Método de estimación de las pérdidas de los conductores y del núcleo de componentes inductivos asimétricos mediante la técnica de análisis por método de elementos finitos en 3D

Tesis doctoral con la Mención de "Doctor Internacional"Dentro del campo de la ingeniería eléctrica, los convertidores electrónicos de potencia, que permiten generar una tensión y corriente de unas determinadas características a partir de una fuente de energía, juegan un papel crítico en las energías renovables, vehículos eléctricos o la ingeniería aeroespacial. Los componentes magnéticos constituyen uno de los elementos esenciales en los convertidores de potencia determinando el filtrado de corriente, la operación y la eficiencia del convertidor. Uno de los parámetros más críticos que influyen en la eficiencia de los convertidores son las pérdidas de los componentes magnéticos que dependen de determinados efectos electromagnéticos como el efecto pelicular, de proximidad, de entre-hierros y de borde. Estos efectos son aún más relevantes en rangos de alta frecuencia, a la que suelen operar habitualmente los convertidores electrónicos de potencia. La optimización del convertidor de potencia requiere un análisis detallado de los componentes magnéticos y de los efectos de frecuencia producidos en función de cada aplicación particular, y sus requisitos específicos, principalmente en los rangos de media y alta frecuencia. La trasmisión, almacenamiento y pérdidas de energía eléctrica y magnética son relevantes en este contexto y están determinadas por las ecuaciones de Maxwell, cuya resolución es compleja. Existen tres importantes enfoques para la resolución de estas ecuaciones: métodos analíticos, análisis utilizando herramienta de elementos finitos y por realización de ensayos. El primero de ellos consiste en la resolución analítica de las ecuaciones, con las necesarias simplificaciones, siendo la más habitual el asumir simetrías en las distribuciones de los campos magnéticos para poder resolver las ecuaciones de Maxwell en una o dos dimensiones. Como desventaja, dicha simplificación no permite determinar la distribución del campo magnético dentro de los conductores. El segundo enfoque utiliza un método de elementos finitos, resolviendo las ecuaciones de Maxwell en cada elemento finito, no siendo posible simular algunos componentes magnéticos complejos por precisar un tiempo de simulación sea muy elevado, haciendo que esta solución no resulte práctica para los ingenieros de desarrollo. El tercer enfoque, basado en la realización de ensayos de laboratorio, permite obtener los parámetros eléctrico de cualquier componente magnético. No obstante, el tiempo necesario es también alto y sólo es usado para los ajustes finales. La mayoría de los ingenieros electrónicos y científicos usan los análisis basados en elementos finitos de los componentes magnéticos realizando las posibles simplificaciones teniendo en cuenta la distribución de campo magnético y la simétrica del componente. Cuando el componente magnético no presenta ninguna simetría, deben utilizarse modelos 3D para la determinación de sus parámetros del circuito eléctrico equivalente y la optimización magnética del componente, así como un detallado estudio de los efectos pelicular y de proximidad, que son especialmente relevantes cuando el componente trabaja en alta frecuencia. En este trabajo, se proponer una metodología basada en elementos finitos en 3D con un bajo tiempo de simulación que permite obtener los parámetros que del modelo eléctrico equivalente para componentes magnéticos asimétricos a partir de la estimación de las pérdidas del bobinado y del núcleo.In electrical engineering, power converters, as devices that are able to transform a defined current and voltage from an energy source, have a critical role in different fields as renewable energy, electric vehicles or aerospace engineering. The magnetic components are relevant elements in power converters because determines the current filtering and conversion functions and converter efficiency and performance. One of the critical parameters that influence in the efficiency of converters are the losses in the magnetic components that depends on particular effects as they are the skin, proximity, airgap and edge effects. These effects are more relevant in the high frequency ranges where the power converters are usually operated. The optimization of the power converter requires of the detailed analysis of the magnetic component and the involved frequency effects according to the application when particular requirements are needed, mostly in the medium and high frequency. Transmission, storage and losses of magnetic and electric energy analysis is relevant in this context and are determined by the Maxwell´s equations whose resolution is a complex task. There are three main methods to solve this equation system: analytical method, finite element method analysis and experimental methodology. The first method consists on the analytical resolution of the equations with the necessary simplifications, being the most common approach the assumption of the magnetic field distribution in one or two dimensions to solve the equations system, however this simplification does not allow determining the magnetic field into the conductors. The second approach uses the Finite Element Method, solving the Maxwell equations in very finite element of the component, but is not possible to simulate some complex magnetic components because it requires a high computational time, being not useful for power electronics designers. The third method, based on experimental lab tests, allows to obtain the electrical parameters for any magnetic component. Nevertheless, the time cost is also huge and it is only used for adjustments in the final stage. Most of the power electronics designers and scientists use the analysis of the magnetic components based on Finite Element Method doing the available simplification taking into account the magnetic field distribution and the symmetry of the magnetic component. If the magnetic component has not any symmetric, a 3D model is necessary to determine the electromagnetic or thermal parameters for the electrical equivalent circuit and the magnetic component optimization, as well as a detailed study for skin effect and proximity effect, even more if the magnetic components work at high frequency. In this work, it is proposed a new method based in 3D Finite Element Analysis with a low computational time that allows obtaining the electrical equivalent model parameters for asymmetric magnetic components from the estimation of winding and core power losses

Design of Linearly Polarized Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antenna Using IE3D/PSO

In this project, a novel particle swarm optimization method based on IE3D is used to design an Inset Feed Linearly Polarized Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antenna. The aim of the thesis is to Design and fabricate an inset fed rectangular Microstrip Antenna and study the effect of antenna dimensions Length (L) , Width (W) and substrate parameters relative Dielectric constant (εr) , substrate thickness on Radiation parameters of Band width. Low dielectric constant substrates are generally preferred for maximum radiation. The conducting patch can take any shape but rectangular and circular configurations are the most commonly used configuration. Other configurations are complex to analyze and require heavy numerical computations. The length of the antenna is nearly half wavelength in the dielectric; it is a very critical parameter, which governs the resonant frequency of the antenna. In view of design, selection of the patch width and length are the major parameters along with the feed line depth. Desired Patch antenna design is initially simulated by using IE3D simulator. And Patch antenna is realized as per design requirements

Time domain analysis of switching transient fields in high voltage substations

Switching operations of circuit breakers and disconnect switches generate transient currents propagating along the substation busbars. At the moment of switching, the busbars temporarily acts as antennae radiating transient electromagnetic fields within the substations. The radiated fields may interfere and disrupt normal operations of electronic equipment used within the substation for measurement, control and communication purposes. Hence there is the need to fully characterise the substation electromagnetic environment as early as the design stage of substation planning and operation to ensure safe operations of the electronic equipment. This paper deals with the computation of transient electromagnetic fields due to switching within a high voltage air-insulated substation (AIS) using the finite difference time domain (FDTD) metho

High-Performance Computational Electromagnetic Methods Applied to the Design of Patch Antenna with EBG Structure

In this contribution High-Performance Computing electromagnetic methods are applied to the design of a patch antenna combined with EBG structure in order to obtain bandwidth enhancement. The electrical characteristics of the embedded structure (patch antenna surrounded by EBG unit cells) are evaluated by means of method of moment technique (MoM) whereas for designing the unit cell, the finite element method (FEM) together with the Bloch-Floquet theory is used. The manufactured prototypes are characterized in terms of return loss and radiation pattern in an anechoic chamber

Design and synthesis of non-uniform high impedance surface-based wearable antennas

This thesis is concerned with the design and fabrication of flexible textile wearable antennas integrated with the newly introduced artificial materials known as high impedance surfaces (HIS). With the rapid growth and use of wireless communication systems more and more people are taking advantage of portable computing systems on daily basis. Also with the advancement in electronic industry new and sophisticated wireless devices have been introduced which are being used closed to human body. For user convenience there is an increasing need for integrating antennas on or in the clothing. The conventional antennas being rigid and obtrusive to user movements have limitations. There is a need of antennas made of flexible textile materials that can be part of user clothing defined as wearable antennas. Also with the miniaturisation trend in electronic industry, antenna designers are facing a challenge to come up with a compact, low profile,multi function efficient antenna designs occupying a small physical space. By integrating antennas in user clothing this limited space problem can also be resolved. With the easy availability of electro textile materials it is now possible to manufacture complete fabric antennas. The entire design cycle of wearable fabric antennas starting from material selection to prototype fabrication and antenna testing was carried out in this thesis. A novel technique for antenna fabrication using electro textile material is proposed that will have major implications on wearable computing industry. The use of HIS for antenna performance enhancement is growing at a rapid pace. In this thesis a modified wearable form of HIS defined as non uniform HIS is presented and successfully integrated with antenna for improved performance under low profile limitation. The HIS was also integrated with normal patch antenna to reduce its size and improve its gain and impedance bandwidth. These wearable antennas were then tested under real operating conditions. The measured results validated the design idea and showed that there are many possibilities for these unique artificial materials to be exploited for future wearable on body communication antennas

A simulation tool for the analysis and design of leaky wave antennas in laterally shielded planar technology with application to metamaterials

Leaky-waves have been a topic of increasing interest in the last years, with diverse practical applications in many different engineering fields. From periodic, FSS, EBG or even metamaterial leaky-wave based antennas to waveguide filters and higher efficiency energy guiding, they all share a common base structure: a travelling-wave propagating within a metal encapsulation, that can be open or closed, and altered by a planar metallization of periodic nature, from which the energy may radiate. Due to the fact that these antennas are usually electrically large and the periodic printed circuit requires a certain grade of complexity, 3D commercial software is prohibitively time consuming. Also, the homebrew methods developed up to this day are either not rigorous and accurate enough or unable to deal with complex periodic geometries. At this point, the evolution of leaky-wave antennas needs a solid, efficient and versatile tool where to base the future design research on. In this work a novel simulation tool for waveguide embedded leaky-wave antennas is presented. It is based on a full-wave Method of Moments applied to the spectral domain Green Functions for a rigorous modal analysis of the finite structure. The use of Subdomain basis functions allows the software to model complex periodic geometries, overcoming a main limitation, and the analytical nature of the method combined with its 2.5D approach, results in a significant computing time reduction. It is built on a modular coding philosophy and provided with a user-friendly graphical interface, and an intuitive working procedure, making the program not only fast and accurate, but also easy to use and extend to new geometries. Finally, it is remarkable the educational potential of this new analysis software, since it identifies higher order effects as bandgaps and multi-harmonic radiation from a complete and simple modal approach

Automated design optimisation and simulation of stitched antennas for textile devices

This thesis describes a novel approach for designing 7-segment and 5-angle pocket and collar planar antennas (for operation at 900 MHz). The motivation for this work originates from the problem of security of children in rural Nigeria where there is risk of abduction. There is a strong potential benefit to be gained from hidden wireless tracking devices (and hence antennas) that can protect their security. An evolutionary method based on a genetic algorithm was used in conjunction with electromagnetic simulation. This method determines the segment length and angle between segments through several generations. The simulation of the antenna was implemented using heuristic crossover with non-uniform mutation. Antennas obtained from the algorithm were fabricated and measured to validate the proposed method.This first part of this research has been limited to linear wire antennas because of the wide range and flexibility of this class of antennas. Linear wire antennas are used for the design of high or low gain, broad or narrow band antennas. Wire antennas are easy and inexpensive to build. All the optimised linear wire antenna samples exhibit similar performances, most of the power is radiated within the GSM900 frequency band. The reflection coefficient (S11) is generally better than -10dB. The method of moment (MoM-NEC2) and FIT (CST Studio Suite 2015) solvers were used for this design. MATLAB is used to as an interface to control computational electromagnetic solvers for antenna designs and analysis. The genetic algorithm procedures were written in MATLAB. The second part of the work focuses on meshed ground planes for applications at 900 MHz global system for mobile communications (GSM), 2.45 GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band and 5 GHz wearable wireless local area networks (WLAN) frequencies. Square ground planes were developed and designed using linear equations in MATLAB. The ground plane was stitched using embroidery machines. To examine the effect of meshing on the antenna performance and to normalise the meshed antenna to a reference, solid patch antenna was designed, fabricated on an FR4 substrate. A finite grid of resistors was created for numerical simulation in MATLAB. The resistance from the centre to any node of a finite grid of resistors are evaluated using nodal analysis. The probability that a node connects to each node in the grid was computed. The circuit model has been validated against the experimental model by measurement of the meshed ground plane. A set of measurement were collected from a meshed and compared with the numerical values, they show good agreement.</div

Modeling EMI Resulting from a Signal Via Transition Through Power/Ground Layers

Signal transitioning through layers on vias are very common in multi-layer printed circuit board (PCB) design. For a signal via transitioning through the internal power and ground planes, the return current must switch from one reference plane to another reference plane. The discontinuity of the return current at the via excites the power and ground planes, and results in noise on the power bus that can lead to signal integrity, as well as EMI problems. Numerical methods, such as the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD), Moment of Methods (MoM), and partial element equivalent circuit (PEEC) method, were employed herein to study this problem. The modeled results are supported by measurements. In addition, a common EMI mitigation approach of adding a decoupling capacitor was investigated with the FDTD method