The Productivity Indexes at Islamic Azad University, Hamedan Branch, Iran

AbstractThe present study is a report on a survey carried out to analyze the productivity indexes at Islamic Azad University, Hamedan Branch, Iran. The study includes analyzing the statistics for 50 indexes found crucial to the proper functioning of a higher education institute. The analysis of the data thus obtained over a five-year period showed that, despite having taken dramatic steps to improve the quality of educatin, Hamedan Branch still needs to improve its facilities and mange its human and capital resources better if it is going to maintain its competitiveness

An investigation of hydro-geochemical processes in coupled thermal, hydraulic, chemical and mechanical behaviours of unsaturated soils

The new model ahs then been applied to investigate relevant hydraulic and hydrogeochemical processes in a swelling clay.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Effects of thermo-osmosis on hydraulic behaviour of saturated clays

Despite a body of research carried out on thermally coupled processes in soils, understanding of thermo-osmosis phenomenon in clays and its effects on hydromechanical behavior is incomplete. This paper presents an investigation on the effects of thermo-osmosis on hydraulic behavior of saturated clays. A theoretical formulation for hydraulic behavior was developed, incorporating an explicit description of thermo-osmosis effects on coupled hydromechanical behavior. The extended formulation was implemented within a coupled numerical model for thermal, hydraulic, chemical, and mechanical behavior of soils. The model was tested and applied to simulate a soil heating experiment. It is shown that the inclusion of thermo-osmosis in the coupled thermohydraulic simulation of the case study provides a better agreement with the experimental data compared with the case in which only thermal expansion of the soil constituents was considered. A series of numerical simulations are also presented, studying the pore-water pressure development in saturated clay induced by a heating source. It is shown that pore-water pressure evolution can be considerably affected by thermo-osmosis. Under the conditions of the problem considered, it was found that thermo-osmosis changed the pore-water pressure regime in the vicinity of the heater when the value of thermo-osmotic conductivity was larger than 10−12 m2·K−1·s−1. New insights into the hydraulic response of the ground and the pore-pressure evolution due to thermo-osmosis are provided in this paper

Geographical General Regression Neural Network (GGRNN) tool for geographically weighted regression analysis

This paper presents a new geographically weighted regression analysis tool, based upon a modified version of a General Regression Neural Network (GRNN). The new Geographic General Regression Neural Network (GGRNN) tool allows for local variations in the regression analysis. The algorithm of the GRNN has been extended to allow for both globally independent variables and local variables, restricted to a given spatial kernel. This mimics the results of Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) analysis in a given geographical space. The GGRNN tool allows the user to load geographic data from the Shapefile into the underlying neural networks data structure. The spatial kernel can be either a fixed radius or adaptive, by using a given number of neighboring regions. The Holdout Method has been used to compare the fitness of a given model. An application of the tool has been presented using the benchmark working-age deaths in the Tokyo metropolitan area, Japan. Standardized residual maps produced by the GGRNN tool have been compared with those produced by the GWR4 tool for validation. The tool has been developed in the .Net C# programming language using the DotSpatial open source library. The tool is valuable because it allows the user to investigate the influence of spatially non-stationary processes in the regression analysis. The tool can also be used for prediction or interpolation purposes for a range of environmental, socioeconomic and public health applications

GIS based site ranking using neighbourhood analysis and comparison

This paper presents a Geographical Information Systems (GIS)-based toolkit, developed for site comparison and ranking that can be used to facilitate the decision making process in second stage of the site selection process. The toolkit has been developed as an analytical component of a multi-criteria spatial decision support system for geoenvironmental and geoenergy applications. The methodology adopted to develop this analytical module is based on a systematic comparison of the surrounding areas of each site in accordance with key environmental, socio-economic and public-health indicators. The sites are ranked based on the most favorable key indicators using a Criterion Sorting Mechanism (CSM) or Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). An application of the site selection toolkit is presented in relation to an unconventional geoenergy development. The application exercise deals with the ranking of a number of potential sites for coalbed methane recovery in Wales, UK. The locations of potential sites are first selected with respect to the gas resource (techno-economic viability). The toolkit is then used to select and rank the potential sites based on key environmental indicators, in the site’s neighbourhood. The results of the site ranking using CSM and TOPSIS methods are compared and a number of scenarios are discussed. This approach of using a combination of site ranking methods along with the neighbourhood analysis reduces the risk of personal judgment and choice. The decisions on site selection can thus be evidenced on a quantified logic

A finite difference based tool for analysing ground source heat pump system

The ground heat exchangers (GHE) consist of pipes buried in the soil and are used for transferring heat between the soil and the heat exchanger pipes of the ground source heat pump (GSHP). This paper presents the development of a numerical tool for anlysing the behaviour of horizontal ground source heat pump system. The tool was developed in Visual C++ environment. Impicilit finite difference heat conduction method was employed. The numerical solution was obtained by LU factorisation. For certain heat demand in a house and for known horizontal ground loop length, the numerical tool analyses whether the available ground loop length would be suffient to supply heat energy for the life time of GSHP system without reaching subzero temperature at any time

Elevated temperature effects (T >100℃) on the interfacial water and microstructure swelling of Na-montmorillonite

Montmorillonite-based barriers are key elements of the engineered barrier systems (EBS) in geological disposal facilities (GDF). Their performance at temperatures above 100 °C is not sufficiently understood to assess the possibility of raising the temperature limits in GDF designs that could reduce construction costs and CO2 footprint. The present work provides new fundamental insights through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of Na-montmorillonite's water-clay interactions and swelling pressure at temperatures 298–500 K and basal spacings of 1.5–3.5 nm. At temperatures above 100 °C, the swelling behaviour is governed by the attractive van der Waals force and the repulsive hydration force instead of the repulsive electrostatic (double layer) force. The swelling pressure reduction with increasing temperature is related to the weakened hydration repulsion and electric double layer repulsion, which result from the deterioration of the interlayer water layer structure and the shrinkage of the electric double layer. The applicability and breakdown of the classic Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory at elevated temperatures are examined. By excluding the osmotic contribution in the DLVO theory, the summation of the van der Waals interaction in DLVO and an additional non-DLVO hydration interaction can predict our MD system's swelling under high temperatures. The findings of this study provide a fundamental understanding of the swelling behaviour and the underlying molecular-level mechanisms of the clay microstructure under extreme conditions