Nonlinear model predictive control of a vortex-induced vibrations bladeless wind turbine

Abstract

In this paper, a nonlinear model predictive controller (NMPC) is proposed for a vortex-induced vibrations bladeless wind turbine (BWT). The BWT consists of a long rigid cylinder mounted on a flexible beam. The nonlinear dynamic model of the transverse vibrations of the BWT is obtained under the fluctuating lift force due to periodically shedding vortices. The NMPC method is used to design a controller that achieves maximum energy production rate. It is observed that the power generation of the NMPC drops in high wind speeds due to a mismatch between the vortex shedding frequency and the structural natural frequency. Therefore, a secondary gain-scheduling (GS) controller is proposed to virtually increase the natural frequency of the structure to match the vortex shedding frequency for high winds. Although previous studies predicted the output power of the studied BWT to be less than 100 W, with the proposed GS-NMPC scheme the output power reaches the value of 1 kW. Therefore, the capability of the BWT as a renewable energy generation device was highly underestimated in the literature. The computed values of the aero-mechanical efficiency suggest the BWT as a major competitor to the conventional wind turbines.