Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The proposal focuses on designing and developing innovative power electronics topologies and novel modulation techniques for marine electrification and more electric aircraft (MEA). Marine Electrification (Sea transportation) and MEA (air transportation) are two heavy electric transportation systems and of different categories than ground transportation. Significant research on power electronics and drives for ground electric vehicles has been done and is at saturation now. However, power electronics research for marine and MEA is not mature yet. There are different challenges for power electronics for these two applications. Several industries are investigating on power electronics for these marine and MEA due to their different and specific requirements. Research program on marine and MEA is lacking in Canadian Universities. Therefore, the aim of this research proposal is to establish a research program on power electronics for marine and MEA. Power electronics is key enabling technology for electrifying the conventional transportation systems. Modulation schemes to control the switching states of the semiconductor devices of power electronics are important to meet the specific requirements and realize the desired attributes such as volume, weight, efficiency, etc. Marine and MEA involve MG power processing. To achieve high efficiency for higher power marine system, Medium Voltage (MV) solutions have been proposed and industries are adopting it. However, existing devices have limitation on their blocking voltage. Therefore, Modular Multilevel Converters (MMCs) are proposed for MV high power applications. To limit device switching losses at MV, it is better to modulate the devices at low switching frequency. However, it compromises on total harmonic distortion (THD) of inverter output currents. Therefore, this research program aims at developing Medium Voltage DC (MVDC) MMCs and optimal low frequency modulation for MVDC marine propulsion systems to reduce switching loses while not compromising on THD. Power electronic solutions such as matrix converter based direct ac-ac conversion without dc link and Active-Front-End rectifier with dc link will be investigated to eliminate bulky phase-shifting transformer. For MEA, power electronic solutions to develop ac/dc converter with variable frequency of 360 to 800 Hz will be investigated with minim THD. The proposed research program will strategize to implement high switching frequency modulation to limit the cost and volume of the magnetics, and filters. Wide bandgap devices, Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) and magnetic materials, Nano Crystalline will be investigated to develop more efficient power converters with low thermal requirements. The proposal will also investigate current-fed power electronics solutions owing to their current limiting, voltage gain, and short circuit protection features.