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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
Prior work in literature has illustrated the benefits of using surge arrester as a way to improve the lighting performance of the substation and transmission line. Installing surge arresters would enhance the system reliability but it comes with an extra capital expenditure. This thesis provides simulation analysis to examine substation-specific

Prior work in literature has illustrated the benefits of using surge arrester as a way to improve the lighting performance of the substation and transmission line. Installing surge arresters would enhance the system reliability but it comes with an extra capital expenditure. This thesis provides simulation analysis to examine substation-specific applications of surge arrester as a way of determining the optimal, cost-effective placement of surge arresters. Four different surge arrester installation configurations are examined for the 500/230 kV Rudd substation which belongs to the utility, Salt River Project (SRP). The most efficient configuration is identified in this thesis. A new method “voltage-distance curve” is proposed in this work to evaluate different surge arrester installation configurations. Simulation results show that surge arresters only need to be equipped on certain location of the substation and can still ensure sufficient lightning protection.

With lower tower footing resistance, the lightning performance of the transmission line can typically be improved. However, when surge arresters are installed in the system, the footing resistance may have either negative or positive effect on the lightning performance. Different situations for both effects are studied in this thesis.

This thesis proposes a surge arrester installation strategy for the overhead transmission line lightning protection. In order to determine the most efficient surge arrester configuration of transmission line, the entire transmission line is divided into several line sections according to the footing resistance of its towers. A line section consists of the towers which have similar footing resistance. Two different designs are considered for transmission line lightning protection, they include: equip different number of surge arrester on selected phase of every tower, equip surge arresters on all phases of selected towers. By varying the number of the towers or the number of phases needs to be equipped with surge arresters, the threshold voltage for line insulator flashover is used to evaluate different surge arrester installation configurations. The way to determine the optimal surge arresters configuration for each line section is then introduced in this thesis.
ContributorsXia, Qianxue (Author) / Karady, George G. (Thesis advisor) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Lei, Qin (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
Description
The lifetime of a transformer is essentially determined by the life of its insulation

system which is a time function of the temperature defined by its thermal class. A large

quantity of studies and international standards have been published indicating the

possibility of increasing the thermal class of cellulose based materials when immersed

in

The lifetime of a transformer is essentially determined by the life of its insulation

system which is a time function of the temperature defined by its thermal class. A large

quantity of studies and international standards have been published indicating the

possibility of increasing the thermal class of cellulose based materials when immersed

in natural esters which are superior to traditional mineral oils. Thus, a transformer

having thermally upgraded Kraft paper and natural ester dielectric fluid can be

classified as a high temperature insulation system. Such a transformer can also

operate at temperatures 20C higher than its mineral oil equivalent, holding additional

loading capability without losing life expectancy. This thesis focuses on evaluating

the use of this feature as an additional capability for enhancing the loadability and/or

extending the life of the distribution transformers for the Phoenix based utility - SRP

using FR3 brand natural ester dielectric fluid.

Initially, different transformer design options to use this additional loadability

are compared allowing utilities to select an optimal FR3 filled transformer design

for their application. Yearlong load profiles for SRP distribution transformers, sized

conventionally on peak load demands, are analyzed for their oil temperatures, winding

temperatures and loss of insulation life. It is observed that these load profiles can be

classified into two types: 1) Type-1 profiles with high peak and high average loads,

and 2) Type-2 profiles with comparatively low peak and low average load.

For the Type 1 load profiles, use of FR3 natural ester fluid with the same nominal

rating showed 7.4 times longer life expectation. For the Type 2 load profiles, a new

way of sizing ester filled transformers based on both average and peak load, instead of

only peak load, called “Sustainable Peak Loading” showed smaller size transformers

can handle the same yearly peak loads while maintaining superior insulation lifespan.

It is additionally possible to have reduction in the total energy dissipation over the

year. A net present value cost savings up to US$1200 per transformer quantifying

benefits of the life extension and the total ownership cost savings up to 30% for

sustainable peak loading showed SRP distribution transformers can gain substantial

economic savings when the distribution transformer fleet is replaced with FR3 ester

filled units.
ContributorsVaidya, Chinmay Vishwas (Author) / Holbert, Keith E. (Thesis advisor) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Pal, Anamitra (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
With the increasing penetration of converter interfaced renewable generation into power systems, the structure and behavior of the power system is changing, catalyzing alterations and enhancements in modeling and simulation methods.

This work puts forth a Hybrid Electromagnetic Transient-Transient Stability simulation method implemented using MATLAB and Simulink, to study power electronic

With the increasing penetration of converter interfaced renewable generation into power systems, the structure and behavior of the power system is changing, catalyzing alterations and enhancements in modeling and simulation methods.

This work puts forth a Hybrid Electromagnetic Transient-Transient Stability simulation method implemented using MATLAB and Simulink, to study power electronic based power systems. Hybrid Simulation enables detailed, accurate modeling, along with fast, efficient simulation, on account of the Electromagnetic Transient (EMT) and Transient Stability (TS) simulations respectively. A critical component of hybrid simulation is the interaction between the EMT and TS simulators, established through a well-defined interface technique, which has been explored in detail.

This research focuses on the boundary conditions and interaction between the two simulation models for optimum accuracy and computational efficiency.

A case study has been carried out employing the proposed hybrid simulation method. The test case used is the IEEE 9-bus system, modified to integrate it with a solar PV plant. The validation of the hybrid model with the benchmark full EMT model, along with the analysis of the accuracy and efficiency, has been performed. The steady-state and transient analysis results demonstrate that the performance of the hybrid simulation method is competent. The hybrid simulation technique suitably captures accuracy of EMT simulation and efficiency of TS simulation, therefore adequately representing the behavior of power systems with high penetration of converter interfaced generation.
ContributorsAthaide, Denise Maria Christine (Author) / Qin, Jiangchao (Thesis advisor) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Wu, Meng (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
Until late 1970’s the primary focus in power system modeling has been largely directed towards power system generation and transmission. Over the years, the importance of load modeling grew and having an accurate representation of load played an important role in the planning and operation studies. With an emphasis on

Until late 1970’s the primary focus in power system modeling has been largely directed towards power system generation and transmission. Over the years, the importance of load modeling grew and having an accurate representation of load played an important role in the planning and operation studies. With an emphasis on tackling the topic of load modeling, this thesis presents the following intermediary steps in developing accurate load models:

1. Synthesis of a three-phase standard feeder and load model using the measured voltages and currents, for events such as faults and feeder pickup cases, obtained at the head of the feeder.

2. Investigated the impact of the synthesized standard feeder and load model on the sub-transmission system for a feeder pick-up case.

In the first phase of this project, a standard feeder and load model had been synthesized by capturing the current transients when three-phase voltage measurements (obtained from a local electric utility) are played-in as input to the synthesized model. The comparison between the measured currents and the simulated currents obtained using an electromagnetic transient analysis software (PSCAD) are made at the head of the designed feeder. The synthesized load model has a load composition which includes impedance loads, single-phase induction motor loads and three-phase induction motor loads. The parameters of the motor models are adjusted to obtain a good correspondence between measured three-phase currents and simulated current responses at the head of the feeder when subjected to events under which measurements were obtained on the feeder. These events include faults which occurred upstream of the feeder at a higher voltage level and a feeder pickup event that occurred downstream from the head of the feeder. Two different load compositions have been obtained for this feeder and load model depending on the types of load present in the surrounding area (residential or industrial/commercial).

The second phase of this project examines the impact of the feeder pick-up event on the 69 kV sub-transmission system using the obtained standard feeder and load model. Using the 69 kV network data obtained from a local utility, a sub-transmission network has been built in PSCAD. The main difference between the first and second phase of this project is that no measurements are played-in to the model in the latter case. Instead, the feeder pick-up event at a particular substation is simulated using the reduced equivalent of the 69 kV sub-transmission circuit together with the synthesized three-phase models of the feeder and the loads obtained in the first phase of the project. Using this analysis, it is observed that a good correspondence between the PSCAD simulated values of both three-phase voltages and currents with their corresponding measured responses at the substation is achieved.
ContributorsNekkalapu, Sameer (Author) / Vittal, Vijay (Thesis advisor) / Undrill, John M (Committee member) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
The grounding system in a substation is used to protect personnel and equipment. When there is fault current injected into the ground, a well-designed grounding system should disperse the fault current into the ground in order to limit the touch potential and the step potential to an acceptable level defined

The grounding system in a substation is used to protect personnel and equipment. When there is fault current injected into the ground, a well-designed grounding system should disperse the fault current into the ground in order to limit the touch potential and the step potential to an acceptable level defined by the IEEE Std 80. On the other hand, from the point of view of economy, it is desirable to design a ground grid that minimizes the cost of labor and material. To design such an optimal ground grid that meets the safety metrics and has the minimum cost, an optimal ground grid application was developed in MATLAB, the OptimaL Ground Grid Application (OLGGA).

In the process of ground grid optimization, the touch potential and the step potential are introduced as nonlinear constraints in a two layer soil model whose parameters are set by the user. To obtain an accurate expression for these nonlinear constraints, the ground grid is discretized by using a ground-conductor (and ground-rod) segmentation method that breaks each conductor into reasonable-size segments. The leakage current on each segment and the ground potential rise (GPR) are calculated by solving a matrix equation involving the mutual resistance matrix. After the leakage current on each segment is obtained, the touch potential and the step potential can be calculated using the superposition principle.

A genetic algorithm is used in the optimization of the ground grid and a pattern search algorithm is used to accelerate the convergence. To verify the accuracy of the application, the touch potential and the step potential calculated by the MATLAB application are compared with those calculated by the commercialized grounding system analysis software, WinIGS.

The user's manual of the optimal ground grid application is also presented in this work.
ContributorsLi, Songyan (Author) / Tylavsky, Daniel J. (Thesis advisor) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Vittal, Vijay (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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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
The electromagnetic fields near power lines that may produce adverse effects on humans are of increasing interest in a variety of situations, thus making it worthwhile to develop general-purpose software that estimates both the electric and magnetic fields accurately. This study deals with the simulations of the electric and magnetic

The electromagnetic fields near power lines that may produce adverse effects on humans are of increasing interest in a variety of situations, thus making it worthwhile to develop general-purpose software that estimates both the electric and magnetic fields accurately. This study deals with the simulations of the electric and magnetic fields near high-voltage power lines for the triangular, horizontal and vertical conductor arrangements under both balanced and unbalanced conditions.

For all three conductor arrangements, the shapes of the electric field distribution curves are different with the vertical arrangement best for minimizing right of way consideration, while the shapes of the magnetic field distributions curves are similar. Except for the horizontal arrangement, the maximum electric field magnitudes with shield conductors are larger than those without shield conductors. Among the three different arrangements, the maximum field value of the vertical arrangement is most vulnerable to the unbalanced conditions.

For both the electric and magnetic fields, increasing the heights of phase conductors gradually results in diminishing return in terms of the field reduction. In this work, both the maximum electric field magnitudes and the maximum magnetic field magnitudes produced by 500 kV power lines at 1 m height from the ground are all within the permissible exposure levels for the general public. At last, the dynamic trajectories of both fields with time are simulated and interpreted, with each field represented by a vector rotating in a plane describing an ellipse, where the vector values can be compared to high-speed vector measurements.
ContributorsXiao, Lei (Author) / Holbert, Keith E. (Thesis advisor) / Karady, George G. (Committee member) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
The inherent intermittency in solar energy resources poses challenges to scheduling generation, transmission, and distribution systems. Energy storage devices are often used to mitigate variability in renewable asset generation and provide a mechanism to shift renewable power between periods of the day. In the absence of storage, however, time series

The inherent intermittency in solar energy resources poses challenges to scheduling generation, transmission, and distribution systems. Energy storage devices are often used to mitigate variability in renewable asset generation and provide a mechanism to shift renewable power between periods of the day. In the absence of storage, however, time series forecasting techniques can be used to estimate future solar resource availability to improve the accuracy of solar generator scheduling. The knowledge of future solar availability helps scheduling solar generation at high-penetration levels, and assists with the selection and scheduling of spinning reserves. This study employs statistical techniques to improve the accuracy of solar resource forecasts that are in turn used to estimate solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation. The first part of the study involves time series forecasting of the global horizontal irradiation (GHI) in Phoenix, Arizona using Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) models. A comparative study is completed for time series forecasting models developed with different time step resolutions, forecasting start time, forecasting time horizons, training data, and transformations for data measured at Phoenix, Arizona. Approximately 3,000 models were generated and evaluated across the entire study. One major finding is that forecasted values one day ahead are near repeats of the preceding day—due to the 24-hour seasonal differencing—indicating that use of statistical forecasting over multiple days creates a repeating pattern. Logarithmic transform data were found to perform poorly in nearly all cases relative to untransformed or square-root transform data when forecasting out to four days. Forecasts using a logarithmic transform followed a similar profile as the immediate day prior whereas forecasts using untransformed and square-root transform data had smoother daily solar profiles that better represented the average intraday profile. Error values were generally lower during mornings and evenings and higher during midday. Regarding one-day forecasting and shorter forecasting horizons, the logarithmic transformation performed better than untransformed data and square-root transformed data irrespective of forecast horizon for data resolutions of 1-hour, 30-minutes, and 15-minutes.
ContributorsSoundiah Regunathan Rajasekaran, Dhiwaakar Purusothaman (Author) / Johnson, Nathan G (Thesis advisor) / Karady, George G. (Thesis advisor) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016