Real-time simulation of aeroelastic rotor loads for horizontal axis wind turbines

Marnett, M; Wellenberg, Sören; Schröder, Wolfgang

doi:10.1088/1742-6596/524/1/012071

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…To compare the functionality of the HiL control methods, we simulate a production cycle with turbulent wind conditions at 20 m/s in MATLAB™Simulink. Apart from a STB drive train model and the HiL control method, the simulation includes an aerodynamic model of the rotor (Marnett et al (2014)) and a WT controller model (Leisten et al (2019a) the STB drive train and the HiL control method by the WT drive train, the same simulation can be used to generate the WT behaviour as a reference.…”

Section: Simulation Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of HiL Control Methods for Wind Turbine System Test Benches

Kaven

Leisten

Basler

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Abstract. The current test process in design and certification of wind turbines (WTs) is time and cost intensive, as it depends on the wind conditions and requires the setup of the WT in the field. Efforts are made to transfer the test process to a system test bench (STB) whereby an easier installation is enabled and the load can be arbitrarily applied. However, on a STB the WT is installed without rotor and tower and the remaining drive train behaviour acts differently to the WT drive train in the field. The original behaviour must be restored by incorporating a Hardware-in.the-Loop (HiL) simulation into the operation of the STB. The HiL simulation consists of the virtual rotor and wind and the control of the applied loads. Furthermore, sensors as the wind vane and actors as the pitch drives, which are not present at the STB, are substituted by simulation models. This contribution investigates suitable HiL control methods of the applied torque. Herein, we survey three methods of different complexity and compare them in terms of performance, actuator requirements and robustness. The simplest method emulates the divergent inertia by classical control. A more complex method based on a reference model also considers the alternated dynamic behaviour of the drive train. Model predictive control (MPC) currently constitutes the most complex HiL method, as the MPC also includes future predictions of the driving torque behaviour. Our comparison identifies that increased complexity of the control method ensures enhanced preformance. WT drive train dynamics can be reproduced up to 1, 6, and 10 Hz for IE, MRC and MPC, respectively. Yet, for higher control complexity, the requirements for the dynamic torque proliferate and the controllers robustness to model deviations decreases.

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Section: Simulation Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of HiL Control Methods for Wind Turbine System Test Benches

Kaven

Leisten

Basler

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…The real-time aerodynamics simulation RAISE [12] is used to investigate the rotor behavior under realistic turbulent conditions. It computes the aerodynamic torque T aero-R , considering the inputs of the (low frequency) mean wind speed v w , the rotor speed !…”

Section: Aerodynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pitfalls of testing wind turbine control algorithms on nacelle test benches

Klein

Basler

Abel

2023

Forsch Ingenieurwes

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The validation and certification of wind turbines (WT) on nacelle test benches (NTB) is becoming increasingly important in the development process. While for certifiers the advantage lies in controlled test execution, for development departments it lies in testing as many system components as possible in a quasi-final prototype. However, the question arises which practical conditions must be fulfilled so that statements can also be made about WT control. In addition to the errors induced by a mechanical Hardware in the Loop (mHiL) system, the dynamic interactions between the WT controller and the NTB controller applying the mHiL concept are of interest. This analytical work based on simulations aims to systematically investigate how realistic the control behavior of a WT operated on a NTB is. For this purpose, the nominal behavior of a WT is compared with the operation on a NTB under realistic conditions and the resulting differences are subsequently reproduced in a synthetic load case. Finally, the differences are analyzed in terms of system theory. It is found that a frequency-dependent distorted behavior caused by operating the WT on a NTB is responsible for strong deviations compared to the WT operation in field. In the controller configuration studied, gain amplifications up to $$5.17\,\text{dB}$$ 5.17 dB are identified. The distortion is not exclusively caused by the mHiL closed loop behavior, but results from the interaction of all subsystems in both control loops. Therefore, its behavior is identified as a function of the system and controller parameters of both the WT and the NTB.

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“…The mechanical level HiLsystem consists of the aerodynamic simulation, the inertia and eigenfrequency emulation. The aerodynamic simulation calculates torques and forces acting on the WTG at hub height, based upon the user-defined wind speed and direction, turbulence intensity as well as the rotational speed and pitch angle [13]. The inertia emulation [2] counteracts the aerodynamic torque in the rotational degree of freedom and is to be extended in this paper.…”

Section: System Test Benchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The constraints (13) and (14) guarantee that the damping D R and stiffness K R of the virtual spring are greater than zero, while (16) and (17) limit the solution of the optimizer to pole pairs. The constraint in (15) defines that the designed, emulated system contains one integrator.…”

Section: B Synthesis Of Inertia Eigenfrequency Emulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

An extended inertia and eigenfrequency emulation for full-scale wind turbine nacelle test benches

Jassmann

Hakenberg

Abel

2015

2015 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM)

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The main causes of wind turbines failures are mechanical and electrical drive train components [1]. Since isolated simulation studies seem not to sufficiently reproduce load situations in the fully assembled and operated system, wind industry pays more and more attention to wind turbine System Test Benches. They allow for detailed load analysis within the complete drive train system and also for controller tests. For both investigations drive train dynamics of the wind turbine generator (WTG) are of high relevance. This dynamic behavior is mainly determined by the rotor's inertia which, due to its size, has to be dismounted for System Test Bench tests. By that, the dynamics of the remaining drive train change significantly. In order to still operate the WTG controller without modifying it and to allow for representative load analysis a Hardwarein-the-Loop (HiL) Controller needs to reproduce the realistic drive train behavior at the System Test Bench. This paper proposes a control concept which emulates the missing rotor related inertia as well as the drive train and the coupled rotor-drive train related eigenfrequencies which are both crucial for load analysis as well as controller tests. The proposed concept consists of a virtual spring-dampersystem combined with a subsidiary state feedback controller. The controller synthesis is conducted using a quadratic norm. The simulation results show that the eigenfrequencies can be reproduced with less than 2 % error. When time-discrete operation is considered, the results are slightly downgraded, so that alternative synthesis procedures need to be investigated in the future. The method proposed in this paper is based upon an experimentally verified inertia emulation method [2]. Furthermore the simulation models used throughout this simulation study are experimentally validated models of a 1 MW System Test Bench [3] at the Center for Wind Power Drives of RWTH Aachen University.

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Real-time simulation of aeroelastic rotor loads for horizontal axis wind turbines

Cited by 9 publications

References 2 publications

Comparison of HiL Control Methods for Wind Turbine System Test Benches

Comparison of HiL Control Methods for Wind Turbine System Test Benches

Pitfalls of testing wind turbine control algorithms on nacelle test benches

An extended inertia and eigenfrequency emulation for full-scale wind turbine nacelle test benches

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