Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1993. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-79). Also available via the Internet.

This thesis proposes and develops a novel optic configuration, Kerr phase-interrogator, which investigates the phase-shift between two sinusoidally modulated optical signals (SMOS) utilizing Kerr effect. The Kerr phase-interrogator gives birth to an entirely new technique for measuring the phase-shift between two light-waves. Taking advantage of all-optical signal processing, ultrafast responses, and being free from the coherent properties of a laser source, the Kerr phase-interrogator based technique for measuring the phase-shift is a promising novel approach for monitoring and sensing applications. The thesis begins with theoretically demonstrating the operation of Kerr phase-interrogator. As the core of optical process occurs in Kerr phase-interrogator, nonlinear interactions between two SMOSs in the Kerr medium are theoretically analyzed utilizing the models of nonlinear phase-modulation and four-wave mixing (FWM). The phase-modulation-based model is intuitive and allows for conceptual understanding of the operation of the Kerr phase-interrogator. However, this model does not account for the impact of chromatic-dispersion (CD) of the Kerr medium on the operation of the Kerr phase-interrogator. Compared with the former model, the FWM-based model is essential for acquiring insight into Kerr phase-interrogator, and can explain the CD impact of the Kerr medium. The analytical solution of the power of the first order sideband as a result of the nonlinear interaction is obtained in both theoretical models. The obtained solution shows sinusoidal dependence of the power on the phase-shift of the SMOSs. Utilizing this sinusoidal dependence, the phase-shift of two SMOSs can be acquired by measuring the power of the first-order sideband. Birefringence and CD are critical factors that affect the nonlinear interactions and thus impact the operation of Kerr phase-interrogator. In this work, vector analysis is performed on the nonlinear interaction between two SMOSs in a Kerr medium with randomly varying birefringence, and the effect of polarization-states of SMOSs on the operation of Kerr phase-interrogator is investigated. Impact of CD of Kerr medium on the operation of Kerr phase-interrogator is theoretically investigated using theory of FWM and is experimentally verified. Four typical applications, which comprehensively reflect the advantages of Kerr phase-interrogator, are proposed and experimentally demonstrated in this thesis. First, we present a novel approach for measurements of CD in long optical fibers using a Kerr phase-interrogator. The Kerr phase-interrogator measures the phase variation of a SMOS induced by CD in a fiber under test as the laser carrier wavelength is varied. This approach takes advantage of all-optical signal-processing based on Kerr effect to acquire the phase variation, and consequently removes the requirement of complex electrical signal-processors in existing techniques of CD measurement. CD measurement for several fibers is experimentally demonstrated. Second, a novel temperature sensor that utilizes temperature dependence of reflection group-delay in a linearly chirped fiber Bragg grating is presented. The reflection group-delay of chirped grating changes with temperature leading to a variation in the phase of a SMOS reflected from the grating. A Kerr phase-interrogator converts the phase-variation into power variation allowing for temperature sensing with a resolution of 0.0089 oC and a sensitivity of 1.122 rad/oC. Third, a Kerr phase-interrogator is applied for implementation of real-time CD monitoring. CD induces a phase-shift between two SMOSs carried by two different wavelengths. A Kerr phase-interrogator converts the phase-shift into power variation and CD monitoring is achieved by measurement of the power variation in real time with a resolution of 0.196 ps/nm. This application takes advantages of ultrafast response of Kerr phase-interrogator and achieves the real-time monitoring. Lastly, a novel approach for incoherent optical frequency-domain reflectometry based on a Kerr phase-interrogator is presented. The novel approach eliminates the limitation of finite coherent length of the light source, and achieves measurement of long-range distance beyond the coherent length of the light source. Long-range detection of reflection points as far as 151 km at a spatial-resolution of 11.2 cm is experimentally demonstrated.

This thesis explores the PMU placement problem, that is, the placement of a minimal number of Phase Measurement Units (PMUs) on the nodes of a power system graph such that the entire graph is observed. The NP-completeness of PMU placement for planar bipartite graphs is shown. PMU placement algorithms are developed for graphs of bounded tree width, such as trees and outer planar graphs. Graph decompositions are used to develop efficient algorithms that produce minimal PMU covers. These algorithms are developed, analyzed, and compared theoretically. Algorithm animations were used in the study to develop insight into the problem and to understand algorithm behavior. / Master of Science

Wind power generation influences on the quality of the power grid. Because wind velocity is consistently changing this change causes unstable wind power generation. Since more wind power is expected to be used in the future, it is crucial to study the influence of the wind penetration level on normalized-damping ratio and damped-resonant frequency. In this thesis three types of calculated data were used to analyze the effect of wind penetration level on the Texas power grid: the percentage of wind power generation in Texas, generator-unit trip damping coefficient, and damped-resonant frequency. The percentage of wind energy was calculated from wind data provided by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. The damping coefficient and damped-resonant frequency values are the indicators of power system stability and were calculated from synchronized phase data from the Texas power grid. The synchronized phase measurements were collected from the University of Texas at Austin and the wind farm near the Mc-Donald observatory. The data analyzed in this paper were from September 2009 to February 2010. The wind data were correlated to the grid-stability indicators which allowed us to interpret the status of the power grid according to the wind penetration level. When the wind penetration level increased over 11 %, five generator trip events occurred with damping coefficient values ten times higher than those of the regular unit trips. Moreover, during those events, damped-resonant frequency values rose nearly four times higher than the frequency values of other events. The results of this study may lead us to the conclusion that simply increasing the capacity of wind power generation will cause the power system to become unstable, and this will result in low quality of electricity. Therefore, further study is needed to determine the optimum amount of wind power generation without causing instability in the power grid. / text

The problem of monitoring an electric power system by placing as few measurement devices in the system as possible is closely related to the well known vertex covering and dominating set problems in graphs (see SIAM J. Discrete Math. 15(4) (2002), 519-529). A set S of vertices is defined to be a power dominating set of a graph if every vertex and every edge in the system is monitored by the set S (following a set of rules for power system monitoring). The minimum cardinality of a power dominating set of a graph is its power domination number. We investigate the power domination number of a block graph.

Many biological specimens are transparent and in weak intensity contrast, making it invisible using conventional bright field microscopes. Therefore, the phase-based optical microscopy techniques play important roles in the development of the modern biomedical science. Furthermore, the ability to achieve quantitative phase measurement of the tiny structures of biomedical specimens is of great importance for many biomedical applications. Thus, quantitative phase imaging becomes an important technique to measure the phase variations due to the difference of refractive index and geometric thickness of various structures and materials within the biomedical specimens. In this thesis, a spectral modulation interferometry (SMI) is developed to achieve quantitative phase imaging. In SMI, the phase and amplitude information will simultaneously be modulated onto the interference spectrum of the broadband light. Full-field phase images can be obtained by scanning along the orthogonal direction only. SMI incorporates the advantages of low coherence from broadband light source, high sensitivity from spectral domain interferometry and the high speed from the spectral modulation technique to achieve quantitative phase measurement with free of speckle, high temporal sensitivity (~0.1nm) and fast imaging rate. The principles of SMI system and programming as well as some important image processing methods will be discussed in detail. Besides, the quantitative phase measurement of the reflective object (USAF resolution target) and the transmitted biological objects (Peranema, human cheek cells) will be shown. / Master of Science

The objective of this thesis is to update the outage management system (OMS) in Taipower by verifying the phasing of distribution transformers and the connectivity of customers served by each distribution transformer. The GPS based phase measurement unit (PMU) is used to measure the voltage phasing of the transformer. The power line carrier (PLC) based identifier has been developed to support the identification of distribution transformer and all the customers served. In the thesis, four practical distribution feeders in Fengshan District of Taipower are selected for the update of distribution transformer phasing of OMS system for the update of distribution transformer phasing of OMS system. After correcting the phasing of distribution transformer in the OMS database, the attributes of distribution components are retrieved for the OMS system. The network configuration of distribution feeders is identified by exacting the topology process and node reduction to prepare the input data for load flow analysis. With the monthly energy consumption of customer from the customer information system (CIS) and the typical load patterns of various customer classes, the hourly loading of each transformer can be derived. By retrieving the actual power data of test feeders from the distribution dispatch control center (DDCC), the three phase load flow analysis is executed to solve the three phase currents of trunk line sections, laterals and distribution transformers. The three phase currents solved can therefore be applied to derive the strategy of three phase balancing of distribution feeders.

Positioning an underwater object with respect to a reference point is required in diverse areas in ocean scientific and engineering undertakings, such as marine habitat monitoring, study of sedimentation processes, underwater searching and mapping, data collection, instrument placement and retrieval, and so on. Underwater acoustic positioning systems, including long baseline (LBL) systems, short baseline (SBL) systems, and ultra-short baseline (USBL) systems, are designed to operate from a reference point and employ external transducers or transducer arrays as aids for positioning. Traditional positioning methods rely on measuring of time-of-flight of an acoustic signal travelling from the target to the reference platform by means of the cross-correlation method. The positioning accuracy of LBL systems varies from a few centimeters to a few meters, depending on the operating range and working frequency. LBL systems provide a uniform positioning accuracy for a given transponder array setup, but they suffer the time-consuming instrument deployment on the seafloor, as well as the complicated operating procedures. SBL and USBL systems have relatively simple configurations. But their positioning accuracy is a function of water depth and operating range. To obtain absolute position accuracy, additional sensors such as the ship's gyro or a surface navigation system are needed. In this thesis, a novel positioning method is proposed which takes advantages of a tether cable between the reference platform and the target. This method conducts positioning via continuous phase measurement between a reference signal and the acoustic signal transmitted by the target to the reference platform. It is named the Positioning-based-on-PHase-Measurement method or PPHM method in short. Every 2π change in the phase difference between these two signals corresponds to a one-wavelength range increment along the radial direction from the target’s initial position to its new position. If a receiver array is used, with at least two hydrophones, the target’s bearing information can be also calculated by measuring the phases of the output signals from each of the array hydrophones. Under ideal conditions, the positioning error of the PPHM method is proportional to the phase measurement error. The PPHM method is very sensitive to changes in the underwater medium, such as sound speed variations, ocean currents and multipath interferences. Environmental fluctuations will degrade the positioning performance. These problems will be investigated and solutions will be proposed to minimize their effects. The PPHM method can be used to position an underwater moving object such as a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) or a bottom crawler. Also, it can be used to monitor the ocean currents speed variations over a path, or to monitor the movements of tectonic plates. The last two applications will be addressed in detail in this thesis, whereas the first one is very challenging and needs more work.

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Orientador: Cláudio Kitano / Resumo: A manufatura de micro e nano dispositivos vem se tornado um mercado de grande representação na indústria moderna, onde destacam-se a indústria médica, eletrônica e mecatrônica, que necessitam de dispositivos capazes de movimentar ou manipular elementos de dimensões microscópicas, tais como micro-pipetas em cirurgias, posicionamento de máscaras de chips, de amostras em microscópios de força atômica, entre outros. Neste contexto, os atuadores piezoelétricos flextensionais são dispositivos consagrados quanto ao uso na micro e nano manipulação. A solução analítica destes atuadores normalmente é muito complexa ou até mesmo impossível e, diante disso, há a necessidade de efetuar a caracterização experimental do atuador após sua confecção. A interferometria óptica é uma técnica muito precisa de medição de pequenos deslocamentos. O interferômetro volumétrico é normalmente montado sobre uma mesa óptica (breadboard) por meio de estruturas comerciais para montagem de experimentos ópticos. Diante disso, o atuador é fixado ao breadboard por estruturas como postes, deslocadores cinemáticos de translação, rotação e tilt, etc. Dessa forma, neste trabalho, levantou-se a resposta em frequência de um protótipo de atuador piezoelétrico flextensional multi atuado que foi projetado e confeccionado no Departamento de Engenharia Mecatrônica e de Sistemas Mecânicos da Escola Politécica da USP - EPUSP. Utilizou-se um interferômetro de Michelson em óptica volumétrica, e, posteriormente, um interferômet... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The manufacture of micro and nano devices has become a market of great prominence in the modern industry, where the medical, electronic and mechatronic industries stand out that need devices capable of repositioning or manipulating elements of microscopic dimensions, such as micro-pipettes in surgeries, positioning of chip masks, adjusting of samples in atomic force microscopes, among others. In this context, flextentional piezoelectric actuators are appropriated devices for use in micro and nano manipulation. The analytical solution of these actuators is usually very complex or even impossible, and there is a need to characterize the actuator after its manufacturing. Optical interferometry is a very precise technique for measuring small displacements and consequently, primissing for the caracterization of these piezoelectric atuators. The bulk interferometer is usually mounted on an optical table (breadboard) by means of commercial precision kinematic optical mounts, such as posts, tilt platformors, translations and rotation stages, and others. In this work, the frequency response of a multi-actuated flextensional piezoelectric actuator prototype, designed and manufactured at the Department of Mechatronics and Mechanical Systems of the Polytechnic School of USP - EPUSP, was investigated. Both, a Michelson interferometer and a double Michelson interferometer were applied for the simultaneousmeasurement of the displacement of the actuator in the X and Y directions. The frequen... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre