Method and controller for determining an undesired condition in an electrical drive system

Abstract

A method for determining an undesired condition in an electrical drive system including an electrical machine and an electrical drive, wherein the method includes a) obtaining a measured signal of an electrical or mechanical parameter, b) obtaining a frequency spectrum of the measured signal, that contains a measured frequency component, c) determining whether the measured frequency component is within a predetermined distance from a trend line, which trend line is associated with only one specific frequency component of the electrical or mechanical parameter present during a specific undesired condition, d) on the condition that the measured frequency component is within the predetermined distance from the trend line increasing a counter associated with the trend line, e) repeating steps a) to d), wherein in case the counter reaches a predetermined number determining that the electrical drive system is subjected to the undesired condition associated with the trend line.

Claims

1. A method for determining an undesired condition in an electrical drive system comprising an electrical machine and an electrical drive wherein the method comprises: a) Obtaining, with a sensor, a measured signal of an electrical or mechanical parameter concerning the electrical drive system, b) Obtaining, with a processing unit, a frequency spectrum of the measured signal by means of the Fast Fourier Transform, which frequency spectrum contains a measured frequency component, c) Determining, with the processing unit, whether a point in the plane having as its coordinates a frequency value of the measured frequency component and the fundamental frequency of the measured signal is within a predetermined distance from a trend line, which trend line is associated with only one specific harmonic of the electrical or mechanical parameter present during a specific undesired condition, and utilising the Mahalanobis distance to determine a distance between the point and the trend line to determine whether the point is within the predetermined distance from the trend line, d) on the condition that the point is within the predetermined distance from the trend line, increasing a counter associated with the trend line, e) repeating steps a) to d), wherein in case the counter reaches a predetermined number within a predetermined number of iterations of steps a) to d), f) determining, with the processing unit, based on that the counter reaches the predetermined number that the harmonic associated with the trend line is present in the measured signal and thereby that the electrical drive system is subjected to the undesired condition associated with the trend line.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the frequency spectrum is obtained by means of the Sparse Fast Fourier Transform.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the trend line is a linear regression trend line created based on theoretically modelled or experimentally measured specific frequency components for a plurality of operational frequencies of the electrical or mechanical parameter.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein step c) involves determining whether the point is within a predetermined distance from a plurality of trend lines, each trend line being associated with a respective specific harmonic of the electrical or mechanical parameter present during an undesired condition, wherein in case the point is within the predetermined distance from a trend line in step d) the counter of the corresponding trend line is increased.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein in case there are several measured frequency components in the frequency spectrum, performing steps a) to f) for each measured frequency component to thereby determine the undesired condition.

6. A computer program for determining an undesired condition in an electrical drive system comprising an electrical machine and an electrical drive wherein the computer program comprises computer code stored on non-transitory computer readable media which, when run on a processing unit of a controller, causes the controller to: a) obtain a measured signal of an electrical or mechanical parameter concerning the electrical drive system, b) obtain a frequency spectrum of the measured signal by means of the Fast Fourier Transform, which frequency spectrum contains a measured frequency component, c) determine whether a point in the plane having as its coordinates a value of the measured frequency component and the fundamental frequency of the measured signal is within a predetermined distance from a trend line, which trend line is associated with only one specific frequency component of the electrical or mechanical parameter present during a specific undesired condition, utilising the Mahalanobis distance to determine a distance between the point and the trend line to determine whether the point is within the predetermined distance from the trend line, d) on the condition that the point is within the predetermined distance from the trend line, increase a counter associated with the trend line, e) repeat a) to d), wherein in case the counter reaches a predetermined number within a predetermined number of iterations of a) to d), f) determine based on that the counter reaches the predetermined number that harmonic associated with the trend line is present in the measured signal and thereby that the electrical drive system is subjected to the undesired condition associated with the trend line.

7. A computer program product comprising a computer program as claimed in claim 6, and a storage unit on which the computer program is stored.

8. A controller configured to determine an undesired condition in an electrical drive system comprising an electrical machine and an electrical drive wherein the controller comprises: a processing unit, a storage unit containing computer code, wherein the computer code when run on the processing unit causes the controller to: a) obtain a measured signal of an electrical or mechanical parameter concerning the electrical drive system, b) obtain a frequency spectrum of the measured signal, which frequency spectrum contains a measured frequency component, wherein the controller is configured to obtain the frequency spectrum by means of the Fast Fourier Transform, c) determine whether a point in the plane having as its coordinates a value of the measured frequency component and the fundamental frequency of the measured signal is within a predetermined distance from a trend line which trend line is associated with only one specific harmonic of the electrical or mechanical parameter present during a specific undesired condition, d) on the condition that the point is within the predetermined distance from the trend line, increase a counter associated with the trend line, e) repeat a) to d), wherein in case the counter reaches a predetermined number within a predetermined number of iterations of a) to d), f) determine based on that the counter reaches the predetermined number that the harmonic associated with the trend line is present in the measured signal and thereby that the electrical drive system is subjected to the undesired condition associated with the trend line, wherein the controller is configured to utilise the Mahalanobis distance to determine a distance between the point and the trend line to determine whether the point is within the predetermined distance from the trend line.

9. The controller as claimed in claim 8, wherein the controller is configured to obtain the frequency spectrum by means of a Fast Fourier Transform.

10. The controlleras claimed in claim 8, wherein the trend line is a linear regression trend line created based on theoretically modelled or experimentally measured specific frequency components for a plurality of operational frequencies of the electrical or mechanical parameter.

11. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processing unit is part of an electrical drive controller of the electrical drive system.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The specific embodiments of the inventive concept will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

(2) FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a controller configured to determine an undesired condition in an electrical drive system comprising an electrical machine and an electrical drive;

(3) FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an electrical drive system;

(4) FIG. 3 is a general flow chart depicting aspects of the present disclosure;

(5) FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of determining an undesired condition in an electrical drive system comprising an electrical machine and an electrical drive;

(6) FIG. 5 shows examples of trend lines; and

(7) FIGS. 6a and 6b show an example of determining an undesired condition in an electrical drive system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(8) The inventive concept will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplifying embodiments are shown. The inventive concept may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided by way of example so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the inventive concept to those skilled in the art. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout the description.

(9) The present disclosure relates to a method for determining an undesired condition in an electrical drive system comprising an electrical machine and an electrical drive. The electrical machine may be a generator or a motor. The electrical drive may for example be a frequency converter. According to a specific example the electrical machine is a wind turbine generator and the electrical drive is a frequency converter arranged in the nacelle of a wind turbine, configured to control the power output of the wind turbine. It should however be noted that the present method may be utilised in any electrical drive system and not only for wind turbines.

(10) The method may be performed by a controller, for example an electrical drive controller, i.e. the controller which locally controls an electrical drive. Such electrical drive controllers are typically arranged in the electrical drive cabinet of an electrical drive. The method may alternatively be performed by a higher level controller, for example a general or supervisory controller, arranged at another location than the electrical drive.

(11) The method is based on receiving a measured signal of an electrical or mechanical parameter of the electrical drive system, and determining the harmonic content thereof and based on the harmonic content determine the undesired condition. With an electrical or mechanical parameter is herein meant either a pure electrical parameter such as current, a pure mechanical parameter such as mechanical rotation speed of a rotor, or an electromechanical parameter.

(12) The frequency content of the measured signal is determined and based on the frequency content, i.e. frequency components, and by means of previous knowledge of specific frequency components or signature spectra being present for specific faults, an undesired condition can be determined. This is in particular determined by determining a distance of a measured frequency component from a trend line, e.g. a linear regression trend line, preferably measuring the distance from the trend line by means of the Mahalanobis distance. If the measured frequency component is within a predetermined distance of the trend line, it is determined to belong to the trend line in question. This process may be repeated for a plurality of subsequent measurements of the same electrical or mechanical parameter. Each time a measured frequency component is determined to belong to a trend line, i.e. to be within a predetermined distance from the trend line, a counter associated with the trend line in question is increased. If the counter reaches a predetermined number within a predetermined number or tries, it may be determined that the measured frequency component is indeed present in the frequency spectrum of the measured signal. The reliability of the diagnostics may thereby be improved.

(13) The method will now be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6b.

(14) FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a controller 1 configured to determine an undesired condition in an electrical drive system comprising an electrical machine and an electrical drive. The controller 1 comprises a communication unit 3 configured to receive a measured signal of an electrical or mechanical parameter, storage unit 7 comprising computer code, and a processing unit 5. The controller 1 is configured to perform the method which will be described in more detail in the following when the computer code stored in the storage unit 7 is run on the processing unit 5.

(15) FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of an electrical drive system 9 comprising an electrical drive 11 and an electrical machine 13. The electrical drive 11 is electrically connected to the electrical machine 13, and configured to control the power flow in the electrical drive system 9. The electrical drive 11 can be controlled by a local electrical drive controller 15. The electrical drive system 9 may optionally also include a general, or supervisory, controller 17 arranged to provide supervisory control of the electrical drive controller 15, for example in the event that the electrical drive system 9 forms part of a larger electrical power system comprising a plurality of electrical drive systems 9. The controller 1 in FIG. 1 may be the electrical drive controller 15 or the general, or supervisory, controller 17.

(16) The electrical drive system 9 comprises a plurality of sensors, for example current and/or voltage sensors 31 within the electrical drive 11, and speed sensors 33 for measuring the mechanical speed or electrical speed of the electrical machine 13. These sensors are thus arranged to measure electrical or mechanical parameters of the electrical drive system 9. These measured signals form the basis for determining whether an undesired condition is present in the electrical drive system 9, i.e. to perform monitoring and diagnostics of the electrical drive system 9.

(17) In FIG. 3, a general scheme or flowchart describing the diagnostics method according to the present concept is shown. First a frequency analysis of the measured signal is performed, as illustrated by means of box 19. The frequency analysis forms the basis for decision-making, i.e. to determine whether an undesired condition is present and also determining the type of undesired condition, as illustrated by means of box 21. The processes performed in boxes 19 and 21 are the subject of the present disclosure and will be described in detail in what follows. The decision obtained in box 21 is utilised for performing actions like compensation by means of the electrical drive controller 15, i.e. to perform mitigating actions concerning the undesired condition, as symbolically shown by box 23. Suitable compensation, in case a decision of an undesired condition has been taken, is described in detail in EP 2 754 889 A1 and will not be discussed any further herein.

(18) With reference to FIG. 4 a method of determining whether an undesired condition is present in the electrical drive system 9 will now be described.

(19) In a step a) a measured signal of an electrical or mechanical parameter concerning the electrical drive system 9 is obtained by the processing unit 5.

(20) In a step b) a frequency spectrum of the measured signal is obtained by the processing unit 5. The frequency spectrum contains a measured frequency component.

(21) The frequency spectrum in step b) may for example be determined by means of a Fourier transform, preferably an FFT. A suitable example of an FFT, which is a simplified form of the FFT, is the SFFT. Other examples of frequency transforms are FFTW, AAFFT and Wavelets. Adaptive filtering such as adaptive notch filtering could also be used to determine the frequency spectrum.

(22) In a step c) it is determined by means of the processing unit 5 whether the measured frequency component is within a predetermined distance from a trend line. The trend line is associated with only one specific frequency component of the electrical or mechanical parameter present during a specific undesired condition. The trend line may be a linear regression trend line. In case there are several measured frequency components in the frequency spectrum, each measured frequency component is tested whether it belongs to a trend line.

(23) Examples of trend lines T2, T5, T6 and T9 are shown in FIG. 5. Each trend line is associated with a specific harmonic of the frequency of an electrical or mechanical parameter. According to the example, trend line T2 is associated with the second harmonic, trend line T5 with the fifth harmonic, trend line T6 with the sixth harmonic and trend line T9 with the ninth harmonic of a measured signal of the electrical or mechanical parameter. The x-axis is the fundamental frequency, i.e. the actual time-domain frequency of the measured signal and the y-axis is the corresponding frequency component for a particular harmonic, and each trend line is created based on a plurality of fundamental frequencies and corresponding frequency components of the particular harmonic. The distance from such a trend line for a measured frequency component obtained in step b) is thus determined in step c).

(24) Step c) may according to one variation involve utilising the Mahalanobis distance to determine a distance between the measured frequency component and the trend line to determine whether the measured frequency component is within the predetermined distance from the trend line. The distance determined is in particular that between the trend line and a point in the plane which as one coordinate has the value of the measured frequency component and as the other coordinate the actual time-domain frequency of the measured signal. The Mahalanobis distance d.sup.mah is defined by equation (1) below.
d.sup.mah(P,Q)=√{square root over ((P.sub.i−μ(Q)C.sup.−1(Q)(P.sub.i−μ(Q)).sup.T,)}  (1)
where P is a vector in .sup.2, i.e. the two-dimensional Euclidean space and which vector P corresponds to the coordinates of the time-domain frequency of the measured signal and the frequency value of the measured frequency component. Q is a matrix with two columns, i.e. coordinates, and a number of rows equal to the number points, i.e. theoretically or experimentally determined pairs of time-domain frequency value and a corresponding frequency component value of a known undesired condition, required to describe a specific harmonic, and the μ(Q) is the mean of vector Q. C.sup.−1 is the inverse of a 2×2 covariance matrix C for the points scattered in two-dimensional space from which a trend line for a specific harmonic is generated. The covariance matrix C can be determined by means of equation (2) below.

(25) $\begin{array}{cc}C=\frac{1}{n-1}{{\Sigma }_{i=1}^n\left(Q_i-\mu \left(\left[Q\right]\right)\right)}^T.Math.\left(Q_i-\mu \left(\left[Q\right]\right)\right)& \left(2\right)\end{array}$

(26) The covariance matrix C may be selected based on the frequency resolution of the Fourier transform and on the amount of noise present in the measured signal. This determines the predetermined distance from the trend line, i.e. the size of the bubble that surrounds a trend line.

(27) In a step d) in case the measured frequency component is within the predetermined distance from the trend line, a counter associated with the trend line is increased.

(28) In a step e) steps a) to d) are repeated wherein in case the counter reaches a predetermined number within a predetermined number of iterations of steps a) to d), it is determined that the measured frequency component is indeed included in the frequency spectrum. It can thereby be determined in a step e) that the electrical drive system is subject to the undesired condition associated with the trend line.

(29) Of course, the frequency spectrum may contain a plurality of measured frequency components, in which case the above steps a) to e) are performed for each measured frequency component to determine whether they indeed are present in the frequency spectrum and related to a known undesired condition. Step e) may hence be based on a single or on a plurality of verified measured frequency components, typically dependent of the type of undesired condition. To this end, the controller 1 is configured to perform the steps a)-e) for a plurality of frequency components and to determine the undesired condition based on all of the frequency components and their association with respective trend lines.

(30) Examples of undesired conditions in the case of wind turbines are wind shear, tower shadow and wind turbine tower fore-aft oscillations, each of which may be detected by means of a speed sensor. In these examples, the electrical or mechanical parameter is the mechanical speed of the electrical machine. Wind shear, for example, provides measured frequency components in multiples of three of the fundamental frequency, i.e. of the frequency of the mechanical speed. Since spectral signatures of undesired conditions are well-known, these will not be described herein.

(31) According to one variation, the controller may include an FPGA, wherein the FPGA could be configured to perform the SFFT while the Mahalanobis distance calculation of step c) could be performed by the processing unit 5, e.g. a microprocessor, in parallel with the SFFT.

(32) An example to illustrate the method will now be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 6a and 6b. According to the example, the electrical drive system forms part of a wind turbine and the mechanical speed ω.sub.m of the electrical machine 13, a wind turbine generator, is measured by sensors to thereby obtain the measured signal. The electrical or mechanical parameter is hence the mechanical speed ω.sub.m. According to the example, the SFFT is used to determine the frequency spectrum of the measured signal. The mechanical speed ω.sub.m according to the example is 15 Hz. The third harmonic is hence 45 Hz. According to the example, the sample time window T.sub.w is 0.1 seconds, which leads to a frequency resolution Δf of the SFFT equal to the inverse of the sample time window T.sub.w, i.e. 10 Hz. This is shown in FIG. 6a; there is no sharp peak at 45 Hz due to the relatively poor frequency resolution. In the exemplified frequency spectrum there are two frequencies F1 and F2 present close to 45 Hz, both e.g. above a predetermined value thus providing an indication of a respective frequency present. These two identified frequencies F1, F2 can preliminarily be seen as two frequency components and are located at 40 Hz and at 50 Hz of the frequency spectrum.

(33) In FIG. 6b, it can be seen that both frequencies, located at 40 Hz and 50 Hz are within the predetermined distance, illustrated by means of a bubble B, from a trend line T3 of the third harmonic of the frequency of the mechanical speed ω.sub.m. It may thus be concluded that both frequencies form a single measured frequency component. In this case a counter may be increased. According to the method, subsequent samples of the measured signal may also be analysed in the same manner, and if the counter reaches a predetermined number within a predetermined number of tries, it can be determined that the frequency components at 40 Hz and 50 Hz indeed are one frequency component, namely the third harmonic of the mechanical speed frequency. In this manner a conclusion concerning an undesired condition may be drawn, especially if further frequency components of the frequency spectrum of the measured signal are analysed in the same manner. For example in the present case, the existence of the third harmonic may give an indication that a tower shadow undesired condition is present.

(34) The inventive concept has mainly been described above with reference to a few examples. However, as is readily appreciated by a person skilled in the art, other embodiments than the ones disclosed above are equally possible within the scope of the inventive concept, as defined by the appended claims.