University of Texas at Arlington

About: University of Texas at Arlington is a education organization based out in Arlington, Texas, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Large Hadron Collider. The organization has 11758 authors who have published 28598 publications receiving 801626 citations. The organization is also known as: UT Arlington & University of Texas-Arlington.

Distributed Adaptive Droop Control for DC Distribution Systems

Abstract: A distributed-adaptive droop mechanism is proposed for secondary/primary control of dc microgrids. The conventional secondary control that adjusts the voltage set point for the local droop mechanism is replaced by a voltage regulator. A current regulator is also added to fine-tune the droop coefficient for different loading conditions. The voltage regulator uses an observer that processes neighbors' data to estimate the average voltage across the microgrid. This estimation is further used to generate a voltage correction term to adjust the local voltage set point. The current regulator compares the local per-unit current of each converter with the neighbors' on a communication graph and, accordingly, provides an impedance correction term. This term is then used to update the droop coefficient and synchronize per-unit currents or, equivalently, provide proportional load sharing. The proposed controller precisely accounts for the transmission/distribution line impedances. The controller on each converter exchanges data with only its neighbor converters on a sparse communication graph spanned across the microgrid. Global dynamic model of the microgrid is derived with the proposed controller engaged. A low-voltage dc microgrid prototype is used to verify the controller performance, link-failure resiliency, and the plug-and-play capability.

Ecosystem feedbacks and cascade processes: understanding their role in the responses of Arctic and alpine ecosystems to environmental change

Abstract: Global environmental change, related to climate change and the deposition of airborne N-containing contaminants, has already resulted in shifts in plant community composition among plant functional types in Arctic and temperate alpine regions. In this paper, we review how key ecosystem processes will be altered by these transformations, the complex biological cascades and feedbacks that might result, and some of the potential broader consequences for the earth system. Firstly, we consider how patterns of growth and allocation, and nutrient uptake, will be altered by the shifts in plant dominance. The ways in which these changes may disproportionately affect the consumer communities, and rates of decomposition, are then discussed. We show that the occurrence of a broad spectrum of plant growth forms in these regions (from cryptogams to deciduous and evergreen dwarf shrubs, graminoids and forbs), together with hypothesized low functional redundancy, will mean that shifts in plant dominance result in a complex series of biotic cascades, couplings and feedbacks which are supplemental to the direct responses of ecosystem components to the primary global change drivers. The nature of these complex interactions is highlighted using the example of the climate-driven increase in shrub cover in low-Arctic tundra, and the contrasting transformations in plant functional composition in mid-latitude alpine systems. Finally, the potential effects of the transformations on ecosystem properties and processes that link with the earth system are reviewed. We conclude that the effects of global change on these ecosystems, and potential climate-change feedbacks, cannot be predicted from simple empirical relationships between processes and driving variables. Rather, the effects of changes in species distributions and dominances on key ecosystem processes and properties must also be considered, based upon best estimates of the trajectories of key transformations, their magnitude and rates of change.