A New Nonlinear Excitation Controller for Transient Stability Enhancement in Power Systems

The very nonlinear nature of the generator and system behaviour following a severe disturbance precludes the use of classical linear control technique. In this paper, a new approach of nonlinear control is proposed for transient and steady state stability analysis of a synchronous generator. The control law of the generator excitation is derived from the basis of Lyapunov stability criterion. The overall stability of the system is shown using Lyapunov technique. The application of the proposed controller to simulated generator excitation control under a large sudden fault and wide range of operating conditions demonstrates that the new control strategy is superior to conventional automatic voltage regulator (AVR), and show very promising results.

Computer Simulations of an Augmented Automatic Choosing Control Using Automatic Choosing Functions of Gradient Optimization Type

In this paper we consider a nonlinear feedback control called augmented automatic choosing control (AACC) using the automatic choosing functions of gradient optimization type for nonlinear systems. Constant terms which arise from sectionwise linearization of a given nonlinear system are treated as coefficients of a stable zero dynamics. Parameters included in the control are suboptimally selected by minimizing the Hamiltonian with the aid of the genetic algorithm. This approach is applied to a field excitation control problem of power system to demonstrate the splendidness of the AACC. Simulation results show that the new controller can improve performance remarkably well.

Intelligent Control and Modelling of a Micro Robot for In-pipe Application

In this paper, a worm-like micro robot designed for inpipe application with intelligent active force control (AFC) capability is modelled and simulated. The motion of the micro robot is based on an impact drive mechanism (IDM) that is actuated using piezoelectric device. The trajectory tracking performance of the modelled micro robot is initially experimented via a conventional proportionalintegral- derivative (PID) controller in which the dynamic response of the robot system subjected to different input excitations is investigated. Subsequently, a robust intelligent method known as active force control with fuzzy logic (AFCFL) is later incorporated into the PID scheme to enhance the system performance by compensating the unwanted disturbances due to the interaction of the robot with its environment. Results show that the proposed AFCFL scheme is far superior than the PID control counterpart in terms of the system-s tracking capability in the wake of the disturbances.

The Effect of Response Feedback on Performance of Active Controlled Nonlinear Frames

The effect of different combinations of response feedback on the performance of active control system on nonlinear frames has been studied in this paper. To this end different feedback combinations including displacement, velocity, acceleration and full response feedback have been utilized in controlling the response of an eight story bilinear hysteretic frame which has been subjected to a white noise excitation and controlled by eight actuators which could fully control the frame. For active control of nonlinear frame Newmark nonlinear instantaneous optimal control algorithm has been used which a diagonal matrix has been selected for weighting matrices in performance index. For optimal design of active control system while the objective has been to reduce the maximum drift to below the yielding level, Distributed Genetic Algorithm (DGA) has been used to determine the proper set of weighting matrices. The criteria to assess the effect of each combination of response feedback have been the minimum required control force to reduce the maximum drift to below the yielding drift. The results of numerical simulation show that the performance of active control system is dependent on the type of response feedback where the velocity feedback is more effective in designing optimal control system in comparison with displacement and acceleration feedback. Also using full feedback of response in controller design leads to minimum control force amongst other combinations. Also the distributed genetic algorithm shows acceptable convergence speed in solving the optimization problem of designing active control systems.

Sensorless Commutation Control of Switched Reluctance Motor

This paper addresses control of commutation of switched reluctance (SR) motor without the use of a physical position detector. Rotor position detection schemes for SR motor based on magnetisation characteristics of the motor use normal excitation or applied current /voltage pulses. The resulting schemes are referred to as passive or active methods respectively. The research effort is in realizing an economical sensorless SR rotor position detector that is accurate, reliable and robust to suit a particular application. An effective and reliable means of generating commutation signals of an SR motor based on inductance profile of its stator windings determined using active probing technique is presented. The scheme has been validated online using a 4-phase 8/6 SR motor and an 8-bit processor.

Nonlinear Dynamics of Cracked RC Beams under Harmonic Excitation

Nonlinear response behaviour of a cracked RC beam under harmonic excitation is analysed to investigate various instability phenomena like, bifurcation, jump phenomena etc. The nonlinearity of the system arises due to opening and closing of the cracks in the RC beam and is modelled as a cubic polynomial. In order to trace different branches at the bifurcation point on the response curve (amplitude versus frequency of excitation plot), an arc length continuation technique along with the incremental harmonic balance (IHBC) method is employed. The stability of the solution is investigated by the Floquet theory using Hsu-s scheme. The periodic solutions obtained by the IHBC method are compared with these obtained by the numerical integration of the equation of motion. Characteristics of solutions fold bifurcation, jump phenomena and from stable to unstable zones are identified.

Development of New Control Techniques for Vibration Isolation of Structures using Smart Materials

In this paper, the effects of the restoring force device on the response of a space frame structure resting on sliding type of bearing with a restoring force device is studied. The NS component of the El - Centro earthquake and harmonic ground acceleration is considered for earthquake excitation. The structure is modeled by considering six-degrees of freedom (three translations and three rotations) at each node. The sliding support is modeled as a fictitious spring with two horizontal degrees of freedom. The response quantities considered for the study are the top floor acceleration, base shear, bending moment and base displacement. It is concluded from the study that the displacement of the structure reduces by the use of the restoring force device. Also, the peak values of acceleration, bending moment and base shear also decreases. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the developed and proposed method.

Viscoelastic Modeling of Brain MRE Data Using FE Method

Dynamic shear test on simulated phantom can be used to validate magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) measurements. Phantom gel has been usually utilized for the cell culture of cartilage and soft tissue and also been used for mechanical property characterization using imaging systems. The viscoelastic property of the phantom would be important for dynamic experiments and analyses. In this study, An axisymmetric FE model is presented for determining the dynamic shear behaviour of brain simulated phantom using ABAQUS. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of excitation frequencies and boundary conditions on shear modulus and shear viscosity in viscoelastic media.

A Closed Form Solution for Hydrodynamic Pressure of Gravity Dams Reservoir with Effect of Viscosity under Dynamic Loading

Hydrodynamic pressures acting on upstream of concrete dams during an earthquake are an important factor in designing and assessing the safety of these structures in Earthquake regions. Due to inherent complexities, assessing exact hydrodynamic pressure is only feasible for problems with simple geometry. In this research, the governing equation of concrete gravity dam reservoirs with effect of fluid viscosity in frequency domain is solved and then compared with that in which viscosity is assumed zero. The results show that viscosity influences the reservoir-s natural frequency. In excitation frequencies near the reservoir's natural frequencies, hydrodynamic pressure has a considerable difference in compare to the results of non-viscose fluid.

An Augmented Automatic Choosing Control with Constrained Input Using Weighted Gradient Optimization Automatic Choosing Functions

In this paper we consider a nonlinear feedback control called augmented automatic choosing control (AACC) for nonlinear systems with constrained input using weighted gradient optimization automatic choosing functions. Constant term which arises from linearization of a given nonlinear system is treated as a coefficient of a stable zero dynamics. Parameters of the control are suboptimally selected by maximizing the stable region in the sense of Lyapunov with the aid of a genetic algorithm. This approach is applied to a field excitation control problem of power system to demonstrate the splendidness of the AACC. Simulation results show that the new controller can improve performance remarkably well.

Optical Properties of Some A2BCl4 Type Chlorides

Efficient luminescence is reported for the first time in Eu2+ activated double Chlorides A2BCl4 (A=Alkali metal, B=Alkaline earth element). A simple wet-chemical preparation is described. Emission intensities are comparable to that of the commercial phosphor. Excitation covers near UV region. These phosphors may be useful for applications like solid state lighting, scintillation detectors and X-ray storage using photo-stimulable phosphors.

A Study of Various Numerical Turbulence Modeling Methods in Boundary Layer Excitation of a Square Ribbed Channel

Among the various cooling processes in industrial applications such as: electronic devices, heat exchangers, gas turbines, etc. Gas turbine blades cooling is the most challenging one. One of the most common practices is using ribbed wall because of the boundary layer excitation and therefore making the ultimate cooling. Vortex formation between rib and channel wall will result in a complicated behavior of flow regime. At the other hand, selecting the most efficient method for capturing the best results comparing to experimental works would be a fascinating issue. In this paper 4 common methods in turbulence modeling: standard k-e, rationalized k-e with enhanced wall boundary layer treatment, k-w and RSM (Reynolds stress model) are employed to a square ribbed channel to investigate the separation and thermal behavior of the flow in the channel. Finally all results from different methods which are used in this paper will be compared with experimental data available in literature to ensure the numerical method accuracy.

Phase Jitter Transfer in High Speed Data Links

Phase locked loops in 10 Gb/s and faster data links are low phase noise devices. Characterization of their phase jitter transfer functions is difficult because the intrinsic noise of the PLLs is comparable to the phase noise of the reference clock signal. The problem is solved by using a linear model to account for the intrinsic noise. This study also introduces a novel technique for measuring the transfer function. It involves the use of the reference clock as a source of wideband excitation, in contrast to the commonly used sinusoidal excitations at discrete frequencies. The data reported here include the intrinsic noise of a PLL for 10 Gb/s links and the jitter transfer function of a PLL for 12.8 Gb/s links. The measured transfer function suggests that the PLL responded like a second order linear system to a low noise reference clock.

Performance Verification of Seismic Design Codes for RC Frames

In this study, a frame work for verification of famous seismic codes is utilized. To verify the seismic codes performance, damage quantity of RC frames is compared with the target performance. Due to the randomness property of seismic design and earthquake loads excitation, in this paper, fragility curves are developed. These diagrams are utilized to evaluate performance level of structures which are designed by the seismic codes. These diagrams further illustrate the effect of load combination and reduction factors of codes on probability of damage exceedance. Two types of structures; very high important structures with high ductility and medium important structures with intermediate ductility are designed by different seismic codes. The Results reveal that usually lower damage ratio generate lower probability of exceedance. In addition, the findings indicate that there are buildings with higher quantity of bars which they have higher probability of damage exceedance. Life-cycle cost analysis utilized for comparison and final decision making process.

Spreading of Swirling Double–Concentric Jets at Low and High Pulsation Intensities

The spreading characteristics of acoustically excited swirling double-concentric jets were studied experimentally. The central jet was acoustically excited at low and high pulsation intensities. A smoke wire flow visualization and a hot-wire anemometer velocity measurement results show that excitation forces a vortex ring to roll-up from the edge of the central tube during each excitation period. At low pulsation intensities, the vortex ring evolves downstream, and eventually breaks up into turbulent eddies. At high pulsation intensities, the primary vortex ring evolves and a series of trailing vortex rings form during the same period of excitation. The trailing vortex rings accelerate while evolving downstream and overtake the primary vortex ring within the same cycle. In the process, the primary vortex ring becomes unstable and breaks up early. The effect of the fast traveling trailing vortex rings combined with the swirl motion of the annular flow improve jet spreading compared with the naturally evolving jets.

Analysis of SEIG for a Wind Pumping Plant Using Induction Motor

In contrast to conventional generators, self-excited induction generators are found to be most suitable machines for wind energy conversion in remote and windy areas due to many advantages over grid connected machines. This papers presents a Self-Excited Induction Generator (SEIG) driven by wind turbine and supplying an induction motor which is coupled to a centrifugal pump. A method to describe the steady state performance based on nodal analysis is presented. Therefore the advanced knowledge of the minimum excitation capacitor value is required. The effects of variation of excitation capacitance on system and rotor speed under different loading conditions have been analyzed and considered to optimize induction motor pump performances.

Higher Frequency Modeling of Synchronous Exciter Machines by Equivalent Circuits and Transfer Functions

In this article the influence of higher frequency effects in addition to a special damper design on the electrical behavior of a synchronous generator main exciter machine is investigated. On the one hand these machines are often highly stressed by harmonics from the bridge rectifier thus facing additional eddy current losses. On the other hand the switching may cause the excitation of dangerous voltage peaks in resonant circuits formed by the diodes of the rectifier and the commutation reactance of the machine. Therefore modern rotating exciters are treated like synchronous generators usually modeled with a second order equivalent circuit. Hence the well known Standstill Frequency Response Test (SSFR) method is applied to a test machine in order to determine parameters for the simulation. With these results it is clearly shown that higher frequencies have a strong impact on the conventional equivalent circuit model. Because of increasing field displacement effects in the stranded armature winding the sub-transient reactance is even smaller than the armature leakage at high frequencies. As a matter of fact this prevents the algorithm to find an equivalent scheme. This issue is finally solved using Laplace transfer functions fully describing the transient behavior at the model ports.

Optimal Design of Selective Excitation Pulses in Magnetic Resonance Imaging using Genetic Algorithms

The proper design of RF pulses in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has a direct impact on the quality of acquired images, and is needed for many applications. Several techniques have been proposed to obtain the RF pulse envelope given the desired slice profile. Unfortunately, these techniques do not take into account the limitations of practical implementation such as limited amplitude resolution. Moreover, implementing constraints for special RF pulses on most techniques is not possible. In this work, we propose to develop an approach for designing optimal RF pulses under theoretically any constraints. The new technique will pose the RF pulse design problem as a combinatorial optimization problem and uses efficient techniques from this area such as genetic algorithms (GA) to solve this problem. In particular, an objective function will be proposed as the norm of the difference between the desired profile and the one obtained from solving the Bloch equations for the current RF pulse design values. The proposed approach will be verified using analytical solution based RF simulations and compared to previous methods such as Shinnar-Le Roux (SLR) method, and analysis, selected, and tested the options and parameters that control the Genetic Algorithm (GA) can significantly affect its performance to get the best improved results and compared to previous works in this field. The results show a significant improvement over conventional design techniques, select the best options and parameters for GA to get most improvement over the previous works, and suggest the practicality of using of the new technique for most important applications as slice selection for large flip angles, in the area of unconventional spatial encoding, and another clinical use.

RANFIS : Rough Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System

The paper presents a new hybridization methodology involving Neural, Fuzzy and Rough Computing. A Rough Sets based approximation technique has been proposed based on a certain Neuro – Fuzzy architecture. A New Rough Neuron composition consisting of a combination of a Lower Bound neuron and a Boundary neuron has also been described. The conventional convergence of error in back propagation has been given away for a new framework based on 'Output Excitation Factor' and an inverse input transfer function. The paper also presents a brief comparison of performances, of the existing Rough Neural Networks and ANFIS architecture against the proposed methodology. It can be observed that the rough approximation based neuro-fuzzy architecture is superior to its counterparts.

Theoretical Investigation of Carbazole-Based D-D-π-A Organic Dyes for Efficient Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell

In this paper, four carbazole-based D-D-π-A organic dyes code as CCT2A, CCT3A, CCT1PA and CCT2PA were reported. A series of these organic dyes containing identical donor and acceptor group but different π-system. The effect of replacing of thiophene by phenyl thiophene as π-system on the physical properties has been focused. The structural, energetic properties and absorption spectra were theoretically investigated by means of Density Functional Theory (DFT) and Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (TD-DFT). The results show that nonplanar conformation due to steric hindrance in donor part (cabazolecarbazole unit) of dye molecule can prevent unfavorable dye aggregation. By means of the TD-DFT method, the absorption spectra were calculated by B3LYP and BHandHLYP to study the affect of hybrid functional on the excitation energy (Eg). The results revealed the increasing of thiophene units not only resulted in decreasing of Eg, but also found the shifting of absorption spectra to higher wavelength. TD-DFT/BHandHLYP calculated results are more strongly agreed with the experimental data than B3LYP functions. Furthermore, the adsorptions of CCT2A and CCT3A on the TiO2 anatase (101) surface were carried out by mean of the chemical periodic calculation. The result exhibit the strong adsorption energy. The calculated results provide our new organic dyes can be effectively used as dye for Dye Sensitized Solar Cell (DSC).