Control Strategies and Design to Range in Light Railway Systems

The thesis deals with different control strategies and a design method to improve energy efficiency and reliability in light railway transportation systems. The possibility of use Supercapacitors Energy Storage System (SESS) in light railway systems is explored, by evaluating the suitability of on-board application for a Prototype Railway Vehicle, with the introduction of a methodology for Design to Range in catenary free operations in order to fill gaps in power supply. Furthermore, a stationary configuration of SESS in light railway system is also investigated by means of a demonstrator of a Metro rail System set in Hitachi Rail Italy test room, carrying out a control strategy for energy flows management in case of non receptive DC grid. Further investigations has regarded the introduction of two sensorless control strategies for two different railway traction architectures with IM and PMSM drives, focusing the attention on energetic and dynamic performance in different specific operating conditions required to the railway traction drives. Numerical and experimental results are obtained and discussed in different operating conditions, for real case studies, showing the feasibility and the fulfillment of the mission for the different solutions proposed

Switched reluctance motor controller for light electric vehicles

Nowadays, switched reluctance motor drives are one of the most promising alternatives for the elimination of permanent magnets in the electric traction systems, due to their well-known advantages such as simple and rugged construction, high efficiency, speed torque characteristic well adapted to traction needs and despite their drawbacks high torque ripple and high acoustic noise. Unfortunately, nowadays, the lack of commercial controllers intended for switched reluctance motors slows down its use as power traction unit. This paper tries to overcome this barrier proposing a specific controller, understood as the assembly of electronic power converter and control unit, for electric light vehicles. First, the specifications of the controller will be exposed then a comprehensive description of the architecture of the controller and details about the choice of its components will be given. Finally, experimental results will be shown in order to demonstrate its suitability as a SRM controller for light electric vehiclesPostprint (author's final draft

The design and construction of electronic motor control and network interface hardware for advance concept urban mobility vehicles

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 25).Over the past several years, the Smart Cities Group at MIT's Media Lab has engaged in research to develop several advanced concepts for vehicles to improve urban mobility. This research has focused on developing a modular vehicle architecture, centered around the concept of the self-contained Wheel Robot. The goal is to develop Wheel Robot systems in which all power, transmission, suspension, and steering functions are incorporated into self-contained units with a simple, standardized interface providing for mechanical mounting, electrical power distribution, and access to the vehicle control network. This thesis outlines my research and design work implementing several electronic power and control systems that contribute to ongoing Wheel Robot development efforts. The designs for a high-current motor controller and two electronic sensing and control interfaces are described, and several strategies for further control systems development are proposed.by Bryan L. Morrissey.S.B

A review on power electronics technologies for electric mobility

Concerns about greenhouse gas emissions are a key topic addressed by modern societies worldwide. As a contribution to mitigate such effects caused by the transportation sector, the full adoption of electric mobility is increasingly being seen as the main alternative to conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, which is supported by positive industry indicators, despite some identified hurdles. For such objective, power electronics technologies play an essential role and can be contextualized in different purposes to support the full adoption of electric mobility, including on-board and off-board battery charging systems, inductive wireless charging systems, unified traction and charging systems, new topologies with innovative operation modes for supporting the electrical power grid, and innovative solutions for electrified railways. Embracing all of these aspects, this paper presents a review on power electronics technologies for electric mobility where some of the main technologies and power electronics topologies are presented and explained. In order to address a broad scope of technologies, this paper covers road vehicles, lightweight vehicles and railway vehicles, among other electric vehicles.This work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia with-in the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2020. This work has been supported by the FCT Project DAIPESEV PTDC/EEI-EEE/30382/2017, and by the FCT Project new ERA4GRIDs PTDC/EEI-EEE/30283/2017. Tiago Sousa is supported by the doctoral scholarship SFRH/BD/134353/2017 granted by FCT

Programmable logic device based brushless DC motor control

In this article a three-phase BLDC motor controller for use in an Ultra-Light Electrical Vehicle is presented. The control is performed using a Programmable Logic Device (CPLD), which doesn’t require any additional processor. In this way a robust and low-complexity control is obtained. For extending the speed range of the BLDC, a phase advance circuit is implemented as well. The power consumption of the controller is very low which is an interesting feature in battery applications

Utilization of bottom ash for alkali-activated (SI-AL) materials: a review

In Malaysia, 180 tons/day of solid waste bottom ash are produced by a Tanjung Bin power station, which is one of the four coal power plants in Malaysia. Hence, to overcome this problem, the solid waste could be used as source material in construction industry using geopolymer technique. Alkali-activated materials are introduced as an alternative materials to ordinary Portland cement (OPC) in the construction industry. There are many types of alkaline activator raw materi als such as bottom ash, fly ash, metakaolin and so on that can be substituted the materials existing such as cement and fine or course aggregate in the market now to make any production where the materials are coming from waste.The geopolymerization process involves a substantially fast chemical reaction under alkaline conditions with Si and Al minerals that results in a three‐dimensional polymeric chain and ring structure consisting of Si‐O‐Al‐O. The higher Si‐O‐Al‐O bonds are contained in the geopolymer, the higher compressive strength results will find. Several types of building materials such as

Emerging Multiport Electrical Machines and Systems: Past Developments, Current Challenges, and Future Prospects

Distinct from the conventional machines with only one electrical and one mechanical port, electrical machines featuring multiple electrical/mechanical ports (the so-called multiport electrical machines) provide a compact, flexible, and highly efficient manner to convert and/or transfer energies among different ports. This paper attempts to make a comprehensive overview of the existing multiport topologies, from fundamental characteristics to advanced modeling, analysis, and control, with particular emphasis on the extensively investigated brushless doubly fed machines for highly reliable wind turbines and power split devices for hybrid electric vehicles. A qualitative review approach is mainly adopted, but strong efforts are also made to quantitatively highlight the electromagnetic and control performance. Research challenges are identified, and future trends are discussed

High Performance Cooling of Traction Brushless Machines

The work presented in this thesis covers several aspects of traction electric drive system design. Particular attention is given to the traction electrical machine with focus on the cooling solution, thermal modelling and testing. A 60 kW peak power traction machine is designed to achieve high power density and high efficiency thanks to direct oil cooling. The machine selected has a tooth coil winding, also defined as non-overlapping fractional slot concentrated winding. This winding concept is state of the art for many applications with high volumes and powers below 10 kW. Also, these have been proven successful in high power applications such as wind power generators. In this thesis, it is shown that this technology is promising also for traction machines and, with some suggested design solutions, can present certain unique advantages when it comes to manufacturing and cooling.The traction machine in this work is designed for a small two-seater electric vehicle but could as well be used in a parallel hybrid. The proposed solution has the advantage of having a simple winding design and of integrating the cooling within the stator slot and core. A prototype of the machine has been built and tested, showing that the machine can operate with current densities of up to 35 A/mm^2 for 30 seconds and 25 A/mm^2 continuously. This results in a net power density of the built prototype of 24 kW/l and a gross power density of 8 kW/l with a peak efficiency above 94%. It is shown that a version of the same design optimized for mass manufacturing has the potential of having a gross power density of 15.5 kW/l which would be comparable with the best in class traction machines found on the automotive industry. The cooling solution proposed is resulting in significantly lower winding temperature and an efficiency gain between 1.5% and 3.5% points, depending on the drivecycle, compared to an external jacket cooling, which is a common solution for traction motors