Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This research proposes state-of-the-art multilevel converter topologies and their modulation strategies, the implementation of a conventional flying-capacitor converter topology up to four-level, and a new four-level flying-capacitor H-Bridge converter confi guration. The three phase version of this proposed four-level flying-capacitor H-Bridge converter is given as well in this study. The highlighted advantages of the proposed converter are as following: (1) the same blocking voltage for all switches employed in the con figuration, (2) no capacitor midpoint connection is needed, (3) reduced number of passive elements as compared to the conventional solution, (4) reduced total dc source value by comparison with the conventional topology. The proposed four-level capacitor-clamped H-Bridge converter can be utilized as a multilevel inverter application in an electri fied railway system, or in hybrid electric vehicles. In addition to the implementation of the proposed topology in this research, its experimental setup has been designed to validate the simulation results of the given converter topologies.

Thesis (PhD)-- Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Control of beta-type free-piston Stirling engines has been the topic of research and development for many years. In this dissertation, an alternative approach to free-piston Stirling engine control, namely direct piston displacement control, is proposed. Direct piston displacement control entails the instantaneous and direct control of the piston displacement to control the engine according to preferred criteria, e.g. maximum power conversion or efficiency. To control free-piston engines in this manner, it is necessary to independently control both the displacement of the displacer and the power piston in real time. The primary arrangement by which to achieve this is through external control of the instantaneous forces exerted by the linear electrical machines fixed to the pistons. The challenge of displacement control is whether suitable linear machine technology exists or whether technology could be established that would adhere to the requirements of real time direct control. To answer the question whether direct piston displacement control is at all possible, a process was followed to set specifications that linear machines should adhere to and to set design guidelines for linear machines and free-piston Stirling engines. The first step was to establish the ability to simulate free-piston Stirling engine dynamics accurately. This was done by adapting a second order formulation and to verify and improve the accuracy thereof by comparing simulated results with experimental results of one of the best documented Stirling engines, namely the GPU-3 engine. It was found that this second order formulation could simulate the GPU-3 engine to a fair degree of accuracy. Key indicators were defined and later refined with the view of setting specifications. A case study of the influence of a range of variations, including operational, dimensional and other variations, on the dynamics of the GPU-3 was then undertaken. From the findings of this case study, specifications of the key indicators and design guidelines were established. A design optimisation approach was proposed to evaluate linear machine topologies. This approach makes specific provision for the specifications that linear machines need to adhere to, as well as for representative dynamic responses of the forces exerted on the linear machine by the displacer or the power piston. These representative responses and the associated piston displacement were determined for the displacer, the power piston and the combination of the two from the study conducted to set specifications. An air-core, longitudinal flux linear machine with surface mounted permanent magnets (LFPM) was then evaluated to determine its suitability for direct piston displacement control. This linear machine topology was optimised for the traditional approach to establish a benchmark with which to compare subsequent optimisations. The LFPM linear machine not only compared well with other topologies for the traditional application in resonant free-piston Stirling engines, but it was found also to be able to perform displacement control for both the displacer and the power piston. For both pistons, displacement should however be limited to sinusoidal displacement, and in the case of the displacer, an important qualification is that the linear machine should be assisted by spring forces to reach practical design optimisations. Direct piston displacement control is shown to be possible. Future work should concentrate on the practical implementation thereof in free-piston Stirling engines. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die beheer van beta-tipe vrysuier Stirling enjins is al vir baie jare die onderwerp van navorsing en ontwikkeling. In hierdie proefskrif word ’n alternatiewe benadering tot vrysuier Stirlingenjins voorgestel, naamlik direkte suierverplasingsbeheer. Direkte suierverplasingsbeheer behels die oombliklike en direkte beheer van die suierverplasing om die enjin volgens voorkeur kriteria, soos maksimum drywingsomsetting of benuttingsgraad, te beheer. Om vrysuier enjins op hierdie wyse te beheer, is dit noodsaaklik om intyds die verplasing van beide die verplaser en die werksuier onafhanklik te beheer. Die primêre wyse om dit te bereik is deur eksterne beheer van die oomblikskragte wat uitgevoer word deur die lineêre masjiene wat vas is aan die suiers. Die uitdaging van verplasingsbeheer is of toepaslike lineêre masjien tegnologie bestaan en of tegnologie gevestig kan word wat sal voldoen aan die vereistes van intydse direkte beheer. Om die vraag te beantwoord of direkte suierverplasingsbeheer hoegenaamd moontlik is, is ’n proses gevolg om spesifikasies daar te stel waaraan lineêre masjiene moet voldoen en om ontwerpsriglyne vir lineêre masjiene en vrysuier Stirling enjins te stel. Die eerste stap was om die vermoë daar te stel om vrysuier Stirling enjin dinamika akkuraat te simuleer. Dit is gedoen deur ’n tweede orde formulering aan te pas en om die akkuraatheid daarvan te kontroleer en te verbeter deur gesimuleerde resultate met eksperimentele resultate van een van die bes gedokumenteerde Stirling enjins, naamlik die GPU-3 enjin, te vergelyk. Daar is bevind dat die tweede orde formulering die GPU-3 tot ’n redelike mate akkuraat kon simuleer. Sleutel aanwysers is gedefinieer en later verfyn met die oog op die daarstelling van spesifikasies. ’n Gevallestudie van die invloed van ’n reeks variasies, insluitende operasionele, dimensionele en ander variasies, op die dinamika van die GPU-3 is onderneem. Gegrond op die bevindinge van hierdie gevallestudie kon spesifikasies en ontwerpsriglyne vasgestel word. ’n Ontwerpsoptimeringsbenadering is voorgestel om lineêre masjiene te evalueer. Hierdie benadering maak spesifiek voorsiening vir die spesifikasies waaraan lineêre masjiene moet voldoen, sowel as verteenwoordigende dinamiese response van die kragte wat op die lineêre masjien van die verplaser en die werksuier uitgeoefen word. Vanaf die bevindinge van die studie wat uitgevoer is om spesifikasies daar te stel, is verteenwoordigende response en gepaardgaande suierverplasing bepaal vir die verplaser, die werksuier en die kombinasie van die twee. ’n Lugkern, longitudinale vloed lineêre masjien met oppervlak-gemonteerde permanente magnete (LVPM) is toe geëvalueer om die geskiktheid daarvan te bepaal vir direkte suierverplasingsbeheer. Hierdie lineêre masjien topologie is geoptimeer vir die tradisionele benadering om ’n maatstaf te vestig waarteen daaropvolgende optimerings vergelyk kan word. Die LVPM lineêre masjien vergelyk nie net goed met ander topologieë vir die tradisionele toepassing in resonante vrysuier Stirling enjins nie, maar daar is ook bevind dat dit in staat is om verplasingsbeheer te doen vir beide die verplaser en die werksuier. Vir beide suiers moet die verplasing egter tot sinusvormige verplasing beperk word en in die geval van die verplaser, is ’n belangrike kwalifikasie dat die lineêre masjien ondersteun moet word deur veerkragte om praktiese ontwerpsoptimerings te bereik. Daar is aangetoon dat direkte suierverplasingsbeheer moontlik is. Toekomstige werk moet konsentreer op die praktiese implementering daarvan in vrysuier Stirling enjins.

Esta tese apresenta uma metodologia específica para a quantificação das perdas energéticas em motores elétricos de indução trifásicos com rotor em gaiola, por meio da determinação indireta do rendimento nas condições de funcionamento a plena carga. A referida metodologia, denominada MHmit, foi desenvolvida em ambientes industriais, particularmente no segmento alimentício, contando também com a colaboração do Laboratório de Máquinas Elétricas do Instituto de Eletrotécnica e Energia da Universidade de São Paulo no tocante a disponibilização dos ensaios de vários motores de indução trifásicos com rotor em gaiola ao longo de vários anos de prestação de serviços. Esses ensaios foram de extrema importância para a validação da metodologia apresentada. Sendo o motor elétrico um equipamento de uso final de forte presença industrial, é passível de substituição por tecnologias mais eficientes mediante a realização de estudos de eficiência energética. Os diagnósticos energéticos em sistemas motrizes beneficiam as indústrias por meio da diminuição dos custos com energia elétrica, tanto pela redução de demanda, quanto pela redução do consumo. Porém, para o desenvolvimento desta metodologia foi necessária a avaliação de estudos realizados por empresas prestadoras de serviços na área de conservação de energia elétrica. Essas empresas foram selecionadas a partir da averiguação da satisfação do cliente quanto aos serviços prestados e resultados obtidos após a substituição dos motores. Por meio da análise de 266 casos, verificaram-se os problemas encontrados por essas empresas antes, durante e após a substituição dos motores elétricos do tipo padrão por de alto rendimento. Em alguns casos, a substituição de um motor antigo do tipo padrão por um motor novo do tipo alto rendimento resultou num aumento do consumo de energia elétrica, fato este totalmente controverso quando se espera uma economia de 2 a 6% proveniente desta mudança de tecnologias, de acordo com Eletrobrás e NEMA MG 1. A metodologia MHmit desenvolvida neste trabalho contempla esta situação. As principais metodologias atualmente utilizadas na realização de estudos para substituição de motores elétricos dos tipos padrão por alto rendimento foram analisadas e apresentadas neste trabalho. Dentre elas, a metodologia convencional, que utiliza curvas de motores elétricos para a determinação do rendimento, a metodologia que utiliza o programa denominado BD Motor, desenvolvido pelo Centro de Pesquisas em Energia Elétrica da Eletrobrás, a VII metodologia que utiliza o programa Mark IV, desenvolvido por pesquisadores da Universidade Federal de Itajubá, em parceria com o Procel / Eletrobrás e o software Motor Master, desenvolvido pelo Departamento de Energia Norte-Americano (DoE). Todos esses programas estão disponíveis gratuitamente para download no site do Procel Info / Eletrobrás - www.procelinfo.com.br. A metodologia MHmit, desenvolvida neste trabalho, apresentou desvios percentuais satisfatórios (10,12%) entre os valores previstos (durante as simulações com o aplicativo MHmit) e reais (por meio da verificação da real economia de energia elétrica proporcionada após a substituição do novo motor) das metodologias em estudo. Estas, não contemplam dados de parâmetros de motores antigos, dificultando a obtenção de um valor verdadeiro do rendimento do motor em funcionamento, pois muitas vezes este já sofreu reparos, rebobinagens e curtos-circuitos. Os 86 estudos de caso realizados para a validação desta metodologia (motores com potências de 7,5 a 125 cv) mostraram diferenças significativas entre os valores previstos pelas metodologias atuais e a metodologia desenvolvida MHmit. / This thesis presents a specific methodology to quantify the energy loss in three-phase induction electric motors with cage rotor, by indirect determination of efficiency under operation conditions at full load. This methodology, named MHmit, was developed in industrial environments, particularly in textile and food sectors, relying on the collaboration of the machines laboratory of the Institute of Electrotechnics and Energy, University of São Paulo on the availability of tests in several three-phase induction motors with cage rotor over several years under the laboratory service. These essays were extremely important to validate the presented methodology. Once the electric motor is an equipment of final use strongly present in industry, it is subject to replacement by more efficient technologies by carrying out energy efficiency studies. Energy Diagnosis in electric motors aims to provide the client with a decrease in electric energy costs, not only a decrease in demand, but also as a decrease in consumption. However, for the development of this methodology, it was necessary for evaluation, an assessment by companies that provide services in the area of energy conservation. These companies were selected from an investigation of customer satisfaction on services provided and results obtained after replacing the motors. By analyzing 266 cases, the problems found by these companies had been verified before, during and after the substitution of standard electric motors by high-efficiency ones. In some cases, the substitution of an old standard motor by a new high-efficiency one resulted in an increase of consumption of electric energy, and this fact is totally controversial when one expects savings of 2 to 6 % from this change of technologies, according to Eletrobrás and NEMA MG 1. The methodology MHmit developed in this work covers this situation. The main methodologies currently used to carry out studies to replace standard electric motors by high-efficiency ones were analyzed and presented in this work. Amongst them, the conventional methodology, which uses electric motor curves to determine efficiency, and the methodology that uses the program named BD Motor, developed by the Center of Research in Electric Energy of Eletrobrás, the methodology that uses the program Mark IV, developed by researchers from Federal University of Itajubá, in partnership with Procel/Eletrobrás and the IX program named Motor Master, developed by the North American Department of Energy (DoE). All these programs are freely available for download at Procel Info/Eletrobrás website - www.procelinfo.com.br. The MHmit methodology, developed in this work, presented satisfactory percentage values of deviations (10,12%), between the predicted values (during simulations with MHmit application) and real (by checking the real electric energy savings provided after the old standard motor replacement) when compared to the methodologies in study. These, do not include the old motor data parameters, making it difficult to obtain a true value of motor operation efficiency, because it may have gone through repairs, rewinding and short-circuits. The 86 case studies which were carried out for the validation of this methodology (motors with rated power from 7.5 to 125 hp) showed significant differences between the values provided by current methodologies and the methodology developed MHmit.

Yeung Kin. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-89). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.iii / Tables of Contents --- p.iv / List of Figures --- p.vi / List of Tables --- p.vii / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Distance Learning (DL) and Virtual Laboratory (VL) --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Overview of related research --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- Web-based Control Laboratory --- p.5 / Chapter 1.4 --- Contributions of the Project --- p.8 / Chapter 1.5 --- Thesis Outline --- p.10 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- System Architectures --- p.11 / Chapter 2.1 --- Hardware Architecture --- p.11 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Internal Distributed System --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Video Server System --- p.14 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Application Systems --- p.15 / Chapter 2.2 --- Software Architecture --- p.17 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Client Side Context --- p.17 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Web Server Context --- p.19 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Software Context in Controller PC --- p.24 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- System Attributes --- p.33 / Chapter 3.1 --- Protocol Attribute --- p.33 / Chapter 3.2 --- Client/Server Structure --- p.36 / Chapter 3.3 --- Multi-layer Structure --- p.39 / Chapter 3.4 --- Inter-process Flow Attribute --- p.41 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Experiment Description --- p.43 / Chapter 4.1 --- Client Interface --- p.43 / Chapter 4.2 --- Experiments Implementation --- p.46 / Chapter 4.3 --- Controller Analysis --- p.47 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- System Theory --- p.47 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- PID Control --- p.49 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- Set Point Control by State Space Method --- p.51 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- System Characteristics --- p.54 / Chapter 5.1 --- Distance Learning --- p.54 / Chapter 5.2 --- Networking Issues --- p.55 / Chapter 5.3 --- Design Issues --- p.56 / Chapter 5.4 --- Security Issue --- p.56 / Chapter 5.5 --- Interface Issues --- p.57 / Chapter 5.6 --- Future Enhancement --- p.58 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Impacts and Further Work --- p.59 / Chapter 6.1 --- Impacts on Web-based Laboratory --- p.59 / Chapter 6.2 --- Impacts on Society --- p.60 / Chapter 6.3 --- Future Work --- p.61 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Conclusion --- p.63 / Appendices --- p.65 / Appendix I. Selected Source Code of Server Side Programs --- p.65 / Appendix II. Selected Client Experiment Interface --- p.81 / Appendix III. Laboratory Experiment Manual --- p.84 / Bibliography --- p.86

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University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology / Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering

The University of Waterloo Alternative Fuels Team’s participation in EcoCAR: The Next Challenge provided an unparalleled opportunity to execute advanced vehicle technology research with hands on learning and industry leading mentoring from practicing engineers in the automotive industry. This thesis investigates the optimization of the hybrid operating strategy on board the EcoCAR development vehicle. This investigation provides the framework to investigate the pros and cons of different hybrid control strategies, develop the model based design process for controls development in a student team environment and take the learning of this research and apply them to a mule development vehicle. A primary controls development model was created to simulate software controls before releasing to the vehicle level and served as a tool to evaluate and compare control strategies. The optimization routine was not directly compatible with this model and so a compromise was made to develop a simplified vehicle model in the MATLAB environment that would be useful for observing trends but realizing that the accuracy of the results may not be totally consistent with the real world vehicle. These optimization results were then used to create a new control strategy that was simulated in the original vehicle development model. This new control strategy exhibited a 15% gain in fuel economy over the best case from the literature during an Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule (UDDS) drive cycle. Recommendations for future work include adding charge depletion operation to the simulation test cases and improving the accuracy of the optimization model by removing the simplifications that contributed to faster simulation time. This research has also illustrated the wide variability of drive cycles from the mildly aggressive UDDS cycle having 5 kilowatts average propulsion power to the very aggressive US06 cycle having 19 kilowatts average propulsion power and their impact on the efficiency of a particular control strategy. Understanding how to adapt or tune software for particular drive cycle or driver behaviour may lead to an interesting area of research.

Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) motors are one of the motor types rapidly gaining popularity. BLDC motors are being increasingly used in critical high performance industries such as appliances, automotive, aerospace, consumer, medical, industrial automation equipment and instrumentation. Fault detection and condition monitoring of BLDC machines is therefore assuming a new importance. The objective of this research is to advance the field of rotor and load fault diagnosis in BLDC machines operating in a variety of operating conditions ranging from constant speed to continuous transient operation. This objective is addressed as three parts in this research. The first part experimentally characterizes the effects of rotor faults in the stator current and voltage of the BLDC motor. This helps in better understanding the behavior of rotor defects in BLDC motors. The second part develops methods to detect faults in loads coupled to BLDC motors by monitoring the stator current. As most BLDC applications involve non-stationary operating conditions, the diagnosis of rotor faults in non-stationary conditions forms the third and most important part of this research. Several signal processing techniques are reviewed to analyze non-stationary signals. Three new algorithms are proposed that can track and detect rotor faults in non-stationary or transient current signals.

Stator current spectral analysis techniques are usually used to detect rotor faults in induction machines. Magnetic field anomalies in the airgap due to the rotor faults result in characteristic side-band harmonic components in the stator current spectrum, which can be measured as rotor fault signatures. A position-varying load torque oscillation at multiples of the rotational speed, however, has exactly the same effect. Stator current harmonics due to a load torque oscillation often obscure and even overwhelm rotor eccentricity fault detection since the magnitude of load oscillation induced harmonics is usually much larger. Although previous research has suggested some methods to differentiate between these two effects, most of them rely heavily on the accurate estimation of motor parameters. The objective of this research is to develop a far more practical and computationally efficient method to detect rotor faults effectively in the presence of a load torque oscillation. A significant advantage of the proposed scheme is that it does not need any knowledge of motor parameters. The normalized negative sequence information induced by a mixed rotor eccentricity in the stator current or terminal voltage space vector spectra, serves as a reliable rotor fault indicator to eliminate load oscillation effects. Detailed airgap magnetic field analysis for an eccentric motor is performed and all machine inductance matrices as well as their derivatives are reformulated accordingly. Careful observation of these inductance matrices provides a fundamental understanding of motor operation characteristics under a fault condition. Simulation results based on both induction motor dynamic model and Maxwell 2D Finite Element Model demonstrate clearly the existence of the predicted rotor fault indicator. Extensive experimental results also validate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed detection scheme.

This dissertation proposes several simple, robust, and non-intrusive condition monitoring methods for induction motors fed by closed-loop inverters and claw-pole generators with built-in rectifiers. While the flexible energy forms synthesized by power electronic converters greatly enhance the performance and expand the operating region of induction motors and claw-pole generators, they also significantly alter the fault behavior of these electric machines and complicate the fault detection and protection. In this dissertation, special characteristics of the connected closed-loop inverter and rectifier have been thoroughly analyzed, with particular interest in their impact on fault behaviors of the induction motor and the claw-pole generator. Based on the findings obtained from the theoretical and experimental analysis, several sensorless thermal, mechanical, and insulation monitoring methods are proposed by smartly utilizing special features and capabilities of the connected power electronic converter. A simple and sensitive stator turn-fault detector is proposed for induction motors fed by closed-loop inverter. In addition, a stator thermal monitoring method based on active DC current injection and direct voltage estimation is also proposed to prevent the closed-loop controlled induction motors from thermally overloading. The performance of both methods is demonstrated by extensive experimental results. Methods to detect serpentine belt slip, serpentine belt defect, rotor eccentricity have been proposed for claw-pole generators using only the available electric sensor information. Methods to detect and protect stator turn faults in claw-pole generators are also presented in this dissertation. Lastly, a novel method to detect the generalized bearing roughness fault is proposed. All the proposed condition monitoring techniques have been validated by experimental results.