Sharif Digital Repository

Purpose - A numerical method is developed to capture the interaction of solid object with two-phase flow with high density ratios. The current computational tool would be the first step of accurate modeling of wave energy converters in which the immense energy of the ocean can be extracted at low cost. Design/methodology/approach - The full two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations are discretized on a regular structured grid, and the two-step projection method along with multi-processing (OpenMP) is used to efficiently solve the flow equations. The level set and the immersed boundary methods are used to capture the free surface of a fluid and a solid object, respectively. The full... 

The role of quantum tunneling in altering the structure of nucleotides to each other and causing a mutational event in DNA has been a topic of debate for years. Here, we introduce a new quantum mechanical approach for analyzing a typical point-mutation in DNA strands. Assuming each codon as a base state, a superposition of codon states could provide a physical description for a set of codons encoding the same amino acid and there are transition amplitudes between them. We choose the amino acids Phe and Ile as our understudy bio-systems which are encoded by two and three codons, respectively. We treat them as large quantum systems and use double- and triple-well potential models to study the... 

Quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno behaviors of a two-level macroscopic quantum system in interaction with a harmonic environment are studied using the perturbation theory. The system-environment interactions are applied in a successive and step-by-step way. A new expression for the probability of surviving the macrosystem in its initial state, after the Nth interaction step, is derived through a different method of calculation. It is shown that multiple transitions between Zeno and anti-Zeno behaviors can be found in our approach. We have shown that in addition to the environmental parameters like the Ohmicity, the macroscopic trait of the system also has a notable effect on the decay rate Γ(τ).... 

Despite several different measures of efficiency that are applicable to the photosynthetic systems, a precise degree of efficiency of these systems is not completely determined. Introducing an efficient model for the dynamics of light-harvesting complexes in biological environments is a major purpose in investigating such systems. Here, we investigate the effect of macroscopic quantum behavior of a system of two pigments on the transport phenomena in this system model which interacts with an oscillating environment. We use the second-order perturbation theory to calculate the time-dependent population of excitonic states of a two-dimensional Hamiltonian using a non-master equation approach.... 

This study reports the successful fabrication of high-performance flexible binder-free lithium-ion battery anode and supercapacitor based on the synthesis of 3D hierarchical MnO2 nanoflakes (NFs) on vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) grown upon stainless steel (SS). The experimental results revealed that the prepared electrodes were well served as supercapacitors with a tremendous specific capacitance of MnO2 NFs VACNT/SS 1131 F/g at 0.25 A/g in 0.5 mol.L−1 Na2SO4, 518.8% more than VACNT/SS (218 F/g). Compared to other MnO2 NFs/CNT composites, as-fabricated binder-free MnO2 NFs/VACNTs electrode achieves outstanding performance with high initial discharge and charge capacities of... 

This study reports the successful fabrication of high-performance flexible binder-free lithium-ion battery anode and supercapacitor based on the synthesis of 3D hierarchical MnO2 nanoflakes (NFs) on vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) grown upon stainless steel (SS). The experimental results revealed that the prepared electrodes were well served as supercapacitors with a tremendous specific capacitance of MnO2 NFs VACNT/SS 1131 F/g at 0.25 A/g in 0.5 mol.L−1 Na2SO4, 518.8% more than VACNT/SS (218 F/g). Compared to other MnO2 NFs/CNT composites, as-fabricated binder-free MnO2 NFs/VACNTs electrode achieves outstanding performance with high initial discharge and charge capacities of... 

The monolithic catalytic converter still is the main pollution control device for modern vehicles in order to reach the ever-increasing legislative demands for low emission standards. The catalytic converters require a large expansion from the exhaust pipe to the front face of the monolith. Unfortunately, packaging constraints often do not permit the use of long diffusers. Hence, flow separation within the diffuser leads to a non-uniform flow distribution across the monolith. A uniform flow distribution at the inlet monolith face is favorable for the conversion efficiency as well as the durability of the catalytic converter. Therefore the main problem is to optimize the flow distribution at... 

In this article, the transesterification of waste cooking oil (WCO) to biodiesel fuel (BDF) has been studied using KOH loaded on millimetric γ-Al2O3 particles in a novel type of two-impinging-jets reactor (TIJR). The effects of various parameters such as KOH loading (wt %), catalyst loading, and methanol-to-oil molar ratio on the BDF yield were studied. The catalyst particles with a KOH loading of 25 wt % at appropriate reaction conditions (i.e., catalyst loading = 4 wt % and methanol-to-oil molar ratio = 15:1) and at 65 °C were used in the TIJR. The influences of various operating and design parameters such as jet Reynolds number value, feed flow rate, jet diameter, and the internozzle... 

The lateral movement of a liquefiable soil layer on gentle slopes is the most visible and devastating type of liquefaction-induced ground failure. Recent earthquakes have shown that this phenomenon causes severe damages to coastal structures, pier of the bridges and life-lines by exerting large lateral forces on the structures. In this paper coupled dynamic field equations of extended Biot's theory with u-p formulation are used for simulating the phenomenon and the soil behavior is modeled by a critical state two-surface plasticity model for sands. Furthermore, in this study variation of permeability coefficient during liquefaction is taken into account. The permeability coefficient is... 

In this paper, we investigate and develop an alternative approach to the numerical analysis and characterization of random fluctuations with the heavy-tailed probability distribution function (PDF), such as turbulent heat flow and solar flare fluctuations. We identify the heavy-tailed random fluctuations based on the scaling properties of the tail exponent of the PDF, power-law growth of qth order correlation function, and the self-similar properties of the contour lines in two-dimensional random fields. Moreover, this work leads to a substitution for the fractional Edwards-Wilkinson (EW) equation that works in the presence of μ-stable Lévy noise. Our proposed model explains the... 

We consider the K-user Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) Gaussian interference channel with M antennas at each transmitter and N antennas at each receiver. It is assumed that channel coefficients are constant real numbers and are available at all transmitters and at all receivers. The main objective of this paper is to characterize the number of Degrees of Freedom (DoF) of this channel. Using the real interference alignment technique introduced in [20], we show that MN/M+NK degrees of freedom can be achieved for almost all channel realizations. Also, a new upper-bound on the DoF of this channel is provided. This upper-bound coincides with our achievable DoF for K ≥ Ku≜M+N/gcd(M;N), where... 

We consider the K-user Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) Gaussian interference channel with M antennas at each transmitter and N antennas at each receiver. It is assumed that channel coefficients are constant real numbers and are available at all transmitters and at all receivers. The main objective of this paper is to characterize the number of Degrees of Freedom (DoF) of this channel. Using the real interference alignment technique introduced in Motahari et al., 2014, we show that MN M+N K degrees of freedom can be achieved for almost all channel realizations. Also, a new upper-bound on the DoF of this channel is provided. This upper-bound coincides with our achievable DoF for K K u... 

We study the Von Neumann and Renyi entanglement entropy of long-range harmonic oscillators (LRHO) by both theoretical and numerical means. We show that the entanglement entropy in massless harmonic oscillators increases logarithmically with the sub-system size as S = ceff/3 log l. Although the entanglement entropy of LRHOs shares some similarities with the entanglement entropy at conformal critical points we show that the Rényi entanglement entropy presents some deviations from the expected conformal behaviour. In the massive case we demonstrate that the behaviour of the entanglement entropy with respect to the correlation length is also logarithmic as the short-range case  

In complex systems with fractal properties the scale invariance has an important rule to classify different statistical properties. In two dimensions the Loewner equation can classify all the fractal curves. Using the Weierstrass-Mandelbrot (WM) function as the drift of the Loewner equation we introduce a large class of fractal curves with discrete scale invariance (DSI). We show that the fractal dimension of the curves can be extracted from the diffusion coefficient of the trend of the variance of the WM function. We argue that, up to the fractal dimension calculations, all the WM functions follow the behavior of the corresponding Brownian motion. Our study opens a way to classify all the... 

Resistance spot weldability of martensitic stainless steels is impaired by the formation of brittle martensite in the fusion zone (FZ). In this paper, in situ rapid tempering via applying a second pulse current after a first melting/solidification pulse during resistance spot welding of AISI 420 martensitic stainless steel sheets was used as a pathway to enhance the toughness of the FZ. By using proper second pulse conditions, the FZ with reduced hardness can be generated which is featured by a decomposed martensitic structure with nano-sized carbide precipitations. The improved toughness as a consequence of this modified microstructure resulted in remarkable enhancement of the peak load and... 

The electrodeposition of cadmium is studied by electrochemical techniques with the presence of the organic agents. The cyclic voltammetry results clearly show that the electrodeposition of cadmium is a diffusion-controlled process associated with a typical nucleation process. With addition of the thiourea, 3-Picolin and benzyl alcohol organic agents simultaneously in sulfate solution, the redox potential of cadmium is shifted to more negative potentials. In this case, the current transients reveal an instantaneous nucleation with a typical three-dimensional (3D) growth mechanism, while it shows progressive nucleation mechanism without the ternary-species organic agents. In addition, the... 

In this study, the effect of nanoclay on the rheological and morphological properties of polyamide 6 (PA6)/acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) blends was investigated. The scanning electron microscopy micrographs showed that with increment in the nanoclay content, the dispersed phase droplets size and their polydispersity index decreased, and the finer and more uniform dispersed phase was obtained. The transmission electron microscopy micrographs of nanocomposites indicated well-dispersed nanoclay tactoids in the polymer matrix produced by exfoliation of the nanoclay in the polymeric blends. Dynamic strain sweep experiments showed that the extent of the linear viscoelastic region is... 

Linear and nonlinear (in both steady and transient shear flows) rheological properties of polyamide 6/acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (PA6/ABS) nanocomposite blends have been investigated. Characterization of nanocomposite samples morphology by scanning electron microscopy revealed that with increasing nanoclay loading, size of dispersing phase droplets decreases significantly and their uniformity improved considerably. Transmission electron microscopy observations clearly display a coexistence of intercalate and exfoliate structure for nanoclay in the polymer-blend nanocomposite. On the other hand, we see that the tactoids are collected of a few silicate layers and possibly also of a single... 

Up to 8wt. % of Nano-iron oxide was added to CaO refractory matrix. The crystalline phases and microstructure characteristics of specimens sintered at 1650°C for 5h in an electric furnace were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. The physical properties are reported in terms of bulk density, apparent porosity and hydration resistance. The mechanical behavior was studied by a cold crushing strength (CCS) and flexural strength at 1200°C test. As a result, it was found that the presence of Nano-iron oxide in the CaO refractory matrix induced 2CaO.Fe2O3 (C2F), CaO.Fe2O3 (CF) and 3CaO.Al2O3 (C3A) phase's formation, which improved the sintering... 

From scaling arguments and numerical simulations, we investigate the properties of the generalized elastic model (GEM) that is used to describe various physical systems such as polymers, membranes, single-file systems, or rough interfaces. We compare analytical and numerical results for the subdiffusion exponent β characterizing the growth of the mean squared displacement 〈 (δh)(2)〉 of the field h described by the GEM dynamic equation. We study the scaling properties of the qth order moments 〈 {divides}δh{divides}(q)〉 with time, finding that the interface fluctuations show no intermittent behavior. We also investigate the ergodic properties of the process h in terms of the ergodicity...