Τα κεραυνικά πλήγματα αποτελούν σημαντικό κίνδυνο ζημιάς στις ανεμογεννήτριες. Το πρόβλημα γίνεται μεγαλύτερο καθώς ο αριθμός και το ύψος τους συνεχώς αυξάνεται. Έτσι τα κεραυνικά πλήγματα στις ανεμογεννήτριες είναι μια από τις κυριότερες αιτίες βλαβών που προκαλούν απώλειες της προβλεπόμενης παραγωγής ισχύος με σοβαρές οικονομικές συνέπειες. Τα συστήματα γείωσης σχεδιάζονται με σκοπό να παρέχουν την απαραίτητη ασφάλεια τόσο σε συνθήκες κανονικής λειτουργίας όσο και σφάλματος. Όσον αφορά κεραυνικά ρεύματα ή ρεύματα βραχυκύκλωσης το σύστημα γείωσης θα πρέπει να επιτυγχάνει την απαγωγή και διάχυση των ρευμάτων αυτών μέσα στη γη, με ταχύτητα και ασφάλεια, χωρίς να δημιουργούν επικίνδυνες υπερτάσεις στον περιβάλλοντα χώρο. Η εμφάνιση των υπερτάσεων αυτών είναι ικανή να πλήξει των άνθρωπο αλλά και να προκαλέσει ανεπανόρθωτες βλάβες στον εξοπλισμό. Προκειμένου να ελεγθεί η αξιοπιστία ενός συστήματος γείωσης σε σχέση με την ασφάλεια που παρέχει σε συνθήκες σφάλματος είναι απαραίτητη η μελέτη της μεταβατικής συμπεριφοράς του. Έτσι μπορούμε να προβλέψουμε την απόδοση τους σε περιπτώσεις κρουστικών ρευμάτων κεραυνού. Η παρούσα εργασία αναφέρεται στη μελέτη της μεταβατικής συμπεριφοράς συστημάτων γείωσης ανεμογεννήτριας μέσω της εξομοίωσης τους με το λογισμικό EMTP-ATP. Οι εξομοιώσεις γίνονται βάσει του μοντέλου κυκλωματικής προσέγγισης για διάφορες τιμές ειδικών αντιστάσεων εδάφους. Σκοπός είναι η σύγκριση των αποτελεσμάτων και η επιλογή του κατάλληλου συστήματος γείωσης. Παρακάτω γίνεται σύντομη περιγραφή των κεφαλαίων Στο Πρώτο Κεφάλαιο γίνεται αναφορά στο φαινόμενο του κεραυνού, στις παραμέτρους των ανερχόμενων και κατερχόμενων κεραυνών και τέλος στις επιπτώσεις των κεραυνικών πληγμάτων. Στο Δεύτερο Κεφάλαιο γίνεται αναφορά στο ρόλο της γείωσης, στα διάφορα είδη γειωτών καθώς και στις μεθόδους υπολογισμού των παραμέτρων τους. Στο Τρίτο Κεφάλαιο παρουσιάζονται χαρακτηριστικά μεγέθη που αφορούν την απόκριση των συστημάτων γείωσης όπως είναι η αντίσταση γείωσης, η ειδική αντίσταση εδάφους και η κρουστική σύνθετη αντίσταση. Στο Τέταρτο Κεφάλαιο γίνεται αναφορά στα διάφορα μοντέλα συστημάτων γείωσης. Παρουσιάζονται τόσο αυτά που χρησιμοποιούνταν κατά το παρελθόν όσο και τα επικρατέστερα σύγχρονα. Στο Πέμπτο Κεφάλαιο γίνεται αρχικά επιλογή του μοντέλου προσομοίωσης. Στη συνέχεια παρατίθενται τα στοιχεία των συστημάτων γείωσης που εξετάζουμε. Κατόπιν παρουσιάζονται τα αποτελέσματα των εξομοιώσεων. Τέλος γίνεται σύγκριση των αποτελεσμάτων. Από τις συγκρίσεις προκύπτουν οι παράγοντες από τους οποίους εξαρτάται η μεταβατική συμπεριφορά των εξεταζόμενων συστημάτων γείωσης. Βάσει των αποτελεσμάτων παρατηρούμε αρχικά ότι η ειδική αντίσταση εδάφους έχει μεγάλη επίδραση στην μεταβατική απόκριση των συστημάτων γείωσης έχει. Συγκεκριμένα για μικρότερες τιμές ειδικής αντίστασης εδάφους έχουμε παράλληλη μείωση των τιμών των μέγιστων μεταβατικών υπερτάσεων στους κόμβους τους συστήματος. Επιπλέον παρατηρούμε σημαντική εξάρτηση των τιμών των τάσεων στους κόμβους των συστημάτων από την απόστασή τους από το σημείο εγχύσεως του ρεύματος. Έτσι όσο απομακρυνόμαστε από το σημείο εγχύσεως του κρουστικού ρεύματος μειώνεται το δυναμικό των κόμβων. Τέλος δεδομένων ίδιων τιμών ειδικής αντίστασης εδάφους, οι δύο διατάξεις παρουσίαζουν διαφορετικές μεταβατικές αποκρίσεις, / Lightning strokes consist one of the most important damage risks in wind turbines. The problem grows bigger as the number and height of modern wind turbines continuously increases. So lightning strikes on wind turbines are one of the most important malfunction causes which have serious inflictions on the predicted power production with severe economic consequences . Grounding systems are designed to provide the necessary safety on normal operation conditions as well as on fault conditions. The grounding system must be able to divert fault currents as well as lightning currents to the ground with speed and safety without the development of over voltages on the surrounding space. The appearance of over voltages is extremely dangerous both for people and equipment. To test the reliability of a grounding system on fault conditions, a study of its transient behavior is necessary in order to predict the performance of the grounding system in the case of an impulse lightning current. The purpose of this diploma thesis is to study the transient response of two grounding systems for wind turbines by means of simulation with the EMTP-ATP software. The equivalent circuits used for the simulation are based on the circuit theory approach for various values of soil resistivity. Finally the two grounding systems are compared regarding their transient response behavior. Bellow follows a brief description of the chapters. In Chapter One the phenomenon of lightning is presented including the parameters that define lightning as well as the effects of lightning strokes on people and equipment. Chapter Two focuses on the role of grounding in electrical installations, the various types of grounding electrodes and the calculation methods of their parameters. Chapter Three presents the effect of figures such as the grounding resistance, soil resistivity and impulse resistance on the response of grounding systems. Chapter Four refers to the various modeling approaches for grounding systems. Modeling approaches such as the circuit theory approach, the electromagnetic field approach etc are presented an analyzed. In Chapter Five the model for the simulation is selected and the values for the grounding system parameters are presented, followed by the results of the simulations. In conclusion the results of the simulations are compared. From comparing the results of the simulations we observe that the soil resistivity has a great effect on the transient response of the simulated grounding systems. Moreover for low values of soil resistivity there is a parallel decrease of the peak voltage values on the system nodes. Furthermore we observe a considerate dependence of the voltage values to the distance to the injection point of the lightning current. So as we move away from the injection point of the impulse current the node potential decreases. Finally, given the same values of soil resistivity, the two grounding systems have different transient responses.

Extracellular neuroelectronic interfacing has important applications in the fields of neural prosthetics, biological computation and whole-cell biosensing for drug screening and toxin detection. While the field of neuroelectronic interfacing holds great promise, the recording of high-fidelity signals from extracellular devices has long suffered from the problem of low signal-to-noise ratios and changes in signal shapes due to the presence of highly dispersive dielectric medium in the neuron-microelectrode cleft. This has made it difficult to correlate the extracellularly recorded signals with the intracellular signals recorded using conventional patch-clamp electrophysiology. For bringing about an improvement in the signalto-noise ratio of the signals recorded on the extracellular microelectrodes and to explore strategies for engineering the neuron-electrode interface there exists a need to model, simulate and characterize the cell-sensor interface to better understand the mechanism of signal transduction across the interface. Efforts to date for modeling the neuron-electrode interface have primarily focused on the use of point or area contact linear equivalent circuit models for a description of the interface with an assumption of passive linearity for the dynamics of the interfacial medium in the cell-electrode cleft. In this dissertation, results are presented from a nonlinear dynamic characterization of the neuroelectronic junction based on Volterra-Wiener modeling which showed that the process of signal transduction at the interface may have nonlinear contributions from the interfacial medium. An optimization based study of linear equivalent circuit models for representing signals recorded at the neuron-electrode interface subsequently iv proved conclusively that the process of signal transduction across the interface is indeed nonlinear. Following this a theoretical framework for the extraction of the complex nonlinear material parameters of the interfacial medium like the dielectric permittivity, conductivity and diffusivity tensors based on dynamic nonlinear Volterra-Wiener modeling was developed. Within this framework, the use of Gaussian bandlimited white noise for nonlinear impedance spectroscopy was shown to offer considerable advantages over the use of sinusoidal inputs for nonlinear harmonic analysis currently employed in impedance characterization of nonlinear electrochemical systems. Signal transduction at the neuron-microelectrode interface is mediated by the interfacial medium confined to a thin cleft with thickness on the scale of 20-110 nm giving rise to Knudsen numbers (ratio of mean free path to characteristic system length) in the range of 0.015 and 0.003 for ionic electrodiffusion. At these Knudsen numbers, the continuum assumptions made in the use of Poisson-Nernst-Planck system of equations for modeling ionic electrodiffusion are not valid. Therefore, a lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) based multiphysics solver suitable for modeling ionic electrodiffusion at the mesoscale neuron-microelectrode interface was developed. Additionally, a molecular speed dependent relaxation time was proposed for use in the lattice Boltzmann equation. Such a relaxation time holds promise for enhancing the numerical stability of lattice Boltzmann algorithms as it helped recover a physically correct description of microscopic phenomena related to particle collisions governed by their local density on the lattice. Next, using this multiphysics solver simulations were carried out for the charge relaxation dynamics of an electrolytic nanocapacitor with the intention of ultimately employing it for a simulation of the capacitive coupling between the neuron and the v planar microelectrode on a microelectrode array (MEA). Simulations of the charge relaxation dynamics for a step potential applied at t = 0 to the capacitor electrodes were carried out for varying conditions of electric double layer (EDL) overlap, solvent viscosity, electrode spacing and ratio of cation to anion diffusivity. For a large EDL overlap, an anomalous plasma-like collective behavior of oscillating ions at a frequency much lower than the plasma frequency of the electrolyte was observed and as such it appears to be purely an effect of nanoscale confinement. Results from these simulations are then discussed in the context of the dynamics of the interfacial medium in the neuron-microelectrode cleft. In conclusion, a synergistic approach to engineering the neuron-microelectrode interface is outlined through a use of the nonlinear dynamic modeling, simulation and characterization tools developed as part of this dissertation research.

<p dir="ltr">The short lifespan of capacitors in power electronics converters is a significant challenge. These capacitors, often electrolytic, are vital for voltage smoothing and frequency filtering. However, their susceptibility to heat, ripple current, and aging can lead to premature faults. This can cause issues like output voltage instability and short circuits, ultimately resulting in catastrophic failure and system shutdown. Capacitors are responsible for 30% of power electronics failures.</p><p dir="ltr">To tackle this challenge, scientists, researchers, and engineers are exploring various approaches detailed in technical literature. These include exploring alternative capacitor technologies, implementing active and passive cooling solutions, and developing advanced monitoring techniques to predict and prevent failures. However, these solutions often come with drawbacks such as increased complexity, reduced efficiency, or higher upfront costs. Additionally, research in material science is ongoing to develop corrosion-resistant capacitors, but such devices are not readily available.</p><p dir="ltr">This dissertation presents a capacitorless solution for dc-dc and dc-ac converters. The proposed solution involves harnessing parasitic elements and integrating them as intrinsic components in power converter technology. This approach holds the promise of enhancing power electronics reliability ratings, thereby facilitating breakthroughs in electric vehicles, compact power processing units, and renewable energy systems. The central scientific premise of this proposal is that the capacitance requirement in a power converter can be met by deliberately augmenting parasitic components.</p><p dir="ltr">Our research hypothesis that incorporating high dielectric material-based thin-films, fabricated using nanotechnology, into planar magnetics will enable the development of a family of capacitorless electronic converters that do not rely on discrete capacitors. This innovative approach represents a departure from the traditional power converter schemes employed in industry.</p><p dir="ltr">The first family of converters introduces a novel capacitorless solid-state power filter (SSPF) for single-phase dc-ac converters. The proposed configuration, comprising a planar transformer and an H-bridge converter operating at high frequency, generates sinusoidal ac voltage without relying on capacitors. Another innovative dc-ac inverter design is the twelve step six-level inverter, which does not incorporate capacitors in its structure.</p><p dir="ltr">The second family of capacitorless topologies consists of non-isolated dc-dc converters, namely the buck converter and the buck-boost converter. These converters utilize alternative materials with high dielectric constants, such as calcium copper titanate (CCTO), to intentionally enhance specific parasitic components, notably inter capacitance. This innovative approach reduces reliance on external discrete capacitors and facilitates the development of highly reliable converters.</p><p dir="ltr">The study also includes detailed discussions on the necessary design specifications for these parasitic capacitors. Furthermore, comprehensive finite element analysis solutions and detailed circuit models are provided. A design example is presented to demonstrate the practical application of the proposed concept in electric vehicle (EV) low voltage side dc-dc power converters used to supply EVs low voltage loads.</p>