This paper proposes a complete and effective smart over-voltage monitoring and identification system. In recent years, smart grids are of the greatest interest in power system research. One of the main features of smart grid is their self-healing, which can continuously carry out online self-evaluation, discover existing faults, and correct them immediately. The over-voltage smart monitoring-identification-suppression systems play a key role in the construction of self-healing grids. In this paper, eight kinds of common over-voltage are discussed and analyzed. The S-transform algorithm is used to extract features of over-voltage. Aiming at the main features of each kind of over-voltage, six different characteristic quantities are proposed. A well designed fuzzy expert system and a support vector machine are employed as the classifiers to build a two-step identification model. The accuracy of the identification system is verified by field records. Results show that this system is feasible and promising for real applications.

In the presence of alternating-sinusoidal or rotating magnetic fields, magnetic nanoparticles will act to realign their magnetic moment with the applied magnetic field. The realignment is characterized by the nanoparticle’s time constant, τ. As the magnetic field frequency is increased, the nanoparticle’s magnetic moment lags the applied magnetic field at a constant angle for a given frequency, Ω, in rad/s. Associated with this misalignment is a power dissipation that increases the bulk magnetic fluid’s temperature which has been utilized as a method of magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia, particularly suited for cancer in low-perfusion tissue (e.g., breast) where temperature increases of between 4°C and 7°C above the ambient in vivo temperature cause tumor hyperthermia. This work examines the rise in the magnetic fluid’s temperature in the MRI environment which is characterized by a large DC field, B0. Theoretical analysis and simulation is used to predict the effect of both alternating-sinusoidal and rotating magnetic fields transverse to B0. Results are presented for the expected temperature increase in small tumors (~1 cm radius) over an appropriate range of magnetic fluid concentrations (0.002 to 0.01 solid volume fraction) and nanoparticle radii (1 to 10 nm). The results indicate that significant heating can take place, even in low-field MRI systems where magnetic fluid saturation is not significant, with careful selection of the rotating or sinusoidal field parameters (field frequency and amplitude). The work indicates that it may be feasible to combine low-field MRI with a magnetic hyperthermia system using superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles.

The smart use of charge injection to improve breakdown strength in transformer oil is demonstrated in this paper. Hypothetically, bipolar homo-charge injection with reduced electric field at both electrodes may allow higher voltage operation without insulation failure, since electrical breakdown usually initiates at the electrode-dielectric interfaces. To find experimental evidence, the applicability and limitation of the hypothesis is first analyzed. Impulse breakdown tests and Kerr electro-optic field mapping measurements are then conducted with different combinations of parallel-plate aluminum and brass electrodes stressed by millisecond duration impulse. It is found that the breakdown voltage of brass anode and aluminum cathode is ∼50% higher than that of aluminum anode and brass cathode. This can be explained by charge injection patterns from Kerr measurements under a lower voltage, where aluminum and brass electrodes inject negative and positive charges, respectively. This work provides a feasible approach to investigating the effect of electrode material on breakdown strength.

Two measurement techniques to determine the surface tension of ferrofluids using the perpendicular field instability are described. Four ferrofluid layers were examined with magnetic field applied perpendicularly to the surface of (1) oil-based ferrofluid in air; (2) water-based ferrofluid in air, (3) oil-based ferrofluid, and (4) fluorocarbon-based ferrofluid, both below a blend of 50% $n$ -Propyl alcohol and 50% deionized water (propanol). Surface tension was accurately calculated by utilizing the measured Taylor wavelength from measurements of incipient fluid instability peaks and the measured densities of fluids. For cases (1) and (2), the calculated surface tension values were in good agreement with a tensiometer measurement. No accurate tensiometer measurements were conducted for the superposed liquids (3) and (4) since accurate tensiometer measurements are difficult for a two fluid layer system. The second less accurate method used the ferrofluid’s nonlinear Langevin magnetization characteristics to compute the surface tension from incipience of interfacial instability conditions. Discrepancies between the surface tensions measured by the two methods were probably due to the ferrofluid particle size distributions and the strong dependence of the ferrofluid magnetization on particle size.

Transformer oil is the most widely used dielectric liquid for high voltage insulation. Measurements of the electric field distribution in high voltage pulsed transformer oil are of both practical and theoretical interests. Due to its low Kerr constant, previous electro-optic measurements with transformer oil rely on a technique called ac modulation, which works only for dc steady-state electric field mapping. With the help of a high-sensitivity charge-coupled device, we directly measure the Kerr electro-optic effect between parallel electrodes in transformer oil stressed by high voltage pulses. This work aims at demonstrating the reliability and evaluating the sensitivity of the measurements for three cases with identical electrodes: space-charge free, uniform electric field in the mid-region of the gap; space-charge free, non-uniform fringing electric field; and space charge distorted electric field in the mid-region of the gap. Future directions to improve accuracy by identifying and handling various sources of error and noise are suggested.