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This thesis develops a hardware circuit implementation of an active filter for reducing a SRM drives input current ripple or equivalently to improve the SRM drives input power quality. Its an alternative to the simple inductor and capacitor in a conventional passive filter. For the same filtering capability the size of the two physical capacitors in the active filter will be much less than the size of the capacitor in a conventional filter. Also the size of the two inductors in the active filter will be much less than the size of the inductor in a conventional filter. Some of this size reduction will be consumed by the power semiconductors but their size is much smaller than the filter components being replaced. This thesis describes the design of the active filter circuit which can replace the conventional passive filter. In this thesis, feedback control is also used with the active filter to force the filter voltage to be the desired value to minimize the effects of the circuits resonances. The active filter circuit is tested experimentally with a test circuit that mimics the current ripple generated by an SRM drive system. The experimentally generated output is verified by comparing it with simulation results from a detailed SIMULINK model and a B2 spice model of the experimental system.

No description available.

The correct operation of adjustable speed drives, which form part of a larger system, is often essential to the operation of the system as a whole. In certain applications the failure of such a drive could result in a threat to human safety and these applications are termed 'safety critical'. The chance of a component failure resulting in non-operation of the drive can be dramatically reduced by adopting a fault tolerant design. A fault tolerant drive must continue to operate throughout the occurrence of any single point failure without undue disturbance to the power output. Thereafter the drive must be capable of producing rated output indefinitely in the presence of the fault. The work presented in this thesis shows that fault tolerance can be achieved without severe penalties in terms of cost or power to mass ratio. The design of a novel permanent magnet drive is presented and a 'proof of concept' demonstrator has been built, based on a 20 kW, 13000 RPM aircraft fuel pump specffication. A novel current controller with near optimal transient performance is developed to enable precise shaping of the phase currents at high shaft speeds. The best operating regime for the machine is investigated to optimise the power to mass ratio of the drive. A list of the most likely electrical faults is considered. Some faults result in large fault currents and require rapid detection to prevent fault propagation. Several novel fault sensors are discussed. Fault detection and identification schemes are developed, including new schemes for rapid detection of turn to turn faults and power device short circuit faults. Post fault control schemes are described which enable the drive to continue to operate indefinitely in the presence of each fault. Finally, results show the initially healthy drive operating up to, through and beyond the introduction of each of the most serious faults.

Graduation date: 2000

El Ni??o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the most important coupled ocean-atmospheric phenomenon to cause global climate variability on interannual time scales. Efforts to understand recent, apparently anomalous ENSO behaviour are hampered by the lack of long, high-quality climate records. While instrumental data generally covers the past 150 years, record length is insufficient for the assessment of past changes in the frequency, magnitude, and duration of ENSO. Here, multiproxy networks of high-resolution tree-ring, coral, ice and documentary records derived from eastern and western Pacific ENSO ???centres of action??? are analysed (A.D. 1525-2002). Considerable improvements in ENSO reconstruction are achieved from expanding the use of records from the western Pacific. In particular, ~500 years of a continuous 3,722 year ENSO sensitive tree-ring record from New Zealand is introduced. Although extreme ENSO events are seen throughout a 478-year discrete event analysis, 43% of extreme, 20% of very strong and 28% of all protracted ENSO events occur within the 20th century. Principal component analysis was used to extend instrumental records of the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) Ni??o 3.4 Sea Surface Temperature (Ni??o 3.4 SST) and a newly developed coupled ocean-atmospheric ENSO index (CEI) by 347 years. Significantly, of the three indices reconstructed here, CEI reconstructions were largely found to be the best predictors of ENSO. The results suggest that ENSO may be more effectively characterised using a coupled ocean-atmosphere index, particularly for December-May periods. Compared to the pre-instrumental period, the late 19th and early 20th centuries indicate a clear trend toward increased ENSO variability over the past 150 years. Significantly, spectral analysis of reconstructed indices reveals a marked change in the frequency and intensity of ENSO beginning ~A.D. 1850, coinciding with the end of the Little Ice Age and the boom in global industrialisation. This suggests that ENSO may operate differently under natural (pre-industrial) and anthropogenically influenced background states. This study asserts that recent ENSO variability appears anomalous in the context of the past five centuries. Given the considerable socio-economic impacts of ENSO events, future investigation into the implications an increasingly anthropogenically-warmed world may have on ENSO is vital.

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1988. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-70). Also available via the Internet.