Online tuning method of stator and rotor resistances in both motoring and regenerating operations for vector‐controlled induction machines

The vector control of induction motors is widely used. This method needs accurate motor parameter but the stator and rotor resistance vary due to motor temperature variation. If the value of resistance in the controller can be set up accurately at first, there must be a difference between the reference and real value of torque because of drift of the resistance. It is necessary to adapt the resistance value. The indirect field‐oriented control of an induction motor requires the value of rotor resistance only, but the direct field‐oriented control method with rotor flux observer requires the value of not only rotor resistance but also stator resistance in the controller. Consequently, it is necessary to adapt both stator resistance and rotor resistance. A parameter adaptation scheme has previously been proposed for the direct field‐oriented control method with rotor flux observer, but this method cannot be used when the motor is in regenerating operation. In this paper, a new stator and rotor resistance adaptation scheme is proposed, which can be applied when the motor is in regenerating operation. The usefulness of the proposed adaptation scheme is confirmed by simulation. © 2001 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 135(1): 56–64, 2001     

SEMICONTINUOUS ETHANOL FERMENTATION WITH SHOCHU DISTILLERY WASTE*

An effective utilization system using distillery waste discharged from Japanese traditional shochu factory was developed. Mugi (barley) shochu distillery waste discharged from a novel vacuum distillation procedure (35–40°C) contained a large number of viable yeast (7 × 10⁶ cells/ml), glucoamylase activity (19.7 units/ml), acid protease activity (940 units/ml), and neutral protease activity (420 units/ml). Ethanol fermentation was achieved with a mash composed of glucose as the sola carbon source and mugi shochu distillery waste. After ethanol fermentation was completed the fermented broth was again distilled at 35–40°C in vacuo and the non volatile residue used in the next ethanol fermentation. In this way, semicontinuous ethanol fermentation system of more than 10 cycles was developed. Even in the distillate of the mash of the 8th fermentation cycle, 7.9% of ethanol, 33.0 ppm of ethyl acetate, 28.5 ppm of isobutyl alcohol, and other aromatic compounds were present. A semicontinuous ethanol fermentation system has been developed for shochu distillery waste which conventionally is treated as wastewater.     

Transgenic melon (cucumis melo L.) and potential for expression of novel proteins important to food industry

Abstract

Melon (Cucumis melo L.) is an important fruit crop cultivated widely in every region of the world. Our laboratory is targeting this species for production of novel proteins important to food industry. Prior to expression of protein of interest in transgenic melon an efficient genetic transformation system has to be developed. In this context we are testing a wide variety of promoters fused to reporter gene for β‐glucuronidase (GUS) for expression specifically in melon fruits. In this study in melon, salicylic acid‐inducible promoter region of pathogenesis‐related protein gene (PR1a) of tobacco fused to β‐glucuronidase (GUS) gene was introduced into melon via Agrobacterium‐mediated gene transfer using a binary vector system. Gene transfer was effective when Agrobacterium virulence factors like acetosyringone (100 μM) and low pH (5.2) were provided during the co‐culture step. Transformed shoots were recovered from benzyladenine‐induced cut cotyledons using kanamycin gene as a selective marker. Regeneration of shoots from cotyledons was stimulated by providing 10 mM proline in the shoot organogenesis medium. Southern and Northern blot analysis of transformants confirmed the presence of β‐glucuronidase gene in two selected clones J‐3 and PR‐G. The transformants also showed high β‐glucuronidase activity after salicylic acid treatment. Thiamine, a previously known inducer of pathogenesis‐related protein, stimulated β‐glucuronidase in J‐3 but not PR‐G melon transformants tested in this study. These studies showed that tobacco PR1a promoter region can be expressed in melon and it was stimulated by salicylic acid. This indicates the potential to use the promoter region of tobacco PR1a for genetic improvement of melon for specific food processing‐related characteristics or for expression of novel food‐related proteins. The promoter region could be used to drive specific target genes under stress or salicylic acid induced conditions.     

Convergence analysis of dynamic stochastic approximation

Stochastic approximation method concerns the sequential estimation of the root or the extreme of a function observed with noise. The idea is then extended to the moving root case by Dupa , and it is called as the dynamic stochastic approximation method. Its convergence properties are derived here by using a randomly varying truncation technique under weaker conditions in comparison with the previous work: the growth rate restriction on the function has been removed and the condition on the observation noises has been weakened to the possibly weakest ones.     

Compensation for harmonic currents and reactive power in wind power generation system using PWM inverter

In recent years, awareness of environmental problems is growing, and the price of electric power purchased by electric companies has been expensive for power plants utilizing natural energy. Thus, the introduction of wind power generation is being promoted in Japan. Generally, squirrel‐cage induction machines are widely used as generators in wind power generation systems because of their small size, light weight, and low cost. However, the induction machines do not have a source of excitation. Thus, inrush currents and instantaneous voltage drops occur when the generator is directly connected to a power grid. To reduce the inrush currents, an AC power regulator is used. Wind power generators are frequently connected to and disconnected from the power grid. However, when the inrush currents are reduced, harmonic currents are caused by phase control of the AC power regulator. And the phase control of the AC power regulator cannot control the power factor. Therefore, we propose the use of the AC power regulator to compensate for the harmonic currents and reactive power in a wind power generation system, and demonstrate the validity of this system by simulated and experimental results. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 154(2): 58–67, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20254     

Probabilistic Stress-Life (P-S-N) Study on Bearing Steel Using Alternating Torsion Life Test

Probabilistic stress-life (P-S-N) studies using alternating torsion life test were conducted with the bearing steel JIS SUJ2/AISI 52100 having a hardness range of Rockwell C scale of 58-62 HRC to determine the existence of a fatigue limit for this through-hardened steel. One hundred and fifty (150) alternating torsion tests were performed at six torsion maximum shear stress amplitudes of 0.5, 0.63, 0.76, 0.80, 0.95, and 1.0 GPa. The number of specimens that were run at each stress amplitude varied from 19 to 33. There is no observable fatigue limit for JIS SUJ2/AISI 52100 bearing steel. On log-log plotted data, life is linear and is inversely proportional to shearing stress to a 10.34 exponent. The failure mode of the experiment is due to the conjugate tensile and compressive alternating stresses in accordance with alternating shearing stresses. The three-parameter Weibull life distribution function with a constant value of the Weibull slope m = 3/2 was found to have the best conformity followed by the log-normal distribution and the two-parameter Weibull distribution function. The shear stress-life exponent (A = 10.34) for JIS SUJ2/AISI 52100 bearing steel was independent of the Weibull slope.     

Compensation for neutral point potential in a three‐level inverter using motor currents of a permanent magnet synchronous motor and its characteristics

A three‐level inverter has several advantages of large capacity, large voltage, and low current waveform distortion. However, there is an important problem of neutral point potential variation in three‐level inverters. The variation causes an unbalance in the dc link voltage levels and current waveform distortion. In this paper, we propose a new method to control the neutral point potential. First, the neutral point potential variation in a three‐level inverter for permanent magnet synchronous motor drive is analyzed by state variable method and is calculated on the basis of the analytic results. Second, using the estimated value, proposed compensation for the variation can be done. Third, analytic and experimental results of the proposed method are compared with the results of feedforward compensation by simply adjusting the vector output intervals. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 139(4): 56–63, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10033