Aeroelastic Stability and Control of Large Wind Turbines STABCON
STABCON: Aero-Servo-Elasticity of wind turbines Part 2 Part 1
PRVS and ASR turbines: NM80 prototype in Tjæreborg
Investigated topics for passive instability suppression Effect of airfoil aerodynamics Smooth stall characteristics increases the damping Effect of flapwise – edgewise frequency coincidence Coincidence creates a flapwise – edgewise whirling coupling Effect of flapwise – edgewise whirling coupling Coupled whirling modes ”share” aeroelastic damping Effect of torsional blade stiffness Low torsional blade stiffness may lead to flutter Can whirl flutter happen on a wind turbine? Yes for extremely low tilt/yaw stiffness of nacelle support Edgewise/torsion coupling for large flapwise deflections Downwind flapwise bending may increase edgewise damping Effect of yaw error on damping from wake The destabilizing effect of dynamic inflow changes slightly by yaw errors Effect of generator dynamics Damping effects depend on generator type and control strategy
Effect of edgewise/flapwise whirling coupling – PRVS
Effect of edgewise/flapwise whirling coupling – ASR
Effect of large flapwise deflection – PRVS downwind pre-bend upwind pre-bend
Effect of large flapwise deflection – ASR downwind pre-bend upwind pre-bend
Investigated topics for integrated aeroelastic control Power/speed controller issues Speed controller frequency placed away from aeroelatic frequencies Active drivetrain damping by feedback to generator torque Drivetrain loads reduced by up to 10 % Active drivetrain damping reduces pitch activity Active tower damping by feedback to collective pitch Efficiency depend on the aeroelastic damping of the tower modes Cyclic pitch for flapwise blade and tilt/yaw load reductions Efficiency depend on the ratio of stochastic and deterministic loading most relative efficiency for low turbulence Too high feedback gains may lead to whirl-flutter-like instability Are there conflicting objectives of combined controllers? No, if there is a sufficient frequency separation of control actions
Cyclic pitch actions reduce flapwise blade loads
Cyclic pitch actions reduce tilt/yaw shaft and tower loads
Cyclic pitch actions affect the damping of tower modes
Active tower damping and cyclic pitch can be combined
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