Tony Davies High Voltage Laboratory PhD Students Win Young Researchers Award

Two PhD students from the Tony Davies High Voltage Laboratory (TDHVL) within Electronics and Computer Science have won Young Researcher awards at the 2016 international conference on Condition Monitoring and Diagnosis (CMD).

The conference was held in Xi’an, China, and was sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. It featured sessions on high voltage topics, such as advanced diagnostic techniques, smart grid control and insulation structure design.

Nik Hakimi and Bo Huang, both based in the Electronics and Electrical Engineering research group, won young researcher awards at CMD 2016, confirming that their research undertaken within TDHVL is at the forefront of research and development in their respective fields.

Nik Hakimi’s research paper “Separation of Multiple Partial Discharge (PD) Sources within a High Voltage Transformer Winding using Time Frequency Sparsity Roughness Mappingâ€? reported on the use of mathematical morphology to separate multiple PD sources within an HV transformer winding. This study delivers a better understanding of PD diagnostic techniques applicable to large measurement data sets.

Bo Huang’s research paper “Research on thickness ratio and multilayers effect on the oil and paper space charge distributionâ€? links theoretical theory and experimental outcomes, the results of which indicate required oil paper thickness ratios for future HVDC convertor transformer designs.

The high quality research of both PhD students was recognised through the Young Researcher Award for related high voltage phenomena. PD diagnosis and space charge measurements are two main areas of expertise in TDHVL. The awards confirm that not only is TDHVL research advancing the current state of the art in high voltage engineering but also developing the next generation of top quality researchers.