1.) 1B07402, Z- Source Inverter for fuel cell
Award: Commendation
Objectives: To develop a laboratory prototype of the power grid interface based on Z-source inverter and to carry out experiments to test its usability.
Description: Fuel cell generators are found to be potential distributed power generating sources. One of greater challenges in a distributed power system is the high cost of power system interface and control system. While it is necessary to reduce the cost of power conditioning system, the efficiency, reliability and power quality of the system must also be improved. Therefore the design of a power conditioning system needs be carried out in order to achieve those conflicting requirements. This Z-source inverteris able to provide grid interfacing as it possesses both buck and boost capabilities without the requirement of additional dc-dc converter stage.
Project students: Arumugam Rajendra Prasadh, Kaliaperumal Selvamani Ezhavendan, Kumarathasan Senthuran
Supervisors: Kannurao Sudha, Cham Yew Thean
2.) 1B07452, Control System for Fuel Cell Power Plant
Award: Commendation
Objectives: To achieve real-time monitoring and control the Complex Programmable Logic Device to reduce the circuit’s complexity and simulate the power plant operation situation via a Graphical User Interface to save data and ensure it can be rechecked by days, weeks and months.
Description: This system is able to monitor and control the situation in fuel cell power plant and control areas like fuel cell stack and DC-DC converter within it. The data is collected from the fuel cell stacks and power conditioning system, and displayed on the computer using a developed Graphical User interface (GUI). If the data is out of range, the system will raise an alarm.
Project students: Yang Ye, Feng Qian Qian, Lui Yuan
Supervisors: Jia Junbo, Lee Jun Hong
3.) 2A05016 Fuel Cell Applications 2
Award: Commendation (MP2006)
The objectives of this project were to learn the basic theories of the PEM fuel cell and their characteristics by testing different fuel cell stacks with different loads and also to produce a new type of portable power source by using 19 PEM fuel cell stacks.
As the developer of this project, our specific aims were to:
- Study the process of PEM fuel cell
- Learn about how to assemble the fuel cell stacks.
- Test and measure the voltage, current and power of PEM fuel cell with different loads
- Design the voltage regulator and dc to dc converter to provide 19V, 9V and 5V outputs.
Students involved: May Thin Kyang, El Pwint Phyu Htun, Ma Thinn Thinn Aung
Supervisor: Mr. Au Wing Kong Eric
4.) 1A05154 Development of an Automatic Testing System for Nemic Lambda Power Supply
Award: Commendation (MP2005)
The overall objective of this project was to develop an automatic testing system based on the power supply that can perform the testing of the various parameters automatically. The whole system should be able to operate stably, sequentially and intelligently. As the developer of this project, the aims were to
- Write a program using LabVIEW Software to make PCs be able to control the other instruments automatically and sequentially by GPIB card
- Design the presentable front panel and the clear block diagram of the program
- Integrate the individual program into a complete one
- Integrate the separate hardware with the tested circuit
- Test the entire system successfully
Students Involved: Jiang Xue Song, Lu Meng Da, Xu Kai
Supervisors: Dr. Zhu Shihe, Mr. Cham Yew Thean
5.) 1A05071 Development of Solar 1
Award: Commendation (MP2005)
The aim was to develop a user-friendly and simple standalone photovoltaic security lighting system, which can operate for 12 hours per day. The system should be cost effective, require little maintenance and be environment friendly. As the developers of the project, our objectives were to:
- Do the sizing and system calculations
- Purchase all accessories and equipment for the system
- Design and fabricate control panel box
- Test the circuitry in the panel box to meet required electrical standards
- Test the whole system at the school barbeque pit.
- Implement a duplicate but scaled down version at TP.
Students Involved: Lee Him Kheng, Lai Yufen Winnie, Lai Geok Ching Stella
Supervisors: Mr. Khaw Boon Hai Tony, Mr. Low Khan Mong
6.) 1A05054 Development of a 1kW Inverter base on Fuel cell
Award: Merit Award (MP 2005)
The aim of the project was to develop a 1kW inverter using a hydrogen fuel cell. The inverter should use a PWM technology. The product should be affordable and able to keep a constant output voltage. The specific objectives were to:
- Make an inverter of specification 12VDC to 230VAC output, 50Hz frequency
- Make an efficient transformer with 230V output voltage and 1kW output power
- Provide an output feedback
- Implement the device using reduced number of components and integrated circuits
Students Involved: Praveen Kurian Tihina Unnikrishnamenon Sreekanth
Supervisors: Mr. Jia Junbo, Mr. Cham Yew Thean
7.) Automatic Electronic Resettable Starter
TP-LTA collaboration projects Award winner and Merit Award Winner (Electronics Innovation category) during Engineering project Show 2000 .
The Automatic Electronic Resettable Starter is a project initiated by the Land Transport Authority (LTA). The purpose of this device is to eliminate the inconvenience caused by flickering tube lights.
Employing the characteristics of fluorescent lamps, this device operates by detecting and switching off malfunctioning tube lights. An external reset button needs to be depressed to reset the circuit to its normal functioning state each time a faulty tube is replaced.
Students Involved: Abdul Razak Bin Mohamed Idris, Ariffin Bin Zainal
Supervisor: Mr Joshi Shamkant
8.) A00552 EL Lamp Power Converter (FYP)
Award: Merit Award (FYP2000)
An electro-luminescent lamp is primarily made up of a phosphor coating on a dielectric that is sandwiched between two conductors, making it look like a capacitor electrically. For phosphor to glow, excitation energy is applied to them, and this energy can come from conducted or radiated electrons, or an electric field. Henceforth, such a lamp requires drive from a high alternating voltage source in order to emit light.
This project is to build a small-size and high-efficient DC-AC power converter capable of illuminating novel flat electro-luminescent lamp. The power converter is powered by a low voltage DC source while the output is a 400 Hz AC voltage with a peak to peak voltage of 180V.
Students Involved: Ben Lau Hong Hoh, Samlar Kanasan
Supervisor: Dr. Zhang Hua
9.) 2A00045 Sine Wave EL Lamp Converter
Award: Merit Prize (Temasek PICmicro Contest - 2nd run)
This DC-AC power converter is specially designed to power up the EL lamp witch requires mid-range power. The input to the converter is low level DC voltage which usually can be obtained from a battery. The input voltage will be boosted to 80 VDC (bus voltage) which will then further be inverted to create the high AC voltage. To have a sine waveform output from the converter, a digital sine fundamental reference is first generated by the PICmicro MCU. This signal is further compared with the carrier frequency with much higher frequency to produce the sine-modulated control signals for the inverter. As an application of the power converter developed, an triangular plate making use of EL lamp for displaying at night time during car emergency /accident is constructed and the power converter developed is used to provided the AC voltage required.
Students Involved: Chan Hong Wei, Melvin Tham Jia Sheng, Chan Ching Hwa
Supervisor: Dr. Zhang Hua
10.) 1A00124 Active Power Factor Correction
Most off-line switching power supplies have rectifier-capacitor type input circuit and draw their current in narrow pulses at the peak of the ac supply voltage waveform. The resulting input current has a peak value much higher than that corresponding to a sinusoidal input current resulting in poor power factor. Thus, various researchers have proposed various active power factor correction circuits to overcome this problem.
To study and understand the concept of single stage Active Power Factor Correction
To perform literature research survey on the various converter topologies
To design and simulate the circuit by using a suitable simulation software such as PSPICE, SABER or MATLAB.
To fabricate and test a prototype of the proposed circuit
Students Involved: Christopher Tan, Wong Wai Loon, Lester Tang
Supervisor: Mr. Cham Yew Thean
11.) 500 Watt DC-DC Converter
This project is to build a 500W DC-DC converter using Flat Transformer Technology. It is using a half-bridge topology with an input voltage of 150V and output current of 100A at a switching frequency of 250 KHz. It is designed to be portable and less costly than the conventional power supplies.
Students Involved: Wang Tee Liang, Sim Sue EE, Jenny, Jacquelina Aloysius Nonis
Supervisor: Mr. Au Wing Kong, Eric
