Paul Rancuret with adviser P. T. Krein This research studies adaptive control methods for controlling an induction motor with parameter uncertainty. For instance, rotor resistance changes with temperature, and the inductances are affected by saturation in the machine. Two types of adaptive control are proposed. First, a model reference adaptive controller (MRAC) is developed. It […]
Energy-Based Control of Augmented Buck Converters for Near Ideal Load Transient Response
Pradeep Shenoy with adviser, P. T. Krein There are many applications where fast response to load changes in a dc-dc converter is important. Microprocessors, for instance, require tightly regulated low-voltage supplies to perform in the presence of load slews that can be hundreds of A/μs. To overcome the limitations in typical voltage regulators, a large […]
Hardware Testbed for Quickly Detecting Both Fast and Slow Faults in DC-DC Power Converters
Kieran Levin with adviser A. DomÃnguez-GarcÃa This research is to develop a hardware implementation of previous work done by Professor DomÃnguez-GarcÃa and Eric Hope on observer-based fault detection. Furthering the theoretical development, a hardware testbed to develop a low cost DSP-based real-time observer for quickly detecting both fast and slow faults in dc-dc power converters […]
Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide into Value-Added Chemicals
Ph.D. student Devin Whipple, with adviser P. J. A. Kenis, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois The electrochemical reduction of CO2 into useful products has a number of benefits that help address many intertwined problems in energy and climate change. These benefits include: (i) a means for recycling CO2 in order to […]
Exploratory Design of Electromechanical Devices Using the Transfer Relations Theorem
Matthew Magill with adviser P. T. Krein Our research goal is to establish an electromechanical design tool that aids in highlighting essential performance tradeoffs while encouraging exploratory geometries and designs. Numerical techniques, such as the finite element method and the boundary element method, yield extremely accurate determinations of field distributions within a given electromechanical arrangement, […]
Accelerating Electric Machine Analysis with Parallel Processing
Christine Ross with adviser P. T. Krein Industry and government need more powerful and efficient electric machines. To design them, engineers must improve their computer simulation design tools to allow simulations to be run in real time or faster. Present electric machine simulation methods involving numerical field analysis are computationally intensive, especially when a high […]
Time-Optimal Control of DC-DC Converters
Santanu Kapat, Post-Doctoral Researcher, with adviser P. T. Krein Achieving fast transient performance remains a challenging control problem for future power supplies, especially for low-voltage-high-current applications. This work applies a geometric approach to achieve minimum-time transient recovery in dc-dc converters. The conditions of time optimality subject to a step change in load current, input voltage, […]
Low Transient-Sensitivity Photovoltaic Control
Katherine A. Kim with adviser P. T. Krein Grid-connected residential PV systems play an increasingly important part in today’s energy market, especially as the number of systems in use continues to grow. PV control schemes that maintain maximum power output under any environmental condition, as well as under transients, are required for these systems to […]
Dynamic Performance of Maximum Power Point Trackers for Residential Photovoltaic Systems
Jonathan Ehlmann with adviser P.T. Krein Residential installations differentiate themselves from utility installations. Residential PV arrays are smaller, cover less area than their utility counterparts, and react to changes in ambient conditions quicker than larger arrays. Distributed maximum power point tracker (MPPT) architectures respond even more quickly. Residential rooftops also provide less than ideal sites […]
Distributed Photovoltaic AC Module
Brian Johnson with adviser P. T. Krein Photovoltaic system topologies have been moving away from large centralized systems towards low-power distributed systems. Recent interest has focused on developing a solar panel which directly interfaces to the ac grid without external dc wiring. This is referred to as a PVAC module. The developing approach to ac […]