Influence of the deflector plate on the performance of modified Savonius water turbine

Savonius rotor is simple in design and easy to fabricate at a lower cost. The basic driving force of Savonius rotor is drag. The drag coefficient of a concave surface is more than the convex surface. Hence, the advancing blade with concave side facing the water flow would experience more drag force than the returning blade, thus forcing the rotor to rotate. Net driving force can be increased by reducing the reverse force on the returning blade. This can be realized by providing flow obstacle to the returning blade. The objective of the present work is to find out the optimal position of the deflector plate upstream to the flow which would result in maximum power generated by the rotor. Experimental investigations are carried out to study the influence of the location of the deflector plate on the performance of a modified Savonius rotor with water as the working medium at a Reynolds number of 1.32 × 10⁵. Eight different positions of the deflector plate are attempted in this study. Results conclude that deflector plate placed at its optimal position increases the coefficient of power by 50%. Maximum coefficient of power is found to be 0.21 at a tip speed ratio of 0.82 in the presence of deflector plate. Two stage and three stage modified Savonius rotors are tested to study the influence of deflector plate at the optimal position. Maximum coefficient of power improves by 42%, 31% and 17% with deflector plate for two stage 0° phase shift, 90° phase shift and three stage modified Savonius rotor respectively.     

挡流板对垂直轴风力机性能影响的试验研究与分析

在风力机前方安装挡流板可提高H型垂直轴风力机的发电功率,但目前缺少对该结构装置的全面系统研究,且评估安装挡流板时所使用的风能利用系数C_P的计算方法并不恰当,以至于某些计算结果突破贝兹极限,导致概念混淆。文章通过对挡流板安装位置及安装角度进行测试,获取了不同位置的风力发电功率随风轮转速的变化关系。结果表明:在一定距离范围内,挡流板与风轮有一最佳距离,挡流板远离风轮时,提高风速的效果差,挡流板距离风轮越近对来流风干扰变大,输出功率反而降低;挡流板的最佳安装角度为90°,安装角小于或者大于90°时,风速变化平缓,输出功率增长减弱,失去聚风作用。考虑到挡流板聚风后叶轮前的风场不均匀,在计算C_P时不能取某一个风速值或用平均值代入其定义式,文章提出了采用平均风动能的统计方法计算C_P,计算结果表明,增加挡流板可以提高输出功率,但不一定能增加C_P值。     

实度对低风速风电机组风轮气动性能影响研究

为提高低风速地区的风能利用率,研究风轮实度对低风速风电机组气动性能的影响。考虑影响风轮实度因素（叶片数量、弦长及安装角）,设计2组不同弦长叶片与可调安装角轮毂。安装角改变时不仅会引起实度变化,还会使叶尖速比发生改变。通过车载试验验证安装角不同时对风轮气动性能的影响主要与叶尖速比相关。根据不同风轮表面压力分布数值模拟结果得出：相同风速下,弦长由叶根到叶尖逐渐增大的叶片更易启动。相同条件下,试验机组输出功率与数值模拟机组输出功率最大相差5.37%,说明数值模拟结果可信。随着风轮实度的增加,风速5 m/s时,其风能利用系数呈增大趋势,风速8 m/s时,其风能利用系数呈减小趋势,两趋势相交时实度为25.38%,得出该实度下风轮气动性能较优,即可得到适合低风速地区的风轮实度。     

Anticipatory Control of Wind Turbines With Data-Driven Predictive Models

The concept of anticipatory control applied to wind turbines is presented. Anticipatory control is based on the model predictive control (MPC) approach. Unlike the MPC method, noncontrollable variables (such as wind speed) are directly considered in the dynamic equations presented in the paper to predict response variables, e.g., rotor speed and turbine power output. To determine future states of the power drive with the dynamic equations, a time series model was built for wind speed. The time series model was fused with the dynamic equations to predict the response variables over a certain prediction horizon. Based on these predictions, an optimization model was solved to find the optimal control settings to improve the power output without incurring large rotor speed changes. As both the dynamic equations and time series model were built by data mining algorithms, no gradient information is available. A modified evolutionary strategy algorithm was used to solve a nonlinear constrained optimization problem. The proposed approach has been tested on the data collected from a 1.5 MW wind turbine.      

A torque matched aerodynamic performance analysis method for the horizontal axis wind turbines

An analysis method is developed to test the operational performance of a horizontal axis wind turbines. The rotor is constrained to the torque–speed characteristic of the coupled generator. Therefore, the operational conditions are realized by matching the torque generated by the turbine over a selected range of incoming wind velocity to that needed to rotate the generator. The backbone of the analysis method is a combination of Schmitz' and blade element momentum (BEM) theories. The torque matching is achieved by gradient‐based optimization method, which finds correct wind speed at a given rotational speed of the rotor. The combination of Schmitz and BEM serves to exclude the BEM iterations for the calculation of interference factors. Instead, the relative angle is found iteratively along the span. The profile and tip losses, which are empirical, are included in the analysis. Hence, the torque at a given wind speed and rotational speed can be calculated by integrating semi‐analytical equations along the blade span. The torque calculation method is computationally cheap and therefore allows many iterations needed during torque matching. The developed analysis method is verified experimentally by testing the output power and rotational speed of an existing wind turbine model in the wind tunnel. The generator's torque rotational speed characteristic is found by a separate experimental set‐up. Comparison of experiments with the results of the analysis method shows a good agreement. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performance investigation of a power augmented vertical axis wind turbine for urban high-rise application

A shrouded wind turbine system has a number of potential advantages over the conventional wind turbine. A novel power-augmentation-guide-vane (PAGV) that surrounds a Sistan wind turbine was designed to improve the wind rotor performance by increasing the on-coming wind speed and guiding it to an optimum flow angle before it interacts with the rotor blades. The integration of the PAGV into the 3-in-1 wind, solar and rain water harvester on high-rise buildings has been illustrated. A particular concern related to public safety is minimized when the wind turbine is contained inside the PAGV and noise pollution can be reduced due to the enclosure. Besides, the design of the PAGV that blends into the building architecture can be aesthetic as well. Moreover, a mesh can be mounted around the PAGV to prevent the bird-strike problem. From the wind tunnel testing measurements where the wind turbine is under free-running condition (only rotor inertia and bearing friction were applied), the wind rotor rotational speed (with the PAGV) was increased by 75.16%. Meanwhile, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation shows that the rotor torque was increased by 2.88 times with the introduction of the PAGV. Through a semi-empirical method, the power output increment of the rotor with the PAGV was 5.8 times at the wind speed of 3 m/s. Also, the flow vector visualization (CFD) shows that a larger area of upstream flow was induced through the rotor with the PAGV.     

Sensor-less maximum power point tracking control for wind generation system with squirrel cage induction generator

This paper proposes a technique that determines the optimal windmill operation speed and the optimal rotor flux. Moreover, the position and speed sensor-less wind generation system using the electromotive voltage observer to estimate rotor position and full-order observer to estimate rotor speed and the windmill output torque are proposed. The position and speed sensor-less maximum power point of wind power generation system is controlled by using the above estimated values, optimized windmill operation speed for maximum output power and optimized rotor flux for minimum generator losses. The effectiveness of the position and speed sensor-less maximum power point tracking control for wind power generation system with squirrel cage induction generator is verified by simulations. The simulation results confirm that the proposed method can estimate the operation speed efficiently.     

Wind velocity and rotor position sensorless maximum power point tracking control for wind generation system

In order to perform maximum power point tracking control of wind generation system, it is necessary to drive windmill at an optimal rotor speed. For that purpose, a rotor position and a wind velocity sensors become indispensable. However, from the aspect of reliability and increase in cost, rotor position sensor and wind velocity sensor are not usually preferred. Hence, wind velocity and position sensorless operating method for wind generation system using observer is proposed in this paper. Moreover, improving the efficiency of the permanent magnet synchronous generator is also performed by optimizing d-axis current using the Powell method.     

Wind turbine extreme gust control

This paper focuses on the problem of extreme wind gust and direction change recognition (EG&DR) and control (EEC). An extreme wind gust with direction change can lead to large loads on the turbine (causing fatigue) and unnecessary turbine shutdowns by the supervisory system caused by rotor overspeed. The proposed EG&DR algorithm is based on a non‐linear observer (extended Kalman filter) that estimates the oblique wind inflow angle and the blade effective wind speed signals, which are then used by a detection algorithm (cumulative sum test) to recognize extreme events. The non‐linear observer requires that blade root bending moments measurements (in‐plane and out‐of‐plane) are available. Once an extreme event is detected, an EEC algorithm is activated that: (i) tries to prevent the rotor speed from exceeding the overspeed limit by fast collective blade pitching; and (ii) reduces 1p blade loads by means of individual pitch control algorithm, designed in an ?_∞ optimal control setting. The method is demonstrated on a complex non‐linear test turbine model. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performance investigation of a small Savonius-Darrius counter-rotating vertical-axis wind turbine

This paper describes the study of a small vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) with a combined design of Darrius and Savonius counter-rotating rotors. The main purpose of this study is to improve the extraction capabilities of a single-rotor VAWT by using two distinct rotor designs while adopting the counter-rotating technique. Given that the conversion capabilities and operational speed of the existing wind turbines are still limited, the current technique is used to enhance the efficiency and expand the operating wind speed range of the VAWT. The Darrius and Savonius counter-rotating rotors were exposed to a similar upstream wind speed using a centrifugal blower. It was found that the Savonius-Darrius counter-rotating rotor was able to operate effectively, particularly at the low-speed wind. By looking at the individual performance of the rotors, it was observed that the conversion efficiency of the H-type rotor increases as the wind speed increases. However, in the case of the S-type rotor, it is higher at lower wind speed and tends to decrease as the operating speed increases. Thus, the maximum efficiency of the S-type rotor was achieved at low speed, whereas the H-type rotor has achieved its maximum efficiency at the highest operating wind speed. The average efficiency of the present Savonius-Darrius counter-rotating rotor has been improved to reach almost 42% and 30% more efficiency in terms of torque and power, respectively.     

Design and performance of a small shrouded cretan windwheel

A Cretan-type windwheel is attractive because of its design simplicity, low cost, durability and ease of construction by semi-skilled labour from a variety of indigenous materials. Utilising a 0·64 m diameter cycle wheel as the structurally strong framework for the windwheel sails provides a rotor that is sufficiently rigid, relatively cheap (especially if the wheel and axle are cannibalised from an abandoned bicycle) and readily available throughout the world. Sail manufacture, assembly and maintenance for a Cretan windwheel can usually be undertaken locally, so eliminating the high costs of importing commercially available wind energy conversion systems. Thus, Cretan-type windwheels are likely to be increasingly used in less developed countries despite their intrinsically poor capabilities for harnessing wind power.Test data for a shrouded version of the ‘cycle wheel’, Cretan system are presented. The use of nine loosely sheeted sails produced a maximum power output of 14 W for an air speed at entry to the rotor of 5 m s^?1, corresponding to a free stream wind of less than 3·5 m s^?1. For this system it was found that tight (rather than loose) sails harnessed relatively little power. The presence of the shroud, which reduced tip losses, led to higher power coefficients being attainable.Two possible applications for a larger version (than tested) shrouded, Cretan type windwheel are described, namely (i) for irrigation and land drainage in undeveloped countries and (ii) for stimulating a peristaltic pump which acts as a gravitational boost to drive solar-heated anti-freeze liquid around a low height, domestic central-heating circuit.     

Optimized linearization of chord and twist angle profiles for fixed-pitch fixed-speed wind turbine blades

The chord and twist angle radial profiles of a fixed-pitch fixed-speed (FPFS) horizontal-axis wind turbine blade are based on a particular design wind speed and design tip speed ratio. Because the tip speed ratio varies with wind speed, the originally optimized chord and twist angle radial profiles for a preliminary blade design through optimum rotor theory do not necessarily provide the highest annual energy production (AEP) for the wind turbine on a specific site with known wind resources. This paper aims to demonstrate a novel optimal blade design method for an FPFS wind turbine through adopting linear radial profiles of the blade chord and twist angle and optimizing the slope of these two lines. The radial profiles of the blade chord and twist angle are linearized on a heuristic basis with fixed values at the blade tip and floating values at the blade root based on the preliminary blade design, and the best solution is determined using the highest AEP for a particular wind speed Weibull distribution as the optimization criteria with constraints of the top limit power output of the wind turbine. The outcomes demonstrate clearly that the proposed blade design optimization method offers a good opportunity for FPFS wind turbine blade design to achieve a better power performance and low manufacturing cost. This approach can be used for any practice of FPFS wind turbine blade design and refurbishment.     

双馈风力发电系统的最大风能控制策略

在分析变速恒频风力发电系统最大风能捕获策略的基础上,提出了一种通过直接控制双馈发电机转子电流就可实现系统低于额定风速下的最大风能捕获又可使得电机铜耗最小化运行的控制策略.首先,在考虑风力机特性和双馈发电机基本电磁关系的基础上,分别推导了双馈发电机定子铜耗最小化运行和最大风能捕获的数学模型.其次,根据双馈发电机最优转子电流的数学模型,建立了双馈风力发电机系统最大风能捕获的控制策略.最后,利用Matlab/Simulink对不同风速下双馈发电机系统的运行性能进行了分析和比较,结果验证了该控制策略的正确性和可行性.     

Reactive power capability of a wind turbine with doubly fed induction generator

The aim of the work is to derive a steady state PQ‐diagram for a variable speed wind turbine equipped with a Doubly Fed Induction Generator. Firstly, the dependency between optimal rotor speed and wind speed is presented. Secondly, the limitations in reactive power production, caused by the rotor current, the rotor voltage and the stator current are derived. Thirdly, the influence of switching from Δ to Y coupling of the stator is investigated. Finally, a complete PQ diagram for a wind turbine is plotted. It is concluded that the limiting factor regarding reactive power production will typically be the rotor current limit, and that the limit for reactive power absorption will be the stator current limit. Further, it is concluded that the rotor voltage will only have a limiting effect at high positive and negative slips, but near the limitation, the reactive power capability is very sensitive to small changes in the slip. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A complete modeling and simulation of DFIG based wind turbine system using fuzzy logic control

The current paper talks about the variable speed wind turbine generation system (WTGS). So, the WTGS is equipped with a doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) and two bidirectional converters in the rotor open circuit. A vector control (VC) of the rotor side converter (RSC) offers independent regulation of the stator active and reactive power and the optimal rotational speed tracking in the power maximization operating mode. A VC scheme for the grid-side converter (GSC) allows an independent regulation of the active and reactive power to exchange with the grid and sinusoidal supply currents and keeps the DC-link voltage constant. A fuzzy inference system (FIS) is adopted as an alternative of the conventional proportional and integral (PI) controller to reject some uncertainties or disturbance. The performances have been verified using the Matlab/Simulink software.     

风力发电机速度跟踪自适应控制研究

为风力发电系统设计了全程速度跟踪自适应控制器,以保证风轮机的转子转速在整个风速全程变化范围内都能迅速跟踪上给定的希望速度,希望的速度曲线是根据考虑了风速大小、转子所允许的最大转速和额定功率将风轮机转子转速划分为3个不同的运行区域给出的,在这3个区域中可保证风力发电机最大程度的获取风能,同时又可安全可靠运行.理论推导和仿真研究结果均表明,所设计的控制器能驱使闭环风力发电系统在整个运行过程中很好地跟踪所给定的速度曲线,从而实现了最大利用风能且安全运行的设计目的.     

Disturbance observer‐based integral sliding mode control for wind energy conversion systems

Recently, wind power production has been under the focus in generating power and became one of the main sources of alternative energy. Generating of maximum power from wind energy conversion system (WECS) requires accurate estimation of aerodynamic torque and uncertainties presented in the system. The current paper proposed the generalized high‐order disturbance observer (GHODO) with integral sliding mode control (ISMC) for extraction of maximum power via variable speed wind turbine by accurate estimation of wind speed. The assumption in previous works that considers the aerodynamic torque as slow‐varying is not applicable for the real system. Therefore, the high‐order disturbance observers were designed for precise estimation of uncertainties with fast‐changing behavior. A robust control system was designed to control the speed of the rotor at the optimal speed ratio. The obtained simulation results have shown the better performance characteristics than conventional linear quadratic regulator (LQR) approach. The stability of the proposed algorithm was proven by Lyapunov stability anaysis. Simulations results were obtained in Matlab/Simulink environment.     

垂直轴螺旋式风力叶轮的动态特性研究

采用风力叶轮直接驱动盘式发电机的方式,针对一种垂直轴螺旋式风力叶轮进行旋转状态下的动态特性试验研究,分别在自然风条件下和拖车试验条件下(来流速度为1～12 m/s),对试验装置的空载转速、空载电压进行测定,并对叶尖速比进行统计分析。研究结果表明:在自然风条件下,风速波动大,导致瞬态采集的风速与风轮转速不对应;在拖车试验条件下,来流速度相对稳定,且较易控制,风速与输出电压的对应关系较为明显。研究结果为相应的控制系统的设计与优化提供了参考。     

基于SONAH的旋转风轮声源识别实验研究

在风洞开口实验段,针对不同风速及不同叶尖速比,应用Brükel&Kj?r公司60通道轮型声阵列及声信号采集系统对直径为1.4 m的S翼型风轮进行声场测试,并采用统计最优近场声全息(SONAH)技术进行旋转风轮低频噪声源识别及频域特征分析。实验结果表明:最大声强度是旋转叶片产生的基频噪声,其对应总声压级随风速增加呈函数f (x)=-0.0092x⁴+0.297x³-3.7403x²+23.186x+49.274增加,随叶尖速比增加呈函数f(x)=0.4467x⁴-10.273x³+87.728x²-328.75x+567.23增加;识别的噪声源最大能量中心集中于翼展位置约0.545 m,相对半径r/R=0.778处,且不随风速和尖速比的改变而改变。     

Do we really need rotor equivalent wind speed?

The use of the rotor equivalent wind speed for determination of power curves and annual energy production for wind turbines is advocated in the second edition of the IEC 61400‐12‐1 standard. This requires the measurements of wind speeds at different heights, for which remote sensing equipment is recommended in addition to meteorological masts. In this paper, we present a theoretical analysis that shows that the relevance of the rotor equivalent wind speed method depends on turbine dimensions and wind shear regime. For situations where the ratio of rotor diameter and hub height is smaller than 1.8, the rotor equivalent wind speed method is not needed if the wind shear coefficient at the location of the wind turbine has a constant value between ?0.05 and 0.4: in these cases, the rotor equivalent wind speed and the wind speed at hub height are within 1%. For complex terrains with high wind shear deviations are larger. The effect of non‐constant wind shear exponent, ie, different wind shear coefficients for lower and upper half of the rotor swept area especially at offshore conditions is limited to also about 1%.