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- All Subjects: Mechanical Engineering
- All Subjects: soft robotics
- Creators: Wang, Liping
Description
Solar photovoltaic (PV) industry is tipped to be one of the front-runners in the renewable industry. Typically, PV module manufacturers provide a linear or step warranty of 80% of original power over 25 years. This power loss during the field exposure is primarily attributed to the development of performance affecting defects in the PV modules. As many as 86 different defects can occur in a PV module. One of the major defects that can cause significant power loss is the interconnect metallization system (IMS) degradation which is the focus of this thesis. The IMS is composed of cell-interconnect (cell-ribbon interconnect) and string-interconnect (ribbon-ribbon interconnect). The cell interconnect is in turn composed of silver metallization (fingers and busbars) and solder bonds between silver busbar and copper ribbon. Weak solder bonding between copper ribbon and busbar of a cell results in increase of series resistance that in turn affects the fill factor causing a power drop. In this thesis work, the results obtained from various non-destructive and destructive experiments performed on modules exposed in three different climates (Arizona - Hot and Dry, Mexico - Warm and Humid, and California - Temperate) are presented. These experiments include light I-V measurements, dark I-V measurements, infrared imaging, extraction of test samples from the modules, peel strength measurements and four-point resistance measurements. The extraction of test samples was performed using a mechanical method and a chemical method. The merits and demerits of these two methods are presented. A drop of 10.33% in fill factor was observed for a 0.05Ω increase in the series resistance of the modules investigated in this work. Different combinations in a cell that can cause series resistance increase were considered and their effect on fill factor were observed using four-point probe experiments. Peel test experiments were conducted to correlate the effect of series resistance on the ribbon peel strength. Finally, climate specific thermal modelling was performed for 4 different sites over 20 years in order to calculate the accumulated thermal fatigue and also to evaluate its correlation, if any, with the increase of series resistance.
ContributorsTummala, Abhishiktha (Author) / Tamizhmani, Govindasamy (Thesis advisor) / Phelan, Patrick (Thesis advisor) / Wang, Liping (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
In recent years, solar photovoltaic (PV) industry has seen lots of improvements in technology and of growth in market with crystalline silicon PV modules being the most widely used technology. Plant inspections are gaining much importance to identify and quantitatively determine the impacts of various visual defects on performance. There are about 86 different types of defects found in the PV modules installed in various climates and most of them can be visually observed. However, a quantitative determination of impact or risk of each of identified defect on performance is challenging. Thus, it is utmost important to quantify the risk for each of the visual defects without any human subjectivity. The best way to quantify the risk of each defect is to perform current-voltage measurements of the defective modules installed in the plant but it requires disruption of plant operation, expensive measuring equipment and intensive human resources. One of the most riskiest and dominant visual defects is encapsulant browning which affects the PV module performance in the form of current degradation. The present study deals with developing an automated image processing tool which can address the issues of human subjectivity on browning level impacting performance. The image processing tool developed in this work can be directly used to quantify the impact of browning on performance without intrusively disconnecting the modules from the plant. In this work, the quantified browning level impact on performance has also been experimentally validated through a correlation study using short-circuit current and reflectance/transmittance measurements of browned PV modules retrieved from aged plants/systems installed in diverse climatic conditions. The primary goal of the image processing tool developed in this work is to determine the performance impact of encapsulant browning without interrupting the plant operation for I-V measurements. The use of image processing tool provides a single numerical value, called browning index (BI), which can accurately quantify browning levels on modules and also correlate with the performance and reflectance/transmittance parameters of the modules.
ContributorsGudla, Sushanth (Author) / Govindasamy, Tamizhmani (Thesis advisor) / Patrick, Phelan E (Thesis advisor) / Wang, Liping (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Soiling is one of the major environmental factors causing the negative performance of photovoltaic (PV) modules. Dust particles, air pollution particles, pollen, bird droppings and other industrial airborne particles are some natural sources that cause soiling. The thickness of soiling layer has a direct impact on the performance of PV modules. This phenomenon occurs over a period of time with many unpredictable environmental variables indicated above. This situation makes it difficult to calculate or predict the soiling effect on performance. The dust particles vary from one location to the other in terms of particle size, color and chemical composition. These properties influence the extent of performance (current) loss, spectral loss and adhesion of soil particles on the surface of the PV modules. To address this uncontrolled environmental issues, research institutes around the world have started designing indoor artificial soiling stations to deposit soil layers in various controlled environments using reference soil samples and/or soil samples collected from the surface of PV modules installed in the locations of interest. This thesis is part of a twin thesis. The first thesis (this thesis) authored by Shanmukha Mantha is related to the development of soiling stations and the second thesis authored by Darshan Choudhary is associated with the characterization of the soiled samples (glass coupons, one-cell PV coupons and multi-cell PV coupons). This thesis is associated with the development of three types of indoor artificial soiling deposition techniques replicating the outside environmental conditions to achieve required soil density, uniformity and other required properties. The three types of techniques are: gravity deposition method, dew deposition method, and humid deposition method. All the three techniques were applied on glass coupons, single-cell PV laminates containing monocrystalline silicon cells and multi-cell PV laminates containing polycrystalline silicon cells. The density and uniformity for each technique on all targets are determined. In this investigation, both reference soil sample (Arizona road dust, ISO 12103-1) and the soil samples collected from the surface of installed PV modules were used. All the three techniques are compared with each other to determine the best method for uniform deposition at varying thickness levels. The advantages, limitations and improvements made in each technique are discussed.
ContributorsMantha, Shanmukha (Author) / Tamizhmani, Govindasamy (Thesis advisor) / Phelan, Patrick (Thesis advisor) / Wang, Liping (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Toward the ambitious long-term goal of a fleet of cooperating Flexible Autonomous Machines operating in an uncertain Environment (FAME), this thesis addresses various control objectives for ground vehicles.
There are two main objectives within this thesis, first is the use of visual information to control a Differential-Drive Thunder Tumbler (DDTT) mobile robot and second is the solution to a minimum time optimal control problem for the robot around a racetrack.
One method to do the first objective is by using the Position Based Visual Servoing (PBVS) approach in which a camera looks at a target and the position of the target with respect to the camera is estimated; once this is done the robot can drive towards a desired position (x_ref, z_ref). Another method is called Image Based Visual Servoing (IBVS), in which the pixel coordinates (u,v) of markers/dots placed on an object are driven towards the desired pixel coordinates (u_ref, v_ref) of the corresponding markers.
By doing this, the mobile robot gets closer to a desired pose (x_ref, z_ref, theta_ref).
For the second objective, a camera-based and noncamera-based (v,theta) cruise-control systems are used for the solution of the minimum time problem. To set up the minimum time problem, optimal control theory is used. Then a direct method is implemented by discretizing states and controls of the system. Finally, the solution is obtained by modeling the problem in AMPL and submitting to the nonlinear optimization solver KNITRO. Simulation and experimental results are presented.
The DDTT-vehicle used within this thesis has different components as summarized below:
(1) magnetic wheel-encoders/IMU for inner-loop speed-control and outer-loop directional control,
(2) Arduino Uno microcontroller-board for encoder-based inner-loop speed-control and encoder-IMU-based outer-loop cruise-directional-control,
(3) Arduino motor-shield for inner-loop speed-control,
(4) Raspberry Pi II computer-board for outer-loop vision-based cruise-position-directional-control,
(5) Raspberry Pi 5MP camera for outer-loop cruise-position-directional control.
Hardware demonstrations shown in this thesis are summarized: (1) PBVS without pan camera, (2) PBVS with pan camera, (3) IBVS with 1 marker/dot, (4) IBVS with 2 markers, (5) IBVS with 3 markers, (6) camera and (7) noncamera-based (v,theta) cruise control system for the minimum time problem.
There are two main objectives within this thesis, first is the use of visual information to control a Differential-Drive Thunder Tumbler (DDTT) mobile robot and second is the solution to a minimum time optimal control problem for the robot around a racetrack.
One method to do the first objective is by using the Position Based Visual Servoing (PBVS) approach in which a camera looks at a target and the position of the target with respect to the camera is estimated; once this is done the robot can drive towards a desired position (x_ref, z_ref). Another method is called Image Based Visual Servoing (IBVS), in which the pixel coordinates (u,v) of markers/dots placed on an object are driven towards the desired pixel coordinates (u_ref, v_ref) of the corresponding markers.
By doing this, the mobile robot gets closer to a desired pose (x_ref, z_ref, theta_ref).
For the second objective, a camera-based and noncamera-based (v,theta) cruise-control systems are used for the solution of the minimum time problem. To set up the minimum time problem, optimal control theory is used. Then a direct method is implemented by discretizing states and controls of the system. Finally, the solution is obtained by modeling the problem in AMPL and submitting to the nonlinear optimization solver KNITRO. Simulation and experimental results are presented.
The DDTT-vehicle used within this thesis has different components as summarized below:
(1) magnetic wheel-encoders/IMU for inner-loop speed-control and outer-loop directional control,
(2) Arduino Uno microcontroller-board for encoder-based inner-loop speed-control and encoder-IMU-based outer-loop cruise-directional-control,
(3) Arduino motor-shield for inner-loop speed-control,
(4) Raspberry Pi II computer-board for outer-loop vision-based cruise-position-directional-control,
(5) Raspberry Pi 5MP camera for outer-loop cruise-position-directional control.
Hardware demonstrations shown in this thesis are summarized: (1) PBVS without pan camera, (2) PBVS with pan camera, (3) IBVS with 1 marker/dot, (4) IBVS with 2 markers, (5) IBVS with 3 markers, (6) camera and (7) noncamera-based (v,theta) cruise control system for the minimum time problem.
ContributorsAldaco Lopez, Jesus (Author) / Rodriguez, Armando A. (Thesis advisor) / Artemiadis, Panagiotis K. (Committee member) / Berman, Spring M. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Material extrusion based rapid prototyping systems have been used to produceprototypes for several years. They have been quite important in the additive manufacturing field, and have gained popularity in research, development and manufacturing in a wide field of applications. There has been a lot of interest in using these technologies to produce end use parts, and Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) has gained traction in leading the transition of rapid prototyping technologies to rapid manufacturing. But parts built with the FDM process exhibit property anisotropy. Many studies have been conducted into process optimization, material properties and even post processing of parts, but were unable to solve the strength anisotropy issue. To address this, an optical heating system has been proposed to achieve localized heating of the pre- deposition surface prior to material deposition over the heated region. This occurs in situ within the build process, and aims to increase the interface temperature to above glass transition (Tg), to trigger an increase in polymer chain diffusion, and in extension, increase the strength of the part. An increase in flexural strength by 95% at the layer interface has been observed when the optical heating method was implemented, thereby improving property isotropy of the FDM part. This approach can be designed to perform real time control of inter-filament and interlayer temperatures across the build volume of a part, and can be tuned to achieve required mechanical properties.
ContributorsKurapatti Ravi, Abinesh (Author) / Hao Hsu, Keng (Thesis advisor) / Hildreth, Owen (Committee member) / Wang, Liping (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Robotic joints can be either powered or passive. This work will discuss the creation of a passive and a powered joint system as well as the combination system being both powered and passive along with its benefits. A novel approach of analysis and control of the combination system is presented.
A passive and a powered ankle joint system is developed and fit to the field of prosthetics, specifically ankle joint replacement for able bodied gait. The general 1 DOF robotic joint designs are examined and the results from testing are discussed. Achievements in this area include the able bodied gait like behavior of passive systems for slow walking speeds. For higher walking speeds the powered ankle system is capable of adding the necessary energy to propel the user forward and remain similar to able bodied gait, effectively replacing the calf muscle. While running has not fully been achieved through past powered ankle devices the full power necessary is reached in this work for running and sprinting while achieving 4x’s power amplification through the powered ankle mechanism.
A theoretical approach to robotic joints is then analyzed in order to combine the advantages of both passive and powered systems. Energy methods are shown to provide a correct behavioral analysis of any robotic joint system. Manipulation of the energy curves and mechanism coupler curves allows real time joint behavioral adjustment. Such a powered joint can be adjusted to passively achieve desired behavior for different speeds and environmental needs. The effects on joint moment and stiffness from adjusting one type of mechanism is presented.
A passive and a powered ankle joint system is developed and fit to the field of prosthetics, specifically ankle joint replacement for able bodied gait. The general 1 DOF robotic joint designs are examined and the results from testing are discussed. Achievements in this area include the able bodied gait like behavior of passive systems for slow walking speeds. For higher walking speeds the powered ankle system is capable of adding the necessary energy to propel the user forward and remain similar to able bodied gait, effectively replacing the calf muscle. While running has not fully been achieved through past powered ankle devices the full power necessary is reached in this work for running and sprinting while achieving 4x’s power amplification through the powered ankle mechanism.
A theoretical approach to robotic joints is then analyzed in order to combine the advantages of both passive and powered systems. Energy methods are shown to provide a correct behavioral analysis of any robotic joint system. Manipulation of the energy curves and mechanism coupler curves allows real time joint behavioral adjustment. Such a powered joint can be adjusted to passively achieve desired behavior for different speeds and environmental needs. The effects on joint moment and stiffness from adjusting one type of mechanism is presented.
ContributorsHolgate, Robert (Author) / Sugar, Thomas (Thesis advisor) / Artemiades, Panagiotis (Thesis advisor) / Berman, Spring (Committee member) / Mignolet, Marc (Committee member) / Davidson, Joseph (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Photovoltaic modules degrade in the field. This thesis aims to answer two questions: 1. Do photovoltaic modules degrade linearly or not? 2. Do soiled modules operate at lower temperatures than clean modules? Answers to these questions are provided in part 1 and part 2 of this thesis respectively.
Part 1: Linearity determination in degradation: The electricity output from PV power plants degrades every year. Generally, a system’s life is considered to last for 20-25 years and rate of degradation is commonly assumed as 1% per year. PV degradation can be found out using Performance Ratio (PR), Performance Index (PI) and raw kWh output. The rate of degradation is considered linear for simplicity of calculations. In this thesis, statistical methods are used to check whether systems in Arizona are degrading linearly or not. Time series modeling such as Winters’ method and ARIMA are used to model the data. Winters’ method and Seasonal ARIMA consider the seasonality component and perform well for small data sets of about 10 years. Rate of degradation is found out as linear for all the evaluated systems.
Part 2: Temperature analysis of clean and soiled modules: Soiling and temperature are important parameters in performance of PV modules. In this paper, an analysis is carried out on a soiling station located in Mesa, Arizona. The soiling station consists of 10 different c-Si coupons with tilt angles varying from 0° to 45° with the difference of 5°. These coupons are cut in half, one is cleaned periodically and the other is remained soiled naturally. The analysis involves data worth for 19 months. 6 dry spells in all four seasons within 19 months were analyzed. The temperature difference between a clean module and a soiled module (ΔT) is compared with the soiling loss factor (SLF). The analysis concludes stating in which season a soiled module is hotter or cooler than a clean module.
Part 1: Linearity determination in degradation: The electricity output from PV power plants degrades every year. Generally, a system’s life is considered to last for 20-25 years and rate of degradation is commonly assumed as 1% per year. PV degradation can be found out using Performance Ratio (PR), Performance Index (PI) and raw kWh output. The rate of degradation is considered linear for simplicity of calculations. In this thesis, statistical methods are used to check whether systems in Arizona are degrading linearly or not. Time series modeling such as Winters’ method and ARIMA are used to model the data. Winters’ method and Seasonal ARIMA consider the seasonality component and perform well for small data sets of about 10 years. Rate of degradation is found out as linear for all the evaluated systems.
Part 2: Temperature analysis of clean and soiled modules: Soiling and temperature are important parameters in performance of PV modules. In this paper, an analysis is carried out on a soiling station located in Mesa, Arizona. The soiling station consists of 10 different c-Si coupons with tilt angles varying from 0° to 45° with the difference of 5°. These coupons are cut in half, one is cleaned periodically and the other is remained soiled naturally. The analysis involves data worth for 19 months. 6 dry spells in all four seasons within 19 months were analyzed. The temperature difference between a clean module and a soiled module (ΔT) is compared with the soiling loss factor (SLF). The analysis concludes stating in which season a soiled module is hotter or cooler than a clean module.
ContributorsPatankar, Adit (Author) / Tamizhmani, Govindasamy (Thesis advisor) / Wang, Liping (Thesis advisor) / Phelan, Patrick (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Durable, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly anti-icing methods are desired to reduce the icing hazard in many different industrial areas including transportation systems, power plants, power transmission, as well as offshore oil and gas production. In contrast to traditional passive anti-icing surfaces, this thesis work introduces an anti-icing coating that responds to different icing conditions by releasing an antifreeze liquid. It consists of an outer porous superhydrophobic epidermis and a wick-like underlying dermis that is infused with the antifreeze liquid. This bi-layer coating prevents accumulation of frost, freezing fog, and freezing rain, while conventional anti-icing surfaces typically work only in one of these conditions. The bi-layer coating also delays condensation on the exterior surface at least ten times longer than identical system without antifreeze.
It is demonstrated that the significant delay in condensation onset is due to the integral humidity sink effect posed by the hygroscopic antifreeze liquid infused in the porous structure. This effect significantly alters the water vapor concentration field at the coating surface, which delays nucleation of drops and ice. It was demonstrated that with a proper design of the environmental chamber the size of the region of inhibited condensation and condensation frosting around an isolated pore, as well as periodically spaced pores, filled by propylene glycol can be quantitatively predicted from quasi-steady state water vapor concentration field. Theoretical analysis and experiments revealed that the inhibition of nucleation is governed by only two non-dimensional geometrical parameters: the pore size relative to the unit cell size and the ratio of the unit cell size to the thickness of the boundary layer. It is demonstrated that by switching the size of the pores from millimeters to nanometers, a dramatic depression of the nucleation onset temperature, as well as significantly greater delay in nucleation onset can be achieved.
It is demonstrated that the significant delay in condensation onset is due to the integral humidity sink effect posed by the hygroscopic antifreeze liquid infused in the porous structure. This effect significantly alters the water vapor concentration field at the coating surface, which delays nucleation of drops and ice. It was demonstrated that with a proper design of the environmental chamber the size of the region of inhibited condensation and condensation frosting around an isolated pore, as well as periodically spaced pores, filled by propylene glycol can be quantitatively predicted from quasi-steady state water vapor concentration field. Theoretical analysis and experiments revealed that the inhibition of nucleation is governed by only two non-dimensional geometrical parameters: the pore size relative to the unit cell size and the ratio of the unit cell size to the thickness of the boundary layer. It is demonstrated that by switching the size of the pores from millimeters to nanometers, a dramatic depression of the nucleation onset temperature, as well as significantly greater delay in nucleation onset can be achieved.
ContributorsSun, Xiaoda (Author) / Rykaczewski, Konrad (Thesis advisor) / Lin, Jerry (Committee member) / Phelan, Patrick (Committee member) / Wang, Robert (Committee member) / Herrmann, Marcus (Committee member) / Wang, Liping (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
The advancements in the technology of MEMS fabrication has been phenomenal in recent years. In no mean measure this has been the result of continued demand from the consumer electronics market to make devices smaller and better. MEMS inertial measuring units (IMUs) have found revolutionary applications in a wide array of fields like medical instrumentation, navigation, attitude stabilization and virtual reality. It has to be noted though that for advanced applications of motion tracking, navigation and guidance the cost of the IMUs is still pretty high. This is mainly because the process of calibration and signal processing used to get highly stable results from MEMS IMU is an expensive and time-consuming process. Also to be noted is the inevitability of using external sensors like GPS or camera for aiding the IMU data due to the error propagation in IMU measurements adds to the complexity of the system.
First an efficient technique is proposed to acquire clean and stable data from unaided IMU measurements and then proceed to use that system for tracking human motion. First part of this report details the design and development of the low-cost inertial measuring system ‘yIMU’. This thesis intends to bring together seemingly independent techniques that were highly application specific into one monolithic algorithm that is computationally efficient for generating reliable orientation estimates. Second part, systematically deals with development of a tracking routine for human limb movements. The validity of the system has then been verified.
The central idea is that in most cases the use of expensive MEMS IMUs is not warranted if robust smart algorithms can be deployed to gather data at a fraction of the cost. A low-cost prototype has been developed comparable to tactical grade performance for under $15 hardware. In order to further the practicability of this device we have applied it to human motion tracking with excellent results. The commerciality of device has hence been thoroughly established.
First an efficient technique is proposed to acquire clean and stable data from unaided IMU measurements and then proceed to use that system for tracking human motion. First part of this report details the design and development of the low-cost inertial measuring system ‘yIMU’. This thesis intends to bring together seemingly independent techniques that were highly application specific into one monolithic algorithm that is computationally efficient for generating reliable orientation estimates. Second part, systematically deals with development of a tracking routine for human limb movements. The validity of the system has then been verified.
The central idea is that in most cases the use of expensive MEMS IMUs is not warranted if robust smart algorithms can be deployed to gather data at a fraction of the cost. A low-cost prototype has been developed comparable to tactical grade performance for under $15 hardware. In order to further the practicability of this device we have applied it to human motion tracking with excellent results. The commerciality of device has hence been thoroughly established.
ContributorsShetty, Yatiraj K (Author) / Redkar, Sangram (Thesis advisor) / Sugar, Thomas (Committee member) / Berman, Spring (Committee member) / Lee, Hyunglae (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Many defense, healthcare, and energy applications can benefit from the development of surfaces that easily shed droplets of liquids of interest. Desired wetting properties are typically achieved via altering the surface chemistry or topography or both through surface engineering. Despite many recent advancements, materials modified only on their exterior are still prone to physical degradation and lack durability. In contrast to surface engineering, this thesis focuses on altering the bulk composition and the interior of a material to tune how an exterior surface would interact with liquids. Fundamental and applied aspects of engineering of two material systems with low contact angle hysteresis (i.e. ability to easily shed droplets) are explained. First, water-shedding metal matrix hydrophobic nanoparticle composites with high thermal conductivity for steam condensation rate enhancement are discussed. Despite having static contact angle <90° (not hydrophobic), sustained dropwise steam condensation can be achieved at the exterior surface of the composite due to low contact angle hysteresis (CAH). In order to explain this observation, the effect of varying the length scale of surface wetting heterogeneity over three orders of magnitude on the value of CAH was experimentally investigated. This study revealed that the CAH value is primarily governed by the pinning length which in turn depends on the length scale of wetting heterogeneity. Modifying the heterogeneity size ultimately leads to near isotropic wettability for surfaces with highly anisotropic nanoscale chemical heterogeneities. Next, development of lubricant-swollen polymeric omniphobic protective gear for defense and healthcare applications is described. Specifically, it is shown that the robust and durable protective gear can be made from polymeric material fully saturated with lubricant that can shed all liquids irrespective of their surface tensions even after multiple contact incidences with the foreign objects. Further, a couple of schemes are proposed to improve the rate of lubrication and replenishment of lubricant as well as reduce the total amount of lubricant required in making the polymeric protective gear omniphobic. Overall, this research aims to understand the underlying physics of dynamic surface-liquid interaction and provides simple scalable route to fabricate better materials for condensers and omniphobic protective gear.
ContributorsDamle, Viraj (Author) / Rykaczewski, Konrad (Thesis advisor) / Phelan, Patrick (Committee member) / Lin, Jerry (Committee member) / Herrmann, Marcus (Committee member) / Wang, Robert (Committee member) / Wang, Liping (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017