Engineering

Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • (1995) Peng, Gang-Ding; Chu, Pak; Lou, X; Chaplin, Rodney
    Journal Article

  • (1996) Peng, Gang-Ding; Chu, Pak; Xiong, Zhengjun; Whitbread, Trevor; Chaplin, Rodney
    Journal Article
    We report the development of a novel and simple technique for fabricating polymer optical fibers of good optical quality for special device applications. This technique aims at polymer fibers doped with various functional organic materials. On the basis of the technique, step-index polymer optical fibers doped with laser dyes have been fabricated. High-gain and high-efficiency optical amplification has been achieved in a Rhodamine B-doped polymer fiber with a low pump power of less 1 kW and pulse width 5 ns. Because a high dye concentration is used, the optimal wavelength range of optical amplification in this fiber is significantly red-shifted toward the center of the communication window (at 650 nm wavelength) of methyl methacrylate-based polymer optical fiber. The shift is from the originally 560 and 590 nm to presently 610 to 640 nm. We also present experimental results that show good photostability of the Rhodamine B-doped polymer fiber, compared with those recently reported in the improved polymer material systems. From the experimental observation, we identified the thermally induced bleach of dye molecules as the major contributing factor to the lifetime of our material system

  • (1995) Peng, Gang-Ding; Chu, Pak; Xiong, Z; Whitbread, Trevor; Chaplin, Rodney
    Conference Paper

  • (1996) Peng, Gang-Ding; Chu, Pak; Xiong, Z; Whitbread, Trevor; Chaplin, Rodney
    Journal Article
    Step-index polymer optical fibre doped with Rhodamine B at 2500 ppm level is fabricated. Using the fibre, we have achieved high-gain and high-efficiency optical amplification with a tunable wavelength range from 610 nm to 640 nm, which is significantly red-shifted toward the centre of the communication window (at 650 nm wavelength) of methyl methacrylate-based polymer optical fibre.

  • (1996) Peng, Gang-Ding; Chu, Pak; Ziong, Z; Whitbread, Trevor; Chaplin, Rodney
    Conference Paper

  • (2021) Akter, Md Parvez
    Thesis
    The battery energy storage system (BESS) has become an indispensable part of the current electricity network due to the vast integration of renewable energy sources (RESs). The vanadium redox flow battery (VRB) is considered the most suitable for grid-tied BESSs due to its long cycle-life, deep discharging capability and decoupling capability of rated power and energy capacity. The charging power from RESs is time-varying, which makes the real-time determination of the optimal charging current challenging, considering the extraction of the maximum amount of power. To address these challenges, an advanced charging control scheme for the VRB storage system is proposed in this thesis. The proposed approach determines the appropriate charging current and the optimal electrolyte flow rate based on the available time-varying input power. Moreover, the charging current is bounded by the limiting current, which prevents the gassing side reactions and protects the VRB from overcharging. The charging/discharging currents fluctuations might be harmful to conventional non-flow (e.g. lead-acid and lithium-ion) batteries. Redox flow batteries, on the other hand, are not subject to slow solid-state reaction kinetics or to the formation of any insulating films on the electrode surface. Therefore, high-frequency ripples may not significantly impact the battery, and some results in existing literature support the claim. However, a complete study on the effects of current ripples on the VRB cell is still missing. This thesis reports results from simulation and experimental studies conducted using a laboratory-scale single vanadium redox flow cell subjected to different ripple currents during charging and discharging. The results confirmed that the ripple currents does not significantly impact the VRB cell. The control techniques of the interfacing converters for VRB systems need to control the average charging/discharging current and the ripple magnitude of this current simultaneously. This introduces significant complexities in the control strategies. A capacitor-less bidirectional synchronous dc-dc converter with a modified control scheme was proposed in this thesis to overcome these limitations. The efficacy of the proposed converter was verified through the experimentations, which confirmed that the proposed converter control the average charging/discharging current and its ripple magnitudes are bounded within the preset limit.