Control strategies for microgrid with multiple distributed energy resources

Microgrid is considered as a smart solution to the global energy crisis and environmental issues these days for employing green technology. This is a small scale, usually renewable energy based distributed generation system which basically serves local users and does not require transmission lines. However, Microgrid needs a suitable control system to improve its efficiency and reliability to work as a standalone unit or as parallel connected unit with the main utility grid. For instance, renewable energy sources such as, Solar Photovoltaics and Wind Turbine depend on weather conditions thus result in output power fluctuation. In this case, a storage unit is essential that can provide back up during low generation period and can store outstanding energy at the time of less demand. In addition, integration of multiple distribution energy resources raises the energy generation of Microgrid sufficiently but increases complications in operations as well. Besides, a communication network is also vital in this case for information transfer within the sources and other components of the structure. Hence, a study related to advance control system to maintain a smart energy management incorporation with fault detection and self-healing aspects of Microgrid is presented in this research. The purpose of this project is to find out the most advantageous control techniques for Microgrid with multiple distributed energy resources which need to be user-friendly as well. Research shows that, Droop control techniques are beneficial for above requirements performing Decentralized control method where communication networks are not essential. Moreover, in this paper some MATLAB/SIMULINK based simulations are presented. Where a Microgrid is modelled that consists of distributed energy resources namely Photovoltaic, Wind turbine and Fuel cells. Finally, simulation results of different droop control techniques are presented and some discussions regarding tested techniques are enclosed

Real-time face recognition for human tracking system

Computer-based human face detection and recognition systems proliferate in various sectors such as universities, factories and other organisation [1]. This system refers to a branch of computer technology that can recognise human faces in digital images..

A review of using the force/torque sensor in robotics application

Nowadays, force/torque sensors ubiquitous in the robotics field. Most of the robots on the assembly line use a force/torque sensor in a complex assembly process. A force/torque (F/T) sensor is an electronic device designed to track, detect, record, and manage the rotational and linear forces exerted on it. This force/torque sensor, sometimes known as a multi-axis force/torque transducer, six-axis load cell, or F/T sensor. This sensor plays a vital role in the robotic application as it provides force information to make the system more reliable and precise.

Employability Skills Development Approaches: An Application Of The Analytic Network Process

Institutions of higher learning need to re-evaluate their teaching-learning approaches to develop the necessary employability skills for their graduates. The main objectives of this study are to identify the important employability skills and the corresponding employability skills development approaches in a Malaysian setting. The results of the application of an analytic network process (ANP) show that the 'ability to speak fluently in English' is the most important skill, followed by the 'ability to write effectively in English' and the 'ability to think critically'. On the other hand, the most effective employability skills development approach is found to be 'work-integrated learning'. The other effective approaches are identified as 'stand-alone subject model', 'academic support programme', 'embedded subject model', 'non-academic support programme' and 'campus life activities'

Computational Simulation of Boil-Off Gas Formation inside Liquefied Natural Gas tank using Evaporation Model in ANSYS Fluent

Research on the waste energy and emission has been quite intensive recently. The formation, venting and flared the Boil-off gas (BOG) considered as one of the contribution to the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission nowadays. The current model or method appearing in the literature is unable to analyze the real behavior of the vapor inside Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tank and unable to accurately estimate the amount of boil-off gas formation. In this paper, evaporation model is used to estimate LNG Boil-Off rate (BOR) inside LNG tank. Using User Define Function (UDF) hooked to the software ANSYS Fluent. The application enable drag law and alternative heat transfer coefficient to be included. Three dimensional membrane type LNG cargos are simulated with selected boundary condition located in the United States Gulf Coast based on average weather conditions. The result shows that the value of BOR agrees well with the previous study done with another model and with International Marine organization (IMO) standard which is less than 0.15% weight per day. The results also enable us to visualize the LNG evaporation behaviors inside LNG tanks

The effect of different aspect ratio and bottom heat flux towards contaminant removal using numerical analysis

Cubic Interpolated Pseudo-particle (CIP) numerical simulation scheme has been anticipated to predict the interaction involving fluids and solid particles in an open channel with rectangular shaped cavity flow. The rectangular shaped cavity is looking by different aspect ratio in modelling the real pipeline joints that are in a range of sizes. Various inlet velocities are also being applied in predicting various fluid flow characteristics. In this paper, the constant heat flux is introduced at the bottom wall, showing the buoyancy effects towards the contaminant’s removal rate. In order to characterize the fluid flow, the numerical scheme alone is initially tested and validated in a lid driven cavity with a single particle. The study of buoyancy effects and different aspect ratio of rectangular geometry were carried out using a MATLAB govern by Navier-Stokes equation. CIP is used as a model for a numerical scheme solver for fluid solid particles interaction. The result shows that the higher aspect ratio coupled with heated bottom wall give higher percentage of contaminant’s removal rate. Comparing with the benchmark results has demonstrated the applicability of the method to reproduce fluid structure which is complex in the system. Despite a slight deviation of the formations of vortices from some of the literature results, the general pattern is considered to be in close agreement with those published in the literature

Effect of Soot Particle Diameter to Soot Movement in Diesel Engine

Soot is one of the end product produced from the combustion of diesel engine. It can adversely affect the performance of the engine. It can cause the lubricant oil to be dirty thus increase its viscosity. These will results to frequent change of lubricant oil. Therefore, the focus of this study is related to the mechanism soot particles movement during the combustion process in the cylinder of diesel engine. The study of the path movement of soot particles from the initial position where it was formed to the last position was carried out. To analyze their movements, the data formation of soot particles was obtained through the simulation of combustion engine using Kiva-3V software which was used in previous investigation. The data that were obtained from the Kiva-3v simulation were velocity vectors of the soot, fuel, temperature, pressure and others. This data is used in the MATLAB routine to calculate the location of soot particles in the combustion chamber. Mathematics algorithm which is used in the MATLAB routine is trilinear interpolation and 4th order of Runge Kutta. In this study, the influence of soot particles diameter with different angular (θ) is included in the calculation to determine its movement. Results from this study shows that if the size of soot particles is bigger, the probability of the movement of soot particles to the combustion chamber wall is high thus contaminating the lubricant oil

Mini acceleration and deceleration driving strategy to increase the operational time of flywheel hybrid module

This paper presents a new driving strategy to increase the operational time of flywheel hybrid module. The flywheel hybrid module contains low cost mechanical parts which installed on the small motorcycle. Based on normal driving cycles characteristics, the Mini-AD driving strategy is develop. It is involved a series of short or mini acceleration cycle and short deceleration cycle on top of the normal driving cycles. The new strategy is simulated for flywheel hybrid module, aimed for acceleration phase only. Simulations show that the new driving strategy can increase the operational time of flywheel hybrid module up to 62.5%

Numerical Analysis on the Effects of Cavity Geometry with Heat towards Contaminant Removal

Contaminants are recently discovered at the joint of large piping system and causing defect to industrial product. A computational analysis can be used as a solution of the hydrodynamic contaminant removal without any modification needed. In this paper, the effect of heat is introduced to analyze the heat transfer and flow field in a channel with cavity heated at the bottom sides coupled with different shape of cavity. The cavity shape used comes with three shapes i.e. square, triangle and semicircle. The process of fluid dynamic in a cavity is modeled via numerical solution of the Navier–Stokes equations using Cubic Interpolated Profile (CIP) method. By using the simulation of hydrodynamic contaminant removal, the flow of streamlines and vortices pattern was investigated in the cavities. In order to remove all of the contaminant, hydrodynamic need to take part in this simulation which is flow from the inlet of the channel and create vortices to remove it from the cavities. The result shows that the percentage of contaminant removal is higher for semicircle cavity with higher Grashof number. The result also indicates that vortices formation is highly dependent on the cavity geometry and creates a buoyancy effect

Effect of Soot Particle Diameter to Soot Movement in Diesel Engine

Soot is one of the end product produced from the combustion of diesel engine. It can adversely affect the performance of the engine. It can cause the lubricant oil to be dirty thus increase its viscosity. These will results to frequent change of lubricant oil. Therefore, the focus of this study is related to the mechanism soot particles movement during the combustion process in the cylinder of diesel engine. The study of the path movement of soot particles from the initial position where it was formed to the last position was carried out. To analyze their movements, the data formation of soot particles was obtained through the simulation of combustion engine using Kiva-3V software which was used in previous investigation. The data that were obtained from the Kiva-3v simulation were velocity vectors of the soot, fuel, temperature, pressure and others. This data is used in the MATLAB routine to calculate the location of soot particles in the combustion chamber. Mathematics algorithm which is used in the MATLAB routine is trilinear interpolation and 4th order of Runge Kutta. In this study, the influence of soot particles diameter with different angular (θ) is included in the calculation to determine its movement. Results from this study shows that if the size of soot particles is bigger, the probability of the movement of soot particles to the combustion chamber wall is high thus contaminating the lubricant oil