ELECTRONICS & POWER JULY/AUGUST 1983
Book Reviews
Reactive power control in electric
systems
T.J.E. Miller
Wiley Interscience
1982, 381pp. £41.00
The materialisation over the last
decades of a large number of long
distance transmission schemes, both
AC and DC, have resulted in a vast in-
crease in the use of reactive compensa-
tion equipment. At the same time the ap-
pearance, in increasing numbers, of
loads capable of causing voltage fluc-
tuations and harmonic problems has
further extended their use. This growth
in demand at both the transmission and
distribution level has stimulated the
development of new techniques which
are now available for the control of
voltage and reactive power. The ap-
pearance of a book devoted entirely to
this subject is therefore nothing if not
timely.
The treatment of the subject is com-
prehensive, with contributions from dif-
ferent authors each of whom is an ex-
pert on a particular aspect. One appeal
of the book is that it starts from first prin-
ciples so that there is something for the
novice as well as the more experienced
engineer. Three chapters are devoted to
the theory of compensation and these
are followed by others dealing with
series capacitors, static compensators,
synchronous condensers and har-
monics to name a few. Most chapters
contain a list of references, and in addi-
tion there is a useful sectionalised
bibliography at the end.
Undoubtedly this is a useful contribu-
tion to the literature on power systems
and will be of immense value to the prac-
tising engineer and postgraduate stu-
dent alike. Unfortunately its price will en-
sure that few of the latter will own a per-
sonal copy.
J.P. BICKFORD
Planning and engineering of
shortwave links
Gerhard Braun
Heyden
1982, 329 pp. £17.50
Shortwave HF radio has always been
somewhat regarded as the 'Cinderella'
of the communications world; thus
availability of adequate reference
books has not been so prolific as those
of other radio communications
disciplines. A comprehensive work en-
titled 'Planning and engineering of short-
wave links' must therefore be a
welcome publication. In it, the author,
Gerhard Braun of Siemens Ak-
tiengesellschaft, provides a concise but
fully comprehensive account of the plan-
ning and design of shortwave links in the
1 • 5-30 MHz frequency band preparatory
to their practical implementation.
To the student and practising
engineer the book is a valuable account
of the design, propagation and
mathematical calculation of shortwave-
radio-link expected performance. The
treatment is clear and detailed.
587
The introductory chapter confines
itself to fundamentals, particularly the
composition and vagaries of the
ionosphere and its effects on radio pro-
pagation. Following is an extremely
useful chapter on 'definitions' which
clearly and fully sets out such aspects
as classes of emission, modes of opera-
tion, transmitter radiated power, diversi-
ty working etc. It is, however, a great pity
that the book has not been able to reflect
the WARC-79 regulations and particular-
ly the definition of classes of emission
and frequency band allocations are now
misleading.
These chapters lead the reader into
the methods of calculation of the ex-
pected performance of shortwave radio
paths over varying distances for both
groundwave and skywave with the aid of
ample diagrams and examples.
While it is a good reference book
in itself, its value to the engineer
would have been enhanced by
reference to such aspects as oblique
channel sounding and channel assess-
ment, transmission of digital information
at speeds, say, up to -2400 bauds, com-
binations of diversity working such as
time plus frequency, error detection and
correction techniques and also to some
of the more unpredictable problems met
with in practice.
B.W. BARDWELL
Fundamentals handbook of elec-
trical and computer engineering.
Vol. 1. Circuits, fields and elec-
tronics
Sheldon S.L. Chang (Ed.)
Wiley
1982, 707 pp. £50
This is the first of a three volume set of
referenced books in the style of the
'Handbooks' available in other
disciplines, and the intention of the
editorial panel is to provide practising
engineers with details of up-to-date
research and technological
developments in a broad range of topics.
Volume 1 concentrates on background
fundamentals of circuits, fields and elec-
tronic devices, Volume 2 covers com-
munications, control devices and
systems, and Volume 3 computer
hardware, software and applications.
This first volume comprises two sec-
tions covering mathematical and
physical background material, followed
by five further sections on circuit theory,
digital signal processing, transmission
and propagation, electronics and finally
switching theory and logic design. There
are 13 contributors to this first volume.
The coverage is selective and inten-
sive — 58 pages of mathematics range
over vector analysis, complex variable
theory, Laplace and z-transforms, partial
differential equations, special functions,
matrix algebra, dynamic programming
and the maximum principle! Nearly 100
pages are devoted to microwave
acoustic devices, and gallium-arsenide
applications are extensively covered.
Details are included of recent
developments in microwave solid state
devices, lasers, magnetic-bubble com-
ponents and Josephson computer
technology.
A claim that the presentation would
enable non-specialists to 'read about,
master the fundamentals and do mean-
ingful design work in a research area'
seems rather far fetched, and indeed
much of the material presented is very
much for specialists. Nevertheless, the
accumulation of a large amount of infor-
mation, together with a selection of
references within each section will fulfil
some of the expectations of a 'Hand-
book' reader.
G A L REED
Computer modelling of electrical
power systems
J. Arrillaga, C.P. Arnold and B.J.
Harker
Wiley
1983, 423pp. £25.00
In summary the authors describe
mathematical models for typical power
distribution components and systems.
The subject matter includes generation,
conversion and transmission with par-
ticular emphasis on AC-DC convertors
and HVDC transmission links. The
developed models are used in computer
simulation studies of load flow, stability,
and transients, under normal and fault
conditions.
Overall the book covers a range of im-
portant topics for power distribution
engineers and demonstrates the
benefits which can be obtained by use of
computer modelling and simulation. Un-
fortunately the simulation aspects con-
clude with only briefly descriptive pro-
gram flow charts. The book will
therefore be of value in understanding
the operation of existing programs, but
is not appropriate for the creation of new
programs in any reasonable time scale
(certainly not by practising engineers for
whom the book is claimed to be primarily
intended). Since the frontispiece in-
dicates that the authors have developed
a new generation of such programs it is
regrettable that they have not indicated
the availability of these.
A careful and detailed scrutiny, by the
reviewer, has revealed only minor errors
and discrepancies in the text. However,
there are a number of irritating features
in the presentation. The most significant
of these is the frequent use of the suffix
notation with the accompanying point
separators between equation terms.
In conclusion, the book is expected
primarily to satisfy needs in the prin-
ciples, rather than the practice, of com-
puter modelling. The full potential will
only be realised when the material can
be directly associated with correspon-
ding, and available, simulation pro-
grams.
B.COULBECK