Sharif Digital Repository

Solvent extraction of rare earths from nitrate leach liquor of apatite using mixtures of tributyl phosphate (TBP) and di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (D2EHPA) was studied. The effects of nitrate and hydrogen ion concentration of the aqueous phase as well as the composition and concentration of extractants in the organic phase on the extraction behavior of lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, and yttrium were investigated. The distribution ratio of REEs increases by increasing the nitrate concentration in aqueous phase and concentration of extractants in organic phase, but the hydrogen ion concentration in aqueous phase has a decreasing effect. Yttrium as a heavy rare earth is more sensitive to... 

The leaching of rare earth elements (REEs) including cerium, lanthanum and neodymium from apatite concentrate obtained from iron ore wastes by nitric acid was studied. The effects of nitric acid concentration, solid to liquid ratio and leaching time on the recoveries of Ce, La and Nd were investigated using response surface methodology. The results showed that the acid concentration and solid to liquid ratio have significant effect on the leaching recoveries while the time has a little effect. The maximum REE leaching recoveries of 66.1%, 56.8% and 51.7% for Ce, La and Nd, respectively were achieved at the optimum leaching condition with 18% nitric acid concentration, 0.06 solid to liquid... 

In this paper, a dual-frame hybrid vector control (DFHVC) of vector-modulated VIENNA I rectifier is proposed. The purpose of this novel vector control system is not only to reduce second-order harmonic pulsation on the dc-side and consequently, to reduce odd-order harmonics on the ac side of VIENNA I rectifier under unbalanced mains, but also to ensure a near unity power factor operation of the rectifier under such circumstances. To serve this purpose, at first, a mathematical model of the VIENNA I rectifier under unbalanced condition is derived. In this model, besides demonstrating the nonlinear nature of the DC-link voltage dynamic, a new set of equations for current reference generation... 

In this paper, a modified space-time method is presented for the simulation of convection-diffusion equations. The new method differs from the original space-time method in the sense that the weight functions for space and time are different. The performance of the proposed algorithm is studied for numerical simulation of incompressible immiscible two-phase flow in porous media. The governing equations consist of one conservation of mass equation for each phase, the Darcy law and one capillary-saturation correlation for the flow. By defining a global pressure, the governing equations lead to a system of nonlinear equations in terms of this global pressure, the velocity components and the... 

In this paper a novel soft switching three-phase pulse width modulation (PWM) rectifier is proposed. Various switching state sequences of a three-phase three-switch buck-type unity power factor rectifier are reviewed and the operation modes of the converter are explained and analyzed. The converter operates under zero current switching (ZCS) condition. By using an auxiliary circuit with a simple method of energy recovery, the current is diverted away from the main power switches before they are to be turned off; so, switching losses in the converter are reduced. The auxiliary circuit consists of two auxiliary switches and a resonant inductance-capacitance circuit connected to the auxiliary... 

A novel control method is proposed for single-stage three-phase isolated buck+boost rectifier. The control method is based on the conventional cascade two-loop control structure and is modified to achieve constant instantaneous input power. Input voltages, output voltage, and DC-link inductor current are measured to control the power switches to achieve output voltage regulation as well as input power factor correction. In the proposed method, input currents are controlled such that input power is constant even for unbalanced mains. Thus for balanced mains converter behaves like an ideal rectifier, and for unbalanced mains, low-frequency harmonics of the output voltage are suppressed. The... 

Biofiltration is a commonlypracticed biological technique to remove volatile compounds from waste gas streams. From an industrial view-point, biofilter (BF) operation should be flexible to handle temperatures and inlet load (IL) variations. A compost BF was operated at different temperatures (30-45°C) and at various inlet loading rates (ILR; 8-598gm -3h -1) under intermittent loading conditions. Complete removal of n-hexane was observed at 30 and 35°C at ILRs up to 330gm -3h -1. Besides, 20-75% of the pollutant was removed at 40°C, corresponding to the different ILs applied to the BF. Increasing the temperature to 45°C decreased the removal efficiency (RE) significantly. A feed forward... 

Two major structures for rotor core of superconducting synchronous machine are air-cored and magnetic-cored structures. Magnetic-cored structure can be divided into two categories including salient and non-salient magnetic core. In this paper, three different structures of superconducting synchronous machine comprising air-cored, non-salient magnetic-cored and salient magnetic-cored, have been studied and compared considering required superconducting wire and machine weight. Required superconducting wire determines the capital cost and the weight of the machine determines the running cost in the case of portable applications such as ships and aircrafts  

The Cúk converter operating in discontinuous capacitor voltage mode (DCVM) inherently benefits from PFC features as unity power factor can be achieved by using a constant duty cycle and switching frequency. In this paper, the switch network modeling technique is applied to the Cúk converter operating in DCVM in order to develop its small-signal model under the assumption that it is fed by a dc voltage source. Afterwards, the model is extended to derive the small-signal behavior of the converter while operating as a PFC converter. The validity of the proposed model is confirmed by both simulation and experimental results  

In this paper a fast flux search controller based on the Neuro-fuzzy systems is proposed to achieve the best efficiency of a direct torque controlled induction motor at light load. In this method the reference flux value is determined through a minimization algorithm with stator current as objective function. This paper discusses and demonstrates the application of Neurofuzzy filtering to stator current estimation. Simulation and experimental results are presented to show the fast response of proposed controller. © 2009 IEEE  

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... 

Pole Side Impact Tes is one out of three crash tests described by Euro NCAP standard for star rating of a vehicle and is required for assessing the Adult Occupant Protection. In this paper the goal is to determine the crashworthiness of side doors and B pillar in a Pole Side Impact Test based on Euro New Car Assessment Program (Euro-NCAP) using computer and simulation method. In this matter, a vehicle model has been prepared and meshed using Hypermesh and CATIA. The velocity of 29 km/h has been assigned to the vehicle which was on top of a cart while the pole has been assigned as a rigid static object based on Euro NCAP requirements specifically. Results show that different amounts of energy...