Refine
Document Type
- Conference proceeding (273) (remove)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (273)
Institute
- Technik (273) (remove)
Publisher
- IEEE (120)
- VDE Verlag (28)
- Hochschule Ulm (11)
- Association for Computing Machinery (8)
- Springer (8)
- Arbeitsgemeinschaft Simulation (ASIM) (6)
- SciTePress (6)
- European Association for the Development of Renewable Energy, Environment and Power Quality (4)
- Hochschule Reutlingen (4)
- University of Colorado (4)
Boost converters suffer from a bandwidth limitation caused by the right-half plane zero (RHPZ), which occurs in the control-to-output transfer function. In contrast, there are many applications that require superior dynamic behavior. Further, size and cost of boost converter systems can be minimized by reduced voltage deviations and fast transient responses in case of large signal load transients. The key idea of the proposed ΔV/Δt-intervention control concept is to adapt the controller output to its new steady state value immediately after a load transient by prediction from known parameters. The concept is implemented in a digital control circuit, consisting of an ASIC in a 110 nm-technology and a Xilinx Spartan-6 field programmable gate array (FPGA). In a boost converter with 3.5V input voltage, 6.3V output voltage, 1.2A load, and 500 kHz switching frequency, the output voltage deviations are 2.8x smaller, scaling down the output capacitor value by the same factor. The recovery times are 2.4x shorter in case of large signal load transients with the proposed concept. The control is widely applicable, as it supports constant switching frequencies and allows for duty cycle and inductor current limitations. It also shows various advantages compared to conventional control and to selected adaptive control concepts.
This article proposes several modified quasi Z-source dc/dc boost converters. These can achieve soft-switching by using a clamp-switch network comprised of an active switch and a diode in parallel with a capacitor connected across one of the inductors of the Z-source network. In this way, ringing at the transistor switching node is mitigated, and the voltage at the turn-on of the transistor is reduced. Even a zero voltage switching (ZVS) of the main transistor is possible if the capacitor in the clamp-switch network is adequately chosen. The proposed circuit structure and operating mode are described and validated through simulations and measurements on a low-power prototype.
This paper introduces a highly scalable heteromodular origami art technique for constructing 3D framework structures using elementary struts and connectors folded from uncut sheets of standard A4 office paper. The presented technique, named ZEBRA, allows the design of meter-scale architectural objects, such as truss bridges and towers, which are capable of bearing substantial mechanical loads. Moving parts, ranging from simple levers to complete multi-bar linkages, can be integrated into static frameworks using a set of kinematic extensions. An overview is given of how the ZEBRA system can be used to teach university students various theoretical and practical aspects of the engineering sciences in an entertaining and hands-on way.
Der elektrische Wirkungsgrad stellt eines der wichtigsten Bewertungskriterien für BHKW dar, da über diese Größe ausgedrückt wird, wie viel des Wertproduktes „elektrische Energie“ bezogen auf die eingesetzte oder aufzuwendende Brennstoffenergie produziert werden kann. Ein hoher elektrischer Wirkungsgrad ist somit gleichbedeutend mit hohen Erlösen aus dem Verkauf der erzeugten elektrischen Energie und damit eine grundlegende Voraussetzung für einen wirtschaftlichen Betrieb eines BHKWs. Folglich sind die Hersteller von BHKW bestrebt, den elektrischen Wirkungsgrad ihrer Geräte kontinuierlich zu verbessern und nach oben zu treiben. Dieses Bemühen zeigt sich eindrucksvoll an der Entwicklung der mechanischen Effizienz von Gasmotoren der Firma GE Jenbacher. Während mit Motoren der Baureihe 6 im Leistungsbereich 1,8 – 4,4 MWel im Jahr 1988 eine mechanische Effizienz von 34% erreichbar war, liegt dieser Wert mittlerweile bei etwa 47,5%. Diese enorme Steigerung konnte im Wesentlichen durch eine Erhöhung des mittleren effektiven Zylinderarbeitsdrucks von etwa 10 bar im Jahr 1988 auf derzeit 24 bar erzielt werden. Dabei hilft der Magerbetrieb, der gleichzeitig ein Zurückdrängen der NOx-Emissionen bewirkt, die Klopfgrenze zu höheren Drücken hin zu verschieben. Eine sichere Zündung des Gas-Luft-Gemisches wird durch die Vorkammerzündung erreicht.
”I have never seen one who loves virtue as much as he loves beauty,” Confucius once said. If beauty is more important as goodness, it becomes clear why people invest so much effort in their first impression. The aesthetic of faces has many aspects and there is a strong correlation to all characteristics of humans, like age and gender. Often, research on aesthetics by social and ethic scientists lacks sufficient labelled data and the support of machine vision tools. In this position paper we propose the Aesthetic-Faces dataset, containing training data which is labelled by Chinese and German annotators. As a combination of three image subsets, the AF-dataset consists of European, Asian and African people. The research communities in machine learning, aesthetics and social ethics can benefit from our dataset and our toolbox. The toolbox provides many functions for machine learning with state-of-the-art CNNs and an Extreme-Gradient-Boosting regressor, but also 3D Morphable Model technolo gies for face shape evaluation and we discuss how to train an aesthetic estimator considering culture and ethics.
In diesem Beitrag wird ein kapazitiver Low Power DC-DC Wandler mit 15 konfigurierbaren Übersetzungsverhältnissen, einem hohen Eingangsspannungsbereich von 5 V bis 20 V und einer konstanten Ausgangsspannung von 5 V vorgestellt. Bei einer Ausgangsleistung von 5 mW wird ein maximaler Wirkungsgrad von 81% erreicht. Die Implementierung erfolgt in einem 350 nm Hochvolt-CMOS-Prozess. Während es für niedrige Eingangsspannungen eine Vielzahl an Topologien und Konzepten gibt, wurden vollintegrierte SC-Wandler für höhere Eingangsspannungen (> 8 V) bisher nur wenig untersucht. Höhere Spannungen erfordern den Einsatz von Hochvolttransistoren und eine aufwändigere Ansteuerung. Um über einen weiteren Eingangsspannungsbereicht mit hoher Genauigkeit und hohem Wirkungsgrad zu wandeln, erweist sich die Topologie des rekursiven Switched-Capacitor Wandlers (RSC Wandler) als vorteilhaft. In der vorliegenden 4-Bit Implementierung ist der RSC Wandler aus N = 4 2:1 Serien-Parallel Wandler-Zellen aufgebaut. Durch verschiedene Anordnung der einzelnen Zellen können 2ᴺ -1 = 15 Wandlungsverhältnisse realisiert werden. Mittels Rekursion werden in jedem Wandlungsverhältnis alle Kapazitäten genutzt, wodurch die Stromfähigkeit und der Wirkungsgrad des Wandlers deutlich verbessert werden. Einheitliche 2:1 Wandler-Zellen ermöglichen einen modularen Aufbau des Layouts.
Ein virtuelles Kraftwerk ist ein Verbund von Energieanlagen, koordiniert von einem gemeinsamen Leitsystem, um eine bessere Ausnutzung wetterabhängiger Energiequellen oder die gemeinsame Vermarktung von erzeugtem Strom zu ermöglichen. Der Demonstrator Virtuelles Kraftwerk Neckar-Alb ist eine Demonstrationsplattform für Forschung und Lehre, die Anlagen auf dem Campus der Hochschule Reutlingen und verteilte Anlagen in der Region Neckar-Alb integriert.
In order to evaluate the performance of different stapes prosthesis types, a coupled finite element (FE) model of human ear was developed. First, the middle-ear FE model was developed and validated using the middle-ear transfer function measurements available in literature including pathological cases. Then, the inner-ear FE model was developed and validated using tonotopy, impedance, and level of cochlea amplification curves from literature. Both models are based on pre-existing research with some improvements and were combined into one coupled FE model. The stapes in the coupled FE ear model was replaced with a model of a stapes prosthesis to create a reconstructed ear model that can be used to estimate how different types of protheses perform relative to each other as well as to the natural ear. This will help in designing of new innovative types of stapes prostheses or any other type of middle-ear prostheses as well as to improve the ones that are already available on the market.
The Virtual Power Plant Neckar-Alb is a demonstration platform for operation, optimization and control of distributed energy resources, which are able to produce, store or consume electric energy. A heterogeneous set of distributed energy devices has been installed at the Campus of Reutlingen University by the Reutlingen Energy Centre (REZ) of the School of Engineering. The distributed energy devices have been combined to local microgrids and connected to an operative central power plant with additional participants. The demonstration platform serves students, researchers and industry experts for education and investigation of new technologies, devices and software.
Today the optimization of metal forming processes is done using advanced simulation tools in a virtual process, e.g. FEM-studies. The modification of the free parameters represents the different variants to be analysed. So experienced engineers may derive useful proposals in an acceptable time if good initial proposals are available. As soon as the number of free parameters growths or the total process takes long times and uses different succeeding forming steps it might be quite difficult to find promising initial ideas. In metal forming another problem has to be considered. The optimization using a series of local improvements, often called a gradient approach may find a local optimum, but this could be far away from a satisfactory solution. Therefore non-deterministic approaches, e.g. Bionic Optimization have to be used. These approaches like Evolutionary Optimization or Particle Swarm Optimization are capable to cover a large range of high dimensional optimization spaces and discover many local optima. So the chance to include the global optimum increases when using such non-deterministic methods. Unfortunately these bionic methods require large numbers of studies of different variants of the process to be optimized. The number of studies tends to increase exponentially with the number of free parameters of the forming process. As the time for one single study might be not too small as well, the total time demand will be inacceptable, taking weeks to months even if high performance computing will be used. Therefore the optimization process needs to be accelerated. Among the many ideas to reduce the time and computer power requirement Meta- and Hybrid Optimization seem to produce the most efficient results. Hybrid Optimization often consists of global searches of promising regions within the parameter space. As soon as the studies indicate that there could be a local optimum, a deterministic study tries to identify this local region. If it shows better performance than other optima found until now, it is preserved for a more detailed analysis. If it performs worse than other optima the region is excluded from further search. Meta-Optimization is often understood as the derivation of Response Surfaces of the functions of free parameters. Once there are enough studies performed, the optimization is done using the Response Surfaces as representatives e.g. for the goal and the restrictions of the optimization problem. Having found regions where interesting solutions are to be expected, the studies available up to now are used to define the Response Surfaces. In many cases low degree polynomials are used, defining their coefficients by least square methods. Both proposals Hybrid Optimization and Meta-Optimization, sometimes used in combination often help to reduce the total optimization processes by large numbers of variants to be studied. In consequence they are highly recommended when dealing with time consuming optimization studies.
The purpose of this article is to provide insight of a new simple forecasting method based on a state-estimation algorithm known as the Kalman filter. While the accuracy of such algorithm is not comparable to state-of-the-art forecasting algorithms for PV-power production it does not require any internet connection, eyefish cameras or time intensive training. The algorithm was tested with several months of real high-resolution data with adequate results for the intended applications. The minimization of the necessary spinning reserve on a PV-diesel hybrid system to increase the solar fraction and reduce diesel consumption.
Verification of an active time constant tuning technique for continuous-time delta-sigma modulators
(2022)
In this work we present a technique to compensate the effects of R-C / g m -C time-constant (TC) errors due to process variation in continuous-time delta-sigma modulators. Local TC error compensation factors are shifted around in the modulator loop to positions where they can be implemented efficiently with finely tunable circuit structures, such as current-steering digital-to-analog converters (DAC). We apply our technique to a third-order, single-bit, low-pass continuous-time delta-sigma modulator in cascaded integrator feedback structure, implemented in a 0.35-μm CMOS process. A tuning scheme for the reference currents of the feedback DACs is derived as a function of the individual TC errors and verified by circuit simulations. We confirm the tuning technique experimentally on the fabricated circuit over a TC parameter variation range of ±20%. Stable modulator operation is achieved for all parameter sets. The measured performances satisfy the expectations from our theoretical calculations and circuit-level simulations.
The paper illustrates the status quo of a research project for the development of a control system enabling CHP units for a demand-oriented electricity production by an intelligent management of the heat storage tank. Thereby the focus of the project is twofold. One is the compensation of the fluctuating power production by the renewable energies solar and wind. Secondly, a reduction of the load on the power grid is intended by better matching local electricity demand and production.
In detail, the general control strategy is outlined, the method utilized for forecasting heat and electricity demand is illustrated as well as a correlation method for the temperature distribution in the heat storage tank based on a Sigmoid function is proposed. Moreover, the simulation model for verification and optimization of the control system and the two field test sites for implementing and testing the system are introduced.
The coupling of the heat and power sector is required as supply and demand in the German electricity mix drift further and further apart with a high percentage of renewable energy. Heat pumps in combination with thermal energy storage systems can be a useful way to couple the heat and power sectors. This paper presents a hardware-in the-loop test bench for experimental investigation of optimized control strategies for heat pumps. 24-hour experiments are carried out to test whether the heat pump is able to serve optimized schedules generated by a MATLAB algorithm. The results show that the heat pump is capable of following the generated schedules, and the maximum deviation of the operational time between schedule and experiment is only 3%. Additionally, the system can serve the demand for space heating and DHW at any time.
Universelle OTA-Testbench
(2014)
Es wird eine universell einsetzbare Testbench zur Simulation von integrierten Schaltungen innerhalb der OTA-Schaltungsklasse (Operational Transconductance Amplifier; Transkonduktanzverstärker) vorgestellt. Transkonduktanzverstärker sind in der analogen Schaltungstechnik weit verbreitet und daher von großer Bedeutung. Sie treten sowohl als eigenständige Schaltungen innerhalb eines Chips, sowie als Bestandteil anderer Schaltungen (z.B. als erste und zweite Stufe von Operationsverstärkern) auf. Es kann davon ausgegangen werden, dass heute kaum ein analoger oder Mixed-Signal-Chip gefertigt wird, in dem keine Transkonduktanzverstärker verbaut sind. Die Entscheidungsfindung des Entwicklers bei der Auslegung eines OTAs beruht maßgeblich auf einer anwendungsspezifischen Simulation. Die Erstellung einer eigenen Testbench für jede Anwendung bedeutet allerdings einen hohen Zeitaufwand und erschwert den Vergleich der Simulationsergebnisse unterschiedlicher Schaltungsvarianten. Durch eine universelle Testbench kann zum einen der Zeitaufwand verringert werden, zum anderen können nun Simulationsergebnisse direkt miteinander verglichen werden. Hierdurch wird die Entscheidungsfindung des Entwicklers objektiviert und beschleunigt. Neben dem Vergleich unterschiedlicher Schaltungen innerhalb einer Technologie ist auch der Vergleich einer Schaltung in unterschiedlichen Technologien denkbar. Die Idee einer universell anwendbaren Testbench lässt sich auch auf andere analoge Schaltungsklassen anwenden und damit als Prinzip verallgemeinern.
Die Alterungsbeständigkeit von geschirmten Kabeln und Kontaktpaaren gewinnt angesichts des zunehmenden Einsatzes elektronischer softwarebasierter Steuerungen in Transportmitteln an Relevanz. Elektro- und Hybridantriebe sowie die Implementierung von Fahrassistenzsystemen bis hin zu autonom fahrenden Fahrzeugen führen zu komplexen Kabelbäumen mit einer großen Zahl von geschirmten Kabeln und Steckverbindern.
Um die Stabilität von Kontaktsystemen hinsichtlich ihrer Stabilität zu prüfen, werden Hochspannungskabel unterschiedlicher Hersteller und Dimensionierung für den Einsatz in Hybridfahrzeugen untersucht. Diese wurden mit Modellsteckern versehen, die die Schimung kontaktierten und hinreichend gewährleisteten.
Impedanz und Schirmwirkungsdämpfung wurden an thermisch belasteten Kabeln und Kontaktpaaren vergleichend zu Neuteilen untersucht. Der Einfluss der in Anlehnung an die LV 214 induzierten thermischen Alterung auf das frequenzabhängige Übertragungsprofil sowie den Gesamtstreuverlust wurde messtechnisch ermittelt. Zusätzlich wurden die Alterungseffekte an den Leitungsmaterialien mittels moderner bildgebender Analytik dokumentiert.
The experimental characterization of the thermal impedance Zth of large power MOSFETs is commonly done by measuring the junction temperature Tj in the cooling phase after the device has been heated, preferably to a high junction temperature for increased accuracy. However, turning off a large heating current (as required by modern MOSFETs with low on-state resistances) takes some time because of parasitic inductances in the measurement system. Thus, most setups do not allow the characterization of the junction temperature in the time range below several tens of μs.
In this paper, an optimized measurement setup is presented which allows accurate Tj characterization already 3 μs after turn-off of heating. With this, it becomes possible to experimentally investigate the influence of thermal capacitances close to the active region of the device. Measurement results will be presented for advanced power MOSFETs with very large heating currents up to 220 A. Three bonding variants are investigated and the observed differences will be explained.
This paper aims at presenting a solution that enables end customers of the energy system to participate in new local micro-energy-markets by providing them with a distributed, decentralized, transparent and secure Peer to Peer (P2P) payment system, which functions automatically applying new concepts of Machine to Machine (M2M) communication technologies. This work was performed within the German project VK_2G, funded by the DBU. The key results were: Providing means to perform microtransactions in a P2P fashion between end consumers and prosumers in local communities at low cost in a transparent and secure manner; Developing a platform with pre-defined smart contracts able to be tailored to different end customers ‘needs in an easy way and; Integrating both the market platform as well as the local control of generation and loads. This solution has been developed, integrated and tested in a laboratory prototype. This paper discusses this solution and presents the results of the first test.