Dissertation Announcement for Maziar Babaei
02/14/18 at 10:00 AM

January 26, 2018

Dear Faculty, Graduate, and Undergraduate students,

You are cordially invited to my Ph.D. dissertation defense.

Dissertation Title: Toward fault adaptive power systems in electric ships.

When: Wednesday, February 14, 2018, 10:00 AM

Where: Simrall 228

Candidate: Maziar Babaei Laktarashani

Degree: Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering

 

Committee:

Dr. Joni Kluss
Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (Major Professor)

Dr. Sherif Abdelwahed
Former Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Mississippi State University and Current Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University (Co-major Professor)

Dr. Masoud Karimi Ghartemani
Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (Committee Member)

Dr. Yong Fu
Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (Committee Member)

 

Abstract:

Shipboard Power Systems (SPS) play a significant role in next-generation Navy fleets. With the increasing power demand from propulsion loads, ship service loads, weaponry systems and mission systems, a stable and reliable SPS is critical to support different aspects of ship operation. It also becomes the technology-enabler to improve ship economy, efficiency, reliability, and survivability.  Moreover, it is important to improve the reliability and robustness of the SPS while working under different operating conditions to ensure safe and satisfactory operation of the system. This dissertation aims to introduce novel and effective approaches to respond to different types of possible faults in the SPS. According to the type and duration, the possible faults in the Medium Voltage DC (MVDC) SPS have been divided into two main categories: \textit{transient} and \textit{permanent} faults.

First,  in order to manage permanent faults in MVDC SPS, a novel real-time reconfiguration strategy has been proposed. Onboard post-fault reconfiguration aims to ensure the maximum power/service delivery to the system loads following a fault.  This study aims to implement an intelligent real-time reconfiguration algorithm in the RTDS platform through an optimization technique implemented inside the Real-Time Digital Simulator (RTDS). The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed real-time reconfiguration approach to reconfigure the system under different fault situations.

Second,  a novel approach to mitigate the effect of the unsymmetrical transient AC faults in the MVDC SPS has been proposed. In this dissertation, the application of combined Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM)-Super Conducting Fault Current Limiter (SFCL) to improve the stability of the MVDC SPS during transient faults has been investigated. A Fluid Genetic Algorithm (FGA) optimization algorithm is introduced to design the STATCOM’s controller. Moreover, a multi-objective optimization problem has been formulated to find the optimal size of SFCL’s impedance. In the proposed scheme, STATCOM can assist the SFCL to keep the vital load terminal voltage close to the normal state in an economic sense. The proposed technique provides an acceptable post-disturbance and post-fault performance to recover the system to its normal situation over the other alternatives.

The proposed techniques in this research work can provide solutions to the current fault-related design and development practices for SPS to ensure the reliable production and delivery of electric power.

Best Regards,

Maziar Babaei
Graduate Research Assistant
Dept. of  Electrical & Computer Engineering,
Mississippi State University