VOL 82 1

March 1991

THE TRANSACTIONS
OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS

DIE HANDELINGE
VAN DIE SUID-AFRIKAANSE INSTITUUT VAN ELEKTRIESE INGENIEURS

SPECIAL ISSUE:
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING/EXPERT SYSTEMS
SPESIALE UITGAWE:
PROGRAMMATUUR-INGENIEURSWESE/KUNDIGESTELSELS

CONTENTS/INHOUD

PAPERS/REFERATE

An S-parameter model for the design of arrays of inclined strip dipoles proximity coupled to a microstrip
feedline1
W. George, J.H. Cloete

Specular reflection of plane waves by a planar conductor coated with lossy layers9
L.J. du Toit, J.H. Cloete

Performance calculation for small DC motors with segmental permanent magnets.14

J.F. Gieras

Research issues in computer aided process modelling and control systems design22
A.L. Stevens, I.M. MacLeod

An exploratory investigation into the state of software systems renewal in South Africa28
J.D. A moils

Object-oriented design of control systems software35

R.I. Bricker

FORTRAN package renewal using object-centred design techniques43

A.D. Lipworth, A.J. Walker, H.J. Annegarn

A simple system executive for distributed real-time computing research52

V. Lun, I.M. MacLeod

The back propagation algorithm for information transformation and pattern sequencing69
V. Lun, I.M. MacLeod

TECHNICAL NOTES/TEGNIESE NOTAS

Experimental and simulation facility of a wind power converter, utilising an over-synchronous electronic
scherbius cascade73
J.H.R. Enslln, J.D. van Wyk

Some design considerations for biconical antennas81

D.A. McNamara, D.E. Baker, L. Botha

Enhanced diagnostic procedures for partial discharge measurements in rotating machines84

S.A. Higglns, J.P. Reynders

The influence of the arc root in flashover models of polluted insulators with practical shapes88
J.P. Holtzhausen, L.P. du Toit
 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
(FOUNDED JUNE 1909 — INCORPORATED DECEMBER 1909)
AN OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE

DIE HANDELINGE VAN DIE SUID-AFRIKAANSE INSTITUUT VAN ELEKTRIESE INGENIEURS

(GESTIG JUNIE 1909 - INGELYF DESEMBER 1909)
'n AMPTELIKE JOERNAAL VAN DIE INSTITUUT

President Immediate Past President/

E J Davison Pasuitgetrede President
R A Leigh
Vice-Presidents/Vise-Presidente
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D H Jacobson L H James
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PO Box/Posbus 93541Tel: (Oil) 487-3003/4/5/6
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Chairman/Voorsitter
J D van Wyk, Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit 1 M MacLeod, University of the Witwatersrand
W A Brading, STC J P Reynders, University of the Witwatersrand
E J Davison, Consultant A J Walker, University of the Witwatersrand
H J Geldenhuys. CSIR I E Lane
H O Broschk, AEG

Associate Editors/Mederedakteurs

Aerospace/Lug- en Ruimtevaart High Voltage/Hoogspanning

E Kreindler, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology A J Eriksson, BBC Brown Boveri & Co, Baden
0Rubin, Kentron/University of Pretoria J P Reynders, University of the Witwatersrand
Biomedical Electrical Engineering/Biomediese Elektriese In- R Waters, University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology
genieurswese W Boeck, Technische Universitat Miinchen
G Jaros, University of Cape Town Instrumentation and Measurement/Instrumentasie en Meettegniek
D Kitney, Imperial College J O Gray, University of Salford
Circuits and Systems/Stroombane en Stelsels R Kitai, McMaster University
H J Carlin, Cornell University G Sommer, Council for Mineral Technology
H C Viljoen, Universiteit van Stellenbosch Power Conversion, Conditioning and Rotating Machines/
Components and Manufacturing Technology/Komponente en Drywingsomvorming en Roterende Masjiene
Vervaardigingstegniek R G Harley, University of Natal
P Meerholz, Barlows Electronic Holdings T A Lipo, University of Wisconsin
Computer Systems and Software/Rekenaarprogrammatuur H C Skudelny, Technische Hochschule Aachen
P F Elzer, Brown Boveri & Cie, A G Heidelberg J D van Wyk, Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit
A D Heher, AECI Process Computing (Pty) Ltd Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution/Kragopwekking,
C H Hoogendoorn, Siemens-AG Miinchen Transmissie en Distribusie
T J Williams, Purdue University C B Cooper, UMIST, Manchester
Computing Devices and Systems/Rekenaartoerusting en Stelsels G R Marshall, Merz and McLellan (SA)
M G Hartley, UMIST, Manchester Propagation and Antennas/Voortplanning en Antennes
M G Rodd, University College of Swansea D C Baker, Universiteit van Pretoria
Control/Beheer Signal Processing and Information/Seinprosessering en Informasie
J O Flower, University of Exeter H C Ferreira, Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit
J J Kriiger, Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit R M Kahn, M/A-COM Linkabit Inc. San Diego
1M MacLeod, University of the Witwatersrand G J Kiihn, Universiteit van Pretoria
Electromagnetic Compatibility/Elektromagnetiese Versoenbaarheid Solid State Circuits and Technology/Vastestofstroombane en
B A Austin, University of Liverpool Tegnologie
J J Whalen, State University of New York T C Verster, Wetenskaplike en Nywerheidnavorsingsraad
Electron Devices and Systems/Elektroniese Elemente en Stelsels H L Hartnagel, Technische Hochschule Darmstadt
C K Campbell, McMaster University Telecommunications and Systems/Telekommunikasie en Stelsels
K F Poole, University of Natal W A Brading, STC (SA) Limited
W M Portnoy, Texas Tech University J H Cloete, Universiteit van Stellenbosch
JAG Malherbe, Universiteit van Pretoria
G L Matthaei, University of California

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March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS

An S-Parameter Model for the

Design of Arrays of Inclined Strip Dipoles
Proximity Coupled to a Microstrip Feedline
J.H. Cloete and W.I. George

Abstract

The single lumped-element equivalent circuit model

fails for inclined strip dipoles near a microstrip feed-
line. A new three-port S-parameter model for the iso
lated inclined dipole is introduced. The new model
is accurate, but simple, and is used in an iterative (a) Plan view
design procedure for linear arrays of strip dipoles
which are proximity-coupled to a continuous mi
crostrip feedline. Previously available design meth
ods are extended by allowing the dipoles to be in
clined in the plane of the substrate. This gives flex
ibility regarding polarization. The design procedure Groundplane ^
is accurate if mutual coupling via guided mode scat (b) Side view
tering dominates coupling via radiation and surface
waves. The important case of 45 inclination angle Figure 1: A linear array of proximity-coupled strip
is investigated in some detail. Arrays using dipoles dipoles inclined at 45 to a continuous microstrip
parallel or perpendicular to the feedline can be de feed line.
signed as special cases of the method.

1 Introduction

The design of linear arrays of strip dipoles placed
sequentially near a microstrip feedline is considered.
In previously published work [l]-[6] the orientation
of the dipoles in the plane of the substrate is re
stricted to be parallel or perpendicular to the feed-
line. Arbitrary dipole orientation complicates the
design problem but gives freedom regarding antenna
polarization. The antenna shown in Fig. 1 illustrates
the point. It creates a linear array with 45 slant
linear polarization, without the use of an external
polarizer. Another example is the excitation of a cir
cularly polarized wave using a linear array of dipoles
inclined alternately at +45 and -45 to the feed-
line, and with appropriate phasing [7, pp. 766 and
820].
The Elliott-Stern method [2, 3] was developed for
arrays of end-coupled strip dipoles excited by a cor
porate feed, but is easily adapted to sequentially fed
dipole arrays. In sequentially fed arrays the dipoles
*This paper was presented at the Second Joint Sympo
sium on Antennas & Propagation and Microwave Theory &
Techniques held in August 1988. Submitted: September 1988.
Accepted: December 1989.
are located at intervals along a continuous microstrip
feedline [4, 5]. As mentioned, the common choice
of dipoles oriented perpendicular or parallel to the
feedline simplifies the array design problem, but con
strains the choice of antenna polarization.
The assumption that each radiator can be accu
rately modeled by a single lumped-element equiva
lent circuit on the feedline is central to the Elliott-
Stern method. The lumped-element model is good
for end-coupled dipoles, and for sequentially-coupled
dipoles oriented perpendicularly or parallel to the
feedline. However it is invalid for arbitrarily oriented
dipoles.
This paper solves the more general problem by
introducing a new three-port scattering parameter
model for inclined proximity-coupled dipoles. The
model is used in a new design procedure to find the
physical layout of a linear inclined dipole array which
corresponds to a specified set of normalized radiating
currents.
 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS March 1991

2 The Derived Three-Port S-

Parameter Model for Strip © ®

Dipoles
;
A strip dipole, located in the proximity of a continu point
ous microstrip transmission line, may be modeled as -n Xg 0 -nX
g
a reciprocal two-port waveguide discontinuity1. In
(a) Plan vt e^
general the equivalent circuit for such discontinuities
contains three independent complex parameters [8, ©
p. 108]. Radiation is represented by resistive ele
1
Radiated
Incident ! Transmitted
ments. Although an unique equivalent does not ex wve(o,) ^ >rave(b2)
ist, the T or Pi circuits2 [8, p. 118] are convenient <^- e reflected from
Reflected j | I
for narrowband modeling. The T or Pi network of nex . obsteclela2)
-nig 0
a physically symmetrical obstacle has only two inde g
pendent complex parameters. Dipoles oriented par (b) Side view
allel or perpendicular to the feedline are special cases
which comply with the symmetry requirement. For
these the symmetric T or Pi equivalent is often ap
©
1I
<i 3
1 (-0)
l|
proximated by a single lumped-circuit element. This
-^> b2
model fails for the asymmetrical obstacles presented
^ai
- bT
I^ Lb2
by inclined dipoles. enerator j Load
The failure of the single lumped-circuit element
model for the inclined dipole can be established by (c) S—Parameter model
measurement or theoretical argument. The argu
Figure 2: The three-port S-parameter model.
ment uses the asymmetry of the obstacle presented
to the guided wave on the feedline by the presence
of the dipole. For example, it is evident that an in
research the reference point is defined as the inter
clined dipole, Fig. 2a, will scatter a wave incident
section of the transmission line axis with the vertical
from Port 1 quite differently compared to incidence
plane through the dipole axis, Fig. 3.
from Port 2. However, the single lumped element
It is necessary to discuss the choice of dipole dis
model incorrectly predicts identical amplitudes and
placement direction. There are two obvious ways of
phase for the two scattered waves.
varying the coupling between an inclined dipole and
Stern and Elliott [9] have also shown that simple
the transmission line, assuming that the dipole incli
equivalent circuits may fail for waveguide slots. They
nation angle is fixed. One is to displace the dipole
recommend the use of scattered waves in such cases.
in a lateral direction perpendicular to the transmis
This approach was taken for the inclined proximity-
sion line axis. For this choice the reference point, as
coupled dipole. The dipole is modeled as a three-
defined in the previous paragraph, shifts along the
port, Fig. 2b, instead of a two-port, to account ex
transmission line as the dipole is displaced. Hence
plicitly for radiation. The amplitudes, 61,62 and 63,
the reference planes for Ports 1 and 2, which are lo
of the scattered waves are linearly related to the am
cated a fixed distance from the reference point, also
plitudes, ai,a2 and a3, of the incident waves through
shift as the dipole is displaced laterally. The sec
the scattering matrix [8, pp.106-108]. Only dominant
ond choice is to move the dipole in the direction of
mode guided waves are associated with Ports 1 and
its own axis to keep the reference point fixed. Lat
2. Port 3 defines the interface between the dipole and
eral displacement is the obvious choice for parallel-
its environment. The reference plane for Port 3 can
coupled dipoles, and for perpendicular dipoles lateral
be arbitrarily chosen since the relative amplitude and
and axial displacement are the same.
phase of the radiated wave adequately characterize
Axial displacement was preferred here. Thus
the dipole for array design purposes [2, 3].
with the inclination angle and reference point on
The reference planes for Ports 1 and 2 are cho
the transmission line fixed, the dipole position is
sen an integer number of guide wavelengths from a
uniquely defined by the displacement, p, of its cen
reference point on the transmission line. For this
tre along the p-axis. The displacement variable, p,
1The end-coupled dipole, which may be modeled as a one- may assume positive or negative values as shown in
port circuit, is not considered here. Fig. 3, where p' is an arbitrary positive number.
2These models merely serve a mathematical purpose and
Port 3 defines the interface between a dipole and
are often not physically realistic.For example, a realistic model
for a parallel coupled dipole requires coupled transmission line space, as mentioned. The dipole radiates through
sections [l]. this port, and external obstacles may reflect the
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
p - Axis
Reference Reference
point (p=0) polarization
direction
^ p - Axis
© ©
Figure 3: Dipole positions and incident wave direc
tions for the S-parameter symmetry arguments.
dipole's own radiation back through the same port.
The common assumption that the dipole radiates
into a reflectionless free space will be made. Port
3 may also receive radiation and surface waves from
other dipoles in the array, and higher order guided
waves scattered by the other dipoles3. These waves,
which cause the effect loosely referred to in the lit
erature as mutual coupling, are assumed to be neg
ligible; thus a3 = 0. The validity of this assumption
is discussed in Section 3.
The reflection coefficient, Sl, at Port 2 of a dipole
is defined as the amplitude ratio of the waves enter
ing and leaving the load side of the dipole model;
thus a2 = 5/,62. The complex amplitudes of the
reflected, transmitted and radiated waves are com
pletely determined, from the amplitude of the wave
incident from the generator side, a\, by the reduced
scattering matrix:
61 " Sn 5l2
62 S2i 522 (1)
63 531 532
The complex S-parameters have the conventional
definition and a2 = 5k62 and a3 — 0 were used.
The assumption a3 = 0 allows the third column of
the matrix to be eliminated. Note that while ex
ternal reflections and mutual coupling are neglected
(03 = 0), the model fully incorporates coupling be
tween dipoles due to multiple scattering of the dom
inant guided wave.
Explicit expressions for the relative amplitudes of
3 Strictly each of these modes should be assigned separate
ports. For this inodel one port suffi ces.
the reflected, transmitted and radiated waves are ob
tained from eqn.(l).
def
= 61/ai = Su + (5i51252i)/(l - S22SL), (2)
def
(3)
def l In SlS32S21/(1-S22Sl). (4)
31 = 63/ai = i31
The isolated dipole is completely characterized by
the three "derived scattering parameters", Sn,s2i.
and S31. The derived S-parameters, denoted by lower
case letters, are determined by six elements of the
scattering matrix, and the load reflection coefficient,
Odd-symmetry can be used to halve the number
of S-parameters required on the right hand side of
eqns. (2)-(4). In Fig. 3 a wave, incident from Port
1 upon the dipole with its center displaced from the
reference point by p' in the positive p-direction, is
scattered in exactly the same way as a wave incident
from Port 2 upon the same dipole displaced the same
distance in the opposite direction. Thus
- S22(-p)(5)
= 5i2(-p')(6)
= -532(-p')-(7)
The negative sign in front of 532 in eqn.(7) arises
because the reference polarization vector at Port 3 is
defined to be aligned in the positive p-direction for
waves incident from either of Ports 1 or 2. By this
convention the radiated wave excited from Port 2 is
out of phase with the wave excited from Port 1, since
the instantaneous dipole currents flow in opposite
directions.
The general reciprocity relationship
S^ip) = 52i(p),
used with p = — p' and eqn.(6) yields the important
non-obvious result
Eqn. (8) can be used to check the accuracy of
the 52i data and to reduce errors. For example,
the dipole S-parameters discussed below were ob
tained by measurement and the data for S21 (+p')
and 52i(—p') were improved by replacing both with
the geometric mean, (52i(+p')52i(-p'))1/'2, to sat
isfy eqn.(8) exactly.
S22,Si2, and 532 can be eliminated from eqns.
(2)-(4) by using eqns. (5)-(8), leaving three isolated
 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS March 1991

dipole scattering parameters to fully characterize the

inclined proximity-coupled dipole. For example:

3i(p') = S3i(p') - SLS31(-p')S21(P')/T,

with T= l-Sn(-p')SL.
Thus knowledge of Sn at -\-p' and —p'\ S2\ at +p';
and S'31 at +// and — p', i.e. five values but three S-
parameters, allows computation of the three derived
S-parameters which characterize the dipole at the
point p — p'. The fact that only three S-parameters
are needed makes data gathering by measurement
very practical, since they can all be measured at the
same time for each dipole position using a network
analyzer.

3 Measured S-Parameters of
Strip Dipoles
To establish the validity of the new model the scat -1.0
tering parameters of a set of five dipoles, each de
signed to be resonant near 3 GHz, were measured.
Figure 4: Measured scattering parameters Sn,S2i,
The dipoles were inclined at 45 to the feedline. The
and S'31 fr the 34,65mm dipole at 3 GHz. Dipole
substrate had relative permittivity 2,54 and thick
inclined at 45 to the feedline and moved in the p-
ness 1,122 mm. The superstrate had relative permit
direction. Displacement of the dipole center in mm.
tivity 2,33 and thickness 1,65 mm. The feedline was
copper of width 3,104 mm and thickness 0,036 mm
to give 50 f2 characteristic impedance. The dipoles
were brass with width 2,9 mm and thickness 0,5 mm.
Their lengths were 35,00 mm; 34,85 mm; 34,65 mm;
34,40 mm; and 34,20 mm. The groundplane was alu
minium with dimensions 300 mm x 200 mm.
S\\, S'21 and 531 were measured using a. 50 ^^ coax
ial network analyzer under computer control. For 531
the method of Stern and Elliott[3] was used. The
measurements were made with the center of each
dipole moved, in the p-direction, Fig. 3, in steps of 1
mm, from 20 mm on one side of the reference point,
to 20 mm on the other side. An example of the mea
sured scattering parameters is given in Fig. 4. From
these data the derived S-parameters were computed
-
using eqns. (2)-(8) to characterize the dipole at each
position in the same displacement range.
The validity of the S-parameter model was estab
lished as follows. The input reflection coefficient of a
single dipole terminated by a short circuit (Sl = — 1)
was computed from eqn. (2), and also measured di
rectly. The results are compared in Fig. 5 with good
agreement.
The marked asymmetry of the impedance locus in
Figure 5: The input impedance of the 34,65mm
Fig. 5, and of Sn and S31 in Fig. 4, demonstrates
dipole at 3 GHz by direct measurement, and com
the complete failure of the single impedance model
puted from the S-parameter model. The feedline
which predicts symmetric loci.
was short circuited and the reference point was an
The extent of mutual coupling between two dipoles
integer number of guide wavelengths from the short.
located one guide wavelength apart was investigated.
Displacement of the dipole center given in mm.
The S-parameters of a two dipole array were mea
sured directly. They were also computed using the
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS

ment follows from Fig. 6 as

Table 1: Interaction Between Two Inclined Dipoles
Separated by \g Cti 4lf nn /Ln _ n-l
^>L — a2/2 — sll (9)
Configuration Sn 521 522 The ratio of the complex amplitudes of the waves
Isolated Dipole 1; 0,37 0,79 0,35 radiated by the nth and (n — l)th dipoles in Fig. 7
Measured Z178 Z20 Z51 can be shown to be
Isolated Dipole 2; 0,45 0,57 0,42
Measured Z - 153 Z19 Z67
Dipoles 1 and 2; 0,59 0,44 No Data
These are the key equations in the following design
Measured Z - 150 Z27 No Data
method:
Dipoles 1 and 2; 0,55 0,44 0,52
From Model Z-1560 Z31 Z69 1.Choose the termination for the feedline. For ex
ample a short or open circuit for a resonant ar
ray, or a matched load for a travelling wave ar
ray.
n 2.Choose the distance, z^o, of the first dipole from
bJLZo n the termination. Compute the reflection coeffi
n n y
ELg •
n-l
n cient presented by the termination at Port 2 of
V- -J the dipole. Measurements suggest that the dom
inant coupling between the 45 inclined dipole
and the feedline is by magnetic fields. Thus for a
Figure 6: The equivalent load for the nth dipole.
standing wave antenna using such elements the
distance z^o should be multiples of \g/2 from
a short circuit termination, or odd multiples of
measured isolated dipole S-parameters with 03 = 0
A<,/4 from an open circuit termination, with \g
assumed for each dipole, i.e. no mutual coupling
the guide wavelength. This ensures that the
taken into account. The last two rows of Table 1
dipoles are located in the vicinity of standing
show good agreement between the results. There
fore mutual coupling, via radiated fields, higher or wave current maxima.

der guided waves, or surface waves, is very low for 3. Guess the length, , 1, and displacement, plt
this case. This agrees with the finding of Das and of the first dipole. Compute the derived S-
Pozar[4] for perpendicularly coupled dipoles. parameters s\1, s2l, and Sgj, using eqns. (2)-
(4)-

4.Choose the distance, z2l, between the second

4 The Array Design Proce
dure
The inclined dipole array is modeled in Figs. 6 and 7.
The nth dipole is characterized by its derived S-
parameters, s"1, s21, an^ S31 which were defined in
eqns. (2)-(4). For each dipole the design procedure
yields the length, ln, and displacement, pn, required
to realize the specified radiating currents at the array
center frequency. It does not ensure a specified input
impedance, but a narrowband matching network at
5.Search for a couplet (h^P2) which satisfies
the input port will usually suffi ce.
The feedline characteristic impedance, Zo, and
propagation constant, 7 = 0 + j[3, dipole width and
thickness, and the substrate and superstrate param
eters must be selected before starting the procedure.
A suitable data base of S-parameters for a range of
couplets (/,p), with I the dipole length and p the
dipole displacement, must be available from mea
surements or computation.
The reflection coeffi cient at Port 2 of the nth ele-
and first dipoles. For a broadside array this
distance can be chosen to be \g with all the
dipoles offset to the same side of the feedline, or
A<,/2 with the dipoles alternating, so that they
are all excited with their currents essentially in
phase. For typical microstrip substrates \g is
usually suffi ciently shorter than the free space
wavelength to prevent the formation of grating
lobes. Compute the reflection coeffi cient, Sj , at
Port 2 of the second dipole using eqn. (9).
eqn. (10) with suffi cient accuracy. There are
numerous numerical procedures which could be
used to find a solution. A simple, and reason
ably effi cient, procedure starts with the value of
the first dipole couplet. Next the value of the
displacement P2 is varied incrementally over a
practical range, and the derived S-parameters
obtained for each new couplet, either theoreti
cally or from an experimentally determined data
base. If a solution to eqn. (10) is not found,
 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
Figure 7: The equivalent circuit, based on the three-port S-parameter model, for a linear array of inclined
proximity coupled dipoles.
the length of the dipole is changed incremen
tally and the process repeated.
6.Repeat Steps 4 and 5 for dipoles 3 to N until
the design is complete, or the procedure fails to
yield a solution.
7.If the procedure fails4 choose a new starting
value for the first couplet, (/i,pi), and repeat
Steps 4 to 6 until a solution is found.
8.Analyze the network corresponding to the cou
plet solution set to check that the corresponding
radiating current set complies5 with those spec
ified.
9.Compute the array input reflection coefficient,
and design the impedance matching network.
As mentioned in a footnote the procedure does not
yield a unique design, even for a fixed feedline termi
nation. Thus it is possible to produce numerous de
signs which comply with the radiation pattern spec
ifications, by making a computer search. The choice
between the various designs can be based on the in
put impedance, and by comparing the sensitivity of
the various designs to manufacturing errors.
5 An Experimental Six Ele
ment Array
A six element antenna, with dipoles inclined at 45
to the feedline, was designed for operation at 3 GHz.
4A general statement, about convergence of the procedure
can tiot be made. However, experience with six dipole arrays
has shown that many acceptable solutions may exist. This
means that the search does not have to uncover a unique so
lution, and the procedure will not fail for a wide selection of
first dipole parameter choices.
5Compliance will normally not be exact due to the sam
pled nature of the data base. An acceptable solution will be
one for which the differences are less, according to a statisti
cal measure, than those expected due to manufacturing errors
and substrate tolerances. If the data base is too coarse inter
polation may be used.
March 1991
The array factor was chosen to be broadside Cheby-
shev with sidelobe level -20 dB. The dipole spac
ing was chosen to be A^, which was 65 mm, or
0,65Aq, with Aq the free-space wavelength. This
spacing is small enough to suppress grating lobes
and large enough to ensure low mutual coupling be
tween dipoles. The termination was \g from the first
dipole. The suitability of short-circuit, open-circuit,
and 50 f2 terminations were investigated in turn.
The measured S-parameters for the set of dipoles
discussed in Section 3 were used as the data base for
the design procedure of Section 4. Feedline attenua
tion was taken into account. The data base consisted
of 205 (l,p) couplets, comprising 5 dipole lengths and
41 positions. To study the complete solution set ev
ery couplet in the data base was used as a starting
value in Step 3 of the procedure.
Such an exhaustive search of the data base is not
computationally very expensive. For each choice of
termination and first dipole couplet the algorithm se
lects a couplet for the second dipole which best sat
isfies eqn. (10). The procedure is then repeated for
dipoles 3 to N. Thus for the 205 couplet data base,
and a 6 dipole array, a total of 630375 possible de
signs have to be evaluated. This number arises as fol
lows: 3 choices for the termination; followed by 205
choices for the first dipole; followed by 5 successive
searches through the 205 element data base, yields
3x205x5x205 combinations. Note that this number
is quadratically related to the number of data base
elements, but only linearly to the number of dipoles.
A solution was defined as any set of couplets for
which the root mean square approximation to the de
sired radiating currents gave an error of 10% or less.
According to this criterion 65 solutions were found
for the short circuit termination, 6 for the open cir
cuit termination, and 31 for a 50 ^2 load. The rela
tively few solutions for the open circuit termination
seems to confirm that the coupling is essentially mag
netic.
The solutions were numerically examined for sensi
tivity to manufacturing tolerances. The 50 2 termi
nation arrays were found to be relatively sensitive,
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
possibly due to build up of the reflected wave am
plitude caused by the \g spacing between elements.
This is a well known effect with broadside travelling
wave slotted waveguide arrays [10, p.475]. The short
circuit termination solution in Table 2 was one of the
most insensitive and was used to design an experi
mental antenna.
The experimental antenna is shown in Fig. 1. Its
measured and theoretical principal plane patterns
are compared in Fig. 8. Good agreement was ob
tained regarding the beamwidth and maximum side-
lobe level. The discrepancies in the detailed sidelobe
structure are attributed to the following causes, in
decreasing order of significance:
Pattern measurement errors. The radiation pat
terns measurements were made in an indoor cham
ber. Care was taken to minimize reflections from
walls etc. by placing microwave absorber blocks,
with 460mm pyramids, around the measurement
area to create an anechoic volume. However, insuffi
cient blocks (50) were available at the time and some
spurious reflections at the -20 dB level, relative to the
peak of the beam, are thought to have been present.
Ground plane edge diffraction. In computing the
theoretical pattern an infinite ground plane was as
sumed. It is well known that diffraction by the
ground plane edges can contribute significantly to
the sidelobe structure of small arrays, especially in
the wide angle and backlobe regions.
Dipole thickness. The data base was built up us
ing measured data for 0,5 mm thick dipoles, but the
experimental antenna was constructed using 0,035
mm printed dipoles. This may have altered the ex
citation coefficients, from the design values, by more
than expected.
Mutual coupling. As mentioned, the design proce
dure does not account for mutual coupling between
the dipoles by radiated, surface and higher order
guided waves. However, according to the results
shown in Table 1 this form of mutual coupling is
very small for the chosen structure.
The antenna was not well matched at 3,000 GHz
but, without, using an impedance matching network,
it had a reflection coeffi cient minimum of -24 dB at
3,015 GHz. At this frequency the radiation pattern
was still good[12]. In fact, the radiation pattern
bandwidth was at least 40 MHz, centered at 3,000
GHz. The -10 dB reflection coefficient bandwidth
was 21 MHz, or 0,7 % of the center frequency. Thus
the antenna is bandlimited by impedance, not radia
tion pattern. The agreement between the predicted
and measured reflection coefficients was not good;
the discrepancy being attributed to the discontinu
ity at the coaxial to microstrip transition.
~ - 10 — tneor
n
w - 13 - •
D -a0
a
E -30
(aeg)
Figure 8: Comparison between measured and theo
retical co-polarized patterns of the experimental ar
ray in the principal plane through the axis of the
feedline at 3 GHz.
6 Conclusions
The single impedance model can not be used for the
design of sequentially fed dipole arrays, if the dipoles
are inclined to the feedline.
To solve the problem a new three-port S-parameter
model has been introduced. The model has been
shown to characterize the proximity-coupled inclined
dipole with good accuracy.
The three-port model plays the central role in a
new design procedure which is simple to use and
computationally quite effi cient. It enables the design
of antennas with arbitrary dipole inclination angles,
giving the designer freedom to comply with polariza
tion specifications. The procedure is also applicable
to inclined slot antennas.
Mutual coupling, via radiated, surface, and higher
order guided waves, is not accounted for in the design
procedure. However, by experiment it was shown
to be low for two dipoles separated by \g and lo
cated at two adjacent standing wave current max
ima. It is important to note that Das and Pozar[4]
also found mutual coupling to be low for standing
wave microstrip dipole arrays, even with A^/2 spac
ing, but not for travelling wave arrays.
In principle the requirement for negligible mu
tual coupling can be eliminated by starting the de
sign with 03 = 0, and then iterating with 03 non
zero. However, this will significantly complicate the
method and should only be done if mutual coupling
is expected to influence the pattern in a significant
way. Thus the decision on whether or not to account
for mutual coupling depends on the stringency of the
pattern specifications, and the level of the coupling
phenomena. The recent work of Das and Pozar [4],
Yang et al. [5], and Jackson et al. [6] should be con
sulted for assistance in deciding on the importance
 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS March 1991

Table 2: Particulars of the Experimental Array

Short circuit termination ( Sl = -1)

Dipole /„ (mm) pn (mm) Ideal Actual % Error
excitation excitation
1 35,00 19 1,000/0 1,000/0 0
2 34,85 11 1,437/0 1,511/- 1,5 5,8
3 34,85 8 1,845/0 1,906/6,4 11,8
4 35,00 11 1,845/0 1,804/5,7 10,2
5 35,00 16 1,437/0 1,434/3,2 5,5
6 34,85 18 1,000/0 1,090/1,0 9,2

of mutual coupling in small microstrip arrays.
Acknowledgement
The results described here were extracted from a the
sis [12] for which the degree M.Eng.(Electronic Engi
neering) was awarded to Ian George by the Univer
sity of Stellenbosch.
References
[1] H.G. Oltman and D.A. Huebner, "Electro-
magnetically coupled microstrip dipoles", IEEE
Trans. Antennas and Propagation, vol. AP-29,
no. 1, pp. 151-157, January 1981.
[2] R.S. Elliott and G.J. Stern, "The design of
microstrip dipole arrays including mutual cou
pling, Part 1: Theory", IEEE Trans. Antennas
and Propagation, vol. AP-29, no. 5, pp. 757-760,
September 1981.
[3] G.J. Stern and R.S. Elliott, "The design of
microstrip dipole arrays including mutual cou
pling, Part 2: Experiment", IEEE Trans. An
tennas and Propagation, vol. AP-29, no. 5, pp.
761-765, September 1981.
[4] N.K. Das and D.M. Pozar, "Analysis and design
of series-fed arrays of printed-dipoles proximity-
coupled to a perpendicular microstripline",
IEEE Trans. Antennas and Propagation, vol. 37,
no. 4, pp. 435-444, April 1989.
[7] J.R. James and P.S. Hall (Eds.), Handbook of
Microstrip Antennas, London: Peter Peregri-
nus, 1989.
[8] N. Marcuvitz (Ed.), Waveguide Handbook, New
York: McGraw-Hill, 1951. (Reprinted with Er
rata by Peter Peregrinus, London, 1986).
[9] G.J. Stern and R.S. Elliott, "Resonant length
of longitudinal slots and validity of circuit rep
resentation: Theory and experiment", IEEE
Trans. Antennas and Propagation, vol. AP-33,
no. 11, pp. 1264-1271, November 1985.
[10] R.S. Elliott, Antenna Theory and Design, En-
glewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1981.
[11] R.C. Hansen, Linear Arrays. Chapter 9 of:
A.W. Rudge, K. Milne, A.D. Olver, and P.
Knight, The Handbook of Antenna Design, Lon
don: Peter Peregrinus, 1986.
[12] W.I. George, An Electromagnetically Coupled
Dipole Array, University of Stellenbosch: Stel
lenbosch, 1987.
Authors
John Cloete is a professor in the Department of Elec
trical and Electronic Engineering, University of Stel
lenbosch, Stellenbosch, 7600, South Africa.
Ian George was with the Department of Electri
cal and Electronic Engineering at the University of
Stellenbosch before joining Plessey South Africa in

[5] H-V Yang, N.G. Alexopoulos, P.M. Lepeltier, January 1991. His research towards the Ph.D. de
gree, on the topic of microstrip dipole arrays, is at
and G.J. Stern,"Design of transversely fed EMC
an advanced stage.
•microstrip dipole arrays including mutual cou
pling", IEEE Trans. Antennas and Propagation,
Submitted October 1988
vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 145-151, February 1990.
Accepted December 1989
[6] D.R.Jackson, A.E. Dinbergs, and S.A. Long,"A
moment-method design procedure for an array
of EMC dipoles", IEEE Trans. Antennas and
Propagation, vol. 38, no. 5, pp. 766-770, May
1990.
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS

Specular Reflection of Plane Waves by a Planar

Conductor Coated with Lossy Layers
L.J. du Toit and J.H. Cloete

Abstract
Plane waves propagating in a stratified medium, con
sisting of lossy material layers between a conduct
ing plate and free-space, are considered. The layers
may be very thin resistive sheets as a special case.
The waves are inhomogeneous because the planes of
constant amplitude and phase do not coincide. A
solution of Maxwell's equations is presented which
can be used to compute the specular reflection prop
erties of lossy stratified media in general, and flat
plate microwave absorbing materials in particular.
The method can easily be adapted to compute the
transmissivity and reflectivity of radome materials
and optical windows. Frequency, incidence angle, or
polarization can be the independent variable in such
analyses.

Figure 1: A plane wave.

1 Introduction
Many planar microwave absorbing structures [1] like
the Dallenbach layer, Salisbury screen, and the Jau-
mann absorber consist of material layers, possibly
separated by thin resistive sheets, backed by a highly
conducting plate.
Their analysis is based on the theory of plane wave
propagation in lossy, stratified media in which the
angles of refraction, obtained from Snell's law, may
be complex. Because the planes of constant ampli
tude and phase of the waves generally do not co
incide [2] they are known as inhomogeneous plane
waves.
The theory which describes the behaviour of in-
homogeneous plane waves in lossy media is quite
simple. However, care must be taken when using it
to obtain numerical data because the wave is char
acterized by complex quantities, obtained from the
square-roots of complex numbers involving the ma
terial constitutive parameters. Thus the wave pa
rameters are double valued functions and, to prevent
physical nonsense from being computed, it is essen
tial that the branch of each function is correctly cho
sen.
*This paper was presented at the Second Joint Sympo
sium on Anteimas & Propagation and Microwave Theory &;
Techniques held in August 1988. Submitted: September 1988.
Accepted: February 1990
The paper shows how to do this, and gives the
theory needed to compute the specular reflection co
efficients for multi-layer lossy media as a function of
frequency and incidence angle. Typical results, ob
tained from a code which implements the analytical
method, are also given.
Since any arbitrarily polarized wave can be de
composed into two orthogonal polarizations it is only
necessary to consider waves in two polarization cat
egories. Here the TE and TM polarization conven
tions, as defined by Naqvi [3], will be used.
2 The inhomogeneous plane
wave
A plane wave travelling in the positive ^-direction,
is shown in Figure 1. The complex time-dependence
exp(+j'a^) is assumed but suppressed throughout the
paper.
The normalized field equations for TE polarization
are [4, p.57]1
E = yEy = e
(1)
H = (-
(2)
1Our coordinate system differs from Harrington's by a
quarter turn rotation about the z-axis.
10 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
with propagation constant
(3)
and intrinsic wave impedance
(4)
The angular frequency is w, the permittivity of
the medium is c, and the permeability is //. Fol
lowing common convention any finite conductivity is
lumped with the imaginary part of the permittiv
ity [4, p.27]. For a particular isotropic2 material the
macroscopic constitutive parameters, e and ^, are
frequency dependent complex scalars. Let
e = e' - je",(5)
H -\iI'll/O\
- jfi .(6)
Then from the complex form of Poynting's theo
rem [4, pp.22-26] it follows that the imaginary parts,
e" and /z", must be non-negative at all frequencies
for passive materials. For most materials encoun
tered in common engineering practice the real parts,
e' and //', are positive. Thus, although positivity is
not a physical requirement [4, p.48], [6, Chapter 6],
it will be assumed in the following. This means that
f and fi are restricted to the fourth quadrant of the
complex number plane.
The choice of sign at the two square root radicals
in eqns. 3 and 4 is based on energy conservation,
and direction of energy flow for waves propagating
in passive, lossy media. Consideration of eqn. 1 for
9 real shows that k must be in the fourth quadrant
of the complex plane to yield a wave which propa
gates in the positive ^-direction without amplifica
tion. Similarly, the real part of rj must be positive to
ensure that the direction of the time-average Poynt-
ing vector coincides with the direction of energy flow.
These conditions are compatible with the restrictions
placed on //. and e [4, pp.48-50].
Solution of Maxwell's equations for the boundary
value problem arising from waves incident at oblique
angles on lossy media, or lossless media at greater
than the critical angle, requires 9 to be complex.
Physical considerations, discussed in Section 3, re
strict sin 9 to the first quadrant of the complex plane.
The value of cos 9 follows from
cos 9 = V f — sin i (7)
with the sign chosen to prevent amplification as the
wave propagates towards infinity.
Let sin(? = s' + js" and k = k' - jk", with
s', s", k', k" all non-negative. Then expanding eqn. 1.
shows that cos I^ = c' — jc", with c',c" both non-
negative, satisfies the exponential decay requirement.
Anisotropic materials are characterized by tensors and are
not. considered.
March 1991
Thus cos 9 must be restricted to the the fourth quad
rant. From the expanded form of eqn. 1 it can also be
shown that the vector normal to the constant phase
planes makes an angle
ipp = arctan
k'c' - k"c
(8)
with the z-axis. If either k, or 9, or both are com
plex, the wave is attenuated while propagating. The
vector normal to the resulting planes of constant am
plitude makes an angle with the z-axis of
-fc'V + k's"
ipa = arctan
-k"c' - k'c"
(9)
For TM polarization the normalized magnetic field
is given by the right hand side of eqn. 1. The cor
responding electric field can be looked up in Har
rington [4, p.57] or found directly from the appro
priate Maxwell's equation. The two sets of fields are
mathematically dual. However, the restrictions on
the values of k, rj, s'm 9, and cos 6 apply without any
modification to the TM case.
It is stressed that all the restrictions stated in this
Section are for the assumed exp(+jtot) time depen
dence. Their complex conjugates apply if exp(— juit),
which is often found in the literature [5], is used.
3 Semi-infinite media sepa
rated by a resistive sheet
Next consider the fields at the boundary between two
homogeneous media, shown in Figure 2. There may
be a thin resistive sheet at the boundary. As already
mentioned any incident polarization can be decom
posed into two spatially orthogonal components, and
for most isotropic media the TE and TM decompo
sitions, shown in Figure 2, are mathematically con
venient 3. The resulting equations for the two cases
have similar forms.
If an incident wave illuminates the boundary, en
ergy will be partially reflected, and partially trans
mitted. Let A, B and C be the complex field ampli
tudes of the various plane waves at the origin of the
coordinate system. They correspond to the complex
amplitudes of the electric field in the TE case and
the magnetic field in the TM case.
The boundary conditions are [7], [8]
pi F. R1flOl
zx(H2-Hi) = 3S,(11)
with E(n the tangential electric field vector and Hn
the total magnetic field vector on the surface of
3Exceptions do occur. Due to a third constitutive param
eter the wave equation for isotropic chiral media has left- and
right-hand circularly polarized waves as eigensolutions.
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
TE : E = yEy
TM : H = yHy
medium 1 medium 2
B Ar/i cos0j — .B771 cos 0j- = Cr\2 cos 9t,
resistive sheet R [ ft/ square ]
Figure 2: Boundary between two layers, and defini
tion of TE and TM polarizations.
medium n;n = 1,2. Js is the vector surface current
density flowing in the resistive sheet with resistivity
R in units of ft per square.
Use of these yields the laws of reflection and re
fraction,
6i = er,(12)
^,; = k2 s'm (13)
In general all the angles and wavenumbers can
be complex, associating them with inhomogeneous
plane waves as discussed previously. However, for
most reflection problems of practical interest medium
2 is illuminated by a plane wave incident at a real
angle from an essentially lossless medium 1, namely
air. Thus k\ sin 0,- non-negative4 and real will be
assumed, to considerably simplify the mathematical
treatment.
Then by using Snell's law, eqn. 13, the previously
mentioned restriction of sin 0f to the first quadrant
can be derived. Since by assumption the left hand
side of eqn. 13 is always real it also follows that
— fC9 S^ — U, (14)
using the notation of Section 3. Then eqn. 9 yields
<pa = 0 which means that attenuation only occurs
in the -\-z direction; thus amplitude wavefronts are
always parallel to the interface, irrespective of the
incidence angle.
Lastly, the two Fresnel equations, which give B
and C in terms of A^ can be derived from eqns. 10
and 11.
4 With k\ positive real the angle of incidence is restricted
to 0 < $i < 7r/2 to ensure sin 9t non-negative.
For TE polarization these are
A + B = C,(15)
Acos0; B cos 0;
Ccos9t A B ,.
— _t_ _i_ ( 1 (S1
0i0i02R R'
and for TM polarization they are
(17)
A+^^=C+ Arfi
nR cos @i
'-Bni
nR cos 0;,
'. (18),
The solution for reflection and refraction by a
semi-infinite lossy medium, possibly covered by a re
sistive sheet, is summarized below.
Known: w; A; 0,-; e and /t in both media; sheet
resistivity R in units of ft per square. With no sheet
R= 00.
Restrictions: Medium 1 is lossless, thus ei, fii,
ki and rji are real. The incidence angle 0,- is real and
taken to lie between 0 and 90.
Unknown: B; C\ 9t.
Procedure: Execute the following steps.
1Compute k\, k2, 0i and 02 using eqns. 3 and 4.
2Compute sin 8t from Snell's law, eqn. 13.
3Compute cos 8t from eqn. 7.
4Compute B and C from the appropriate pair of
Fresnel equations.
4 Multiple layers backed by a
conductor
Medium n in a layered structure has finite thickness
and usually supports two waves, one propagating
away from medium n — 1 and the other towards it.
Medium 1, which supports the incident wave, will be
assumed to be semi-infinite and lossless. Then Snell's
law, eqn. 13, with 9i real, requires that the product
kn sin 9n be real in any layer n. For multiple layers
the symbol 0n is used to represent the propagation
angle in medium n. Thus the symbols introduced in
the preceding Section also have the meaning 0,- = 0i
and 8% — 82.
At the interface between media n— 1 and n the field
amplitudes of the waves in medium n — 1 will be de
noted An_i and Bn_i, and Cn and Dn in medium n.
Neglecting subscripts the nomenclature is as for Fig
ure 2 with the addition of a fourth wave, travelling
in medium n towards medium n — 1, with complex
amplitude Dn at the interface.
The last layer of finite thickness will be denoted
N. It may be followed by a semi-infinite penetrable
medium5, denoted N + 1, which supports a single
wave of amplitude Cjv+i travelling away from the
This case, applicable to radomes or optical windows, will
not be treated in detail.
 12 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS March 1991

interface; thus Dm+i = 0. Alternatively medium
N + 1 may be a totally reflective perfect conductor6
for which C^v+i = Dm+i — 0. This case is of specific
interest here and the details are discussed below.
For a coated metal plate the normalised ampli
tudes on the conductor surface are Am = +1, Bm =
-1 for TE waves, and AN = +1, BN = +1 for TM
waves. These are are the starting values in the fol
lowing method for computing the specular reflection
coefficient.
Forward procedure: For n from 2 to ^ deter
mine all the complex sines and cosines from Snell's
law, eqn. 13.
Backwards procedure: For n from N to 2 exe
cute the following steps.
1Compute Cn and Dn in layer n from An and
Bn using eqns. 1 and 2 for TE waves or their duals
for TM waves, and the thickness and propagation
constant for medium n.
2Apply the boundary conditions, eqns. 10 and 11,
to obtain An_i,Bn-.\ in terms of Cn,Dn.
3From 1 and 2 find An_1,^n_1 in terms of
An,Bn.
These steps can be summarized mathematically as
An-1 Xi + X3 X2 + Xa
Bn-\ X1-X3 X2-X4
rn o 1 r An
\Bn I -
with
Fn = exp(+jkndn cos^^n).
For TE polarization
Xi = X2 = 1,(21)
Reverse matrix: Multiply all the matrices to
obtain a single 2x2 matrix which gives A\ and B\ in
terms of Am and Bm-
Reflection coeff
icient: The electric field spec
ular reflection coefficient is p = B\/A\ for the TE
case, and p = —B\jA\ for the TM case.
Kong [5, pp.120-132, 201-202] and Collin [9] de
scribe similar procedures for multilayer substrates
and should be consulted if the method summarized
here is not clear.
5Analysis of a Jaumann ab
sorber
A Jaumann absorber consists of a number of re
sistive sheets, separated by low loss, commensurate
length dielectric or magnetic spacers and backed by
a conductor [1]. To illustrate the use of the preced
ing theory a 25 dB equiripple Jaumann absorber,
consisting of 5 resistive sheets and lossless dielec
tric spacers with er = 1,1 was analyzed. The sheet
surface resistivities, numbered sequentially from the
conductor outward, are R\ = 279, 66; R'i ^ 566, 13;
R3 = 1022,26; RA = 1843,48 and R5 = 4763,61; all
in ^^ per square. They were found using an equiripple
design procedure [10].
The reflectivity versus normalized frequency is
shown in Figure 3. The analysis confirms that the
(19)
design method yields the specified equiripple perfor
mance, with frequency bandwidth of 5,7:1. At the
(20) centre frequency the spacers are each a quarter di
electric wavelength thick. Thus for 6 GHz centre
frequency the total absorber thickness is approxi
mately 60 mm, and the specified > 25 dB absorption
is achieved between 1,8 and 10,2 GHz.

r\n-\ The ability of the theory to deal with oblique in

X3 = (22) cidence angles bandwidth is illustrated in Fig. 4 for
Vn
the same Jaumann absorber, where the specular re
Vn-l COS 0n flection coefficient is shown as a function of both fre
Xa =
Vn
(23) quency and incidence angle for TM polarization.
while for TM polarization

r]n cos 0n 6Conclusion

X) = 1 + (24)
Aspects of inhomogeneous plane wave propagation
Vn COS Un in lossy stratified media have been discussed. The
X'2 = 1 ~
Rn-l,n
(25) purpose was to present a theoretical method for pre
dicting specular reflection of plane waves, incident
l]n COS 9n
X3 = 7,= -Xa- (26) at oblique incidence angles, by a conducting plate
covered by multiple lossy layers. The method is rig
In these equations f?,n_in is the resistivity of the orously based on Maxwell's electromagnetic theory.
sheet between layers n — 1 and n. If there is no sheet A typical application is the numerical analysis of mi
Rn-\,n — o. The thickness of layer n is dn. The crowave absorbers to check the performance of a par
remaining symbols are self explanatory. ticular design.
Another is the design of optimal absorbers; the ex
6 In this paper it is assumed that the conductor is per
fect. The theory can easily be extended to deal with finite act synthesis problem for practical absorbers is usu
conductivity. ally mathematically intractable, leaving numerical
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 13

optimization as the only feasible method to achieve

specified absorber performance versus frequency or
incidence angle. The theory described here is well
suited to incorporation in such methods because they
usually rely on repeated analysis, coupled with an al
gorithm which changes the relevant parameters until
an optimum solution is approximated.
The reverse matrix of Section 4 can also be used
to analyze the transmissivity and reflectivity of mi
crowave and optical windows. Typical examples of
such windows are antenna radomes, and infra-red or
visible wavelength filters.

References

[1] G.T. Ruck, D.E. Barrick, W.D. Stuart, C.K.

0 Krichbaum, Radar Cross Section Handbook,
f/fo [%] New York: Plenum Press, 1970, pp. 611-640.

[2] J.A. Stratton, Electromagnetic Theory, New

York: McGraw-Hill, 1941, pp. 490-524.
Figure 3: Reflection coefficient of a 5 sheet Jaumann
[3] S.S.H. Naqvi, "A Comment on the Use of
absorber versus normalized frequency for normal in
TE/TM Polarization Notation'', IEEE Trans.
cidence.
Antennas Propagat., vol. 38, no. 4, p. 584, Apr.
1990.

[4] R.F. Harrington, Time-Harmonic Electromag

netic Fields, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961.

[5] J.A. Kong, Electromagnetic Wave Theory, New

York: John Wiley, 1986.

[6] R.W.P. King and G.S. Smith, Antennas in Mat

ter, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1981.
Kiai.r. r iioN [.nil
[7] T.B.A.Senior, "Combined Resistive and Con
ductive Sheets", IEEE Trans. Antennas Prop
agat., vol. AP-33, no. 5, May 1985, pp.577-579.

[8] R.L.Fante and M.T.McCormack, "Reflection

properties of the Salisbury screen", IEEE Trans.
Antennas Propagat., vol. 36, no. 10, October
1988, pp.1443-1454.

[9] R.E. Collin, Field Theory of Guided Waves,

New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960, pp. 79-94.

[10] L.J. du Toit and J.H. Cloete, "Advances in

Figure 4: Reflection coefficient of a 5 sheet Jaumann
absorber versus both frequency and incidence angle
for TM polarization.
the Design of Jaumann Absorbers", IEEE An
tenna and Propagation Society Symposium Di
gest, Dallas, Texas, USA, 1990, pp. 1212-1215.
Authors

Leendert du Toit is a Ph.D. candidate, and John

Cloete a professor, in the Department of Electrical
and Electronic Engineering at the University of Stel-
lenbosch, Stellenbosch, 7600, South Africa.

Submitted October 1988

Accepted February 1990
14 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
Performance Calculation for Small DC Motors with
Segmental Permanent Magnets
Jacek F. Gieras
ABSTRACT
An attempt to complete and computerize
the analytical methods of performance
calculation for small permanent magnet dc
motors has been made. The two-segment
construction of permanent magnets
magnetized radially inside a machine has
been considered. The leakage permeances,
the coordinates of the permanent magnet
operating point and the MMF of cross
armature reaction have been analysed. A
comparison of the computation with the
test results for a small 8-W two-pole
motor has been included.
1. INTRODUCTION
Permanent-magnet dc motors are used
extensively in industry, automobiles
(windshield wipers, drive blowers for
heaters, radiator fans, air conditioners,
mechanisms for raising and lowering
windows), office machine-drives, medical
equipment (drug-injection devices,
medium-speed dental drilling handpieces),
and home appliances (hand tools, lawn
mowers, toys, dryers, tooth brushes,
record players, tape decks, etc.)
The fundamental difference between
permanent magnet motors and wound-pole
motors is in the behaviour of the magnetic
flux: the flux per pole is not adjustable
in permanet magnet motors. It means that
speed and torque must be controlled by the
armature circuit, and the performance of
permanent magnet motors is thus quite
similar to that of shunt motors.
Although there is a wealth of
literature dealing with permanent magnet
dc motors, uncertainties and doubts still
exist. Amongst others, the calculation of
armature reaction and its influence on the
operating point of a permanent magnet has
not yet been clarified.
Numerical methods Are fashionable, but
their accuracy and flexibility do not
always fulfil the demands of the industry.
The main goal of this paper is to develop
the classical methods of performance
calculation for permanent magnet dc
motors, to computerize their calculation
process and to clarify the location of the
permanent magnet operating point.
Attention is paid to the armature reaction
and a new relationship for the cross MMF
has been presented.
Submitted March 1990
Accepted March 1991
March 1991
2. CALCULATION OF TORQUE
Three traditional methods Are employed
for the calculation of developed torques:
the Maxwell's stress tensor method, the
energy variation method, and the method
using experimental results of Ampere. The
first two methods have found wide
applications in numerical calculations
[1], while the third method is convenient
in a circuital approach. From Ampere's
experimental results (dF = I dl x B), the
torque on a current loop with its
vector AreA dS is
T = I dS x B (1)
Eqn (1) leads to the following well
known scalar formula
p N
T = I (2)
which expresses the developed torque of a
dc machine. The airgap magnetic flux per
pole is
^ = a t B L (3)
g g
For small permanent magnet motors
= 0.55...0.70.
5. MAGNETIC CIRCUIT
There Are three classes of permanent
magnet materials used for dc motors:
Alnicos, ferrites, and rare-earth
materials. Ferrite magnets (Fig. 1) Are
most economical in small dc motors. The
first practical rare-earth permanent
magnets, sintered SmCO-, became available
about 1970 in the USA [3]. The Fe-Cr-Co
permanent magnet alloys were discovered in
Japan in early 1970s and offer magnetic
properties (Fig. 2) comparable to those of
Alnico alloys [4]. Being ductile and
containing less cobalt, the Fe-Cr-Co
alloys may be considered as substitutes
for the high-cobalt and brittle Alnico
magnets. Permanent magnets based on rAre
earth-iron-borides (prototype Nd,Fe. B)
were developed by US and Japanese
investigators and announced in 1983 [3J.
The Ga addition can improve the thermal
stability and other magnetic properties
C5].
Theflux distribution in the cross
sectionof a wound-pole dc machine and
similarpermanent magnet machine is shown
in Fig.3.
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS

0.4

30/16
2S/16'\^
^\ 0.3
' 24/16^Q^ ANtSOTROPlC/;
24723\\^
28/26X\^\^<
30/26^ \ ^ / 0.2

.m
iq V /y
8/22 y^

^ ISOTROPIC
0.1

-300 -200-100
-H, kA/m

Fig.l. Demagnetization characteristics of

barium ferrite magnets manufactured
by Magnetfabrik Schramberg GmbH &
Co [2].

(1)VICALLOY
1.2
(2)7Co-28Cr-Fe
1.0
l3H0.5Co-28Cr-Fc
(CHROMINDUR II!
(4) CUNIFE 3^
I
/ ^H y 0.8

0.6
CD

111 0.4

0.2
Fig. 3. Magnetic circuits and flux lines
of dc machines: (a) wound-pole
machine; (b) permanent-magnet

-50
/ 1 1
-40 -30 -20 -10 0
machine.

-H, kA/m

Fig. 2. Demagnetization characteristics of -Hh = * / A -F (V)

the 7 % and 10.5 % Fe-Cr-Co mm g g a
isotropic alloys along with those
of Vicalloy and Cunife [4]. The "goodness" of a magnetic circuit
can be expressed with the aid of the
leakage factor

A A *
Small permanent magnet motors usually t 1 t
have no interpoles and iron pole shoes. a = —= 1+= — = 1 (10)
1 A A ^
A lumped parameter equivalent g g g
circuit per pole pair of a permanent
magnet machine is shown in Fig. 4. The which is usually in the range of 1.1 to
height of a permanent magnet is h and its 1.5. Eqns (4), (5), (8), (9), and (10)
cross section is S m' The following set of give
governing equations can be established:
H
^=BS=*+^(4)
t mm g 1 B = (^ ^ $)=- A — ) (11)
Sg 1 t S
A = A + A(5)
t g 1 where

F = H h(6) H = F /h (12)
o o m aam
Hh=F-^/A(7) isthemagneticfield intensity
mm o to corresponding to MMF of armature reaction.

H h = * / A(8) m m^ of
mm 1 1 given magnetic circuit. In general
16 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS March 1991

H
m
B = -,\ — (H - — (13)
t Scr
m1

The useful magnetic flux density can

be find from eqns (9), i.e.:

gm
B == - ,\ (H - H ) ( 14)
uSg Sma
mm
The above eqns. (11), (13), and (14)
express straight lines with slopes

tan a = ,\ h /S (15)
t t m m

and

tan cc = X h /S (16)
g m m Fig. 5. Demagnetization curve, permeance
lines and recoil line. Permanent
located in the second (upper left-hand) magnet is magnetized inside a dc
quadrant. motor.

In fact, the permeances X and A ^arB

functions of magnetic permeability 4. OPERATING POINT
dependent on magnetic field intensity, so
that the lines (11), (13) and (14) show a The demagnetizationcurve for majority
slight saturation. of hard magneticmaterials can be
described analyticallywith the aid of the
The permeance Ag can be find on the equation of hyperbola
basis of the total MMF per pole pair
B (H - H)
B S L kg r c
urn C (18)
F == H - b H
p X L — L
g m

B HB H B
1 n cr c r
+ 2 g +V +2V +V (17) b = - Z (—+ — - — —) ( 19)
p ym ly 2t 2y n i=l HB H B
o ii i i
Motors up to 100 W have usually the and i = 1, 2, 3,... n = number of points
airgap g^ = 0.04...0.10 mm. chosen arbitrarily on the measured
demagnetization characteristic.
The permeances Ag and X \ ar^ discussed
in Appendix 1. The maximum MMF F of armature
-
reaction ^i
takes i
placeamax .
during counter
—current braking (plugging). The line (13)
for F amax intersects the demagnetization
characteristic (18) at a point K with its
coordinates H .,, (Fig. 5), e.g.:

H = 0.5 [A
KK
t*.
i A2 + -(B /tan a - H
K b r t
/ tr ) H ]
amax 1 c
(20)

A=H /cr +H/b-B /(b tan a ) (21)

K amax 1 c rt

and
H = F /h (22)
amax amax m

Fig. 4. Equivalent magnetic circuit of dc

permanent-magnet motor.
reaction is discussed in Appendix 2.
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 17

The line (13) for H according to (12) the armature winding resistance R can be
and the recoil line a found immediately. The next stage is to
calculate the magnetic circuit, its
B = B + p M H (23) magnetization characteristic, and the
m o o c m transient characteristic (Appendix 2)
for different values of B 6" I he maxlmum
locate the operating point M for a MMF F of armature reaction determines
permanent magnet. Eqn (23) sterti5 from the values of HKand BK (Fig. 5). The no-
eqn (7) in which load magnetic flux densities B and B uas
well as the no-load magnetic flux S are
B =ppF/h =ppH (24) found in a straightforward manner since
oocomoco the no-load MMF of armature reaction F ~0.

and The load curves of a dc motor Are

understood as plots of n, I, Pjn> pout
X p p S /h (25) and r) against the shaft torque T^^j. The
o c m rr calculations should be performed for
different developed torques T, e.g.
where Po p c i^ is the recoil magnetic starting with a very small value of T up
permeability. The recoil line (23) to a value corresponding to n = 0 (E ^
replaces a subsidiary B-H loop and is 0). It is recommended to start with the
approximately parallel to the top of the torque equal to the predicted rotational
demagnetization characteristic. The value losses Prot divided by the rated angular-
of p c = 1.0 ... 3.5 is given in catalogues speed 2nn. Assuming a magnetic flux ^l
of permanent magnets. ,say, equal to B S m, the armature current
I stems from the eqn (2), the generated
The recoil line (23) intersects the EMF E =V -IZRa-^^Vbr and the
demagnetization characteristic at the rotational speed n = E a /(p N $^)• For
point K (Fig. 5). The quantities H and the given current I, the MMF F- of
Bo Are usually unknown, so it is better to armature reaction determines the operating
bring eqn (23) into more convenient form point M (Fig. 5), airgap magnetic flux
density B a and magnetic flux ^•• IT
B =B +pp(H -H) (26) calculated ^ is different than assumed
m k o c m K ^g, the calculation should be repeated for
the new value of flux ^ „. Such an
For B K the recoil field iteration process must be continued as
intensity H „ = 0. Eqns (11) and (26) give long as the convergence between ^* and ^„
the coordinates Hm and B ^ of the operating is satisfactory. The brush drop voltage
point M (Fig. 5), e.g.: z^Vbr = 1.0 ... 2.5 V is dependent on the
material of brushes. The terminal voltage
B - p p H - H tan a /a V > E is assumed to be equal to the
K o c K a t 1 rated voltage.
H = - (27)
tan a M M The input power = V I and the
o c losses Z P (armature copper, brush-drop,
armature core, stray—load and rotational
A point P corresponding to the useful
magnetic flux density B the efficiency r) The shaft torque is
intersection point of the line (14) and a expressed as T = P / ( 2ttn ) .
perpendicular to the axis OH through the shf out
point -H (Fig. 5). An example of such a calculation has
m been made for a small dc motor driving an
The useful magnetic flux is automobile blower [6]. The design data is
specified in Table 1 and the magnetic
$ = B S (28) circuit is sketched in Fig.6 . The
g u m segmental permanent magnets have been made
of the anisotropic barium ferrite FX 280
while the airgap magnetic flux density B for which Hc= -245 kA, Br =_0.35 T, b =
stems from eqns (3) and (28).^ 0.1311, and p pc= 1.429x10 H/m. The
comparison between calculations and
The MMF of permanent magnet laboratory tests is shown in Fig. 7.

F = H h(29)
m mm

must counterbalance the MMF F (17) per

pole pair, and the MMF of armature
reaction F , i.e.:
a
F = F • F(30)
m p a
At no load, the MMF of armature
reaction F ~ 0 and the lines (11) and
(14) Are araised from the origin of
coordinate system (Fig. 5).

5. LOAD CURVES

If the dimensions ofmagnetic circuit

and winding parametersAre known, the Fig. 6. Flux distribution in 8-W two-pole
permeances ^^e, '^3^ andX • (Appendix 1) dc motor with segmental permanent
without saturation takeninto account and magnets.
18 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS March 1991

Table 1. Design data of small dc permanent

magnet motor driving an
automobile blower

Rated power P = 8.0 W

out
Rated voltage V = 24.0 V

Number of poles2p = 2

Number of pairs of current pathsa = 1

Number of armature conductorsN = 112 0

Diameter of armature conductor0.22 mm

Number of armature slots8

Number of commutator segmentsK = 8

Magnet overlap angle {$ = 1.832 rad

Length of magnetL = 25.0 mm

m
Height of magnet (two segments) h = 8.1 mm
m
Airgapg = 0. 6 mm

Length of armature core L = 12.0 mm

Outer diameter of armature D = 42.0 mm

core2out

12 16 20 24 28 32 36*1
TshfNm
Fig. 7. Performance characteristics for
8-W two-poie dc motor with
segmental permanent magnets:
measurements
calculations
magnet circuits have been developed so
far, the accuracy of these methods is not
better than that of classical methods,
particularly in application to predicting
the load curves. The author is in favour
of using the finite element technique for
optimization of permanent magnet circuits
(see e.g. Figs. 3 and 6) but, on the
other hand, he believes that analytical
methods ^rB not outdated and still
necessary in design processes.

6. CONCLUSIONS

A simple and efficient method of

performance calculation for segmental
permanent magnet dc motors has been REFERENCES
discussed. The location of the operating 1Marinescu M., and Marinescu N.:
point of a permanent magnet has been "Numerical computation of torques in
expressed analytically. New relationships permanent magnet motors by Maxwell's
for permeances and MMF F^Q of cross stress and energy method", IEEE Trans,
armature reaction have been found. The on Magnetics, MAG-24 (1988), Nol, pp.
calculated load curves 3,r& in good 463-466yy
agreement with the measured curves. The
calculation method can be easily adjusted 2"Permanent magnets", Magnetfabrik
to motors with other shapes of magnets, Schramberg GMBH & Co,Schramberq-Sulqen
e.g. flat magnets with pole—shoes or FRG, 1988
annular magnets by deriving appropriate
expressions for permeances (Appendix 1). 3Strnat K.J.: "Permanent magnets based
on 4f-3d compounds", IEEE Trans. on
Magnetics, MAG-23 (1987), No 5, pp
There is a discrepancy between the 2094-2099
calculated and tested results. The
considered motor is rated at 8 W {vBry 4Jin S., and Chin G.Y.: "Fe-Cr-Co
small machine). Generally, the convergence magnets", ibid., MAG-23 (1987), No 5,
between calculations and measurements for pp. 3187-3192
very small machines is much worse than
that for medium and large machines. One of 5Endoh M., Tokunaga M., and Harada H.:
the reasons is higher influence of the "Magnetic properties and thermal
boundary effects, not taken into account stabilities of Ga substituted
in one—dimensiona1 ar two-di^ensional Nd-Fe-Co-B magnets", IEEE Trans. on
analysis. However, for rated torque, the Magnetics,
2290-2292'HPMAG-23 (1987), No 5, pp
maximum discrepancy takes place in the
efficiency and is slightly less than 30 7..
6Gieras J., Frydrychowicz G., and
This is justified for an 8-W motor. For
Jdzefowicz W.: "Projektowanie silnikOw
output power the discrepancy is only 7 7.. pr^du stalego malej mocy o magnesach
trwalych wspomagane maszyna cyfrowa",
Although many numerical methods of Przeglad Elektrotechniczny, '54 (1978)"
performance calculation for permanent No 4, pp. 152-156
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 19

7Ermolin N.P.: "Calculation of small 0.25 13 (D + 0.5h ) h

commutator machines", in Russian, 1 in m n
Energia, Moscow, 1973 X = p - (35)
lc o
8Balagurov V.A., Galtieyev F.F., and
Larinov A.N.: "Permanent magnet
electrical machines", in Russian,
Energia, Moscow, 1964 where: cav T,0-25 u hm = average
paths for " leakage fluxes.
9Kostenko M., and Piotrovsky L.:
"Electrical Machines", Vol.1, Mir Thus, the total leakage permeance is
Publishers, Moscow, 1974
X = k ( X X ) (36)
10Mohr A. : "Stressing and testing of 1 V 11 lc
permanent magnet segments", IEEE Trans,
on Magnetics, MAG-13 (1977), No 5, pp. where the coefficient including
1113-1115 magnetic voltage drop along the height hm
of the permanent magnet. According to [7]
11Odor F., and Mohr A.: "Two component k -0.5.
magnets for DC motors" ibid., MAG-13 V
(1977), No 5, pp. 1161-1162

APPENDIX 1. PERMEANCES

The eqn (20) can be brought to the form

B k g
u m C
F = — = 2 — [
p X p a t L - L
g o m

+ a g ]k (31)
1 ym sat
Fig. 8. Dimensions and equivalent leakage
where the saturation factor for magnetic fluxes of two-pole dc motor with
circuit segmental permanent magnets.
k = F /(F -V - 2 V - V ) (32)
sat p p ly 2t

The permeance X for 4> can be found

on the basis of the eqns (3) and (31) as APPENDIX 2. ARMATURE REACTION

p(33a) The MMF of armature reaction

X = F = F F F (37)
l l •a aq ad aK
g
2[—ln(L /L) k g + a g Ik
L - L C S 1 ym sat holds three components: F = cross
ot r (quadrature) MMF, Fad = direct-axis MMF,
m
and FaK = direct-axis MMF of the coils
If L = L the eqn (33a) takes the sections being commutated. The sign "+"
form is for a generator, ana the sign "-" is
for a motor. In general, the MMF of
armature reaction is proportional to the
armature electric loading
X = p (33b)
g o N I
2 (k g + a g ) k A = A/m (38)
C 1 ym sat 2 Tt a D
2out
The nonlinearity of the rotor core and
stator yoke has been included since Xg is The point K (Fig. 5) which is given by
dependent on ksat. Although justified the intersection of the total permeance
theoretically, eqns (33a) and (33b) give line (13) and the demagnetization
too low value of the airgap permeance. characteristic (18), should be determined
for plugging. (sometimes under short
The leakage permeance for a segmental circuit). When plugging is initiated, the
magnet consists of two components: for a
flux between the yoke and lateral surface armature current can attain the following
value [8]:
h L
I = (0.6...0.^)(V + E )/R (39)
m m
X = P (34) max^
11 c
lav where E is the EMF for a given speed.

and for a flux between the yoke and Under the leading edge of the pole the
cylindrical surface armature field weakens the main field,
while under the trailing edge the armature
20 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS March 1991

field strengthens the main field. If a where b j, = 0.8t(1 - a) is the width of the
machine has a saturated magnetic circuit, commutation zone, X' ^ = leakage permeance
the reduction of the field in the of a short—circuited coil section during
saturated portion is greater than its its commutation, n ~ speed in rev/s.
increase under the other pole edge. The
demagnetizing effect of the cross armature
reaction in a machine with a saturated
magnetic circuit is us ually investigated
with the aid of the transient
LIST OF PRINCIPAL SYMBOLS
characteristics B = f( F . ) [9], where
gt
A = armature electric loading
B
g a = number of pairs of current paths
F = gk + V (40) between armature terminals
gt p C 2t
B = airgap magnetic flux density
is the (IMF of the airgap and tooth in 9
B = magnetic flux density of the
axial pole plain. The equations m permanent magnet assumed to be
uniform throughout its volume
B
remanent magnetic flux density
F - 0.5b A= gk +V (B) (41)
useful magnetic flux density
gt P M C 2t g
o width of the commutation zone

b =width of the pole shoe (permanent

B
pmagnet)
F + 0.5b A = g k + V (B ) (42)
b ^brush shift
gt p p C 2t g
r
o D =inner diameter of the stator (see
linFig. 8)
allow to determine, by means of the
transient characteristic, the flux density
Bg at a distance -0.5b p and B+g at a D =outer diameter of the armature
g 2outcore
distance .5b p ffrom th
the pole
l axis
i under a
given load. The width of the pole shoe is
E =armature winding EMF
b p = aT The author ha^ derived the
following approximate formula for the MMF
F =MMF of armature reaction
of cross armature reaction:
a
F =direct-axis MMF of armature
F ^ b A (b -\b2-l) ad reaction
(43)
aq p g g = direct-axis MMF of the coils
aK sections being commutated
in which
= MMF of cross armature reaction
aq
b =(B -B)/(2B -B -B) (44)
g g g g g g = MMF of the airgap and tooth in
gt axial pole plain
There Are also other approximate
expressions for the cross armature = MMF of permanent magnet
reaction field, less or more theoretically
justified e.g. proposed by R. Bosch GmbH = "open circuit" MMF acting through
[10,11]. It is sometimes recommended to a permeance X (see Fig. 4)
made the trailing edge of segmental o
magnets of a material with high He and the = total MMF per pole pair
rema in ing portion of a material with high
Br [11]. = airgap between the stator and
rotor
The armature direct-axis MMF
g = airgap between the magnet and the
F = 2 b A (45) ym stator yoke
ad br
H = magnetic field intensity
depends on the arrangement of the brushes. a corresponding to MMF of armature
For small dc motors the brush shift h
react ion
= 0.15...0.3 mm.
H = coercive field strength
The MMF induced by the currents of the
coil sections being commutated can be c
estimated as [8] H = magnetic field intensity of the
m permanent magnet assumed to be
uniform throughout its volume
b N2 L n
K
>' A h = height of the permanent magnet
(46)
rn ( see Fig . 8 )
aK K R K
= armature current
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 21

number of commutator segments

useful (airgap) magnetic flux
Carter's coefficient
= equivalent leakage magnetic flux
saturation factor for magnetic
sat circuit = total magnetic flux

coefficient including magnetic

voltage drop along the height of
the permanent magnet

effective length of the armature

core

length of the permanent magnet

JACEK F. GIERAS (SM
total number of armature IEEE) received the
conductors MSc degree in elec
trical engineering
speed from the Technical
University of ,0d,
input power the Dr.-Eng. and
Dr. habil. degrees,
output power also in electrical
ou t engineering, from
number of pole pairs the Technical
University of
Poznari, Poland, in
cross—section area of the 1971, 1975, and
permanent magnet 1980, respectively.
His research area
developed torque is electrical
machinery, electromagnetic devices, and
shaft torque electromagnetic field theory. The most
shf extensive research pertains to linear
magnetic voltage drop along the induction motors. He is an author or
It stator yoke co-author of 2 monographs, 1 textbook, 1
students' course manual, 4 patents and
magnetic voltage drop along the more than 100 scientific and technical
2t rotor tooth papers published in many countries
including USA, UK, Germany, and Japan. He
was teaching and doing research in Poland,
magnetic voltage drop along the Czechoslovakia, Canada and Jordan. In
2/ rotor yoke 1987 he was promoted in Poland to the rank
of Professor.
pole src to pole pitch ratio;
angle shown in Fig. 5 He joined the Department of Electrical
& Electronic Engineering at the University
magnet overlap angle (see Fig. 8) of Cape Town in September 1989.

path for the leakage flux

brush contact voltage drop

br
ef f i cien cy

permeance of the external magnetic

circuit for useful magnetic flux

permeance for leakage magnetic

flux

leakage permeance of a short-

circuited coil section

total permeance

recoil relative magnetic

permeabi1ity

p = magnetic permeability of free

o space
ZR = armature circuit resistance
a
SR = resistance of a short-circuited
K coil section plus contact
resistances of leading and
trailing edges of brushes

a = leakage factor
1
t = po1e pitch
22 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
Research Issues in Computer Aided Process
Modelling and Control Systems Design
A.L. Stevens and I.M. MacLeodf
Abstract
The major stages of the design cycle for process control systems
are discussed and the tools used at each stage are analysed. Par
ticular emphasis is placed on the requirements of the modelling
phase. A software structure for a system to implement com
puter aided process modelling and process control system design
is proposed. This system is capable of handling the broader
issues of modelling and control system design and of incorporat
ing recent methods from the field of Artificial Intelligence. Early
implementation results are presented.
1 Introduction
Current research in Computer Aided Control System Design
(CACSD) has concentrated mainly on specific stages of the over
all design cycle of process control systems, while other equally
important stages have been neglected. For example, the research
effort expended on the development of advanced techniques for
the design of robust controllers in the final controller design
phase is out of proportion to that for other important aspects
of the design cycle. Also, research is usually concerned with the
techniques embodied within the CACSD system for the particu
lar phase under consideration; for example, singular perturbation
methods in the model reduction phase, and H optimal control
theory in the controller design phase.
More attention should be paid to the broader issues of design,
such as the philosophy and basic objectives of CACSD itself, in
addition to improving existing algorithms. To do this, it is nec
essary to consider what actually comprises the process of design.
This makes it possible to identify the major stages of the design
process as well as the particular tools used at each stage. The
modelling phase is a particularly neglected research topic and is
of primary interest in our research.
In this paper, we propose a Computer Aided Process Modelling
And Controller Design (CAPMACD) program structure. It is
believed that this is the first computer aided design tool which
tackles the broader issues in the modelling and controller design
of modern process plants.
i Department of Electrical Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand
Submitted January 1990
Accepted March 1991
March 1991
The modelling phase of the design
cycle
In classical feedback controller design, a great amount of effort
is expended on determining system models in the form of differ
ential equations and transfer functions. This type of modelling
can be thought of as "deep" modelling. In almost all cases,
a reduced-order simplified model is accepted and the required
amount of robustness is designed into the controller to contend
with the remaining plant process uncertainties and parameter
variations (usually by arranging high loop gains in the frequency
ranges of interest). At this stage also, tests are carried out to de
termine the parameters of a plant model which has an assumed
structure, perhaps using sophisticated techniques of parameter
estimation and identification. All this assumes a certain mini
mum amount of structural and dynamic information about the
process to be modelled.
However, for a large process plant such as those found in the
petrochemical, chemical and mineral extraction industries, the
number and variety of plant sub-assemblies and their interactions
are so complex, that it is usually impossible to model each sub-
assembly with sufficient accuracy and in the form required for
the application of robust control CACSD techniques. For this
reason, most plant process control engineers are satisfied with
crude on-line "tuning" of simple controllers. In other words, the
goals are lowered until they are satisfied that a large complex
plant works, albeit suboptimally.
The classical way of modelling the dynamics of a process is to use
some type of differential equation description. These equations
are then simulated numerically and the resulting time histories
are plotted. The behaviour of the process or device can then be
inferred from the plots.
This differential equation approach is common and very useful,
provided that numerical values (such as tank sizes, voltage levels
etc.) or at least their approximate ranges, are available.
For many processes, the task of obtaining an accurate mathemat
ical model of the process is extremely difficult, time consuming
or impossible. For these reasons, it is useful to have a heuris
tic model of sufficient detail to give some appreciation of the
behaviour of the process.
To get a feeling for the dynamic response of a system, the de
signer needs to express the system's rates of change, absolute
values and limit points (such as saturation values of variables).
Often, it is not possible to obtain the equation describing the pro
cess, so that it becomes necessary to look for qualitative ways of
modelling the plant's dynamics.
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
A CAPMACD system therefore, should give the user a facility
for constructing both qualitative and quantitative models to a
point where they are suitable for control systems design.
The CAPMACD System Design
Philosophy
An important engineering tradeoff in the design of a CAPMACD
system is deciding which tasks the human must do and which
should be left to the computer. Computers are better than peo
ple at certain tasks and vice versa (see [6]) and it is important
to allocate the correct tasks to each in a careful and responsible
manner. Complex engineering decisions should be left to the hu
man user and routine work such as the execution of algorithms,
searching through rule and data bases, storing and correlating
information and general 'housekeeping' duties, should be rele
gated to the computer.
There is much evidence to suggest that designers of computer
aided design systems often yield to the temptation to try and
automate the design process so as to exclude the skill of the
designer. This leads to a "black box" design approach (such
as LQG Optimal Control), where the input to the box is the
required specification in the form of some type of performance
index and the output is a completed design.
There are some objections to this approach. Firstly, the "design"
produced (via algorithms) by this type of system, is often in a
form (such as a matrix of feedback gains satisfying the design
specification), which is very diffi cult to interpret in the sense
that it obscures the design tradeoffs involved.
Such an approach severely limits the "what-if." question capa
bility of the system. A designer would like to ask questions like
"If I use three small cascaded tanks, rather than one large one,
what will the effect be on the structural controllability[19] of the
system?" Answering such questions usually requires extensive
calculation and data manipulation; a task which is well suited
to a computer.
Secondly, an indication of the robustness of the design due to
modelling ignorance or parameter variations can often only be
ascertained by running the algorithms again with a new set of
values. This defeats the whole object and will eventually require
the same amount of effort as if a systematic design procedure
was carried out initially. (A systematic design procedure can be
regarded as one which includes design tolerances and parameter
variations from the very beginning of the design process. Un
fortunately, such procedures are only known for certain problem
domains, see [14], for example)
Computer aided design tools at the moment do not cater for
the situation where some information is missing and require a
rather high level of process design expertise to use properly. A
CAPMACD system can provide some mechanisms to support
the reasoning process and allow the designer to treat only small
parts of the model at a time. At the same time it should allow
the user to ask "what-if" questions.
A good design philosophy should allow the designer to see rele
vant tradeoffs at each step along the way towards the final design
23
and allow him to select alternat^ve desiun options at < ich •"'
every step of the design cycle. The "black box" design ; quo;.eh,
however, usually contains only a single path from start to finish.
To solve complex engineering problems, a hybrid approach should
be used; part of the engineer's art is in correctly deciding which
tool to use for which aspect of the problem. For example, effi
ciently separating and matching the data, algorithms and rules
to the correct part of the problem, is an important design deci-
The subject of artificial intelligence is very rich in ideas which
have not yet been applied to engineering situations. Likewise,
cognitive science has something to offer in the quest to under
stand complex human thinking and our application of these tech
niques to solve complex problems using computers (see [9]). The
use of qualitative reasoning to computer aided process modelling
is an important contribution from the AI research community.
We believe that progress will be made in this field by combining
AI and traditional numerical programming techniques.
3.1 Difficulties in Process Design
A major problem in the design of large-scale plants, is the over
whelming number of design possibilities, component configura
tions, spatial, static, dynamic and other pieces of information
which the plant designers have to keep track of. Unexpected
design errors (such as two spatially adjacent components being
joined by an unnecessarily long pipe) can arise either from the
sheer amount of information contained in the process flowsheets
or due to a lapse of communication between designers.
A computer system is potentially well suited to handling this
type of information by warning the user of such types of prob
lems. Other problems such as the existence of hidden positive
feedback loops due to bad structuring, can be picked up and re
ported to the user. It is very important that such problems are
discovered as early as possible in the design cycle, because the
cost of rectifying mistakes later can be very high.
The design of large-scale process plants can be broadly divided
into two main areas:
1.Structural modelling—modelling of connectivity, polarity,
spatial relationships
2.Static and dynamic modelling of individual components
and their interrelationships.
Both of these can benefit from the results of AI research; search
techniques and algorithms are useful in analysing structural mod
els and qualitative reasoning methods can be used in building
static and dynamic models.
We therefore propose a simple, yet flexible database system with
program modules which enable the data to be manipulated and
used in a variety of different ways for analysis and design.
24 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
4 Types of models
Models can be broadly divided into two types, namely formal and
conceptual models [5], A formal model is the model description in
equation form, whereas the conceptual model is a mental model
which the designer formulates about the formal model.
The conceptual model is that which is not expressible in formal
terms and involves such concepts as the quality or accuracy of
the formal model and its applicability. A child, for example,
builds up a good conceptual model of the dynamic behaviour of
a bouncing ball, without solving any differential equations or nu
merical algorithms. The child understands the ball's behaviour
to some extent, from observations that the height of successive
bounces diminishes to zero.
A heuristic process model, on the other hand, is a combination
of many different kinds of knowledge; cause-effect, spatial, tem
poral and taxonomic, i.e. "rich" knowledge.
A heuristic model is useful, because it is generally accepted that
complexity of the formal modelling approach when applied to a
large-scale system, exceeds the analytical capability of the hu
man mind. It is therefore not practical to attempt this in such
Zadeh[23], in his famous Principle of Incompatibility states:
"In general, complexity and precision bear an inverse rela
tion to one another in the sense that as the complexity of
a problem increases, the possibility of analysing it in pre
cise terms diminishes, until a threshold is reached beyond
which precision and significance (or relevance) become al
most mutually exclusive characteristics".
It is most usual to find that knowledge about a system is divided
up into various levels of detail. Thus for a simple tank, for exam
ple, we may know the dynamic behaviour in terms of a transfer
function or differential equation model as well as the required
parameter values such as the dimensions. At the other extreme,
however, there may be some components where not even the
form of the equations describing the process are available (e.g.
complex chemical reactions and biological processes.)
It appears, therefore, that the static and dynamic modelling as
pects should be left to the human. As mentioned in [20] "Mod
elling has long been thought of as an 'art' and has only recently
been subjected to a more detailed analysis. In fact model build
ing is a very complex human skill. It is by no means certain, or
even probable, that the human modelling process, which relies
on a blend of logic, intuition, abstraction, association and skill,
could be analysed in a systematic way."
We believe that rather than trying to automate model building,
the user should be provided with more versatile tools to assist
him in model development.
March 1991
5 Qualitative Modelling
A large body of literature exists in this area, mainly in the arti
ficial intelligence journals, where workers in the field have been
attempting to build programs which can imitate the common-
sense reasoning about the physical world which humans appear
to be so good at. Research in this area tries to formalise com-
monsense knowledge and reasoning about the physical world.
The reasons for this being such an important area of research
are:
people are very good at functioning in the physical world
no theory of this human capability exists which can serve
as a basis for imparting it to computers
Three basic approaches to qualitative model building are
1.de Kleer and Brown[4] use components and connec
tions.
2.Kuipers[16,17,18] uses variables and constraints.
3.Forbus[7,8] uses individual-views and processes.
All three approaches can be formulated as a set of constraint
equations and solved using the technique of constraint propaga
tion. Two particularly powerful techniques are Qualitative Simu
lation and Qualitative Process Theory. When only the structural
form of the equation describing a process is known, then it is fea
sible to analyse the dynamic behavior of chemical processes and
their controllers using qualitative simulation, as shown by Dalle
Molle[3]. There are a number of qualitative simulation programs
in existence, the one considered here is that of Kuipers [16,17,18].
If the structural form of the equations describing the process
are known, but the actual parameter values and functions re
lating them are not, it is possible to obtain a description of the
behaviour of the process or device (e.g. by using the monotoni-
cally increasing qualitative function Y = M+(X) for the actual,
but unknown function y(x) = 4.76|x|2), in a qualitative form.
The power of this technique in solving complex problems is il
lustrated in [181. where it has been successfully used to derive a
dynamic model for the behaviour of the human kidney.
For the case where no model is known for the process, it is nec
essary to investigate the laws of physics which describe it. This
step is in fact the initial step undertaken in all mathematical
model building strategies. Qualitative Process (QP) Theory[7,8]
can be regarded as a language in which certain commonsense
physical models can be represented. The primitives of this lan
guage are individual-views and processes. In particular, it enables
the various physical axioms (e.g. the axioms for liquids[13]) to be
manipulated in order to reason about the behaviour of physical
processes.
An implementation of QP theory suitable for the CAPMACD
system may be investigated at a later date if needed, but will
not be considered further here.
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
6 The Structure and Use of the
CAPMACD System
We envisage the following mode of operation for the system:
The user identifies process model variables such as flowrates,
temperatures, tank heights and assigns node numbers to them.
Variables which influence one another are visualised by the user
as lines joining the nodes corresponding to the variables, but are
stored as pairs of nodes in the database. The interconnections
of nodes represent a graph and by considering the order of the
node numbers in a node pair, a directed line is effectively stored.
The directed lines in this case constitute a directed graph or
digraph[ll].
A digraph is a very general and flexible representation with
which to both store and manipulate different types of informa
tion about a plant. In its simplest form, basic connectivity or
cause-effect relationships can be represented and used. If more
information is available about the interacting variables, the rep
resentation can include transfer function, QSIM constraint equa
tions or general differential equations.
The CAPMACD system presently consists of a number of mod
ules or facilities for assisting the user with various aspects of
analysis and design. These modules (see Figure 1) are
•The digraph database
•The Controllability and Structural Analysis Programs
•The Bond Graph Modelling Program
•The Qualitative Simulation Program (QSIM)
•The Numerical Simulation Program (ACSL)
•The Computer Aided Controller Design Programs
Bond Graph
QSIM
//
Analysis
i
/
1 //
Digraph
Database
CACSD
A \\
T \ Controllability and
ACSL Structural Analysis
Figure 1 Proposed CAPMACD Structure.
The user communicates with a facility via the digraph database.
All knowledge about the process plant (spatial, numerical etc.)
resides here. Data required by a particular program is obtained
from the data slots reserved for it in the digraph data structures.
The data structures also have slots containing data (such as node
numbers and process variable names) which are common to all
accessor programs. An important concept in this system is the
ability to perform different analyses depending on the level of
information or knowledge available about the plant.
25
The amount of knowledge contained in the data structure for
each digraph line, determines the level of modelling detail and
hence the level of sophistication of the analysis that can be car
ried out for that part of the plant. Each line in the database
has a header slot which contains information about the type of
knowledge available, such as normal equations, constraint equa
tions or gain and sign only (see Figure 2). Before invoking any
analysis, this slot is interrogated to determine whether a par
ticular analysis is feasible and if not, the analysis program tries
to advise the user of possible alternatives. For instance, if the
equations of the lines describing a process are known except for
a few which are unknown or vague, the system will indicate to
the user where to focus his efforts to resolve the weakness.
(defstruct line
(model-detail? Struc QSim Num) ;header.
(number 62)
(node-pair '(4 7))
(sign 'neg)
(gain 2.4)
(operator 'sqrt))
( ) ;additional slots appended by other programs.
(defstruct node
(number 4)
(name 'inflow-63)
(doc "acid inflow to tank 63")
( ) ;additional slots appended by other programs.
Figure 2 The Digraph Data Structures.
I,, this \,...,, mere efficient use of the user's lirrv N '•'•"!< ;ni,i
tradeoffs will be highlighted as the design proceeds. For ojiii
pie, if only approximate d.c. gains and polarities for the branches
comprising a (perhaps hidden) loop are known, the program can
warn the user of a possible unstable condition using a qualitative
stability analysis. If detailed transfer functions are known, how
ever, then a complete numerical simulation can be carried out.
The system guides the user through the analysis steps starting
with simple structural tests and ending with full numerical sim
ulations if possible.
After the user has entered the structural and any known rela
tionships between the process variables into the database, he can
then proceed to use the analysis and design programs available.
A typical scenario is as follows: Assume that a process is to
be modelled and controlled, but the user requires assistance in
these tasks. If there are a large number of interacting variables,
the cause-effect relationships can be checked by a simple search
which will propagate trends (in the form of signs), through the
digraph. At this stage, the user may wish to test whether the
system is structurally controllable using the Controllability and
Structural Analysis Module[12] and if not, he may decide to
modify the overall structure of the system appropriately.
For example, if it is known that an increase in flowrate in pipe
64 causes a decrease in temperature in vessel 103, this can be
checked by performing an analysis using the function (analyse
64 103) between nodes 64 and 103. If more knowledge is avail
able, the user can then request an ACSL[1] file to be written for
numerical simulation, or a constraint model file for a qualitative
simulation.
26 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
A general facility to automatically convert digraph model de
scriptions to forms suitable for either qualitative or numerical
simulations using QSIM or ACSL respectively, is currently un
der development and partially complete. At present, equations
entered by the user into the digraph database as well as the out
put of the Bond Graph Analysis Module can be automatically
converted into an ACSL input file.
In cases where the equations are not known, but the behaviour
of the process is well understood, the qualitative simulation op
tion using QSIM can be used to 'knowledge engineer' a dynamic
description by creating and debugging the constraint model to
achieve a qualitative model which will yield the correct behaviour.
Alternatively, the bond graph modelling technique[15] can be
used to obtain the differential equations suitable for numerical
simulation.
The Bond Graph Analysis Module uses the digraph database,
but lines joining nodes are interpreted as bonds in this case [10].
7 Current Status of Development
The modules discussed are being developed by a number of
researchers[10,12,21] simultaneously, with each using the same
database. The research reported here, is still at a very early
stage of development and only small example problems have
so far been attempted. However, as integration of the system
proceeds, larger case studies will be undertaken to evaluate its
overall success.
8 Conclusions
A structure for a computer aided process modelling and control
system design system has been proposed. It is believed that this
system will enable process control system designers to tackle a
much wider range of the overall design cycle than is possible with
existing systems.
The underlying philosophy is that design tradeoffs should be
transparent to the user at each stage of the design. Also, the
system should highlight neglected aspects of the design (such as
part of the model being incomplete or vaguely known) as well as
possible unforseen structural or dynamical problems.
A very simple and flexible data structure is proposed to facilitate
storage and manipulation of different types of process informa
tion.
The work is still in the preliminary stages of development, but
the results of test problems using the individual modules have
been satisfactory so far. As work proceeds, larger case studies
will be tested to evaluate the system more fully when the system
integration is at a more advanced stage.
March 1991
9 Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Professor B. J. Kuipers of the
University of Texas at Austin for use of the QSIM program.
10 References
1.ACSL User Guide
Mitchell and Gauthier Assoc, Concord, Mass.
2.Dalle Molle D. T., "Qualitative Simulation of Dynamic
Chemical Processes"
PhD. Thesis, University of Texas at Austin, 1989.
3.Dalle Molle D.T., Kuipers B. J. and Edgar T.F. "Qualita
tive Modelling and Simulation of Dynamic Systems"
Computers and Chemical Engineering, vol. 12, no. 9/10.
pp 853-866, 1988.
4.de Kleer J. and Brown J. S., "A Qualitative Physics Based
on Confluences"
Artificial Intelligence, vol. 24, pp 7-83, 1984.
5.Denham M.J. "Design issues for CACSD systems"
Proc. IEEE, vol.72, no.12, pp 1714 - 1731, Dec. 1984.
6.Dreyfus H. and Dreyfus S., "Why Expert Systems Do Not
Exhibit Expertise"
IEEE Expert, 1986, pp 86-90.
7.Forbus K.D. "Qualitative Process Theory"
MIT Lab Memo No. 664, Cambridge MA 1982, revised
1983.
8.Forbus K. D., "Qualitative Process Theory"
Artificial Intelligence, vol. 24, pp 85-168, 1984.
9.Gentner D. and Stevens A. L. (Eds.) "Mental Models"
Erlbaum, Hillsdale, N.J., 1983.
10.Grobbelaar G. B., "The Development of a Program for
Bond Graph Analysis"
Research Progress Report, University of the Witwatersrand,
1990.
11.Harary F., Norman R.I. and Cartwright D. "Structural
models - an introduction to the theory of directed graphs"
Wiley, New York, 1966.
12.Hartmann C. J., "Structural Controllability and Computer
Aided Design of Process Control Systems"
Research Progress Report, University of the Witwatersrand,
1990.
13.Hayes P.J. "The Naive Physics Manifesto"
in Expert Systems in the Micro-Electronic Age, edited by
D. Michie, University Press, May 1979.
14.Horowitz I. M., "Quantitative Feedback Theory"
Proceedings of the IEE, vol. 129, Part D, no. 6, pp 215-
226, 1982.
15.Karnopp D. C. and Rosenberg R. C. "System Dynamics:
a unified approach"
Wiley, New York, 1975.
16.Kuipers B., "Commonsense Reasoning about Causality:
Deriving Behaviour from Structure"
Artificial Intelligence, vol. 24, pp 169-203, 1984.
March 1991THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS27

17.Kuipers B., "Qualitative Simulation"

Artificial Intelligence, vol. 29, pp 289-338, 1986.

18.Kuipers B., "Qualitative Simulation as Causal Explana

tion"
IEEE Trans, on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, vol. SMC-
17, no. 3, pp 432-444, 1987.

19.Morari M. and Stephanopoulos G., "Control Structures for

Chemical Processes-Part II."
AIChE Journal, vol. 26, no. 2, pp 232-246, 1980.

20.Spriet J. A. and Vansteenkiste G. C. "Computer Aided

Modelling and Simulation" Academic Press, 1982.

21.Stevens A. L., "Computer Aided Process Modelling"

Research Progress Report, University of the Witwatersrand,
1989.

22.Stevens A. L., "Qualitative Reasoning in Process Mod

elling"
Proceedings of the RUGSA Symposium on Applications
of Knowledge-Based Systems in Engineering and Control,
October 1989.

23.Zadeh L. A. "A rationale for fuzzy control"

Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control,
pp 3 - 4, March 1972.
28 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
An Exploratory Investigation into the State of
Software Systems Renewal in South Africa
JDAmoils
Abstract: A broad review of software renewal as part of the
overall software system life-cycle, software maintenance and
software reusability is undertaken. The results of an investiga
tion into the current state of software system renewal in South
Africa are presented and the implications discussed.
Keywords: software engineering, software renewal,
software maintenance, software life-cycle, software
reuse.
1. INTRODUCTION
A common characteristic of computer-based, real
time engineering systems is that the hardware chosen
to support the system becomes obsolete and difficult
to maintain after a period of time. When the original
hardware has to be upgraded, it is not always clear
what action should be taken with respect to the ap
plication software. Since software development costs
represent a major outlay, it is evident that significant
cost savings can be made if a large component of the
existing software can be reused.
Software renewal is the modification of an existing
system's software so that this software is usable in a new
or substantially changed hardware environment. There
is a spectrum of software renewal possibilities, rang
ing from software translation, requiring modest
modification, to a radical re-implementation of the
software functionality within a new hardware ar
chitectural framework.
This investigation was undertaken to determine how
local software practitioners involved in real-time en
gineering systems are approaching the problem of
software system renewal. A representative sample of
real-time software systems from various vendors and
end-users were considered. This investigation is ex
ploratory in that it was intended to identify the major
issues affecting software renewal. Rigid statistical
testing techniques were not applied. While it is
believed that the results of the survey of the sample is
representative of the state of South African software
renewal in the limited domain of real-time engineer
ing systems, these findings should be used as part of a
further investigation in which a statistical hypothesis-
testing research methodology is used.
Submitted April 1990
Accepted
August 1990
March 1991
2. ISSUES AFFECTING SOFTWARE
RENEWAL
A number of issues which affect software renewal will
be considered, including: programs as changing
models of the real world, the influence of the software
life cycle, the architectural approach used for pro
gram design, and software reuse.
2.1 Programs as Changing Models of the Real World
Lehman [2] categorises programs into three different
classes, namely: S, P, and E program types.
Specifiable (S) types are programs whose function
can be exactly defined by a formal specification. Some
programming language compilers are good examples
of such programs. Such programs retain utility for as
long as the language definition is stable.
P (programmable) and E (evolutionary) type
programs are representative of a class of programs
which are subjected to a process of continuous
change. P-type programs represent a class of applica
tions which model some aspect of the real world and
are characterised by a precise requirement specifica
tion but an approximate implementation. The large
majority of scientific and engineering simulation
programs are in this category. E-type programs, on
the other hand, automate some aspect of human or
societal activity. In use, they become part of that real
world, and in many instances, change the perception
of the users of the system in such a way that pressure
for change of the system emerges as a consequence of
its use. Such applications are therefore subject to an
endless cycle of change. If the custodians of the system
fail to respond to this pressure for change, the system
becomes steadily less effective and acceptable to the
end-users with the passage of time.
Real-time engineering systems are good examples of
E-type applications since the behaviour of the ap
plication system, the demands on the user, and the
support required will depend on program charac
teristics as experienced by the users. It is the users who
will, after becoming familiar with the system, change
their attitudes and approach to the system in order to
obtain greater efficiency from this system. External
influences, which change the application environment
within which the system operates, will also bring about
the need for system change. An example of one type
of external influence which would create pressure for
change is the introduction of new hardware. It is this
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
external influence, i.e. the introduction of new
hardware, which has motivated this investigation.
Lehman [2] also offers some laws concerning pro
gram evolution. One of these, the law of continuing
change states: "A program that is used and that as an
implementation of its specification reflects some other
reality, undergoes continual change or becomes
progressively less useful. The change or decay process
continues until it is judged more cost-effective to replace
the system with a recreatedversion."
2.2 Software Life-cycle Issues
According to Boehm [1] the classical life-cycle con
sists of a sequence of activities: systems requirements
definition, software requirements specification,
preliminary design, detailed design, coding and
debugging, testing and pre-operations, operation and
maintenance. These phases may be viewed as con
stituting an individual release of a software system,
provided that "maintenance" in the seventh phase
refers to on-site fixes and repairs implemented during
the use of the system. If maintenance is taken to refer
to permanent changes effected through new releases
by the system originator then the structure becomes
recursive with each maintenance phase representing
all seven phases. The model implies that system
renewal is part of the maintenance cycle. If this view
is held then it may be argued that renewal is simply a
recursive maintenance phase made up of all the pre
vious system development phases. (This view also
tends to neglect the fact that maintenance work tends
to lead to a general deterioration of the software
structure. Heroic measures are usually needed to
reconstruct the system's current functional specifica
tions.)
The necessity for renewal, however, is something not
dealt with in the model and may be precipitated by
hardware obsolescence. The lifetime of computer
hardware in a process control environment is typically
8 to 10 years after which increasing hardware main
tenance costs dictate hardware replacement. If this
figure is compared to the typical lifetime of the plant
of about 25 years, then the issue of system renewal or
replacement will arise at least twice.
23 Architectural Design Philosophy
The 'top-down' functional decomposition approach
to software design enjoys widespread support and
application among the computing community. Meyer
[16] notes that the adjective 'top-down' is used almost
universally as a synonym for 'good' when speaking
about software system design. This observation be
comes even more credible when one notes that top-
down design is an essential requirement in the US
Department of Defense directive MIL-STD-2167.
The immense size of this organisation and its ability
29
to impose standards on the industry indicates that the
'top-down' approach will continue to exert a substan
tial influence on software design practices for the
foreseeable future. (It is worth noting, however, that
pressures for change away from the exclusive use of
this design philosophy are being recognised and ac
commodated [17, 22]).
The validity of the top-down approach as a method
for developing large systems is being subjected to
critical scrutiny. Allman and Stonebraker [17] have
noted that while the top-down philosophy offers the
designer complete freedom in the initial design stage,
subsequent stages are increasingly constrained by the
previous stages of functional decomposition. This im
poses major constraints on the ability of the chosen
decomposition to be adapted to changes in software
system requirements.
In addition, an important underlying assumption of
the top-down approach is that the problem and sys
tem requirements are fully understood and that there
are few external constraints to contend with. Since this
is not always true, even less freedom is afforded the
system developer when it is later discovered that
(using the terms of Section 2.1 above) the initial per
ception of the program in its real-world environment
is partially or wholly incorrect and there is pressure
for change. Lastly, according to Meyer [16] "top-down
design goes against the keyfactor ofsoftware reusability
because it promotes one-of-a-kind developments,
rather than general-purpose, combinable software ele
ments."
2.4 Software Reuse
A recent estimate [21] indicates that the worldwide
software market is worth about $30 billion, covering
expenditures on general purpose and application
specific software. The bulk of software required for
industrial and military purposes is application-
specific, and expenditure on such software continues
to increase rapidly. Since the largest cost component
in the development of software is skilled labour, con
siderable effort is being expended towards improving
software productivity. One concept which has the
potential for substantially increasing software
productivity is reusable software.
Software reuse is any procedure that produces (or
helps produce) a system by reusing something from a
previous development effort [14]. The need for
software reuse is widely accepted and can be easily
justified by merely considering the potential
economic benefits. Jones [15] claims that of all code
written in 1983, probably less than 15 percent was
unique, novel and application specific while the
remaining 85 percent appeared to be common,
generic and concerned with putting applications onto
computers.
30 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
Reusability has many aspects, which include reusable
requirements specifications, reusable design,
reusable code, prototyping, application generators
and formal specification and transformation
mechanisms.
In conclusion, each of the areas discussed above affect
software renewal in different ways. Since programs
are changing models of the real world, software
renewal is unavoidable. This renewal process is com
plex and there are many issues that have an effect. As
discussed above, the process is further complicated
by elements of incompatibility between a widely used
architectural design philosophy (top-down), and an
increasing desire to develop cost-effective systems
through software reuse.
3. LOCAL SURVEY OF SOFTWARE
RENEWAL PRACTICES
Individual interviews with 20 software practitioners
from 10 organisations were undertaken as part of this
survey [23]. The systems discussed during the course
of the interviews all fall within the category of E-type
real-time, engineering application systems. Vendors
and end-users were consulted. Initially, the subjects
interviewed were chosen on the basis of personal
contacts, after which these subjects were able to refer
the author to other subjects involved with the type of
real-time system under investigation. As the investiga
tion was intended to be exploratory in that broad
issues relating to software system renewal were to be
identified, this sample selection method, even though
not done randomly, was considered to be satisfactory.
Table 1 lists the organisations consulted, the number
of people interviewed from within that organisation
and the number of systems discussed. The personal
interviews consisted of open-ended questions being
put to the respondent. The interview was tape-
recorded and then transcribed. Interviews varied
from 45 minutes to 120 minutes in length. Most of the
interviews (15) lasted between 60 and 90 minutes.
Table 1 Organisations Interviewed
Organisation People Systems
Inter Dis
viewed cussed
Telkor 3 4
Teklogic 1 4
SATS 4 4
ESCOM 6 8
Infoplan 1 2
Bateman Process Instrumentation 2 5
AECI Process Computing 2
10
Murray & RobertsTechnologies 1 1
TOTALS: 20 38
March 1991
In general, the subjects representing vendors of
software systems reviewed their software renewal ex
periences. It was not possible in the time that was
available to discuss the various systems in detail.
The subjects who represented end-users of software
systems (i.e. ESCOM and SATS) were able to refer
specifically (and in detail, in some cases) to systems
that were in their care. Although only two end-user
organisations were consulted, the systems that were
discussed covered a wide range and included Super
visory Control and Data Acquisition and telecontrol
systems [8, 9], Energy Management systems [10],
measurement and monitoring systems, a railways sig
nalling system [11, 12], and a power load dispatch
system [13]. (Table 1)
While it would not be possible to present the findings
of all the interviews conducted in this survey in detail,
Table 2 lists some of the systems discussed in detail
and the essential features of renewal methodology. In
addition two case studies are reviewed.
4. CASE STUDY ONE: PROCESS
CONTROL
AECI Process Computing (APC) is a company in
volved in the development of process control systems
for the chemical, mining and mineral processing in
dustries. APC had developed an RTL/2 based
process management and control package (CYG-
NUS). The evolution of this package and its im
plementation and use is an example of an approach
to software system renewal and software reuse.
A well-recognised trend in computer control systems
is that hardware is becoming cheaper, faster, and
more reliable. In contrast, software has become more
complex, very expensive, and difficult to maintain. It
was against this background that APC considered that
it would be easier and cheaper in the long term to
develop a generic, reusable software package of
general application to real-time process control ap
plications. Consequently, a modular, reusable
software package was developed with carefully
defined intermodule interfaces. When configured
with application-specific modules, a software system
can be supplied at reasonable cost.
APC have measured the benefits of this approach and
claim to have achieved a saving of at least a factor of
three [7] in the software effort required for the
development of new systems.
5. CASE STUDY TWO:
TELECONTROLSYSTEM
This case study reviews the Durban Witwatersrand
Petroleum Products pipeline telecontrol system. The
pipeline, between Durban and the Witwatersrand, is
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 31

Table 2 Systems Described

Original Instal System Original Im Original Sys UpgradeMethodology

lation Date plementation tem Hardware
Language

Petroleum Nova 3 As Data General A total Rewrite of the entire systems' ap

1976 plication software was undertaken.
pipeline for sembly Lan Nova 3 mini-
SATS guage corn puter

Harbour Nova 4 As Data General A total rewrite of the entire systems' ap

1976 Refrigeration sembly Lan Nova 4 mini plication software was undertaken.
System for guage computer
SATS
Automatic FORTRAN Since the software was developed in
1983 Fare Collection modules, just the modules requiring to be
changed need to be rewritten.
System for
SATS

Coal Line FORTRAN Nova 840 and This system was actually upgraded onto a
1979 Centralised Nova 2 Data General Eclipse S140 computer. The
bulk of the original application software
Traffic Control
(60 man years) was transported directly
system for onto the new system.
SATS
ESCOM's Na FORTRAN Xerox 550 A gradual evolution of subsystem
1979 tional Control and Xerox AP upgrades and module replacements using
languages such as C and Pascal as opposed
Energy Assembly lan
to a costly total replacement scheme,. Use
Management guage will be made of Energy Management Sys
System tem software packages as well.

Computerised Selenia as Selenia This system was entirely rewritten and in

1973 Power System sembly lan stalled in 1984 on new Siemens R30 com
puters. The software was adapted from a
Load Dispatch guage similar system that had been installed in
Centre for Germany.
SATS
Furnace con IBM The system was upgraded in 1985 on a
1975/76 trol plant for Hitachi computer. There was no reuse of
software for various reasons which in
Iscor
cluded a different approach to the plant
and how it operates This was a result of a
greater understanding of the plant ac
quired over the ten year period.

Plant monitor Assembler and Honeywell While some of the systems installed in
A series of sys 1970 were still running the renewal
ing systems in FORTRAN
tems installed methodology consisted only of a function
stalled at
between 1970 al transfer from the old system to the new.
various Standard features were enhanced and
and 1978 ESCOM Power then reused. Only some plant perfor
stations mance calculation software written in
FORTRAN was reused.
Transmission FORTRAN Hewlett Pack Significant reuse of software is possible
1984 line tower test ard due to a highly modular approach taken
during the software development, which
station system
was accompanied by comprehensive and
for ESCOM well written software documentation.
32 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
a high volume pipeline with 12 pump stations on the
pipeline. The system was installed in 1977 by Telkor
(Pty) Ltd and was based on the 16-bit Data General
Nova III mini-computer, which has a limited address
ing capability of 32 K words (64 K bytes).
Located at each station is a dual CPU-hot standby
computer system. The system constantly monitors
pipeline conditions (e.g. product pressure, tempera
ture, flow rate, density, tank volumes, and valve
statuses) and facilitates control of the pipeline by
controlling, among others, the pumps, valves and
product deliveries. A more detailed description of
the pipeline system is given elsewhere [8].
The problems being experienced with the main
tenance of this system are largely due to the aging
Nova III computers. Although all the software for the
system was developed in Nova III assembler language,
software maintenance is still feasible. Hardware
maintenance, however, has presented a formidable
problem. Repairs to the aging computer equipment
become increasingly costly, and ways of upgrading
the system were being studied.
The maintenance contract for this pipeline
telecontrol system was awarded to Telkor (Pty) Ltd
and the personnel on the Telkor team, responsible for
the contract, who were interviewed agreed that it was
not feasible or practical to even try and reuse any of
the existing software. A complete rewrite of all the
software would have been required. The original sys
tems software capability was limited by the 32K word
addressing capability. This hardware limitation re
quired that much of the software code development
effort was directed to achieving a usable system within
those memory constraints.
With reference to the software life cycle discussed in
Section 2.2 above, it can be argued that a major part
of the results of the software development effort in
vested in the original system, (lifecycle phases 1, 2, 3,
and 4) could be reused. In this case, this would not be
practical since the system operating philosophy and
requirements had undergone substantial change since
the system was first specified.
6. DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
The survey results cover many aspects of software
engineering as well as software renewal. Some of
these results are discussed here:
6.1 System Specifications
If the issues raised in Section 2.1 are borne in mind
then a helpful perspective can be gained of one of the
major factors which precipitates the need for system
renewal i.e. changes in the user's perceptions of the
system and its requirements.
March 1991
6.2 Static Applications
In the systems considered in the static application
category initial system specifications were sufficiently
accurate to enable these systems to function effec
tively for longer periods of time than those in which
specifications changed substantially. Since user
specifications were largely correct there was no need
for system renewal due to software system aging.
Some of these applications included power station
monitoring, power network analysis, power system
control, and other applications in which the domain
was well-understood and correctly specified.
In some of these cases, extraordinary effort was ex
pended in maintaining the system hardware for as
long as possible since the system software had suffi
cient functionality to serve for an extended period
without modification. At one power station a com
puter served for 15 years before it finally became
unmaintainable.
In other cases where the hardware was physically
unmaintainable, the system was renewed. The ap
proaches to renewal varied according to cir
cumstance. If the initial system had been written in
assembly language (as most of these were) since the
assembly language was machine-specific it was in
variably decided to discard all code and rebuild the
system from scratch, reusing the original functional
specification.
63 Non-Static Applications
Where the application was non-static (E-type), the
initial functional specification from which the system
was developed became progressively more outdated
with time. This was brought about by various fac
tors.
In some instances the plant or process was not well
understood at the time that the functional specifica
tion was developed. As the system was used, and as
the user's operating philosophy changed, the system
tended to satisfy less of the user's requirements with
time. While software maintenance was able to rectify
these problems in the short to medium term, it be
came increasingly difficult and cumbersome to do so
in the long term. An aggravating factor was that, since
many of these systems were written more than 10 years
ago, modern software engineering techniques were
not applied either to the design or the construction of
the software.
6.4 Software Reusability and Language Issues
As mentioned previously, there was no code reuse in
those cases where the system was written in assembly
language. Where the system was comprised of
modules written in high level languages, significant
software savings were possible by reusing modules in
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
the new system. One vendor of software systems
achieved substantial savings by using a layered ap
proach to software development and developed a
generic package of reusable modules. (As discussed
in Section 4)
The choice of programming language used to develop
systems was a very important factor. The users who
chose to standardise on a specific high-level language
benefitted by being able to create libraries of reusable
modules which were customised for each application.
The software saving that resulted helped in some
cases to substantially reduce system development
costs.
6.5Management Issues
The management of software systems was an issue
only really raised by the end-user of system category.
In general, whereas the engineers involved directly
with the maintenance and operation of a software
system understand the peculiarities of software in
terms of its life-cycle and associated costs, the
management of the end-user organisations did not
understand the software engineering issues. Further
more it was diff i cult for the eng^neers to persuade
management to view a software system in terms of its
life-time cost as opposed to its installation cost.
The importance of the user working very closely with
the system vendor during the development stage so as
to acquire a high degree of familiarity with the system,
was considered to be an idea that should be imple
mented by management. It was believed that this
would then help to reduce dependence on the system
vendor and could save costs if, at a later stage, the
user was able to renew the system without any assis
tance from the vendor.
6.6Human Resource Issues
In many of the interviews, frequent reference was
made to personnel turnover and its impact on system
maintenance and renewal.
There is no doubt that the practical knowledge of the
system and its operation which is acquired while
working with a system greatly surpasses that which
can be acquired by reading system documentation.
Each time an individual leaves through resignation or
transfer elsewhere in the organisation, there is a con
siderable loss of expertise on the system - formal
documentation is a poor substitute. Since the lifetime
of a system is approximately 8 to 10 years, it cannot be
expected that a career-conscious individual will
achieve job satisfaction working on one system for
that duration of time. Most of those interviewed
believed that ways of reducing staff turnover were
needed as this was perceived to be a major problem
facing those who wish to renew systems.
33
7. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR
SYSTEM RENEWAL IN THE FUTURE
It has become essential to design systems with renewal
in view. This is the only viable solution to the problem
since hardware lifetime is less than that of the plant.
At the hardware level a judicious choice of hardware
(and associated operating system) would enable a
system to evolve with time. If a well-established
hardware product from a vendor (preferably multi-
sourced), who would support the product and offer
a growth path by continuing to provide hardware and
operating system support was chosen, then the prob
lem of hardware obsolescence will be reduced.
At the software level, in order to contain costs,
software system vendors need to create libraries of
reusable software. Although the top-down function
al approach is widely used there are significant
problems with this approach. Experience shows that
this approach to software design has not been par
ticular successfully in supporting the development of
highly reusable software component libraries. While
the use of an object-oriented design approach to
software systems is desirable on account of its supe
rior capability of supporting the development of high
ly reusable class libraries, wide use of this approach
to software design could be problematical in the short
term. The ideas of object-oriented design are new
and are only beginning to be used by software prac
titioners. Since top-down design is more widely used
among practitioners, it will take some time before the
majority of these practitioners adopt a different
design approach. What is more probable is that a
mixture of the two approaches will be used in the short
term, with a migration to object-oriented design in the
medium to longer term.
8. CONCLUSIONS
Since an increasing number of engineering processes
have been automated over the years, the number of
systems that will require renewal or replacement will
also increase. In the short term, the older systems that
were not designed using software engineering techni
ques will typically be too difficult to renew and will be
replaced. The systems that were installed in the last
few years, using more modern software engineering
techniques (e.g. top-down), will be easier to renew.
In the long term, based on some of the opinions
expressed in the survey, existing software systems will
gradually be replaced by systems that were designed
for renewal. Issues such as software reusability and
system requirements can be expected to influence
software design techniques in the future.
34 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS March 1991

9. REFERENCES 17.Allman E, and Stonebraker M, Observations on

1.Boehm B W, SoftwareEngineering, IEEE Trans.
Computers, C-25, (12), 1266-1241, 1976.
2.Lehman M M, Programs, Life Cycles, and Laws
of Software Evolution,/ Proc., 68,(9), 1060-
1076,1980.
3.Schneidewind N F, The State of Software Main
tenance, IEEE Trans. Software Eng., SE-13, (3),
303-310,1987.
the Evolution of a Software System, Computer,
15, (6), 27-32, 1982
18.Shumate K C, Understanding Ada, Harper and
Row Publishers Inc. 1984.
19.Boehm B W, Improving Software Productivity,
Computer, 20 (9), 43-57,1987
20.Ichbiah J D, On the Design of Ada, Information
Processing, 1983

4.Bendifallah S, and Scacchi W, Understanding 21.The Economist, January 1988.

Software Maintenance Work, IEEE Trans.
22.DOD Gives Software Developers More Leeway in
SoftwareEng., SE-13, (3), 311-323,1987.
Writing Code, Electron. Wkly., June 11, 99,1987.
5.Parikh G, Software Maintenance: Penny Wise,
23.Amoils JD, An Exploratory Investigation into the
Program Foolish, ACM SIGSOFT, 10, (5), 89-
Current State of Software System Renewal in
98,1985.
SouthAfrica, MSc (Eng.) Project Report, Univer
6.Conning A J, Design Apsects of PLC-Supervisory sity of the Witwatersrand, December 1990
Systems for Sequence Control. Unpublished
paper, circulated internally at AECI Process Com
puting, South Africa. Joel Amoils graduated from the University of the Wit
watersrand in 1985 with a B Sc. (Eng.) in Electrical Engineer
7.Heher A D, and Dehning R W, CYGNUS Design ing. His studies towards the M Sc (Eng.) degree were
completed in December 1990. The project work undertaken
Philosophy. Based on a paper presented to the
towards this degree was undertaken during 1988 and 1989
RTL/2 User Group of South Africa, 2 September under the auspices of the Software Engineering Applications
1983. Circulated internally at AECI Process Com Laboratory in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the
puting, South Africa. University of the Witwatersrand.

8.Hallas J M, A Telecontrol system for a multi- Joel Amoils is presently employed by Protea International, P
O Box, 91325, Auckland, 2006.
products pipeline. Elektron, 4, (9), 5-7, 1987.

9.Carolin T N, RATEL - Escom 's New Telecontrol

System. Elektron, 4, (9), 18-19,1987.

10.Bell A, EVOLUTION versus REVOLUTION. (A

case study of a Mature EMS System Replacement
Plan), ESKOM Unpublished paper.
11.Swanepoel E, The Evolution of Process Control
in Signalling. Momentum , 1, (4), 6-11, 1985.

12.Grisdale B, Applications of Minicomputers in the

Field of Railway Signalling. Systems, 5, (10),
1975.

13.Martin A, New Computerized Load Dispatch

Centres for South African Railways. (Translation
of an article from Elelctrische Bahnen 83, (8), 252
- 259,1985.

14.Freeman P, Tutorial: Software Reusability, IEEE

Computer Society Press, 1-9,1987

15.Capers Jones T, Reusability in Programming: A

survey of the State of the Art, IEEE Trans.
SoftwareEng., SE-10, (5), 488-494,1984

16.Meyer B, Reusability: The Case for Object-

Oriented Design, IEEE Software, 4 (2), 50-64,
1987
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
Object-oriented Design of Control System
Software
Rl Bricker
Abstract: Automation is currently being used to an ever increasing
degree in industrial plants. However most of these applications
require only a few basic control concepts repeated for each piece of
equipment. There is often a fair degree of interaction between pieces
of equipment in terms of safety interlocking and sequencing. Despite
this each piece of software remains an autonomous entity receiving
the necessary external commands and data it requires. The prin
ciples of object-oriented design are suited to the development of this
type of software. This paper will consider experiences using Zortech-
C++ and it's application in the control system software development
arena.
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the principles of
object-oriented design can successfully be applied in the low level
language environment of the PLC.
Keywords object-oriented design, programmable logic
controller, C++
1. INTRODUCTION
"Programmable controllers are being applied in ways never
envisioned by the equipment 's original developers, who
wereprimarily concernedwith the taskofrelay replacement"
[1]
"Object -oriented programmingwith its claims of improved
programmer productivity and easy program maintenance,
is emerging as a vital force in the programming community.
This is despite the fact that object-oriented languages were
not generally available until fairly recently."\11 ]
1.1 Programmable Logic Controllers
PLC languages have for a long time kept the emphasis on
software that is easily maintainable by plant personnel
that do not have formal computer training. In addition,
three of the four major languages are graphically based.
It is for this reason that "software driven control systems
have been programmed by control engineers rather than
software engineers." [6] This is, however, changing rapid
ly as the large PLC has become a small industrial com
puter and the "11 pin relay base has become a 20 word
software construct." [6]
One of the major problems faced by software engineers
designing PLC software is that the disciplines of the last
20 years of software engineering have not permeated the
PLC field. The major reason for this has been the
hardware constraints, the lack of programming languages
and the heavy emphasis on easy-to-use graphical lan
guages.
Submitted April 1990
Accepted June 1990
35
All have made rapid advancements in the last five years
and the emphasis is towards software engineering not
control engineering.
1.2 Object-oriented Design and Programming
Object-oriented design and programming has emerged
in the 1980's as a superior method of software design [11].
The emphasis, however, has been on the need for higher
levels of programming language to cope with the degree
of abstraction required.
One of the first languages to evolve which incorporated
the principles of object-oriented design was Smalltalk.
The major problem with this was the inherent inefficiency
in the language. The ".... programs run a lot slower and
required a lot of computer resources. Also, you generally
needed the entire development environment loaded to
run the program." [4]. A number of these problems were
addressed by Stroustrup [10] in developing the C++
language. This used the run-time efficiency of a compiler
combined with the advantages of object-oriented design.
13 Basic Premise
The basic premise of this paper is that these two jux
taposed concepts can merge into a single method for
developing control system software. This paper will
demonstrate that the principles of object-oriented
programming and software design can be effectively used
to design the software for PLC systems.
One of the major constraints of this work is that there
were no PLC languages which offered support for ob
ject-oriented programming. The emphasis is that the con
cepts of object-oriented design can be applied to the
development of software for PLC systems.
The most fundamental question that must be answered is
"Why object-oriented design as opposed to some other
software development paradigm?" The answer must be
given in the light of a number of factors. At the most
simplistic level, there is a major trend toward object-
oriented design principles. Object-oriented design
provides a number of benefits that are not available
through using the more familiar development paradigms
(top-down design or hierarchical function decomposi
tion). The major benefit that will be demonstrated is the
application of the classing and subclassing (inheritance)
facility within the object-oriented environment. This
provides for a fairly simple structure to be used as a
starting point for any PLC program design. As the com
plexity increases the base classes of equipment within the
36 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
plant being controlled can be subclassed, and levels of
complexity added.
2. OBJECT-ORIENTED SOFTWARE
DEVELOPMENT TECHNIQUES
"Object oriented development is an approach to software
design in which the decomposition of a system is based
on the concept of an object. An object is an entity whose
behaviour is characterized by the actions it suffers and
requires of other objects." [3]
The simplest definition of object-oriented languages is
that they allow the programmer the ability to define a new
class [4]. To be classified an object-oriented language a
language must, however exhibit four characteristics viz.
data abstraction, dynamic binding, information hiding
and inheritance [8]. A number of high level languages
have been mistakenly called object-oriented as they do
not exhibit all four characteristics.
2.1Data Abstraction
The process of defining new data types or classes is
referred to as data abstraction [8] or abstract data typing
[4]. A programmer defines the class along with the inter
nal method of representing that class. This forms the basis
of using these techniques for the development of control
system software. The fundamental reason for this is that
the classical control problem revolves around the con
trolling of a few fundamental types of equipment, an ideal
situation for the classing of types.
2.2Information Hiding
Information hiding considers the aspect that the state of
a software module is only visible from within that module.
Thus data is manipulated only by internal procedures.
This feature allows for the efficient design of modules
such that the internal variables within a module are not
accessible from outside the module. In effect internal
data structures may be changed without affecting other
modules in that implementation. Information hiding
could play a vital role in the safety aspect of control
systems. All of the information regarding a piece of
equipment within a plant can be hidden, and only acces
sible to the piece of control code that deals with that
equipment. This would ensure that each piece of code
only deals with the sections of memory and variables
associated with a particular object.
23 Dynamic Binding.
This area is known as polymorphism [3], dynamic binding
[8] or commonality [4]. The advantage of this occurs
where a new data manipulation procedure needs to be
added to a program. Simply defined the area of dynamic
binding allocates responsibility. "An object decides, at
run-time, what to do with the message you've (sic) sent
it." [4]
March 1991
2.4 Inheritance
Bright [4] defines inheritance or "type derivation" as
"define a new class which is this old class here plus some
additions and changes I want to make". Once again, this
becomes relevant in the control system environment,
where aft types of electrical equipment may behave in the
same fundamental way. However, each may exhibit slight
ly different characteristics. Thus some of the classes may
be derived from a base class.
3. CONTROL SYSTEM SOFTWARE
DESIGN
3.1Introduction
It should be noted that PLC languages suffer from many
constraints when applied to pure object-oriented
development. Current trends in PLC languages have
been discussed by Nolett [7]. A few PLC vendors are
allowing software to be written in languages such as C and
Forth. There are C++ compilers that have an inter
mediate stage of compilation that generates a set of
standard C procedures. These could then be down
loaded to a PLC that is capable of being programmed in
C. This will ease the burden of implementation and the
level of programming will be much higher.
3.2Generalized Software Design
Consider the design of a generalized control system.
There will generally be an overall control philosophy that
will define the basic rules of operation of the major items
of equipment and equipment types. This is often referred
to as the MCC (Motor Control Centre) philosophy which
does not cover each individual piece of equipment, but
rather the control aspects of types of equipment and the
interactions between these. The control system
philosophy will define the necessary classes and subclas
ses for the programmer. The functional specification of
the control system will define the specific requirements
of each piece of equipment along with the physical data.
A simple operating philosophy can be summarized as
follows: Upon receiving a request to start signal the con
trol system checks whether the drive's trips and stops are
in a healthy state and whether or not it is running. If these
conditions are true then in the most basic case a signal is
sent to the drive to allow it to start. According to the
principles of object-oriented design, a superclass, per
haps of the type "drive" could be created. This would be
the simplest form of logic. Figure 1 shows the logic of this
simple "drive".
As each different drive is encountered, which differs
slightly from the superclass, a new subclass can be created
to cater for that type of drive and its associated extra logic.
Assume for the purposes of example that there exists a
drive which when a request to start signal is received will
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 37

In most applications there

FIELD STAR! will also be numerous inter
locks between the drives.
These will prevent certain
areas of the system from
starting before it is safe to
do so, or in the event of a
device tripping then the as
sociated devices are re
quired to stop. The method
of coping with this is to have
an internal variable within a
class called interlock. This
START class of interlock can then be
created which will cater for
an open-ended number of
STOPS HEALTHY interlocks for each drive.
Each drive routine will have
a specific interlock object
TRIPS HEALTHY
passing, as it were, a
START
clearance signal to the con
trol module to allow it to
continue and start the drive.
Figure 1 Simple Logic Diagram of a Drive The logic diagram illustrat
ing this logic is shown in
sound a siren for a certain time period before starting. Figure 3.
This siren is called a safe start siren and is used to warn
personnel in the area of the impending start. In this case Each class and subclass of drive will respond in a different
a subclass of "drive with siren" could be created to cater way to the same message. The superclass of drive will
for this instance of drive. The logic diagram of this "drive merely start the drive. The "drive with siren" will sound
with siren" is shown in Figure2. A timer is used, that times the siren before starting the drive. The "Drive with inter
the siren. Upon completion of the timing period the timer locks" will first get a clearance before starting the drive.
output will be turned on, and paralleled with the rest of This action of eliciting differing responses to the same
the logic. command fulfils the object-oriented characteristic of
dynamic binding. By virtue of the definition attached to
the superclass of "drive", the
subclasses fulfil the re
FIELD START
quirements of inheritance.

RUNNING
& 4. SIMPLE
OBJECT-ORIENTED
IMPLEMENTATION
>••] 4.1 Physical Input and Out
put
START
One of the major areas of

STOPS HEALTHY 8 i I
consideration must be the
comparison of the object-
oriented software to the
physical PLC. All PLC sys
TRIPS HEALTHY

timT B
m
START
tems work on the principle
of having a series of
Input/Output (I/O) racks.
Each of these makes a
SIREN
physical connection to the
pieces of equipment to be
controlled. Previously when
Figure 2 Drive with Siren the input signals (field start,
38 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS March 1991

This definition requires some explanation, as there are

DRIVE 1 RUN some areas where the principle of information hiding is

used. This is done in an attempt to map the somewhat
DRIVE 2 RUN contrived situation into the real world. The digital output
signals associated with a drive are public domain in most
DRIVE 3 RUN

DRIVE 4 RUN & INTERLOCK

PLC's. Thus they can be modified by any procedure
operating anywhere within the scope of the PLC. This
issue will be addressed later when the definition of the
LEVEL LOW IOrack is given. However, it suffices to note that the class
DigO (digital out) is made up of two member variables and
LEVEL HI a constructor function. The two member variables in
clude the state of that output signal and the address of
that digital output. The latter refers to the address that is
used by the PLC programmer to assign a physical IO
Figure 3 Interlock Module point to a memory location. Generally, the physical IO is
mapped into a segment of the PLC memory. This
trips healthy etc.) wer^ discussed, these referred to physi facilitates quick access to the value, rather that having to
cal signals coming into one of the I/O cards within an I/O read from the physical IO card. The constructor function
rack. The problem lies in defining I/O in the software is used to initialize the state of the objects of this class,
environment and then defining a method of mapping such when an object is defined.
I/O into the real world.
The definition of the digital input (Digl) is rather more
The solution to this is the creation of a number of classes complex. A large number of PLC's do not allow for easy
called IO. These represents the physical I/O points which access to digital input values. This implies that the pro
receive and send signals to and from the plant. gram as it stands cannot overwrite the input area of
memory. This serves to safeguard against the problem of
There are four common types of physical I/O associated
the PLC writing the wrong value in place of a physical
with a PLC. These are :
input. To cater for this feature, the state of the Digl has
Digital input (Digl) This would be a binary signal com been defined as private. If this program was being
ing into the PLC. developed for an actual PLC then there would be no
need to have all of the member functions that have been
Digital output (DigO) Similar to the inputs but being written. There is a void function called SetDI which is
sent from the PLC to the equipment being control used to force the input to a specific value. This is used as
led. there is no actual IO point available. The integer function
ReadDI is used to ascertain the value of the private vari
•Analog input (Anl) This is an analog signal (such as a
tank level) being sent to the PLC from the actual unit. able state. This function would also not normally exist as
the access to the input values would normally be un
•Analog output (AnO) These are analog signals sent by restricted in a reading mode.
the PLC to specific units. These could be used to
control the opening of a valve or the speed of a As previously stated, the IO signals to the PLC are
variable speed motor. grouped into IO cards and racks. Thus the next class
definition is that of an IOrack. This is merely a "holder" of
Thus at the most fundamental level there would be two IOs. The IOrack class serves as a type of interface to the
classes defined. These would be DigO and Digl. real world. It contains the most basic IO required for the
operation of a general electric drive.
The definitions (in C++) would be :
class IOrack
class DigO
{
public:
public: DigO start, localstart;
irrt state; Diglseqstart,fieldstart,tripshealthy,
char* address; stopshealthy, running;
DigOO; lOrackO;
}; };
class Digl
{ public:
The class defined by IOrack does not contain any logic. It
merely groups the IO together and is used to relate
intstate; specific IO points to a specific drive. When a variable of
char* address;
class IOrack is defined, the specified IO are defined. The
gO; definition section of the class definition calls the correct
void setDI(int value);
irrt readDIQ;}; IO types and initializes the IO accordingly. The construc
tor function lOrackQ required at start-up to facilitate the
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
definition of a new variable of the class lOrack. The code
segment of this function is empty, as when an lOrack is
called it creates all the variables which initialize themsel
ves.
The variable localstart is used as a temporary carrier of
information between the super- and subclasses. The base
type of lOrack contains the most basic of 10 and does not
cater for any new types of drive IO. These would be made
local variables within the new class itself.
4.2 Generaldrive Class
Since the simplest classes necessary have been defined,
the basic electric drive operations can now be defined.
These are contained in the class Generaldrive. The struc
ture of the code is such that the class of Generaldrive forms
the heart of all the drive related operations. All the basic
10, procedures and operations are defined within this
class. All actual operating drive classes are derived from
this base class.
Certain functions are defined as virtual, and this allows
for operator overloading. This is perhaps one of the most
significant benefits of using object-oriented design and
associated languages. The same operator may be used to
denote a number of different operations. The language
will determine at run-time which of the operations to use.
This allows each of the subclasses to behave in fundamen
tally different ways. The listing of the definition of the
class is given below. Following this is a brief description
of each of the lines in the class definition.
class Generaldrive
{ operate. The same effect could have been achieved using
public:
char namestr[20];
chartypename[30];
Generaldrive * nextptr;
interlock inter-lock;
addinterlocksO;
delinterlocksO;
int type;
virtual statusO;
virtual addtolist(char name[20]);
setrunningO;
lOrack rack;
virtual operate( int value, int error =0);
operatel (int value, int error =0); /* basic
operations*/
GeneraldriveO;
};
The two character strings namestr and typename are used
to define the uniqueness of the drive. The type name is
applied principally in the definition of new drive types,
where a list of drives is formed and the types are listed for
the user. The pointer to the class called nextptr is the
pointer that forms the heart of a linked list of drives. The
interlock refers to the safety features in the plant and
unless the interlock conditions are met the drive will not
be allowed to start. The member functions add-interlaock
and delinterlocks are used within the program to set and
delete interlocks associated with a drive. The integer type
39
is used to distinguish the different classes from each
other. This is primarily used in creating drives at run
time. The function is to eliminate the hard-wired code
generally associated with the selection of different types
from a list of choices. The member function status is
required to generate output to the screen of the status of
all the input and output variables associated with a drive.
This is used in a number of instances where a display of
this nature is required. This is also defined as a virtual
function, and therefore it allows a new subclass to
redefine it's member function called status.
Addtolist is a function that is used in fundamentally dif
ferent ways by each subclass. It's prime function is to add
a new drive of a specific type to the linked list of drives.
Setrunning is a member function common to all subclasses
and is used to determine whether the drive is running.
Rack is a variable of type lOrack. It contains the basic IO
defined for a particular class. All IO operations are car
ried out using this lOrack. This is a sound form of protec
tion in PLC programming as often the programmer
enters the incorrect mnemonic for a variable and thus
struggles to find an error. The fact that the IO associated
with a drive is only accessible to that drive makes it
impossible to access the IO associated with another drive.
The additional benefit is that when programming all the
names of the variables are the same, unlike conventional
programs where variables are addressed by their position
on the physical IO card.
The two member functions operate and operatel form the
heart of the drive operation. Operate is a common func
tion that defines all the necessary basic drive operations.
Operatel is specific to each drive type and is called from
only one virtual function, and defining unique opera
tions for each drive type. It was decided to use a common
operating core and allow each drive to configure it's own
specific parameters Thus when a drive is passed the
message operate it calls operatel which then peeerforms
the fundamental drive operation. This will be further
discussed in the descriptions of the various drive types.
The IO point localstart is used as a transfer mechanism
between the procedures. The last member function of the
class Generaldrive is the constructor function. This is
called each time a drive is created and is used for internal
memory allocation.
43 Additional Derived Classes
The basic classes have been defined and it is at this point
that the benefits of object-oriented design become ap
parent. The previous section discussed a number of
variants on the basic drive class. Object-oriented design
allows for these to be implemented with little additional
code. The class of Generaldrive was defined in such a
manner that additional logic is placed in the subclass's
operate function. The new class then calls operatel, and
then incorporates additional logic into it's own operate
40 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
function. This is demonstrated using a number of ex
amples.
4.3.1Drive with no features
There may seem to be little reason for defining a new
subclass that behaves identically to the superclass. It was
used in the present context to maintain continuity in the
method of defining new drive types. These are all defined
by subclassing of the class Generaldrive. It was logical to
subclass a drive of the most basic class in this fashion. This
could also be compared to the situation where the most
Generaldrive class is compiled into a library and users
needing to develop programs would define the new class
as a subclass of the predefined class.
4.3.2Drive with start siren
The class of drive with start siren works on the principle
that upon start-up of the drive, a siren is sounded to warn
personnel of the impending start.
class Drivesiren : public Generaldrive
sirentimer(int period);
public:
DigO siren;
operate(int c, int d=0);
DrivesirenQ;
addtolist(char name[20]);
/>
This subclass has an additional IO point called siren. This
would be used to actuate the physical siren in the plant.
This is simulated using the C++ sound function in the
code. This simulation takes place in the private member
function called siren timer. This function is only accessible
to variables of this class type. This is an important safety
feature as there is no chance of the siren being sounded
accidentally as it can only be sounded by a drive of type
siren.
The addition of the logic is achieved by use of the variable
localstart. The function operatel does not actually send
out a signal to the real world, it merely sets a flag called
localstart. This is then used as the basis for the additional
logic. The siren is now started before the start signal is
set. This is also conditional on the localstart signal having
been set.
4.3.3Drive with Safety Timer
This type of drive is also derived from the base
Generaldrive. The mode of operation here is to start a
timer if the conditions for starting are in order. If the
drive starts within the timing period, then the timer is
stopped. If it fails to start then the start signal is removed
and the drive returns to the ready-to-start position. The
start signal is removed as a safety precaution.
class Drivetimer: public Generaldrive {
public:
operate(int c, int d=0);
DrivetimerO;
addtolist(char name[20]);};
March 1991
It can be seen that the definition of the subclasses is
almost identical in all cases. They all have the same
member functions and these contain all the differences in
the operation.
4.4 Interlocks
An interlock comprises a number of conditions and not
merely a one to one relationship between the current
drive and another piece of equipment. The list of inter
locks is often large anddepends upon the type of drive.
The interlocks were implemented as a linked list of inter
lock nodes. The variable associated with each drive is of
the class interlocknode. This has a pointer to the first of
the nodes in the list. Each node consists of a pointer to
the name of the drive to which it is pointing, as well as a
pointer to the running status of that drive. This does not
necessarily have to be a running signal, it could be a high
level alarm or another digital signal.
The definition of the interlock classes is given below :
class interlocknode
public:
interlocknode * next;
int * runstate;
char name[20];
}
class interlock
public:
interlocknode * firstnode;
interloc^;
list(int * nooflines);
int setstatusO;
};
The class interlock has two member functions. The first of
which is called list and is used to list all the drives that
form part of the linked list of the interlock. This is neces
sary in order to be able to modify these interlocks. The
second is an integer function that computes the status of
the list of interlocked drives. It checks that all the inter
lock signals are healthy and if so returns the value 1. This
value is used in the operatel function of the Generaldrive
definition. If the state of this value is not 1 then the drive
is not permitted to start. These procedures select the
drive whose interlocks need to be modified and then calls
that drive and it executes it's own modification.
4.5 Sequences
As the trend towards automation increases there is a
growing use of sequencing in industrial plants. This serves
to automates the sequence of events necessary to control
a section of a plant and replaces the need for an operator
to start a set of drives in a manual sequence.
Each sequence consists of a base node of the class se
quence and a series of finked nodes called seqencenodes.
All the defined sequences are formed into a finked list
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
which is held by a global anchor called first sequence.
There are more global procedures related to sequences
than for interlocks. The reason is the relative inde
pendence of the sequences from the actual drives. Thus
all the manipulation procedures are independent and a
drive that is part of a sequence has no indication thereof.
The class definitions follow :
class sequencenode
public:
sequencenode * next;
sequencenode * previous;
Generaldrive * drive;
class sequence
public:
char name[10];
sequencenode * firstnode;
sequence* next seq;
sequenceO;
setupO;
}i
The difference between this list and all the other lists is
that each node has both a backward and forward pointer.
The sequence itself has a pointer to it's first node as well
as a pointer to the next sequence in the list of sequences.
The function setupO is used to create a sequence and is
part of the class definition thereof.
5. CONCLUSION
The basic hypothesis of this paper was to demonstrate
that the principles of object-oriented design can be ap
plied to the development of control system software. The
basic four tenets of object-oriented design define the
features of languages that will allow those languages to
be defined as object-oriented. This paper commenced
with the basic premise that C++ is an object-oriented
language and that these four facets would demonstrate
the basic hypotheses.
The first of these is the principle of data abstraction. This
was used extensively in the definition of the new classes
from the base class definition. It allowed a basic class to
be defined, and additional classes that shared the same
basic behaviour to be subclassed from this basic class.
This has a substantial impact on the programming re
quired, and implications for software reusability. In the
former case, the subclass definitions required far less
programming than if each was to be generated as an
independent class. The worst case would be if each had
to be defined each time it was required, as is the case with
the majority of PLC systems.
Information hiding has been applied in the safety aspects
of control systems. This was shown in the definitions of
the I/O. The ideal situation would be that all I/O is
defined at the start of the program and assigned to drives.
After that point, no other drive would be able to access
41
the I/O from another drive. The second area where this
was used, was in the definitions of local functions and
procedures. This ensured that an object, not of that class,
did not have access to that function.
The principles of dynamic binding was exploited in the
drive definitions. Here each subclass had a number of
member functions declared, in the superclass and the
subclass. This concept of operator overloading allowed
the different objects to behave in fundamentally different
ways to the same message being passed to them. This is
perhaps one of the most powerful of the features of
object-oriented programming languages.
The final area, inheritance, has been covered to some
degree. In this arena, each subclass inherits the functions
and characteristics of the superclass, and adds some of
it's own features. This is used extensively in the definitions
of the drive classes.
There are a number of other features of object-oriented
design that need to be considered. The linked list used to
combine all the drives into one fist was not homogeneous,
but rather a heterogenous list. It was composed of fun
damentally different classes, whose only commonality
was their base of derivation. This is obviously an impor
tant aspect, as it allows for considerably easier manage
ment of the data within the program infrastructure.
On the PLC side, each time a drive is called, the same
mnemonics are used i.e. start, trips healthy etc. The actual
I/O addresses are hidden. This leads to simplification as
for each drive the signals related to that drive are all
called the same name.
The last aspect that is considered is the ability to define
abstract classes. The drive classes each refer to a item of
physical equipment, whereas sequences and interlocks
are abstract concepts. This ability is fundamental in
developing software of this nature.
It should be noted that the more conventional approach
to software design (hierarchical function decomposition)
cannot provide the necessary framework for the type of
software development presented in this contribution. In
fact, only languages that display the four basic charac
teristics of object-oriented languages allow for develop
ment of this nature.
6. REFERENCES
1.Ball K. and Maczka W.J.,C/Control Expo Report-
evolution of the Programmable Plant, InTech, July,
pp 16-20,1987
2.Black J., PC Ladders versus Micro Languages, C &
I, November, pp 155-157,1985.
3.Booch G. Object-oriented Development, IEEE
Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol SE-12, No
2,pp 211-221,1986
42THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERSMarch 1991

4.Bright W., Zortech C++ MS DOS Compiler, Zor-

tech Limited, Arlington, 1988

5.Duff C.B., Designing an Efficient Language, Byte, Vol

11, No 8, August, pp 211-224, 1985

6.Jamsa K.A., Object-oriented Design vs Structured

Design, ACM Sigsoft, Vol 9, No 1, pp 43-49,1984

7.Nolett M., PLC Programming Languages: A Com

parison, / & C S, March, pp 57-70, 1986

8.Pascoe G.A., Elements of Object-oriented Program

ming, Byte, Vol 11, No 8, August, pp 139-144, 1986

9.Reeve A., PursuingAutomationwithProgrammable

Controllers, C&I, August, pp 46-47,1987

10.Stroustrup, B., The C++ Programming Language,

AT&T Bell Laboratories, Addison Wesley Publishing,
New Jersey, 1986

11.White E and Malloy R, Object-oriented Program

ming, Editorial Byte, Vol 11, No 8, August, pp 137,
1986
12.Programmable Controller Survey, C&I, January
1987

Rael Bricker graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand

in 1985 with a B Sc. (Eng.) in Electrical Engineering. His studies
towards the M Sc (Eng.) degree were completed in December
1990. The project work undertaken towards this degree was under
taken during 1988 and 1989 under the auspices of the Software
Engineering Applications Laboratory in the Department of
Electrical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Mr Bricker recently started his own company - Innovative Mange -

ment Development. He may be contacted at P O Box 87182,
Killarney,2193
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
FORTRAN Package Renewal using
Object-centred Design Techniques
AD Lipworth, AJ Walker and HJ Annegarn
Abstract: The functional top-down design approach and struc
tural deficiencies of FORTRAN are strong contributing causes to
structural decay in engineering and scientific application packages.
Many programs become unmaintainable after several years of user-
requested developments and executional environment changes. This
paper consideres how such packages may be practically and
economically renewed (instead of discarded) by recovering the
original design information, respecifying and reimplementing using
object-centred design techniques. The approach will be described
and illustrated with reference to experience acquired during the
renewal of LINSIM, an electrical network (circuit) design, simula
tion and optimisation package and HEX, a program for analysis of
PIXE X-Ray spectra. The impact of CASE tools on the design
recovery stage, the need for on-hand application domain expertise
and the rewards of software reuse, are all emphasized.
Keywords: software engineering, software renewal, ob
ject-centred design, object-oriented programming,
software reuse
1. INTRODUCTION
Large FORTRAN programs (those greater than 10000
executable source code lines) designed using top-down
hierarchical methods are suitable candidates for program
renewal. Few programs remain static and most undergo
frequent modifications to correct errors and expand
capabilities.
Tracz [1] compares used cars to used programs. He
poses several questions to aid the selection of programs
for reuse. The majority of these are also applicable to
identifying programs to be renovated. These questions
include:
•Does the vehicle meet the customer's requirements?
The program under consideration must meet the
customer's basic requirements.
•How much mileage has the car done? Unlike cars,
software does not suffer from fatigue - rather the
higher the level of usage the more desirable it is.
•What is the reputation of the vehicle? Used cars
manufactured by high quality manufacturers are fre
quently purchased without reference to the main
tenance record. A software developer with a good
track record for delivering high quality programs can
be trusted to have produced a reputable program.
•What is the internal appearance of the car? A skilled
mechanic can diagnose potential problems. A
software engineer can determine inferior design and
Submitted: April 1990
Accepted: October 1990
43
implementation techniques by examining the pro
gram, its documentation and their conformance to
standards.
A research project was initiated in 1987 to investigate
whether software packages could be economically
renewed by re-engineering using object-centred techni
ques and implementing them in Pascal. Re-designing the
original program using object-centred techniques is
central to our approach to program renewal. Translating
the source code from FORTRAN to Pascal would only
serve to re-implement the original program's architec
tural and design errors and ultimately offers little
longterm advantage.
The object-centred design technique is multi-paradig
matic. It differs from the pure object-orientated ap
proach by permitting the presence of procedures or
functions which are not methods or object-operations.
This can only be accomplished in programming lan
guages which offer object-orientated extensions (C++
and Turbo Pascal 5.5 and 6.0 [12,13]) to the conventional
procedural language (C and Pascal). The approach can
not be used in a pure object-orientated language (e.g.
Smalltalk). Object-centred design allows greater
flexibility than pure object-oriented design. It permits
the software engineer to create a process: a procedure or
function which essentially contains only method calls
(message passing) which would otherwise have been
designed as a clumsy or inappropriate method.
The first program considered was LINSIM (an electrical
network simulation, design and optimisation pack-
age)[ll]. ELECSIM (the renewed version of LINSIM)
was initially implemented using Microsoft Pascal Version
3.2. This compiler did not support graphics or an operat
ing system interface. It did not have an integrated pro
gram development environment (editor, compiler
linker). ELECSIM subsequently ported to Turbo Pascal
3.1,4.0,5.0 and finally 5.5. ELECSIM was however fully
implemented prior to the release of Turbo Pascal 5.5. The
separately compiled unit with a well defined interface and
private implementation was used to restrictively imple
ment our object-centred technique.
As a result of the successful renewal of ELECSIM [2,3],
a second renewal project was undertaken in collabora
tion with the Schonland Research Centre for Nuclear
Sciences to renew HEX, a program widely used for
studies related to proton-induced x-ray emission
(PIXE).
44 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
These efforts in FORTRAN package renewal have been
formalised and are outlined in Section 2. The rewards of
the renewal effort are reviewed in Section 3.
2. OBJECT-CENTRED RENEWAL
Object-centred program renewal can be split into several
phases:
•Understanding the application domain
•If necessary, porting the program in its original form
to the new environment
•Comprehending the program (design recovery
phase)
•Designing the objects (identifying, describing)
•Designing the processes (identifying, describing)
•Implementing and testing the objects
•Implementing and testing individual processes
•System integration
•Overall testing
2.1Understanding the application domain
A clear understanding of the field of application is re
quired at the outset. The behaviour of the physical models
undergirding the functionality of the package, the
numerical solutions and approximations must be explicit
ly identified. Considerable help towards this end can be
gained with reference to the published technical litera
ture in the application domain.
2.2Porting to the new operational environment
This phase is only necessary when moving the code to a
new target machine. It must be accomplished as rapidly
as possible. The original FORTRAN source code is
transferred from the mini or main-frame computer to the
personal workstation. This move and change of compiler
may precipitate the need for minor modifications to the
program in order to accommodate all non-standard
FORTRAN input/output code. Large data structures
(arrays) may also need to be dimensionally reduced. The
temptation to enhance the ported code should be resisted
because later it will be discarded in favour of the renewed
code. The ported code does however provide statistics
such as code volume, execution speed and memory re
quirements (see Section 3). These attributes will be used
to gauge relative improvements to the package.
23 Comprehending the program
The first step towards understanding the program is to
identify any available program documentation. These
documents are, however, frequently out of date, incom
plete or non-existent. This is often the rational for renew-
March 1991
ing the program because without knowing how and why
it works it is not possible to correct errors, extend its
functionality or maintain the package.
The second step is to produce specialised documenta
tion. FORTRAN has been widely used for engineering
and scientific applications including simulation, design
and analysis programs. This language hampers an under
standing the program. Early FORTRAN compilers
(FORTRAN IV) enforced fixed format source code
preventing indentation and obscuring self-contained
blocks of code. The undisciplined use of the GOTO
statement and lack of structured constructs (Repeat ..
Until, While .. Do and Case) obscure the semantic be
haviour of a block of code. The CASE tools FOR-
CHECK and SPAG [5] have been effectively used for the
design-recovery phase. FORCHECK is a FORTRAN
static source-code analyzer. SPAG[5] is a spaghetti code
unscrambler. They may be used to create a detailed
annotated source code listing, describing the module
hierarchy and intercommunication, trapping non-ANSI
standard code, highlighting redundant modules and flag
ging data type inconsistencies.
A data dictionary is manually developed from the FOR
CHECK output. This dictionary must contain both dec
larative data (name, type, size, scope, aliases) and a
physical meaning in terms of the physical modelling of the
application. This physical interpretation cannot be
automated and may be compared to the construction of
a jigsaw puzzle [6]. Once certain data items are identified
in terms of their semantic meaning other important
details of data usage can be deduced. An effective ap
proach is to perform a series of scans over a sub
routine/module, adding interpretations until the
semantic behaviour of the code fragment is clearly under
stood. A severe problem is the occurrence of identical
names of data items in several modules each having dif
ferent semantic meanings.
Thirdly, a module hierarchy chart is then deduced from
the program reference and derived documentation.
Each subroutine name is coupled with a brief description
of its behaviour. The chart is used to track the progress
of the renewalcycle. It also forms the basis for delegating
branches of the hierarchical tree to individual team mem
bers, who may then proceed independently and in paral
lel with each other.
Fourthly, the design philosophy adopted by the original
programmers has to be deduced. The following question
should be asked. What is the nature of the data objects
represented by the data stored in the FORTRAN COM
MON blocks?
2.4 Designing the objects
The major data objects are located in FORTRAN COM
MON block statements in the main program and are
included in several subroutines. They are usually large
arrays. The size, type, and interrelationships must be
 March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
clearly identified. The physical interpretation in the data
dictionary must be expanded to include the intention of
array subscripts in terms of the physical modelling. This
is best illustrated by two examples one from LJNSIM, the
other from HEX.
In LINSIM several groups of disjoint arrays are logically
related and combine to represent the information about
a network component in an electrical circuit. They are
declared in an include file LINCOM.FOR and are in
cluded in all other LINSIM modules. Arrays JN(L) and
KN(L) store the nodal information for simple general
components (JN the higher and KN the lower node) while
CAP(L) stores the component value (CAPacitance).
This is illustrated in Figure 1.
IMPLICIT REALB(A-H,O-Z)
IMPLICIT INTEGER*2(I-N)
COMMON YI(60),ER(60)>XIR(BO),YR(BO),CAP(BO),HENHI(60),EI(BO)
COMMON XII(60),YGM(60).FGM(60)
COMMON NJJ(60),NJ(60),NK(60),NlCK(B0),JN(60)lKN(80)
CAP 1 2 60
JN 1 2 60
KN 1 2 60
Figure 1 LJNSIM's Array Structure
The array subscript L denotes the network branch.
JN(L) and KN(L) are also used for the nodal information
of several other general components (resistors, induc
tors, voltage and current sources). From this the design
philosophy is established: represent a network as a set of
Figure 2 A Typical Branch of an
ELECSIM/UNSIM Network
45
branches 1 to N, each branch L identified by a unique
node pair JN(L), KN(L). The size of the arrays JN, KN
and CAP (60 in Figure 1) then represents the "maximum
number of branches that can be accommodated in a
network". The intended physical representation of a
branch in the electrical network of components is shown
in Figure 2. The resistor, capacitor, inductor, voltage,
current and voltage controlled current sources all appear
between nodes 1 and 2, forming branch 1 of the network.
This would be stored in LINSIM by assigning, for ex
ample:
JN(1)=1
KN(1)=2
CAP(l)=luF
HENRI(1)=1H
YR(l)=lSiemen
ER(1)=1V
XIR(1)=1A
YGM(l)=lMho
Coupled components (mutual inductance and voltage
controlled current sources) require two node pairs for
the node data NJ(L), NK(L) and NJJ(L), NKK(L). The
array alignment feature in Figure 1 is not evident for
coupled components and are therefore clearly in a dif
ferent class to the general components. The two derived
component classes are shown in Figure 3.
wh^n C la capacitance, R raalata. no*. L Inductance
V independent voltage louroa, I Indapandant currant aoure*
^f mutual lnduotano*, K coupling faotor and
Voo* voltage controlled curr^nt -aouroa
Figure 3 The Component Classes in ELECSIM
C, R, L, V and I inherit the attributes of the General
Components (a component whose attributes are a higher
and lower node and a component value) while M, K and
Vccs inherit the attributes of Coupled Components (two
node pairs and a component value). This then formed
the basis of the net-list object in ELECSIM. It uses a
Pascal dynamic singly linked-list data structure as il
lustrated in Figure's 4 and 5 to represent the net-list
rather than aligned arrays of LINSIM (FORTRAN).
This eliminated several modules of LINSIM code which
compacted these arrays (JN, KN CN) and overcame its
static network size limitations.
A linked-list representation (Figure's 4 and 5) of the
net-list may at first sight seem inappropriate. After ex
amining all LINSIM code pertaining to the net-list it
became clear that a list structure would suffice and alter
native structures such as trees would yield little additional
benefit.
Net-list methods include:
46 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS March 1991

The net-list object is re-instantiated in the Monte-Carlo

Branch Branch Branch process to provide several sub net-lists: net-lists which
Base — —
1 2 3 contain a sub-set of the entire net-list of components and
1 are varied in value during the Monte-Carlo analysis. This
greatly reduced the volume of the source code.
Ptr.
In contrast to LINSIM, HEX has two representations for
array data. The first type is similar to that in LINSIM and
is shown in Figure 6.
Figure 4 The Data Structure of the ELECSIM
Net-list Object Here we are dealing with data related to the periodic
table of elements. It was found that the index of the Z
array represented the atomic number of the element.
General Components Elements with Z greater than 92 (trans-uranic) are not
from
suitable for PIXE analysis. The range of Z is therefore
Coupled Components static. Other aligned arrays such as WGT store the
previous to
branch atomic weight of the element. This data is static in size.
Link
next The majority of the values remain constant during an
branch analysis.

The number of tabulated X-ray absorption coefficients

Figure 5 An ELECSIM Branch Record
Initialise - to create the net-list
•Destroy - to destroy (destruct) an entire net-list
•Readnet - to extract component information from a
branch
•Writenet - to insert a component into a branch of the
net-list
•FindBranch - to locate a component in the net-list
•Countcomps - to determine the number of com
ponents in the net-list
•ConvertAdm - to convert R. L and C components to
their admittance form at a specified frequency,
•Renumber - to renumber a net-list node
•Topology - to perform a topological check on the
net-list
•SaveNet - to save a net-list in a file on disk
•RecovNet - to recover a net-list from a file on disk
IMPLICIT REAL*B(A-H,O-Z)
and relative-peak-heights for each element is, however,
variable. Heavy elements such as lead require many
more coefficients than the lighter elements (iron, cop
per). The accuracy of the results and speed of computa
tion is significantly dependent.on these coefficients.
HEX uses large arrays ELB and RLB in common block
XLB (Figure 7) to sequentially store the energies and
associated relative peak heights respectively.
Each element occupies a discrete indexrange. The static
array size limited the number of heavy atoms that could
be included in an analysis. Several integer "pointer" ar
rays (IPK, EPK) store the reference points of each block
of coefficients for a given element according to a
predetermined sort strategy. One such strategy is to store
the references in order of increasing energy of the relative
peak. Other integer "pointer" arrays act as pointers into
the previous "pointer" array. A typical HEX code frag
ment of this type is of the form:
1 PEAK=1.0644
2 SUM=0.0
3 DO 250 1=1 TO MRE
4 J=IRX(I)
5 K=Z(J)
6 M=IPK(K)

IMPLICIT INTEGER*2(I-N) 7 SUM=SUM+PEAK*RLB(M)

8 250 CONTINUE
COMMON /XRQ/MRE,IPX(93)
COMMON /ZED/Z(99),¥GT(99) where the integer "pointer" arrays are: IRX, Z and IPK
in lines 4,5 and 6 respectively.

This approach does not clearly convey the programmers

intent in terms of the physical modelling. In order to
Z 1 2 92 comprehend the code fragment the software engineer
must interpret the variables:

•MRE as the number of requested elements,

WGT 1 2 92
•IRX as an index into the list of requested elements,
Figure 6 HEX's Atomic Data Structure Array
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 47

•Initialise - to create the atomic data object (construc

IMPLICIT REAL*B(A-H,O-Z)
tor)
IMPLICIT INTEGER*2(I-N)
COMMON /XLB/IPK(93),ELB(1500)1 RLB(1500) •Destroy - to destroy the atomic data object (destruc
tor)
•Readelement - to extract the static atomic data for a
specified element
RLB 1 2 3 4 1500
j-1 •Writelement - to modify the static data for a specified
element
ipk 1 2 3 4 03
^ j •Initsortpeaklist - to create a sort peak list for an
element
ELB 1 2 3 4 1500
•Readsortpeaklist - to determine the relative peak for
Figure 7 The Reference Array Structure in HEX a specified element and energy

•Writesortpeaklist - to insert the relative peak for a

• Z as the index into the atomic data, and IPK as a
pointer to that atoms relative peak heights in array
RLB.
The overall effect is to obscure the representation of the
data. In addition the integer arrays must be continually
resorted whenever an element is eliminated from the
current analysis to prevent fragmentation of the arrays.
In WITS-HEX the coefficients are stored in dynamic
linked lists. The overall data structure for the atomic data
object is an array of linked lists as shown in Figure 8. This
permitted the linked list object used in ELECSIM to be
reused.
Each link in the X-ray absorption coefficient list contains
the absorption coefficient, associated energy and a link
to the next node. Each link in the relative peak list
contains the relative peak value, associated energy and a
link to the next node. The static atomic data for each
element (Z = 1 to 92) such as atomic weight and number
are grouped together to form the ELEMENT record.
The methods which operate on the atomic data object
include:
Relative
peaks
list
Absorption coef.
list
92
specified element and energy
•Readsortattenlist - to determine the X-ray absorp
tion coefficient for a specified element and energy
•Initsortattenlist - to create a sorted attenuation list
for a specified element
•Writesortattenlist - to insert the X-ray absorption
coefficient for a specified element and energy
These two examples serve to illustrate how objects are
derived from existing FORTRAN code. Each object is
then described in pseudo-code specifying the data struc
ture and associated methods. Several iterations may be
necessary before a suitable objects models are defined.
2.5 Designing Processes
The processes are identified by static analysis and execut
ing the original program, noting the individual activities
(editing, types of analyses). Common algorithms such as
bubble-sorting an array can be identified and frequently
replaced with an equivalent module from a reusable
software component library. The processes are
described in pseudo-code. They contain few data items
and coordinate the message passing amongst the objects.
They can be conceptualised as controller objects. It is
possible that object operations (methods) may be iden
tified that were not originally specified. These must be
added to the relevant objects. Enhanced processes (not
present in the original package) may also be designed and
added to enhance the overall performance of the pack
age. Each process must be totally independent of the
others. This is to ensure a flat program structure as
shown in Figure 9 with minimal hierarchy. This
eliminates side-effects due to the domino-effect of
modifications to a given process rippling through and
obstructing other seemingly unrelated processes.
Processes can be developed by individual members of a
team by enforcing the use of the objects designed in
Section 2.4.

Figure 8 The Atomic Data Structure in WITS-HEX

48 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
2.6Implementing and testing objects
The objects were implemented in Turbo Pascal 5.5. It
was selected for the following reasons:
•It has the fine program structure inherent to Pascal
•Object support (as per C++) [7]
•An excellent program development environment
(editor, compiler, linker and debugger (integrated,
remote and virtual)) including utilities such as
GREP, TOUCH, MAKE and BUILD
•It is supplied with units of code for operating system
interfacing, graphics and overlays
•It produces efficient code (optimised with support
for co-processors and emulation
Each object is tested individually by small test processes
which simply execute object operations.
2.7Implementing and testing individual processes
It is important to decouple the identified processes. This
leads to a broad flat program architecture as shown in
Figure 9 that can easily be rearranged. The volume of
source code will increase: a small price to pay for the
flexibility provided.
Main
1
1 Both ELECSIM and WITS-HEX use a menu-based
A B C D E and affords an appropriate mechanism for feeding back
Figure 9 The Hierarchy of a Program With a Flat
Structure
(A to E are Individual Processes)
2.8 System Integration
The individual processes are then coupled to a user-in
terface system to provide a mechanism for interaction
between the user and the program. The user communi
cated with LINSIM using an unforgiving command-line
with over 100 commands and incorporating FORTRAN
formatted I/O. This compelled the user to add blanks
between short options to prevent the parser from not
recognising the command. LINSIM's interface was dis
carded in favour of a menu-based high resolution colour
graphic interface, with optional initial command line
parameters, mouse and co-processor support. This user-
interface is another example of reusable code. The same
interface code was used for the initial version of WITS-
HEX. HEX had minimal user-interface due to its batch
mode of operation. During the WITS-HEX project the
user-interface was greatly enhanced. This enhanced ver
sion was then reverse engineered back into ELECSIM.
The user-interface (Figure 10) treats the physical screen
as a series of logical screens; a large central main screen
March 1991
for the presentation of results, a small menu screen, a
defaults fine for displaying simulation or analysis infor
mation which remains pertinent over the course of several
processes and overlapping status, error-message, func
tion key and prompt lines at the bottom of the physical
screen. The interface is object-oriented in the sense that
each logical screen has its own associated screen opera
tions. The entire screen-management code is self-con
tained and encapsulated in a single unit.
3. A COMPARISON OF RENEWED
AND ORIGINAL PACKAGES
A comparison of the original and renewed programs,
ELECSIM (formerly LINSIM) and WITS-HEX
(formerly HEX) is presented in Table 1. Both HEX and
LINSIM required improved user-interfaces.
HEX is batch-orientated using a command file, data
input files and finally spooling results to the output files.
To process a given set of data the user often had to run
the program several times to debug erroneous commands
and incorrect input data formats. The reason for this was
the lack of interaction with the user during processing.
LINSIM has a command line user-interface. The
FORTRAN format of command lines is awkward to
remember and is exacerbated by command lines which
require three or more parameters. The error message
"Unknown Command" is wholly inadequate.
user-interface. This both reduces the user-memory load
status and error messages. The interface is object
oriented. This effectively isolates (by encapsulation) the
inevitable environment specific input/output code from
other objects.
The considerably larger executable source code of
ELECSIM and WITS-HEX is due to:
• the additional processes added (functions not
present in the original programs)
Main screen for Menu
graphical and numerical raaulta screen
Area reserved for information about the current simulation
A row for help, status and error mesaages
A row for prompt messages snd function—ke^ menus
Figure 10 Screen Layout in ELECSIM and
WITS-HEX
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 49

•the high resolution colour graphics The documentation currently available for ELECSIM

•the user-interface
extensive input/output error-protection code
Overlays were used for both ELECSIM and WITS-HEX
due to the limitations of the target DOS operating system
(640 Kb barrier). This introduces a minimal overhead
when either of the renewed programs is used on personal
computers with either extended or expanded memory
systems configured as disk-caches. The overlay file will
be loaded into the respective extended or expanded
memory when first called and is sufficiently small (less
than the nominal minimum standard of 384 Kb) to remain
there.
The 1.68x and 1.60x improvement in executional speed
between ELECSIM and LINSIM, WITS-HEX and HEX
respectively relates to the clearer unscrambled code in
the processes of WITS-HEX and ELECSIM.
includes papers [2,3] and a high quality, 100 page user
manual. The user manual required the development of a
suitable style and layout which is to be reused for future
manuals. The production of this manual was undertaken
as a seperate task. Five individuals contributed to this
task, and consumed an estimated 600 hours.
The user manual for WITS-HEX is still under develop
ment and will therefore increase the development effort
listed in Table 2. The style, layout, description of the
user-interface and experience gained in producing the
ELECSIM manual will be reused, reducing production
costs and improving productivity.
Fifty percent of the time expended on the initial renewal
phase of LINSIM was consumed by manual, static source
code analysis due to the lack of suitable CASE tools. This
was a strong motivating factor for investigating and sub
sequently acquiring suitable CASE tools.

4. THE ECONOMICS OF SOFTWARE 5. DISCUSSION

RENEWAL
The total effort expended on the ELECSIM and WITS-
HEX projects has been compared to the approximate
period of time required to develop the LINSIM and HEX
programs. The results are illustrated in Table 1.
The estimates for LINSIM and HEX are based on Chen's
[8] estimate of 4.5 executable source lines per hour for
highly complex programs, and Boehm's [9] estimate of 3-4
executable source lines per hour for small production
teams in a familiar environment on limited duration
projects.
The total of 1907 hours for the ELECSIM project has two
significant components: the early documentation phase
of 396.5 hours and the porting phase of 542 hours.
The advantages of object-centred design methods for
program renewal include:
•Encapsulation: It achieves a high level of informa
tion hiding and protection which is important in
managing the complexity of large programs and
prevents future extensions to the package from cor
rupting critical data by providing a layer of insulation
between the data and the processes (eliminating the
"domino effect").
•Inheritance: The structuring of the problem domain
into a hierarchy of classes, each subclass inheriting
the properties of its parent class ensures an exten
sible structure requiring the designer to devote more
time to conceptualising the problem rather than

Table 1 A Comparison of UNSIM, ELECSIM, HEX and WITS-HEX

LINSIM ELECSIM HEX WITS-HEX

Design Approach Topdown Object-oriented Top-Down Object-oriented
Target machine VAX IBM PC Harris IBM PC
Source Language FORTRAN Pascal FORTRAN Pascal

Exec. Source line 8000 16539 3851 14738

Exec code (EXE) -460 Kb - 201 Kb -280 Kb - 147 Kb
(OVR) ~ 102 Kb 130 Kb
Rel. Exec. Speed 1.00 1.68 1.00 1.60

User-Interface Command Menu-base Batch Menu-based

Graphics Low resolution High resolution Low resolution High resolution

Maintainability poor good very poor good
 50 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
Table 2 A Comparison of the Productivity Associated with
the Development of the LINSIM, ELECSIM. HEX and WITS-HEX Programs
Exec. Source Development Effort
(Code Lines) (Hours)
LINSIM 8000 (estimated) 2000 - 8000
ELECSIM 16539 1907
HEX 3851 (estimated) 963 - 2567
WITS-HEX 14738 482
methods of solution (functional decomposition) as in
the standard top-down hierarchical approach.
•Maintainability: The processes (effectively a collec
tion of calls to object methods) are far more
transparent to a software practitioner who may be
asked to enhance an unfamiliar package and there
fore needs to quickly, fully, comprehend it.
•Modularity: The package can be expanded without
endangering its architecture unlike its top-down
counterpart ensuring a long software lifetime.
•Economic: It permits a scientific or engineering
FORTRAN application program to be economically
renewed so that the intellectual effort expended by
the original programmers can be recovered.
•VerificationandValidation: It provides an economi
cal approach to producing an application from exist
ing proven, freely available (public domain)
programs without restarting from scratch.
Current renewal studies are concerned with the gathering
of data from the renewal of larger programs of the order
of 32000 lines in the electrical engineering and scientific
domains. Techniques under investigation include those
to:
•Identify means to faciliate aprediction that a given
program can be economically renewed
•Predict the cost of renewing the program from
metrics derived from the source code
•Identify other CASE tools and environments that
may improve the productivity of software renewal.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Financial support for the renewal projects described in
this contribution have been received from the Foundation
for Research Development, the University Research
Council of the University of the Witwatersrand, the
Richard Ward Endowment Fund, and Rand Mines
Limited. Such support is gladly acknowledged.
March 1991
Productivity
(Lines/hour)
4.0-1.5
8.7
4.0-1.5
30.6
7. REFERENCES
1.Tracz W, Reusability Comes of Age, IEEE Software,
4, (4), 6-8,1987.
2.Lipworth A.D., Walker A.J., Renewing an Electrical
Network Simulator Package: Experience and Obser
vations. Trans. S. Afr. Inst. Electr. Eng, 79, (1), 25-37,
1988.
3.Lipworth A.D., Walker A.J., ELECSIM: An In
tegrated Tool for Linear Electrical Network Prob
lem Solving, Proc. National Workshop on Electronics
Education for the 90 's, Univ. of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, 1 Feb. 1989
4 Lipworth A.D., Annegarn H.J., Bauman S.,
Molokomme T,Walker A.J., WITSHEX - A
Renovated Code for Analysis of PIXE X-Ray Spectra,
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Re-
search,B49,173 -178,1990
5.PRISM - Programs for Programmers, Polyhedron
Software, 1988.
6.Biggerstaff T.J., Design Recovery for Maintenance
and Reuse, Computer, 22, (7), 36-49,1989.
7.Stroustrup B., What is Object-Orientated Program
ming?, IEEE Software, 5, (3), 10-20, 1988.
8.Chen E.T., Program Complexity and Programmer
Productivity, IEEE Trans. Software Eng., SE-4, (3),
187-194,1978.
9.Boehm B.W., Software Engineering Economics,
Prentice-Hall, 1981.
10.Darzi M., Bauman S., Annegarn H.J., HEX User
Manual, Internal report, Dept. Oceanography,
Florida State University, 1979
11.Edward LMN, LINSIM: An Electrical Network
Simulation and Optimisation Program, Int. J. Elec.
Eng. Educ., 20, (12), 151 -168,1983
12.Turbo Pascal 5.5 User and Reference Manual, Bor
land International, 1989
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 51

13. Wiener RS, Pinson LJ, An Introduction to Object-

oriented Programming and C++, Addison Wesley
Pub. Co., 1988

Anthony Lipworth graduated from the University of the Wit-

watetsrand in 1986 with a B Sc. (Eng.) in Electrical Engineering.
His studies towards the M Sc (Eng.) degree were completed in
December 1989. He is currently engaged in fulltime research
studies in software renewal with a view to fulfilling the require
ments of a Ph D degree. These studies have been performed under
the auspices of the Software Engineering Applications Laboratory
in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of
the Witwatersrand.
Alastair Walker is an Associate Professor in the Department of
Electrical Engineering. His research interests lie in the field of
software engineering, with particular reference to developing
cost-effective techniques for software systems renewal. He has
been responsible for the formation of the Software Engineering
Applications Laboratory within the Department of Electrical En
gineering, University of the Witwatersrand.

Antony Lipworth and Professor Walker may be contacted at:

Department of Electrical Engineering, University of the Wit
watersrand, P O Wits, 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Harold Annegarn holds a Ph D in Nuclear Physics from the

University of the Witwatersrand. He has specialised in the nuclear
analysis of materials and atmospheric environmental samples
using charged particle beams. He has a special interest in develop
ing compute codes for fitting spectra from proton- induced x-ray
emission analysis. He currently holds the position of Associate
Professor at the Schonland Research Instutite of Nuclear Sciences.

Professor Annegarn may be contacted at: Schonland Research

Centre for Nuclear Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, P
O Wits, 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa.
52 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
A Simple System Executive for Distributed Real-time
Computing Research
V. Lun I.M. MacLeod
ABSTRACT
In real-time systems, computer programs must respond to
external asynchronous events in an appropriate and
timely manner. Real-time programming addresses the
design and development of these programs. Our research
into distributed real-time computing has identified a
need for a personal computer-based real-time system
executive to facilitate the simulation of distributed real
time processes. This paper describes our initial work
towards building such a small and extensible non-
preemptive system executive. We also discuss the
philosophy behind the design and implementation of
the system executive. The approach taken is to extend
the C language to support concurrency while
maintaining a high degree of portability. The library of C
functions which support the system executive is
described. An example is used to illustrate some of the
fundamental concepts of real-time concurrent
programming.
INTRODUCTION
In our research into distributed real-time computing for
industrial control and automation, we have identified a
need for a personal-computer-based multi-tasking system
executive. Such an executive forms the basis for studying
and experimenting with real-time programming
techniques and programming primitives. It also allows us
to simulate distributed real-time computer systems on a
single computer. The rationale for developing our own a
system executive is:
•Generally, the overhead in terms of size and
efficiency of larger and more capable operating
systems is unacceptable in real-time applications.
Also, many popular operating systems are designed as
multi-user systems and are inherently not suitable for
real-time applications.
•The lack of access to internal details and the primary
mechanisms of many existing real-time systems make
it extremely difficult to customize them and to extend
their functionality. There is also the need to be able
to determine and control the overheads imposed by a
system executive.
Submitted October 1990
Accepted March 1991
March 1991
• Various system executives have been built [1,2,3,4,5],
however most of them require extensive assembly
language programming. Our approach has been to
base our system executive on a standard
programming language, namely C, and to minimize
the use of system-dependent software and assembly
language programming.
A fundamental requirement for our system executive is
that it must be able to support concurrent tasks.
Concurrency is an abstract notion which specifies the
possible coexistence of several tasks or programs, i.e.,
tasks which logically execute in parallel. Therefore,
concurrent programming principles can be applied
equally to truly concurrent systems (multiple or
distributed processors) or to pseudo concurrent systems
(interleaved task execution on a single processor) [6,7].
The problems and requirements of synchronization and
communication are the same.
Strict adherence to the idea that there is a logically
separate processor for each task is an appropriate
one [8]. This approach enables the system executive to
be used to conduct distributed computing experiments.
Intertask communication is via a virtual communication
interface and shared memory. The mapping of a
physically distributed computer system into a collection
of concurrent tasks is shown in figure 1.
Our strategy has been to develop a system executive that
is simple, small and efficient. This allows us the flexibility
PHYSICAL COMMUNICATION MEDIUM
t t t
i i
COMP. COMP. COMP.
1 2 n
SHARED MEMORY
VIRTUAL COMMUNICATION INTERFACE
t
TASK TASK TASK
1 1 1
Figure 1 Physical to logical mapping of a
distributed computer system
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
to customize and enhance the executive gradually which
will ensure that only the necessary features and options
are included. With this in mind, we have opted for a
basic design that uses only non-preemptive scheduling
and inter-task state message passing. We have delayed
incorporating other features commonly found in other
systems, such as preemptive scheduling, task priorities,
and event message passing, to a later development stage
because they increase the non-determinism and
complexity of the operation of the system executive
considerably.
The paper begins by examining some of the fundamental
issues pertaining to the design of the system executive.
We discuss our method for extending the C language to
support task concurrency. A library of C functions which
supports real-time programming is also described. An
example is used to show the functionality and flexibility
of the resulting system executive.
REAL-TIME PROGRAMMING
Real-time programming applies to the situation where
multiple programs which share storage within a single
processor must respond to external events. It is therefore
applicable to the internal operation of every computer
making up a distributed computer system (DCS). It is
also relevant to individual embedded control computers
and to the larger centralized computers that co-ordinate
subsystems in some present-day automation systems.
In conventional calculation or data processing, a
sequential program running alone on a dedicated
processor runs to completion as quickly as the processor
allows. Personal computer programs are a good example
of this. The computer is in charge and there is no
interference from the outside world. The program
dictates when input from the user is required. The
essence of real-time programming, on the other hand, is
that the computer must act in response to asynchronous
events in the outside world. These events could, for
example, be the reaching of a particular time, the
change of an input value or the closing of an electrical
contact. Inputs are therefore forced on the program by
external events rather than the program demanding
input at its convenience. The computer is no longer in
charge, but is the slave of the outside world [9].
A typical real-time system is required to do several things.
For example, it may need to check cettain input values at
regular intervals to see if they are within an allowed
range. It may have to control some outputs. It may have
to update a display at regular intervals. It may have to
respond to one of several possible requests from the
human operator and finally, in any remaining time, it
53
could be required to do background computation such
as planning or optimization. It can therefore be seen
that a real-time program represents an enormous
increase in complexity over a simple sequential program.
Research into real-time programming over the last 20
years has evolved techniques for designing such real-time
programs. The accepted approach follows three steps:
•Think of the different system activities as separate
programs which logically run in parallel and which
will often need to access common data and other
shared resources. These logically separate and
parallel (or concurrent) programs are called tasks.
•Assume a conceptually separate processor for each
task.
•Provide an underlying system executive or operating
system to run the tasks in shared memory on a single
processor and provide a programming language with
special additional constructs to allow access to
shared data and resources.
DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
In the design of system executives, the requirements of
real-time programming are traditionally addressed under
a number of sub-headings. These include maintaining
the state or context for a number of different tasks, task
synchronization, intertask communication and task
scheduling.
Multiple tasks
In a multi-tasking environment, the system must
maintain and support the coexistence of several tasks.
Each task can be divided into several distinct sections.
These are the program code section, the data area, the
task stack and the task context. The program code
section contains the instructions that must be executed.
The data area contains static data such as initialized data,
global variables and constants. The task stack is used to
store dynamic or temporary data such as local variables
used in functions or subroutines and.parameters that are
passed between functions or subroutines. The task
context controls the task execution state by maintaining
pointers to the code, data and stack areas and the
contents of the CPU registers. This task context is usually
stored in a data structure called a task control block
(TCB). Context switching refers to the process of
suspending one task and resuming another one. This
involves saving the current task context and restoring
the next task context. Figure 2 shows the structure of a
typical task.
In some systems, each task also has a heap area for
dynamic memory allocation, in others, there is a general
heap area that is managed by the operating system.
54 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
TASK CONTEXT
(TASK CONTROL BLOCK - TCB)
STACK - additional requirement that only one task (the owner)
POINTERS
DATA
POINTERS
CODE
POINTERS
- CPU
REGISTERS
- CODE - However, we argue that control environments, unlike
SECTION
DATA
SECTION
STACK
AREA
Figure 2 A typical task structure
Synchronization
Synchronization is concerned with the problem of
restricting the temporal behavior of several concurrent
tasks that wish to access common data or resources. A
critical section or critical region is a section of program
in which such accessing occurs. Synchronization
mechanisms, such as semaphores and monitors [10],
ensure that no more than one task at a time is allowed to
execute in its critical section. They are essential for
eliminating time-dependent errors in concurrent systems
and for ensuring the correctness of the programs.
If the system executive is used to simulate distributed
computing, we must take cognizance of the fact that all
the tasks are loosely coupled and synchronization and
coordination can only occur via message passing. For
example, to implement semaphores, Lamport^s
algorithms [6, pg. 43] are preferred because they ensure
that each task only writes to its own local variable
although it may read other variables which may reside
on different computing nodes. We strongly recommend
all synchronization mechanisms be implemented using
only intertask communication facilities.
Intertask communication
Message-passing is the only means of inter-task
communication in distributed systems. Messages can
either be state messages or event messages. The
difference between event messages and state messages is
that event messages are stored in queues at their
destination and are consumed when processed by the
receiver task while state messages persist until they are
overwritten by the next in-coming message.
The system executive described in this paper only
supports state messages. Each state message has its own
March 1991
message queue that contains a maximum of one message.
This message is not consumed by reading but is
overwritten by a new state message. We place an
may write to the queue, but many tasks (the subscribers)
may read from it. Messages have validity time tags
associated with them so that they only have relevance
within a certain time frame. This prevents tasks from
using data to early or too late.
State messages have the disadvantage that they result in a
high (but steady) load on the communication subsystem.
multi-user operating systems such as Unix, have well-
defined and predictable intertask communication
requirements. Furthermore, to meet real-time demands,
a system must be designed to handle the maximum
message traffic.
Task scheduling
Task scheduling is a system design and implementation
issue that should be transparent to real-time
programming. Real-time programs that take into account
scheduling strategies invariably function incorrectly
when the hardware configuration is changed or the
software is ported to other hardware platforms. Two
important issues regarding task scheduling are pre
emption and priorities [10].
Pre-emptive scheduling allows a task to be interrupted
either because it has used up its CPU time-slice or
because a task that has a higher priority is ready to run.
It is generally used in multi-user operating systems to
ensure fairness amongst tasks and to give critical tasks
priority over less-critical ones. Depending on the
algorithm employed and the size of the time-slice, there
can be significant non-productive operating system
overheads incurred by excessive task switching. Pre
emption results in non-deterministic behavior that can
make interacting tasks difficult to debug and to verify.
Non-preemptive scheduling or cooperative scheduling
does not allow a task to be interrupted once it has been
given control of the CPU. It must voluntarily release its
control of the CPU. While task management overhead is
minimal, an errant task may hold the CPU for far too
long, resulting in the starvation of other tasks. However,
the simplicity of operation makes cooperative scheduling
an attractive option in many situations.
Priorities can be applied to both pre-emptive and
cooperative systems. It determines the next task that
should gain control of the CPU. The assignment of
priority may be according to job size, the importance of
job, the user privilege or the order of arrival. In a pre
emptive system, a task may interrupt another one with a
lower priority. Priorities, if incorrectly applied, can also
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
cause the starvation of low priority tasks. Generally,
priorities should be avoided except for fine tuning the
responsiveness of the system [9].
Our system executive employs cooperative, round-robin
scheduling. This implies that no task can interrupt
another task. When a task yields to the system, the next
task in the circular task list will be given control of the
CPU. Our strategy is to keep the executive as simple as
possible and resort to more sophisticated algorithms and
techniques only when the need arises.
EXTENDING THE C LANGUAGE TO SUPPORT
CONCURRENCY
One of the most portable methods of achieving
concurrency in C is by using the setjmp and longjmp
functions because they are standard ANSI C functions.
Parker [11] adopts the same technique in his
multitasking system executive. Setjmp and longjmp are
generally used to trap errors and exceptions in C
programs. We will use it to jump between functions and
thereby effect task concurrency. When setpnp is first
called, it saves the complete task context in a jmp tmf
data structure. The task context or state consists of the
CPU registers, the stack and base pointers and CPU flags.
The function returns a 0 on completion. When longjmp
is called later, it restores the task state previously saved
and returns in such a way that setjmp appears to have
returned with a positive integer value.
Figure 3 shows the basic mechanism to switch between
tasks using the yield function. If all the task contexts are
saved in a circular linked list, each time a task yields, the
next task will take control. This will result in
cooperative, round-robin scheduling.
Since the tasks are concurrent, each one must have its
own stack. The task context must also be initialized so
that when a longjmp is issued, it will jump to the
beginning of the function and will also use the stack
associated with that particular task. The function called
U 1)
=0
SETJMP SETJMP
TASK1 TASK 2
I 4
>0 >0
LONGJMP
TASK 2 ~*
II It
t
u II
Figure 3 Using setjmp and longjmp to implement co-routines
to create a new task must:
•Allocate a stack area using the C memory allocation
function, malloc.
•Allocate a task control block, a data structure that
contains all the information pertinent to that task.
(This includes the task context using the jmpbnf
data structure.)
•Set the instruction pointer to point to the function
address.
•Set the stack pointer to point to the new stack area.
Note that the function that creates the new task will
contain system dependent code. However, it is the only
function that has such dependencies. The system
dependency relates mainly to initializing the internal
structure of the jmpjntf data structure. For example, for
the Intel 80xxx CPU family, the instruction pointer is a
combination of a code segment (CS) and the instruction
pointer (IP). The stack pointer is a combination of the
stack segment (SS), the stack pointer (SP) and the base
pointer (BP). The contents of the jmpbuf data structure
are normally documented in the setjmp.h include file.
X.LIB - A SYSTEM EXECUTIVE FUNCTION LIBRARY
General philosophy
The foremost consideration in the development of the
system executive was to create an environment that was
highly portable and flexible. No assembly language
programming was required in our particular
implementation. System dependent routines were
localized to a small set of functions. Most of the source
code for the system executive functions was written in
ANSI C. We believe that the system executive could be
ported easily to different platforms when the need arises.
The IBM-compatible personal computer was chosen as
the target system for several reasons. Firstly, such
machines were readily available to researchers and
students. Secondly, the DOS environment is essentially a
single user and in most cases a single process machine.
Support for concurrent programming using C was
=0
yield ()
{
if (!setjmp(currenf7as/c)
longjmp (nextTask);
LONGJMP return;
TASK1 }
56 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS March 1991

considered to be a significant addition to our set of circular linked list for scheduling purposes. A typical
programming tools. TCB stores the following information as part of its data
structure :
Our system executive consists of a set of functions in a C •the task description or name
library called X.Lib as well as a collection of header files •the address of the C function
to be included with a user program. The executive can •a pointer to the stack memory
therefore be considered to be an embedded miniature •the stacksize
operating system. The following sections cover the main •the context of task (CPU registers, etc. usingjmpjntf)
aspects of the library. A summary of the major data •a task window data structure (if a window is defined)
structures and available functions is included in •a task error code
Appendix A. All the source code was implemented in •the intertask communication links
Turbo C, a C compiler from Borland International [12, •the command line parameters
13]. The huge memory model was chosen to allow for •the backward and forward links to other TCBs.
multiple code and data segments.
Three functions are used to create, destroy and control
Task control tasks. Tasks are created by calling the function,
As mentioned previously, the system executive uses xjhread, to create an execution thread. The parameters
cooperative, round-robin task scheduling. The task required include the function name, the task name or
control mechanism is shown in figure 4. description, the stack size, the maximum number of time
frames (see later under Intertask Communication) and
Each task consists of a task control block (TCB), a stack the command line string. Control is returned to the
area and a pointer to the function that represents the system executive by calling the function, x^yield. The
task source code. Since each task has its own stack, all function, x terminate, removes a task from the system.
the source code is re-entrant provided they do not make The use of a global pointer X CURRENT TCB, which
use of global variables. Local variables are allocated on points to the active task in the task list, obviates the need
the stack. Re-entrancy also implies that several identical to pass parameters to xjyield and x terminate.
tasks (i.e. same function) can be spawned and can
coexist with each other. Each task must however have a Input and output functions
unique name for identification purposes. These tasks are Since each task is capable of individually reading from
analogous to the concept of threads in OS/2 [14]. and writing to the terminal, the system executive must
Correspondingly, the different task paths are referred to control the input and output. To facilitate this, a window
as threads of execution. and menu system has been developed specifically to
coordinate this activity. Each task can create one
The TCB table uses hashing techniques so that each task window. All subsequent input and output will be routed
can also be referred to by its task name in intertask to this window. The window can be made visible or
communication. The TCB's themselves are arranged in a hidden. It can be voluntarily removed or automatically
destroyed when the task is terminated. Windows may
overlap each other. The system executive updates the
11 visible parts of the window when necessary. Pop-up and
tt STACK CODE pull-down menus are available in each window.
T TASK 1 &
C 1 DATA Concurrent output to the various windows is easily
B - ft - implemented because the tasks themselves are
II
concurrent. Each task writes to a logical window which
H tt STACK is then mapped onto the physical screen. Keyboard input
A TASK 2
is more complicated. The physical keyboard input must
S - 2
be mapped to one task at a time. This is achieved by
H tt
designating one of the windows as the active window.
It
The active window is shown with a double border as
T tt
A (I opposed to the single border of a non-active window. All
B It keyboard input is buffered by the system manager, a
STACK
L TASK background task whose responsibility is to re-route the
n
E n input to the task whose window is active and to trap
tt special key combinations. The key combinations Ctrl-
It LeftArrow and Ctrl-RightArrow make the previous
window or the next window the new active window. The
Figure 4 Controlling tasks within the system executive active window only determines which task will receive
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 57

the keyboard input and does not affect the window
output.
The need to address input and output of each task
individually means that standard C input and output
functions such as print/ and scan/ cannot be used.
Instead a set of input/output functions have been
developed as replacements. These functions are similar
in name, operation and calling convention as their
standard counterparts. Extra functions have also been
added to enhance the window I/O.
Intertask communication
Although all the tasks shared one processor and a
common memory, a virtual intertask communication
medium had to be created so that tasks would
communicate to one another using messages to maintain
the assumption that each task had its own processor. A
novel approach taken to intertask communication was to
use a distributed blackboard that stores a defined set of
state messages slots called time frames. When one or
more tasks subscribe to a time frame, an instance of that
time frame is created on the blackboard. Any number of
tasks may subscribe to any number of time frames.
Subscription reverses the conventional philosophy that
the sender determines the receivers i.e. whether it is
one-to-one, multi-cast or broadcast. Instead, the
receivers decide whether they wish to read a state
message. Therefore, broadcast and multi-cast are
automatic consequences of the number of tasks that
decide to subscribe to a particular time frame.
To subscribe to a time frame, a task first declares a state
variable. This makes provision for a local variable and its
pointer to a time frame (see figure 5) The task then
subscribes to the time frame through a function call.
Messages are sent by unloading the contents of the local
variable into the time frame. Correspondingly, messages
are received by loading the time frame into local
variable. The loading operations are transparent to the
user who perceives only the sending and receiving of
messages. The unloading of a time frame into the local
variable only succeeds if the time frame is time valid. The
syntax for the loading and unloading of variables is based
on the programming constructs proposed by Kopetz
[15]. The C preprocessor is used extensively to translate
the intertask and real-time programming constructs/
syntax into standard C source code.
Although the system executive allows any task to read
and write to any time frame, this is not desirable. In a
distributed environment there is no guarantee that two
writers will reside on the same computer. The
philosophy adopted is that the programmer must enforce
the rule that each time frame will have only one writer
(the owner) but may have many readers.
To provide for distributed blackboards, any time frame
name consists of four parts: system id, group id, owner
name and variable name. This allows a blackboard
manager to service remote subscriptions from managers
residing on other computers. Using this naming
structure, active data redundancy schemes can be
developed easily, since only the compound time frame
name must be unique e.g. two identical time frames will
differ only in the system id or group id.
Each time frame contains a start and end validity time.
These two validity times determine the time window
during which the contents of the frame or state message
are valid, hence the name 'time frame'. Outdated
messages are overwritten by new messages. The
programmer must decide whether to wait until a state
message becomes time invalid before overwriting it with
a new one or to overwrite immediately. The concept of a
message queue at the receiver does not exist. The writer
task must implement a queue if one is required or spawn
a task for queue control.

BLACKBOARD OF TIME FRAMES (TF)

(VIRTUAL COMMUNICATION MEDIUM)

TF1 | TF2 • •• I • •• TFn

ft U
SEND (UNLOAD) RECEIVE (LOAD)
(I I)

TF POINTER TF POINTER
STATE VARIABLE STATE VARIABLE
LOCAL VARIABLE LOCAL VARIABLE
TASK 1 • •• TASKn

Figure 5 The intertask communication scheme

58 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
System management
Basic system executive management is performed by a
background system manager. The system manager is no
different from any other task that the user may create
except it is the first task created by the system executive.
Currently, the system manager performs four important
tasks. Firstly, it checks for keyboard input and routes the
input to the task with the active window. Secondly, it
detects the user request to change active windows (Ctrl-
LeftArrow and Ctrl-RightAtrow). Thirdly, it invokes an
interactive system status task when it detects the Ctrl-
FunctionKey_1 key combination. This is described in
further detail below. Fourthly, it reads the hardware
clock and updates the global system clock, represented
by the variable XjCLOCK. The default clock resolution is
one second. This can be changed by the user by
specifying a positive number of clock ticks, using
XCLOCKTICK. The global clock is then advanced after
the number of clock ticks specified have passed. On the
personal computer, there are approximately 18.2 clock
ticks per second. By manipulating XjOLOCKJHCK, the
system can be made to run in real-time, accelerated or
decelerated mode.
The system status task allows the user to perform several
system-level functions. These include the ability to :
•Terminate the system executive.
•Display the actual time and date.
•Show the contents of each task control block and the
hash performance of the TCB table.
•Show the contents of each time frame and the hash
performance of the time frame table.
•Show the worst case clock resolution (cooperative
scheduling may violate the clock resolution because
one task may keep control for too long).
•Allow the user to change the clock resolution
dynamically (i.e. number of clock ticks per second).
•Show the amount of computer memory available.
•Temporarily suspend the system executive and exit to
the operating system.
Limitations of the personal computer Disk Operating
System (DOS)
During the development of the system executive under
DOS, several valuable lessons were learnt. The problems
documented below are not insurmountable but can
become time-consuming hurdles if the developer is not
aware of them. These problems do not exist in X.Lib
because of the design philosophy adopted. These
problems can be summarized as follows:
•DOS is essentially not re-entrant, i.e. a system call to
DOS must be complete before another is issued [16].
Therefore, a DOS system call must be treated as a
critical region. In a cooperative system executive this
does not represent a problem because the task
cannot issue a DOS call and yield at the same time. In
a pre-emptive system, the executive must check if a
DOS call has been issued prior to the interrupt which
March 1991
can lead to substantial computational overhead.
Disabling interrupts before making the DOS call only
solves part of the problem because system libraries
included with the C compiler may also make similar
calls and the user cannot anticipate when these may
occur.
•To implement pre-emptive scheduling or time-slicing,
one must remember to save and restore the status of
the math co-processor as part of the task switching
operation. The setjmp and longjmp routines do not
store or restore the math coprocessor registers.
•It is important to keep in mind under which memory
model the system executive is developed. The Intel
80xxx CPU family uses a segmented memory
architecture. The physical address is a combination
of a segment address and an offset address. Different
segment:offset combinations may map onto the same
physical address which can lead to problems when
performing pointer comparisons.
•Some memory models and C compilers assume that
the data segment (DS) is the same as the stack
segment (SS). This is not always true. Under the huge
memory model, every memory allocation using
tnalloc starts in a different segment. Since we
allocate new task stacks in this way, DS is never the
same as SS. Program code that makes this assumption
will invariably cause the system to crash.
•Certain C compilers do not save and restore the extra
segment (ES) register in the setjmp and longjmp
functions. This can have dire consequences because
tasks may point to different parts of the heap memory
using the ES register.
•Most C compilers have an option to check for stack
overflow. This is invoked at the beginning of every
function to ensure that enough space is available for
local variables. This code is normally not compatible
with programs using multiple stacks. The user must
substitute the stack-checking function with a custom
function or disable stack checking altogether. The
latter option does not eradicate the problem entirely
when the system libraries that accompany the
compiler have been compiled with the stack
checking enabled.
•Some functions supplied with the system libraries are
not re-entrant because they use global variables.
•It is important to remember that the stack grows
downwards, i.e. from high memory to low memory.
When stack space is allocated, the pointer returned
points to the beginning of empty space which is in
fact the top of the stack. The stack and base pointers
must be adjusted to point to the top of the empty
space which is the bottom of the stack.
•Finally, unless the system executive is run on a system
that contains a math coprocessor or only integer
arithmetic is performed, a further problem can
occur. Most C compilers supply a math emulation
library which can be used in the absence of a math
coprocessor. The emulation routines often make use
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
of some of the space at the top of the stack. To allow
the system executive to emulate floating point
operations, under the Turbo C compiler, the top 256
bytes of the original program stack must be copied to
the top of each stack that is subsequently created.
AN EXAMPLE USING THE SYSTEM EXECUTIVE
The example chosen is similar to the one proposed by
Kopetz [15] to illustrate the concepts of distributed real
time computer control. The example uses real-time
intertask communication primitives which are
summarized in Appendix B. These primitives facilitate :
•The subscription to a state message (time frame).
•The input and output of time-valid messages within a
task.
•Taking alternative action when a timeout occurs due
to the non-receipt of messages.
•The addition of conditional filters to message input.
•Performing periodic actions.
•Delaying task execution for specified intervals.
Description of the problem
A conveyor transports boxes to two collection bins.
Boxes are sorted according to two sizes, namely, small
and large. A light beam determines that size of the box by
the length of time the beam is broken by the box. If a
small box is detected, a lever is activated to reroute the
box to bin 2. If a large box is detected, the box is allowed
to continue to the end of the conveyor where it is
deposited in bin 1. A diagram of the problem is shown in
figure 6.
To keep the example simple, we will make the following
assumptions. The conveyor speed is essentially constant.
Any variation in speed will not be sufficient to cause the
light beam to misinterpret the size of the box. If the
conveyor stops, the box in transit must be manually
cleared from the system. A box must be deposited into
n
. / CLOSE
BOX
^, . CONVEYOR
n I
LIGHT BEAM
Figure 6 Diagram of the box sort example
59
one of the bins before another one is allowed to cross
the light beam.
An alternative is to use two light beams to determine the
size of the box. If both beams are broken, the box is
large, otherwise the box is small. Although this means
that the determination of the size of the box is now
independent of the speed of the conveyor, the flexibility
of the system is lost. The light beams must be physically
repositioned if the sizing criteria is changed.
Furthermore, such a system can at most differentiate
between two sizes. By using a single light beam and
keeping the conveyor speed constant, the exact size of
any box can be determined because it is directly
proportional to the time during which the light beam is
broken. The system can be made more robust and
reliable by employing an extra light beam for
redundancy and by monitoring the conveyor speed. The
modular approach and loose coupling between the tasks
facilitate such enhancements.
An examination of the problem reveals that the two
critical components to control the sorting system are the
light beam and the lever. Each component is represented
by a control task. We assume that suitable device drivers
are available to interface to the light beam and the lever.
The light beam device driver reads the photocell and
sends a message every second when the beam is
interrupted. The lever device driver reads a message
indicating a the desired position and instructs the
physical device to change position. Note that the
appropriate device drivers could be embedded into the
light beam and lever control tasks. However, by
separating them from the control tasks, the system can
be transparently interfaced to a physical system or a
simulated environment as shown in figure 7. This
example uses the operator and display tasks to simulate
the physical system. The following sections describe the
control tasks. Source listings are included in Appendix C.
SMALL
BIN BOXES
2
l BIN
1
OPEN l^rge
LJ LEVER BOXES
60 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS March 1991

LIGHT BEAM LEVER PHYSICAL

DEVICE DRIVER DEVICE DRIVER SYSTEM
II It

OPERATOR DISPLAY SIMULATION

TASK TASK ENVIRONMENT
II (1

LIGHT BEAM LEVER CONTROL

CONTROL TASK CONTROL TASK MODULES
II U (1 U

INTERTASK TASK INTERFACE

COMMUNICATION

Figure 7 Task organization of the box sort example

System initialization periodically. The source code and logic diagram is

Tasks can be spawned or terminated dynamically once
the system executive has been initiated. Alternatively, the
user can specify some of the tasks before cooperative
multitasking begins. The latter method is used in this
example. The user can also insert source code before the
system executive is initiated. Figure 8 shows the
initialization phase of the program.
The light beam
The light beam task cyclically tests for a interrupt_beam
message. If there is a time-valid message indicating that
the beam is broken, it waits for another two seconds. If
there is another timevalid interrupt beam message, the
task concludes it is a large box. Otherwise, the box size is
determined to be small. A message containing the box
size is broadcast. The task waits for 5 seconds before
continuing. This represents the duration required for
the box to be delivered to the correct bin. The time-out
mechanism is used to broadcast a default message every
second indicating that no box has been detected. This is
used to indicate the current status of the light beam task
shown in figure 9.
The lever
The lever control task determines whether there is a
box_size message. In addition, a filter is applied to the
contents of boxsize. A small box requires the lever to be
in a close position. A large box requires the lever to be in
the open position. The leverJtosition message is sent
when the box size can be determined. The logic diagram
and source code is shown in figure 10.
System termination
Each task is essentially autonomous. To stop the system
in an orderly manner, a termination message is
broadcast to all tasks. Each task on receiving the
stop system message will terminate when it is ready to
do so. The contents of the message are not important.
The existence of the message and the fact that it is time-
valid is enough to inform the task that termination has
been requested. Typical source code to detect the
message and to terminate the task is shown in figure 11.

main() void main (void)

/* user-defined code */ {
/* user code before system executive is initiated */
x initialize system() x initialize system();
}
void x initialize user(void)
x initialize user() {
x_thread(light_beam, "LIGHT BEAM", 4096, 10,"")
/"user-defined code*/ xjhread(lever, "LEVER", 4096, 10,"")
x thread (display "DISPLAY", 4096, 10,"")
/* begin multitasking */ x thread(operator, "OPERATOR", 4096, 10, "")
/* code before multitasking begins e.g. spawn tasks*/
}
Figure 8 Initializing the system executive
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 61

u input(interrupt beam)
yes MSG EXISTS no perform {
11 & TIME-VALID? 11 box size = small;
wait(2);
WAIT 2 SEC TIMEOUT? yes input(interrupt beam)
1 perform
yes MSG EXISTS no no box size = large;
U & TIME-VALID? 11 11 11 with validity(5)
output(box size);
| box = large box = small | box = none wait (5);
}
U
OUTPUT OUTPUT on timeout(timer1, 1)
MESSAGE MESSAGE perform {
box size = none;
with validity(1)
r CONTINUE output(box size);
l }
Figure 9 Logic diagram and source code corresponding to the light beam control task

u
yes VALID MSG & no input(box size) filter (box size = = small)
U box size = = small? 11 perform {
lever position = close;
yes VALID MSG & no with validity(1)
II box size = = large? U output(lever position);
}
lever position lever position
= close = open
or (box size) filter (box size = = large)
OUTPUT OUTPUT perform {
MESSAGE MESSAGE lever position = open;
with validity(1)
output(lever position);
CONTINUE }
U

Figure 10 Logic diagram and source code for lever control task

11
yes MESSAGE EXISTS no input(stop system) perform
U AND TIME-VALID? 11 x terminatef);

TERMINATE CONTINUE

Figure 11 Logic diagram and corresponding source code for system termination
62 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
CONCLUSION
Several important observations and conclusions
regarding the design of the system executive can be
made. These are summarized as:
•The ability to provide a software structure which
mirrors the physical configuration of the problem is
important. This encourages object-oriented design
and modular problem decomposition.
•The use of a high-level language such as C facilitates
the rapid development of applications and enhances
the readability and portability of the source code.
•The determinism of programs using a cooperative
scheduler generally facilitates software debugging
and verification.
•State messages do not result in unrealistic intertask
communication requirements since the tasks are
normally loosely-coupled withminimal
communication between them.
•Cooperative scheduling does not prove to be a
problem in our applications. We are typically
concerned with well-defined systems in which the
tasks, CPU loads and message bandwidths are known
in advance. Such systems must generally be designed
for full-load conditions to meet stringent real-time
constraints.
•Access to the internal mechanisms of the system
executive allows us to customize and extend it to suit
real-time applications. This results in small and
efficient programs that may be targeted for embedded
systems.
The system executive has facilitated our research into
distributed real-time computing. The experience gained
in its development has been invaluable and has given us
tremendous insight and appreciation into larger
operating systems. To date, the system executive has also
been used to investigate and test the low-level and high-
level time primitives required to support real-time
intelligent systems. The system executive has enabled us
to construct specialized multi-level intertask
communication mechanisms to address the problem of
coordinating distributed autonomous intelligent agents.
Our neural network research also uses the system
executive for creating of multi-network systems.
Although the system executive was built to aid our
distributed real-time computing research, we believe it
can be used in many applications. Firstly, it is an ideal
vehicle to teach and study concurrent programming
concepts. Secondly, it is small enough to be used as an
embedded real-time executive in specialized hardware.
Thirdly, it could be the basis for a small system for local
monitoring and control. Lastly, it is an ideal tool to
create simulations of physical systems.
This paper has only described a basic real-time system
executive. It should be appreciated that the development
March 1991
of an operating system encompasses many diverese and
complex issues. No doubt the use of the system executive
will point to the need to add extensions and make
enhancements to the existing infrastructure which we
hope to report in due course Some immediate
considerations include the incorporation of event
messages, preemptive scheduling and support for task
priorities. While these capabilities are found in many
real-time system executives, we believe that they should
only be offered as options rather than as standard
features because they add to the complexity and non-
determinism of the application.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The suggestions and recommendations of J.E. Cohen on
various aspects of the system executive design are
appreciated. The insightful comments of the referees
which have helped to clarify many issues are gratefully
acknowledged. This work would not have been possible
without the support of the Foundation for Research
Development (FRD).
REFERENCES
[I]Holub, A. : C chest - a preemptive multitasking
kernel, Dr. Dobb's Journal, M&T Publishing Inc,
December 1987, pp. 126-142
[2] Holub, A. : C chest - a preemptive multitasking
kernel continued, Dr. Dobb's Journal, M&T
Publishing Inc, January 1988, pp. 72-84
[3] Krishnamoorthy, M.S. and Agnarsson, S. :
Concurrent programming in Turbo Pascal, Byte,
McGraw-Hill Inc., April 1987, pp. 127-133
[4] Foard, R.M. : Multitasking methods, PC Tech
Journal, March 1986, pp. 50-61.
[5] Heath, W.S. : A system executive for real-time
microcomputer programs, IEEE Micro, June 1984,
pp. 20-32.
[6] Ben-Ari, M. : Principles of Concurrent
Programming, Prentice-Hall International Inc.,
1982.
[7] Wilson, C.R. : Coprocessing in Modula-2, Byte,
McGraw-Hill Inc., April 1985, pp. 113-117.
[8] Brinch Hansen, P. : Distributed processes : a
concurrentprogrammingconcept,
Communications of the ACM, November 1978, vol.
21, no. 11, pp. 934-941.
[9] Barnes, J.G.P. : Programming in Ada, 2nd edition,
Addison-Wesley Publishers Limited, 1984.
[10] Peterson, J.L. and Silberschatz, A. : Operating
System Concepts, Addison-Wesley Publishing
Company, 1985.
[II]Parker, M.B. : First come, first served, Byte, McGraw-
Hill Inc., July 1988, pp. 259-270.
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 63

[12] Turbo C 2.0 - Reference Guide, Borland IANMacLEOD received his B.Sc (Eng) and Ph.D degrees
International, 1988. from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1973 and
[13] Turbo C 2.0 - User's Guide, Borland International, 1983 respectively. He is Fuchs Professor of Control
1988. Engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering
[14] Letwin, G. : Inside OS/2, Microsoft Press, 1988. and has teaching and research interests in the fields of
[15] Kopetz, H., Lohnert, F., Merker, W. and Pauthner, digital control, distributed computer control systems,
G. : A message based DCCS, IFAC Distributed real-time programming and engineering applications of
Computer Control Systems Workshop, Sabi-Sabi artificial intelligence.
South Africa, 1983, pp. 59-70.
[16] Mirecki, T. : Tech notebook, PC Tech Journal,
August 1988, pp. 137-138. AUTHORS

AUTHORS BIOGRAPHY V. Lun B.Sc (Eng), M.Sc (Eng),

Department of Electrical Engineering
VERNON LUN received his B.Sc (Eng) and M.Sc (Eng) University of the Witwatersrand
degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1983 P.O. Wits, Johannesburg
and 1986 respectively. He is presently a research officer South Africa, 2050
in the Department of Electrical Engineering. He is
conducting Ph.D research in distributed real-time I.M. MacLeod B.Sc (Eng), Ph.D,
intelligence and teaches a postgraduate course in expert Department of Electrical Engineering
systems. His current interests include distributed University of the Witwatersrand
computer control, expert systems, neural networks and P.O. Wits, Johannesburg
real-time programming. South Africa, 2050

APPENDIX A A SUMMARY OF THE MAJOR FUNCTIONS AND DATA STRUCTURES AVAILABLE IN X.LIB

This summary shows the main data structures and functions available to X.Lib user. The various options, constants,
defines etc. are found in the header files supplied with X.Lib. The puipose of this summary is to illustrate the typical data
structures and functions required to support a system executive. The #define directive in C has been liberally used to
increase the readability of the source code. This can be considered a form of syntactic sugar.

GENERAL PORTABLE TYPE DECLARATIONS

typedef char BYTE; /* signed, 8 bits 7
typedef unsigned char UBYTE; /* unsigned, 8 bits 7
typedef int WORD; /* signed, 16 bits 7
typedef unsigned int UWORD; /* unsigned, 16 bits 7
typedef long DWORD; /* signed, 32 bits 7
typedef unsigned long UDWORD; /* unsigned, 32 bits 7
typedef BYTE STRING[81]; /* general string 7
THE MENU DATA STRUCTURE
typedef struct X_MENU_STRUCT {
WORDrow; /"window limits*/
WORDcol; /"window limits*/
WORDheight; /•window limits*/
WORDwidth; /* window limits*/
WORDminimum_row; /* mininum starting row*/
WORDminimum_col; /* mininum starting row*/
BYTEborderattribute; /* border attribute*/
BYTEtextattribute; /* character attribute*/
WORD^buffer; /* buffer pointer*/
BYTEheader[81]; /* window header*/
BYTE""contents; /* pointer to menu string*/
WORDmenujtems; /* number of menu items*/
WORDindex; /* current selection*/
BYTEstatus; /* visible or not*/
64 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS March 1991

struct X_MENU_STRUCT "next; /* next window */

} X MENU, *X MENU_PTR;

THE WINDOW DATA STRUCTURE

typedef struct XWINDOWSTRUCT {
BYTE status; /?set if window req. 7
WORD start row; /? window limits 7
WORD start col; /* window limits 7
WORD height; /?window limits 7
WORD width; /?window limits 7
WORD cur row; /? current cursor 7
WORD cur col; /? current cursor 7
BYTE full screen; /? window is full screen 7
BYTE full width; /? window is full width 7
BYTE border attribute; /* border attribute 7
BYTE text attribute; /? character attribute 7
BYTE cursor on; /?cursor is visible 7
WORD page on; /? paging is required 7
WORD ?buffer; /* buffer pointer 7
BYTE header[81]; /?window header 7
X_MENU_PTR menu stack; /? top of menu stack 7
struct X WINDOW STRUCT *previous; /? previous window 7
struct X WINDOW STRUCT *next; /? next window 7
} XWINDOW, *X_WINDOW_PTR;

THE TASK CONTROL BLOCK (TCB) DATA STRUCTURE

typedef struct X TCB STRUCT {
BYTE description[17]; /* task description 7
void (*address)(); /? function address 7
BYTE ?stackmem; /? stack memory pointer 7
UWORD stacksize; /? size of stack 7
jmp but context; /* context of process 7
X WINDOW window; /? process window 7
UWORD error code; /? error code per task 7
void ??time frame ptr; /? list of time frames 7
UWORD max time frames; /* max. time frames allowed */
UWORD time frames used ; /? num. of time frames used ?/
BYTE ?command line; /?command line 7
struct X TCB STRUCT ?previous; /? previous tcb
struct X TCB STRUCT
7
?next; /* next tcb 7
struct X TCB STRUCT ?next table item; /? next item in tcb table 7
} X TCB, *X TCB PTR;

THE TIME FRAME STRUCTURE DATA STRUCTURE

typedef struct XTIMEFRAMEstruct {
BYTE ?system; /? physical system id*/
BYTE ?group; /? logical group id*/
BYTE ?owner; /? owner id*/
BYTE ?name; /? variable is?/
BYTE type[3]; /? data type?/
WORD size; /* data size in bytes*/
time_t start_validity; /?start data validity time*/
timet end_validity; /? end data validity time?/
UDWORD version; /? version number of frame?/
WORD links; /* num. of tasks linked to frame?/
UWORD hashjndex; /* hash index of time frame name?/
void ?data; /? points to contents of time frame?/
struct XJTMEFRAMEstruct ?previous_time_frame; /? previous time frame*/
struct X TIME FRAME struct ?next time frame; /? next time frame?/
} X_TIME_FRAME, *X_TIME_FRAME_PTR;

THE KEYSCAN DATA STRUCTURE

typedef union {
WORD c;
BYTE ch[2];
}XKEYSCAN;
March 1991THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS65

SYSTEM EXECUTIVE GLOBAL VARIABLES

extern UWORDX_TCB_MAX;/* maximum number of tasks*/
extern UWORDX_TIME_FRAME_MAX;/* maximum number of time frames*/
extern XTCBPTRX_CURRENT_TCB;/* pointer to current task*/
extern XWINDOWPTRX_CURRENT_WINDOW;/* pointer to current window*/
extern WORDX_GRAPHICS_WINDOW;/* active graphics window flag*/
extern WORDX_GRAPHICS_MAX_X;/* maximum graphics x axis*/
extern WORDX_GRAPHICS_MAX_Y;/* maximum graphics y axis*/
extern timetXCLOCK;/* global clock*/
extern BYTEXKEYBOARDENABLE;/* enable or disable keyboard input*/
extern clocktXCLOCKTICK;/* number of clock ticks per second*/

TASK FUNCTIONS
voidxjnitializesystem(void);
XTCBPTR x_thread(void (*^uncf/o/?)(void), BYTE *description, UWORD stacksize,
UWORD maxTimeFrame, BYTE *commandLine);
voidx_yield(void);
voidx_terminate(void);
voidx_create_window_name(BYTE *windowName, BYTE *prefix);
voidx_create_task_name(BYTE *uniqueName, BYTE *prefix);
voidx initialize user(void);

WINDOW FUNCTIONS (rows and columns start from 1)

voidx_attribute(WORD row, WORD col, WORD length, BYTE attribute);
WORDx_create_window(WORD row, WORD column, WORD height, WORD width,
BYTE borderAttribute, BYTE textAttribute,BYTE *header, BYTE visibleStatus);
voidx_clear_window(void);
voidx_page_on(void); /* pause for keypress when window is full */
voidxpageoff (void); /* do not pause for keypress when window is full */

MENU FUNCTIONS
WORDx_create_menu(WORD height, WORD width, BYTE borderAttribute, BYTE textAttribute,
BYTE*header, BYTE **stringArray, WORD numOfltems, X_MENU_PTR menuPointer);
voidx_remove_menu(void);
voidx_destroy_menu(X_MENU_PTR menuPointer);
WORDx_pulldown_menu(X_MENU_PTR menuPointer, WORD row, WORD column);
WORDx_popup_menu(X_MENU_PTR menuPointer, WORD row, WORD column);

INPUT/OUTPUT FUNCTIONS
voidx_clear_row(WORD row, WORD startColumn);
voidx_write(WORD row, WORD column , BYTE attribute, BYTE *sthng);
voidx_write_char(WORD row, WORD column, BYTE attribute, BYTE character);
voidx_writef(WORD row, WORD column, BYTE attribute, BYTE *formatString,...);
voidx_printf(BYTE *formatString,...);
voidx_write_vertical(WORD row, WORD column, BYTE attribute, BYTE *string);
voidx_read(BYTE *string);
voidx_read_noecho(BYTE *string);
BYTEx_read_char(void);
BYTEx_get_char_echo(void);
BYTExgetchar(void);
BYTEx_get_special_char(void);
WORDx_get_keyscan(void);
BYTEx_keypressed(void);
voidxwaitforkeypress(void);
WORDxgetkey^void);
WORDx_pushback_keyscan(X_KEYSCAN key);
voidx_row_column(WORD row, WORD column);
voidx_cursor_on(void);
voidxcursoroff(void);
66THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERSMarch 1991

TIME FRAME FUNCTIONS

X_TIME_FRAME_PTR x_subscribe_time_frame_name(BYTE 'frameName);
X_TIME_FRAME_PTR x_subscribe_time_frame_owner_name(BYTE 'owner, BYTE 'frameName);
X_TIME_FRAME_PTR x_blackboard(BYTE *systemld, BYTE *groupld, BYTE *ownerld, BYTE *nameld,
BYTE *type, WORD byteSize);
voidx_close_time_frame(X_TIME_FRAME_PTR framePointer);
BYTEx_load_time_frame(X_TIME_FRAME_PTR framePointer, void ^variable,
time_t startValidity, timej endValidity);
BYTEx_unload_time_frame(X_TIME_FRAME_PTRframePo/nfer, void 'variable);
time_tx_minimum(WORD numOfltems, timet firstltem, ...);
timetx_maximum (WORD numO^^tems, time_t f/rsf/fem, ...);
voidx_wait(time_t lengtOfTime);
BYTEx timerftime t 'timer, tirnet de/ay);

APPENDIX B EXAMPLES OF INTERTASK COMMUNICATION PRIMITIVES

DEFINITION STATEMENTS:
state_variable(variab/eType, variableName)

NAMING STATEMENTS:
set_path(sysfem/d, groupld, ownerld)
set_system (systemld)
set_grou p (groupld)
setowner (ownerld)

OUTPUT STATEMENTS:
with_validity_interval(sfartVa//y/<yr/me, endValidityTime)
output (variableName);
withvalidity^du/af/on)
output(var/ab/eName)

INPUT STATEMENTS:
input (variableName 1) and (variableNameZ) filter (logicalExpression)
perform
program statement block
or (variableNameS) and (variableName4) filter (logicalExpression)
perform
program statement block
on_timeout(f/mer, timeDelay)
perform
program statement block

GENERAL TIME STATEMENTS:

wait(f/meDe/ay)
after(f/mer, timeDelay)
perform
withj/alidityfdu/af/or))
output(variab/eA/ar77e)
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 67

APPENDIX C SOURCE LISTING OF THE BOX SORTING EXAMPLE

with_validity(1)
box.c output(boxsize); /* msg every 1 sec */

#include "x.h"
#include "xtime.h" input(stop_system) perform
xjerminate();
#define none x end
#define small
#define large
#define open X_TASK leverfvoid)
#deflne close {
state_variable(WORD, boxsize);
void main(void); statevariable (WORD, leverposition);
XTASK light_beam(void); state_variable(WORD, stop_system);
XTASK lever(void);
XTASK operator(void); initialize Jilackboard;
X_TASK display(void); initializejime;

void main (void) { set_path(system_1, group 1, lightbeam);

xjnitializesystem (); timeframe(box_size, d);

setpath (system 1, group 1, lever);

void x_initialize_user(void timejrame(lever_position, d);
{
x_thread(light_beam, "LIGHT BEAM", 4096, 10, set_path(system_1, group 1, operator);
x thread (lever, "LEVER", 4096, 10,""); timeframe(stop_system, d);
xthread(display, "DISPLAY", 4096, 10,"");
xjhread (operator, "OPERATOR", 4096, 10,""); while(1)
xbegin
input(box_size) filter (box_size = = small)
XTASK light_beam(void) perform {
{ leverposition = close;
time t timeri;
state_variable(WORD, box_size); with_validity(1)
state_variable(WORD, interruptbeam); output(leverposition);
state_variable(WORD, stopsystem); }
or (box_size) filter (boxsize = = large)
initialize_blackboard; perform {
initializejime; lever j^osition = open;
with_validity(1)
setpath (system 1, group 1, lightbeam); output(leverposition);
time frame(box_size, d);

setpath (system 1, group 1, operator); input(stopsystem) perform

time framefinterruptbeam, d); xjerminatef);
time frame(stop_system, d); xend

reset Jimer(timer1);
X_TASK display(void)
while (1) {
xbegin timej timerJ;
input(interrupt_beam) perform { timet timer_2;
box_size = small; /* default is small */ timet timer_3;
wait (2); timet timer_4;
WORD count = 0;
input(interrupt_beam) perform state j/ariable (WORD, boxsize);
box_size = large; state_variable(WORD, lever_position);
with_validity(5) state_variable(WORD, stopsystem);
output (box_size); state_variable(WORD, interruptbeam);

wait (5); initialize_blackboard;

} initializejime;
onjimeout(timer1, 1) perform {
box size = none; reset timer(timer 1);
68 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS March 1991

reset_timer(timer_2);
reset_ti mer (ti mer_3); x end
reset_timer(timer_4);

x_create_window(2, 1, 10, 80, 0, 0, "DISPLAY", XVISIBLE); X_TASK operator(void)

{
set_path(system_1, group_1, light_beam); X_MENU menui;
time_frame(box_size, d); time_t timer_1;
WORD select;
set_path(system_1, group_1, operator); state_variable(WORD, box_size);
time_frame(interrupt_beam, d); state_variable(WORD, stop_system);
time_frame(stop_system, d); state_variable(WORD, interrupt_beam);
char *menu_1[]= {"SMALL", "LARGE", "STOP SYSTEM"};
set_path(system_1, group_1, lever);
time_frame(lever_position, d); initialize_blackboard;
initializetime;
xwrite (2, 2, X_DEFAULT, "INTERRUPT BEAM : ");
xwrite (4, 2, X_DEFAULT, "BOX SIZE : "); set_path(system_1, group_1, operator);
xwrite (6, 2, XDEFAULT, "LEVER POSITION :"); time_frame(interrupt_beam, d);
xwrite (8, 2, X_DEFAULT, "STOP SYSTEM :"); time_frame(stop_system, d);

while(1) set_path(system_1, group_1, light_beam);

x_begin timeframefboxsize, d);
input (interrupt_beam) perform
x_write (2, 19, X_DEFAULT, "INTERRUPT"); x_create_window(13, 1, 10, 80, 0, 0, "OPERATOR",
on_timeout(timeM, 1) perform XVISIBLE);
x_write (2, 19, X_DEFAULT," ");
x_create_menu(5, 15, XNORMAL, XNORMAL,
input (box_size) perform { "CHOOSE OPTION", menu_1, 3, &menu 1);
switch (box_size) {
case none : reset_timer(timer_1);
x_write (4, 19, X_DEFAULT," ");
break; while(1)
case small : x_begin
xwrite (4, 19, X_DEFAULT, "SMALL"); input (box_size) filter (box_size ! = none) perform {
break; x_print (">");
case large : wait(1);
x_write (4, 19, X_DEFAULT, "LARGE");
}
break; or (interruptbeam) perform {
x_print ("-");
wait(1);
on_timeout(timer_2, 1) perform
}
x_write(4, 19, XDEFAULT," "); on_timeout(timer_1,1) perform {
x_clear_window ();
input (lever_position) perform { select = x_pulldown_menu(&menu1, 5, 5);
switch (lever_position) {
case close : /* note : sending a 1 second msg three times is the same as
x_write (6, 19, X_DEFAULT, "CLOSE "); sending a 3 second msg once */
break; switch (select) {
case open : case 1: withvalidity(i)
xwrite (6, 19, X_DEFAULT, "OPEN "); output(interrupt_beam);
break; break;
case 2: with_validity(3)
output(interrupt_beam);
on_timeout(timer_3, 1) perform break;
x_write(6, 19, X_DEFAULT," "); case 3: with_validity(10)
output(stop_system);
input(stopsystem) perform {
x_destroy_menu (&menu 1);
xwrite (8, 19, XDEFAULT, "SYSTEM STOPPED"); x_get_char();
wait(1);
x_terminate();
count+ +; break;
if (count > 5) /* wait 5 sec then terminate */
x_terminate(); x_remove_menu();
}
on_timeout(timer_4, 1) perform xend
x_write(8, 19, X_DEFAULT, "");
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 69

The Back Propagation Algorithm for Information

Transformation and Pattern Sequencing

V. Lun I.M. MacLeod

ABSTRACT THE BACK PROPAGATION ALGORITHM

Initial investigation into the application of neural
networks in engineering reveals that the back
propagation algorithm can be used for symbolic-numeric
mapping and for pattern sequencing. We describe the
implementation of the algorithm in a distributed real
time test-bed called ADROIT. Some major features of the
system include the ability to accommodate several neural
networks executing concurrently, the flexible
interconnection of neural inputs and outputs and the
imposition of temporal constraints through validity
times.
A full mathematical derivation of the back propagation
(BP) algorithm can be found in [2,3]. We proceed to
outline the basic algorithm below. The BP algorithm is
essentially one of error minimization through gradient
descent. Given a set of input patterns, the errors between
each pair of desired and actual output patterns can be
computed. The weights connecting the layers in the
neural network are adjusted to minimize the sum of the
squares of these errors. The weights are altered
iteratively until the network converges to a predefined
minimum error.

The training procedure, as shown in figure 1, can be

KEYWORDS
Neural networks, information transformation, pattern
recognition, distributed systems, real-time.
INTRODUCTION
Our research into distributed real-time intelligence [1]
leads us to examine the applicability of neural networks
as a suitable knowledge paradigm for automation
systems. This paper reports on some of our initial
investigative efforts in this regard. Firstly, we describe the
back propagation (BP) algorithm and explain why it was
chosen. Secondly, we discuss briefly, the implementation
of the algorithm in our testbed called ADROIT. Finally,
we describe several experiments in information
divided into two stages. Firstly, the input pattern is
presented to the network. The activations of the neural
units are propagated forward through the layers to
obtain the output pattern. Secondly, the desired output
pattern is compared to the actual output pattern to
determine the error in each unit in the output layer.
Starting with the output layer, these errors are
propagated backwards until all the weights have been
adjusted. The weight changes can be made on a pattern
by pattern basis or can be accumulated and applied only
when all the input patterns have been presented.
/- ^ y~ "^
. X1 ^
^n X / ,X—^ YV X—x ky
_xX 1 0

u
A y \ T
P y f-1
transformation and pattern sequencing using multiple
u 2 V7v AAA y " \ r Y2 p
interconnected neural networks. It is important to note t ^\ AAA ^ : U
that we are not prescribing neural networks as the only y T
or even the best means for such activities. However, we
believe the experiments show that neural networks may
be instrumental in coupling symbolic and numerical
s l_

^_y
Layer 1
v_^
Layer 2
K
\
^
Layer p
J n

computing. They have also served to provide valuable

TRAINING
insight into the capabilities and limitations of neural
PRESENT INPUT - PROPAGATE THE NEURAL COMPARE OUTPUT
networks in general. PATTERN TO DESIRED INPUT
ACTNATIONS THROUGH
THE NETWORK

PROPAGATE ERROR BACKWARD

Submitted BY MAKING THE APPROPRIATE
November 1990 ADJUSTMENTS TO THE WEIGHTS
Accepted March 1991
Figure 1 A typical multi-layer neural network.
70 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
One of the attractive features of the back propagation
algorithm is its ability to train multi-layer networks.
Lippman [4] shows that by increasing the number of
layers in a network, more complex decision regions can
be learnt. For example, the exclusive-or truth table
cannot be represented by a single layer network [5].
However, a two layer network overcomes this problem
easily. It can be shown that the algorithm also solves the
problems of orthogonality and linear independence that
besets many of the simpler neural network models [3]
Several limitations regarding the back propagation
algorithm should be noted. Firstly, the training times do
not scale linearly [6], Secondly, introducing a new set of
patterns can disrupt existing learnt patterns. Thirdly,
since the algorithm is one of gradient descent and error
minimization, the possibility exists that the network can
become trapped in local minima and cannot escape to
the global minimum.
Our experience has shown that these limitations are less
relevant provided we follow several maxims. The number
of input and output units should be kept in the order of
10s rather than 100s or 1000s. For large systems, network
partitioning is useful for keeping the individual networks
computationally manageable. Continuous pattern
adaptation can often be avoided by ensuring that a full
set of training patterns exists at the time of training. By
careful selection of initial ranges of random weights and
the use of a momentum term as suggested by McClelland
and Ruinelhart [3], local minima do not present serious
problems.
Note that the scaling problem associated with the BP
algorithm applies only to the training phase. When an
input pattern is presented to a trained network, an
output pattern is generated by propagating the
activations of the layers starting from the input layer.
There is no iteration or convergence involved.
Many neural networks, such as those based on the BP
algorithm, have an important property that makes them
highly suited to real-time applications. Since patterns are
evoked and not searched, as is often the case in most
artificial intelligence paradigms, the time required to
recognize and match an input pattern to an output
pattern is independent of number of patterns stored.
This, in turn, implies that the response of a trained
neural network is predictable and deterministic.
IMPLEMENTATION
The back propagation algorithm is incorporated as pan
of ADROIT, a distributed real-time object-oriented
intelligent test-bed [7,8]. Consequently, it inherits many
of the features of the test-bed which we enumerate
below. Currently, ADROIT has been implemented under
the PC-DOS and OS/2 operating systems. Figure 2 shows
March 1991
PC-DOS AND OS/2 OPERATING SYSTEM PLATFORMS
I t I t I t i t 1 t i t
GLOBAL SHARED NAME-SPACE FOR
DYNAMIC INTER-PROCESS COUPLING
il It il It il It
NEURAL GENERIC
SIMULATORS
NETWORKS APPLICATIONS
ADROIT INFRASTRUCTURE
Figure 2 The ADROIT architecture.
the basic architecture of neural networks operating
under ADROIT.
•Several neural networks can run concurrently.
•Once a neural network has been taught, ADROIT
can create multiple instances of the network
dynamically.
•Neural outputs of each network can be mapped
dynamically to the neural inputs of other networks
or to the inputs of the same network.
•The signals for neural input can be generated
continuously by simulators or other applications
that run concurrently with the neural networks.
•The inputs and outputs of all the neural networks
are subject to real-time constraints as well as start
and end validity times. For example, a pattern
sequencer can be constrained to change its output
patterns once per second.
A NUMERIC-SYMBOLIC CONVERTER
One of the most important tasks in sensor interpretation
is the qualitative mapping of numeric values into
symbolic ones. For example, the level of a tank can be
interpreted in terms of qualitative values such as low,
normal and high. A neural network can be taught to
map specific numerical values into separate symbolic
states. Thus a set of values for a single input can be
mapped into a set of discrete states as shown in figure 3.
For example, the set {0.2, 0.5, 0.8} can be mapped into
the set of output states {Si, S2, S3} which corresponds to
low (L), normal (N) and high (H). An interesting
outcome of this learning procedure is the ability of the
neural network to extrapolate values that have not been
learnt. As the input moves away from 0.2, the output
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 71

incorrect default value based on states that may not be

EXAMPLE
allowed to coexist. In the example in figure 4, the input
STATE 1 Input Output
states correspond to temperature settings of low (L),
STATE 2 RV S1 S2 S3 medium (M) or high (H). Since the settings are mutually
REAL Numeric-Symbolic STATE 3 L N H exclusive, the neural network is trained to respond with
VALUE Converter 0.2 1 0 0 an error signal when more than one state is active at a
STATE N 0.5 0 1 0 time or when no states are active. The neural network
0.8 0 0 1 could be one of many interface modules that transform
symbolic data to numeric values for input into control
TRAINING PATTERNS
instrumentation.
Figure 3 Numeric value to symbol mapping

level of 57 decreases from 1 to 0. At the same time the
output level for S2 increases from 0 to 1. An input of 0.3
results in a partial activation of both SI (0.5) and S2 (0.6)
indicating a partial membership to both the low and
normal states. This is analogous to the notion of
membership in fuzzy logic. While the states themselves
are discrete, the transition is essentially continuous due
to the partial membership. Under ADROIT, it is possible
to train an arbitrary number of neural networks to
perform numeric-symbolic conversion for several real-
valued (analogue) inputs. The outputs of the converters
can be used as inputs to higher level networks or
intelligent symbolic manipulators such as expert systems.
A SYMBOLIC-NUMERIC CONVERTER
When controlling any automation system, such as a
process control plant, it is invariably necessary to set
parameters and variables to desired setpoints based on
some decision-making process. This can be viewed as a
conversion of symbolic results to numeric values. Figure
4 shows the neural network to achieve this. Based on the
input states, a real-valued output can be produced. The
error output signal is used to teach the system which
combinations of input states are inadmissible. This
prevents the neural network from generating an
EXAMPLE
Input Output
sss RV
123
LMH
1 00 0.1
REAL 0 1 0 0.6
Symbolic-Numeric VALUE 001 0.8
Converter ERROR 000 0.0
A MULTI-BIT ADDER
A neural network was trained as a full binary adder. The
input bits consisted of two input data bits and a carry-in
bit. The output bits consisted of one data output bit and
a carry-out bit. After training, a multi-bit adder could be
configured in ADROIT by creating multiple instances of
the neural network. The carry-out bit of each adder
serves as the carry-in bit of the next adder and so on.
Figure 5 shows the organization of the multi-bit adder.
By instantiating the network 16 times, a 16-bit adder can
be created, namely, it allows two numbers, each with a
word length of 16 bits to be added together to give a 16-
bit result with an additional carry flag. While such a
system is of limited practical value since hardware bit
adders are commercially available, it does illustrate two
of ADROIT's capabilities, namely, multiple instantiation
of neural networks and the dynamic mapping of I/O
through the global shared name-space. Teaching a
neural network in this exercise is analogous to
programming a programmable logic array, except that
the neural network can be reprogrammed for different
mappings.
A PATTERN SEQUENCER
By mapping the outputs of a neural network to the
inputs dynamically, a pattern sequencer can be created
(refer to figure 6). During learning, the set of training
data is constructed so that every output pattern of a
particular training pair is also the input pattern of
ERROR another training pair. When the neural network is run,
0
0 0 Cn-1 carry bit C1 ^arry bit CO
0 t *l If t I f t
1 Neural Neural Neural

STATE N 1 1 0 0.0 1
Network I| Network 1 Network

011 0.0 1 BITn-1 BIT1 BITO

101 0.0 1
t ? Lud t t
|An-1
111 0.0 1 Bn-1 carry bit A1 B1 carry bit AO BO 0

TRAINING PATTERNS
A + B = C WORD LENGTH OF n BITS

Figure 4 Symbol to numeric value mapping

Figure 5 Multi-bit adder
72 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
INPUTS OUTPUTS
—
Pattern - PATTERN 0 - PATTERN 1
h
Sequencer
f- PATTERN 1 - PATTERN 2
PATTERN 2 - PATTERN 3
1 1990, pp. 7-12.
- PATTERN n -* PATTERN 0
- Microstructure of Cognition, vol. 1 and 2, A
Figure 6 Pattern sequencer
the outputs are fed back to the inputs. A cyclic sequence
of patterns can be observed. Since all neural inputs and
outputs have validity times assigned to them, the timing
of the pattern sequence can be controlled. For example,
pattern changes can be made to occur once a second or
some patterns may be valid for longer periods than
others. This leads to the possibility of sequencing a series
of time-based actions such as processing recipes or
batches in a process control plant.
CONCLUSION
Our current view of neural networks is that they are
knowledge paradigms that complement other artificial
intelligence techniques such as expert systems. Neural
networks are useful in situations where flexible input to
output mapping is required. They are especially
applicable when the input patterns are susceptible to
noisy conditions. Their learning capabilities are
important when no formal logic model can be
constructed to map input patterns to output patterns.
Since no searching is involved, the efficiency and
predictability of neural networks is significant, especially
if they are to be used in real-time applications.
We have found the back propagation algorithm to be a
good neural network model with a sound mathematical
basis. Its ability to train multi-layer networks allows it to
accommodate decision regions that are much more
complex than those discussed in this paper. ADROIT has
shown to be an ideal platform for supporting multiple
neural networks. Our experiments thus far indicate that
neural networks are useful for coupling symbolic and
numerical computing and for pattern sequencing. We
believe that they are highly relevant in many engineering
applications where different levels of information
abstraction often exist. Further investigation will yield
many other interesting application areas. We intend to
report on future developments in due course.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work would not have been possible without the support of
the Foundation for Research Development (FRD).
March 1991
REFERENCES
[1] Lun, V. and MacLeod, I.M. : The challenge of
intelligent computing, Trans, of the South African
Institute of Electrical Engineers, vol. 81, no. 2, June
[2] Rumelhart, D.E. and McClelland, J.L. : Parallel
Distributed Processing: Explorations in the
Bradford Book, The MIT Press, 1986.
[3] McClelland, J.L. and Rumelhart, D.E. : Explorations
in Parallel Distributed Processing: A Handbook of
Models, Programs atid Exercises, A Bradford Book,
The MIT Press, 1988.
[4] Lippmann, R.P. : An introduction to computing
with neural nets, IEEE ASSP magazine, April 1987,
pp. 4-22.
[5] Minsky, M. and Papert, S. : Perceptrons: An
Introduction to Computational Geometry,
Cambridge, MIT Press, 1969.
[6] Hinton, G.E. .• Connectionist learning procedures,
Artificial Intelligence, 40, Elsevier Science
Publishers B.V. (North Holland), 1989, pp. 185-234.
[7] Lun, V. and MacLeod, I.M. : Distributed intelligent
objects in an architecture for real-time monitoring
and control, 2nd IEAC Workshop on Artificial
Intelligence in Real-Time Control, People's
Republic of China, Sept. 1989, pp. 54-59.
[8] Lun, V. and MacLeod, I.M. : A testbed for distributed
real-time intelligent computing, South African
Journal of Science, in press, 1991.
AUTHORS
V. LunI.M. MacLeod
Dept. of Electrical Engineering Dept. of Electrical Engineering
University of the Witwatersrand University of the Witwatersrand
P.O. WITS, JohannesburgP.O. WITS, Johannesburg
South Africa, 2050South Africa, 2050
AUTHORS BIOGRAPHY
VERNON LUN received his B.Sc (Eng) and M.Sc (Eng) degrees
from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1983 and 1986
respectively. He is presently a research officer in the
Department of Electrical Engineering. He is conducting Ph.D
research in distributed real-time intelligence and teaches a
postgraduate course in expert systems. His current interests
include distributed computer control, expert systems, neural
networks and real-time programming.
IAN MacLEOD received his B.Sc (Eng) and Ph.D degrees from
the University of the Witwatersrand in 1973 and 1983
respectively. He is Fuchs Professor of Control Engineering in
the Department of Electrical Engineering and has teaching and
research interests in the fields of digital control, distributed
computer control systems, real-time programming and
engineering applications of artificial intelligence.
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 73

EXPERIMENTAL AND SIMULATION FACILITY OF A WIND POWER

CONVERTER, UTILISING AN OVER-SYNCHRONOUS ELECTRONIC
SCHERBIUS CASCADE

JHR Enslin JD van Wyk

Dept of Electrical Engineering Energy Laboratory
University of Pretoria Rand Afrikaans University
PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

ABSTRACT this variable speed region is made large enough, the

possibility arises to operate a fixed pitch wind turbine and
refer the entire power control function to the electrical
An experimental and simulation facility for the conver
side [15]. However, as only limited variable speed opera
sion of wind energy into electrical energy for feeding into
tion is possible with a conventional induction generator,
the supply grid is studied, by using an induction generator
since the efficiency becomes proportional to the speed,
with wound rotor and electronic rotor cascade with sup
it has led to the investigation of the oversynchronous
ply commutated inverter. An experimental setup, includ
operation of a slip ring induction generator with rotor
ing a laboratory system with extensive converter
power fed back to the supply [2,3,4,16,17] (electronic
controlled dc machine as simulated wind turbine, a prac
Scherbius cascade) for wind power conversion [6,15,18].
tical wind tower system with data capture facilities and a
In this case the variable speed is possible, with control on
maximal, self-adaptive power controller, is discussed.
the electrical side only. The system is suited for applica
Some results on all the systems are presented, the
tion to conventional horizontal-axis wind turbines, as well
feasibility of the system is established experimentally and as to vertical axis machines, such as Savonius or Darrieus
problem areas are pointed out.
types. For vertical axis machines that are not self-
starters, the system has the additional attraction that it
can be used to start the turbine in its motoring region
without any additional components.
WIND ENERGY CONVERSION

POWE
The conversion of wind energy into electricity on a large
MAX
scale raises the problem of energy storage. Although POWER
work is in progress on various other storage systems [19],
the electrical supply grid is a convenient absorber of
electricity generated from wind on a large scale, provided
the capacity of the wind generation equipment is still
small in relation to the total generating capacity coupled
to the supply grid. Coupling the wind generating equip
ment to the supply grid at constant frequency, immedi
ately raises the problem of converting the power at
variable wind speeds found in practice. It has been shown
by investigations in the past that for constant speed con
stant frequency systems (CSCF-systems) the energy cap Fig 1-.Power available from wind with VSCF/CSCF
ture capability per year is smaller than for variable speed
systems
constant frequency systems (VSCF-systems), see Fig 1.
In CSCF-systems the electromechanical energy conver In this paper this system is compared to other pos
sion is done by means of some type of synchronous sibilities, and then the investigations, conducted both in
generator, so that variation in wind speed conditions has the laboratory and on a practical wind tower system are
to be accommodated by pitch control of the wind turbine described. The experimental results of these investiga
itself, referring the primary power flow control function tions are evaluated and discussed.
to the mechanical side of the system. In VSCF-systems
the wind turbine operates at variable speed, and when
 74 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS March 1991

CONVERTER SYSTEMS FOR VARIABLE
SPEED CONSTANT FREQUENCY
OPERATION
As indicated in Fig 2, four possibilities maybe considered
to operate over a wide speed range for conversion of wind
energy and supply to the power grid. In all systems the
selection criteria to be applied should be:
(i) Reliability and maintenance
(ii) Minimum number of components and cost
teristics have been discussed in detail previously [6] and
it has been pointed out that when the system is rated in
such a way that maximum power operation (Fig 1) cor
responds to rated torque at twice synchronous speed, the
power electronic sub-system will be rated at 50% of that
necessary for the synchronous generator system in the
same application [6,14,15]. This would then indicate that
the electronic Scherbius system can be installed at an
appreciable saving in capital investment. The subsequent
work described has been directed at a scale model
evaluation of this system concept in order to appreciate
the advantages and difficulties the application of this
system might involve.

(iii) Efficiency and applicability over power range

(iv) Supply interaction and contamination

The systems suggested in Fig 2 will all have approximately

the same supply interaction, as they use a supply com-
mutated converter as inverter to the supply system. Al
though the power factor for this type of converter as seen
Ir
by the supply system will be very low for low dc input
voltages to the inverter, these voltages will occur at low 1 -rt-
L't (b)
powers on all three systems, so that the power factor will
increase with increasing generator speed and power.
Ml' M2'
Forced commutated converters at higher switching fre
quencies are not discussed here, due to higher costs,
higher complexity and higher losses at larger power
ratings, compared to supply commutated converters.

The most important difference between the systems lies

in the considerations under (i) and (iii). Maintenance
and reliability, especially for equipment that should be
capable of working unattended for extended periods,
requires that mechanical commutators should be
avoided. However, the main limitation of the system
using a dc generator probably lies in the limitation on
building these machines for higher voltages, and this
would limit the power level of the system to some 500 kW
or below, due to the sharply increasing cost of building
inverters for very high currents, as well as the added cost
of additional transformers on the supply side to adapt the
system to the grid voltages at higher power levels. The
Fig 2: System configurations for VSCF wind energy
supply interaction of all these systems is nearly equivalent systems
and forced commutated converters which result in less
The generator system shown in Fig 2(d), uses a standard
supply contamination are currently not cost effective in
squirrel cage induction machine (SCM) of lower cost,
larger power ratings for these applications.
than the Scherbius cascade of Fig 2(c). Furthermore the
speed range is not limited to oversynchronous operation
With reference to Fig 2(b) and (c), it is known that but is limited by the capacitor bank for wide speed range
slip-ring induction machines and synchronous machines applications. The converters Ml'" and M2'" have to be
are built up to the highest powers [17], so that this should rated for the total power flow, similar to 2(b).
not impose any limitations on the system. Regarding
requirement (ii) stated above, there is an important fun
damental difference between these last two systems. The EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE
rectifier Ml", dc link inductor Lx" and inverter M2" do ELECTRONIC SCHERBIUS CASCADE
not handle all the system power, but only that part that
does not pass through the stator of the induction gene FOR WIND ENERGY CONVERSION
rator to the supply.
In order to evaluate the electronic Scherbius cascade as
a generator for wind energy conversion under both
The rectifier Ml', inductor Lt' and inverter M2' always
laboratory and actual wind conversion conditions, a
handle the full system power. These power flow charac
simulated turbine driven system was set up in the
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 75

laboratory, and a similar generator installed on a practi
cal wind tower. The wind turbine simulator would enable
the laboratory system to be operated under conditions
that duplicate reliably the practical operation, as the wind
tower experiment is instrumented in such a way that these
conditions would be known.
Laboratory Wind Converter System
In view of the rather stringent assumptions, this propor
tionality was carefully checked for the present system,
and found to hold accurately between 1600 r/m and 3000
r/m, twice the 50 Hz synchronous speed [6,8,15]. As will
be discussed subsequently, this enables simplification in
the maximum power controller to be obtained, since the
dc link current have to be measured in any case as input
to the current-loop of the supply commutated inverter
[16,18].

In the laboratory system a 5 kW, 220 V dc machine DCM,

is coupled to a 5 kW, 4 pole slip-ring induction machine
Turbine Simulating Facility
IM. This machine is mechanically strengthened to
operate up to double synchronous speed. The operation
and characteristics of oversynchronous electronic cas
cade systems are well known [2,3,4,16,18]. It should be
noted that two non-ideal characteristics affect the opera
nt A/D
tion of this system in an important way. Due to the "v. CONV
presence of the rotor rectifier Ml, characteristic har
monics at the rotor frequency occur, which are reflected vw
into the stator at variable frequency, dependent upon the
slip. Furthermore, due to the finite value of the inductor
Lt, supply frequency ripple is also introduced into the A/D (n)
v.
WSG
rotor currents. This limited size of the link inductor also CONV
introduces variable frequency ripple of the rotor currents
into the supply via the inverter M2, so that both the stator
current and the rotor inverter current will contain non- (a)
characteristic harmonics of line frequency and har
monics at totally unrelated frequencies [13].
RST

Fig 3: Wind converter system in the laboratory

Analysis of induction machines with rotor converters has
established theoretically and experimentally [5] that the
relationship between the electromagnetic torque and the
mean dc link current may be written as:
Te = Kt.It(1)

under the assumption that the dc link current has

negligible ripple and the influence of the rotor im
pedance on the rotor rectifier may be neglected. Under
these circumstances the constant is given by:

KT = — sin(7r/mb) (2)
ws
and is independent of the operating conditions of the (b)
generator or it's circuit parameters. Fig 4: The turbine simulator
 76 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS March 1991

Figure 4(a) shows a schematic diagram of the simulating total eight data channels from the wind tower facility are
facility, while Fig 4(b) shows a photograph of the facility captured and sequentially sampled at a rate of 8,8 kHz,
in the laboratory. A schematic arrangement of the tur in the multiplex unit. It is transmitted over a few hundred
bine simulating facility may also be seen in the left-hand meters to the laboratory, processed and stored, with hard
part of Fig 3. The field of the DC machine is controlled copy facilities available if needed. The system stores
via a half-controlled thyristor bridge while the armature some 10 hours of preprocessed data of the tower per
of the dc machine is controlled via a fully-controlled magnetic cassette.
thyristor bridge. These control functions are done in
such a way that wind speed variations are modelled by
armature current (due to the smaller time constant of the
armature circuit for fast wind speed variations) and the
field current is controlled to obey the same functions of
speed as the wind turbine that is being modelled. As the
mechanical inertia of the wind turbine system comes into
play when the system changes its operating point along
the torque-speed curve, the long field time constant does
not present a difficulty. To obtain the correct program
mable characteristics, two function generators control
the dc machine in such a way that the simulated wind
turbine torque is given by:
Tt = Km.T(Qt,
(3)
The input function to the field current controller, is given
as the tip-speed-ratio Ap, (Ap = Qt/Vw), following the
power coefficient Cp curve of the chosen wind turbine.
As shown in Fig 4, the function generators are
preprogrammed, so that the necessary characteristics for
every wind turbine to be simulated, correspond to that
which is to be tested on the wind tower facility. The
function generator for the torque-speed relationship via
the field current of the dc machine also takes the wind
speed control for the armature into account, in order to
produce the correct relationship as shown in Fig 4. The
wind speed generation WSG may be derived from any (a)
type of signal generator

Practical Wind Tower Facility

A wound rotor induction generator with electronic

Scherbius cascade, identical to the unit described in the
previous paragraph, has been installed on a wind tower
with a horizontal axis wind turbine as shown in Fig 5(a).
The unit uses a 1:10 gearbox to change speed from the
specified range for the wind turbine (150 r/m to 300 r/m)
and has been operated with the 3 kW, three bladed unit
shown, as well as with other turbines. Turbine pitch is
fixed during conversion, and all control is done electri MULTIPLEX UNIT
cally. The wind tower is installed on a base six stories
above ground level on top of the laboratory building in a
free air zone. Unfortunately the adjacent structures,
although lower, still impart some turbulence to the air
flow.

As may also be seen from the Fig 5(a), the wind turbine
is passively direction controlled, while the wind vane
shown, brings in a hydraulically operated disc brake at (b) MASS MEMORY
excessive wind speeds to protect the system. Fig 5(b) AND HARD COPY
indicates the instrumentation and data capture as Fig5: (a) Wind tower (b) Instrumentation on wind
sociated with the tower facility. Wind speed and wind
tower
direction are measured on two sides of the tower, and
generator speed and direction are also monitored. In
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 77

MAXIMAL POWER CONTROL MPPT Controller

Maximisation of the power extracted from the wind im

The implementation of maximal power control in solar
and wind energy systems is a fundamental requirement
[9,10,11] to reduce the cost of electricity generated by
these systems. Due to the stochastic variation in energy
flux from these sources, the controller should be self-
adaptive to follow the system operating conditions [9,18].
There are several possibilities to structure this controller
[6,11], but for the present system it has been decided to
use microprocessor technology, since data processing
capability is needed to handle higher level control func
tions. For control of solar power converters with tracking
of the sun and high level concentration it has already been
shown [10,11] that the self-adaptive power controller
should be part of a self-structuring, multi-level system in
order to decide the mode of operation. As a wind energy
system shows similar characteristics, it is expected that
this would also prove true in the case of the present
system studied, therefore necessitating the use of a
microprocessor in any case.
RST
plies that the product of force and speed on each element
of the wind turbine blades should be maximised. As this
is impractical, a next approximation would be to maxi
mise the product of torque and speed on the wind turbine
shaft. As this would imply installation of additional
torque and speed sensors at this point, resistant to the
severe ambient conditions the turbine is subjected to, it
is also considered impractical. From another point of
view it could be attempted to maximise the power sup
plied to the electric power system, necessitating accurate
real time power measurement. With a view to the
proportionality between generator torque and dc link
current, as indicated in eq 1, the maximal power control
ler maximises the product of this dc link current and the
generator speed. The dc link current and generator
speed have to be measured for protection purposes, and
therefore the power controller does not introduce any
additional complications in this regard.
As shown in Fig 6(a), the signals proportional to Pm is
merely computed and compared to the previous value.
When the result is positive, the process is repeated for a
lower speed. The outcome of this next calculation then
decides whether the generator speed is again to be in
creased or decreased by decrease or increase of the dc
link current through setting the reference value of the
current loop CL of the inverter M2. Once started, the
controller continues to perturb itself by running through
the loop, tracking to a new maximum once the operating
point changes slightly. Figure 7 shows the operation of
the controller. The output power increases until a maxi
mum value is experienced. The controller then pertur-
bates on the maximum power level.

/READ
/FROM Tml nm GRAPH OF TORQUE AND POWER V/S
/AD1.AD2 GENERATOR SPEED

CALCULATE
Pml=Tml-fim, 2 gf

INCREASE nml
BY AC j

READ

P— P
ml ~ rm!
CALCULATE

COMPARE
Pml AND Pm2 17 IS 19 29 21 22 23 24 26 27 29
SPEED * 100 r/ir.)

INCREMENT
(1 WITH A0 Fig 7: Operation of the MPPT controller
(b)
Fig 6:(a) MPPT power controller (b) MPPT algorithm
 78 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS March 1991

SELECTED EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS speed and torque as stored in EPROM, shown in Fig
8(b), can also be seen in the actual turbine simulator
armature current (proportional to torque at constant
field current) in response to linearly increasing wind
speed. The simulation of the wind turbine characteristics
Vn: 100 V/div are shown in Fig 8(c) with a linear variation of generator
speed at a constant wind speed.
In: 5A/div
The data from the experimental tower in Fig9(a), (b), (c)
t: 5 ms/div indicate that the passive direction control is only partly
successful. Although it will not be analyzed further here,
other results in the same series have shown that this is a
Qm: 1900 r/m
definite problem area for further investigation. Although
the generator speed also appears to follow the wind
speed relatively well in Fig 9(d), (e) and (f), the captured
data has again illustrated that the interaction between
(a) directional control and maximal power control is too
complicated to be handled by a single adaptive maximal
power controller, and multi-level control should be im
plemented.

50
N -

| 30 W
'-5 S
g
i ' E
0
50
el
(b) N
1 30
U-I ^5
a.
Iv: 0,2 A/div I
"i
* E
0 1 1 1 1 !
Ev: 2 V/div N II
I 30
CD W
t: 0,5s/div CD
5
Qt: 1600-3100 I' 01 E
r/m 0 i i i i i
0 5 2 3
time (mini
vw: Constant

Fig 9: Data captured on wind tower facility

(c)
Fig 8: Oscillograms of system behaviour
Some selected results are shown in Fig 8, 9 and 10. The
total system supply current of Fig 8(a) in relation to the
system voltage indicates clearly the deterioration and
system power factor due to the reactive power [13,14] and
the associated harmonic distortion [13,14] at the speed of
1900 r/m. From Fig 8(a) the distortion is chiefly generated
by the inverter, while the effect of the finite value of the
dc inductor is also in evidence as has been pointed out in
previous paragraphs. The relationship between wind
The power flow through the generation system was
measured and plotted in Fig 10. The input power Pdc, to
the dc-machine DCM, as shown in Fig 3, is plotted with
a peak at 3000 rpm of around 4 kW. The output from the
stator of the induction machine Ps is around a relative
constant, as a function of speed, while efficiencies of the
inverter M2, the transformer between the rotor cascade
and the supply, the V-belt coupling and the machine used
in the simulating facility, can easily be calculated from the
figure. More elaborate discussions and experimental
evaluations of the system can be found in reference 14.
From these power measurements it can be gathered that
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
a lot of attention should still be given to the efficiency of
the induction machine and the necessity of the trans
former. The power factor of the system is also very low,
espesially at lower wind speeds, as shown in Fig 8 and 10.
Fig 10: Power measurements in the simulating
facility
CONCLUSIONS
The experimental work reported has indicated that a
wound rotor induction generator with electronic rotor
cascade (electronic Scherbius cascade) maybe employed
over a wide speed range for constant pitch operation with
wind turbines. The turbine simulator developed by using
a controlled dc machine has enabled the testing to the
system under reproducible conditions in the laboratory,
while the capture of operational data from the practical
wind tower facility as described, enables the subsequent
testing of the laboratory system under the same condi
tions.
The experimentael facility is thus adequate for capturing
wind data which can be used for the simulation facility. It
79
has been established that a multi-level MPPT controller
is necessary to operate successfully on this system. Large
wind speed variations can occur in practice, and this can
only be handled by a self-structuring adaptive controller.
The generator loads the supply network with reactive
power [12,13,14,15] and characteristic and non-charac
teristic distortion due to the stochastic variations in wind
speed [13]. This problem is not unique to the present
system, but common to all VSCF systems indicated in Fig
2. Normal compensation is not suited to this type of
distortion generation systems and future work have been
directed towards fast dynamic power compensation [13].
REFERENCES
1.Jayadev, TS; "Windmills stage a comeback. IEEE
Spectrum, pp 45-49, Nov 1976.
2.Stohr, M.. Elektrotechnik und Maschinenbau. Etz
Archiv, Vol 57, pp 581-591,1939.
3.Stbhr, M. Elektrotechnik und Maschinenbau. Etz Ar
chiv, Vol 58, pp 177-186,1940.
4.Meyer, M.. Ober die untersynchrone Stromrichter-
kaskade. Etz Archiv, Vol 82, pp 589-596,1961.
5.Van Wyk, JD. Variable speed ac drives with slip-ring
induction machines and a resistively loaded force
commutated rotor chopper. IEE Electric Power
Applications Journal, Vol 2, no 5, pp 149-160,1979.
6.Van Wyk, JD. Electro-wind energy system with over-
synchronous cascade and simple adaptive maximal
power control, in: SUN-II, Eds K W Boer, B H
Glenn, Vol III, Pergamon Press, pp 2291-2295,
1979.
7.Sato, N, Y Hayashi, H Umida. A system of induction
generator with static exciter and paralleled to ac
power lines. Conf Rec, IEEE/IAS, ISPCC, Orlan
do, pp 295 -305,1982.
8.Van Wyk, JD, H J le Roux. Progress on a practical
wind energy system with an induction generator,
oversynchronous electronic cascade and maximal
power control. Proceedings, BWEA, International
Conf on Wind Energy, Grighton, UK, (LF Jesch
Ed, published by BHRA Fluid Engineering,
(1981),pp 185-190, Aug 1981.
9.Boehringer, AF. Struktur und Regelung von Ener-
gieversorgungs- systemen in Satelliten. Etz Archiv,
vol 92, no 2, pp 114-119,1971
10.Swart, PL, JD van Wyk. Source tracking and power
flow control of terrestrial photo-voltaic panels for
concentrated sunlight.Proceedings of the 13th
IEEE Photo-voltaic Specialists Conference,
Washington, pp 700-705,1978.
80 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS March 1991

11.Schoeman, JJ, JD van Wyk. A simplified maximal 19. De Goederen, AC. Geen groot wind turbinepark
power controller for terrestrial photovoltaic panel zonder passende opslagsysteem. De Ingenieur, Vol
arrays. Proceedings of IEEE Power Electronics 94, NO 2, pp 5-9, Jan 1982.
Specialist Conference, PESC-82, pp 361-367,1982.

12.Harashima, F, H Inaba, K Tsuboi. A closed loop

control system for the reduction of reactive power SYMBOLS
required by electronic converters. IEEE Trans Ind
Electron Control Instrum, Vol IECI-23(2), pp 126,
1976. It mean dc link current (A)
AP Qt/Vw:tip-speed-ratio
13.Enslin, JHR, JD van Wyk. A new control
philosophy for power electronic converters as fic IA mean armature current, dc machine (A)
titious power compensators. Transactions on
Iv mean field current, dc machine (A)
Power Electronics, vol PEL-5, no 1, pp 88-97, Jan
1990. KT torque constant, induction generator
Km torque constant, dc machine
14.Enslin, JHR. Structure, behaviour and control of
systems for optimal utilization of electrical energy, Te torque, induction generator (N-m)
generated from the wind under dynamic condi Tm torque wind turbine shaft (N-m)
tions. Ming dissertation (in Afrikaans), Energy
Laboratory, Rand Afrikaans University, Johannes m number of machine phases
burg, Nov 1983 mb number of rotor rectifier phases

n number of pairs of poles, induction generator

15.Van Wyk, JD, JHR Enslin. A study of a wind power
converter with micro-computer based maximal Vro
power control utilizing an oversynchronous
Qt
electronic Scherbius cascade. Proceedings of the In
ternational Power Electronics Conference, ^m
IPEC-88, pp 766-777, March 1983.
CDs
16.Erlicki, MS. Inverter rotor drive of an induction
motor. IEEE Transactions on Power Apparatus Vw
and systems. Vol PAS-84, no 11, pplOll-1016, Nov Pdc
1965
17.De Mello, FP. Large scale induction generators for Pt
power systems. IEEE Transactions on Power Ap
paratus and systems.Vol PAS-100, no 5, Pr
pp 2610-2618, May 1981.
Ps
18.Tauchiya, T. Suboptimal control of a static Scher Pn
bius induction motor system using a micro-proces
sor. IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications.
Vol IA-16, no 5, pp 686-699, Sept/Oct 1980
mean rectified rotor voltage at standstill
angular speed, wind turbine (rad s" )
angular speed, wind generator shaft (after
gearbox) (rad s" )
angular frequency, power supply, (rad s" )
wind speed (ms" '
power input to DC machine for the simulating
facility (W)
power output from rotor cascade before the
inverter (W)
power output from rotor cascade (W)
power output from induction machine stator (W)
total power output from induction machine via
transformers (W)
turbine power coefficient

Submitted November 1989

Accepted March 1991
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 81

Some Design Considerations for Biconical Antennas

Derek A. McNamara, Dirk E. Baker and Louis Botha

ABSTRACT approximations in order to satisfy the required boundary

This paper discusses the use of the body of revolution conditions and to reduce the mathematical difficulties.

moment method formulation to predict the radiation patterns Calculations based on these analyses are laborious, and the

of biconical antennas, and describes a novel and practical development of computer codes for one specific geometry is

feed point arrangement for fine-tuning the antenna reflection seldom warranted. On the other hand, the moment method

coefficient. techniques developed by Mautz and Harrington [2] for

bodies of revolution (BOR's) are ideally suited to

KEYWORDS symmetrical shapes such as the biconical antenna. Because

Biconical antenna, feeding mechanism, radiation pattern the method is general, the same computer code can be used

analysis. to study the radiation properties of variants of this antenna

(eg. biconical with end caps). The effect of the finite
groundplane of a discone can also be ascertained via these

INTRODUCTION BOR methods. We will confine our attention here to the

Biconical antennas [1] have been employed for many years traditional biconical geometry of Fig.l. Figs. 2(a) and 2(b)

in the microwave frequency range because of their compare measured and computed BOR radiation patterns

broadband characteristics. When designing such antennas for the antenna in Fig.l (0O = 6O, D=55mm). Fig.3 shows

one is concerned with minimising the input reflection computed patterns of a similar biconical antenna (0O = 6O',

coefficient and obtaining suitable radiation pattern D = 147mm) for increasing frequency. It is possible through

performance over the frequency band of interest. This paper such an exercise to determine the pattern bandwidth, outside

discusses the use of the body of revolution (BOR) moment which unacceptable "pattern breakup" occurs.

method techniques of Mautz and Harrington [2] to predict

the radiation patterns of these antennas, and describes a
practical feed point arrangement for fine-tuning the antenna FEEDPOINT TUNING MECHANISM

reflection coefficient. Impedance data for biconical antennas, derived mainly from
experimental studies, is available in some detail in [6] and
[1]. From these results it is known that the input impedance

RADIATION PATTERNS is reasonably constant over a wide frequency range for cone

The biconical antenna is one of the canonical boundary half angles 30 <_®o<J0. In practice the input impedance is

value problems of electromagnetic theory. The vast amount dependent on the cone spacing as well as th^ cone angle. At

of work published since Barrow et. al. [3] in 1939 has been microwave frequencies it is common practice to support the

summarised by Kraus [4] and Wait [5]. All these theoretical cones using a spacer and it is not possible when producing

treatments involve simplifying assumptions and biconicals in quantity to perform any fine-tuning by altering
the cone spacing. Since a fine-tuning capability is desirable
the feed-point geometry shown in Fig.l was devised. In this
Copyright c 1984 IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, way the antenna can be assembled with the foam spacer
from IEEE AP-S International Symposium Digest,
Boston, USA, June 1984, pp. 173-176. providing the best nominal spacing and the tuning slug (item
4 of Fig.l) adjusted to obtain the optimum reflection
coefficient over the whole frequency band. By using the
tuning mechanism a reflection coefficient of -20dB (VSWR
Submitted November 1989
Accepted August 1990 of 1.2:1) on a 50Q line was obtained in the 2 to 12 GHz
82 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS March 1991

frequency range for an antenna with 8o = 60and D = 147mm.

This is particularly advantageous when using the biconical
antenna with a polariser.

REFERENCES
AUTHORS
[1] H.Jasik, Antenna Engineering Handbook, McGraw-
Hill, New York, 1961. Prof DA McNamara
B.Sc.(Eng.)(Cape Town), M.Sc.(Eng.)(Ohio State Univ.),
[2] J.R.Mautz and R.F.Harrington, "Radiation and Ph.D.(Cape Town), SMIEEE, MSAIEE, Department of
scattering from bodies of revolution", Appl.Sci.Res., Electronic and Computer Engineering, University of
Vol.20, pp.405-435,1969. Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.

[3] W.L.Barrow, L.J.Chu and J.J.Jansen, "Biconical Dr DE Baker

electromagnetic horns", Proc. IRE, Vol. 28, pp.769- B.Sc.(Hons)(Rhodes), M.Sc.(Rhodes), Ph.D.(Ohio State
779, Dec. 1939. (Correction in Vol.39, 1951) Univ.), Pr.Eng., SMIEEE, MSAIEE, EM-Lab (Pty) Ltd.,
Pretoria, South Africa.
[4] J.D.Kraus, Antennas, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1950
Mr L Botha
[5] J.R.Wait, "Electromagnetic radiation from conical B.Eng.(Pret), MIEEE, MSAIEE
structures", Chap.l in : R.E.Collin and F.J.Zucker DAST, CSIR, Pretoria, South Africa
(Edits.), Antenna Theory, Part I, McGraw-Hill, New
York, 1969.

[6] G.H.Brown and D.M.Woodward, "Experimentally

determined radiation characteristics of conical and
triangular antennas", RCA Review, Vol.13, No.4,
pp.425-452, Dec. 1952

distance): Items#l are the spun cones. Item#3 fits through the blunted cone apex
and screws into nut Item#2. Item#4 (a threaded insert) screws into Item#3, and
screws down over the centre conductor of coaxial connector (Item#7). It provides
the tuning capability. Item#5 fits through blunted cone apex and screws into nut
Item#6. The central portion of Item#7 (connector) fits through Item #5
(unthreaded) and Item#6, and is then fixed to nut Item#6 which holds Item#5
in place.
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 83

CQ

0*

Pi

Fig.2 Computed () and measured () E-plane patterns of a biconical

(©o = 60\ D = 55mm) at (a). 8GHz, and (b). 12GHz

270

270

Fig.3 Computed E-plane patterns for a biconical antenna (0O = 6O*, D = 147mm) for
increasing frequency. (Amplitude scale lOdB per division).
84 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
Enhanced Diagnostic Procedures for Partial Discharge
Measurements in Rotating Machines
S.A. Higgins and J.P. Reynders
Abstract
It is well known that partial discharge activity is re
sponsible for t-he deterioration of electrical insulation.
In addition, partial discharge activity is also evidence
of a degraded insulation system. Despite these facts
no significant correlation has been found between par
tial discharge activity measured at the terminals of
a rotating machine and the state of the insulation.
In this paper it is proposed that the anomaly occurs
because partial discharge measurements at the ter
minals of the machine are dominated by surface par
tial discharge activity in the overhang of the winding.
These overhang discharges are not very damaging and
mask the effects of small, but very damaging, dis
charges within the cell insulation in the slot area of
the winding.
An instrument is described which can distinguish
between partial discharge activity in the slot and in
the overhang. This instrument is used to make mea
surements on a stator where the cell insulation in the
slot area has been deliberately damaged. These mea
surements vindicate the proposition made above.
1 Introduction
In the 1970's and early 1980's a considerable effort
was expended in the development of techniques to as
sess ageing effects in the insulation of high voltage ro
tating machines. In general the measurement of bulk
properties such as dielectric loss per cycle, tan-delta
and capacitance change were the most useful pointers
to the condition of the insulation [1], [2]. Despite the
extensive use of partial discharge measurement at the
terminals of the stator windings very little correlation
was found with these measurements and the condition
of the insulation [2]. Bulk insulation properties will
change when there is widespread degradation of the
insulation system. Partial discharge activity would
be expected to be identified with localized defects as
well as general insulation deterioration. Bulk mea
surements, such as those mentioned above, will not
be sensitive to a local defect until this defect reaches
very major proportions. It has been found that typ
ical partial discharge activity in rotating machines
March 1991
at service voltage is extremely high. Peak discharge
magnitudes of tens of thousands of picoculombs are
frequently encountered.
In very broad terms partial discharge activity can
take place either in the overhang or in the cell insu
lation in the slots of a machine. Discharges in the
overhang will tend to be concentrated in the high
and non-uniform fields adjacent to the magnetic core.
Much of the discharge activity in this area will be on
the surface of the overhang windings. This is a well
ventilated space and despite the fact that the dis
charges will probably be extremely large, it is unlikely
that they will result in any significant deterioration.
In contrast to this, defects in the cell insulation in
the slot section of the coils will result in relatively
small discharges, but with very deleterious effects [3],
[4]. There is clearly a need for an on-line method to
measure partial discharge activity in such a way that
slot and overhang discharges can be distinguished. To
this end a special purpose instrument was built which
makes use of a discrimination technique to distinguish
between discharges in these two particular areas.
2 Instrumentation
A special purpose instrument was built to make these
measurements. Partial discharge activity is detected
using a parallel RLC resonant circuit. This is the
standard ERA discharge detector input unit No.2
with a resonant frequency in the range 10 - 80 kHz
depending on the series capacitance used. The out
put of the resonant circuit is stored in a high speed
memory for subsequent processing and analysis. The
instrument uses three identical channels and by con
necting these channels, as shown in Figure 1, it is
possible to distinguish between external noise, slot
discharges and overhang discharges. The principles
used to achieve this discrimination are similar to the
pulse discrimination technique used by Black and his
colleagues [5], [6], [7], [8] and Kurz [9].
The test circuit is illustrated in Figure 1. The over
hang is separated from the rest of the insulation by
making a conducting ring around each coil approxi
mately lcm away from the core or corona shield if, one
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 85

is present. These conducting rings are all connected
together and form the low voltage side of the overhang
capacitance. Discharges in the overhang will termi
nate on this connection rather than on the core. The
core of the machine forms the low voltage connection
for the slot capacitance.
JL „ JL
3.1 Observations Prior to Damage
The observations are displayed in Figures 2 to 5. Fig
ures 2 and 3 show the total discharge per cycle and
the peak discharge measured in the overhang while
Figures 4 and 5 show the same parameters for the
slot. The total discharge per cycle was determined
by adding all the discharges recorded during one mea
surement period and dividing by the number of cycles
of the power frequency wave that occurred during the

e Det 1 Det 2
^overhang

Det 3
measurement period. The peak partial discharge was
the largest partial discharge recorded during the mea
surement period.
It is noteworthy that in a healthy winding the
peak partial discharge magnitude is roughly one or
der greater in the overhang than it is in the slot. The
Figure 1: Test circuit total discharge per cycle in the overhang is almost
two orders greater than that in the slot.
To conserve memory each partial discharge is spec
pCxlO3
ified in terms of its time of occurrence, polarity and
100 .. . _
the peak magnitude of the output of the resonant de
tector. This peak output is directly proportional to 80
^-j-—!-
- 11
the apparent charge present in the partial discharge
60
1
[10]-
Localization of discharge activity is achieved by 40
considering discharges detected in all three channels 1^ -

at a particular point in time, and their respective po 20 -—

larities. If all three channels have discharges with the ^" 1
0
same polarity, such a discharge can be assumed to 0 i :i 3 I 5 3 7 8
originate outside of the test circuit and be rejected as kV
noise. If the slot detector has one polarity and the
coupling capacitor and overhang detectors the oppo pCxlO3
site polarity, it can be assumed that the discharge 16
originates in the slot. In a similar way discharges
originating in the overhang can be identified. 12 -
The instrument is calibrated in situ using a small 'if
portable calibrator, positioning it, in turn, at each . f •- - —
channel.

3 Measurements on a Stator 0 ¥ i i 1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
A stator was equipped with five coils wound for a ser kV
Figure 3: Peak partial discharge in the overhang
vice voltage of 6,6 kV between phases. The coils were
equipped with a corona shield. In order to isolate dis
charges in the overhang of the winding, tinned cop pC
per wire strips were bound to each of the coil sides 1200

at a position approximately 1.0 cm away from the

corona shield. These points were connected together 800
and formed the low voltage connection for the over
hang capacitance. The stator core was isolated from
400
earth and formed the low voltage connection for the
slot capacitance. A 1000 pF coupling capacitor was .-?'
used for the third channel. 01234567
A series of partial discharge measurements were kV
made on the coils and then a second series was made
Figure 4: Total discharge per cycle in the slot
after one the coils had been damaged by removing
some of the cell insulation between the conductor and
slot side.
 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
March 1991

PC
1600 than that occurring in the healthy overhang.

1200
PC
120
800

400 4-
100
0
01234567
kV
Figure 5: Peak partial discharge in the slot 40 i-t

3.2 Observations with a Damaged -1 *L_LLJ

Coil
Since no darqage was made to the overhang, no dif
ference in discharge activity in the overhang was ob
served.
Total partial discharge activity per cycle in the slot
before and after the damage is shown in Figure 6.
The damage was sufficiently severe to cause complete
breakdown of the insulation at 4kV on the 4th ap
plication of voltage. However, as will be seen from
Figure 6, the increase in discharge activity per cy
cle was clearly noticeable, but not as spectacular as
would be hoped. At 2kV where was little difference
between the measurements. While at 3kV and 4kV
the damaged coil produced roughly twice the level of
activity that was found in the undamaged coil.
12345678
kV
a.Before coil damage
b.After coil damage
Figure 6: Partial discharge activity per cycle before and
after damage to the coil
Figure 7 shows the increase in partial discharge ac
tivity with repeated application of the voltage prior
to breakdown. The peak partial discharge shows a
much greater increase in the presence of a damaged
coil than does the total discharge per cycle. However,
this level of activity in the slot is still much smaller
1 4 5
kV
a.Before coil damage
b.First run after damage
c.Second run after damage
d.Third run- after damage
e.Fourth run after damage
Figure 7: Increase in peak slot partial discharge before
breakdown
4Conclusions
Partial discharge activity in the overhang and slot
portions of a high voltage motor winding can be
distinguished by using a multi-channel partial dis
charge detector and applying pulse discrimination
techniques.
Partial discharge activity in a healthy overhang of a
rotating machine will be much larger than partial dis
charge activity occurring in the slot of a machine even
in the presence of major defects. This means that par
tial discharge measurements made on the terminals of
a machine cannot be effectively used to identify local
damage in the slot section of the insulation unless
steps are taken to exclude partial discharge activity
in the overhang.
5Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the
National Energy Council and of the University of the
Witwatersrand in funding and supervising this re
search.
This paper was first presented to the Sixth Interna
tional Symposium on High Voltage Engineering New
Orleans USA August 1989. It is published here with
permission.
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
6 References
1.Simons J.S. "Diagnostic testing of high voltage
machine insulation - a review of ten years experi
ence in the field". IEE Proceedings, Part B, Vol.
127 No. 3, pp. 139-154, May 1980.
2.Eriksson A.J. "Insulation assessment of high
voltage motors". Electrical Engineer, June 1980.
3.Jackson R.J., Wilson A. "Slot discharge activ
ity in air- cooled motors and generators". IEE
Proceedings V 129, Pt B, Number 3, 1982, pp
159-167.
4.Sedding H.G., Bogg W.K. "The initiation me
chanics of slot and end winding discharges in
high voltage power electrical machines". Fifth
International Conference on Dielectric materials
measurements and applications, IEE Conference
Publication 289, 1988, pp 27-30.
5.Black LA. "The pulse discrimination system for
partial discharge measurements under noisy con
ditions" . CIGRE Study Com. 15, Liege, Sept.
1981.
6.Black I.A., Leung N.K. "The application of the
pulse discrimination system to the measurement
of partial discharges in insulation under noisy
conditions". IEEE Insulation Symp. Boston,
June, 1980.
87
7.Black LA. "The suppresion of noise in par
tial discharge measuring circuits with particu
lar reference to the testing of cables and other
low- impedance components". Dielectric Materi
als, Measurements and Applications Conf. Lan
caster, Sept. 1984.
8.Black LA. "Noise suppression techniques in par
tial discharge measurement circuits". Proceed
ings of the 5th International Electrical Insulation
Conf. Brighton, May, 1986 pp. 214-219.
9.Kurz M., Stone G.C., Daeschel P., Gupta B.K.
"Fault anticipation for substation equipment".
IEEE Trans on Power Delivery, V PWRD-2, No
3, 1987, pp 722-724.
10.Kreuger F.H. "Discharge detection in high volt
age equipment". Heywood, 1964.
11.ERA Discharge Detector Mk III Manual. Robin
son Electronics, UK.
Authors:
S.A. Higgins
Research Officer
Department of Electrical Engineering
University of the Witwatersrand
J.P. Reynders
Chair Power Engineering
Department of Electrical Engineering
University of the Witwatersrand.
Submitted April 1990
Accepted March 1991
 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
March 1991

The Influence of the Arc Root in Flashover Models

of Polluted Insulators with Practical Shapes
J.P. Holtzhausen and L.P. du Toit

ABSTRACT Both authors used an arc equation of the

following form:
A simple model for insulator flashover is Va = x A I"
developed to include the effect of the (2)
current concentration at the roots of the In addition the applied voltage V must
partial arcs that form on the insulator exceed the reignition value to ensure arc
surface. The resistance of the conducting reignition following a current zero. Claverie
layer on the surface of insulators with used an empirically derived relation of the
practical shapes is derived, using a finite following form
element approach. These resistance functions
are incorporated into existing flashover V >= x N I""
models to predict leakage currents and (3)
insulator flashover.' Rizk considered a thermal reignition
model, including all the conditions
affecting heat transfer from the arc
KEYWORDS: column. After some assumptions a
relationship including the same parameters
as equation (2) is obtained.
AC Insulator pollution, leakage current.
Verma's I-max theory is derived largely
from Claverie's model.
INTRODUCTION
The constants in (1) and (2) are given the
following values:
A study of all the models proposed since
1939 confirmed two basic models that are A = 10, N = 80 and n = a =0,5.
particularly useful for AC pollution
flashover, those due to Claverie [1] and Manipulation of equations (1) and (2) leads to
Rizk [2]. Both these models employ the a simple relation for the maximum current
equivalent circuit shown in figure 1 with above which flashover is inevitable [3].
the non linear arc resistance in series
with the linear pollution layer resistance. I-max = (53,3 L/V)2 (4)
with L : creepage path length in mm
DRY BAND LENGTH - X LAYER LENGTH - L-X V: voltage across insulator in
volt.

Verma measured this current in the half cycle

just before flashover when the salt fog
salinity is just above the withstand
value. Good correspondence with equation
(4) was obtained for different insulator
shapes [3]. Other researchers are also in
agreement that maximum leakage currents prior
V= 10 * X / J\+ R(L-X) I to flashover are in accordance with this
equation.
( ARC CIRCUIT EQUATION)
ALSO: V>=80*X/yr( REIGNITION VOLTAGE) The above mentioned correlation between
theory and experimental results is somewhat
surprising, considering the assumptions
Figure 1: Equivalent circuit of insulator underlying Claverie's model. In particular,
with arc of length x in series with pollution a pollution layer, varying linearly with
layer resistance of length L-x. distance is supposed. This assumption may be
approximately true for long rod insulators,
The pollution layer resistance R(L-x) is but for insulators like cap and pin
assumed to decrease linearly as the arc insulators, the current concentration at the
length x increases. The voltage equation for arc root plays an important role. Analysis of
this circuit is peak leakage currents, measured during salt
fog tests for varying salinity and voltage
V = V. +R(L-x) I (1) stress, indicate some deviation from the
simple Claverie model [4]. Claverie's
obtained an indication of a linear
relationship by indirect measurements on
energised insulators, but some of his
measurements have been questioned [2J. Khalifa
Submitted February 1990 [5] expanded Rizk's work to include a simple
Accepted May 1990 model of the surface layer of a cap and
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS

pin insulator, including the arc root.

Gopal [6] included a factor to allow for the
arc root, but his model did not include
reignition effects.

REVISED THEORETICAL MODEL

The procedure pursued in this research is

to develop a model that is based on the
the layer resistance of insulators with
practical shapes, while also including the
effect of the current concentration at the arc
root.

In an attempt to obtain a more accurate

representation of the surface resistance of (a)
practical insulators, a finite element program
was developed. This model approximates the
contours of the real insulator by planar,
cylindrical and conical surfaces. These
surfaces are opened-up and the current flow OUTER EDGE
field is solved in two dimensions while
enforcing continuity at the boundaries of the
separate regions. An efficient sparse matrix
method is used to allow solution of relatively BOTTOM
complex problems with up to 700 elements on
a XT personal computer. The finite element
program was used to obtain a resistance
model for a cylindrical, a long rod and a cap
and pin insulator. The following partial arc
models were assumed, based on video and
photographic records of flashover processes (b)
in a small clean fog tent:
Figure 3: Element subdivision and
equipotential plot for long rod insulator in
figure 2(b).
a)A 800 mm long, 100 mm diameter cylinder a)element sub-division
with a partial arc across a single dry band as b)equipotential lines.
shown in figure 2(a).

b)A porcelain long rod insulator, Choice of arc root radius

consisting of 7 sheds. Dry bands, spanned
by arcs terminating on the adjacent wet
pollution layers, exist on the portions
with the smallest diameters. (See figure
c) Three standard glass cap and pin
insulators with dry bands and associated arcs
at the top and bottom of each disc as shown in
figure 2(c).
By way of an example, the element subdivision
and resulting equipotential plot for one shed
of the long rod insulator is shown in figures
3 (a) and (b).
In modelling the layer resistance, it is
necessary to decide on a radius for the arc
root radius. Swift [7] suggested a value of
more or less 1 mm for direct currents of the
order of 1 ampere. Various researchers [8,2]
commented on the somewhat extended nature of
the arc root, due to corona along the
pollution layer at the arc tip.
In order to establish some basis for the
choice of a value a test was conducted, using
a 150 by 150 mm glass plate, polluted by a
saline kaolin slurry. The surface
conductivity was derived from measurements
between the edges of the plate.

GLASS
SIMULATED INSULATORS
n LAYER

DRY BAND —

Figure 4: Test set-up to determine equivalent

arc root radius.

As shown in figure 4 , an electrode,

GLASS LONG ROD CAP AND connected to a 1000 V ac transformer, was
CYLINDER INSULATOR PIN brought near the conducting layer and the
? INSULATOR peak current was measured. The length of
the conductive layer was decreased for each
(a) consecutive test by wiping clean a portion of
(b) (c) the plate. The layer resistance was
calculated by neglecting the voltage drop
Figure 2: Schematic representation of partial of the short arc between the electrode and
arc configurations simulated. the layer.
90 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS March 1991

The results are shown in figure 5, together
with theoretical predictions based on the
finite element program for various values of
arc radius.
From these curves it appears that a radius
between 5 and 10 mm seems appropriate. A value
of 10 mm was chosen. This value may appear
excessive, but should be regarded as an
equivalent radius to represent the extended
nature of the arc due to streamer effects as
well as the decrease of conductivity due to
heating of the layer in the immediate vicinity
of the arc root.
Based on this radius and using finite
element analysis the layer resistance function
curves for the various insulators can be
drawn as a function of layer length as
shown in figure 6. The resistance function
F(L-xb) is related to the resistance R(L-xb) by
the following equation:
R((L-xb) = F(L-xb)/a (5)
Circuit model for polluted insulators
The circuit equation for the series
connection of the layer resistance and the arc
as shown in fiqure 1 is given by
V = 10 xa/7l - F(L-xb)I/a (6)
where xa: total arc length
xb: total dry band length
L : total insulator creepage laigth
F(L-xb): layer resistance function
a : surface conductivity
This equation is solved numerically for I
with various values of a and xa. In the case
of the cylinder, xa is made equal to , but in
the case of the long rod and the cap and pin
insulators xa is made 75 per cent of xb to
allow for the fact that the arc does not
follow the insulator contours exactly.
The results of the solution of the arc
circuit equation is presented in figure 7,
together with the following equation which is
based on the reignition criterion for AC arcs
(eq. 2):

IR = 6400 Xa2 / V2 (7)

The intersection of the curves based on

W 0
Figure 5: Results and predictions of layer
resistance of polluted square plate.
equations (6) and (7) gives the actual value
of the peak leakage current and the dry band
length at that stage. With increasing
surface conductivity, i.e. increasing
pollution, a point is reached where the arc
circuit curve becomes tangential to the
reignition curve. The current at this point
corresponds to the critical current I-crit.
The point of intersection is rather
indeterminate under these conditions, making
the critical current very sensitive to small
parameter variations. The results are
summarised in Table I which shows that the
critical current in all three cases are of the
order of 1,8 to 2 ampere, which compares
favourably with the I-max of 1,8 ampere
given by equation (4) for insulators with
a creepage length of 800 mm at a voltage of 22
kV r.m.s.

INSULATOR I-MAX I-CRIT CRITICAL

(A) (A) CONDUCTIVITY
eq. 4 fig.7 (mS) fig. 7
Cylinder 2 - 2 - 80
2,5 2,5
Long rod 1,4 - 1,4 - 240
2 2
Cap & pin 1,7 - 1,7 - 120
2 2

TABLE 1: INSULATOR PERFORMANCE ACCORDING TO

a CAP & PIN MODEL:

Figure 6: Layer resistance function versus

layer length for various insulators.
March 1991 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 91

CONCLUSION
a) Cylinder
The developed model gives reasonable values
of I-max for insulators with practical shapes.
The corresponding critical surface
conductivity values appear to be about 4 to
6 times the withstand salinity quoted for
clean fog tests [ 9 ] . Apart from the fact that
the withstand conductivity is of necessity
some orders of magnitude lower than the
critical value, a reason for the high
conductivities predicted in the case of the
long rod insulators, may be the excessive
voltage drops at the arc roots. The partial
arc model may be different from that assumed
here, in that fewer arcs may occur by
bridging some sheds. The occurrence of
multiple parallel arcs were investigated and
does not seem to affect the total current
characteristics to a large extent.

REFERENCES

1.Claverie, P.
b) Long rod insulotor Predetermination of the behaviour of
polluted insulators,
1970, IEEE Transactions PAS-101.

2.Rizk, F.
Mathematical models for pollution flashover
Electra,no 78,1981,pp 71-103.

3.Verma, P.
Highest Leakage current impulse as criterion
for the insulation performance of polluted
insulators
CIGRE 33-73 (WG 04) (6) IWD.

4.Holtzhausen, J.P., du Toit L.P.

DRY BAND LENGTH IN MM
M-S
c) Cap & pin insulator.
Insulator pollution: The relationship between
I-highest, specific creepage and salinity in
a salt fog test
Trans. SAIEE, Vol. 78,pp 1-6, August, 1987.
5.Khalifa, M., Mahdy, A., Quereshi, A.
A simplified Model for AC flashover of
polluted insulators.
Paper 51.07 Fifth international symposium
on High Voltage Engineering",1987,
Braunschweig.

6.Gopal, S., Rao, Y. N.

Flashover phenomena of polluted insulators
IEE Proceedings, Vol. 131C, July 1984,pp
140-143.

7.Swift D. A.
Flashover across the surface of an
electrolyte: arresting arc propagation. PROC.
IEE,1980, Vol 127 A, pp 553-564.

8.Wilkins R., Al-Baghdadi A. A. J.

Arc propagation along an electrolyte surface,
Proc. IEE, Vol. 118, No. 12, pp 1886- 1892

9.IEC Publication 507

Artificial pollution tests on high voltage
r-- insulators to be used on AC systems, 1987.

AUTHORS: '
Figure 7: Leakage and reignition current
curves for a) Cylinder, b) Long rod c) Cap Mr JP Holtzhausen and Mr LP du Toit
and pin insulators. Department of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering
University of Stellenbosch
Stellenbosch 7600.
 THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
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