Power Electronics, Drives & Machines - Current Projects Overview
The following projects are currently being carried out by PhD students in the School:
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.
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.
Reluctance Motors
(C. Spargo)
Research into new forms of electric machines for use in electric and hybrid vehicles. The aim is to produce traction motors which combine very high torque density with low cost and high efficiency.
Novel Drives for Switched Reluctance Motors
(D. Xu)
Research into new types of converter and control for switched reluctance drives.
Health Monitoring of Power Semiconductor Modules in Electric Vehicles
(B. Ji)
This project is investigating the common failure mechanisms of IGBT power modules used in EV traction motor drives. An on-board health monitoring method is implemented in gate drive units, which allows interruptive diagnosis of wear-out failures at bonding connections and solder connections in the power modules. The proposed method can also be used for other applications.
Cost Functions for Efficient Electrics Vehicle Drive Systems
(D. Winterborne)
This project takes a systems approach to improving the efficiency of electric vehicle induction motor traction drives. A control scheme is being developed which models the motor and the inverter losses in real-time in order to influence inverter operation.
3D Temperature Field of Wind Turbine Generators
(Z. Liu)
New insight into DFIG's thermal performance under healthy and fault conditions.
Energy Efficiency Improvements of DFIG Machines
(Z. Tan)
Bespoke machine design to maximise the power generation of the wind turbine system.
