5,843 research outputs found
Influence of ac ageing on space charge dynamics in LDPE
No full textPolymeric materials have been widely used as insulation in power industry due to their excellent electrical properties. However, these properties deteriorate in time irreversibly when the material is subjected to electric stress. Although space charge is believed to play an important role in ac ageing, exact mechanisms are poorly understood due to very limited experimental data. In the present work efforts have been made to investigate the influence of ac ageing on space charge dynamics in low-density polyethylene (LDPE). LDPE films with 200mm were aged at 50 kV/mm at 50 Hz for various times at ambient temperature. Space charge dynamics in the samples prior to and after ageing were monitored using the pulsed electroacoustic (PEA) technique under dc electric stress. The results indicate that there is a significant amount of homocharge accumulation in the unaged sample due to charge injection. These injected charges are the captured by the deep traps originated from the interface between crystalline and amorphous regions in LDPE. Ageing under ac condition does not necessarily lead to an increase in amount of charge in the bulk but leads to an increase in mobility of charge carriers. Chemical analysis by infrared spectroscope (FTIR) reveals there are chemical changes taken place in the bulk of the material after ac ageing. It is believed that the chemical changes introduce shallow traps which promote the movement of charge carriers in the bulk. Consequently, the injected charges spread across the sample
A power sharing series power BJT array with isolated low voltage control for AC power control applications
No full textA technique for a continuously variable AC resistance using a series BJT array is presented. This array provides high power dissipation capability and uniform voltage and power distribution across the individual transistors. The array, controlled using a set of optoisolators to maintain the electrical isolation between the control circuits and the power stage, could be used as the basis to develop several useful techniques including a solid state AC regulator with comparable performance to the commonly used ferro-resonant systems; a linear AC electronic load suitable for testing UPS and other power conditioners; and, in other AC power control applications such as switching capacitors in AC resonant circuits
Experimental High-Frequency Parameter Identification of AC Electrical Motors
Get PDFIn order to predict conducted electromagnetic interference in inverter-motor drive systems, high-frequency (HF) motor models are requested and the involved parameters have to be available. In previous studies, the authors have presented an accurate HF model for induction motors and they have defined the procedures to identify the model parameters. In this paper, these results are extended to several types and sizes of industrial ac motors such as induction, synchronous reluctance (without interior permanent magnets), and brushless motors. The model parameter-identification procedure has been improved, and it is based on a least-squares data fitting applied to the measured magnitude and phase-frequency-response curves of the phase-to-ground and the phase-to-neutral impedances. The aim of this paper is to provide quick indications to select the suitable values of the HF model parameters, with reference to the size and type of the ac motor, to evaluate the HF voltage and current components in inverted-fed ac motor system
Using the AC Drive Motor as a Transducer for Detecting Electrical and Electromechanical Faults
No full textCondition monitoring of AC motors is a subject area that has received extensive research. Whether this monitoring is carried out on a scheduled basis by engineer intervention, or continuously using an on-line unit, the results of this testing enable preventative maintenance work to be a carried out earlier, before any major failure occurs. Monitoring using vibration analysis is the most common and depending on the plant, can be done once or twice a year. This is usually limited to the condition of motor bearings and is not commonly used to detect failures in the motor electromagnetic systems. Monitoring units that use motor current measurements are also available, but these are less widely-used and usually on major plant motors (>250kW for example) that have a large capital outlay to replace.
The industry drivers – as always – are maximum plant and machinery uptime, with the minimal amount of scheduled maintenance. If maintenance is carried out too regularly, costs rise significantly not only due to the maintenance activity itself, but disruption to production schedules. Maintenance schedules that are too infrequent can result in an unacceptable rise in total failures of plant that are unexpected and may cause a significant amount of production disruption and downtime, especially if this occurs during out-of-hours working time. However, industry now faces another big challenge and one that has had a good share of exposure over the last few years. It is of course, the drive to reduce carbon emissions and with it the amount of energy that a plant itself consumes. What has brought this more to the fore recently is the significant rise in energy costs. Whilst product margins have to remain the same, many companies energy costs have seen a two to three-fold increase in energy budgets in the last few years alone. For industry processes that have a significant amount of fan and pump applications, the manufacturers of low-cost AC inverters have saturated the lower-performance market of inverter drives such that any drive can control these type of fan and pump applications, where accurate speed control is not a major driver.
Unfortunately, this can be a step backwards for end-users of plant that use equipment to monitor motor condition via motor current signals. Additionally, vibration analysis that relies upon ‘base-lining’ motor data when the AC motor is running at base speed may not give accurate readings when the motor is under inverter control and running at a different speed.
For manufacturers of AC inverter drives in this low-end market, it can be difficult to sell a product from one manufacturer over another without the unit having a “USP”, or Unique Selling Proposition. Most decisions taken on inverter equipment purchase at this level are usually in favour of the equipment that costs the least to purchase. Credibility of manufacturers based on product history and perceived reliability cuts little ground with an ever cost-conscious industry.
This is where the research into diagnosis of faults on inverter driven motor systems can provide just this USP for manufacturers. If the incorporation of on-line diagnosis for simple inverter applications can be brought to a typical inverter unit at a reasonable cost, the manufacturer who can offer this gains a unique foothold in the marketplace – a drive that can monitor and signal that the motor it is driving is showing signs of early failure.
It will be sensible to limit this research to simple inverter applications as high-end inverter drives that operate equipment such as high-speed printing presses, rotary shears will be more difficult to model and simulate than a fan or pump application.
It is hoped that a typical inverter drive can relay enough detailed information about the load which it is driving to allow this to be used for abnormal motor load conditions as this will provide a platform on which to extend the research beyond this MSc and into the realms of incorporating such technology into a drive manufacturers equipment. If this can be done without major modification to an inverter, then it may be easier to implement in equipment offered by different manufacturers.
It is quite possible that this technology could be licensed under a name that guarantees the performance of the condition monitoring algorithms and reliability from one drive manufacturer to another
Thermal fluids for CSP systems: Alkaline nitrates/nitrites thermodynamics modelling method
No full textMolten salt (MS) mixtures are used for the transport (HTF-heat transfer fluid) and storage of heat (HSM-heat storage material) in Concentration Solar Plants (CSP). In general, alkaline and earth-alkaline nitrate/nitrite mixtures are employed. Along with its upper stability temperature, the melting point (liquidus point) of a MS mixture is one of the main parameters which defines its usefulness as a HTF and HSM medium. As a result, we would like to develop a predictive model which will allow us to forecast freezing points for different MS mixture compositions; thus circumventing the need to determine experimentally the phase diagram for each MS mixture. To model ternary/quaternary phase diagram, parameters for the binary subsystems are to be determined, which is the purpose of the concerned work. In a binary system with components A and B, in phase equilibrium conditions (e.g. liquid and solid) the chemical potentials (partial molar Gibbs energy) for each component in each phase are equal. For an ideal solution it is possible to calculate the mixing (A+B) Gibbs energy:ΔG = ΔH - TΔS = RT(xAlnxA + xBlnxB) In case of non-ideal solid/liquid mixtures, such as the nitrates/nitrites compositions investigated in this work, the actual value will differ from the ideal one by an amount defined as the "mixing" (mix) Gibbs free energy. If the resulting mixtures is assumed, as indicated in the previous literature, to follow a "regular solution" model, where all the non-ideality is considered included in the enthalpy of mixing value and considering, for instance, the A component: ΔG0=(ΔHA-TΔSA)+(ΔHmixAL-TΔSmixAL)-(ΔHmixAS-TΔSmixAS) where the molar partial amounts can be calculated from the total value by the Gibbs Duhem equation: (ΔHmixAL=ΔHmix-XBLdΔHmixdXBL)L;(ΔHmixAS=ΔHmix-XBSdΔHmixdXBS)S and, in general, it is possible to express the mixing enthalpy for solids and liquids as a function of the mol fraction: ΔHLmix=XALXBL(a1+b1XAL+c1XALXBL),ΔHSmix=XASXBS(a2+b2XAS+c2XASXBS) From the latter expressions it can be possible to modelize the phase diagram of a binary mixtures by using the a,b and c couples of parameters. To calculate those coefficients a method commonly employed in literature is to measure the mixing enthalpies, or to use one reported of the enthalpy of mixing (for instance for the liquid state) and calculate the other one using the phase diagram points. A direct ΔHmix (in solid or liquid phase) measurement can be difficult to carry out using common DSC equipment generally present in research laboratories. In fact, such determinations can be, in principle, performed, but the obtained data will be affected by large experimental errors. On the other hand, it is possible to obtain values with great precision regarding the algebraic sum of mixing enthalpies and the phase diagram trend. For this reason, only the phase diagrams are proposed to be used to calculate a, b, c parameters, and, subsequently, the total (liquid-solid algebraic sum) enthalpy of mixing will be employed to verify their validity. At this aim, a C++ code was assessed and used. Three binary mixtures were considered by combining NaNO3, KNO3 and NaNO2. © 2016 Author(s)
Phase Diagram Predictive Model for a Ternary Mixture of Calcium, Sodium, and Potassium Nitrate
No full textThe development of low-melting mixtures is crucial for the diffusion of sustainable and green alternative energy sources, namely, CSP. Ternary mixtures containing sodium, potassium, and calcium are extremely promising as thermal fluids due to their good thermophysical properties, low toxicity and cost. Most literature studies on ternary mQ4ixtures refer to a particular commercial composition and there are few data regarding ternary phase diagrams. Thus, for improving the current understanding on this topic, further theoretical and experimental investigation on ternary mixtures is of utmost interest. An experimental campaign was conducted to study the binary subsystems of the ternary mixtures and develop a regular solution model for simulating the ternary phase diagram. To validate the model, several data were determined using an innovative experimental rheometric method. The results showed that a ternary contribution in the regular solution model is necessary and an empirical expression for this ternary parameter was proposed and validated
Predictive model for the phase diagrams of ternary mixtures composed of calcium, lithium and sodium/potassium nitrates
Get PDFThe study and development of multi-component alkaline nitrates systems is of utmost interest to investigate low melting and low cost HTFs and HSMs, to be used in CSP plants. At this aim, several binary and ternary mixtures have been proposed as feasible and promising materials in the scientific literature. In order to evaluate the most feasible HTF and HSM, the simulation campaign proposed in this work was focused on economical and readily available compounds, ruling out rare and costly species. A semi-predictive model, based on the regular solution theory, was employed to draw the ternary phase diagrams of LiNO3/NaNO3/Ca(NO3)2 and LiNO3/KNO3/Ca(NO3)2, from which it was possible to select the lower melting zones and the compositions. The binary sub-systems were the starting point for the employed approach. The results showed a good agreement with literature experimental data, and new low melting compositions were simulated and experimentally validated. It is noteworthy that it was possible to identify in great detail the zones of the two ternaries presenting the lowest freezing points and this can allow the design of interesting and cost-effective low melting mixtures
Thermophysical, environmental, and compatibility properties of nitrate and nitrite containing molten salts for medium temperature CSP applications: A critical review
No full textThe production of electric energy from solar radiation is nowadays one of the most investigated and developed “carbon free” technology. A throughout investigation of the ceramics most commonly used as heat transfer fluids and/or heat storage materials for concentrating solar power systems (i.e. alkaline and heart alkaline nitrate/nitrite mixtures) is here reported. The study stems by the need to base materials selection on an accurate and critical knowledge of all their characteristics, including their thermophysical, environmental compatibility, and economic features. At this purpose, a rating criterion have been established, to readily show the advantages and disadvantages of each material, and to highlight which characteristics of the examined materials need to be further investigated and improved. Nitrate/nitrite mixtures have also been compared with other ceramics used for thermal storage, such as solid fillers, liquid metals, other salt mixtures, or phase change materials. © 2018 Elsevier Lt
Torque behavior of one-phase permanent magnet AC motor
Get PDFThis paper presents a detailed comparative study of two starting and running methods for a single-phase permanent magnet synchronous motor, equipped with a squirrel-cage rotor. The analysis of the motor performance is realized for a pulse width modulated (PWM) inverter fed motor and for a capacitor-start, capacitor-run motor. The developed approach may be extended to any 1-phase ac motor—induction, synchronous reluctance or synchronous permanent magnet
AC/DC Characterization of a Ti/Au TES with Au/Bi Absorber for X-ray Detection
No full textTransition-edge sensors (TESs) are used as very sensitive thermometers in microcalorimeters aimed at detection of different wavelengths. In particular, for soft X-ray astrophysics, science goals require very high-resolution microcalorimeters which can be achieved with TESs coupled to suitable absorbers. For many applications, there is also need for a high number of pixels which typically requires multiplexing in the readout stage. Frequency-domain multiplexing (FDM) is a common scheme and is the baseline proposed for the ATHENA mission. FDM requires biasing the TES in AC at MHz frequencies. Recently, there has been reported degradation in performances under AC with respect to DC bias. In order to assess the performances of TESs to be used with FDM, it is thus of great interest to compare the performances of the same device both under AC bias and DC bias. This requires two different measurement set-ups with different processes for making the characterization. We report in this work the preliminary results of a single-pixel characterization performed on a TiAu TES under AC and afterwards under DC bias in different facilities. Extraction of dynamical parameters and noise performances are compared in both cases as a first stage for further AC/DC comparison of these devices.Accepted Author ManuscriptImPhys/Optic
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