Sharif Digital Repository

Efficient mixing, typically characterised by chaotic advection, is hard to achieve in low Reynolds number conditions because of the linear nature of the Stokes equation that governs the motion. Here we show that low Reynolds number swimmers moving in quasi-periodic orbits can result in considerable stretching and folding of fluid elements. We accurately follow packets of tracers within the fluid domain and show that their trajectories become chaotic as the swimmer's trajectory densely fills its invariant torus. The mixing process is demonstrated in two dimensions using the Quadroar swimmer that autonomously propels and tumbles along quasi-periodic orbits with multi-loop turning trajectories.... 

The seismic behavior of stainless-steel built-up box columns subjected to constant axial loads and cyclic lateral deformation that are used in special moment frames (SMFs) has been investigated through finite element (FE) analysis. A total of 208 numerical models were conducted to cover a range of parameters affecting the seismic behavior of the columns. These include the web slenderness ratio, flange slenderness ratio, global slenderness ratio, axial load level, and lateral loading protocol. The performance indices of overstrength factor, axial shortening, out-of-plane deformation, plastic hinge length, and rotation capacity were calculated and compared. Local buckling of the columns also... 

This paper reviews the applications of experimental design to optimize some analytical chemistry techniques such as extraction, chromatography separation, capillary electrophoresis, spectroscopy, and electroanalytical methods  

We design and simulate the motion of a swimmer, the Quadroar, with three-dimensional translation and reorientation capabilities in low-Reynolds-number conditions. The Quadroar is composed of an I-shaped frame whose body link is a simple linear actuator and four disks that can rotate about the axes of flange links. The time symmetry is broken by a combination of disk rotations and the one-dimensional expansion or contraction of the body link. The Quadroar propels on forward and transverse straight lines and performs full three-dimensional reorientation maneuvers, which enable it to swim along arbitrary trajectories. We find continuous operation modes that propel the swimmer on planar and... 

This paper reviews the main concepts of experimental design applicable to the optimization of analytical chemistry techniques. The critical steps and tools for screening, including Plackett-Burman, factorial and fractional factorial designs, and response surface methodology such as central composite, Box-Behnken, and Doehlert designs, are discussed. Some useful routines are also presented for performing the procedures  

This paper focuses on characterization of the components of Iranian rosemary essential oil using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Multivariate curve resolution (MCR) approach was used to overcome the problem of background, baseline offset and overlapping/embedded peaks in GC-MS. The analysis of GC-MS data revealed that sixty eight components exist in the rosemary essential oil. However, with the help of MCR this number was extended to ninety nine components with concentrations higher than 0.01%, which accounts for 98.23% of the total relative content of the rosemary essential oil. The most important constituents of the Iranian rosemary are 1,8-cineole (23.47%), α-pinene... 

In this paper multivariate response surface methodology (RSM) has been used for the optimization of hydrodistillation-headspace solvent microextraction (HD-HSME) of thymol and carvacrol in Thymus transcaspicus. Quantitative determination of compounds of interest was performed simultaneously using gas chromatography coupled with flame ionization detector (GC-FID). Parameters affecting the extraction efficiency were assessed and the optimized values were 5 min, 2 μL and 3 min for the extraction time, micro-drop volume and cooling time after extraction, respectively. The amounts of analyte extracted increased with plant weight. The calibration curves were linear in the ranges of 6.25-81.25 and... 

The components of Iranian spearmint essential oil were identified and quantified using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) combined with chemometric tools. A multivariate curve resolution (MCR) approach was used to overcome the problems of background, baseline offset and overlapping/embedded peaks in GC-MS. The peaks were resolved using heuristic evolving latent projection (HELP) and multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) techniques. A new pure variable selection method named multivariate curve resolution-objective function equal to zero (MCR-FEQZ) is introduced and was applied in this work. The performance of this technique was evaluated and confirmed... 

In analysis of complex natural matrices by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), many disturbing factors such as baseline drift, spectral background, homoscedastic and heteroscedastic noise, peak shape deformation (non-Gaussian peaks), low S/N ratio and co-elution (overlapped and/or embedded peaks) lead the researchers to handle them to serve time, money and experimental efforts. This study aimed to improve the GC-MS analysis of complex natural matrices utilizing multivariate curve resolution (MCR) methods. In addition, to assess the peak purity of the two-dimensional data, a method called variable size moving window-evolving factor analysis (VSMW-EFA) is introduced and examined. The... 

We report an unexpected reverse spiral turn in the final stage of the motion of rolling rings. It is well known that spinning disks rotate in the same direction of their initial spin until they stop. While a spinning ring starts its motion with a kinematics similar to disks, i.e., moving along a cycloidal path prograde with the direction of its rigid body rotation, the mean trajectory of its center of mass later develops an inflection point so that the ring makes a spiral turn and revolves in a retrograde direction around a new center. Using high speed imaging and numerical simulations of models featuring a rolling rigid body, we show that the hollow geometry of a ring tunes the rotational... 

In this paper, we use the unsteady actuator line model to predict the far wake behind a megawatt horizontal axis wind turbine and analyze its performance at different working conditions. To achieve this, the actuator line model is suitably coupled with a three-dimensional Navier-Stokes solver. The k-ω turbulence model is used as the turbulence model in this solver. Following the nature of actuator line model, the blade forces are distributed along three lines, in which each line represents one blade of rotor. The forces are obtained iteratively using the blade element momentum (BEM) theory and the three-dimensional correction of airfoil data. We choose the 5 megawatt NREL wind turbine to... 

Due to the important role of surface-related properties of NPs in their biological behavior, simple and fast methods that could precisely demonstrate accurate information about NPs' surface, structure and morphology are highly desirable. In this study a set of surface morphological nano-descriptors (size, shape, surface area, agglomeration state, curvature, corner count and aspect ratio) have been defined and extracted from Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) images of nanoparticles (NPs) by Digital Image Processing methods. The extracted data represent a thorough description of the surface and morphologies of NPs lying beyond their TEM images and can supply the data required for a... 

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC-TOFMS) combined to multivariate curve resolution-alternating least-squares (MCR-ALS) is proposed for the resolution and quantification of very complex mixtures of compounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in heavy fuel oil (HFO). Different GC × GC-TOFMS data slices acquired during the analysis of HFO samples and PAH standards were simultaneously analyzed using the MCR-ALS method to resolve the pure component elution profiles in the two chromatographic dimensions as well as their pure mass spectra. Outstandingly, retention time shifts within and between GC × GC runs were not affecting... 

This paper describes the development and implementation of MCRC software, chemometric software for Multivariate Curve Resolution of two-way Chromatographic data. MCRC software is developed for chemometric analysis of chromatographic data; however, it may also be used for other types of multivariate data. It consists of five groups of techniques for preprocessing, chemical rank determination, local rank analysis, multivariate resolution and peak integration. This software has the ability of the analysis of complex multi-component chromatographic signals of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection (HPLC-DAD). The software... 

Rotational ambiguity is a central but not well investigated problem in all soft-modelling analyses of multivariate data. A novel method which is based on Resolving Factor Analysis (RFA) is proposed. Completely general and exhaustive results are presented for the two-component case. In particular the effects of noise and global analysis of series of measurements are investigated. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd  

The tear energy and heat build up of NR, SBR and BR vulcanizates and their corresponding blends were measured at several temperatures via modified trouser tear and Goodrich flexometer experiments. In all single component samples, by increasing temperature from -10 to 125°C, the fracture energy decreases, goes through a minimum and increases again. Nevertheless, in SBR and BR, a level off and a level off followed by second drop occur at higher temperatures, respectively. On the other hand, for aforementioned samples the heat build up decreases monotonically by raising the temperature. For two-component blends, the fracture energy and heat build up show different dependencies on temperature in... 

We use the Fokker-Planck equation and model the dispersive dynamics of solid particles in annular protoplanetary disks whose gas component is more massive than the particle phase. We model particle-gas interactions as hard sphere collisions, determine the functional form of diffusion coefficients, and show the existence of two global unstable modes in the particle phase. These modes have spiral patterns with the azimuthal wavenumber m = 1 and rotate slowly. We show that in ring-shaped disks, the phase-space density of solid particles increases linearly in time toward an accumulation point near the location of pressure maximum, while instabilities grow exponentially. Therefore, planetesimals... 

I formulate a general finite element method (FEM) for self-gravitating stellar systems. I split the configuration space to finite elements, and express the potential and density functions over each element in terms of their nodal values and suitable interpolating functions. General expressions are then introduced for the Hamiltonian and phase-space distribution functions of the stars that visit a given element. Using the weighted residual form of Poisson's equation, I derive the Galerkin projection of the perturbed collisionless Boltzmann equation, and assemble the global evolutionary equations of nodal distribution functions. The FEM is highly adaptable to all kinds of potential and density... 

I utilize the Petrov-Galerkin formulation and develop a new method for solving the unsteady collisionless Boltzmann equation in both the linear and nonlinear regimes. In the first-order approximation, the method reduces to a linear eigen-value problem which is solved using standard numerical methods. I apply the method to the dynamics of a model stellar disk which is embedded in the field of a soft-centered logarithmic potential. The outcome is the full spectrum of eigen-frequencies and their conjugate normal modes for prescribed azimuthal wavenumbers. The results show that the fundamental bar mode is isolated in the frequency space, while spiral modes belong to discrete families that...