Unsteady aerodynamic modeling and control of the wind turbine with trailing edge flap

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Intense load fluctuations on large-scale wind turbine blades can cause significant damage over time. The needs for predicting the dynamic behavior of blades and extending the lifespan of wind turbines have become more important. Therefore, in this paper, a wind turbine model with trailing edge flap (TEF) based on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory 5-MW reference wind turbine is developed, and a TEF controller aimed at load alleviation and power-fluctuation suppression is proposed. The wind turbine model, established in MATLAB/Simulink, consists of a TEF actuator model, an unsteady aerodynamic model, a generator model, and a drivetrain model. The TEF controller, which adopts a feedback linearization-based control method, is employed to reduce the variability of the flapwise root moment of blade 1 (FRM1) and the generator output power. Then, a comparison of the present model and a simulation of wind turbine performance with TEF control are demonstrated. Consequently, the present model shows reliability both in unsteady aerodynamic performance and wind turbine performance. In normal turbulent model wind conditions, the standard deviations of FRM1 and the generator output power are reported with reductions of 33.0%–42.5% and 9.1%–16.1%, respectively; the power spectral density of FRM1 is also reported with reductions of 39.9%–47.7%.