Efficiency Optimization in Medium Power Wind Turbines: an Innovative Mechanical Pitch Control System

Abstract

The paper illustrates the design of a new mechanical system for propeller blades pitch calibration in medium power wind turbines. The peculiarity of this system is its capacity of adjusting through a feedback control system, which allows the wind turbine to capture the maximum amount of energy from the wind. In this work an axial drive system was studied by means of racks capable of linearly adjusting the pitch of all wind turbine propeller blades in an intrinsically synchronous way, with an advantage over the traditional methods of propeller blades pitch calibration. For different wind speeds the system adjusts the blades angle of incidence in order to reduce the rotation speed and keep the system as close as possible to the pre-established design conditions generating maximum energy with a high efficiency. The manuscript examines the main analyses and simulations conducted during the design phase. These show that the proposed method allows to reach higher efficiencies with a greater intrinsic stability compared to the traditional pitch control mechanisms in medium power wind turbines. The experimental results on the first prototypes confirm the efficiency increase.