Engineering Commons^™

Probabilistic Reliability Analysis Of The Water-Energy Nexus Using Monte Carlo Simulation, Yunfan Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

Nowadays, with the development of science and technologies, our modern society is more and more dependent on the reliable performance of the critical infrastructures. Both water systems and power systems are national critical infrastructure supporting our daily life and the development of economic growth. These two types of systems are highly interconnected and complex networks, which consist of various system elements. Similarly, the core function of water and power system is to deliver satisfactory quality water and power to consumers, and at the same time it should satisfy all the demands at all load points. The reliable performance of these …

Improvement Of Speech Perception For Hearing-Impaired Listeners, Fang Du

Theses and Dissertations

Hearing impairment is becoming a prevalent health problem affecting 5% of world adult populations. Hearing aids and cochlear implant already play an essential role in helping patients over decades, but there are still several open problems that prevent them from providing the maximum benefits. Financial and discomfort reasons lead to only one of four patients choose to use hearing aids; Cochlear implant users always have trouble in understanding speech in a noisy environment.

In this dissertation, we addressed the hearing aids limitations by proposing a new hearing aid signal processing system named Open-source Self-fitting Hearing Aids System (OS SF hearing …

Big Data And Sensor Network For Construction Material Testing, Yao Shi

Theses and Dissertations

Engineers and contractors need to have a precise understanding of the development progress of concrete strength in the natural environment, which helps to save project time and cost. However, current practice of concrete construction depends on published data, charts and curves from laboratory tests. The data would not show frequently changing environmental conditions in the real world, which can affect concrete quality significantly. The objective of this research is to design a reliable and accurate method to validate test data of the strength developments of concrete specimens in early stages. The approach includes the following tasks: (1) arrange sensors to …

Ku-Band Ag Channel Modeling, Albert Smith

Theses and Dissertations

With the rise in use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), there is a need for safe and reliable integration into existing infrastructure. A proposed system for beyond line of sight control links for UAS is a Ku-band air-to-satellite communication system. To ensure this proposed system does not interfere with existing terrestrial infrastructure that operates in the Ku band, an examination of the Ku-band air-to-ground channel is required. The focus of this thesis is the modeling of the Ku-band AG channel. Tests consisting of transmitting a single tone continuous wave signal were conducted with a signal generator onboard NASA’s Viking S-3 …

Non-Destructive Characterization Of Rotated Uniaxial Anisotropic Materials, Alexander G. Knisely

Theses and Dissertations

Electromagnetic material characterization of anisotropic media requires measurement diversity, minimal measurement uncertainty and insight into sample symmetry. Additionally, non-destructive characterization techniques are valued over legacy measurement techniques because a destructive approach requires sample preparation to execute a measurement. A Single Port Waveguide Probe (SPWP) non-destructive material characterization technique is proposed to accommodate measuring a metal backed, known thickness, rotated uniaxial anisotropic material. A rotated uniaxial sample possesses unique transverse constitutive components and a longitudinal constitutive component which is the same as one of the transverse values. The SPWP consists of a rectangular waveguide aperture cut in the center of a …

Resistive Solid State Protective Device, Amin Khanlar

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract: This thesis describes and explains different fault to characterize fault specifically for DC distribution systems and DC Microgrids fed by synchronous generators. This will result in a testbed for static and intermittent line-to-line faults, and in future work, various types of ground faults. Automaton allows for repeated testing at various voltage levels and precise control over intermittent fault generation. The fault generator is implemented with an IGBT H-bridge topology. Its physical implementation and benefits are described. Experimental results are shown for static line-to-line fault. This testbed will be used to help develop closed-form expressions. Once fault currents are characterized …

Online Hvac Temperature And Air Quality Control For Cost-Efficient Commercial Buildings Based On Lyapunov Optimization Technique, Atiye Maleksadati

Theses and Dissertations

Commercial buildings consume up to 35.5% of total electricity consumed in the United States. As a subsystem in the smart building management system, Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems are responsible for 45% of electricity consumption in commercial buildings. Therefore, energy management of HVAC systems is of interest. The HVAC system brings thermal and air quality comfort to the occupants of the building, designing a controller that maximizes this comfort is the first objective. Inevitably, ideal comfort tracking means more energy consumption and energy cost. Hence, the more advanced objective is balancing the comfort-cost tradeoff.

Since HVAC systems have …

Microgrid Reliability Evaluation Based On Condition-Dependent Failure Models Of Power Electronic Devices, Qi Li

Theses and Dissertations

Microgrid, a distributed energy system consisting of distributed energy and loads, aims to ensure reliable and affordable energy security in urban and rural communities. With the growing global energy need and the emerging threat of climate change, green renewable energy is becoming a new favorite in the field of power generation. Microgrids have received wide spread attention and application for their minimizing carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions. Microgrids do so by maximizing clean local energy generation as well

as reducing the stress of the transmission and distribution system.

With the use of renewable energy, the reliability performance of microgrids …

Design Of A High Frequency Four Port Transformer For Dc/Dc Converters, Md Abdul Gaffar

Theses and Dissertations

Large scale integration of renewable energy systems (RES) and energy storage systems (ESS) demands a better connectivity between distributed sources and loads. Multi-port solid state transformer (MPSST) plays a critical role as a joint node to integrate RESs, ESSs, utility grid, and loads. MPSST offers several advantages including independent power flow control on each port, voltage or current regulations, compactness and portability, and galvanic isolation.

This thesis seeks to address some of the remaining challenges of using MPSST. Operation of the converter in closed-loop with phase shift modulation is analyzed for a dual active bridge as the control building block …

Angularly Resolved Deep Brain Fluorescence Imaging Using A Single Optical Fiber, Israel Delarosa

Theses and Dissertations

To further understand neural disorders as well as recognize complexities of normal brain functionality continuously drives the development and implementation of new research instruments and techniques. In neuroscience research one difficulty that these instruments face is accessing subcortical regions with minimal invasiveness. While electrode based deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been a primary technique in research it has also become an accepted alleviation method for some neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s, epilepsy, and depression in severe cases. However, there are possible side effects that may arise from the lack of cell targeting in electrical stimulation.

Optogenetics, uses proteins from microbial …

Reliability Evaluation And Improvement Based On Operational Failure Rate Of Power Electronics In Islanded Microgrid, Wen Zhong

Theses and Dissertations

With power electronics being widely applied in microgrids, they become a key part in micro-grid and the reliability assessment considering power electronic devices have become a hot research topic, and much work has been done to evaluate the reliability of power electronics in microgrids. However, the impact of operational failure of power electronics on the overall microgrid reliability has not been studied yet.

This thesis has three objectives. The first objective of this thesis is to construct a systematic operational failure rate model of power electronic systems. The power generated from renewable generation units, such as PV arrays or wind …

A High Frequency, High Efficiency, High Power Factor Isolated On-Board Battery Charger For Electric Vehicles, Yuqi Wei

Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, a high frequency, high efficiency and high power factor isolated on-board battery charger is proposed. The proposed topology includes two parts, AC/DC power factor correction (PFC) circuit unit and DC/DC converter unit. For the PFC circuit, SiC based totem-pole interleaved bridgeless PFC is selected, the diode bridge rectifier is eliminated. In addition, it can operate in continuous conduction mode (CCM) thanks to the low reverse recovery losses of the SiC MOSFETs. Besides, the interleaved technology minimizes the input current ripple. The DC/DC converter unit is composed of two LLC resonant converters sharing the same full-bridge inverter with …

A Distribution Network Reconfiguration And Islanding Strategy, Zikai Jiang

Theses and Dissertations

With the development of Smart Grid, the reliability and stability of the power system are significantly improved. However, a large-scale outage still possibly occurs when the power system is exposed to extreme conditions. Power system blackstart, the restoration after a complete or partial outage is a key issue needed to be studied for the safety of power system. Network reconfiguration is one of the most important steps when crews try to rapidly restore the network. Therefore, planning an optimal network reconfiguration scheme with the most efficient restoration target at the primary stage of system restoration is necessary and it also …

Analysis Of Impacts Of Electrical Architectures, Social-Economic Considerations And Regions, On Requirements For Residential Combined Solar And Battery Implementations, Swachala Veerapaneni

Theses and Dissertations

A community DC MG in an urban environment is analyzed and aimed at driving down the utility costs in a low-income household. A typical home conventional AC loads is compared with smart technologies to prove that utility bills can be significantly reduced. The optimal installation and usage of solar and battery energy storage is determined for the entire integrated community aiming to achieve net zero energy community. This study revealed a need for better understanding of the loads in each house and load patterns across a wide range of regions nationally and more typical houses, as opposed to the specialized …

Cost-Effective Scheduling Of Load And Microgrid In Wastewater Treatment Plant, Wentao Zou

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

COST-EFFECTIVE SCHEDULING OF LOAD AND MICROGRID IN WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT

By

Wentao Zou

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,2018

Under the Supervision of Dr. Lingfeng Wang

As a big consumer of energy, water and wastewater treatment used about 75000 to 100000 GWh electricity, which accounts for nearly 3% of U.S. annual energy [1]. Not only being energy-intensive, wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) also consumes a lot of electricity during peak hours, which makes WWTP a good candidate of DR (demand response). The main purpose of demand response is to improve the stability of the electric grid and reduce the use of electricity …

Optimization For Integration Of Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles Into Distribution Grid, Shuaiyu Bu

Theses and Dissertations

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) feature combined electric and gasoline powertrains with internal combustion engine and electric motors powered by battery packs. The battery packs of PHEVs are mostly charged during off-peaks hours at lower prices and meanwhile absorb the excess power from the grid. Similarly, the power stored in the batteries can also flow back to the electric grid in response to ease the peak load demands.

With the increasing penetration and integration of PHEVs, the reliability of PHEVs is essential to overall power system reliability since the charging mechanisms of PHEVs can influence the reliability of power system. …

Segmented Control Of Electrostatically Actuated Bimorph Micromirrors, Kullen W. Waggoner

Theses and Dissertations

Electrostatic actuating bimorph beams are a MEMS device that can be used to control arrays of small micromirrors for optical beam scanning. Previous research has demonstrated that creating high-angle deflection using long repeating arms of bimorph beams is possible. The current devices lack precise control and measurement of the mirror deflection. A solution to improve control and measurement is by using segmented bias channels to control separate portions of the actuation arm. The amount of mirror deflection will vary depending on which segments of the arm are actuated. This thesis discusses the results of FEA modeling and testing.

Design And Optimization Of Hybrid Energy Storage For Photovoltaicpower Fluctuation Smoothing Based On Frequency Analysis, Yanting Zeng

Theses and Dissertations

As the output power of photovoltaic generation system is affected by factors such as light intensity and temperature, it creates greater randomness and volatility. When the power changes quickly and fluctuates, the traditional energy storage devices often can’t balance the power effectively. In this research Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) method is used to transform the photovoltaic stabilization power in the original time domain to the frequency domain for analysis. And percentage method was used to select the most typical PV data in the frequency domain. Then, the selected power was converted back to the time domain using Inverse Fast Fourier …

A Rectenna For 5g Energy Harvesting, Panagiotis Efthymakis

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes the design of a rectenna that is capable of operating in 5G. 5G’s availability will create the opportunity to harvest energy everywhere in the network’s coverage. This thesis investigates a Rectenna device with a new proposed topology in order to eliminate coupling between input and output lines and increase the rectification efficiency. Moreover, it is designed to charge a rechargeable battery of 3V, 1mA, with a 4.8mm diameter. The current design describes using one antenna for energy harvesting; this could be expanded to use an antenna array, which would increase the input power. This would lead to …

Novel Wideband Ebg Structures For Isolation Improvement Between Cosite Antennas, Paul John Czeresko Iii

Theses and Dissertations

As the number of installed antennas increases on a structure, the available real estate to do so without each antenna interfering with the others diminishes. Electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structures are one way to mitigate this cosite interference with compact antenna installations. While a host of EBG structures and types (3-D, planar etc.) have been proposed and studied historically, it has been found that planar EBG structures tend to provide very narrow bandwidths for both antenna design and cosite interference reduction. This research focuses on the design of EBG structures intended to achieve greater than 20 dB of isolation improvement …