published_or_final_version / abstract / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

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The feasibility of using oriented polymer technology in the design and manufacture of mechanical power transmission belts has been investigated. Working from an initial selection of polymers a die-drawing technique for orienting the polymers was devised, and the static and dynamic mechanical properties of the oriented polymers were investigated. These results indicated that PP, PBT, PPS and PEEK were suitable for further research. Of these 4 materials PBT was selected as the most appropriate material for belt manufacture based on cost, processability (drawing temperature, natural draw ratio) and limitations of laboratory equipment. A technique based on free-tensile drawing combined with simultaneous rotational motion was designed and used to manufacture oriented PBT flat belts from cylindrical injection moulded preforms. The technique used a tensile machine with two pulley-clamps, a fitted heated chamber and an electric motor to provide rotational motion to the belt during drawing. Two types of oriented PBT flat belts with different cross sections were produced successfully, termed 'thick' and 'thin'. These belts were tested on a purpose-built rig comprising two equal diameter pulleys, one driven by an electric motor and the other connected to a generator to provide load. The belt life and power transmission performance was investigated at various conditions of speed, transmitted torque and tension, and the results indicated that despite their smaller cross section 'thin' flat belts demonstrated up to 3 times longer life. However life was only 100hours, which was very low compared with conventional flat belts that last for many thousands of hours at higher speeds and much greater power transmission capacity. Synchronous belts were then produced through the same manufacturing method used for flat belts. This aspect of the research concentrated on the initial pitch design and size, i.e. the timing. Initially a rectangular tooth profile was selected for its simplicity in terms of manufacture. The produced belts exhibited high pitch length variation as well as deformed teeth and were not usable for synchronous power transmission. An extra timing feature was included to control orientation; reducing the pitch length variation enabling consistent tooth production. It was observed that the areas between the extra timing feature and the tooth edges did not orient completely with some regions remaining undrawn. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was used to predict the drawing behaviour of different shapes and dimensions of the timing features. The results suggested that a 4mm wide and 7mm long slot provided the highest possible extension and the minimum non-oriented regions on the groove. Whilst, the thickness and width of the drawn belt timing features showed differences to the FEA predictions, manufactured synchronous belts based on that design had much better controlled dimensions and the lowest achieved pitch length variation ( ±1%), compared to initial attempts. It is concluded that oriented polymers have the potential to be used in power transmission belts since they offer higher stiffness, tensile strength and creep resistance compared with isotropic polymers that are currently used in commercially available belts such as thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The main disadvantages were the lack of dimensional stability and number of cycle to failure.

The problem of this study was to determine the suitability of available industrial arts textbooks for classroom use in the subject area of power mechanics. Criteria used in determining the subject matter content and format suitability of the textbooks were selected from previous research and applied to the textbooks by five jurors. Only one of the eight textbooks evaluated for subject matter content was found suitable for use in courses in power mechanics, while all of the textbooks were found suitable when evaluated for format. In order to conduct a comprehensive industrial arts power mechanics program, teachers must rely on supplementary materials in classroom instruction because of the low levels of subject matter suitability of the textbooks.

Thesis (D. Tech. Electrical engineering) --Vaal University of Technology / A comprehensive study upon "Non-conventional methods for energy extraction from the high voltage transmission lines" was addressed in this thesis. As defined in this study, a non-conventional method to extract energy is one that does not touch the conductors of the line. The theoretical framework which originated in the Maxwell's equations was presented as a base for discussion of all the methods and the conditions for the extraction to be possible. This study presents various methods such as capacitive and inductive to extract energy from high voltage alternating current transmission lines (HVAC). Although in theory, for high voltage direct current transmission lines (HVDC), the conditions for extraction are not matched, there remain some methods that could still attract interest. The centre point of this thesis is the new power application of the Rogowski coil. This method is analysed in full extent starting from theoretical modelling, computer simulations, design of the actual Rogowski coil and power electronics associated with it, and experimental results on a reduced scale model. In doing this, strong mathematical tools and computer software such as Matlab 6, Quick Field and MathCAD were used. At the end of this thesis, some conclusions are presented together with new ideas for further research in the field.

Wind power is a rapidly growing industry worldwide, both on- andoffshore. Most of the good locations onshore in continental Europeare in use today, which has prompted a move offshore in recentyears. Europe has by far the most offshore wind turbinesinstalled, mostly located in the North sea.The low hanging fruits are locations with relatively shallowwaters (up to 45-50 meters), a high and steady wind speed and isclose to grid connections onshore. Big parts of the North Sea aresuitable for this, but many places with good wind conditionsworldwide are too deep. The next step for the industry is to moveto these deeper waters, with the help of floating wind turbines.The first prototype floating turbines have been running for acouple of years, with even larger, albeit still pretty small, windfarms in the planning stage.This thesis looks on the possibility of building large floatingwind farms in the future, specifically in the eastern most part ofthe North Sea - Skagerrak. Several different factors andstakeholders have been mapped out and important factors such aswater depth, wind speed and seabed conditions considered to createfour different future scenarios. Each scenario has been evaluatedtechnically and Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) has beencalculated to be able to compare the different locations.Since the technology is very new and under development, theinitial costs are high. This gives the lower LCOE of 149 €/MWh.Many new developments are however expected in the years to come,which would lower the investment cost considerably, by up to 40%according to some sources. This would lower the LCOE to under 100€/MWh.It is however also found that these investments carry many otherpositive effects, such as developing a new carbon neutraltechnology in Scandinavia which could become a big exportworldwide. The social acceptance of bottom fixed foundationoffshore (close to shore) and onshore wind power is also falling,and this would also be a big plus for floating offshore wind as itcan be built so far offshore it can't be seen from land. BothSweden and Denmark have big power plants closing in the comingdecades, nuclear power in Sweden and coal fired power plants inDenmark. These need to be replaced either by import or by newcarbon neutral power production.

Orientador: Sérgio Kurokawa / Banca: Ailton Akira Shinoda / Banca: Mariangela Carvalho Bovolato / Banca: Marcos de Araujo Paz / Banca: Damásio Fernandes Júnior / Resumo: Este trabalho apresenta um modelo analítico para uma linha de transmissão trifásica com plano de simetria vertical. Devido às características físicas dessa linha, é possível representá-la por um sistema constituído por uma linha monofásica e por uma linha bifásica. Nesse sistema, as equações que descrevem o comportamento das grandezas nos terminais da linha monofásica são conhecidas, enquanto que as equações da linha bifásica foram obtidas utilizando uma matriz de transformação escrita explicitamente em função dos parâmetros da linha trifásica. Em seguida, as grandezas modais da linha trifásica foram convertidas para o domínio das fases e as equações resultantes representam um modelo analítico desenvolvido diretamente no domínio das fases dessa linha. Para verificar o desempenho do modelo, foram realizadas simulações considerando a energização e a incidência de uma descarga atmosférica em uma linha trifásica de 440 kV. Esses resultados foram comparados aos resultados obtidos com a linha representada por meio de um método clássico (representação nos modos) e as simulações mostraram que o modelo responde adequadamente na faixa de frequência correspondente aos procedimentos de manobra e chaveamento. O modelo desenvolvido leva em conta o efeito da frequência sobre os parâmetros longitudinais da linha e também o fato de que os parâmetros da linha são distribuídos ao longo de seu comprimento. Acredita-se que a análise das matrizes, que dão suporte ao modelo, e a validação do modelo no domínio do tempo possa dar origem, futuramente, a um modelo de linha de transmissão desenvolvido diretamente no domínio do tempo. Tal modelo, pelo fato de ser obtido diretamente das equações de propagação da linha, permitirá a obtenção de resultados de simulações, de transitórios eletromagnéticos que ocorrem... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This paper presents an analytical model to a three-phase transmission line with vertical symmetry plane. Because of physical characteristics of this line, it is possible to represent it by a system consisting of a single-phase and a two-phase line. In this system, the equations that describe the behavior of single-phase terminals quantities are known, while the two-phase equations were obtained using a transformation matrix written explicitly in terms of the parameters of three-phase line. Then, the modal quantities of three-phase line were converted into phase domain and the resulting equations represent an analytical model developed directly in phase domain of this line. To verify the performance of the model, were performed simulations considering the energization and impact of a lighting surge in a 440 kV three-phase line. These results were compared to results obtained with the line represented by a classical method (presentation modes) and simulations show that the model responds appropriately in the frequency range corresponding to the operation and switching procedures. The model developed takes into account the frequency effect on the longitudinal line parameters and also the fact that the line parameters are distributed along their length. It is believed that the matrix analysis, that support the model and the model validation in time domain may give rise in the future to a transmission line model developed directly in time domain. Such a model, because it is obtained directly from the propagation equations of line, will enable the more accurate results of simulations of electromagnetic transients that... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

A thesis submitted in ful lment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment June 2017 / The realization of robust, reliable and e cient data transmission have been the theme of recent research, most importantly in real channel such as the noisy, fading prone power line communication (PLC) channel. The focus is to exploit old techniques or create new techniques capable of improving the transmission reliability and also increasing the transmission capacity of the real communication channels. Multi-carrier modulation scheme such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) utilizing conventional single-carrier modulation is developed to facilitate a robust data transmission, increasing transmission capacity (e cient bandwidth usage) and further reducing design complexity in PLC systems. On the contrary, the reliability of data transmission is subjected to several inhibiting factors as a result of the varying nature of the PLC channel. These inhibiting factors include noise, perturbation and disturbances. Contrary to the Additive White Gaussian noise (AWGN) model often assumed in several communication systems, this noise model fails to capture the attributes of noise encountered on the PLC channel. This is because periodic noise or random noise pulses injected by power electronic appliances on the network is a deviation from the AWGN. The nature of the noise is categorized as non-white non-Gaussian and unstable due to its impulsive attributes, thus, it is labeled as Non-additive White Gaussian Noise (NAWGN). These noise and disturbances results into long burst errors that corrupts signals being transmitted, thus, the PLC is labeled as a horrible or burst error channel. The e cient and optimal performance of a conventional linear receiver in the white Gaussian noise environment can therefore be made to drastically degrade in this NAWGN environment. Therefore, transmission reliability in such environment can be greatly enhanced if we know and exploit the knowledge of the channel's statistical attributes, thus, the need for developing statistical channel model based on empirical data. In this thesis, attention is focused on developing a recon gurable software de ned un-coded single-carrier and multicarrier PLC transceiver as a tool for realizing an optimized channel model for the narrowband PLC (NB-PLC) channel. First, a novel recon gurable software de ned un-coded single-carrier and multi-carrier PLC transceiver is developed for real-time NB-PLC transmission. The transceivers can be adapted to implement di erent waveforms for several real-time scenarios and performance evaluation. Due to the varying noise parameters obtained from country to country as a result of the dependence of noise impairment on mains voltages, topology of power line, place and time, the developed transceivers is capable of facilitating constant measurement campaigns to capture these varying noise parameters before statistical and mathematically inclined channel models are derived. Furthermore, the single-carrier (Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK), Di erential BPSK (DBPSK), Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) and Di erential QPSK (DQPSK)) PLC transceiver system developed is used to facilitate a First-Order semi-hidden Fritchman Markov modeling (SHFMM) of the NB-PLC channel utilizing the e cient iterative Baum- Welch algorithm (BWA) for parameter estimation. The performance of each modulation scheme is evaluated in a mildly and heavily disturbed scenarios for both residential and laboratory site considered. The First-Order estimated error statistics of the realized First- Order SHFMM have been analytically validated in terms of performance metrics such as: log-likelihood ratio (LLR), error-free run distribution (EFRD), error probabilities, mean square error (MSE) and Chi-square ( 2) test. The reliability of the model results is also con rmed by an excellent match between the empirically obtained error sequence and the SHFMM regenerated error sequence as shown by the error-free run distribution plot. This thesis also reports a novel development of a low cost, low complexity Frequency-shift keying (FSK) - On-o keying (OOK) in-house hybrid PLC and VLC system. The functionality of this hybrid PLC-VLC transceiver system was ascertained at both residential and laboratory site at three di erent times of the day: morning, afternoon and evening. A First and Second-Order SHFMM of the hybrid system is realized. The error statistics of the realized First and Second-Order SHFMMs have been analytically validated in terms of LLR, EFRD, error probabilities, MSE and Chi-square ( 2). The Second-Order SHFMMs have also been analytically validated to be superior to the First-Order SHFMMs although at the expense of added computational complexity. The reliability of both First and Second-Order SHFMM results is con rmed by an excellent match between the empirical error sequences and SHFMM re-generated error sequences as shown by the EFRD plot. In addition, the multi-carrier (QPSK-OFDM, Di erential QPSK (DQPSK)-OFDM) and Di erential 8-PSK (D8PSK)-OFDM) PLC transceiver system developed is used to facilitate a First and Second-Order modeling of the NB-PLC system using the SHFMM and BWA for parameter estimation. The performance of each OFDM modulation scheme in evaluated and compared taking into consideration the mildly and heavily disturbed noise scenarios for the two measurement sites considered. The estimated error statistics of the realized SHFMMs have been analytically validated in terms of LLR, EFRD, error probabilities, MSE and Chi-square ( 2) test. The estimated Second-Order SHFMMs have been analytically validated to be outperform the First-Order SHFMMs although with added computational complexity. The reliability of the models is con rmed by an excellent match between the empirical data and SHFMM generated data as shown by the EFRD plot. The statistical models obtained using Baum-Welch to adjust the parameters of the adopted SHFMM are often locally maximized. To solve this problem, a novel Metropolis-Hastings algorithm, a Bayesian inference approach based on Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is developed to optimize the parameters of the adopted SHFMM. The algorithm is used to optimize the model results obtained from the single-carrier and multi-carrier PLC systems as well as that of the hybrid PLC-VLC system. Consequently, as deduced from the results, the models obtained utilizing the novel Metropolis-Hastings algorithm are more precise, near optimal model with parameter sets that are closer to the global maxima. Generally, the model results obtained in this thesis are relevant in enhancing transmission reliability on the PLC channel through the use of the models to improve the adopted modulation schemes, create adaptive modulation techniques, develop and evaluate forward error correction (FEC) codes such as a concatenation of Reed-Solomon and Permutation codes and other robust codes suitable for exploiting and mitigating noise impairments encountered on the low voltage NB-PLC channel. Furthermore, the recon gurable software de ned NB-PLC transceiver test-bed developed can be utilized for future measurement campaign as well as adapted for multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) PLC applications. / MT2018

This work contributes toward research in the field of lightning performance of High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission lines, focusing on the impact of the line polarity on the incidence of line faults. Although there has been some recent research into the influence of polarity, there appears to be no confirmed effect that might influence the design of new lines. The research presents an investigation into the lightning performance of the two poles of the Cahora-Bassa HVDC transmission line. In order to compare the performance of the two polarities, the average lightning exposure over an 8-year period was confirmed to be very similar for both lines. Lightning stroke data from the South African Lightning Detection Network was correlated with fault times from the transmission-line protection scheme. The classification of the lightning related faults was used to determine the relative performance of the two poles, particularly in relation to polarity, and to infer if there was any influence of polarity on the lightning attachment process. This investigation for the Cahora-Bassa scheme shows that twenty-three out of twenty-five lightning related faults occurred on the positive pole. The results concur with performance experience on several HVDC lines from China and Canada, which indicate that lightning related faults favour the positive pole by a ratio of between 8:1 and 10:1. This represents a valuable contribution, which substantiates that HVDC line polarity has an influence on the lightning attachment process, and indicates that there is a need to re-examine the lightning shielding design for HVDC transmission lines. / GS2016

Este trabalho tem por objetivo apresentar o desenvolvimento e a implementacao em uma rotina computacional, de algoritmos para a localizacao de faltas em linhas de transmissao com subestacoes conectadas em derivacao. Os algoritmos propostos neste trabalho integram uma metodologia para localizacao de faltas, que e capaz de identificar corretamente o ponto de ocorrencia do defeito utilizando as componentes de fase dos fasores de tensoes e correntes, calculadas atraves dos registros desses sinais, efetuados por oscilografos digitais e/ou reles de protecao instalados nos terminais da linha de transmissao. Alem disso, a metodologia para localizacao de faltas tem acesso aos parametros eletricos da linha e informacoes sobre o tipo de ligacao e o carregamento dos transformadores conectados aos terminais das derivacoes. Este trabalho apresenta tambem o desenvolvimento dos modelos para os elementos do sistema de transmissao, em componentes de fase. Estes modelos sao utilizados pelos algoritmos que integram a metodologia para localizacao de faltas. / This research presents the development and implementation in a computational routine, of algorithms for fault location in multi-terminal transmission lines. The algorithms proposed in this work are part of a fault location methodology, which is capable of correctly identifying the fault point based on voltage and current phase components. The voltage and current phasors are calculated using measurements of voltage and current signals from intelligent electronic devices, located on the transmission line terminals. The algorithms have access to the electrical parameters of the transmission lines and to information about the transformers loading and their connection type. This work also presents the development of phase component models for the transmission system elements used by the fault location algorithms, that are part of the fault location methodology.