllability/observability are considered. Our experiments show using this register allocation method results in significant improvement in automatic test pattern generation time... 

The quantification of carbon dioxide (CO2) dissolution in oil is crucial in predicting the potential and long-term behavior of CO2 in reservoir during secondary and tertiary oil recovery. Accurate predicting carbon dioxide molecular diffusion coefficient is a key parameter during carbon dioxide injection into oil reservoirs. In this study a new model based on adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS) is designed and developed for accurate prediction of carbon dioxide diffusivity in oils at elevated temperature and pressures. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) as population based stochastic search algorithms was applied to obtain the optimal ANFIS model parameters. Furthermore, a simple... 

The concept of equivalent linearization, in which the actual nonlinear structure is replaced by an equivalent linear single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system, is extended for soil-structure systems in order to consider the simultaneous effects of soil-structure interaction (SSI) and inelastic behavior of the structure on equivalent linear parameters (ELP). This is carried out by searching over a two-dimensional equivalent period-equivalent damping space for the best pair, which can predict the earthquake response of the inelastic soil-structure system with sufficient accuracy. The super-structure is modeled as an elasto-plastic SDOF system whereas the soil beneath the structure is considered... 

Surfaces with special wettability have aroused lots of attention due to their broad applications in many fields. In this work, we systematically report selective and various fabrications of nanofluids based on readily available materials such as SiO2 nanoparticles and polydimethylsiloxane to create superhydrophobic, superoleophobic, superhydrophilic/superoleophobic, and underwater superoleophobic coatings. The efficiency of prepared coatings is investigated on mineral rock plates as porous substrates via the straightforward and cost-effective solution-immersion technique. The static water contact angle of 170°, effortless bouncing of water droplets, and self-cleaning property with a near... 

In the present study, three influential parameters including concentration, temperature and specific surface area of graphene nanosheets were investigated, which are the effective parameters on the viscosity and thermal conductivity of aqueous graphene nanosheets (GNP) nanofluids. A mathematical model developed by respond surface methodology (RSM) based on a central composite design (CCD). Also, the significance of the models was tested using the analysis of variance (ANOVA). The optimum results of aqueous GNP nanofluid showed that the concentration has a direct effect on the relative viscosity and thermal conductivity. Furthermore, predicted responses proposed by the Design Expert software... 

In this study, the effect of graphene nanoplatelets (GNP)/distilled water nanofluid on the thermal performance of evacuated tube solar collector (ETSC) water heater was experimentally investigated. The mass percentage of GNP was considered at 0.025, 0.5, 0.075 and 0.1 wt%. The physical and thermal properties of the GNP nanofluids including stability, specific heat capacity, viscosity and thermal conductivity were investigated. The thermal efficiency tests on the solar collector were carried out for varying volumetric flow rate of 0.5, 0.1, and 1.5 L/min while the ASHRAE standard 93–2003 was considered to calculate the efficiency of the collector. The results indicated that the solar... 

The creation of surfaces with various super nonwetting properties is an ongoing challenge. We report diverse modifications of novel synthesized zirconia-ceria nanocomposites by different low surface energy agents to fabricate nanofluids capable of regulating surface wettability of mineral substrates to achieve selective superhydrophobic, superoleophobic-superhydrophilic, and superamphiphobic conditions. Surfaces treated with these nanofluids offer self-cleaning properties and effortless rolling-off behavior with sliding angles ≤7° for several liquids with surface tensions between 26 and 72.1 mN/m. The superamphiphobic nanofluid coating imparts nonstick properties to a solid surface whereby... 

Insula is considered an important region of the brain in the generation and maintenance of a wide range of psychiatric symptoms, possibly due to being key in fundamental functions such as interoception and cognition in general. Investigating the possibility of targeting this area using non-invasive brain stimulation techniques can open new possibilities to probe the normal and abnormal functioning of the brain and potentially new treatment protocols to alleviate symptoms of different psychiatric disorders. In the current study, COMETS2, a MATLAB based toolbox was used to simulate the magnitude of the current density and electric field in the brain caused by different transcranial direct... 

Comparison of the traditional linear heating method of TPD with an original stepwise heating scheme was reported for the first time. Stepwise heating TPD was carried out by keeping the temperature constant as soon as ammonia desorption signal rises until the signal returns to the baseline. More ammonia desorption peaks on a SAPO-34 catalyst were identified using TPD with stepwise heating. The effect of temperature ramp on desorption peak broadening in TPD curve was also addressed. The more distinct ammonia desorption peaks in stepwise TPD indicates that ammonia adsorbs in about five or six different ways on SAPO-34, and attribution of different adsorptions may be explained considering some... 

Most part of Iran is dominated by arid and semi-arid areas due to low annual rainfall. The need for production of fresh water from brackish water is considerably high, especially in dry regions. In this study 1 month daily-based experimental data from a solar still site has been reported. The technical and operational problems of this site which finally contributed to the total cease of the site are described. Then a detailed analysis is investigated on progress of a prototype which constructed in order to solve the site's problems. The results of 1 month of experimental data of the final design showed that the last prototype could be used to solve the current problems of the site. The...