Christian Klumpner
Associate Professor in Power Electronics, Faculty of Engineering
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Biography
I received my BSc degree in electromechanical engineering from the University of Resita, Romania in 1995, and my MSc in Power Electronics and Drives and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from 'Politehnica' University of Timisoara, Romania in 1996 and 2001 respectively.
From 1996 to 1999, I was with Bee Speed, Timisoara, Romania (full time and part time), involved in the design, execution, commissioning and maintenance of electrical equipment based on power converters, where I acquired valuable practical industrial experience.
Between 1998 and 2000 I was for a total of 14 months a Guest Researcher at the Institute of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark, where I was working with matrix converters, in conjunction with my PhD thesis, under the auspices of the Danfoss Professor Programme.
From 2001 to 2003 I was a Research Assistant and the Research Fellow at the same institute (AAU/IET), continuing the research work in direct power conversion under the auspices of the Innovation Post-Doc programme supported by the Danish Research Agency and Danfoss Drives A/S.
In October 2003 I became a Lecturer in Power Electronics at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Nottingham, UK. In 2010 I was promoted to Associate Professor in the same Department.
I am member of the Power Electronics, Machines and Control (PEMC) research group. I am involved in the supervision of postgraduate (MSc and PhD) students and research projects related to design, control and evaluation of novel/advanced power electronic converter topologies for various applications where fast control of power and/or high conversion efficiency is essential.
Expertise Summary
Power electronics and AC drives (in general), direct power conversion (matrix converters), integrated motor-converter drives, grid-friendly power converters for connecting renewable resources (fuel cells, photovoltaic) or novel energy storage devices (supercapatteries) to the AC grid, PWM active front end rectifiers, hybrid power electronic converters.
I have published 100+ papers (37+ as first author) in international conferences and 20+ papers in international journals with peer review (13+ as first author).
Teaching Summary
I am involved in the teaching of the following modules: Electrical and Electronic Engineering for Aerospace 1 (H41EE1), More Electric Aircraft H43EE3, Integrated project for Aerospace 1&2 (H41PP1… read more
Research Summary
I am member of the Power Electronics, Machines and Control (PEMC) research group. I am involved in the supervision of postgraduate (MSc and PhD) students and research projects related to design,… read more
If you are holding a good degree (MEng/Diploma/MSc) in Electrical Engineering and are interested in doing a PhD in Power Electronics with the PEMC research group, please contact me for more info/advice on how to apply.
I am involved in the teaching of the following modules: Electrical and Electronic Engineering for Aerospace 1 (H41EE1), More Electric Aircraft H43EE3, Integrated project for Aerospace 1&2 (H41PP1 and PP2), Year 2 Energy group project and Technologies for Wind Generation (H64TWG) .
I am supervising undergraduate and MSc student projects related to general electrical and electronic engineering with focus on power electronics, electrical drives, power quality, renewable energy, energy storage.
I am coordinating the activities of the electrical Strand within the Dept of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
Current Research
I am member of the Power Electronics, Machines and Control (PEMC) research group. I am involved in the supervision of postgraduate (MSc and PhD) students and research projects related to design, control and evaluation of novel/advanced power electronic converter topologies for various applications where fast control of power and/or high conversion efficiency is essential.
Current research projects:
Design of a Lightweight Super-capacitor Energy Storage System for Aerospace (Clean Sky2/ESTEEM)
Design of a Medium Voltage Inverter for Aerospace (Clean Sky2/phive)
Past Research
Summary: Power electronics and AC drives (in general), Direct power conversion (Single and Two-stage Matrix Converters), Integrated Motor-Converter Drives, Grid-friendly power converters for connecting renewable resources (fuel cells, photovoltaics), investigate the benefits of using novel semiconductor devices (reverse blocking IGBTs) in various power electronic systems , PWM active front end rectifiers (Voltage and Current Source), Hybrid power converters (Hybrid Matrix Converters; Hybrid Cycloconverters, Hybrid Current Source Rectifiers).
Past Research Projects:
- Principal Investigator in the 2-year "Complex Structures of Power Electronic Converters: An Exploration of Benefits" sponsored by the EPSRC First Grant Scheme (£124,500)
- "Experimental Investigation of New Power Electronic Converters and Control Strategies for Operation Under Non-Ideal Power Grid Conditions" (£15,000) granted by the Research and Innovation Services, University of Nottingham under the New Lecturer Fund Scheme
- "A New Supercapattery based Energy Storage System with an Advanced Power Electronic Interface for Intelligent Power Grids" (3-year E.ON sponsored project by the 2007- Research Initiative in Energy Storage). This was a joint project between Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering (PI: Prof. George Z. Chen) and Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (PI: myself, Project Manager: Prof. Greg Asher)
- High Frequency Power Supply for Metal Spray Apps - KTP project with Metallisation Ltd, Dudley, West Midlands, UK.
- 2kW Supercapattery system for household applications (18 months research project sponsored by E.ON). This was a joint project between Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering (Prof. George Z. Chen) and Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
- Supervise the development of a LTO battery energy storage system using an interleaved SiC DC/DC converter for helicopter in the REGENSYS project (sponsored via Clean Sky JTI - Green Rotorcraft)
Future Research
I welcome enquiries from potential PhD candidates from Home, EU and international countries who are interested in the following research areas:
Design, control and evaluation of novel/advanced power electronic converter topologies for various applications where fast control of power and/or high conversion efficiency,
Design of power systems with hybrid energy storage (battery, supercapacitor, heat storage, CAES) where low cost/fast response or low volume/high power capability are required.
Typical applications are power converters for aerospace, renewable energy, energy storage, distributed generation or electric vehicles