747 research outputs found
Design and Optimization of Dynamic System for a One-kW Free Piston Linear Engine Alternator-GENSETS Program
In power/energy systems, free-piston linear machines are referred to as a mechanism where the constrained crank motion is eliminated and replaced with free reciprocating piston motion. Depending on the application, the piston motion can be converted into other types of energy and includes compressed air/fluid, electricity, and high temperature/pressure gas. A research group at West Virginia University developed a free-piston linear engine alternator (LEA) in 1998 and have achieved significant accomplishment in the performance enhancement of the LEAs to date. The present LEA design incorporates flexure springs as energy restoration components and as bearing supports. The advantages of using flexure springs are threefold and include: (1) it increases the LEAâs stiffness and resonant frequency, and hence the power density; (2) it eliminates the need for rotary or linear bearings and lubrication system; and (3) it reduces the overall frictional contact area in the translator assembly which improves the durability.
The current research focuses on the design and optimization of the flexure springs as the systemâs resonant dominating component for a 1 kW free-piston LEA. First, the flexure springs were characterized according to the LEAâs target outputs and dimensional limitations. The finite element method (FEM) was used to analyze the stress/strain, different modes of deformation, and fatigue life of a range of flexure spring designs under dynamic loadings. Primary geometric design variables included the number of arms, inside and outside diameter, thickness, and armâs length. To find the near-optimum designs, a machine learning algorithm incorporating the FEM results was used in order to find the sensitivity of the target outputs to the geometrical parameters. From the results, design charts were extracted as a guideline to flexure spring selection for a range of operations. Then, methods were introduced, investigated, and analyzed to improve the overall energy conversion performance and service life of the flexure springs and the overall LEA system.
These included: a transient FE tool used for fatigue analysis to quantify the life and factors of safety of the flexure springs as well as the springâs hysteresis; a fluid/structure interaction model used to quantify the energy loss due to drag force applied on the flexuresâ side surfaces; packaging of multiple flexures to increase the overall stiffness and to reduce the vibration-induced stresses on flexure arms due to higher harmonics; a model to investigate the two-way interactions of the flexuresâ dynamics with the alternator and engine components to find an optimum selection of the LEAâs assembly; a non-linear friction analysis to identify/quantify the energy losses due to the friction of the sliding surfaces of the flexures and spacers; and a series of static and transient experiment to determine the non-linearity of flexuresâ stiffness and comparison to FEM results and for validation of the energy audit results from numerical and analytical calculations.
With over 6000 flexure designs evaluated using artificial intelligent methods, the maximum achievable resonant frequency of a single flexure spring for a 1 kW LEA was found to be around 150 Hz. From the FEM results, it was found that under dynamic conditions the stress levels to be as high as twice the maximum stress under static (or very low speed) conditions. Modifications of the armâs end shape and implementation of a shape factor were found as effective methods to reduce the maximum stress by 20%. The modal analysis showed that the most damaging modes of deformations of a flexure spring were the second to fourth modes, depending on the number of arms and symmetry of the design. Experiment and FEM results showed that using bolted packaging of the springs can damp a portion of the vibration and improve the performance. The drag force loss was found to account for 10-15% of the mechanical losses in a 100 Wnet LEA prototype. From the manufacturing perspective, use of water jet was found the most economical method for manufacturing the flexures which could make the commercial production of the LEAs feasible; however, for high-efficiency, high-durability machines, additional material treatments, and alternative manufacturing methods are essential
A review of variable-pitch propellers and their control strategies in aerospace systems
The relentless pursuit of aircraft flight efficiency has thrust
variable-pitch propeller technology into the forefront of aviation innovation.
This technology, rooted in the ancient power unit of propellers, has found
renewed significance, particularly in the realms of unmanned aerial vehicles
and urban air mobility. This underscores the profound interplay between
visionary aviation concepts and the enduring utility of propellers.
Variable-pitch propellers are poised to be pivotal in shaping the future of
human aviation, offering benefits such as extended endurance, enhanced
maneuverability, improved fuel economy, and prolonged engine life. However,
with additional capabilities come new technical challenges. The development of
an online adaptive control of variable-pitch propellers that does not depend on
an accurate dynamic model stands as a critical imperative. Therefore, a
comprehensive review and forward-looking analysis of this technology is
warranted. This paper introduces the development background of variable-pitch
aviation propeller technology, encompassing diverse pitch angle adjustment
schemes and their integration with various engine types. It places a central
focus on the latest research frontiers and emerging directions in pitch control
strategies. Lastly, it delves into the research domain of constant speed pitch
control, articulating the three main challenges confronting this technology:
inadequacies in system modeling, the intricacies of propeller-engine
compatibility, and the impact of external, time-varying factors. By shedding
light on these multifaceted aspects of variable-pitch propeller technology,
this paper serves as a resource for aviation professionals and researchers
navigating the intricate landscape of future aircraft development
Design, Modeling and Optimization of Reciprocating Tubular Permanent Magnet Linear Generators for Free Piston Engine Applications
Permanent Magnet Linear Generators (PMLG) are electric generators which convert the linear motion into electricity. One of the applications of the PMLG system is with free piston engines. Here, the piston is moved by the expander using an internal combustion engine or a Stirling engine. Other applications of the PMLG are wave energy conversion, micro energy harvesters, and supercritical CO2 expander systems. The most common technology of the electric generators is a rotary electric generator. The current technology of the engine-generators (GENSET) is of a rotary type which uses a crankshaft to convert the linear motion to rotary motion coupled to a rotary electric generator. This technology can be improved by using PMLG in the place of rotary generators by eliminating the crankshaft in the system.
This research thesis is to introduce a new design guideline and steps to design and optimize a PMLG for linear reciprocating applications. The new design guideline provides the steps and techniques to calculate the electrical and geometrical parameters of the PMLG system with experimental verification. A finite element (FE) model of the PMLG system was developed using Finite Element Method Magnetics (FEMM) software. Furthermore, two experimental prototypes of the reciprocating engine PMLG were constructed and tested. The results from the experimental prototype were compared with the FE model and errors less than 10 % were found.
One of the important aspects of the reciprocating free piston engines is to have a low moving mass of the translator to increase the frequency of the system. Therefore, using the FE model, sensitivity study of different geometric parameters such as the magnet thickness, outer diameter of the magnet, airgap, frequency, stroke length, turns, poles, and spacer of the PMLG system was performed. It was found that the magnet thickness has a greater power / moving mass ratio compared to the other geometric parameters. Furthermore, an optimization routine was developed to optimize the PMLG system with low moving mass and low volume. Finally, a MATLAB GUI was developed for the optimization routine to simplify the process of optimization for new designers of the PMLG system
Ion current sensing for controlled auto ignition in internal combustion engines
Envirom-nental pollution is a subject that needs urgent addressing. Since the internal combustion engine has its fair share of accountability on this, research on techniques for increasing engine efficiency and emissions is necessary. Controlled Auto Ignition is a promising combustion mode, which increases fuel efficiency while also reducing NOx emissions to negligible levels. This Thesis concentrates on the implementation of this mode through experimental research, on an engine equipped with a fully variable valvetrain. Investigation of the operational window, emissions, fuel consumption, thermodynamic efficiency is carried out and ways to improve on these are discussed. The governing consideration, however, is the control method for this rather intricate combustion mode. As such, experimental data acquisition and analysis of ion current under the whole operating spectrum, from spark ignition to full autoignition is made. It is found that the expected gains in fuel consumption and emissions are realized. In addition, ion current proves to be a very powerful and cost effective tool for engine monitoring, diagnosis and control. The author concludes that Controlled Auto Ignition is a viable proposition for mass production engine designs and that ion current, although not absolutely vital for engine control, considerably increases engine control thus allowing for greater operating window under autoignition, without compromising reliability or cost.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
Monitoring of the piston ring-pack and cylinder liner interface in diesel engines through acoustic emission measurements
Investigation of novel condition monitoring systems for diesel engines has received much recent attention due to the increasing demands placed upon engine components and the limitations of conventional techniques. This thesis documents experimental research conducted to assess the monitoring capabilities of Acoustic Emission (AE) analysis. In particular it focuses on the possibility of monitoring the piston ring-pack and cylinder liner interface, a critical engine sub-system for which there are currently few practical monitoring options.
A series of experiments were performed on large, two-stroke and small, four-stroke diesel engines. Tests under normal operating conditions developed a detailed understanding of typical AE generation in terms of both the source mechanisms and the characteristics of the resulting activity. This was supplemented by specific tests to investigate possible AE generation at the ring-pack/liner interface. For instance, for the small engines measures were taken to remove known AE sources in order to accentuate any activity originating at the interface whilst for the large engines the interfacial conditions were purposely deteriorated through the removal of the lubricating oil supply to one cylinder.
Interpretation of the results was based mainly upon comparisons with published work encompassing both the expected ring-pack behaviour and AE generation from tribological processes. This provided a strong indication that the source of the ring-pack/liner AE activity was the boundary frictional losses. The ability to monitor this process may be of significant benefit to engine operators as it enhances the diagnostic information currently available and may be incorporated into predictive maintenance strategies. A further diagnostic technique considered was the possibility of using AE parameters combined with information of crankshaft speed fluctuations to evaluate engine balance and identify underperforming cylinders.EU Competitive and Sustainable Growth Programme, Project no: GRD2-2001-5001
Small Internal Combustion Engine Testing for a Hybrid-Electric Remotely-Piloted Aircraft
Efficient operation of a hybrid-electric propulsion system (HEPS) powering a small remotely-piloted aircraft (RPA) requires that a controller have accurate and detailed engine and electric motor performance data. Many small internal combustion engines (ICEs) currently used on various small RPA were designed for use by the recreational hobbyist radio-control (R/C) aircraft market. Often, the manufacturers of these engines do not make accurate and reliable detailed engine performance data available for their engines. A dynamometer testing stand was assembled to test various small ICEs. These engines were tested with automotive unleaded gasoline (the manufacturer\u27s recommended fuel) using the dynamometer setup. Torque, engine speed and fuel flow measurements were taken at varying load and throttle settings. Power and specific fuel consumption (SFC) data were calculated from these measurements. Engine performance maps were generated in which contours of SFC were mapped on a mean effective pressure (MEP) versus engine speed plot. These performance maps are to be utilized for performance testing of the controller and integrated HEPS in further research. Further follow-on research and development will be done to complete the goal of building a prototype hybrid-electric remotely piloted aircraft (HE-RPA) for flight testing. Minimum BSFC for the Honda GX35 engine was found to be 383.6 g/kW hr (0.6307 lbm/hp hr) at 4500 RPM and 60% throttle. The Honda GX35 was overall the better fit for incorporation into the HE-RPA
Acoustic emission monitoring of propulsion systems : a laboratory study on a small gas turbine
The motivation of the work is to investigate a new, non-intrusive condition monitoring
system for gas turbines with capabilities for earlier identification of any changes and the
possibility of locating the source of the faults. This thesis documents experimental
research conducted on a laboratory-scale gas turbine to assess the monitoring capabilities of
Acoustic Emission (AE). In particular it focuses on understanding the AE behaviour of
gas turbines under various normal and faulty running conditions.
A series of tests was performed with the turbine running normally, either idling or with
load. Two abnormal running configurations were also instrumented in which the
impeller was either prevented from rotation or removed entirely. With the help of
demodulated resonance analysis and an ANN it was possible to identify two types of AE; a
background broadband source which is associated with gas flow and flow resistance,
and a set of spectral frequency peaks which are associated with reverberation in the
exhaust and coupling between the alternator and the turbine.
A second series of experiments was carried out with an impeller which had been
damaged by removal of the tips of some of the blades (two damaged blades and four
damaged blades). The results show the potential capability of AE to identify gas turbine
blade faults. The AE records showed two obvious indicators of blade faults, the first
being that the energy in the AE signals becomes much higher and is distinctly periodic
at higher speeds, and the second being the appearance of particular pulse patterns which
can be characterized in the demodulated frequency domain
Volume 1 â Symposium
We are pleased to present the conference proceedings for the 12th edition of the International Fluid Power Conference (IFK). The IFK is one of the worldâs most significant scientific conferences on fluid power control technology and systems. It offers a common platform for the presentation and discussion of trends and innovations to manufacturers, users and scientists. The Chair of Fluid-Mechatronic Systems at the TU Dresden is organizing and hosting the IFK for the sixth time. Supporting hosts are the Fluid Power Association of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), Dresdner Verein zur Förderung der Fluidtechnik e. V. (DVF) and GWT-TUD GmbH. The organization and the conference location alternates every two years between the Chair of Fluid-Mechatronic Systems in Dresden and the Institute for Fluid Power Drives and Systems in Aachen. The symposium on the first day is dedicated to presentations focused on methodology and fundamental research. The two following conference days offer a wide variety of application and technology orientated papers about the latest state of the art in fluid power. It is this combination that makes the IFK a unique and excellent forum for the exchange of academic research and industrial application experience. A simultaneously ongoing exhibition offers the possibility to get product information and to have individual talks with manufacturers. The theme of the 12th IFK is âFluid Power â Future Technologyâ, covering topics that enable the development of 5G-ready, cost-efficient and demand-driven structures, as well as individual decentralized drives. Another topic is the real-time data exchange that allows the application of numerous predictive maintenance strategies, which will significantly increase the availability of fluid power systems and their elements and ensure their improved lifetime performance. We create an atmosphere for casual exchange by offering a vast frame and cultural program. This includes a get-together, a conference banquet, laboratory festivities and some physical activities such as jogging in Dresdenâs old town.:Group A: Materials
Group B: System design & integration
Group C: Novel system solutions
Group D: Additive manufacturing
Group E: Components
Group F: Intelligent control
Group G: Fluids
Group H | K: Pumps
Group I | L: Mobile applications
Group J: Fundamental
Recommended from our members
Modelling and control of waste heat recovery systems for heavy-duty applications
Internal combustion engines (ICEs) are likely to be used in heavy-duty applications for many years and it is important to continue improving their efficiency. Undesirable emissions in internal combustion engines are of major concern due to their negative effect on the human health and global warming. One approach is to recover waste heat from the exhaust of heavy-duty diesel engines (HDDEs) using waste heat recovery (WHR) technologies. WHR based on organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is a promising technology, which offers potential to reduce the fuel consumption of HDDEs by converting the wasted thermal energy to alternative useful electrical or mechanical energy.
In the ORC, the evaporator is considered the most critical component of the system. Careful modelling of the evaporator unit is both crucial to assess the dynamic performance of the ORC system and challenging due to the high nonlinearity of its governing equations. This study uses an Adaptive Network-based Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) modelling technique to provide efficient control-oriented evaporator models for prediction of heat source and refrigerant temperatures at the evaporator outlet. The ANFIS model benefits from feed-forward output calculation and backpropagation capability of neural network, while keeping the interpretability of fuzzy systems. The effect of training the models using hybrid gradient-descent least-square estimate (GD-LSE) and particle swarm optimisation (PSO) techniques is investigated and the performance of both techniques are compared in terms of RMSE and correlation coefficients. The simulation results indicate strong learning ability and high generalisation performance for both techniques beyond capability of numerical models. However, a better accuracy is achieved for the models trained using the PSO algorithm.
Experimentally-measured data is collected from a 1-kWe ORC prototype developed in Clean Energy Processes (CEP) laboratory at Imperial College London and the proposed ANFIS techniques is applied in order to investigate the application of the neuro-fuzzy technique for modelling the evaporator unit. Comparison of the experimental data and the neuro-fuzzy models predictions reveals an acceptable accuracy in predicting the evaporator outlet temperature and pressure.
A novel control approach is also proposed to ensure the safe operation of ORC waste heat recovery system and stabilize its work output when subjected to transient heat sources in a range of waste heat from heavy-duty diesel engines. The control strategy comprises a neuro-fuzzy controller based on the inverse dynamics of the ORC system to control the superheating at the evaporator outlet by adjusting the pump speed and a PI controller to maintain the expander work output by regulating the mass flow rate at the expander inlet. The performance of the control strategy is investigated with respect to set-point tracking and its robustness is tested in the presence of noise. The simulation results indicate an enhancement in the controller performance by combination of feedforward and feedback controllers based on neuro-fuzzy techniques. The proposed control scheme not only can obtain satisfactory transient response under various loading conditions, but also can achieve desirable disturbance rejection performance
Volume 3 â Conference
We are pleased to present the conference proceedings for the 12th edition of the International Fluid Power Conference (IFK). The IFK is one of the worldâs most significant scientific conferences on fluid power control technology and systems. It offers a common platform for the presentation and discussion of trends and innovations to manufacturers, users and scientists. The Chair of Fluid-Mechatronic Systems at the TU Dresden is organizing and hosting the IFK for the sixth time. Supporting hosts are the Fluid Power Association of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), Dresdner Verein zur Förderung der Fluidtechnik e. V. (DVF) and GWT-TUD GmbH. The organization and the conference location alternates every two years between the Chair of Fluid-Mechatronic Systems in Dresden and the Institute for Fluid Power Drives and Systems in Aachen. The symposium on the first day is dedicated to presentations focused on methodology and fundamental research. The two following conference days offer a wide variety of application and technology orientated papers about the latest state of the art in fluid power. It is this combination that makes the IFK a unique and excellent forum for the exchange of academic research and industrial application experience. A simultaneously ongoing exhibition offers the possibility to get product information and to have individual talks with manufacturers. The theme of the 12th IFK is âFluid Power â Future Technologyâ, covering topics that enable the development of 5G-ready, cost-efficient and demand-driven structures, as well as individual decentralized drives. Another topic is the real-time data exchange that allows the application of numerous predictive maintenance strategies, which will significantly increase the availability of fluid power systems and their elements and ensure their improved lifetime performance. We create an atmosphere for casual exchange by offering a vast frame and cultural program. This includes a get-together, a conference banquet, laboratory festivities and some physical activities such as jogging in Dresdenâs old town.:Group 8: Pneumatics
Group 9 | 11: Mobile applications
Group 10: Special domains
Group 12: Novel system architectures
Group 13 | 15: Actuators & sensors
Group 14: Safety & reliabilit
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