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This article proposes a circulating current and second harmonic current (SHC) suppression method by introducing virtual impedance into the circulating current and output current feedback control loops of the dc solid-state transformer (DCSST). The virtual impedance is employed to adjust impedance in the circulating current feedback control loop to decrease the circulating current when the transmission efficiency of each dual active bridge is different. And a SHC suppression method, which introduces the virtual impedance containing a bandpass filter, is adopted to reduce the SHC and improve the dynamic performance of the DCSST. Moreover, a relatively independent modular control method, which is conducive to the modular expansion of the DCSST, is proposed. Compared with traditional DCSST control methods, the proposed method can simultaneously realize the output current sharing and effectively reduce the SHC with modular control. Finally, a DCSST prototype is built and the results of the experiment verify the validity and effectiveness of the proposed control strategy and solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electric vehicle technology is one of the most promising candidates to reduce fuel consumption and $\rm CO_2$ emission. Although electric vehicles have been widely promoted by governments around the world, their development is seriously hampered due to charger unavailability and range anxiety. Based on this, this paper designs an energy interaction converter between two electric vehicles, which is controlled through disturbance observer based sliding mode control algorithm. For this converter, three main demands should be satisfied, i.e., high power density, weak source and constant power load. Therein, weak source whose minimum short circuit ratio (SCR) belongs to Jia et al., 2020 and Wang et al., 2020, is always called weak grid. Firstly, the equivalent impedance switching process is introduced to eliminate the impact of weak source. Meanwhile, the equivalent six channel interleaved floating dual boost converter is chosen to satisfy the high power density demand, whose generalized state-space function is further built to provide an indispensable preprocessing for following controller design. Moreover, in order to solve the problem regarding low frequency/sub-synchronous oscillation caused through constant power load feature regarding the energy consumption vehicle and weak source feature regarding the energy supply vehicle, a disturbance observer based sliding mode control algorithm is proposed through using generalized state-space function to provide standard DC power with both constant voltage and power. Furthermore, the proportional-resonant controller is proposed to solve the current sharing problem among six parallel channels, which reduces the heat loss and improves the service life of the device. Finally, simulation and experimental results verify the high performance of the proposed control algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A decentralized improved I-V droop control strategy for battery-supercapacitor (SC) hybrid energy storage system (HESS) is proposed in this paper. The dynamic power sharing between battery and SC is realized by replacing the constant droop coefficient in I-V droop control with virtual impedance, i.e. virtual inductance for battery side converter and virtual resistance for SC side converter. Besides, by injecting the virtual inductance in the battery side converter, negligible DC bus voltage deviation can be achieved without extra voltage compensator. Moreover, the state-of-charge (SoC) recovery is also considered to extend the service life of the HESS. Furthermore, in the proposed regulated power system, since the power allocation, DC bus stability and SoC recovery are decoupled from each other, the design of control parameters is simple. The corresponding design guideline is demonstrated in this paper. Finally, to verify the accuracy and feasibility of the theoretical analyses, hardware in the loop simulations have been conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The droop control is an advantageous approach for stand-alone supply systems consisting of multiple batteries, allowing among various inverters without intercommunication. The droop coefficients of batteries always vary with their state-of-charge (SoC) and charge/discharge mode, resulting in small-signal instability. Nevertheless, the existing impedance-based approaches can only assess the droop coefficients stability point, but not the stability region. Therefore, this article proposes a droop coefficients stability region analysis approach. First, the charge/discharge SoC-based droop controlled battery, the P&Q controlled distributed generator and the constant power load are separately discussed. Meanwhile, the state matrix and return-ratio matrix are established, respectively. Furthermore, the novel forbidden region criterion based on the return-ratio matrix is constructed, which reduces conservatism compared with norm-based impedance criteria and partial forbidden region criteria. Such a forbidden region criterion is first switched to the Hurwitz identification problem regarding the equivalent return-ratio matrix. Combined the state matrix and the equivalent return-ratio matrix, the generalized incidence matrix is constructed to simultaneously identify subsystem stability and interactive stability. Based on the generalized incidence matrix, an adaptive step search strategy is proposed to obtain the droop coefficients coordinated stability region. Finally, the simulation and experimental results illustrate the validity of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we presented a bio-impedance analysis method (BIAM) based on the human hand anatomy and propose a feasible and flexible BIAM system to obtain the bio-impedance signals for different gestures to achieve a high classification accuracy in hand gesture recognition with flexibility in electrode arrangement and fewer electrodes. To verify the proposed method, 11 gestures, including two sets: hand gestures and pinch gestures, were selected for the experiment. Based on the functional structure of the human hand, we identified appropriate electrode positions and placed five electrodes on the hand surface for bio-impedance signal measurement. Compared with the electrical impedance tomography (EIT) method, which uses a band with the same number of electrodes wrapped around the wrist, the proposed method achieved 98.7% recognition accuracies on the hand gesture set and 97.8% on the pinch gesture set, while the EIT achieved only 97.1% and 86.3%, respectively. In particular, the proposed method demonstrated the advantage of distinguishing gestures with similar muscle contractions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high penetration of renewable energy sources always leads to the fluctuation of the droop coefficients which are designed in inverse proportion to their rated capacity, and power electronics devices are prone to static instability. Although the impedance-based approaches have been widely studied to deal with this problem, the stability-oriented droop coefficients region identification due to the fluctuation of renewable energy sources is not provided. Thus, this article proposes an impedance-based approach to assess the droop coefficients stability region in the power system consisting of numerous distributed generators (DGs). First, the modified phase margin and opposing argument (MPMOA) forbidden criterion is constituted to acquire the complementary space of the droop coefficients stability region. The MPMOA forbidden criterion is first transformed into the condition that the generalized return-ratio matrix is Hurwitz through mirror, rotation, and translation mapping. In comparison with the previous simplified stability criteria, the conservatism of the proposed criterion is reduced a lot. Thereafter, the droop coefficients stability region is directly calculated by the generalized return-ratio matrix and guardian map theory. Eventually, the simulation and experimental results are provided to validate the conservatism and effectiveness of the impedance-based stability region identification approach. Therein, the simulation results illustrate that the proposed droop coefficients stability operation criterion has lower conservatism than these of the previous simplified stability criteria. Furthermore, the simulation and experimental results illustrate that the proposed stability-oriented droop coefficients region identification approach can provide an effective parameter stability region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a polarization-reconfigurable wideband high-gain antenna based on liquid metal tuning. The antenna consists of a center-feed circular patch antenna with a C-shaped slot as the driven element. To broaden the bandwidth and improve the realized gain, a parasitic circular disc and 13 circular directors are employed. The direction of polarization can be tuned by changing the location of the liquid metal alloy contained in the tube. The relationship between the dimensions and the maximally achievable gain has been analyzed. The antenna has exhibited a −10 dB impedance bandwidth from 4.3 to 5.3 GHz (a fractional bandwidth of 21.2%). A 14.4 dBi gain is achieved at 5.3 GHz. The simulation and measurement results show good agreement with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different from single-bus dc microgrids (MGs), a multibus MG normally bridge multiple dc buses via a complex line impedance network. This intricate configuration together with tickling constant power loads may cause severe stability issues. For system stability improvement, conventional ways include designing small-signal stabilizers in a decentralized way and constructing large-signal stabilizers by solving Lyapunov equation in a central controller. Note that centralized methods may be vulnerable to single point of failures, while decentralized patterns are commended to reinforce MG reliability and scalability. To implement large-signal stabilization in decentralized mechanisms, which has rarely been investigated in the existing literature, a novel uniform nonsmooth control scheme (UNCS) is proposed, in this article. UNCS has the following fourfold advantages. First, UNCS helps to express commonly used dc/dc converters, boost, buck, and buck–boost, into a uniform model. The model substantially facilitates a uniform stabilizer design that accommodates the preceding three converters despite their differences in topology. Second, UNCS assigns each converter based distributed generator (DG) with a composite large-signal stabilizer comprising a nonsmooth observer and a nonsmooth controller. The controller neutralizes the disturbances estimated by the observer, and it also rigorously stabilizes the internal states in DG uniform model. Third, the stabilizer also provides an additional control degree of freedom, a finetuning factor, to refine DG dynamic responses to meet high requirements for voltage and power qualities. Fourth, when numerous DGs with the proposed stabilizer congregate to build a multibus MG, the overall system large-signal stabilization is autonomously attained without communication links, which is mathematically justified by Lyapunov stability analyses. As such, DGs are allowed to randomly plug in/out without worrying about impairing system level stability. Simulations help to properly select relevant key parameters. Experiments show that UNCS outperforms the standardly designed PI controls, and it will stabilize the multibus MG in a large operation range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power loss and voltage regulation are two fundamental and challenging issues in DC distributed generation system. In this paper, a multi-objective optimization problem is established to achieve trade-offs between reducing power loss and decreasing voltage deterioration by adjusting the weighting coefficients. This problem is proven to be a convex optimization under constant impedance load and constant current load. A distributed algorithm based on random coordinate descent method is developed to solve this problem without acquiring the information of line impedance. Thus, the optimal operating point of the system can be found automatically in real-time, and the deviation of optimal solution caused by the fluctuation of network parameters is avoided. In addition, the complexity of this algorithm is low and its computational requirement is reduced in practice. Finally, case studies are implemented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm under the scenarios of line parameter fluctuation, load variation, communication line failure, and plug-play capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel ground-fault location method in resonant grounded systems based on distributed modulation and compensation adjustment. After the permanent single-phase ground fault arc has been suppressed, the Petersen coil will be adjusted to make the zero-sequence currents at the upstream monitoring points of the fault point exceed a certain threshold and be modulated in situ. At this time, the corresponding modulated signals can be extracted from the neutral-to-earth voltage on the busbar for measuring these zero-sequence currents. Taking the carrier-frequency of every monitoring point as its identification tags and the variation characteristic of the zero-sequence currents along feeders as another detection criterion, the fault point can be determined online accurately without a high-performance real-time monitoring network. In this paper, the carrier-frequencies allocation and signal conditioning scheme are proposed for a good detection accuracy of the zero-sequence currents, then the signal detection principle with the control of Petersen coil is described in detail. Simulations and experiments verified the feasibility of the proposed fault location method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photovoltaic (PV) generators have continuously increased in recent years, whose power is usually controlled through the perturbation and observation (P&O) method. In essence, the P&O method is nonlinear and discontinuous. Hence, the conventional small-signal stability analysis is not suitable anymore when the influence of the P&O-based power control is considered. Focusing on this problem, this paper adopts the nonlinear describing function (DF) method to conduct the accurate stability analysis of PV generators with consideration of P&O-based power control. The detailed procedures about the DF method are introduced, and then the related influence factors like perturbation size, filters, and so on are analyzed quantitatively. Furthermore, the comparison with the conventional stability analysis methods is made, which suggests that the DF method can effectively enhance the accuracy of the stability analysis. All the conclusions are verified by the real-time hardware-in-loop tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power allocation in hybrid energy storage systems (HESSs) is an important issue for dc microgrids. In this paper, an integral droop (ID), inspired by the electrical characteristics of capacitor charging/discharging process, is proposed and applied to a cluster of energy storages (ESs) with high ramp rates. Through the coordination of the ID and conventional V-P droop, the transient power allocation in HESSs can be intrinsically realized in a decentralized manner. The high-frequency components of power demand can be compensated by the ESs with ID, whereas the ESs with V-P droop respond to the smooth change of load power. Additionally, the ID coefficient can be designed according to the nominal ramp rate of the ESs with slow response, which helps to extend the lifespan of the HESS. On the other hand, to easily assess the stability of the system feeding constant power loads, a minimum relative impedance criterion (MRIC) is developed. Based on MRIC, it is revealed that the proposed ID can shape the output impedance of the HESS and stabilize the entire system. The feasibility and effectiveness of ID are verified by both simulations and experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a fault location method based on the adaptive control of neutral-to-earth complex impedance in a resonant grounded system, whose neutral point grounds are via an electromagnetic hybrid Petersen coil (EHPC). The EHPC can be equivalent to a parallel circuit of a negative resistance and an inductance, both of which can be adjusted. When a permanent single line-to-earth fault occurs, the ground-fault current will be compensated to almost zero, and the capacitance to earth and leakage resistance of system can be measured accurately for subsequent fault location. Then, the complex impedance of EHPC is adjusted, and the faulty feeder and its faulted section can be identified online based on the characteristics that the measurements of zero-sequence admittances of points along the faulty feeder change with the system's neutral-to-ground complex impedance. The detection criterion is certain and unique, without comparing all of the feeders. This paper also proposes an adaptive jitter adjustment and decoupling control of neutral-ground complex impedance by EHPC, which is adaptive to the grounding transient resistance and is repeatable, and can ensure that the magnitude of the zero-sequence parameter is large enough to be measured while without arc re-ignition, including in high impedance fault states. Simulations and experiments verified the feasibility of this fault location method and its control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The nonlinear loads in distribution grid may generate harmful low-order harmonics, polluting the grid and deteriorating the voltage quality particularly when the grid is weak. The grid interfacing converters in the distribution system, such as the distributed generation (DG) interfacing converters or hybrid ac/dc grid interlinking converters, can participate in distribution grid harmonic control. In this paper, two virtual-impedance-based harmonics control methods are developed for grid interfacing voltage-source inverters (VSIs) to improve the power quality of the distribution grid. As the control parameters are designed based on the virtual impedance theory, clear physical meanings are given to explain their impacts on the system. Also, the proposed methods do not rely on the closed loop feedback control and, therefore, are very suitable for VSIs with low switching frequency (such as those for high-power DGs or interlinking converters for hybrid ac/dc systems), whose closed-loop control feedback bandwidth may be limited for harmonic regulation. The influence of system delay and feedback control loop is considered and modeled in the design procedure; thus more accurate virtual impedance control is achieved for low-switching-frequency VSIs. Moreover, a comprehensive comparison of the two methods, including stability and harmonic compensation performance, are given. Their effectiveness is verified by experiment results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, a beam switching antenna (BSA) based on a reconfigurable cascaded feeding network (RCFN) is presented. The RCFN is engineered by cascading several varactor-loaded quasi-lumped couplers (QLCs). As the output port of the RCFN, the coupled port of every QLC is connected to an endfire radiator. BSAs based on two types of RCFN, the open-loop RCFN and closed-loop RCFN, are designed, simulated, and measured. The open-loop design features flexible beam switching strategies with the dynamic control of operation modes allocating the input power to the intended radiator(s), and single-/multibeam switching is achieved. In the case of the closed-loop RCFN, a power-recycling circuit is introduced to improve the efficiency of the single-beam switching mode of the BSA. Measured results show that the BSA operating in single-beam mode is able to radiate six switched beams each with a 3 dB beamwidth of 60°, covering 360° in the azimuth plane. The return losses and gain fluctuation of both prototypes are better than 15 dB and less than 1 dB, respectively. The corresponding experiments agree well with both the theoretical analysis and the simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we propose an approach to realize substrate integrated waveguide (SIW)-based leaky-wave antennas (LWAs) supporting continuous beam scanning from backward to forward above the cutoff frequency. First, through phase delay analysis, it was found that SIWs with straight transverse slots support backward and forward radiation of the $-1$-order mode with an open-stopband (OSB) in between. Subsequently, by introducing additional longitudinal slots as parallel components, the OSB can be suppressed, leading to continuous beam scanning at least from $-40^\circ$ through broadside to 35°. The proposed method only requires a planar structure and obtains less dispersive beam scanning compared with a composite right/left-handed (CRLH) LWA. Both simulations and measurements verify the intended beam scanning operation while verifying the underlying theory. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]