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Professor Alistair Duffy

Job: Professor of Electromagnetics, Associate Dean of Research and Innovation

Faculty: Computing, Engineering and Media

School/department: School of Engineering and Sustainable Development

Research group(s): Advanced Manufacturing Processes and Mechatronics Centre (AMPMC), Centre for Electronic and Communications Engineering (CECE)

Address: ºÚÁÏÍø, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH UK

T: +44 (0)116 257 7056

E: apd@dmu.ac.uk

W:

 

Personal profile

Alistair Duffy is Professor of Electromagnetics, and Associate Dean of Research and Innovation in the Faculty of Technology at ºÚÁÏÍø, Leicester, UK. He received the Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and an MEng degree from University College, Cardiff, UK, in 1988 and 1989, respectively. After receiving the Master’s degree, he joined the research group of Professors Christopoulos and Benson at Nottingham University. There he worked on experimental validation of numerical modelling and received his PhD in 1993. Dr Duffy completed his professional education in 2004 with an MBA from Open University, UK. He is widely published, with over 200 technical papers and articles, mostly on his research interests of validation of computational electromagnetics; physical layer components, particularly communications cabling, and electromagnetic compatibility testing. 

Dr Duffy has contributed to many successful conferences through refereeing functions or organising committee responsibilities. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the International Wire and Cable Symposium, which attracts approximately 1,000 delegates annually. He is an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on EMC and an Associate Editor of the ACES Journal. Other professional activities include standards body work in the UK (British Standards Institute) and in the IEEE, where he is currently Chair of the EMC Society's Standards Development and Education Committee (SDECom). He is also the Society’s Global EMC Symposium Coordinator. From 2008 to 2009 he served the IEEE EMC Society as a Distinguished Lecturer. In 2015, Dr Duffy was elected to the grade of IEEE Fellow for the development of validation methods in computational electromagnetics.

Dr Duffy was a Series Editor for undergraduate textbooks published by Butterworth-Heinemann (now part of Elsevier) and SciTech Publishing (now part of the IET) on EMC. He has supervised 20 PhD students during his career.

Publications and outputs


  • dc.title: Design, simulation, and fabrication of a double annular ring microstrip antenna based on gaps with multiband feature dc.contributor.author: Al-Tumah, Wa'il A. Godaymi; Shaaban, Raed M.; Duffy, A. P. dc.description.abstract: A novel double annular-ring microstrip antenna, split into six sectors, is proposed to achieve multiband operation with high gain and impedance bandwidth. The gaps on the driven and parasitic patches excite resonant frequencies that are located in the Ku-, K-, and Ka-bands thus making the antenna capable of these multiband applications. The present design is numerically and experimentally investigated. This investigation indicates that the suggested antenna achieves four operating bands, with impedance bandwidths of 1.72 GHz (12.16–13.88 GHz), 2.04 GHz (19.28–21.32 GHz), 1.54 GHz (24.04–25.58 GHz), and 1.97 GHz (27.37–29.34 GHz) which correspond to the resonant frequencies of 13.10 GHz, 20.72 GHz, 25.00 GHz, and 28.85 GHz, respectively. Also, the new design achieves good values of gain (6.11–8.31) dB and a return loss of between −16.14 dB and −21.52 dB. The commercial tool Ansoft high frequency structure simulator is used to simulate the designed antennas and it compared with the obtained measurement data. The comparison shows close agreement between the simulations and measurements. dc.description: open access article

  • dc.title: Improvements proposed to noisy-OR derivatives for multi-causal analysis: A case study of simultaneous electromagnetic disturbances dc.contributor.author: Devaraj, Lokesh; Khan, Qazi Mashaal; Ruddle, Alastair R.; Duffy, A. P.; Perdriau, Richard; Koohestani, Mohsen dc.description.abstract: In multi-causal analysis, the independence of causal influence (ICI) assumed by the noisy-OR (NOR) model can be used to predict the probability of the effect when several causes are present simultaneously, and to identify (when it fails) inter-causal dependence (ICD) between them. The latter is possible only if the probability of observing the multi-causal effect is available for comparison with a corresponding NOR estimate. Using electromagnetic interference in an integrated circuit as a case study, the data corresponding to the probabilities of observing failures (effect) due to the injection of individual (single cause) and simultaneous electromagnetic disturbances having different frequencies (multiple causes) were collected. This data is initially used to evaluate the NOR model and its existing derivatives, which have been proposed to reduce the error in predictions for higher-order multi-causal interactions that make use of the available information on lower-order interactions. Then, to address the identified limitations of the NOR and its existing derivatives, a new deterministic model called Super-NOR is proposed, which is based on correction factors estimated from the available ICD information.

  • dc.title: The Effect of the Ring Mains Units for On-line Partial Discharge Location with Time Reversal in Medium Voltage Networks dc.contributor.author: Ragusa, Antonella; Wouters, Peter A. A. F.; Sasse, Hugh; Duffy, A. P. dc.description.abstract: The performance of a new on-line partial discharge (PD) location method based on the Electromagnetic Time Reversal (EMTR) theory and the Transmission Line Matrix (TLM) method are investigated for characterization of Medium-Voltage (MV) networks. The generated distortion of the PD signal during its propagation along a network with realistically modelled components is reproduced in simulation and the effectiveness of the EMTR-based method to localise the PD source is analyzed. In particular, the effects of the ring main units (RMUs), that behave as a complex impedance, the variation with frequency of the MV cable impedance and the reflection patterns, due to impedance mismatches, are considered and investigated. Simulation results are given showing the performance of the EMTR method in two different networks configurations: the former one with a RMU at the end of a MV cable and the latter one with a second MV cable connected to the RMU of the first configuration having a distribution transformer at its far end. The results show that the EMTR method is able, with only a single observation point, to localise PDs also in the presence of RMU with a relative error, with respect to the line length, of approximately 1%. dc.description: open access article

  • dc.title: Electromagnetic time reve