The purpose of the present study is to determine the thermal feasibility of an air-cooled power inverter. The inverter circuitry layout is designed in tandem with the thermal management of the devices. The cylindrical configuration of the air-cooled inverter concept accommodates a collinear axial air blower and a cylindrical capacitor with inverter cards oriented radially between them. Cooling air flows from the axial fan around the inverter cards and through the center hole of the cylindrical capacitor. The present study is a continuation of the thermal feasibility study conducted in fiscal year 2009 for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to design a power inverter with a radial inflow cylindrical configuration. Results in the present study are obtained by modeling the inverter concept in computer simulations using the finite element method. Air flow rate, ambient air temperature, voltage, and device switching frequency are studied parametrically. Inlet air temperature was 50°C for all the results reported. Transient and steady-state simulations are based on inverter current that represents the US06 supplemental federal test procedure from the US EPA. The source of heat to the system comes from the power dissipated in the form of heat from the switches and diodes and is modeled as a function of the voltage, switching frequency, current, and device temperature. Since the device temperature is a result as well as an input variable, the steady-state and transient solution are iterative on this parameter. The results demonstrate the thermal feasibility of using air to cool an axial-flow power inverter. This axial inflow configuration decreases the pressure drop through the system by 63% over the radial inflow configuration, and the ideal blower power input for an inlet air flow rate of 540 cfm is reduced from 936 W to 312 W for the whole inverter. When the model is subject to one or multiple current cycles, the maximum device temperature does not exceed 164°F (327°F) for an inlet flow rate of 270 cfm, ambient temperature of 120°C, voltage of 650 V, and switching frequency of 20 kHz. Although the maximum temperature in one cycle is most sensitive to ambient temperature, the ambient temperature affect decays after approximately half the duration of one cycle. Of the parametric variables considered in the transient simulations, the system is most sensitive to inlet air flow rate.

This thesis study presents the design, simulation, micro fabrication, and testing steps of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based electromagnetic micro power generators. These generators are capable of generating power using already available environmental vibrations, by implementing the electromagnetic induction technique. There are mainly two objectives of the study: (i) to increase the bandwidth of the traditional micro generators and (ii) to improve their efficiency at low frequency environmental vibrations of 1-100 Hz where most vibrations exist. Four main types of generators have been proposed within the scope of this thesis study. The first type of generator is mainly composed of 20 parylene cantilevers on which coils are fabricated, where the cantilevers are capable of resonating with external vibrations with respect to a stationary magnet. This generator has dimensions of 9.5&times / 8&times / 6 mm3, and it has been shown that 0.67 mV of voltage and 56 pW of power output can be obtained from a single cantilever of this design at a vibration frequency of 3.45 kHz. The second type generator aims to increase the bandwidth of the traditional designs by implementing cantilevers with varying length. This generator is sized 14&times / 12.5&times / 8 mm3, and the mechanical design and energy generation concept is similar to the first design. The test results show that by using 40 cantilevers with a length increment of 3 &amp / #956 / m, the overall bandwidth of the generator can be increased to 1000 Hz. It has also been shown that 9 mV of constant voltage and 1.7 nW of constant power output can be obtained from the overall device in a vibration frequency range of 3.5 to 4.5 kHz. The third type is a standard large mass coil type generator that has been widely used in the literature. In this case, the generator is composed of a stationary base with a coil and a magnet-diaphragm assembly capable of resonating with vibrations. The fabricated device has dimensions of 8.5&times / 7&times / 2.5 mm3, and it has been considered in this study for benchmarking purposes only. The test results show that 0.3 mV of voltage and 40 pW of power output can be obtained from the fabricated design at a vibration frequency of 113 Hz. The final design aims to mechanically up-convert low frequency environmental vibrations of 1-100 Hz to a much higher frequency range of 2-3 kHz. This type of generator has been implemented for the first time in the literature. The generator is composed of two parts / a diaphragm-magnet assembly on the top, and 20 cantilevers that have coils connected in series at the base. The diaphragm oscillates by low frequency environmental vibrations, and catches and releases the cantilevers from the tip points where magnetic nickel (Ni) areas are deposited. The released cantilevers then start decaying out oscillations that is at their damped natural frequency of 2-3 kHz. It has been shown with tests that frequency up-conversion is realized in micro scale. The fabricated device has dimensions of 8.5&times / 7&times / 2.5 mm3, and a maximum voltage and power output of 0.57 mV and 0.25 nW can be obtained, respectively, from a single cantilever of the fabricated prototype at a vibration frequency of 113 Hz.

This thesis study presents the design, simulation, and fabrication of a low frequency electromagnetic micro power generator. This power generator can effectively harvest energy from low frequency external vibrations (1-100 Hz). The main objective of the study is to increase the efficiency of the previously proposed structure in METU-MEMS Center, which uses the frequency up-conversion technique to harvest energy from low frequency vibration. The proposed structure has been demonstrated by constructing several macro scale prototypes. In one of the constucted prototypes, the diaphragms are connected to a fixed frame via metal springs. The upper diaphragm having lower resonance frequency carries a magnet, and the lower diaphragm carries a hand wound coil and a magnetic piece for converting 6 Hz external vibrations up to 85 Hz, resulting a maximum voltage and power levels of 11.1 mV and 5.1 &micro / W, respectively. In an improved prototype, the metal springs are replaced with rubber ones, providing higher energy conversion efficiency and flexibility to tune the resonance frequency of both diaphragms to desired values. This prototype provides 104 &micro / W maximum power and 37.7 mV maximum voltage in response to vibration levels of 30 Hz. The proposed structure is also suitable to be realized by using microfabrication techniques. Hence, the structure to be microfabricated is studied and optimized for this purpose. When scaled to microelectromechanical dimensions, the expected maximum power and voltage from the 10 x 8.5 x 2.5 mm3 generator is 119 nW and 15.2 mV, respectively. A microfabrication process has also been designed for the proposed generator structure. According to this process, the structure consists of a stack of two pieces, each carrying different diaphragms. The diaphragms are made of parylene, and the coil and the magnetic piece are electroplated copper and nickel, respectively. As a result of this study, a new topology is proposed for harvesting energy at low frequency vibrations by the frequency up-conversion technique, and an efficiency improvement is expected with more than three orders of magnitude (119 nanoWatts output for the same size) compared to the study realized in our laboratory in converting low frequency (70-150 Hz) environmental vibrations to electrical energy.

We demonstrate the use of embedded CdS nanowires in improving spectral transmission loss and the low mechanical and electrical robustness of planar CdS window layer and thus enhancing the quantum efficiency and the reliability of the CdS-CdTe solar cells. CdS nanowire window layer enables light transmission gain at 300nm-550nm. A nearly ideal spectral response of quantum efficiency at a wide spectrum range provides an evidence for improving light transmission in the window layer and enhancing absorption and carrier generation in absorber. Nanowire CdS/CdTe solar cells with Cu/graphite/silver paste as back contacts, on SnO2/ITO-soda lime glass substrates, yield the highest efficiency of 12% in nanostructured CdS-CdTe solar cells. Reliability is improved by approximately 3 times over the cells with the traditional planar CdS counterpart. Junction transport mechanisms are delineated for advancing the basic understanding of device physics at the interface. Our results prove the efficacy of this nanowire approach for enhancing the quantum efficiency and the reliability in window-absorber type solar cells (CdS-CdTe, CdS-CIGS and CdS-CZTSSe etc) and other optoelectronic devices. We further introduce MoO3-x as a transparent, low barrier back contact. We design nanowire CdS-CdTe solar cells on flexible foils of metals in a superstrate device structure, which makes low-cost roll-to-roll manufacturing process feasible and greatly reduces the complexity of fabrication. The MoO3 layer reduces the valence band offset relative to the CdTe, and creates improved cell performance. Annealing as-deposited MoO3 in N2 reduces series resistance from 9.98 Ω/cm2 to 7.72 Ω/cm2, and hence efficiency of the nanowire solar cell is improved from 9.9% to 11%, which efficiency comparable to efficiency of planar counterparts. When the nanowire solar cell is illuminated from MoO3-x /Au side, it yields an efficiency of 8.7%. This reduction in efficiency is attributed to decrease in Jsc from 25.5mA/cm2 to 21mA/cm2 due to light transmission loss in the MoO3-x /Au electrode. Even though these nanowire solar cells, when illuminated from back side exhibit better performance than that of nanopillar CdS-CdTe solar cells, further development of transparent back contacts of CdTe could enable a low-cost roll-to-roll fabrication process for the superstrate structure-nanowire solar cells on Al foil substrate.

Electric power systems have been in existence for over a century. Electric power transmission line systems play an important role in carrying electrical power to customers everywhere. The number of transmission lines in power systems is increasing as global demand for power has increased. Parallel transmission lines are widely used in the modern transmission system for higher reliability. The parallel lines method has economic and environmental advantages over single circuit. A fault that occurs on a power transmission line will cause long outage time if the fault location is not located as quickly as possible. The faster the fault location is found, the sooner the system can be restored and outage time can be reduced. The main focus of this research is to develop a new accurate fault location algorithm for parallel transmission lines to identify the fault location for long double-circuit transmission lines, taking into consideration mutual coupling impedance, mutual coupling admittance, and shunt capacitance of the line. In this research, the equivalent PI circuit based on a distributed parameter line model for positive, negative, and zero sequence networks have been constructed for system analysis during the fault. The new method uses only the voltage and current from one end of parallel lines to calculate the fault distance. This research approaches the problem by derivation all equations from positive sequence, negative sequence, and zero sequence network by using KVL and KCL. Then, the fault location is obtained by solving these equations. EMTP has been utilized to generate fault cases under various fault conditions with different fault locations, fault types and fault resistances. Then the algorithm is evaluated using the simulated data. The results have shown that the developed algorithm can achieve highly accurate estimates and is promising for practical applications.

Power electronic systems have been widely used in the electrical power processing for applications with power levels ranging from less than one watt in battery-operated portable devices to more than megawatts in the converters, inverters and rectifiers of the utility power systems. These systems typically involve the passive elements such as inductors, capacitors, and resistors, the switching electronic components such as IGBTs, MOSFETS, and diodes, and other electronic circuits. Multifrequency averaging is one of the widely used modeling and simulation techniques today for the analysis and design of power electronic systems. This technique is capable of providing the average behavior as well as the ripple behavior of power electronic systems. This work begins with the extension of multifrequency averaging to represent uniformly sampled PWM converters. A new multifrequency averaging method of solving an observed issue with model stability is proposed and validated. Multifrequency averaging can also be applied to study the instability phenomenon in power electronic systems. In particular, a reduced-order multifrequency averaging method, along with a genetic algorithm based procedure, is proposed in this work to estimate the regions of attraction of power electronic converters. The performance of this method is shown by comparing the accuracy and efficiency with the existing methods. Finally, a new continuous-time multifrequency averaging method of representing discrete-time systems is proposed. The proposed method is applied to model digitally controlled PWM converters. Simulation and hardware results show that the proposed method is capable of predicting the average behavior as well as the ripple behavior of the closed-loop systems. Future research in the area of multifrequency averaging is proposed.

Smart grid technologies are starting to be the future of electric power systems. These systems are giving the utilities detailed information about their systems in real time. One of the most challenging things of implementing smart grid applications is employing the communications into the systems. Understanding the available communications can help ease the transition to these smart grid applications. Many of the utility personnel are spending too much time trying to figure out which communication is better for their application or applications. So this thesis presents the different communication types available with discussing the different attributes in which these communication types are going to offer to the utility. Then these communication types are looked such that utilities can quickly understand how to approach the difficult task of obtaining the information from the different smart grid applications by the use of different communication options.

Geomagnetically induced currents (GIC) are manifestations of space weather phenomena on the electric power grid. Although not a new phenomenon, they assume great importance in wake of the present, ever expanding power grids. This thesis discusses the cause of GICs, methodology of modeling them into the power system and the ramifications of their presence in the bulk power system. GIC is treated at a micro level considering its effects on the power system assets like Transformers and also at a macro level with respect to issues like Voltage instability. In illustration, several simulations are made on a transformer & the standard IEEE 14 bus system to reproduce the effect of a geomagnetic storm on a power grid. Various software tools like PowerWorld Simulator, SimPower Systems have been utilized in performing these simulations. Contingency analysis involving the weakest elements in the system has been performed to evaluate the impact of their loss on the system. Test results are laid out and discussed in detail to convey the consequences of a geomagnetic phenomenon on the power grid in a holistic manner.

The output power variability of intermittent renewable sources can cause significant fluctuations in distribution system voltages. A local linear controller that exploits the capability of a photovoltaic inverter to provide both real and reactive power is described. This controller substitutes reactive power for real power when fluctuations in the output of the photovoltaic source are experienced. In this way, the inverter can help mitigate distribution system voltage fluctuations. In order to provide real and reactive to the grid, a three-phase grid-connected single-stage photovoltaic system with maximum power point tracking and power control is described. A method of reducing the current harmonic caused by resonance of the LC filter and transformer is presented. The local linear controller is examined using an example distribution system, and it is found that the controller is effective at mitigating voltage violations. The photovoltaic control system is examined using three-phase single-stage PV inverter system. The power control and damping system show good performance and stability under rapid change of irradiance.

The hardware validation of a novel average-value model (AVM) for the simulation of a synchronous-generator/controlled rectifier system is presented herein. The generator is characterized using genetic algorithm techniques to fit standstill frequency response (SSFR) measurements to q and d-axis equivalent circuits representing the generator in the rotor reference frame. The generator parameters form the basis of a detailed model of the system, from which algebraic functions defining the parametric AVM are derived. The average-value model is compared to the physical system for a variety of loading and operating conditions including step load change, change in delay angle, and external closed-loop control, validating the model accuracy for steady-state and transient operation.