As part of making a power grid simulator, a hardware controller is needed. This thesis specifically describes the design of such a controller. The objective is to design it in such a way that it is self-explanatory and interactive. Therefore, the following user controls and feedback are made possible. A small solar panel makes it possible to provide input for a solar generator in the simulation. A slider gives input for a wind farm in the simulation. This is visualized by adding a small physical turbine to the hardware, going faster or slower based on the input.
A small knob to go back or forward in the simulation, if pressed, pauses or resumes the time.
A RGB LED indicates the situation on the grid. Based on the loading of transmission lines, the color of the LED changes. These user-control actions and feedback from the simulation are processed on an Arduino Mega Rev3 development board. This uses an ATMega2560 microcontroller. To interact with the simulation, bidirectional serial communication is needed between the Arduino and the computer running the simulation with the Godot game engine. These components are implemented on a PCB to finalize the design. ... Read more

Practicing fire scenarios in emergency response training is very hard due to various obstacles. An example is when holding a training, real fire will preferably not be used as it can become threatening. Real fire will only be used in a surrounding where safety is ensured, which is probably outdoors. An emergency responder hardly knows that it has entered an area or room with imaginary fire nor does he know the extent of the fire due to the absence of smoke. This makes it exceedingly difficult to make right decisions during the training on the spot and this might lead to failure to help employees or clients to escape the fire area or building. This project focuses on developing glasses that can darken the view of the user, when entering an area with simulated fire and smoke. In order for the emergency responder to be able to practice in the most real possible scenario. The gain of using the glasses, is that it provides a common understanding between the instructor and trainee about the smoke situation in a training exercise. This enhances the quality of training, decreasing the possibility of making an incorrect decision when a real fire breaks out. This is done by constructing a set of darkening glasses that can darken the view, on the command of an infrared beacon that mimic the source of smoke in an area. ... Read more

Cable terminations are essential for connecting a cable to a piece of equipment such as a circuit breaker, transformer, motor, etc. Proper terminations are of great importance in order to provide faultless cable systems. Improper terminations could result in overheating, partial discharges, eventual breakdown, flashover and breakdown in the system. There are several defects that can take place in terminations because of environmental, ageing and imperfections caused during manufacturing and installation . A potential defect is the contamination of oil with water due to sealing failures.

Water contamination can lead to partial discharges that, when produced over the insulation result in accelerated ageing. Typically, online electrical measurements of partial discharges can be used for termination monitoring. However, online monitoring suffers from noise and interferences, and localisation of partial discharges can be a problem. To overcome the challenges of electrical measurements, optical means of detecting partial discharge is researched in this thesis. The main goal of the thesis is to study the feasibility of using the optical PD detection method in oil-filled cable termination. The aim was to detect surface discharges at the rubber-oil interface through an optical sensor.

The identification of parameters for selection and final choice of optical sensor for PD detection application were done. Various setups to produce the surface discharge at the rubber-oil interface were investigated and one of the method was finalized. The simultaneous measurements of PD with electrical and optical sensors were conducted in dry oil and oil with different moisture content. The analysis of data obtained from optical sensor in comparison with electrical sensor based on sensitivity, PD pulse, PRPD pattern and correlation factor are discussed. It is noted that most of the characteristics of optical measurements is comparable to the electrical measurements. Thus, it can be said that this thesis contributes towards initial step of using the optical PD detection for online monitoring of HV components. ... Read more