Journal of Fundamentals of Renewable Energy and Applications
Open Access
ISSN: 2090-4541
ISSN: 2090-4541
Adnan A Badawood and Alhussein Albarbar
Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Fundam Renewable Energy Appl
Photovoltaic (PV) solar systems play key roles in providing clean energy and they are expected to grow in the coming years. Therefore, there is a timely requirement for more reliable PV solar systems to enhance their return on investment (ROI) and attract more financial supports. DC-DC converters are crucial elements in PV solar systems; they are used for conditioning generated electric power and in tracking the maximum power points. However, converter��?s life cycle is shorter than that for the photovoltaic panels. They are a commonest cause for failures and hence reduce ROI for PV solar systems. This paper presents none contact and inexpensive method to detect failures, at their onsets, in DC-DC converters using their induced acoustic emission signals (AES). An experimental set up was purposely designed and implemented to measure and record AES of DCDC boost converters under different operating conditions. A 20 kHz to 500 kHz (flat scale on the transfer function graph) transducer was used to measure the AES while driving frequency of devices under testing (DUT) increased from 20 kHz to 300 kHz in steps of 10 kHz. Statistical parameters, such as maximum, root mean squares, standard deviation and kurtosis, were calculated for the measured AES in each test condition. It was concluded that the measured AES carry useful condition related information which could be extracted if suitable measuring devices and analyzing techniques are adopted. The root mean square (RMS) of the measured AES was found directly proportional to thermal profile of the tested devices. More important, the kurtosis of the measured acoustic signals were found to increase when temperatures of DUT were close to total failure points, which was stated in their datasheets.