Some comments on experimental results of three lift controllers for a wind turbine blade section using an active flow control

Abstract

Abstract. Controlling wind turbines is generally performed globally (rotor yaw or blade pitch control) to optimize the energy extraction and minimize rotor's loads for rotor's lifetime extension. This means that no information from the blade aerodynamics is up to now taken into account in the control loop while it is well understood that wind inflow interaction with blade aerodynamics can lead to power loss, load fluctuations and noise generation. This work deals with the development of control algorithms applied at the level of the blade section, considering only local aerodynamic sensing and actuators. The objective is to extract the maximum power from the wind energy by maintaining the aerodynamic lift at its highest value, while limiting load fluctuations using different solutions of control which take into account disturbances from different turbulent inflows. Some control strategies are investigated thanks to an experimental bench in the aerodynamic wind tunnel of LHEEA's laboratory in order to compare the tracking performances with respect to different operating scenarios.