Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Electrical Engineering Emphasis on Telecommunication'

Currently, there is a great interest in panel absorber design where porous components are excluded due to environmental and cleaning considerations. For such absorbers, the challenge is to increase the natural, viscous losses to attain an acceptable absorption bandwidth. This dissertation presents two new perforated panel absorber concepts, where the viscous energy dissipation has been enhanced by the use of non-traditional design of the perforations.

The first concept is a perforated panel where the perforations has been shaped as small horns. The inner part of the horns have dimensions comparable to microperforated panels. The purpose of the design is to increase the surface area of the opening, increase the flow velocity in the inner part of the horn, and offer a better impedance match to the incoming wave. The concept has been investigated primarily by calculations using the Finite Difference Method. The results indicate that a relatively large absorption bandwidth can be obtained for a horn with wide outer radius and small inner radius.

The second concept is a double perforated panel, consisting of two parallel, perforated plates separated by a small distance, typically 0.1 – 0.3 mm. The main part of the energy dissipation takes place in the small gap between the plates. Both perforated and slitted variants have been investigated by simulations and experiments. For the slitted palne case, absorption bandwidths equivalent to microperforated panels has been observed. The slitted variant can also be designed to be adjustable, allowing tha lateral distance between the slites in the two plates to be varied. This offers two special features: The maximum absorption coefficient can be adjusted from unity to almost zero, and the resonance frequency can be shifted. A frequency shift of one actave at normal sound incidence has been obtained.

Keywords : Conjugate gradient fast Fourier transform (CG-FFT), Discrete complex image method (DCIM), Electric field integral equation (EFIE), Frequency selective surfaces (FSS), Generalized pencil-of-functions (GPOF), Green’s function (GF), Method of moments (MoM), Prony’s method (PM), Sommerfeld integral (SI), Two-dimensional generalized exponential integral (2D-GEI)

As the need for more frequency spectrum drives the design of antennas and other microwave components at higher frequencies, compact but electrically large microwave components are beginning to appear. Since a significant share of these components comprises scatterers etched on planar stratified layers, efficient tools analyzing and optimizing such structures are invaluable. The work carried out here is in fact a continuation of the research performed in the past at the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway.

The conventional method of moments for analyzing and optimizing scatterers in stratified media is simple in formulation but computationally very intensive. Moreover, the computer memory usage of the software based on conventional MoM is high. Both these factors have so far limited the application of conventional MoM to electrically small and simpler stratified structures. Therefore, the present work focuses on introducing and implementing an improved space domain MoM for large radiating or scattering structures etched on planar stratified media. The space domain method of moments is selected due to its simplicity and potential for further improvements when compared with the spectral domain method of moments.

The major areas of space domain MoM such as finding spectral Green's functions, deriving spatial Green’s functions, matrix formulation and matrix inversion are addressed.

The existing methods are evaluated with respect to their pros and cons. In addition, in order to extract the scattering parameters a few simple de-embedding techniques are introduced. We have attempted to optimize each stage of the conventional space domain MoM such that it can handle electrically large scatterers in planar stratified media. Each method is discussed independently and proved to be performing well compared with the corresponding method applied in conventional space domain MoM. In deriving spectral Green’s functions, a novel formulation of transmission line theory is applied easing the analytical derivation and the software implementation significantly. A robust form of discrete complex image method (DCIM) is used in deriving spatial Green’s functions from the corresponding spectral Green’s functions. DCIM is an accurate and efficient way of evaluating Sommerfeld integrals without resorting to multi-dimensional numerical integration.

The accuracy and efficiency of DCIM are affirmed by applying it to simple scatterers. The outcome of DCIM is a sum of complex exponential functions. These are then used to calculate the impedance matrices of MoM. It is also shown that when using mixed potential integral formulation, the original four-dimensional numerical integration can be simplified to two-dimensional integration with no loss of accuracy, thus reducing the mathematical complexity during matrix filling phase. Nevertheless, some of the complex exponential functions can lead to two-dimensional singular integrals. These singular two- dimensional generalized exponential integrals(2D-GEI) are efficiently handled by generalizing an innovative numerical integration method, thus saving the processing time further. The last but most important operation of MoM, the matrix inversion is achieved by using an iterative algorithm known as conjugate gradient method. It is then combined with fast Fourier transform to exploit the space invariant property present in the impedance matrices of MoM. A new compact formulation of the matrices is also presented to facilitate the programing task. To our knowledge, this is the first time such formulation is presented explicitly. A brief chapter is reserved for de-embedding of scattering parameters from the surface current densities resulting from MoM.

In order to present the thesis as a collection of self-containing and independent chapters, results are included in each chapter whenever it is appropriate. These partial results confirm the accuracy and the efficiency of each method introduced in the corresponding chapter before we move on to the next. The conclusion on the overall method introduced in this work is that the space domain method of moments combined with the discrete complex image method and the conjugate gradient fast Fourier transform presents a very powerful tool for analyzing and optimizing large arbitrary stratified structures. However, to be competitive with commercial products based on either spectral domain method of moments or finite element methods, further improvements in its implementation and methodology are needed. Few improvements such as more efficient implementation of the entire method, inclusion of surface wave contribution in DCIM, integration of non-uniform basis and testing functions and need for better de-embedding techniques are already identified at the end of this work.

Finally we hope that this work clarifies some important issues relating to space domain method of moments when applied to large scatterers etched on planar stratified media and encourages the further research on this particular method.

A rapid growth of new satellite systems utilizing the Ka-band (27 – 40 Ghz) and even higher frequencies is expected in the coming years. The services offered will include broadband communication, interactive broadcasting, multimedia applications, interconnection of local area networks and Internet connectivity. Many of the new systems will use technologies as multiple spot-beams, onboard processing, and switching of packets between beams and inter satellite links. Because of congestion in the lower bands such ad C (4 – 8 Ghz) and Ku-band (12 – 18 Ghz), numerous of these services will use Ka-band. One additional advantage to the spectrum availability at Ka-band is the potential of smaller terminals compared to those used in lower frequency bands.

Several mobile satellite systems have recently started operation and more are planned or scheduled for implementation within a few years to provide personal and data communication at L-band (1 – 2 Ghz) and S-band (2 – 4 Ghz) frequencies. The systems will utilize different orbit types, for example low, medium or geostationary earth orbits, to provide voice and data services to mobile users.

Understanding of the propagation aspects is important for successful design of a satellite system obtaining the targeted service quality and availability. For systems operating above about 10 Ghz, attenuation caused by hydrometeor effects is the dominant propagation impairment on line-of-sight (LOS) links. For mobile communications systems operating at lower frequencies, the impairments resulting from multipath propagation, shadowing and blockage from obstacles on the ground severely affect the radio signals. Estimation of dynamic propagation is essential for the design of reliable and spectrum efficient communication systems. The system can adapt the transmission methodology that maximizes the throughput of information and optimizes the delivery time. The design of such mitigation techniques will depend on the dynamics and how often the events occur.

The research conducted in this study on mobile propagation effects of terrain at L-band has led to an improved three-state channel model for land mobile satellite systems. The time spent in each of the states is quite realistic, facilitating better simulation of the performance of communication systems. A new methodology was developed to perform large area coverage estimation by calculating satellite visibility for low earth orbit and geostationary constellations based on digital terrain maps. The procedure takes into account large terrain obstacles and procedures a gross overview of the potential area covered with one or several satellites. A photogrammetric technique to assess performance of non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) systems in mid- and high latitude urban areas was used to estimate channel fading and diversity improvement. Some measurements of the maximum obtainable call duration for the Iridium system are included as well.

The studies on atmospheric propagation effects between 20 and 60 Ghz included analyses of fade and inter-fade duration statistics, which are important when evaluating fade mitigation techniques and estimating system outages. Fade duration measurements were analyzed and an effort made to find a common statistical fade duration model. Based on this work, a new prediction method for fade durations on satellite-earth paths was developed. This ability to forecast rain attenuation was investigated with the aid of statistical prediction methods and terrestrial measurements on a 60 Ghz link. Finally, beacon measurements at 50 Ghz from Italsat F1 were used to test and compare available scintillation prediction models.

The work has improved the ability to estimate and simulate propagation effects on mobile and fixed satellite system performance.

In a traditional communication system, the coding process is divided into source coding and channel coding. Source coding is the process of compressing the source signal, and channel coding is the process of error protection. It can be shown that with no delay or complexity constraints and with exact knowledge of the source and channel properties, optimal performance can be obtained with separate source and channel coding. However, joint source-channel coding can lead to performance gains under complexity or delay constraints and offer robustness against unknown system parameters.

Multiple description coding is a system for generating two (or more) descriptions of a source, where decoding is possible from either description, but decoding of higher quality is possible if both descriptions are available. This system has been proposed as a means for joint source-channel coding. In this dissertation, the multiple description coding is used to protect against loss of data in an error correcting code caused by a number of channel errors exceeding the correcting ability of the channel code. This is tried on three channel models: a packet erasure channel, a binary symmetric channel, and a block fading channel, and the results obtained with multiple description coding is compared against traditional single description coding. The results show that if a long-term average mean square error distortion measure is used, multiple description coding is not as good as single description coding, except when the delay or block error rate of the channel code is heavily constrained.

A direct source-channel mapping is a mapping from amplitude continuous source symbols to amplitude continuous channel symbols, often involving a dimension change. A hybrid scalar quantizer-linear coder (HSQLC) is a direct source-channel mapping where the memoryless source signal is quantized using a scalar quantizer. The quantized value is transmitted on an analog channel using one symbol which can take as many levels as the quantizer, and the quantization error is transmitted on the same channel by means of a simple linear coder. Thus, there is a bandwidth expansion, two channel symbols are produced per source symbol. The channel is assumed to have additive white Gaussian noise and a power constraint. The quantizer levels and the distribution of power between the two symbols are optimized for different source distributions. A uniform quantizer with an appropriate step size gives a performance close to the optimized quantizer both for a Gaussian, a Laplacian, and a uniform memoryless source. The coder performs well compared to other joint source-channel coders, and it is relatively robust against variations in the channel noise level.

A previous image coder using direct source-channel mappings is improved. This coder is a subband coder where a classification following the decorrelating filter bank assigns mappings of different rates to different subband samples according to their importance. Improvements are made to practically all the parts of the coder, but the most important one is that the mappings are changed, and particularly, the bandwidth expanding HSQLC is introduced. The coder shows large improvements compared to the previous version, especially at channel qualities near the design quality. For poor channels or high rates, the HSQLC provides a large portion of the improvement. The coder is compared against a combination of a JPEG 2000 coder and a good channel code, and the performance is competitive with the reference, while the robustness against an unknown channel quality is largely improved. This kind of robustness is very important in broadcasting and mobile communications.

I tradisjonelle kommunikasjonssystemer kan kodingen deles inn i kildekoding (kompresjon) og kanalkoding (feilbeskyttelse). Disse operasjonene kan ses i sammenheng, og kombinert kilde- og kanalkoding kan gi forbedringer ved begrenset kompleksitet eller forsinkelse, og øke robustheten mot ukjente systemparametre. I avhandlingen vurderes to metoder. I den første er kilde- og kanalkodingen fortsatt delvis separat, men kildekoden er gjort robust mot dekodingsfeil i kanalkoden. Dette gjøres ved flerbeskrivelseskoding (multiple description coding), der kildesignalet representeres med to beskrivelser. Dekoding er mulig fra hver beskrivelse isolert, men høyere kvalitet kan oppnås hvis begge beskrivelsene er tilgjengelig. Ved sammenligning med et tradisjonelt system viser det seg at med hensyn på midlere kvadratisk avvik er flerbeskrivelseskoding som regel mindre bra enn et tradisjonelt system. Direkte kilde-til-kanal-avbildninger er avbildninger fra amplitudekontinuerlige kildesymboler direkte til amplitudekontinuerlige kanalsymboler. En slik metode blir lansert. Der skalarkvantiseres kildesignalet, som antas minneløst, og overføres med ett symbol på en analog kanal, mens kvantiseringsfeilen overføres analogt på den samme kanalen. Systemparametrene blir optimalisert for forskjellige kilder og kanalkvaliteter. Denne koderen gir bra ytelse sammenlignet med andre kombinerte kilde- og kanalkodere, og den er relativt robust mot variasjoner i støynivået på kanalen. Direkte kilde-til-kanal-avbildninger anvendes i en delbåndskoder for stillbilder. Denne koderen, som er basert på tidligere arbeider, blir sammenlignet med en kombinasjon av en JPEG 2000-koder og en god kanalkode, og ytelsen er omtrent like bra som referansen, samtidig som robustheten mot ukjent kanalkvalitet har økt kraftig. Denne typen robusthet er svært viktig i kringkasting og mobilkommunikasjon.

The theme of this thesis is the supply of capacity during peak demand in restructured power systems. There are a number of reasons why there is uncertainty about whether an enegyonly electricity market (where generators are only paid for the energy produced) is able to ensure uninterrupted supply during peak load conditions.

Much of the public debate in Europe has been about the present surplus generation capacity. However, in a truly competitive environment, it is hard to believe that seldom used capacity will be kept operational. This is illustrated by developments in Sweden. For this reason, the large surplus of generation capacity in the European Union may vanish much faster than generally assumed. In the USA, much of the debate has been about California. During the last three summers, California has occasionally experienced involuntary load shedding and prices have been very high during these periods. To some extent, the Californian situation illustrates the relevance of the subject of this thesis: in a deregulated system generators may not be willing to invest in peaking capacity that is only needed occasionally, even though prices are very high during these periods.

A good solution to the problem of providing peaking power is pivotal to the success of power market restructuring. Solutions that fail to create the right incentives will result in unacceptable load shedding and can endanger the whole restructuring process. On the other hand, solutions that pay too much for investments in peaking power will lead to generation capacity surpluses and thus represent a societal loss.

Why is peaking capacity a problematic issue in energy-only markets?

Traditionally, probabilistic methods are applied to calculate the required generation capacity to obtain a desired level of reliability. In a centrally planned system, this level of generation capacity is developed in a least-cost manner. A single utility or central authorities can thus control the level of reliability directly. This is not possible in a market-based system, if suppliers are only paid for the energy produced.

Under the assumption of certainty and continually varying prices, generators fully recover their variable and investment costs under ideal market conditions. When uncertainty is taken into account, generators will cover their expected costs. However, revenues will be extremely volatile, especially for peaking generators. Combined with a risk-averse attitude, it is unlikely that investments will be sufficient to maintain the traditional level of reliability in an energyonly market. Consequently, one would expect reserve margins to decline in such markets. This effect is very clear in Sweden that deregulated in 1996, and less explicit in a number of other cases like Norway, California and Alberta.

Pricing and Consumer Preferences

The theory of electricity pricing was originally developed for vertically integrated utilities, but elements from this theory are also valuable in a restructured context. Many authors have agreed on the presence of a capacity element in the optimal price during peak-load conditions, while price should equal marginal cost during low-load conditions. An important assumption is that prices have to be stable. More recently, spot pricing of electricity has been advocated. A number of papers have been written about how to efficiently include security considerations in the spot price.

Because the availability of capacity cannot be directly controlled in an energy-only spot market, the probability of occasional capacity shortages increases. It is important to be prepared for this situation. The core of the problem is that demand is de facto inelastic in the short-term because of traditional tariff systems. It is shown that considerable economic gains are obtained when demand elasticity can be utilized, even if only minor shares of demand are elastic in the short-term. Better utilization of demand elasticity was also profitable in traditional systems, but after restructuring the gain is much larger: the alternative is not expensive generation but random rationing, which is unacceptable in modern society.

It is possible to go one step further. Consumers have different preferences for the use of energy and reliability. Some consumers have a low tolerance about being disconnected, while others are more willing to accept this. This will be reflected by their willingness to pay for reliability. A better solution would emerge if consumers could buy electricity and reliability more or less as separate commodities, based on their preferences.

In the context of pricing it should be pointed out that ”profile-based settlement” that allows small consumers to freely choose their supplier without hourly metering is detrimental with respect to the correct pricing of capacity. It should only be used in the initial phases of opening a market.

Improved utilization of system resources

Even in the short-term, demand and the availability of generation and transmission resources are uncertain. Therefore, it is necessary to have reserves available in a power system. When capacity becomes scarce, it is difficult to satisfy the reserve requirements. If these requirements are strict, the only possibility is to resort to what can be called ”preventive loadshedding” to satisfy the reserve requirements. This is obviously an expensive solution, but there are no obvious ways of balancing the (societal) cost of preventive load shedding against reduced system security. In this thesis, a model is developed for unit commitment and dispatch with a one-hour time horizon, with the objective of minimizing the sum of the operation and disruption costs, including the expected cost of system collapse. The model is run for the IEEE Reliability Test System. It is shown that under conditions where there is not enough capacity available to satisfy the reserve requirements, large cost savings can be obtained by optimizing the sum of the operation and disruption costs instead of using preventive load-shedding. In the model, it is also possible to directly target reliability indexes like the Loss of Load Probability or Expected Energy not Served. It is shown that increased reliability (in terms of the values of the indexes) can be obtained at a lower cost by targeting the indexes directly instead of resorting to reserve requirements. This is especially the case if flexible load-shedding routines are developed, making it possible to disconnect and reconnect the optimal amounts of load efficiently.

The use of alternatives to fixed reserve requirements as a means to maintain system security does not solve the problem about how to ensure the availability of peaking capacity. However, in a situation with occasional capacity shortages, it gives the System Operator a tool to find the optimal balance between preventive load shedding and system security, which can result in significantly lower disruption costs in such cases. More research and development in this area is necessary to develop methods and tools that are suitable for large power systems.

Ancillary Services

Investment in peaking capacity is insufficient in restructured systems because expected revenues are too low or too uncertain. If generator revenues are increased, the situation improves. One way to obtain this is to create markets for ancillary services. In the thesis, a model is developed for a central-dispatch type of pool. In this model, markets for energy and three types of ancillary services are cleared simultaneously for 24 hours ahead. Market prices are such that volumes and prices are consistent with the market participants. self-dispatch decisions . i.e. given these prices, market participants would have chosen the same production of energy and ancillary services as the outcome of the optimization program. With this model, it is shown that markets for ancillary services increase generator revenues, but this effect is partly offset by lower energy prices. This shows that markets for ancillary services can contribute to improving the situation, but given the remaining uncertainty, this is hardly enough to solve the problem.

Capacity Subscription

Because consumers have preferences for two goods: electricity and reliability, they should ideally have the choice of purchasing the preferred amount of each of these. Traditionally this is not possible . reliability is a public good, produced or obtained by a central authority on behalf of all consumers. Technological progress is presently changing this. Capacity subscription is a method that allows consumers to choose their individual level of reliability, at the same time creating a true market for capacity. It is based on the concept of selfrationing. Consumers anticipate (for example on a seasonal basis) their need for capacity at the instant of system-wide peak demand. Based on this anticipation, they procure their desired level of capacity in a market, where generators offer their available capacity. Demand is limited to subscribed capacity by a fuse-like device that is activated when total demand exceeds total available generation. In this way, the capacity payment only influences the market when demand is close to installed capacity, and does not distort the energy price in other periods. Demand is not limited when there is ample capacity. Demand will never exceed supply, because it can be limited in an acceptable way when this situation occurs. Moreover, both consumers and suppliers can adapt to situations with scarce or ample capacity, and the price of capacity will reflect this situation. There is one problem with the method: as consumers do not reach their subscribed capacity simultaneously, there will be a capacity surplus at the instant the fuse-devices are activated. Two methods to solve this problem are analysed, and it is shown that the problem can be solved optimally by giving consumers who prefer this the opportunity to buy power in excess of their subscription on the spot market.

Policy evaluation

Six alternative policies to assess the peaking power problem are analysed based on the following criteria:

- Static efficiency: the welfare-optimal match of consumption and supply

- Dynamic efficiency: the ability to create incentives for innovation

- Invisibility: with invisible strategies, each market actor pursues his or her own objectives without worrying about anyone else.s

- Robustness: a robust policy is less sensitive to deviations from assumptions

- Timeliness: the ability of a policy to be employed at the right time

- Stakeholder equity: the degree to which all the involved parties are treated equitable

- Corrigibility: the extent to which a policy can be corrected once it is employed

- Acceptability: the degree to which the policy is acceptable to all parties

- Simplicity: ceteris paribus simple strategies are preferable over more complicated strategies

- Cost: the cost of implementing the policy

- System security: the policy.s ability to obtain an acceptable level of system security

The policies are, in short (an example is given in parentheses):

- Capacity obligation: suppliers are obliged to keep sufficient capacity (PJM)

- Fixed capacity payment: a fixed payment is offered for available capacity (Spain)

- Dynamic capacity payment: capacity payment is based on the Loss of Load Probability (England and Wales)

- Energy-only: no explicit payments or obligation (Scandinavia, California)

- Proxy prices: very high administrative prices are used as a proxy to the Value of Lost Load when load shedding is necessary (Australia)

- Capacity subscription: cf. the description above (not implemented)

As could be expected, no single policy performs best on all criteria. The obligation and fixed payment methods do not perform well on market efficiency criteria, as essentially they are not market-based policies. The proxy prices policy is a reasonable policy on most criteria. It is easy, cheap and quick to implement. Because there is little experience with the method so far, there is some uncertainty with respect to if it is effective. One can anticipate that the threat of having to buy power at rationing prices will motivate market participants to avoid coming in a buying position in such cases, and that this will stimulate the adaptation of innovative solutions, especially on the demand side.

The capacity subscription policy looks very promising on the issues of efficiency, robustness and system security. This is especially true for dynamic efficiency: consumers will weigh the cost of capacity against the cost of innovative load control devices, and if the price of capacity is high, a market for such technology will emerge. However, there is a considerable threshold prior to the introduction of capacity subscription, caused by the implementation costs and complexity.

The conclusion on policies is thus that in an early stage after restructuring it may be appropriate to resort to the capacity obligation or payment method if the capacity balance is tight at the time of transition. For the medium-term, or if there is ample capacity initially, it is sensible to introduce proxy market prices to transfer the risk of a capacity deficit to market participants, with due attention being paid to the appropriate price level. Capacity subscription can be a long-term objective.

This thesis contributes to the research on optimization algorithms for nonlinear programming, and to the application of such algorithms to nonlinear model predictive control.

Regarding the contribution to research on algorithms for nonlinear programming, a novel algorithm is put forward with a complete theory for global and local convergence. This is the main contribution of the thesis. The algorithm, named rFSQP, is a reduced Hessian Feasible Sequential Quadratic Programming method. It remains feasible with respect to nonlinear inequalities at all SQP iterations, but nonlinear equality constraints are treated as in general reduced Hessian SQP methods. The rFSQP algorithm is implemented in MATLAB and tested on a number of small scale problems with encouraging results. However, the algorithm is designed for large scale problems with few degrees of freedom. Some preliminary testing of the algorithm on large scale problems are investigated.

The thesis also contributes to the understanding of the relation between sequential and simultaneous reduced gradient methods, and to the understanding of the relation between discretization methods for dynamical systems and the choice of optimization algorithms.

The thesis also contributes to model based control approaches of grate sintering. Grate sintering is a complex metallurgical process, where melting of solids and fast gas dynamics give rise to stiff process models, i.e. the "time constants" of the system differ by many decades in magnitude. Hence, application of real-time optimization methods like nonlinear model predictive control to the grate sintering process is challenging. The thesis gives a framework for implementing nonlinear model based control of grate sintering by giving a control objective, a nonlinear model and choosing an appropriate discretization scheme. The thesis gives a reduced order model which is less computationally demanding. Data from industrial experiments are used to adapt the model and to assess the control objective.