Award
2020 NSF CAREER Award Winner
2020 Air Force Young Investigator Award Winner (Office of Scientific Research)
Department
Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Awarded Projects
NSF CAREER Award
Accelerated Insulation Aging due to Fast, Repetitive Voltage Pulses from Wide Bandgap Power Electronics
With an increasing need for more energy to power homes, schools, and businesses, stress on the United States’ deteriorated and aged electric power network is reaching a critical point. Yet emerging wide bandgap-based technologies, leading to higher power density and efficiency, can accelerate the aging and degradation of insulation systems and lead to unexpected failures. Conducting research to address these issues, Mona Ghassemi will study accelerated aging of insulation systems used in all components of power systems, such as rotating machines, transformers, cables, and cable terminations under fast, repetitive voltage pulses originated by next-generation wide-bandgap-based conversion systems. Ghassemi will also develop high-frequency thermal-electromagnetic transient models for the components to determine overvoltages, electrical stress, and thermal stress under wide bandgap-based voltages pulses.
Air Force Young Investigator Award
United States government agencies, including the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and NASA, all have aircraft or spacecraft engaged in some form of electric propulsion that requires increased power levels while operating in harsh environments, for a variety of applications. Ghassemi will study the fundamental roots of insulation breakdown caused by low pressure and harsh environments, an issue at the heart of work being done by the DOD and NASA. She will use “theoretical”-based multiphysics modeling to understand phenomena behind partial discharge in solid dielectrics under low pressure; harsh temperatures in the -60°C to +180°C range; and humidity in the 0-100 percent range. Ghassemi will conduct experimental investigations to identify the critical frequency for various solid insulation systems with gas-filled cavities and electrode geometry in the air.
What impact do you hope your research will have?
NSF CAREER Award
The extraordinary necessity for conducting my research and finding solutions to address the accelerated aging issue under WBG-based voltages has been recognized by industry and utilities. I will closely collaborate with three of the world’s largest manufacturing companies of power system apparatuses, and one of the largest U.S. utilities on this research plan. In other words, if successful, this research can be operational immediately.
Air Force Young Investigator Award
The novelty and alignment of my research plan with national interests makes this work likely to develop new research capabilities and broaden the research base in support of U.S. national defense. There are currently multiple pushes for high-voltage applications across DOD, DOE, and NASA. There is too little work on understanding the fundamentals of breakdown phenomena, and in particular there is no work in reduced atmospheres pressure and harsh environments. My research plan covers the DOD and NASA work in this area. This work is not only needed, but is central to the success of each agency's mission. The particular strength of my approach is to elucidate the fundamental roots of insulation breakdown caused by low pressure and harsh environments.
What do you find most interesting about your field of engineering?
As an electrical engineer working on high-field phenomena, finding the fundamental roots of partial and total breakdown is the most interesting subject in my life. While others may report what they see in the experiment and try to justify their results qualitatively, I instead take another approach. I try to justify the findings by identifying the complex physical mechanisms and solving the associated, complex mathematical equations. Rare efforts have been published using this approach. The most exciting part is to be the first one finding something new!