IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks :: Browsing by Author "Weissbach, Robert"

Browsing by Author "Weissbach, Robert"

Now showing 1 - 10 of 26

Analog Magnetic Levitation System
(2024-05-03) Carlson, Evan; Martinez, Ricardo; Alkhalifah, Ali; Weissbach, Robert
The Magnetic Levitation System operates as a closed-loop system, incorporating a photoresistor to provide feedback. The feedback mechanism enables the system to accurately ascertain the vertical position of the ball bearing within space.
API’s & Machine Learning Principles For Fire Systems
(2024-04-24) Felts, Joshua; Moe, Chris; Weissbach, Robert; Freije, Elizabeth; Pash, Phillip
The FireConnect product line exists as a well-developed system for remote monitoring of fire protection systems with an extensive array of compatibility and iterations based on the controller manufacturers and their product lines, each with their own unique communication protocols. The FireConnect service provides the user with a unique interface for their monitoring service with access through a web-based browser or a dedicated mobile application. This product also collects and aggregates the same data on the service providers cloud-based servers, where we as the manufacturer can access this data via an API, or Application Programming Interface. This provides us, the manufacturer, with a plethora of data with an infinite amount of value, ripe with potential for monetization. The problem is nothing has been developed to make use of the data and its untapped potential outside of the real-time monitoring system unless an individual with extensive experience and industry knowledge were to examine the data trends. The goal of this project was to use the data in such a way to generate sales based on the logical use of this data and industry specific requirements for maintenance and testing, to provide automatically generated leads. These leads are to be automatically populated on a user interface, not to be confused with the existing product offering, but to be used by customer service or sales managers to proactively engage with customers, while simultaneously generating an email-based notification for the customer on file.
Asset Management Plan Development for a Wastewater Treatment Plant
(2019-07-10) Wiggam, Lacie B.; Weissbach, Robert; Ray, Veto M.; Rennels, Kenneth
This paper offers insight on the process utilized for developing a basic asset management and maintenance program for a series of assets at a wastewater treatment plant. The wastewater treatment plant where this project was conducted did not have an existing record of its assets nor did it have any type of substantial maintenance plan in place. This ultimately hindered the plant from prolonging the life of its assets and tracking any finances spent on their maintenance and repair. Throughout the duration of this project, asset information was obtained and an asset inventory was created. Operation and maintenance manuals, as well as other supplemental information for each of the assets identified, were obtained in order to develop a substantial maintenance plan for each of the assets. The conclusion of this project resulted in a current asset inventory and a proposed maintenance plan for each of the assets identified. The project provided management at the wastewater treatment plant with a framework for the further development of their asset management plan as well as maintenance plans for any additions to their asset inventory in the future. This project provided a basic framework that allows management to continue to track maintenance and repair costs for the assets in their inventory if they choose to continue to do so. During the course of this project, management of the plant requested that all identifying information is removed. Per management’s request, all identifying information has been removed throughout this paper and all of the other deliverables that were involved in this project. Keywords: asset management, asset maintenance, asset inventory, preventative maintenance, wastewater treatment plant, maintenance plan, reactive maintenance, corrective maintenance
The Automated Home Window Project
(2020-04-30) Ashcraft, Samuel; Bessesen, Chad; Burke, Alyssa; Weissbach, Robert
Terry Walden, a homebuilder and the project sponsor, expressed the need for a vinyl window that can be controlled electronically by a cell phone application. The window will be automated using a Wi-Fi Stepper Microcontroller, a NEMA 23 stepper motor, a worm-gear, and an android application. The automated window will operate by pressing a button on the android phone. This button will send a script to the microcontroller board. From there, the board will control the stepper motor that is attached to the worm gear, effectively closing or opening the window depending on which button was pressed. The frame of the window and the window itself are provided by the sponsor. In order to meet sponsor requirements, the entire electrical and mechanical pieces will fit within a 4inch envelope above the window. The window will fully open, or fully close, within 10 seconds and the voltage to each window will not exceed ~24 VDC. There is an overcurrent sensor that will determine when the window is fully open, fully closed, or obstructed by a foreign object for safety. Opening the window will still be possible manually. The system will operate within the sponsor's needs as it meets each requirement listed in the Specifications Requirements table - which can be found in Chapter 2. To verify that the automated window has met the functional specifications, the test procedures were implemented. The testing specifications have been approved by both the sponsor and Dr. Weissbach. The results of the tests can be found in the Test Specifications document of the report and more information can be found in Chapter 5 of this report.
Cape of Wonders Club
(2022-08-07) Alyami, Bandar; Alghamdi, Mohammed; Weissbach, Robert; Lin, William; Pash, Phil; Freije, Elizabeth
This project aims to create a cape of wonders club that includes technologies. This cape is a square piece of fabric material with electronics inside it, including a blood alcohol sensor, noise sensor, user input screen, and visual display. The electronics are integrated using a microcontroller, which acts as a brain to operate each electronic device. Two battery banks are built to power the electronics and ensure that the project can run for at least 6 hours. The project's two sensors are designed to produce readings. The blood alcohol sensor indicates the level of ethanol in the cape user's blood and displays the results to determine whether the user is below the legal limit or not. The noise sensor reads the music sound in the nightclub and converts it into patterns, which are then shown on the visual display. The visual display, on the other hand, will function as an output, displaying the music patterns. Furthermore, the visual display will exhibit emojis and shapes. The user input screen will allow the user to choose amongst Emojis, shapes, and patterns to be represented in the visual display. The developers of the project will work on building, coding, soldering, and testing these electronics to ensure that they function properly. They will ensure that this club cape is well-made and that it seems fashionable and appealing to the customers of the nightclub cape.
Comparison of Undergraduate Student Writing in Engineering Disciplines at Campuses with Varying Demographics
(ASEE PEER, 2022-08-23) Edinbarough, Immanuel; Gonzalez, Jesus; Bodenhamer, Johanna; Pflueger, Ruth Camille; Weissbach, Robert; Engineering Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
Writing is generally recognized as fundamental to the formation and communication of scientific and technical knowledge to peer groups and general audiences. Often, persuasive writing is an essential attribute emphasized by industries and businesses for a successful career in STEM fields. Nevertheless, the current scenario is that students in STEM fields, with their increased demand for more specialized skills in fewer credit hours combined with a lack of emphasis on writing from engineering faculty members, make addressing this need difficult. In addition, students in engineering fields often do not value writing skills and underestimate the amount of writing they will do in their careers. Hence, it is essential to understand and quantify the level of writing skills STEM students exhibit in their technical courses so that mitigation efforts can be designed using commonly available resources to enhance this important skillset among the students, including university writing centers. A research question was posed to study this aspect of technical writing: How do STEM students at institutions conceive of writing and its role in classroom laboratories? This research was conducted at three different universities with students of varied demographics, including one which is designated as a Hispanic-serving institution, via a sequential mixed-methods design. The demography variation among the institutions includes the level of college preparation among students and the mix of ethnicity to see if there are variations among certain groups. Although the sample size is small, the goal was to establish a methodology and a preliminary outcome set that could be used in further research with larger populations. Research data in the form of reports and surveys, were collected from groups of students from four distinct campuses to ascertain the technical writing capability of each group and provide a comparison to better understand the level of intervention required. The quantitative data was collected throughout the academic year through Likert scale surveys as well as rubric-based evaluation of reports. The research design, methodology, and results of the research findings and the proposed mitigation efforts to improve student writing in STEM fields are presented in the paper.
Developing a PV and Energy Storage Sizing Methodology for Off-Grid Communities
(2018-12) Vance, David M.; Razban, Ali; Weissbach, Robert; Schubert, Peter
Combining rooftop solar with energy storage for off-grid residential operation is restrictively expensive. Historically, operating off-grid requires an 'isolated self-consumption' operating strategy where any excess generation is wasted and to ensure reliability you must install costly, polluting generators or a large amount of energy storage. With the advent of Blockchain technology residents can come together and establish transactive microgrids which have two possible operating strategies: Centralized Energy Sharing (CES) and Interconnected Energy Sharing (IES). The CES strategy proposes that all systems combine their photovoltaic (PV) generation and energy storage systems (ESS) to meet their loads. IES strategy establishes an energy trading system between stand-alone systems which allows buying energy when battery capacity is empty and selling energy when battery capacity is full. Transactive microgrids have been investigated analytically by several sources, none of which consider year-round off-grid operation. A simulation tool was developed through MATLAB for comparing the three operating strategies: isolated self-consumption, CES, and IES. This simulation tool could easily be incorporated into existing software such as HOMER. The effect of several variables on total cost was tested including interconnection type, initial charge, load variability, starting month, number of stand-alone systems, geographic location, and required reliability. It was found that the CES strategy improves initial cost by 7\% to 10\% compared to the baseline (isolated self-consumption) and IES cases in every simulation. The IES case consistently saved money compared to the baseline, just by a very small amount (less than 1\%). Initial charge was investigated for March, July, and November and was only found to have an effect in November. More research should be done to show the effect of initial charge for every month of the year. Load variability had inconsistent results between the two geographic locations studied, Indianapolis and San Antonio. This result would be improved with an improved load simulation which includes peak shifting. The number of systems did not have a demonstrable effect, giving the same cost whether there were 2 systems or 50 involved in the trading strategies. It may be that only one other system is necessary to receive the benefits from a transactive microgrid. Geographic locations studied (Indianapolis, Indiana; Phoenix, Arizona; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Erie, Pennsylvania) showed a large effect on the total cost with Phoenix being considerably cheaper than any other location and Erie having the highest cost. This result was expected due to each geographic location's load and solar radiation profiles. Required reliability showed a consistent and predictable effect with cost going down as the requirement relaxed and more hours of outage were allowed. In order to accomplish off-grid operation with favorable economics it is likely that a system will need to reduce its reliability requirement, adopt energy saving consumption habits, choose a favorable geographic location, and either establish a transactive microgrid or include secondary energy generation and/or storage.
Developing a PV and Energy Storage Sizing Methodology for Off-Grid Transactive Microgrids
(2019-05) Vance, David; Razban, Ali; Schubert, Peter J.; Weissbach, Robert; Mechanical and Energy Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology
A simulation tool was developed through MATLAB for comparing Centralized Energy Sharing (CES) and Interconnected Energy Sharing (IES) operating strategies with a standard Stand-Alone Photovoltaic System (SAPV). The tool can be used to investigate the effect of several variables on cost and trading behavior including: initial charge of Energy Storage System (ESS), amount of load variability, starting month, number of stand-alone systems, geographic location, and required reliability. It was found that the CES strategy improves initial cost by 7% to 10% compared to a standard SAPV in every simulation. The IES case consistently saved money compared to the baseline, just by a very small amount (less than 1%). The number of systems did not have a demonstrable eï¬€ect, giving the same cost per system whether there were 2 systems or 50 involved in the trading strategies. Geographic locations studied (Indianapolis, Indiana; Phoenix, Arizona; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Erie, Pennsylvania) showed a large variation on the total installed cost with Phoenix being the least expensive and Erie being the most expensive location. Required reliability showed a consistent and predictable effect with cost going down as the requirement relaxed and more hours of outage were allowed.
DFIG-Based Split-Shaft Wind Energy Conversion Systems
(2022-08) Akbari, Rasoul; Izadian, Afshin; Dos Santos, Euzeli; King, Brian; Weissbach, Robert
In this research, a Split-Shaft Wind Energy Conversion System (SS-WECS) is investigated to improve the performance and cost of the system and reduce the wind power uncertainty influences on the power grid. This system utilizes a lightweight Hydraulic Transmission System (HTS) instead of the traditional gearbox and uses a Doubly-Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) instead of a synchronous generator. This type of wind turbine provides several benefits, including decoupling the shaft speed controls at the turbine and the generator. Hence, maintaining the generator’s frequency and seeking maximum power point can be accomplished independently. The frequency control relies on the mechanical torque adjustment on the hydraulic motor that is coupled with the generator. This research provides modeling of an SS-WECS to show its dependence on mechanical torque and a control technique to realize the mechanical torque adjustments utilizing a Doubly-Fed Induction Generator (DFIG). To this end, a vector control technique is employed, and the generator electrical torque is controlled to adjust the frequency while the wind turbine dynamics influence the system operation. The results demonstrate that the generator’s frequency is maintained under any wind speed experienced at the turbine. Next, to reduce the size of power converters required for controlling DFIG, this research introduces a control technique that allows achieving MPPT in a narrow window of generator speed in an SS-WECS. Consequently, the size of the power converters is reduced significantly. The proposed configuration is investigated by analytical calculations and simulations to demonstrate the reduced size of the converter and dynamic performance of the power generation. Furthermore, a new configuration is proposed to eliminate the Grid- Side Converter (GSC). This configuration employs only a reduced-size Rotor-Side Converter (RSC) in tandem with a supercapacitor. This is accomplished by employing the hydraulic transmission system (HTS) as a continuously variable and shaft decoupling transmission unit. In this configuration, the speed of the DFIG is controlled by the RSC to regulate the supercapacitor voltage without GSC. The proposed system is investigated and simulated in MATLAB Simulink at various wind speeds to validate the results. Next, to reduce the wind power uncertainty, this research introduces an SS-WECS where the system’s inertia is adjusted to store the energy. Accordingly, a flywheel is mechanically coupled with the rotor of the DFIG. Employing the HTS in such a configuration allows the turbine controller to track the point of maximum power (MPPT) while the generator controller can adjust the generator speed. As a result, the flywheel, which is directly connected to the shaft of the generator, can be charged and discharged by controlling the generator speed. In this process, the flywheel energy can be used to modify the electric power generation of the generator on-demand. This improves the quality of injected power to the grid. Furthermore, the structure of the flywheel energy storage is simplified by removing its dedicated motor/generator and the power electronics driver. Two separate supervisory controllers are developed using fuzzy logic regulators to generate a real-time output power reference. Furthermore, small-signal models are developed to analyze and improve the MPPT controller. Extensive simulation results demonstrate the feasibility of such a system and its improved quality of power generation. Next, an integrated Hybrid Energy Storage System (HESS) is developed to support the new DFIG excitation system in the SS-WECS. The goal is to improve the power quality while significantly reducing the generator excitation power rating and component counts. Therefore, the rotor excitation circuit is modified to add the storage to its DC link directly. In this configuration, the output power fluctuation is attenuated solely by utilizing the RSC, making it self-sufficient from the grid connection. The storage characteristics are identified based on several system design parameters, including the system inertia, inverter capacity, and energy storage capacity. The obtained power generation characteristics suggest an energy storage system as a mix of fast-acting types and a high energy capacity with moderate acting time. Then, a feedback controller is designed to maintain the charge in the storage within the required limits. Additionally, an adaptive model-predictive controller is developed to reduce power generation fluctuations. The proposed system is investigated and simulated in MATLAB Simulink at various wind speeds to validate the results and demonstrate the system’s dynamic performance. It is shown that the system’s inertia is critical to damping the high-frequency oscillations of the wind power fluctuations. Then, an optimization approach using the Response Surface Method (RSM) is conducted to minimize the annualized cost of the Hybrid Energy Storage System (HESS); consisting of a flywheel, supercapacitor, and battery. The goal is to smooth out the output power fluctuations by the optimal size of the HESS. Thus, a 1.5 MW hydraulic wind turbine is simulated, and the HESS is configured and optimized. The direct connection of the flywheel allows reaching a suitable level of smoothness at a reasonable cost. The proposed configuration is compared with the conventional storage, and the results demonstrate that the proposed integrated HESS can decrease the annualized storage cost by 71 %. Finally, this research investigates the effects of the reduced-size RSC on the Low Voltage Ride Through (LVRT) capabilities required from all wind turbines. One of the significant achievements of an SS-WECS is the reduced size excitation circuit. The grid side converter is eliminated, and the size of the rotor side converter (RSC) can be safely reduced to a fraction of a full-size excitation. Therefore, this low-power-rated converter operates at low voltage and handles the regular operation well. However, the fault conditions may expose conditions on the converter and push it to its limits. Therefore, four different protection circuits are employed, and their effects are investigated and compared to evaluate their performance. These four protection circuits include the active crowbar, active crowbar along a resistorinductor circuit (C-RL), series dynamic resistor (SDR), and new-bridge fault current limiter (NBFCL). The wind turbine controllers are also adapted to reduce the impact of the fault on the power electronic converters. One of the effective methods is to store the excess energy in the generator’s rotor. Finally, the proposed LVRT strategies are simulated in MATLAB Simulink to validate the results and demonstrate their effectiveness and functionality.
EET Senior Design Project - IMS Dynamic Display
(2019-05-05) Elkins, Michael; Boggess, John; Weissbach, Robert; Lin, William; Durkin, Robert J.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum has a display transmission that is still actively used in IndyCar today. The museum wants to incorporate this transmission into an interactive display, so guests of all ages can see internal gears spin as well as see the transmission shift between its gears. This project includes mechanical and electrical engineering technology students working together to mount wire motors and sensors. The transmission will have a user-friendly interface allowing the guests to change gears and to turn the transmission on and off. The transmission will be driven by a 24V DC motor and uses a 24V DC linear actuator to rotate a barrel cam to change the position of the forks, allowing the gears to get shifted up and down. A metal enclosure houses the electrical components that provide power and control to the system. The outcome of this project is a failsafe and robust system that will operate within the IMS Museum while being continually updated.

Browsing by Author "Weissbach, Robert"

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