Sharif Digital Repository

The polysaccharide, kappa-carrageenan (κC) was chemically modified to achieve a novel superabsorbent hydrogel via graft copolymerization of methacrylamide (MAM) onto the substrate followed by alkaline hydrolysis. Ammonium persulfate (APS) and N,N′-methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) were used as a free-radical initiator and a crosslinker, respectively. The saponification reaction was carried out using sodium hydroxide aqueous solution. Either κC-g-PMAM or hydrolyzed κC-g-PMAM (PMAM: polymethacrylamide) was characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy. The effect of grafting variables (i.e. concentration of MBA, MAM, and APS) and alkaline hydrolysis conditions (i.e. NaOH concentration, hydrolysis time and... 

Several lattice Boltzmann models for multi-phase flow have been developed, but few of them are capable of modeling fluid flows with high density ratio in the order of 1000. Therefore, an advanced chromodynamics, Rothmann-Keller (RK) type model is employed in current study, which can handle liquid-gas density ratio in the order of 1000 and viscosity ratio in the order of 100. Other distinctive characteristics of the proposed model are high stability, and capability of setting parameters such as surface tension independently. In spite of these benefits, the original RK model fails to model wetting tendency of the fluids. As a result, it is impossible to correctly simulate two-fluid phase flow... 

Semi-analytical solutions are obtained for the electrical potential, electroosmotic velocity, ionic conductance, and surface physicochemical properties associated with long pH-regulated nanochannels of arbitrary but constant cross-sectional area. The effects of electric double layer overlap, multiple ionic species, and surface association/dissociation reactions are all taken into account, assuming low surface potentials. The method of analysis includes series solutions which the pertinent coefficients are obtained by applying the wall boundary conditions using either of the least-squares or point matching techniques. Although the procedure is general enough to be applied to almost any... 

The dispersion of a neutral solute band by electrokinetic flow in polyelectrolyte layer (PEL)-grafted rectangular/slit microchannels is theoretically studied. The flow is assumed to be both steady and fully developed and a first-order irreversible reaction is considered at the wall to account for probable surface adsorption of solutes. Considering low electric potentials, analytical solutions are obtained for electric potential, fluid velocity and solute concentration. Special solutions are also obtained for the case without wall adsorption. To track the dispersion properties of the solute band, the generalized dispersion model is adopted by considering the exchange, the convection and the... 

Infinite series solutions are obtained for electrical potential, electroosmotic velocity, ionic conductance, and surface physicochemical properties of long pH-regulated rectangular nanochannels of low surface potential utilizing the double finite Fourier transform method. Closed form expressions are also obtained for channels of large height to width ratio for which the depthwise variations vanish. Neglecting the Stern layer impact, the effects of EDL (Electric Double Layer) overlap, multiple ionic species, and association/dissociation reactions on the surface are all taken into account. Moreover, finite-element-based numerical simulations are conducted to account for the end effects as well... 

A new type of collapsible soil was encountered in Southern Iran and caused some serious technical problems including subsidence, collapse and sinkholes during the construction of Zahedan-Chabahar railway. Field observations indicated that in-situ soil contains excessive amount of salts resulting in dispersive features in response to seepage forces in addition to its collapsibility. Therefore, a systematic research plan including field sampling and laboratory testing was carried out to investigate the observed geotechnical features. Results of physio-chemical tests revealed the dominance of Sodium in excess of 70% relative to total dissolved salts, which results in high dispersive potential.... 

Because of technological restrictions, it is actually impossible to fabricate smooth microchannels. Therefore, exploring the roughness effects on the flow characteristics at microscale is of great importance for scientific communities. The present investigation deals with the effects of corrugated roughness on the fully developed slip flow forced convection in micropipes. The governing equations subject to first-order slip boundary conditions are solved by means of the straightforward perturbation method. Closed-form expressions are obtained for the dimensionless velocity and temperature distributions, for the friction coefficient and pressure drop, and finally for the Nusselt number. The... 

Fluid flow and heat transfer at microscale have attracted an important research interest in recent years due to the rapid development of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Fluid flow in microdevices has some characteristics which one of them is rarefaction effect related with gas flow. In this research, hydrodynamically and thermally fully developed laminar rarefied gas flow in annular microducts is studied using slip flow boundary conditions. Two different cases of the thermal boundary conditions are considered, namely: uniform temperature at the outer wall and adiabatic inner wall (Case A) and uniform temperature at the inner wall and adiabatic outer wall (Case B). Using the previously... 

Predictions of soil behavior in response to dynamic loads require an understanding of dynamic properties of soil. Studies on dynamic properties of unsaturated soils at large-strains are quite limited, while some dynamic loadings, like earthquakes, are in the medium to large-strain ranges. A cyclic simple shear apparatus was developed to measure large-strain shear modulus and damping ratio under different matric suction or degree of saturation. Six cyclic tests, with referring to the soil-water retention curve, were conducted on clean medium sand. Results indicated that shear modulus slightly increases when suction varies from zero up to the air entry value. Approaching the residual value, a... 

Soil deposits may experience different hydraulic states in terms of suction (φ) and saturation degree (Sr) while being subjected to large strain caused by dynamic loading during earthquakes. This phenomenon was investigated by considering the effects of initial φ, initial (Sr, sample preparation method, drainage condition, and cycle number (N) on dynamic properties. Shear modulus (G) and damping ratio (D) were specifically studied for unsaturated sand using a modified cyclic simple shear device for all zones of Soil Water Retention Curve (SWRC). Results revealed the relative significance of both φ and Sr in relation to SWRC on observed trends in G and D. Based on the analysis of some results... 

To study of vibration effect on fluidization behaviour of high moisture materials, a laboratory vibro-fluidized bed dryer was designed and fabricated. The blower was selected based on transferring velocity of particles and pressure drop caused by airflow through the bedplate and the channels. It was centrifugal type with backward blades, static pressure of 3.5 kPa, flow rate of 0.4 m 3/s and impeller diameter of 0.4 m. The dryer was constructed with 4.9 kW electrical heater capacity, bed plate with holes diameter of I mm and 140626 holes/m 2. The dryer chamber was made of Plexiglass with 0.16×0.16 m square section and 0.5 m height The bedplate was vibrated mechanically, which was adjustable... 

The bio-microfluidic systems are usually encountered with non-Newtonian behaviors of working fluids. The rheological behavior of some bio-fluids can be described by differential viscoelastic constitutive equations that are related to PTT and FENE-P models. In the present work, thermal transport characteristics of the steady fully developed electroosmotic flow of these fluids in a slit microchannel with constant wall heat fluxes have been investigated. The Debye-Huckel linearization is adopted and the effects of viscous dissipation and Joule heating are taken into account. Analytical solutions are obtained for the transverse distributions of velocity and temperature and finally for Nusselt... 

Land subsidence, as a gradual settling of the ground surface, has become a threatening hazard to many infrastructures and lifelines. Among them, electricity dispatch centers (EDC) are considered the heart of a typical power transmission system, closely related to both domestic and industrial aspects of society. Therefore, this study aims to systematically explore early warnings and damages imposed on EDCs in Tehran. A combination of field reconnaissance and InSAR time series analyses are adopted to correlate subsidence-induced damages with several triggering mechanisms, such as the dynamic effects of subways and extra groundwater exploitation. Accordingly, spatially- and... 

Consideration is given to the buoyancy effects on fully developed gaseous slip flow in vertical microducts of constant but arbitrary geometry. The thermal boundary condition is assumed to be the constant wall heat flux of the first kind, H1. The rarefaction effects are treated using the first-order slip velocity and temperature jump boundary conditions. The method of solution being considered, in which the governing equations in cylindrical coordinates and three of the boundary conditions are exactly satisfied, is mainly analytical. The remaining slip boundary conditions on the duct wall are applied to the solution through the least-squares matching method. As an application of the method,... 

The fully developed longitudinal slip-flow mixed convection between a periodic bunch of vertical microcylinders arrangedin regular arraysis investigated inthe present work. The two axially constant heat flux boundary conditions of H1 and H2 are considered in the analysis. The rarefaction effects are taken into consideration using first-order slip velocity and temperature jump boundary conditions. The method considered is mainly analytical, in that the governing equations and three of the boundary conditions are exactly satisfied. The remaining symmetry condition on the right-hand boundary of the typical element is applied to the solution through the point-matching technique. The results... 

Consideration is given to the buoyancy effects on the fully developed gaseous slip flow in a vertical rectangular microduct. Two different cases of the thermal boundary conditions are considered, namely uniform temperature at two facing duct walls with different temperatures and adiabatic other walls (case A) and uniform heat flux at two walls and uniform temperature at other walls (case B). The rarefaction effects are treated using the firstorder slip boundary conditions. By means of finite Fourier transform method, analytical solutions are obtained for the velocity and temperature distributions as well as the Poiseuille number. Furthermore, the threshold value of the mixed convection... 

Thermal transport characteristics of electroosmotic flow of power-law fluids in the presence of pressure gradient through a slit microchannel are studied in this paper. Considering a fully developed flow with a constant wall heat flux as the boundary condition, the governing equations are numerically solved by means of the finite difference method. A complete parametric study is done in order to investigate the effects of different flow parameters on the thermal behaviors of the flow. The results show that the non-Newtonian characteristic of the fluid can influence the thermal behaviors of the flow by affecting the rate of heat convection and viscous dissipation; however, its influence... 

The influence of variable fluid properties on mixed electroosmotic and pressure driven flow of non-Newtonian fluids is investigated in this paper. The non-linear coupled energy and momentum equations are solved by means of an iterative numerical approach. The results reveal that the temperature dependent effects only become significant at very high values of the Debye-Hückel parameter in case of combined electroosmotic and pressure driven flow and could safely be neglected in other cases. It is observed that the physical properties variation lead to a higher mean velocity in case of pressure assisted flow and a lower mean velocity in case of pressure opposed flow. Furthermore, the... 

We perform a 3D numerical modeling of reaction-diffusion dynamics in a Y-shaped microreactor, considering a fully developed combined electroosmotic and pressure-driven flow. The governing equations, based on a second-order irreversible reaction, are solved invoking a finite-volume approach for a non-uniform grid system. We demonstrate that the reaction is highly position dependent: more production is observed adjacent to the horizontal walls for a favorable pressure gradient, whereas both the wall and centerline are the regions of highest production when a back pressure is applied. We further show that, to achieve the maximum production rate, the EDL should be thick enough, the pressure... 

The present investigation is devoted to the second law of thermodynamics analysis of steady-state hydrodynamically and thermally fully developed laminar gasflow in a microannulus with constant but different wall heat fluxes. Slip velocity and temperature jump boundary conditions are usedtodescribe rarefaction effects. Viscous heating is also included for both the wall cooling and heating cases. Using already available velocity profile, closedform expressions are obtained for the transverse distribution of temperature and entropy generation rates. The results demonstrate that the effectof the wall heatfluxes ratioonentropy generation is negligible atlarge valuesofthe group parameter and...