Abstract
For a vacuum thermionic energy converter with a dispenser cathode, the cathode temperature affects the vacuum pressure level, especially in the cathode activation process. Adding an adaptive setting system of temporary reference temperature value due to pressure level to a typical digital PID controller ensures the control of the TEC cathode temperature while maintaining the required vacuum pressure level at any time. The results of the cathode temperature tests in the range from 340 K to 1273 K show that at any time the pressure value in a TEC vacuum chamber is kept within the specified range. This work describes dispenser cathode requirements, the adaptive algorithm, its software and hardware implementation and controller test results. The original intelligent controller is highly suitable for powering the dispenser cathode of the thermionic energy converter both during its activation and in standard operation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Change history
10 October 2020
In the original version of the book, the abstract of Chapter 22 was published with an incorrect information, “The results of the cathode temperature tests in the range from 1050 K to 1207 K show that at any time the pressure value in a TEC vacuum chamber is kept within the specified range,” which has now been corrected to “The results of the cathode temperature tests in the range from 340 K to 1273 K show that at any time the pressure value in a TEC vacuum chamber is kept within the specified range.” The book and chapter have been updated with the changes.
References
Richardson, O.W.: (Thermionic) Emission From Hot Bodies. Wexford College Press, Wexford (2003)
Schlichter, W.: Die spontane Elektronenemission glühender Metalle und das glühelektrische Element. Ann. Phys. 352, 573–640 (1915)
Howe, R.T.: Vacuum microsystems for energy conversion and other applications. In: 2011 16th International Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Conference, pp. 7–11 (2011)
Hatsopoulos, G.N., Gyftopoulos, E.P.: Thermionic Energy Conversion, vol. 1. MIT Press, Cambridge (1973)
Lim, I.T., Lambert, S.A., Vay, J.-L., Schwede, J.W.: Electron reflection in thermionic energy converters. Appl. Phys. Lett. 112, 5 p. (2018). Article no. 073906
Sikora, J.: Thermionic Electron Emission Sources: Biasing Conditions [in Polish]. Lublin University of Technology Publishing House, Lublin (2019)
Yang, D., Woo, J.-K., Lee, S., Mitchell, J., Challoner, A.D., Najafi, K.: A micro oven-control system for inertial sensors. J. Microelectromechan. Syst. 26, 507–518 (2017)
He, W.-J., Zhang, H.-T., Chen, Z., Chu, B., Cao, K., Shan, B., Chen, R.: Generalized predictive control of temperature on an atomic layer deposition reactor. IEEE Trans. Control Syst. Technol. 23, 2408–2415 (2015)
Kwan, T.H., Wu, X., Yao, Q.: Complete implementation of the combined TEG-TEC temperature control and energy harvesting system. Control Eng. Pract. 95, 11 p. (2020). Article no. 104224
Zhang, Q., Wu, S., Li, Q.: A PSO identification algorithm for temperature adaptive adjustment system. In: 2015 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM), pp. 752–755 (2015)
HeatWave Labs, Inc.: Technical Bulletin TB-198 Standard Series Barium Tungsten Dispenser Cathodes (2002). https://www.cathode.com/pdf/tb-198.pdf
HeatWave Labs, Inc.: Technical Bulletin TB-147 Processing of Dispenser Cathodes (2004). https://www.cathode.com/pdf/tb-147.pdf
HeatWave Labs, Inc.: Technical Bulletin TB-128 Notes on Dispenser and Oxide Cathodes (1999). https://www.cathode.com/pdf/tb-128.pdf
HeatWave Labs, Inc.: HeatWave Labs Model 101303-22 Temperature Controller User’s Manual. 23
Acknowledgements
Financial support from the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education No. 6557/IA/SP/2016 is gratefully acknowledged.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Kania, B., Kuś, D., Warda, P., Sikora, J. (2020). Intelligent Temperature and Vacuum Pressure Control System for a Thermionic Energy Converter. In: Bartoszewicz, A., Kabziński, J., Kacprzyk, J. (eds) Advanced, Contemporary Control. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1196. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50936-1_22
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50936-1_22
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-50935-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-50936-1
eBook Packages: Intelligent Technologies and RoboticsIntelligent Technologies and Robotics (R0)