Numerical simulations have been performed to study the effect of the circumferential single-grooved casing treatment (CT) at multiple locations on the tip-flow stability and the corresponding control mechanism at three tip-clearance-size (TCS) schemes in a transonic axial flow compressor rotor. The results show that the CT is more efficient when its groove is located from 10% to 40% tip axial chord, and G2 (located at near 20% tip axial chord) is the best CT scheme in terms of stall-margin improvement for the three TCS schemes. For effective CTs, the tip-leakage-flow (TLF) intensity, entropy generation and tip-flow blockage are reduced, which makes the interface between TLF and mainstream move downstream. A quantitative analysis of the relative inlet flow angle indicates that the reduction of flow incidence angle is not necessary to improve the flow stability for this transonic rotor. The control mechanism may be different for different TCS schemes due to the distinction of the stall i... [more]

This paper presents a system for compensating DC link current pulsation in four-wire inverters with energy storage operating under unbalanced load conditions. This phenomenon occurs when an inverter with an independent power control in each of the phases attempts to locally balance the voltage imbalance in the grid. Such a condition creates a DC link current pulsation, which is destructive for energy storage connected to the DC link. The conditions when this situation appears are presented in detail in the paper. A solution to this problem is proposed in the form of a dual active bridge converter and a capacitor bank to actively compensate this pulsation. The control algorithm is proposed based on a proportional-resonant controller. This paper presents the technical background and method by which the controller parameters were calculated, implemented and tested in a real-time system. The test results are presented and discussed, concluding that the proposed solution is an attractive op... [more]

Stepper motors are widely used in many applications where discrete, precise movement is required. There is a variety of dedicated stepper motor controllers (sometimes referred to as “step sticks”) available on the market. Those controllers provide a number of different motor control schemes that vary by aspects like current control method, reference current shape or maximum resolution increase (microstepping). The two most widely acknowledged signal shapes are sine-cosine microstepping and quadrature microstepping. The choice of the control scheme impacts torque output, torque variation, positioning error and maximum power supply requirements. This paper presents a family of generalised microstepping signal shapes, ranging from sine-cosine microstepping to quadrature microstepping. Derivation of signal shapes as well as their mathematical analyses are provided. Those signals are then implemented on the control board. A series of experiments is performed on a test bench to analyse the i... [more]

Over the last few years, a strong penetration of Intermittent Renewable Energy Sources (IRES) has been in progress in the Italian power system. In this new framework, the dispatching activity must improve its efficiency to ensure adequacy and security of the national electricity system. European market integration initiatives are making this goal achievable, provided that the coherency of market price signals and reserve procurement at the European level are guaranteed. For this reason, the Italian Transmission System Operator (TSO), Terna, started to investigate the opportunity to align the Italian reserve-procurement approach to the one adopted in most European countries, procuring Replacement Reserve (RR) in dedicated auctions held in advance of the day-ahead market. The aim of this new methodology is to improve the coherency of price signals arising from the integrated European day-ahead market, anticipating potential scarcity conditions, thus helping to keep adequacy standards hig... [more]

High voltage electric power equipment requires rigorous regulation testing to specific standards which ensure proper and safe operation in the grid. Manufacturers conduct these tests in order to prove standard compliance and product liability. Variable linear or nonlinear loads are necessary for testing medium voltage (MV) high power AC power converters. Generally, those AC power converters or power supplies require performance validation, burn-in and/or lifetime testing under different load conditions, defined by the end-user or standards for the given applications. For flexible and efficient MV verification testing, this paper presents a five-level multilevel converter-based MV regenerative AC electronic load with one-cycle control (OCC), which is based on five-level diode-clamped multilevel converters with back-to-back structure and can emulate any impedance load. In this paper, especially the dc-link capacitor voltage balance of the proposed multilevel MV regenerative AC load is de... [more]

Under the background of high wind power permeability, the frequency regulation capability of high voltage direct current (HVDC) sending-end system tends to deteriorate. For this reason, this paper regards the wind farm (WF) and HVDC as a combined frequency regulation system, and a fuzzy-based coordinated control strategy is proposed for the cooperation of HVDC and WF to participate in frequency regulation. First of all, at a system level, in order to realize the dynamic cooperation of the WF and the HVDC to participate in frequency regulation, two fuzzy logic controllers (FLCs) are designed to determine the total power support of the combined system and the participation coefficient of the WF in the frequency regulation according to the frequency characteristics of the sending-end system and the operation state of the WF, respectively. Secondly, at the WF level, considering the rotating kinetic energy and capacity of the wind turbines (WTs), a power allocation strategy is proposed to m... [more]

The data generated in public transport systems have proven to be of great importance in improving knowledge of public transport systems, being very valuable in promoting the sustainability of public transport through rational management. However, the analysis of this data involves numerous tasks, so that when the value of analysing the data is finally verified, the effort has already been very great. The management and analysis of the collected data face some difficulties. This is the case of the data collected by the current automated fare collection systems. These systems do not follow any open standards and are not usually designed with a multipurpose nature, so they do not facilitate the data analysis workflow (i.e., acquisition, storage, quality control, integration and quantitative analysis). Intending to reduce this workload, we propose a conceptual framework for analysing data from automated fare collection systems in mobility studies. The main components of this framework are... [more]

The efficiency issue of energy systems in the oil and gas industry is a crucial factor nowadays. Energy share in the production costs of oil and gas can reach 50%. Among the most important energy equipment are the electric drives of the pumps, compressors, auxiliary units, etc. The paper considered the lifecycle of the electric drives used at oil and gas fields and evaluated their efficiency parameters during periods of operational wear or malfunctioning. At the same time, the lifecycle of the energy equipment was seen as its technical state during operation. Based on the spectral analysis of the current using the finite Fourier transform (FFT), the main frequency components were identified that characterize the type and level of malfunction, taking into account defined efficiency indicators of the electric drive. A technique for assessing the technical state of an electric drive was proposed based on the normalized levels of the amplitudes of the frequency components. Predictive manag... [more]

A new sliding-mode-control-based power conversion scheme is proposed for photovoltaic energy conversion systems. The perturbation and observation (P&O) maximum power-point tracking (MPPT) approach is adopted for optimizing the power generation capabilities from solar panels. Due to the inherent nonlinear dynamics of power converters, we need to adopt a nonlinear control approach to optimize the energy conversion efficiency and tolerate the fluctuations and changes of load and sunlight irradiance. In this manuscript, novel first-and higher-order sliding mode control approaches are proposed, aiming to provide a systematic approach for the robust and optimal control of solar energy conversion, which guarantees Lyapunov stability and consistent performance in the face of external perturbations and disturbances. Moreover, to eliminate the chattering phenomenon inherent in the first-order approach, super-twisting second-order sliding mode control is developed for the buck-boost converter. Fu... [more]

As the size and distance from shore of new offshore wind power plants (OWPPs) increase, connection to shore using high-voltage (HV) direct-current (DC) technology becomes more cost-effective. Currently, every offshore wind power plant has a collection system based on medium-voltage alternating-current technology. Such systems rely on heavy and bulky low-frequency (i.e., 50 or 60 Hz) transformers: a drawback offshore, where equipment weight and space are restricted. Consequently, there is growing interest in medium-voltage direct-current collection systems, in which low-frequency transformers are replaced with DC/DC converters equipped with lighter and smaller medium-frequency transformers. However, the deployment of all-DC OWPPs still faces several challenges. Based on a very comprehensive and critical literature review, three of them are identified and discussed in this paper. The first challenge is the technological gap at component level. In this work, the DC/DC converter topologies... [more]

Multi-cell converters are widely used in medium-voltage AC drives. This equipment is based on power cells that operate with low-voltage-rating semiconductors and require an input multipulse transformer. This transformer cancels the low-frequency current harmonics generated by the three-phase diode-based rectifier. Unfortunately, this transformer is bulky, heavy, expensive, and does not extend the existing power cell (three-phase rectifier—Direct Current (DC) voltage-link—single-phase inverter) to the transformer. In this study, a harmonic cancelation method based on finite control set-model predictive control (FCS−MPC), extending the power cell’s modularity to the input transformer. On the other hand, it considers treating the two disadvantages of the FCS−MPC: High switching frequency and spread spectrum. The details were developed in theory and practice to obtain satisfactory experimental results.

To ensure dominance over a multi-domain battlespace, energy and power utilization must be accurately characterized for the dissimilar operational conditions. Using MATLAB/Simulink in combination with multiple neural networks, we created a methodology which was simulated the energy dynamics of a ground vehicle in parallel to running predictive neural network (NN) based predictive algorithms to address two separate research questions: (1) can energy and exergy flow characterization be developed at a future point in time, and (2) can we use the predictive algorithms to extend the energy and exergy flow characterization and derive operational intelligence, used to inform our control based algorithms or provide optimized recommendations to a battlefield commander in real-time. Using our predictive algorithms we confirmed that the future energy and exergy flow characterizations could be generated using the NNs, which was validated through simulation using two separately created datasets, one... [more]

In this paper, an adaptive version of the impedance-conditioned phase-locked loop (IC-PLL), namely the adaptive IC-PLL (AIC-PLL), is proposed. The IC-PLL has recently been proposed to address the issue of synchronisation with a weak AC grid by supplementing the conventional synchronous reference frame phase-locked loop (SRF-PLL) with an additional virtual impedance term. The resulting IC-PLL aims to synchronise the converter to a remote and stronger point in the grid, hence increasing the upper bound on the achievable power transfer achieved by the VSC converter connected to the weak grid. However, the issue of the variable grid strength imposes another challenge in the operation of the IC-PLL. This is because the IC-PLL requires impedance estimation methods to estimate the value of the virtual impedance part. In AIC-PLL, the virtual impedance part is estimated by appending another dynamic loop in the exciting IC-PLL. In this method, an additional closed loop is involved so that the va... [more]

Due to the increasing integration of renewable energy sources (RES) and a corresponding reduction of conventional generating units, there is nowadays a demand from the power-electronic converters to provide grid-forming properties through proper control of the converter systems. This paper aims to evaluate the impact of various control loops in a grid-forming control strategy equipped with a fault-ride through capability on the passivity properties of the converter system. Through the analysis of the frequency-dependent input admittance of the converter, the main factors affecting the passivity properties are identified. A simplified analytical model is derived in order to propose possible control modifications to enhance the system’s passivity at various frequencies of interest and the findings are validated through detailed time-domain simulations and experimental tests.

As the world population and its dependency on energy is growing exponentially day by day, the existing energy generating resources are not enough to fulfill their needs. In the conventional grid system, most of the generated energy is wasted because of improper demand side management (DSM). This leads to a difficulty in keeping the equilibrium between the user need and electric power production. To overcome these difficulties, smart grid (SG) is introduced, which is composed of the integration of two-way communication between the user and utility. To utilize the existing energy resources in a better way, SG is the best option since a large portion of the generated energy is consumed by the educational institutes. Such institutes also need un-interrupted power supply at the lowest cost. Therefore, in this paper, we have taken a university campus load. We have not only applied two bio-inspired heuristic algorithms for energy scheduling—namely, the Firefly Algorithm (FA) and the Lion Algo... [more]

Energy management in protected cropping is critical due to the high cost of energy use in high-tech greenhouse facilities. The main purpose of this research was to investigate the optimal strategy to reduce cooling energy consumption, by regulating the settings (opening/closing) of either vents or curtains during the day, at the protected cropping facility at Western Sydney University. We measured daily changes in air temperature and energy consumption under four treatments (open/closed combinations of vents and shade screens) and developed an optimal cooling strategy for energy management using multi-temperature acquisition points at different heights within a greenhouse compartment. The optimal treatment (vents open/curtains closed) reduced energy load at the rooftop, thereby maintaining a desirable plant canopy temperature profile, and reducing cooling energy. Daily energy consumption was lowest for vents open/curtains closed (70.5 kWh) and highest for vents closed/curtains open (12... [more]

With regard to DC/DC buck converter applications, the objective of this study is to expand the admissible range of the output voltage cut-off frequency while lowering the steady-state current cut-off frequency as possible. This study fortifies the inner loop by incorporating the novel subsystems such as an auto-tuner (for the dynamic current cut-off frequency) and active damping injection invoking the pole-zero cancellation nature with the particular designed feedback gain structure. The outer loop active damping control renders the closed-loop speed transfer function to be a first-order low-pass filter with the cooperation of the specially structured design parameters; in addition, it provides time-varying disturbance attenuation. The experimental results obtained for a 3-kW buck converter validate the feasibility of the proposed technique by showing a 34% performance enhancement (at least) compared with the recent active damping controller.

In the present paper, molecular dynamics simulations were performed to study the influence of two temperature control strategies on water flow behaviour inside planar nanochannel. In the simulations, the flow was induced by the force acting on each water molecule in the channel. Two temperature control strategies were considered: (a) frozen wall simulations, in which the dynamics of confining wall atoms was not solved and the thermostat was applied to the water, and (b) dynamic wall simulations, in which the dynamics of confining wall atoms was solved, and the thermostat was applied to walls while water was simulated in the microcanonical ensemble. The simulation results show that the considered temperature control strategies has no effect on the shape of the water flow profile, and flow behaviour in the channel is well described by the Navier−Stokes equation solution with added slip velocity. Meanwhile, the slip velocity occurring at the boundaries of the channel is linearly dependent... [more]

Machine-learning diagnostic systems are widely used to detect abnormal conditions in electrical equipment. Training robust and accurate diagnostic systems is challenging because only small databases of abnormal-condition data are available. However, the performance of the diagnostic systems depends on the quantity and quality of the data. The training database can be augmented utilizing data augmentation techniques that generate synthetic data to improve diagnostic performance. However, existing data augmentation techniques are generic methods that do not include additional information in the synthetic data. In this paper, we develop a model-based data augmentation technique integrating computer-implementable electromechanical models. Synthetic normal- and abnormal-condition data are generated with an electromechanical model and a stochastic parameter value sampling method. The model-based data augmentation is showcased to detect an abnormal condition of a distribution transformer. Fir... [more]

Higher order spectra exhibit a powerful detection capability of low-energy fault-related signal components, buried in background random noise. This paper investigates the powerful nonlinear non-stationary instantaneous wavelet bicoherence for local gear fault detection. The new methodology of selecting frequency bands that are relevant for wavelet bicoherence fault detection is proposed and investigated. The capabilities of wavelet bicoherence are proven for early-stage fault detection in a gear pinion, in which natural pitting has developed in multiple pinion teeth in the course of endurance gearbox tests. The results of the WB-based fault detection are compared with a stereo optical fault evaluation. The reliability of WB-based fault detection is quantified based on the complete probability of correct identification. This paper is the first attempt to investigate instantaneous wavelet bicoherence technology for the detection of multiple natural early-stage local gear faults, based on... [more]

During the design of extra-high-voltage transmission lines, studies of the influence of asymmetry due to the phase difference of the parameters on its processes and the electrical network were performed. To compensate for this source of asymmetry for transmission lines longer than 100 km, a relatively simple technical means was proposed and implemented—phase transposition (change of the mutual location of phase wires in space). However, at the same time transposition causes additional capital costs in construction and reduces reliability during operation, so when designing a specific transmission line, extra-high-voltage is desirable to evaluate the effectiveness of the use of this measure in the real electricity network. Thus, under certain conditions, even for a transmission line 600 km in length, it was possible to perform either an incomplete transposition cycle, or abandon this measure altogether.

This paper solves the buck−boost converter operation problem in the discontinuous conduction mode and the feeding a DC bus of a combined battery/solar-powered electric vehicle grid. Since the sun’s radiation has a very important effect on the performance of photovoltaic solar modules due to its continuous variation, the main task of the system under study is the regulation of the output voltage from an MPPT system located at the output of the panels in order to obtain a DC bus voltage that is fixed to 24 V. This is ensured via a double-loop scheme, where the current inner loop relies on sliding-mode control; meanwhile, the outer voltage loop considers a proportional−integral action. Additionally, the current loop implements an adaptive hysteresis logic in order to operate at a fixed frequency. The closed-loop system’s performance is checked via numerical results with respect to step changes in the load, input voltage, and output voltage reference variations.

In this work, an idea of a wideband, precision, power electronics programmable voltage source (PVS) is presented. One of the basic elements of the converter, the control section, contains a continuous-time sigma-delta modulator (SDM) with a pair of interconnected complementary comparators, which represents a new approach. In this case, the SDM uses comparators with a dynamic hysteresis loop (DHC) that includes an AC circuit rather than an R-R network. Dynamic hysteresis is a very effective way of eliminating parasitic oscillation during the signal transition at the input of the comparator; it also affects the frequency characteristics and, especially, the phase properties of the comparator, and this phenomenon is exploited in the proposed converter. The main disadvantage of all pulse-modulated converters is the presence of a ripple component in the output voltage (current), which reduces the quality of the output signal and may cause high-frequency disturbances. A basic feature of PVS... [more]

The doubly fed induction generator is widely used in wind power applications. For stand-alone operation of this machine, the control of the stator flux with fixed voltage and frequency has been proposed. This paper extends the stator flux control of the doubly fed induction machine by droop mechanisms, which vary the setpoint of flux magnitude and frequency depending on active and reactive power. This gives the doubly fed induction generator system unknown grid supporting and grid forming performance. The validation of the proposed control scheme has been conducted on a 10kVA testbed system. The closed-loop behavior of the system has been proven to enable grid-tied and islanded operation with the same control structure. The system response to load changes and islanding events show no disruptive transients in both conditions.

Fault-tolerant control (FTC) solutions are increasingly being used in modern drive systems with AC motors. Such systems provide a higher degree of security and solutions that allow the on-line detection and localization of failures, as well as the switching of the control mode to a mode that allows us to continue the operation or safely stop the drive system. As the current sensors (CSs) are necessary to ensure precise control of the AC motors, in the event of their failure, one of two strategies can be used—hardware or software redundancy. The first strategy requires the use of additional measuring sensors. For this reason, the algorithmic solution, based on the Luenberger Observer (LO), has been proposed in this article as one of the software redundancy methods. In contrast to methods presented in the literature, the proposed solution allows one not only to compensate the stator current in a phase with a faulty CS, but also to adjust the correction of current estimation based on a me... [more]