Because of the fuel crisis and problems associated with thermal
pollution there is new impetus and urgency for developing more
efficient energy conversion systems for power generation. A preliminary
analysis was undertaken to determine the potential of staged
Rankine cycle systems for substantially higher efficiency. It was
necessary to optimize...
With the rapid increase of the world energy demand and
consumption, the method and techniques to analyze, improve
and optimize energy conversion systems have to deal not only
with direct fuel exergy (energy) consumption, but also with
other resources, which have associated exergy consumptions,
and with environmental impacts, such as...
Direct-conversion architecture would dominate the modern low power wireless receiver architecture if problems such as offset cancellation, even-order distortion, and flicker noise were solved. Among those problems, offset is the most serious one. This thesis will discuss and analyze one approach to cancel offsets in direct-conversion receivers. First, we explain...
As the demand for real-time information in engineering and health care systems keeps increasing, the need for wireless sensor nodes is also continuously increasing. As a result, the cost and effort involved in installing and maintaining batteries to power the numerous sensor nodes is growing exponentially. Providing a cost effective...
Airborne Wind Energy System (AWES) are quickly coming to fruition, with increased energy production while reducing the cost of implementation and materials. This thesis develops a new computational model for a tethered AWES and characterizes a new rapid prototyping method with the objective of supporting the design and rapid prototyping...
Modern wind energy is the technology of choice with a short payback period for increasing renewable energy portfolios. Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), a United States power authority in the Pacific Northwest expects to increase their wind energy capacity from 2,000 megawatts to 6,000 megawatts within the next five years. Currently...
The primary objective of a grid is to maintain a balance between generation and load. If these quantities are not in balance with each other, severe damages such as voltage fluctuations, low power quality, power outages or even cascaded blackouts may occur. Hence one of the primary factors that holds...
In the year 2007, the worldwide energy consumption accumulated to a total of 16.5 billion MWh. While the resources of conventional energy production cause environmental damage, renewable energy sources like solar or wind power offer a solution to substitute for coal or nuclear generated power. Countries like Denmark and Spain...
Presented is an investigation into the modeling, active control design, and simulation of a generic horizontal pendulum wave energy converter, known as a PWEC. A description is provided of the dominant attributes PWECs have, showcasing their promising potential as wave energy converters. Seeking to further promote this potential, an active...
Variable electrical generation (VG) sources such as wind farms are an increasing percentage of total electrical generation in the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) balancing area and are starting to impact the ability of the regional balancing authority to control the electric grid. Wind farms are not dispatchable and challenge historical...
The substantial wave energy resource of the US Pacific Northwest (i.e. off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and N. California) is assessed and characterized. Archived spectral records from ten wave measurement buoys, operated and maintained by the National Data Buoy Center and the Coastal Data Information Program, form the basis...
Harvesting energy from the environment for powering micro-power devices have been increasing in popularity. These types of devices can be used in embedded applications or in sensor networks where battery replacement is impractical. In this dissertation, different methods of energy harvesting from the environment are explored as alternative sources of...
Ocean testing of Wave Energy Converter (WEC) prototypes is necessary to facilitate commercial WEC development. The Ocean Sentinel Instrumentation Buoy, completed in August 2012, provides a stand-alone load for WEC prototypes during ocean testing. The first part of this work was to develop the power conversion and data acquisition equipment...