Aerothermodynamic cycle analysis of a dual-spool, separate-exhaust turbofan engine with an interstage turbine burner

This study focuses on a specific engine, i.e., a dual-spool, separate-flow turbofan engine with an Interstage Turbine Burner (ITB). This conventional turbofan engine has been modified to include a secondary isobaric burner, i.e., ITB, in a transition duct between the high-pressure turbine and the low-pressure turbine. The preliminary design phase for this modified engine starts with the aerothermodynamics cycle analysis is consisting of parametric (i.e., on-design) and performance (i.e., off-design) cycle analyses. In parametric analysis, the modified engine performance parameters are evaluated and compared with baseline engine in terms of design limitation (maximum turbine inlet temperature), flight conditions (such as flight Mach condition, ambient temperature and pressure), and design choices (such as compressor pressure ratio, fan pressure ratio, fan bypass ratio etc.). A turbine cooling model is also included to account for the effect of cooling air on engine performance. The results from the on-design analysis confirmed the advantage of using ITB, i.e., higher specific thrust with small increases in thrust specific fuel consumption, less cooling air, and less NOx production, provided that the main burner exit temperature and ITB exit temperature are properly specified. It is also important to identify the critical ITB temperature, beyond which the ITB is turned off and has no advantage at all. With the encouraging results from parametric cycle analysis, a detailed performance cycle analysis of the identical engine is also conducted for steady-stateengine performance prediction. The results from off-design cycle analysis show that the ITB engine at full throttle setting has enhanced performance over baseline engine. Furthermore, ITB engine operating at partial throttle settings will exhibit higher thrust at lower specific fuel consumption and improved thermal efficiency over the baseline engine. A mission analysis is also presented to predict the fuel consumptions in certain mission phases. Excel macrocode, Visual Basic for Application, and Excel neuron cells are combined to facilitate Excel software to perform these cycle analyses. These user-friendly programs compute and plot the data sequentially without forcing users to open other types of post-processing programs.

Online distribution management framework by incorporating wind generation

In distribution system operations, dispatchers at control center closely monitor system operating limits to ensure system reliability and adequacy. This reliability is partly due to the provision of remote controllable tie and sectionalizing switches. While the stochastic nature of wind generation can impact the level of wind energy penetration in the network, an estimate of the output from wind on hourly basis can be extremely useful. Under any operating conditions, the switching actions require human intervention and can be an extremely stressful task. Currently, handling a set of switching combinations with the uncertainty of distributed wind generation as part of the decision variables has been nonexistent. This thesis proposes a three-fold online management framework: (1) prediction of wind speed, (2) estimation of wind generation capacity, and (3) enumeration of feasible switching combinations. The proposed methodology is evaluated on 29-node test system with 8 remote controllable switches and two wind farms of 18MW and 9MW nameplate capacities respectively for generating the sequence of system reconfiguration states during normal and emergency conditions.

Torque converter turbine noise and cavitation noise over varying speed ratio

These investigations will discuss the operational noise caused by automotive torque converters during speed ratio operation. Two specific cases of torque converter noise will be studied; cavitation, and a monotonic turbine induced noise. Cavitation occurs at or near stall, or zero turbine speed. The bubbles produced due to the extreme torques at low speed ratio operation, upon collapse, may cause a broadband noise that is unwanted by those who are occupying the vehicle as other portions of the vehicle drive train improve acoustically. Turbine induced noise, which occurs at high engine torque at around 0.5 speed ratio, is a narrow-band phenomenon that is audible to vehicle occupants currently. The solution to the turbine induced noise is known, however this study is to gain a better understanding of the mechanics behind this occurrence. The automated torque converter dynamometer test cell was utilized in these experiments to determine the effect of torque converter design parameters on the offset of cavitation and to employ the use a microwave telemetry system to directly measure pressures and structural motion on the turbine. Nearfield acoustics were used as a detection method for all phenomena while using a standardized speed ratio sweep test. Changes in filtered sound pressure levels enabled the ability to detect cavitation desinence. This, in turn, was utilized to determine the effects of various torque converter design parameters, including diameter, torus dimensions, and pump and stator blade designs on cavitation. The on turbine pressures and motion measured with the microwave telemetry were used to understand better the effects of a notched trailing edge turbine blade on the turbine induced noise.

MULTIDIMENSIONAL OPTIMAL DROOP CONTROL FOR WIND RESOURCES IN DC MICROGRIDS

Two important and upcoming technologies, microgrids and electricity generation from wind resources, are increasingly being combined. Various control strategies can be implemented, and droop control provides a simple option without requiring communication between microgrid components. Eliminating the single source of potential failure around the communication system is especially important in remote, islanded microgrids, which are considered in this work. However, traditional droop control does not allow the microgrid to utilize much of the power available from the wind. This dissertation presents a novel droop control strategy, which implements a droop surface in higher dimension than the traditional strategy. The droop control relationship then depends on two variables: the dc microgrid bus voltage, and the wind speed at the current time. An approach for optimizing this droop control surface in order to meet a given objective, for example utilizing all of the power available from a wind resource, is proposed and demonstrated. Various cases are used to test the proposed optimal high dimension droop control method, and demonstrate its function. First, the use of linear multidimensional droop control without optimization is demonstrated through simulation. Next, an optimal high dimension droop control surface is implemented with a simple dc microgrid containing two sources and one load. Various cases for changing load and wind speed are investigated using simulation and hardware-in-the-loop techniques. Optimal multidimensional droop control is demonstrated with a wind resource in a full dc microgrid example, containing an energy storage device as well as multiple sources and loads. Finally, the optimal high dimension droop control method is applied with a solar resource, and using a load model developed for a military patrol base application. The operation of the proposed control is again investigated using simulation and hardware-in-the-loop techniques.