One of four PNRA scholarships available in 2008/09:
PhD research project at the University of Strathclyde - circuit breaker condition monitoring
Power systems' switchgear is rarely operated, yet is required to switch current at short notice under both steady-state and fault conditions. Circuit breaker (CB) failure can have financial repercussions for utilities, affecting both customer minutes lost (CML) and customer interruptions (CI) metrics. Since most failures are related to the operating mechanism, it is necessary to regularly test the CB overall contact opening/closing time which is related to the stored energy used to move the contacts during operation.
Regular testing is expensive since it requires the CB to be removed from service. With operational costs under close scrutiny, and a move towards condition based maintenance, there are drivers towards reducing CB testing costs. One method of achieving this is to test the CB whilst it remains in service. This has the advantage of reducing the outage costs, but the significant disadvantage that conventional timing test equipment is unsuitable since it can only be applied off-line, whilst the CB is disconnected from the system.
This project will investigate a CB condition assessment technique based on radiometry - that is the operation of the CB is assessed through measurement of the radiated emissions during the current switching process. Since radiometric measurements require no electrical connections to the CB, this approach is ideally suited for in-service testing. Another significant advantage is that the measurement is made when the CB is switching current at rated voltage, and thus the test is a genuine reflection of the CB operation compared to a conventional off-line test.
This project will involve the design and testing of specialised equipment for radiometric CB monitoring. The successful candidate will be well motivated, a good communicator and have an outstanding electrical engineering background with experience in one or more of the following areas: analogue and digital hardware design, antenna design, digital signal processing, computer programming and power engineering. The project student will spend time at one of the utility sponsors, as well as working at the University.
I WANT TO:
Power Networks Research Academy
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