Sharif Digital Repository

Darrieus type vertical axis wind turbines have several advantages over other wind turbines for local electricity generation in urban environments. However, the main aerodynamic challenge is the negative impacts of the dynamic stall phenomenon on the turbine performance. This study numerically scrutinizes the effects of plasma actuators on the dynamic stall control and performance improvement of a Darrieus turbine. For this sake, unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations are solved using a pressure-based finite volume method. The Suzen-Hoang plasma actuator model is employed to calculate the body forces attributed to the plasma actuator. First, the dynamic stall characteristics of... 

Inlet performance has an important role in the operation of air-breathing propulsion systems. In this study, performance of a supersonic axisymmetric mixedcompression inlet in the supercritical operating condition is numerically studied. The effects of free-stream Mach number and engine-face pressure on performance parameters, including mass flow ratio, drag coefficient, total pressure recovery, and flow distortion, are investigated. For this sake, a multi-block density-based finite volume CFD code is developed, and Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with Spalart-Allmaras oneequation turbulence model are employed. The code is validated by comparing numerical results against other... 

The interaction between a lake and groundwater has important implications to the quantity and quality of water in both environments. Quantification of lake-groundwater interaction (LGI) has been challenging in regions with limited in-situ data. LGI can be quantified by physically-based models, direct measurement of seepage, measurements of conservative chemical or isotopic tracers, and lake water balance. Despite the accuracy of the methods based on hydrochemical or isotopic measurements and analysis, they require extensive field data that are costly to collect in large lakes. Instead, the data required to quantify LGI by the lake water budget method can be obtained via typical ground... 

Porous poly-silicon (PPS) is a cheaper alternative to single crystal porous silicon and is a favorable choice for making gas sensors. In this study, porous poly-silicon samples were prepared using different HF concentrations and the structural and gas-sensing properties were studied. The topography of the surface was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques. The variation of electrical conductivity of the samples in the presence of dry air-diluted acetone, ethanol and methanol showed that for a constant etching current, the sensitivity was highest for samples prepared in 13% HF solution. The structure of the films in the optimum HF... 

TiO2 deposited on a membrane of Ag fibers was prepared as a photoelectrochemical cell electrode. Ag fibers were made by reduction of Ag complexes on cellulose fibers, followed by burning out the template. TiO 2 photocatalyst layers were grown on the fibers by electrophoretic deposition of TiO2 nanoparticles. Ag fibers could be uniformly deposited. Photocatalytic tests by dye decomposition and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) under UV illumination demonstrate that Ag fibers act as a good substrate that provides both high surface area and good separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and causes the enhancement of photocatalytic activity in comparison with a thin film of... 

Titania nanofibers were prepared using a colloidal solution of Titania nanoparticles and a templating method. The preparation comprises impregnation of cellulose fibers in the solution containing Titania nanoparticles followed by thermal removal of the cellulose template. It is evidenced by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) that the residue substance consists of micron size fibers with a microstructure of nanofibers. The pore size distribution of the substance is multi-scale and fractal morphology was demonstrated with two fractal regimes with dimensions of 1.78 and 2.97 for sizes below and above 7.5nm, respectively. The surface area of the Titania fibers was measured about 250m2/g. The... 

Research on Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN) has witnessed constant advances in small and low power integrated electronic circuits as well as wireless communication schemes for remote monitoring of patients. As such, high reliability anomaly detection has emerged as an important characteristic especially in detection of system faults and abnormal physiological measurements. This work studies the reliability of WBANs by utilizing a Markov-based chain model and considering hardware failure rate, patient health status, and accuracy of anomaly detection algorithms containing Detection Rate (DR), False Positive Rate (FPR), and accuracy of transient fault correction measures. The proposed... 

Malfunction of ultrasonic transducers is one of the most common factors affecting the quality of medical ultrasound images. In this work, the effect of electrical fatigue in piezoelectric transducers on the image quality is investigated and subsequently compensated. To this end, through a combination of simulation and controlled experimental and clinical evaluations, the effect of fatigue and its compensation is realized. Initially, the electrical fatigue is simulated by reducing the piezoelectric permittivity and piezoelectric constant parameters based on finite element method (FEM). Next, the transducer's electromechanical impulse response is obtained, and the quality of reconstructed... 

Quality of medical ultrasound images is negatively affected by common defective elements in the ultrasonic transducer arrays. In this work, radio frequency (RF) signals from weak elements with low sensitivity are restored using an adaptive nonblind signal deconvolution method. For this purpose, the electromechanical impulse response of each element in the transducer must be measured. Initially, the negative effects of the RF signals recorded from each element are removed by Wiener deconvolution of RF signals through the measured impulse responses. Then to restore the RF signals, the deconvolution result is convolved with the reference electromechanical impulse response, corresponding to the... 

TiO2 nanofibres were prepared using a templating method with tetraisopropylorthotitanate (TiPT) as a precursor. The preparation comprises liquid phase deposition on cellulose fibres followed by thermal removal of the cellulose template. The obtained TiO2 fibrous substance consists of micron-size fibres with a microstructure of nanofibres. It was demonstrated that nanofibres are basically formed through the aggregation of TiO2 nanoparticles and nanorods into chain structures during the thermal treatment process. The measured surface area of the TiO2 fibres was about 250 m2 g-1. It was shown that the pore size distribution is multi-scale and a fractal morphology was demonstrated with two... 

The purpose of this study is to investigate production of high quality ammonium uranyl carbonate (AUC) from “uranyl nitrate + ammonium bicarbonate”, or “uranyl nitrate + sodium carbonate” precursor solutions, by controlled injection of ammonium carbonate solution which could be applicable in material testing reactor (MTR) fuel production plant for recycling of rejected uranium oxide powder. The experimental observations revealed: at pHs higher than 6, precipitation proceeds with formation of no intermediate, thus ensuing a better morphology and size distribution of the AUC products. The results of scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, particle size analysis, and uranium content... 

A methodology is developed for the design of optimum viscous fluid passive energy dissipation systems using pole assignment active control algorithm. In this method, the procedure to assign the new structural poles is slightly modified such that the resulting structural properties (i.e., the optimum locations of system poles) can be achieved merely by modification of structural stiffness and addition of a passive control system. A combination of stiffness reduction and increase of damping is utilized to reduce both acceleration and displacement response. It is shown that the control systems designed using this method provide structural performances slightly better than or close to those of... 

A practical procedure is developed for the design of passive control systems using viscous fluid dampers for nonlinear structures. The design methodology takes advantage of the modification of the damping, strength, and stiffness properties of the structure to achieve the desired relative displacement and absolute acceleration response. For this purpose, a study of poles in the complex plane is used to determine the required changes in the dynamic properties of nonlinear structures. Furthermore, a relatively simple relation between the ductility demands of highly damped single- and multiple-degree-of-freedom (SDF and MDF respectively) systems is established to reduce the computational burden... 

A strategy is developed for design of passive control systems for structures experiencing inelastic deformations during earthquake loading. Besides the addition of passive energy dissipation devices, the proposed method suggests the required changes to the stiffness and strength of the structure, to reduce the absolute acceleration and relative deformation responses simultaneously. For this purpose, the locations and amounts of modifications in stiffness, strength and damping are determined by a sliding mode control algorithm to consider the nonlinear behavior of the structure. Being originally designed for active control, the sliding mode algorithm is modified to facilitate the extraction... 

ABSTARCT: A practical procedure is developed for the design of passive control systems using viscous fluid dampers for nonlinear structures. The design methodology takes advantage of the modification of the damping, strength, and stiffness properties of the structure to achieve the desired relative displacement and absolute acceleration response. For this purpose, a study of poles in the complex plane is used to determine the required changes in the dynamic properties of nonlinear structures. Furthermore, a relatively simple relation between the ductility demands of highly damped single- and multiple-degree-of-freedom (SDF and MDF respectively) systems is established to reduce the... 

Density of surface charges of cellulose fibers and -potential of TiO2 nanoparticles in the solution were measured and controlled by pH. The adsorption and clustering of TiO2 nanoparticles on the surface of cellulose fibers were studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and a scale in different situations of repulsion and attraction between the particles and surface. The experiments show formation of two-dimensional clusters of nanoparticles on the surface. Weight measurement of the adsorbed particles and clusters via the adsorption time results in that there are three stages containing nucleation, two-dimensional growth and saturation for clustering of nanoparticles on the surface.... 

Carbonaceous radioactive waste is produced by adsorption of effluent gases of UF6 production line, on a bed of charcoal. Current research was aimed at developing a process for recovery of uranium from this waste in a laboratory and at pilot scale. As a first step, leaching of uranium from carbonaceous radioactive waste was undertaken by successive steps using Al(NO3)3 and nitric acid, the former used to eliminate corrosivity of the F− ions. The stoichiometry of reaction between F− and Al3+ ions form complexes ranging from AlF2+, AlF2+ to AlF3 depending upon their molar ratio. The results showed that the increase of NO3−/U ratio increased the uranium leaching efficiency. Presence of some... 

Let G be a graph. The minimum number of colors needed to color the edges of G is called the chromatic index of G and is denoted by x0(G). It is well known that δ(G) ≤ x0(G) ≤ δ(G) + 1, for any graph G, whereδ(G) denotes the maximum degree of G. A graph G is said to be class 1 if x0(G) = δ(G) and class 2 if x0(G) = δ(G)+1. Also, Gδ is the induced subgraph on all vertices of degreeδ(G). Let f : V(G) ! N be a function. An f -coloring of a graph G is a coloring of the edges of E(G) such that each color appears at each vertex v 2 V(G) at most f (v) times. The minimum number of colors needed to f -color G is called the f -chromatic index of G and is denoted by x0f (G). It was shown that for every...