Sharif Digital Repository

This paper presents an offline path planning method in 3D space for a surveillance aerial vehicle. In this method, the aerial vehicle is supposed to visit particular points on the path, and the collision between the vehicle and the fixed obstacles in the environment must be avoided. In order to accomplish the mission, first, the path is generated using B-splines. Then, the feasibility of tracking the designed path for the vehicle is considered by analyzing the vehicle's dynamic constraints, such as limitations on deflections of control surfaces. The analysis is supported by a simulation. Potential extension of the proposed analysis to multiple aerial vehicles has been also discussed at the... 

In this paper, the transient motion of an intelligent Pipe Inspection Gauge (PIG) while moving across anomalies inside a typical gas/oil pipeline has been investigated. The pipeline fluid has been considered as isothermal and compressible. In addition, the pipeline itself has also been considered to be flexible. The fluid continuity and momentum equations along with the 3D dynamic equations of motion of the pig comprise a system of coupled dynamic differential equations which have been solved numerically. Pig's position, orientation and velocity profiles as well as upstream and downstream fluid's pressure waves are presented as simulation results which provide a better understanding of the... 

In this paper, a fuzzy based controller is developed in order to control the braking action of the rear axle of a series hybrid city bus. The controller's target is to recapture the kinetic energy of the bus as much as possible during braking, while still maintaining its stability. The bus under study Is one of the Iran-Khodro Company's productions called O457 which is currently undergoing a procedure of hybridization. The hybrid type used is a series hybrid configuration in which an internal combustion engine and a battery pack supply Its electric traction motors in order to propel the bus. The implemented fuzzy controller takes the bus speed, batteries SOC level and the brake-pedal... 

For the reason that flow expansion model (developed in our previous work) for evaluating mass transfer during droplet formation involves with manifest hydrodynamic aspects, in this research computational simulation of this phenomenon was done for characterization of hydrodynamics effects on the mass transfer during droplet formation. For this purpose, an Eulerian volume tracking computational code based on volume of fluid (VOF) method was developed to solve the transient Navier-Stokes equations for the axisymmetric free-boundary problem of a Newtonian liquid that is dripping vertically and breaking as drops into another immiscible Newtonian fluid. The effects of hydrodynamics effects on the... 

This paper is aimed at investigating some computational aspects of different isoperimetric problems on weighted trees. In this regard, we consider different connectivity parameters called minimum normalized cuts/isoperimetric numbers defined through taking the minimum of the maximum or the mean of the normalized outgoing flows from a set of subdomains of vertices, where these subdomains constitute a partition/subpartition. We show that the decision problem for the case of taking k-partitions and the maximum (called the max normalized cut problem NCP^M), and the other two decision problems for the mean version (referred to as IPP^m and NCP^m) are NP-complete problems for weighted trees. On... 

In the absence of powerful rigorous models, in this research a simple but practical method for calculating the temperature and residence time and carbon black yield in oil-furnace reactors is proposed. For this purpose an empirical formula of the form CXHY is assumed for the carbon black feedstock based on typical feedstock used in this industry. Based on the prevailing reactor conditions, thermodynamic considerations and available outlet tail gas from the reactor, a few representative reactions are considered to describe the entire reaction network. These include complete combustion for the fuel and, incomplete combustion and pyrolysis for the feedstock. Carbon black yield can be estimated... 

An optimal performance film cooling implies a high cooling effectiveness along with a wide surface cooling coverage. During the past decades, film cooling effectiveness has been well defined with a specific formula to evaluate the quality of a cooling system. However, despite numerous research on film cooling, there is still no explicit parameter to quantify how well a coolant film is spread over a hot surface. This work introduces a new coefficient namely cooling uniformity coefficient (CUC) to evaluate how well a coolant film is spread over a surface that is being cooled. Four different cases at two blowing ratios of 0.5 and 1.5 are studied. Three cases are ordinary single jets with... 

Surface tension driven passive micro-pumping relies mainly on the surface tension properties. To have control over surface tension driven passive micro-pumps (STD-PMPs), it is essential to understand the physical background of the fluid flow in these pumps. Hence, the purpose of this work is to give an exploration of the flow physics of a STD-PMP. In this regard, computer simulation is used to give detailed information about the flow pattern and physical phenomena at different conditions. To this end, a droplet of water, with a specified diameter, is placed onto an entry port connected to another droplet at the exit port via a microchannel. The results indicate that the pumping process, in... 

Water and energy are the major factors in the new United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainable conversion and management in the secure supply of increasing demand for water and electricity is a challenging concern. It is recently complicated due to economic development, population growth, resource depletion, and climate change, which requires a simultaneous progressive planning. Since energy and water systems are instinctively interdependent and mutually interacted (known as nexus), this paper employed an integrated solution-based method. A bottom-up optimization model is developed considering Water-Energy-Emission Nexus approach for both power and water sectors. The model... 

Let LL be a reversible Markovian generator on a finite set View the MathML sourceV. Relations between the spectral decomposition of LL and subpartitions of the state space View the MathML sourceV into a given number of components which are optimal with respect to min–max or max–min Dirichlet connectivity criteria are investigated. Links are made with higher-order Cheeger inequalities and with a generic characterization of subpartitions given by the nodal domains of an eigenfunction. These considerations are applied to generators whose positive rates are supported by the edges of a discrete cycle ZNZN, to obtain a full description of their spectra and of the shapes of their eigenfunctions, as... 

In this paper1 we consider higher isoperimetric numbers of a (finite directed) graph. In this regard we focus on the nth mean isoperimetric constant of a directed graph as the minimum of the mean outgoing normalized flows from a given set of n disjoint subsets of the vertex set of the graph. We show that the second mean isoperimetric constant in this general setting, coincides with (the mean version of) the classical Cheeger constant of the graph, while for the rest of the spectrum we show that there is a fundamental difference between the nth isoperimetric constant and the number obtained by taking the minimum over all n-partitions. In this direction, we show that our definition is the... 

Tortuosity and cementation factor are two critical parameters that significantly affect estimates of reservoir properties. Tortuosity factor can be used to estimate permeability using the Carman-Kozeny equation and is an important parameter for formation resistivity factor calculation using a modified version of Archie's formula. It is also used to predict water saturation of reservoir rocks. Tortuosity as an input parameter in Biot's equation can be used to estimate velocity dispersion. In this work, based on the Generalized Archie Equation Curve Fitting (GAECF), tortuosity and cementation factor are determined for selected intervals in a carbonate reservoir. Formation resistivity factor... 

Hybridization of conventional vehicles is considered an important step to achieve high fuel economy and low emissions. In this study, principle considerations involved in a hybridizing process are discussed and consequently, a sequential approach for designing hybrid components for both series and parallel configurations has been introduced. The so called approach has then been applied to one of the productions of Iran-Khodro Company called SAMAND. Having designed the hybrid components, the conventional SAMAND and its series and parallel hybrid configurations were defined and evaluated using the ADvanced VehIcle SimulatOR (ADVISOR) software. It is observed that compared to the conventional... 

The purpose of this study is to predict the activation barriers and enthalpy for elementary steps in the process of Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) on the surfaces of Fe(110), Cu(111) and Fe/Cu alloys catalyst using "Unity Bond Index-Quadratic Exponential Potential" method aimed at predicting the activity and selectivity on the basis of energy criteria. The elementary steps, such as dissociation of CO, hydrogenation of carbidic carbon, C-C chain growth by insertion of CH2 versus CO into the metal-alkyl bonds, and chain termination, which lead to hydrocarbons (alkanes versus α-olefins) or oxygenates are discussed in detail. The results show that metallic Fe(110) is necessary to produce the carbidic... 

A well performance film cooling implies for a high cooling effectives accompanied with a wide cooling coverage. During the past six decades, film cooling effectiveness has been well defined with a specific relation to quantify it. However, despite of numerous film cooling research, there is not an explicit method to quantify the uniformity of a coolant film spread over the hot surfaces. This work introduces a cooling uniformity coefficient (CUC) to evaluate how well a coolant film spreads over a surface being cooled. Four different cases are computationally studied. In the three cases, a single jet is injected into a hot cross flow with different jet exit shapes (i.e. square, spanwise... 

The equations of balance of a continuum under conditions of growth and mass diffusion are derived from a principle of invariance under general observer transformations. The resulting equations are invariant under inertial transformations. Apparent body forces stemming from the mass transport phenomenon are identified and shown to be associated with non-inertial observers. © The Author(s) 2018  

In this paper, microgravity modulation effects on free convection in a cavity are investigated using the lattice Boltzmann method. In order to create microgravity modulation, a sinusoidal time-dependent function is considered. Parameters of the flow are chosen such that the maximum Rayleigh number approaches 106. The natural frequency of the system is obtained at first. Afterwards, effects of different frequencies on the flow and heat transfer fields are investigated in detail. Results are presented in four different frequency ratios categorized as (1) ω∗=1200, 1100, 120, and 110; (2) ω∗=18, 15, 13, and 12; (3) ω∗ = 0.75, 0.85, and 0.95; and (4) the last one is considered for natural... 

The equations of balance of a continuum under conditions of growth and mass diffusion are derived from a principle of invariance under general observer transformations. The resulting equations are invariant under inertial transformations. Apparent body forces stemming from the mass transport phenomenon are identified and shown to be associated with non-inertial observers  

In this paper, flow separation control over a NACA 4415 wing section using arrays of discrete quasi-radial wall jets is numerically investigated. This novel flow control method is studied under conditions which the wing section angle of attack is α=18 degrees and Reynolds number based on chord length is Rec=550000. Contours of mean streamwise velocity indicated that quasi-radial wall jets cover wing surface rapidly. Therefore, arranging them in a spanwise row can be an effective way in adding momentum to the near wall fluid particles. According to the results, if blowing parameters of the jets be chosen correctly, arrays of quasi-radial wall jets would lead to considerable decrease in wake...