Using fuzzy logic in the governing system of a micro-hydro power plant

This is a study of the implementation of fuzzy logic control in micro-hydro power stabilization. The focus of the study is on a generator that is driven by a cross-flow turbine operating with two flow-control guide vanes. No attempt is made to investigate on other turbine-generator set-up for comparative study. Two parameters, the turbine speed and generator output voltage, are controlled in order to regulate the generator output power. A large part of this study involved the assembly of the electronic hardware that was necessary to implement fuzzy logic control. The method by which the author was able to implement fuzzy logic control was presented in this thesis. The scheme in controlling the two flow-control guide vanes was the key in the regulation of the turbine speed. The generator output voltage was regulated by controlling the excitation field voltage of the generator. The performance of the fuzzy logic controller was evaluated by analyzing the turbine speed and generator output graphs both as functions of time. Three trials were conducted in order to compare the effectiveness of the fuzzy logic controller that was developed in this study. The results of the performance tests showed that the fuzzy logic controller that was developed in this study was effective in stabilizing the generator output voltage and the turbine speed

Energy audit and analysis of the electricity consumption of an educational building in the Philippines for smart consumption

Energy audit is the inspection, survey and analysis of energy flows in a building. The goal is to identify energy efficiency opportunities which will not negatively affect the output and operations of the building. The unique case of cleaner production in educational buildings is presented in this study - minimal material flow allows a focus on energy consumption; robust scheduling provides an advantage and equipment usage is between an office and an industrial building. Energy auditing revealed that most of the electricity consumption is due to air conditioning (51%), followed by equipment use (35%) and lighting (14%). Annual carbon dioxide emissions due to electricity consumption are estimated at 433 tons. Recommendations include using energy efficient lighting and exploiting daylighting, adopting a centralized or split-type inverter air conditioning system and implementing minimum energy performance standards (MEPS). Lastly, it is understood that scheduling uniquely plays a very important role in managing the smart consumption of educational buildings. © 2017 IEEE

Simulation of an optimal design of permanent magnet direct-drive wind turbine generator

Permanent Magnet Direct Drive (PMDD) configuration is seen to provide more advantages compared to its gearbox counterpart, namely absence of gears, less maintenance, higher efficiency, and growing research field. However, PMDD configuration generally has a big ring size and expensive construction cost. To potentially reduce the cost of PMDD, various research designs were investigated, including reduction of weight, lessen of material usage, and simulations on electrical losses. However, as of this time of writing, there has been no research design on the placement of permanent magnets (PM) for optimal energy generation. Thus, this study aims to make an optimal design of a PMDD ring by varying three main parameters, namely in-between magnet clearance, rotor-stator distance, and rotational speed. SolidWorks was used to design the model, ANSYS Fluent was used to simulate the various design combinations, and JMP software was used to analyse the data statistically. Results showed that amongst the three parameters, only the rotor-stator distance significantly influenced the power output of the simulated equipment. Further investigation can be done on the variation of magnet numbers, increase combinations, and investigation of power losses. © 2017 IEEE

Identification of design criteria for converter cooling system of permanent magnet direct-drive wind turbine generator

The design criteria of converter cooling system for a 2.5 MW permanent magnet direct-drive wind turbine generator were investigated. Two (2) distribution networks with pipe sizes of DN40 and DN50 were used as basis for fluid flow analysis. The theoretical system pressure drop and system volume flow rate of converter cooling system were calculated using the governing equations of mass conservation, pump performance curve and distribution network characteristics. The system of nonlinear equations was solved using multivariable Newton-Raphson method with the solution vector determined using LU decomposition method. Numerical results suggest that the DN50 pipe provides a pressure drop limit of less than 300 Pa/m in the converter cooling system better than the pressure drop obtained from a DN40 pipe. The system volume flow rate of DN50 pipe was found to be above the operating limit of heat exchanger requirement of 135.30 L/min which needs to dissipate heat with a minimum of 50 kW. Copyright © 2016 by ASME

Design of yaw brake system for horizontal axis wind turbine generator

The present study discussed pertinent design parameters used in designing the yaw brake system of horizontal axis wind turbine. The hydraulic power unit of yaw brake system should be designed properly to control the yaw brake during yaw movement of nacelle and to activate the brake calipers when necessary during turbine operation and maintenance work. System design requirements of hydraulic power unit are presented according to IEC 61400-1 and GL Wind guidelines. To understand the arrangement of hydraulic power unit components, three (3) different hydraulic circuit models for yaw brake systems were evaluated. Each configuration of hydraulic power unit for yaw brake system was analyzed by determining the pump performance characteristics using HyPneu software. The simulation results identified hydraulic circuit model with the most controlled system pressure environment, with properly regulated flow rate and best pumping efficiency of 72.03%. © 2015 IEEE

Wind turbine class identification for a 30 MW wind farm in Santa Vitoria do Palmar, Brazil

The present study discussed the wind resource assessment of a 30MW wind farm in Santa Vitoria do Palmar, Brazil. The wind regime at the site was evaluated by determining the Weibull parameters, annual mean wind speed, turbulence intensity and predicted annual energy yield. The Weibull parameters were calculated using different statistical estimation methods to predict the probability density function and cumulative distribution function of wind regime. The analytical results were compared with the numerical output obtained from commercial software such as WAsP. WAsP and Windfarmer were also used to perform numerical calculation that generates an observed wind climate report and to predict the annual net energy production at the site. Calculation results revealed that the site is suitable for Germanischer Lloyd (GL) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Class II wind turbine generator with characteristic turbulence intensity at reference height according to GL and IEC Subclass B. It was also found that the estimated annual energy production of wind farm based on the proposed turbine arrangement is ranging from 96.2 GWh to 98 GWh using WAsP and Windfarmer softwares, respectively. © 2017 IEEE

Mechatronics consideration in mechanical design

Mechatronics is the integration of mechanical engineering with electronics and electrical systems coupled with intelligent computer control. Its main purpose is for the design and manufacture of industrial products, processes and operations but it is now used for a variety of industrial and commercial applications. The typical mechatronics system consists of measurement system, controller and actuation system. Measurement systems consist of sensor and signal conditioning which usually processes and converts physical inputs into raw signals. The controller which may be in the form of microprocessors/microcontrollers interprets the signals and outputs it into the actuation system for corresponding action. One example of a mechatronic application is Micro-hydro power stabilization control using fuzzy logic. During experimentation, the fuzzy logic control provided more power stability compared to the system without any aid of control

Neuro-fuzzy control techniques for optimal water quality index in a small scale tiger prawn aquaculture setup

A small scale real time tiger prawn aquaculture setup was built and tested in the laboratory using ordinary aquariums to test the controllability and control of the four most important parameters in culturing tiger prawns, the temperature, salinity, pH and dissolved oxygen. These parameters were monitored using Vernier sensors via Labview program. The water quality index of the artificial habitat was monitored and computed using fuzzy logic. New values for the safe parameter conditions of the tiger prawns were observed and used in the computation of the water quality index. Lastly, electronic valves and actuators are used to automatically control the four said water parameters and set them to their optimal values. The control needed by each parameter to force them to stay within their optimal values was done using neural network. This control system is used to activate the electronic valves that will dispense correction fluids for each of the four monitored water parameter. © 2014, Fuji Technology Press. All rights reserved

Using k-means clustering to classify microscopic colon images

This study reports on the performance of k-means clustering technique in classifying microscopic images of colonic tissue. Prior to the applications of the k-means clustering algorithm, the images were classified by a human expert according to 3 categories: normal, adenomatous polyp, and adenocarcinoma or cancerous. The images were selected in order to produce 25 images for each category, totaling 75 images in all. The image properties used were texture quantities derived from grey-level co-occurrence matrices (GLCM). Results showed classification accuracies of 69%, 62%, and 40% for the adenomatous polyp, normal, and cancerous cases, respectively