Setting and Testing of the Out-of-Step Protection at Mongolian Transmission System

Modern distance relays have integrated numerous protection functions, including power-swing blocking and out-of-step or pole-slip tripping functions. The main purpose of the power-swing blocking function is to differentiate faults from power swings and block distance or other relay elements from operating during stable or unstable power swings. Most power-swing blocking elements are based on traditional methods that monitor the positive sequence impedance rate. The required settings for the power-swing blocking elements could be difficult to calculate in many applications, particularly those where fast swings can be expected. For these cases, extensive stability studies are necessary to determine the fastest rate of possible power swings. This paper presents a detailed step-by-step method for settings calculation of out-of-step (OOS) protection, both blocking and tripping functions considering a generic two-source system. Then the method is applied to define the protection relay settings installed at the interconnection between the Russian and Mongolian power systems, as it is crucial to feed the demand-rich Mongolian power system. In this paper, a specific impedance method is used for defining the OOS protection settings. This paper innovates by testing the settings using the recordings of the major events of 15 September 2018 in two approaches: hybrid co-simulation and cyber-physical. Both tests have demonstrated the appropriate performance of the proposed settings and proving the proposed methodology works appropriately.

A Trial Acoustic Improvement in a Lecture Hall with MPP Sound Absorbers and FDTD Acoustic Simulations

Sound absorbing micro-perforated panels (MPPs) are being increasingly used because of their high quality in terms of hygiene, sustainability and durability. The present work investigates the feasibility and the performance of MPPs when used as an acoustic treatment in lecture rooms. With this purpose, three different micro-perforated steel specimens were first designed following existing predictive models and then physically manufactured through 3D additive metal printing. The specimens’ acoustic behavior was analyzed with experimental measurements in single-layer and double-layer configurations. Then, the investigation was focused on the application of double-layer MPPs to the ceiling of an existing university lecture hall to enhance speech intelligibility. Numerical simulations were carried out using a full-spectrum wave-based method: a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) code was chosen to better handle time-dependent signals as the verbal communication. The present work proposes a workflow to explore the suitability of a specific material to speech requirements. The measured specific impedance complex values allowed to derive the input data referred to MPPs in FDTD simulations. The outcomes of the process show the influence of the acoustic treatment in terms of reverberation time (T30) and sound clarity (C50). A systematic comparison with a standard geometrical acoustic (GA) technique is reported as well.

Impedimetric characterization of human blood using three-electrode based ECIS devices

In this study, three-electrode based electric cell-substrate impedance sensing (ECIS) devices were used to study the electrical properties of blood and its constituents using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The three-electrode based ECIS devices were fabricated by using micromachining technology with varying sizes for working, reference and counter electrodes. The blood and its constituents such as serum, plasma, and red blood cells (RBCs) were prepared by conventional methods and stored for impedance measurement using fabricated microdevices. Equivalent circuits for blood, serum, plasma and RBCs were proposed using the software package ZSimpWin to validate the experimental data. The proposed equivalent circuit models of blood and its components have excellent agreement up to a frequency of 1 MHz. It is evident from the experimental results that blood and its components have specific impedance signatures that decrease with the increase of frequency. Blood shows higher impedance than the other samples in the lower frequency range (<50 kHz). It was also found that above 50 kHz, the impedance value of RBCs is nearly the same as whole blood. The impedance of serum and plasma steadily decreases with the increase of frequency up to 100 kHz and flattens out after that. The minimum impedance value achieved for serum and plasma is much less than the value obtained for whole blood.

Sound Radiation from the Perforated End of a Lined Duct

Radiation of sound wave through a lined duct with perforated end is analyzed rigorously. The problem considered is axisymmetric. By using the Fourier transform technique in conjunction with the Mode Matching method, the related boundary value problem is formulated as a Wiener-Hopf (W-H) equation. The Mode-Matching technique allows us to express the field component defined in the waveguide region in terms of normal modes. The solution involves a set of infinitely many expansion coefficients satisfying an infinite system of linear algebraic equations. The numerical solution of this system is obtained for different parameters of the problem such as the surface impedances, specific impedance of the perforated screen and their effects on the radiation phenomenon are shown graphically.

Flame Describing Functions of a Confined Premixed Swirled Combustor With Upstream and Downstream Forcing

The frequency response of a confined premixed swirled flame is explored experimentally through the use of describing functions that depend on both the forcing frequency and the forcing level. In these experiments, the flame is forced by a loudspeaker connected to the bottom of the burner in the fresh gas region or by a set of loudspeakers connected to the combustion chamber exhaust tube in the burnt gas region. The experimental setup is equipped with a hot-wire (HW) probe and a microphone, both of which located in front of each other below the swirler. The forcing level is varied between |v′0|/v¯0=0.10 and 0.72 RMS, where v¯0 and v′0 are, respectively, the mean and the fluctuating velocity at the HW probe. An additional microphone is placed on a water-cooled waveguide connected to the combustion chamber backplate. A photomultiplier equipped with an OH* filter is used to measure the heat release rate fluctuations. The describing functions between the photomultiplier signal and the different pressure and velocity reference signals are then analyzed in the case of upstream and downstream forcing. The describing function measured for a given reference signal is shown to vary depending on the type of forcing. The impedance of the injector at the HW location is also determined for both upstream and downstream forcing. For all describing functions investigated, it is found that their phase lags do not depend on the forcing level, whereas their gains strongly depend on |v′0|/v¯0 for certain frequency ranges. It is furthermore shown that the flame describing function (FDF) measured with respect to the HW signal can be retrieved from the specific impedance at the HW location and the describing function determined with respect to the signal of the microphone located in front of the HW. This relationship is not valid when the signal from the microphone located at the combustion chamber backplate is considered. It is then shown that a one-dimensional (1D) acoustic model allows to reproduce the describing function computed with respect to the microphone signal inside the injector from the microphone signal located at the combustion chamber backplate in the case of downstream forcing. This relation does not hold for upstream forcing because of the acoustic dissipation across the swirler which is much larger compared to downstream forcing for a given forcing level set at the HW location. This study sheds light on the differences between upstream and downstream acoustic forcing when measuring describing functions. It is also shown that the upstream and downstream forcing techniques are equivalent only if the reference signal used to determine the FDF is the acoustic velocity in the fresh gases just before the flame.

SiC Power Devices in Impedance Source Converters

This paper discusses issues related to application of SiC power devices to new family of power converters. Impedance source converters show unique feature, buck boost characteristics due to specific impedance network. Passive elements of this network may be seriously reduced with the switching frequency increase, possible with fast-switching SiC transistors. On the other hand, switching conditions of the power devices are more severe than in traditional voltage-source or current-source converters. These issues are discussed on the base of the 6kVA/100kHz quasi-Z-source inverter example.

Sound absorption of a micro-perforated plate backed by a porous material under high sound excitation: measurement and prediction

The sound absorption coefficient of perforated facings backed by porous materials is studied under high sound intensities in the absence of mean flow. The theoretical considerations are based on the equivalent fluid following the Johnson-Champoux-Allard approach and the use of the transfer matrix method. To take into account the high sound levels effects, the air flow resistivity of each layer is modified following the Forchheimer law. Two specimens of perforated plate are built and tested when backed by a polymeric foam and a fibrous material. A specific impedance tube setup is developed for the measurement of the surface acoustic impedance for sound pressure levels ranging from 90 dB to 150 dB at the surface of the perforated facing. To corroborate the validity of the presented method, two considerations are particularly depicted in the experimental results: first, the case where the perforated facing and the porous material are both directly backed by a rigid wall and the case where there is an air cavity between the porous material and the rigid wall. Good agreement is observed between the simulation and the experimental results.