Compensation for asymmetric load moment experienced by wind turbine rotor

Abstract

A method of operating a wind turbine is provided. The wind turbine comprises a turbine rotor with at least two blades, each blade having a variable pitch angle. The method comprises determining mechanical loads on the blades, determining an asymmetric load moment experienced by the turbine rotor based on the mechanical loads on the blades, determining high order harmonics from the asymmetric load moment, and determining an individual pitch control signal for each of the blades for varying the pitch angle of each blade to compensate for the asymmetric load moment. The individual pitch control signal for each blade is determined at least based on the high order harmonics.

Claims

1. A method of operating a wind turbine comprising a turbine rotor with at least two blades, each blade of the at least two blades having a variable pitch angle, the method comprising: determining, using one or more sensors of the wind turbine that are communicatively coupled with one or more computer processors of the wind turbine, mechanical loads on the at least two blades: frequency modulating a signal that is based on the asymmetric load moment to produce a frequency-modulated signal: and notch filtering the frequency-modulated signal to identify the high order harmonics; and determining, using the high order harmonics, an individual pitch control signal for each blade of the at least two blades for varying a pitch angle of each blade to compensate for the asymmetric load moment; and controlling, using a pitch controller, the pitch angle of each blade based on the corresponding individual pitch control signal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the asymmetric load moment comprises determining at least one of tilt moment and yaw moment.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the individual pitch control signal comprises: subtracting the high order harmonics from a reference value to generate a modified reference value; determining high order harmonics components based on the modified reference value; generating a cyclic pitch value based on the high order harmonics components for each blade; and summing the cyclic pitch value with a collective pitch value to generate the individual pitch control signal for each blade.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: filtering the asymmetric load moment to remove low frequency components to produce the signal before frequency modulating the signal.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining an asymmetric load moment comprises determining the tilt moment and the yaw moment, wherein frequency modulating the asymmetric load moment comprises: determining a first plurality of frequency-modulated signals using the tilt moment; and determining a second plurality of frequency-modulated signals using the yaw moment, and wherein notch filtering the frequency-modulated asymmetric load moment comprises: notch filtering each of the first plurality of frequency-modulated signals to identify a plurality of tilt moment frequency components; and notch filtering each of the second plurality of frequency-modulated signals to identify a plurality of yaw moment frequency components.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising: transforming the plurality of tilt moment frequency components and the plurality of yaw moment frequency components to produce an x-moment frequency component and a z-moment frequency component, wherein the individual pitch control signal for each blade of the at least two blades is determined using the x-moment frequency component and the z-moment frequency component.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the plurality of tilt moment frequency components and the plurality of yaw moment frequency components are transformed using a predefined weighting factor that is selected from a predefined range from zero to one.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the x-moment frequency component is produced by summing (1) a product of the predefined weighting factor and a first tilt moment frequency component and (2) a product of a first yaw moment frequency component and (one minus the predefined weighting factor), and wherein the z-moment frequency component is produced by summing (3) a product of the predefined weighting factor and a second tilt moment frequency component and (4) a product of a negative second yaw moment frequency component and (one minus the predefined weighting factor).

9. The method of claim 5, wherein determining the first plurality of frequency-modulated signals comprises applying each of a first carrier signal and a second carrier signal to a first signal that is based on the tilt moment, and wherein determining the second plurality of frequency-modulated signals comprises applying each of the first carrier signal and the second carrier signal to a second signal that is based on the yaw moment.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first signal is produced by passing the tilt moment through a first high-pass filter, and wherein the second signal is produced by passing the yaw moment through a second high-pass filter.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein a cutoff frequency of the first high-pass filter and the second high-pass filter corresponds to a rotor speed of the turbine rotor.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the first carrier signal and the second carrier signal are each based on an azimuth angle of the turbine rotor.

13. A wind turbine comprising: a turbine rotor with at least two blades, each blade of the at least two blades having a variable pitch angle; and a load control system comprising one or more computer processors, wherein the load control system is configured to: determine, using one or more sensors, mechanical loads on the at least two blades; determine, using the mechanical loads, an asymmetric load moment experienced by the turbine rotor; determine high order harmonics from the asymmetric load moment by: frequency modulating a signal that is based on the asymmetric load moment to produce a frequency-modulated signal; and notch filtering the frequency-modulated signal to identify the high order harmonics; determine, using the high order harmonics, an individual pitch control signal for each blade of the at least two blades for varying a pitch angle of each blade to compensate for the asymmetric load moment; and control, using a pitch controller, the pitch angle of each blade based on the corresponding individual pitch control signal.

14. The wind turbine of claim 13, wherein the load control system is configured to determine at least one of tilt moment and yaw moment as the asymmetric load moment.

15. The wind turbine of claim 13, wherein the load control system comprises: a first summing unit to subtract the high order harmonics from a reference value to generate a modified reference value; a Proportional Integral (PI) controller for determining high order harmonics components based on the modified reference value; a cyclic pitch actuator for generating a cyclic pitch value based on the high order harmonics components for each blade; and a second summing unit for summing the cyclic pitch value with a collective pitch value to generate the individual pitch control signal for each blade.

16. The wind turbine of claim 13, wherein the load control system further comprises: a frequency modulator for frequency modulating the signal; and a notch filter for filtering the frequency-modulated signal to produce the high order harmonics.

17. The wind turbine of claim 13, wherein the load control system further comprises a high pass filter for filtering off low frequency components from the asymmetric load moment to produce the signal before frequency modulating the signal.

18. A load control system for use in a wind turbine having a turbine rotor with at least two blades, each blade of the at least two blades having a variable pitch angle, the load control system comprising one or more computer processors, wherein the load control system is configured to: determine, using one or more sensors physically coupled with the wind turbine, mechanical loads on the at least two blades; determine, using the mechanical loads, an asymmetric load moment experienced by the turbine rotor, wherein the asymmetric load moment comprises one or both of a tilt moment and a yaw moment; determine high order harmonics from the asymmetric load moment by: frequency modulating a signal that is based on the asymmetric load moment to produce a frequency-modulated signal; and notch filtering the frequency-modulated signal to identify the high order harmonics; determine, using the high order harmonics, an individual pitch control signal for each blade of the at least two blades for varying a pitch angle of each blade to compensate for the asymmetric load moment; and control, using a pitch controller, the pitch angle of each blade based on the corresponding individual pitch control signal.

19. The load control system of claim 18, further comprising: a first summing unit configured to subtract the high order harmonics from a reference value to generate a modified reference value; a Proportional Integral (PI) controller configured to determine high order harmonics components based on the modified reference value; a cyclic pitch actuator configured to generate a cyclic pitch value based on the high order harmonics components for each blade; and a second summing unit configured to sum the cyclic pitch value with a collective pitch value to generate the individual pitch control signal for each blade.

20. The load control system of claim 19, further comprising: a frequency modulator for frequency modulating the signal; a notch filter for filtering the frequency-modulated signal to produce the high order harmonics; and a high pass filter for filtering off low frequency components from the asymmetric load moment to produce the signal before frequency modulating the signal.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The invention will be better understood with reference to the detailed description when considered in conjunction with the non-limiting examples and the accompanying drawings.

(2) FIG. 1 shows a rotor of a wind turbine having a high speed region.

(3) FIG. 2 shows a general structure of a wind turbine.

(4) FIG. 3 shows the relationship between the lift coefficient and the angle of attack of the wind on the wind turbine blades.

(5) FIG. 4 shows a system layout of a control system for controlling the pitch angle of the turbine according to an embodiment.

(6) FIG. 5 shows a block diagram on how to obtain the high order harmonics according to an embodiment.

(7) FIG. 6 shows a block diagram on the cyclic pitch actuator according an embodiment.

(8) FIG. 7 shows a flow-chart of the method of controlling the wind turbine according to an embodiment.

(9) FIG. 8 shows a graph illustrating the effect of high order harmonics with and without using the method according to the embodiment.

DESCRIPTION

(10) In the following, reference is made to embodiments of the invention. However, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to specific described embodiments. Instead, any combination of the following features and elements, whether related to different embodiments or not, is contemplated to implement and practice the invention.

(11) Furthermore, in various embodiments the invention provides numerous advantages over the prior art. However, although embodiments of the invention may achieve advantages over other possible solutions and/or over the prior art, whether or not a particular advantage is achieved by a given embodiment is not limiting of the invention. Thus, the following aspects, features, embodiments and advantages are merely illustrative and are not considered elements or limitations of the appended claims except where explicitly recited in a claim(s). Likewise, reference to “the invention” shall not be construed as a generalization of any inventive subject matter disclosed herein and shall not be considered to be an element or limitation of the appended claims except where explicitly recited in a claim(s).

(12) The following is a detailed description of embodiments of the invention depicted in the accompanying drawings. The embodiments are examples and are in such detail as to clearly communicate the invention. However, the amount of detail offered is not intended to limit the anticipated variations of embodiments; but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.

(13) FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary wind turbine 100 according to an embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the wind turbine 100 includes a tower 110, a nacelle 120, and a rotor 130. In one embodiment, the wind turbine 100 may be an onshore wind turbine. However, embodiments of the invention are not limited only to onshore wind turbines. In alternative embodiments, the wind turbine 100 may be an offshore wind turbine located over a water body such as, for example, a lake, an ocean, or the like. The tower 110 of such an offshore wind turbine is installed on either the sea floor or on platforms stabilized on or above the sea level.

(14) The tower 110 of the wind turbine 100 may be configured to raise the nacelle 120 and the rotor 130 to a height where strong, less turbulent, and generally unobstructed flow of air may be received by the rotor 130. The height of the tower 110 may be any reasonable height, and should consider the length of wind turbine blades extending from the rotor 130. The tower 110 may be made from any type of material, for example, steel, concrete, or the like. In some embodiments the tower 110 may be made from a monolithic material. However, in alternative embodiments, the tower 110 may include a plurality of sections, for example, two or more tubular steel sections 111 and 112, as illustrated in FIG. 2. In some embodiments of the invention, the tower 110 may be a lattice tower. Accordingly, the tower 110 may include welded steel profiles.

(15) The rotor 130 may include a rotor hub (hereinafter referred to simply as the “hub”) 132 and at least one blade 140 (three such blades 140 are shown in FIG. 2). The rotor hub 132 may be configured to couple the at least one blade 140 to a shaft (not shown). In one embodiment, the blades 140 may have an aerodynamic profile such that, at predefined wind speeds, the blades 140 experience lift, thereby causing the blades to radially rotate around the hub. The hub 140 further comprises mechanisms (not shown) for adjusting the pitch of the blade 140 to increase or reduce the amount of wind energy captured by the blade 140. Pitching adjusts the angle at which the wind strikes the blade 140. It is also possible that the pitch of the blades 140 cannot be adjusted. In this case, the aerodynamic profile of the blades 140 is designed in a manner that the lift experienced by the blades are lost when the wind speed exceeded a certain threshold, causing the turbine to stall.

(16) The hub 132 typically rotates about a substantially horizontal axis along a drive shaft (not shown) extending from the hub 132 to the nacelle 120. The drive shaft is usually coupled to one or more components in the nacelle 120, which are configured to convert the rotational energy of the shaft into electrical energy.

(17) Although the wind turbine 100 shown in FIG. 2 has three blades 140, it should be noted that a wind turbine may have different number of blades. It is common to find wind turbines having two to four blades. The wind turbine 100 shown in FIG. 2 is a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) as the rotor 130 rotates about a horizontal axis. It should be noted that the rotor 130 may rotate about a vertical axis. Such a wind turbine having its rotor rotates about the vertical axis is known as a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT). The embodiments described henceforth are not limited to HAWT having 3 blades. They may be implemented in both HAWT and VAWT, and having any number of blades 140 in the rotor 130.

(18) FIG. 4 shows a system layout of a control system for controlling the pitch angle of the turbine according to an embodiment. The tilt and yaw moments (M.sub.tilt and M.sub.yaw) are determined in a first determining unit 201 on the basis of the measured blade load signals, for example blade root bending moments. It should be noted that other signals for determining the tilt and yaw moments may be measured in addition or alternative to blade load signals.

(19) From the tilt and yaw moments, the 3p frequency components (M.sub.3x and M.sub.3pz) of the tilt and yaw moments are determined in a second determining unit 202. It should be noted that 1p corresponds to one full revolution or rotation of the rotor. The 3p frequency components are subtracted from their respective reference values in a summing unit 203 to obtain an error value or modified reference value. Specifically, the x moment 3p frequency components are subtracted from a reference x moment 3p frequency component value (M.sub.3px.sub._.sub.ref) to generate a x moment 3p frequency component error value. The z moment 3p frequency components are subtracted from a reference z moment 3p frequency component value (M.sub.3pz.sub._.sub.ref) to generate a z moment 3p frequency component error value.

(20) The error values are fed into a PI controller 204 and subsequently transformed in a cyclic pitch actuator 206 into respective cyclic pitch values of 2p frequency (θ.sub.1, ref3p, θ.sub.2, ref3p and θ.sub.3, ref3p). Pitch control signals for the respective turbine blades are generated when the cyclic pitch values are summed with the collective and 0p (pitch offset) moment control pitch values (θ.sub.10pColl, θ.sub.20pColl and θ.sub.30pColl). The pitch control signals are used to individually control the turbine blades. Since the 2p cyclic pitch values are determined to compensate the 3p tilt and yaw moments, the resultant pitch control signals adjust the respective pitch angles of the blades such that the tilt and yaw moments as well as the 3p frequency components thereof are removed or minimized.

(21) FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of the second determining unit 202 on how to determine the high order harmonics (i.e. 3p frequency components) of the tilt and yaw moments according to an embodiment. Specifically, the tilt moment M.sub.tilt is passed through a high-pass filter 210 to remove the unwanted frequency components equal or below 1p (i.e. frequency components equal or below the rotor speed). The filtered tilt moment M.sub.tilt is then modulated by sinusoidal carrier signals. The carrier signals may be represented as:
Y=2sin(3*φ.sub.rot);
Y=2sin(3*φ.sub.rot), where φ.sub.rot is the azimuth angle of the rotor.
Hence the frequency of the carrier signals are dependent on the azimuth angle of the turbine rotor. The modulated signals are then passed through notch filters 211 to generate the 3p frequency components of the tilt moment M.sub.3ptiltsin, M.sub.3ptiltcos.

(22) Similarly, the yaw moment M.sub.yaw is passed through a high-pass filter 212 to remove the unwanted signal components equal or below 1p. The filtered yaw moment M.sub.yaw is then modulated by the sinusoidal carrier signals. The modulated signals are then passed through notch filters 213 to generate the 3p frequency components of the yaw moment M.sub.3pyawsin, M.sub.3pyawcos. The tilt and yaw 3p frequency components M.sub.3ptiltsin, M.sub.3ptiltcos, M.sub.3pyawsin, M.sub.3pyawcos are then transformed to x and z moment frequency components (M.sub.3px, M.sub.3pz) by summing the individual 3p components and weighting them with a factor (T2YRatio) between one and zero. Specifically, M.sub.3px is calculated by summing the product of tilt moment sine share (M.sub.3ptiltsin) and weighting factor T2YRatio and the product of yaw moment cosine share (M.sub.3pyawcos) and one minus weighting factor T2YRatio. Accordingly, M.sub.3pz is calculated by summing the product of tilt moment cosine share (M.sub.3ptiltcos) and weighting factor T2YRatio and the product of negative yaw moment sine share (−M.sub.3pyawsin) and one minus weighting factor T2YRatio.

(23) FIG. 6 shows a block diagram of the cyclic pitch actuator 206 according to an embodiment. The cyclic pitch actuator is a function of the rotor azimuth angle φ.sub.rot as well as the phase correction φ.sub.alpha. The phase correction is dependent on the rotor angular velocity or rotor speed (ω.sub.rot). This block transforms the specified pitch amplitude of 3p components of θ.sub.3px and θ.sub.3pz into the angle of three pitch blade components θ.sub.1,ref3p, θ.sub.2,ref3p and θ.sub.3,ref3p.

(24) FIG. 7 shows a flow-chart of the method for controlling the wind turbine according to an embodiment. Step 301 includes determining the mechanical loads on the blades. Step 302 includes determining the asymmetric load moment based on the determined mechanical loads on the blades. The asymmetric load moment may include tilt moment or yaw moment or both the tilt and yaw moments. Step 303 includes determining the high order harmonics from the asymmetric load moment. These high order harmonics, for example, includes 3p frequency components. Step 304 includes determining the individual pitch control signals for controlling the pitch angle of each of the blades. The individual pitch control signals are determined at least based on the high order harmonics, such that the 3p load components are compensated.

(25) FIG. 8 shows a graph illustrating the effect of high order harmonics with and without using the method according to the embodiment. Two simulations of a turbine, operating at a wind speed of 35 m/s and a yaw error of 45 degrees are compared. In this situation, the 3p loads are particularly strong. Without tilt and yaw moment mitigation, the turbine runs at a constant pitch angle of 17.4 degrees. The tilt moment oscillates between 10.5 and 20.5 MNm with a frequency of 0.5 Hz, which matches the 3p frequency of this turbine (see curve 401).

(26) With activated tilt and yaw moment mitigation according to the embodiment, the pitch is operated in a cyclic scheme with a frequency of 0.33 Hz (2p). In this case, the tilt moment only has oscillations of about 1 MNm, i.e 1/10 of the original value (see curve 402), while the mean value remains the same.

(27) While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to specific embodiments, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. The scope of the invention is thus indicated by the appended claims and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced.