Automatic Identification of Closed-Loop Wind Turbine Dynamics via Genetic Programming

Author(s):  
William La Cava ◽  
Kourosh Danai ◽  
Matthew Lackner ◽  
Lee Spector ◽  
Paul Fleming ◽  
...  

Wind turbines are nonlinear systems that operate in turbulent environments. As such, their behavior is difficult to characterize accurately across a wide range of operating conditions by physically meaningful models. Customarily, data-based models of wind turbines are defined in ‘black box’ format, lacking in both conciseness and physical intelligibility. To address this deficiency, we identify models of a modern horizontal-axis wind turbine in symbolic form using a recently developed symbolic regression method. The method used relies on evolutionary multi-objective optimization to produce succinct dynamic models from operational data without ‘a priori’ knowledge of the system. We compare the produced models with models derived by other methods for their estimation capacity and evaluate the tradeoff between model intelligibility and accuracy. Several succinct models are found that predict wind turbine behavior as well as or better than more complex alternatives derived by other methods.

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.


2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Refan ◽  
Horia Hangan

The aerodynamic performance of an upwind, three-bladed, small horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) rotor of 2.2 m in diameter was investigated experimentally and theoretically in order to assess the applicability of the blade element momentum (BEM) theory for modeling the rotor performance for the case of small HAWTs. The wind turbine has been tested in the low and high speed sections of the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel 2 (BLWT2) at the University of Western Ontario (UWO) in order to determine the power curve over a wide range of wind speeds. Afterward, the BEM theory has been implemented to evaluate the rotor performance and to investigate three-dimensionality effects on power prediction by the theory. Comparison between the theoretical and experimental results shows that the overall prediction of the theory is within an acceptable range of accuracy. However, the BEM theory prediction for the case of small wind turbines is not as accurate as the prediction for larger wind turbines.


Author(s):  
Hamed Badihi ◽  
Javad Soltani Rad ◽  
Youmin Zhang ◽  
Henry Hong

Wind turbines are renewable energy conversion devices that are being deployed in greater numbers. However, today’s wind turbines are still expensive to operate, and maintain. The reduction of operational and maintenance costs has become a key driver for applying low-cost, condition monitoring and diagnosis systems in wind turbines. Accurate and timely detection, isolation and diagnosis of faults in a wind turbine allow satisfactory accommodation of the faults and, in turn, enhancement of the reliability, availability and productivity of wind turbines. The so–called model-based Fault Detection and Diagnosis (FDD) approaches utilize system model to carry out FDD in real-time. However, wind turbine systems are driven by wind as a stochastic aerodynamic input, and essentially exhibit highly nonlinear dynamics. Accurate modeling of such systems to be suitable for use in FDD applications is a rather difficult task. Therefore, this paper presents a data-driven modeling approach based on artificial intelligence (AI) methods which have excellent capability in describing complex and uncertain systems. In particular, two data-driven dynamic models of wind turbine are developed based on Fuzzy Modeling and Identification (FMI) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) methods. The developed models represent the normal operating performance of the wind turbine over a full range of operating conditions. Consequently, a model-based FDD scheme is developed and implemented based on each of the individual models. Finally, the FDD performance is evaluated and compared through a series of simulations on a well-known large offshore wind turbine benchmark in the presence of wind turbulences, measurement noises, and different realistic fault scenarios in the generator/converter torque actuator.


Author(s):  
Xiaomin Chen ◽  
Ramesh Agarwal

It is well established that the power generated by a Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) is a function of the number of blades B, the tip speed ratio λr (blade tip speed/wind free-stream velocity) and the lift to drag ratio (CL/CD) of the airfoil sections of the blade. The previous studies have shown that Blade Element Momentum (BEM) theory is capable of evaluating the steady-state performance of wind turbines, in particular it can provide a reasonably good estimate of generated power at a given wind speed. However in more realistic applications, wind turbine operating conditions change from time to time due to variations in wind velocity and the aerodynamic forces change to new steady-state values after the wake settles to a new equilibrium whenever changes in operating conditions occur. The goal of this paper is to modify the quasi-steady BEM theory by including a simple dynamic inflow model to capture the unsteady behavior of wind turbines on a larger time scale. The output power of the wind turbines is calculated using the improved BEM method incorporating the inflow model. The computations are performed for the original NREL Phase II and Phase III turbines and the Risoe turbine all employing the S809 airfoil section for the turbine blades. It is shown by a simple example that the improved BEM theory is capable of evaluating the wind turbine performance in practical situations where operating conditions often vary in time.


Mathematics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aitor Saenz-Aguirre ◽  
Ekaitz Zulueta ◽  
Unai Fernandez-Gamiz ◽  
Daniel Teso-Fz-Betoño ◽  
Javier Olarte

Wind energy has recently become one of the most prominent technologies among electrical energy generation systems. As a result, wind-based renewable energy generation systems are incessantly growing, and wind turbines of different characteristics are being installed in many locations around the world. One drawback associated with different characteristics of the wind turbines is that controllers have to be designed individually for each of them. Additionally, stable performance of the wind turbines needs to be ensured in the whole range of their operating conditions. Nowadays, there are many causes for uncertainties in the actual performance of a horizontal axis wind turbine, such as variations in the characteristics of the wind turbine, fabrication tolerances of its elements or non-linearities related to different operating-points. Hence, in order to respond to these uncertainties and ensure the stability of the wind turbine, robust control and stability theories have been gaining importance during recent years. Nevertheless, the use of robust stability analyses with complex wind turbine models still needs to be faced and remarkably improved. In this paper, a stability analysis of the pitch system control of a horizontal axis wind turbine based on the Kharitonov robust stability method is proposed. The objective was to assess the robust stability of a pitch controller in response to uncertainties arising from varying operating conditions of the National Renewable Energies Laboratory (NREL) 5 MW class IIA wind turbine. According to the results, the proposed method could satisfactorily respond to limited variations in the characteristics of the model, but could lack accuracy in cases of bigger variations or employment of high order complex mathematical models.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 982 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Wu ◽  
Hong Wang ◽  
Guoqian Jiang ◽  
Ping Xie ◽  
Xiaoli Li

Health monitoring of wind turbine gearboxes has gained considerable attention as wind turbines become larger in size and move to more inaccessible locations. To improve the reliability, extend the lifetime of the turbines, and reduce the operation and maintenance cost caused by the gearbox faults, data-driven condition motoring techniques have been widely investigated, where various sensor monitoring data (such as power, temperature, and pressure, etc.) have been modeled and analyzed. However, wind turbines often work in complex and dynamic operating conditions, such as variable speeds and loads, thus the traditional static monitoring method relying on a certain fixed threshold will lead to unsatisfactory monitoring performance, typically high false alarms and missed detections. To address this issue, this paper proposes a reliable monitoring model for wind turbine gearboxes based on echo state network (ESN) modeling and the dynamic threshold scheme, with a focus on supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) vibration data. The aim of the proposed approach is to build the turbine normal behavior model only using normal SCADA vibration data, and then to analyze the unseen SCADA vibration data to detect potential faults based on the model residual evaluation and the dynamic threshold setting. To better capture temporal information inherent in monitored sensor data, the echo state network (ESN) is used to model the complex vibration data due to its simple and fast training ability and powerful learning capability. Additionally, a dynamic threshold monitoring scheme with a sliding window technique is designed to determine dynamic control limits to address the issue of the low detection accuracy and poor adaptability caused by the traditional static monitoring methods. The effectiveness of the proposed monitoring method is verified using the collected SCADA vibration data from a wind farm located at Inner Mongolia in China. The results demonstrated that the proposed method can achieve improved detection accuracy and reliability compared with the traditional static threshold monitoring method.


1992 ◽  
Vol 114 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. P. Butterfield ◽  
George Scott ◽  
Walt Musial

Horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) performance is usually predicted by using wind tunnel airfoil performance data in a blade element momentum theory analysis. This analysis assumes that the rotating blade airfoils will perform as they do in the wind tunnel. However, when stall-regulated HAWT performance is measured in full-scale operation, it is common to find that peak power levels are significantly greater than those predicted. Pitch-controlled rotors experience predictable peak power levels because they do not rely on stall to regulate peak power. This has led to empirical corrections to the stall predictions. Viterna and Corrigan (1981) proposed the most popular version of this correction. But very little insight has been gained into the basic cause of this discrepancy. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), funded by the DOE, has conducted the first phase of an experiment which is focused on understanding the basic fluid mechanics of HAWT aerodynamics. Results to date have shown that unsteady aerodynamics exist during all operating conditions and dynamic stall can exist for high yaw angle operation. Stall hysteresis occurs for even small yaw angles and delayed stall is a very persistent reality in all operating conditions. Delayed stall is indicated by a leading edge suction peak which remains attached through angles of attack (AOA) up to 30 degrees. Wind tunnel results show this peak separating from the leading edge at 18 deg AOA. The effect of this anomaly is to raise normal force coefficients and tangent force coefficients for high AOA. Increased tangent forces will directly affect HAWT performance in high wind speed operation. This report describes pressure distribution data resulting from both wind tunnel and HAWT tests. A method of bins is used to average the HAWT data which is compared to the wind tunnel data. The analysis technique and the test set-up for each test are described.


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):  
Earl P. N. Duque ◽  
Michael D. Burklund ◽  
Wayne Johnson

A vortex lattice code, CAMRAD II, and a Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stoke code, OVERFLOW-D2, were used to predict the aerodynamic performance of a two-bladed horizontal axis wind turbine. All computations were compared with experimental data that was collected at the NASA Ames Research Center 80-by 120-Foot Wind Tunnel. Computations were performed for both axial as well as yawed operating conditions. Various stall delay models and dynamics stall models were used by the CAMRAD II code. Comparisons between the experimental data and computed aerodynamic loads show that the OVERFLOW-D2 code can accurately predict the power and spanwise loading of a wind turbine rotor.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 168781401989211
Author(s):  
Deyaa Nabil Elshebiny ◽  
Ali AbdelFattah Hashem ◽  
Farouk Mohammed Owis

This article introduces novel blade tip geometric modification to improve the aerodynamic performance of horizontal-axis wind turbine by adding auxiliary cascading blades toward the tip region. This study focuses on the new turbine shape and how it enhances the turbine performance in comparison with the classical turbine. This study is performed numerically for National Renewable Energy Laboratory Phase II (non-optimized wind turbine) taking into consideration the effect of adding different cascade configurations on the turbine performance using ANSYS FLUENT program. The analysis of single-auxiliary and double-auxiliary cascade blades has shown an impact on increasing the turbine power of 28% and 76%, respectively, at 72 r/min and 12.85 m/s of wind speed. Knowing that the performance of cascaded wind turbine depends on the geometry, solidity and operating conditions of the original blade; therefore, these results are not authorized for other cases.


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