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A substantial quantity of testing has been performed on the degradation of paper insulation over the decades. The aim being to better educate the electrical industry on how to best operate expensive assets, such as transformers. The longevity of paper insulation is frequently tested using accelerated ageing experiments, where the effects of temperature and the chemical environment on paper lifespan can be studied. Such research has resulted in paper life expectancy curves being published by the IEEE and the IEC. The investigations tend to use sealed vessels. However, the disadvantage of using this method is that the water content of the paper changes during the ageing process which then changes the ageing rate. In these ageing experiments the water and oxygen content was controlled using a special test rig to compare the ageing rate to previous work and to determine the ageing effect of paper by combining temperature, water content of paper and oxygen content of the oil. We found that the rate of paper ageing can be more accurately determined by controlling the water and oxygen during the experiment which then produced noticeable changes in predicting life expectancy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Paper materials are used as the insulation of power transformers. Over time these materials slowly degrade, until they reach a point when they no longer function effectively as transformer insulation, and the transformer has then reached its end of life. The aging rate of paper is affected by temperature, water, oxygen and acids. Investigations have been performed previously on Kraft and Kraft thermally upgraded types of paper. However, a different type of paper used in transformer insulation, Grade 3 presspaper (which contains cotton), has not been extensively tested and compared to Kraft paper. In these experiments we studied the aging rate of Grade 3 presspaper and compared it to our previous studies of Kraft paper. Traditionally, the aging rate of paper has been studied in sealed vessels. The problem with this approach is that the chemical environment within the vessel will change during aging, and so the aging rate will be affected. In our experiment setup we controlled the water and oxygen content to more accurately determine the aging rate. Similarly to Kraft paper, the aging rate of Grade 3 presspaper with the same water content increased with oxygen content in the oil. Life curves were developed based on the water content of the paper and the oxygen content of the oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Samples of a dried composite oil-paper system were thermally aged in the laboratory under N2 in a sealed container and analysed using their dielectric response. The contributing loss processes were separated using an equivalent circuit model containing constant high frequency capacitances, dc-conductances, a dispersive capacitance, and a low frequency quasi-dc (q-dc) dispersion process as circuit elements. This low frequency dispersion in oil-paper samples is a bulk property of the system that is often mistaken for a dc conduction process when only the imaginary capacitance or ac-conductance is measured. The Dissado-Hill response function is proposed for the frequency dependence of the dispersive capacitance in the mid-frequency range rather than the Debye function because its cluster concepts correlate with the sample morphology of a matrix of oil-filled cavities. The quasi-dc dispersion is assigned to the transport of mobile charges between charge-clusters associated with locally connected oil filled cavities, which is a process that can be represented on a global scale by the form of hierarchical circuit system that leads to constant phase angle responses, and is here modelled by the Dissado-Hill q-dc function. It was found that the two dispersions moved together to higher frequency with thermal ageing of the composite material. The characteristic frequency common to the dispersions had an activation energy that decreased with thermal ageing, whereas their amplitude increased. This behavior is discussed in terms of possible changes to the oil-paper composite caused by the ageing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the accelerated aging experiments of oil-paper insulation are carried out to simulate the oil-paper aging process under normal thermal aging process. On the basis of the results of accelerated aging experiments, how the deviation degree of aging status change under the same aging factors is studied, and a method to calculate the failure probability due to the loss of mechanical strength of the insulation is put forward. This paper presents an approach for economic assessment on insulation diagnosis through accelerated aging experiments. The foundation of this approach for economic assessment on insulation diagnosis is to establish condition simulation method of triple relationships between condition status, aging time and failure probability according to data from accelerated aging experiments. The conclusions are made that the economic and technical factors can affect the optimum life cycle cost of each maintenance strategy, which consequently affects the economic feasibility of condition-based maintenance strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polarization-Depolarization Current (PDC) analysis is a well known technique for condition monitoring of oil-paper insulation in power transformers. However, due to variation in insulation geometry, information obtained through analysis of PDC measured for one transformer cannot be used for predicting condition of another transformer even if the loading history of the two units are similar. Furthermore, parts of solid insulation closer to winding are exposed to much higher temperature than the parts away from it. Prolonged exposure to this temperature variation leads to nonuniform aging in cellulosic parts. It is reported that Modified Debye Model (MDM) is capable of modeling this non-uniform aging. In the present work it is shown that a parameter sensitive to insulation condition can be obtained from Transfer Function of MDM. Several laboratory samples having different physical dimensions has been constructed. PDC data recorded from these samples are used to obtain the performance parameter (which is less influenced by insulation geometry) and its relation to paper moisture content. The results obtained from the proposed method have been compared with that obtained using Frequency Domain Spectroscopy (FDS) based commercial instrument (IDAX 300) in the case of real-life power transformer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let us consider that someone is starting a research on a topic that is unfamiliar to them. Which seminal papers have influenced the topic the most? What is the genealogy of the seminal papers in this topic? These are the questions that they can raise, which we try to answer in this paper. First, we propose an algorithm that finds a set of seminal papers on a given topic. We also address the performance and scalability issues of this sophisticated algorithm. Next, we discuss the measures to decide how much a paper is influenced by another paper. Then, we propose an algorithm that constructs a genealogy of the seminal papers by using the influence measure and citation information. Finally, through extensive experiments with a large volume of a real-world academic literature data, we show the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Analysis of Polarization-Depolarization Current, recorded from high voltage oilpaper insulation using insulation model is common among researchers. It is reported that paper insulation of power transformers undergoes non-uniform aging. Unlike Conventional Debye Model (CDM), Modified Debye Model (MDM) is capable of modeling such non-uniform aging. However, factors like insulation geometry affect the values of the MDM branch parameters. Therefore, model parameterized using data obtained from one insulation system finds limited use in assessing the condition of a different transformer, even with similar loading history and power rating. The present paper shows that a performance parameter, which is less sensitive to insulation geometry, can be evaluated from Transfer Function, TFM(s) of MDM. The parameter is the zero Z1 of TFM(s) which is located farthest away from the origin in the Left Half Plane of s-plane. The capability of Z1 as an insulation condition sensitive parameter is first tested on laboratory samples and then on data recorded from several real life power transformers. Results obtained for these transformers show that there is a good correlation between magnitude of Z1 and paper moisture content obtained from Frequency Domain Spectroscopy (FDS) using IDAX 300. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper used to insulate the windings of power transformers is mostly made from wood pulp, a cellulosic material. Over decades the paper is slowly attacked by water, oxygen, oil acids, and high temperatures and eventually degrades to the point where it is no longer an effective insulator. The transformer is then likely to fail. Power utilities need to know when a transformer is nearing the end of its useful life in order to plan its replacement. However, a problem with monitoring the condition of the paper within a transformer is that it may be difficult to obtain a sample to test. Furthermore, a particular sample may not accurately reflect the overall paper condition. A power transformer operating in Australia failed in 2010. Thus we had the opportunity to study the paper condition at various points within the transformer and evaluate the validity of the current understanding of paper aging. In this article we discuss the mechanisms of cellulose degradation, and the associated equations, and apply them to the paper insulation in the failed transformer. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For achieving the aging characteristic parameters of transformer oil-paper insulation, oilimpregnated pressboard samples are acceleratedly thermally aged at high temperature (~ 150 °C) in laboratory, and on the same sample before and after being aged, polarization and depolarization current (PDC) tests are performed at different temperatures (30, 40, 50 and 60 °C), respectively. Besides analyzing the PDC results, the differential time-domain spectroscopy (DTDS) technique is introduced to investigate the aging status of oil-paper insulation and the influence of measurement temperature. The DTDS parameters such as polarization component Qn, polarization response time Tn and line-shape parameter αn are extracted with DTDS unscrambling method based on PDC data. It is revealed that DTDS represents similar polarization process and mechanism to PDC, and all the DTDS curves calculated with the obtained parameters Qn, Tn, αn) are in good fit with those measured. By analyzing the effect of temperature and aging, two types of relaxation polarization mechanism are observed, i.e., the interfacial polarizations between oil and paper insulation and inside the pressboard. The polarization components, response speeds and line-shape parameters of both the polarization mechanisms increase evidently on the whole with temperature rising or sample aging. It is demonstrated that, the DTDS theory is suitable for oil-paper insulation material, the DTDS unscrambling method is effective and objective, and such DTDS parameters are sensitive and can quantitatively reflect the changing of temperature and aging condition with regularity. Consequently, the parameters (Qn, Tn, αn) can be considered as the novel characteristic parameters for aging condition estimation of oil-paper insulation to upgrade the application effect of PDC curves. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A modular multilevel converter control system, based on converter energy storage, is proposed in this paper for two different control modes: active power and dc voltage. The proposed control system decouples the submodule (SM) capacitor voltages from the dc bus voltage. One of the practical applications is the management of active redundant SMs. A practical HVDC system with 401-level MMCs, including 10% redundancy in MMC SMs, is used for validating and demonstrating the advantages of the proposed control system. This paper also presents a novel capacitor voltage balancing control based on \max–\min functions. It is used to drastically reduce the number of switchings for each SM and enhances computational efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improvised asymptotic boundary conditions are a sparse but approximate method of solving open boundary problems. Since this method approximates unbounded space as series of isotropic shells, it can be readily implemented in virtually any finite element solver without the need for additional code. A previous paper addressed application of this technique to magnetic problems described with a vector potential formulation. This paper extends the method to electrostatics and related scalar potential formulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a two-stage approach to handle fixed-outline floorplanning for mixed size modules, named F-FM. F-FM combines the advantages of the analytical approach and the slicing tree representation. Thus, it is not only suitable for handling fixed-outline floorplanning but also can be extended to handle other important issues in floorplanning such as routability or thermal effect in addition to wirelength. Recently, low power has become big challenges in very large-scale integration designs, which makes voltage-island driven floorplanning more important than ever. Although the problem has been discussed by previous works, no paper considers signal wirelength, powerplanning, and voltage drop at the same time under the fixed-outline constraint. Thus, this paper extends F-FM to handle this problem and consider these issues by properly dividing modules in a voltage domain into several islands. The experimental results show our approach obtains the best results in these problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For an odd prime \(p\) and two positive integers \(m\) , \(k\) such that \(m/\gcd (k,m)\geq 3\) is odd, let \(d\) be a positive integer satisfying \(d(p^{k}+1)\equiv 2\,({\rm mod}\,p^{m}-1)\) . In this paper, the cross-correlation between a \(p\) -ary \(m\) -sequence and its \(d\) -decimated sequences is investigated, and the cross correlation distribution is completely determined. The relationship between the decimations \(d\) considered in this paper and some known ones is also studied. This paper generalizes some previous results, and also gives new decimations, which lead to low cross correlation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As the share of renewables in the grid increases, the operation of power systems becomes more challenging. The present paper proposes a method to formulate and solve chance-constrained optimal power flow while explicitly considering the full nonlinear ac power flow equations and stochastic uncertainties. We use polynomial chaos expansion to model the effects of arbitrary uncertainties of finite variance, which enables to predict and optimize the system state for a range of operating conditions. We apply chance constraints to limit the probability of violations of inequality constraints. Our method incorporates a more detailed and a more flexible description of both the controllable variables and the resulting system state than previous methods. Two case studies highlight the efficacy of the method, with a focus on satisfaction of the ac power flow equations and on the accurate computation of moments of all random variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the procedure for designing a sliding-mode controller for maximum power point tracking photovoltaic (PV) applications is proposed. It is applied to a single-ended primary inductor converter, thus to a fourth-order topology, but it can be extended to a wide class of converters suitable for PV applications. The reachability and existence conditions give rise to a number of design inequalities that add to the classical steady-state conditions in order to have the desired closed-loop converter's performances. The superiority of the control technique over the classical tracking methods is analytically demonstrated through the procedure proposed in this paper. The analytical results have been validated by means of both simulations and experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is focused on the development and analysis of suboptimal decision algorithms for a collection of robots that assist a remotely located operator in perimeter surveillance. The operator is tasked with the classification of incursions across the perimeter. whenever there is an incursion into the perimeter, an unattended ground sensor (UGS) in the vicinity, signals an alert. A robot services the alert by visiting the alert location, collecting information, e.g., photo and video imagery, and transmitting it to the operator. The accuracy of operator's classification depends on the volume and freshness of information gathered and provided by the robots at locations where incursions occur. There are two competing objectives for a robot: it needs to spend adequate time at an alert location to collect evidence for aiding the operator in accurate classification but it also needs to service other alerts as soon as possible, so that the evidence collected is relevant. The decision problem is to determine the optimal amount of time a robot must spend servicing an alert. The incursions are stochastic and their statistics are assumed to be known. This problem can be posed as a Markov Decision Problem. However, even for two robots and five UGS locations, the number of states is of the order of billions rendering exact dynamic programming methods intractable. Approximate dynamic programming (ADP) via linear programming (LP) provides a way to approximate the value function and derive suboptimal strategies. The novel feature of this paper is the derivation of a tractable lower bound via LP and the construction of a suboptimal policy whose performance improves upon the lower bound. An illustrative perimeter surveillance example corroborates the results derived in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A ticket dispenser (TD) is used to assist customers with the waiting process in, e.g., a restaurant. This paper deploys a mobile TD system (MTDS) with waiting time prediction to enhance the user experience while waiting. For example, the MTDS for a restaurant allows a customer to remotely draw a ticket for a meal order anywhere through a smartphone before she/he arrives at the restaurant and therefore reduces her/his waiting time. The developed MTDS system can dynamically adjust the predicted waiting time. We propose two output indicators and develop a discrete-event simulation model to investigate the performance of the predicted time adjustment (PTA) mechanism for the MTDS. With a proper frequency of recalculation for the predicted waiting times, this paper indicates that the waiting times can be more accurately predicted without consuming more wireless network resources and power of mobile devices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyzes the response of an individual consumer with a flexible demand for electricity to exogenous and stochastic electricity prices. The contributions of this paper are twofold. First, we propose a comprehensive model for which the optimal policy can be explicitly computed. The proposed consumer model features a time varying bound on power consumption, the presence of a nondeferrable load profile, the presence of a load profile that can be deferred up to a deadline, and the possibility of curtailment. Second, we describe the algorithm that, via explicit backward iterations of the Bellman equation, returns the optimal response of such consumer in a very general energy market scenario featuring a correlated/nonstationary price process and multiple energy procurement sources. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a model-based method to estimate lateral planar vehicle states using a forward-looking monocular camera, a yaw rate gyroscope, and an a priori map of road superelevation and temporally previewed lane geometry. Theoretical estimator performance from a steady-state Kalman-filter implementation of the estimation framework is calculated for various look-ahead distances and vehicle speeds. The application of this filter structure to real driving data is also explored, along with error characteristics of the filter on straight and curved roads, with both superelevated and flat profiles. The effect of superelevation on estimator performance is found to be significant. Experimental and theoretical analysis both show that the benefits of state estimation using previewed lane geometry improve with increasing lane preview, but this improvement diminishes due to increased lane tracking errors at distances beyond 20 m ahead of the vehicle. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The commented paper “Model-Independent Adaptive Fault-Tolerant Output Tracking Control of 4WS4WD Road Vehicles” (IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 169–179, Mar. 2013) has multiple errors in its mathematical model. Because these errors, if left uncorrected, are a potential source of future errors in the emerging area of four-wheel steering four-wheel drive vehicles, this paper provides detailed discussions and corrections. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Driving behavior can be influenced by many factors that are not feasible to collect in driving behavior studies. The research presented in this paper investigates the characteristics of a wide range of driving behaviors linking driving states to the drivers' actions. The proposed methodology is structured such that a known state can be linked to multiple actions, thus accounting for the effects of unknown driving state factors. A two-step algorithm was developed and used for the segmentation and clustering of driving behaviors. The algorithm segments and clusters car-following behaviors based on eight state–action variables: the longitudinal acceleration, the lateral acceleration, the yaw rate, the vehicle speed, the lane offset, the yaw angle, the range, and the range rate. The results of this methodology are state–action clusters that define the driving pattern of drivers. The sample used in this paper included 20 different drivers, i.e., ten car and ten truck drivers. The results revealed that behavior patterns were different between car drivers but not between truck drivers. The results also show that car drivers exhibit behaviors that are unique to each driver, whereas truck drivers show a common driving pattern. The characteristics and frequency of recognized driving patterns are provided in this paper, along with the corresponding modeling parameters of each pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, a class of binary three-weight linear codes is constructed. Their dual codes are also studied. The dual codes are either optimal or almost optimal. These codes have applications in authentication codes, secret sharing schemes, and association schemes, in addition to their applications in consumer electronics and communication and data storage systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Silicon-on-insulator (SoI) technology has been reported as a technique to improve electrical characteristics over those of bulk MOSFETs. However, this approach results in the disadvantage of increased drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL) due to drain electric flux (or field) passing through the buried oxide (BOX) layer. Against such a background, the development of a method to easily estimate the amount of this electric flux is expected to support the prediction of BOX-related DIBL. This paper involved the investigation of a model-derived analytically using conformal mapping techniques to represent the amount of flux in subthreshold regions of ground-plane SoI MOSFETs. To create the model, this paper was divided into two parts. In Part I, as preparation for model development, the relationships between coordinates in MOSFETs and potential/stream function were derived using conformal mapping, and related validity was verified. In Part II, the model’s development was considered based on these relationships, and its validity was also verified. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In earlier papers, analytical formulas were derived to estimate the maximum crosstalk in the frequency domain for systems with electrically long signal lines. These formulas were developed to give designers intuitive feedback as to the causes for crosstalk problems and methods for maximum crosstalk reduction. In one of these papers, the maximum crosstalk estimates are based on intuitive relationships for infinitely long transmission lines. While the resulting model is quite simple and easy to understand, its limitations are poorly understood. In another paper, the maximum crosstalk estimates are based on a mathematically rigorous integral formulation, but the resulting model is relatively complex. This rigorous model is derived assuming the signal lines are weakly coupled and the transmission line characteristic impedances are approximately the same over the entire lengths of the aggressor and victim circuits. The following paper illustrates how the less rigorously developed estimates, based on infinitely long transmission lines, may be derived from the mathematically rigorous maximum crosstalk estimates for lossless and homogeneous transmission lines in the frequency domain. The resulting derivation provides insight into the limitations and mathematical validity of the less rigorous estimates that are not available in the original paper. The mathematically rigorous maximum crosstalk estimates are shown to have fewer and less restrictive assumptions than the estimates based on infinitely long transmission lines. Measurements and simulations are presented that validate results and illustrate maximum crosstalk estimate limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we derive the backscattering coefficient/forward propagation equation for frequency-modulated waves of high-frequency radar over the sea. Numerical simulations have been performed in order to compare the characteristics of a constant frequency and frequency-modulated electromagnetic wave in the function of sea state and index profile. From these simulations, we have drawn some conclusion on the differences in the Doppler spectrum observed for the two waveforms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The unbalanced nature of distribution systems requires a multiphase load-flow solution capable of handling arbitrary network topologies and providing accurate results. The need for detailed analysis of secondary grid systems found in dense urban areas and the modeling of distribution networks including the subtransmission level requires using highly efficient and large-scale system-capable methods. In this paper, three different load-flow solution algorithms are presented using the modified-augmented-nodal-analysis formulation. The load-flow solution algorithms are compared for the IEEE 8500-node distribution test feeder using a proposed regulator tap control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes an explanation for the aging of solid insulating materials exposed to high frequency voltage impulses based on thermal stimulating processes triggered by losses generated in insulating materials due to damped oscillations of molecular dipoles in high frequency electrical fields. For this purpose, total dissipation of insulating materials is calculated based on frequency domain description of applied voltage and frequency dependent dielectric properties of insulating materials. To validate the proposed theory, different experimental investigations are carried out on thin oil impregnated paper exposed to high voltage square wave shape pulses with different pulse durations, rise times and repetition rates. The trends obtained in experimental studies can be satisfactorily explained using the proposed theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a novel approximate analytical model to evaluate the performance of active virtual machines in IaaS clouds using an M/G/m/m+K queue. The proposed model, combined with the transform-based analytical approach, enables the computation of the probability distribution of the number of jobs in the system and subsequently a set of performance measures, including the mean number of jobs in the system, the mean response time, the probability of immediate service, and the blocking probability. Compared to the existing Markov models of cloud data centers, our approach can reflect the system behavior more accurately even when the service-time distribution has a large coefficient of variation (> 1.5) in a medium-sized IaaS cloud. Numerical results obtained from the proposed analytical model are verified through extensive simulations under various system parameter settings, and compared with the results from existing models. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Analytical expressions that have been derived to calculate ac resistance and losses of magnetic devices at high frequencies have primarily used a one-dimensional approximation, and have used Cartesian coordinates or approximations that are equivalent to Cartesian coordinates. The result is Dowell's equation. This paper examines the effect of winding curvature on the losses relative to Dowell's equation by solving the problem completely in cylindrical coordinates. The error in Dowell's equation relative to a full cylindrical solution is found to be as great as 33% for some designs. A mathematical model is derived for the relative error between the two solutions, which can be used to assess the accuracy of Dowell's equation for a particular design, as well as a correction factor for Dowell's equation. The corrected Dowell's equation using the model is validated using finite-element analysis simulations as well as previously published experimental data. This paper is accompanied by Python codes to generate all data and figures used in the paper, a Python object that implements the derived mathematical model, and Lua scripts to run the finite-element simulations using FEMM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aluminum production relies on the smelting process which consumes huge amounts of electrical energy. One possible solution to reduce the fossil fuel consumption by aluminum production is the integration of wind power. Based on this background, this paper studies an isolated power system for aluminum smelting production with a high penetration of wind power. A dynamic model of the aluminum smelter load (ASL) is introduced in this paper using the field experiment data. Based on this model, the dynamic model of the isolated system considering demand side participation is proposed. The MPC-based frequency controller is proposed to keep the frequency deviation within a proper range (\pm0.1 Hz) under wind power fluctuation as well as to recover the system frequency after a large disturbance (such as one generator trip). Finally, simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed MPC based frequency controller. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Online monitoring of the transformer winding using electromagnetic waves has recently been proposed for the detection of mechanical defects of transformer winding. In this paper, a new method, which uses the ultrawideband radar measurement results and is based on locus of objects in the space, is proposed for the 3-D positioning of transformer winding radial deformation location. The proposed experimental setup for this method named hyperboloid method is modeled using Computer Simulation Technology software. In this paper, Vivaldi antennas suitable for measurements in environments with multipath, are used and the analysis is performed in the time domain. The simulation results show that the exact 3-D location of the radial deformation can be detected with a good accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Conventionally, power flow equations are used for distribution systems (DS) analysis to find the nodal voltages. For the particular form of the DS reconfiguration problem, however, a direct formulation in terms of branch flows allows a substantial increase in solution efficiency from an optimization point of view. In this paper, a set of linear current flow (LCF) equations are derived for DS. This formulation is then used within the network reconfiguration problem for loss minimization. A mixed-integer quadratically constrained programming (MIQCP) formulation, together with a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) formulation, are proposed in this paper and assessed through simulations. In these comparisons, the MILP formulation shows computational advantages over the MIQCP version and the preceding literature. The proposed methods are evaluated on several test systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The feeder reconfiguration problem chooses the on/off status of the switches in a distribution network in order to minimize a certain cost such as power loss. It is a mixed-integer nonlinear program and, hence, hard to solve. In this paper, we propose a heuristic algorithm that is based on the recently developed convex relaxation of the ac optimal power flow problem. The algorithm is computationally efficient and scales linearly with the number of redundant lines. It requires neither parameter tuning nor initialization for different networks. It successfully computes an optimal configuration on all four networks we have tested. Moreover, we have proved that the algorithm solves the feeder reconfiguration problem optimally under certain conditions for the case where only a single redundant line needs to be opened. We also propose a more computationally efficient algorithm and show that it incurs a loss in optimality of less than 3% on the four test networks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a deterministic explanation for mutual-information-based image registration (MI registration). The explanation is that MI registration works because it aligns certain image partitions. This notion of aligning partitions is new, and is shown to be related to Schur- and quasi-convexity. The partition-alignment theory of this paper goes beyond explaining mutual- information. It suggests other objective functions for registering images. Some of these newer objective functions are not entropy-based. Simulations with noisy images show that the newer objective functions work well for registration, lending support to the theory. The theory proposed in this paper opens a number of directions for further research in image registration. These directions are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper addresses the numerical investigation of an electrohydrodynamic (EHD) plume induced by a sharp blade electrode in a dielectric liquid. Different injection laws, namely, autonomous and nonautonomous ones, are considered, and the importance of the blade shape is emphasized, especially for nonautonomous injection laws. Different flow regimes arise according to the value of the Reynolds number based on the ionic mobility and the distance $d$ between the blade and the vertical plate. It is found that the critical Reynolds number for which the transition between steady and unsteady regimes occurs depends on the injection law, on the blade shape, on the $M$ parameter, and on the injection strength $C$. For much higher Reynolds number, the flow turns to be chaotic and behaves as a jet flow with the development of a Kelvin–Helmoltz instability. The use of different sharp blades indicates that a higher electric field at the tip of the blade plays a significant effect on the development of the EHD plume. The plumes have been characterized by their charge density distribution which shows, in the early stages of the simulation, that its dynamics is significantly dependent on the blade shape as well as on the nonautonomous injection law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes some methods for the purpose of reactive power and voltage control. Real cases show them as potentially harmful for power systems, since dynamic instability and voltage collapse may appear. Control actions like tap changers, active and reactive power redispatch may help the system voltage stability, but may present reverse results for some operating conditions. This paper is firstly devoted to identify and classify an operating point under the voltage stability point of view. Following this classification, an index to assess the robustness of a bus is proposed. The studies are carried out with the help of the QV curves. Methods to change the region of operation of a bus are then discussed with the help of a real Brazilian system with all limits considered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The phasor-PWM-based current source inverter (CSI) is a boost inverter. The difference between conventional CSIs and the boost inverter is that the boost ratio (VLLrms/Vdc ) in the boost inverter can easily be above 3.0, whereas this ratio is around 1 in conventional CSIs. In order to realize the potential capabilities of the boost inverter and to assist its penetration into renewable energy systems, the boost inverter dynamic behaviors are studied in this paper. First, the large- and small-signal models as well as the dq-equivalent circuits of the boost inverter are presented. Then, the developed models are verified using circuit simulations and experiments on a laboratory-scale 2-kW 208/240- V_{\rm LLrms} V_{\rm dc}=65\ \hbox{V} $ boost inverter made of reverse-blocking IGBTs. Finally, the developed small-signal model is used to study the stability of the boost inverter through root locus of small signal poles (eigenvalues) as control inputs, and load parameters vary within the boost inverter's operating limits. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a systematic method for developing a model of a dc distribution system, based on the configuration of the system. The dc distribution system is assumed to host electric vehicles and photovoltaic modules, using dc–dc converters, and to integrate them with an ac power grid. The developed model is of the matrix form and, therefore, can be readily expanded to represent a dc distribution system of any desired number of dc–dc converters. The model captures both the steady-state and dynamic characteristics of the system and includes port capacitors of the converters, as well as the interconnection cables. Thus, it can be used for identifying the condition for existence of a steady state, as well as for stability analysis. This paper further proposes an alternative set of characteristic equations that are less computationally intensive than the original matrix representation, for example, for online stability assessment tasks. The adequacy of the proposed model has been demonstrated through a number of case studies conducted and compared in the PSCAD/EMTDC and MATLAB software environments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]