The concept of mounting a loudspeaker on one end of a sound-absorbing tube has existed since at least 1936. Surprisingly, a detailed mathematical analysis of the configuration has not been performed, nor has a design method been established. This configuration, known as a transmission line loudspeaker, has received little consideration in the reviewed literature. Instead, it has become frequently featured in magazines for audio hobbyists, where it is experimentally designed with rules seemingly derived from hearsay and described with terms of high praise. In this dissertation, an electro-acoustical model of a fiberglass-filled transmission line is presented. This model represents the transmission line as two separate lines -- a mechanical line that models the mechanical motion of the fiberglass and an acoustical line that models the motion of the air. The lines are linked by the flow resistance of the fiberglass. From the model, solutions for the acoustic pressure, acoustical volume velocity of the air, mechanical velocity of the fiberglass fibers, and mechanical force on the fiberglass in the line are obtained. The fiberglass is characterized and empirical formulas that describe its characteristics are found. It is shown that the modeled input impedance to the transmission line is a good fit to measured data. The performance of the system is assessed by comparing it with the performances of typical loudspeaker mountings, i.e., the infinite baffle, the closed box, and the vented box. Finally, an example is shown of how the equations derived from the model can be used to evaluate the design of a transmission line loudspeaker system.

In this thesis, we will discuss aging line detection and electrical fire precaution by using powerline communication technique. Fire is always a serious disaster which endangers our lives and property. Electrical fire is a major proportion of fire disaster. Even every house generally setup circuit breaker and fuse in time, electrical fire still occurred oftentimes. Current powerline communication technology is using household powerline as a medium of signal transmission, whose channel characteristic will be affected by surrounding environment. We hope that we can analyze the change of transmission characteristic in high frequency of household powerline, which deterioration during long time. At the same time, we will detect variation of high frequency characteristic of powerline as the basis for judgment of aging line, to prevent electrical fire further. Finally, we combine our approach into PLC system, which can also diagnose the line while transmission of powerline at the same time, adding the value without having too much cost.

In recent high-speed digital circuits with pico-second rising/falling edges, it is reasonable to consider the power/ground planes as a dynamic electromagnetic system. The simultaneous switching noise (SSN) or ground bounce noise (GBN), resulting from the transient currents which flow between power/ground planes during the state transitions of the logic gates, has become a critical factor to degrade the signal integrity (SI) and power integrity (PI) in PCB or package design. In order to accurately perform overall system-level power integrity simulation, extracting the SPICE-compatible models with the resonant effect being considered in the power/ground planes and incorporating the model into the conventional circuit simulator, such as SPICE, is essential. In this thesis, a two-dimensional transmission line (2D-TL) model is proposed for constructing the SPICE-compatible model of the power/ground planes. Based on this model, the ground bounce noise for the BGA package mounted on a PCB can be efficiently evaluated. It is found that the behavior of GBN between the only package and package mounted on a PCB (hybrid structure) is obvious different. Then, we combine the SPICE-compatible model of the power/ground planes with decoupling capacitors to fast evaluate the behavior of GBN. It also has a good agreement between our model and the measured result. Adding decoupling capacitors between the power and ground planes is a typical way to suppress the GBN. However, they are not effective at the frequency higher than GHz due to their inherent lead inductance. In recent, a new method for eliminating the GBN at higher frequency is proposed by electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structure with high impedance surface (HIS). Finally, we utilize 2D-TL model to fast analyze the behavior of the EBG, and combine decoupling capacitors with EBG structure to research the suppression of the GBN.

For example for battery diagnosis it is essential to understand mechanisms during discharge and because of aging to optimize cell design and operating conditions. Therefore the overall battery behavior can be modeled by combining models of relevant mechanisms like porosity, charge transfer reaction and diffusion. The aim of this contribution is to define one transmission line model for modeling several of these mechanisms. Thereby a sophisticated normalization strategy allows to eliminate ambiguity and to quantify the influence of each model parameter. The results allow a better understanding of impedance measurements and can for example be used for battery diagnosis and simplified simulations of electrochemical systems. Fitting derived impedance models to measurement data by nonlinear parameter extraction techniques allows to monitor battery parameters during discharge and because of aging. Thereby a sophisticated normalization strategy is essential for unambiguous parameter extraction and useful to quantify the influence of each model parameter.

This thesis presents how to estimate the length of a power cable using the MaximumLikelihood Estimate (MLE) technique by using Matlab. The model of the power cableis evaluated in the time domain with additive white Gaussian noise. The statistics havebeen used to evaluate the performance of the estimator, by repeating the experiment fora large number of samples where the random additive noise is generated for each sample.The estimated sample variance is compared to the theoretical Cramer Raw lower Bound(CRLB) for unbiased estimators. At the end of thesis, numerical results are presentedthat show when the resulting sample variance is close to the CRLB, and hence that theperformance of the estimator will be more accurate.

The fast clearing of faults is essential for preventing equipment damage and preserving the stability of the power transmission systems with smaller operating margins. This thesis examined the application of fault generated transients for fast detection and isolation of faults in a transmission system. The basis of the transient based protection scheme developed and implemented in this thesis is the fault current directions identified by a set of relays located at different nodes of the system. The direction of the fault currents relative to a relay location is determined by comparing the signs of the wavelet coefficients of the currents measured in all branches connected to the node. The faulted segment can be identified by combining the fault directions identified at different locations in the system. In order to facilitate this, each relay is linked with the relays located at the adjacent nodes through a telecommunication network. In order to prevent possible malfunctioning of relays due to transients originating from non-fault related events, a transient recognition system to supervise the relays is proposed. The applicability of different classification methods to develop a reliable transient recognition system was examined. A Hidden Markov Model classifier that utilizes the energies associated with the wavelet coefficients of the measured currents as input features was selected as the most suitable solution. Performance of the protection scheme was evaluated using a high voltage transmission system simulated in PSCAD/EMTDC simulation software. The custom models required to simulate the complete protection scheme were implemented in PSCAD/EMTDC. The effects of various factors such as fault impedance, signal noise, fault inception angle and current transformer saturation were investigated. The performance of the protection scheme was also tested with the field recorded signals. Hardware prototypes of the fault direction identification scheme and the transient classification system were implemented and tested under different practical scenarios using input signals generated with a real-time waveform playback instrument. The test results presented in this thesis successfully demonstrate the potential of using transient signals embedded in currents for detection, localization and recognition of faults in transmission networks in a fast and reliable manner.

The fast clearing of faults is essential for preventing equipment damage and preserving the stability of the power transmission systems with smaller operating margins. This thesis examined the application of fault generated transients for fast detection and isolation of faults in a transmission system. The basis of the transient based protection scheme developed and implemented in this thesis is the fault current directions identified by a set of relays located at different nodes of the system. The direction of the fault currents relative to a relay location is determined by comparing the signs of the wavelet coefficients of the currents measured in all branches connected to the node. The faulted segment can be identified by combining the fault directions identified at different locations in the system. In order to facilitate this, each relay is linked with the relays located at the adjacent nodes through a telecommunication network. In order to prevent possible malfunctioning of relays due to transients originating from non-fault related events, a transient recognition system to supervise the relays is proposed. The applicability of different classification methods to develop a reliable transient recognition system was examined. A Hidden Markov Model classifier that utilizes the energies associated with the wavelet coefficients of the measured currents as input features was selected as the most suitable solution. Performance of the protection scheme was evaluated using a high voltage transmission system simulated in PSCAD/EMTDC simulation software. The custom models required to simulate the complete protection scheme were implemented in PSCAD/EMTDC. The effects of various factors such as fault impedance, signal noise, fault inception angle and current transformer saturation were investigated. The performance of the protection scheme was also tested with the field recorded signals. Hardware prototypes of the fault direction identification scheme and the transient classification system were implemented and tested under different practical scenarios using input signals generated with a real-time waveform playback instrument. The test results presented in this thesis successfully demonstrate the potential of using transient signals embedded in currents for detection, localization and recognition of faults in transmission networks in a fast and reliable manner.

Thin-film solar cells are widely recognised to have the potential to compete with fossil fuels in the electricity market due to their low cost per peak Watt. The Thin-Film Group at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) is engaged in developing polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin-film solar cells on glass using e-beam evaporation technology. We believe our solar cells have the potential of significantly lowering the manufacturing cost compared to conventional, PECVD-fabricated thin-film solar cells. After years of materials research, the focus of the Group??s work is now moving to the metallisation of evaporated solar cells. Minimising various kinds of losses is the main challenge of the cell metallisation procedure, within which the contact resistance is always a big issue. In this thesis, the contact resistance of aluminium contacts on poly-Si thin-film solar cells on glass is investigated. To the best of the author??s knowledge, this is the first ever contact resistance investigation of Al contacts on evaporated poly-Si material for photovoltaic applications. Various transmission line models (TLM) are employed to measure the contact resistance. An improved TLM model is developed to increase the measurement precision and, simultaneously, to simplify the TLM pattern fabrication process. In order to accommodate the particular requirements of poly-Si coated glass substrates, a TLM pattern fabrication process using photolithography is established. Furthermore, a Kelvin sense tester is set up to ensure an accurate measurement of the contact resistance. After establishment of the TLM technique at UNSW, it is successfully tested on singlecrystalline silicon wafer samples. The thermal annealing process of the contacts is also optimised. Then, the general behaviour of Al contacts on uniformly doped poly-Si films (i.e., no p-n junction) is investigated using the verified TLM technique. The long-term stability of the contacts is also studied. This is followed by an investigation of the contact resistance of the back surface field and emitter layers of different types of poly-Si thin-film solar cells. Finally, a novel contact resistance measurement model is proposed that is believed to be able to overcome the measurement bottleneck of the transmission line models.

Orientador: Sérgio Kurokawa / Resumo: O objetivo deste projeto é desenvolver um modelo de linha de transmissão que leva em conta as principais características exigidas de um modelo deste componente do sistema elétrico, ou seja, ser desenvolvido diretamente no domínio do tempo, considerar que os parâmetros da linha são distribuídos ao longo de seu comprimento e levar em conta que os parâmetros longitudinais variam em função da frequência. O modelo proposto é baseado no modelo de Bergeron, que é um modelo de linha de transmissão desenvolvido diretamente no domínio do tempo e que leva em conta que os parâmetros de uma linha de transmissão são distribuídos ao longo de seu comprimento. No modelo proposto será levado em consideração que, devido aos efeitos solo e pelicular, os parâmetros longitudinais da linha (resistência longitudinal e indutância longitudinal) são variáveis em relação à frequência. Estes parâmetros serão aproximados por funções racionais e inseridos no modelo de Bergeron. O modelo desenvolvido será utilizado para representar linhas curtas e longas em simulações de transitórios eletromagnéticos resultantes de operações de manobras e de incidências de descargas atmosféricas. Por ser desenvolvido diretamente no domínio do tempo, o modelo proposto pode ser facilmente inserido em aplicativos do tipo ATP (Alternative Transients Program) e será uma ferramenta útil em simulações e análises de transitórios eletromagnéticos em sistemas de energia elétrica. / Abstract: The main objective of our project is to develop a transmission line model that takes into account the main characteristics demanded by a model of this electrical system component, i.e., be developed directly in the time-domain, consider the distributed nature of the line parameters and take into account the frequency dependence of the longitudinal parameters. The proposed model is based on the Bergeron model, which is a transmission line model directly developed in the time domain that takes into account that the transmission line parameters are distributed along its length. In the proposed model it will be taken into account that, due to earth-return effect and skin impedance, the longitudinal parameters (longitudinal resistance and longitudinal inductance) vary in relation to the frequency. These parameters will be approximated by rational functions and will be added to the Bergeron model. The developed model will be used to represent short and long transmission lines in simulations resulting from switching operations and lightning strikes. Because of the model being directly developed in the time-domain, the proposed model can be easily implemented in programs ATP-like (Alternative Transients Program) and will be a useful tool in power system transient analysis. / Doutor

Na sociedade atual as estruturas de linhas de transmissão são consideradas componentes essenciais do sistema de infraestrutura urbana. Sua função é a de transmitir a eletricidade gerada nas fontes de produção até o consumidor através de uma rede de distribuição. Este tipo de estruturas por sua extensão, exposição e variações topográficas, se mostram vulneráveis ao carregamento dinâmico de ventos originados a partir tormentas elétricas, tais como downbursts e tornados. No Brasil tem-se observado nos últimos tempos um aumento de acidentes neste tipo de estrutura, principalmente devido à incidência de fortes ventos. No presente trabalho estuda-se o comportamento dinâmico de um trecho de linha de transmissão da empresa Eletrobrás FURNAS quando submetido à ação de ventos provenientes de downburst. Na pesquisa foram identificados os principais modelos analíticos disponíveis na literatura que oferecem o campo de velocidades horizontais e verticais médias e a componente flutuante. Com base e alguns dos modelos identificados na revisão bibliográfica, implementou-se um programa computacional capaz de simular todas as componentes do campo de velocidades de um downburst em movimento. A partir do programa implementado foi realizado um estudo paramétrico onde identificou-se a combinação de variáveis do evento que provoca a maior energia cinética armazenada. Finalmente é apresentada uma revisão estrutural dos montantes da torre central da linha modelada, através da análise da relação demanda/capacidade na altura da coluna. Dos resultados obtidos, pode-se concluir que a combinação de variáveis que provoca os resultados de forças internas mais críticos varia em relação a cada componente da linha considerado. O estudo de sensibilidade das variáveis envolvidas nos modelos implementados revelou que existe um incremento monotônico crescente da energia cinética armazenada com o aumento dos parâmetros e para a maioria dos casos, exceto quando =500 . Da flutuação e sua influência no comportamento dinâmico na linha analisada, conclui-se que a consideração das flutuações na resposta dinâmica dos cabos condutores e para-raios pode ser desprezada, fato que foi comprovado através dos valores obtidos na inclinação das linhas de tendência realizadas. / Transmission Lines (TL) are considered one of the essential components of the urban infrastructure. Their role is to transmit electricity from sources of production to the distribution system and then to consumers. This type of structure for its length, exposure and topographical variations, show themselves vulnerable to dynamic loading winds originated from electrical storms such as tornadoes and downbursts. In Brazil, it has been observed recently, an increase in the accidents of this type of structure, primarily due to incidence of strong winds. In the present research, is analyzed the dynamic behavior of a transmission line system of Eletrobras Furnas Company when subjected to downburst. In the investigation, the main analytical models available in the literature that offer the wind field of horizontal and vertical speeds and the fluctuating component were identified. Based on some of the models identified in the literature review, was implemented a computer program capable of simulating all components of the velocity of a moving downburst. Based on the implemented program was conducted a parametric study in order to identify the combination of variables that causes the greatest kinetic stored energy. Finally is presented a structural review of the columns of the central tower of the system, by examining the demand/capacity relationship. Regarding to the parametric study, it was found that the combination of variables which causes the most critical internal forces varies for each component of the line considered. The sensibility study of the variables involved the models used in this study revealed that there is a growing monotonic increase in the stored energy with the accretion of and 1.parameters for most of the cases, except when 0=500 . Analyses conducted using the fluctuations in the mean wind field reveal that the resonant response of the conductor and ground wire cables can be neglected, a fact that was confirmed by the values obtained from the slope of the trend lines held.