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Dictionary of Electrical Engineering

Commonly used terms in the Electrical industry.

(1) a signed representation of electrical or mechanical variables in the phase plane in order to situate the different modes for energy transfer. This term can be used both for power electronics and electrical machines. For electrical variables, the four-quadrant operation is defined by the voltage-current (or current-voltage) characteristic with the two variables expressed as instantaneous or mean values. For mechanical variables, the term is defined by the torque-speed (or speed-torque) characteristic with the same time-domain representation as previously explained. The energy transfer is defined with electrical power in the voltage-current curve and with mechanical power in the torque-speed curve. The four-quadrant operation is related to reversible power in electromechanical systems.
For example, in the case of power electronics, the four-quadrant operation is defined only with electrical variables to visualize the way of energy transfer in a static converter. For electrical machines, the same operation can
be defined with electrical variables at the input (motor) or at the output (generator) and also with mechanical variables at the output (motor) or at the input (generator).

(2) the four combinations of forward/reverse rotation and forward/reverse torque of which a regenerative drive is capable. These are: motoring: forward rotation/forward torque; regeneration: forward rotation/reverse torque; motor: reverse rotation/reverse torque; and regeneration: reverse rotation/forward torque. four-wave mixing a nonlinear optical
phenomenon in which four optical beams interact inside nonlinear media or photorefractive crystals. When four beams of coherent electromagnetic radiation intersect inside a nonlinear or photorefractive medium, they will, in general, form six interference patterns and induce six volume refractive index gratings in the medium. The presence of the index gratings will affect the propagation of these four beams. This may lead to energy coupling. The coupling of the four optical
beams is referred to as four-wave mixing. In one of the most useful four-wave mixing configurations, the four beams form two pairs of counterpropagating beams. In this particular configuration, some of the refractive index gratings are identical in their grating wavevectors. This leads to the generation of phase conjugate waves. Four-wave mixing
is a convenient method for the generation of phase conjugated waves.