Sharif Digital Repository

One-dimensional (1D) MgO structures were successfully synthesized via carbothermic reduction of mechanically activated mixture of MgO and graphite. Mechanical activation of source materials before carbothermic reduction can substantially enhance the formation of MgO products at a temperature (1000 °C) relatively lower than that required in previous approaches (≥1200 °C). However, the morphology of MgO formed is dependent on the degree of mechanical activation and the condition of the subsequent carbothermic reduction. Two distinctive morphologies were found for MgO products synthesized using our method: single crystalline nanorods with rectangular cross-sections whose diameters range from 50... 

A simple chemisorption method was used to graft on the surface of MWCNTs and Graphene nanoparticles to prepare stable kerosene-based MWCNTs and Graphene nanofluids. The prepared nanofluids remained stable for more than five months and no sedimentation was observed. Regarding the effect of temperature on thermo-physical properties, it was observed that although increasing nanoparticle concentration led to an increase in the fluid viscosity, it was negligible enough at lower nanoparticle loading. Moreover, adding nanoparticles to the base fluid did not have any noticeable impact on the fluid density which was negligible even at high concentrations. The thermal conductivity improvement was... 

This study investigates acoustic energy harvesting via magnetic shape memory alloys (MSMA). The acoustic pressure impacts the neck of a Helmholtz resonator (HR) with a flexible face made of an elastic membrane. The design of the proposed energy harvester let radial force in the membrane be tunable. An MSMA is clamped to the membrane, and a proof mass is attached to the other end. The enhanced sound pressure vibrates the membrane and, therefore, excites the base of the MSMA specimen made of Ni-Mn-Ga to apply strain to it. Inserting strain onto the MSMA leads to variant reorientation and change of magnetization vectors, resulting in a change in flux passing through the pick-up coil. Therefore,... 

In this paper, acoustic energy harvesting using a tunable Helmholtz Resonator (HR) is investigated. The frequency of resonator can be changed by varying the radial force in a membrane which is used in one of its face. Applying acoustic pressure, vibrates the air inside HR neck and therefore changes pressure in HR chamber which results in membrane vibration. Attached magnet to the membrane will vibrate and its relative motion to a fixed coil generates voltage on the basis of Faraday's law of induction. Modeling approach is developed considering equivalent nonlinear membrane stiffness and coupling of electrical circuit and mechanical device. At the end, system behavior is studied numerically... 

Titanium dioxide nanopowders were synthesized by the diffusion controlled sol-gel process (LaMer model) and characterized by DTA-TG, XRD, and SEM. The prepared TiO 2 nanoparticles have uniform size and morphology, and the phase transformation kinetics of obtained material was studied by interpretation of the X-ray diffraction patterns peaks on the base of Avrami equation. The stating point of anatase-rutile phase transformation temperature in the prepared nanoparticles was found between 100 and 200 C. A decreasing trend on the intensity of X-ray peaks of anatase phase was observed up to 600 C when the presence of the rutile phase became predominant. Results indicated that the transition... 

The present study dealt with the mechanism of competitive adsorption of Sb(III) and Fe(II) ions from a copper-containing aqueous solution on Purolite S957, a commercially available cationic ion-exchange adsorbent. Experiments were conducted using aqueous copper sulfate solutions containing either single or conjoint ions, using both sedentary and batch adsorption techniques to ascertain the sensitivity of the adsorption process to variation in pH, mass of resin, contact time, and temperature as well as establishing the optimal range of variables for maximum ion removal. The data from single ion adsorption tests were fitted by non-linear regression techniques to Henry, Langmuir, Freundlich,... 

The effects of hydrogen addition, diluent addition, injection pressure, chamber pressure, chamber temperature and turbulence intensity on methane-air partially premixed turbulent combustion have been studied experimentally using a constant volume combustion chamber (CVCC). The fuel-air mixture was ignited by centrally located electrodes at given spark delay times of 1, 5, 40, 75, and 110 ms. Experiments were performed for a wide range of hydrogen volumetric fractions (0% to 40%), simulated diluent volumetric fractions (0% to 25% as a diluent), injection pressures (30-90 bar), chamber pressures (1-3 bar), chamber temperatures (298-432 K) and overall equivalence ratios of 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0.... 

The effects of hydrogen addition, diluent addition, injection pressure, chamber pressure, chamber temperature and turbulence intensity on methane-air partially premixed turbulent combustion have been studied experimentally using a constant volume combustion chamber (CVCC). The fuel-air mixture was ignited by centrally located electrodes at given spark delay times of 1, 5, 40, 75 and 110 milliseconds. Experiments were performed for a wide range of hydrogen volumetric fractions (0% to 40%), exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) volumetric fractions (0% to 25% as a diluent), injection pressures (30-90 bar), chamber pressures (1-3 bar), chamber temperatures (298-432 K) and overall equivalence ratios... 

The ion exchange process is a promising method for lithium extraction from brine and seawater having low concentrations of this element. To achieve this goal, it is vital to use an effective adsorbent with maximum lithium adsorption potential together with a stable structure during extraction and insertion of the ions. In this study, titanium dioxide and then lithium titanate spinel with nanotube morphology was synthesized via a simple two-step hydrothermal process. The produced Li4Ti5O12 spinel ternary oxide nanotube with about 70 nm diameter was then treated with dilute acidic solution in order to prepare an adsorbent suitable for lithium adsorption from local brine. Morphological and... 

The ion exchange process is a promising method for lithium extraction from brine and seawater having low concentrations of this element. To achieve this goal, it is vital to use an effective adsorbent with maximum lithium adsorption potential together with a stable structure during extraction and insertion of the ions. In this study, titanium dioxide and then lithium titanate spinel with nanotube morphology was synthesized via a simple two-step hydrothermal process. The produced Li4Ti5O12 spinel ternary oxide nanotube with about 70 nm diameter was then treated with dilute acidic solution in order to prepare an adsorbent suitable for lithium adsorption from local brine. Morphological and... 

The aim of this paper is to use higher-order energy balance method as a novel solution procedure for investigation the nonlinear oscillation of various systems. The method is associated with collocation method and employed for a group of nonlinear problems including pure cubic nonlinearity, fractional elastic force and duffing harmonic terms. Obtained results are evaluated by comparing with the classical balance method and also the exact solutions computed numerically. It is shown our solution procedure achieves more accurate results versus the classical solution and higher agreement are observed between the newer solutions and the exact ones for the systems. Effect of initial conditions in... 

In this paper, a novel approach is proposed for solving the nonlinear problems based on the collocation and energy balance methods (EBMs). Rational approximation is employed as an initial guess and then it is combined with EBM and collocation method for solving nonlinear oscillators with cubic term. Obtained frequency amplitude relationship is compared with exact numerical solution and subsequently, a very excellent accuracy will be revealed. According to the numerical comparisons, this method provides high accuracy with 0.03% relative error for Duffing equation with strong nonlinearity in the second-order of approximation. Furthermore, achieved results are compared with other types of... 

This paper studies the output voltage from a novel inertial energy harvester using magnetic shape memory alloys (MSMAs). The MSMA elements are attached to the root of a cantilever beam by means of two steps. In order to get electrical voltage, two coils are wound around the MSMAs and a shock load is applied to a tip mass at the end of the beam to have vibration in it. The beam vibration causes strain in the MSMAs along their longitudinal directions and as a result the magnetic flux alters in the coils. The change of magnetic flux in the surrounding coil produces an AC voltage. In order to predict the output voltage, the nonlinear governing equations of beam motion based on Euler-Bernoulli... 

This article presents a model to simulate the behavior of a magnetic shape memory alloy while harvesting vibratory energy. In this type of energy harvester, magnetic shape memory alloy element is placed in the air gap of a ferromagnetic core which conducts the magnetic flux. Two apparent coils are wound around a ferromagnetic core: one to produce bias magnetic field by passing a rectified electric current and the other to serve as an energy pickup coil. Applying compressive time-variant strain field to magnetic shape memory alloy element changes its dimensions and magnetic properties as well. Presence of the bias magnetic field returns magnetic shape memory alloy element to its initial state... 

Effect of different conditions on shear behaviour of rock has been investigated by various researchers. As known, in larger scale the continuity of the rock material is interrupted by separated planes such as bedding planes, faults, shear zones, closure and the behaviour converts to be inelastic and anisotropic. Generally, discontinuities appear repeatedly in more than one preferential direction, creating a three dimensional structure, reducing its stiffness and shear strength as mechanical effects and increasing its transport velocity associated with discontinuity flow as hydraulic effects. They also make rock behavior more complex and different compared to the behavior of soil. According... 

Optical fiber doped with lead salts quantum dots (QDs) of different radii, has previously been proposed as a wide-band amplifier in the optical communication range. The emission and absorption spectra of QDs are size-dependent. Optical fiber amplifier doped with QDs of different sizes is an inhomogeneous gain medium. This inhomogeneity is the principle of operation of wide-band quantum-dot-doped fiber amplifiers (QDFAs). To study the effects of inhomogeneity such as spectral hole burning on the amplifier behavior, a fiber amplifier with an arbitrary size distribution of QDs is taken into consideration. The light propagation equations and rate equations for the inhomogeneous medium are... 

We propose an integrated structure for single-photon generation at room temperature based on a molecular optomechanics system in a hybrid photonic-plasmonic cavity. The proposed structure comprises a single molecule within a plasmonic cavity, coupled to a 2D photonic crystal resonator. In this paper, we theoretically identify the ability of the scheme through calculating the second-order correlation function g2 (0) for four different coupling regimes. We demonstrate the quantum paths and the destructive interference mechanism through the selection of efficient and preferred basis. Furthermore, we find that the unconventional photon blockade effects can occur in weak molecular optomechanics... 

Low-cost materials with excellent chemical stability, high conductivity, and catalytic properties have attracted much attention as an alternative to conventional Pt counter electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Herein, graphene oxide (GO) sheets were successfully synthesized via the improved Hummers’ method, functionalized with lithium and characterized by SEM, AFM, XRD, Raman, UV–Vis, and FTIR techniques. The impact of GO thickness, heat treatment temperature, and hybridization with Pt particles on photovoltaic performance of the counter electrodes (CEs) were studied. A solar efficiency of 2.47% and 2.94% was achieved for the pristine GO and Li-functionalized GO electrodes,... 

This study presents fundamentals of spray and partially premixed combustion characteristics of directly injected methane inside a constant volume combustion chamber (CVCC). The constant volume vessel is a cylinder with inside diameter of 135 mm and inside height of 135 mm. Two end of the vessel are equipped with optical windows. A high speed complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) camera capable of capturing pictures up to 40, 000 frames per second is used to observe flow conditions inside the chamber. The injected fuel jet generates turbulence in the vessel and forms a turbulent heterogeneous fuel-air mixture in the vessel, similar to that in a compressed natural gas (CNG) direct...