Variable Speed Direct Drive Wind Controller for a Rim Driven Wind Turbine

Author(s):  
Chase Hubbard ◽  
Rob Hovsapian ◽  
Srinivas Kosaraju

Multi-blade shaft driven wind turbines depend greatly on the angle of attack as an important factor that the control system monitors such that a maximum amount of aerodynamic force is seen by the rotor blades. This is one significant difference when controlling a Rim Driven Wind Turbine (RDWT). The controller for a RDWT is required to simply point the tower such that it is facing the wind for maximum power generation. This is achieved by incorporating a Variable Speed Direct Drive (VSDD) wind operation control system to control the power production and safe operation of the RDWT. Another consideration for the control system is its integration with the generator. Since the power generation is rim driven, thus operating at a higher variable speed. With information related to the wind turbine’s diameter and the wind speed at any given time it can be calculated how much power can be potentially generated. This can then be in turn relayed to the generator from the wind turbine controller. This information can be relayed using controller-controller communication (such as an analog voltage signal or protocol based communication such as MODBUS RTU or TCP/IP) representing the power coefficient from Betz’ Law. A feasibly controllable system implements a signal from the overall wind turbine controller that in turn supplies the generator with how much power is available in the system to maximize power generation for a broad range of traditionally unrealizable wind conditions (3 m/s to 30 m/s). Rim Driven Wind Turbines represent an evolution in fundamental design of how the wind can be harnessed for power. This paper will discuss the VSDD’s unique design and aspects of maintaining controllability thorough out the overall system operation.

Author(s):  
Srinivas Kosaraju ◽  
Rob Hovsapian

The current paper discusses an on-going research effort in the performance evaluation and optimization of rim-drive wind turbines (RDWT). Unlike conventional aerofoil wind turbines, the RDWTs are designed to extract power directly from the outer rim instead of central hub. A RDWT with 25ft rotor diameter is tested for performance evaluation and maximum power extracted. The experiment is conducted at Wind Science and Engineering research center, located in Lubbock, Texas. The wind turbine is coupled to a variable speed direct drive electric generator. The induction current in the generator is optimized for different wind speeds in order to extract maximum power from the wind turbine. The experimental results are compared with two commercial aerofoil wind turbines of similar design specifications using performance evaluation data published by National Renewable Energy Laboratory. It is observed that RDWT can extract comparable and often higher amount of energy when compared with aerofoil wind turbines. The results also show that RDWT has an average power coefficient of 0.3 and can operate in wider spectrum of wind speeds than aerofoil wind turbines.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (19) ◽  
pp. 4024 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Hegler ◽  
Dirk Plettemeier

Wind-power generation is one of the fundamental sources of renewable energy. However, due to the increasing size of wind turbines, they cause unwanted interference with radar systems for civic protection, especially for on-shore locations. This paper presents parameter studies performed on different wind-turbine models, with a focus on differences of the aerodynamical shape of the rotor blades. Numerical simulation is employed to estimate the influence of different wind-turbine design parameters, with the aim of deriving strategies to minimize wind-turbine influence on radar systems for civic protection. Due to the complex nature of the aerodynamic shape of the blade, a general model cannot be derived from the studies. However, further steps to eventually achieve this goal are outlined.


Author(s):  
Hideki Kuma ◽  
Manabu Takao ◽  
Toshiyuki Beppu ◽  
Takao Maeda ◽  
Yasunari Kamada ◽  
...  

A straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine with a directed guide vane has been proposed in order to enhance its torque. The experimental study of the proposed wind turbine was carried out by a wind tunnel with an outlet diameter of 1.8m. The tested rotor has 3 straight rotor blades with a profile of NACA0018, a radius of 0.35 m and a height of 0.7 m. The guide vane which consists of an arc plate rotates around the rotor and is directed to the wind by aerodynamic force generated by tail vanes, so as to put the guide vane in upstream of the rotor. As a result, the performance of the straight-bladed vertical axis turbine was improved by means of the directed guide vane and the power coefficient of the proposed wind turbine was approximately 1.2 times higher than that of the original wind turbine which has no guide vane. Further, flows around the proposed wind turbine have been investigated by use of the vortex method which provides a Lagrangian simulation of unsteady and vortical flows.


Author(s):  
Manabu Takao ◽  
Takao Maeda ◽  
Yasunari Kamada ◽  
Michiaki Oki ◽  
Hideki Kuma

A straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine with a directed guide vane row has been proposed in order to enhance its torque. The experimental study of the proposed wind turbine was carried out by a wind tunnel with an outlet diameter of 1.8m. The tested rotor has some straight rotor blades with a profile of NACA0015, a radius diameter of 0.3 m and a height of 0.7 m. The guide vane row having 3 arc plates rotates around the rotor and is directed to the wind by aerodynamic force generated by tail vanes, so as to put the guide vane row in upstream of the rotor. As a result, the performance of the straight-bladed vertical axis turbine was improved by means of the directed guide vane row. Further, by the use of the guide vane row adopted in the study, the power coefficient of the proposed wind turbine was approximately 1.5 times higher than that of the original wind turbine which has no guide vane.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Zuoshan Li

This article first studies the operating principles of wind turbines, focusing on the analysis of the structure and working principles of permanent magnet direct-drive wind turbines. According to the actual needs of the wind power system, the monitoring objects of the monitoring system are determined, and the overall monitoring plan for wind power generation is proposed to realize real-time analysis of the operating characteristics of the wind power system. At the same time, it pointed out the great significance of the wind power generation simulation experiment system and focused on the wind speed modeling. In terms of hardware research and analysis, relevant sensors, high-speed data acquisition cards, etc., were selected, and relevant signal conditioning circuits were designed, and a permanent magnet direct-drive wind power generation system simulation monitoring platform was constructed. In terms of software, LabVIEW was chosen as the design language of the monitoring system, and it pointed out the advantages of using LabVIEW in this monitoring system. Finally, the system uses the laboratory permanent magnet direct-drive wind turbine as the monitoring object. The practicality and accuracy of the system are verified through experiments such as permanent magnet motor power test, motor speed test, database system test, and remote monitoring test. The experimental results show that the monitoring system has a friendly interface and perfect functions and has important practicability and reference in the field of wind power monitoring.


Solar Energy ◽  
2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. R. Bhagwatikar ◽  
W. Z. Gandhare

It is well known that the wind power has definitely certain impact on the grid power. Issues associated with the integration of wind power into the utility grid are interface issues, operational issues and planning issues. Interface issues include harmonics, reactive power consumption, voltage regulation and frequency control. Operational issues are intermittent power generation, operating reserve requirements, unit commitment and economic despatch. And planning issues are concerned with intermittent wind resources compared to conventional power resources. An important question, when connecting the wind turbine generators to the utility grid, is how much the power / voltage quality will be influenced, since the power production by wind turbines is intermittent, quantity wise as well as quality wise. This paper is focused on the on comparison between the constant speed wind turbines and variable speed wind turbines, reactive power consumption and harmonics generated by both wind turbines. Total harmonic distortion is calculated by the application of C++ software and a comparison is done between the generators with respect to the harmonics. It is observed that constant speed wind turbine generates low order harmonics and variable speed turbine generates high order harmonics. On the basis of results, some solutions are suggested to improve the wind power quality and to reduce reactive power consumption. It seems that variable speed wind turbines with electronic interface are better with respect to the utility grid point of view.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin Kipchirchir ◽  
Manh Hung Do ◽  
Jackson Githu Njiri ◽  
Dirk Söffker

Abstract. Variability of wind profiles in both space and time is responsible for fatigue loading in wind turbine components. Advanced control methods for mitigating structural loading in these components have been proposed in previous works. These also incorporate other objectives like speed and power regulation for above-rated wind speed operation. In recent years, lifetime control and extension strategies have been proposed to guaranty power supply and operational reliability of wind turbines. These control strategies typically rely on a fatigue load evaluation criteria to determine the consumed lifetime of these components, subsequently varying the control set-point to guaranty a desired lifetime of the components. Most of these methods focus on controlling the lifetime of specific structural components of a wind turbine, typically the rotor blade or tower. Additionally, controllers are often designed to be valid about specific operating points, hence exhibit deteriorating performance in varying operating conditions. Therefore, they are not able to guaranty a desired lifetime in varying wind conditions. In this paper an adaptive lifetime control strategy is proposed for controlled ageing of rotor blades to guaranty a desired lifetime, while considering damage accumulation level in the tower. The method relies on an online structural health monitoring system to vary the lifetime controller gains based on a State of Health (SoH) measure by considering the desired lifetime at every time-step. For demonstration, a 1.5 MW National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) reference wind turbine is used. The proposed adaptive lifetime controller regulates structural loading in the rotor blades to guaranty a predefined damage level at the desired lifetime without sacrificing on the speed regulation performance of the wind turbine. Additionally, significant reduction in the tower fatigue damage is observed.


Author(s):  
Ibtissem Barkat ◽  
Abdelouahab Benretem ◽  
Fawaz Massouh ◽  
Issam Meghlaoui ◽  
Ahlem Chebel

This article aims to study the forces applied to the rotors of horizontal axis wind turbines. The aerodynamics of a turbine are controlled by the flow around the rotor, or estimate of air charges on the rotor blades under various operating conditions and their relation to the structural dynamics of the rotor are critical for design. One of the major challenges in wind turbine aerodynamics is to predict the forces on the blade as various methods, including blade element moment theory (BEM), the approach that is naturally adapted to the simulation of the aerodynamics of wind turbines and the dynamic and models (CFD) that describes with fidelity the flow around the rotor. In our article we proposed a modeling method and a simulation of the forces applied to the horizontal axis wind rotors turbines using the application of the blade elements method to model the rotor and the vortex method of free wake modeling in order to develop a rotor model, which can be used to study wind farms. This model is intended to speed up the calculation, guaranteeing a good representation of the aerodynamic loads exerted by the wind.


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