Amirkabir University of Technology

About: Amirkabir University of Technology is a education organization based out in Tehran, Iran. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Nonlinear system & Finite element method. The organization has 15254 authors who have published 31165 publications receiving 487551 citations. The organization is also known as: Tehran Polytechnic & Tehran Polytechnic University.

Analyses of the impact of climate change on water resources components, drought and wheat yield in semiarid regions: Karkheh River Basin in Iran

Abstract: Water resources availability in the semiarid regions of Iran has experienced severe reduction because of increasing water use and lengthening of dry periods. To better manage this resource, we investigated the impact of climate change on water resources and wheat yield in the Karkheh River Basin (KRB) in the semiarid region of Iran. Future climate scenarios for 2020–2040 were generated from the Canadian Global Coupled Model for scenarios A1B, B1 and A2. We constructed a hydrological model of KRB using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool to project water resources availability. Blue and green water components were modeled with uncertainty ranges for both historic and future data. The Sequential Uncertainty Fitting Version 2 was used with parallel processing option to calibrate the model based on river discharge and wheat yield. Furthermore, a newly developed program called critical continuous day calculator was used to determine the frequency and length of critical periods for precipitation, maximum temperature and soil moisture. We found that in the northern part of KRB, freshwater availability will increase from 1716 to 2670 m3/capita/year despite an increase of 28% in the population in 2025 in the B1 scenario. In the southern part, where much of the agricultural lands are located, the freshwater availability will on the average decrease by 44%. The long-term average irrigated wheat yield, however, will increase in the south by 1.2%–21% in different subbasins; but for rain-fed wheat, this variation is from −4% to 38%. The results of critical continuous day calculator showed an increase of up to 25% in both frequency and length of dry periods in south Karkheh, whereas increasing flood events could be expected in the northern and western parts of the region. In general, there is variability in the impact of climate change in the region where some areas will experience net negative whereas other areas will experience a net positive impact. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Colloidal Stability of Graphene Oxide: Aggregation in Two Dimensions.

Abstract: Colloidal stability of graphene oxide (GO) is studied in aqueous and organic media accompanied by an improved aggregation model based on Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey- Overbeek (DLVO) theory for ultrathin colloidal flakes. It is found that both magnitude and scaling laws for the van der Waals forces are affected significantly by the two-dimensional (2D) nature of GO. Experimental critical coagulation concentrations (CCC) of GO in monovalent salt solutions concur with DLVO theory prediction. The surface charge density of GO is largely affected by pH. However, theoretical calculations and experimental observations show that the colloidal stability of the 2D colloids is less sensitive to the changes in the surface charge density compared to the classical picture of 3D colloids. The DLVO theory also quantitatively predicts the colloidal stability of reduced GO (rGO). The origin of lower stability of rGO compared to GO is rooted in the higher van der Waals forces among rGO sheets, and particularly, in the removal of...