Plenary Lecture
Comparative Study and Simulations for Classic and Advanced Models of the Electric Arc
Assistant Professor Manuela Panoiu
Electrical Engineering and Industrial Informatics Department
Engineering Faculty of Hunedoara
Polytechnic University of Timisoara
Romania
E-mail: manuela.panoiu@fih.upt.ro
Abstract: The electric arc furnace (EAF) is one of the modern ways of making steel. Nowadays, electric arc furnaces are designed for very large power input ratings. The electric arc furnace behaves like a non-linear load. Due to the nature of both, the electrical arc and the melt down process, these devices, especially the UHP (Ultra High Power) EAF’s can cause large power quality problems, mainly harmonics, interharmonics, flicker and voltage unbalances. Previous studies have shown that the electric arc furnace is chaotic in nature and standard control techniques are not effective. However, because that, heuristic human control is used on electric arc furnaces. This paper, presents a study regarding the modeling and simulating the electric arc. Some measurements made on an EAF in an industrial plant are also present. The measurements demonstrate the negative effects of the nonlinearity of the electric arc in the electric supply. In order to make a study for efficient control the EAF and for improving the electric power quality it was necessary to find some models of the electric arc, models that simulate the nonlinearity of the electric arc. It was analyze by simulation several classic and advanced models of the electric arc. Will be present some of the classic models: models based on non – linear and time – variable resistances, models based on the linear approximation of voltage – current characteristic of the electric arc and models where the voltage and current are related by hyperbolic functions (using the diameter or length of the arc). Advanced models that used artificial neural networks will be also present. The results of the simulation were compared with the measurements results. It was compared the waveforms of the three phase arc currents and voltages, the current – voltage characteristics, the electric powers and the total harmonics distortions, THD, of the currents and voltages.
Brief Biography of the Speaker: Manuela Panoiu was born in 1965, graduate the Computer Science Faculty, Polytechnic University of Timisoara in 1989. She receives his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering in 2001 at Polytechnic University of Timisoara and is currently Assistant Professor at the Electrical Engineering and Industrial Informatics Department of Engineering Faculty of Hunedoara, Polytechnic University of Timisoara, Romania. Her research interests focus on advanced computer programming, modelling and simulating systems, and artificial intelligence. She has until now published over 80 research papers in Journals and conferences and participate to 10 research projects.