Parallel Architectures for Planetary Exploration Requirements (PAPER)

The Parallel Architectures for Planetary Exploration Requirements (PAPER) project is essentially research oriented towards technology insertion issues for NASA's unmanned planetary probes. It was initiated to complement and augment the long-term efforts for space exploration with particular reference to NASA/LaRC's (NASA Langley Research Center) research needs for planetary exploration missions of the mid and late 1990s. The requirements for space missions as given in the somewhat dated Advanced Information Processing Systems (AIPS) requirements document are contrasted with the new requirements from JPL/Caltech involving sensor data capture and scene analysis. It is shown that more stringent requirements have arisen as a result of technological advancements. Two possible architectures, the AIPS Proof of Concept (POC) configuration and the MAX Fault-tolerant dataflow multiprocessor, were evaluated. The main observation was that the AIPS design is biased towards fault tolerance and may not be an ideal architecture for planetary and deep space probes due to high cost and complexity. The MAX concepts appears to be a promising candidate, except that more detailed information is required. The feasibility for adding neural computation capability to this architecture needs to be studied. Key impact issues for architectural design of computing systems meant for planetary missions were also identified

Grid Analysis of Radiological Data

IGI-Global Medical Information Science Discoveries Research Award 2009International audienceGrid technologies and infrastructures can contribute to harnessing the full power of computer-aided image analysis into clinical research and practice. Given the volume of data, the sensitivity of medical information, and the joint complexity of medical datasets and computations expected in clinical practice, the challenge is to fill the gap between the grid middleware and the requirements of clinical applications. This chapter reports on the goals, achievements and lessons learned from the AGIR (Grid Analysis of Radiological Data) project. AGIR addresses this challenge through a combined approach. On one hand, leveraging the grid middleware through core grid medical services (data management, responsiveness, compression, and workflows) targets the requirements of medical data processing applications. On the other hand, grid-enabling a panel of applications ranging from algorithmic research to clinical use cases both exploits and drives the development of the services

Power flows and Mechanical Intensities in structural finite element analysis

The identification of power flow paths in dynamically loaded structures is an important, but currently unavailable, capability for the finite element analyst. For this reason, methods for calculating power flows and mechanical intensities in finite element models are developed here. Formulations for calculating input and output powers, power flows, mechanical intensities, and power dissipations for beam, plate, and solid element types are derived. NASTRAN is used to calculate the required velocity, force, and stress results of an analysis, which a post-processor then uses to calculate power flow quantities. The SDRC I-deas Supertab module is used to view the final results. Test models include a simple truss and a beam-stiffened cantilever plate. Both test cases showed reasonable power flow fields over low to medium frequencies, with accurate power balances. Future work will include testing with more complex models, developing an interactive graphics program to view easily and efficiently the analysis results, applying shape optimization methods to the problem with power flow variables as design constraints, and adding the power flow capability to NASTRAN

Wind turbine simulator fault diagnosis via fuzzy modelling and identification techniques

For improving the safety and the reliability of wind turbine installations, the earliest and fastest fault detection and isolation are highly required, since it could be used also for accommodation purpose. Modern wind turbines consist of several important subsystems, which can be affected by malfunctions regarding actuators, sensors, and components. From the turbine control point-of-view they are extremely important since provide the actuation signals, the main functions, as well as the measurements. In this paper, a fault diagnosis scheme based on the identification of fuzzy models is described, in order to detect and isolate these faults in the most efficient way, in order also to improve the energy cost, the production rate, and reduce the operation and maintenance operations. Fuzzy systems are proposed here since the model under investigation is nonlinear, whilst the wind speed measurement is uncertain since it depends on the rotor plane wind turbulence effects. These fuzzy models are described as Takagi-Sugeno prototypes, whose parameters are estimated from the wind turbine measurements. The fault diagnosis methodology is thus developed using these fuzzy models, which are exploited as residual generators. The wind turbine simulator is finally employed for the validation of the obtained performances.For improving the safety and the reliability of wind turbine installations, the earliest and fastest fault detection and isolation is highly required, since it could be used also for accommodation purpose. Modern wind turbines consist of several important subsystems, which can be affected by malfunctions regarding actuators, sensors, and components. From the turbine control point–of–view they are extremely important since provide the actuation signals, the main functions, as well as the measurements. In this paper, a fault diagnosis scheme based on the identification of fuzzy models is described, in order to detect and isolated these faults in the most efficient way, in order also to improve the energy cost, the production rate, and reduce the operation and maintenance operations. Fuzzy systems are proposed here since the model under investigation is nonlinear, whilst the wind speed measurement is uncertain since it depends on the rotor plane wind turbulence effects. These fuzzy models are described as Takagi–Sugeno prototypes, whose parameters are estimated from the wind turbine measurements. The fault diagnosis methodology is thus developed using these fuzzy models, which are exploited as residual generators. The wind turbine simulator is finally employed for the validation of the obtained performances

BlackNUFFT: Modular customizable black box hybrid parallelization of type 3 NUFFT in 3D

Many applications benefit from an efficient Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) between arbitrarily spaced points. The Non Uniform Fast Fourier Transform reduces the computational cost of such operation from to exploiting gridding algorithms and a standard Fast Fourier Transform on an equi-spaced grid. The parallelization of the NUFFT of type 3 (between arbitrary points in space and frequency) still poses some challenges: we present a novel and flexible hybrid parallelization in a MPI-multithreaded environment exploiting existing HPC libraries on modern architectures. To ensure the reliability of the developed library, we exploit continuous integration strategies using Travis CI. We present performance analyses to prove the effectiveness of our implementation, possible extensions to the existing library, and an application of NUFFT type 3 to MRI image processing

Experimental validation of a bidirectional multilevel dc–dc power converter for electric vehicle battery charging operating under normal and fault conditions

This paper presents a bidirectional multilevel dc–dc power converter for electric vehicle (EV) battery charging. The operating principle of the power converter was presented, analyzed, and experimentally validated under normal and fault conditions. The topology under study was integrated into a bipolar dc grid through the split dc-link of the bidirectional multilevel dc–dc power converter. Considering the failures that can occur in the bipolar dc grid, i.e., in each wire of the bipolar dc grid (positive, negative, and neutral), it was experimentally verified that the dc–dc power converter ensures that the EV battery-charging process continues, regardless of the occurrence or absence of open-circuit failures. In light of this fact, the proposed control algorithms and the presented topology were validated through a set of considerable simulation and experimental results, analyzing the distinct states of the power semiconductors, which compose the bidirectional multilevel dc–dc power converter, for distinct conditions of operation. The developed laboratory prototype of the bidirectional multilevel dc–dc power converter for EV battery charging, which was implemented to obtain the experimental results, is described in detail in this paper. The experimental validation was carried out for the main different fault conditions in the bipolar dc grid in terms of open-circuit failures and, moreover, considering the steady-state and transient-state operations of the dc–dc power converter. The experimental analysis demonstrated that even in the presence of failures in the positive, negative, or neutral wires of the bipolar dc grid, the bidirectional multilevel dc–dc power converter guarantees the correct EV battery-charging operation.This work has been supported by FCT–Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020. This work has been supported by the MEGASOLAR Project POCI-01-0247-FEDER-047220

Load Monitoring and fault detection on DC micro grids using STFT based feature vectors

This thesis explores load monitoring on dc micro-grids specifically applied to Naval shipboard power systems. More electronic loads are being placed on Naval ships and, increasingly, more of these loads are pulsed-power in nature; drawing pulsating current from the grid. This presents a challenge for conventional fault monitoring devices as many fault currents are also pulsating in nature and can be difficult to differentiate from a desirable pulse event. Short-time Fourier transform is the technique preferred in this work for spectral analysis of the current signals. In addition to event based monitoring, another unsupervised control is being employed to continuously check the frequency content of the current to look for arcing faults caused by loose electrical connections. The objective of the dissertation is to develop a load monitoring algorithm that records the current drawn by these loads and is able to detect events and differentiate between desirable events and faults using their frequency content in run-time. The algorithm is realized on an micro-controller unit and validated on a low-voltage dc test-bed

Advances and Technologies in High Voltage Power Systems Operation, Control, Protection and Security

The electrical demands in several countries around the world are increasing due to the huge energy requirements of prosperous economies and the human activities of modern life. In order to economically transfer electrical powers from the generation side to the demand side, these powers need to be transferred at high-voltage levels through suitable transmission systems and power substations. To this end, high-voltage transmission systems and power substations are in demand. Actually, they are at the heart of interconnected power systems, in which any faults might lead to unsuitable consequences, abnormal operation situations, security issues, and even power cuts and blackouts. In order to cope with the ever-increasing operation and control complexity and security in interconnected high-voltage power systems, new architectures, concepts, algorithms, and procedures are essential. This book aims to encourage researchers to address the technical issues and research gaps in high-voltage transmission systems and power substations in modern energy systems