Engineering Commons^™

Synthesis, Transport, And Thermoelectric Studies Of Topological Dirac Semimetal Cd3as2 For Room Temperature Waste Heat Recovery And Energy Conversion, Tahereh A. Hosseini

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

SYNTHESIS, TRANSPORT, AND THERMOELECTRIC STUDIES OF TOPOLOGICAL DIRAC SEMIMETAL CD3AS2 FOR ROOM TEMPERATURE WASTE HEAT RECOVERY AND ENERGY CONVERSION

by

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2017

Under the Supervision of Professor Nikolai Kouklin

Rising rates of the energy consumption and growing concerns over the climate change worldwide have made energy efficiency an urgent problem to address. Nowadays, almost two-thirds of the energy produced by burning fossil fuels to generate electrical power is lost in the form of the heat. On this front, increasing electrical power generation through a waste heat recovery remains one of the highly promising venues of the …

Design And Implementation Of A True Decentralized Autonomous Control Architecture For Microgrids, Abedalsalam Ahmed Bani-Ahmed

Theses and Dissertations

Microgrids can serve as an integral part of the future power distribution systems. Most microgrids are currently managed by centralized controllers. There are two major concerns associated with the centralized controllers. One is that the single controller can become performance and reliability bottleneck for the entire system and its failure can bring the entire system down. The second concern is the communication delays that can degrade the system performance. As a solution, a true decentralized control architecture for microgrids is developed and presented. Distributing the control functions to local agents decreases the possibility of network congestion, and leads to the …

Design And Modeling Of Fiber Optical Current Sensor Based On Magnetostriction, Suha Mubarak Lasassmeh

Theses and Dissertations

A novel fiber optical current sensor (FOCS) which is based on a giant magnetostrictive material, Terfenol-D (T-D) is modeled and prototyped. Several experiments have been conducted to validate the expected results. Magnetostriction is defined as the change in dimensions of a material under the influence of an external magnetic field. The cause of the change in length is due to the rotation and re-orientation of the small magnetic domains in the magnetostrictive material. The magnetostriction of Terfenol-D is modeled and investigated using several software packages. Here, a magnetostriction-based FOCS using a Terfenol-D/epoxy composite is investigated. Particularly, the FOCS is based …

Reliability Evaluation And Defense Strategy Development For Cyber-Physical Power Systems, Yingmeng Xiang

Theses and Dissertations

With the smart grid initiatives in recent years, the electric power grid is rapidly evolving into a complicated and interconnected cyber-physical system. Unfortunately, the wide deployment of cutting-edge communication, control and computer technologies in the power system, as well as the increasing terrorism activities, make the power system at great risk of attacks from both cyber and physical domains. It is pressing and meaningful to investigate the plausible attack scenarios and develop efficient methods for defending the power system against them.

To defend the power grid, it is critical to first study how the attacks could happen and affect the …

Optogenetic Interrogation And Manipulation Of Vascular Blood Flow In Cortex, Farid Atry

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding blood flow regulatory mechanisms that correlate the regional blood flow with the level of local neuronal activity in brain is an ongoing research. Discerning different aspects of this coupling is of substantial importance in interpretation of functional imaging results, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), that rely on hemodynamic recordings to detect and image brain neuronal activity. Moreover, this understanding can provide insight into blood flow disorders under different pathophysiological conditions and possible treatments for such disorders.

The blood regulatory mechanisms can be studied at two different; however, complementary levels: at the cellular level or at the vascular …

Manual For Automation Of Dc-Microgrid Component Using Matlab/Simulink And Fpga's, Kavya Shree Kumar

Theses and Dissertations

Solar Energy is one of the abundantly available renewable energy source. Solar panels are semiconductor materials which capture the solar energy from every band in the visible light spectrum, infrared spectrum and ultra violet spectrum and converts it into electrical energy.

The DC community microgrid is used to supplement utility electrical power supplied to the neighbored with renewable sources such as solar panels, emergency back-up power through batteries or generators. Smart Cloud Interconnected environment increases the standard of living and facilitates ease to rectify faults, debug components and reinstate or replace obsolete components with newer ones.

Automation of the DC …

Design And Implementation Of A Multi-Port Solid State Transformer For Flexible Der Integration, Mohammad Rashidi

Theses and Dissertations

Conventional power system includes four major sections, bulk generation, transmission network, distribution network, and loads. The main converter in the conventional electric grid is the low-frequency passive transformer providing galvanic isolation and voltage regulation for various voltage zones. In this configuration, small-scale renewable energy resources are generally connected to the power system at low voltage zones or inside microgrids.

Recent developments in the design of power electronic elements with higher voltage and power ratings and medium/high frequency enable making use of solid state transformer at different voltage levels in the distribution system and microgrid design. In this work, the concept …

Clinical Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Instrumentation: Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome Studies, Parvathi Kadamati

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

CLINICAL NEAR-INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY INSTRUMENTATION: POSTURAL ORTHOSTATIC TACHYCARDIA SYNDROME STUDIES

by

Parvathi Kadamati

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2017

Under the Supervision of Professor Mahsa Ranji

Aims: Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is a type of chronic orthostatic intolerance, annually affecting around 500,000 young Americans. Symptoms of POTS include lightheadedness and persistent increase in heart rate with upright body posture [1-3]. It requires a medical diagnosis. Impaired cerebral oxygenation of patients with POTS has been reported [4]. The pathophysiology remains unclear, and research is needed to understand the underlying conditions that lead to POTS. The aim of this research is to …

Threshold Free Detection Of Elliptical Landmarks Using Machine Learning, Lifan Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

Elliptical shape detection is widely used in practical applications. Nearly all classical ellipse detection algorithms require some form of threshold, which can be a major cause of detection failure, especially in the challenging case of Moire Phase Tracking (MPT) target images. To meet the challenge, a threshold free detection algorithm for elliptical landmarks is proposed in this thesis. The proposed Aligned Gradient and Unaligned Gradient (AGUG) algorithm is a Support Vector Machine (SVM)-based classification algorithm, original features are extracted from the gradient information corresponding to the sampled pixels. with proper selection of features, the proposed algorithm has a high accuracy …

Quantum And Classical Optics Of Plasmonic Systems: 3d/2d Materials And Photonic Topological Insulators, Seyyed Ali Hassani Gangaraj

Theses and Dissertations

At the interface of two different media such as metal and vacuum, light can couple to the electrons of the metal to form a wave that is bound to the interface. This wave is called a surface plasmon-plariton (SPP), generally characterized by intense fields that decay quickly away from the interface. Due to their unique properties, SPPs have found a broad range of applications in various areas of science, including light harvesting, medical science, energy transfer and imaging. In addition to the widely studied classical plasmonics, quantum plasmonics is also attracting considerable interest in the electromagnetics and quantum optics communities. …

3d Reconstruction Of Proteins And Viruses From Angular Correlations Of The Scattered Intensities, Fatemehsadat Jamalidinan

Theses and Dissertations

There is a remarkable shortage of the detailed knowledge of membrane proteins at atomic resolution despite the fact that they are the targets of many of today's drugs. The reason is that membrane proteins tend to have large hydrophobic surfaces which ensure their correct positioning in a membrane. However, this seems to make crystallization difficult, and this makes traditional methods of structure determination by X-ray crystallography difficult. In this thesis, we take advantage of this very fact to suggest an alternative method for structure determination by X-ray scattering of the projected structures of membrane proteins in their natural environments. Although …

Cooling Load Prediction For Different Building Types And Room Occupancy Detection Using Accelerometers, Mengfan Yang

Theses and Dissertations

There are two parts in this thesis: the first part was conducted at UWM, and the second part was conducted at Johnson Controls using the knowledge and skills that I learned throughout my time in the Master’s Degree program.

The primary purpose of my time at UWM was to compare different types of buildings with two popular machine learning regression algorithms, artificial neural network (ANN), supported vector machine regression (SVR) algorithms, and lastly to provide the results of my research to better help building managers make more informed decisions in regard to electrical utilities. The major objective is to use …

Bayesian Methods And Machine Learning For Processing Text And Image Data, Yingying Gu

Theses and Dissertations

Classification/clustering is an important class of unstructured data processing problems. The classification (supervised, semi-supervised and unsupervised) aims to discover the clusters and group the similar data into categories for information organization and knowledge discovery. My work focuses on using the Bayesian methods and machine learning techniques to classify the free-text and image data, and address how to overcome the limitations of the traditional methods. The Bayesian approach provides a way to allow using more variations(numerical or categorical), and estimate the probabilities instead of explicit rules, which will benefit in the ambiguous cases. The MAP(maximum a posterior) estimation is used to …

A Battery-Operated Portable Standard Lead Ecg Monitor With Abnormal Heart Condition Detection System For Dogs, Zichen He

Theses and Dissertations

Long term monitoring the dog's heart condition is the best way to prevent being unable to treat the dog's heart failure in time when it occurs. Although, electro-cardio activity has been discovered by French scientist Mattencci in 1842, but there hasn't been any proper device developed so far for long term ECG (electrocardiogram) monitoring of cardiac dogs. Therefore, this paper has proposed an ECG monitor specially designed for dogs to fill this gap. The ECG monitor proposed is a 3-lead ECG monitoring system with diagnosis software that can detect heart failure, tachycardia, bradycardia, and arrhythmia according to dog's ECG signal. …

Analytical Study Based Optimal Placement Of Energy Storage Devices In Distribution Systems To Support Voltage And Angle Stability, Yih Der Kuo

Theses and Dissertations

Larger penetration of Distributed Generations (DG) in the power system brings new flexibility and opportunity as well as new challenges due to the generally intermittent nature of DG. When these DG are installed in the medium voltage distribution systems as components of smart grid, further support is required to ensure smooth and controllable operation. To complement the uncontrollable output power of these resources, energy storage devices need to be incorporated to absorb excessive power and provide power shortage in time of need. They also can provide reactive power to dynamically help the voltage profile. Energy Storage Systems (ESS) can be …

Effective Pv Output Fluctuation Smoothing Based On Frequency Analysis And Different Weather Patterns, Kuei Hsu Kuo

Theses and Dissertations

As the Hybrid Energy Storage System (HESS) has the advantages of both power-based and energy-based energy storage devices. It is suitable for a microgrid to smooth the power fluctuation. Analyze the power data of a grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) power station. This research considers grid-connected PV requirements to join the HESS and take advantage of the HESS charge and discharge characteristics to reduce the problems caused by light intensity and temperature change of grid-connected PV power output fluctuations. Using battery optimization control strategies to reduce power and capacity of the HESS configuration. This paper Analyze the effect evaluation when HESS rated …

Hvdc Transmission System Reliability Evaluation Based On Condition-Dependent Failure Models Of Converters And Transformers, Zibo Wang

Theses and Dissertations

Wind energy, especially offshore wind energy, is the focus of policy for countries that want to make significant use of renewable energy. With the development of semiconductor technology, high voltage direct current (HVDC) technology is being widely used for the transmission of wind power from offshore windfarms to onshore power grids. The application of HVDC technology can benefit the power system in many ways, such as operation security, reliability performance and economy. With the increasing number of applications of HVDC, the reliability performance of HVDC plays an important role in the overall power system reliability. Although the reliability of HVDC …

Inductance Measurement Fixture And Mathematical Model Development To Support Ac Drive System Simulation Tools, Garry Jean-Pierre

Theses and Dissertations

Variable frequency drives generate high differential-mode (DM) motor voltages due to the reflected wave phenomenon. The common-mode (CM) voltage produced by a pulse width-modulated inverter changes rapidly, which results in high peak currents to ground. For low-power variable frequency drives in long motor leads application, this can present several issues. Some of these issues include cable charging current, capacitive coupling, DC bus pump-up and failure of the power module due to high instantaneous currents that are usually undetected. In this thesis work, existing drive output filters are used to obtain a mathematical model for the inductors used in these filters. …

An Integrated Approach For Reliability Evaluation Of Electric Power Systems Considering Natural Gas Network Reliability, Jiayan Nie

Theses and Dissertations

With the rapid increase of demand for electric power and the growing complexity of the electric system, the reliable operation of electric systems is facing new challenges. Meanwhile, natural gas has been widely used in transportation, electricity generation, and heating. In addition, gas-fired turbines play a growing vital role in the generation of electricity. However, all the facilities in a natural gas network are subject to failures. The operation of gas-fired turbines will be affected by the status of natural gas network, and the insufficient supply of natural gas may cause the output of gas turbine units to reduce to …

Reliability Evaluation Of Active Distribution Networks And Wastewater Treatment Plant Electrical Supply Systems, Haodi Li

Theses and Dissertations

As energy demand increases in U.S. society, especially in terms of electricity and water, it becomes crucial for the operator to ensure the reliability and security of power distribution systems and wastewater treatment facilities. In the past, deterministic approaches were developed in evaluating the reliability of power supply systems. However, deterministic approaches lack the stochastic characteristic modeling, which makes it ineffective in modeling practical systems with increasing uncertainties. In this thesis, a set of probabilistic, quantitative reliability indices will be calculated for the active power distribution networks and wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) electrical supply systems.

First, the probabilistic reliability evaluation …

Plug-In Grid Compatible Next Generation Power Converters, Qianqian Jiao

Theses and Dissertations

The utilization of the DC low voltage distribution opens new possibilities for network development. Community DC microgrid is considered as an efficient solution for providing clean energy for residential areas. The connection of the DC microgrid to the AC utility grid would need a power electronic based rectifier. Voltage Source Rectifier (VSR) and Current Source Rectifier (CSR) are considered as the two options for such application. This study compares the two topologies based on their power density and efficiency. Silicon Carbide (SiC) switches are used for designing the rectifiers to get better power density and efficiency. The proximity of the …

Large Scale Integration Of Electric Vehicles Into The Power Grid And Its Potential Effects On Power System Reliability, Mingzhi Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, the potential effects of large scale integration of electric vehicles into the power grid are discussed in both the beneficial and detrimental aspects. The literature review gives a comprehensive introduction about the existing smart charging algorithms. According to the system structure and market mechanism, the smart charging algorithms can be divided into centralized and distributed method. With the knowledge of driving patterns and charging characteristics of electric vehicles, both the centralized and decentralized smart charging algorithms are studied in this research.

Based on the smart charging pricing and sequential price update mechanism, a multi-agent based distributed smart …

Fault Discrimination Using Sic Jfet Based Self-Powered Solid State Circuit Breakers In A Residential Dc Community Microgrid, Mengyuan Qi

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis validates the use of ultra-fast normally-on SiC JFET based self-powered solid state circuit breakers (SSCBs) as the main protective device for a 340Vdc residential DC community microgrid. These SSCBs will be incorporated into a radial distribution system so that line to line short circuit faults and other types of faults can be isolated anywhere within the microgrid.

Because of the nature and characteristics of short circuit fault inception in DC microgrids, the time-current trip characteristics of protective devices must be several orders of magnitude of faster than conventional circuit breakers. The proposed SSCB detects short circuit faults by …

A Novel Distributed Control Method For Economic Dispatch In Islanded Microgrid, Haibo Xia

Theses and Dissertations

Microgrid (MG) is proposed to integrate the distributed generations and improve the energy efficiency. Economic dispatch is an important tool to obtain the economic operation in MG, which deals with the power in efficient ways while meeting the constraints of total load demand as well as the generator constraints. In research, a two-layer MG is proposed, where the top layer is a communication network for information transmission, while the bottom layer is the MG for power transmission. A fully distributed control method is proposed to obtain the minimum operation costs of the distributed generations by reaching the consensus of the …

Investigating Solutions For Peak Electrical Demand In Central Region, Saudi Arabia, Abdulhameed Mohammed Almaarik

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis studies the electrical power challenges of the Central Region, Saudi Arabia. This includes a look into the geography of Saudi Arabia, to assess the lack of traditional power sources such as coal and hydroelectric. Next, a comprehensive look into the nature of demand in Riyadh, which include the demand types, and comprehensive data about the peak demand and the times associated with it. A problem of very high peak demand that is unique to the region is identified. Then, a study into current electric generation methods to meet this demand, and the associated technologies and fuel costs. This …

Theory, Simulation, And Implementation Of Grid Connected Back To Back Converters Utilizing Voltage Oriented Control, Sean C. Cunningham

Theses and Dissertations

This work presents a back to back converter topology with the ability to connect two power systems of different voltages and frequencies for the exchange of power. By utilizing indirect AC/AC conversion decoupling is achieved between the power systems with one of the three-phase, two-level voltage source converters performing the AC/DC conversion that maintains the required DC bus voltage level at unity power factor while the other converter operates in all four quadrants supplying/consuming active and/or reactive power with the other power system. The prototype implementation resides at UW-Milwaukee’s USR Building microgrid test bed facility. A possible application topology would …

Dc Line-Interactive Uninterruptible Power Supply (Ups) With Load Leveling For Constant Power And Pulse Loads, Seyed Ahmad Hamidi

Theses and Dissertations

Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) systems are usually considered as a backup power for electrical systems, providing emergency power when the main power source fails. UPS systems ensure an uninterruptible, reliable and high quality electrical power for systems with critical loads in which a continuous and reliable power supply is a vital requirement.

A novel UPS system topology, DC line-interactive UPS, has been introduced. The new proposed UPS system is based on the DC concept where the power flow in the system has DC characteristic. The new DC UPS system has several advantageous with respect to the on-line 3-phase UPS which …

Power Conversion System For Grid Connected Micro Hydro Power System With Maximum Power Point Tracking, Zhuoyu Jiang

Theses and Dissertations

This research analyzed and simulated an electrical power conversion system for a grid-connected variable speed micro hydro turbine (MHT) system. Different from traditional hydro power systems, the MHT is running at variable speed condition with permanent magnet synchronous generator(PMSG). To decouple the relationship between the generator rotation speed and the output frequency, rectifier and DC boost converter is developed to maintain the output voltage when the generator is rotating in a low speed. The reference generator speed is given by the perturbation and observation maximum power point algorithm to extract more energy from the micro hydro turbine. The grid connected …

Integration Of Massive Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles Into Power Distribution Systems: Modeling, Optimization, And Impact Analysis, Jun Tan

Theses and Dissertations

With the development of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, it is highly promising to use plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) as a new form of distributed energy resources. However, the uncertainties in the power market and the conflicts among different stakeholders make the integration of PHEVs a highly challenging task. Moreover, the integration of PHEVs may lead to negative effects on the power grid performance if the PHEV fleets are not properly managed.

This dissertation studies various aspects of the integration of PHEVs into power distribution systems, including the PHEV load demand modeling, smart charging algorithms, frequency regulation, reliability-differentiated service, charging navigation, …

Investigation Of Electric Water Heaters As Demand Response Resources And Their Impact On Power System Operational Reliability, Qian Wu

Theses and Dissertations

The electricity consumption has increased dramatically in past decades due to the improvement of people’s life standard and the increase of their incomes. Some uncertainties have occurred because of an increasing electricity consumption at the household level. As a result, the high power consumption of massive households will affect power system reliability. Recently, the traditional power grid is being transformed to the smart grid, which is an effective way to deal with these issues. The electricity utility could manage the demand side resources using different kinds of Demand Response (DR) methods. Residential resource is an important part besides industrial resource …