Digital Twins in Power Electronics

Dear Colleagues,

Digital Twins (DTs), understood as real-time or near real-time digital replicas of physical objects, have gained popularity very rapidly across many fields. Without a doubt, the power electronic circuits (PECs), with their sensors and control, PECC (PEC²),  represent one such field. Needless to say, the DT of the PEC² has the potential to establish not only new research and development practices (including their manufacturing) but also their new exploitation and teaching habits. The exploitation habits may rely on continuous or discontinuous hardware health monitoring for PEC² lifetime prediction and prolongation. The teaching practices may rely, for example, on virtual or augmented reality. All that together should facilitate the use of the PEC² not only as single power conversion units but also as subsystems or systems in electric power conversion and transportation systems.

Nevertheless, before it can become a common practice, some challenges must be faced. The challenges, in short and simplified, are related to the fact that the well-established traditional modeling paths must be refurbished or even new ones discovered. The new ones will most likely lead through data-driven or even big-data-driven practices combined with artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI–ML). All that together creates challenges in creating all of the three commonly known types of DT: (1^st) the DT prototype (DTP), wherein there is no physical counterpart but only necessary “prescription” for its creation; (2^nd) DT instance (DTI), if only a selected operation thread is considered; and (3^rd) DT aggregate (DTA), a combination of more than one DTI  in a dedicated environment. Here, it is worth mentioning that such definitions can still be disputable, but it is a good starting point which will be adjusted in the future based on use experience.

Therefore, this Special Issue aims at undertaking a joint effort to: (i) critically review the existing classical PEC² models and modelling practices that can be relatively easily adjusted to the DT needs; (ii) demonstrate complete or partial solutions already tailored to the needs of the PEC² DT; (iii) and formulate reasonable guidelines for science and industry regarding directions and methods of research and development in the field of the PEC² DT.

Topics of interest for publications related to the aforementioned fields include, but are not limited to:

• Power electronic components/devices;
• Passive components;
• Passive and active filters;
• Power electronics converters (AC–DC, DC–DC, AC–DC, AC–AC);
• Power electronics for electric motor drives;
• Power electronics for renewable energy grid-integration;
• Power laminates;
• Printed circuit boards (PCBs);
• Connectors, housings, and cabling;
• Electrical modelling;
• Thermal modelling and cooling;
• Mechanical, possibly vibroacoustic, modeling;
• EMC modelling;
• Black box modelling;
• Modular power electronics;
• Sensors modelling;
• Steady-state and/or dynamic operation conditions;
• Normal and/or abnormal operation conditions;
• Data-driven and big-data-driven modelling;
• AI–ML;
• Transfer learning;
• Edge and/vs. cloud computing;
• Models and data storage;
• Visualization;
• Communication.

Dr. Radosław Nalepa
Prof. Dr. Tomasz Sikorski
Prof. Dr. Krzysztof Szabat
Dr. Karol Najdek
Guest Editors

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• digital twin
• power electronics
• artificial intelligence
• machine learning
• data science
• data streaming
• edge computing
• cloud computing