Sharif Digital Repository

The city of Tehran, the capital of Iran, has been facing severe air quality problems. The air quality of Tehran has been stated as unhealthy over one-third of year during the last two decades. According to the last emission inventory of Tehran for the base year of 2013 mobile sources contribute by about 6, 46, 98, 87, and 70% of total primary SOx, NOx, CO, VOC and PM emission. A number of policies have been implemented in Tehran during the last two decades to tackle the air quality issue. Concentrated mostly on transportation sector, these policies aimed to improve fuel quality and emission performance of vehicles. Nevertheless, there is no quantified evaluation regarding the effectiveness... 

Joining in the semisolid state is considered a possible method to join alloys to each other. The mechanisms taking part in semisolid stir welding of AZ91 alloys were investigated. Two 7.5 mm-thick AZ91 pieces and a 2 mm-thick Mg-25%Zn interlayer piece were placed in a heating plate. After holding for 3 min at a desired temperature, the weld seam was stirred by a rotational tool. The heating plate was travelled on a trolley at a constant speed of 4.6 cm/min. In addition, one sample was welded without interlayer. Evolution of welding as a function of stirring rate, tool shape and temperature was studied throughout this welding process with scanning electron and optical microscopes. Interlayer... 

Research on the heat transfer in hydrogen-fuelled spark ignition engines indicates that the two most common heat transfer correlations, namely the Annand correlation and the Woschni correlation, cannot perfectly predict the heat flux during the engine cycle. This questions the accuracy of thermodynamic hydrogen engine models because the heat transfer is one of the important submodels in the development of a thermodynamic model. In addition, the Hohenberg correlation and the Shudo-Suzuki correlation have not been evaluated for hydrogen engines. In this study, a thermodynamic model of the closed cycle of a spark ignition engine is developed with a multi-zone combustion submodel to predict the... 

Low temperature combustion potentially can improve engine efficiency coupled with the benefits of low nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter emissions, and vice versa high unburned hydrocarbon and carbon oxide emissions through in-cylinder fuel reactions. In this survey, the experiments were carried out using a modified one-cylinder reactivity controlled compression ignition engine, dual-fueled diesel/compressed natural gas and biodiesel/CNG, to investigate the effects of direct injection strategies on the engine combustion efficiency and emission characteristics. Different ratios of biodiesel blends at different premixed ratios were applied to the dual-fuel engine. The results showed that... 

Common rail diesel engines with electronic fuel injection can accurately meter the fuel injection quantity with more accurate fuel injection control capability. In this work a common rail fuel injection system of a single cylinder diesel engine has been proposed and the important parameters like injection pressure, energizing time and high pressure pipes diameter and length are designed such that to be compatible with the engine basic design in case of pressure waves and injected mass variations. A one-dimensional approach has been used to model the injector using AMESim code in which Adiabatic models have been used to model injector system. Injected mass quantity has been calculated for... 

Semisolid stir joining of AZ91 alloy was investigated by using mechanical stirring and Mg-25. wt%Zn interlayer. A 2. mm-thick interlayer was located between two 7.5. mm-thick AZ91 pieces. Then, they were heated to 530. °C, the semisolid temperature of both base metal and interlayer. A stirrer with a rotational speed of 1600. rpm was introduced into the weld seam. Optical microscopic and scanning electron microscope (SEM) investigation, microhardness test, shear punch test (SPT), and three points bending test were carried out to assess the properties of the joint. Results showed three distinctive zones: stir zone (SZ), compacted zone (CZ), and diffusional-mechanical affected zone (DMAZ). SEM... 

Semisolid stir welding of AZ91 was investigated with focus on the joining temperature and rotational speed. An Mg–25%Zn interlayer was located between two AZ91 pieces and the system was heated up to the semisolid state of base metal and interlayer. The weld seam was stirred using a drill-tip at different joining temperatures and rotational speeds. Optical and scanning electron microscopes were employed to study microstructure, cavity formation, and segregation. Hardness profile and shear punch test were also employed to rank the welds based on their quality and homogeneity. Results showed that the lowest cavity content (2.1%) with the maximum ultimate shear strength (about 188 MPa) was... 

Introduction: Utilization of computed tomography (CT) scans is increasing annually. This study aimed to reduce the absorbed dose of sensitive organs in the head (eye lenses and thyroid) and to assess changes in resultant images quality in head scans when the radiation dose is decreased. Material and Methods: An anthropomorphic phantom was examined with head protocols in both helical and sectional modes using two 16-slice CT scanners. The entrance surface dose of eye lenses and thyroid was measured with standard protocols and after reducing the mAS and kilo-voltage using thermo-luminescence dosimeters (TLDs). Results: In sectional mode with standard protocol, the highest surface dose was 2.3... 

An assessment of trends in main air pollutant concentrations (including CO, SO2, NO2, O3, PM2.5, and Asbestos) is conducted for the years 2005–2016 for the city of Tehran, Iran. The focus has been on the contribution of anthropogenic emissions to the observed trend, particularly the role of related mitigation plans implemented in the period of interest. A significant decreasing trend (about 50%) was observed in CO and SO2 concentrations during the considered time interval, which was explained by improvement plans in fuel quality and vehicle emission standards. While a substantial elevation (more than 50%) in NO2 levels was detected over the study period, variant trends were observed during... 

This study investigates the secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation potential of carburetor motorcycles exhaust. This type of two-wheeler is a popular means of transport in many Asian cities. A volatility-based numerical model was employed to predict SOA formation from a fleet of motorcycles in Tehran, capital of Iran. The fleet was a combination of four-stroke, gasoline-powered motorcycles with different engine displacement volumes. Total hydrocarbon (THC) emission factors of all motorcycles were previously measured in a chassis dynamometer laboratory according to cold start Euro-3 emissions certification test procedures. Due to incomplete combustion and lack of control on exhaust... 

Unfortunately, energy demands and destruction of the environment from uncontrolled manipulation of fossil fuels have increased. Climate change concerns have resulted in the rapid use of new, alternative combustion technologies. In this study, reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) combustion, which can simply be exploited in internal combustion (IC) engines, is investigated. To introduce and identify extra insightful information, an exergy-based study was conducted to classify various irreversibility and loss sources. Multidimensional models were combined with the primary kinetics mechanism to investigate RCCI combustion, incorporating the second law of thermodynamics. The... 

Over 200 million motorcycles in use worldwide account for a substantial portion of global mobile source total hydrocarbons (THC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions. In Tehran, capital of Iran, ultrarich inefficient combustion in gasoline-fueled motorcycles results in significantly high CO and THC emissions. Motorcycle catalysts can reduce CO and C3H6(as a representative hydrocarbon) emission factors by 60-80%. In the present work, CO and propylene oxidation over a commercial Pt-Pd-based wiremesh catalyst is studied in a flow reactor setup under simulated conditions relevant to 125 cc four-stroke gasoline carburetor motorcycles. Steady-state individual and co-oxidation tests for CO and... 

This paper is to investigate the extent and speed of the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States (US). For this purpose, the fractional form of the susceptible-exposed-infected-recovered-vaccinated-quarantined-hospitalized-social distancing (SEIR-VQHP) model is initially developed, considering the effects of social distancing, quarantine, hospitalization, and vaccination. Then, a Monte Carlo-based back analysis method is proposed by defining the model parameters, viz. the effects of social distancing rate (α), infection rate (β), vaccination rate (ρ), average latency period (γ), infection-to-quarantine rate (E), time-dependent recovery rate (λ),... 

A probabilistic method is proposed in this study to predict the spreading profile of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the United State (US) via time-variant reliability analysis. To this end, an extended susceptible-exposed-infected-vaccinated-recovered (SEIVR) epidemic model is first established deterministically, considering the quarantine and vaccination effects, and then applied to the available COVID-19 data from US. Afterwards, the prediction results are described as a time-series of the number of people infected, recovered, and dead. Upon introducing the extended SEIVR model into a limit-state function and defining the model parameters including transmission, recovery, and... 

Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition can be extended over a wide spectrum of fuels and is anticipated as a promising strategy in meeting current and future emission regulations. In this study, the effect of n-butanol addition on combustion characteristics and emissions in a reactivity controlled engine was investigated experimentally. Different ratios of butanol-diesel blends at different settings of EGR and premixed ratios were applied to a light duty diesel engine. The butanol-diesel blends were directly injected into the combustion chamber while gasoline was injected at the intake port. Combustion phasing was maintained at 2.7 °CA for all of test points by adjusting fuel injection... 

Aluminum reinforced with a large amount (up to about 55 vol.%) of Al 3Ti particles can be fabricated from Al-20Ti elemental nanometer-sized powder mixture via in-situ two step hot press sintering (TSS). For production of intermetallic reinforced in-situ composite, TSS can provide elevated temperature to facilitate the formation of intermetallic phase in situ and hot consolidation to form a fully dense solid. The first step sintering was employed at a higher temperature to obtain an initial high density, and the second step was held at a lower temperature by isothermal sintering for more time than the first one to increase bulk density without significant grain growth. The optimum TSS regime... 

The study deals with the design and optimization of external and internal geometry of micro-wind turbines blades. A specified objective function which consists of the power coefficient and the starting time was defined and the genetic algorithm optimization technique in conjunction with the blade-element momentum theory was adopted to find the geometry of the blades including the distributions of the chord, the twist angle and also the shell thickness. Moreover, the allowable stress of the blades was considered as a constraint to the objective function. Results show that a reasonable compromise is achievable such that the starting time of the blades reduces noticeably in return for a small... 

Homogeneous charge compression ignition engines require a smart control system to regulate the input quantities of the engine in various operational conditions. Achieving an optimum combustion needs an appropriate system response for different engine loads and speeds according to the power acquired from the engine, as well as the amounts of emissions present in the exhaust. Therefore, performing a set of experimental tests together with numerical simulations in a wide range of conditions facilitates calibration of the input parameters of the engine. In this study, the effects of the thermodynamic parameters and the thermokinetic parameters on the engine output in the preliminary design stage... 

Fine particulate matter characterized as PM2.5 is the most important criteria air pollutant in the city of Tehran. Tehran is one of the most polluted cities of the Middle East based on annual mean PM2.5 concentrations. Tehran emission inventory shows the large contribution of mobile sources to the total particles. PM2.5 source apportionment studies show large fraction of black carbon (BC) in the total mass of PM2.5, especially during the cold seasons. BC is the product of incomplete combustion that is mainly derived from diesel engines and rich-burned gasoline carburetor engines on scooters and light-duty vehicles. The present study shows the results of a large experimental campaign in which... 

High reliability and low power consumption are the critical objectives in wireless networks and the network topology is an effective issue in these objectives. This paper investigates these two objectives in the wireless multi-hop networks simultaneously. For this purpose, a connected dominating set CDS-based topology control approach is proposed. In this approach a distributed topology control algorithm with different power adjustment measures is suggested. Our goal is to self-organize this network with minimum interference and power consumption subject to connectivity preservation. Unlike many reliability enhancement algorithms, the proposed mechanism does not compromise power consumption....