Sharif Digital Repository

Solar photovoltaic (PV) has grown rapidly over the years, which has led to land competition between installing PV for generating energy and utilizing land for agriculture to meet rising demand in human population consumption. As a result, agrivoltaic systems have become a promising way to grow food crops and produce electricity at the same time. This research assessed the potential crops that can be planted in a solar park in order to determine the possibility in combining energy and food production on the same land. This study observed growth responses of selected vegetable crops (okra, eggplant, green spinach, Chinese cabbage, Chinese kale, Brazilian spinach and pennywort) planted in the... 

In this study, a two-layer feed-forward neural network was constructed and applied to determine a mapping associating mix design and testing factors of cement-nano silica (NS)-rice husk ash ternary blended concrete samples with their performance in conductance to the water absorption properties. To generate data for the neural network model (NNM), a total of 174 field cores from 58 different mixes at three ages were tested in the laboratory for each of percentage, velocity and coefficient of water absorption and mix volumetric properties. The significant factors (six items) that affect the permeability properties of ternary blended concrete were identified by experimental studies which were:... 

The aim of this study was to assess the effects of two different types of SiO2 nanoparticles (N and M series) with different ratios on the workability and compressive strength of developed binary blended concretes cured in water and lime solution as two different curing media. N and M series SiO2 nanoparticles with an average size of 15 nm were used as obtained from the suppliers. Fresh and hardened concretes incorporating 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0% of N and 2% of M series nanoparticles with constant water to binder ratio and aggregate content were made and tested. Fresh mixtures were tested for workability and hardened concretes were tested for compressive strength at 7, 28 and 90 days of... 

Biomass residues due to their low bulk density typically require frequent transportation from biomass plantations in rural areas to conversion bio-energy power plants. This issue contrasts with environmental protection strategies, especially when power plants are facing different carbon reduction policies that enforce them to emit less than a given specific carbon amount. Although several researchers have investigated bio-energy supply chains concerning environmental policies, the majority of studies have been devoted to strategic decisions over a single planning period. This paper presents a multi-period bio-energy supply chain under carbon pricing (carbon tax) and carbon trading... 

Reactivity controlled compression ignition has been introduced to implement controllable, clean, and high thermal efficiency without undermining the advantages of premixed combustion. However, simultaneous auto-ignition introduced by reactivity controlled combustion challenges the combustion under higher load operations. This experimental study incorporates a dual phase heat release concept with the purpose of improving the performance of reactivity controlled compression ignition engine. Different ratios of ethanol/diethyl-ether blends (from 0% to 40% diethyl ether and 70% premixed ratio) were applied to a light duty diesel engine at various combustion timings and engine loads. The diesel... 

The purpose of this research is to provide power grid energy efficiency solutions. In this paper, a comprehensive review and its optimal solution is proposed considering the various challenges of smart grid demand-side management. The main technique is based on a novel idea in the Smart Grid—demand response optimization which enables autonomous energy management on the demand side for a wide variety of customers. The first section of this research examines the smart grid issue and evaluates the state-of-the-art load management techniques in terms of the work’s scope. The demand-side load management architecture consists of three primary levels, two of them in line planning and low-cost... 

Hydrolysis of titanium isopropoxide alcoholic solution has been used to prepare the crystallized TiO2 nanoparticles at low temperature. Concentration ratio was used to control the pathway of sol-gel process and change the physical characteristics of TiO2 nanopowders. The crystallinity, morphology and size of aged TiO2 nanopowders were studied by X-ray diffraction and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). FTIR and, Thermo-Gravimetric (TG) analysis were used to identify the functional groups and thermal behavior of prepared samples. Experimental results have shown that high crystalline TiO2 nanomaterial with anatase polymorph can be obtained at room temperature. It has been found that the... 

Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading platform is an upcoming energy generation and effective energy managing strategy that rewards proactive customers (acting as prosumers) in which individuals trade energy for products and services. On the other hand, P2P trading is expected to give multiple benefits to the grid in minimizing the peak load demand, energy consumption costs, and eliminating network losses. However, installing P2P energy trading on a broader level in electrical-based networks presents a number of modeling problems in physical and virtual network layers. As a result, this article presents a thorough examination of P2P studies of energy trade literature. An overview is given with... 

Electrical energy is very necessary for human life in the modern era. The rising energy prices, depletion of fossil fuels, and instability of the grid are alarming situations. So, it needs a smart solution to ensure the balance between pricing and saving natural resources. Some other issues like environmental change, limitations on installation of new transmission lines, reliability concerns, and considering the expansion in distributed energy generation technologies promise the implementation of distributed generation extensively. The integration of two or more energy supplies in a power system is known as distributed energy resource system. In this study, a university campus is taken as a... 

This study describes a novel approach to design of a power factor correction (PFC) and total harmonic distortion (THD) reduction-based brushless DC (BLDC) motor drive. The drive was designed to obtain a reduced THD for PFC. The basic design of the BLDC motor drive contains an AC voltage source as input for a diode bridge rectifier. The output DC voltage is filtered out to reduce ripples. The smooth DC output voltage is supplied to the modified Zeta converter. The output voltage of the modified Zeta converter is controlled by using pulse width modulation (PWM). The modified Zeta converter is utilized in discontinuous inductor current mode (DICM) for better power factor. This controlled DC... 

A long-term antibacterial activity of implants without compromising their biocompatibility is highly desirable to minimize the biomaterial-associated infections. Although tantalum oxide nanotubes (Ta2O5 NTs) are promising coating materials for orthodontics and orthopedics applications, their insufficient antibacterial activity retains vulnerability to post-implantation infections. This study aimed to endow antibacterial characteristics to the Ta2O5 NTs-coated Ti6Al4V substrates by decoration of silver oxide nanoparticles (Ag2O NPs). The well-adherent Ta2O5 NTs were grown via anodization of a pure tantalum (Ta) layer coated by physical vapor deposition (PVD) on the Ti6Al4V substrates. The... 

The nanotubular arrays of titanium dioxide (TiO2 NTs) have recently received considerable interest for fabrication of dental and orthopedic implants. However, their antibacterial activity requires substantial improvement for the potential infections minimization, without compromise of their biocompatibility. In this work, TiO2 NTs were developed on Ti6Al4V substrates via anodization at a constant potential of 60 V for 60 min, followed by heat treatment at 500 °C for 90 min. Physical vapor deposition (PVD) was further employed to decorate silver oxide nanoparticles (Ag2O NPs) on the nanotubular edges. The results indicated that the highly-ordered TiO2 NTs with decorated Ag2O NPs could promote... 

Phytochemicals are used in fish farming to reduce stress and combat diseases during intensification. Recently, nanotechnology has represented a paradigm shift in the aquatic feed industry to improve the solubility, availability, and efficacy of phytochemicals. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation with nano-curcumin (CUNE) on the growth, feed utilization, body composition, blood biochemistry, antioxidant status, disease resistance to Vibrio parahaemolyticus (V. parahaemolyticus), and the expression of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), growth hormone (GH), interleukin-10 (IL-10), and interlukin-1β (IL-1β) genes in European Seabass... 

This research aimed to investigate how different doses of hatchery probiotic affected water quality, thermal shock, hyposalinity stress tolerance, growth, survival, and metamorphosis rate of kuruma shrimp (Penaeus japonicus) larvae. The probiotic was added to the water in three concentrations: 2 (T1), 3 (T2), and 4 (T3) gm/m3 respectively, as well as a control group (T0) (without probiotic); then the diets were fed to triplicate groups of shrimps. Obtained results pointed out that the probiotic treatments significantly improved growth, metamorphosis, and survival rate of the various shrimp larval stages. Furthermore, there was a favorable effect on shrimp larvae tolerance to temperature... 

Southeast Asia is projected to be the fourth largest economy in 2050, where agriculture and food are key sectors contributing to the regional’s GDP. However, ensuring food safety and traceability remains a challenge in the region and this offers ripe opportunity for fraudsters to take advantage of the system. This study aims to provide an overview of consumers’ concern about food fraud in selected countries in Southeast Asia. A cross-sectional online survey was implemented in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, yielding 1393 valid responses. Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) was conducted first to reduce the large dataset containing nominal variables. After... 

Estate administration involves managing and distributing a deceased individual’s assets to beneficiaries, as well as managing the liabilities. This process comprises legal, financial, and administrative tasks that ensure assets are transferred based on the deceased's wishes and in accordance with the law. In Southeast Asia countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei where Muslims represents the majority of population, the Islamic law plays an integral part in the inheritance management as the process to be in line with the Islamic teachings and principle. The role of the syariah authority namely the syariah courts is prevalent and therefore, abidance to the rule under the syariah legal... 

A novel intelligent semi-active control system for an eleven degrees of freedom passenger car's suspension system using magnetorheological (MR) damper with neuro-fuzzy (NF) control strategy to enhance desired suspension performance is proposed. In comparison with earlier studies, an improvement in problem modeling is made. The proposed method consists of two parts: a fuzzy control strategy to establish an efficient controller to improve ride comfort and road handling (RCH) and an inverse mapping model to estimate the force needed for a semi-active damper. The fuzzy logic rules are extracted based on Sugeno inference engine. The inverse mapping model is based on an artificial neural network... 

Using CNG as an additive for gasoline is a proper choice due to higher octane number of CNG enriched gasoline with respect to that of gasoline. As a result, it is possible to use gasoline with lower octane number in the engine. This would also mean the increase of compression ratio in SI engines resulting in higher performance and lower gasoline consumption. Over the years, the use of simulation codes to model the thermodynamic cycle of an internal combustion engine have developed tools for more efficient engine designs and fuel combustion. In this study, a thermodynamic cycle simulation of a conventional four-stroke spark-ignition engine has been developed. The model is used to study the... 

With the declining energy resources and increase of pollutant emissions, a great deal of efforts has been focused on the development of alternatives for fossil fuels. One of the promising alternative fuels to gasoline in the internal combustion engine is natural gas [1-5]. The application of natural gas in current internal combustion engines is realistic due to its many benefits. The higher thermal efficiency due to the higher octane value and lower exhaust emissions including CO2 as a result of the lower carbon to hydrogen ratio of the fuel are the two important feature of using CNG as an alternative fuel. It is well known that computer simulation codes are valuable economically as a cost...