Grainger CEME

Four-quadrant electric test bed

This four-quadrant electric drive test bed, built in the ECE machine shop, will support comprehensive tests of machines and their electro-thermal system behavior. The ac dynamometer system recirculates energy, allowing a building to supply only lost power, and can be run up to 50 HP or so. It has several advantages compared to a more traditional chassis dyno or rotating dyno. These include the following: The dynamometer system can be scaled higher as energy recirculates; a fast response on both the motoring and generating sides can readily emulate most mechanical loads; the test bed can be embedded in our existing real-time “hardware anywhere in the loop” system; and the system should be able to manage fast energy flows in all directions, since it will be relatively symmetric. Because energy recirculates, the losses are self-contained and thermal analysis should be supportable. We intend to use the new ECE building’s liquid cooling loop for heat removal and should be able to instrument that for calorimetry at some level. Yaskawa has donated much of the drive hardware.