Reducing the inductors of rectifiers having two outputs to improve power density

In this paper, a recently reported single-phase rectifier with two outputs (RECTO) is improved to reduce the neutral inductor and the grid inductor, by moving the neutral inductor away from the path of the grid current. The neutral inductor does not carry the grid current any more so the current stress of the neutral inductor can be significantly reduced, and the size of the inductor becomes much smaller. In theory, the current stress can be reduced by at least three times and the size of the inductor can be reduced by nine times. At the same time, the grid inductor can be reduced to achieve the same level of grid-current switching ripples because of the changed operation modes and modulation strategy. Together, the reduced neutral and grid inductors help improve the system power density. It is worth noting that the voltage and current stresses of the switches and the other features of the RECTO, e.g., two dc outputs and unity power factor, are not affected. Comparative experimental results are presented to demonstrate the reduction. If the two load currents are the same then the neutral inductor is only required to handle the switching ripples. This improved RECTO is particularly suitable for applications with two balanced loads without increasing the cost much

A Compositional Analysis of Unbalanced Usages of Multiple Left-turn Lanes

Lane usage measures distribution of a specific traffic movement across multiple available lanes in a given time. Unbalanced lane usages decrease the capacity of subject segment. This paper took multiple left-turn lanes at signalized intersections as case study, and explored the influences of some factors on the lane usage balance. Lane usages were calculated from field collected lane volumes and the constant-sum constraint among them was explicitly considered in the statistical analysis. Classical and compositional analysis of variance was respectively conducted to identify significant influential factors. By comparing the results of compositional analysis and those of the classical one, the former ones have better interpretability. It was found that left-turn lane usages could be affected by parameter variance of geometric design or traffic control, such as length of turning curve, length of upstream segment, length of signal phase or cycle. These factors could make the lane usages achieve relative balance at different factor levels.</p

Dual-buck arbitrary voltage divider with one output having reduced ripples

In this paper, a dual-buck voltage divider is further studied to provide two arbitrary, instead of balanced, voltage outputs. The two voltage outputs can be the same or different and are robust against parameter drift. The low-frequency ripples in one output are significantly reduced by actively diverting low-frequency ripple currents away from the corresponding output. Note that these are achieved by designing an advanced controller, without changing the topology. The controller consists of a PI controller to split the voltage, a repetitive controller and a resonant controller to deal with the low-frequency ripples at different frequencies. Experimental results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy

Beijing converters: bridge converters with a capacitor added to reduce leakage currents, DC-bus voltage ripples, and total capacitance required

Abstract: Isolation transformers and bulky electrolytic capacitors are often used in power electronic converters to reduce leakage currents and voltage ripples but this leads to low power density and reduced reliability. In this paper, an auxiliary capacitor is added to the widely used conventional full-bridge converter to provide a path for, and hence significantly reduce, the leakage current. The operation of the full-bridge converter is split into the operation of a half-bridge converter and a dc-dc converter so that the ripple energy can be diverted from the dc-bus capacitor to the auxiliary capacitor. Hence, the dc-bus capacitor can be significantly reduced while maintaining very low voltage ripples on the dc bus because it is only required to filter out switching ripples. The auxiliary capacitor is designed to allow high voltage ripples because its voltage is not supplied to any load. Accordingly, the auxiliary capacitor can also be very small as well. As a result, the total required capacitance becomes very small. The reduction ratio of the total capacitance is significant, which makes it cost-effective to use film capacitors instead of electrolytic capacitors. The proposed converters can be also operated as an inverter without any restriction on power factor because the adopted four switches are all bidirectional in terms of power flow. Experimental results for both rectification and inversion modes are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed converter in reducing the ripples, the leakage currents, and the total capacitance needed, with comparison to the conventional bridge converter without the auxiliary capacitor

Dynamic Model of Spur Gear Pair with Modulation Internal Excitation

In the actual measurements, vibration and noise spectrum of gear pair often exhibits sidebands around the gear mesh harmonic orders. In this study, a nonlinear time-varying dynamic model of spur gear pair was established to predict the modulation sidebands caused by the AM-FM modulation internal excitation. Here, backlash, modulation time-varying mesh stiffness, and modulation transmission error are considered. Then the undamped natural mode was studied. Numerical simulation was made to reveal the dynamic characteristic of a spur gear under modulation condition. The internal excitation was shown to exhibit obvious modulation sideband because of the modulation time-varying mesh stiffness and modulation transmission error. The Runge-Kutta method was used to solve the equations for analyzing the dynamic characteristics with the effect of modulation internal excitation. The result revealed that the response under modulation excitation exhibited obvious modulation sideband. The response under nonmodulation condition was also calculated for comparison. In addition, an experiment was done to verify the prediction of the modulation sidebands. The calculated result was consistent with the experimental result

Essential Role of Mast Cells in the Visceral Hyperalgesia Induced by T. spiralis Infection and Stress in Rats

Mast cells (MCs) deficient rats (Ws/Ws) were used to investigate the roles of MCs in visceral hyperalgesia. Ws/Ws and wild control (+/+) rats were exposed to T. spiralis or submitted to acute cold restraint stress (ACRS). Levels of proteinase-activated receptor 2 (PAR2) and nerve growth factor (NGF) were determined by immunoblots and RT-PCR analysis, and the putative signal pathways including phosphorylated extracellular-regulated kinase (pERK1/2) and transient receptor potential vanilloid receptor 1 (TRPV1) were further identified. Visceral hyperalgesia triggered by ACRS was observed only in +/+ rats. The increased expression of PAR2 and NGF was observed only in +/+ rats induced by T. spiralis and ACRS. The activation of pERK1/2 induced by ACRS occurred only in +/+ rats. However, a significant increase of TRPV1 induced by T. spiralis and ACRS was observed only in +/+ rats. The activation of PAR2 and NGF via both TRPV1 and pERK1/2 signal pathway is dependent on MCs in ACRS-induced visceral hyperalgesia rats

Protein-lipid co-oxidation in emulsions stabilized by microwave-treated and conventional thermal-treated faba bean proteins

The course of protein-lipid co-oxidation was investigated in oil-in-water emulsions stabilized with proteins extracted from microwave-treated (MWT) and conventional thermal-treated (CTT) faba beans stored at 37 degrees C for 7days. Emulsions prepared with proteins from untreated (UT) faba beans and soy protein isolate (SP) were monitored for comparison. Lipid oxidation was detected through formation of primary and secondary oxidation products while protein oxidation was examined via tryptophan fluorescence degradation in interface and aqueous phase. Oxidation of proteins was more emphasized in the interfacial layers of MWT, CTT, and SP emulsions than in UT emulsions due to the prominence of radical chain-driven co-oxidation mechanism while lipoxygenase (LOX) activity in UT and MWT emulsions resulted in high amounts of hydroperoxides and abundance in lipid oxidation volatiles. Conventional thermal treatment provided better oxidative stability than microwave treatment reflected in lower levels of hydroperoxides and relative lack of diversity in lipid volatiles. Among detected volatiles, formation of ketones was more distinguished in MWT, CTT, and SP emulsions while UT emulsions contained a more diverse range of alkenals and alkanals. Ketones are known to form mainly through radical recombination reactions which combined with the results of protein oxidation supports that radical transfer reactions between proteins and lipids were the driving force behind oxidation in MWT, CTT, and SP emulsions. Treatments of faba beans resulted in increased oxidative stability of emulsified lipids and lower degradation of aqueous phase proteins.Peer reviewe