Damping of edgewise vibration in wind turbine blades by means of circular liquid dampers

This paper proposes a new type of passive vibration control damper for controlling edgewise vibrations of wind turbine blades. The damper is a variant of the liquid column damper and is termed as a circular liquid column damper (CLCD). Rotating wind turbine blades generally experience a large centrifugal acceleration. This centrifugal acceleration makes the use of this kind of oscillatory liquid damper feasible with a small mass ratio to effectively suppress edgewise vibrations. A reduced 2‐DOF non‐linear model is used for tuning the CLCD attached to a rotating wind turbine blade, ignoring the coupling between the blade and the tower. The performance of the damper is evaluated under various rotational speeds of the rotor. A special case in which the rotational speed is so small that the gravity dominates the motion of the liquid is also investigated. Further, the legitimacy of the decoupled optimization is verified by incorporating the optimized damper into a more sophisticated 13‐DOF aeroelastic wind turbine model with due consideration to the coupled blade‐tower‐drivetrain vibrations of the wind turbine as well as a pitch controller. The numerical results from the illustrations on a 5 and a 10MW wind turbine machine indicate that the CLCD at an optimal tuning can effectively suppress the dynamic response of wind turbine blades. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

大型风力机风轮气动不平衡的特性研究与验证

为了研究和探索风轮气动不平衡的物理特性,以某2.0 MW三叶片水平轴风力机为研究对象,采用计算机仿真及试验相结合的方法,研究风轮气动不平衡对机组动力学特性、气动性能及气动载荷的影响研究。通过气动特性分析和动力学分析表明,随着风轮叶片安装角的不平衡度增大,其机组性能逐渐下降,塔顶的载荷波动逐渐增大,叶片的挥舞载荷出现明显差异,机舱振动加速度变大。对塔顶振动加速度进行快速傅里叶变换分析,出现明显特征变化。研究过程表明,监测机舱振动加速度和机组功率曲线能有效识别机组气动不平衡程度。     

基于TMD的风力机塔筒振动控制研究

针对风力机塔筒在风振效应下振动过大的问题,该文基于调谐质量阻尼器(TMD)开展对风力机塔筒的减振控制研究。以某大型2 MW风力机塔筒为研究对象,基于ANSYS建立柔性的风力机塔筒有限元模型,并基于Kaimal谱和模态脉动曳力功率谱模拟得到脉动风速时程和风载时程曲线。为取得较好的TMD减振控制效果,根据Den Hartog法得到TMD的最优频率比和阻尼比。为分析TMD对塔筒结构强度的影响及其TMD的振动控制效果,对风力机塔筒进行静力学和风载作用下的动力响应仿真分析。研究结果表明:TMD对塔筒的静强度影响较小,相比于将TMD放置于塔筒内部,将TMD放置于塔顶机舱内能更有效地减小塔筒在风振效应下的位移峰值、标准偏差以及瞬态应力峰值,其抑制率分别达到63.51%、63.38%和59.74%。     

基于粘滞阻尼器的单桩式海上风力机结构振动控制

为探究湍流风与地震联合作用下单桩式海上风力机的结构动力学响应与振动控制,以单桩式NREL 5 MW海上风力机为研究对象,采用有限元法建立三维壳模型并基于二次开发将体等效线性模型集成于ABAQUS中,通过附加粘滞阻尼器对地震诱导风力机振动进行控制。结果表明:粘滞阻尼器能够大幅降低地震导致的风力机塔顶振动,但对湍流风引起的塔顶振动控制效果并不明显;粘滞阻尼器也能缓解因地震造成的支撑结构上Von-Mises应力集中现象且在粘滞阻尼器安装位置效果最好;粘滞阻尼器能够显著降低风力机桩基部分所受剪力最大值,而对弯矩的控制效果则在风力机支撑结构部分效果最明显。     

柱状漂浮式风力机结构振动控制

针对柱状漂浮式风力机的结构振动控制展开研究。首先为进行调谐质量阻尼器(TMD)参数的优化,对风力机模型进行简化,并对简化模型中的未知参数进行估计;随后,基于简化模型分别使用公式法和遗传算法对TMD参数进行优化,并通过比较塔顶前后位移的标准偏差确定最终的优化方法;最后,为评估TMD对风力机振动控制的影响,构建风力机的联合仿真模型,并在3种典型工况下进行仿真分析。仿真结果表明,所设计的TMD可以很好地降低漂浮式风力机的载荷以及位移,有效抑制塔顶振动加速度与系泊缆绳有效张力,同时可有效降低额定风速以上时电功率输出的标准偏差,使电功率输出更加稳定。     

Effect of tower and nacelle on the flow past a wind turbine

Large eddy simulations (LES) of the flow past a wind turbine with and without tower and nacelle have been performed at 2 tip speed ratios (TSR, ), λ=3 and 6, where the latter corresponds to design conditions. The turbine model is placed in a virtual wind tunnel to reproduce the “Blind test 1” experiment performed at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) closed‐loop wind tunnel. The wind turbine was modeled using the actuator line model for the rotor blades and the immersed boundary method for the tower and nacelle. The aim of the paper is to highlight the impact of tower and nacelle on the turbine wake. Therefore, a second set of simulations with the rotating blades only (neglecting the tower and nacelle) has been performed as reference. Present results are compared with the experimental measurements made at NTNU and numerical simulations available in the literature. The tower and nacelle not only produce a velocity deficit in the wake but they also affect the turbulent kinetic energy and the fluxes. The wake of the tower interacts with that generated by the turbine blades promoting the breakdown of the tip vortex and increasing the mean kinetic energy flux into the wake. When tower and nacelle are modeled in the numerical simulations, results improve significantly both in the near wake and in the far wake.     

A CFD study into the influence of unsteady aerodynamic interference on wind turbine surge motion

To improve knowledge of the unsteady aerodynamic characteristics and interference effects of a floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT), this article focuses on the platform surge motion of a full configuration wind turbine with the rotating blades, hub, nacelle, and tower shapes. Unsteady aerodynamic analyses considering the moving motion of an entire configuration wind turbine have been conducted using an advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and a conventional blade element momentum (BEM) analyses. The present CFD simulation is based on an advanced overset moving grid method to accurately consider the local and global motion of a three-dimensional wind turbine. The effects of various oscillation frequencies and amplitudes of the platform surge motion have been widely investigated herein. Three-dimensional unsteady flow fields around the moving wind turbine with rotating blades are graphically presented in detail. Complex flow interactions among blade tip vortices, tower shedding vortices, and turbulent wakes are physically observed. Comparisons of different aerodynamic analyses under the periodic surge motions are summarized to show the potential distinction among applied numerical methods. The present result indicates that the unsteady aerodynamic thrust and power tend to vary considerably depending on the oscillation frequency and amplitude of the surge motion.     

Simultaneous identification of wind turbine vibrations by using seismic data,elastic modeling and laser Doppler vibrometry

This work compares continuous seismic ground motion recordings over several months on top of the foundation and in the near field of a wind turbine (WT) at Pfinztal, Germany, with numerical tower vibration simulations and simultaneous optical measurements. We are able to distinguish between the excitation of eigenfrequencies of the tower‐nacelle system and the influence of the blade rotation on seismic data by analyzing different wind and turbine conditions. We can allocate most of the major spectral peaks to either different bending modes of the tower, flapwise, and edgewise bending modes of the blades or multiples of the blade‐passing frequency after comparing seismic recordings with tower simulation models. These simulations of dynamic properties of the tower are based on linear modal analysis performed with finite beam elements. To validate our interpretations of the comparison of seismic recordings and simulations, we use optical measurements of a laser Doppler vibrometer at the tower of the turbine at a height of about 20 m. The calculated power spectrum of the tower vibrations confirms our interpretation of the seismic peaks regarding the tower bending modes. This work gives a new understanding of the source mechanisms of WT‐induced ground motions and their influence on seismic data by using an interdisciplinary approach. Thus, our results may be used for structural health purposes as well as the development of structural damping methods, which can also reduce ground motion emissions from WTs. Furthermore, it demonstrates how numerical simulations of wind turbines can be validated by using seismic recordings and laser Doppler vibrometry.     

New vortex‐lift and tangential‐force models for HAWT aerodynamic load prediction

Horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) experience three‐dimensional rotational and unsteady aerodynamic phenomena at the rotor blades sections. These highly unsteady three‐dimensional effects have a dramatic impact on the aerodynamic load distributions on the blades, in particular, when they occur at high angles of attack due to stall delay and dynamic stall. Unfortunately, there is no complete understanding of the flow physics yet at these unsteady 3D flow conditions, and hence, the existing published theoretical models are often incapable of modelling the impact on the turbine response realistically. The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight on the combined influence of the stall delay and dynamic stall on the blade load history of wind turbines in controlled and uncontrolled conditions. New dynamic stall vortex and nonlinear tangential force coefficient modules, which integrally take into account the three dimensional rotational effect, are also proposed in this paper. This module along with the unsteady influence of turbulent wind speed and tower shadow is implemented in a blade element momentum (BEM) model to estimate the aerodynamic loads on a rotating blade more accurately. This work presents an important step to help modelling the combined influence of the stall delay and dynamic stall on the load history of the rotating wind turbine blades which is vital to have lighter turbine blades and improved wind turbine design systems.     

带缘板阻尼叶盘系统高速旋转激振试验研究

在燃气轮机高压涡轮叶片上安装缘板阻尼结构可以有效降低叶片振动应力,为了掌握叶片振动特性,进而指导阻尼结构设计,以某船用燃气轮机高压涡轮转子为研究对象,开展带缘板阻尼叶盘系统高速旋转激振试验。设计了缘板阻尼结构形式,开发了雾化油滴喷液激振试验系统;同时,模拟常温环境下的叶片工作载荷,结合试验数据分析获取叶片安装阻尼器前后的动应力变化情况。试验结果表明：所设计的试验系统能够很好地模拟叶片弯曲和扭转共振状态;无阻尼激振试验获取的叶片模态参数与理论计算值相当,试验结果验证了理论计算方法的准确性;安装缘板阻尼器后叶片弯曲振动应力下降明显,存在最优阻尼参数使减振效果最佳;根据叶片幅频响应曲线可以看出,缘板阻尼器使叶片非线性力学特征增强,出现叶片振动能量相互传递的现象。     

Aeroelastic validation and Bayesian updating of a downwind wind turbine

Downwind wind turbine blades are subjected to tower wake forcing at every rotation, which can lead to structural fatigue. Accurate characterisation of the unsteady aeroelastic forces in the blade design phase requires detailed representation of the aerodynamics, leading to computationally expensive simulation codes, which lead to intractable uncertainty analysis and Bayesian updating. In this paper, a framework is developed to tackle this problem. Full, detailed aeroelastic model of an experimental wind turbine system based on 3‐D Reynolds‐averaged Navier‐Stokes is developed, considering all structural components including nacelle and tower. This model is validated against experimental measurements of rotating blades, and a detailed aeroelastic characterisation is presented. Aerodynamic forces from prescribed forced‐motion simulations are used to train a time‐domain autoregressive with exogenous input (ARX) model with a localised forcing term, which provides accurate and cheap aeroelastic forces. Employing ARX, prior uncertainties in the structural and rotational parameters of the wind turbine are introduced and propagated to obtain probabilistic estimates of the aeroelastic characteristics. Finally, the experimental validation data are used in a Bayesian framework to update the structural and rotational parameters of the system and thereby reduce uncertainty in the aeroelastic characteristics.     

Integrated design of downwind land‐based wind turbines using analytic gradients

Wind turbines are complex systems where component‐level changes can have significant system‐level effects. Effective wind turbine optimization generally requires an integrated analysis approach with a large number of design variables. Optimizing across large variable sets is orders of magnitude more efficient with gradient‐based methods as compared with gradient‐free method, particularly when using exact gradients. We have developed a wind turbine analysis set of over 100 components where 90% of the models provide numerically exact gradients through symbolic differentiation, automatic differentiation, and adjoint methods. This framework is applied to a specific design study focused on downwind land‐based wind turbines. Downwind machines are of potential interest for large wind turbines where the blades are often constrained by the stiffness required to prevent a tower strike. The mass of these rotor blades may be reduced by utilizing a downwind configuration where the constraints on tower strike are less restrictive. The large turbines of this study range in power rating from 5–7MW and in diameter from 105m to 175m. The changes in blade mass and power production have important effects on the rest of the system, and thus the nacelle and tower systems are also optimized. For high‐speed wind sites, downwind configurations do not appear advantageous. The decrease in blade mass (10%) is offset by increases in tower mass caused by the bending moment from the rotor‐nacelle‐assembly. For low‐wind speed sites, the decrease in blade mass is more significant (25–30%) and shows potential for modest decreases in overall cost of energy (around 1–2%). Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于TMD的海上漂浮式风力机稳定性研究

海上漂浮式风力机的稳定性研究已逐渐成为风电研究的重点与热点。以NREL(国家可再生能源实验室)5 MW风力机及ITI Barge平台为研究对象,建立海上漂浮式风力机整机模型,通过配置TMD(调谐质量阻尼器),研究其对环境载荷作用下的海上漂浮式风力机稳定性的控制效果。结果表明:TMD对漂浮式风力机塔架和平台的运动响应有明显的抑制效果,在TMD控制下,漂浮式风力机塔顶左右位移最大值降低近50%,稳定性提高38%;对漂浮式风力机平台的横摇及横荡运动控制效果较明显,平台横荡稳定性提高18%,横摇稳定性提高41%。     

Wind turbine rotor imbalance detection using nacelle and blade measurements

Wind power is the world's fastest growing renewable energy source, but operations and maintenance costs are still a major obstacle toward reliability and widescale adoption of wind power, accounting for a large part of the cost of energy for offshore installations. Structural health monitoring systems have been proposed for implementing condition‐based maintenance. The wind energy industry currently uses condition monitoring systems that are mostly adapted from roating machinery in other power generation industries. However, these systems have had limited effectiveness on wind turbines because of their atypical operating conditions, which are characterized by low and variable rotational speed, rapidly varying torque, extremely large rotors and stochastic loading from the wind. Although existing systems primarily take measurements from the nacelle, valuable information can be extracted from the structural dynamic response of the rotor blades to mitigate potentially damaging loading conditions. One such condition is rotor imbalance, which not only reduces the aerodynamic efficiency of the turbine and therefore its power output but can also lead to very large increases in loading on the drivetrain, blades and tower. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's fast software was used to model both mass and aerodynamic imbalance in a 5 MW offshore wind turbine. It is shown that a combination of blade and nacelle measurements, most of which can be obtained from standard instrumentation already found on utility‐scale wind turbines, can be formulated into an algorithm used to detect and locate imbalance. The method described herein allows for imbalance detection that is potentially more sensitive than existing on‐line systems, while taking advantage of sensors that are already in place on many utility‐scale wind turbines. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prediction of aerodynamic performance of NREL offshore 5-MW baseline wind turbine considering power loss at varying wind speeds

In this study, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was developed to simulate the aerodynamic performance of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) offshore 5-MW baseline wind turbine with single rotor and full wind turbine. Using statistical methods, the relation between pitch angle and performance when the speed is above the rated wind speed was analyzed; furthermore, other published data were compiled to establish the functional equations of power, thrust with various inflow wind speeds, and pitch angles. In addition, according to shape optimization based on parametric modeling, the two-dimensional cross-section of the wind turbine blade can be defined through a metasurface approach, and the three-dimensional surface modeling of the wind turbine blade, nacelle, and tower is completed using the nonuniform rational B-splines (NURBS) interpolator. In terms of aerodynamic simulation, the unstructured polygon mesh was used herein to discretize the space and simulate the highly curved and twisted surfaces of the blade. In this study, the compact and accurate mesh form obtained through a grid independence test will be used to analyze the distribution of the pressure coefficient, shear stress coefficient, and limited streamline on the blade surface at various inflow wind speeds and pitch angles to understand the differences between different turbulence models and the causes of power and thrust attenuation at high inflow wind speeds. In addition, the phenomena of blade-tip vortices, dynamic stall, blade loading, and the interaction between nacelle and tower were collectively explored.     

海冰作用下近海桩柱式风力机动力学响应研究

高纬度低温海域海平面存在大量运动状态的海冰,位于此处的近海桩柱式风力机容易受到不规则的海冰载荷作用,风力机平台、塔架和叶片等结构部件的动力学响应均受其影响.为定性及定量分析海冰载荷对叶片和塔架的结构动力学响应的影响程度,以NREL5 MW近海4桩柱式风力机为研究对象,耦合风载荷、波浪载荷及海冰载荷,通过Kane方法建立风力机动力学模型,其中海冰载荷通过冰力函数定义.对比分析了在IEC Lock in冰力函数、Mttnen海冰模型和无海冰作用三种工况下叶片和塔架的结构动力学响应,结果表明:海冰载荷使塔顶位移增加,在Mttnen海冰模型作用下塔顶位移增加了24.1%,在IEC Lock in模型作用下则增加了16%;两种海冰模型均不同程度地使叶片挥舞振动的频率增大,其中在Mttnen海冰模型中变化更加剧烈,这极大地增加了叶片的疲劳载荷.     

Aero‐structural dynamics of a flexible hub connection for load reduction on two‐bladed wind turbines

In this study, an innovative concept for load reduction on the two‐bladed Skywind 3.4 MW prototype is presented. The load reduction system consists of a flexible coupling between the hub mount, carrying the drive train components including the hub assembly, and a nacelle carrier supported by the yaw bearing. This paper intends to assess the impact of introducing a flexible hub connection on the system dynamics and the aero‐elastic response to aerodynamic load imbalances. In order to limit the rotational joint motion, a cardanic spring‐damper element is introduced between the hub mount and the nacelle carrier flange, which affects the system response and the loads. A parameter variation of the stiffness and damping of the connecting spring‐damper element has been performed in the multi‐body simulation solver Simpack. A deterministic, vertically sheared wind field is applied to induce a periodic aerodynamic imbalance on the rotor. The aero‐structural load reduction mechanisms of the coupled system are thereby identified. It is shown that the fatigue loads on the blades and the turbine support structure are reduced significantly. For a very low structural coupling, however, the corresponding rotational deflections of the hub mount exceed the design limit of operation. The analysis of the interaction between the hub mount motion and the blade aerodynamics in a transient inflow environment indicates a reduction of the angle of attack amplitudes and the corresponding fluctuations of the blade loading. Hence, it can be concluded that load reduction is achieved by a combination of reduced structural coupling and a mitigation of aerodynamic load imbalances. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

风剪切下塔影效应对水平轴风力机叶片及风轮气动载荷的影响

采用CFD方法,以NH1500三叶片大型水平轴风力机为研究对象,研究额定风速剪切来流下的塔影效应对水平轴风力机叶片和风轮非定常气动载荷的影响。结果表明：剪切来流下,叶片和风轮的气动载荷均呈余弦变化规律,塔影效应的主要影响叶片方位角范围为160°~210°,且该范围不随风剪切指数的变化而变化。相同风剪切指数下,塔影效应对叶片和风轮气动载荷的均方根影响较小,对其波动影响较大。当风剪切指数从0.12增至0.30时,塔影效应下,叶片气动载荷的均方根减小,推力和转矩的波动幅度增大,偏航力矩和倾覆力矩的波动幅度减小;风轮推力和转矩的均方根减小,波动幅度变化较小,而倾覆力矩和偏航力矩的均方根增大,且波动幅度也增大。     

Wind tunnel investigation on the effect of the turbine tower on wind turbines wake symmetry

In wind farms, the wake of the upstream turbines becomes the inflow for the downstream machines. Ideally, the turbine wake is a stable vortex system. In reality, because of factors like background turbulence, mean flow shear, and tower‐wake interaction, the wake velocity deficit is not symmetric and is displaced away from its mean position. The irregular velocity profile leads to a decreased efficiency and increased blade stress levels for the downstream turbines. The object of this work is the experimental investigation of the effect of the wind turbine tower on the symmetry and displacement of the wake velocity deficit induced by one and two in‐line model wind turbines (,D= 0.9 m). The results of the experiments, performed in the closed‐loop wind tunnel of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim (Norway), showed that the wake of the single turbine expanded more in the horizontal direction (side‐wall normal) than in the vertical (floor normal) direction and that the center of the wake vortex had a tendency to move toward the wind tunnel floor as it was advected downstream from the rotor. The wake of the turbine tandem showed a similar behavior, with a larger degree of non‐symmetry. The analysis of the cross‐stream velocity profiles revealed that the non‐symmetries were caused by a different cross‐stream momentum transport in the top‐tip and bottom‐tip region, induced by the turbine tower wake. In fact, when a second additional turbine tower, mirroring the original one, was installed above the turbine nacelle, the wake recovered its symmetric structure. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

单桩海上风力机风致振动变阻尼控制研究

风致振动是大型风力机发生破坏性事故的主要原因.为探究半主动控制在近海单桩风力机风致振动控制中的应用效果,基于ABAQUS有限元软件二次开发了风力机半主动控制模块,以单桩式NREL5 MW海上风力机为研究对象,通过磁流变阻尼器对Bang-Bang控制、改进Bang-Bang控制及Lyapunov控制3种半主动控制算法在单...