This thesis reports original research on a novel internal combustion (IC) engine charge air system concept called Turbo-Discharging. Turbo-Discharging depressurises the IC engine exhaust system so that the engine gas exchange pumping work is reduced, thereby reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. There is growing concern regarding the human impact on the climate, part of which is attributable to motor vehicles and transport. Recent legislation has led manufacturers to improve the fuel economy and thus reduce the quantity of CO2 generated by their vehicles. As this legislation becomes more stringent manufacturers are looking to new and developing technologies to help further improve the fuel conversion efficiency of their vehicles. Turbo-Discharging is such a technology which benefits from the fact it uses commonly available engine components in a novel system arrangement. Thermodynamic and one-dimensional gas dynamics models and experimental testing on a 1.4 litre four cylinder four-stroke spark ignition gasoline passenger car engine have shown Turbo-Discharging to be an engine fuel conversion efficiency and performance enhancing technology. This is due to the reduction in pumping work through decreased exhaust system pressure, and the improved gas exchange process resulting in reduced residual gas fraction. Due to these benefits, engine fuel conversion efficiency improvements of up to 4% have been measured and increased fuel conversion efficiency can be realised over the majority of the engine operating speed and load map. This investigation also identified a measured improvement in engine torque over the whole engine speed range with a peak increase of 12%. Modelling studies identified that both fuel conversion efficiency and torque can be improved further by optimisation of the Turbo-Discharging system hardware beyond the limitations of the experimental engine test. The model predicted brake specific fuel consumption improvements of up to 16% at peak engine load compared to the engine in naturally aspirated form, and this increased to up to 24% when constraints imposed on the experimental engine test were removed.

The main objectives of this study were to obtain new experimental data for conditions not previously tested for discharging two-phase flow through two 6.35 mm diameter branches with centrelines falling in an inclined plane and to assess the applicability of ANSYS CFX in modelling discharging two-phase flow through various single and multiple branch geometries. The present results are relevant to many industrial applications including headers and manifolds, multichannel heat exchangers and small breaks in horizontal pipes. In the experimental investigation, onsets of liquid and gas entrainment data were obtained, analyzed and correlated for two different branch spacings and two different angles between the branches. For each combination of branch spacing and angle between the branches, a wide range of Froude numbers was used. Two-phase mass flow rate and quality results were also obtained and analyzed for a range of interface heights for 16 different combinations of branch spacing, inclination angle, test section pressure and pressure drop across each branch. New correlations were developed to predict the dimensionless mass flow rate and the quality. The new correlations show good agreement with the present data and with previous correlations. Using ANSYS CFX, the inhomogeneous, free surface model was used to model discharging two-phase flow through horizontal branches with the following configurations: a single short branch of square cross-section (G1), a single long branch of square cross-section (G2), a single long branch of round cross section (G3), two round branches located one on top of the other (G4), and two round branches with their centreplane angled 30° from the horizontal. For these five geometries, results were compared with previous and present results and showed good agreement for Geometries G1, G2, G3 and G5. For Geometry G4, CFX was unable to predict results when the interface was located such that the two phases flowed through both branches simultaneously. Under these conditions, the flow phenomena were too complicated and further investigations are necessary. / February 2017

Cette thèse s'inscrit dans le cadre de la théorie des graphes, et porte plus particulièrement sur des problèmes de coloration de graphes. Dans cette thèse, nous nous intéressons à l'utilisation et au développement de la méthode de déchargement, un argument de comptage qui exploite fortement la structure du graphe. Cette méthode est décisive dans la preuve du Théorème des Quatre Couleurs. Nous donnons d'abord une vue d'ensemble des outils de déchargement que nous utilisons dans ce travail, entre les méthodes élégantes mises en application, et les astuces développées. Dans le cadre de la coloration d'arêtes par liste, nous résolvons la Conjecture de Coloration par Liste faible dans le cas des graphes planaires de degré maximum 8, en prouvant qu'on peut colorier par liste les arêtes de ces derniers avec 9 couleurs seulement. Ceci améliore un résultat de Borodin de 1990. Enfin, nous présentons nos résultats dans le cadre de la coloration de carrés, où il s'agit de colorier les sommets sans qu'il y ait deux sommets adjacents ou avec un voisin commun qui soient de la même couleur. On s'intéresse en particulier à des conditions suffisantes sur la densité du graphe (c-à-d le degré moyen maximum d'un sous-graphe) pour qu'on puisse colorier son carré avec peu de couleurs. / This thesis falls within graph theory, and deals more precisely with graph coloring problems. In this thesis, we use and develop the discharging method, a counting argument that makes strong advantage of the graph structure. This method is decisive in the proof of the Four Color Theorem. We first give an illustrated overview of the discharging tools that are used for this work: nice methods that we apply, and handy tricks that we develop. In the realm of list edge coloring, we most notably prove that the weak List Coloring Conjecture is true for planar graphs of maximum degree 8 (i.e. that they are edge 9-choosable), thus improving over a result of Borodin from 1990. We finally present our results about square coloring, where the goal is to color the vertices in such a way that two vertices that are adjacent or have a common neighbor receive different colors. We look in particular into sufficient conditions on the density of a graph (i.e. the maximum average degree of a subgraph) for its square to be colorable with few colo

This thesis investigates the discharging behavior of serial boost-type battery power modules (BPMs). Even though the BPMs are connected in series to cope with a higher output voltage, all batteries in the BPMs can substantially be operated individually so that can realize the balanced discharging control strategy. By which, the battery currents are scheduled in accordance with their state-of-charges (SOCs).A battery power system formed by 10 boost-type BPMs is built, in which a micro controller is used for detecting the loaded voltages, estimating the SOCs, and controlling the duty ratios of the power converters. Experimental results demonstrate the balanced discharging capability of the serial BPMs. In addition, fault tolerance mechanism is introduced to isolate fault or exhausted batteries and keep the system working with a reduced load.

This thesis studies the operating characteristics of lead acid batteries with the intermittent discharging current. Rest time is added periodically on purpose during the battery discharging to observe its impact on the releasable capacity. From the experimental results that take the frequency and the duty-ratio as two variables, batteries with the intermittent discharging at high frequencies or low duty ratios can release more capacity. The results also indicate that the depth of discharge (DOD) affects the intermittent discharging. More capacity is released while approaching the end of the discharging, whereas no clear difference is found in the beginning. Last but not least, the average current is proved experimentally to play a significant role in current discharging. With the same average current, the maximum capacity obtained from the intermittent current discharging is close to that from the constant current discharging.

In this thesis, a high voltage discharging testing circuit is proposed for cold cathode fluorescent lamps(CCFLs). The testing circuit uses only a single active power switch operating at a high frequency incorporating with reactive components to accumulate a relatively high voltage on the capacitor. This voltage is then stepped up by a transformer to provide the required high voltage for discharging the CCFLs. The circuit has the advantages of simple configuration, less component count, and low cost. In addition, a high power factor at the ac line source can be achieved. The proposed circuit is analyzed based on the mode operation. Accordingly, the design equations are derived to determine the circuit parameters. A prototype is designed and built for testing the 19 inch CCFLs. The discharging tests are made to recognize the malfunctions during the manufacturing process. Moreover, the distributions on the spectral power and chromaticity of lamps can be examined to ensure the product quality.

abstract: In this thesis, an issue is post at the beginning, that there is limited experience in connecting a battery analytical model with a battery circuit model. Then it describes the process of creating a new battery circuit model which is referred to as the kinetic battery model. During this process, a new general equation is derived. The original equation in the kinetic battery model is only valid at a constant current rate, while the new equation can be used for not only constant current but also linear or nonlinear current. Following the new equation, a circuit representation is built based on the kinetic battery model. Then, by matching the two sets of differential equations of the two models together, the ability to connect the analytical model with the battery circuit model is found. To verify the new battery circuit model is built correctly, the new circuit model is implemented into PSpice simulation software to test the charging performance with constant current, and Matlab/Simulink is also employed to simulate a realistic battery charging process with two-stage charging method. The results have shown the new circuit model is available to be used in realistic scenarios. And because the kinetic battery model can describe different types of rechargeable batteries, the new circuit model is also capable to be used for various battery types. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Electrical Engineering 2012

This thesis investigates the high frequency discharging characteristics of the lithium iron phosphate battery. The investigation focuses on effects of the high-frequency current on the dischargeable capacity of the battery. Included are the current profiles of triangle, saw-tooth, and trapezoidal waves, which are produced from commonly used DC-DC converters. Experimental results show that the current with the higher frequency has less dischargeable capacity. On the other hand, the converter current resonating into and out from the battery results the additional losses. The possible reasons that affect the discharged capacities are explained by the equivalent circuit of the battery.

Operating batteries in parallel is attempted to overcome the problems with conventionally used battery bank, in which batteries are connected in series. The problems and the management with the operation of serial connected batteries are first addressed. The related topics to the parallel configuration are reviewed. Then, the parallel configuration with battery power modules is proposed. The battery power module can be realized with different dc-to-dc converters for different applications. When batteries are charged in parallel, the problem of over-charge can be avoided. With parallel operation, the discharging currents of the batteries are independently controlled but are coordinated to execute a full amount load current. This allows for scheduling the discharging profiles under different operating conditions. As a result, a sophisticated discharging profile can be realized to utilize the available stored energy in batteries. On the other hand, some of the batteries may take rest or be isolated from the system for the detections at a time. This facilitates the estimations of the state of charge (SOC) and the state of health (SOH). Moreover, the completely exhausted or damaged batteries can be isolated from the battery power supply bank without interrupting the system operation. Experiments are carried out on battery power modules with lead-acid batteries incorporating with associated buck-boost converters. The experimental results demonstrate that a more efficient utilization of battery energy can be achieved. On the other hand, a more reasonable management can be done with simple estimation methods of the SOC and the SOH.

A novel battery power system configured by the battery power modules (BPMs) is proposed. Each BPM consists of a single battery pack or a battery bank equipped with an associated DC/DC converter. The output ports of BPMs can be connected in series for the high voltage applications, or in parallel to cope with a higher power or energy. For a large scale battery power system, a number of BPMs can be arrayed with combination of series and parallel connections to meet the load requirements. These all configurations allow the BPMs be operated individually. Consequently, the discharging currents of the batteries can be independently controlled, but coordinated to provide a full amount of the load current. The performances of BPMs connected in both parallel and series at outputs are analyzed theoretically and discussed from the experimental results. Batteries operating independently do not suffer from charge imbalance, and thus can avoid being over-charged or over-discharged, so that the life cycle can be prolonged. Furthermore, sophisticated discharging profiles such as intermittent currents can be realized to equalize the charges and thus to efficiently utilize the available stored energy in batteries. During the operation period, some of the batteries may take rest or be isolated from the system for the open-circuit measurement, facilitating the estimation of the state-of-charge (SOC) and the evaluation of the state-of-health (SOH). With the benefit of independent operation, the BPMs can be discharged with a scheduled current profile, such as intermittent discharging. The investigation results show that the average current plays the most important role in current discharging. By detecting the battery voltage at the break time, an SOC estimation method based on the dynamically changed open-circuit voltage exhibits an acceptable accuracy in a shorter time with considerations of the previous charging/discharging currents and the depth-of- discharge (DOD). In addition, the coulomb counting method can be enhanced by evaluating the SOH at the exhausted and fully charged states, which can be intended on the independently operated BPMs. Through the experiments that emulate practical operations, the SOC estimation methods are verified on lead-acid batteries and lithium-ion batteries to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy.