Content, progress and pedagogy of the module

The module is based on knowledge achieved when studying the 2nd semester on the Master of Science in  Energy Engineering with an electrical specialisation or Master of Science in Sustainable Energy Engineering with specialisation in Offshore Energy Systems or the Master in Advanced Power Electronics.

Learning objectives

Knowledge

• Have a solid knowledge about the electromagnetic field behaviour for various types of electrical machines. This gives a firm base for understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of different types of electrical machines. It consequently leads to a good understanding of new types of machines invented in recent years, e.g. the modern drive unit in electric vehicles or wind turbines, and magnetic gears.
• Have a detailed knowledge of the small DC link drive system and the corresponding active damping control methods. This has become a hot topic in recent years.
• Gain good experience about design of various controllers to meet different requirements, e.g. very low speed stable operation, low-cost controller design, drive stability issues, etc.

Skills

• Be able to understand and evaluate new types of high performance electrical machines that may occur in the future
• Be able to identify the pros and cons of existing sensorless control methods and design the most proper controller for selected applications using digital platforms
• Be aware of important practical implementation issues when designing the controller
• Be able to test, measure and characterize the performance of different electrical drive systems

Competences

• Independently be able to contribute to a professional team dealing with design of modern electrical drives, including new high performance electrical machines and advanced control technologies using digital platforms

Type of instruction

The course is taught by a mixture of lectures, workshops, exercises, mini-projects and self-studies including e-learning activities. Instead of using complicated mathematical equations and electromagnetic theory, particularly-made Finite Element Models visualizing the electromagnetic field behaviour inside a machine will be used to give an easy but deep access to many difficult topics involved in the electrical machine theory. Various advanced sensorless control technologies developed in recent years will be discussed for permanent magnet machine and synchronous reluctance machine (which has received great interests in recent years). Achievements obtained from recent PhD projects carried out at the department will be presented.

Extent and expected workload

Since it is a 5 ECTS course module, the work load is expected to be 150 hours for the student.

Exam

Exams