Sharif Digital Repository

Collapsible soils are kinds of problematic soils which are susceptible to large and sudden reduction in volume upon wetting. A manifest kind of these soils is loess; catastrophic settlement of structures which are built upon it has been observed when the soil becomes wet. In this investigation the collapse potential of samples of loess taken from Gorgan, Golestan, Iran, has been studied by using unsaturated odometer tests under controlled matric suction. To this end, two modified odometer apparatus with the capability of controlling the matric suction, have been designed and developed. Undisturbed samples of soil have been tested under K0 condition, while the matric suction, volumetric... 

Considering the drastical increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, especially carbon dioxide, reduction of these gases seems necessary to combat global warming. Fossil fuel power plants are one of the main sources of CO2 emission. In this paper, CO2 capture from a natural gas fired steam cycle power plant using oxy-fuel combustion technology is studied. The Integrated Environmental Control Model (IECM) developed by Carnegie Mellon University was used to evaluate the effect of this capture technology on the plant efficiency and economic parameters of the system. Since the oxygen production plant, CO2 capture and transport are cost and energy intensive, the cost of electricity generated... 

Due to the increasing influence of distribution generation , their effect in planning can't be ignord , especially solar panels ,which are incresing rapidly. The main purpose of this thesis is to an active distribution network that annually load bus and the amount of photovoltaic production in it increases and plan dynamically. In the planning that is done , uncertanty in the amount comsumption load and uncertanty in the pattern of sunlight and also annual innterest rates in the classical system we have planned by optimizing the network expansion costs , in addition to supplying the load bus, we can keep the voltage drop bus and line filling within the allowable . To do this , we considered... 

Solvent-based absorption is one of the most effective methods for reducing carbon dioxide emissions in combined cycle power plants. In such integrated systems, a portion of the steam from the intermediate-pressure turbine is utilized to supply heat to the carbon capture unit, and its condensate is returned to the heat recovery steam generator. This tight integration forms a coupled system. Key challenges include variations in flue gas flow rate and composition due to load changes and fuel switching. Therefore, the integrated system must be operationally flexible in both design and control. To assess these aspects, the development of a dynamic model of the integrated system is essential, and... 

Determination of the elastic fields associated with a spherical multiply-coated inhomogeneous inclusion is a problem of great interest among researchers. In this work a set consisting of N+1 concentric spherical domains is considered. Each domain is either isotropic or spherically isotropic and is functionally graded (FG) in the radial direction. The outermost spherical surface is subjected to nonuniform loading and the constituent phases are subjected to some prescribed nonuniform body force and eigenstrain fields. When the outermost domain is an unbounded medium with zero eigenstrain and body force fields then an N-phase multi-inhomogeneous inclusion problem is realized for which the... 

Millions of people are exposed to noise every day in their work and life, and their physical and mental health is at risk due to this issue. Hence, the issue of noise and vibration has become an important factor in car quality. One of the sources of noise and vibration in the vehicle is the engine. The engine is the heart of the car and its most important part. Therefore, reducing Engine noise can have a significant effect on the noise emitted by the vehicle. Engine noise can be divided into three categories: 1 - combustion noise 2 - mechanical noise 3 - aerodynamic noise. This project is in line with a project defined between the university and industry aimed at improving all sources of... 

Natural reservoirs, in addition to having pores and voids, contain fractures and microfractures in which the flow of one or more fluids occurs simultaneously. Resource extraction from these reservoirs usually requires the injection of a second fluid. Therefore, the analysis of two-phase flow is important in the fields of reservoir, water, and geomechanics engineering. Since the 1960s, the dual-porosity method has been developed as an efficient tool for modeling fractured porous media (fractured formation), and numerous studies have been conducted to enhance this method. The dual-porosity method is an approximate approach that offers significant advantages due to its low computational cost... 

NiTi Memory alloys have a great range of applications. Porous metallic biomaterials (e.g., stainless steel, chromium- cobalt, titanium and nickel–titanium (NiTi)) represent superior alternatives to traditional non-porous metallic implants for two main reasons. First, open porosity can enhance bone ingrowth and thus improve fixation at the interface between bone and implant. Second, porosity decreases the mismatch in stiffness between bone and implant, thus reducing stress-shielding effects which shorten the lifetime of the implant through bone resorption and loosening. NiTi foams may thus find multi-functional applications such as bone implants, impedance-matching connectors between... 

Despite the increase in the number of cardiovascular diseases worldwide, the number of new drugs to treat these diseases has been decreasing in the last decade. Current preclinical drug evaluation strategies, which use cell cultures and oversimplified animal models, cannot meet the growing demand for new and effective drugs. In the last decade, the development of microfluidic bioreactors and organ-on-chip systems to improve the drug screening process has been increasing significantly. These systems have shown many advantages over previous preclinical models. Despite all these advantages, keeping the oxygen concentration at the optimal physiological level in microfluidic systems has its own... 

Air-cooled condenser is widely used in thermal power plants as its main cooling system. However, the thermal capacity of air-cooled condensers reduces considerably in environmental wind drafts. So, the purpose of this study is to find practicable solutions to minimize the mal-performance of air-cooled condensers in windy conditions in either design or off-design conditions and consequently prevent the related steam turbines power reduction. The target combined cycle power plant consists of 4*160 MW steam turbines and 4 air-cooled condensers in its steam cycle part. This research presents two general and practical remedies, which are also applicable to many different powerplants irrespective...