Sharif Digital Repository

Despite many advantages of granular sludge in anaerobic reactors (e.g. UASB), over the past few years research attention had turned towards developing aerobic granular sludge. Although much research is carried out on the formation of aerobic granules, less work is reported on how to enhance granules characteristics such as increasing in granule size, concentration, durability and stability. The aims of this study are to investigate the effects of cationic polymer on granule formation and the way to improve granule characteristics. For this purpose two SBR reactors (0.15 m diameter and 1.8 m height, R1 and R2) were used by feeding synthetic wastewater (diluted molasses, COD ranging from 1400... 

The aim of this project is to fabricate and study heterogeneous CaO-based nanocatalysts with lithium and zinc enhancers for the esterification reaction of rapeseed oil and methanol to produce biodiesel as a renewable and alternative fuel for fossil fuels. Is. First, Zn-Li / CaO catalysts with weight ratio Li: Zn: CaO, 2: 2: 7 and by combining different percentages of Li100% promoter, Li75% -Zn25%, Li50% -Zn50%, Li25% -Zn75%, 100% Zn were made on the basis of CaO by wet inoculation. Characterization tests to evaluate the structure and characterization such as X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (EDX) spectroscopy, Bruner-Emmett-Teller... 

Flows which density difference in a gravity field is their driven force are called Density Currents. Such flows are present in both nature and man made environments. Due to their importance, there have been large efforts to analyse them in both experimental and numerical way. In the present thesis, Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is introduced as a new tool to simulate such flows. As the method is Lagrangian and particle based, simulation of Density Currents with particles can be addressed more naturally that can be accounted as the method preference to traditional mesh based methods. SPH projection method is incorporated to impose incompressibility. To precisely simulate Density... 

Today, obesity, as a major global health challenge, affects more than 30 percent of the world's population. To investigate the effect of obesity on spinal function, a common method is motion analysis (kinematic method). This method is based on the claim that the abnormal mechanical function of the spine is directly related to its abnormal motions.The aim of this study is to measure and compare the range of motions (RoMs) of different segments of the spine in all anatomical plates between obese and normal individuals, as well as to calculate and compare some motion rhythms between the lumbar spine and the pelvis in these two groups. Comparing the posture of the spine between obese and normal... 

This paper presents finite-element simulation results for hydraulic fracture’s initiation, propagation at reservoirs with damaged zone and naturally fractured reservoirs that likely finds in Iranian oil fields. To address this objective, a two-dimensional poro-elastic model was solved and cohesive zone modeling was used as the methodology for simulation fractures. This enables us to assign individual criteria for fracture initiation and propagation in each model. Our results demonstrate that hydraulic fracturing is not useful in reservoir with strongly damaged zone around the wellbore, because pore pressure increases at that zone and plastic flow of fracture wall happens, so it is better to... 

Multiple distortion coding is a promising solution for video transmission over lossy channels. In MDC multiple descriptions of a source are generated which are independently decodable and mutually refinable. When all descriptions are available, the corresponding quality is called central quality; otherwise it is called side quality. Generally, there exist a trade-off between side and central quality in all MDC schemes. The MDC methods which provide better central-side quality trade-off are of more interest to the designers.In this thesis a new MDC scheme is introduced which has better trade-off between side and central quality. In other words, for the same central quality, it provides higher... 

The network of actin filaments is one of the three elements of the Cytoskeleton and plays a role in cell shape and migration. The actin network is dynamic; it (de)polymerizes, and in migrating and spreading cells, it is in a retrograde motion from the cell periphery toward cell nucleus. Adhesion points, which link the cytoskeleton to the extracellular matrix, interact with the actin retrograde flow. Actin filaments can be identified in two distinct regions in which their structure, flow velocity, driving force and size of the adhesions are different; the outer region is called Lamellipodium and the inner one Lamellum. In macro scale and regarding spreading cells, considering adhesions... 

Lipid membranes are fundamental constituents of cell membranes and are now used in lap-on-a-chip technology. Membranes in living cells contain a significant fraction of proteins, which undergo lateral random movements due to thermal fluctuations and shear forces imposed by the solvent fluid. Prominent natural and biotechnological systems where membranes are highly sheared include the plasma membrane of endothelial cells, and membranes used in biosensors for high throughput screening of drug candidates, and in water purification devices. In these systems membrane is in direct contact with the mainstream suspension flow, which is driven by pressure gradients. The efficiency and function of... 

An aerodynamical model for studying asymmetric and three-dimensional flow fields about wind turbine rotors is presented. The developed algorithm combines a asymmetric and three-dimensional Navier-Stokes solver with a so-called actuator disc technique in which the loading is distributed along lines representing the blade forces. The loading is determined iteratively using a bladeelement approach and tabulated airfoil data. Computations are carried out for a 5MW NREL wind turbine equipped with three blades. The computed power production is found to be in good agreement with measurements. The computations give detailed information about basic features of wind turbine wakes, including... 

The purpose of this Thesis is designing and constructing of high voltage power supply with very low ripple. Proposed method of this thesis is formed of two sections. In this proposed structure, in first section, structure is on basis of diodes rectifier that has been used for producing main portion of output load energy. Second section uses with aim of regulating of first stage voltage. In attention to existence of noises and available offsets in different sections of proposed circuits, model is basis of two stages structure. Sampling of output voltage by using of resistance divider for main loop of circuit has been done. So noises and offsets available in circuit act as prevented factor... 

In this study, the behavior of box column subjected to constant axial load with cyclic lateral force have been investigated by Finite Element method. The resulf of FE anslysis are in a good agreement with experimental result in predicting of behavior and performance of box column. In order to investigation of behavior uses of some performance indices such as axial shortening, over strength, plastic hinge length, out of plane deformation and rotation capacity. The effect of significant parameter such as axial force to yield strength ratio, flange whidth to thickness ratio of flange, web whith to thickness ratio of web, global slenderness ratio and loading protocol on performance indices have... 

Numerical three-dimensional simulation of the entire regions of a gas turbine blade, including hot gas flow over the blade surface, conduction heat transfer within the blade metal, and coolant flow through the Internal cooling System, is highly time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, one-dimensional internal flow simulation is one of the main objectives of this research to address the limitations of commercial software in predicting the temperature distribution along the cooling path. In this study, a one-dimensional in-house simulation code is developed to simulate the coolant flow inside the cooling channels of the internal cooling system of the blade. Additionally, using artificial...