Xiaotao Zhang

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Research Associate at The University of Manchester

Ocean wave energy is a widely available and largely unexploited renewable energy source. Generation equipment needs to operate reliably and withstand rough seas, so power shedding in high sea states is as important as maximum power extraction in low sea states for minimum levelized cost of energy. Wave resources fluctuate and are represented by sta...

Conventional control strategies for wave energy converters (WECs) maximise power capture of the WEC by amplifying its responses, but this exacerbates hardware constraint violations not generally taken into account, causing undesirable shutdown of electrical systems in adverse wave conditions. When WECs operate close to power take-off (PTO) capacity...

Wave energy is well known to be a renewable energy resource with worldwide capacity similar to wind. However there is to date negligible generation of electricity from wave. Many devices have been proposed without convergence on a particular design as there has been for wind. We are here concerned with a multi-float attenuator type M4 which has bee...

Direct current (DC) power networks are widely used in transport applications, often derived from a synchronous generator and diode rectifier. The use of more than three phases to reduce the DC voltage ripple eliminates the DC filter capacitance and incorporating multiple phases into the generator avoids the need for bulky phase‐shifting transformer...

Complex harmonic analysis (CHA) provides a computationally efficient alternative to finite element analysis (FEA) for modelling multi-phase wound field synchronous machines. This paper presents three methods that could improve the accuracy of the CHA: by improving the equivalent air gap, by including a saturation factor, and by using image methods...

Complex harmonic analysis provides a computationally-efficient alternative to finite element analysis for modelling multi-phase wound field synchronous machines. This paper presents three methods that could improve the accuracy of the complex harmonic analysis: by improving the equivalent airgap; by including a saturation factor and by using image...

Permanent magnet synchronous machines are a popular choice for electric vehicle propulsion, with both interior and surface magnet rotor designs in use. Position feedback is required for commutation, with minimal phase delay. Speed data should be able to track the vehicle speed at maximum acceleration. Elimination of the shaft position sensor reduce...