Peter Jamieson

Comparison of individual pitch and smart rotor control strategies for load reduction

Load reduction is increasingly seen as an essential part of controller and wind turbine design. On large multi-MW wind turbines that experience high levels of wind shear and turbulence across the rotor, individual pitch control and smart rotor control are being considered. While individual pitch control involves adjusting the pitch of each blade individually to reduce the cyclic loadings on the rotor, smart rotor control involves activating control devices distributed along the blades to alter the local aerodynamics of the blades. Here we investigate the effectiveness of using a DQ-axis control and a distributed (independent) control for both individual pitch and trailing edge flap smart rotor control. While load reductions are similar amongst the four strategies across a wide range of variables, including blade root bending moments, yaw bearing and shaft, the pitch actuator requirements vary. The smart rotor pitch actuator has reduced travel, rates, accelerations and power requirements than that of the individual pitch controlled wind turbines. This benefit alone however would be hard to justify the added design complexities of using a smart rotor, which can be seen as an alternative to upgrading the pitch actuator and bearing. In addition, it is found that the independent control strategy is apt at roles that the collective pitch usually targets, such as tower motion and speed control, and it is perhaps here, in supplementing other systems, that the future of the smart rotor lies.

Innovative concepts for aerodynamic control of wind turbine rotors

New systems for the aerodynamic control of wind turbine rotors are being studied in various projects funded by the UK Department of Energy. Results from a current project, ongoing at the National Wind Turbine Test Centre (NWTC) in Scotland are presented. These systems show the promise of much cheaper and more affective active control of horizontal axis wind turbines than has been achieved with full span and partial span pitching systems.

Flow interaction of diffuser augmented wind turbines

Up-scaling of wind turbines has been a major trend in order to reduce the cost of energy generation from the wind. Recent studies however show that for a given technology, the cost always rises with upscaling, notably due to the increased mass of the system. To reach capacities beyond 10 MW, multi-rotor systems (MRS) have promising advantages. On the other hand, diffuser augmented wind turbines (DAWTs) can significantly increase the performance of the rotor. Up to now, diffuser augmentation has only been applied to single small wind turbines. In the present research, DAWTs are used in a multi-rotor system. In wind tunnel experiments, the aerodynamics of two and three DAWTs, spaced in close vicinity in the same plane normal to a uniform flow, have been analysed. Power increases of up to 5% and 9% for the two and three rotor configurations are respectively achieved in comparison to a stand-alone turbine. The physical dynamics of the flows are analysed on the basis of the results obtained with a stand-alone turbine.

Formulation of the general momentum equations for the actuator disc with a rotating wake

Based on the actuator disc representation of a rotor (or propeller), many simplified momentum theories have been developed and are usually coupled to blade element forces to provide a blade element momentum theory (BEM). The general momentum theory of Glauert, unlike most simplified theories, accounts for the sub-atmospheric pressure variation in the wake vortex but has lacked closure in an analytic formulation of the system of equations that would relate the flow field induction factors and wake expansion. The specific problem has been in expressing the balance in axial force (usually loosely described as the momentum equation) in an explicit way that accounts for the influence of a radial pressure gradient. Without approximation or CFD based empirical corrections, the effect of the radial variation of suction pressure in the wake as influencing the axial force balance is accounted. This enables formulation of a complete equation system relating the induction factors and wake expansion.

A systematic hub loads model of a horizontal wind turbine

The wind turbine industry has focused offshore on increasing the capacity of a single unit through up-scaling their machines. There is however a lack of systematic studies on how loads vary due to properties of a wind turbine and scaling of wind turbines. The purpose of this paper is to study how applied blade modifications, with similarities such as mass, stiffness and dimensions, influence blade root moments and lifetime damage equivalent loads (DELs) of the rotor blades. In order to produce fatigue load blade root moment trends based on the applied modifications. It was found that a linear trend of lifetime DELs based on the applied modifications of blades, which have effect on the natural frequency of blade of the original or reference model. As the control system was tuned for the specific frequency of the reference model. The linear trend of lifetime DELs was generated as long as the natural frequency of the reference model was preserved. For larger modifications of the wind turbine the controller would need retuning.

Ducted turbine theory with right angled ducts

This paper describes the use of an inviscid approach to model a ducted turbine – also known as a diffuser augmented turbine – and a comparison of results with a particular one-dimensional theory. The aim of the investigation was to gain a better understanding of the relationship between a real duct and the ideal diffuser, which is a concept that is developed in the theory. A range of right angled ducts, which have a rim for a 90° exit angle, were modelled. As a result, the performance of right angled ducts has been characterised in inviscid flow. It was concluded that right angled ducts cannot match the performance of their associated ideal diffuser and that the optimum rotor loading for these turbines varies with the duct dimensions.

Aerodynamic Separability in Tip Speed Ratio and Separability in Wind Speed- a Comparison

From extensive application over a number of years, it has been established that the nonlinear rotor aerodynamics of typical medium and large wind turbines exhibit an effectively global separability property, in other words the aerodynamic torque of the machine can be defined by two independent additive functions. Two versions of the separability of aerodynamic torque for variable speed wind turbines are investigated here; the separated function, related to wind speed, in the first version is only dependent on that variable and not rotor speed and in the second version is only dependent on tip speed ratio. Both provide very good approximations to the aerodynamic torque over extensive neighbourhoods of T0, at least from 0 to 2T0.