Energy Supply Device Strand Segmentation for Continuous Operation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing energy supply devices with multiple usage units face significant downtime when a single or multiple units fail, as they often require complete shutdown for maintenance or replacement, disrupting electrical energy supply.
Innovation Solution
The energy supply device is designed with usage units arranged in strands, allowing for galvanic separation and replacement of defective units without shutting down the entire system. Each strand has a series circuit with bridging circuits and mechanical switching units, enabling individual unit isolation and replacement, and a control device identifies defective units to manage the process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If usage units are arranged in a single series circuit without galvanic separation capability, then the electrical energy supply can be maintained with simple circuitry, but the entire system must be shut down when a single usage unit fails
Solution Approach 1:
The series circuit is segmented into multiple strands, each strand being a separate series circuit of usage units. This segmentation allows individual strands to be isolated and maintained while others remain operational, resolving the contradiction by enabling partial system operation during maintenance without requiring complete system shutdown.
Solution Approach 2:
Galvanically separable switching units are introduced as intermediaries between strands and the busbar assembly. These switching units enable controlled galvanic separation of individual strands from the main circuit, allowing defective usage units to be isolated without affecting other strands, thus maintaining system availability while managing circuit complexity through standardized switching components.
2Reliability
If galvanic separation and bridging circuits are added to enable individual usage unit replacement, then system availability improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The circuit is divided into multiple independent strands with individual switching and bridging circuits for each usage unit. This segmentation enables granular control and isolation of defective units while maintaining operational strands, achieving high system availability through modular architecture that distributes complexity across multiple simple, identical units.
Solution Approach 2:
The switching units and bridging circuits are designed as universal components that can be applied to any usage unit within any strand. This multi-functionality allows the same standardized components to handle galvanic separation and voltage clearing across the entire system, reducing overall complexity through component standardization while enabling comprehensive individual unit replacement capability.
3Ease of operation
If the entire energy supply device is disconnected for usage unit replacement, then safety is ensured, but downtime increases
Solution Approach 1:
The galvanic separation capability extracts the defective usage unit from the live circuit through the switching units, removing it from the operational system while leaving other strands connected and functional. This extraction allows maintenance personnel to work on isolated, de-energized components without disconnecting the entire system, ensuring safety while minimizing downtime through selective isolation rather than complete shutdown.
Solution Approach 2:
The bridging circuits are pre-configured within each usage unit, ready to be activated when a unit needs replacement. This preliminary preparation of the bridging circuitry allows for rapid voltage clearing and isolation of defective units without requiring complex on-site wiring or system-wide disconnection, enabling quick safety isolation and fast replacement that minimizes downtime while maintaining safety.
Data Source
AI summary
An electrical energy supply device having a plurality of usage units, each usage unit being adapted to generate or to buffer electrical energy. The usage units in the energy supply device are divided up into strands and each strand is adapted to generate a summed voltage by a series circuit of the usage units, and each strand end is connected across a respective switching unit to a busbar assembly and within each strand a bridging circuit is provided for each usage unit and a control device is adapted to identify a defective usage unit in one of the strands and to then galvanically separate the strand by its switching units from the busbar assembly.