VTB and the Future Energy Challenge Project

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VTB and the Future EnergyChallenge Project
Sep. 17, 2003

• Antonello Monti
• Dept. of Electrical Engineering
• University of South Carolina
• Columbia, SC 29208

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Overview of the presentation

• What is the Future Energy Challenge
• The VTB support
• The USC results

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The Future Energy Challenge

• A worldwide competition for Electrical Engineers
  mostly with a Power Electronics focus
• Organized by IEEE together with other
  institutions
• A great opportunity to put together research and
  teaching

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What is FEC ?
We design ..
We build ..
We test ..
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The History

• The first edition was in 2001
• The sponsor were DOD, DOE, IEEE, NASEO
• The challenge a converter for Fuel-Cell to be
  used in home application

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The History

• USC participated with one team
• We reached the semi-final (together with other 9
  schools around the country)

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FEC2003

• USC presented two project proposals in two
  different topics
• In one of the topics USC was the only one
  participating .. Virtually we won and they
  canceled the competition
• For Topic b (electrical-drives) we have been
  accepted

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The project

• 2. Innovations in motors and motor drive systems
  that produce deep cuts in losses and costs for
  home (appliance) use, or that could replace
  universal motor brush machines in residential
  applications

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What we did ..

• We designed the whole system
• We built everything inside USC !!!
• The students really did the job
• We created an innovative solution that is ready
  for patent you are going to change your
  washing machine pretty soon!!!!

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The VTB support
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The motor model
Electrical Sub-net
Mechanical Sub-net
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A Physics-based approach
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Integration with FEM Analysis
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Simple Applications
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Simple Applications
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Final schematic
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Simulation results
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Simulation results
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Real Design
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The experimental platform
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Real Hardware
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Real Hardware
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Real results
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And at the end ?

• We qualified for the final together with other 4
  schools all around the world
• We got an award !!!!

IEEE Honorable Mention and 2500 in cash !!!!