Tuesday, 30 July 2013

Electric fishes spark safer power line technology

The patented detection system, already being employed by local electricity companies, could help prevent the major discharges that lead to sparking and blackouts, says Dr Alexe Bojovschi, a post-doctoral fellow in electrical and computer engineering at RMIT University.


"Internationally, this is very important. Last year, blackouts left 620 million people in India without power for a couple of days and cost the US economy more than US$120 billion. Electric sparking has been blamed for major bushfires in Australia."


Alexe is one of 12 early-career scientists unveiling their research to the public for the first time thanks to Fresh Science, a national program sponsored by the Australian Government through the Inspiring Australia initiative.


He says he got the idea on how the electromagnetic signatures of potential faults could travel in the power networks from the ability of electric fishes to transmit and receive .


Our power networks, many of which were built at least 50 years ago, are ageing and deteriorating just at the time when they are being overloaded with new appliances, Alexe says. "All it takes is a or a build-up of lichen to provide a conductive path on an insulator, and you enhance the likelihood of ."


The patented wireless can be mounted to the power poles to detect the discharge signature in the power network. The sensors can be used to locate the fault point by translating the time of arrival of the signature into a measure of distance.


Alexe and his project managers Associate Professors Alan Wong and Wayne Rowe have established a company, IND Technology, to commercialise the system.


At present, IND Technology is offering the as an early-fault-detection service to electricity companies in Victoria online 24 hours a day. "The system provides a dynamic picture of the health of their power networks," Alexe says. "But this is a worldwide issue, so the company has the potential to expand globally."


Explore further: The wireless way to safer sub-station

created12 hours ago Hi guys, So I'm starting to learn about magnetic fields and electrics fields, one of the equations we use is v= -L*di/dt ... I've been...
createdJul 28, 2013 Hi, I am trying to create a hall effect based position sensor to be attached onto a DC motor to generate feedback for position control. I am...
createdJul 27, 2013 Dear Experts I have this problem for a long time. I always cannot get my project done because parts are not available. I need gears, eg. Pinion...
createdJul 23, 2013 What magnetic field (magnitude, I know the direction) would need to be applied so I could align the particles of a neodymium membrane casting...
createdJul 22, 2013 I know that light curtains are generally known as an aligned collection of light beams that stop/enable a machine when such beams are blocked by a...
createdJul 20, 2013 I was digging a trench next to a building today so rain water would not back up to the buildings wall. Most of the material was soil but there were...
More from Physics Forums - General Engineering
Mar 13, 2012

Research at RMIT University has proven conclusively that wooden poles used for electricity distribution deteriorate with age and that their electrical performance worsens over time.

Apr 03, 2013

New Professor of Radio Science and Wireless Systems Engineering at the University of Huddersfield heads a £670,000 project to find a more effective and efficient means of fault detection - meaning few blackouts and better ...

Jun 25, 2013

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed a tool that can be used to shorten power cuts caused by storms and to reduce the resulting costs and damage, such as faults in household electrical appliances and frozen ...

Aug 02, 2011

Nissan's Leaf electric car can feed power from its battery back into a family home and run appliances for up to two days under a new project the Japanese car-maker unveiled Tuesday.

Apr 19, 2013

(Phys.org) —A local power failure in Ohio ten years ago caused a series of cascading power failures that resulted in a massive blackout that affected 50 million people and caused billions of dollars in ...

Jul 02, 2013

Since the invention of the telescope four centuries ago, astronomers have become more aware of the active nature of the Sun, and how events on its surface can affect the Earth. One of the most dramatic of ...

7 hours ago

Nearly doubling the efficiency of a breakthrough photovoltaic cell they created last year, UCLA researchers have developed a two-layer, see-through solar film that could be placed on windows, sunroofs, smartphone ...

10 hours ago

BMW AG is showing off the production model of its new i3 electric compact that uses carbon-fiber materials to keep the weight down and improve driving performance.

13 hours ago

Professor Ravi Silva of the University of Surrey's Advanced Technology Institute has identified the range of combinations of organic and inorganic materials that will underpin new 4th generation solar cell technology – ...

Jul 26, 2013

Foreign nuclear experts on Friday blasted the operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, with one saying its lack of transparency over toxic water leaks showed "you don't know what you're doing".

Jul 26, 2013

In a newly released study, education researchers report that personifying energy allowed students to grapple with difficult ideas about how energy works. Contrasted with more traditional lectures and graphs, this innovative ...

Jul 25, 2013

Miles driven by U.S. motorists in light-duty vehicles are down about 5 percent since its peak in 2006, says a University of Michigan researcher.


(Phys.org) —UCLA computer science professor Amit Sahai and a team of researchers have designed a system to encrypt software so that it only allows someone to use a program as intended while preventing any ...


Sharing on social media helps hackers sharpen "spear phishing" attacks they use to trick their way into computers, security experts said Monday.


It may seem like a stretch to envision a 3D printer in every home. However, a Michigan Technological University researcher is predicting that personal manufacturing, like personal computing before it, is ...


Nearly doubling the efficiency of a breakthrough photovoltaic cell they created last year, UCLA researchers have developed a two-layer, see-through solar film that could be placed on windows, sunroofs, smartphone ...


Scientists concerned about world hunger, dwindling resources and wasteful processes are looking more closely into alternative prospects for protein, and edible insects are of considerable interest. An Austrian ...


Scientists historically have argued that evolution proceeds through gradual development of traits. But how can incremental changes apply to the binary switch between two sexes, male or female? Researchers at Case Western ...


Astronomers have found a new way of measuring the spin in supermassive black holes, which could lead to better understanding about how they drive the growth of galaxies.


Human bodies recognize at the molecular level that not all happiness is created equal, responding in ways that can help or hinder physical health, according to new research led by Barbara L. Fredrickson, Kenan Distinguished ...


For the first time since exoplanets, or planets around stars other than the sun, were discovered almost 20 years ago, X-ray observations have detected an exoplanet passing in front of its parent star.


The GOES-R Magnetometer Engineering Development Unit made an important development in the construction of the spacecraft recently after completing a successful boom deployment test at an ATK facility in Goleta, Calif.

.
This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

No comments:

Post a Comment