Improved design and control of brushless doubly-fed reluctance machine generators for wind power applications. The growing importance of the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over the coming years is driving the increased usage of renewable energy sources such as wind power. Currently the cost of wind energy is considerably higher than fossil fuel energy sources. Part of the reason for this is the initial cost and ongoing maintenance of the wind turbines. The proposed research considers a n ....Improved design and control of brushless doubly-fed reluctance machine generators for wind power applications. The growing importance of the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over the coming years is driving the increased usage of renewable energy sources such as wind power. Currently the cost of wind energy is considerably higher than fossil fuel energy sources. Part of the reason for this is the initial cost and ongoing maintenance of the wind turbines. The proposed research considers a new kind of generator based on the Brushless Doubly Fed Machine (BDFRM) that has the potential to lower the initial cost of the generator/inverter hardware of the wind turbine, and also decrease the ongoing maintenance costs. If the research is able to show that the BDFRM is able to realise its potential, then this will aid the further use of wind energy.Read moreRead less
A high performance, robust and sensorless Natural Field Oriented controller for induction machine drives. Natural Field Orientation (NFO) is a technique of field oriented control of AC machines that is potentially very robust, able to operate at low speeds, and inherently sensorless. However, it is a little known fact that under regenerative conditions the algorithm is unstable. The primary aim of this project is to develop a NFO algorithm that is stable under regeneration, and has minimum depen ....A high performance, robust and sensorless Natural Field Oriented controller for induction machine drives. Natural Field Orientation (NFO) is a technique of field oriented control of AC machines that is potentially very robust, able to operate at low speeds, and inherently sensorless. However, it is a little known fact that under regenerative conditions the algorithm is unstable. The primary aim of this project is to develop a NFO algorithm that is stable under regeneration, and has minimum dependence on machine parameters. If these aims are achieved the NFO algorithm would be a significant addition to control algorithms for AC machines, allowing their use in a broader range of applications.
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In-field assessment and lifetime prediction of composite insulators in high voltage electricity transmission networks. New types of composite insulators are now used in extra-high voltage overhead lines in Australia's national electricity grid. Flashover of such insulators due to early ageing may lead to unavailability of vital lines causing power transmission disruptions costing the National Electricity Market tens of millions of dollars.
In this project research will be conducted into agei ....In-field assessment and lifetime prediction of composite insulators in high voltage electricity transmission networks. New types of composite insulators are now used in extra-high voltage overhead lines in Australia's national electricity grid. Flashover of such insulators due to early ageing may lead to unavailability of vital lines causing power transmission disruptions costing the National Electricity Market tens of millions of dollars.
In this project research will be conducted into ageing of elastomers to provide early warning of insulator end-of-life and into new techniques for extracting elastomer samples from live high voltage insulators. Transgrid will cooperate in the application of the technology to give improved understanding of insulator ageing in transmission networks.
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A Segmented Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor for Wide Field Weakening Range and its Sensorless Control using Improved Flux Estimators. Australia has the world's second largest reserve (after China) of high energy-density permanent magnet (neodymium-iron-boron) material for the IPM motor. The present limitation of the machine to be driven sensorless over a wide speed range with field weakening is believed to be holding back its widespread use in applications other than servo-type which ....A Segmented Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor for Wide Field Weakening Range and its Sensorless Control using Improved Flux Estimators. Australia has the world's second largest reserve (after China) of high energy-density permanent magnet (neodymium-iron-boron) material for the IPM motor. The present limitation of the machine to be driven sensorless over a wide speed range with field weakening is believed to be holding back its widespread use in applications other than servo-type which requires high-resolution mechanical sensors. Extension of the motor speed range by a combination of magnetic system design (for large field weakening range), and sensorless position and flux estimation with sufficient accuracy for fast dynamic control should lead to large scale adoption of this motor, and hence to significant improvement in energy efficiency and market share for Australia.Read moreRead less
Improvements of Direct Torque Controllers for the Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor. The Direct Torque Control (DTC) strategy has recently been applied successfully to the interior permanent magnet (IPM) motor which offers the highest torque/volume and efficiency of all known machines. Exploitation of the recently developed Neodynium-Iron-Boron material, of which Australia is the world's second largest producer, in the IPM motor and of new sensorless control strategies such as the DTC ....Improvements of Direct Torque Controllers for the Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor. The Direct Torque Control (DTC) strategy has recently been applied successfully to the interior permanent magnet (IPM) motor which offers the highest torque/volume and efficiency of all known machines. Exploitation of the recently developed Neodynium-Iron-Boron material, of which Australia is the world's second largest producer, in the IPM motor and of new sensorless control strategies such as the DTC controller, promises to open vast application potentials, such as in the upcoming hybrid and totally electric automobiles, for these motors. The new DTC controller developed at UNSW shows high promise for delivering a high-performance, sensorless IPM motor drive. This project aims to investigate, and overcome, the remaining problems of this technique.Read moreRead less
Optimum rotor and concentrated stator-winding structures for improving the torque, field-weakening and power-density characteristics of interior permanent-magnet machines. The successful completion of this project will deliver one of the most energy efficient and compact motor which will meet the expectations of future electric and hybrid electric vehicles. The current generation of surface Permanent Magnet (PM) and Interior Permanent Magnet (IPM) motors are not optimized in terms of compactness ....Optimum rotor and concentrated stator-winding structures for improving the torque, field-weakening and power-density characteristics of interior permanent-magnet machines. The successful completion of this project will deliver one of the most energy efficient and compact motor which will meet the expectations of future electric and hybrid electric vehicles. The current generation of surface Permanent Magnet (PM) and Interior Permanent Magnet (IPM) motors are not optimized in terms of compactness, energy-density and efficiency, and torque characteristics. Australia has the world's second largest reserve of the magnet material for IPM machines. It also has a significant niche industry for specialized machine design. These twin advantages should offer Australia huge potential benefits in the world market for electric and hybrid electric vehicles and for substantial reduction in our dependence on importing petrol and greenhouse gas emissions.Read moreRead less
Characterisation of amorphous metal materials. This project aims to develop in-depth understanding of magnetisation mechanisms and accurate characterisation of amorphous metal materials for effectively designing advanced transformers. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of property understanding and modelling of advanced soft magnetic materials through extensive theoretical and experimental studies on material samples and transformer prototypes. The intended outcome is hig ....Characterisation of amorphous metal materials. This project aims to develop in-depth understanding of magnetisation mechanisms and accurate characterisation of amorphous metal materials for effectively designing advanced transformers. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of property understanding and modelling of advanced soft magnetic materials through extensive theoretical and experimental studies on material samples and transformer prototypes. The intended outcome is high-frequency high-power-density transformers, which are crucial in many distributed renewable energy systems. The project would significantly benefit Australian manufacturing industry at the high-end market.Read moreRead less
Multilevel converters. Until recently the vast majority of power electronic applications have been to low voltage systems. However, developments in high voltage semiconductor switches in the last decade have generated significant activity in high voltage power electronic applications.
Traditional two level converters have significant problems in high voltage applications - high output dv/dt damages insulation and motor bearings, and the semiconductor switches have high switching losses.
Mu ....Multilevel converters. Until recently the vast majority of power electronic applications have been to low voltage systems. However, developments in high voltage semiconductor switches in the last decade have generated significant activity in high voltage power electronic applications.
Traditional two level converters have significant problems in high voltage applications - high output dv/dt damages insulation and motor bearings, and the semiconductor switches have high switching losses.
Multilevel converters hold the promise of alleviating these problems. This project will research and develop multilevel converter technology for static VAR compensators and medium voltage drives, initially targeted at mining applications.Read moreRead less
Robust control of spatially distributed uncertain systems. This project is aimed at studying the problem of robust control of spatially distributed uncertain systems. This is an important area of research that has attracted extensive interest in recent years. This is mainly due to the introduction of new technologies such as MEMS and Smart Structures with capabilities such as distributed sensing and actuation. This research will establish a framework for the modeling of Uncertainly in the mathe ....Robust control of spatially distributed uncertain systems. This project is aimed at studying the problem of robust control of spatially distributed uncertain systems. This is an important area of research that has attracted extensive interest in recent years. This is mainly due to the introduction of new technologies such as MEMS and Smart Structures with capabilities such as distributed sensing and actuation. This research will establish a framework for the modeling of Uncertainly in the mathematical descriptions of spatially distributed systems and the design of robust control methodologies capable of maintaining robust closed loop stability as well as guaranteeng robust performance of the closed loop system.Read moreRead less
Reducing Blackout Risk through Live Modelling and Monitoring. This project aims to reduce the risk of blackouts through the development of on-line systems for modelling and monitoring of loads and power system controllers. This project is a collaboration with Transgrid, Powerlink, Vencorp and ElectraNetSA, four Transmission companies renowned for innovation in the area of system stability. The project proposes to develop innovative algorithms and to implement these algorithms using advanced hard ....Reducing Blackout Risk through Live Modelling and Monitoring. This project aims to reduce the risk of blackouts through the development of on-line systems for modelling and monitoring of loads and power system controllers. This project is a collaboration with Transgrid, Powerlink, Vencorp and ElectraNetSA, four Transmission companies renowned for innovation in the area of system stability. The project proposes to develop innovative algorithms and to implement these algorithms using advanced hardware, software and communication systems to dynamically generate decision tools for safe and efficient power system operating conditions. These systems will also generate alarms if any risky operational situations arise.Read moreRead less