UC Research Profile - University of Canterbury

Dr Sadeeshvara Silva

Contact

Department: Electric Power Engineering Centre

Email: sadeesh.silva@canterbury.ac.nz

Direct Dial: +64 3 3691826

Office: Link - Room 203

Languages: English, Sinhala

Designing and developing electronic systems for a greater tomorrow by smartly utilizing the present technology to address future challenges.

About

Research / Creative works

Networks

Projects

Methods & Equipment

Fields of Research

Power quality
Surge protection
Supercapacitors
Transformer theory and design
Frequency domain circuit modelling
Magnetics
Power MOSFETs
EV charging applications

Researcher Summary

My research interests include Power Electronics, Electromagnetics, Transient Surge Protection and Power Quality, Frequency Domain Circuit Modelling, Transformer Design, High Frequency Magnetics, Supercapacitor Applications, and Engineering physics.

Following are some of my previous experiences in Research and Development:

• Development of high-performance surge protectors (research collaboration with Magnetics® Inc. USA) using the latest commercial magnetic materials (Kool Mµ, High-Flux, X-Flux, Edge powder cores and Soft-Ferrites) manufactured by Magnetics Inc.

• Permeance based theoretical modelling of surge protector circuits and high-voltage testing using standard lightning surge simulators (LSS-6230 and LSS-F03).

• Research collaboration with Thor Technologies, Australia – surge endurance evaluation of commercial surge protectors according to Underwriters’ Laboratory test procedures.

• Electromagnetic transient analysis and frequency domain circuit modelling.

• Designing of data acquisition systems and computer interfacing techniques based on MATLAB.

• Automation of supercapacitor surge testing.

• Supercapacitor applications of power electronic circuits.

• Transformer design using powdered-iron magnetic materials and air-gapped ferrites.

• EV charging applications: efficiency analysis of fast DC chargers and AC chargers.

Subject Area: Disciplines

Engineering and Technology: Electrical Engineering ; Electromagnetics ; Modelling ; Power Systems & Power Electronics

Research/Scholarly/Creative Works

Authored Books

Silva S. (2018) A Concise Introduction to Industrial Metrology. Godage International Book publishers, Sri Lanka.

Silva S. (2018) Practical guide book No. 01 – Electronics (Op Amps, Oscillators, Digital Counters and PCB Designing). Godage International Book publishers, Sri Lanka.

Journal Articles

Silva Thotabaddadurage S., Kularatna N. and Steyn-Ross DA. (2023) Magnetic Design Aspects of Coupled-Inductor Topologies for Transient Suppression. Electronics (Switzerland) 12(1) http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/electronics12010246.

Fernando J., Kularatna N., Silva S. and Thotabaddadurage SS. (2022) Supercapacitor assisted surge absorber technique: High performance transient surge protectors for consumer electronics. IEEE Power Electronics Magazine 9(2): 48-60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MPEL.2022.3171644.

Silva S. (2022) Permeance based Design and Analysis of Supercapacitor Assisted Surge Absorber for Magnetic Component Selection. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics Electronic ISSN: 1557-9948 http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2022.3172769.

Silva Thotabaddadurage S., Kularatna N. and Steyn-Ross DA. (2022) Importance of Leakage Magnetic Field and Fringing Flux in Surge Protector Design. IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications : 1-11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/tia.2022.3208920.

Silva Thotabaddadurage SU., Kularatna N. and Steyn-Ross DA. (2021) Optimization of Supercapacitor Assisted Surge Absorber (SCASA) Technique: A New Approach to Improve Surge Endurance Using Air-Gapped Ferrite Cores. Energies 14(14): 4337-4337. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/en14144337.

Conference Contributions - Published

Udayanga STS., Kokuhennadige S., Fernando J., Kularatna N. and Steyn-Ross DA. (2021) Supercapacitor assisted surge absorber (SCASA) technique: selection of magnetic components based on permeance. In 2021 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC) IEEE. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/apec42165.2021.9487254.

Udayanga STS., Kularatna N. and Steyn-Ross DA. (2020) Permeance based model for the coupled-inductor utilized in the supercapacitor assisted surge absorber (SCASA) and its experimental validation. In 2020 2nd IEEE International Conference on Industrial Electronics for Sustainable Energy Systems (IESES) IEEE. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ieses45645.2020.9210663.

Sadeeshvara Udayanga ST., Kularatna N. and Steyn-Ross DA. (2019) Investigating the impact of ferrite magnetic cores on the performance of supercapacitor assisted surge absorber (SCASA) technique. In 2019 IEEE 28th International Symposium on Industrial Electronics (ISIE) IEEE. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/isie.2019.8781402.

Silva S. (2015) An Analogy between Linguistics and Science: A comparative study. In Proceedings of International Conference on the Humanities.

Silva S. (2015) Impact of Climate change on Tourism in Sri Lanka: An Investigation. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference of the South and Southeast Asian Association.

Silva S. (2015) Literature as an inspiration for scientific thinking: An Investigation. In Proceedings of International Postgraduate Research Conference 2015.

Oral Presentations

Silva S. (2018) Modelling of a RL circuit subjected to a high voltage transient and investigating the importance of inductors in surge protection. University of Waikato: Waikato Young Research Engineers Symposium (WYRES 2018), 06 Jul 2018.

Silva S. (2018) Supercapacitor Assisted Dual-mode Surge Protector. University of Waikato, New Zealand: Waikato Young Research Engineers Symposium (WYRES 2018), 24 Jul 2018.

Theses / Dissertations

Silva S. (2021) Permeance based modelling, design and optimization of supercapacitor assisted surge absorber (SCASA). Hamilton, New Zealand. University of Waikato.

Review and Refereeing

Displaying all items.

Journal reviewing / refereeing

IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics ( 2021 - 2023)

IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics ( 2022 - 2023)

IET Power Electronics ( 2022 - 2023)

Conference reviewing / refereeing

37th Annual IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference & Exposition (APEC 2022), Texas, USA. ( 2021 - 2023)

47th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IECON 2021), Toronto, Canada. ( 2021 - 2023)

IEEE Region Ten Conference (TENCON 2021), Auckland, New Zealand. ( 2021 - 2023)

Affiliations

Engineering New Zealand (Professional Organisation): Member
IEEE (Professional Organisation): Member
Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) (Professional Organisation): Member
Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka (RASSL) (Professional Organisation): Life Member
Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science (SLAAS) (Professional Organisation): Life Member

Research Groups

Electric Power Engineering Centre

Future Research

Surge protection and power quality
Supercapacitor applications
High frequency magnetics
Power MOSFET research
EV charging applications
Transformer design and magnetic materials

Key Methodologies

Surge product development using high performance magnetic materials.
High-voltage testing using standard surge simulators (LSS-6230 and LSS-F03) and expertise in IEEEC62.41/IEC60038 standards.
Experience in conducting UL-1449 surge immunity tests (Underwriters’ Laboratory test procedures).
Competency in power electronics software tools.
Experience with instrumentation and computer interfacing.
Computational modelling and simulation using MATLAB, Simulink, Mathematica, VisSim, and LTSpice/PSpice software tools.