The dissertation presents a new control strategy for two terminal HVDC systems embedded in an AC network. The control is based upon real-time measurements performed on the AC/DC system. Use is made of a technique for high speed accurate measurement of positive sequence voltages and currents, first developed in the field of computer relaying. The real-time measurements provides a term in the control law to compensate for inaccuracies following departure from the operating point. The control criterion is to damp out the electromechanical oscillations following a disturbance. The main contribution of the dissertation is to describe a new optimal controller formulation which contains a measurement based component. Optimal controllers are commonly constructed using linearized equations of the system around the operating point. In DC systems this approach is of a very limited value because of a highly nonlinear nature of the system. With the controller developed in this dissertation, it becomes possible to describe the system as a nonlinear dynamic system. The approximation resulting from the usual linearization of the system equations is thus avoided, and leads to a better controller design. The control technique is illustrated with a small AC/DC system. However, the equations formulated are sufficiently general, so that the technique can be applied to a larger system. Simulation results are included to represent the effectiveness of the developed controller. / Ph. D.

It was the purpose of this investigation to study the effect of varying the direct to reverse time ratio of periodically reversed direct current from 1.0 to 20.0 on the electrolytic production of lead chromate at an average anode current density of 0.0059 amperes per square centimeter, and to study the effect of 60 and 502.3 ± 7.7 cycles per second from 0.00113 to 0.01546 amperes per square centimeter of peak superimposed alternating current on direct current on the yield of lead chromate prepared by the electrolysis of a bath containing potassium chromate and sodium nitrate between lead electrodes. Electrolysis of a bath containing 3.60 grams of potassium chromate, 11.62 grams of sodium nitrate, end 1000 grams of water with simple direct current yielded 6.07 grams of lead chromate per ampere-hour, the purity being 92.7 percent lead chromate. The anode current density was 0.0049 amperes per square centimeter, and the current efficiency was 98.1 percent. During the electrolysis, by maintaining the ph of the electrolyte at 6.0, by adding a solution to 2.0 weight percent chromic acid, the purity of the product was increased. Electrolysis of the same bath using periodically reversed direct current yielded 4.53 grams of lead chromate per ampere-hour, the purity being 93.9 percent lead chromate. The time ratio was 20.0, the anode current density was 0.0049 amperes per square centimeter, and the current efficiency was 66.75 percent. Decreasing the direct to reverse time ratio gave lower yields and purities. Apparently, there is no advantage in using periodically reversed direct current over the use of direct current for this reaction under the above conditions. Electrolysis of the same bath with alternating current superimposed on direct current yielded 5.49 grams of lead chromate per direct current ampere-hour, at a purity of 99.4 percent lead chromate, when using 494.7 cycle alternating current. The alternating and direct current densities were 0.0078 and 0.0048 amperes per square centimeter, respectively. This was the purest product obtained in this investigation. Use of 60 cycle alternating current yielded 3.83 grams of lead chromate per direct current ampere-hour, at a purity of 93.9 percent lead chromate. The alternating and direct current densities were 0.00141 and 0.00484 amperes per square centimeter. Further experiments were made using direct current and periodically reversed direct current on a bath containing 6.80 grams of potassium chromate, 8.14 grams of sodium nitrate, and 1000 grams of water. Results from these electrolytes were much poorer than those obtained with the previous bath, so no experiments with superimposed alternating current on direct current were carried out with this latter bath. / Master of Science

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This thesis presents the development, experimentation and validation of a reliable and robust system to monitor the injector pulse generated by an Engine Control Module (ECM) and send the corresponding fueling quantity to the real-time computer in a closed loop Hardware In the Loop (HIL) bench. The system can be easily calibrated for different engine platforms as well. The fueling quantity that is being injected by the injectors is a crucial variable to run closed loop HIL simulation to carry out the performance testing of engine, aftertreatment and other components of the vehicle. This research utilized Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and Direct Memory Access (DMA) transfer capability offered by National Instruments (NI) Compact Reconfigurable Input-Output (cRIO) to achieve high speed data acquisition and delivery. The research was conducted in three stages. The first stage was to develop the HIL bench for the research. The second stage was to determine the performance of the system with different threshold methods and different sampling speeds necessary to satisfy the required accuracy of the fueling quantity being monitored. The third stage was to study the error and its variability involved in the injected fueling quantity from pulse to pulse, from injector to injector, between real injector stators and cheaper inductor load cells emulating the injectors, over different operating conditions with full factorial design of experimentation and mixed model Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA). Different thresholds were experimented to find out the best thresholds, the Start of Injection (SOI) threshold and the End of Injection (EOI) threshold that captured the injector “ontime” with best reliability and accuracy. Experimentation has been carried out at various data acquisition rates to find out the optimum speed of data sampling rate, trading off the accuracy of fueling quantity. The experimentation found out the expected error with a system with cheaper solution as well, so that, if a test application is not sensitive to error in fueling quantity, a cheaper solution with lower sampling rate and inductors as load cells can be used. The statistical analysis was carried out at highest available sampling rate on both injectors and inductors with the best threshold method found in previous studies. The result clearly shows the factors that affect the error and the variability in the standard deviations in error; it also shows the relation with the fixed and random factors. The real-time application developed for the HIL bench is capable of monitoring the injector waveform, using any fueling ontime table corresponding to the platform being tested, and delivering the fueling quantity in real-time. The test bench made for this research is also capable of studying injectors of different types with the automated test sequence, without occupying the resource of fully capable closed loop test benches for testing the ECM unctionality.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This thesis focuses on optimization of wind power tracking control systems in order to capture maximum wind power for the generation system. In this work, a mathematical simulation model is developed for a variable speed wind turbine power generation system. The system consists a wind turbine with necessary transmission system, and a permanent magnet synchronous generator and its vector control system. A new fuzzy based hill climbing method for power tracking control is proposed and implemented to optimize the wind power for the system under various conditions. Two existing power tracking control methods, the tip speed ratio (TSR) control method and the speed sensorless control method are also implemented with the wind power system. The computer simulations with a 5 KW wind power generation system are performed. The results from the proposed control method are compared with those obtained using the two existing methods. It is illustrated that the proposed method generally outperforms the two existing methods, especially when the operating point is far away from the maximum point. The proposed control method also has similar stable characteristic when the operating point is close to the peak point in comparison with the existing methods. The proposed fuzzy control method is computationally efficient and can be easily implemented in real-time.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This thesis proposes a family of non-isolated bidirectional converter in order to interface dc and ac variables. Such power electronics solutions guarantee: (i) bidirectional power flow between dc and ac converter sides, (ii) independent control in both converter sides, (iii) high level of integration with a reduction of one power switch and its drive circuits, (iv) implementation of two functions by using a unique power conversion stage and (v) reduction of the capacitor losses. Despite proposing new power converter solutions, this thesis presents an analysis of the converters in terms of pulse-width-modulation (PWM) strategy, dc-link capacitor variables, and suitable a control approach. Solutions for single-phase, three-phase and three-phase four-wire systems are proposed by employing a converter leg with three switches. A possible application of this converter is in Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) systems and interfacing dc microgrid with a utility grid. In addition to the new power electronics converters proposed in this thesis, an experimental setup has been developed for validation of the simulated outcomes. The proof-of-concept experimental setup is constituted by: DSP, Drivers & Integrating Board, Power Supply and, Power Converter & Heat-Sink .

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This research proposes state-of-the-art multilevel converter topologies and their modulation strategies, the implementation of a conventional flying-capacitor converter topology up to four-level, and a new four-level flying-capacitor H-Bridge converter confi guration. The three phase version of this proposed four-level flying-capacitor H-Bridge converter is given as well in this study. The highlighted advantages of the proposed converter are as following: (1) the same blocking voltage for all switches employed in the con figuration, (2) no capacitor midpoint connection is needed, (3) reduced number of passive elements as compared to the conventional solution, (4) reduced total dc source value by comparison with the conventional topology. The proposed four-level capacitor-clamped H-Bridge converter can be utilized as a multilevel inverter application in an electri fied railway system, or in hybrid electric vehicles. In addition to the implementation of the proposed topology in this research, its experimental setup has been designed to validate the simulation results of the given converter topologies.