Starting date: April 2011
Email: p2sattari@uwaterloo.ca
Research title
Modeling, electrical and thermal behaviours of super--capacitors
Project description
Super-capacitors are energy storage devices which offer the instantaneous power supply. These devices are suitable for the rapid storage and release of energy. These properties enable them to handle fast fluctuations of energy level which sometimes are inevitable during energy conversion and utilization. And therefore, they can be used to provide peak power consumptions in power electronic systems or supply the backup power required in the transient state and store the regenerative energy in hybrid vehicles. Super-capacitors have become very attractive for a wide variety of power applications such as telecommunication satellites, hybrid electrical vehicles, and portable electronics.
The heat build-up inside of super-capacitors is caused due to ohmic losses during the charging/discharging process which results in a rise in internal temperature. It may lead to the deterioration of the super-capacitor characteristics, reduction of its life time and increase in the internal pressure and so on. In comparison with other electricity storage devices, the super-capacitor is relatively new device and its performance is sensitive to temperature. Recently numerical simulations have been conducted in the design process of new devices to predict their functionality. Among them the thermal management of the super-capacitors is the main interest related to the operation safety. The development of appropriate thermal and electrical models, however, is still needed since there are very few research papers available on investigating electro-thermal behaviour of super-capacitors.
I am using Finite Element Method (FEM) to create an accurate numerical model for investigating both the electrical and thermal characteristics of super-capacitors during the charging/discharging process. The numerical results are then compared with the experimental data to validate the FEM model. Constant current charging and discharging circuits are designed for the super-capacitors and the temperature profile is monitored during each process. The experimental data are obtained for the verification of the numerical model.
High Voltage Engineering Laboratory (HVEL) from my perspective
I joined the lab because of the subject of the project which is very new and it seems very interesting to me. The HVEL is very well equipped and I can find any instrument I need for my project.