Wind turbine blade optimisation with individual pitch and trailing edge flap control

Abstract

Individual pitch control and trailing edge flaps have been shown to be capable of reducing flapwise fatigue loads on wind turbine blades, with research to date focusing on controller development and performance assessment. This work covers development of a blade optimisation process which integrates synthesis of individual pitch and trailing edge flap controllers to evaluate their impact on the levelised cost of energy. The optimisation process selects blade chord, twist and material distributions, along with the spar cap width, and integrates a turbine cost and mass model with existing simulation codes. Constraints based on ultimate stresses, fatigue damage, blade deflection, resonant frequency, and rotor thrust are considered. Using the NREL 5 MW reference turbine as an initial point, reductions in the levelised cost of energy of 1.05% are obtained with collective pitch control only, while the addition of individual pitch control increases this reduction to 1.17%. The use of trailing edge flaps on top of individual pitch control increases the reduction in the levelised cost of energy to 1.27%. Blade mass and material cost reductions from 13.6 to 16.4% and 18.1–21.5% respectively are also obtained. Optimised blade designs are driven by blade deflection, rotor thrust and ultimate stresses in the spar cap.