Electrical Engineering Thesis help

[jermonster]

Guys, I am a 5th year Electrical Engineering Student. We are required to do thesis report. I really need your help on the topic since i have no idea on what topic should i make. The study should be in power systems. Can you suggest topics for me? I am interested in fault analysis, ANN, Fuzzy Logic, Loss Analysis, Loss Reduction etc. pls help me guys.. Thanks in advance.

 

[berkeman]

Guys, I am a 5th year Electrical Engineering Student. We are required to do thesis report. I really need your help on the topic since i have no idea on what topic should i make. The study should be in power systems. Can you suggest topics for me? I am interested in fault analysis, ANN, Fuzzy Logic, Loss Analysis, Loss Reduction etc. pls help me guys.. Thanks in advance.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of overlap between Power Systems and your main interests. Why does your thesis have to be in Power Systems?

 

[marivic45]

Actually, there are topic I wanted to defend during my Electrical Engineering day on college bit my instructor did not want it. That is the "Global Optimization Algorithm Design". This research effort will attempt to combine a recently developed local search algorithm with particle swarm optimization to search for global optima on very large dimensional smooth surfaces.

 

[jermonster]

There doesn't seem to be a lot of overlap between Power Systems and your main interests. Why does your thesis have to be in Power Systems?

Mostly old students study about power systems because i think it is really broad and there's so much to study about it.

 

[stevenb]

I recommend something in renewable energy: wind power, ocean power, solar etc. This involves power systems, but also brings in some of the areas mentioned. For example, fuzzy logic can be used to implement a power maximizing control system for an energy harvesting system.

 

[jermonster]

I recommend something in renewable energy: wind power, ocean power, solar etc. This involves power systems, but also brings in some of the areas mentioned. For example, fuzzy logic can be used to implement a power maximizing control system for an energy harvesting system.

Thank you for the reply sir. Can you explain a little bit about what will i do with fuzzy logic? i badly needed this research topic sir so that i could graduate.

 

[stevenb]

Can you explain a little bit about what will i do with fuzzy logic? i badly needed this research topic sir so that i could graduate.

To my own embarrassment, I have to say that I'm not well versed in fuzzy logic control techniques. I have a reasonable amount of experience in more traditional feedback control system analysis, but somehow I have avoided the need to use fuzzy logic implementations in the many real applications I've been involved with.

My crude understanding of fuzzy logic control indicates that it is well suited to do power maximization, which turns out to be a little difficult to do with standard control techniques. Another advantage of fuzzy logic power maximization control is that it can work even when you don't have a good understanding of the system interactions and effects that impact power and efficiency. Hence, fuzzy logic control allows you to monitor the power production and tweak controls on the system until power is maximized.

 

[dlgoff]

Can you explain a little bit about what will i do with fuzzy logic?

Wikipedia gives some applications of fuzzy control systems that you might be interested in looking at.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzzy_control_system#History_.26_applications"

 

[stevenb]

I normally don't interact via PMs or visitor messages, so I'll post a response publically. Feel free to post any questions in this thread. I do keep an eye on the threads I've participated in. If you find I've missed a question, you can send me a PM to tell me a question is posted in the public thread.

Good day sir. What i meant is that how can i implement fuzzy logic on energy harvesting? Also, i can't really grasp what is energy harvesting. And what does it do with renewable energy. Do i need to simulate? Thanks for the replies.

First, the term "energy harvesting" is just a way of referrring to the extraction of energy from existing energy sources. Good examples of the sources are solar, wind and ocean energy. This energy is always there, but it takes the proper technology to extract the energy to be useful in modern appications, particularly for conditioning to electrical power systems. A good example is the modern wind farm. Note the use of the word "farm" which again calls to mind the idea of "harvesting". It's just a nice metaphor, that's all.

Second, how you implement fuzzy logic on energy harvesting is something you will need to figure out as part of deciding on your project. However, I can give an example. In solar power, there is the idea of implementing power-point-tracking (PPT). At first, it may sound like PPT means pointing solar cells at the sun to maximize power, but that is not what it means; although that is an important thing to do. PPT means changing the load on the solar cells so that the extracted power is maximized based on the amount of light hitting the cell. If the load is open circuit (infinite resistance), then the voltage is highest, but current is zero. If the load is shorted (zero resistance), then current is highest, but voltage is zero. Since power is voltage times current, both cases give zero power. What is needed is some intermediate load resistance that allows some voltage and some current, but maximum power. One of the many ways to implement PPT is to use a fuzzy logic controller to maximize power by changing the solar cell loading until maximum power is obtained.

If you study the system designs of existing energy extraction systems, you will find many places where parameters need to be adjusted (based on changing conditions such as light level, wind speeds, seastates etc.) in order to maximize power harvesting. If you look at these examples, you may get an new idea for your project.

As far as similation, I would think that a school project would rely heavily on simulations and theory. Then perhaps you could make a small scale model of your idea in order to show proof of concept and validate the simulation models.

 

[jermonster]

I appreciate your replies sir. I now understand what you meant. The only problem now is the modelling of the idea which in your example is the solar cell. On how to model and how to apply fuzzy logic on it.