Virtual laboratory for study of the electric machines parameters and characteristics

Abstract

Computing and communication technology have had a significant impact on engineering education. This technology has significantly improved online, distance, collaborative learning, as well as the use of the virtual experiments and simulations in engineering education. One of the distinguishing features of engineering education is that the laboratory work is an integral part and its purpose is bringing the students closer to real situations that they may encounter. Advances in electric machinery, control, and instrumentation systems and interfaces call for a continuous upgrading of facilities that will support energy conversion education. Costs to equip an energy conversion laboratory for teaching undergraduates could easily run to a hundred thousand dollars. These prohibitive costs have forced many electrical engineering programs to trade off good quality laboratory equipment for affordable and significantly less accurate scaled-down models, thus, usually exhibiting characteristics that are far from what is considered typical. Moreover, the typical traditional electric machines laboratories offer very limited access to equipment and instrumentation. The shortcomings of traditional laboratories include among others: cost, safety, limited students' access and space requirements. In this context virtual laboratories and experiments have become an appealing alternative to the traditional settings. Three key problems are discussed here: the purpose, the content and the impact of such a laboratory in studying and learning electrical machines. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2010.