Search

Aljazzari is one of the most famous Iranian scientists through the centuries. He was a capable mechanical engineer whose works are still fascinating even to engineers. He specialized in different branches of mechanical engineering such as fluid mechanics, machine design and robotics. As a matter of fact he may be regarded as the father of today's robotics. Among his works, fountains, pumps, and water clocks are the most outstanding. Pump turbine is one of his master pieces which was selected as a subject of research project at the Mechanical Engineering Research Center of the Iranian Research Organization for Science & Technology (IROST). This machine consists of a water wheel which run by the flow of a stream or a river. It drives a pump which actually consists of a pair of gears to transfer power from the turbine and drive a quick return slider mechanism for activating a pair of reciprocating piston pumps. The machine was designed and manufactured according to the design details, presented in his book " Kitáb fí ma'rifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya" and was also tested accordingly. Tests on the machine proved the pumping capability of the pump turbine according to the book.

Of the most outstanding master pieces of science and technology of Iran from old ages to the present are the water clocks by Abol ezz-Ibn Al-Jazzari. He lived in the 11th century AD. and his remaining works are proofs of his high levels of capability in different sciences such as mechanical engineering, fluid mechanics, robotics and mechanism design. Amongst his works, water pumps, pump turbines, water clocks, robotic clocks, and fountains are the most outstanding. Since these works were no research work nor any reconstruction or research activity has been performed on them, so the Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST) through his mechanical engineering research center embarked upon their revitalization in the form of a research project. Of these master pieces of design and technology, two were selected as the main subjects of a work for a research project titled "Revitalization of innovations and inventions of the Iranian scientists through the history". These two were namely, Peacock Water Clock and Dragon Water Clock. As a part of this work, the two clocks were carefully redesigned and reconstructed, and both tested according to Al- Jazari's book on design and manufacture of his ingenious designs. The article consists of a short introduction of the scientist; Al- Jazari and then the details of designs, manufacture and testing of the clocks. The results of tests are discussed in brief.

Ahmad ibn Musa ibn Shakir Khurasani is one of the greatest Iranian scientists of the ninth century A.C. He worked on mechanical, hydraulic and pneumatic designs and devices. He presented his works in a book titled "Kitab Al-hiyal" .The book was originally written in Arabic in Baghdad, around 850 A.C. To revitalize the old Iranian culture in its scientific and technological sense, the Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST) in conjunction with the Museum of Iranian Science and Technologies decided to under take a research project to establish an understanding of his works along with manufacturing , their working samples . The project was proposed and carried out by the Mechanical Engineering Research Center at IROST. A part of this work covered mechanisms and systems of separating liquids on the bases of their densities or viscosities. This paper provides an introductory and technically comparative view of these historical technological masterpieces. More details of design process of various mechanism are discussed in the article.

From the one hundred inventions and innovations presented in the book “Al-Hiyal", lamps have unique and No comparable designs in their mechanisms in comparison with other samples. “Al-Hiyal" is the title of a book which has been written in the 10th century A.C. by Ahmad Ibn Musa. He was one of the three sons of Musa ibn Shaakir Khorassani who are known as "¬Banu Musa" by the historians and scientists. They are the most famous and out standing Iranian scientists of the Islamic era. All of his innovations and inventions have been presented in the hand written versions of the book "Al-Hyial". Redesign, remanufacture and testing the applied mechanisms of these lamps are parts of a research project undertaken by the Mechanical Engineering Research Center of the Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology. In this article all the mechanisms applied in these lamps from design view point have been appraised and discussed. However during the course of this project “a progressing design process” in innovative thinking of Ahmad ibn Musa has been observed. This achievement is the most important outcome of this project which ought to be taught in engineering courses. However, all the lamps were redesigned and manufactured according to the details presented in the book. Tests results of the manufactured samples showed perfect agreement between the outcomes of the tests and the performance mentioned in the book.

Ahmad ibn Musa ibn Shakir Khurasani is one of the greatest Iranian scientists, of the ninth century A.C. He worked on mechanical, hydraulic and pneumatic designs and devices. He presented his works in a book titled "Kitab Al-hiyal" .The book was originally written in Arabic in the city of Baghdad, around 850 A.C. To revitalize the old Iranian culture in its scientific and technological sense, the Iranian research organization for science and technology (IROST) in conjunction with the Museum of Iranian science and technologies decided to undertake a research project to establish an understanding these works along with manufacturing their working samples. The project was proposed and carried out by the mechanical engineering research center at IROST. A part of this work covered mechanisms and systems of transferring water from one supply reservoir to other consumption reservoirs. In this comparative appraisal of the two systems; in which different mechanisms are used, details of design and application of each have been studied and compared, proving that both designs are perfect and work according to the book "Al-hiyal". This paper provides an introductory and technically comparative view of these historical technological masterpieces.

The “Balance of Wisdom” (or “comprehensive balance) is a name for one of the most sophisticated and advanced balances designed and manufactured after the establishment of Islam. Designer of this balance is Abdol Rahmaan Al-Khazini who also presented this balance in a book titled “Al-Kitab Mizan Al-Hikma “or “The Balance of Wisdom”. Of the prominences of this balance to others, one can point out; its precision, triple complex action, number of pans, which enabled the balance to be applied for recognition of constituent substances of twofold alloys, and their weight percentage in the alloy. It was also capable of measuring the weight and density of substances or alloys, precisely. It was mainly used at the treasuries of kings to have control upon the treasurer, by measuring the gold carat of the items kept in the treasury. The balance is a hydrostatic balance of standard form with five scale pans, a rather complicated polyfilar suspension, and a sensitive indicator tongue. It was first designed and manufactured in the twelfth century A.C, after which there are no signs of remanufacturing, or development of this balance. The balance was redesigned according to the book, “ Al-Kitab Mizan Al-Hikma “ , manufactured and tested as a part of a research project called “ Designing and manufacturing of innovations and inventions of the Iranian scientist”, undertaken by the Mechanical Engineering Research Center of the Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST )

This jug operates according to the differences between densities of two liquids such as water and oil. It consists of a jug with a mechanism inside, and two side outlets at the bottom of the jug. The inside mechanism consists of a horizontal balance rod which can tilt around the connection point of the rod and a vertical stand attached to the bottom of the jug. A cup and a balancing weight are attached to each end of the rod and liquids poured into the cup are emptied to either side of the jug according to the tilting direction of the balance rod .The tilt direction is determined by the density of the fluid and the balancing weight This jug was manufactured and tested as a part of a research project, called, "Iranian old technologies" undertaken by mechanical engineering research center of the Iranian Research Organization for Science Technology (IROST). The magic jug was originally designed by Ahmad Ben Musa Shakkir Khorassani of the 9th century A.C, one of the three brothers of "Bano Musa Shakkir Khorassani ". The original design is presented in the "book Al Hiyal" written by Ahmad Ben Musa. The jug was tested for suggested operation in the book (Al Hiyal) to withhold the concept of the design and to establish correct operation of the jug. However, minor modifications were made to its original design and it was tested and as a result the jug operated as expected.

In this study, a three-dimensional fluid field of an axial flow type micro hydro named Agnew has been investigated. The turbine installed at the Hydraulic Machines Laboratory (HML) of Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST) has been designed to generate 1 kw output power. All numerical simulations were performed using ANSYS CFX, a Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) code, to investigate the performance parameters such as efficiency and power, and results are validated against experimental data. Four different grid sizes are studied in accordance with the Grid Convergence Index (GCI) to investigate mesh independency of the solution. Results of several turbulence models were also examined to find out the Shear Stress Transport (SST) model in order to take into account the turbulence in the flow. Several turbulence models were also examined together with wall function so that the turbulence in the flow could be taken into consideration. A mixing plane interface plane was used to pass the disturbance of rotary domain to stationary domain. The obtained results show that a high resolution advection scheme, mixing plane to model the rotor-stator interaction together with a turbulence intensity of I=6% at the inlet, best matches with the experimental results. The difference between the efficiencies computed from both numerical approaches and experimental values may be ascribed to a numerical error, a model error or a systematic error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]