Engineering Commons^™

Farm Electricity System Simulator (Fess): A Platform For Simulating Electricity Utilisation On Dairy Farms, F. Buckley, J. Upton, R. Prendergast, L. Shalloo, Michael D. Murphy

Publications

The objective of this paper was to define, validate and demonstrate a model capable of accurately simulating dairy farm electricity consumption across varying herd and parlour sizes, to facilitate research investigating renewable energy systems (RES) and demand side management (DSM). The Farm Electricity System Simulator (FESS) was developed using grey-box modelling techniques utilizing empirical data for parameter tuning. Empirical data were gathered from nine spring calving, pasture based dairy farms located in the Republic of Ireland. A k-means clustering analysis was conducted, separating the farms into three, near homogenous groups, from which representative farms were selected. FESS was trained using …

Maximizing Ev Profit And Grid Stability Through Virtual Power Plant Considering V2g, A. Selim Türkoğlu, H. Cihan Güldorum, Ibrahim Sengor

Dept. of Electrical & Electronic Engineering Publications

The electrification of transportation through the widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) has raised substantial concerns within the realm of power grid operations. This concern predominantly stems from the elevated electricity demand brought about by the surging population of EVs, consequently exerting strain on the power grid infrastructure which can be reduced with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology integration. To address this issue, this paper delves further into the realm of grid integration by introducing a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) concept to enhance the synergy between EVs and power grid. This study aims to compare different realistic objectives, ranging from total active …

Advancing Industrial Participation In Demand Response Within National Electricity Grids Through Systematic Asset Selection, Risk Assessment And Modelling Approaches, Alexander Brem

Theses

Increasing the flexible capacity on national electricity grids will be key to maintain reliable control as the levels of renewables continue to increase annually. The industrial sector has been identified as being capable of contributing and potentially offering flexible capacities, following appropriate investigation. The aim of this thesis is to develop the knowledge, advance the engagement and encourage additional participation in national demand response programmes from the industrial sector to provide this flexibility. The potential within this sector, facilitated by the smart grid and demand response concepts is outlined, specifically detailing their benefits, driving factors and potential barriers as part …

Model-Based Cognitive Communications For Low-Power Wireless Networks, Indika Sanjeewa Abeywickrama Dhanapala

Theses

Our world is increasingly being instrumented with low-power wireless networks that deliver data for diverse application domains such as energy management, health and well-being, security, and other Internet of Things services. As these wireless networks operate in the unlicensed radio spectrum while co-existing with various other communication networks, their communication reliability and energy efficiency are affected by the radio environment. Because of this vulnerability to radio interference, low-power wireless networks may be unable to deliver their application requirements and be inefficiently consuming energy, functioning as a low-dependability network. The situation is exacerbated in indoor environments such as office and residential …

Robust Control Strategies For Optimal Operation Of Distributed Generation In Smart Microgrids, Chi-Thang Phan-Tan

Theses

The high penetration of PV systems and fast communications networks increase the potential for PV inverters to support the stability and performance of smart grids and microgrids. PV inverters in the distribution network can work cooperatively and follow centralized and decentralized control commands to optimize energy production while meeting grid code requirements. However, there are older autonomous inverters that have already been installed and will operate in the same network as smart controllable ones. This research proposes a decentralized optimal control (DOC) that performs multi-objective optimization for a group of PV inverters in a network of existing residential loads and …

Pepblock Builder Vr – An Open-Source Tool For Gaming-Based Bio-Edutainment In Interactive Protein Design, Venkata V. B. Yallapragada, Tianshu Xu, Sidney P. Walker, Sabin Tabirca, Mark Tangney

Cappa Publications

Proteins mediate and perform various fundamental functions of life. This versatility of protein function is an attribute of its 3D structure. In recent years, our understanding of protein 3D structure has been complemented with advances in computational and mathematical tools for protein modelling and protein design. 3D molecular visualisation is an essential part in every protein design and protein modelling workflow. Over the years, stand-alone and web-based molecular visualisation tools have been used to emulate three-dimensional view on computers. The advent of virtual reality provided the scope for immersive control of molecular visualisation. While these technologies have significantly improved our …

Parking Recommender System Privacy Preservation Through Anonymization And Differential Privacy, Yasir Saleem Shaikh, Mubashir Husain Rehmani, Noel Crespi, Roberto Minerva

Publications

Recent advancements in the Internet of Things (IoT) have enabled the development of smart parking systems that use services of third-party parking recommender system to provide recommendations of personalized parking spot to users based on their past experience. However, the indiscriminate sharing of users’ data with an untrusted (or semitrusted) parking recommender system may breach the privacy because users’ behavior and mobility patterns could be inferred by analyzing their past history. Therefore, in this article, we present two solutions that preserve privacy of users in parking recommender systems while analyzing the past parking history using k-anonymity (anonymization) and differential privacy …

Adaptive Uplink Data Rate Prediction And Networkselection In A Vehicular Mobile Channel, Georgi Nikolov

Theses

The rapid acceleration into the digital age brings a worldwide interconnectedness of an unprecedented level. This interconnectedness transforms the modern transportation network by linking its infrastructure components (e.g., signaling systems, traffic control systems, maintenance systems) together. Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) can utilize this newly emerged network infrastructure, improving traffic safety, traffic control, and reducing transportation-related environmental impacts, changing the way drivers, businesses and governments deal with road transport. It is expected that in the near future self-aware vehicles (e.g., trains, cars or trucks) will constitute the majority of the transportation infrastructure. Vehicles need to be able to reliably communicate critical …

Passive Control Strategies For Cooling A Non-Residential Nearly Zero Energy Office: Simulated Comfort Resilience Now And In The Future, Adam O'Donovan, Michael D. Murphy, Paul D. O'Sullivan

Publications

The average global cooling demand in non-residential buildings is expected to increase by over 275% between now and 2050. Controlled passive cooling is fundamental to successful operational performance of buildings and in mitigating energy that would otherwise be consumed by mechanical systems. The aim of this study was to determine the resilience of different passive cooling control strategies in delivering optimal comfort and energy scenarios in both current and future extreme conditions, for low energy indoor office spaces. Simulations were conducted using a calibrated TRNSYS 17 model of a nearly zero energy building. The performance of ten passive cooling control …

Photovoltaic Systems On Dairy Farms: Financial And Renewable Multi-Objective Optimization (Farmoo) Analysis, Michael Breen, J. Upton, Michael D. Murphy

Publications

No abstract provided.

Deal: Differentially Private Auction For Blockchain Based Microgrids Energy Trading, Muneeb Ul Hassan, Mubashir Husain Rehmani, Jinjun Chen

Publications

Modern smart homes are being equipped with certain renewable energy resources that can produce their own electric energy. From time to time, these smart homes or microgrids are also capable of supplying energy to other houses, buildings, or energy grid in the time of available self-produced renewable energy. Therefore, researches have been carried out to develop optimal trading strategies, and many recent technologies are also being used in combination with microgrids. One such technology is blockchain, which works over decentralized distributed ledger. In this paper, we develop a blockchain based approach for microgrid energy auction. To make this auction more …

Differential Privacy Techniques For Cyber Physical Systems: A Survey, Muneeb Ul Hassan, Mubashir Husain Rehmani, Jinjun Chen

Publications

Modern cyber physical systems (CPSs) has widely being used in our daily lives because of development of information and communication technologies (ICT).With the provision of CPSs, the security and privacy threats associated to these systems are also increasing. Passive attacks are being used by intruders to get access to private information of CPSs. In order to make CPSs data more secure, certain privacy preservation strategies such as encryption, and k-anonymity have been presented in the past. However, with the advances in CPSs architecture, these techniques also need certain modifications. Meanwhile, differential privacy emerged as an efficient technique to protect CPSs …

Mac Protocols For Terahertz Communication: A Comprehensive Survey, Saim Ghafoor, Noureddine Boujnah, Mubashir Husain Rehmani, Alan Davy

Publications

Terahertz communication is emerging as a future technology to support Terabits per second link with highlighting features as high throughput and negligible latency. However, the unique features of the Terahertz band such as high path loss, scattering, and reflection pose new challenges and results in short communication distance. The antenna directionality, in turn, is required to enhance the communication distance and to overcome the high path loss. However, these features in combine negate the use of traditional medium access protocols (MAC). Therefore, novel MAC protocol designs are required to fully exploit their potential benefits including efficient channel access, control message …

Smart Inverters For Distributed Pv Network Management, Colin Charles Levis

Theses

Securing a sustainable decarbonised economy involves moving towards a decentralised power system with increasing penetration levels of distributed photovoltaics (PVs) within the low voltage distribution network (LVDN). Increasing penetration levels of PV systems pose challenges for maintaining grid voltage and frequency stability. Thus requires studies and simulations to estimate the needs and technical requirements to overcome the challenges and maximise the opportunities. These simulations require time-domain system models with a high dynamic resolution such as electromagnetic transient (EMT) simulations with small-time steps that capture the required performance with large numbers of network elements. However, the small-time step implies a high …

An Enhanced Two-Stage Grid-Connected Linear Parameter Varying Photovoltaic System Model For Frequency Support Strategy Evaluation, Colin Levis, Cathal O' Loughlin, Terence O' Donnell, Martin Hill

Dept. of Electrical & Electronic Engineering Publications

Securing a future sustainable decarbonised economy involves moving towards a system with rising penetration levels of distributed photovoltaics (PVs) within the low voltage distribution network (LVDN). This power system evolution is displacing conventional generators and has resulted in a decline in inertia that is essential for frequency stability. Emerging network codes require PV generators to maintain a scheduled curtailed active power (CAP) reserve for under-frequency contingencies. In this paper, the development, verification and application of an enhanced, two-stage grid-connected, state-space, linear parameter varying (LPV) PV system model is presented. The LPV model provides accurate and efficient modelling for PV systems …

Inspex: Optimize Range Sensors For Environment Perception As A Portable System, Julie Foucault, Suzanne Lesecq, Gabriela Dudnik, Marc Correvon, Rosemary O’Keeffe, Vincenza Di Palma, Marco Passoni, Fabio Quaglia, Laurent Ouvry, Steven Buckley, Jean Herveg, Andrea Di Matteo, Tiana Rakotovao, Olivier Debicki, Nicolas Mareau, John Barrett, Susan Rea, Alan Mcgibney, François Birot, Hugues De Chaumont, Richard Banach, Joseph Razavi, Cian Ó’Murchú

NIMBUS Articles

Environment perception is crucial for the safe navigation of vehicles and robots to detect obstacles in their surroundings. It is also of paramount interest for navigation of human beings in reduced visibility conditions. Obstacle avoidance systems typically combine multiple sensing technologies (i.e., LiDAR, radar, ultrasound and visual) to detect various types of obstacles under different lighting and weather conditions, with the drawbacks of a given technology being offset by others. These systems require powerful computational capability to fuse the mass of data, which limits their use to high-end vehicles and robots. INSPEX delivers a low-power, small-size and lightweight environment perception …

Effective Capacity In Wireless Networks: A Comprehensive Survey, Muhammad Amjad, Mubashir Husain Rehmani, Leila Musavian

Publications

Low latency applications, such as multimedia communications, autonomous vehicles, and Tactile Internet are the emerging applications for next-generation wireless networks, such as 5th generation (5G) mobile networks. Existing physical layer channel models, however, do not explicitly consider quality of service (QoS) aware related parameters under specific delay constraints. To investigate the performance of low-latency applications in future networks, a new mathematical framework is needed. Effective capacity (EC), which is a link-layer channel model with QoS-awareness, can be used to investigate the performance of wireless networks under certain statistical delay constraints. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey on existing …

A Method For The Measurement Of The Latency Tolerance Range Of Western Musicians, Jorge Medina Victoria

PhDs

This thesis presents a new systematic method to measure the ability of western musicians to cope with latency. The core of the method is a listening test and the development of a measure. The viability of the method is statistically tested with an empirical observation of 31 test subjects performing on 17 different musical instruments.

The primary goal of the investigation is the development of a systematic, reliable and replicable method that can be applied to different western music instruments, in order to provide data for analysis on latency issues while performing music in non-collaborative performances. In addition, a measure …

Low-Loss, Compact, Spot-Size-Converter Based Vertical Couplers For Photonic Integrated Circuits, Praveen K.J. Singaravelu, G.C.R. Devarapu, Sebastian A. Schulz, Quentin Wilmart, Stéphane Malhouitre, Ségolène Olivier, Liam O’Faolain

Cappa Publications

In recent years, the monolithic integration of new materials such as SiN, Ge and LiNbO3 on silicon (Si) has become important to the Si photonics community due to the possibility of combining the advantages of both material systems. However, efficient coupling between the two different layers is challenging. In this work, we present a spot size converter based on a two-tier taper structure to couple the optical mode adiabatically between Si and SiN. The fabricated devices show a coupling loss as low as 0.058 dB  ±  0.01 dB per transition at 1525 nm. The low coupling loss between the Si …

Mid-Infrared Optical Sensing Using Sub-Wavelength Gratings, Brian Hogan, Liam Lewis, Michael Mcauliffe, Stephen P. Hegarty

Cappa Publications

Optical sensing has shown great potential for both quantitative and qualitative analysis of compounds. In particular sensors which are capable of detecting changes in refractive index at a surface as well as in bulk material have received much attention. Much of the recent research has focused on developing technologies that enable such sensors to be deployed in an integrated photonic device. In this work we demonstrate experimentally, using a sub-wavelength grating the detection of ethanol in aqueous solution by interrogating its large absorption band at 9.54 µm. Theoretical investigation of the operating principle of our grating sensor shows that in …

Fall Detection Using Channel State Information From Wifi Devices, D.M Sameera Palipana

PhDs

Falls among the independently living elderly population are a major public health worry, leading to injuries, loss of confidence to live independently and even to death. Each year, one in three people aged 65 and older falls and one in five of them suffers fatal or non fatal injuries. Therefore, detecting a fall early and alerting caregivers can potentially save lives and increase the standard of living. Existing solutions, e.g. push-button, wearables, cameras, radar, pressure and vibration sensors, have limited public adoption either due to the requirement for wearing the device at all times or installing specialized and expensive infrastructure. …

Impact Of Combined Heat And Power Generation On An Industrial Site Distribution Network, Thomas Neally

Masters

Presence of Distributed Generation (DG) in Industrial Site Distribution Network (ISDN) can represent a significant impact on the operational characteristics of the network. Present planning and operation criteria use for ISDN are in general not suitable to cope with the presence of a significant DG capacity. The presence of DG provides considerable benefits from both engineering and economic viewpoints. However, it changes radial configurations of the distribution feeders. Consequently it may cause coordination failure to existing protection system which is originally set based on radial configuration. In addition, high penetration of DG into ISDN may increase feeder loss, and cause …

Software Defined Networks Based Smart Grid Communication: A Comprehensive Survey, Mubashir Husain Rehmani, Alan Davy, Brendan Jennings, Chadi Assi

Publications

The current power grid is no longer a feasible solution due to ever-increasing user demand of electricity, old infrastructure, and reliability issues and thus require transformation to a better grid a.k.a., smart grid (SG). The key features that distinguish SG from the conventional electrical power grid are its capability to perform two-way communication, demand side management, and real time pricing. Despite all these advantages that SG will bring, there are certain issues which are specific to SG communication system. For instance, network management of current SG systems is complex, time consuming, and done manually. Moreover, SG communication (SGC) system is …

Effects Of Fabrication Errors On The Focusing Performance Of A Sector Metalens, S. S. Stafeev, A. G. Nalimov, Liam O’Faolain, M. V. Kotlyar

Cappa Publications

Using e-beam lithography, a 16-sector spiral metalens was fabricated in an amorphous silicon, capable of converting linearly polarized incident light into an azimuthally polarized optical vortex. When illuminated by a 633-nm linearly polarized laser beam, the metalens generated a near-surface subwavelength focal spot equal to 0.75 of the incident wavelength at full-width of half-maximum intensity. The focusing performance of the spiral metalens was numerically shown to be sensitive to the deviation of the factual microrelief from the calculated height. For the designed microrelief height, a circularly polarized incident beam was focused into a bright ring with a reverse energy flow …

Wireless Sensors For Health Monitoring Of Marine Structures And Machinery, Francisco David Rojas Calvente

PhDs

Remote structural and machinery health monitoring (SMHM) of marine structures such as ships, oil and gas rigs, freight container terminals, and marine energy platforms can ensure their reliability. However, the wired sensors currently used in these applications are difficult and expensive to install and maintain. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) can potentially replace them but there are significant capability gaps that currently prevent their long-term deployment in the harsh marine environment and the structurally-complex, compartmentalised, all-metal scenarios with high volume occupancy of piping, ducting and operational machinery represented by marine structures. These gaps are in sensing, processing and communication hardware and …

Rotation Of Two-Petal Laser Beams In The Near Field Of A Spiral Microaxicon, S. S. Stafeev, Liam O'Faolain, M. V. Kotlyar

Cappa Publications

Using a spiral microaxicon with the topological charge 2 and NA = 0.6 operating at a 532-nm wavelength and fabricated by electron-beam lithography, we experimentally demonstrate the rotation of a two-petal laser beam in the near field (several micrometers away from the axicon surface). The estimated rotation rate is 55 °/mm and linearly dependent on the on-axis distance, with the theoretical rotation rate being 53 °/mm. The experimentally measured rotation rate is found to be linear and coincident with the simulation results only on the on-axis segment from 1.5 to 3 mm. The experimentally measured rotation rate is 66 °/mm …

Efficient Control Message Dissemination In Dense Wireless Lighting Networks, Conrad Dandelski

PhDs

Modern lighting systems using LED light sources lead to dense lighting installations. The control of such systems using wireless Machine-to-Machine (M2M) where standard LED light sources are replaced by wirelessly controllable LED light sources create new problems which are investigated in this thesis. Current approaches for control message transmission is such networks are based on broadcasting messages among luminaires. However, adequate communication performance - in particular, sufficiently low latency and synchronicity - is difficult to ensure in such networks, in particular, if the network is part of a wireless building management system and carries not only low-latency broadcast messages but …

Design And Implementation Of A Micro-Inverter For Photovoltaic Applications, Chi-Thang Phan-Tan

Masters

The objective of this work is to design and build a novel topology of a micro-inverter to directly convert DC power from a photovoltaic module to AC power. In the proposed micro-inverter, a structure with two power stages, which are DC/DC and then DC/AC converters, is used. A novel MPPT algorithm is implemented and evaluated in the DC/DC converter to optimize the solar panel energy production. The new method operates with an efficiency of 97.9%, which is a 1% improvement on the standard method, and a response time of

In this research, the following approach is taken. A literature review …

Controlled Switching Of Reactive Loads And Commisioning Regimes, Eoin Cowhey

Masters

Switching is a vital task in any power system for ensuring its safe and reliable operation. Switching may be necessary for fault clearance, to ensure wider system stability and to prevent damage to plant. It is essential for isolation, to allow technicians to carry out maintenance tasks safely. Also, switching of reactive loads such as shunt capacitor banks and shunt reactors, is crucial for controlling system voltage.

Switching of some loads however, may produce voltage transients and heavy transient inrush currents which can impact on wider system power quality, impact customers and cause damage or deterioration of the insulation of …

Predicting Energy And Water Consumption On Dairy Farms Through Statistical Analysis And Machine-Learning Methods, Philip Shine

Theses

With the abolishment of milking quotas across all European Union member states in April 2015, dairy farmers must adjust their farming practises to minimise milk production costs to adequately prepare for potential periods of reduced revenue. Milk production is an intense energy and water consuming process. Coupled with challenging European greenhouse gas reduction targets and legislation regarding the prevention of groundwater pollution and deterioration, increasing the production of milk in Ireland must be met with the sustainable consumption of on-farm energy and direct water resources, to ensure the future monetary and environmental sustainability of Ireland’s dairy industry. Thus, this body …