Electrical and Electronics Commons^™

Multi-Criteria Performance Evaluation And Control In Power And Energy Systems, Payam Ramezani Badr

All Dissertations

The role of intuition and human preferences are often overlooked in autonomous control of power and energy systems. However, the growing operational diversity of many systems such as microgrids, electric/hybrid-electric vehicles and maritime vessels has created a need for more flexible control and optimization methods. In order to develop such flexible control methods, the role of human decision makers and their desired performance metrics must be studied in power and energy systems. This dissertation investigates the concept of multi-criteria decision making as a gateway to integrate human decision makers and their opinions into complex mathematical control laws. There are two …

Diy Cell Incubator, Hayden James Jeanor

Electrical Engineering

The purpose of creating a cell Incubator is for the development of cell and tissue production in laboratory settings. Large scale research projects and the medical community grow cells for various reasons, including experiments and creating tissue for patients. However, they cannot simply depend on growing cells in a petri dish that sit on a rack at room temperature. To grow heathy cells in the fastest way possible, they use cell incubators. Cell incubators create an atmosphere within the incubation bay that is designed to promote cell growth. The three main components that need to be constantly regulated, using a …

Hypoxic Incubation Chamber, Simone Lisette Helfrich, Makenzie Nicole Jones

Biomedical Engineering: Graduate Reports and Projects

This paper describes the design, manufacturing, and testing of a novel controllable hypoxic incubator with fully functional oxygen gas control and temperature control in a humid environment. On the current market, a majority of the few hypoxic incubators use pre-mixed gas that does not offer precise control over gas concentration. The objective for this project was to create a chamber that allows the user to set the O2 concentration to varying set points of % O2 while maintaining the chamber at a constant body temperature, CO2 level, humidity, and sterility. To start the project, multiple concepts were developed for the …

Hypoxic Incubation Chamber, Simone Lisette Helfrich, Makenzie Nicole Jones

Master's Theses

This paper describes the design, manufacturing, and testing of a novel controllable hypoxic incubator with fully functional oxygen gas control and temperature control in a humid environment. On the current market, a majority of the few hypoxic incubators use pre-mixed gas that does not offer precise control over gas concentration. The objective for this project was to create a chamber that allows the user to set the O2 concentration to varying set points of % O2 while maintaining the chamber at a constant body temperature, CO2 level, humidity, and sterility. To start the project, multiple concepts were developed for the …

Three-Phase Ac Induction Motor Speed Control Based On Variable Speed Driver, Abdelrahim Ahmed Mohammed Ate, Rihab Gafar, Xiuyun Sun, Tahleel Abozead

Makara Journal of Technology

Massive loss of power is a concern for many countries because of the high power consumption of alternating current (AC) motors. The motor speed should be controlled to alleviate this problem and save more power. This paper proposes a simple simulation for a variable speed driver (VSD) to control the three-phase induction motor speed. The VSD consists of three parts. The converter performs from full bridge diodes to convert single-phase AC voltage into direct current voltage, and then this voltage is filtered by the RL filter and transferred to the last part, which is the inverter. The model was simulated …

Stability Analysis And Design Of Grid-Interactive Power Electronic Converters, Le Kong

Doctoral Dissertations

The increasing penetration of power electronic converters (PECs) can provide high flexibility, full controllability, sustainability, and improved efficiency for future electric power systems. However, it also introduces new challenges since the wide-frequency-band control dynamics of PECs can interact with the power system and result in different types of instability issues. To holistically address the instability issues, several research activities are conducted in this dissertation.

The modular multilevel converter (MMC), which is one of the most common PECs in high- or medium-voltage power systems, is investigated. An improved MMC dc impedance model is developed by considering both the submodule voltage and …

Hybrid Smart Transformer For Enhanced Power System Protection Against Dc With Advanced Grid Support, Moazzam Nazir

All Dissertations

The traditional grid is rapidly transforming into smart substations and grid assets incorporating advanced control equipment with enhanced functionalities and rapid self-healing features. The most important and strategic equipment in the substation is the transformer and is expected to perform a variety of functions beyond mere voltage conversion and isolation. While the concept of smart solid-state transformers (SSTs) is being widely recognized, their respective lifetime and reliability raise concerns, thus hampering the complete replacement of traditional transformers with SSTs. Under this scenario, introducing smart features in conventional transformers utilizing simple, cost-effective, and easy to install modules is a highly desired …

Smartphone Control Of Rc Cars, Weston R. Fitzgerald

Electrical Engineering

The smartphone-controlled RC (remote-controlled) car is an inexpensive remote-controlled car designed to be fast and portable. Instead of manufacturing, packaging, and shipping a separate controller, the remote control is implemented in a phone application, which saves time and money in both the design process and the manufacturing process. Utilizing the user’s smartphone is more cost-effective since mobile devices are a common recurrence, and packaging fewer devices results in overall better portability of the product.

This smartphone-controlled car is speedy and intuitive to learn for typical smartphone users. The user can change the car’s speed and direction wirelessly using their phone; …

Automatic Testing Of Organic Strain Gauge Tactile Sensors., Brian P. Goulet

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human-Robot Interaction is a developing field of science, that is posed to augment everything we do in life. Skin sensors that can detect touch, temperature, distance, and other physical interaction parameters at the human-robot interface are very important to enhancing the collaboration between humans and machines. As such, these sensors must be efficiently tested and characterized to give accurate feedback from the sensor to the robot. The objective of this work is to create a diversified software testing suite that removes as much human intervention as possible. The tests and methodology discussed here provide multiple realistic scenarios that the sensors …

Analysis And Optimization Of The Two-Phase Series Capacitor Buck Dc-Dc Converter, Salahaldein Ali Aboajila Ahmed

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Current sharing schemes for conventional multi-phase converters are based on sensing each phase current to deliver the current information to their controllers. In conventional buck converters, this fact may require a preset current sharing ratio at the expense of efficiency, which eventually requires a larger sensing circuit to achieve the sensing accuracy of each phase. Introducing the concept of automatic current sharing is one of the solutions to tackle this issue. Automatic current sharing (Current Sharing Mechanism CSM) is an advanced way to distribute heat generation in multi-phase switching topologies at full load. A two-phase series capacitor buck converter (2-pscB) …

Parameter Estimation And Charge Control In Standalone And Grid-Tied Batteries, Asadullah Khalid

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Energy storage systems are the critical components enabling an electrified future ranging from electric vehicles (EVs) to microgrid (MG) applications. With the advancements in these applications, the operational dynamics of electrochemical energy storage such as Lithium-ion batteries need to be analyzed from the lifecycle impact, cybersecurity, balancing requirements, and prognostics perspectives. These operations enable the interconnected systems to be secure, efficient, and self-adaptive while reducing greenhouse emissions.

This research aims to develop threefold solutions. The first objective of this dissertation is to analyze lifecycle impact, quantify the interconnection requirements of battery energy storage systems, and evaluate cybersecurity frameworks for battery …

Magic: The Gathering Card Virtualizer, Vincent Garbonick, Jacen C. Conlan, Jaret A. Varn

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Any well-versed Magic: The Gathering (MTG) player or collector knows how difficult it can be to keep track of all cards in their collection. Some spend hours searching for that one specific card, and others are constantly scouring the internet for how much their collection costs. However, this issue does not only affect casual fans. Resale companies spend hours a day determining the costs of cards, and tournament judges painstakingly check players’ decks to ensure they are not cheating. To assist with these struggles, the design team proposed to create the MTG Card Virtualizer. This device scans MTG playing cards …

Autonomous Coffee Brewing System, Lillian Gonzalez, Landon Miller, Tyler Moff, Benjamin Vitu

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Coffee consumers want an affordable, high-quality cup of coffee that takes minimal time to brew and does not excessively contribute plastic to landfills. A fully autonomous system which utilizes whole coffee beans, water, and filters to brew coffee was designed to meet this need. This system accepts user requests which specify the brew’s portion size, water temperature, and brew strength, as well as the time which the system should begin the brewing process. Occasional maintenance to empty the system’s built-in waste receptacle or resupply the system with water, coffee beans, or filters is the only user intervention required. This report …

Modeling And Control Of Direct-Conversion Hybrid Switched-Capacitor Dc-Dc Converters, Ziyu Xia

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Efficient power delivery is increasingly important in modern computing, communications, consumer and other electronic systems, due to the high power demand and thermal concerns accompanied by performance advancements and tight packaging. In pursuit of high efficiency, small physical volume, and flexible regulation, hybrid switched-capacitor topologies have emerged as promising candidates for such applications. By incorporating both capacitors and inductors as energy storage elements, hybrid topologies achieve high power density while still maintaining soft charging and efficient regulation characteristics. However, challenges exist in the hybrid approach. In terms of reliability, each flying capacitor should be maintained at a nominal `balanced' voltage …

Self-Oscillating Induction Heater, Patrick Rice

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This report develops a control system to keep an induction heater in resonance. When a metallic workpiece is inserted in the air core of the workcoil, the resonant frequency changes. Different workpiece materials affect the resonant frequency and power. This presents a problem since changing the resonant frequency of the circuit while keeping the frequency constant reduces the maximum power of the circuit. Finite element analysis is used to find the circuit parameters of the workcoil and workpiece interaction. A non-linear controller which oscillates based on the resonant frequency of an LC tank is created. Nyquist and describing function analysis …