Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080217471 | INTELLIGENT AIRCRAFT SECONDARY POWER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM THAT FACILITATES CONDITION BASED MAINTENANCE - An electrical power distribution system comprises a solid state power controller in communication with an aircraft system main data bus via a gateway module and a condition based maintenance module in communication with the solid state power controller via a communication network distinct from the main data bus. A method of load/feeder health assessment for an electrical power distribution system includes applying a controlled excitation to a load; sampling information from the load/feeder system for the load; characterizing a normal behavior of the load/feeder system for the load; determining if the load characteristics are within the normal behavior profile for the load; and shutting down power to the load if load characteristics are not within the profile when immediate action is indicated or generating a health message for the load when immediate action is not required. | 09-11-2008 |
20090079436 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GENERALIZED AC AND DC ARC FAULT DETECTION AND PROTECTION - According to the features discussed herein, through a single generalized arc-fault detection algorithm, various types of series and/or parallel arc faults can be detected without any nuisance trip for either AC or DC Electric Power Systems. Running Discrete Fourier Series (RDFS) formulation for nuisance-free operation and cost-effective implementation is developed. Unlike other methods which require numerous source and load-side current and voltage measurements, only source side current is required. An arc detector may include a first detector to monitor variations of a magnitude of a fundamental component of a current, and a second detector to monitor an overload condition based in an i | 03-26-2009 |
20090122454 | AUGMENTATION OF AMBIENT TEMPERATURE AND FREE CONVECTION EFFECTS IN THERMAL CIRCUIT BREAKER TRIP CURVE APPROXIMATIONS - An electrical overload protection system may be based on a solid state control system. A solid state switch may open responsively to commands for a solid-state controller. The controller may perform calculations to determine accumulated energy in a protected conductor. The calculations may be based, in part, on samplings of current in the protected conductor and ambient temperature to which the conductor may be exposed. | 05-14-2009 |
20090135628 | METHOD AND APPARATUS OF CAPACITOR DIVIDER BASED OFFLINE AC-DC CONVERTER - An AC/DC power converter has, as its first stage, a capacitor divider and rectifier and, as the second stage, a switch mode power supply. This configuration may be suitable for low power low voltage aerospace applications. The benefits of the circuit may include small reactive component size; near sinusoidal input current, low EMI emissions resulting from low inrush current; intrinsic current limiting that may eliminate the need for short circuit protection; and low overall component count. | 05-28-2009 |
20100171480 | METHOD AND APPARATUS OF A UNIFIED CONTROL SOLUTION FOR BRIDGELESS POWER FACTOR CONTROLLERS AND GRID CONNECTED INVERTERS - A unified control solution for both bridgeless power factor controllers and grid connected inverters is disclosed. Conventionally, the bridgeless power factor controllers and the grid connected inverters are controlled with different approaches. In the present invention, it is disclosed that the two kinds of applications can be controlled with one unified approach. With the disclosed method, one single integrated circuit can be made and be used in both applications. Firstly, a sample based controller is disclosed to derive the ac current reference from the ac voltage and the dc voltage. The ac current reference is forced to be proportional to the ac voltage. The proportion coefficient is derived from the dc voltage in such a way to keep the dc voltage constant. Furthermore, the coefficient is updated only once every half ac line cycle. So as long as the ac current follows the current reference, the dc voltage will be regulated to a constant, and the ac current will be pure sinusoidal. Secondly, a new current mode switching pattern is disclosed based on an improved hysteretic switching pattern. The disclosed switching pattern minimizes the number of switching event and removes the deadtime requirement without the risk of shoot through. | 07-08-2010 |
20100171482 | METHOD AND APPARATUS OF A MAXIMUM POWER POINT TRACKING CIRCUIT FOR SOLAR POWER GENERATION - A circuit that tracks the maximum power point of the solar cell is disclosed in the present invention. Unlikely conventional way of maximum power point tracking (maximum power point is referred to as MPP hereinafter; maximum power point tracking is referred to as MPPT hereinafter) which tracks MPP in the time frame of second or minutes, in the disclosed invention, MPP is tracked within the switching cycle, using the natural current ripple of the downstream converter circuit. The switching cycle is in the order of 10s of micro-seconds. Within the switching cycle of the converter, there is a natural current ripple which will result in the power change. The MPPT circuit tracks the power change and adjusts the current reference value accordingly to operate at MPP of the solar cell. | 07-08-2010 |
20100172167 | METHOD AND APPARATUS OF AN IMPROVEMENT IN PWM SWITCHING PATTERNS - An improvement in PWM switching patterns applicable for almost all voltage source converters is disclosed. Conventional PWM switching patterns, including carrier based PWM, spacer vector PWM, hysteretic switching pattern, etc, contain a lot of unnecessary switching events. In the present invention, most of the unnecessary switching events are eliminated. The benefits of the method include the significant reduction in control power dissipation which is very attractive especially in high power applications; no risk of shoot through; and no need for deadtime. This method can be easily applied to all existing switching patterns with a little modification. The modification can be in hardware, if the original switching pattern is generated in hardware; it can also be in software, if the original switching pattern is generated in software. | 07-08-2010 |
20110012607 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GENERALIZED AC AND DC ARC FAULT DETECTION AND PROTECTION - According to the features discussed herein, through a single generalized arc-fault detection algorithm, various types of series and/or parallel arc faults can be detected without any nuisance trip for either AC or DC Electric Power Systems. Running Discrete Fourier Series (RDFS) formulation for nuisance-free operation and cost-effective implementation is developed. Unlike other methods which require numerous source and load-side current and voltage measurements, only source side current is required. An arc detector may include a first detector to monitor variations of a magnitude of a fundamental component of a current, and a second detector to monitor an overload condition based in an i | 01-20-2011 |