Engineering Commons^™

Developing A Standardized Gis Model Capable Of Identifying Areas To Implement Wind Power Generation Infrastructure, Namidu Vishwanath De Silva

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This project involves the use of multi-source GIS data, suitability analysis, and spatial modeling techniques to identify the most suitable areas for improving renewable energy infrastructures, primarily focusing on wind energy, within a given region. Previous literature conducted on the subject matter shows research being done in isolated areas or states. The primary objective of this project is to develop a GIS model and scripting tool that has the capability to test any input region to find the most suitable area within the given region that would be ideal for implementing new wind power infrastructure. The success rate of the …

Supervised Machine Learning Techniques Applied To Low-Cost Air Quality Sensor Suites, Peter Wahman

All Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Low-cost PM sensors have garnered interest for their ability to reduce the cost of investigating PM concentrations in both indoor and outdoor spaces. They perform well in high concentration lab testing with correlation coefficients greater than 0.9. In real-world applications, the correlation coefficients drop significantly because of sensing floors and adverse ambient conditions. There are plenty of supervised machine learning techniques that aim to correct the measurements ranging from linear regression to more advanced neural networks and random forests. This work aims to use those more complicated techniques to adjust the measurements using other data sets gathered by a sensor …

Power Decoupling Control And Optimization For A Photovoltaic Inverter In D-Q Rotation Frame, Zhaoxia Yang

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In the past decade, solar energy, the fastest growing renewable energy, has been a growing interest in integration to the utility grid. Power electronics converters play important role in renewable energy integration, e.g., integrate the distributed photovoltaic (PV) panels to the grid. In many applications, particularly in the residential area, a single-phase rather than three-phase inverter is used to regulate the voltage from one form to the other while tracking the maximum power point of the PV system. The input voltage and current are DC and its maximum power is desired to be a constant value. However, in the single-phase …

Implementation And Usage Of Low-Cost Turbines For Power Generation In Water Networks, Luis Javier Ortiz Osornio

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The following APP is part of an investigation and development, carried out to design, and implement a hydroelectric turbine of horizontal axis, in order to generate electrical energy in rural areas, utilizing existing infrastructure or natural waterways such as irrigation canals, piping, rivers and streams. Every industrialized country, as well as, most of the developing nations, have a stake in agriculture and thus access to the infrastructure required for irrigation purposes. Artificial irrigation canals offer advantages such as a clean continuous flow, with the possibility of flow regulation: this together with their vast availability as agricultural infrastructure constitute the main …

Optimal Speed Control Of Electric Vehicles In Traffic With Wireless Charging, Amina Jemi

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

With the increase in electric vehicle use in recent years and expected increase in the future, a wireless network provides a possible option to allow vehicles with a route while maintaining an approximate net-zero energy balance under certain scenarios. In this type of network, a collection of wireless charging pads is installed under the road, and energy transfer occurs, while a vehicle with wireless charging capability is driven over the charging pads. This thesis describes a methodology and modeling to solve an optimization problem involving a speed-controlled vehicle in traffic. The methodology incorporates a receding horizon dynamic model with constraints. …

A Soft-Switched Three-Port Dc-Dc Converter For A Pv/ Battery System, Mohamedelfatih Dosa

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This thesis proposed a soft-switched three-port bidirectional DC-DC converter for managing the power flow of a photovoltaic (PV) and battery system. The proposed converter consists of three ports connected to a PV panel, battery, and load. These three ports are interfaced through the high-frequency transformer and use phase-shift control to achieve soft-switching for all converter switches. Compared with the traditional multiport converters, the proposed three-port converter uses the least number of power switches, and zero-voltage switching (ZVS). Simulation and experimental results validate the design and effectiveness of soft switching and power flow control. The converter can work in different scenarios …

Design, Fabrication, And Testing Of A High-Speed, Low-Cost Atomic Force Microscope Housing And Distance Measurement System, Jonathan Menke

All Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Advances to the state-of-the-art in fields like biology and material science often stand on the foundation of improved imaging. Here a low-cost Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) housing and distance measurement system was designed, fabricated, and tested. The instrument was developed around an Optical Pickup Unit (OPU) and designed for use as part of a high-speed AFM system. A structure to align the OPU with the probe holder was designed to ensure the beam of the OPU is positioned above the probe in addition to accommodating space, manufacturability, and cost constraints by using cost effective components. The designs were fabricated and …

Analysis Of Three-Phase Rectifier Via Three Different Control Methods And Switch Power Loss Comparison, Yichao Wang

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Traditional uncontrolled or phase-controlled rectifiers have the defects of lower power factor and nontrivial higher harmonics which causes the low efficiency of power, bad power quality, and so on. However, PWM rectifiers overcome the drawbacks mentioned above. They reduce the higher harmonics yielding better sinusoidal current on the grid side, achieve unity power factor and bidirectional power flow, and have better dynamic performance. So, it is favored more by academia and widely applied in high-performance power electronics devices. In this paper, the PWM rectifier is analyzed and a comparison of the switch loss on three-phase rectifier using three different control …

Implementation Of Model-Free Adaptive Power Flow Control For Dual-Active-Bridge-Based Ac-Dc Converters, Qinghang Shen

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

With the rising energy consumption and environment destruction problems worldwide, the development of renewable energy and energy recapture methods to improve the energy utilization rate has become more important as two of the most efficient processes to solve those problems. Bidirectional AC/DC converter and its modulation strategies are widely used as the essential part of implementing bidirectional power conversion between power grid and energy storage systems. To improve the efficiency and accuracy of the power conversion within AC/DC converters, a stable, robust power flow control system with quick response and disturbance rejection ability is desired. This thesis proposes a model-free …

A Four-Port Bidirectional Dc-Dc Converter For Renewable Energy System And Microgrid, Xia Du

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Renewable energy has nowadays become important in electrical power applications. Power converters play an important role in integrating these distributed energy sources. However, due to their intermittence characteristics, e.g., the output power provided by the PV and wind turbine is not stable, either an energy storage system will be used or microgrid is formed between the main grid and the sources. To integrate these renewable energy sources and manage the power flow, a multiport converter is preferred because it is highly beneficial and cost-efficiently than the traditional solution that using multiple individual power converter for each source. This thesis proposed …

Control Of A Grid-Tied Single-Phase Inverter For Renewable Energy Integration, Dianzhi Yu

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

With increasing demand for generating electricity from clean energy, renewable energy sources (RESs), such as wind and solar, has gained much attention due to the clean and quiet characteristics. In many applications, connecting multiple RESs of different types (e.g., wind and solar), voltages, and capacities to a power grid or load is required. Single- phase inverters have been widely installed in residential power system to meet the full or partial load demand. In this work, multiport converters were developed for integrating multiple RESs, wind turbine and photovoltaic (PV) panel. Since the intermittent characteristic of the RESs, an energy storage device, …

Fault Detection And Classification Of A Single Phase Inverter Using Artificial Neural Networks, Ayomikun Samuel Orukotan

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The detection of switching faults of power converters or the Circuit Under Test (CUT) is real-time important for safe and efficient usage. The CUT is a single-phase inverter. This thesis presents two unique methods that rely on backpropagation principles to solve classification problems with a two-layer network. These mathematical algorithms or proposed networks are able to diagnose single, double, triple, and multiple switching faults over different iterations representing range of frequencies. First, the fault detection and classification problems are formulated as neural network-based classification problems and the neural network design process is clearly described. Then, neural networks are trained over …

A Four-Port Dc-Dc Converter For A Hybrid Wind/Solar Energy System, Jiahong Ning

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

With the increasing demand for clean and hybrid energy in the last decades, more and more attentions are paid to the renewable energy, e.g., wind and solar energy. According to the International Energy Agency, solar power was growing-fastest source in the world. In a hybrid wind/solar system, power converters play an important role in in power management and the voltage regulation. Gradually, power systems have undergone a paradigm shift from centralized generation to distributed generation. Smart grid, which is a combination of power systems and communication networks, was proposed to allow power systems to fit the future system challenge. However, …

Virtual Impedance Based Decentralized Control For A Microgrid System, Ramkrishna Mishan

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

As greenhouse gases produced from the conventional power plant causes global climate change, using renewable energy sources (RESs) in the future power system is inevitable. To minimize greenhouse gases emission, the interest in renewable grid or micro-grid is growing nowadays. In the microgrid, especially in AC microgrids, converters play an important role in many areas, including microgrid integration, uninterrupted power supply, and flexible alternating current transmission systems. Inverter plays an essential role in grid integration because it serves the interface between the energy source and the power grid. The important aspect of the inverter is control. This thesis studies several …

The Concept Of Substrate Integrated Circularly Polarized Horn Antennas, Venkata Naga Kalyan Ram Akunuru

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In this thesis, a new type of Substrate Integrated Waveguide for Horn Antennas is proposed for implementing circularly polarization on printed circuit boards. E-plane type of circuits cannot be realized by the conventional substrate integrated waveguide. Substrate integrated E-plane waveguide consists of two circuit boards attached to each other by the two copper strips which are inserted in between two circuit boards, where plated through holes are penetrated through them along the transmission direction. The plated through holes and copper strips altogether played as side walls of a conventional waveguide to support longitudinal and vertical currents. Circular Polarization has its …

Thévenin Equivalent Of Solar Cell Model, Chiedozie Osigwe

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This thesis considers the problem of determining impedance parameters of a solar cell in operation. Typically, solar cell devices are characterized by the manufacturer using empirical data prior to placing the solar cell in use. There are a number of solar cell degeneration mechanisms that are of interest to measure or detect. Therefore, active measurement of solar cell impedance parameters periodically over time is advantageous. We propose a methodology developed from a Thévenin equivalent model of a typical solar cell. This method allows periodic updating of the solar cell’s parameters which can be used to update the cells characterization and/or …

Matlab Gui Based Educational Simulation Tool Box For Power Analysis, Tharuka Senevirathne

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

One of the most important and complex tasks in power engineering is the analysis of power systems under fault conditions. The detection and analysis of these faults are important to guarantee that the dependability and stability of the power system does not decline as a result of a critical event such as a fault. This thesis will conduct research on how a power system under fault conditions behaves and will examine the various scenarios of faults such as three-phase, single line-to-ground, line-to-line, and double line-to-ground faults. A simplified method based on symmetrical components is used to construct the mathematical models …

Application Of Droop Control And Synchronization For Single-Phase Inverters In Ac Microgrid Integration, Shuai Yang

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

With the increasing requirements on environment-friendly and sustainable clean energy [1], people have paid more attention to renewable energy around the world in the past few decades. As a result, power systems have undergone a paradigm shift from centralized generation to distributed generation. Smart grids, which are a combination of power systems and communication networks, were proposed to allow power systems to meet future challenges. In smart grids, especially in AC microgrids, converters play an important role in many areas including microgrid integration, uninterrupted power supply, and flexible alternating current transmission systems. The inverter is a power conversion device [2] …

Optimization Of Energy Harvesting Mobile Nodes Within Scalable Converter System Based On Reinforcement Learning, Chengtao Xu

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Microgrid monitoring focusing on power data, such as voltage and current, has become more significant in the development of decentralized power supply system. The power data transmission delay between distributed generator is vital for evaluating the stability and financial outcome of overall grid performance. In this thesis, both hardware and simulation has been discussed for optimizing the data packets transmission delay, energy consumption, and collision rate. To minimize the transmission delay and collision rate, state-action-reward-state-action (SARSA) and Q-learning method based on Markov decision process (MDP) model is used to search the most efficient data transmission scheme for each agent device. …

Modeling Of Small-Scale Wind Power System With Virtual Synchronous Generator, Sahithi Nannapaneni

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Wind power systems are the most commonly used systems for a renewable energy source over the past few decades. Most of the current wind turbines are large scale wind turbines which produce mega watts power. This thesis is prepared to develop a small scale wind turbine with axial flux permanent magnet synchronous generator for regional areas and small commercial industries. This thesis mainly focuses on the Axial Flux PMSG which is a small scale prototype with the characteristics of the large scale wind turbine generator and having a super capacitor embedded in it. The first objective is to create the …

Robust Power Interface For Smart Grid With Renewable Energy Source-To-Grid Functionality, Bohyun Ahn

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Many renewable energy companies design wind turbine generators, solar panels, or electrical car batteries with different specifications according to their management philosophy. And typical commercial power converters are not universally designed for all different types of renewable energy systems. Because of this lack of flexibility and interoperability, a universal and scalable smart grid power converter design is desirable. Designing a robust controlled bi-directional power converter is the motivation for this thesis as the first step to develop a more universal converter topology connecting renewable energy sources and the electrical smart-grid of the future.

Renewable energy such as wind or solar …

Substrate Integrated E-Plane Horn Antenna And Antenna Array, Zhewei Gu

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In this paper, a novel SMA fed substrate integrated E-plane horn antenna and antenna array are proposed. The substrate integrated E-plane waveguide (SIEW) is not only able to integrate conventional waveguide circuits on printed circuit boards (PCB), but also especially falls into all E-plane circuits which substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technique fails to. Essential copper strips are sandwiched in the middle by two PCBs to support longitudinal current in the E-plane fed through an SIEW-to-SMA transition. Copper plated holes aligned along the wave propagation direction are drilled through the substrate and copper strips, so that vertical current in the H-plane …

Graphical User Interface (Gui) Development For An Optical Communication Simulator, Sratsav Ram Shrestha

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Modeling and simulation tools have been an integral part of engineering world for a long time. Various Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools have been extensively used in various industries and research to evaluate the performance of electronic systems. The advancement of such design tools also has influenced the optical communication sector such that there has been a continuous progress on the Photonic Design Automation (PDA) tools. Currently, many software for simulating optical communications are available. However, they are very expensive and conceal the information on how components are modeled. To avoid these constraints, we developed our own PDA software for …

Optimized Endpoint Delivery Via Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Fuad Gazal

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are remotely piloted aircraft with a range of varying applications. Though early adoption of UAVs focused on military applications, surveillance, photography, and agricultural applications are presently on the rise. This work aims to ascertain how UAVs may be employed to elicit deceased transportation times, increased power efficiency, and improved safety. Resulting in optimized end point delivery. A combination of tools and techniques, involving a mathematical model, UAV simulations, redundant control systems, and custom designed electrical and mechanical components were used towards reaching the goal of a 10-kilogram maximum payload delivered 10 miles under 30 minutes. Two …

A Wavelet Transform Module For A Speech Recognition Virtual Machine, Euisung Kim

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This work explores the trade-offs between time and frequency information during the feature extraction process of an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system using wavelet transform (WT) features instead of Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) and the benefits of combining the WTs and the MFCCs as inputs to an ASR system. A virtual machine from the Speech Recognition Virtual Kitchen resource (www.speechkitchen.org) is used as the context for implementing a wavelet signal processing module in a speech recognition system. Contributions include a comparison of MFCCs and WT features on small and large vocabulary tasks, application of combined MFCC and WT features on …

Efficient Modeling And Simulation Of Wavelength Division Multiplexing Dual Polarization Qpsk Optical Fiber Transmission, Siva Kumar Raju Nadimpalli

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Due to enormous growth in communications, wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems are popular because these systems allow us to expand the capacity of the networks without laying more optical fiber cables. In this thesis, we have systematically derived the coupled nonlinear Schrödinger (CNLS) equations, including a consistent definition of the complex envelope, Fourier transform, the state of polarization, and derivation under the engineering notation. After a discussion of coarse step based second order symmetrized split-step Fourier (SSSF) simulation method, which is applicable to the numerical solution of the CNLS equations, an analytical step-size selection based local error method is applied …

The Concept Of Substrate Integrated E-Plane Waveguide And Circuits, Danyang Huang

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In this thesis, a new type of substrate integrated waveguide is proposed for implementing E-plane type of waveguide circuits on printed circuit boards. obviously, these E-plane type of circuits cannot be realized by the conventional substrate integrated waveguide. The so-called substrate integrated E-plane waveguide consists of two circuit boards attached to each other. Two copper strips are inserted in between two circuit boards, where plated through holes are penetrated through them along the transmission direction. The plated through holes and copper strips altogether played as side walls of a conventional waveguide to support longitudinal and vertical currents. Simulation is carried …

Use Of Bridging Strategy Between The Ensemble Kalman Filter And Particle Filter For The Measurements With Various Quasi-Gaussian Noise, Sumathi Prabhakaran Jeyakumari

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Filtering and estimation are two important tools of engineering. Whenever the state of the system needs to be estimated from the noisy sensor measurements, some kind of state estimator is used. If the dynamics of the system and observation model are linear under Gaussian conditions, the root mean squared error can be computed using the Kalman Filter. But practically, noise frequently enters the system as not strictly Gaussian. Therefore, the Kalman Filter does not necessarily provide the better estimate. Hence the estimation of the nonlinear system under non-Gaussian or quasi-Gaussian noise is of an acute interest. There are many versions …

Effects Of Computer Program Visualization Tools On Student Populations, Meghan Jayne Peterson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This study examined how program visualization tools affect Advanced Placement Computer Science students' understanding of abstract programming concepts. A literature review was conducted to determine if program visualization is effective and which students benefit from it the most. The findings were used to design a causal comparative study in which students would experience instruction with and without program visualization. The study took place in an AP Computer Science course during the first challenging unit about an abstract concept: loops. Participants (n = 24) were selected using convenience sampling and were assessed before, during, and after the study took place. While …

A 2x2 Polarization Switchable Patch Antenna Array For Polarization Modulation, Pengfei Ji

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This thesis introduced and investigated a new concept in the development of a 2X2 polarization switchable patch antenna array for polarization modulation. Polarization modulation is a technique to modulate digital information using different polarization of the electromagnetic wave. The existing waveform based modulation techniques are well developed and start approaching to their performance limits. Polarization modulation provides a new modulation dimension for wireless communications and can further increase data throughput. A four-port circular patch antenna is presented and investigated for the implementation of polarization modulation. It has four ports, each excites radiation of a different polarization. A single pole four …