Non-thesis MSEE with Concentration in Power; Renewable Energy

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Introduction

My self smit shah and I am pursuing Master’s degree in the field of Electrical Engineering with the concentration in Power and Renewable Energy, after completing the bachelor’s degree, I was interested to learn and pursue more things about power system and solar energy, and USF provides me this opportunity So, In this portfolio I would like to discuss my Sequence subjects which offer me a significant amount of fundamental as well as practical Knowledge and 2 Math Courses which is provided excellent information and real-time problem-solving skills.

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Power Electronics

Power electronics technically the detailed approach to all fundamental concepts and theories of the transistor, diode, and thyristor. After the initial time of period we started the main topics like dc-dc switch-mode converters, diode-based rectifier, and dc-ac converters, I have taken this subject in spring 2019 under Dr.Zhin lee Miao. He provides us detailed and vast knowledge about how these components and machinery works and their use in industries and their applications.

After the first few weeks, we learned different diode rectifiers like a single-phase diode rectifier bridge that provides the large capacity of dc output for energy storage, so these fundamental topics give me a clear idea about diode rectifier and their working. We discussed the dc-dc switch-mode Converter and their applications and classifications. We debated about buck-boost converter topology, buck converter,(step down) which is step down the voltage supply from the load and boost converter (step-up), which is step up the voltage supply from input to load, So buck-boost Converter either step up or step down the voltage according to the requirement of the load.

I learned and found the best to implement and work in the industry is that dc-ac Inverter and their circuit analysis, in this topic, we acquire different sub-topics such as single-phase and three-phase inverters and their useful applications.
The Practical Implementation of the coursework done in the lab, in the lab we perform various experiments like buck converter (step down) which as is said earlier it is a significant type of dc-dc Converter, in particular, this Experiment We worked on to find out the switching frequency and duty ratio about different values by using power electronics research board and oscilloscope, Besides, 2nd Experiment which is buck-boost Converter, the main objective was to give hands-on experience on operating power electronics devices and in the task we set the duty ratio, set the switching frequency and measured the inductor current, output voltage RMS value and calculate the efficiency in various conditions, So overall lab experiments give me vast knowledge and good experience with pieces of equipment.
Although I learned good software which is called PSCAD (Power Systems Computer Aided Designs), which is the simulation software that helps to construct a circuit, analyze the result and simulate our circuits, this was the best way to understand the circuit algorithm and their concepts. I had to perform the Experiment in certain conditions, and also I need to compare our results with the theoretical values so it would clarify your answers.
In the last few weeks of the semester, I learned introduction to some applications like motor drives and wind energy system, in this topic we discussed the fundamental forms of motor drives and related to their parts as well as real-world issues and their solution on wind energy and their production.
After studying this subject helps me a lot to understand not only basic concepts and topology of different components but gives me a practical overview, which can help me to implement anywhere in industry or other places.

Electrical Machines; Drives

Electrical machines and drives determine the practical approach of all power electronic materials and circuit simulation and analysis, which I studied in power electronics. In this coursework, from the beginning, I learned basic electrical machine overview which I already reviewed in my undergraduate after that we move on to the induction machines and synchronous machine, which is one of the exciting and helpful topics in this course, I learned dynamic model equation of induction motor with current and voltage, In this topic personally give me a very brief idea about how induction motor and different synchronous machines frames rotate around different directions using the d-q model.
Besides, I learned voltage fed converters and single and three-phase inverters working it gives me a good idea about 3-phase Inverter working as well as different PWM techniques like Sinusoidal PWM (SPWM), Selected Harmonic Elimination (SHE), and space vector PWM (SVM), in this techniques I learned that the inverter control is simple and also their switching losses are shallow because of there are only six switchings per cycle frequency helps to lower the losses.
I also get a chance to learn the Simulink software, and I performed many homework problems in Simulink/Matlab that gives me good practice with designing real-time circuits, and complex values, I also found exciting examples and demo’s like voltage fed inverters, below I mentioned the (VSC) Simpower example which gives me perfect idea about changing the system frequency it measures the real/ reactive power to load and this is the most practical design I have been work in this course work \nBelow there are some screenshots of different Vab converter, Vabc(60HZ) output\n
After working with this software gives me more practical knowledge about different induction motors and voltage fed inverters
After studying this course under Dr, Zhin (lee) Miao, he provides me a good understanding of every topic and more practical aspects to understand and implement soon that is the best thing I found about this coursework

Solar Energy; Applications

Solar Energy & applications coursework provides Great and detailed Knowledge about Fundamental of Solar radiation, so at the beginning of this coursework we discussed fundamental theories of solar energy conversation and sun-earth geometric relationship that gives me a perfect idea about solar radiation, Besides I learned one of the exciting and helpful subtopics of this course and that is solar thermal collectors, so the basic principle of solar thermal collection is that they collect the solar radiant energy from the sun and the heat strike to the surface after that surface absorbed some amount of heat and increase the efficiency of the collector, we also learned their types such as Air type collectors, Liquid type collectors, Flate plate collectors
In the midway of the semester, I also learned some beneficial topics like solar thermal power and photovoltaics, so we started the discussion as a fundamental theory such as thermodynamic power cycles, design of parabolic power plants and we shifted to the analysis of PV cells and their efficiency, in this part I learned the PV cells analysis which helps me to design the PV devices for different applications and locations, apart from that I learned Pv system sizing that provides the average values of energy and power through solar radiation and their component efficiencies.
We also had to do a final project for this course, and my topic was “Complete design of 20KW solar power system with 4 hours of battery storage” in this project I need to implement all of the knowledge and work what I learn from this subject, so I need to choose one location that is Jacksonville, FL, and for that, I need to calculate the solar radiation for each month from the whole year, and after that from that we need to make a component selection like Inverters, collectors, batteries and also made a schematic diagram of my location, below I have attached schematic diagram for my project\nOne of the main thing about this project that I calculated was Economic Analysis and total system cost, this thing gives you the perfect idea about any PV system you want to design in future and the conclusion I got for 20Kw system was that the payback period I get is comparatively short and this design is just like the conceptual design for the beginners to use or study
So, as I said earlier, I took this course under Dr. Yogi Goswami, and he gave me evident and fundamental knowledge about solar energy applications. Instead of book theories, he also taught us real-world issues and their solutions that very helpful for me.

Design of Solar Power Plants

I have taken this subject in spring 2020, and I am studying right now this course under Dr. Yogi Goswami and Dr. E.K. Stefanakos, I wanted to learn more about Pv system design of Power plants and gain more things from this course.
First of all, in this coursework, I need to work on two projects, One is the 10MW PV design of Power plants in Logan, Utah and Second is Concentrated power plant design in Monticello, Utah that we are working on it,
First of all, in the PV design of power plants, I learned a lot of practical knowledge from software like System model advisor that helps me for Economic Analysis and other software is helioscope from that I made a design layout for Commercial location.
Secondly, the previous course that I took that helps me a lot to clear basic fundamental things in solar energy and PV power plant design, as well as provides me many helpful topics that I am using right now for my PV power plant design project, so after we get location, I researched site selection and comparison about the rates, apart from that we made a detailed component selection like Transformer, inverters and solar panels that helpful for our project.
The primary purpose of this project is to make a whole design for the 10MW generation and try to get low LCOE (Levelized Cost of Energy), and payback period, below I attached our Economical analysis chart that provides detailed cost analysis for this project.\nWe also visited Teco big bend Solar. They design a 19.6MW power plant in 106 Acres using thin-film panels and high rating transformers, besides they have their distribution grid and battery storage. Hence, they distribute their electricity from their location, from this visit, I also learned a lot of practical knowledge and also we get real-time question answer from the experts, so the overall experience was beneficial for us.
Now, I am working on our Second Project of this Semester, which is on Concentrated solar panel, and our location for this project is Monticello, Utah. For this project, I am glad that I am learning new software, which is called IPSEPRO.
For, Concentrated solar power plant design, I am working on commercial site selection as well as learning new software, which is providing proper guidance for design and layout.
So, after studying the first phase of this design of solar power plant coursework gives me the ability to create a whole design and research the individual parts for the project by myself and also cleared many basic queries, so I am looking forward to learning more from this subject.

Linear and Matrix Algebra

I took this subject in Fall 2019 under Dr.Timothy Fawcett. This subject provides the equation solving techniques using various topics like vector spaces and their subspaces, and the beginning of the semester I learned the basic introduction of vector and matrices that provide me the fundamental knowledge of different matrices, after we move forward to some vector operations, LU decomposition, and about sparse matrix, I also learn the various models and examples in Matlab.
In the last week before the midterm, I learned the orthogonality, rank nullity theorem, Gram-Schmidt process, and projection from these topics I pursue many ways to solve linear equations using different aspects, besides orthogonality and this process also helpful for data analysis, that also gives me a good knowledge about analysis, for example in one question there are some data set given about population and from that we need to use different projection and regression methods to analyze the data and give them flowchart or results.
After that, we move forward to eigenvalue and eigenvectors and in this topic, we cover some basic tools like their definitions and use, determinant and some numerical tools, we also worked on group project related to this topic and my project title was “Stochastic and Markov matrix”, the main purpose about this project was to provides the solution for sequence-based events and their chains, we also used some examples to justify the stochastic process and Markov matrix, first of all, each row summing to 1, then it is called right stochastic matrix, similarly, if each column is summing to 1 then it is called as the left stochastic matrix \nNow I am talking about the conclusion of this project,
From the above stochastic & Markov matrix process, there are applications to estimate and improve the discrete-time intervals, these applications exist in many fields nowadays, one of the application is Markov chains, that gives you the upcoming outcome of the event and many realistic results but, not in every situation these results are satisfactory, besides every time the model gets an update and feedback
In the last few weeks of the semester, we discussed some special matrices like symmetric, skew-symmetric semidefinite and stochastic matrices, this matrices also helped me to understand the concept of different usage of matrices as well as it will also be used for analysis and improvements for models.
After studying this subject under Timothy J. Fawcett I get a good understanding of linear algebra and matrix operations as well as he provides good real-time examples to get a complete idea of each topic and project gives us an idea of various applications about the topics

Random Processes

This course gives the ability to modeling and evaluating various engineering processes as well as a higher level of estimation and prediction for the systems, I took this course under Dr. Mahshid R. Naeini in spring 2020, from the beginning of the semester, We review probability theory and functions of random variables, in this functions I learned Bernoulli process, binomial distribution, Poisson random variable that is used to model many physical aspects, for example, Radiactive decay or message traffic receiver in some device
After moving forth, we review some joint probability distribution examples, autocorrelation, probability distribution function – these topics give me clarity about how we can distribute the Number of trial outcomes variously, although we also review the Markov and Chebyshev inequality that provides the probabilities in terms of expectations and predictions.
Moreover, I studied the Sum of random variables also known as independent variables that provides me the different engineering problems, I also learned that random variables always represent by probability distribution function (pdf) & Cumulative distribution function (CDF), CDF always works with the continuous random variable and define as F(X)= P(X<=x), in Continuous RV we also used one more function called Probability density function (PDF) which is exactly same as PMF which is used for discrete RV, I also learned that CDF is the sum of PMF or PDF is also derivative of CDF, there are multiple RV that I learned and from that, I am going to discuss one of them below which is known as Uniform RV, which is also continuous RV, which is equally likely to have any value in some interval A to B, and also provides the variance and expected value to calculate the probability.
So before midterm, I learned very productive and useful topics that give me a fundamental idea about Various Random Variables and their properties.