Determination of Stress Concentration Factors of a Steam Turbine Rotor by FEA

Stress Concentration Factors are significant in machine design as it gives rise to localized stress when any change in the design of surface or abrupt change in the cross section occurs. Almost all machine components and structural members contain some form of geometrical or microstructural discontinuities. These discontinuities are very dangerous and lead to failure. So, it is very much essential to analyze the stress concentration factors for critical applications like Turbine Rotors. In this paper Finite Element Analysis (FEA) with extremely fine mesh in the vicinity of the blades of Steam Turbine Rotor is applied to determine stress concentration factors. A model of Steam Turbine Rotor is shown in Fig. 1.

A PSO-based SSSC Controller for Improvement of Transient Stability Performance

The application of a Static Synchronous Series Compensator (SSSC) controller to improve the transient stability performance of a power system is thoroughly investigated in this paper. The design problem of SSSC controller is formulated as an optimization problem and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) Technique is employed to search for optimal controller parameters. By minimizing the time-domain based objective function, in which the deviation in the oscillatory rotor angle of the generator is involved; transient stability performance of the system is improved. The proposed controller is tested on a weakly connected power system subjected to different severe disturbances. The non-linear simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller and its ability to provide efficient damping of low frequency oscillations. It is also observed that the proposed SSSC controller improves greatly the voltage profile of the system under severe disturbances.

Active and Reactive Power Control of a DFIG with MPPT for Variable Speed Wind Energy Conversion using Sliding Mode Control

This paper presents the study of a variable speed wind energy conversion system based on a Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) based on a sliding mode control applied to achieve control of active and reactive powers exchanged between the stator of the DFIG and the grid to ensure a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) of a wind energy conversion system. The proposed control algorithm is applied to a DFIG whose stator is directly connected to the grid and the rotor is connected to the PWM converter. To extract a maximum of power, the rotor side converter is controlled by using a stator flux-oriented strategy. The created decoupling control between active and reactive stator power allows keeping the power factor close to unity. Simulation results show that the wind turbine can operate at its optimum energy for a wide range of wind speed.

Design of a Non-linear Observer for VSI Fed Synchronous Motor

This paper discusses two observers, which are used for the estimation of parameters of PMSM. Former one, reduced order observer, which is used to estimate the inaccessible parameters of PMSM. Later one, full order observer, which is used to estimate all the parameters of PMSM even though some of the parameters are directly available for measurement, so as to meet with the insensitivity to the parameter variation. However, the state space model contains some nonlinear terms i.e. the product of different state variables. The asymptotic state observer, which approximately reconstructs the state vector for linear systems without uncertainties, was presented by Luenberger. In this work, a modified form of such an observer is used by including a non-linear term involving the speed. So, both the observers are designed in the framework of nonlinear control; their stability and rate of convergence is discussed.

Integration of Fixed and Variable Speed Wind Generator Dynamics with Multimachine AC Systems

The impact of fixed speed squirrel cage type as well as variable speed doubly fed induction generators (DFIG) on dynamic performance of a multimachine power system has been investigated. Detailed models of the various components have been presented and the integration of asynchronous and synchronous generators has been carried out through a rotor angle based transform. Simulation studies carried out considering the conventional dynamic model of squirrel cage asynchronous generators show that integration, as such, could degrade to the AC system performance transiently. This article proposes a frequency or power controller which can effectively control the transients and restore normal operation of fixed speed induction generator quickly. Comparison of simulation results between classical cage and doubly-fed induction generators indicate that the doubly fed induction machine is more adaptable to multimachine AC system. Frequency controller installed in the DFIG system can also improve its transient profile.

Vibration Analysis of the Gas Turbine Considering Dependency of Stiffness and Damping on Frequency

In this paper the complete rotor system including elastic shaft with distributed mass, allowing for the effects of oil film in bearings. Also, flexibility of foundation is modeled. As a whole this article is a relatively complete research in modeling and vibration analysis of rotor considering gyroscopic effect, damping, dependency of stiffness and damping coefficients on frequency and solving the vibration equations including these parameters. On the basis of finite element method and utilizing four element types including element of shaft, disk, bearing and foundation and using MATLAB, a computer program is written. So the responses in several cases and considering different effects are obtained. Then the results are compared with each other, with exact solutions and results of other papers.

The Investigation of Motor Cooling Performance

This study experimentally and numerically investigates motor cooling performance. The motor consists of a centrifugal fan, two axial fans, a shaft, a stator, a rotor and a heat exchanger with 637 cooling tubes. The pressure rise-flow rate (P-Q) performance curves of the cooling fans at 1800 rpm are tested using a test apparatus complying with the Chinese National Standard (CNS) 2726. Compared with the experimental measurements, the numerical analysis results show that the P-Q performance curves of the axial fan and centrifugal fan can be estimated within about 2% and 6%, respectively. By using the simplified model, setting up the heat exchanger and stator as porous media, the flow field in the motor is calculated. By using the results of the flow field near the rotor and stator, and subjecting the heat generation rate as a boundary condition, the temperature distributions of the stator and rotor are also calculated. The simulation results show that the calculated temperature of the stator winding near the axial fans is lower by about 5% than the measured value, and the calculated temperature of the stator core located at the center of the stator is about 1% higher than the measured value. Besides, discussion is made to improve the motor cooling performance.

Causes of Rotor Distortions and Applicable Common Straightening Methods for Turbine Rotors and Shafts

Different problems may causes distortion of the rotor, and hence vibration, which is the most severe damage of the turbine rotors. In many years different techniques have been developed for the straightening of bent rotors. The method for straightening can be selected according to initial information from preliminary inspections and tests such as nondestructive tests, chemical analysis, run out tests and also a knowledge of the shaft material. This article covers the various causes of excessive bends and then some applicable common straightening methods are reviewed. Finally, hot spotting is opted for a particular bent rotor. A 325 MW steam turbine rotor is modeled and finite element analyses are arranged to investigate this straightening process. Results of experimental data show that performing the exact hot spot straightening process reduced the bending of the rotor significantly.

Chattering-free Sliding Mode Control for an Active Magnetic Bearing System

In this paper, a few chattering-free Sliding Mode Controllers (SMC) are proposed to stabilize an Active Magnetic Bearing (AMB) system with gyroscopic effect that is proportional to the rotor speed. The improved switching terms of the controller inherited from the saturation-type function and boundary layer control technique is shown to be able to achieve bounded and asymptotic stability, respectively, while the chattering effect in the input is attenuated. This is proven to be advantageous for AMB system since minimization of chattering results in optimized control effort. The performance of each controller is demonstrated via result of simulation in which the measurement of the total consumed energy and maximum control magnitude of each controller illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed controllers.

Modeling and Simulation of Position Estimation of Switched Reluctance Motor with Artificial Neural Networks

In the present study, position estimation of switched reluctance motor (SRM) has been achieved on the basis of the artificial neural networks (ANNs). The ANNs can estimate the rotor position without using an extra rotor position sensor by measuring the phase flux linkages and phase currents. Flux linkage-phase current-rotor position data set and supervised backpropagation learning algorithm are used in training of the ANN based position estimator. A 4-phase SRM have been used to verify the accuracy and feasibility of the proposed position estimator. Simulation results show that the proposed position estimator gives precise and accurate position estimations for both under the low and high level reference speeds of the SRM

Lateral and Longitudinal Vibration of a Rotating Flexible Beam Coupled with Torsional Vibration of a Flexible Shaft

In this study, rotating flexible shaft-disk system having flexible beams is considered as a dynamic system. After neglecting nonlinear terms, torsional vibration of the shaft-disk system and lateral and longitudinal vibration of the flexible beam are still coupled through the motor speed. The system has three natural frequencies; the flexible shaft-disk system torsional natural frequency, the flexible beam lateral and longitudinal natural frequencies. Eigenvalue calculations show that while the shaft speed changes, torsional natural frequency of the shaft-disk system and the beam longitudinal natural frequency are not changing but the beam lateral natural frequency changes. Beam lateral natural frequency stays the same as the nonrotating beam lateral natural frequency ωb until the motor speed ωm is equal to ωb. After then ωb increases and remains equal to the motor speed ωm until the motor speed is equal to the shaft-disk system natural frequency ωT. Then the beam lateral natural frequency ωb becomes equal to the natural frequency ωT and stays same while the motor speed ωm is increased. Modal amplitudes and phase angles of the vibrations are also plotted against the motor speed ωm.

Numerical Investigation of the Optimal Spatial Domain Discretization for the 2-D Analysis of a Darrieus Vertical-Axis Water Turbine

The optimal grid spacing and turbulence model for the 2D numerical analysis of a vertical-axis water turbine (VAWaterT) operating in a 2 m/s freestream current has been investigated. The results of five different spatial domain discretizations and two turbulence models (k-ω SST and k-ε RNG) have been compared, in order to gain the optimal y+ parameter distribution along the blade walls during a full rotor revolution. The resulting optimal mesh has appeared to be quite similar to that obtained for the numerical analysis of a vertical-axis wind turbine.

Optimal Current Control of Externally Excited Synchronous Machines in Automotive Traction Drive Applications

The excellent suitability of the externally excited synchronous machine (EESM) in automotive traction drive applications is justified by its high efficiency over the whole operation range and the high availability of materials. Usually, maximum efficiency is obtained by modelling each single loss and minimizing the sum of all losses. As a result, the quality of the optimization highly depends on the precision of the model. Moreover, it requires accurate knowledge of the saturation dependent machine inductances. Therefore, the present contribution proposes a method to minimize the overall losses of a salient pole EESM and its inverter in steady state operation based on measurement data only. Since this method does not require any manufacturer data, it is well suited for an automated measurement data evaluation and inverter parametrization. The field oriented control (FOC) of an EESM provides three current components resp. three degrees of freedom (DOF). An analytic minimization of the copper losses in the stator and the rotor (assuming constant inductances) is performed and serves as a first approximation of how to choose the optimal current reference values. After a numeric offline minimization of the overall losses based on measurement data the results are compared to a control strategy that satisfies cos (ϕ) = 1.

Distributed Architecture of an Autonomous Four Rotor Mini-Rotorcraft based on Multi-Agent System

In this paper, we present the recently implemented approach allowing dynamics systems to plan its actions, taking into account the environment perception changes, and to control their execution when uncertainty and incomplete knowledge are the major characteristics of the situated environment [1],[2],[3],[4]. The control distributed architecture has three modules and the approach is related to hierarchical planning: the plan produced by the planner is further refined at the control layer that in turn supervises its execution by a functional level. We propose a new intelligent distributed architecture constituted by: Multi-Agent subsystem of the sensor, of the interpretation and representation of environment [9], of the dynamic localization and of the action. We tested this distributed architecture with dynamic system in the known environment. The autonomous for Rotor Mini Rotorcraft task is described by the primitive actions. The distributed controlbased on multi-agent system is in charge of achieving each task in the best possible way taking into account the context and sensory feedback.

LQR and SMC Stabilization of a New Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

We present our ongoing work on the development of a new quadrotor aerial vehicle which has a tilt-wing mechanism. The vehicle is capable of take-off/landing in vertical flight mode (VTOL) and flying over long distances in horizontal flight mode. Full dynamic model of the vehicle is derived using Newton-Euler formulation. Linear and nonlinear controllers for the stabilization of attitude of the vehicle and control of its altitude have been designed and implemented via simulations. In particular, an LQR controller has been shown to be quite effective in the vertical flight mode for all possible yaw angles. A sliding mode controller (SMC) with recursive nature has also been proposed to stabilize the vehicle-s attitude and altitude. Simulation results show that proposed controllers provide satisfactory performance in achieving desired maneuvers.

Effect of Load Orientation on the Stability of a Three-Lobe Bearing Supporting Rigid and Flexible Rotors

Multilobe bearings are found to be more stable than circular bearings. A three lobe bearing also possesses good stability characteristics. Sometimes the line of action of the load does not pass through the axis of a bearing and is shifted on either side by a few degrees. Load orientation is one of the factors that affect the stability of a three lobe bearing. The effect of load orientation on the stability of a three-lobe has been discussed in this paper. The results show that stability of a three-lobe bearing supporting either rigid or flexible rotor is increased for the positive values of load orientation i.e. when the load line is shifted in the opposite direction of rotation.

Nonlinear Observer Design and Sliding Mode Control of Four Rotors Helicopter

In this paper; we are interested in dynamic modelling of quadrotor while taking into account the high-order nonholonomic constraints as well as the various physical phenomena, which can influence the dynamics of a flying structure. These permit us to introduce a new state-space representation and new control scheme. We present after the development and the synthesis of a stabilizing control laws design based on sliding mode in order to perform best tracking results. It ensures locally asymptotic stability and desired tracking trajectories. Nonlinear observer is then synthesized in order to estimate the unmeasured states and the effects of the external disturbances such as wind and noise. Finally simulation results are also provided in order to illustrate the performances of the proposed controllers.

Evaluation of Wind Potential for the Lagoon of Venice (Italy) and Estimation of the Annual Energy Output for two Candidate Horizontal- Axis Low-Wind Turbines

This paper presents an evaluation of the wind potential in the area of the Lagoon of Venice (Italy). A full anemometric campaign of 2 year measurements, performed by the "Osservatorio Bioclimatologico dell'Ospedale al Mare di Venezia" has been analyzed to obtain the Weibull wind speed distribution and the main wind directions. The annual energy outputs of two candidate horizontal-axis wind turbines (“Aventa AV-7 LoWind" and “Gaia Wind 133-11kW") have been estimated on the basis of the computed Weibull wind distribution, registering a better performance of the former turbine, due to a higher ratio between rotor swept area and rated power of the electric generator, determining a lower cut-in wind speed.

Numerical Evaluation of the Contribution of Inertial and Aerodynamic Forces on VAWT Blade Loading

A two-dimensional numerical simulation of the contribution of both inertial and aerodynamic forces on the blade loads of a Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) is presented. After describing the computational model and the relative validation procedure, a complete campaign of simulations - based on full RANS unsteady calculations - is proposed for a three-bladed rotor architecture characterized by a NACA 0021 airfoil. For each analyzed angular velocity, the combined effect of pressure and viscous forces acting on every rotor blade are compared to the corresponding centrifugal forces, due to the revolution of the turbine, thus achieving a preliminary estimation of the correlation between overall rotor efficiency and structural blade loads.

FEA- Aided Design, Optimization and Development of an Axial Flux Motor for Implantable Ventricular Assist Device

This paper presents the optimal design and development of an axial flux motor for blood pump application. With the design objective of maximizing the motor efficiency and torque, different topologies of AFPM machine has been examined. Selection of optimal magnet fraction, Halbach arrangement of rotor magnets and the use of Soft Magnetic Composite (SMC) material for the stator core results in a novel motor with improved efficiency and torque profile. The results of the 3D Finite element analysis for the novel motor have been shown.