In this survey paper, typical solutions that focus on the reduction in negative effects resulting from the common-mode voltage influence in AC motor drive applications are re-examined. The critical effectiveness evaluation of the considered methods is based on experimental results of tests performed in a laboratory setup with an induction machine fed by an inverter. The capacity of a common-mode voltage level reduction and voltage gradient du/dt limitation is discussed to extend motor bearings’ lifetime and increase motor windings’ safety. The characteristic features of the described solutions are compared and demonstrated using laboratory results.

This paper presents a novel output voltage regulator in the cascade structure under the consideration of both the parameter and load uncertainties. It leads to the first-order closed-loop inner and outer loop dynamics in the low-pass filter form by the pole-zero cancellation through the active damping injection, which is the main contribution of this study. Moreover, it is proved that the active damping injection level determines the disturbance rejection capability of the closed-loop system. A 3-kW DC/DC boost converter confirms the actual advantages from these two contributions.

Contaminants in transformer oil insulation can float when meeting several conditions. Then, the presence of floating contaminants affects the electrical characteristics of oil insulation. Therefore, the pre-breakdown (corona) and breakdown characteristics due to metallic floating particles in transformer oil insulation would be investigated. This test used DC high voltage stress. A 56 Ω resistor was connected to the oscilloscope to detect the corona currents. The camera was used to capture the images of corona light emission. In addition, the electric field between the electrode and particles was simulated. The variables were the particle size, including its shape, and the distance between the particles and the grounded electrode. The experimental results show that the average value of corona inception and breakdown was inversely proportional to the size of floating particles. The peak value of corona current was directly proportional to the particle size. The lowest breakdown voltage... [more]

In railway traction, the definition of “electromagnetic field” is functionally connected to the concept of the reactive power consumed by the electric rolling stock, and characterized by the running and standing electromagnetic waves in the space of the inter-substation zones from the site of the AC traction system. Such a definition is established and theoretically justified by the theory of electromagnetic fields. This article uses the methodology of this theory, in particular, a method for power balance estimation in electromagnetic fields based on Maxwell’s equations, as well as methods for the analysis of running and standing electromagnetic waves based on the theory of reflection, propagation and transmission of plane harmonic waves. The research considers the regularities of standing electromagnetic waves in the space of inter-substation zones of electric traction systems, which occur due to the incomplete reflection of incident waves from the contact wire and metal parts of the... [more]

This paper presents impulse tests results on a zinc oxide (ZnO) surge arrester connected to four ground electrodes, with its resistance values ranging from 17 Ω to 104 Ω. It has been noted that when in series with various ground resistance values, the voltage−current characteristics of the zinc oxide (ZnO) surge arrester are far from the one tested using a common grounding, which is a standard measurement method described in IEC 60060-1. This paper clarifies the relationship between the surge arrester with various ground electrodes and its performance when tested with a common practice, based on IEC 60060-1. The tests carried out on a 15 kV ZnO surge arrester, under high-impulse conditions by field measurements, provide important information on the characteristics and ability of the surge arrester to adequately function in various ground electrodes.

A simplified and accurate model of a surge arrester used in the residual voltage test is proposed in this paper. With the help of a genetic algorithm, the measured impulse current and residual voltage waveforms are utilized to determine circuit parameters of the proposed model and the generation circuit precisely. The technique starts from the circuit parameter determination using the preliminary experimental data with a lower current peak than that specified by the standard. From the determined model and with the help of the genetic algorithm, the circuit parameters and the charging voltage to obtain the specified current peak and the residual voltage can be estimated accurately. The validity of the proposed technique has been verified by experiments for the estimation of the appropriate current circuit parameters, the charging voltage, and the residual voltage. In addition, the application of the proposed model in the residual voltage tests is presented. From comparison of simulated... [more]

Compared with a silicon MOSFET device, the SiC MOSFET has many benefits, such as higher breakdown voltage, faster action speed and better thermal conductivity. These advantages enable the SiC MOSFET to operate at higher switching frequencies, while, as the switching frequency increases, the turn-on loss accounts for most of the loss. This characteristic severely limits the applications of the SiC MOSFET at higher switching frequencies. Accordingly, an SRD-type drive circuit for a SiC MOSFET is proposed in this paper. The proposed SRD-type drive circuit can suppress the turn-on oscillation of a non-Kelvin packaged SiC MOSFET to ensure that the SiC MOSFET can work at a faster turn-on speed with a lower turn-on loss. In this paper, the basic principle of the proposed SRD-type drive circuit is analyzed, and a double pulse platform is established. For the purpose of proof-testing the performance of the presented SRD-type drive circuit, comparisons and experimental verifications between the... [more]

Loss allocation through analytical expressions in three-core lead-sheathed armored cables is challenging due to the complex geometry of this type of cable, commonly employed in submarine energy transmission systems (involving twisted conductors, sheaths and armor). Most of the expressions of the IEC standard 60287 have not been properly adapted for three-core armored cables, leading to inaccurate values for the different losses, so important efforts are currently devoted to improving them. In this work, an improved ultra-shortened 3D finite element model (FEM) is employed for developing an in-depth analysis of the electromagnetic interactions that take place in 6 real cables, being especially focused on those aspects that are not considered in the IEC standard. As a result, important conclusions are derived regarding the losses in conductors and sheaths, which introduce different corrections for improving the accuracy of the IEC expressions. The new formulation is then employed to prop... [more]

This paper presents experimental results of high-current impulse tests on six ground electrode configurations. A high impulse current generator is employed to inject different magnitudes of current into these rod electrodes, under both positive and negative impulse polarities. The effect of increasing the number of rod electrodes, hence the resistance at DC or steady-state (RDC), on the impulse response of ground electrodes is analysed. From the analysis of the results, it was found that the larger the size of rod electrodes, the less current-dependent Zimpulse becomes. The percentage of reduction of impulse impedance, Zimpulse from its steady state, and RDC values are found to be independent of impulse polarity. However, as the voltage magnitudes were increased, an occurrence of breakdown was seen, with higher breakdown voltage seen in negative impulse polarity in comparison to positive impulse polarity. Relatively, the higher the breakdown voltage is, seen in the ground electrodes su... [more]

Bayesian inference is used to calibrate a bottom-up home PLC network model with unknown loads and wires at frequencies up to 30 MHz. A network topology with over 50 parameters is calibrated using global sensitivity analysis and transitional Markov Chain Monte Carlo (TMCMC). The sensitivity-informed Bayesian inference computes Sobol indices for each network parameter and applies TMCMC to calibrate the most sensitive parameters for a given network topology. A greedy random search with TMCMC is used to refine the discrete random variables of the network. This results in a model that can accurately compute the transfer function despite noisy training data and a high dimensional parameter space. The model is able to infer some parameters of the network used to produce the training data, and accurately computes the transfer function under extrapolative scenarios.

The recognition of the creepage discharge development process of oil−paper insulation under AC−DC combined voltage is the basis for fault monitoring and diagnosis of converter transformers; however, only a few related studies are available. In this study, the AC−DC combined voltage with a ratio of 1:1 was used to develop a recognition method for the creepage discharge development process of an oil−paper insulation under a cylinder−plate electrode structure. First, the pulse current method was used to collect the discharge signals in the creepage discharge development process. Then, 24 characteristic parameters were extracted from four types of creepage discharge characteristic spectra after dimensionality reduction. Finally, based on the online sequential extreme learning machine (OS-ELM) algorithm, these characteristic parameters were used to recognize the development stage of the creepage discharge of the oil−paper insulation. The results showed that when the size of the sample train... [more]

Over recent years, a technological revolution has taken place in which conventional lighting has been replaced by light emitting diodes (LEDs). Some studies have shown the possibility that blue light from these artificial sources could have deleterious effects on the retina. Considering that people spend a non-negligible time in front of screens from computers and mobile phones, the eyes receive blue light of different intensities depending on the source. Nevertheless, any study about the visual and non-visual effects of blue light must consider precise measurements taken from actual artificial sources. For this reason, we have analyzed the spectral emission of 10 different electronic devices and weighted them according to the hazard caused by blue light to the eyes, comparing the results with solar radiation simulated with a radiative transfer model. The maximum spectral irradiance of the measured electronic devices at 10 cm from the detector was located between 440 nm and 460 nm. The... [more]

This research proposes a four-level T-type inverter that is suitable for low-power applications. The presented topology outranks other types of inverters in terms of a smaller number of semiconductor devices, absence of passive components such as clamping diodes and flying capacitors, low switching and conduction losses, and high efficiency. The proposed topology is free from voltage deviation and unbalanced voltage occurrences that are present in other multilevel converters having clamping diodes or flying capacitors. The proposed inverter can extend to N levels using unequal dc-link voltage sources for medium-voltage application. The inverter employs the simple fundamental frequency staircase modulation technique. Moreover, this paper presents a current commutation strategy to prevent the occurrences of short circuit and minimizing the number of required switching devices and switching transitions, resulting in improving the efficiency of the inverter. This paper also analyses the th... [more]

In this article, the second method of determination of the theoretical and actual working volume of a hydraulic motor is described. The proposed new method is based on the characteristics of effective absorbency of the motor. The effective absorbency has been defined as the ratio of flow rate in a motor to the rotational speed of the motor’s shaft. It has been shown that the effective absorbency is a nonlinear function of the rotational speed and nonlinear function of the pressure drop in the motor’s working chambers. Furthermore, it has been proven that the actual working volume of a motor is a function of a third degree of pressure drop in the motor’s working chamber. The actual working volume should be taken to assess the mechanical and volumetric energy losses in the motor. Furthermore, the influence of the flowmeter location in the measurement system and the compressibility of liquid on the result of the theoretical and actual working volume calculation was also taken into account... [more]

This paper presents the skin effect impact on the active power losses in the sheathless single-core cables/wires supplying nonlinear loads. There are significant conductor losses when the current has a distorted waveform (e.g., the current supplying diode rectifiers). The authors present a new method for active power loss calculation. The obtained results have been compared to the IEC-60287-1-1:2006 + A1:2014 standard method and the method based on the Bessel function. For all methods, the active power loss results were convergent for small-cable cross-section areas. The proposed method gives smaller power loss values for these cable sizes than the IEC and Bessel function methods. For cable cross-section areas greater than 185 mm2, the obtained results were better than those for the other methods. There were also analyses of extra power losses for distorted currents compared to an ideal 50 Hz sine wave for all methods. The new method is based on the current penetration depth factor cal... [more]

In this paper, the fault current limiting (FCL) characteristics of a flux-coupled type superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) with parallel connection between two windings in a DC system were analyzed. The flux-coupled type SFCL was composed of two coils connected in parallel and a superconducting element (SE), which was connected in series with the secondary coil. The flux-coupled type SFCL works in DC systems similar to those in AC systems. Before a fault occurs, the respective magnetic fluxes generated by the two coils connected in parallel offset each other, maintaining the voltage induced in the two coils at zero. In case of a fault, however, resistance is generated in the SE, preventing the magnetic fluxes generated by the two coils from offsetting each other. Thus, some voltage is induced in the two coils, and this starts to limit the fault current. DC short circuit tests were conducted, and the test results confirmed that the flux-coupled type SFCL with the two parallel c... [more]

Experimental work on grounding systems has shown that the characteristics of grounding systems under high impulse conditions are different than those obtained at steady-state conditions. Investigations on the grounding systems under high impulse conditions make it evident that ionization process could occur in soil, due to field enhancement in air voids in the soil. This process can lead to an ionization zone that reduces the impulse resistance of grounding systems (due to an enlargement of a virtually increased cross-sectional area) from its steady state. There have been many studies pointing towards the effect of various soils and the ground electrode’s arrangement on the reduction of impulse resistance from its steady state, and its decrease with increasing currents. It was, however, noted that very few studies on the effect of the configurations of horizontal ground electrodes have been performed by field measurements before. This work presents the experimental and simulated work o... [more]