Electrical Engineering Applications Research Articles

Piston-electric propulsion system as reliable alternative for classic and nonconventional piston engine configurations

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to define reliability requirements to be imposed on electric engines to assure similar or higher value of mean time between failures (MTBF) for mixed piston-electric propulsion configurations when compared to classic and unconventional piston engine configurations.Design/methodology/approachReliability estimation was done using mathematical model of safety of light aircraft commercial operations. The model was developed on the basis of Federal Aviation Administration and National Transport Safety Board data. The analysis was conducted for numerous piston and electric configurations. It allowed comparison of selected solutions and definition of relation between electric engine MTBF and MTBF calculated for entire mixed piston-electric propulsion system.FindingsIt was found that, from reliability point of view, mixed piston-electric engine propulsion is attractive alternative for classic single- and twin-piston configuration. It would allow to at least doubling of MTBF for propulsion without increase of operational cost.Practical implicationsRationale behind exploiting electric propulsion in aviation is provided. Relation between electric engine reliability and entire propulsion reliability was identified and defined. Minimum requirements concerning MTBF value for electric engine application in aviation was assessed. Conclusions from this study can be used for definition of requirements for new aircraft and by the regulatory authorities.Originality/valueOriginality consists in use of real accident statistics included in mathematical model of safety for assessment of MTBF for various classic and novel piston and piston-electric engine configurations of light aircraft. Output from the study can be exploited by the industry.

Fracture Testing of Energy Materials for Application in Electrical Engineering

Fracture Testing of Energy Materials for Application in Electrical Engineering

Temperature State of a Hollow Cylinder Made of a Polymer Dielectric with Temperature-Dependent Characteristics

A mathematical model is constructed to describe a steady one-dimensional temperature distribution in a hollow circular cylinder made of a polymer dielectric with a constant difference in the electric field potentials on the cylinder surfaces. Based on systematized data on the dependence of the thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity of polymer materials used as dielectrics in engineering on temperature, a qualitative analysis of the model is performed for a prescribed density of the heat flux supplied to the inner surface of the cylinder and intensity of convective heat transfer on the outer surface The results obtained in the study allow one to determine the area of applicability of polymer dielectrics used in various electrical engineering applications, including electrical insulation of DC high-voltage cables, and to formulate the conditions for the thermal breakdown of the cylindrical layer of the dielectric.

The influence of selected ions on various characteristics of Nickel-Zinc ferrites

Abstract One of acknowledged methods remarkably improving structural, magnetic and electrical properties of spinel ferrite systems is the substitution of iron ions by some trivalent ions. In the family of spinel ferrites, thanks to its high saturation magnetization and electrical resistivity as well as low losses, the nickel-zinc ferrite is a very important magnetic material used in many applications in electrical engineering and electronics. The properties of these materials are in general dependent upon chemical composition, method of preparation, stoichiometry, sintering time, temperature as well as the atmosphere, etc. In this study the influence of appropriately selected ions (M = In3+, Nd3+, Dy3+ and Er3+), partly replacing Fe3+, on the microstructure and magnetic properties of spinel ferrite with the composition Ni0.42Zn0.58M0.02Fe1.98O4 fabricated by means of standard ceramic technology was investigated.

Computer Control System Application for Electrical Engineering and Electrical Automation

Electrical engineering has gradually entered the era of automation technology along with the development of high technology. In computer control systems, the application of automation technology and electrical engineering has gradually improved. The paper mainly discusses the basic concepts of intelligent technology and electrical automation, and focuses on the specific application of intelligent computer control in electrical automation, and analyzes the application prospect and development trend of this technology in electrical engineering in the future.

Mapping worldwide research on the Internet of Things during 2011-2016

PurposeThe Internet of Things (IoT) has attracted wide attention from researchers to address the potential of this technology in various industries recently. This study aims to investigate different characteristics of worldwide research on the IoT using bibliometrics, network analysis and altmetrics. Growth of the literature, publication types, languages, publication countries and research subjects are addressed. The scientific and social impact of the journal articles has also been examined using citation and altmetrics scores.Design/methodology/approachThe Scopus database was searched for articles indexed under the terms “Internet of Thing*” or “IoT” or “Internet of Everything*” or “Web of Thing*”, and a total of 13,725 articles from 2011 to 2016 were retrieved and analysed.FindingsThere was a continuous increase in the number of publications per year over the period, with a 6.7-fold rise in the number of publications, with the highest share of research output (4,989) published in 2016. Contribution of authors at the micro, meso and macro levels was analysed. About 89 per cent of total publications were the result of collaborative efforts, and Asia-Pacific was responsible for almost 53 per cent of world scientific production of IoT literature. Generally, the IoT research are found in publications concentrating on computer networks and communications, electrical and electronic engineering and computer science applications. The results also showed that the presence of IoT research on the social web is still low, with 6.8 per cent of total publications presenting some altmetric activity.Research limitations/implicationsThe work reported is limited to only Scopus-indexed publications. While the search methodology aimed to be as inclusive as possible, it may not have captured all scholarly research output in the IoT world.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study may help researchers understand the performance of IoT research from across the world and suggest directions for further research.Originality/valueThis paper reviews the literature of the IoT in past five years using rigorous bibliometric, altmetric and network analysis tools.

High Sensitive Optical Pressure Sensor Using Nano-Scale Plasmonic Resonator and Metal-Insulator-Metal Waveguides

We propose a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structure consisting of a resonator and surface plasmon polariton (SPP) waveguides. By increasing the pressure, the resonator further deforms. Applying a maximum pressure of 6.2 MPa on the proposed device, a blue shift of 150 nm in the resonant wavelength is computed. Under the above mentioned pressure, the corresponding shift is linearly proportional to the pressure variation in a wide range of wavelength. This optical pressure sensor has a high sensitivity of 24 nm/MPa which makes it very suitable candidate for mechanical, electrical, biological, and biomedical engineering applications. The proposed device is simulated using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method.

Electrical Engineering Education in India: Past, Present & Future

Abstract The present paper deals with the issue of Electrical Engineering, particularly its impact and standard of education in India from its initiation till present date. We have explored the transition of Electrical Engineering from disciplines of science to a discipline of engineering and technology. A comprehensive study of Electrical Engineering education framework in India at various stages has been done along with a comparison of educational institutes among BRICS nations, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. We have also acknowledged Electrical Engineering as an important domain of engineering and technology. Indian Government’s efforts to improve the quality of Electrical Engineering education in India through internet based interactive online tools and its endeavors to decrease the rising levels of greenhouse emissions for the betterment of our environment has been appreciated in this paper. We have analyzed a plethora of Electrical Computer Aided Design (ECAD) simulation tools, available for the welfare of electrical engineering academia, as well as industry based electrical engineering applications. Electrical Engineers are destined to play a decisive role in the socio-economic future of India and the world, as they have been doing this since the 19th century. Keeping this fact in mind, we have decided to refer to the present employment opportunities available in India covering the private sector as well as the public one. The role of renewable energy in the creation of numerous sustainable jobs for the already huge and exponentially growing youth population of India has a mention in this paper. In conclusion we have formulated some recommendations to educational institutes and Indian Government which will help Electrical Engineering academia-industry flourish in the near future.

Evidence of a third kind of Johnscher’s like universal dielectric response

Polymer/metal composites (PMC) comprising of polyvinylidene fluoride/nanocrystalline nickel with varying volume fractions of nickel ([Formula: see text]) prepared under cold press show an insulator to metal transition (IMT) at percolation threshold ([Formula: see text]). The two kinds of generalized Johnscher’s universal dielectric response (UDR) laws on both sides of IMT hold good, while for the percolative sample, none of the two laws hold good. Neither the concept of dipolar relaxation nor anomalous low frequency dispersion stands valid for [Formula: see text], while a completely different, neutral and competing electrical behavior is observed over the entire range of frequencies. The emerged third kind of Johnscher’s like UDR for [Formula: see text] is observed and the relaxation law has been formulated as the ratio of imaginary and real parts of dielectric constant remains constant over the entire range of frequency starting from dc to any higher frequency. The value of the constant is attributed to depend on the PMC, the dielectric constant of the polymer, the differences of conductivity and fractions of the components of the PMC and also on their connectivity arising due to the difference of their process conditions. The emerged unique dielectric relaxation consists of multiple relaxations arising due to the combination of other relaxations (arising due to the two different types of species) present in the sample, [Formula: see text]. This novel material may be suitable for certain specific applications in electrical and electronics engineering.

(Invited) What Can Electrochemistry Learn from Chess?

Batteries are complex electrochemical devices whose short-term and long-term operational lives are highly dependent on their construction, materials, and use cases. Models have been developed and used to improve the performance of batteries by providing different material design, model based control and model based battery management systems1,2. In recent literature, data science techniques have been used to accomplish a variety of tasks related to representing simulated data for control or estimation purposes2,3,4 . Data science techniques have also been used to approximate optimal solutions to computationally difficult problems, such as the traveling salesman problem5. Rather than create a surrogate model to use with a typical optimization scheme, we will examine framing the problem as a parameter ‘correction’ endeavor. By doing so, it may be possible to retain all of the information present in a time series of error and leverage this information to very quickly go from a poor initial guess to a viable solution, after which time iterative optimization schemes can take over. The effectiveness of this approach (both in terms of efficiency and robustness) will be compared with the standard approaches. This method is inspired by DeepChess, a comparative deep neural network structure which plays successfully against world-class chess algorithms4. Acknowledgments The authors thank the United States Department of Energy (DOE) for the financial support for this work though the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) award #DEAR0000275, as well as the Clean Energy Institute (CEI) through the DIRECT program at the University of Washington. Part of the research has been supported by the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Vehicle Technologies of the U. S. Department of Energy through the Advanced Battery Materials Research (BMR) Program (Battery500 Consortium) References Y. Dai, and V. Srinivasan,. J. Electrochem. Soc., 163, A406 (2016).N. Dawson-Elli, S. B. Lee, M. Pathak, K. Mitra, and V. R. Subramanian, “Data Science Approaches for Electrochemical Engineers: An Introduction through Surrogate Model Development for Lithium-Ion Batteries,” J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 165, no. 2, pp. A1–A15, Jan. 2018.D. A. C. Beck, J. M. Carothers, V. R. Subramanian, and J. Pfaendtner, “Data science: Accelerating innovation and discovery in chemical engineering,” AIChE J., vol. 62, no. 5, pp. 1402–1416, May 2016.Blake R. Hough, author. Jim Pfaendtner, degree supervisor. 2016 Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington,2016.B. La Maire and V. Mladenov, “Comparison of Neural Networks for Solving the Travelling Salesman Problem,” in 11th Symposium on Neural Network Applications in Electrical Engineering,NEUREL 2012 - Proceedings, 2012.E. David, N. S. Netanyahu, and L. Wolf, “DeepChess: End-to-End Deep Neural Network for Automatic Learning in Chess,” arXiv:1711.09667 [cs, stat], vol. 9887, pp. 88–96, 2016.

What Can Electrochemistry Learn from Chess? Using Data Science to Speed up Optimization of Electrochemical Models

Batteries are complex electrochemical devices whose short-term and long-term operational lives are highly dependent on their construction, materials, and use cases. Models have been developed and used to improve the performance of batteries by providing different material design, model based control and model based battery management systems1 ,2. In recent literature, data science techniques have been used to accomplish a variety of tasks related to representing simulated data for control or estimation purposes2,3,4 . Data science techniques have also been used to approximate optimal solutions to computationally difficult problems, such as the traveling salesman problem5. Rather than create a surrogate model to use with a typical optimization scheme, we will examine framing the problem as a parameter ‘correction’ endeavor. By doing so, it may be possible to retain all of the information present in a time series of error and leverage this information to very quickly go from a poor initial guess to a viable solution, after which time iterative optimization schemes can take over. The effectiveness of this approach (both in terms of efficiency and robustness) will be compared with the standard approaches. This method is inspired by DeepChess, a comparative deep neural network structure which plays successfully against world-class chess algorithms6. Acknowledgments The authors thank the United States Department of Energy (DOE) for the financial support for this work though the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) award #DEAR0000275, as well as the Clean Energy Institute (CEI) through the DIRECT program at the University of Washington. Part of the research has been supported by the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Vehicle Technologies of the U. S. Department of Energy through the Advanced Battery Materials Research (BMR) Program (Battery500 Consortium). References Y. Dai, and V. Srinivasan,. J. Electrochem. Soc., 163, A406 (2016).N. Dawson-Elli, S. B. Lee, M. Pathak, K. Mitra, and V. R. Subramanian, “Data Science Approaches for Electrochemical Engineers: An Introduction through Surrogate Model Development for Lithium-Ion Batteries,” J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 165, no. 2, pp. A1–A15, Jan. 2018.D. A. C. Beck, J. M. Carothers, V. R. Subramanian, and J. Pfaendtner, “Data science: Accelerating innovation and discovery in chemical engineering,” AIChE J., vol. 62, no. 5, pp. 1402–1416, May 2016.Blake R. Hough, author. Jim Pfaendtner, degree supervisor. 2016 Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington,2016.B. La Maire and V. Mladenov, “Comparison of Neural Networks for Solving the Travelling Salesman Problem,” in 11th Symposium on Neural Network Applications in Electrical Engineering,NEUREL 2012 - Proceedings, 2012.E. David, N. S. Netanyahu, and L. Wolf, “DeepChess: End-to-End Deep Neural Network for Automatic Learning in Chess,” arXiv:1711.09667 [cs, stat], vol. 9887, pp. 88–96, 2016.

A fast robust geometric fitting method for parabolic curves

Fitting discrete data obtained by image acquisition devices to a curve is a common task in many fields of science and engineering. In particular, the parabola is some of the most employed shape features in electrical engineering and telecommunication applications. Standard curve fitting techniques to solve this problem involve the minimization of squared errors. However, most of these procedures are sensitive to noise. Here, we propose an algorithm based on the minimization of absolute errors accompanied by a normalization of the directrix vector that leads to an improved stability of the method. This way, our proposal is substantially resilient to noisy samples in the input dataset. Experimental results demonstrate the good performance of the algorithm in terms of speed and accuracy when compared to previous approaches, both for synthetic and real data.

Polymer Nanocomposites in High-Voltage Insulation: The Dielectric Characteristics of Doped Polypropylene

Polymers containing inorganic nanoparticles have been found to exhibit improved to excellent performance for electrical engineering applications. It was found that nanoparticles with surface chemical modifications displayed improved compatibility with the polymer matrix. After tailoring the nanometric interface between the nanoparticles and the polymer matrix and employing the appropriate compounding technique, multifunctional nanocomposites could be prepared.

Two-dimensional fractional Fourier transform and some of its properties

ABSTRACTThe fractional Fourier transform (FrFT), which is a generalization of the Fourier transform, has become the focus of many research papers in recent years because of its applications in electrical engineering and optics. It is known that the Hermite functions of order n are eigenfunctions of the Fourier transform with eigenvalues and likewise the Hermite functions of order n are eigenfunctions of the FrFT of order α, where but with different eigenvalues Those eigenvalues approach as α approaches 1. The FrFT has been extended to n dimensions using tensor product of n copies of the one-dimensional transform. In this article we introduce a new two-dimensional FrFT that is not a tensor product of two one-dimensional transforms. The definition of the new transform is based on using the Hermite functions of two complex variables as eigenfunctions of the transform. We then derive some of its properties, such as its inversion formula, convolution structure and theorem, and its analogue of Poisson summation formula.

Proposed Hyperbolic NILT Method — Acceleration Techniques and Two-Dimensional Expansion for Electrical Engineering Applications

Proposed Hyperbolic NILT Method — Acceleration Techniques and Two-Dimensional Expansion for Electrical Engineering Applications

Simulating command injection attacks on IEC 60870-5-104 protocol in SCADA system

IEC 60870-5-104 is an international standard used for tele-control in electrical engineering and power system applications. It is one of the major principal protocols in SCADA system. Major industrial control vendors use this protocol for monitoring and managing power utility devices. One of the most common attacks which has a catastrophic impact on industrial control systems is the control command injection attack. It happens when an attacker injects false control commands into a control system. This paper presents the IEC 60870-5-104 vulnera-bilities from the perspective of command and information data injection. From the SCADA testbed that we setup, we showed that a success-ful control command injection attack can be implemented by exploiting the vulnerabilities identified earlier.

Mussel Inspired Modification for Aluminum Oxide/Silicone Elastomer Composites with Largely Improved Thermal Conductivity and Low Dielectric Constant

Inspired by unparalleled adhesion of mussels, bioinspired poly(dopamine) (PDA) has been used to functionalize the surface of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) nanoparticles aiming at improving the thermal conductivity of silicone rubber (SR). The successful and effective preparation of PDA modified Al2O3 nanoparticles (Al2O3–PDA) was confirmed by XPS, HR-TEM, and XRD. The PDA coating on the Al2O3 nanoparticles improved its interfacial interaction between polymeric matrix and facilitated the uniform-dispersion of filler, leading to the 30 vol % Al2O3–PDA/SR composite that exhibited a high thermal conductivity (0.585 W/((m·K))), which was almost 400% of pure silicone rubber (0.147 W/(m·K)). In addition, the 30 vol % Al2O3–PDA/SR composite displayed a relatively low dielectric constant (4.06 at 1 kHz), which was a bit higher than that of pure SR (2.59 at 1 kHz), a big advantage for the electronic or electrical engineering application. With advantages of efficient, easy handling, controllable, and eco-friendly, this mod...

ZnO tetrapod materials for functional applications

In the last 15 years, more than 50,000 papers with zinc oxide (ZnO) in the title are listed within ISI database. The outstanding popularity of ZnO has many reasons; the most important one appears to be its multi-functionality, resulting in applications in physics, chemistry, electrical engineering, material science, energy, textile, rubber, additive manufacturing, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical or medicine, as well as the ease to grow all kinds of nano- and microstructures. A key structure is the tetrapod-shaped ZnO (T-ZnO), which we want to focus on in this mini-review to demonstrate the remarkable properties and multifunctionality of ZnO and motivate why even much more research and applications are likely to come in near future. As T-ZnO came into focus again mainly during the last 10 years, the big data problem in T-ZnO is not as severe as in ZnO; nevertheless, a complete overview is impossible. However, this brief T-ZnO overview attempts to cover the scopes toward advanced technologies; nanoelectronics/optoelectronics sensing devices; multifunctional composites/coatings; novel biomedical engineering materials; versatile energy harvesting candidates; and unique structures for applications in chemistry, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, food, agriculture, engineering technologies, and many others. The 3D nanotechnology is a current mainstream in materials science/nanotechnology research, and T-ZnO contributes to this field by its simple synthesis of porous networks as sacrificial templates for any desired new cellular materials.

Influence of deformation and annealing on electrical conductivity, mechanical properties and texture of Al-Mg-Si alloy cables

Al-Mg-Si alloys are medium-strength high-conductivity alloy cable materials that are ideal candidates for electrical engineering applications, but their related electrical conductivity, mechanical properties and textures must be studied in greater detail before such applications can be realized. Different deformation strains (0.98, 1.73 and 2.24) and annealing temperatures (200–500°C) were applied to optimize these properties in Al-Mg-Si alloy cables. The results show that the recrystallized Al-Mg-Si alloy cables exhibit medium yield strength and higher electrical conductivity compared to the non-recrystallized Al-Mg-Si alloy cables with larger average grain sizes. After annealing, the main contributors to the overall texture were the Brass and Goss textures. According to theoretical evaluations, the significant increase in electrical conductivity and decrease in yield strength can be attributed to the decreasing dislocation density and changes to the grain boundaries.

Influence of different bonding and fluxing agents on the sintering behavior and dielectric properties of steatite ceramic materials

Abstract The focus of the study was on providing insights into interconnections between sintering and development of the crystalline microstructure, and consequently variations in dielectric behavior of four steatites fabricated from a low-cost raw material, i.e. talc. The changes, induced by the alternations of the binders (bentonite, kaolin clay) and fluxing agents (BaCO 3 , feldspar), were monitored in the temperature range 1000° to 1250 °C in which complete densification and re-crystallization of the investigated structures were accomplished. The critical points in the synthesis of steatite materials were assessed by instrumental analyses. Crystallinity changes and mineral phase transition during sintering were monitored by X-ray diffraction technique. Microstructural visualization of the samples and the spatial arrangements of individual chemical elements were achieved via scanning electron microscopy accompanied with EDS mapping. The thermal stability was observed on the green mixtures using differential thermal and thermo gravimetric analyses. Electrical measurements recorded variations of the dielectric constant (e r ) and loss tangent (tan δ) as a function of the sintering temperature. The investigation highlighted critical design points, as well as the optimal combinations of the raw materials for production of the steatite ceramics for advanced electrical engineering applications.