Research & Collaboration
What makes us unique?
SuperGrid Institute owes its success to the people who make up our various research departments. Our teams come from diverse backgrounds in industry and academia, and their wealth of experience and skills make the Institute unique. Each individual brings specific expertise to the table.
This melting pot of knowledge offers opportunities for specialists from different fields to collaborate on new and innovative solutions to technical problems.
The Institute also benefits from close collaborative relationships with industry and academic institutions. The complementary strengths of our partners provide insights and innovative approaches to technical challenges. At the same time, we retain total independence in our research. Public-private investments and collaborative projects finance our work.
SuperGrid Institute’s state-of-the-art research facilities, test platforms and laboratories at the Villeurbanne and Grenoble sites are key to the success of our five research departments.
Latest scientific publications
Tuning of Droop Parameters Using Virtual Capacitor Control to Improve Voltage Dynamics
This paper proposes a new approach to tuning voltage droop parameters in an MMC-based multi-terminal HVDC system. Using the new degree of freedom offered by the virtual capacitor control, the transient behavior of the DC voltage can be improved without adverse effects on the connected AC grids.
Numerical modelling and influence of defects on space charges in epoxy resin under HVDC stresses
Space charge accumulation on High Voltage Direct Current Gas Insulated Substations can produce electrical field reinforcements in the insulation that need to be taken into account in the equipment design. The TSM (Thermal Step Method) is one of the experimental techniques allowing to determine space charge distributions in insulating materials. However localized defects (i.e. microvoids, delaminations etc) cannot usually be detected by this technique. A new numerical approach to study the influence of structural defects on Thermal Step Method currents is proposed. The method is based on a Finite Element numerical simulation allowing to simultaneously solve electrical and thermal equations. The effect of three different defects were studied. It results that ring defects, with diameters smaller than 0.4 mm, produce less than 10% of change on TSM current signals. This confirms the difficulty to detect small defects by this method. It was also observed that delaminations can produce variations in signal as high as 70%, and even generate signals of opposing sign from the case without defect.
Study of convective condensation in a thermosiphon loop
In this article, we focus on the condenser of a loop thermosiphon designed to cool power electronic component. The objective here is to condense Novec 649, our chosen working fluid for this loop. It is a fluid recently developed by 3M, which is known for having low environmental impact and non-flammable. We first present a theoretical analysis with the calculation and the hypotheses leading to the design of the multi-tubular condenser. Then we present a full size thermosiphon built for experimental validation. A discussion then addresses some of the design hypotheses. Three main parameters are studied : the tilting angle of the condenser (from horizontal to vertical orientations), the temperature of the coolant and finally the mass flow effect at different saturation temperatures. In our setup, we dissipate up to 2.4 kW at the evaporator level. The produced vapor is then condensed in the heat exchanger using cold water flowing at countercurrent. A number of measurements are made via thermocouples and pressure sensors located at both ends of the condenser to measure the average heat exchange coefficient.
