Dissertation Announcement for Farhina Haque – 05/31/2022 at 10:00 AM
May 19, 2022
Dissertation Title: Modeling Supercritical Fluids and Fabricating Electret Films to Address Dielectric Challenges in High-Power-Density Systems
When: Tuesday, May 31, 2022, 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Where: Remote(Webex)
Candidate: Farhina Haque
Degree: Doctor of Philosophy, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Committee Members:
Dr. Chanyeop Park
(Major Professor)
Dr. Masoud Karimi
(Committee Member)
Dr. Mehmet Kurum
(Committee Member)
Dr. Ryan Green
(Committee Member)
Abstract:
Wide bandgap (WBG) devices and power electronic converters (PEC) that enable the dynamic control of energy and high-power density designs inevitably contain defects including sharp edges, triple points, and cavities, which result in local electric field enhancements. The intensified local electric stresses cause either immediate dielectric breakdown or partial discharge (PD) that erodes electrical insulators and accelerates device aging. With the goal of addressing these dielectric challenges emerging in power-dense applications, this dissertation focuses on 1) modeling the dielectric characteristics of supercritical fluids (SCFs), which is a new dielectric medium with high dielectric strength and high cooling capability; and 2) establishing the optimal fabrication conditions of electrets, which is a new dielectric solution that neutralizes locally enhanced electric fields.
In this dissertation, the dielectric breakdown characteristics of SCFs are modeled as a function of pressure based on the electron scattering cross section data of clusters that vary in size as a function of temperature and pressure around the critical point. The modeled breakdown electric field is compared with the experimental breakdown measurements of supercritical fluids, which show close agreement. In addition, electrets are fabricated based on the triode-corona charging method and their PD mitigation performance is evaluated through a series of PD experiments. Electrets are fabricated under various charging conditions, including charging voltage, duration, polarity, and temperature with the goal of identifying the optimal condition that leads to effective PD mitigation. The PD mitigation performance of electrets fabricated based on these charging conditions is further assessed by investigating the impact of various power electronics voltage characteristics, including dv/dt, pol arity, switching frequency, and duty cycle.