This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.

In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.

Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.

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Description
The dissertation encompasses the transformer-less single phase PV inverters for both the string and microinverter applications. Two of the major challenge with such inverters include the presence of high-frequency common mode leakage current and double line frequency power decoupling with reliable capacitors without compromising converter power density. Two solutions are

The dissertation encompasses the transformer-less single phase PV inverters for both the string and microinverter applications. Two of the major challenge with such inverters include the presence of high-frequency common mode leakage current and double line frequency power decoupling with reliable capacitors without compromising converter power density. Two solutions are presented in this dissertation: half-bridge voltage swing (HBVS) and dynamic dc link (DDCL) inverters both of which completely eliminates the ground current through topological improvement. In addition, through active power decoupling technique, the capacitance requirement is reduced for both, thus achieving an all film-capacitor based solution with higher reliability. Also both the approaches are capable of supporting a wide range of power factor.

Moreover, wide band-gap devices (both SiC and GaN) are used for implementing their hardware prototypes. It enables the switching frequency to be high without compromising on the converter efficiency. Also it allows a reduced magnetic component size, further enabling a high power density solution, with power density far beyond the state-of-the art solutions.

Additionally, for the transformer-less microinverter application, another challenge is to achieve a very high gain DC-DC stage with a simultaneous high conversion efficiency. An extended duty ratio (EDR) boost converter which is a hybrid of switched capacitors and interleaved inductor technique, has been implemented for this purpose. It offers higher converter efficiency as most of the switches encounter lower voltage stress directly impacting switching loss; the input current being shared among all the interleaved converters (inherent sharing only in a limited duty ratio), the inductor conduction loss is reduced by a factor of the number of phases.

Further, the EDR boost converter has been studied for both discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) operations and operations with wide input/output voltage range in continuous conduction mode (CCM). A current sharing between its interleaved input phases is studied in detail to show that inherent sharing is possible for only in a limited duty ratio span, and modification of the duty ratio scheme is proposed to ensure equal current sharing over all the operating range for 3 phase EDR boost. All the analysis are validated with experimental results.
ContributorsRoy, Jinia (Author) / Ayyanar, Raja (Thesis advisor) / Karady, George G. (Committee member) / Qin, Jiangchao (Committee member) / Lei, Qin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
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Description
The growth of energy demands in recent years has been increasing faster than the expansion of transmission facility construction. This tendency cooperating with the continuous investing on the renewable energy resources drives the research, development, and construction of HVDC projects to create a more reliable, affordable, and environmentally friendly power

The growth of energy demands in recent years has been increasing faster than the expansion of transmission facility construction. This tendency cooperating with the continuous investing on the renewable energy resources drives the research, development, and construction of HVDC projects to create a more reliable, affordable, and environmentally friendly power grid.

Constructing the hybrid AC-HVDC grid is a significant move in the development of the HVDC techniques; the form of dc system is evolving from the point-to-point stand-alone dc links to the embedded HVDC system and the multi-terminal HVDC (MTDC) system. The MTDC is a solution for the renewable energy interconnections, and the MTDC grids can improve the power system reliability, flexibility in economic dispatches, and converter/cable utilizing efficiencies.

The dissertation reviews the HVDC technologies, discusses the stability issues regarding the ac and HVDC connections, proposes a novel power oscillation control strategy to improve system stability, and develops a nonlinear voltage droop control strategy for the MTDC grid.

To verify the effectiveness the proposed power oscillation control strategy, a long distance paralleled AC-HVDC transmission test system is employed. Based on the PSCAD/EMTDC platform simulation results, the proposed power oscillation control strategy can improve the system dynamic performance and attenuate the power oscillations effectively.

To validate the nonlinear voltage droop control strategy, three droop controls schemes are designed according to the proposed nonlinear voltage droop control design procedures. These control schemes are tested in a hybrid AC-MTDC system. The hybrid AC-MTDC system, which is first proposed in this dissertation, consists of two ac grids, two wind farms and a five-terminal HVDC grid connecting them. Simulation studies are performed in the PSCAD/EMTDC platform. According to the simulation results, all the three design schemes have their unique salient features.
ContributorsYu, Jicheng (Author) / Karady, George G. (Thesis advisor, Committee member) / Qin, Jiangchao (Thesis advisor, Committee member) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Holbert, Keith E. (Committee member) / Lei, Qin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
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Description
The following report details the motivation, design, analysis, simulation and hardware implementation of a DC/DC converter in EV drivetrain architectures. The primary objective of the project was to improve overall system efficiency in an EV drivetrain. The methodology employed to this end required a variable or flexible DC-Link voltage at

The following report details the motivation, design, analysis, simulation and hardware implementation of a DC/DC converter in EV drivetrain architectures. The primary objective of the project was to improve overall system efficiency in an EV drivetrain. The methodology employed to this end required a variable or flexible DC-Link voltage at the input of the inverter stage. Amongst the several advantages associated with such a system are the independent optimization of the battery stack and the inverter over a wide range of motor operating conditions. The incorporation of a DC/DC converter into the drivetrain helps lower system losses but since it is an additional component, a number of considerations need to be made during its design. These include stringent requirements on power density, converter efficiency and reliability.

These targets for the converter are met through a number of different ways. The switches used are Silicon Carbide FETs. These are wide band gap (WBG) devices that can operate at high frequencies and temperatures. Since they allow for high frequency operation, a switching frequency of 250 khz is proposed and implemented. This helps with power density by reducing the size of passive components. High efficiencies are made possible by using a simple soft switching technique by augmenting the DC/DC converter with an auxiliary branch to enable zero voltage transition.

The efficacy of the approach is tested through simulation and hardware implementation of two different prototypes. The Gen-I prototype was a single soft switched synchronous boost converter rated at 2.5kw. Both the motoring mode and regenerative modes of operation (Boost and Buck) were hardware tested for over 2kw and efficiency results of over 98.15% were achieved. The Gen-II prototype and the main focus of this work is an interleaved soft switched synchronous boost converter. This converter has been implemented in hardware as well and has been tested at 6.7kw and an efficiency of over 98% has been achieved in the boost mode of operation.
ContributorsRaza, Bassam (Author) / Ayyanar, Raja (Thesis advisor) / Qin, Jiangchao (Committee member) / Lei, Qin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
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Description
In recent years, wide bandgap (WBG) devices enable power converters with higher power density and higher efficiency. On the other hand, smart grid technologies are getting mature due to new battery technology and computer technology. In the near future, the two technologies will form the next generation of smart grid

In recent years, wide bandgap (WBG) devices enable power converters with higher power density and higher efficiency. On the other hand, smart grid technologies are getting mature due to new battery technology and computer technology. In the near future, the two technologies will form the next generation of smart grid enabled by WBG devices. This dissertation deals with two applications: silicon carbide (SiC) device used for medium voltage level interface (7.2 kV to 240 V) and gallium nitride (GaN) device used for low voltage level interface (240 V/120 V). A 20 kW solid state transformer (SST) is designed with 6 kHz switching frequency SiC rectifier. Then three robust control design methods are proposed for each of its smart grid operation modes. In grid connected mode, a new LCL filter design method is proposed considering grid voltage THD, grid current THD and current regulation loop robust stability with respect to the grid impedance change. In grid islanded mode, µ synthesis method combined with variable structure control is used to design a robust controller for grid voltage regulation. For grid emergency mode, multivariable controller designed using H infinity synthesis method is proposed for accurate power sharing. Controller-hardware-in-the-loop (CHIL) testbed considering 7-SST system is setup with Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS). The real TMS320F28335 DSP and Spartan 6 FPGA control board is used to interface a switching model SST in RTDS. And the proposed control methods are tested. For low voltage level application, a 3.3 kW smart grid hardware is built with 3 GaN inverters. The inverters are designed with the GaN device characterized using the proposed multi-function double pulse tester. The inverter is controlled by onboard TMS320F28379D dual core DSP with 200 kHz sampling frequency. Each inverter is tested to process 2.2 kW power with overall efficiency of 96.5 % at room temperature. The smart grid monitor system and fault interrupt devices (FID) based on Arduino Mega2560 are built and tested. The smart grid cooperates with GaN inverters through CAN bus communication. At last, the three GaN inverters smart grid achieved the function of grid connected to islanded mode smooth transition
ContributorsYao, Tong (Author) / Ayyanar, Raja (Thesis advisor) / Karady, George G. (Committee member) / Qin, Jiangchao (Committee member) / Tsakalis, Konstantinos (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
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Description
Distributed energy resources have experienced dramatic growth and are beginning to support a significant amount of customer loads. Power electronic converters are the primary interface between the grid and the distributed energy resources/storage and offer several advantages including fast control, flexibility and high efficiency. The efficiency and the power density

Distributed energy resources have experienced dramatic growth and are beginning to support a significant amount of customer loads. Power electronic converters are the primary interface between the grid and the distributed energy resources/storage and offer several advantages including fast control, flexibility and high efficiency. The efficiency and the power density by volume are important performance metrics of a power converter. Compact and high efficiency power converter is beneficial to the cost-effectiveness of the converter interfaced generations. In this thesis, a soft-switching technique is proposed to reduce the size of passive components in a grid-connected converter while maintaining a high power conversion efficiency. The dynamic impact of the grid-connected converters on the power system is causing concerns as the penetration level of the converter interfaced generation increases, necessitating a detailed dynamic analysis. The unbalanced nature of distribution systems makes the conventional transient stability simulation based on positive sequence components unsuitable for this purpose. Methods suitable for the dynamic simulation of grid-connected converters in large scale unbalanced and single-phase systems are presented in this thesis to provide an effective way to study the dynamic interactions between the grid and the converters. Dynamic-link library (DLL) of converter dynamic models are developed by which converter dynamic simulations can be easily conducted in OpenDSS. To extend the converter controls testing beyond pure simulation, real-time simulation can be utilized where partial realistic scenarios can be created by including realistic components in the simulation loop. In this work, a multi-platform, real-time simulation testbed including actual digital controller platforms, communication networks and inverters has been developed for validating the microgrid concepts and implementations. A hierarchical converted based microgrid control scheme is proposed which enables the islanded microgrid operation with 100% penetration level of converter interfaced generation. Impact of the load side dynamic modeling on the converter response is also discussed in this thesis.
ContributorsYu, Ziwei (Author) / Ayyanar, Raja (Thesis advisor) / Vittal, Vijay (Committee member) / Qin, Jiangchao (Committee member) / Weng, Yang (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
The most important metrics considered for electric vehicles are power density, efficiency, and reliability of the powertrain modules. The powertrain comprises of an Electric Machine (EM), power electronic converters, an Energy Management System (EMS), and an Energy Storage System (ESS). The power electronic converters are used to couple the motor

The most important metrics considered for electric vehicles are power density, efficiency, and reliability of the powertrain modules. The powertrain comprises of an Electric Machine (EM), power electronic converters, an Energy Management System (EMS), and an Energy Storage System (ESS). The power electronic converters are used to couple the motor with the battery stack. Including a DC/DC converter in the powertrain module is favored as it adds an additional degree of freedom to achieve flexibility in optimizing the battery module and inverter independently. However, it is essential that the converter is rated for high peak power and can maintain high efficiency while operating over a wide range of load conditions to not compromise on system efficiency. Additionally, the converter must strictly adhere to all automotive standards.

Currently, several hard-switching topologies have been employed such as conventional boost DC/DC, interleaved step-up DC/DC, and full-bridge DC/DC converter. These converters face respective limitations in achieving high step-up conversion ratio, size and weight issues, or high component count. In this work, a bi-directional synchronous boost DC/DC converter with easy interleaving capability is proposed with a novel ZVT mechanism. This converter steps up the EV battery voltage of 200V-300V to a wide range of variable output voltages ranging from 310V-800V. High power density and efficiency are achieved through high switching frequency of 250kHz for each phase with effective frequency doubling through interleaving. Also, use of wide bandgap high voltage SiC switches allows high efficiency operation even at high temperatures.

Comprehensive analysis, design details and extensive simulation results are presented. Incorporating ZVT branch with adaptive time delay results in converter efficiency close to 98%. Experimental results from a 2.5kW hardware prototype validate the performance of the proposed approach. A peak efficiency of 98.17% has been observed in hardware in the boost or motoring mode.
ContributorsMullangi Chenchu, Hemanth (Author) / Ayyanar, Raja (Thesis advisor) / Qin, Jiangchao (Committee member) / Lei, Qin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
The demand for cleaner energy technology is increasing very rapidly. Hence it is

important to increase the eciency and reliability of this emerging clean energy technologies.

This thesis focuses on modeling and reliability of solar micro inverters. In

order to make photovoltaics (PV) cost competitive with traditional energy sources,

the economies of scale have

The demand for cleaner energy technology is increasing very rapidly. Hence it is

important to increase the eciency and reliability of this emerging clean energy technologies.

This thesis focuses on modeling and reliability of solar micro inverters. In

order to make photovoltaics (PV) cost competitive with traditional energy sources,

the economies of scale have been guiding inverter design in two directions: large,

centralized, utility-scale (500 kW) inverters vs. small, modular, module level (300

W) power electronics (MLPE). MLPE, such as microinverters and DC power optimizers,

oer advantages in safety, system operations and maintenance, energy yield,

and component lifetime due to their smaller size, lower power handling requirements,

and module-level power point tracking and monitoring capability [1]. However, they

suer from two main disadvantages: rst, depending on array topology (especially

the proximity to the PV module), they can be subjected to more extreme environments

(i.e. temperature cycling) during the day, resulting in a negative impact to

reliability; second, since solar installations can have tens of thousands to millions of

modules (and as many MLPE units), it may be dicult or impossible to track and

repair units as they go out of service. Therefore identifying the weak links in this

system is of critical importance to develop more reliable micro inverters.

While an overwhelming majority of time and research has focused on PV module

eciency and reliability, these issues have been largely ignored for the balance

of system components. As a relatively nascent industry, the PV power electronics

industry does not have the extensive, standardized reliability design and testing procedures

that exist in the module industry or other more mature power electronics

industries (e.g. automotive). To do so, the critical components which are at risk and

their impact on the system performance has to be studied. This thesis identies and

addresses some of the issues related to reliability of solar micro inverters.

This thesis presents detailed discussions on various components of solar micro inverter

and their design. A micro inverter with very similar electrical specications in

comparison with commercial micro inverter is modeled in detail and veried. Components

in various stages of micro inverter are listed and their typical failure mechanisms

are reviewed. A detailed FMEA is conducted for a typical micro inverter to identify

the weak links of the system. Based on the S, O and D metrics, risk priority number

(RPN) is calculated to list the critical at-risk components. Degradation of DC bus

capacitor is identied as one the failure mechanism and the degradation model is built

to study its eect on the system performance. The system is tested for surge immunity

using standard ring and combinational surge waveforms as per IEEE 62.41 and

IEC 61000-4-5 standards. All the simulation presented in this thesis is performed

using PLECS simulation software.
ContributorsManchanahalli Ranganatha, Arkanatha Sastry (Author) / Ayyanar, Raja (Thesis advisor) / Karady, George G. (Committee member) / Qin, Jiangchao (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
This dissertation presents innovative techniques to develop performance-based models and complete transient models of induction motor drive systems with vector controls in electro-magnetic transient (EMT) and positive sequence transient stability (PSTS) simulation programs. The performance-based model is implemented by obtaining the characteristic transfer functions of perturbed active and reactive power

This dissertation presents innovative techniques to develop performance-based models and complete transient models of induction motor drive systems with vector controls in electro-magnetic transient (EMT) and positive sequence transient stability (PSTS) simulation programs. The performance-based model is implemented by obtaining the characteristic transfer functions of perturbed active and reactive power consumptions with respect to frequency and voltage perturbations. This level of linearized performance-based model is suitable for the investigation of the damping of small-magnitude low-frequency oscillations. The complete transient model is proposed by decomposing the motor, converter and control models into d-q axes components and developing a compatible electrical interface to the positive-sequence network in the PSTS simulators. The complete transient drive model is primarily used to examine the system response subject to transient voltage depression considering increasing penetration of converter-driven motor loads.

For developing the performance-based model, modulations are performed on the supply side of the full drive system to procure magnitude and phase responses of active and reactive powers with respect to the supply voltage and frequency for a range of discrete frequency points. The prediction error minimization (PEM) technique is utilized to generate the curve-fitted transfer functions and corresponding bode plots. For developing the complete drive model in the PSTS simulation program, a positive-sequence voltage source is defined properly as the interface of the model to the external system. The dc-link of the drive converter is implemented by employing the average model of the PWM converter, and is utilized to integrate the line-side rectifier and machine-side inverter.

Numerical simulation is then conducted on sample test systems, synthesized with suitable characteristics to examine performance of the developed models. The simulation results reveal that with growing amount of drive loads being distributed in the system, the small-signal stability of the system is improved in terms of the desirable damping effects on the low-frequency system oscillations of voltage and frequency. The transient stability of the system is also enhanced with regard to the stable active power and reactive power controls of the loads, and the appropriate VAr support capability provided by the drive loads during a contingency.
ContributorsLiu, Yuan (Author) / Vittal, Vijay (Thesis advisor) / Undrill, John (Committee member) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Qin, Jiangchao (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
Due to the increasing trend of electricity price for the future and the price reduction of solar electronics price led by the policy stimulus and the technological improvement, the residential distribution solar photovoltaic (PV) system’s market is prosperous. Excess energy can be sold back to the grid, however peak demand

Due to the increasing trend of electricity price for the future and the price reduction of solar electronics price led by the policy stimulus and the technological improvement, the residential distribution solar photovoltaic (PV) system’s market is prosperous. Excess energy can be sold back to the grid, however peak demand of a residential customer typically occurs in late afternoon/early evening when PV systems are not a productive. The solar PV system can provide residential customers sufficient energy during the daytime, even the exceeding energy can be sold back to the grid especially during the day with good sunlight, however, the peak demand of a regular family always appears during late afternoon and early evening which are not productive time for PV system. In this case, the PV customers only need the grid energy when other customers also need it the most. Because of the lower contribution of PV systems during times of peak demand, utilities are beginning to adjust rate structures to better align the bills paid by PV customers with the cost to the utility to serve those customers. Different rate structures include higher fixed charges, higher on-peak electricity prices, on-peak demand charges, or prices based on avoided costs. The demand charge and the on-peak energy charge significantly reduced the savings brought by the PV system. This will result in a longer the customer’s payback period. Eventually PV customers are not saving a lot in their electricity bill compare to those customers who do not own a PV system.



A battery system is a promising technology that can improve monthly bill savings since a battery can store the solar energy and the off-peak grid energy and release it later during the on-peak hours. Sponsored by Salt River Project (SRP), a smart home model consists 1.35 kW PV panels, a 7.76 kWh lithium-ion battery and an adjustable resistive load bank was built on the roof of Engineering Research Center (ERC) building. For analysis, data was scaled up by 6/1.35 times to simulate a real residential PV setup. The testing data had been continuously recorded for more than one year (Aug.2014 - Oct.2015) and a battery charging strategy was developed based on those data. The work of this thesis deals with the idea of this charging strategy and the economic benefits this charging strategy can bring to the PV customers. Part of this research work has been wrote into a conference paper which is accepted by IEEE PES General Meeting 2016. A new and larger system has been installed on the roof with 6 kW PV modules and 6 kW output integrated electronics. This project will go on and the method come up by this thesis will be tested.
ContributorsWang, Xin'an (Author) / Karady, George G. (Thesis advisor) / Smedley, Grant (Committee member) / Qin, Jiangchao (Committee member) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
The past decades have seen a significant shift in the expectations and requirements re-lated to power system analysis tools. Investigations into major power grid disturbances have suggested the need for more comprehensive assessment methods. Accordingly, sig-nificant research in recent years has focused on the development of better power system models

The past decades have seen a significant shift in the expectations and requirements re-lated to power system analysis tools. Investigations into major power grid disturbances have suggested the need for more comprehensive assessment methods. Accordingly, sig-nificant research in recent years has focused on the development of better power system models and efficient techniques for analyzing power system operability. The work done in this report focusses on two such topics

1. Analysis of load model parameter uncertainty and sensitivity based pa-rameter estimation for power system studies

2. A systematic approach to n-1-1 analysis for power system security as-sessment

To assess the effect of load model parameter uncertainty, a trajectory sensitivity based approach is proposed in this work. Trajectory sensitivity analysis provides a sys-tematic approach to study the impact of parameter uncertainty on power system re-sponse to disturbances. Furthermore, the non-smooth nature of the composite load model presents some additional challenges to sensitivity analysis in a realistic power system. Accordingly, the impact of the non-smooth nature of load models on the sensitivity analysis is addressed in this work. The study was performed using the Western Electrici-ty Coordinating Council (WECC) system model. To address the issue of load model pa-rameter estimation, a sensitivity based load model parameter estimation technique is presented in this work. A detailed discussion on utilizing sensitivities to improve the ac-curacy and efficiency of the parameter estimation process is also presented in this work.

Cascading outages can have a catastrophic impact on power systems. As such, the NERC transmission planning (TPL) standards requires utilities to plan for n¬-1-1 out-ages. However, such analyses can be computationally burdensome for any realistic pow-er system owing to the staggering number of possible n-1-1 contingencies. To address this problem, the report proposes a systematic approach to analyze n-1-1 contingencies in a computationally tractable manner for power system security assessment. The pro-posed approach addresses both static and dynamic security assessment. The proposed methods have been tested on the WECC system.
ContributorsMitra, Parag (Author) / Vittal, Vijay (Thesis advisor) / Heydt, Gerald T (Committee member) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Qin, Jiangchao (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016