Dagmar Niebur

Assistant Professor

Key words:

Intelligent Control, Security Assessment, Power System Dynamics, Power Quality, System Identification,

Research description:

Research interests have been focused on the application of intelligent information processing techniques for power systems. Recent investigations include artificial neural networks for power system security assessment where unsupervised techniques were studied for classification and visualization of operating states. Current research projects involve system identification techniques for power quality monitoring. The use of Prony techniques in combination with Kalman Filtering for the detection and prediction of capacitor switching transients is explored. Symbolic computation techniques are studied for capacitor position identification. Furthermore, work is performed in the area of non-linear system analysis, software development, simulation and security assessment for survivability of naval shipboard distribution systems.

Laboratory facilities:

The following laboratory facilities are available at Drexel's Center for Electric Power Engineering for experimental work in the area of electric power systems for both teaching and research:

The COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN LABORATORY provides a large variety of platforms including UNIX Workstations, PC-based NT Workstations and Macintosh computers. These run professional power system software as well as in-house developed interactive software packages for both research and educational purposes, such as an interactive load-flow, steady state and dynamic security assessment and enhancement, short circuit analysis, and voltage stability.

The INTERCONNECTED POWER SYSTEM EDUCATIONAL LABORATORY is currently developed to study power generation/transmission under various planning and operating environments involving students in the management and control of a practical down-sized electric power system.

The MOTOR CONTROL LABORATORY contains a range of conventional electrical machines (synchronous, induction, dc and transformers) for teaching and research on machine operation, dynamics and control.

The RELAY LABORATORY is stocked with a wide range of electromechanical, static and programmable relays. A walk-in isolation chamber is used to study radio frequency interference phenomena. A relay mural consisting of transmission, sub-transmission, distribution and generation relaying is used to fault a power system and observe relay operation and co-ordination.

The POWER ELECTRONICS LABORATORY is equipped with instrument ation for testing high power and high voltage power electronics circuits such as GTO and FET circuit breakers, SCR power inverters, solid state motor drives, etc. In addition, studies are being carried out on laser activated power electronic switches for the purpose of using them in future power distribution systems. Work is also being performed n the field of Ion cluster emission and preposition from liquid metal Ion sources.

The HIGH VOLTAGE LABORATORY is equipped with a 300-KV AC source and a 40-KV DC source for teaching and research.

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