IEC standard based virtual wind turbine mechanical load test system

In order to conduct a systematic test over the mechanical load of the wind turbine, load measurement principles and methods have been studied according to the International Electro- technical Commission (IEC) standard, and wind turbine test scheme has been proposed. Combined with modern virtual instrument technology, a practical and reliable system for wind turbine mechanical load test has been developed. In addition to collecting various wind turbine parameters, the system can also yield a series of curves and charts ruled by IEC standards such as the capture matrix, the relation between load and wind speed, the equivalent load and load spectrum.     

Uncertainty in wind climate parameters and their influence on wind turbine fatigue loads

According to the wind turbine standard IEC 61400-1, structural integrity of wind turbines is determined either by direct reference to wind data or by load calculation. In both cases, deterministic values are applied and uncertainties neglected for the wind climate parameters and the structural resistance.The uncertainty related to the wind climate parameters depends highly on the presence, duration and quality of on-site wind measurements, and the perturbations introduced by flow modelling. For the wind speed distribution, the uncertainty is considered in assessment of the annual energy production. For other wind climate parameters which potentially have a large influence on the wind turbine loads, the uncertainty is often not well investigated.This paper presents a probabilistic framework for assessment of the structural reliability level of wind turbines in fatigue loading. Uncertainty of the site specific wind climate parameters at each turbine position is estimated based on the local wind measurements, speed-up factors and the distance between the wind turbine and the measuring position. The framework is demonstrated for a wind turbine project in flat terrain. The results show that the uncertainty in the site specific wind climate parameters normally accounts for 10–30% of the total uncertainty in the structural reliability analyses.     

Microtab dynamic modelling for wind turbine blade load rejection

A dynamic model characterising the effect of microtab deployment on the aerodynamics of its base aerofoil is presented. The developed model predicts the transient aerodynamic coefficients consistent with the experimental and computational data reported in the literature. The proposed model is then used to carry out investigation on the effectiveness of microtabs in load alleviation and lifespan increase of wind turbine blades. Simulating a bang–bang controller, different load rejection scenarios are examined and their effect on blade lifespan is investigated. Results indicate that the range of frequencies targeted for rejection can significantly impact the blade fatigue life.Case studies are carried out to compare the predicted load alleviation amount and the blade lifespan using the developed model with those obtained by other researchers using the steady state model. It is shown that the assumption of an instantaneous aerodynamic response as used in the steady state model can lead to inaccurate results.     

Representation of fatigue for wind turbine control

Fatigue is a critical factor in structures such as wind turbines exposed to harsh operating conditions, both in the design stage and in the control during their operation. In the present paper, the most recognized approaches to estimate the damage caused by fatigue in the component level are discussed and compared. The aim of this paper is to address the applicability of those fatigue damage estimation methods to control of wind turbines. Accordingly, for our discussion and comparison, we categorize fatigue estimation methods in a macroscopic scale as counting, spectral, stochastic and hysteresis operator methods. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Open loop wind turbine emulator

A new wind turbine emulator (WTE) is presented, which is able to simulate the turbine power curves without using a closed loop control system. The state of the art emulators use DC or AC motors, closed loop controlled by processors with the turbine power curves recorded. The presented emulator has a DC voltage source, a power resistor and a DC motor with independent excitation. The motor power curve has a shape similar to a wind turbine power curve for a given wind speed; the wind speed variations can be emulated by the variations of the DC voltage source. The open loop emulator is completely different and new, because it works in open loop and does not require the presence of a processor.The following elements are included: the theoretical foundations of the emulator, the emulator power curves adjustment procedure to simulate a commercial wind turbine and the experimental tests.     

A novel online training neural network-based algorithm for wind speed estimation and adaptive control of PMSG wind turbine system for maximum power extraction

In this paper, an adaptive control scheme for maximum power point tracking of stand-alone PMSG wind turbine systems (WTS) is presented. A novel procedure to estimate the wind speed is derived. To achieve this, a neural network identifier (NNI) is designed in order to approximate the mechanical torque of the WTS. With this information, the wind speed is calculated based on the optimal mechanical torque point. The NNI approximates in real-time the mechanical torque signal and it does not need off-line training to get its optimal parameter values. In this way, it can really approximates any mechanical torque value with good accuracy. In order to regulate the rotor speed to the optimal speed value, a block-backstepping controller is derived. Uniform asymptotic stability of the tracking error origin is proved using Lyapunov arguments. Numerical simulations and comparisons with a standard passivity based controller are made in order to show the good performance of the proposed adaptive scheme.     

Aerodynamic physics of smart load control for wind turbine due to extreme wind shear

This paper presents a numerical investigation of the smart load control on an Upwind/NREL 5 MW reference wind turbine under the IEC extreme wind shear (EWS) condition utilizing newly developed aero-servo-elastic platform. The control action was implemented through the local perturbation of a deformable trailing edge flap (DTEF) per blade, which was driven by a smart rotor system, based on the FAST/Aerodyn and Matlab/Simulink codes. Results showed that, compared with the original collective pitch control method, the aerodynamic load in terms of blade flapwise root moment and tip deflection were effectively reduced. Furthermore, the smart rotor control also positively affected other components of the drive-chain as well as generator power and pitch system. It was found that the smart control effect altered the nature of the flow-blade interactions and changed the in-phased fluid-structure synchronization into much weaker couplings. As a result, the damping of the fluid-blade system was significantly enhanced, leading to great attenuation in the EWS load on both rotor and other drive-chain components.     

The concept of a smart wind turbine system

A smart wind turbine concept with variable length blades and an innovative hybrid mechanical-electrical power conversion system was analyzed. The variable length blade concept uses the idea of extending the turbine blades when wind speeds fall below rated level, hence increasing the swept area, and thus maintaining a relatively high power output. It is shown for a typical site, that the annual energy output of such a wind turbine that could double its blade length, could be twice that of a corresponding turbine with fixed length blades. From a cost analysis, it is shown that the concept would be feasible if the cost of the rotor could be kept less than 4.3 times the cost of a standard rotor with fixed length blades. Given the variable length blade turbine system exhibits a more-or-less linear maximum power curve, as opposed to a non-linear curve for the standard turbine, an innovative hybrid mechanical-electrical power conversion system was proposed and tested proving the feasibility of the concept.     

Load sharing behavior analysis method of wind turbine gearbox in consideration of multiple-errors

Conducting a further analysis on loading sharing among compound planetary gear system in wind turbine gearbox, and making a meshing error analysis on the eccentricity error, gear thickness error, base pitch error, assembly error, and bearing error of wind turbine gearbox respectively. In view of the floating meshing error resulting from meshing clearance variation caused by the simultaneous floating of all gears, this paper establishes a refined mathematical model of two-stage power split loading sharing coefficient calculation in consideration of multiple errors. Also obtains the regular curves of the load sharing coefficient and floating orbits of center gears, and conducts a load sharing coefficient test experiment of compound planetary gear system to verify the research results, which can provide scientific theory evidence for proper tolerance distribution and control in design and process.     

Simplified fatigue load assessment in offshore wind turbine structural analysis

The estimation of fatigue lifetime for an offshore wind turbine support structure requires a large number of time‐domain simulations. It is an important question whether it is possible to reduce the number of load cases while retaining a high level of accuracy of the results. We present a novel method for simplified fatigue load assessments based on statistical regression models that estimate fatigue damage during power production. The main idea is to predict the total fatigue damage only and not also the individual damage values for each load case. We demonstrate the method for a jacket‐type support structure. Reducing the number of simulated load cases from 21 to 3, the total fatigue damage estimate exhibited a maximum error of about 6% compared with the complete assessment. As a consequence, a significant amount of simulation time can be saved, in the order of a factor of seven. This quick fatigue assessment is especially interesting in the application of structural optimization, with a large number of iterations. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performance enhancement and load reduction of a 5 MW wind turbine blade

A wind turbine rotor blade, based on the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) 5 MW reference turbine, is optimized for minimum cost of energy through simultaneous consideration of aerodynamics and bend-twist coupling. Eighty-three total design variables are considered, encompassing airfoil shapes, chord and twist distributions, and the degree of bend-twist coupling in the blade. A recently developed method requiring significantly less computation than finite element analysis is used for planning and predicting the bend-twist coupling behavior of the rotor. Airfoil performance is computed using XFOIL, while the wind turbine loads and performance are computed using the NREL FAST code. The objective function is annual cost of energy (COE), where reductions in flapwise bending loads and blade surface area are assumed to decrease rotor cost through reduced material requirements. The developed optimization process projects decreased blade loads while maintaining wind turbine performance.     

Assessment of wind characteristics and wind turbine characteristics in Taiwan

Wind characteristics and wind turbine characteristics in Taiwan have been thoughtfully analyzed based on a long-term measured data source (1961–1999) of hourly mean wind speed at 25 meteorological stations across Taiwan. A two-stage procedure for estimating wind resource is proposed. The yearly wind speed distribution and wind power density for the entire Taiwan is firstly evaluated to provide annually spatial mean information of wind energy potential. A mathematical formulation using a two-parameter Weibull wind speed distribution is further established to estimate the wind energy generated by an ideal turbine and the monthly actual wind energy generated by a wind turbine operated at cubic relation of power between cut-in and rated wind speed and constant power between rated and cut-out wind speed. Three types of wind turbine characteristics (the availability factor, the capacity factor and the wind turbine efficiency) are emphasized. The monthly wind characteristics and monthly wind turbine characteristics for four meteorological stations with high winds are investigated and compared with each other as well. The results show the general availability of wind energy potential across Taiwan.     

Design of a wind turbine pitch angle controller for power system stabilisation

The design of a PID pitch angle controller for a fixed speed active-stall wind turbine, using the root locus method is described in this paper. The purpose of this controller is to enable an active-stall wind turbine to perform power system stabilisation. For the purpose of controller design, the transfer function of the wind turbine is derived from the wind turbine's step response. The performance of this controller is tested by simulation, where the wind turbine model with its pitch angle controller is connected to a power system model. The power system model employed here is a realistic model of the North European power system. A short circuit fault on a busbar close to the wind turbine generator is simulated, and the dynamic responses of the system with and without the power system stabilisation of the wind turbines are presented. Simulations show that in most operating points the pitch controller can effectively contribute to power system stabilisation.     

Testing basic performance of a very small wind turbine designed for multi-purposes

A very small wind turbine system for multi-purposes was developed and its performance was reported in this paper. The rotor diameter of the turbine is 500 mm. The tests of the energy output, turbine speed, power coefficient, and torque of turbine were carried out for a wide rage of free stream velocity. The flow around the wind turbine and the influence of the turbulence were investigated with a particle image velocimetry. Experimentally obtained power coefficient was 0.4 in maximum and 0.36 in the rated running condition, respectively. The tip speed ratio corresponding to the optimum driving condition was 2.7. Comparing with the other commercial turbines, the performance was excellent at a slow turbine speed. By the flow visualization and PIV measurement around the wind turbine, the approaching flow velocity and the accelerated flow field passing the blade tip was obtained. It was confirmed that the actual flow passed through the blades was about 20% slower than the ideal flow. Tip vortex shed from the blade tip was also visualized clearly.     

In-service testing of wind turbine towers using a microwave sensor

A remote-sensing technique based on microwave interferometry is applied to dynamic testing of wind turbine towers for power generation. A high-speed interferometric radar is able to sample the structure at a rate high enough for modal and transient analysis. An experimental campaign is reported carried out on wind turbine towers of a power plant in north Sardinia, Italy.     

Design clustering of offshore wind turbines using probabilistic fatigue load estimation

In large offshore wind farms fatigue loads on support structures can vary significantly due to differences and uncertainties in site conditions, making it necessary to optimize design clustering. An efficient probabilistic fatigue load estimation method for monopile foundations was implemented using Monte-Carlo simulations. Verification of frequency domain analysis for wave loads and scaling approaches for wind loads with time domain aero-elastic simulations lead to 95% accuracy on equivalent bending moments at mudline and tower bottom. The computational speed is in the order of 100 times faster than typical time domain tools. The model is applied to calculate location specific fatigue loads that can be used in deterministic and probabilistic design clustering. Results for an example wind farm with 150 turbines in 30–40 m water depth show a maximum load difference of 25%. Smart clustering using discrete optimization algorithms leads to a design load reduction of up to 13% compared to designs based on only the highest loaded turbine position. The proposed tool improves industry-standard clustering and provides a basis for design optimization and uncertainty analysis in large wind farms.     

Coupled multi-body dynamics and CFD for wind turbine simulation including explicit wind turbulence

A high fidelity approach for wind turbine aero-elastic simulations including explicit representation of the atmospheric wind turbulence is presented. The approach uses a dynamic overset computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code for the aerodynamics coupled with a multi-body dynamics (MBD) code for the motion responses to the aerodynamic loads. Mann's wind turbulence model was implemented into the CFD code as boundary and initial conditions. The wind turbulence model was validated by comparing the theoretical one-point spectrum for the three components of the velocity fluctuations, and by comparing the expected statistics from the CFD simulated wind turbulent field with the explicit wind turbulence inlet boundary from Mann model. Extensive simulations based on the proposed coupled approach were conducted with the conceptual NREL 5-MW offshore wind turbine in an increasing level of complexity, analyzing the turbine behavior as elasticity, wind shear and atmospheric wind turbulence are added to the simulations. Results are compared with the publicly available simulations results from OC3 participants, showing good agreement for the aerodynamic loads and blade tip deflections in time and frequency domains. Wind turbulence/turbine interaction was examined for the wake flow. It was found that explicit turbulence addition results in considerably increased wake diffusion. The coupled CFD/MBD approach can be extended to include multibody models of the shaft, bearings, gearbox and generator, resulting in a promising tool for wind turbine design under complex operational environments.     

Study of damage and repair of blades of a 300 kW wind turbine

The inspection of damages detected in some blades of 300 kW wind turbines revealed that the nature of these damages was probably due to a fatigue mechanism. The causes that had originated the failure (superficial cracks, geometric concentrator, abrupt change of thickness) have been studied, verifying, by means of the simplified evaluation procedure of fatigue life of the “Germanischer Lloyd” (GL) standard, that these causes can explain the failure detected in the period of time in which it happened.     

Calculation of hoisting forces of the wind turbine rotor based on wind conditions

The assembly and hoisting process of the wind turbine rotor in an open wind environment are regarded to improve the hoisting safety, efficiency and quality. The wind turbine rotor model of a 1.5 MW wind turbine are given, and the hoisting forces of the wind turbine rotor in different poses with various azimuth angles, yaw angles and pitch angles in 3D coordinate system are calculated based on the defined wind conditions model. The maximum and minimum hoisting forces of the wind turbine rotor are acquired and the corresponding azimuth angle, yaw angle and pitch angle of the wind turbine rotor are obtained with respect to the wind conditions in the hoisting process. For four specific poses with particular azimuth angles, yaw angles and pitch angles of the wind turbine rotor, the hoisting forces of the wind turbine rotor are calculated along its hoisting height increment. The change processes of the hoisting forces of the wind turbine rotor in the hoisting process are analyzed and the conclusions are drawn.     

Study of aerodynamical interference for a wind turbine

A two-dimensional interference model of upwind wind turbine, based on NREL Phase VI, was simulated by an available Navier–Stokes solver under parallel process. The simulation domain was divided into a stationary tower domain and a sliding blade domain with varying geometric factors, including blade chord to tower diameter ratio and tower-blade gap to tower diameter ratio, to figure out the unsteady problem. The turbulence model was treated with SST k–ω turbulence model and the boundary layers around the solid walls were refined by the y⁺ value. The simulated results of velocity field were compared with the potential cylinder flow, and some phenomena were exhibited, including the movement of stagnation point of tower, the skewed wake of tower and the excess of velocity in the field. The lift force coefficient of blade was different from the ideal angle of attack for the blade passing in front of the potential cylinder flow.