Supervisors: Dr. James Ottewill, Dr. Michal Orkisz
Recruited ESRs: ESR-C: Victor Jaramillo
Hosting for secondment: ESR-A: Alejandro Fernández, ESR-M: Bart Van Parys
Cooperation: Cracow University of Technology, Statoil, Imperial College London, ABB-NO
Leading: WP1: Electromachinery
Contributing: WP4: Energy optimization
In 1996 the ABB Executive Board decided to establish a Corporate Research Centre in Poland, the first of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe joining ABB Research Organization in Europe, Asia and in the USA. Cracow, a Southern-Polish city with a traditionally strong academic population, was chosen as the location for Corporate Research Centre. Cracow's 15 universities, 140 Research Institutes and scientific organizations enable 150 000 students to gain high level of expert knowledge and implement it in their work.
ABB Corporate Research Centre in Cracow gathers ambitious MSc and PhD scientists who find here excellent working and research conditions. Broad access to emerging technologies makes work in the Center even more attractive. The international working environment allowing scientists to share knowledge and experience with other ABB colleagues creates unique atmosphere in the office.
In addition to Victor Jaramillo, Dr. Michal Orkisz and Dr. James Ottewill also participate in the ITN Energy-SmartOps project. Dr. Orkisz is the Research Area Coordinator for "Plant Life Cycle Optimization", whilst Dr. James Ottewill, is the Local Area Coordinator for "Advanced Diagnostics". The aim of both plant life cycle optimization and advanced diagnostics is to extend and improve the operating life of systems from the level of individual components up to entire process facilities. This can be achieved through the refinement of Asset Management policies that allow industrial sites to be more reliable, for example through more advanced Condition Monitoring techniques for critical machinery. Advanced Condition Monitoring techniques allow faults to be detected at an early stage and ensures that only true faults are distinguished from naturally occurring system dynamics. Thus the continued development of these methods can maximize both the reliability and availability of the plant, by promoting improved maintenance strategies and by ensuring spurious stops are minimized.
Within WP1: Electromachinery ABB is cooperating with Cracow University of Technology in the improvement of mathematical models of electric motors, with the aim of using them for Model-Based Condition Monitoring Approaches. The final goal is to improve the Condition Monitoring solutions by using more comprehensive approaches.