Power Electronics, Drives & Machines - Current Projects Overview
High speed, high power PM machines
(D.Smith)
Research into mechanical, electrical and thermal design issues of machines operating at high speeds in the megawatt range.
Dyson Ltd.
(E.Pinguey, C.Bateman, K.Smith, D.Grant)
Dyson have two full-time research staff and two sponsored postgraduate students based within the Centre for Advanced Electric Drives. As a team they are working on future innovation in motor and drives technology for domestic appliances. www.dyson.co.uk
NAREC grid connect inverter for small scale renewable energy generation
(A.Watts)
A power converter for the integration of renewable energy sources into the national power grid, focusing on island detection.
Electric nose wheel steering
(J.Bennett)
An electric motor drive for the landing gear of commercial aircraft, featuring a fault tolerant electric motor drive. Sponsored by Goodrich Actuation Systems and part of the Airbus 'ELGEAR' electric landing gear concept.
Modulated pole machines
(J.Washington)
Design and testing of a high torque, low speed motor for traction applications including electrical bicycles, scooters and motorbikes.
UAV propulsion drive
(J.Bennett, B.Mecrow)
A series of high efficiency electric motors and power electronic drives for the QinetiQ Zephyr world-record breaking unmanned solar plane.
N.E.F.S.
(J.Bennett)
A prototype electromechanically actuated flap system featuring fault tolerant electric drives and control systems.
Identification of power station characteristics based on recorded network transient data
(G.Hutchison)
A parameter identification method using particle swarm optimization (PSO) for the identification of synchronous machine, excitation system and turbine parameters.
Active voltage equalisation in series connected supercapacitor / Li-ion capacitor cells
(S.Lambert)
Development of a power electronic interface to series-connected hybrid Lithium-ion/supercapacitor cells.
Choice of design for direct drive in wheel motors
(J. Ifedi)
Design of a high torque motor, directly coupled to the wheels of a vehicle as the only means of propulsion.
Advanced Performance Prediction Tools for Electrical Generators
(P. Hargreaves)
Creation of an integrated design system that has both the accuracy of Finite Element Analysis and the computational speed of arithmetic method.
In colaboration with Converteam UK Ltd www.converteam.com
Control Techniques Ltd.
(R.S.Gibson)
Control Techniques are supporting an Engineering Doctorate research project to further improve the efficiency of the entire range of variable speed AC drives.
Health monitoring system for DC link capacitor failures in aerospace drives.
(A.Wechsler)
Investigation of shorted turn faults in fault tolerant permanent magnet machines for aerospace application.
High power, double layer, distributed winding PM machine.
(A. Mehna)
Design of a high power, high speed 200kW, 30,000rpm permanent magnet machine.
Brushless segmental-rotor polyphase AC machines
(A.Zulu)
Synchronous flux-switching machines with all excitation sources on the stator and employing segmental-rotors.
With the support of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission of UK. www.cscuk.org.uk
Modelling of DFIG wind turbine during fault conditions
(Y.Chongjarearn)
The Double-Fed Induction Generator is widely used for large grid-connected, variable-speed wind turbines. As the amount of installed wind power increases, it is increasingly important that turbine generators remain connected and support the grid transmission network during transient disturbances- so called Fault Ride Through (FRT).
A Transformerless Grid-Connected Inverter for PV system
(F.Berba)
Single phase inverter for photovoltaic connection in utility systems, focusing on power quality.
Detection of Induction Motor Faults using Global Random Optimisation Methods
(M.Alamyal)
Condition monitoring of electrical machines based on healthy and faulty G.R.O. models.
Grid Connected Photovoltaic Inverters
(H.Goh)
Investigating the interaction between the photovoltaic inverter and grid system, particularly the effects on current control performance of the control inverter.
Current Fed Multilevel Converters for High Current Power Applications
(B.Hassan)
Investigating novel topologies of multilevel, current fed, converter systems to produce high levels of dc current with near sinusoidal ac current waveforms.
