Rodney Yeu with adviser P. W. Sauer Small-signal stability analysis of a power system is used to determine if the power system can withstand small disturbances and operate in a satisfactory manner. This is traditionally accomplished by looking at the eigenvalues of a linearized power system. Once it is found that a power system is […]
Identification of Critical Lines for Power System Operational Reliability assessment
Brian C. Raczkowski with adviser P. W. Sauer In power system analysis, system loading can be used to determine the margin to a blackout or system collapse. To avoid collapse, methods have been developed to shed load, i.e., disconnect customers from the grid. If shedding load or adding new generation locations is not an option, […]
Real-time Estimation of Power System Dynamics
Shanshan Liu with adviser P. W. Sauer Many power systems are currently operating under heavily stressed conditions and with rather slim stability and security. There is an acute need to better understand the nature of power system dynamic behavior and to have good knowledge of the dynamic states of the system in order to be […]
Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide into Value-Added Chemicals
M.S. student Devin Whipple with adviser P. Kenis, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, UIUC This project reduces CO2 emission by forming a useful product from it and storing electrical energy in a chemical form. The latter is important if fuel cells using formic acid and methanol are to become a backup for solar and […]
Wind-Powered Electrical Systems: Highway Rest Area, Weigh Stations, and Team Section Buildings
Piotr Wiczkowshi with adviser P. L. Chapman The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) wanted information on supplying clean, renewable wind energy to rest areas, weigh stations, and team section building operated by IDOT within Illinois. In order to provide them with adequate information to make educated decisions on a site-by-site basis, wind data had to […]
Digital Control of Power Electronics with Field Programmable Gate Arrays
Pradeep Shenoy with adviser P. T. Krein The goal of this research is to lay the groundwork for implementing nonlinear, large-signal digital control techniques implemented in the time domain using a field programmable gate array (FPGA). In summer 2008, research has been conducted on the digital control of matrix converters at Tsinghua University in Beijing, […]
Reduced-Order Modeling of Electromechanical Systems
Jonathan Sander with adviser P. L. Chapman This project investigates order reduction of highly accurate physics-based models to ease computationally inefficient modeling of magnetic devices. Currently, we have successfully implemented model-order reduction techniques of linear and nonlinear stationary magnetic devices with the inclusion of eddy current losses. Magnetic equivalent circuit modeling has been extended to […]
High Performance Dc-Dc Converters
Grant Pitel with adviser P. T. Krein High-performance power electronics in the microelectronics industry must deliver clean voltage in the presence of fast load steps, maintain low cost, and achieve high efficiency. Because of limits in IC fabrication, processors run at low voltages and use multiple cores and on-board power management in order to improve […]
Voltage Regulator Module for Loads with Fast Transients: Predictive Energy Optimization and More
Yingying Kuai with advisor P. L. Chapman State-of-the-art voltage regulator modules (VRM) need to supply 1.5 V at 125 A and maintain the output voltage within 75 mV overshoot during load transients with slew-rates up to 50A/μs. To achieve such strict voltage regulation without increasing output capacitance, predictive control (also referred to as anticipatory control) […]
Modeling the Magnetic Field Generated by Corroding Metals
Melanie Johnson with adviser P. L. Chapman Corrosion damage poses a serious threat to the structural integrity of concrete infrastructure. When steel embedded in concrete corrodes, rust, which has no strength and has a large volume, gradually replaces the steel. The reduced strength of the structure diminishes further when the larger rust volume causes the […]