Low-frequency dc bus ripple cancellation in single phase pulse-width modulation inverters

This study presents a topology for a single-phase pulse-width modulation (PWM) converter which achieves low-frequency ripple reduction in the dc bus even when there are grid frequency variations. A hybrid filter is introduced to absorb the low-frequency current ripple in the dc bus. The control strategy for the proposed filter does not require the measurement of the dc bus ripple current. The design criteria for selecting the filter components are also presented in this study. The effectiveness of the proposed circuit has been tested and validated experimentally. A smaller dc-link capacitor is sufficient to keep the low-frequency bus ripple to an acceptable range in the proposed topology.

Medieval pulse of great earthquakes in the central Himalaya: Viewing past activities on the frontal thrust

The Himalaya has experienced three great earthquakes during the last century1934 Nepal-Bihar, 1950 Upper Assam, and arguably the 1905 Kangra. Focus here is on the central Himalayan segment between the 1905 and the 1934 ruptures, where previous studies have identified a great earthquake between thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. Historical data suggest damaging earthquakes in A.D. 1255, 1344, 1505, 1803, and 1833, although their sources and magnitudes remain debated. We present new evidence for a great earthquake from a trench across the base of a 13m high scarp near Ramnagar at the Himalayan Frontal Thrust. The section exposed four south verging fault strands and a backthrust offsetting a broad spectrum of lithounits, including colluvial deposits. Age data suggest that the last great earthquake in the central Himalaya most likely occurred between A.D. 1259 and 1433. While evidence for this rupture is unmistakable, the stratigraphic clues imply an earlier event, which can most tentatively be placed between A.D. 1050 and 1250. The postulated existence of this earlier event, however, requires further validation. If the two-earthquake scenario is realistic, then the successive ruptures may have occurred in close intervals and were sourced on adjacent segments that overlapped at the trench site. Rupture(s) identified in the trench closely correlate with two damaging earthquakes of 1255 and 1344 reported from Nepal. The present study suggests that the frontal thrust in central Himalaya may have remained seismically inactive during the last similar to 700years. Considering this long elapsed time, a great earthquake may be due in the region.

Adaptive Pulse Width Control and Sampling for Low Power Pulse Oximetry

Remote sensing of physiological parameters could be a cost effective approach to improving health care, and low-power sensors are essential for remote sensing because these sensors are often energy constrained. This paper presents a power optimized photoplethysmographic sensor interface to sense arterial oxygen saturation, a technique to dynamically trade off SNR for power during sensor operation, and a simple algorithm to choose when to acquire samples in photoplethysmography. A prototype of the proposed pulse oximeter built using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components is tested on 10 adults. The dynamic adaptation techniques described reduce power consumption considerably compared to our reference implementation, and our approach is competitive to state-of-the-art implementations. The techniques presented in this paper may be applied to low-power sensor interface designs where acquiring samples is expensive in terms of power as epitomized by pulse oximetry.

Investigations on Optimal Pulse-Width Modulation to Minimize Total Harmonic Distortion in the Line Current

PWM waveforms with positive voltage transition at the positive zero crossing of the fundamental voltage (type-A) are generally considered for PWM waveform with even number of switching angles per quarter whereas, waveforms with negative voltage transition at the positive zero crossing (type-B) are considered for odd number of switching angles per quarter. Optimal PWM, for minimization of total harmonic distortion of line to line (VWTHD), is generally solved with the aforementioned criteria. This paper establishes that a combination of both types of waveforms gives better performance than any individual type in terms of minimum VWTHD for complete range of modulation index (M). Optimal PWM for minimum VWTHD is solved for PWM waveforms with pulse numbers (P) of 5 and 7. Both type-A and type-B waveforms are found to be better in different ranges of M. The theoretical findings are confirmed through simulation and experimental results on a 3.7 kW squirrel cage induction motor in an open-loop V/f drive. Further, the optimal PWM is analysed from a space vector point of view.

Ignition delay of 3-carene: single pulse shock tube study

Ignition delay experiments of 3-carene, a biofuel, have been carried out in a single-pulse shock tube for three equivalence ratios, 0.5, 1 and 2. The temperature was varied from 1140 to 1606 K. In the above-mentioned conditions, ignition delay was found to vary from 1.180 ms to 144 mu s. The ignition delay values of 3-carene were found to be lower than those of JP-10, a kerosene-based fuel being considered for hypersonic applications.

Pulse transit time differential measurement by fiber Bragg grating pulse recorder

The present study reports a noninvasive technique for the measurement of the pulse transit time differential (PTTD) from the pulse pressure waveforms obtained at the carotid artery and radial artery using fiber Bragg grating pulse recorders (FBGPR). PTTD is defined as the time difference between the arrivals of a pulse pressure waveform at the carotid and radial arterial sites. The PTTD is investigated as an indicator of variation in the systolic blood pressure. The results are validated against blood pressure variation obtained from a Mindray Patient Monitor. Furthermore, the pulse wave velocity computed from the obtained PTTD is compared with the pulse wave velocity obtained from the color Doppler ultrasound system and is found to be in good agreement. The major advantage of the PTTD measurement via FBGPRs is that the data acquisition system employed can simultaneously acquire pulse pressure waveforms from both FBGPRs placed at carotid and radial arterial sites with a single time scale, which eliminates time synchronization complexity. (C) 2015 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

Analysis of Wrist Pulse Signals Using Spatial Features in Time Domain

Wrist pulse signal contains more important information about the health status of a person and pulse signal diagnosis has been employed in oriental medicine since very long time. In this paper we have used signal processing techniques to extract information from wrist pulse signals. For this purpose we have acquired radial artery pulse signals at wrist position noninvasively for different cases of interest. The wrist pulse waveforms have been analyzed using spatial features. Results have been obtained for the case of wrist pulse signals recorded for several subjects before exercise and after exercise. It is shown that the spatial features show statistically significant changes for the two cases and hence they are effective in distinguishing the changes taking place due to exercise. Support vector machine classifier is used to classify between the groups, and a high classification accuracy of 99.71% is achieved. Thus this paper demonstrates the utility of the spatial features in studying wrist pulse signals obtained under various recording conditions. The ability of the model to distinguish changes occurring under two different recording conditions can be potentially used for health care applications.

Statistical Analysis of Wrist Pulse Signals Obtained Under Different Food Intake Conditions

It is well known that wrist pulse signals contain information about the status of health of a person and hence diagnosis based on pulse signals has assumed great importance since long time. In this paper the efficacy of signal processing techniques in extracting useful information from wrist pulse signals has been demonstrated by using signals recorded under two different experimental conditions viz. before lunch condition and after lunch condition. We have used Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient, which is an effective measure of phase synchronization, in making a statistical analysis of wrist pulse signals. Contour plots and box plots are used to illustrate various differences. Two-sample t-tests show that the correlations show statistically significant differences between the groups. Results show that the correlation coefficient is effective in distinguishing the changes taking place after having lunch. This paper demonstrates the ability of the wrist pulse signals in detecting changes occurring under two different conditions. The study assumes importance in view of limited literature available on the analysis of wrist pulse signals in the case of food intake and also in view of its potential health care applications.

Study of Wrist Pulse Signals Using a Bi-Modal Gaussian Model

Wrist pulse signals contain important information about the health of a person and hence diagnosis based on pulse signals has assumed great importance. In this paper we demonstrate the efficacy of a two term Gaussian model to extract information from pulse signals. Results have been obtained by conducting experiments on several subjects to record wrist pulse signals for the cases of before exercise and after exercise. Parameters have been extracted from the recorded signals using the model and a paired t-test is performed, which shows that the parameters are significantly different between the two groups. Further, a recursive cluster elimination based support vector machine is used to perform classification between the groups. An average classification accuracy of 99.46% is obtained, along with top classifiers. It is thus shown that the parameters of the Gaussian model show changes across groups and hence the model is effective in distinguishing the changes taking place due to the two different recording conditions. The study has potential applications in healthcare.

Study of wrist pulse signals using time domain spatial features

Blood travels throughout the body and thus its flow is modulated by changes in body condition. As a consequence, the wrist pulse signal contains important information about the status of the human body. In this work we have employed signal processing techniques to extract important information from these signals. Radial artery pulse pressure signals are acquired at wrist position noninvasively for several subjects for two cases of interest, viz. before and after exercise, and before and after lunch. Further analysis is performed by fitting a bi-modal Gaussian model to the data and extracting spatial features from the fit. The spatial features show statistically significant (p < 0.001) changes between the groups for both the cases, which indicates that they are effective in distinguishing the changes taking place due to exercise or food intake. Recursive cluster elimination based support vector machine classifier is used to classify between the groups. A high classification accuracy of 99.71% is achieved for the exercise case and 99.94% is achieved for the lunch case. This paper demonstrates the utility of certain spatial features in studying wrist pulse signals obtained under various experimental conditions. The ability of the spatial features in distinguishing changing body conditions can be potentially used for various healthcare applications. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A low-power, low-cost soil-moisture sensor using dual-probe heat-pulse technique

This paper presents the development and testing of an integrated low-power and low-cost dual-probe heat-pulse (DPHP) soil-moisture sensor in view of the electrical power consumed and affordability in developing countries. A DPHP sensor has two probes: a heater and a temperature sensor probe spaced 3 mm apart from the heater probe. Supply voltage of 3.3V is given to the heater-coil having resistance of 33 Omega power consumption of 330 mW, which is among the lowest in this category of sensors. The heater probe is 40 mm long with 2 mm diameter and hence is stiff enough to be inserted into the soil. The parametric finite element simulation study was performed to ensure that the maximum temperature rise is between 1 degrees C and 5 degrees C for wet and dry soils, respectively. The discrepancy between the simulation and experiment is less than 3.2%. The sensor was validated with white clay and tested with red soil samples to detect volumetric water-content ranging from 0% to 30%. The sensor element is integrated with low-power electronics for amplifying the output from thermocouple sensor and TelosB mote for wireless communication. A 3.7V lithium ion battery with capacity of 1150 mAh is used to power the system. The battery is charged by a 6V and 300 mA solar cell array. Readings were taken in 30 min intervals. The life-time of DPHP sensor node is around 3.6 days. The sensor, encased in 30 mm x 20 mm x 10 mm sized box, and integrated with electronics was tested independently in two separate laboratories for validating as well as investigating the dependence of the measurement of soil-moisture on the density of the soil. The difference in the readings while repeating the experiments was found out to be less than 0.01%. Furthermore, the effect of ambient temperature on the measurement of soil-moisture is studied experimentally and computationally. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Multiphase technique improves mud-pulse velocity calculations

Measurement while drilling (MWD) has become a popular survey technology to monitor directional data, drilling data, formation evaluation data and safety data in the world. And closed loop drilling shows promise in recent years. Obviously, the method of tr

Detection and Characterization of Long-Pulse Low-Velocity Impact Damage in Plastic Bonded Explosives

Damage not only degrades the mechanical properties of explosives, but also influences the shock sensitivity, combustion and even detonation behavior of explosives. The study of impact damage is crucial in the vulnerability evaluation of explosives. A long-pulse low-velocity gas gun with a gas buffer was developed and used to induce impact damage in a hot pressed plastic bonded explosive. Various methods were used to detect and characterize the impact damage of the explosive. The microstructure was examined by use of polarized light microscopy. Fractal analysis of the micrographs was conducted by use of box counting method. The correlation between the fractal dimensions and microstructures was analyzed. Ultrasonic testing was conducted using a pulse through-transmission method to obtain the ultrasonic velocity and ultrasonic attenuation. Spectra analyses were carried out for recorded ultrasonic signals using fast Fourier transform. The correlations between the impact damage and ultrasonic parameters including ultrasonic velocities and attenuation coefficients were also analyzed. To quantitatively assess the impact induced explosive crystal fractures, particle size distribution analyses of explosive crystals were conducted by using a thorough etching technique, in which the explosives samples were soaked in a solution for enough time that the binder was totally removed. Impact induces a large extent of explosive crystal fractures and a large number of microcracks. The ultrasonic velocity decreases and attenuation coefficients increase with the presence of impact damage. Both ultrasonic parameters and fractal dimension can be used to quantitatively assess the impact damage of plastic bonded explosives.