scholarly journals Emerging trends in vibration control of wind turbines: a focus on a dual control strategy

Author(s):  
Andrea Staino ◽  
Biswajit Basu

The paper discusses some of the recent developments in vibration control strategies for wind turbines, and in this context proposes a new dual control strategy based on the combination and modification of two recently proposed control schemes. Emerging trends in the vibration control of both onshore and offshore wind turbines are presented. Passive, active and semi-active structural vibration control algorithms have been reviewed. Of the existing controllers, two control schemes, active pitch control and active tendon control, have been discussed in detail. The proposed new control scheme is a merger of active tendon control with passive pitch control, and is designed using a Pareto-optimal problem formulation. This combination of controllers is the cornerstone of a dual strategy with the feature of decoupling vibration control from optimal power control as one of its main advantages, in addition to reducing the burden on the pitch demand. This dual control strategy will bring in major benefits to the design of modern wind turbines and is expected to play a significant role in the advancement of offshore wind turbine technologies.

Author(s):  
Bjo̸rn Skaare ◽  
Tor David Hanson ◽  
Finn Gunnar Nielsen

Exploitation of wind energy at deep-waters locations requires floating wind turbine foundations. Several floating wind turbine foundation concepts are reported in the literature, and a common challenge is to make a low cost foundation with acceptable motion characteristics. In order to analyze the fatigue life of floating offshore wind turbines, the coupled action of wind, waves, current and blade pitch control strategy must be considered. State-of-the-art computer programs for motion analysis of moored offshore bodies, Simo-Riflex from Sintef Marintek, are coupled to a state-of-the-art aero-elastic computer program for wind turbines, Hawc2 from Riso̸ National Laboratory. The wave loads on the body may include wave diffraction and radiation loads as well as viscous forces. The mooring lines are modelled using cable finite elements with inertia and drag forces. The wind load on the rotor is based on common rotor aerodynamics including corrections for skew inflow and relative motion caused by large displacement and large tilt and yaw rotations of the rotor. Conventional wind turbine control strategies lead to wind-induced loads that may amplify or damp the motions of the floating wind turbine. The first case is a result of the blade pitch control strategy above rated wind speed for the wind turbine, and can result in large resonant motions that will reduce the fatigue life of the floating wind turbine significantly. The latter case implies energy extraction from the waves. This paper addresses the importance of control strategies on fatigue life for a given floating offshore wind turbine. A fatigue life time comparison between a conventional blade pitch control strategy and an estimator based blade pitch control strategy show that the fatigue life of floating offshore wind turbines can be significantly increased by use of alternative blade pitch control strategies.


Author(s):  
Finn Gunnar Nielsen ◽  
Tor David Hanson ◽  
Bjo̸rn Skaare

Two different simulation models for integrated dynamic analysis of floating offshore wind turbines are described and compared with model scale experiments for the Hywind concept for floating offshore wind turbines. A variety of both environmental conditions and wind turbine control schemes are tested. A maximum power control strategy is applied for wind velocities below the rated wind speed for the wind turbine, while a constant power control strategy is achieved by controlling the rotor blade pitch for wind velocities above rated wind speed. Conventional rotor blade pitch control for wind velocities above rated wind speed introduces negative damping of the tower motion. This results in excitation of the natural frequency in pitch for the tower and may lead to unacceptable tower motions. Active damping of the undesirable tower motions is obtained by an additional pitch control algorithm based on measurement of the tower velocity.


Author(s):  
Jose´ G. Rangel-Rami´rez ◽  
John D. So̸rensen

Deterioration processes such as fatigue and corrosion are typically affecting offshore structures. To “control” this deterioration, inspection and maintenance activities are developed. Probabilistic methodologies represent an important tool to identify the suitable strategy to inspect and control the deterioration in structures such as offshore wind turbines (OWT). Besides these methods, the integration of condition monitoring information (CMI) can optimize the mitigation activities as an updating tool. In this paper, a framework for risk-based inspection and maintenance planning (RBI) is applied for OWT incorporating CMI, addressing this analysis to fatigue prone details in welded steel joints at jacket or tripod steel support structures for offshore wind turbines. The increase of turbulence in wind farms is taken into account by using a code-based turbulence model. Further, additional modes t integrate CMI in the RBI approach for optimal planning of inspection and maintenance. As part of the results, the life cycle reliabilities and inspection times are calculated, showing that earlier inspections are needed at in-wind farm sites. This is expected due to the wake turbulence increasing the wind load. With the integration of CMI by means Bayesian inference, a slightly change of first inspection times are coming up, influenced by the reduction of the uncertainty and harsher or milder external agents.


Author(s):  
Toshiki Chujo ◽  
Yoshimasa Minami ◽  
Tadashi Nimura ◽  
Shigesuke Ishida

The experimental proof of the floating wind turbine has been started off Goto Islands in Japan. Furthermore, the project of floating wind farm is afoot off Fukushima Prof. in north eastern part of Japan. It is essential for realization of the floating wind farm to comprehend its safety, electric generating property and motion in waves and wind. The scale model experiments are effective to catch the characteristic of floating wind turbines. Authors have mainly carried out scale model experiments with wind turbine models on SPAR buoy type floaters. The wind turbine models have blade-pitch control mechanism and authors focused attention on the effect of blade-pitch control on both the motion of floater and fluctuation of rotor speed. In this paper, the results of scale model experiments are discussed from the aspect of motion of floater and the effect of blade-pitch control.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 574
Author(s):  
Rundong Yan ◽  
Sarah Dunnett

In order to improve the operation and maintenance (O&M) of offshore wind turbines, a new Petri net (PN)-based offshore wind turbine maintenance model is developed in this paper to simulate the O&M activities in an offshore wind farm. With the aid of the PN model developed, three new potential wind turbine maintenance strategies are studied. They are (1) carrying out periodic maintenance of the wind turbine components at different frequencies according to their specific reliability features; (2) conducting a full inspection of the entire wind turbine system following a major repair; and (3) equipping the wind turbine with a condition monitoring system (CMS) that has powerful fault detection capability. From the research results, it is found that periodic maintenance is essential, but in order to ensure that the turbine is operated economically, this maintenance needs to be carried out at an optimal frequency. Conducting a full inspection of the entire wind turbine system following a major repair enables efficient utilisation of the maintenance resources. If periodic maintenance is performed infrequently, this measure leads to less unexpected shutdowns, lower downtime, and lower maintenance costs. It has been shown that to install the wind turbine with a CMS is helpful to relieve the burden of periodic maintenance. Moreover, the higher the quality of the CMS, the more the downtime and maintenance costs can be reduced. However, the cost of the CMS needs to be considered, as a high cost may make the operation of the offshore wind turbine uneconomical.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 543
Author(s):  
Jiawen Li ◽  
Jingyu Bian ◽  
Yuxiang Ma ◽  
Yichen Jiang

A typhoon is a restrictive factor in the development of floating wind power in China. However, the influences of multistage typhoon wind and waves on offshore wind turbines have not yet been studied. Based on Typhoon Mangkhut, in this study, the characteristics of the motion response and structural loads of an offshore wind turbine are investigated during the travel process. For this purpose, a framework is established and verified for investigating the typhoon-induced effects of offshore wind turbines, including a multistage typhoon wave field and a coupled dynamic model of offshore wind turbines. On this basis, the motion response and structural loads of different stages are calculated and analyzed systematically. The results show that the maximum response does not exactly correspond to the maximum wave or wind stage. Considering only the maximum wave height or wind speed may underestimate the motion response during the traveling process of the typhoon, which has problems in guiding the anti-typhoon design of offshore wind turbines. In addition, the coupling motion between the floating foundation and turbine should be considered in the safety evaluation of the floating offshore wind turbine under typhoon conditions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 589
Author(s):  
Subhamoy Bhattacharya ◽  
Domenico Lombardi ◽  
Sadra Amani ◽  
Muhammad Aleem ◽  
Ganga Prakhya ◽  
...  

Offshore wind turbines are a complex, dynamically sensitive structure due to their irregular mass and stiffness distribution, and complexity of the loading conditions they need to withstand. There are other challenges in particular locations such as typhoons, hurricanes, earthquakes, sea-bed currents, and tsunami. Because offshore wind turbines have stringent Serviceability Limit State (SLS) requirements and need to be installed in variable and often complex ground conditions, their foundation design is challenging. Foundation design must be robust due to the enormous cost of retrofitting in a challenging environment should any problem occur during the design lifetime. Traditionally, engineers use conventional types of foundation systems, such as shallow gravity-based foundations (GBF), suction caissons, or slender piles or monopiles, based on prior experience with designing such foundations for the oil and gas industry. For offshore wind turbines, however, new types of foundations are being considered for which neither prior experience nor guidelines exist. One of the major challenges is to develop a method to de-risk the life cycle of offshore wind turbines in diverse metocean and geological conditions. The paper, therefore, has the following aims: (a) provide an overview of the complexities and the common SLS performance requirements for offshore wind turbine; (b) discuss the use of physical modelling for verification and validation of innovative design concepts, taking into account all possible angles to de-risk the project; and (c) provide examples of applications in scaled model tests.


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