A complete DC-DC motor drive (battery, chopper, and motor) - is investigated with a view to optimising efficiency. The losses at each stage are analysed in detail and proposals are made to minimise them. The overall system is also modelled for the purpose of computer simulation. The computer model is used to investigate the possible efficiency saving if both field and armature current are controlled. An optimum control system is developed and compared with other control systems.

[Abstract]: Yield maps provide essential information for the spatial analysis and evaluation of crop production management at a within field level. Technology has been developed to conduct yield mapping in various crops including grain, potatoes and forage, but as yet no technology exists for yield mapping sugar cane. The chopper harvester is the most common form ofmechanical harvester for sugar cane. Therefore, the goal of this research is to develop a yield mapping system for the chopper type sugar cane harvester.After a review, it is proposed that a suitable accuracy goal for the sugar cane mass flow sensor would be ‘less than 5% cumulative measurement error, 95% of the time (2 standard deviations), measured over a 100m2 harvest area’.Existing mass flow sensors for other crops are reviewed.Based on this review four potential techniques are proposed to measure the mass flow rate of sugar cane. These were defined as the chopper power, elevator power and feed roller separation and weigh pad. These weretested simultaneously by placing various sensors on a single harvester and comparing the sensor outputs with the mass flow rate as measured by a weigh truck. In this trial, all techniques offered potential but none produced results close to the accuracy goal. A weighing technique, known as the ‘weigh pad’, offered the most potential for improvement and potential to accurately measure the mass flow rate with a single calibration under all conditions. The weigh pad technique suffered from very small load cell sensitivity to flow rate, drift in baseline readings and susceptibility to mechanical noise/acceleration dynamics.An opportunity arose to install a complete yield mapping system on a harvester within a commercial operation. This opportunity was accepted to assess the potential for applying yield maps to the agronomic management of sugar cane. Because the weigh pad sensor required further development at this stage, chopper and elevator power were used as a measure of mass flow rate. A full yield mapping system was developed. Yield mapping, directed soil sampling and variable rate gypsum application was conducted on a case study field. Economic analysis shows a clear economic benefit when compared with standardmanagement.Analysis is conducted on the weigh pad sensor examining its susceptibility to mechanical noise/acceleration dynamics. Theory is developed to mathematically model the effects of acceleration dynamics on the accuracy of weigh pad sensor. Laboratory bench testing supported the mathematical model. From the theoretical and experimental analysis a number of conclusions are drawn:· The weigh pad should be made as light as possible to minimise the error due todynamic conditions.· Electronic analogue filters should be used to reduce the noise due to externalacceleration.· The weigh pad should be as rigid as possible to maximise its natural frequency.A new weigh pad sensor was designed based on these conclusions. Field trials indicated the effects of external accelerations dynamics were significantly reduced. Baseline drift was then found as the next major factor limiting accuracy. The baseline drift was principally caused by the secondary extractor fan of the harvester inducing a negative pressure on the weighpad. A rubber curtain placed between the weigh pad and the secondary extractor fan reduced the negative force on the weigh pad due to the secondary extractor fan by 74% (from 17 N to 4.4 N). Therefore it is recommended the curtain be used to minimise the impact of the secondary extractor fan on the baseline drift of the weigh pad.A yield mapping system has been developed for the sugar cane chopper harvester incorporating the weigh pad sensor, a ground speed sensor, a DGPS receiver, a yielddisplay/monitor and data logger. Three identical systems have been constructed and installed on three harvesters for the 1998 cane harvest season. The results show sugar cane could be yield mapped using standard yield mapping principles.The level of accuracy being achieved by the yield mapping system is less than 16% error, with 95% confidence, over a measurement area of approximately 1400 m2. Although theaccuracy achieved is not to the desired research goal, yield maps were produced with satisfactory detail to make agronomic management decisions. The reliability of the sugar cane yield mapping system under field condition in a commercial operation was satisfactory. However, two techniques are proposed (“auto-zeroing” and “batch weighing” techniques) to improve the accuracy and reliability of the weigh pad readings during wet or adverseharvesting conditions.After note: At the time of writing the NCEA along with Case Austoft (CNH) were continuing to conduct research and development on the system and are intending to make theyield mapping system available as a standard item on new harvesters and a retrofit unit on existing harvesters in the near future (C. Barret, per. comm. 2001). The proposed “autozeroing” and “batch weighing” techniques are being tested.

Highly monodisperse droplets are attracting great attention both in many research areas, such as aerosol science, combustion, and Nano-manufacturing. This thesis invents a novel aerosol generator: “Periodic Electro Hydro-dynamic Chopper” termed as “PEHD chopper”, and develops a new method to directly print micro-patterns with monodisperse droplets. The principle of the PEHD chopper is to use the fringe electric field of a capacitor to introduce controlled perturbation on a liquid jet. We first derived the governing equations for a circular inviscid liquid jet under transverse electric fields. The electric fields were obtained through numerical simulation. Then we used a high speed camera (up to one million frames per second) to visualize the jet break-up as well as the droplets’ size and shape. The experiments show that the PEHD chopper can effectively “chop” a neutral micro-jet and generate highly monodisperse micro-droplets, which diameter range from 100 µm to 500 µm. To reduce the droplet size, PEHD chopper with a butterfly design is applied on a typical single electrospray. In this configuration, the jet swings at long wavelengths (>R), where R is the Rayleigh wave length, but breaks up into highly monodisperse droplets near 2R and R without satellite droplets. The butterfly configuration combined with electrified jet expands the diameter range into 20 µm to 100 µm. iv Finally, we demonstrate the electrospray printing of Polymer Derived Ceramics (PDC) for sensor applications in harsh environment. A modified single ES with an additional driving electric field is used to directly print PDC precursor without mask, we achieved 1D feature as narrow as 35 µm and a micro pentagram pattern. Moreover, after pyrolysis of PDC at 1100 °C in nitrogen, amorphous alloys of silicon, carbon and nitrogen (SiCN) are obtained. The samples exhibit excellent good integrity and adhesion to the substrate.

Les convertisseurs de puissance multicellulaires trouvent une place privilégiée dans le contrôle des systèmes de très forte puissance. Dans ce travail de thèse une nouvelle classe de convertisseurs de puissance est étudiée les Convertisseurs Multicellulaires Parallèles (CMP). La topologie de ces convertisseurs repose sur une association de n cellules de commutationinterconnectées par l'intermédiaire d'inductances indépendantes, appelées aussiinductances de liaison. Le CMP permet d'atteindre un courant de sortie égal à n fois le courant d'entrée du convertisseur, l'inconvénient majeur de ce type de convertisseur est le déséquilibrage des courants de branches . Dans le but de réduire et d'économiser le nombre de capteurs, nous avons proposé dans la première partie de la thèse une analyse d'observabilité spécifique à une classe de système dynamique hybride appelée Z(TN)-Observability et synthétisé un observateur hybride en utilisant l'algorithme super twisting. La deuxièmepartie du travail a été consacrée à la synthèse d'une loi de commande pour la régulation des courants de branches. En effet, le régulateur proposé est un régulateur hybride en basant sur la modélisation par réseaux de pétri de l'algorithme de contrôle. Enfin, Les deux parties théoriques sont suivies par une réalisation pratique d'un CMP à trois cellules de commutation pour valider les deux approches proposées. Les résultats expérimentaux nous ont montré les performances de l'observateur et le régulateur de courant et de tension de sortie. / This study deals with observability problems and control of the parallel multicell chopper. In the area of strong currents with high switching frequencies, new structures based on the combination of components have been developed. This type of chopper is a DC/DC static power converter which has an output current equals to n (n is the number of cells) times the source current. After recalling the dynamical equations of the converter, its hybrid dynamical behaviour and properties are highlighted. This particular hybrid system induces new and difficult observability problems, such problem can be tackled by a new observability concept [the Z(TN)-observability]. However, for a large number of switching cells in parallel, the complexity of the system makes it impossible to predict the transient behaviour of the converter and therefore all predimensioning. The main disadvantage of this type of converter is the imbalance branches of current with increasing number of cells. Therefore modelling and control with Petri net is proposed to solve the problems of imbalanced of currents and the voltage output regulation with variation of the load. The authors approaches are attested by several numerical simulations and experimental results considering noisy measurements and load variations.

La thèse présentée ici actualise les anciennes données sur l’Acheuléen de l’Ahaggar, bien que ces données ne sont pas nombreuses et toutes datées du 20eme siècle. Mais pour reprendre une nouvelle ère de recherche sur le sujet, il est bien évident de les évoquer. Malgré les fructueuses découvertes dans de nombreux sites paléolithiques inférieurs, dans l’Ahaggar, aucun intérêt scientifique n’a été apporté, notamment aux nombreuses collections lithiques interposées dans plusieurs laboratoires de recherches scientifiques. Le nouveau site « Téhéntawek » Acheuléen découvert dans la région d’Idelès, au cœur du Sahara central, dans l’Ahaggar et fouillé avec des nouvelles méthodes pédagogiques instaurées dans la préhistoire actuelle, nous a livré en 2008 et 2010 un matériel lithique intéressant et très représentatif de l’industrie acheuléenne. Ces démarches sont considérées comme rénovatrices de la préhistoire saharienne. La prospection appropriée et adéquate à l’environnement, l’adaptation du travail du terrain au contexte rocheux de la région de l’Ahaggar, nous ont permis de reconsidérer le terrain saharien. L’étude technologique du matériel lithique a fourni une diversité d’outils et une coexisté de chopper, biface et hachereau, nombreux sont les éclats bruts, très compatibles avec les nucléus. Les matières premières lithiques utilisées pour le façonnage sont locales. Les résultats des analyses réalisées, sur les sédiments prélevés ont fourni de nouvelles données, notamment une ouverture sur le paléoenvironnement de l’Ahaggar. Ainsi le site Téhéntawek nous a offert des informations pertinentes sur la maitrise de l’homme dans cet environnement actuellement saharien. / The thesis presented here updates the old data on the Acheulian of the Ahaggar, although these date are few in number and all dated 20th century. But it is obvious to mention them to borrow a new er of research on the subject. Despite the fruitful discoveries in many lower Palaeolithic sites in the Ahaggar, no scientific interest have been provided to many lithic collections interposed in several laboratories for scientific research. The new site “Téhéntawek” Acheulean discovered in the region of Idelès in the central Sahara of the Ahaggar and excavated with new pedagogical methods introduced in the present prehistory, has delivered in 2008 and 2010 an interesting lithic materials representative of the Acheulian industry. These approaches are considered renovative of the Saharan prehistory. The appropriate and adequate environmental of exploration, the adaptation of work to the rocky terrain of the Ahaggar region, have allowed us to reconsider the Saharan terrain. The study of lithic technology has provided a variety of tools and coexisted chopper, biface and cleaver, many raw chips, very consistent with the nucleus. Lithic raw materials used for shaping are local. The results of analyses on the sediments provided new data, including an opening on the paleoenvironment of the Ahaggar. Thus Téhéntawek site offered us with relevant information on the mastery of man in this currently Saharan environment.

Since large scale unscheduled tripping of wind power generation could lead to power system stability problem. Thus network interconnection regulations become more rigid when the wind power penetration reaches a non-neglible portion of the total power generation. This thesis presents a comparison of five different low voltage ride through (LVRT) capability enhancement technologies, i.e., additional rotor resistance, DC bus chopper, crowbar on rotor, the combination of above schemes, and grid voltage support by controlling grid side converter. System simulations are performed under Digsilent environment with model and control blocks provided by the package. Additional models are developed to implement the LVRT enhancement schemes studied. A Doubly-Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) with pitch control is used to simulate different system fault scenarios with different voltage sag magnitude and duration time. Simulation results indicate that different enhancement schemes provide various levels in relieving DC bus overvoltage, rotor winding overcurrent, and overspeed problems, and the method combines all tested schemes seems to provide the best result.

Continuous-time sigma-delta modulators play an important role in the development of biomedical sensors. It is suitable for monitoring of basic human vital functions (i.e., heartbeat and respiration). However, the physiological signal is very weak and it belongs to low-frequency range, the observed signals are strongly inter¬fered by the intrinsic flicker noise form CMOS transistors, which will cause a certain degree of difficulty in the identification. This thesis describes the implementation of loop filter using a differential chopper-stabilized configuration to reduce the influence of flicker noise on sigma-delta modulator within the signal bandwidth. The noise analysis of this sigma-delta modulator is calculated by the time-domain noise simulation. This method can take the noise factors into account when analyzing the overall performance. The proposed sigma-delta modulator is fabricated using TSMC 0.35£gm 2P4M CMOS technology. The chip area is 1.403 x 1.4 mm2. With a sampling rate of 20.8 kHz, the modulator achieves 84.4 dB of the peak SNDR and ENOB is 13.7-bit within signal band¬width of 10Hz. It dissipates 3.46 mW under 3V supply voltage.

The instrumentation amplifier (IA) is one of the crucial blocks in an electrocardiogram recording system. It is the first block in the analog front-end chain that processes the ECG signal from the human body and thus it defines some of the most important specifications of the ECG system like the noise and common mode rejection ratio (CMRR). The extremely low ECG signal bandwidth also makes it difficult to achieve a fully integrated system. In this thesis, a fully integrated IA topology is presented that achieves low noise levels and low power dissipation. The chopper stabilized technique is implemented together with an AC coupled amplifier to reduce the effect of flicker noise while eliminating the effect of the differential electrode offset (DEO). An ultra low power operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) is the only active power consuming block in the IA and so an overall low power consumption is achieved. A new implementation of a large resistor using the T-network is presented which makes it easy to achieve a fully integrated solution. The proposed IA operates on a 2V supply and consumes a total current of 1.4µA while achieving an integrated noise of 1.2µVrms within the bandwidth. The proposed IA will relax the power and noise requirements of the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that immediately follows it in the signal chain and thus reduce the cost and increase the lifetime of the recording device. The proposed IA has been implemented in the ONSEMI 0.5µm CMOS technology.

abstract: Sensing and controlling current flow is a fundamental requirement for many electronic systems, including power management (DC-DC converters and LDOs), battery chargers, electric vehicles, solenoid positioning, motor control, and power monitoring. Current Shunt Monitor (CSM) systems have various applications for precise current monitoring of those aforementioned applications. CSMs enable current measurement across an external sense resistor (RS) in series to current flow. Two different types of CSMs designed and characterized in this paper. First design used direct current reading method and the other design used indirect current reading method. Proposed CSM systems can sense power supply current ranging from 1mA to 200mA for the direct current reading topology and from 1mA to 500mA for the indirect current reading topology across a typical board Cu-trace resistance of 1 ohm with less than 10 µV input-referred offset, 0.3 µV/°C offset drift and 0.1% accuracy for both topologies. Proposed systems avoid using a costly zero-temperature coefficient (TC) sense resistor that is normally used in typical CSM systems. Instead, both of the designs used existing Cu-trace on the printed circuit board (PCB) in place of the costly resistor. The systems use chopper stabilization at the front-end amplifier signal path to suppress input-referred offset down to less than 10 µV. Switching current-mode (SI) FIR filtering technique is used at the instrumentation amplifier output to filter out the chopping ripple caused by input offset and flicker noise by averaging half of the phase 1 signal and the other half of the phase 2 signal. In addition, residual offset mainly caused by clock feed-through and charge injection of the chopper switches at the chopping frequency and its multiple frequencies notched out by the since response of the SI-FIR filter. A frequency domain Sigma Delta ADC which is used for the indirect current reading type design enables a digital interface to processor applications with minimally added circuitries to build a simple 1st order Sigma Delta ADC. The CSMs are fabricated on a 0.7µm CMOS process with 3 levels of metal, with maximum Vds tolerance of 8V and operates across a common mode range of 0 to 26V for the direct current reading type and of 0 to 30V for the indirect current reading type achieving less than 10nV/sqrtHz of flicker noise at 100 Hz for both approaches. By using a semi-digital SI-FIR filter, residual chopper offset is suppressed down to 0.5mVpp from a baseline of 8mVpp, which is equivalent to 25dB suppression. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Electrical Engineering 2011

Subject of this thesis is introduction to questions of stepping motors control. The thesis characterizes basic principles some types of stepping motor, their features and control methods. These knowledges are consequently used for proposition of controlling circuit for driving stepping motor using microcontroller.