Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, And Turbulence Research Articles

Pitch Actuator Fault-Tolerant Control of Wind Turbines via an L1 Adaptive Sliding Mode Control (SMC) Scheme

Effective fault identification and management are critical for efficient wind turbine operation. This research presents a novel L1 adaptive-SMC system designed to enhance fault tolerance in wind turbines, specifically addressing common issues such as pump wear, hydraulic leakage, and excessive air content in the oil. By combining SMC with L1 adaptive control, the proposed technique effectively controls rotor speed and power, ensuring reliable performance under various conditions. The controller employs an adjustable gain and an integrated sliding surface to maintain robustness. We validate the controller’s performance in the FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence) simulation environment using a 5-megawatt wind turbine under high wind speeds. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed L1 adaptive-SMC outperforms traditional adaptive-SMC and adaptive control schemes, particularly in the presence of faults, unknown disturbances, and turbulent wind fields. This research highlights the controller’s potential to significantly improve the reliability and efficiency of wind turbine operations.

An Effective Wind Speed Observer for Pitch Fault Detection in Wind Turbines

This paper presents a methodology to design an effective wind speed observer using an alternative mathematical representation of the aerodynamic torque of a variable-speed wind turbine. This alternative model is linear in parameters. Then, using this observer, a pitch fault detection scheme is conceived. Numerical experiments using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory wind turbine simulator FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence) code were performed to support the design.

A fault detection method for pitch actuators faults in wind turbines

The paper presents a model-based fault detection method for pitch actuators faults using the normalized gradient method to estimate the parameters of the pitch actuator. One major difficulty is that the input signal to the parametric estimation method must be a persistent excitation. To circumvent this, a chattering term is added to the pitch control law and the usual low-pass filters are not used for the parametrization in the normalized gradient method (thus acceleration information is used). In order to verify the proposed method, simulations are conducted within a Hardware in the Loop (HiL) platform using the wind turbine simulation software FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence).

A Composite Super-Twisting Sliding Mode Approach for Platform Motion Suppression and Power Regulation of Floating Offshore Wind Turbine

The floating platform motion of an offshore wind turbine system can exacerbate output power fluctuations and increase fatigue loads. This paper proposes a new scheme based on a fast second-order sliding mode (SOSM) control and an adaptive super-twisting extended state observer to suppress the platform motion and power fluctuation. Firstly, an affine nonlinear model of the floating wind turbine pitch system is constructed. Then, a fast SOSM pitch control law is adopted to adjust the blade pitch angle, and a new adaptive super-twisting extended state observer is constructed to achieve total disturbance observation. Finally, simulations are conducted under two cases of wind and wave conditions based on FAST (fatigue, aerodynamics, structures, and turbulence) and MATLAB/Simulink. Compared with the traditional proportional integral (PI) control scheme and standard super-twisting control scheme, the platform roll under the proposed scheme is reduced by 13% and 4%, and pitch is reduced by 16% and 3% in Case 1. Correspondingly, the roll is reduced by 9% and 15%, and pitch is reduced by 7% and 1% in Case 2. For the tower top pitch and yaw moment, load reductions of 7% and 3% or more are achievable compared with those under the PI control scheme. It is indicated that the proposed scheme is more effective in suppressing floating platform motion, stabilizing output power of the wind turbine system, and reducing tower loads.

A Novel Composite Pitch Control Scheme for Floating Offshore Wind Turbines with Actuator Fault Consideration

It is of great importance to simultaneously stabilize output power and suppress platform motion and fatigue loads in floating offshore wind turbine control systems. In this paper, a novel composite blade pitch control scheme considering actuator fault is proposed based on an augmented linear quadratic regulator (LQR), a fuzzy proportional integral (PI) and an adaptive second-order sliding-mode observer. Collective pitch control was achieved via the fuzzy PI, while individual pitch control was based on the augmented LQR. In the case of actuator fault, an adaptive second-order sliding-mode observer was constructed to effectively eliminate the need for the upper bound of unknown fault derivatives and suppress the chattering effect. This paper conducted co-simulations based on FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence) and MATLAB/Simulink to verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed scheme under different environmental conditions. It is shown that platform roll was reduced by approximately 54% compared to that under PI control. For the tower fore–aft moment, load reductions of 45% or more were achievable. The proposed scheme can greatly reduce the pitch and roll of the floating platform and loads in the windward direction of the wind turbine.

Output Power Control and Load Mitigation of a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine with a Fully Coupled Aeroelastic Model: Novel Sliding Mode Perspective

The power control of horizontal axis wind turbines can affect significantly the vibration loads and fatigue life of the tower and the blades. In this paper, we both consider the power control and vibration load mitigation of the tower fore-aft vibration. For this purpose, at first, we developed a fully coupled model of the NREL 5MW turbine. This model considers the full aeroelastic behaviour of the blades and tower and is validated by experiment results, comparing the time history data with the FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence) code which is developed by NREL (National Renewable Energy Lab in the United States). In the next, novel sensorless control algorithms are developed based on the supper twisting sliding mode control theory and sliding mode observer for disturbance rejection. In region II (the wind speed is between the cut-in and rated wind velocity), the novel sensorless control algorithm increased the power coefficient in comparison to the conventional indirect speed control (ISC) method (the conventional method in the industry). In region III (the wind speed is between the rated and cut-out speed), an adaptive neural fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is developed to estimate pitch sensitivity. The rotor speed, pitch angle, and effective wind velocity are inputs, and pitch sensitivity is the output. The designed novel pitch control performance is compared with the gain scheduled PI (GPI) method (the conventional approach in this region). The simulation results demonstrate that the flapwise blade displacement is reduced significantly. Finally, to reduce the fore-aft vibration of the tower, a tuned mass damper (TMD) was designed by using the genetic algorithm and the fully coupled model. In comparison to the literature body, we demonstrate that the fully coupled model provides much better accuracy in comparison to the uncoupled model to estimate the vibration loads.

Validation of a coupled atmospheric–aeroelastic model system for wind turbine power and load calculations

Abstract. The optimisation of the power output of wind turbines requires the consideration of various aspects including turbine design, wind farm layout and more. An improved understanding of the interaction of wind turbines with the atmospheric boundary layer is an essential prerequisite for such optimisations. With numerical simulations, a variety of different situations and turbine designs can be compared and evaluated. For such a detailed analysis, the output of an extensive number of turbine and flow parameters is of great importance. In this paper a coupling of the aeroelastic code FAST (fatigue, aerodynamics, structures, and turbulence) and the large-eddy simulation tool PALM (parallelised large-eddy simulation model) is presented. The advantage of the coupling of these models is that it enables the analysis of the turbine behaviour, among others turbine power, blade and tower loads, under different atmospheric conditions. The proposed coupling is tested with the generic National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) 5 MW turbine and the operational eno114 3.5 MW turbine. Simulating the NREL 5 MW turbine allows for a first evaluation of our PALM–FAST coupling approach based on characteristics of the NREL turbine reported in the literature. The basic test of the coupling with the NREL 5 MW turbine shows that the power curve obtained is very close to the one when using FAST alone. Furthermore, a validation with free-field measurement data for the eno114 3.5 MW turbine for a site in northern Germany is performed. The results show a good agreement with the free-field measurement data. Additionally, our coupling offers an enormous reduction of the computing time in comparison to an actuator line model, in one of our cases by 89 %, and at the same time an extensive output of turbine data.

Robust Nonlinear Terminal Integral Sliding Mode Torque Control for Wind Turbines Considering Uncertainties

Power maximization and fatigue alleviation are essential for variable speed wind turbines operating in partial load zone. It is within this framework that the present paper gives a global state of art of the application of sliding mode control (SMC) for wind turbines and proposes a new application of Terminal Integral Sliding Mode Control (TISMC) for variable speed wind turbines, described as a mechatronic system, represented by uncertain lumped mass dynamics. In order to represent a relatively exhaustive study, a stability proof is also synthesized and verified using the Lyapunov criterion. In order to evaluate the proposed solution, a numerical validation has been done on Controls Advanced Research Turbine (CART 2) using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) simulator Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures and Turbulence (FAST). For more accuracy 9 DOFs (Degrees of Freedom) were enabled with a realistic turbulent wind field. The obtained results shown the effectiveness of TISMC compared to some existing linear and nonlinear controllers in term of output power maximization and loads mitigation.

Identification of the dynamics of the drivetrain and estimating its unknown parts in a large scale wind turbine

In this paper, the drivetrain identification problem of a horizontal axis gear-driven wind turbine has been considered. The identification problem leads to a precise model of the drivetrain of the wind turbines which plays a key role in the production and transmission of electrical energy. This process consists of two stages: First, offline identification which needs the input–output data from the drivetrain system. These data are obtained from the FAST code. FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence) is a valid aeroelastic code in the simulation aeroelastic field of offshore and onshore wind turbines. In region 2 (wind velocity is between the cut-in and rated velocities), the generator torque is input, and rotor speed is output. It is supposed that the wind velocity is neglected in the identification process (the identification process is not considered in the presence of wind or done in the low wind velocities bellower than the cut-in wind velocity). In the second stage, after completion of the offline identification process, the drivetrain model of the wind turbine is obtained but the aerodynamic torque in the real performance of the wind turbine is still unknown. In this stage, to estimate the aerodynamic torque, high order sliding mode estimator is used and the unknown states are estimated by using the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF)

Simplified Floating Wind Turbine for Real-Time Simulation of Large-Scale Floating Offshore Wind Farms

Floating offshore wind has received more attention due to its advantage of access to incredible wind resources over deep waters. Modeling of floating offshore wind farms is essential to evaluate their impacts on the electric power system, in which the floating offshore wind turbine should be adequately modeled for real-time simulation studies. This study proposes a simplified floating offshore wind turbine model, which is applicable for the real-time simulation of large-scale floating offshore wind farms. Two types of floating wind turbines are evaluated in this paper: the semi-submersible and spar-buoy floating wind turbines. The effectiveness of the simplified turbine models is shown by a comparison study with the detailed FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence) floating turbine model. A large-scale floating offshore wind farm including eighty units of simplified turbines is tested in parallel simulation and real-time software (OPAL-RT). The wake effects among turbines and the effect of wind speeds on ocean waves are also taken into account in the modeling of offshore wind farms. Validation results show sufficient accuracy of the simplified models compared to detailed FAST models. The real-time results of offshore wind farms show the feasibility of the proposed turbine models for the real-time model of large-scale offshore wind farms.

Special cases in fatigue analysis of wind turbines

The turbine industry demands a reliable design with affordable cost. As technological advances begin to support turbines of huge sizes, and the increasing importance of wind turbines from day to day make design safety conditions more important. Wind turbines are exposed to environmental conditions that can affect their installation, durability, and operation. International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61400-1 design load cases consist of analyses involving wind turbine operating conditions. This design load cases (DLC) is important for determining fatigue loads (i.e., forces and moments) that occur as a result of expected conditions throughout the life of the machine. With the help of FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence), an open source software, the NREL 5MW land base wind turbine model was used. IEC 61400-1 wind turbine design standard procedures assessed turbine behavior and fatigue damage to the tower base of dynamic loads in different design conditions. Real characteristic wind speed distribution and multi-directional effect specific to the site were taken into consideration. The effect of these conditions on the economic service life of the turbine has been studied.

Adaptive Robust Fault-Tolerant Control Design for Wind Turbines Subject to Pitch Actuator Faults

This paper proposes an adaptive fault tolerant control (FTC) design for a variable speed wind turbine (WT) operating in the high wind speeds region. It aims at mitigating pitch actuator faults and regulating the generator power to its rated value, thereby reducing the mechanical stress in the high wind speeds region. The proposed FTC design implements a sliding mode control (SMC) approach with an adaptation law that estimates the upper bounds of the uncertainties. System stability and uniform boundedness of the outputs was proven using the Lyapunov stability theory. The proposed approach was validated on a 5 MW three-blade wind turbine modeled using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures and Turbulence (FAST) wind turbine simulator. The controller’s performance was assessed in the presence of several pitch actuator faults and turbulent wind conditions. Its performance was also compared to that of a standard SMC approach. Mitigation of blade pitch actuator faults, generation of uniform power, smoother pitching actions and reduced chattering compared to standard SMC approach are among the main features of the proposed design.

Adaptive sliding mode control of floating offshore wind turbine equipped by permanent magnet synchronous generator

AbstractHigh‐order sliding mode control laws with gain adaptation algorithms are applied, in Region III, on a floating offshore wind turbine equipped by permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG). These adaptive control methods are especially efficient for systems with uncertainties and external perturbations and are well adapted to wind turbines systems. Such controllers can be implemented with very reduced knowledge of system model (only the relative degree is necessary) and strongly reduce the controller gains tuning effort. Simulations are made on Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures and Turbulence (FAST) software and compared with standard gain‐scheduled proportional–integral (PI) controllers.

Maximum Power Extraction from a Wind Turbine Using Terminal Synergetic Control

This study presents a nonlinear controller with a wind speed estimator for a variable speed wind turbine at below-rated wind speed. A nonlinear controller is designed to address the rapid variations in wind and uncertainties in the wind system. The objective of nonlinear controller is to maximize the energy that can be extracted from wind with a reduction on mechanical loads. The synergetic and terminal synergetic controllers are proposed for improving energy capture and load mitigation. Also, the stability of the controllers is analysed by Lyapunov stability. The proposed controllers were validated using the FAST (Fatigue, aerodynamics, structures and turbulence) numerical model. Finally, a comparative study has been made between the controllers for different wind speed profiles.

Influence of an Integral Heave Plate on the Dynamic Response of Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Under Operational and Storm Conditions

The hydrodynamic performance of the floating foundation for offshore wind turbines is essential to its stability and energy harvesting. A semi-submersible platform with an integral heave plate is proposed in order to reduce the vertical motion responses. In this study, we compare the heave, pitch, and roll free decay motions of the new platform with a WindFloat-type platform based on Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes simulations. The differences of the linear and quadratic damping properties between these platforms are revealed. Then, a FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence) model with the consideration of fluid viscosity effects is set up to investigate the performance of the new platform under storm and operational conditions. The time-domain responses, motion spectra, and the mooring-tension statistics of these two platforms are evaluated. It is found that the integral heave plate can increase the viscous hydrodynamic damping, significantly decrease the heave and pitch motion responses, and increase the safety of the mooring cables, especially for the storm condition.

Feasibility Studies of a Converter-Free Grid-Connected Offshore Hydrostatic Wind Turbine

Owing to the increasing penetration of renewable power generation, the modern power system faces great challenges in frequency regulations and reduced system inertia. Hence, renewable energy is expected to take over part of the frequency regulation responsibilities from the gas or hydro plants and contribute to the system inertia. In this article, we investigate the feasibility of frequency regulation by the offshore hydrostatic wind turbine (HWT). The simulation model is transformed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) 5-MW gearbox-equipped wind turbine model within FAST (fatigue, aerodynamics, structures, and turbulence) code. With proposed coordinated control scheme and the hydrostatic transmission configuration of the HWT, the ‘continuously variable gearbox ratio’ in turbulent wind conditions can be realised to maintain the constant generator speed, so that the HWT can be connected to the grid without power converters in-between. To test the performances of the control scheme, the HWT is connected to a 5-bus grid model and operates with different frequency events. The simulation results indicate that the proposed control scheme is a promising solution for offshore HWT to participated in frequency response in the modern power system.

Dynamic Response of 6MW Spar Type Floating Offshore Wind Turbine by Experiment and Numerical Analyses

The floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) is widely used for harvesting marine wind energy. Its dynamic responses under offshore wind and wave environment provide essential reference for the design and installation. In this study, the dynamic responses of a 6MW Spar type FOWT designed for the water depth of 100 m are investigated by means of the wave tank experiment and numerical analysis. A scaled model is manufactured for the experiment at a ratio of 65.3, while the numerical model is constructed on the open-source platform FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence). Still water tests, wind-induced only tests, wave-induced only tests and combined wind-wave-current tests are all conducted experimentally and numerically. The accuracy of the experimental set-up as well as the loading generation has been verified. Surge, pitch and heave motions are selected to analyze and the numerical results agree well with the experimental values. Even though results obtained by using the FOWT calculation model established in FAST software show some deviations from the test results, the trends are always consistent. Both experimental and numerical studies demonstrate that they are reliable for the designed 6MW Spar type FOWT.

Design Optimization and Coupled Dynamics Analysis of an Offshore Wind Turbine with a Single Swivel Connected Tether

The increased interest in renewable wind energy has stimulated many offshore wind turbine concepts. This paper presents a design optimization and a coupled dynamics analysis of a platform with a single tether anchored to the seabed supported for a 5 MW baseline wind turbine. The design is based on a concept named SWAY. We conduct a parametric optimization process that accounts for important design considerations in the static and dynamic view, such as the stability, natural frequency, performance requirements, and cost feasibility. Through these optimization processes, we obtain and present the optimized model. We then establish the fully coupled aero-hydro-servo-elastic model by the time-domain simulation tool FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence) with the hydrodynamic coefficients from an indoor program HydroGen. We conduct extensive time-domain simulations with various wind and wave conditions to explore the effects of wind speed and wave significant height on the dynamic performance of the optimized SWAY model in various water depths. The swivel connection between the platform and tether is the most special design for the SWAY model. Thus, we compare the performance of models with different tether connection designs, based on the platform motions, nacelle velocity, nacelle accelerations, resonant behaviors, and the damping of the coupled systems. The results of these comparisons demonstrate the advantage of the optimized SWAY model with the swivel connection. From these analyses, we prove that the optimized SWAY model is a good candidate for deep water deployment.

Effects of POD Control on a DFIG Wind Turbine Structural System

This paper investigates the effects power oscillation damping (POD) controller could have on a wind turbine structural system. Most of the published work in this area has been done using relatively simple aerodynamic and structural models of a wind turbine which cannot be used to investigate the detailed interactions between electrical and mechanical components of the wind turbine. Therefore, a detailed model that combines electrical, structural and aerodynamic characteristics of a grid-connected Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) based wind turbine has been developed by adapting the NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) 5 MW wind turbine model within FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence) code. This detailed model is used to evaluate the effects of POD controller on the wind turbine system. The results appear to indicate that the effects of POD control on the WT structural system are comparable or less significant as those caused by wind speed variations. Furthermore, the results also reveal that the effects of a transient three-phase short circuit fault on the WT structural system are much larger than those caused by the POD controller.

Adaptive Dual-layer Sliding Mode Control for Wind Turbines with Estimated Wind Speed

Under the circumstance of inaccurate and intermittent wind speed measurement, maximum power capture control of wind turbines is still a hot and challenging topic in wind power generation field. This paper aims at improving wind turbines’ power production via an adaptive dual-layer sliding mode controller, with the help of estimated rotor effective wind speed. First, a novel effective wind speed estimation algorithm is proposed based on broad learning system (BLS), the training of which is completed by using data collected from the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system. Further, the trained BLS can deliver the estimated wind speed in an online manner to determine the optimal generator power command for maximum wind power extraction. In addition, a low-pass filter is designed to smooth the output, which is beneficial for drive train systems’ mechanical loads. Thereafter, a sliding mode control theory based maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller is developed. To compensate for the uncertainties and mitigate the chattering phenomena, dual-layer adaptation laws are designed for the sliding mode controller. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is validated and demonstrated by the FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence) tool.