Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

The successfull testing of the electronic power devices and hybrid power sources designed and developed by professors Dessaint and Al-Haddad requires an accurate representation of the loads specific to particular applications such as more electric aircrafts (MEA), hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), auxiliary power supplies (APU), etc. The load dynamics are of great importance on the dimensioning of the electronic power devices and validation of the energy management strategies (EMS). A programmable AC/DC electronic load can represent these dynamics precisely and therefore ensure the robustness and effectiveness of power electronics devices and the associated energy management strategy for all critical scenarios. The requested funds will be used to purchase six units of the Chroma 63804 series programmable AC/DC electronic load. Each unit is rated 4.5 kVA and can be connected in parallel. The 6 units will form a 3 phase load of 27 kVA. This rating is sufficient to handle all the power sources to be tested by our research team. Key features of this programmable AC/DC electronic load are constant current, constant power, constant resistance and constant voltage modes, programmable power factor (0 to 1, lead or lag), wide frequency range of operation (45 to 440 Hz, DC), inrush current and short circuit modes and phase imbalanced mode. Finally, the programmable AC/DC electronic load can be remotely controlled via RS-232 and USB interfaces and it integrates high accuracy internal measurements. Therefore, external measurement instruments will not be required and all data can be retrieved from a single location for the design and validation purposes.