Vane Sensors Research Articles

A General Method For The Diagnosis Of Wind Turbine Systematic Yaw Error Based Solely On SCADA Data

Accurate diagnosis of systematic errors affecting wind turbine operation is fundamental to maximize the energy capture. Based on this, this work deals with the systematic yaw error, occurring when the wind vane sensor is incorrectly aligned with the rotor shaft. The objective is formulating a method for individuating the presence and estimating the amount of systematic yaw error, based solely on Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) data analysis. The state of the art is based on inferring the presence of the static yaw error by detecting an under-performance. Therefore, there is a gap as regards the estimation of how much the static yaw error really is. The proposed method introduces major methodological novelties for tackling such issue. Indeed, nacelle wind speed measurements are used in this work because the presence of the systematic yaw error has a detectable effect on them and they are not influenced by the control system. Furthermore, this work is the first in the literature employing measurements collected with wind turbine stopped, which allows circumventing the presence of the assembly angle induced by the rotor rotation. The proposed method is based on the idea that, if two nacelle anemometers are present, the ratio between the two wind speed measurements should change in presence of a static yaw error. Through a test case discussion, it is shown that with the proposed method it is possible to estimate the static yaw error as reliably as with LiDAR measurements.

Design of IoT-based portable digital wind speed and wind direction measuring tools

A wind speed meter currently can only read wind speed without knowing the type of wind, so a feature that can read the type of wind will be embedded, and a wind vane sensor will be added to detect wind direction. In this research, a wind speed measuring instrument was made using an anemometer cup mounted with an optocoupler sensor to convert rotary motion into wind speed, and wind direction using a wind vane mounted with a hall effect sensor to determine the wind’s direction. The test results of the wind vane sensor were correction of 0, 100% accuracy, measurement range of 0° – 315°, span of 315°, resolution of 45°, and sensitivity of 0.14. The anemometer sensor readings have an average error of 2.007%, an accuracy of 97.93%, a range of 0 – 40.72 m/s, a span of 40.72, a resolution of 0.01 m/s, and a sensitivity of 0.00024. On May 3 2023 at 13.35 – 14.00 WIB, database testing results were obtained in the form of sensor reading data. The data sending tests that have been carried out have resulted in real-time data sending with a sending speed of <1 second, and the GUI can display menus and data from sensors.

Adjustment of 1 min rain gauge time series using co-located drop size distribution and wind speed measurements

Abstract. A procedure to adjust rainfall intensity (RI) measurements to account for the wind-induced measurement bias of traditional catching-type gauges is proposed and demonstrated with an application to a suitable case study. The objective is to demonstrate that adjustment curves derived from numerical simulations and disdrometer measurements allow for a posteriori correction of rainfall time series based on the wind velocity measurements alone. To quantify the impact of wind on long-term records, 1 min RI measurements from a cylindrical tipping-bucket rain gauge installed at the Hong Kong Observatory are adjusted. Catch ratios derived from the instrument's aerodynamic behaviour under varying wind speed and drop size combinations are obtained by fitting computational fluid-dynamic simulation results already available in the literature. Co-located high-resolution wind speed measurements from a cup and vane sensor and drop size distribution measurements from an optical video disdrometer (the 2DVD or two-dimensional video disdrometer) are used to infer the collection efficiency of the gauge as a function of wind speed and RI alone and to adjust raw data from a 4-year dataset (2018–2021) of 1 min RI measurements. Due to the specific local climatology, where strong wind is often associated with intense precipitation, 80 % of the dataset adjustments are limited to 4 % of the observed RI values. This, however, results in a significant amount of available freshwater resources that would be missing from the calculated hydrological and water management budget of the region should the adjustments be neglected. This work raises the need to quantify the impact of the wind-induced bias at other sites where disdrometer data support a characterisation of the relationship between the drop size distribution and the measured RI. Depending on the local rain and wind climatology, the correction may account for a significant portion of the annual rainfall amount.

A UAV Wind Field Perception System Inspired by Biological Perception

People have raised their expectations for UAV performance due to the widespread use of UAVs in both military and non-military settings. One of the most significant fields of research right now is how to enhance UAVs’ endurance capabilities. Many birds in the wild have the ability to fly for extended periods of time or great distances using the wind, which is called energy harvesting. A seabird called an albatross can use the wind’s horizontal gradient on the water’s surface to generate energy. By gliding, they may fly for a very long time without flapping their wings, thus lowering their own energy consumption. Due to the albatrosses’ nostrils sensitive sensory nerves and sensitivity to environmental information, such as airflow, the albatrosses can modify its flight attitude. Similar to this, real-time dynamic planning of the trajectory can only be done for UAVs in order to realize energy-capturing flying if correct and real-time wind field information is obtained. As a result, developing wind field sensing technology is crucial to the realization of energy-capturing gliding. In this study, we built a 3D wind field sensing system with wind vane sensor and pitot tube. Wind tunnel tests were used to calibrate and alter it. The system’s operation is initially validated by real flight, which may give environmental information, enabling UAVs to utilize the wind field as a reference for planning their flight paths.

ОПРЕДЕЛЕНИЕ ОТКАЗОВ ДАТЧИКОВОЙ ГРУППЫ СИСТЕМЫ ВОЗДУШНЫХ СИГНАЛОВ ПУТЕМ ОРГАНИЗАЦИИ ПЕРЕКРЕСТНОГО КОНТРОЛЯ ПАРАМЕТРОВ

The article describes about of the typical methods of air data parametric quorum control,and an analysis of their capabilities to determine parametric failures that occur in the air datasystem. To perform the calculations, the most common types of failures of the path of perceptionand measurement of air pressure of the air signal system, causing catastrophic consequences,were selected, the physical principles of their occurrence were described, the implementation ofwhich made it possible to build mathematical models of signal distortion. Based on the results ofmodeling the operation of typical quorum control methods, and their response to failures artificiallyintroduced into the system, the advantages and disadvantages of the methods used are determined.In order to eliminate the shortcomings found as a result of the analysis, an alternativemethod for determining failures of the sensor group of the air data system is proposed by implementingcross-checking of the parameters obtained from the pneumatic and vane sensor groups ofthe system. For the proposed method, the results of modeling based on real flight data of a mainlineaircraft with parametric failures artificially introduced into them are presented. The possibilityof using the cross-checking algorithm in single-channel systems of air signals of small-sizedaircraft is evaluated. The statement of the research problem is formulated as follows: in order toensure the flight safety of an aircraft when using information in the control loop from a singlechannelair data system, it is necessary to ensure the detection and exclusion of unreliable datafrom the array of information issued by the system to consumers of information. At the same time,the task of detecting and excluding data must be solved by the air data system itself, without usingadditional data from other aircraft systems. Mathematical analysis, numerical modeling, determinationof correction factors and preparation of initial data were carried out in the MathCAD softwareand mathematical complex. Analysis of the results of the studying implemented in theMathCAD PMC cross-checking algorithm showed that the problem of determining the reliabilityof information can be solved autonomously when it implemented a single-channel system of airsignals in an aircraft.

Generic and Flexible Unmanned Sailboat for Innovative Education and World Robotic Sailing Championship.

Over the past two decades, scholars developed various unmanned sailboat platforms, but most of them have specialized designs and controllers. Whereas these robotic sailboats have good performance with open-source designs, it is actually hard for interested researchers or fans to follow and make their own sailboats with these open-source designs. Thus, in this paper, a generic and flexible unmanned sailboat platform with easy access to the hardware and software architectures is designed and tested. The commonly used 1-m class RC racing sailboat was employed to install Pixhawk V2.4.8, Arduino Mega 2,560, GPS module M8N, custom-designed wind direction sensor, and wireless 433 Mhz telegram. The widely used open-source hardware modules were selected to keep reliable and low-cost hardware setup to emphasize the generality and feasibility of the unmanned sailboat platform. In software architecture, the Pixhawk V2.4.8 provided reliable states’ feedback. The Arduino Mega 2,560 received estimated states from Pixhawk V2.4.8 and the wind vane sensor, and then controlled servo actuators of rudder and sail using simplified algorithms. Due to the complexity of introducing robot operating system and its packages, we designed a generic but real-time software architecture just using Arduino Mega 2,560. A suitable line-of-sight guidance strategy and PID-based controllers were used to let the autonomous sailboat sail at user-defined waypoints. Field tests validated the sailing performance in facing WRSC challenges. Results of fleet race, station keeping, and area scanning proved that our design and algorithms could control the 1-m class RC sailboat with acceptable accuracy. The proposed design and algorithms contributed to developing educational, low-cost, micro class autonomous sailboats with accessible, generic, and flexible hardware and software. Besides, our sailboat platform also facilitates readers to develop similar sailboats with more focus on their missions.

Implementation of a MEIoT Weather Station with Exogenous Disturbance Input.

Due to the emergence of the coronavirus disease (COVID 19), education systems in most countries have adapted and quickly changed their teaching strategy to online teaching. This paper presents the design and implementation of a novel Internet of Things (IoT) device, called MEIoT weather station, which incorporates an exogenous disturbance input, within the National Digital Observatory of Smart Environments (OBNiSE) architecture. The exogenous disturbance input involves a wind blower based on a DC brushless motor. It can be controlled, via Node-RED platform, manually through a sliding bar, or automatically via different predefined profile functions, modifying the wind speed and the wind vane sensor variables. An application to Engineering Education is presented with a case study that includes the instructional design for the least-squares regression topic for linear, quadratic, and cubic approximations within the Educational Mechatronics Conceptual Framework (EMCF) to show the relevance of this proposal. This work’s main contribution to the state-of-the-art is to turn a weather monitoring system into a hybrid hands-on learning approach thanks to the integrated exogenous disturbance input.

Design & Implementation of Solar Powered Automatic Weather Station based on ESP32 and GPRS Module

The fundamental aim of this project is to develop a solar-powered automatic weather station (AWS), which can be accessed via the website. Users can find out the weather changes in an area without needing to come to the area and can do an analysis of irrigation water needs. This design uses ESP32 as main processor. The measure weather parameters include temperature and humidity using HDC1080 sensor, wind speed using an anemometer sensor, wind direction using a wind vane sensor, air pressure using BME280, rainfall using a tipping bucket sensor, and the last small solar panel for irradiance sensor. AWS has two working modes, normal and maintenance mode. During maintenance mode, sensor data will be displayed on a local website that can be accessed via a wifi network broadcasted by ESP32. In normal mode, the ESP32 will send sensor data to the cloud using SIM800L GPRS Module. The system proposed is also designed to have a feature to log sensor data locally in SD card. Watchdog timer circuit uses timer 555 implemented in this project for the recovery system from the failure process. Power sources are limited, so the system must be put into deep-sleep mode state when not processing data. Data transmission is carried out periodically with an interval of 5-6 minutes. Test results show that the sending of sensor data can be received by the cloud with an acceptance rate of up to 98%.

The Effect of Icing on the Output Parameters of the Airflow-Angle Sensor in Case of Failure of the Electric Heating System

At present, with the intensive operation of aircrafts in extremely harsh air conditions, their all-weather use, the work related to improving the flight safety is especially relevant. One of the directions of work in this topic is the study of the types of parametric failures of onboard equipment associated with the influence of the external environment in order to assess their impact on interacting systems and develop recommendations for identifying and countering detected failures. The presented paper considers the results of a full-scale experiment to determine the possibility of operation of the aerodynamic angle sensor in artificially formed icing conditions in case of failure of its electric heating system, as well as a description and results of subsequent modeling of the sensor icing process, and an assessment of its effect on the accuracy characteristics of the sensor output signal. The statement of the research problem is formulated as follows: it is necessary to ensure the testing of the sensor and the subsequent processing of the results obtained in order to form a generalized mathematical model of the sensor icing process, as well as to solve the problem of introducing additional errors into the sensor signals, which makes it possible to study the behavior of air signal systems using vane sensors of aerodynamic angles with artificially introduced failures. A full-scale experiment was carried out in an air-cooling tube on the basis of the enterprise JSC "UKBP". Numerical modeling and determination of correction factors were carried out in the software packages Ansys FENSAP ICE and MathCAD. Analysis of the results achieved in the course of modeling confirmed the convergence of the model obtained with the data of real experiments in an air-cooling tube. The data obtained made it possible to confirm the possibility of detecting distorted values for the angle of attack by the parametric quorum control method.

Ensuring Dynamic Accuracy of Aircraft’s Air Data System with Motionless Flush-Mounted Receiver of Flow

The article views, that draw-backs of aircraft’s traditional air data systems (ADS), built based installed in incoming air flow and installed outside the fuselage the pitot tube booms, temperature braking receivers, vane sensors of incidence angle and gliding angle are eliminated in original ADS with motionless flush-mounted receiver of flow. The functional scheme of aircraft’s air data system with motionless flush-mounted receiver of flow, built based on the original ion-mark sensor of aerodynamic angle and true airspeed, on receiving board of which the hole-receiver is installed to perceive the static pressure of incoming air flow. Models of operator sensitivity and dynamic errors of instrumentation channels due to random stationary atmospheric turbulence and random flow pulsations at location of the ion-mark sensor on fuselage of the aircraft are presented. Recommended to use the optimal linear Wiener filter, the synthesis method of which is revealed on example of the true airspeed instrumentation channel to reduce the stationary dynamic errors of instrumentation channels of air data system with motionless flush-mounted receiver due to atmospheric turbulence. Recommended to use the principle of integration to reduce the stationary random dynamic errors of instrumentation channels of air data system with motionless flush-mounted receiver due to flow pulsations near fuselage at location of ion-mark sensor. Proposed to use aeromechanical measuring and computing system built based VIMI method with Luenberger observer as an additional component of integrated air data system. Integrated system simulates the movement of aircraft in this flight mode and by flight parameters measured with high accuracy using flush-mounted receivers "restores" air signals included in equations of movement of aircraft. The structure, method and algorithms for determining air signals in channels of aeromechanical measuring and computing system with a Luenberger observer are presented. Using the example of true airspeed measurement, the analysis and quantitative assessment of residual dynamic error of integrating channel of integrated aircraft’s air data system with motionless flush-mounted receiver of flow is carried out.

Models of Signals, Algorithms and Errors of Instrumental Channels of the Air Data System Based on the Vortex Method

The enhanced complexity and weight of conventional air data systems based on aerometric, aerodynamic, and vane sensor methods in using them on ultralight and small aircraft, is justified. The study reveals the theoretical foundations of the vortex method for measuring the incident air flow parameters and its implementation in the original system based on the vortex method using the original vortex sensor of the aerodynamic angle and true air speed. The algorithms of formation and processing of primary informative signals in the measuring channels of the aircraft air data system based on the vortex method are presented. The models are obtained and the quantitative estimation of instrumental errors of measuring channels is carried out.

Hall effect instruments, evolution, implications, and future prospects.

Since the revolution in solid state electronics, many innovative principles were investigated for a better and simpler design. Thus, Hall effect-based sensors and instruments gained importance. To employ this principle in several operating conditions and with different setups, several researchers contributed significantly over the decades, which ultimately led to the establishment of industries producing a wide range of Hall devices. The objective of this paper is to review the available configurations and current status of the Hall effect-based technologies. A detailed discussion is carried out on the various types of existing Hall-based devices, such as linear sensors, field-programmable sensors, switches, latches, speed and directional sensors, and vane sensors. The effect of materials and the influence of several undesired effects (such as offset voltage, temperature, noise, and drift) are also investigated. The compensation/reduction techniques are mentioned therein, and interested researchers are encouraged for the development of new techniques. This paper concludes with the discussion on the market scenario (such as electronics sector and automotive industry) and progression in current research on Hall devices while projecting some new research directions in this field.

Static and Dynamic Yaw Misalignments of Wind Turbines and Machine Learning Based Correction Methods Using LiDAR Data

A yaw misalignment can be static or dynamic depending on its variation over time. For static, a few popular correction methods exist. LiDAR is one of the promising solutions because it can provide accurate wind measurements compared to a vane sensor and because it is cost effective when used for a limited time. We extend the LiDAR method to dynamic yaw misalignment correction by modeling the misalignment error's dependence on wind direction, wind speed, and rotor speed. An analytical framework is developed, and machine learning algorithms are trained to estimate the LiDAR's wind direction using SCADA data only. In this way, dynamic errors within SCADA data can be mitigated even after LiDAR is removed. Three machine learning algorithms, linear regression, random forests, and gradient boosting, are investigated. To evaluate the algorithms, SCADA and LiDAR data were collected at two wind farm sites in South Korea. The analysis shows that machine learning algorithms are capable of mitigating both static and dynamic yaw misalignments. While error reduction of only 22.6% was achieved with a static method, error reduction of 44.4% was achieved with a machine learning method. The validity was double checked by investigating turbine-to-turbine transferability of the dynamic correction model.

Standard state of soil dispersions for rheological measurements

The structural degradation of land is increasing all over the world; hence any effort to characterize it effectively is of great practical importance. By rheology we were able to compare the stability and resilience of structured soils containing the same clay minerals. The shear resistance of soil dispersions can be measured over a limited range of solid to water ratios. A precise methodology for rheological characterization of soil dispersions which contain as much water as they can hold in equilibrium, introduced here as standard state, was developed within a European specific targeted research project (acronym: INDEX-GOCE-CT-2003-505450) to determine parameters indicating structural degradation of European soils. We also aimed to find a measuring method for non specialists to follow structural changes in soils. Based on the entire INDEX sample pool, it was shown that soils with particles smaller than 1 mm can be measured in a reproducible way. First the water content of dispersions in a standard state (WCSDinStS) containing the maximum occluded water had to be determined, which itself is a characteristic of soil quality. Then the method for preparation of dispersions was standardized at 25 + 0.1 °C and 1 bar, and the rheological measurements were performed with a stress controlled rheometer using plate-to-plate and vane sensors. The flow character of all concentrated soil dispersions was viscoplastic and showed thixotropy, with two exceptions. Rheological parameters, i.e., initial stress, thixotropic hysteresis area, extrapolated (Bingham) yield value, plastic viscosity and absolute yield stress, of soil dispersions were determined. They changed in parallel, and were related to the particle adhesion, sensitivity to mechanical effects, and the strength of the physical network built up during the gradual aggregation of particles in soil dispersions. It was shown that the fragile networks of particles are thixotropic, so that external forces above the measurable limits destroy them, but they recover on standing for a longer time period. In the present paper, the development of a precise methodology for structural characterization of several clayey systems is described in detail showing only some examples from the thousands of rheological measurements, and in the end a useful comparison with field test measurements is shown.

Vane Sensor System in Small Strain Oscillatroy Testing

Abstract To overcome difficulties (slip, sample disturbance) associated with traditional sensors, a semi-empirical method was developed to allow the use of a 4-bladed vane sensor in small strain oscillatory testing. It was assumed that the vane sensor acted as a bob with an acting radius, RV, different from the actual radius of the vane (0.02005 m). To solve for RV, the complex modulus obtained using a concentric cylinder sensor from reference viscoelastic fluid, was set equal to the complex modulus equation for vane sensor. RV values were grouped into three phase shift ranges from 5° to less than 16°, from 16° to less than 60°, and from 60° to 90° and they were 0.01883, 0.01869, and 0.01850 m, respectively. These values were used in the calculation of viscoelastic properties of eight commercial food products, which resulted in complex modulus values within 15% of those obtained using a concentric cylinder sensor. Results showed that this particular vane and cup system can be used to directly measure the storage and loss moduli of viscoelastic material and phase shift within the upper frequency value of 6.28 rad/s. Above 6.28 rad/s, there is an inconsistency in phase shift angles measured using vane method. This method is ideal for testing thixotropic food systems because disturbance is minimal during sample loading, giving more accurate viscoelastic measurements.

A Tall-Tower Instrument System for Mean and Fluctuating Velocity, Fluctuating Temperature and Sensible Heat Flux Measurements

Abstract For an ongoing elevated-source, urban-scale tracer experiment, an instrument system to measure the three-dimensional wind velocity and the turbulent sensible heat flux was developed. The wind velocity was measured with a combination of cup anemometer, propeller (vertical) and vane sensor. The temperature fluctuations were derived using a uniquely referenced thermocouple pair. The temperature sensor is described in detail. The wind sensors have already been described elsewhere.