In the early 1980s, relaying engineers conceived a technology allowing a huge step forward in the monitoring of power system behavior: the synchrophasor, i.e. the estimation of a phasor representation - amplitude and phase - of a sinusoidal waveform at a given point in time thanks to highly accurate time synchronization of a digital relay. By measuring synchrophasors across the power system several times per second, and centralizing the appropriate information in a hierarchical way through a telecommunication network link, it is now possible to continuously monitor the state of very large systems at a high refresh rate. <p><p>At the beginning, the phase angle information of synchrophasors was used to support or improve the performance of classic monitoring applications, such as state estimation and post-mortem analysis. Later, synchrophasors were found to be valuable for the detection and analysis of phenomena that were not monitored previously, such as system islanding and angular stability. This allows a better understanding of system behavior and the design of remedial actions in cases where system security appears to be endangered. Early detection and even prediction of instabilities, as well as validation and improvement of the dynamic models used for studies, have thus become possible.<p><p>However, a power system is rarely stationary and the assumptions behind the definition of “phasor” are not completely fulfilled because the waveforms' frequency and amplitude are not constant over a signal cycle at fundamental frequency. Therefore, accuracy of synchrophasor measurements during dynamic events is an important performance criterion. Furthermore, when discontinuities (phase jumps and high magnitude variations) and harmonics disturb the measured analog signals as a consequence of switching actions or external disturbances, measurements provided to the “user” (the operator or the algorithms that will take decisions such as triggering alarms and remedial actions) require a certain robustness. <p><p>The efforts underpinning this thesis have lead to the development of a method that ensures the robustness of the measurement. This scheme is described and tested in various conditions. In order to achieve a closer alignment between required and actual measurement performance, it is recommended to add an online indicator of phasor accuracy to the phasor data. <p><p>Fast automated corrective actions and closed-loop control schemes relying on synchrophasors are increasingly deployed in power systems. The delay introduced in the measurement and the telecommunication can have a negative impact on the efficiency of these schemes. Therefore, measurement latency is also a major performance indicator of the synchrophasor measurement. <p><p>This thesis illustrates the full measurement chain, from the measurement of analog voltages and currents in the power system to the use of these measurements for various purposes, with an emphasis on real-time applications: visualization, triggering of alarms in the control room or remedial actions, and integration in closed-loop controls. It highlights the various elements along this chain, which influence the availability, accuracy and delay of the data. <p><p>The main focus is on the algorithm to estimate synchrophasors and on the tradeoff between accuracy and latency that arises in applications for which measurements are taken during dynamic events and the data must be processed within a very limited timeframe. <p><p>If both fast phasors and slower, more accurate phasors are made available, the user would be able to select the set of phasors that are the most suitable for each application, by giving priority to either accuracy or a short delay.<p><p>This thesis also tentatively identifies gaps between requirements and typical measurements in order to identify current barriers and challenges to the use of wide area measurement systems. <p><p>A specific application, the continuous monitoring of oscillatory stability, was selected in order to illustrate the benefits of synchrophasors for the monitoring, analysis and control of power system behavior. This application requires a good phasor accuracy but can allow for some measurement delay, unless phasor data are used in an oscillation damping controller. In addition, it also relies on modal estimators, i.e. techniques for the online identification of the characteristics of oscillatory modes from measurements. This field of ongoing research is also introduced in this thesis. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

La R.D. Congo possède l’un de taux de desserte en électricité le plus faible au monde (moins de 1 % en zones rurales) malgré son important potentiel hydroélectrique estimé à 100.000 MW. Pour accroitre le taux de desserte en électricité en construisant des microcentrales hydroélectrique, il est impérieux d’utiliser une technologie simple, fiable, robuste et peu coûteuse. La turbine à vis d’Archimède apparait comme une solution appropriée à ces exigences. Nous avons ainsi conçu et fabriqué localement (à Lubumbashi) un banc d’essai d’une turbine à vis d’Archimède possédant seulement deux hélices et des pas larges (β = 30° et β = 45°). L’objectif étant de simplifier la fabrication et réduire la quantité d’acier utilisé pour la vis par rapport aux vis utilisées en Europe et aux U.S.A. Le banc d’essais nous a permis d’obtenir six configurations combinant la pente de la vis (α = 22,5°, 30° et 37,5°) et les pas. La combinaison la plus optimale est la configuration de la vis inclinée de α = 22,5° par rapport à l’horizontale et dont l’hélice est orientée de β = 45° sur le moyeu (p45H22).<p>En second lieu, vient la configuration de la vis inclinée de α = 30° et dont l’hélice est orientée de β = 45° sur le moyeu (p45H30). Ces deux configurations ont respectivement un rendement à débit nominal de 89 et 86 %./D.R. Congo has an electricity service rate that ranks as the lowest in the world (less than 1% in rural areas) despite its large hydroelectric potential estimated at 100,000 MW. To increase the rate of access to electricity by constructing small hydropower plant, it is imperative to use simple technology, reliable, robust and inexpensive. The Archimedean screw turbine appears to be an appropriate solution to these requirements. We have designed and manufactured locally (in Lubumbashi) a test bench for Archimedean’s screw turbines having two blades only and a large pitch p function of β ( β = 30 ° and β = 45 °, β being the orientation angle of the blade on the screw cylinder). The goal is to simplify manufacturing and reduce the amount of steel used for the screw relative to the screws used in Europe or in USA. The test bench has allowed the experiments with six configurations combining the slope of the screw (α = 22.5 °, 30 ° and 37.5 °) and the pitch p (with varying rotation speed). The optimal combination appeared to be the configuration of the screw inclined at α = 22.5 ° relative to the horizon and with an helix β = 45 ° on the cylinder of the screw. The second best configuration has an inclined screw α = 30 ° and the helix which is oriented β = 45 °. These two configurations each have a global efficiency of 89% and 86%, respectively. <p> / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This study is a presentation of an instantaneous and simultaneous velocity and concentration measurement technique and its applications on car park fire scenarios. <p>In this actual chapter 1 general introduction is given to each chapter. Chapter 2 is dedicated to a detailed description of the instantaneous and simultaneous velocity and concentration measurement technique and its associated error assessment methodology. The name of the new technique is derived from the names of the acquired parameters (VELocity and COncentration) and shall be hereafter referred to as VELCO. After having validated and performed an error assessment of this technique, it is applied to an investigation of full-scale car park (30 m x 30 m x 2.6 m – Gent / WFRGENT) fire cases in chapter 3. The measurements were carried out with the financial support of IWT-SBO program. In the full-scale measurements only the velocity part is applied of VELCO, yet it can be considered as its application since the special data treating was developed and implemented in the Rabon (see: §2.1.2) program, which is the software of the new technique along with Tucsok (see: §2.1.1) and they will be both discussed in the related chapter. Here it is enough to mention that the concentration and velocity information can be obtained independently as well. During the full-scale measurements, beyond of VELCO the smoke back-layering distances (SBL) are also derived from the temperature values, which were measured by thermocouples under the ceiling in the midline of the car park. The critical velocity, which is an important measure of fire safety, can be obtained from the SBL results. In chapter 4, isothermal fire modeling is surveyed in order to present how full-scale fires are modeled in small-scale. In this part of the study the theory of fire related formulae and an isothermal model are described. Here it is important to stress the fact that the fire modeling is not directly related to the VELCO technique. However it connects the full-scale to the small-scale measurements, which the technique is applied on. Chapter 5 discusses small-scale measurements (1:25 – Rhode Saint Genese / VKI) on the car park introduced in chapter 3 and their validation. After the validation, more complex car parks scenarios are also investigated due to the easy to change layout in the small-scale model with respect to the full-scale car park. In this chapter the smoke back-layering distances are obtained by VELCO. Finally, in chapter 6 important conclusions are drawn with the objective of increasing fire safety. <p> / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The need for efficiency, reliability and continuous operation has lead over the years to the development of fault-tolerant electrical drives for various industrial purposes and for transport applications. Permanent-magnet synchronous machines have also been gaining interest due to their high torque-to-mass ratio and high efficiency, which make them a very good candidate to reduce the weight and volume of the equipment.<p><p>In this work, a multidisciplinary approach for the design of fault-tolerant permanent-magnet synchronous machine drives is presented. <p><p>The drive components are described, including the electrical machine, the IGBT-based two-level inverter, the capacitors, the sensors, the controller, the electrical source and interfaces. A literature review of the failure mechanisms and of the reliability model of most of these components is performed. This allows understanding how to take benefit of the redundancy generally introduced in fault-tolerant systems.<p><p>A necessary step towards fault tolerance is the modelling of the electrical drive, both in healthy and faulty operations. A general model of multi-phase machines (with a number of phases equal to or larger than three) and associated converters is proposed. Next, control algorithms for multi-phase machines are derived. The impact of a closed-loop controller upon the occurrence of faults is also examined through simulation analysis and verified by experimental results.<p><p>Condition monitoring of electrical machines has expanded these last decades. New techniques relying on various measurements have emerged, which allow a better planning of maintenance operations and an optimization of the uptime of electrical machines. Regarding drives, a number of sensors are inherently present for control and basic protection functions. The utilization of these sensors for advanced condition monitoring is thus particularly interesting since they are available at no cost. <p><p>A novel fault detection and isolation scheme based on the available measurements (phase currents, DC-link voltage and mechanical position) is developed and validated experimentally. Change-detection algorithms are used for this purpose. Special attention is paid to sensor faults as well, what avoids diagnosis errors.<p><p>Fault-tolerant control can be implemented with passive and active approaches. The former consists in deriving a control scheme that gives acceptable performance for all operating conditions, including faulty conditions. The latter consists in applying dedicated solutions upon the occurrence of faults, i.e. by reconfiguring the control. Both approaches are investigated and implemented. <p><p>Finally, design considerations are discussed throughout the thesis. The advantages and drawbacks of various topologies are analyzed, which eventually leads to the design of a five-phase fault-tolerant permanent-magnet synchronous machine. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Enhancing mineral processing techniques is a permanent challenge in the mineral and metal industry. Indeed to satisfy the requirements on the final product (metal) set by the consuming market, control is often applied on the mineral processing whose product, the ore concentrate, constitutes the input material of the extractive metallurgy. Therefore much attention is paid on mineral processing units and especially on concentration plants. As the ore size reduction procedure is the critical step of a concentrator, it turns out that controlling a grinding circuit is crucial since this stage accounts for almost 50 % of the total expenditure of the concentrator plant. Moreover, the product particle size from grinding stage influences the recovery rate of the valuable minerals as well as the volume of tailing discharge in the subsequent process.<p> The present thesis focuses on an industrial application, namely the Kolwezi concentrator (KZC) double closed-loop wet grinding circuit. As any industrial wet grinding process, this process offers complex and challenging control problems due to its configuration and to the requirements on the product characteristics. In particular, we are interested in the modelling of the process and in proposing a control strategy to maximize the product flow rate while meeting requirements on the product fineness and density.<p> A mathematical model of each component of the circuit is derived. Globally, the KZC grinding process is described by a dynamic nonlinear distributed parameter model. Within this model, we propose a mathematical description to exhibit the increase of the breakage efficiency in wet operating condition. In addition, a relationship is proposed to link the convection velocity to the feed ore rate for material transport within the mills.<p> All the individual models are identified from measurements taken under normal process operation or from data obtained through new specific experiments, notably using the G41 foaming as a tracer to determine material transport dynamics within the mills. This technique provides satisfactory results compared to previous studies.<p>Based on the modelling and the circuit configuration, both steady-state and dynamic simulators are developed. The simulation results are found to be in agreement with the experimental data. These simulation tools should allow operator training and they are used to analyse the system and to design the suitable control strategy.<p> As the KZC wet grinding process is a Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) system, we propose a decentralized control scheme for its simplicity of implementation. To overcome all the control issues, a Double Internal Model Control (DIMC) scheme is proposed. This strategy is a feedforward-feedback structure based on the use of both a modified Disturbance Observer (DOB) and a Proportional-Integral Smith-Predictor (PI-SP). A duality between the DOB and PI-SP is demonstrated in design method. The latter is exploited to significantly simplify the design procedure. The designed decentralized controllers are validated in simulation on the process linearized model. A progressive implementation of the control strategy is proposed in the context of the KZC grinding circuit where instrumentation might not be obvious to acquire./<p><p> Améliorer les techniques de traitement de minerais est un défi permanent dans l'industrie des minéraux et des métaux. En effet, pour satisfaire aux exigences du produit fini (métal ) fixées par le marché de consommation, la commande automatique est souvent appliquée à l'usine du traitement de minerais dont le produit, le concentré, constitue la matière première de la métallurgie extractive. Une attention particulière est donc dévolue aux unités de traitement de minerais et en particulier aux concentrateurs. Comme le processus de réduction des dimensions granulométriques du minerai est l'étape critique d'un concentrateur, il s'avère que la commande d'un circuit de broyage est cruciale, car ce stade représente près de 50 % des dépenses totales de l' usine de concentration. De plus, la dimension granulométrique du produit de l'étape de broyage influe sur le taux de récupération des minéraux utiles ainsi que sur le volume des rejets du processus ultérieur.<p> La présente thèse porte sur une application industrielle, à savoir le concentrateur de Kolwezi (KZC qui est un circuit de broyage humide à double boucle fermée. Comme tout processus industriel de broyage humide, ce procédé présente une problématique de commande complexe et difficile en raison de sa configuration et des exigences relatives aux caractéristiques du produit. En particulier, nous nous intéressons à la modélisation de ce procédé et à proposer une stratégie adéquate de commande dans le but de maximiser le débit de production tout en respectant les exigences quant à la finesse et à la densité de la pulpe produite.<p> Un modèle mathématique de chaque composant du circuit a été déterminé. Globalement, le processus de broyage de KZC est décrit par un modèle dynamique non linéaire à paramètres distribués. Dans ce modèle, une description mathématique de l'augmentation de l'efficacité du broyage en milieu humide est proposée. En outre, nous avons proposé une relation liant la vitesse de convection au débit d'alimentation de minerais dans le modèle du transport de la matière à l'intérieur des broyeurs.<p> Tous les modèles mathématiques ont été identifiés à partir de mesures prises sur le procédé en fonctionnement d'équilibre stable ou à partir des données obtenues grâce à des nouvelles expériences spécifiques, notamment en utilisant le moussant G41 comme traceur pour déterminer la dynamique de transport de la matière dans les broyeurs. Cette technique a produit des résultats cohérents par rapport aux études antérieurs réalisées au moyen du traceur colorant ou radioactif.<p> Les simulateurs statique et dynamique ont été développés sur la base de la modélisation mathématique et de la configuration du circuit. Les résultats des simulations sont en accord avec les données expérimentales. Ces outils de simulation devraient permettre la formation des opérateurs et ont été utilisés pour analyser le système et concevoir la stratégie de commande la plus appropriée.<p> Comme le processus de broyage humide de KZC est un système à plusieurs grandeurs d'entrée et plusieurs grandeurs de sortie, nous avons proposé une structure de commande décentralisée en raison de sa simplicité de mise en œuvre .Afin de surmonter tous les problèmes de commande, un schéma de commande à double modèle interne (CDMI) est proposée. Cette stratégie est une structure à anticipation - rétroaction basée sur l'utilisation d'un observateur de perturbations (OBP) et d'un Prédicteur de Smith doté d'un régulateur Proportionnel-Intégral (PS-PI). Une dualité entre l'OBP et le PS-PI est démontrée dans la méthode de conception. Cette propriété est exploitée pour simplifier considérablement la procédure de conception. Les régulateurs décentralisés ainsi conçus sont validés en simulation sur le modèle linéarisé du procédé. Une mise en œuvre progressive de la stratégie de commande est proposée dans le contexte du circuit de broyage de KZC où l'instrumentation peut ne pas être évidente à acquérir.<p> <p> / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished